Apple Bloom had already went through half a barrel of apples.
She tried her best to clone an ordinary apple into a single replica of itself. Her recent experiments with perfecting a cloning potion had ended with either horrible or horrific. One particular apple grew tentacle-like roots and a fanged mouth which tried to eat Apple Bloom. Another caused it to expand until it exploded like a balloon, leaving behind gooey remains of the succulent fruit. In one strange case, an apple doused in a potion had no effect. However, the earthworm residing inside grew to immense proportions with rows of circular teeth protruding from its mouth. It shot itself through the floor of the clubhouse and deep underground, leaving behind a very deep hole.
Apple Bloom marked this experiment yet another failure. Once again, she took the vials of her experimental potions and began to carefully mix them into a yellowish liquid, where she would later pour it into the distillery. She was so determined to finish the assignment for Twilight that she didn’t even hear her sister’s scream from outside.
Until...
SLAM!
Shocked by Applejack slamming the door open, Apple Bloom jumped, causing her to nearly drop the potion flask from her hooves. She fumbled to get the grip on the flask, nearly spilling the potion in the process until she got a good hold of it... upside down. The potion spilled onto the floor, melting the wood into a burnt hole. The melting wood then melted a hole in the ground, creating yet another vertical tunnel deep into the crust of the Earth.
Thank goodness that Apple Bloom was wearing protective gear and clothing.
“Apple Bloom. Didn’t ya hear me call out fer ya a few minutes ago!?” Applejack scolded before trotting in the clubhouse.
“Sorry ‘bout that, Applejack,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah’m just tryin’ ta get the hang of this potion-makin’ before mah next time with Twilight.”
“Honey, as much as Ah’m proud of ya tryin’ ta earn yer Cutie Mark, we have bigger problems on our hooves.” Applejack looked around the treehouse, as of she was looking for something. “Apple Bloom. Have ya seen Sweetie Belle around here?”
“Eenope. Ah haven’t seen her or Scootaloo since this morning after Twilight left.” Apple Bloom set her flask down and stood up on all fours. She took her protective goggles off and looked at her sister with concern. “Why? Has somethin’ happened ta her?”
“Ya bet yer sweet apples there has,” Applejack replied. “Sweetie Belle’s gone missin’!”
“WHAT!?”
Applejack reluctantly nodded her head. “Eeyup. Rarity told me that Sweetie Belle was tryin’ her teleportation spell when she walked in and she zapped herself to Celestia-knows-where. Ah thought Sweetie Belle would be here with ya. Ah guess it turns out that she ain’t somewhere at the farm after all.”
Apple Bloom jumped up on all fours, tearing off her protective eyewear. “We’ve gotta go find her! Ah can’t just sit around here and do nothing while mah best friend is lost somewhere in Equestria! We’ve gotta go now!”
The little farm filly turned and bolted to the door, only to be blocked by Applejack and the strong grip with her hooves. “Now hold yer horses, Apple Bloom. Ya need ta stay here just in case Sweetie Belle somehow winds up here in the farm. Ah can’t let ya come with me to the middle of the Everfree Forest. It’s too dangerous, even fer you.”
“But Ah’ve gotta find Sweetie Belle! Ah have ta go find her!”
“No ya ain’t!” Applejack snapped. Her strict tone of voice was enough for Apple Bloom to stop squirming against her grip. She fell on her haunches and drooped her head down, saddened by the thought of not helping to find Sweetie Belle.
“Listen, sugarcube, Ah know ya want ta find Sweetie Belle as much as Ah want to. But it’s too dangerous fer a little filly like yerself ta go out look fer yer friend. She could be in someplace dangerous and Ah don’t want ya ta risk yer own hide fer that cause. That’s why Ah have ta go out there by mahself. Ya understand?”
Apple Bloom sighed.
“Ah understand.”
Applejack turned and trotted out the door, but not before stopping to turn to her sister again. “If ya want, why don’t ya go and scout out the orchards fer any sign of Sweetie Belle? Ya can work on yer potion-makin’ afterwards.”
“Okay.”
With that said, Applejack galloped out of the clubhouse and into the orchards, disappearing into the thick layer of trees. Apple Bloom sat on her haunches and sighed for a moment or two. It wasn’t fair. She couldn’t just sit around or go scour the apple trees for the marshmallow filly! Sweetie Belle was probably in danger at that moment and the farm filly knew it! Oh, how Apple Bloom imagined the possible ways that Sweetie Belle’s life could end in an instant! She could be burnt to a crisp by a dragon, eaten by a cragadile or drowned in quicksand.
Apple Bloom shook her head. She tore her protective clothing off of her and stood on her fours with a bold look. “Ah don’t care how dangerous the place that Sweetie Belle teleported herself might be. She’s mah friend and a fellow Cutie Mark Crusader and Ah’m not gonna let her down by not doin’ anythin’ about it! Ah’m gonna look fer Sweetie Belle even if it means gettin’ grounded until Ah’m Granny Smith’s age!”
With it, the country filly galloped out of her clubhouse and jumped off the the ramp. She quickly recoiled from the hard landing and made a beeline towards Scootloo’s house. There was no way she was going to let Sweetie Belle’s disappearance go like that and not live it down. As a Cutie Mark Crusader, Apple Bloom was going to make sure that the unicorn returned to Ponyville, safe and sound, wherever she may be.
====
Big Macintosh returned to his work at Sweet Apple Acres.
The apple stand wasn’t very busy today, on account of his slightly introverted and quiet personality. He had only time to sit down for a few minutes and think things through. If Applejack and Rarity were looking for Sweetie Belle, then why couldn’t he help lend a helping hoof? Since nopony was buying any apples today, he may as well quit early and head on back to the farm. So Big Macintosh attached the reigns onto his torso and trotted back to Sweet Apple Acres, the apple stand pulling from behind.
As he returned to the farm, he undid the reigns and began to walk around the farm, hoping to find any trace of Sweetie Belle somewhere in the orchards. What he failed to realize, of course, was that Sweetie Belle was closer than he thought... and by closer, it meant stuck to the left cheek of his flank drenched with smelly sweat.
And boy, Sweetie Belle was NOT, in the term, HAPPY about it.
She kept deadpanning as she cursed in her head at the cruel vicissitudes that led her to become a speck of dirt stuck to the bottom of a workhorse stallion. Sweetie Belle was strong enough to take whatever life threw at her... being called “blank flanks” by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, shunned for the “Gabby Gums” incident, even taken a hit or two on her Crusading adventures... but this really took the cake. Being stomped on, sat on, nearly eaten by Rarity, nearly turned into Big Macintosh’s nutrients in his stomach and now stuck on his rear by his sticky sweat.
Sweetie Belle made a personal note to drop from Celestiism and convert to Lunaism if she survived this whole ordeal.
As the micro-sized filly deadpanned her misadventures as a fleck of dirt, covered in dust, sweat, saliva, applesauce and stomach acid, the unicorn felt something that she began to fear. The sticky hold on Big Mac’s sweaty flank was beginning to give away. The height at which she found her current predicament in was comparable to a ten-story drop from a building in Manehattan, more than enough to kill whoever would take that deadly drop. Unfortunately, at this size, Sweetie Belle was going to be one of those ponies.
There was no way of getting out of this one alive.
This would be the end of Sweetie Belle as she knew it.
BARK! BARK! BARK!
If trying to hold on to Big Mac’s flank wasn’t enough for Sweetie Belle, there was the shrill volume of Winona’s bark to add in to her most distressing moment. The border collie frantically jumped around one of her owners as she barked out happily, the wagging tail and repetitive panting made apparent. Big Mac patted the collie on her head and smiled back before he made his way down the orchards to find Sweetie Belle.
The latter began to wriggle, trying so hard in vain as to keep her grip on Big Mac’s flank. Unfortunately, panicking only made the grip looser and soon Sweetie Belle began to slip down along the narrow curves of the flank. Sweetie Belle held her tongue as she tried to not even think, “What’s the worst that could happen now?” But it was too late. As soon as those words ran through her head, an unthinkable force happened. A singled bead of sweat, the size of a vending cart, rolled down the cheek and directly towards the shrunken marshmallow filly.
“Oh no,” Sweetie Belle chanted. “Oh no, no, no, no, no!”
The bead of sweat trickled down to Sweetie Belle, eventually making contact with her, engulfing her in the salty, transparent liquid. The filly wanted to scream, but it was hard for her to do so since she didn’t want to taste Big Macintosh’s sweat, especially from his gigantic butt. The sweat trickled down the lower point of the curve and dripped off from the bottom, leaving the micro-sized unicorn plummeting down to her doom, floating in a sphere of salty liquid. Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable to happen.
SPLAT!
Sweetie Belle felt her watery prison splash onto a soft, moist and leathery surface. The filly coughed from the impact and took in the sweet oxygen that she longed to inhale. The B.O. of Big Mac wafted the air a little, but it was mixed with something else. It smelled like fur... not pony fur. Sweetie Belle recognized this smell.
“Please tell me I haven’t landed where I think I’ve landed,” Sweetie Belle told herself. She slowly and reluctantly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the floor she fell on, the soft, moist and black leathery surface. She trailed her widening eyes up to meet with a field of white, with three brown circles like freckles on either side. Her eyes reached the size of saucer plates as she saw a hill of brown with two slightly drooping ears and two giant glimmering black circles looking out into space.
“Sweet Luna from above!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “I’M ON WINONA’S NOSE!”
BARK! BARK! BARK!
Winona’s deafening bark, combined with the sudden lurch of the dog’s nose, had enough force to launch the shrunken Sweetie Belle towards her face, nearly making her ears bleed with the high decibel noises. The filly screamed, though she couldn’t hear herself scream through the painful ringing in her ears as she rapidly approached one of Winona’s drooping right ear.
Quickly thinking, she clasped her hooves at the tip of the ear on both sides, the fuzz on the ears easy to grip like velcro. Sweetie Belle dangled over Winona’s head, but found it hard to keep her lunch down as the giant canine began jumping frantically. The poor unicorn was flailed around like one of the loose bells on Twilight’s Starswirl the Bearded costume. Sweetie Belle felt herself flung around, up an down, horizontally, diagonally and vertically. Sweetie’s face turned green before the giant dog stopped her jumping.
“Ugh... I think I’m gonna be sick,” Sweetie Belle murmured, feeling her grip on Winona’s slowly slip off.
It wasn’t before long that Sweetie Belle had yet again felt the sense of danger coming her way. A shadow eclipsed her from the bright light of the burning sun above. Sweetie Belle reluctantly looked up to find yet another challenge: Winona’s hind paw reaching up to scratch the back of her ears. The paw began to scratch and Sweetie Belle fell, already weakened by the dog’s playful behavior. Sweetie Belle screamed as she plummeted into Winona’s ear, bouncing off into waxy canal and landing near the ear drum with an “OOF!”
Winona perked up as she thought she heard something. She also felt something land in her ear. Another bug, perhaps? The border collie scratched her ear and shook her head wildly, throwing the screaming filly around the canal, even hitting the drum a few times.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
Again, Winona perked up.
She was sure she heard something that time.
Winona scratched her ear and shook her head once more.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!! WINONA!!”
The border collie once more perked her head up. She knew that voice! It was Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom’s best friend, alongside the pegasus filly of course. Winona looked around to see where her voice was coming from... also to see why her voice sounded louder than before. “Winona! I’m in your ear!” the filly shrieked, prompting the dog to whimper in reply. “Yes! Yes, I’m in your ear! If you can hear me, bark only one time!”
BARK!
“Oh, yes! Finally! Somepony or something who knows that I’m here!” Sweetie Belle chirped, leaping for joy on the floor of the ear canal. “Winona, I need you to do something for me! I need you to go see Apple Bloom! It’s very important that you do!”
BARK?
“Yes, it’s very, very important! Now giddyap, girl!”
Upon the micro-sized filly accidentally inserted deep inside her ear, Winona rose up on her hind legs and began to sprint across the yard of the farm. She scoured through the trees in search of Apple Bloom, running through every row of trees, past the different sides of the orchards. Suddenly, Winona’s super-hearing kicked in as she heard the little pitter-patter of young pony hooves trekking across the farm. Tail wagging like crazy, Winona barked, much to the pain of the shrunken Sweetie Belle and ran towards the source of the noise. It was in about one short minute that the border collie found the filly sneaking around the farm towards Ponyville against her sister’s wishes.
BARK! BARK! BARK!
“Winona?” Sweetie Belle heard the giantess all the way from deep within Winona’s ear. She clamped her hooves to her ears as Apple Bloom’s voice resounded off the waxy walls of the ear canal and into hers. But she didn’t care about such things...
...Sweetie Belle finally found Apple Bloom! With the help of the giant canine of course.
“Winona, Ah don’t have time ta play right now,” Apple Bloom said to the dog. “Ah have ta find Sweetie Belle right now and I don’t want you tellin’ Applejack. Ah’m goin’ ta Scootaloo’s house so we can find her in the Everfree Forest.”
“The Everfree Forest!?” Sweetie Belle exclaimed panickly. “Oh no! This isn’t good! If I can’t make it to Apple Bloom right now, then she and Scootaloo are going into the forest for nothing! At my size, the only animals who could hear me is Winona!” That’s when an idea struck her... again. “Winona! Get me out of your ear! I have to get to Apple Bloom now!”
A resounding whimper came in reply. Sweetie Belle found her temporary wax prison tilt to one side, letting gravity take Sweetie Belle and tumble her down. She collected sticky wax on the way down, covering her worse than the tree sap during the time she went zip-lining for her Cutie Mark. The filly screamed as she tumbled down the to the edge of Winona’s ear, bright daylight shining the way towards freedom. The tiny unicorn fell out a good two-story drop, landing in a muddy puddle that felt like a lake to her. Sweetie Belle swam up to the surface, now drenched in mud from horn to hoof and quickly examined her surroundings.
Behind her, she saw the gigantic figure of Winona, her head tilted to her right, not sure if she successfully freed the bug-sized unicorn from her ear. In front of her was Apple Bloom, a towering yellow Earth pony gazing at her pet with narrow orange eyes as she scolded Winona for following her.
“No, Winona, Ah ain’t gonna stand by idly while mah friend, Sweetie Belle is lost somewhere out there,” Apple Bloom boomed with a voice rumbling like a thundercloud, followed by the intensely loud BARK! BARK! BARK! “No. Ah’m gonna go out and look fer her and there’s nothin’ that you or Applejack are gonna do ta stop me.” The gigantic filly began to gallop away, the hoof steps like quick multiple earthquakes calming down after each one. Sweating bullets and panicking, Sweetie Belle turned to the giant dog, who whimpered in dampened spirits from her owner’s disapproval and galloped over to her.
“WINONA!!” The said dog turned her attention down at Sweetie Belle’s diminutive size. At least her hearing was still working, so that’s one thing that the unicorn was thankful for. “Winona, you need to take me to Apple Bloom! You have to take me to Apple Bloom! I have to get my friends’ attention and you have to help me by any means possible and I really, really, REALLY need your help!”
Winona looked down upon Sweetie Belle for a moment or two, her head tilting in one direction. Then the dog began panting again and lowered her face down at the shrunken unicorn. “Winona? What are you--?” Suddenly, Sweetie Belle understood the dog’s intention. “No. No! Down, Winona! Down girl!”
Winona refused to comply to the order. Instead, the dog dropped her surging tongue on the dirt floor, collecting dirt, liquid mud and loose blades of grass. A wide-eyed Sweetie Belle turned to canter away, only to be met with Winona’s tongue scooping her up from behind and pulling her into the darkness of the her mouth. Sweetie Belle began to scream as she was pulled back past the folds of her mouth and the stained yellow stalagmites and stalactites that were her teeth. The filly’s shriek even louder as Winona shut her mouth, silencing the volume to only a muffle and trapping the unicorn inside.
Sweetie Belle’s troubles were only just beginning. Her environment, save for the undulating tongue underneath, shook up and down with Winona’s every sprinting step towards her owner, forcing her to hold on tight to the taste buds. The filly screamed so much her voice began to go hoarse, no pun intended of course. This would be a problem. Sweetie Belle needed her voice to help issue orders to Winona.
BARK! BARK!
Sweetie Belle clamped her hooves over her ears. In Winona’s mouth, her barking proved to be fatal for her hearing as the barking completely deafened her hearing, now replaced with a painful ringing in her ears. All sound was made void to the filly. Dazed and disoriented, Sweetie Belle staggered to find her hoofing... a very major mistake. Sweetie Belle’s hind hoof slipped on a small streak of saliva, causing her to slip and tumble backwards towards the back of Winona’s tongue, causing the throat muscles to open up for their new arrival.
Winona skidded her running to a halt. She felt her passenger fall in the back of her tongue, a bad place to be since she was on the inside of her mouth. Instinctively, the collie swallowed her morsel and anything else that laid on her tasting organ.
GLURK!!
Sweetie Belle felt the massive muscle lift up to the roof of Winona’s mouth, the spongy taste buds massaging her back as she slid down to the back of the tongue to the opening of the throat. She, along with the specks of dirt, mud and blades of grass, found themselves constricted by the throat muscles and pulling her down headfirst into the narrow, squishy tube. With an audible swallow, Sweetie Belle was sent screaming once more down the esophagus, though the grip was not like the crushing force of Big Mac’s throat. Within seconds of being quaffed, the shrunken pony was forced through the entrance of Winona’s stomach and landed on the spongy moist muscle with a SPLAT!
This was like deja vu for Sweetie Belle. She ignited her horn, finding herself inside a wet cavern of muscle and a shallow pond of deadly gastric acid. Defeated by deafness and hopelessness, she flopped down on the mound of flesh, feeling her resolve digesting like the little bits of vittles slowly dissolving away in the acid. Sweetie Belle felt herself cry and scream, but she couldn’t hear how loud her cries and screams were.
After all, she was made temporarily deaf.
With her horn nearly exhausted from her last teleportation spell, Sweetie Belle couldn’t afford to lose more energy to perform such an advanced trick to her. The unicorn flopped down onto the mound of flesh and buried face in her hooves.
“I can’t believe how much I’m beginning to hate everything,” she mumbled loudly, not having any control of the volume of her voice over her ringing ears.
====
BARK! BARK!
Winona ran straight for Apple Bloom, wanting to help her find her friend, Sweetie Belle, like the bug said before she scooped up in her mouth a minute ago. She didn’t meant to send the poor little critter to her stomach. The bug shouldn’t have been at the back of her mouth in the first place. As Winona carried on with her running, feeling the little bug tickle her in her tummy, she spotted a shape of bright yellow with red on top, carrying two light blue bags at her side.
Feeling happy to see Apple Bloom again, Winona quickly cut across the field and stopped in front of her owner, wagging her tail in a crazed, happy manner. Apple Bloom, however, wasn’t happy to see her sister’s dog delay her from finding Sweetie Belle. “What is it now, Winona?” she asked in a stern tone. “Ah told ya, ya can’t come with me and Ah’m not lettin’ ya or Applejack stop me from doing so.”
BARK! BARK! BARK!
"No!" Apple Bloom snapped, pointing her hoof to the direction of her house. "Winona, go home!"
Winona sat down on her haunches, whimpering once more from Apple Bloom’s disapproval. The farm filly suddenly felt pity for her dog, seeing Winona saddened when her offer to help look for her friend was quickly denied. It was like reenacting that moment between her and Applejack again. Smiling, Apple Bloom trotted over and patted the border collie on the head.
BARK! BARK! BARK!
“Ya know, Ah might just need ya fer this mission, Winona,” Apple Bloom said, pulling out Sweetie Belle’s old teddy bear, Button. It was pretty obvious of who the bear was named after. “Here, girl, why don’t ya track Sweetie Belle’s scent with this? Since this is Sweetie Belle’s teddy bear, ya might pick up on where she might be.”
With a wag of her tail and an approving bark, Winona placed her nose on the teddy bear’s white belly and took several good sniffs from the fibers. The collie placed her nose on the grass and searched around the area for any trace of Sweetie Belle’s scent. Suddenly, the collie raised her head towards the souther direction and barked a few times. “Ya got it!” Apple Bloom acknowledged happily, giving Winona a big hug. “C’mon, girl. Just keep followin’ that scent and maybe we can find Sweetie Belle in no time!”
Winona barked a few times in response. The collie placed her nose on the ground and ran across the field to Ponyville, the farm filly following close behind. It wouldn’t be long now before they would find where Sweetie Belle accidentally teleported herself to. But unknown to her or anypony else, Sweetie Belle hadn’t gone anywhere.
At this very moment, she was residing in the confines of Winona’s tummy.