Zaps Apple
Zap Apple Harvest: Scootaloo's POV
Lunch... what a time to reflect. I sat alone in the classroom, looking over the presentation we would be giving the class after lunch. We had somehow ended up last to go up again. The other presentations had been cool but there were two that got more attention, Diamond Tiara's and Silver Spoons' talk about Canterlot and the old ruined castle of the two sisters.
Snips and Snails’ presentation was about the trains in Equestria and they had even got the Conductor to come by too. Normally those two really screw things up, but learning about the all the trains in Equestria had actually been pretty interesting, especially when he told us about the two trains that run on a type of ‘magical charge’.
I rolled the zap apple around on the desk with my hoof, I had lunch in my saddlebag but I just didn’t want to eat anything right now. I thought about to what those two creeps did to Zaps, but was I really any better? Were the girls and I just using him because of what he is?
“Scoots, yer ok?” I turned my eyes slowly, without moving my head, towards Applebloom who was standing by the desk. “Yer don't look so swell, what’s the matter?”
“Nothing, I was just thinking about...” I looked away from her and at our presentation about the mystery of the zap apples. He had given us this zap apple, “Zaps...” I muttered.
Applebloom sat down. “Is this about mah brother?” I turned my eyes back to her, it felt so weird hearing her call him that. “Yer really care about him don't ya?”
I just gave a heavy sigh. “Is it that obvious? Hay?”
“Eeyup. But yer been actin' a little off since yesterday, what’s the matter?” Applebloom was just being an awesome friend, as ever.
I raised my head a little, holding the zap apple with both my front hooves. “Since we learned about how special Zaps really is, it makes me think that we’re just as bad as those two.”
“What!? Yer can't...”
“Think about it Applebloom, he gave me this zap apple for the project and we’ve put him against the adults not just once, but twice in the space of a few days, and then there’s was what we did to him at the party... urg...” I turned my head away from her. “I just don't think I am being a good friend...”
Applebloom rolled her eyes. “If it wasn't for yer, ah would never have had an awesome new brother, ‘part from that Scoots, yer gave him his name, yer made him feel more welcome and pushed for him to be a crusader with us, ya worked as a team with him to beat Big Mac and Applejack. Ah think yer the most awesome friend anypony could ask for.” Applebloom said to me and I looked back towards her as she spoke on.
“Wasn't it yer and Sweetie Belle all that time ago that helped me out of a jam and we created the crusaders on the first day?” I thought about it, tapping a hoof on my snout... “Without you we never could have won the contest for carryin' the flag, whatever those two did to try to ruin our friendship.”
I Smiled a little. “Yeah you’re right... sorry, I was kinda being a bit of idiot...”
“It’s ok Scoots, but ah do wonder about one thing...”
“Hmm?”
Applebloom grinned. “Yer really really like him don't yer?”
I felt warmth under my eyes as she said it. I just burst out at her. “Oh please! I am not that sappy! I just really care... I mean I like... erm... you know I... Urg!” As I got tongue twisted she started grinning even larger. “You know what? I am not going to speak about it!” I got off the stall, putting the zap apple away.
“Hehe yer redder than Big Mac.” Applebloom grinned.
I just glared at her. “What did you say!?”
“Nothin'.” Applebloom stood by me. “Ah just never thought yer were one for being that 'sappy'.”
“Don't push it Applebloom!” I glared at her.
Applebloom put her hoof over her snout. “Ah won't say a word, ah promise.”
“You’d better not!” I wasn't too pleased, but Applebloom didn’t look like she wanted to drop the subject that easily. “How about we sit down and eat before lunch is over?” I asked, changing the subject as my stomach started to rumble a little.
Applebloom put her bag down pulling out some apple fritters. “They might not be hot, but ah hope this will do!”
I took one eating it. “Mmm they’re still as tasty as ever!” I turned to her. “Thanks again AB.”
“What are friends for?” Applebloom beamed and we laughed a little before snacking on the fritters.
“Why are you two in here? It’s nice outside.” Sweetie Belle walked into the classroom, over to us. “Are you two getting the final touches to the presentation done?”
I shrugged “Kinda, I guess.”
Applebloom gave Sweetie Belle a fritter. “Ah was just thinking about what we call the mysterious kingdom that pre-dates Equestria.”
Kingdom of Harmony, little one...
“Huh?” I looked around for who had said it, I am sure it was a mare who said it, but from where? It almost sounded like it had come from everywhere at once.
“Hey Scoots, what’s the matter?”
“Didn't you two hear that?” I asked them.
Sweetie Belle looked around. “Hear what?”
“Some mare just spoke to me, I am sure of it!” I got up, trying to locate the voice that had spoken to me.
Applebloom finished eating her food and got up. “Ah don't see anypony ‘part from us Scoots. Yer must be hearin' thin's.”
I grumbled, sitting down. “No... I am sure of it...”
“We didn't hear anything Scootaloo...” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
I got up “Well I did... Her words were, ’Kingdom of Harmony little one’.”
“Kingdom of Harmony?” Applebloom looked at the picture and gasped. “Oh my gosh! That’s a perfect name!”
“I agree, you really thought of a great name there! Nice one with the hearing things Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle giggled, “You really had us going there for a second!”
“Say what?” I raised my eye at them. I had just said what somepony had told me and they thought I had come up with it myself. They thought I was joking... “Ok you got me... I was joking with ya, hehe. Cool huh?” I laughed a little trying my best to just act as if nothing was wrong.
Applebloom wrote it down on the board. “There! We’re all set to go!” Applebloom beamed in delight, seeing how we all did a good work with it, maybe I could ask Zaps if any of his flashbacks were of this Kingdom of Harmony, it was long shot but worth a try.
We finished eating our lunch and the bell rang for the afternoon class. Standing in front of the class as they spoke to each other, we knew it was time for us to show our presentation. Miss Cheerilee tapped her hoof on her desk. “Ok class, settle down, we’ve got one last presentation before school is finished today.”
The class went silent, apart from Diamond Tiara. “Zap apples! Wow, what a project.! You three are really original, you know that?”
“Nah uh! This is goin' to be somethin' special, yer wait a see!” Applebloom snapped back at Diamond Tiara.
“Whatever, it’s going to be lame either way.”
Cheerilee stared at her. “Diamond Tiara! You are already in enough trouble as it is, your presentation was very nice but you have to give others a chance to explain theirs.”
“Yes miss...” Diamond replied with a half mutter.
“Girls, you may begin.” Cheerilee said to us.
Applebloom step forwards. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders decided to do our project on the mystery of the Zap Apples from their origins to the myths behind them.”
Sweetie Belle stepped forward. “We all already know that they helped with the founding of Ponyville back in Granny Smith's fillyhood and the story of where she found them.” Sweetie Belle pointed her hoof to the map on the wall. “This is roughly where the first Everfree zap apple trees are located. We recently learned another group of trees, all the way over here.” She moved her hoof to the next location of the map.
“Eeyup, that is where Zaps woke up in the Everfree Forest, directly under those zap apple trees.” Applebloom replied. “Zaps made his way from there to the ones mah granny found when she was young. It also where he found mah bag after I lost it.”
I took my turn to speak. “We know that the zap apples are not normal apples by a long short. Granny Smith has to do all sort of weird and crazy things to get the zap apple jam to taste right. It behaves differently, depending on what we do... making the magic of these zap apples really awesome, even though very little is known about it.” I picked up the zap apple from my bag placing it on the table.
“Also not everypony can eat them as they are, I tried before and it really was an an electrifying experience!” I showed the class a photo the girls took of me right after eating one, getting a bit of laughter from them. “Yeah, it was a dare but in a way it was worth it, even if it made me look silly. I learned that not everypony is the same. Zaps is special that way, he can eat this without a second thought and somehow it can heal him.” I said. “This was proven by Doctor Stable too!”
“Indeed, I was there.” Cheerilee backed us up. “The magic within a zap apple is too strong for most ponies yet it has positive effects on the young Earth Pony Zaps.” She turned to us. “You may continue.”
“Thank you Miss Cheerilee.” I replied and showed the map of the Everfree. “We only know a little about the forest, here is the Poison Joke.” I point to a small blue patch on the map. “To the North is the castle of the two sisters and Zecora's place.”
Applebloom added the two zap apple locations to the map. “We only know about the forest what stories and a few reports from the small number of studies we could find in the library. That is when we came across this old book.” Applebloom stepped up to the book stand with us. “This very old drawin' pre-dates Equestria if the date in the book is to be believed.”
“Yeah it’s suppose to be a kingdom of ponies of Unicorns, Earth and Pegasi ponies who lived side by side during the conflict of the three tribes where the trust between them was thin at best,” Sweetie Belle explained to the class. “You can see that in this drawing of the old painting there are zap apples but they are described in this book by a different name, Harmony Apples.”
I came up to the name Applebloom written by the book. “That why we call this place the Kingdom of Harmony, it might not be the real name of this little kingdom but no pony has ever found it’s real name yet in any of the book of myth and legends. In many ways this one old kingdom is kinda like the first Ponyville.”
Cheerilee looked at the image in the book. “I’ve seen this before, the real painting, it’s held at Canterlot Palace. I saw it when I was very young with my parents and I do agree that those apples are zap apples. However, the pony that made this was not right in the mind at the time… He lived over 700 years ago from what I know of this pony. He was infamously terrified of the shadows and the dark... he would sit in candlelight and the sun for days on end, if he slept it was due to being overtired, never out of choice.”
“Before he completely lost it he drew this one painting with every inch of willpower he had. His name was Spark Art. He was a pony who was always looking for new landscapes to paint but soon after he finished this piece he spent the rest of his days in solitude, hardly eating, hardly doing anything, refusing to talk to anypony. He would only mutter the words, 'The Darkness... The Fear... The everlasting darkness... Fear...' over and over again. Those were the only words he would ever say... the nightmares he had. That’s how the stories go anyway, only Princess Celestia knows the truth but she will not openly confirm or deny anything.”
Hearing this, I gulped... That sounded almost exactly like what Zaps went through. “Wow, that’s kinda creepy Miss Cheerilee.”
“Yes it is, but it’s only a tale though, so do not worry.” She smiled to us. “Thank you for presenting such a lovely piece of work, it’s wonderful to know a little bit more about the zap apples.”
We bowed to the other classmates as they clapped their hooves together at our presentation. “Ok, I admit it is strange and creepy... but if there’s a dark side to the zap apples why didn't any pony speak of this?” Diamond Tiara asked.
Applebloom shrugged. “Ah don't know, all ah know is that with anythin' there are always two sides to the story. We all have fears to face, don't we?”
“You might, but I don't.” Diamond smirked at us.
I gave my own smirk. “Oh? I thought you was afraid of saying sorry to Zaps?”
“What!? I am not afraid! I just don't want to waste my...” Diamond Tiara paused turning to Cheerilee and sighed. “Yeah ok, I am afraid cause my daddy is unhappy with what me and Silver did...”
“We all learn from our mistakes Diamond Tiara, it’s all part of learning,” Cheerilee told her. “Girls, take your seats please.” We nodded and went to our seats. “Now that all the presentations are completed I would like to say to you all, that you all did a outstanding amazing job with each of your projects, these really show that you are all learning something new that you never knew before, even if it’s something unexpected that drops in.”
Cheerilee stood by the door. “For a job well done and patience for the final presentation you all may collect your hard work and take it home with pride, letting everypony know that you all did an outstanding job. Enjoy the rest of your day and I’ll see you all on Monday when we will be learning about the Crystal Empire. Class dismissed.”
We packed everything we had put together for the school project into the wagon Applebloom got from her sister. Sweetie Belle and I tightened the straps on it and started to pull it back to Sweet Apple Acres as Applebloom trotted along beside us. “Ah can't believe how well that went!”
“I know! We even learned more about the painting from Cheerilee!” Sweetie Belle beamed as we made our way from the schoolhouse to the farm. Something caught my eyes on the way there, something tall and tree-like, that definitely wasn’t there before.
“Do yer think we’ll get better marks than Diamond Tiara?” I didn't reply, I just stared at the huge tree that had appeared in the distance. “Scoots ah'm talkin' to ya!”
I turned my head to her. “Yeah I heard everything you said Applebloom, but are we heading in the right direction to Sweet Apple Acres?”
“Oh course we are! Ah take this route all the time!” Applebloom protested, clearly taking offence at Scootaloo’s questioning of her directional skills. “Why’d yer ask?”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh no reason... apart from the massive tree directly in front of us...”
Applebloom took notice of what I said and gasped. “Oh my gosh, what the hay is that!?”
Sweetie Belle saw it too. “Whoa, that tree is huge! It must be over 100 feet tall!”
“What’re we waiting for girls! Let check it out!” I said to them with a smile we all made a run for Sweet Apple Acres, pulling the wagon along with us.
We arrived at Sweet Apple Acres to see Rarity unloading a few baskets of zap apples with her magic. “Hi sis! Where did that big tree come from?”
“Oh, good afternoon, Sweetie Belle, why, it came from the zap apple trees Scootaloo and Zaps watered. Somehow all the magic from those trees poured into one zap apple tree, turning it into this!” Rarity looked right over to the large tree. “It’s a bit big for my own taste but it’s still a fine example of the craftwork of nature.” Rarity put the last basket into the barn and trotted over to Braeburn.
“Howdy Braeburn!” Applebloom ran up to the stallion.
“Howdy Applebloom, it’s good to see ya, how was school?” Braeburn gave her a hug and she returned it.
“It was fun, we all showed off our projects and they were all amazing! We’ve got ours in the wagon.” Applebloom hinted to us as we unhooked ourselves from it. Taking off the straps too.
Braeburn looked over at us, then back to Rarity. “Ah would love to see it cousin but ah’ve got lot of work to do, if yer’d like to be helpful though, go see yer brother and sister at the large zap apple tree.”
“Ok Braeburn! See ya!” Braeburn tilted his hat to us and he and Rarity made their way to the other section of the zap apple trees, we could see many ponies working together to pick the zap apples, collecting them in baskets before finally loading them onto the wagons.
I turned around to my friends. “Girls, let’s give them a hoof!”
“Ah'm one for that!” Applebloom put her hoof out.
“Let’s give it our best!” Sweetie Belle placed hers on top.
“We are an awesome trio! Let do it, girls!” I put my hoof on theirs and we raised them with a cheer.
We ran off down to the large zap apple tree to give a helping hoof, throughout the remaining day we worked as best we could, helping the adults to catch all those amazing, sparkling and delicious looking zap apples until the sun started to set. We all worked together, adults, fillies and colts! We did amazingly well!
I was a bit let down not to get a cutie mark because of all the awesome work we had put into it but what Rainbow Dash said to me made me happy. That the tree would be a symbol of Sweet Apple Acres and, with help from Zaps, it will form a mark that will become a part of my memories, one that I will never forget.
That when it happened, the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Rainbow Dash and my jaw hung as, without warning Applejack picked up a horseshoe and bucked it straight into the tree, striking down a bat pony, and not just any bat pony but one of Princess Luna's! “Rainbow Dash erm... remind me not to get her mad...”
“Sure thing Scoots...” Rainbow Dash gulped a little. “Jeez, I knew AJ had a real buck behind those hind legs of hers but that was just awesome!” Rainbow Dash walked up to Applejack as she returned with Twilight. “Where Zaps?”
“Oh Night Spark is giving him a ride” Twilight replied. We looked up to see the bat pony flying above us towards Ponyville.
“Night Spark?” I tilted my head. “The way Zaps ran off it’s like he knew that bat pony...”
Applejack walked towards me, looking into the sky. “Sure did sugarcube, it seems Night Spark was sent by Princess Luna herself to keep an eye on Zaps.”
“Seriously!?”
“Eeyup”
I turned to the girls “Did you hear that!?”
“We sure did! That’s pretty amazin'!” Applebloom said and turned to her sister as she headed into the house. “Is he stayin' for dinner then?”
“Eeyup”
“Yer not mad are ya?”
“Nnope” Appplejack teased.
“Applejack stop that!”
“Nnope” Applejack smirked, taking Applebloom's bow from her mane and ran into the house.
“Hey that’s mine! Get back here!!!” Applebloom chased after her sister.
Rarity walked by to the house. “Come on Sweetie Belle, we’re going to be eating with friends tonight.”
“Yay!” Sweetie Belle cheered. “Race you to the house!”
“Now that is just unlady like.” Rarity protested, before started to giggle and run “Oh it’s on! And I am going to win!”
“Not fair sis!” Sweetie Belle chased after Rarity.
Night Spark landed before us, letting Zaps off a few moments later. “Twilight, can we keep the horseshoe incident to ourselves please.”
“Only because you remembered not to call me princess.” Twilight put her hoof out to the house. “Guards first.”
“I thought it was...” Night Spark paused and sighed. “Yes ma'am,” he walk up to the house with Twilight and the others.
“Zaps did you get your cutie mark?” He and I looked at his flank and he shook his head.
“No, but I guess it wouldn't be that easy! I want to do some crusading with you and the girls!” He beamed at the idea of partaking in some of our crazy adventures.
He turned to leave but I raised my hoof, stopping him. “Erm Zaps... can I talk to you alone for a moment?”
Zaps looked at me curiously. “Yeah sure... What is it?”
I rubbed my hoof on my other leg, feeling a bit nervous speaking to him about this. “By any chance, the kingdom that you see in your dreams, is it called the Kingdom of Harmony?” Zaps reaction gave me my answer. “I take it that’s a yes.”
Zaps seem startled at first but was now looking directly at me. “How did you know? I never told anypony...”
“No way... You really mean...”
“It’s supposed to be the place I came from, I think... I don't really know... everything is so hard to remember... even the flashbacks I had...” Zaps looked down to the ground. “I wish I really knew...”
I put a hoof to him. “It’s cool Zaps, how about we go in? I bet you’d like to eat some of those zap apples!”
His eyes lit up. “You’re right! Applejack and Big Mac said I could!” Zaps jumped up and ran into the house.
I turned and look out towards the zap apple tree in the distance, shining in the moonlight. “I think things have just got a lot crazier. More than we crusaders ever thought... Kingdom of Harmony...” It was completely insane. He couldn't possibly be from that kingdom. It wasn’t possible! He was only about my age. “No that’s just stupid! There’s no way he could really be from there, could there?” I asked to myself, but as no answers came I walked back into the house to join the others for dinner before going home.
Home, Zaps is home! This is his home! He is an Apple! I beamed and trotted in, happily letting go of what I had been about thinking moments ago. I didn't care that Zaps might be from that kingdom, all that mattered now was that my friend had a home.