I woke up to an unfamiliar sight for the second time. The sun wasn’t even up yet. In the darkness of early morning, I could make out the large figure lying in bed. From his snores, he was still asleep. I crawled out of my makeshift bed and crept towards the door, bringing the box that made my bed. Using it as a step stool, I opened the door. It creaked open as it swung on its hinges. I slipped through the gap unnoticed.
The floorboards squeaked under my hooves. It’s better if I leave now if I want to find Flim and Flam. Down the hall, a door opened, revealing the orange pony from yesterday. Applejack, I think her name was. I dropped to the ground from where I stood. Maybe if I stay still, she won’t notice me.
She let out a yawn before making her way down the hall in my direction. Her movement was sluggish, and her eyelids drooped. Her steps grew closer before they stopped in front of me. She grumbled something about Apple Bloom before she took my tail in her teeth and carried me off. I didn’t like being held like this. What if she drops me and I lose a head? I couldn’t say anything as she hung me upside-down.
Applejack brought me to Apple Bloom’s room, where the filly was sleeping. She set me on the bed, next to Apple Bloom, before turning to leave. Once she was gone, I stood up and looked at the sleeping child. Unlike Big Mac, her snores were soft and quiet. I sat in the same spot for a while, just staring at her. I eventually snapped out of it and made my way over to the edge of the bed, making sure not to wake Apple Bloom. I could have jumped down, but I decided against it. It would surely cause a racket. I paced back and forth along the edge of the bed. If only I had some string or some rope… Maybe I can use her bed sheet.
I trotted to a corner of the bed and tugged at the bed sheet until it nearly touched the floor. I only hoped Apple Bloom wouldn’t wake up as I worked. Once I got my rope, it was time for me to climb down. I took some of the sheet in my hooves and crawled over the edge of the bed. It’s just a little shimmy down the rope. Nothing to it.
I began my climb down. I placed one hoof below me and immediately regretted it. My leg slipped, and I climbed down the rope faster that I would have liked to. I slid down the sheet with my eyes shut while I silently screamed for the falling to stop. This is a bad idea! Why is falling always the worst part?
I stopped.
There was no thump, no clatter, no crash—just the gentle breathing of the filly sleeping in the room. I cracked an eye open and looked down. The ground wasn’t far at all. My hooves barely touched the floor. I let out a sigh and hopped down. Apple Bloom hadn’t stirred at all, still sound asleep.
Applejack had shut the door, so I was now trapped again. Everything had been cleaned up and put away, even the books. Why couldn’t doors be smaller? She could have at least left it open. With my only way out blocked, I searched the room for something that could help me.
I took the time to gaze closely at some of the things in her room. Crayon drawings were pinned to the wall. Most of them showed three little ponies wearing capes. They were always together and doing something different in each sketch. Whether it was mountain climbing, pig farming, or even monster catching, it always showed the three of them. I was pretty sure the one with the bow was Apple Bloom. The other two I’d never seen before.
There was a picture frame sitting on her dresser. Pulling out each drawer from the dresser, I made myself a set of stairs to climb on and took a closer look. It was the four ponies I had met yesterday. They were all smiling, frozen inside the wooden frame. They looked happy together.
Next to that picture was another. It was the same four ponies, though younger than they were now, and two more. There was a mare holding a little foal in her hooves. The foal was unmistakably Apple Bloom with her apple-red mane. She had her eyes closed in the picture. She looked cute as a baby. Babies were cute. The mare’s half-lidded eyes fell on Apple Bloom. Her lips were curved into a smile. Standing next to her was a stallion. He shared the same freckles as Applejack and Big Mac, like little apple seeds planted on their faces. Who were they? I wondered where they were.
The clock rang.
I jerked my head around in time to notice the filly stir from her sleep. I flew down the makeshift steps, kicking the drawers back in place as I went, and dived into a saddlebag lying on the floor. I heard Apple Bloom grumble before shutting off the ringing alarm. The only thing I could hear was the clack of her hooves around the room.
I sat between a textbook and some pencils and waited. Without any warning, the saddlebag jerked upward, and I was flipped and tossed around with the other objects inside. I lay at the bottom of the saddlebag on my back. There was the steady rocking of the saddlebag that came with the rhythmic tapping of hooves. Where am I going this time?
Suddenly, the saddlebag dipped. I, along with some other things inside, slid from one end to the other. Each step jumbled everything inside, and I soon found myself crushed under a book. The bag went back to being leveled and continued with its rocking. I tossed the pencil that had been poking my eye aside before tumbling in the other direction as the bag sloped again. This is the worst place to hide in!
“Mornin’ Apple Bloom. You’re just in time for breakfast,” said an old voice.
There was a yawn next to me. “Mornin’ Granny.”
“Where’s your brother?” asked Granny. “He’s going to miss breakfast.”
“I think he’s still in his room.”
“Don’t tell me he’s still sleeping. We’ve got work today!”
“Actually,” Applejack interrupted, “when I passed by, he was up. He said he had to find something he lost.”
I wonder if he's looking for me.
“Well, alright then. You two finish up eating. Applejack, take your sister to school, will ya?”
“Okay, Granny,” said Applejack.
The sounds of eating filled the room. As they ate, I tried to free my leg from the pile of school supplies. While I worked, they talked about things—things I didn’t really understand. It didn’t matter to me what they were talking about. I had more important things to do, like finding Flim and Flam, which was why I tried to leave early in the first place. Though, in the middle of their conversation, something caught my attention.
“Applejack, have you seen my doll? You know, the one we found yesterday?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Yeah, I did. How many times do I have to tell ya to not leave your stuff lying around?” she replied.
“I didn’t leave it lying around! I just couldn’t find it where I left it.”
“Well, it’s in your room. Take better care of your things, you hear me?”
“Alright, I will.”
“Now hurry up and finish eating or you’ll be late for school.”
School? Wait, maybe I can finally get out of here. All I had to do was wait, and maybe I could find out where I was. Then, I just had to find Flim and Flam, wherever they were.
“Oh, and don’t forget your lunch, Apple Bloom,” said Granny.
Before I knew it, there was a brown paper bag being shoved into my face, and I was crammed to the bottom of the saddlebag.
“Hey!” I cried out, but the bagged lunch muffled my voice.
“Alright, Apple Bloom. Let’s go,” Applejack said.
“Coming!” The saddlebag shifted again, and we were moving again.
A creaking sound nearby made itself known as we walked. I shoved Apple Bloom’s lunch aside and peeked outside.
We were walking in a town. The tall cityscape was nowhere to be seen, replaced by smaller buildings, homes, and shops. There were ponies doing pony things. In the sky and on the ground—they were everywhere. They even looked different, too. No one looked like they had somewhere they needed to be. There was no rush. There was no hustle or bustle—not at all like the city.
I saw now that Applejack was pulling a cartful of apples. The wheels squeaked as they turned. She and Apple Bloom trotted towards a big, red building. “You be good now, Apple Bloom.”
“I will, Sis!” Apple Bloom ran off towards the building, where two fillies were waiting. They were waving at us.
“Hi Apple Bloom” they said.
“Mornin’ y’all!”
There was an orange filly with wings and a white one with a horn. I remembered them from Apple Bloom’s room. They were the two fillies from the drawing.
We walked into a room filled with colts and fillies. There were boys trying to copy each other’s paper and girls talking about which boy was dumber. Colts and fillies talked about afterschool plans and what they did yesterday and whatever they liked to talk about. Apple Bloom shrugged her saddlebags off, and I fell back inside.
Eventually, the chatter died down, and a new voice entered the room. “Good morning, everyone.”
“Good morning, Miss Cheerilee,” the colts and fillies greeted her back.
I climbed on top of Apple Bloom’s lunch and took a glimpse of the pony who was speaking.
“Today, we’ll be talking about gravity…”
It was a mare speaking. She stood in front of the class talking about another thing I didn’t understand. As she talked, she drew lines and squiggles on the board behind her. I couldn’t make sense of any of it, but I listened anyway.
“So when an apple fell in front of him, he figured that something caused the apple to fall,” she said. “There had to be a reason. There had to be something pulling it from the branch, leading to the theory of a force acting on it.”
I listened carefully to each word she said. So this is school…
Looking around, I noticed that not everyone was listening to her. Most of them looked like they were about to fall asleep. One of them actually did fall asleep. A colt sitting in the back had his face planted on his desk with a trail of drool leaking from his mouth. As the mare, Miss Cheerilee, went on with her lesson, a bell rang.
“Oh, is it lunch already?” she asked. “Well, enjoy your lunch, everyone. We’ll pick up where we left off in math when you come back.”
Everyone filed out the door as soon as they were dismissed. I slid back into Apple Bloom’s saddlebag when I noticed the same two fillies from before walking towards us.
“Come on! Let’s go, Apple Bloom! I’m starving over here,” said the orange one.
“Sure, let me just get my lunch.” Apple Bloom replied.
I lay still inside the brown paper bag, next to an apple and a sandwich. If she can’t see me, maybe she won’t find me, I thought. I felt the bag being lifted out of the saddlebag. If I had to guess, I would say that I chose another bad spot to hide in. At least the packed sandwich made a soft cushion to sit on, thankfully. It was better than being stuck under a book at the bottom of a saddlebag.
Everything shook as she carried me. Noise filled the air. There was laughing and giggling and talking and shouting and the pitter patter of hooves on grass. It was the sound of children.
“So, what are you eating, Apple Bloom?” the unicorn asked as Apple Bloom set the bag down.
Light poured in from the ceiling, revealing a blue sky. “Let’s see. I have…” Her face peered inside where I hid. “My doll?”
“Huh?”
She pulled me out as I hung limp in her hooves. “My doll. I was wondering where she went. How in tarnation did she get in here?”
The other two looked closely at me. “You have a doll?” asked the pegasus.
“She’s so cute!” said the other.
Apple Bloom looked at me with a puzzled look. “Huh… well, whatever. I guess Applejack must’ve accidentally put her in here.”
After I was passed around and looked at, they started eating their lunch. As they ate, they talked about “cutie mark crusading,” whatever that was, and of course, me. I listened to them argue about what they were going to do later in the afternoon.
“No no no, Cutie Mark Crusader daredevils!”
“How about Cutie Mark Crusader lumberjacks?”
“No, let’s be Cutie Mark Crusader fencers.”
All of these ideas sounded nice. They sounded like fun. It was fun to watch and listen to them. Their conversation came to a sudden stop when two fillies came to our table. One of them had a tiara, and the other one had glasses. They had this look on their faces that was somewhere between stepping on something gross and eating something rotten.
“Well, if it isn’t the blank flanks,” sneered the pink one. “Trying to get your cutie marks again?”
“What do you want, Diamond Tiara?” Apple Bloom answered back.
“Why do you guys, like, even bother? It’s not like you’ll get your cutie marks if it hasn’t shown up by now.”
“Yeah, you should just give up now. You’re never going to find your cutie marks,” added the gray filly.
The pegasus, who I found out was named Scootaloo, slammed her pudding cup on the seat next to her and trotted over to the two. “Listen, you two! We’re going to get our cutie marks, and when we do, we’ll see who’ll be laughing.”
“Pfft, as if!” Diamond Tiara scoffed.
I watched them argue as I hid behind Apple Bloom’s lunch. Why are they fighting? I leaned on an apple as I watched.
Scootaloo’s face twisted in anger. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and her teeth were clenched. “How would you like a taste of my hoof?” If Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle weren’t holding her back, Scootaloo would have pounced on Diamond Tiara.
I leaned closer.
“I’m just saying there’s no point in trying to get a cutie mark if you can’t get one in the first place. Of course, it’s much worse for you since you can’t even fly like a normal pegasus.”
The apple I had been leaning on slowly gave way. When I leaned closer to watch the events unfold, I fell flat on my face. I glanced up in time to watch the apple roll away. It kept rolling, eventually slowing as it neared the edge of the table. It teetered at the edge before finally stopping. I let out a relieved sigh, glad that it didn’t fall. It fell soon after I did that.
There was the clinking of a spoon shortly after the apple fell, and a spoonful of chocolate pudding flung forward. It flew towards the group of fillies—right towards Diamond Tiara.
A piercing shriek filled the air. From her nose to her eyes, her pink face was covered by a big splotch of chocolate. “Who did that?!” she shouted.
The fury that was on Scootaloo’s face disappeared and was now replaced by a grin, trying to stifle a laugh. “Wasn’t me, but I wish it was.”
“Which one of you was it?" she screamed.
No one said anything. Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom, who looked at Sweetie Belle, who looked at Scootaloo. With no pony to blame, she stormed off with her friend. “Come on, Silver Spoon. Let’s go.”
Once they had left, Apple Bloom asked, “Who did that? Was that you, Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie Belle shook her head. “No, it wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
Their eyes turned towards Scootaloo’s pudding cup, where it now laid on its side spilled, and the spoon and apple that had fallen on the ground. I didn’t bother to get up from where I lay, so I stared at the table under me.
Scootaloo trotted over to her spilled cup of pudding. “Huh, it must have been the wind.”
“Good for us, I guess,” said Apple Bloom. “Did y’all see how mad Diamond Tiara was?”
The trio of fillies giggled, but their laughter was cut short by a bell. I was swept up in Apple Bloom’s hooves, and we all walked back inside, joining the other colts and fillies. I recognized Diamond Tiara among the group of children. There were still some chocolate stains on her face, as well as a scowl that had not left her face since the mishap. Apple Bloom put me back in her saddlebag and sat in her seat. I shuffled around and peeked outside to watch and listen to the mare from before.
She continued talking like she did before. I had no clue what she was talking about, just stuff I didn't understand. If anyone ever asked me what a "high-potenuse" was, I would have to guess it had something to do with something being high, like a door knob or pretty much anything that's out of my reach.
She made more squiggles, lines, and shapes on the board and asked a pony a question whenever she stopped. And then someone would say some number. None of it made sense—none of it. I stared at the squiggles, but that was all they were—squiggles. I tried counting the things Miss Cheerilee drew, but that didn't match what everyone was saying. I suddenly felt very left out.
The day went on, and with each new subject Miss Cheerilee talked about, the more confused I got. There were more squiggles and lines, and the colts and fillies read them as if it was nothing. I tried tilting my head and squinting my eyes, hoping to see something I couldn't see and maybe everyone else could. There had to be some kind of trick to this.
Just when I thought I had it all figured out—connecting the lines to draw a picture—the bell rang. Miss Cheerilee glanced at the clock.
“Okay, class. Just a reminder, next week is show and tell, so I want all of you to think about what you’re going to share to the class. And have a nice day."
Groups of colts and fillies bustled out the door as Apple Bloom collected her things, including me. She, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo left together and trotted outside.
"Alright, so what are we doing today?" asked Scootaloo.
"How about we stop by Sugarcube Corner? Maybe Pinkie can help us get a cutie mark in baking?" said Sweetie.
There was a loud growl next to me coming from Apple Bloom. Well, from inside her, I should say.
"A cutie mark in baking sounds great! I can go for a snack right about now," she said.
"Then it's decided—Cutie Mark Crusaders bakers!" said Scootaloo.
The three fillies cheered and headed toward a building made of frosting as I peeked outside from my spot. Ooh, baking! That sounds like fun. But why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?