They were treacherous things, memories. They lurked in the most innocent of corners, ready to pounce when her defenses were down and her attention elsewhere. Today, it was the sound of running water, the clink of dishes, and the foaming soap on Applejack’s bare arms. Her fingers slowed to a stop, a plate in one hand and the sponge in the other, as she stared into the slowly rising pool of sink water. Just beneath the sound of the faucet was… humming. So familiar. So pleasant. Was that a warm body by her side?
Remember, AJ, every dish before you can go play.
Aww, do I have to? It can wait until morning.
Hmm. You could. If you really wanted.
Really? Thanks, Mumma!
As long as you’re willing to wake up even earlier.
What?
To do the dishes on top of your regular pre-school chores.
But…
And of course the food will have gotten all crusty and nasty and be harder to clean, so I suppose I’ll have to get you up extra early, just to make sure the job’s done right. Say, an hour early?
…Mumma?
Yes, sugarcube?
I think I’ll do the dishes tonight. If that’s okay.
Oh? Well, if you insist.
“Applejack?”
Only a year of practice kept her from jumping at the quiet voice. She allowed herself a second to compose herself before turning her attention to the pink-haired girl drying dishes at her side. Or would have been had she any dishes to dry. “Y-yeah?”
Fluttershy eyed her, unable to disguise her concern. “Are you okay? You, um, zoned out for a moment.”
“Did I? Sorry.” She went back to scrubbing the plate, well aware of her friend’s eyes boring into her. “Just tired, that’s all.” She said nothing more, and Fluttershy went back to work once she had a target for her towel. The dishes didn’t take long after that, considering it was only the two of them in the beach house. The place was quiet save for the crash of the none-too-distant waves, the clatter of dishes being put in cupboards, and the squeaking of the floor beneath their bare feet.
Applejack took a look at the clock on the wall above the sink. They’d eaten late. Her fault. It had been her turn to cook and she’d neglected to go shopping until nearly five. Fluttershy never complained, though she had every right to. Applejack was the guest here.
Her friend stood by the door leading to her room, dressed in her pink, sleeveless pajamas with the white rabbit print. She tried to meet Applejack’s gaze, but Applejack turned her head away at the last second. “You want to take a shower?”
The house’s only shower was connected to Fluttershy’s room. Strange design, but it was what it was. Applejack shook her head. “I wanted to take a walk on the beach before bed. You got work early, right? You go on, I’ll take a shower come morning.”
Fluttershy’s face was half-hidden behind her long, flowing pink locks. The kind of hair that would make Applejack jealous had she any concern over such things. Though she was slightly older and taller, Fluttershy always seemed like the younger of the two of them. The way she fidgeted and twisted her hands together only emphasized the idea. “I… Applejack, I know this might be a hard thing to talk about, but—”
“I think you better get to bed now.” The words came before Applejack could stop them. They hadn’t been harsh, but she still wished she could grab them back. She grimaced and kept her eyes low, not wanting her shame to be fully on display.
Fluttershy didn’t move. Well, she moved, but not to her bedroom. She continued to fidget and vacillate, trying to work up some courage. Applejack probably should have been proud of the effort, but right now she just wished the conversation would end. “I-I know what tomorrow is, and—” She sputtered when Applejack heaved a heavy sigh. “—a-a-and I know you’re hurting. Please, just… My door’s always open, okay? If you want to talk.” She cringed back against the doorframe, eyes closed tight as though she expected to come under attack.
The sight was enough to break through Applejack’s melancholy. It wasn’t right for Fluttershy to feel threatened in her own home, not by her childhood friend. Applejack wouldn’t have hurt Fluttershy, regardless; the very idea was repulsive. So she smiled as best she could, knowing it wouldn’t fool her. “It’s alright, Shy. I appreciate it. Honest. But I… I think I just need to take a walk and be on my own a bit. Okay?”
Fluttershy cracked open an eye, then the other. Slowly, she relaxed. “O-okay. If you’re sure?”
“I’m sure.” Applejack nodded. The smile was really starting to make her cheeks ache. “You go on, and don’t worry about me none. I’ll be fine.”
The smile that Fluttershy returned to her spoke one sad, awful truth that they both understood very well: No, you won’t. “Okay. Good night, AJ.”
“‘Night, sugarcube.”
The moment the girl was in her room and the door closed, the smile dropped. For a while, Applejack stood there, mind blank. Blessedly so. Then she glanced at the clock and remembered. With a sigh, she went to her room to get her sandals, the ones she’d bought just yesterday. The intention had been simple; get the sandals and go outside. She told herself that, thinking it might be real this time.
No amount of self-delusion could stop her from noticing it. A Stetson, resting innocuously on the corner of the vanity she never used. The edges of the rim were frayed with age, and a small burn mark could be seen near the front. Applejack stared at the hat. She stared for a long time. Her hand reached out, but slowed to a stop before the fingers could brush the sturdy fabric. Her breath hitched. She could smell the smoke.
She retracted her hand and left the room.
There was no need to lock the door. There’d never been a crime at Splendora Island and the two dozen or so other beach houses that lined the beach. The town proper, just a fifteen minute boat ride east, had a negligible crime rate, and the work required to get out to this island for something so petty as theft wasn’t worth it. Their beach house stood on stilts some twenty feet above sea level, giving a wonderful view of the beach and, if she walked to the back porch, the forest that made up the interior.
But she didn’t feel like staring at the scenery. So, head low, she staggered her way down the stairs and to the beach. A handful of people were there, enjoying a little late-night stroll or whatever. None of them paid Applejack any mind beyond a friendly greeting. She was the stranger here, the farm girl staying for the summer with her friend, the regular. Applejack could have come to the archipelago before if she’d really wanted. Her parents had said it would be okay. She’d always declined. The farm needed her.
How ironic. She had no parents to tell her she could go, and because of that the farm really did need her for once. Yet… here she was. Was Big Mac angry at her? Or Granny Smith? They hadn’t said as much. Hadn’t looked it, either. But sometimes she had to wonder. Maybe it would have been better if she’d stayed on the farm this summer.
“You’re supposed to be stronger than this, AJ,” she grumbled under her breath, leaving the small beach house community behind. She imagined little Apple Bloom, the only one who hadn’t understood why she was leaving. She’d wanted to come along. Applejack almost relented, but Granny Smith said no. She was relieved by that, and at the same time disgusted for feeling that way. Not for the first time, she considered getting on their boat, heading back to the mainland, and hopping on the next train back home. There was still plenty of summer left and lots of work to do.
These thoughts didn’t slow her steps. They didn’t change her direction. She merely kept walking, kicking sand and feeling hollow. How she hated that feeling.
The moon slid its way across the sky. Applejack had traveled quite a ways from the beach houses. She was about to pass the old marina and aquarium. They were dead, run-down places, standing like architectural ghosts. The docks were in a sorry state, though a brave person might be able to walk one of them to the very end. No telling if the wood could hold up a person, and Applejack had no interest in finding out.
She cut across the aquarium. It had a large outdoor pool, now barren and dry. Applejack glanced into the pool’s twenty-foot-deep open space and wondered what sort of sea creature was kept inside. Fluttershy might know, even if the place had gone under around the time they’d been born. The rest of the aquarium was all red bricks overgrown with vines and trees, though a few interior areas were still intact and safe to explore. Fluttershy knew them all. This place had been her summer playground, after all.
To Applejack, it was just eerie. She moved on, glad to put the crumbling ghost of a building behind her.
She was well and truly beyond any signs of civilization at this point. Not that it was a problem; it was an island, and a small one at that. A couple more hours of walking and she’d be right back where she started. The real problem was that now she was out of distractions.
She tried listening to the rhythmic motions of the waves. Or the calls of what few sea birds remained awake at this time of night. Or the cool breeze blowing the trees around. It didn’t help. She was still hollow. A pair of smiling, proud faces drifted into her mind’s eye. Against her better judgement, she let them linger. She could hear their laughter, their friendly banter. She tried to remember the warmth of their hugs. The wind made that difficult. It was like ice forming in her veins. She wrapped her arms around herself, hoping to at least emulate that once familiar feeling.
Time passed. She stared at the ground. Not the stars. The stars would remind her. So the ground. For endless steps. She could have circled the island already and wouldn’t have known it.
Her daze came to an end with a loud splash. Whatever she’d heard, it had been very close by. She looked up but saw nothing moving in the water beyond the normal, steady waves. It hadn’t been her imagination, but it also wasn’t something to worry about. She was just about to go back to brooding when she noticed a large object on the shore. Her feet came to an abrupt stop. Whatever the thing was, it was only a dozen or so feet away. A carcass?
A moment of indecision. Fluttershy had warned her of sea creatures sometimes ending up stranded on the beach. It was no threat now, assuming it was even alive, but up close…
Fluttershy would never forgive her if she left some poor creature to die when she could have helped or, at the very least, gone back and got someone who could. Best to at least see if the thing was alive. Slowly, body low in preparation to jump back if needed, she approached.
She couldn’t tell the size of the thing. It seemed larger on one side than the other. The darkness made the colors hard to make out, but even then she could tell there were two very different color patterns going on with this creature. Blue? Purple, maybe? And white. What could possibly match that kind of combination? As she crept closer, ready for any movement, the shape became clearer.
All stealth was abandoned when Applejack caught sight of a pale arm. There was someone under there! She hurried forward, half-afraid she’d find some poor swimmer half-devoured by a shark. That larger portion was definitely a fish of some sort. Was the person’s lower body already inside the creature’s hungry maw?
But then Applejack was standing right next to the… the thing. She could only stare, her eyes telling her one thing while her brain insisted that what they were seeing was impossible. She dropped to her knees and stared at the body before her. Carefully, she reached out to touch it. Pale flesh, smooth as silk. Then hard, moist scales glimmering in the moonlight. It was no illusion.
I’m dreaming. I fell asleep on the beach and now I’m dreaming.
If it was a dream, it was an awfully lucid one. She remained kneeling, hand resting on that spot where human skin met inhuman scales, trying to figure out what to do next. In all her wildest imaginings, even as a child, this particular scenario had never come up. At last, she concluded that if this was a dream, she might as well see where it was going. And if it wasn’t… Well, she’d get to that when she had to. Either way, this was better than what she would have expected to dream about tonight of all nights.
Her mind made up, Applejack worked to roll the poor… woman over onto her back. It wasn’t as easy as she’d expected; there seemed to be a lot of weight down where the tail met the torso. Once she did get the body turned over, she brushed aside the long, tangled, moist purple hair. What she uncovered was the lovely, pale face of a girl who had to have been around her age. A teenager, then, perhaps seventeen or eighteen. She brushed the sand away and, for a few cloudy seconds, Applejack was lost in those pouty lips and soft cheeks. There was but one blemish: a tiny scar, just beneath the left eye and slightly darker than the skin around it, a line as though something had sliced the flesh. But even that did little beyond accentuating the perfection of the rest of her features. Maybe the stories about her kind being beautiful beyond the ken of mortals were true after all.
After snapping out of what almost felt like a trance, Applejack took in more of the girl’s features. For one, she had no ears. Or rather, she had what appeared to be small, long fins where her ears should have been. Each fin was made up of four… spines, perhaps, held neatly in place by a translucent skin. The spines glowed a dim, pale blue, as if reacting to the moonlight.
The rest of the girl’s torso seemed entirely normal. And entirely unclad. Applejack couldn’t resist a blush at the sight of the girl’s exposed breasts, and quickly moved her long hair so as to conceal them. Then, with great reluctance, she brought her eyes to the girl’s… other parts.
Even curled up, it was apparent that the tail was long. Applejack guessed that, had it been straightened out along the beach, it would have measured at least five feet. Together with the torso, the girl would easily reach up to eight feet in total length. Despite how large it got near her midsection, the tail tapered off in a sleek manner, its curvature reminding Applejack more of an eel than a fish. The tail ended in a pair of fins of a different shade than the rest, though the exact coloration was difficult to determine in the pale light of the moon.
Suddenly, Applejack was aware of the blood. And once she saw it, she couldn’t unsee it. In fact, she had to question how she ever missed it. There was a series of large cuts about midway down the tail, arranged in an almost semi-circular fashion. Something big had tried to take a bite out of her. Maybe that was why she was up here, to escape whatever had been trying to eat her. The thought filled Applejack with a distinct horror. She had no idea how serious the wound was. What if it was life-threatening? What if this beautiful creature died?
Applejack stared at the wound. Then looked to the girl’s face. Then at her barren, uninhabited surroundings. She was suddenly very aware of her isolation. Her mind ran a few laps of What am I supposed to do now? and I should get some help! and Get help from whom? At last, she concluded that if anyone was going to help this poor girl, it would have to be her.
Her first task was to determine if the girl was still alive. Which she was. Applejack fought down the urge to question how such a distinctly aquatic being could breathe outside of water, but she shoved the thought down as unimportant for the moment. She would need to bring the girl to some kind of shelter. As an afterthought, she realized it would be best to bring her to one that others weren’t likely to frequent. The aquarium immediately came to mind. A quick look around allowed her to get her bearing and realize that, despite how long she’d been walking, she wasn’t all that far from the place. Short steps, she supposed.
Next, carrying the girl.
This proved more of a problem than she’d anticipated. Though her human bits were as light as they looked, her fishy bits were decidedly not so. She’d wanted to lift her up in her arms wedding-style, and while Applejack was more than strong enough to lift her the weight distribution was far too unbalanced. She’d have had to carry the girl by her upper tail, which would leave her back with no support at all.
For a moment, she considered giving up and running back for help. But then she stared at the girl’s face. That lovely, blissfully unaware face, expressionless and silent. What would happen to her if Applejack made her existence public? Would she get put in some indoor pool for months while a bunch of scientists poked and prodded her? Or, if she took the more optimistic route, would they rush her off to some emergency location, heal her, then let her go, never to be seen again? Maybe there was a reason her kind was only a myth… until now.
Whatever the case, the idea of never seeing her again after only just discovering that something like her existed sat like an anchor in Applejack’s gut. Maybe it was selfish, but… she had to do this herself. For now.
“I’m so very sorry about this,” she muttered before, with a grunt of effort, lifting the girl up over her shoulder. Her upper torso dangled lifelessly, fingers brushing against Applejack’s calf while she balanced the upper tail on her shoulder. Where the hips of a normal girl would go, perhaps. The rest of the tail dragged in the sand, but there was nothing she could do about that. She got another look at the wound in the tail, still dripping blood, and felt her stomach churn. Those cuts looked awful deep, emphasis on the awful. And now she noticed an odd lump against her shoulder, something that didn’t match the rest of the tail’s serpentine form. She dearly hoped holding the girl this way wasn’t making things worse. Taking careful, measured steps to avoid jostling her cargo too much, Applejack made her way back along the beach.
The trip took longer than she expected. The girl was pretty heavy. She’d carried heavier things while working on the farm, true, but not for such a distance. It wasn’t long before Applejack was panting with the exertion and wondering just how much weight existed in the tail alone. How on Earth had the girl managed to get on the beach with just those skinny arms to drag her along? The journey wasn’t made any easier by the tail, which she had to constantly mind lest she trip over it.
It was perhaps forty minutes before she reached the abandoned aquarium. Applejack had built up a sweat, albeit a minor one, but knew she could go for much longer if she’d been required to. Minding the doorframe, she treaded carefully into the first door she came to, which was to a small brick structure separate from the rest of the aquarium. Perhaps it had been a storage shed at one time. Now Applejack recognized it as one of Fluttershy’s many little hideaways.
The shed was wide enough to park a tractor in, though it had clearly lacked any way to get something so large into it, and nearly twice as long. The ceiling was largely intact, aside from a few holes in the shallow-angled roof. There was a bookshelf against one wall, its front protected by a makeshift door of questionable quality, and a few wicker chairs with no accompanying table. The floor was a pale red stone that had to have been imported, dirtied up by encroaching sand, tufts of grass and weeds, and assorted sticks and the like from the forest just past the building. The back wall had partially crumbled, leaving a substantial hole. In the morning it would let the sunshine in, making for a nice place to relax.
Which brought Applejack to the real reason she was here; a large, ancient, porcelain bathtub. What it was doing here was anyone’s guess; Fluttershy claimed it had been there when she’d found the place. There was also a lone pipe running along the corner with a faucet and water hose attached, far more new than the surroundings. Exactly what was needed in a situation like this.
“Okay, missy,” she whispered, dropping onto her knees as slowly as her legs would allow. “Let’s get you down.” With great care, she lowered the girl into the tub. Despite its substantial size, it was too small to fit her long, half-aquatic body. Applejack made sure her head was resting against the side of the tub, then worked to straighten her tail, using one of the chairs to hold up the lower portion. It would be more comfortable that way, right? All-in-all, about two-thirds of the girl was in the tub. Not ideal, but Applejack wasn’t about to wrestle the tail into the available space, especially not with that wound.
“Alright, let’s see…” Applejack stared at the wound, not sure how to proceed. It was still bleeding, though not as badly as before. Cautiously, she began feeling the tail, starting where it met the human waist and sliding her hands along what would have been the girl’s hips. Now that she was paying attention, the tail seemed to be shaped a little like hips at that point, after which it gradually narrowed down into its snaky, scaled form. She didn’t really know what she was doing, but she’d worked with enough injured animals to guess that some things would be the same. She’d never worked with fish before, though.
Her hands slid easily along the scales, the tail curiously smooth despite how dry they’d become. She’d have to fix that, but later. When her hands reached the lump she’d noticed earlier, she realized it was sudden and sharp. It certainly felt unnatural. Had the tail been broken somehow? That was going to be a problem. She had no idea at all if setting a fish’s bones would be the same as setting the bones of a land animal.
Animal. What was wrong with her? This wasn’t some cow with a broken leg! It was a…
Applejack swallowed to moisten her throat, taking another look at the girl’s face. Say it, AJ. You know what she is. Say it.
“M-mermaid,” she whispered, barely able to hear her own voice. Speaking it aloud made it seem all the more real. “What the hay have you gotten yourself into?” She had no answer, and the mermaid wasn’t talking right now. Shaking her head, she got back to feeling along the tail, following it all the way to its two-finned end, but felt no other potential breaks.
That done, Applejack proceeded with the next step. Along the wall opposite the bookcase was a small wooden cabinet about chest-height, one of Fluttershy’s personal additions; she could be a real handywoman when she wanted. Recalling what Fluttershy had told her, she went and opened it to find the promised medical supplies. Fluttershy had intended them for any animals she found on the island, but they’d serve here as well. Not that Applejack would dare use any medication on the mermaid. Who knew how they’d affect her! But bandages were universal. It was those she grabbed. With no small effort, she wound the bite wound in them, using a small set of scissors to cut it from the roll once done.
Then she ran into a problem. She wanted to fill the tub with water. Mermaids needed that, right? But there was no way to do that and not get the bandages soaked. Unless she lowered the mermaid’s upper body so that it would be completely submerged. But would that be safe? Could she drown? Being aquatic didn’t automatically mean she didn’t need to breathe air. What if she was more like a dolphin? Applejack certainly didn’t see any gills on her pearlescent neck.
Her lovely, shapely neck. Or the collarbone and shoulders. Or on her—
Applejack shook her head, and lightly slapped her cheek for good measure. “Head in the game, AJ,” she muttered, fighting to ignore the blush she adamantly insisted to herself she didn’t have.
There was nothing for it but to risk the job she’d done with the bandaging. That in mind, she grabbed the hose, set its end in the tub, then turned on the faucet. This wouldn’t be enough, of course; while water on the island came from the mainland, delivered via a large supply pipe, the aquarium had been separated from that connection ages ago.
In one corner of the shed sat a small box. Opening it revealed a car battery in a protective case. Fluttershy hadn’t shown her how to start it, but Applejack had worked on the truck back home enough times to know what she was doing. She connected the proper wires, closed the box, then flicked on a switch next to the doorframe. Part of the original structure, it had probably been a light switch, but Fluttershy’s late father had repurposed it. As soon as the switch turned, there came the sound of air escaping the piping. A leak sprung up at the faucet, but it was only a trickle, and soon water was pouring out of the hose.
The pressure wasn’t much. The pipe ran to a freshwater pond further inland, and the water was sucked in by a small pump. Fluttershy had her father to thank for that too. Now, so did Applejack. It would take time for the tub to be filled. She fretted over whether it was okay for the mermaid to be in fresh water considering she’d likely come from the ocean. Did that matter at all? She desperately hoped not.
As the water continued its slow, steady rise, Applejack took a moment to adjust the mermaid into what would hopefully be a more comfortable position. The moment her hands brushed against that pale skin, Applejack was struck by just how smooth it was. She found herself studying the girl’s arm, looking for some sort of blemish. There were some, little marks, signs that she was indeed real and not some fantasy in Applejack’s head. Maybe that should have been a relief.
At last, the water was nearly to the top of the tub, so she went back to the door and flicked the switch to turn the pump off. She disconnected the battery too, knowing that it would lose its charge faster if she didn’t. Then she took the remaining chair and sat next to the tub. And stared.
A mermaid. An honest to God mermaid. What were the odds of her finding a… She tried to think of some way to phrase the thought without comparing the girl to some wild animal found in the wilderness. And just like that, she knew she was way out of her league. She was a farm girl. She spent her days tending to apple trees and caring for cows. If she was going to get involved with water, it almost always involved that pond near the back of the orchard. She’d only been to the beach three times her whole life before this vacation! Why on Earth would she, of all the people vastly more qualified to deal with this situation, be the one to discover a mermaid?
“Someone up there’s laughin' at me,” she murmured, hands clasped between her knees. “Gotta be the only explanation.” Her eyes drifted to the opening in the wall behind the tub, through the canopy of the forest beyond and to the stars peeking through. Everything was so dark. Everything but those few twinkling stars and the bright skin of the mermaid slumbering before her. Memories of nights at the orchard came back, sitting on the side of a hill and learning constellations. “Mom? Dad? If there’s any way you two can send me a little luck and wisdom, I think now would be the time.”
Nothing happened, not that she’d expected otherwise. She was above such fanciful notions. But still, the idea provided some comfort. So, despite herself, she kept talking. “I wish y’all were here right now. One of you always knew what to do. I could use that. I really could.” Looking to the mermaid, she carefully took one of those hands in her own. It was so small and delicate. Cool to the touch, but warming quickly in her grasp. “I don’t know what happened to you,” she whispered, “but I’m gonna help ya, if I can. I just don’t know how.”
A moment of silence passed. The mermaid didn’t stir, her head resting away from Applejack and her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. Such a lovely girl. The kind of lovely that graced magazines. Applejack brushed some of those purple locks aside, observing her face once more. She wondered what color her eyes were. Would they even be normal?
Then she wondered how she would react when she woke up. If she agitated her injury… Applejack glanced at the bandage and scowled; it was red with blood and wasn’t holding up against the water. If only she knew what to do. But she didn’t. She needed help, but she couldn’t call on it from—
She slapped a palm to her forehead. “Fluttershy. If I can trust anybody, it’s her.” Her eyes drifted to the exit, then to her charge. She chewed her lip, pondering the circumstances. It was the middle of the night. Nobody would come by. Probably. The only real problem was…
“Please, please, please,” she whispered as she carefully placed the mermaid’s hand back in the water. “Don’t wake up, and if ya do, don’t run away. Please.” She stood and moved as quietly as she could to the door. One last look at the mermaid. Still sound asleep. Applejack felt a weight of worry settle in her gut, but still she turned away.
A splash. Applejack’s head jerked to the ocean. There was nothing. Nothing at all. Just the slow, steady lapping of the waves beneath a starry night sky. She lingered, letting her eyes trace the constantly moving waters. That she could see no sign of life didn’t make the sudden anxiety go away. What if there were more? What if they took her away while Applejack was getting Fluttershy?
What was she supposed to do about it? The mermaid wasn’t her prisoner. Ideally, if there were more of them out there, they’d know how to care for her far better than any human did. It would be a good thing. Trying to make herself believe that, she forced her legs to move and began her run for the beach houses.
Applejack was, objectively, in great physical shape and knew she could be fast, if not so fast as her friend Rainbow back home. Even so, every step seemed to take forever, the minutes stretching out to an indescribable eternity. She could feel every step with an alien, detached precision, feel each breath pulsing through her lungs. The frigid fear lingered in the back of her mind, a fear that she’d return with Fluttershy to find the shed empty, that the lovely discovery would just be a figment of her unhappy mind. Why did it scare her so much? Maybe it was the thought she might be going insane. Or perhaps she merely feared for the mermaid’s life. She had no idea, but the thought of failing now drove her to push more speed into every step.
After running for what she’d swear was half the island’s circumference, even knowing it couldn’t have been more than a mile, she reached the beach houses. She took the steps of Fluttershy’s three at a time, only forcing herself to slow when she was inside, and then only to keep from slamming into the walls. She reached Fluttershy’s closed door and entered. “Shy! Shy? I need your help!”
Fluttershy sat up with a jolt just before Applejack could start shaking her. “Huh? What?”
“Applejack?” Fluttershy was already fully awake. She made no attempt to cover her nude self, instead watching her guest with concern. “What’s wrong? What happened.”
She spoke in a hurry. “I’m awful sorry about waking you, sugarcube, but I found… something… on the beach. She needs help and I don’t know what to do. You know how to care for, uh…” She hesitated, trying to think of how to describe the situation without sounding two apples short of a bushel. “Fish? I mean, she’s like a fish, so I guess?”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened and she all but jumped out of bed, grabbing some clothes out of her dresser. “A hurt animal? Do you know what it is? What’s wrong with it?” If having been woken in the middle of the night was bothering her, she certainly wasn’t showing it.
Applejack allowed herself to relax, but only a little. Knowing Fluttershy was in control was certainly reassuring. “It got bit by something.” She hopped from foot to foot, eager to get back to the aquarium. “And I think there might be a bone broke? I’m not sure, aquatic things ain’t my area.”
Fluttershy, already in a t-shirt and denim skirt, nodded firmly and walked past her. “How big an animal is it?”
“Big as you or me.” Applejack paused, recalling how long the tail was. “Make that a little bigger. I brought her to the old aquarium, put her in that tub you showed me. Put some bandages on her, but they were already falling off ‘cause of the water.”
“Right. We’ll need the waterproof ones.”
Fluttershy had a whole room devoted to medical aids, presumably all for animals. It was very well-organized and fully stocked. Within minutes, she’d grabbed an armful of carefully chosen supplies, picking items based on answers to questions she threw Applejack’s way. Applejack couldn’t answer all of them, or even most of them, but regardless of the answer Fluttershy always seemed to know exactly what to grab and where it was located. Within what had to be ten minutes, the two of them had stuffed a pair of backpacks full of medical supplies and were out of the house.
“I don’t know what you found,” Fluttershy huffed as she followed Applejack along the beach at a jog, “but it certainly sounds interesting. Are you sure you don’t know what it is?”
Applejack flinched. She’d never said outright, mostly because she was a horrible liar. “She’s… unique. I think. I don’t know. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“You’d be surprised what I would believe,” she countered, the epitome of calm and collected. “The animal kingdom produces a lot of weird things.”
“Trust me, Shy. This you gotta see to believe.” Applejack was only worried about whether they’d see her at all. The fears were stirring again; what if they got there and the tub was empty? She constantly reminded herself that she was not crazy, that she really had held a mermaid and carried her to a place of presumed safety. She remembered the weight on her shoulder, the softness of her skin, the smoothness of her scales. She was real, she had to be.
They moved on in silence, Applejack constantly fretting over what they’d soon find. At last, they reached the shed of the aquarium. She paused by the doorframe, her fears having worked themselves into such a state that she was wary of looking in. She’d hardly worked up a sweat, whereas Fluttershy was panting heavily and flushed. “Okay. It’s… inside?” she asked between gasps.
Swallowing to moisten her throat, Applejack dared to peek through the door. Her heart shot into her throat; she was still there, her large tail lying motionless on the chair and disappearing into the tub. “Yeah. Yeah, she’s inside.” She entered the room and hurried to the tub, getting a look at the still-slumbering mermaid. Her head was just above the waterline, and she’d clearly shifted some in her sleep. Satisfied, Applejack turned to see Fluttershy’s reaction.
The girl pulled her backpack off as she approached, already reaching in for the waterproof bandages. She didn’t actually look at the creature she was to tend to until she was beside the tub, at which point she froze.
Seconds passed. Applejack took in her lifelong friend’s dropped jaw and bugged out eyes. “Y-you… You see this too, don’cha?”
Fluttershy looked to Applejack, then back to her new patient. After a moment, she dropped her backback and used the now-free hand to pinch herself on the arm. With a flinch and a squeaky yelp, she nodded. “Applejack? That’s a mermaid.”
“You’re tellin' me?”
As if once wasn’t enough, Fluttershy pointed at the sleeping form in the tub and mumbled again, “That’s a mermaid.”
“Yes, it is.” Settling on her knees, Applejack tried to examine the mermaid for any signs of discomfort. She saw none. This didn’t put her at ease. “A mermaid that’s injured.”
Fluttershy continued to stare. She closed her eyes tight, mouthed something, opened them again. She nodded shakily. “Right. Nothing to be al-larmed about. Just a cryptid that’s not so cryptid anymore. S-still just a creature that needs help.” She flinched and glanced at Applejack. “And now I get why you were dancing around referencing her as an animal.” Closing her eyes again, she sucked in a long breath and exhaled with equal dedication.
When her eyes re-opened, they were firm once more. “Right.” She began by removing Applejack’s unraveling bandages and replacing them with the waterproof ones. “Should have had these here in the first place,” she mumbled to herself. “It’s not like I wasn’t going to rescue a non-aquatic creature out here. What was I thinking?”
Flexing her fingers anxiously, Applejack watched. “Anything I can do to help?”
“Keep an eye on her,” Fluttershy responded without looking up from her work. “We’ll want to give her space if she wakes up. I don’t want to be near that tail if she starts thrashing. It looks powerful. In the meantime, tell me everything you know. Don’t spare any details.”
Applejack obliged, explaining how she’d come upon the mermaid and brought her back to the aquarium for safety. Fluttershy reprimanded her, albeit gently, for moving a body without knowing the full extent of the injuries, but otherwise said nothing as the story went on. By the time it was over, she was already finished with the bandages and running her hands along the mermaid’s tail much as Applejack had before, only she shifted them constantly as if to cover a wider area. Her examination was also a lot slower.
“I’ve got to say,” Applejack spoke when things were quiet for a little too long, “you’re taking this better than I expected.”
The girl paused, but only for a moment. “Believe me, AJ, I am freaking out on the inside. Has she moved at all?”
Deciding not to inquire further on this internal ‘freak out’, Applejack nodded stiffly. “Just a little stir in her sleep is all.” She kept her eyes on the mermaid’s face, which showed no sign of waking up. She wasn’t interested in looking at anything else.
Fluttershy hummed. At this point she was focusing all her examinations on the apparent shift in the mermaid’s tail, the spot that had felt so off when Applejack had done her own investigation. “There’s too little to go on. It’s possible there’s a break in the vertebrae without also breaking her spinal cord. Then again, it could be the spinous process that’s broken.”
“The what now?”
“The spikes on the back of a spine. They tend to be much longer in fish than in humans, and on two sides instead of just the back. That said…” She took a moment to examine the rest of the mermaid’s tail, cautiously lifting it near the end and moving it around experimentally. “It’s so flexible. Not equal to that of a snake, but certainly better than most fish. Her bones may be somewhere in between, but I can’t know more without getting a better picture. We need an X-ray.”
A cold feeling returned to Applejack’s heart as she envisioned one of those big machines that doctors used to use on her when she still regularly went to them. “There’s no way. We can’t bring her to some doctor’s office. If this goes public, who knows what will happen to her?”
“They have handheld ones, AJ.”
She blinked, the anxiety promptly transforming into confusion. “They do?”
“They do. I do.”
Relaxing, Applejack nodded and turned her attention back to her charge. The mermaid had slipped a little further under the water, so she took a moment to reposition her. She still wasn’t sure if it was necessary to keep her head above water, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. “Alright. Why don’t you go get it while I keep an eye on her?”
“It’s at home,” Fluttershy replied solemnly. “As in, home home. We’d have to get someone to bring it here.”
Applejack stared at her and saw the same concern in her lifelong friend’s face. How would they explain to Fluttershy’s mom why they needed the X-ray in the first place? Granted, they could just lie. Well, Fluttershy could. But what if she wanted details, or to see the creature being X-rayed? Who could they possibly trust to show her to and not have the secret come out?
Fluttershy frowned before saying, “Rainbow Dash can do it.”
Applejack might have laughed were the situation not so serious. “Rainbow? No offense intended, but she’s a bit of a blabbermouth.”
“Not if it’s important enough. You know Rainbow, she’s as loyal as they come.” Yet even as she said it, Fluttershy’s own doubt was blatant in her pursed lips and shifting eyes. “My mother couldn’t possibly keep this a secret. Too gossipy.”
“And my family’s too big and too honest.” Applejack groaned. “Ain’t you got this nerdy friend in that college prep school?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “Twilight’s more of a… ‘business acquaintance’. I call on her when I need something special designed to help take care of an animal with unusual needs. We don’t really hang out beyond that. Besides, she’s a scientist at heart. I don’t know her well enough to know how she’d react to this.”
Which meant she didn’t know if the girl would want to perform experiments on a still-living specimen. Applejack groaned again, resting her forehead on the lip of the bathtub. “Ain’t no way we’re letting Pinkie Pie anywhere near this, Pinkie Promise or no.”
“A good idea,” Fluttershy agreed with a sigh. “We have no idea how this… mermaid… will react to us when we’re calm, we certainly don’t need her waking up to Pinkie Pie’s face in hers.” The two of them shuddered in tandem at the very thought.
Without raising her head from the tub, Applejack tilted her head towards her friend. “Rainbow, then?”
“Rainbow.” Fluttershy rubbed her head with a lone hand and grimaced. “I hope we don’t regret it. I hope she can keep quiet. I hope our patient doesn’t freak out when she wakes up. I hope we can even communicate with her.”
“Communicate?” Applejack sat up once more, raising an eyebrow at her. “How do you mean?”
As if the answer were obvious, Fluttershy replied, “She’s a mermaid. She probably has her own language and culture that is completely alien to us. There’s a good chance that when she wakes up she’ll be lost, confused, and unable to understand a word we say.”
The thought hadn’t occurred to Applejack, but now that it was in her face she barely kept from cursing. This whole scenario just got a lot more complicated. She stared at that lovely, pale face and felt as though she were sinking through the floor. “We’re in way over our heads, ain’t we?”
“Yes,” Fluttershy mumbled. “I think we are.”