//------------------------------//
// Apple Cider 
// Story: Beyond Me 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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Applejack was not feeling well when Twilight Sparkle visited her farm on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration.
The mare and her family were in charge of preparing the food for the day, which would be pies and fritters and crisps and cider and a whole assortment of other treats, all made with the Apple family’s apples, of course. However, Applejack was not as active as she would have liked to have been. She was sick. Diphtheria was what Granny Smith diagnosed her with. She’d heard about some foal getting it and how most of Ponyville was being vaccinated as a result, but didn’t see why she and her family should have to do anything. Heck, it was better to get sick and get better. It kept her immune system in good working order, she believed. If it weren’t for the schoolhouse in Ponyville, she would’ve kept Applebloom from getting vaccinated, too, but seeing as she needed her little sister to get her education, there wasn’t much she could do.
It seemed though that her plan backfired however, because she didn’t get sick until well after Big Mac and Granny Smith got sick, it creeping up on her yesterday before becoming a full blown illness today. Now because of it, she was laying in bed while her family, her brother, granny, little sister, and her cousins, were all helping out. It made her angry to be cooped up inside the house, but there was nothing she could do about it.
She sighed and grumbled to herself as she lay in bed, turning to look out the window as she watched her family work without her. It was painful to watch, almost as painful as her lungs felt, made even worse when she coughed. They were all out there working, and she was laying in bed being lazy. She couldn’t stand it.
“How are ya feeling, sugarcube?” Granny Smith asked as she entered AJ’s room to check on her. “Ya need anythin’ while Ah’m in here?”
“Ah’m- cough- Ah’m fine, Granny,” she told her, the sweat on her forehead and the snot on her nose clearly indicating that she wasn’t. “Ah don’t see why Ah should be stuck in here. Ah’m perfectly- cough- perfectly… uh, well…”
“Y’all ain’t well, missy,” she retorted. “Y’all jus’ need ta stay in here and git better, ya hear me? Ya don’t wanna be goin’ out there gettin' other ponies sick, do ya?”
“No, granny,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “It just stinks being cooped up in here all alone when Ah could be out there helpin’ ponies, especially on the most important day of the year. Can’t ya at least give me a table ta build or somethin’? Ah ain’t that bad...”
“Ya are that bad. Ya know Big Mac an’ Ah had what ya have now not a week ago. Ya jus’ need ta stay in here and git better. An’ eat yer apple sauce. Yer gonna wanna keep yer strength up ta fight this thing.”
Applejack opened her mouth to respond, but could only cough painfully before she turned away from her back to the window, a look of frustration and sadness on her face from her inability to do anything. She really, really wished she could be out there helping, but knew that it was probably for the best that she was inside. It didn’t make it hurt any less that she couldn’t help though.
As she looked out the window, watching the clearing skies and the wind through the apple trees, she could see her older brother, Big McIntosh, shaking hooves with somepony, a purple unicorn who was being trailed by a dragon who held a checklist in his hands. The overseer of events in Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration, she assumed. She’d heard that somepony would be coming over to make sure everything was running smoothly, and watched as her brother led them around the farm, giving them a few treats to taste, the mare having a happy smile on her face at the end of it all. Clearly everything was going just fine without her. She wasn’t needed on one of the most important days of the year, a thought that made her want to cry. That should’ve been her out there greeting the mare and showing her around, but no. She was sick and forced to stay indoors instead.
“Ugh, Ah hope Ah feel better soon…” Applejack thought to herself sadly. “Granny’s homemade applesauce should do more for me than some little ol’ pill a doctor will give me. Ah hope Ah can meet that mare an’ tell her that Ah helped coordinate things at least, and show her around Sweet Apple Acres, too...”



The next several days were much better than the first five in my opinion. Holiday and Lofty weren’t able to get me any boys' clothes because apparently clothes were more a girl’s thing here, and they didn’t make very many things for boys my size. However, as I requested, they got me books, three to be exact. One on statistics and probability, one on an introduction into calculus, which I guessed was better than nothing even though I largely already knew what was in there, and one on a translation of Ponish to English. Or Ponish to Unicorn Script as they called it. It was a very, very simple looking guide, one made for five-year-olds it looked like, and came with a workbook titled ‘My First Writing Book’ to write what I learned. 
It was embarrassing to be handed it, to say the least, but it did help. Not that I was able to memorize more than a few characters. Reading their language was like learning morse code, except more complicated because everything they wrote blended together when they wrote it. Numbers were the same, but each letter and special character was a system of bumps. There were up bumps, down bumps, and flats, which could be either half up or half down. Each letter was represented by a combination of three bumps, for a total of forty four letters, one for each basic sound you could make. It was quite a bit to learn, and was something that would take years to even start to get good at. Luckily though, there were only two days of class left, and Cheerilee was kind enough to accommodate me and write things in English.
Regarding class, somehow we were able to go to the classroom for the last two days of school despite me being sick and effectively closing off Ponyville because of it, although there were quite a bit less kids there than there were before, maybe about half. Namely, those two girls that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle didn’t like, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, weren’t there, although from what I heard, they weren’t sick, they were just being held out of school because of me. The thought of that still made me feel a bit bad, but Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle seemed to like it. 
Other than school, my days largely felt empty. I was used to being active and doing things, either working or sitting in class or at least having the internet to occupy my time. But being both a child and a pony, I had none of those things other than school, and not that much school at that. It meant that my days were mostly spent either reading until I got bored, following Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle around, or sitting around and thinking about how much I didn’t like being here. Which, of course, led to tears more often than I would have liked it to. I felt like I was getting better at controlling myself, but I couldn’t be sure. It certainly felt like it was an everyday occurrence that I cried, or at least every other day. I was still trying to get used to it, the lack of control I had over my emotions, but I found myself getting through it.
Holiday and Lofty looked like they were trying their best to accommodate me, which I appreciated, not that there was much they could do. They did let me go walking out alone when I wanted to, and gave me privacy when I asked for it and referred to me as a boy when they could, and so did Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, at least at home. In public, which was mostly school, there wasn’t much accommodation. Cheeilee effectively ignored me, and I gave up on asking to be called a boy after a few attempts, and even Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were hesitant to call me a boy in public. I knew it wasn’t really their fault, but it still made me upset. But things felt like they were getting slowly better as I settled in, very slowly, and before I knew it, it was the Summer Sun Celebration.
It seemed like there was no sign of my getting diphtheria several days ago because the town was active today, with stands and things set up with games and free food, as well as decorations. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle woke me up early so we can go out and about, and we spent the morning walking around the town, Lofty and Holiday opting to stay at home.
“Oh, let’s get some drinks!” Scootaloo suggested, pointing to a stand stating that it held apple cider. However, right next to it, the sign name of another business caught my attention.
“Wait, hold on. Is that- does that… what is that?” I asked. “Is that- what is a feathers and couches store?”
“Oh, that’s Quills and Sofas,” Sweetie Belle answered. “My sister goes there a lot for their quills when she runs out. I think she bought a sofa there once, too.”
“Wait, do they only sell those two things?” I couldn’t help but ask, completely confused by the idea. “Just quills and sofas? Nothing else?”
“I don’t think so.”
“How do you run a business like that?” I asked, completely taken aback. “What happens if someone else decides to sell quills?”
“Why would somepony else sell quills?” Scootaloo asked innocently.
“To put him out of business and corner the market!” I explained. “I mean, if you only sell two things, and one of those things is just quills, then all I would have to do is sell them as well and make them cheaper, maybe by five or ten percent. I might not even need to do that. If I sell a lot of other stuff, too, then I can mark up the price and still steal business. And I assume not that many people are buying couches, so if someone else sold quills and had, like, the barest basic knowledge of economics, they could eat into whatever profits that store makes easily and take over his market.”
“Well, why would anypony do that? That seems pretty mean, I think.’
“It’s not mean, it’s just business. I don’t need my degree to tell you that unless he sells the best quills in the whole wide world, whatever business structure he has is sitting on a house of cards.”
“Well, I mean, why would anypony want to start selling quills and sofas when he already sells them?”
“To increase their revenue and build their consumer base.” I told them. “I mean, imagine you have a successful business already, and you sell a whole bunch of things, like food and clothes and-”
“Well, well, well, look who it is,” someone interrupted. The three of us turned to see Diamond Tiara and her silver-coated friend marching in our direction, a mean, grinning expression on their faces. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle immediately tensed up and scowled at the sight of them, and I remembered that these two groups didn’t like each other for whatever reason.
“If it isn’t Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and the new girl,” she continued as the two started to circle us. “What are you three doing out here?”
“Leave us alone, Diamond!” Scootaloo told her angrily, already yelling. “Go pick on somepony else.”
“I don’t think we want to,” she responded. “Because it’s your fault we had to get shots last week and stay home from school. I didn’t even get to see Silver Spoon until today because of you three.”
“Actually, because of one of you,” Silver Spoon added, glaring at me, “and I think she has something to tell us.”
The two stopped in front of me, standing side by side, and for a moment, I completely forgot what they were talking about.
“Uhhh… what?”
“Leave her alone!” Sweetie Belle told her, stepping in front of them. “She didn’t do anything to you!”
“Yes she did! She made us have to get shots by being next to us when she was sick, even though she said she wasn’t! I couldn’t see my best friend all week because of her!”
“Oh yeah, that,” I remembered as the four of them began to argue with each other. “Oops.”
“We want her to apologize!” Diamond Tiara demanded. “She made us have to stay home from school because she got sick, and we couldn’t even have our sleepover because of her!”
“That’s not her fault! She doesn’t have to-”
“I’m sorry,” I interrupted loudly before the two groups started to fight and yell more. All four fillies looked at me to continue, and I said, “I’m sorry I got you sick… err, made you have to stay home from school. That was my fault, you’re right. I… should’ve known better. I mean, I couldn’t stop myself from getting sick, but… I shouldn’t have sat so close to you when I was sneezing, even if I thought it was just allergies. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well…” the pink girl trailed off, eyeing me suspiciously, trying to determine if I was being sincere, which I was. “Good. You should have known better.”
“I still don’t see why you have to hang out with those two though,” Silver Spoon added. "I mean, even if you are sick, those two are the worst."
“Asher can hang out with whoever he wants,” Scootaloo responded, still scowling, her use of the word ‘he’ forcing me to suppress both my and my sudden feeling of happiness. Diamond and Silver didn’t pick up on it, which I decided was a good thing for now since I didn’t want them to fight because of me even more.
“Just because she lives with you doesn’t mean she has to be with you two all the time!”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure Asher doesn’t want to be with ponies like you! Right, Asher?”
“Well…” I looked between the two groups, who were now standing side by side, and offered, “Why don’t we all just go together? I mean, we’re just going to get apple cider right? We can just grab drinks together as one big group.”
“We're not getting drinks with them!” all four of them said at the same time, glaring at me as they used their hooves to point at each other.
I rolled my eyes in response, turning around to walk off as I said, “I guess I’ll get apple cider by myself. I'm not going to listen to you guys fight.”
I didn’t turn to see if they were following me, walking right up to the stand and scrunching my nose at a weird smell. It wasn’t bad, but it was familiar, and I couldn’t name it right away. However, I put the thought out of my head as the pony running the stand greeted me, a stallion with a yellowish orange coat and a country accent.
“Why, hello there little filly!” he said politely, wearing a wide smile. “Looking for a glass of Apple family cider?”
“Um, yes please,” I responded, my ears flattening at being called a filly.
“Let me get that made up for ya.” I watched him pour the drink into a glass mug, noticing it foam like it was carbonated as he poured it. As well, the smell got stronger, and I realized it was coming from the drink itself.
“Here ya are!” he told me, handing me the cider. “That’ll be five bits, please!”
“Uhhhh, I don’t-”
“Nah, Ah’m just messin’ with ya. It’s free today. An’ let me get ya a few tickets so you can get drinks later, too.”
“Okay, thank you,” I told him politely, taking a sip and scrunching up my face at the taste.
“Somethin’ wrong?”
“This… this has alcohol in it… that’s what that smell is. It’s alcohol.”
“That’s right, missy,” he confirmed. “That’s why yer only allowed three extra tickets. It’s not healthy for fillies like you ta have more than that at yer age.”
“Aren’t there drinking laws in this place or something? I mean, I’m an adult, but still.”
“Drinkin’ laws?” he asked curiously, tilting his head and raising an eyebrow.
“...never mind. So I get a drink and three tickets? Four total? That seems like… a lot to me…”
“Well, ya don’t have ta use all of ‘em, and if ya look like yer gettin’ too riled up, Ah won’t be giving you any more.”
“Well, I’ll just take this one and that’s it. You keep the rest of my tickets.” 
“Are ya sure? You won’t be able ta get any more than that without any tickets.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s fine. Thank you.”
With that, I turned around to see the four girls behind me reluctantly walking up to me to get drinks as well, glaring at each other as they did so. When they looked at me, they gave me a nervous smile for a second before going back to glaring at each other while they grabbed their tickets and drinks, gulping down about half of their glasses in no time at all. 
“This world is so weird,” I thought to myself as I took a sip of my apple cider.