2.5
"Where in the flying feather did that thing go?"
"Ya know, if mah sis' would buck me clean to Canterlot if she heard me say that."
Sunbeam jerked upwards, hitting her head on the underside of a countertop and she jolted in horror at the realization of who had been listening to her. Staggering back and whipping around showed her Applebloom sitting innocently behind her with goggles on and a white labcoat draped over her body that was long enough to pool on the floor around her hooves. The cheeky filly even had a lab beaker beside her and a full set of alchemical equipment and ingredients atop the nearest counter. "When did-"
"Ah'd say 'bout five minutes ago."
Sigh. "Right, well this should be a fairly simple enough test. You seem to know exactly what I want to examine you on."
"Well, what else were ya going to do? Test me on mah cruddy applebucking?"
Sunbeam chuckled ruefully as she trotted over to the rest of the labcoats herself. She stopped, shuddering as the first and only one in her size was trimmed in her true colors and cutie mark. Right next to another set clearly made for Twilight. "Are you trying to tell me something?" She asked the tree- Fortress of Friendship while she glanced up in the general direction of its centerpiece.
"No. Ah haven't said anything." Applebloom cautiously responded as she set her ingredients to boiling and brewing rather rapidly with an experienced hoof.
Sunbeam shook her head, grumbling as her foamy beard shook and swayed. "I'm sorry. Just talking to the tree. I think it's up to something." Probably paranoid, but with everything that had happened she couldn't be sure anymore. Like Discord and Twilight finally putting aside their differences. Who saw that coming? "You know, I used to believe in coincidences, but with everything going on lately, I'm not so sure anymore."
"Well, that's just silly." Applebloom said as she worked.
Sunbeam looked down at her labcoat, and sighed in agreement. It was probably just an artifact of Twilight having her on her mind in that final confrontation, and nothing more. The sun-marked coat found itself worn by her in short order as she trotted back to Applebloom. "You're right. So, seeing as you are already working, what are you making?" She could smell spice and herb, elixir and tonic wafting up from the open beaker. Applebloom had quite a few premade mixtures sitting in a rack quietly to one side, each calmly sitting carefully away from the operation.
When had she found time to make all this stuff?
"Well, Ah figure that Ah oughta stick to the basics. This one here, once it's done brewing, should make an apple tree grow real fast." Applebloom drawled as she hunkered down to wait. Her mixture wasn't that hard to make, it just needed a bit of magic to get it going. Probably a bit of stirring, too. Where'd she leave that silver ladle?
"My, that's rather advanced." Sunbeam commented as she scooted around the bench carefully to stand beside Applebloom. As she hunkered down until she was level with the filly on a stool, she noticed that the elixir had settled down into distinct layers that comprised all the colors of the rainbow. There must be zap apple juice in it. Not a standard technique at all, from what she had heard. "Have you ever considered higher education?"
"What? Naw. This ain't advanced. Just something basic Zecora taught me. It's a healing potion Ah turned into a growth potion." Applebloom dismissively said as she dug out the silver ladle she had been thinking of from under the counter and started stirring. The colors all mixed together in the small beaker until it turned to a glowing, appealing shade of candy apple red. Mustn't sniff it, though. She had let that color draw her in last time, and it took her weeks to get the leaves out of her mane, not counting everything else. "Sides, ya'll wouldn't believe some of the things she makes."
"Oh?" Sunbeam asked as the glowing red color drew her in slowly like a breezie to the honey.
A little yellow hoof pushed her back from the volatile mixture. "Don't. It's got some side effects if ya sniff it. It's still wild magic, and it don't care what it makes apple trees out of. Ya might get off easy, or ya might have to wait a week while Zecora and Twilight make an antidote like me, eating the apples off yer ears."
"Oh. Oh dear." Sunbeam began to slowly smile toothily as an idea came to her to 'pay back' Luna for all the years of having to raise her moon for her. Nah, how was she going to get Luna to sniff a potion?
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"Well, this is getting boring."
"Science is for the patient, Sweetie Belle."
"C'mon, Scootaloo, back me up."
"Can't talk now. Busy trying something out."
Sweetie Belle turned around, still sitting on a cushion over the darty-thingie Scootaloo had gotten her to hide. The little pegasus was still standing behind her, her wings out straight and quivering as she grunted and made constipated faces. "What are you doing, Scootaloo?"
"Flying."
"What."
"Gotta.... make... magic- through wings!" Scootaloo strained harder, concentrating on the funny floaty sensation developing in her chest. Her wings burned ever so slightly as sh tried to make the sensation flow out of them. Sweat trickled down from her ears as a faint purple haze slowly formed around her feathers.
Twilight concernedly edged over, her horn lit in worry. "Um, Scootaloo, maybe you should wait."
"Nope. Flying now."
"Scootaloo, wait, don't-"
The supposedly flightless pegasus unleashed the sensation in her wings with a single powerful flap, shooting small bursts of lightning from them as she shot upwards.
Sweetie clapped her hooves over her mouth to hide her gasp of horror as Scootaloo smacked her head against the ceiling in a moment. She ran to get underneath her friend at the same time Twilight did, both of them lighting their horns to telekinetically grab Scootaloo before she-
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The second thump shook the beaker slightly harder, and Applebloom delightedly watched as the elixer slowly shifted from red to a leafy green. "Well, Ah'll be. Ah've got to get Rainbow Dash tae crash near mah potions more often!"
Sunbeam faintly scowled with worry as she looked towards the door. "That didn't feel like a full-grown pegasus."
"Ah, don't worry 'bout it. She probably hit the other side. Mah elixir is almost done, though. That lil' bump did wonders fer getting it going. Wish Ah had- oh hey! Where'd that lil' apple tree come from?" Applebloom hopped off of her stool and headed over to the small pot in the corner. The little apple tree was barely a sprout, perfect for testing with.
"That's odd. That wasn't there before."
"Aw, who cares? Probably some fiddly magic Twilight cooked up." Applebloom checked the pot over, tapping it lightly to see how heavy it was.
"Oh, if mah elixir starts turnin' purple, take it off the heat quick 'fore it melts the beaker or something."Applebloom warned as she leaned up against one side of the pot and began pushing and cajoling it across the room inch by heavy inch. The pot was far too large for it's occupant, and she comically disappeared behind it as she worked. Heck, with a few blankets and pillows, she could sleep inside it and nopony would know.
"Shouldn't you watch this yourself?" Sunbeam anxiously asked, afraid to take her eyes off the mixture even as she carefully slid a blast shield over.
"Naw. Part of potion making in groups is know what ya can get other ponies to do safely while yer working on other parts. And knowin' how to tell 'em to do it." Applebloom grunted as she put her back into it. She put herself flat against the heavy terra cotta bane of her life and scrabbled with her hindlegs against the ground, scooting it with everything she had. Sunbeam mused over the interesting perspective the filly had on the process. Maybe she did have something to check after all. From the sounds of things, she didn't have much else to teach her that Zecora wasn't already doing. Sniff. Sniff. What was that smell of burnt pickle and foaming baking sod-augh!
Yelping, the elder mare poked the beaker stand and its contents away from the burner with a stick frantically as purple bubbles began to form at the base of the elixir's glass. "Well, that was close. Was it supposed to be that fast?"
"Naw."
"Huh. So, Applebloom, you never did answer me on whether or not you were thinking about getting a higher education earlier. You could do a lot of good."
"Unf. What? Like a college or somethin'?"
"Well, yes."
"Don't need none. Don't want none."
Sunbeam's jaw worked soundlessly as Applebloom got back up onto her stool and patted the tree right beside it. The filly paid her no mind as she tapped the glass of her experiment not at all gingerly. Bubbles escaped noxiously, while others merely jiggled along the bottom like jumping apples from Mexicolt. Her little borrowed notepad soon found itself filled with notes as she recorded her observations for future brewing. "Weeellllup, just gotta let it cool down so it don't scald the tree none, and we'll see if it came out right."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Don't you want to go to college?"
Applebloom grumbled with a long-suffering sigh, rolling her eyes over the familiar pestering. "Ah can see Ah ain't gonna get no rest on this, am Ah?" Applebloom pushed away her notepad and glared at Sunbeam through her thick lab goggles, noting with irritation that the pegasus didn't even have the decency to look guilty. "Ah ain't going to no durn college. Ah ain't abandoning the farm no matter how much my sis' puts ponies up to pestering me about leaving."
"Your sister?"
"Aheyup. Bugs me every day 'bout it fer the past two years like clockwork. Then she went and got Miss Cheerilee in on it when Twilight went and turned herself into a princess, and she's been getting others in on it ever since." Applebloom complained bitterly as she turned her attention back to her elixir.
Sighs escaped the little filly as she absentmindedly played with the pencil from her notepad, trying to focus on her work instead of her pesterer. Tiny pings and pops caused them both to twitch as the beaker cooled down from the high heat it had been subjected to. Silence stretched out between them as neither wanted to be the first to keep speaking again.
"But why not?" Sunbeam finally asked, trying to understand the filly's reluctance. It couldn't be familial if Applejack was pushing her into college. "Getting a degree would help your family tremendously."
"And Ah know it would, but Ah ain't 'bout to step hoof into a big ole snake's den of Tiara's and Spoons just cause it might help some." Applebloom sourly groused as she uneasily fidgeted.
"I, uh, don't follow."
"Ya mean ya ain't noticed the way that Twilight gets flashbacks that go and make what Sombra and Discord did to her at points look like fond memories from Happy Bunny Fluffyworld? Cause she does, and Ah ain't wanting to end up like her. Ah've got enough of that here already with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon." She continued, thumping her chin against the table in frustration over and over again as the beaker slowly cooled from its boiling state.
"Oh." Sunbeam shamefully replied after a long time.
"Yeah. Ah don't want that. And Ah ain't-" Applebloom trailed off uncertainly. Her staring eyes grew glassy as she focused inwardly, thinking of her life and the farm. "Ah ain't mah sister. Ah can't do all that fancy." She said little more as the silence moved in again and smothered what was left of their thoughts thoroughly.
Sunbeam wanted to lean in to reassure the filly with a nuzzle, holding back because of the darts still firmly plastered all over her chin. Damn Discord and his pranks. It hurt to see anypony moping like Applebloom, and only a supreme effort of will on her part kept the color from bleeding from her coat so that she could properly cuddle and comfort Applebloom in her full form.
"Please don't think that Twilight's experience was the normal one, Applebloom." Sunbeam spun out as a reassurance as she finally found the words to salvage the situation. "A very unfortunate set of colts were upset with Princess Celestia for 'not showing proper respect'. When they found out about Twilight on her first day, they became extremely jealous and-..."
A sigh escaped her as she thought of how she had failed Twilight. And a growl pursued it as she wondered if she had been far too lenient given how those foals actions were still haunting her. "I made sure to make an example out of them the instant I found out. I informed the Princess, and they were expelled instantly, and blacklisted from all of Canterlot's schools."
Applebloom slowly turned in her seat, looking up to her with tired eyes and an upraised eyebrow. Sunbeam kept going, knowing that she wanted more. "Twilight didn't take it as well as you and your friends seem to have put up with this 'Diamond Tiara' and 'Silver Spoon'. Alone, and as a young filly who was far more sensitive and innocent than most, the results for her psyche were relatively disastrous, and my inattention for just one day is still affecting her negatively to this day."
"Huh. What happened to 'em?"
"I made sure they flip hayburgers for a living."
"An' it only too Princess Celestia's student to get it noticed, Ah bet. Ain't much help for the rest of us." Applebloom lamented just before she nipped up a long-handled glassware holder to pick up her beaker. It fizzed ominously as it gently shook in her grasp, but careful movements kept the reaction from continuing as she slowly maneuvered it to her plant. Leaves twitched gently as the plant perked up before sprouting upwards before their eyes as the elixir was poured into the soil. Tiny apples popped into existence on the branches comically as the sprout transformed into a moderately sized bush as the growth slowly petered out.
Sunbeam pursed her lips as she asked herself the same question. The question itself didn't bother her. The uncertain answer did. "I wish I could say. Maybe it did. A little."
"Yeah. Ah ain't seen an adult yet who would actually help us with our problem, an' it's been three and a half years now." Applebloom grumbled tiredly as she slipped an odd glove on and carefully snipped an apple from a tree branch with a practiced movement. Nicely plump and juicy red, if it had been normally sized, it would have been perfect for applebucking. She dropped it carefully on the table, nudging it towards Sunbeam with a hoof. "Just don't go eating it yet, even if it is the purdiest thing your stomach has ever seen."
"Ah. There's still wild magic in it, I presume?"
"Ahyup. The magic still needs time to settle down proper-like. Give it a day or two, and you might not sprout some leaves in your mane, or sprout an' apple or two of your own."
"Hmm..." That gave her ideas. Devious, no-good, simply unsisterly ideas.