"Twilight! Twilight Twilight Twilight!!"
Twilight sighed lightly, looking up from her book. Rainbow Dash did the same. Neither of them liked to be interrupted while reading. Twilight, though, was quite used to the interruptions, having been privy to them for a long while now. Rainbow, on the other hoof, wasn't quite as accustomed to the interruptions. She was a new reader, after all, and often one of the ponies who caused the interruptions for Twilight rather than the type to be on the receiving end.
"Hello, Pinkie Pie," Twilight said, putting a serene smile on her face to mask her slight frustration.
"Twilightwilightwilightwilightwilight!" Pinkie continued. Twilight rolled her eyes, an action mirrored by Rainbow.
"Yes, Pinkie?" Twilight asked, a slight point to her tone.
"Twilightwilightwilightliwi...tliwi..." Pinkie stopped, a confused look plastered to her face, then burst out laughing. "Did-did you hear that? Who's Tliwight?!" Twilight and Rainbow exchanged looks, the latter's more irritated than the former's. Even disregarding her predisposition to the reading-time interruptions, it was safe to say that Twilight's patience was just a smidge better than Rainbow's.
"Yes, Pinkie, we heard you," the librarian responded. "And it was very funny. Now what's got you so worked up?"
"Yeah, spit it out," Rainbow said, fores crossed. "I'm nearly at the end of the new Daring Do book and I wanna know how it ends!"
"Oh, that's easy!" Pinkie said with a smile. "Daring Do uses the silver buckle on the new hat that Plucky Pith gave her to deflect the Lazy Laser and make it zap Medico Malo instead and that made him too tired to stop his repentant minion Intern Al Conflict from freeing her and helping her escape the Dungeon of Displeasure as it crumbled to rubble around the diabolical doctor!"
Rainbow stared in disbelief at Pinkie. She looked at Twilight for confirmation. Twilight gave her a wan smile and nodded. Rainbow frowned and tossed the book to the side with a loud groan.
"Well, now that you've totally ruined the book for me, I guess I can hear whatever the hay you're going on about," Rainbow muttered.
"Yes," Twilight said with a nod. "Let's hear it."
"Oh! Right!" Pinkie said. "There's something really, really important that you need to see at Sweet Apple Acres!"
Twilight tilted her head. It was hard to tell when Pinkie was really and truly being serious. She had a way of sounding serious when she wasn't and not sounding serious when she was. Reading her was next to impossible, but she figured it was best to err on the side of caution and take her seriously.
"What is it?" Twilight asked, looking a bit concerned. Even the previously-annoyed Rainbow looked worried.
"Applejack..." Pinkie began.
"Yes?" Twilight and Rainbow asked in unison.
"Has been..." Pinkie continued.
"Yes??" Twilight and Rainbow asked, getting tense.
"...Selling apples at half price all this week!" Pinkie finished. Twilight and Rainbow facehooved in unison.
"Are you kidding me?" Rainbow shouted at Pinkie's oblivious smile.
"I know, right? The prices are so low!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I'm totally gonna buy a ton once Twilight fixes Applejack!"
"Yes, Pinkie," Twilight said dismissively. "I'm sure we all..." She hesitated. "...Once I fix Applejack?"
"Well duh!" Pinkie answered, bouncing around. "I mean I guess we could buy the apples from Apple Bloom while Applejack's a foal, but-"
"Wait!" Rainbow shouted. "Applejack's a foal?"
"Yuppers!" Pinkie bubbled. "My Pinkie Sense told me that there was a foal emergency at the farm and it turns out Applejack was magically turned into a foal somehow!"
"Pinkie...why the hay didn't you tell us this first?" an exasperated Rainbow asked. Twilight gave her a nudge and shook her hoof as if to say, "Don't even ask."
"Is Applejack still at Sweet Apple Acres?" Twilight asked, as calmly as her already-starting-to-worry mind would allow.
"As far as I know!" Pinkie responded. "I said that I should take her so she could play with the Cake twins while you figured out how to make her grow up, but Apple Bloom wanted to take care of her!"
"Right," Twilight said, determination in her eyes. "Pinkie, Rainbow, you two go get Fluttershy and Rarity, just in case we need to use the Elements."
"But one of the Elements is a little foal!" Rainbow said.
"I'm sure it's fine," Twilight said, even though she wasn't. "Applejack is still Applejack, no matter what age she is. Now let's go!"
Rainbow and Pinkie saluted, Pinkie's accompanied by a party horn and streamers, and the three ran out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~
Apple Bloom had never taken herself for the caretaking type. It just never seemed to be much of a fit for her. She figured that if she ended up finding a special somepony and having foals when she got older, it would come to her then. Now, though? Absolutely not. Even though she was a big pony, she wasn't that big a pony. Besides, she was too busy trying to get her cutie mark and spending time with her friends to even think about taking care of a foal. Although to be fair, they hadn't tried to be Cutie Mark Crusaders Foalsitters yet...but there was no way Scootaloo would agree to that.
The more she thought about it, though, the more Bloom felt at peace with the concept of caring for her foalified sister. It hadn't much appealed to her at first, but the more time she spent around Applejack while she was in this form, the more she enjoyed it. The feeling of responsibility was definitely a part or it. Applejack needed her right now. As much as she wanted to believe that she could take care of herself in this form, the fact remained that she simply couldn't. Bloom had to help her climb down from the bed after their nap, and it didn't take her long to realize that she was due for another diaper change. For the time being, Applejack relied on her, and that was all there was to it. Bloom was okay with that.
The unmitigated cuteness that her now-little sister seeped from every pore was also a factor, and arguably the larger factor of the two. She could barely tear her eyes off of Applejack for a moment. She wasn't typically crazy about cute things; she liked to think that she was somewhere between the two extremes of Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle as far as reaction to cuteness went. She usually didn't get all bothered by them like Scootaloo or fall head over hooves for them like Sweetie. Applejack, however, was a different case. Every little thing that Applejack did was ridiculously adorable, even if she didn't want it to be. And the strangest thing was that Applejack's reluctance to purposely be adorable seemed to be waning. She was still upset when she realized that she needed another diaper change, and there was still a bit of resistance and insistence upon doing things for herself, but for the most part, she seemed to be getting accustomed to her temporary role. Bloom would have found that absolutely startling if she weren't so happy taking care of her.
Bloom smiled a silly little smile as she rolled a ball to Applejack. Simply rolling a ball normally wouldn't be enough to stimulate her at all, much less Applejack. But the foal seemed to be having a wonderful time with it, giggling with childish wonder each time she caught the ball or sent it rolling back. The giggling was far too infectious to resist, and soon Bloom was laughing along with her. A warm feeling washed over her as her cares began to fade away. She was pretty positive that there was something she was concerned about a little while ago, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what it was. She figured she'd worry about whatever it was later. Right now, nothing was more important than taking care of her little sister. Worries could wait until Granny Smith and Big Macintosh got home.
"Hay AJ!" Bloom called out. "Guess what?"
Applejack looked at Bloom, head tilted. If Bloom wasn't so distracted by the joy of playing with her little sister and had remembered just what it was that was bothering her earlier, she might have found it odd that she wasn't answered verbally. The way she saw it, though, it wasn't too strange. Ponies Applejack's age weren't always very strong speakers.
"Guess what time it is?" Bloom asked playfully. Applejack looked up at the clock on the wall, then back towards Bloom with a shrug. Bloom was proud of her for knowing to look at the clock, but acknowledged that maybe she was too young to know how to tell time just yet. Which was fine; the answer to her question couldn't be found on any clock, let alone that one.
"It's tickle time!" Bloom shouted. Applejack's ears perked and she turned tail to run, but the bigger Bloom was already upon her. The little foal found herself flipped onto her back, then erupting in peals of laughter as her sister began tickling the bottoms of her hooves. She tried desperately to get away, but Bloom was simply too strong for her. She was left with no option but to endure the ticklish torture until Bloom found it fit to end it.
Luckily for Applejack, the sound of an urgent knock at the front door granted her salvation from her fate. Bloom raised a brow, wondering who could be visiting at this time. She turned to answer the door, but made sure to close Applejack in her little playpen. She couldn't have her just galloping out the door, after all. She was a rambunctious little tyke. The filly eventually reached the door, pulling it open.
"Oh! Hay Sweetie Belle! Hay Scootaloo!" Bloom said cheerfully. "How're y'all..." Bloom then stopped. She paled a little under the frowns of her two best friends, knowing instantly what was wrong.
"How are we doing?" Scootaloo asked. "Oh, just great for two ponies whose best friend forgot to come out for their big crusade today, thanks. How are you?"
"That was a little mean, Scootaloo..." Sweetie said, her frown softening a bit. "You didn't say you were going to be mean."
"And Bloom didn't say she was going to ditch us," Scootaloo responded. "Looks like there's a bunch of surprises today." Sweetie sat on her rump and crossed her forelegs.
"If you're just gonna be mean, then I'm not gonna be upset anymore," Sweetie said defiantly. "You can be upset about Bloom forgetting to come out by yourself!"
"Ugh...fine," Scootaloo groaned, then turned to Bloom. "I won't say anything mean anymore. But I'm still upset that you forgot to meet us on time!"
"And I'm upset too, now that Scoots isn't being mean anymore!" Sweetie said, standing back up. Bloom sighed a heavy sigh; she hated disappointing her friends, but plans had changed.
"Ah'm sorry, girls..." Bloom said, looking down at the floor. "Ah really wanted ta come, but Ah got caught up. An' Ah should prolly stay in anyway. Ah gotta take care of mah sister." Scootaloo and Sweetie looked at each other.
"...Is she sick?" Sweetie asked.
"Nah, she's fine," Bloom said.
"Is she injured?" Scootaloo asked.
"No, she's fine!" Bloom said. "Cut that out!" She frowned at her friends, aghast that they would even talk about such bad things happening to poor Applejack.
"Then...why do you need to take care of her?" Sweetie asked, looking utterly confused. Bloom gave her an equally confused look.
"Uh...cause she's mah sister?" Bloom said. "An' she cain't take care of herself?" Sweetie's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Oh! Did you have another sister?" Sweetie asked excitedly.
"How could she have another sister?" Scootaloo asked. "She'd need to-" She cut herself off instantly, not wanting to talk about that any longer.
"No..." Bloom said. "What's gotten inta y'all? Ah gotta take care of Applejack."
"Why?" the two asked at the same time. Now Bloom was frowning. This had to be a joke.
"Well when's the last time y'all knew a foal that could take care of herself?" Bloom asked indignantly.
"What does that have to do with anything?!" Scootaloo shouted. Bloom facehooved, then pointed behind her.
"Everythin'!" Bloom shouted back. Both Scootaloo and Sweetie craned their necks to look around to where their friend was pointing. It was only then that they noticed the tiny orange foal in the playpen behind them. The two galloped past Bloom and up to the playpen.
"What happened?!" Scootaloo gasped.
"She's so cute!!" Sweetie swooned. A stern look from Scootaloo made her smile awkwardly. "I mean, what happened?"
"Whaddaya mean, what happened?" Bloom asked, raising a brow. "She's fine! Ah jus' gotta stay an' watch her."
Sweetie began to open her mouth, but Scootaloo stopped her. She looked between Bloom, who was staring at them as if they each had three heads, and Applejack, who stopped playing with the blocks in the pen just long enough to give the two a little wave. Scootaloo pulled Sweetie aside and leaned in to whisper to her.
"Okay, Bloom's clearly gone crazy," Scootaloo said.
"What?" Sweetie asked.
"Well," Scootaloo whispered. "Clearly something wacky happened and turned Applejack into a foal. And you know how sometimes when something really traumatic happens to somepony that somepony cares about, the somepony who cares about that somepony gets so upset that they get crazy and their mind tries to make them thing that nothing's wrong?"
"I know that now!" Sweetie responded.
"Close enough!" Scootaloo said. "Well, that seems to be what's happened with Bloom here. She thinks Applejack's really supposed to be a foal! So you know what we have to do, right?"
"Not at all!" Sweetie said, eliciting a groan from her friend.
"What it means," Scootaloo said, emphasizing that last word, "is that we have to play along with it and act like nothing's wrong so she won't freak out. And meanwhile, we'll try to figure out what happened to Applejack so we can fix it and maybe earn our cutie marks in hex fixing!" Scootaloo smiled, proud of her brilliance. Sweetie, on the other hoof, did not look nearly as convinced.
"...That sounds like a terrible idea," Sweetie said flatly.
"Well, do you have a better one?" Scootaloo demanded. After a good ten seconds of thinking, Sweetie was forced to concede that no, she did not have a better idea.
"Exactly," Scootaloo whispered. "So here's what we do. We convince Apple Bloom to come out with us and bring Applejack. I'll go with her to Sugarcube Corner while you go grab some books on weird magic transformations and stuff from the library. Then we'll meet at Sugarcube Corner and read up on how to fix this."
"Why Sugarcube Corner?" Sweetie asked.
"Cause Mr. and Mrs. Cake can watch Applejack along with the twins!" Scootaloo told her. "Which frees Bloom up to read up on it with us! And then we'll find the solution, make Applejack the right age again, and all get our cutie marks!"
Sweetie Belle stared at her friend for a few moments. Scootaloo's eager smile remained unwavering.
"That's...just overcomplicated enough to work!" Sweetie whispered excitedly. She offered Scootaloo a hoof bump, which she gladly reciprocated.
"What the hay have y'all been whisperin' about over there?" Bloom called out. The two fillies had practically forgotten that she was even there. They gave each other a wink, then turned to Bloom.
"We were just discussing how you could still crusade with us while making sure Applejack is safe!" Sweetie said.
"Yeah!" Scootaloo chimed in. "Sweetie's gonna go pick some books up, and we're gonna go to Sugarcube Corner! That way, we can read about stuff and try to get our...uh...studying cutie marks!"
Now it was Bloom's turn to stare blankly at her friend.
"You're suggestin' studyin'?" she asked incredulously. "Who are ya an' what didja do with Scootaloo?"
"I appreciate that, really," Scootaloo responded. "But who knows? It could be our special talent!"
"And doesn't a cute little playdate for Applejack and the Cake twins sound nice?" Sweetie asked.
"Heh...yeh, s'pose yer right," Bloom said with a giggle. "It'd be nice fer her ta have ponies her own age ta play with." Her two friends exchanged worried glances again before nodding.
"Then gather her up and let's go!" Scootaloo shouted. The loud noise caused little Applejack to fold her ears back, startled. Her eyes flooded with tears and she began to bawl, causing Bloom to give her stunned friends a stern look.
"Don't yell like that 'round her!" Bloom chided as she sat down and pulled Applejack into a hug. It only took a little bit of sisterly hugging and nuzzling for the little foal to call down, and Bloom soon had her situated in the foal carrier.
"Let's go!" Scootaloo said, now keeping a careful eye on her volume. Sweetie gave her friends a salute, then headed in the direction of the library. Bloom and Scootaloo returned the salute, and even Applejack did the same from her carrier. Then the three of them were off as well, bound towards Sugarcube Corner.
As they passed the last tree on Sweet Apple Acres land, a set of mismatched eyes poked out from its leaves. Discord slowly coiled down the tree's trunk once the fillies had passed.
"Oh, this is too much," Discord said with a sly grin. "I almost feel bad for the Apple sisters."
Discord then hummed lightly to himself. "Huh...actually, I think I do feel slightly bad for them. What a strange and unique feeling." The draconequus whipped a thermometer from out of nowhere and stuck it under his tongue. He crossed his eyes to take a look at the reading, and watche as the mercury reached the level noted with the word "empathy."
"I thought I was coming down with something..." Discord mused to himself. "I suppose I should follow those girls and make sure nothing too terrible happens to them. After all, it's all fun and games until somepony gets hurt." He began to leap behind the tree, but stopped in midair, reaching into the leaves. His claw emerged from the branches with an unpopped bag of popcorn.
"I do hope this is ready by the time I arrive," Discord chuckled. "I have a feeling I'll need it." He then vanished behind the tree.