//------------------------------// // A late night // Story: Reincarnation beats cider for forgetting what you did last night // by StrangeCreature //------------------------------// Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. “Applejack, I’m always happy to see you, but it’s three in the morning. Why are you here?” Asked Twilight, her eyes squinting against wakefulness. Applejack was standing on the doorstep of Golden Oaks Library, more awake than Twilight, but also even more irritated. “Begging your pardon for coming to call so late Twilight, but it happened again, and you know how much Granny Smith panics when she wakes up and finds Apple Bloom missing.” “Of course, of course. Come in. You really need to stop her from dying.” “This one was not my fault. She bucked a tree and half of it came down on her. Could’ve happened to anypony.” “Bucking a tree can bring it down?” “It didn’t bring the whole thing down, just half. ‘Sides, Isaac Appleton’s old, and he’s always had a problem with bits falling on folks. Granny Smith told me he once dropped so many apple’s on pa’s head when he was a kid he was buried up to his neck.” “Alright, fine, it was an accident, just come in.” Twilight held open the door and Applejack stepped through. “When’s her last back-up?” She asked. “I’ve got one from last week, before you went on that camping trip. I saw her this morning but it slipped my mind to ask her to back up.” “She wouldn’t have done it anyway. She always thinks she’s going to live forever.” “Maybe after this time she’ll take the lesson to heart.” “It’s a real shame, this one. She’d just gotten her cutie mark. That’s why she bucked Isaac. She was so happy she gave out a kick. Then he gave out.” “Really? She got it? What was it?” “An apple, of course. Hanging off a branch. She’d decided she wanted to live on the farm, just like me and Big Mac.” “I’m sure she’ll be pleased to hear about it. You’ll have to deal with her trying to get it again every day for a month, though.” Said Twilight, opening the door to the library basement. “Might not tell her, then. Having me know what it is while she doesn’t will drive her nuts. Having to work it out the hard way again can be her punishment for dying again.” “Are you sure you can keep the secret, miss element of honesty?” “You ain’t an only child; you must’ve worked out tormenting a sibling with harmless secrets they’ll find out later is just a part of lovin’ ‘em, right?” “Shiny did that to me a few times. I’ll never forgive him for keeping that Hearthswarming telescope gift a secret. I bought one I saw on sale for myself three days before Hearthswarming. I had two for three years before the first one broke.” “I’ll take my chances on Apple Bloom getting two cutie marks.” “Fine, my lips are sealed.” To Twilight, the basement had changed dramatically over the past few months. The EEG she had had installed upon arrival had been replaced with a PET machine, which had in turn been replaced with a state of the art neural analyzer, once she had realized what she could do with the extra precision. Where there had once been printers that devoured reams of paper and spat out recordings of participants’ brain waves, there was now a single monitor allowing her to look at the data in comfort. To Applejack, the basement of the library had looked the same a month after Twilight had moved in as it did now, barring one exception. Wires crawled up the walls like vines then as they did now, growing from machines that hummed and buzzed when Twilight turned them on to do things Applejack only understood the result of. The machines were different now, but since they’d been just as incomprehensible to her before she wouldn’t have been able to tell you which one was what for all the bits in Canterlot. The only thing she knew with certainty was different was the towering mirror portal on the wall. That one meant something to her, so she had noticed when it changed. The computer finished booting up and the monitor switched to the blinding white desktop. Applejack squinted against it while Twilight dragged up Apple Bloom’s file. It was as she’d said, the most recent iteration was one week old. She made some quick clicks, copying it to an output device and ejecting it. Above their heads a sack the size of a pony began moving along the underside of a rail. It met the edge of the portal and sank through in a flash of light. A few seconds later the surface of the mirror rippled and Apple Bloom’s head broke the surface. Applejack took the head between her hooves and pulled. The two rolled back across the room, ending in a pile with Applejack on bottom and her new little sister asleep on top. “Thank you very much Twilight,” Said Applejack, standing up and heaving her sister over her withers. “I’ll let you get back to bed now. Would you like to come over tomorrow for breakfast? Chores or not I’m going to end up sleeping late after this mess.” “It would be nice to meet you for breakfast at a normal pony hour. Could I come by around ten?” “I said I’d be sleeping late, not taking the day off. My breakfast’s gonna be seven thirty.” “I’ll see you tomorrow for lunch. Good night.” Said Twilight, waving Applejack away as she walked through the streets of Ponyville, heading for home with her sister on her back.