Chapter 24: Hearth's Warming In July
“Ah gotcha ma...”
Applejack felt a warmth flowing through her at this moment. Warmth from the hot tears streaming down her face, warmth from her breath getting trapped as her nose was buried in the fluffy, curly, mess of a mane. Finally, the warmth from the joy that could only be felt when a long lost loved one was returned and finally back in your arms.
There was another warmth in this mess however...
This warmth felt likened to nearly brushing ones’ hoof over the edge of a blistering hot old iron stove. One so hot that if water were to be flicked upon it, it would dance around in screaming beads that would quickly evaporate away.
That blistering heat was now replacing the comforting maternal warmth, like those steaming water beads, it too was coming with an angry, harsh hissing sound of its own.
“A.J...” it fumed in her ear.
Applejack ignored that unpleasant hissing voice and opted instead to continue embracing the warm body that was clasped so tightly in her front hooves.
“A.J...” it hissed once more, this time louder and starting to lack any of her mother’s sweet melodic tones.
“Y-yeah, Ma?” she asked, only further tightening her embrace, as if she had somehow found a magical burning coal, and the only way to keep it alive was by pushing it into her very being.
“Applejack! Let go of me!” the voice flared, forcing the still crying pony away.
“B-but ma-!”
“Look at Me, Applejack!” Their angry, desperate, and irritated voice cried out, finally overpowering the memory of her mother.
Applejack didn’t want to open her eyes. It would be too painful to see that truth standing before her, but open they did, and with that, the image of love and family dissipated like those little water droplets trapped in the leidenfoalst.
“H-Hache-B...” she stammered in disappointed but unsurprized mournful recognition, her forehooves still holding on, desperately hoping that this was the illusion.
“T-thank you for rescuing me, Applejack...” Heartbreak said as quietly, cautiously, and softly as she could muster, her voice still sounding very shaky. “But could you please let me go before your hoof touches my mark?”
“Uhm, well.. It’s not gonna-”
“Please let go now!?” Heartbreak repeated in a desperately stern tone of voice that indeed made Applejack unbind the mare and back away a little.
“A-A-Ah’m sorry there, H.B. It’s just-” Applejack began, only to find herself cut off by a more than toasty looking left front hoof.
“It’s fine, A.J.” Heartbreak said curtly.
“Uhm, H.B.-”
“I said it was fine,” Heartbreak said once more, cutting them off before pushing up her glasses.
“It’s not that, it’s...”
“It’s what, Applejack?” Heartbreak asked, growing exasperated.
Just as Applejack was going to point out the charred streak going up the tan mare’s leg, black iron feelers followed by the glowing red mandibles of the young, filly sized fire ant popped up over the irrigation ditch wall before letting out a reverberating metallic screeching!
“Fetlocks!” Applejack swore as within mere seconds, she pushed Heartbreak away from the ditch before grabbing the water bucket! She then bashed the insectoid’s face, stopping it from letting off another incendiary breath! “They’re climbin’ up the walls!”
“Applejack! What are you doing?!”
“What’s it look like?!” she shouted bucking another ant in the face and sending it flying back from whence it came. “Ah’m gonna fight them off so ya can get ta safety or get help!”
“That’s incredibly stupid, Applejack!” Heartbreak shouted, shakily pushing herself up.
“Well!” The Apple pony shouted. “If ya got a better idea, Ah’d be glad ta hear it!” She exclaimed while kicking a couple more back down. She then proceeded to attempt to lasso them together, only to have her rope turn to black ash midair as intense flames came ushering upwards.
“Well, definitely not that!” Heartbreak exclaimed, jutting back from the intest heat.
“Ah’m tryin’ ma hardest, Ma!” Applejack shouted, her eyes tightly closed. The sound of three more ants came clattering up the while as they chittered with an almost cicada like hissing.
Heartbreak’s brow furrowed and as she was about to shout for Applejack to get her tail out of there, when suddenly the ants ceased their assault. Antenna now excitedly waggling in the air, they proceeded to turn back into the irrigation ditch!
Heartbreak hobbled forward towards Applejack and peered over the edge.
“What the fet is going on?” she asked uneasily.
“Ah... Ah don’t know,” Applejack replied, baffled. She narrowed her eyes and spotted something charging through the maze like trenches, all the while the sound of shattering glass could be intermediately heard alternating left and right, growing closer and closer!
“Uhm... What is that?” Heartbreak asked, bracing herself for yet another threat.
Applejack was about to say that she was also clueless. However, a sweet, automatically recognizable scent wafted through the air and the gears in her head began to fit the pieces together. “The cider!”
Heartbreak blinked blankly for a moment before she caught on. “That’s... Big Mac...”
“Eeeeyup!”
“And... he’s using the cider to attract the ants...”
“Whoa nelly! That there is one smart cookie!”
“Uhm... Then... Why does it look like he’s coming this way?” Heartbreak asked, concerned.
“Say what now?” Applejack asked.
Indeed, there in the irrigation ditch like a massive brick red fire truck, was Big Mac, tossing bottles of cider left and right, careening towards the dead end just below the two wide-eyed mares.
In the moments before the stallion looked as if he was going to crash into the cement wall, he made a sharp veer to the left and with all his might, made a flying leap towards the ledge above him, just making it, his lower half scrambling to push him the rest of the way up.
“What in tarnation are ya doin’ bringin’ them here?!” Applejack asked grabbing her spare lasso and roping her brother in an attempt to pull him onto solid ground
“No-nope!” Big Mac grunted, struggling, the rope binding him and causing more pain than actually helping.
“Please tell me you have a plan!” Heartbreak shouted peering over Applejack’s shoulder, wondering she ought to hel-
“Is that there mouth open ta attract horse flies or are ya gonna help me?!” Applejack hollered before gritting her teeth and pulling harder.
“No need to yell!” Heartbreak barked back grabbing the rope in her teeth.
“Now pull!” Applejack commanded. “Pull!!”
“Stop telling me to pull!! I’m terrible at pulling things!”
As Heartbreak said that, a few things happened all at once.
Firstly, despite proclaiming that she lacked any reasonable strength to the effect of the pulling things, her added leverage was just enough to send Big Mac up and over the ledge a meter into the air.
Second, a wheel on the red wagon that had been trailing Big Mac hit a rock and this sent the poor thing, along with the few remaining bottles of cider and the icewood crates that they were in, careening towards another wall. A wall upon which everything exploded in a mix of breaking glass, splattering cider, and splintering wood.
The final thing to happen in this instant, was Heartbreak being unable to fully evacuate the space in which Big Mac found himself landing.
So, within a few mere seconds, Heartbreak felt the entirety of her back pop and crack while realigning, before feeling the weight of the stallion bounce off of her and to the side.
“Fetting criminy!! Son of a fetting bisket!” Heartbreak squeaked out after regaining her breath.
Big Mac quickly scrambled up and scooped the mare up into his forehooves. “Ah’m sorry! Ah’m sorry! Ah didn’t mean ta hurt ya m-”
“Oh! For! Fet’s! Sake! You too?!” Heartbreak shouted attempting to push the face that was all too close to hers away. “Big. Mac! Look at me! I. Am. Not. Your. Mother!”
With that suddenly jarringly cold reaction, there was the sound of wood splintering, cracking and a frigid blast of cold air rushing out of the irrigation ditch.
“Oh... uhm... uh...” Big Mac stammered, the wool pulled from his eyes. “Oh...”
Heartbreak groaned irritatedly. “Will you put me down now, please...” she said in a voice that was barely restraining a seething anger.
“Oh! Y-yes, ma’am!” Big Mac replied, letting the mare slip out of his grasp before skittering back in embarrassment.
“H.B.” Heartbreak hissed indignantly before shivering at the sudden arctic chill.
“Now, H.B. There’s no need ta be so crass!” Applejack said once she had regathered her bearings. “He did just save our skins!” She looked at her brother. “That’s what yer were meanin’ ta do, right?”
Peering over the edge and into the ditch, the trio was greeted with a most wondrous of sights.
Covering the walls and floor of the ditch and running back to the fire ant’s nest was a path of frost and snow. Sparkling in the sweltering heat, had it not been for the events that had just taken place, this variable winter wonderland would be most out of place.
“Eeeeyup.” Big Mac said, staring at the now frozen fire ants.
“Are they...” Heartbreak began, stopping as one of the ants' red eyes flared red only to dim with a sharp hissing sound.
“Still alive? Ah’d say that there’s still somethin’ kickin’ around in there...” Applejack said, scratching the side of her head and frowning.
Heartbreak frowned and pushed her glasses up. “I was going to ask if they were ok like that...”
“Ya do realize that they were tryin’ ta turn ya inta a cosmic crisp!” Applejack yelped, jumping back in shock.
“Cosmic crisp? What is that? Some sort of potato-”
“Ah knew it!” Applejack whinnied, pointing at the flame shaped, furless patch of lightly blustery skin on Heartbreak’s left front shoulder. “Ya did get burned!”
“What?!” Heartbreak exclaimed before looking at the spot. Her face went pale and her eyes grew small in shock before the expression of sudden pain hit her. “What the fffet?! Why am I just now feeling it?!”
“Ah criminy! That can’t ain’t be good!” Applejack flustered, her grammar tripping on itself.
Heartbreak took a deep breath through her nostrils and fought the urge to give A.J. a glare. “Ya think?” she managed.
“Nnnope!” Big Mac interjected, the same fear and concern from his sister infecting his face and causing the gears in his mind to begin to grind.
“Don’t just stand there! Go get Ma her burn ointment and some wrappin’s from the medicine cabinet!”
Big Mac nearly tripped over his hooves to obey his sisters’ commands. Eeeyupping all the way.
Heartbreak, through the searing pain, somehow gave Applejack an incredulous glare while she bit down on the inside of her cheek. “Whose ointment?”
Applejack felt a fluster of embarrassment and a little frustration hit her cheeks. “It was just a slip of the tongue! Ah’m sorry fer making sure ya don’t have any more burnin’ scars!”
Heartbreak took a sharp inhalation through her nostrils for the umpteenth time. She was about to snipe back, when Fluttershy’s soft but panicking voice entered the scene.
“Oh no, no, no! Oh dear!” She gasped, looking at the irrigation ditch. “What happened to all these poor fire ants?!”
“Big Mac froze them!” Applejack said, a small spark of pride in her brothers’ quick thinking.
“A-are they alright?” Fluttershy asked, peering closer.
“That’s exactly what I asked,” Heartbreak muttered, as she lifted her hoof to rub her leg almost on reflex, only to stop upon remembering ‘oh yeah-’
“One of them burned ya, remember that?” Applejack asked, huffing and shaking her head. “Ya think ya woulda remembered that the first time they came here...”
“First time?” Heartbreak asked, shaking her head. “What are ya talking about?! This is the first time!”
Fluttershy got between the two ponies before Applejack could further escalate. “Oh dear! You did get burned!” she said examining Heartbreak’s leg.
“Uh, yeah...” Heartbreak replied, wincing. “But seriously, what did you mean by that, Applejack? Is it because of my mane-”
Fluttershy looked up at Heartbreak with big pleading eyes. “H.B...”
“Fffine...” Heartbreak whimpered before once again wincing. “But I swear if I hear one more p-pony calling’ me-”
“Ah got the cream and bandages, Ma!” Big Mac proclaimed as he triupmantly trotted back on to the scene.
Applejack facehooved the moment she heard those ill fated words tumble from her brother’s mouth. Frowning, she turned in anticipation for the utterance of a scream of frustration and angst to usher forth from Heartbreak’s mouth.
However, no such outcry came.
Instead, there was a muttery whimpering followed by a strange sound that could only be described as the sputtery defeated squeaking of air escaping the mouth of a balloon as its neck was pulled tight.
“Fluttershy...” Heartbreak horsley whispered, her eyes tightly shut before she drew a long sharp breath through her mouth.
“Y-yes, H.B.?” Fluttershy asked breathlessly, her body tense, unsure of what they were going to say.
“I think... we ought to leave..” Heartbreak said as calmly as she could muster.
“L-Leave?” Fluttershy repeated worriedly.
“L-Leave?” Applejack echoed, her scowl turning to frantic fear. ”B-but ya just got back- ah mean, got here!”
“Well, it is obviously clear that it is not a good day for the Apple clan,” Heartbreak assessed looking up at the two ponies. “Had I known that I might have not come, seeing that my accidental appearance is only serving to exacerbate things!”
Applejack let out an uncomfortable whimpery moan. “But we haven’t even gotten ta showin’ ya all the stuff we have growin’-”
“Applejack,” Heartbreak interrupted, a bewildered-pained expression on her face. “I know you two had something planned for today and that’s just gr-peachy, but, I’m pretty sure that whatever it was gets superseded over the fact that I just got burned.”
“Can we at least get yer leg done up and bandaged??” Applejack asked, a small whimper being fought off in her voice.
Heartbreak grimaced and almost looked as if she were about to protest.
“It would be a good idea, H.B.,” Fluttershy began. “After all we wouldn’t want it to get infec-”
“Fine,” Heartbreak gruffly interrupted, closing her eyes and putting her burnt leg out. After a few moments of silence, she peaked to find the others frozen and looking at each other. “Well?” she asked, expectantly. “Who’s gonna do this?”
“Ah’ll do it!” Applejack said as she almost gleefully swiped the bandages and jar of ointment from Big Macintosh, who upon finding himself empty hooved, gave a whimpering lip-quiver.
“B-but a-ah wanted ta-” He began, extending a hoof out, reaching for-
“Ah’m better at mendin’, remember?” Applejack curtly said before gingerly picking up Heartbreak’s foreleg to assess the damage. “Why don’t ya go an’ check on Granny Smith, make sure she’s not addin’ anythin’ ta the brown betty, will ya?”
Big Mac stood quiet for a moment, his gaze glancing back and forth between the farm house and the mare who ever so resembled his moth-
“Ya ain’t growing taters’ in them ears of yers?” Applejack snipped at her brother.
“Uh.. N-Nope, but ah-”
“Well, then, ya ought best get goin’ then!” Applejack said, eyeing the burn as she grappled with twisting the ointment jar open. “Ya did hear what ah said?” she asked as her brother was still showing hesitation to leave.
“Ah eeyup,” he grumbled, snorting irritatedly, about facing to the farmhouse, his shoulders slumping when he reached the halfway point.
“Last thing we need is Granny blubbering when Apple Bloom gets back from wherever she’s run off ta...”
“Little harsh there, don’tcha think?” Heartbreak asked as she watched Big Mac sulking to the place he called home.
Applejack gave a sad smirk as she plucked a small cotton swatch from the jar. “Ah, he’s grown ta be a big stallion that can handle his feelin’s-'' She paused from her swirling of the swath in the ointment. “But ya’ know that, there, H.B.!” she said.
“Uh-huh...” Heartbreak replied. “Forget I asked and let’s just get this over with...” she said, attempting to keep her leg still.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Fluttershy asked, sensing an ever growing tension from Heartbreak from the situation that, by all right she had, (apt accidentally) put her into. ‘I’m sure she doesn’t blame you for giving her that mane style, Fluttershy! But still...’
“Uhm, yeah, mind holdin’ her leg steady? This here salve has somethin’ in it that stings somethin’ fierce!” Applejack said, making sure to get a good dollop on the cotton swath.
“O-oh. Okay,” she replied, holding Heartbreak’s leg as firmly as she possibly could, though Fluttershy being who she was, was most likely far more gentle than it should have been.
“Alrighty, brace yerself now, this is gonna sting.”
“Yeah, okay, I heard you the first time Aaaap-” Heartbreak preemptively tensed up while closing her eyes, only to peek when she initially wasn’t feeling the expected- “Aa-Aaah! EEEee-sssst!! Fet! There it is!” she hissed.
“Heh, yeah. Ah did warn ya that this here salve packs quite a wallu-” Applejack’s words were abruptly cut off the moment she pulled the swath away to look at the burn.
There, in the newly red flesh and charred fur, in the veiny exposed skin, was a strange pattern. A pattern similar to interlocking chains that seemed to glow with the faintest of colorful light.
“What the hay-” Applejack asked looking up at Heartbreak. “-is that?!”
Heartbreak bit her lip and shrugged. “I-I don’t know,” she replied, anxiously. “Could we just get this done and over with?”
Applejack started to unwind the bandages, only for her eyes to be drawn once again to the odd, shifting pattern in Heartbreak’s burnt flesh. “Ya don’t have any tattoos we don’t know about?” she asked abruptly.
“No...” Heartbreak said uneasily. “Wait, ponies have tattoos? How the fffet does that work?”
“Ah dun’t know, but Ah’ve seen them on a few ponies before...”
“Then why did you bring it up?” Heartbreak asked, as a twitch of pain fought its way into her voice.
“Well, it’s just that there looks like some sort of magic if Ah ever saw it,” Applejack replied, inspecting it a bit closer.”It might even be the reason yer not howlin’ like a timber-” she paused as Heartbreak let out a stressed hiss of air was drawn in and blown out so hard that it pushed the brim of her hat down. “-wolf...” As the tan mare looked down at her, she chuckled sheepishly.
“Oooh... I am in a fair amount of pain- hurtzalot - it’s just that I’m really good at minimizing things...” Heartbreak said through clenched teeth, her eyes wide, pupils small and her tongue obviously being held upon exactly how much pain she really was in. “Seriously, could we- and no pun intended- wrap this up?” she repeated.
“Oh! Yeah!” Applejack awkwardly flustered setting to work wrapping up the wound. Once more however, she paused.
“What is it now?” Heartbreak asked, her eye rolling as a peel of sweat ran down the side of her cheek, only to be caught in a spiral of a lock of random mane before dripping to the parched ground below.
Applejack involuntarily flinched and cowed like a little filly whose ill begotten misadventures finally were bearing consequence laden fruit.
“Well,” she began once the feeling had passed. “Ah was just thinkin’” she made a few passes around the leg. “Seein’ that this here looks magical an’ all, maybe we might wanna go an’ talk ta Twilight may-”
“NO!”
Applejack nearly dropped the roll of cotton bandage at the sudden panicked outburst. “N-now sugarcube...” She began, her voice ajar.” Twilight is the one we usually go ta when we’ve got a magical problem on our hooves...”
“I know that...'' Heartbreak said, hesitation aching in her voice, while she fought the urge to wipe her brow, only to be pleasantly surprised when a Flutterhoof came to the rescue with a handkerchief. “Oh, thanks...”
Fluttershy smiled warily before flicking the sweat dripping cloth. “You’re welcome,” she said softly.
“Then why-”
“It’s just that I’ve had enough weirdness for today, A.J.” Heartbreak interrupted. “And besides, isn’t Twilight studying for her unicorn exams or something like that? I don’t wanna be a bother.”
“Oh...” Applejack said, glancing at Fluttershy. “Right... With everythin’ that’s been goin’ on Ah musta plumb forgot... but still..”
“Please, A.J.” Heartbreak said, practically muttering the last part under her breath as she looked Applejack in the eye pleadingly. “If it becomes a problem then we’ll talk to Twilight, alright... Sugarcube?”
Applejack bit her lip and pretended to wipe the sweat off her brow before sniffing hard. “A-Alright mmm...” She then proceeded to continue wrapping Heartbreak’s shoulder and leg.
Fluttershy frowned a little. Was there something in H.B’s tone that felt wrong? ‘It almost sounded like she was trying to sound like Applejack. She wouldn’t be doing that on purpose, right? Nopony, or being would be that cruel?’ She thought.
“If you don’t want to go talk to Twilight, we could always go to the hospital,” Fluttershy suggested.
“Already?” Heartbreak asked, wincing as Applejack finished up. “I mean, do you really think it’s bad enough to warrant a trip?”
“Ya did just get burned there, H.B.” Applejack said, a pang of guilt causing her shoulder to twitch involuntarily up. “An’ while the ointment can fight off some pretty nasty infections, it don’t have the gumpshin ta fight off anythin’ magical.”
Heartbreak rolled her eyes and sighed after looking at the two mares pleadingly concerned expressions. “Fffine... If you two think that’s what’s best then I’ll-”
“We’ll!” Applejack abruptly interjected. “Ah mean, ah can come too, can’t Ah?” She asked in a little filly-like manner.
“Y-yea, I suppose...” Heartbreak replied, a thick uncomfortable lit in her voice.
“Yeee-Haw! Going ta the hospital!” Applejack exclaimed, her cheer blinding her to any discomfort Heartbreak was giving off.
“Yeah... Yeee-haw...” Heartbreak echoed dowerly. “Going to the hospital... yet again...” She muttered, eyeing Fluttershy, who only gave a small sheepish smile that quickly faded once the broken-hearted pony moved past.
=========
Applejack didn’t take long getting her things together for this little trek to the hospital. Fetting saddlebags look a bit on the stuffed side though.
I don’t know how to feel about this situation.
I’ve already told her the hard facts, that this ... mane style was just accidental, that we didn’t mean to put it up like this and that her little slip-ups of calling me ‘ma’ are horribly awkward. Or at least I think I’ve made that abundantly clear, right? I hope I have.
Then why am I still feeling agitated?!
‘Must be nerves. Adrenaline is still pumping in your veins. You did just get out of a life or death situation that came out of nowhere, had little if any foreshadowing, and now feels like it isn’t resolved. At least, not resolved properly. How the fet is this meant to feel resolved?! This is why I haven’t been leaving the house. Do ponies have to deal with life or death every time they go out!? What the fet keeps places like Ponyville a stable living place for any period of ti-
“So!” Ah, crudmuffins. Applejack said something. “How ya doin’?”
Don’t be snide, don’t be snide, don’t be side-
“Ah mean, other than what just happened...” She must have been either reading my mind or-... fet, my hat. Forgot my hat. Should have worn my hat. She’s reading my ears to see what I’m feeling. I fetting hate these stupid things. “Ah mean, it’s been over a good full two months since last we spoke?”
“Y-yeah, something like that,” I try to recall the last time any real interaction with Applejack happened. Last month with Rarity was so... all consuming, and I’ve been working on- Fet, I should be saying these things out loud. “I’ve been busy. With the house that I moved into, and-” Gah, nother throat clearing! “Being sick.”
She nods. “Ah heard about that, The Ol’Miller place near the Everfree?”
“Yeah, but I... want to change the name to ‘Addams Family Manner.” Gawds, have I ever mentioned that I am terrible at small talk? Just randomly bringing up that I want to change the name of the house? Really? Why the fet would she be interested in that?!
“Ah haven’t seen that place have anypony livin’ in since, uhm...” She pauses and taps her chin thoughtfully looking up at the sky before shaking her head and continuing walking with us. “Well, since ah was a really little filly! ‘Bout the time ah got back from Uncle and Aunt Orange’s place!”
“Out in Manehattan, right?” Took me a moment to remember that. Almost said Fillydelfia...
“Eeyup!” She says nodding. “Granny always told us ta not go too close to it, seein’ that it’s that close ta the Everfree an’ all, but ah always got the feelin’ that she was hintin’ at somethin’ else or another bein’ the reason cause of the ponies that lived there. Always throwin’ some sort of shindig late at night or the like. All the rich folk would go there.”
“Uh...hu...” Seriously. I really, really, really hope that my house wasn’t like the equivalent of the town brothel... Cause, with that little weirdness A.J. just dropped along with that one oldly posed mare painting near the door... Naaaah... Princess Luna would definitely not put me up in a pony ... uhm, ... pony brothel. We’re gonna call it that. Yeah.
“From what Ah remember seeing it once, when ah had to take that dirt road up north, it sure as shooting looked like it needed a great deal of repair! Has become a real eyesore from what it was like in its heyday!”
Gawds, A.J. has turned into a chatterbox.
“I-it was when Rarity and I first saw it,” I reply, actually almost eager to arrive at the hospital. A place that not only has doctors for this now... itching? Yeah, fet, this thing is starting to feel itchy under those wrappings, but because there’s actual air conditioning. Not to mention that maybe there might be less small talk due to the fact that there’s sure to be some paperwork needing to be filed...
“Was?” She asks, a worry in her eyes and a bit of confusion in her voice.
“Yeah. Rarity called up a place called ‘Hammer and Nail’ who did repairs practically the next day. Really good work.” I roll my eyes and remember the fetter on their team... What was his name? Oh yeah...” I mean, with the exception of some stallion named ‘Narrow Beam’...” Suddenly I hear a small whimper and turn to see a rather sad looking Applejack.
“Ya... Ya didn’t think ta call me up ta help?” She mewls.
Fet. Yeah, I didn’t think to do that, did I? Double fet! I could have gotten some of those house repairs for free! Then again...
“I.... Well,” Gotta put this gently, alright? A.J. is a proud pony and even more so when it comes to her skills at repair and construction. “There’s electrical, and gas, and there were also batteries in the basement that were leaking acid...”
“Ya coulda’ asked... Don’t that place have some sort of fancy emergency fireplace or somethin’?”
“Yes...” I reply, sighing. “I’ve actually used it a few times to send some pen pal letters to your cousin. But I think there’s something wrong with it, as I haven’t gotten anything back.”
“See, there’s a reason that ya shoulda called me!” She asserts, boldly I might add. “Maybe ah could come over after this here visit ta the hospital...”
“Do you know anythin’ about ‘magical emergency fireplaces’?” Why is this a conversation? What is she playing at?! ... Wait, no, stop. This is Applejack, she wouldn’t be playing at anything! She’s the element of honesty! She’s-
“Aaah, can’t say that Ah know much,” she openly admits with a look of uncertainty that quickly evaporates away to one of suggestive pleading. Or at least I think that’s what it is. “Buuut, Ah wouldn’t be against stayin’ a night or two ta help figure it out, ma-ma H.B.!”
UGH. This Stupid mane and tail! There’s still some stupid conflaction going on here! Fet! Enough is enough! Twisting, curling, lashing mane and tail be damned! This has got to stop! Out cursed scrunchy, out! Fetlocks! How am I sposta... reach these things?! Stupid hooves! For once, just once can you grasp... GAH! “Fluttershy, can you please, get these out of my mane and tail?”
“But what about-”
“We’ll deal with it, if it becomes an issue!” Get into ma mouth! Come on! I’ve seen the others do this! Ponytail into mouth now!
“O-ok, just hold still,” Fluttershy’s soft and rather reluctant voice says before attempting to pull on the teal scrunchy. But I can tell something’s wrong. Even before the all too predictable-“O-oh dear...” Yup, there it is.
"What is it now?" Ugh. Today started out with such promise, and then I just had to go out and leave my safe little hobble for the wilds of Ponyville where it seems that there is something at every corner to kill or at the very least irritate me.
"They... they seem to be stuck..." she sounds fretful over this predicament.
"Are they all tangled up there?" Applejack asks, leaning over. "Ah could lend a hoof if ya need it..." she offers. "Ah happen ta know a thing or two about untangling a mane 'n tail. Fet, ah could braid it up real nice after like ya ta-" she stops mid sentence. "Like Ah was taught. Ye-yeah, like ah was taught."
"No. No thanks." Well, that sounded very irritated, but I can't help it anymore! This whole gag? Trope? Ordeal? Whatever it is with Applejack mistaking me or conflating me with her own mother, outstayed its welcome like, what? Eighteen pages ago?
‘I shouldn't be so... harsh with her. It's just that it's bad enough having Cream Puff attempting to get them to let them call me ‘mom' I don't need another ‘filly’ doing this to me!’
"HACH-BEE! AAACH-BEEE!!" Calls out that saccharinely sweet sounding southern accent from down the road that we are walking.
"Speak of the devil..." I mutter under my breath. Or was it? Fet, I hope that wasn't too loud!