"Come on Gem," Applebloom said as she pushed me closer to the edge of the board, "just cause no Diamond Dog ain't gotten their Cutiemark before don't mean you can't get one. Maybe artistic high-diving is your special thang, never know if yah don't try, right," she asked in the little drawl she has as she pushed me to the very edge and I saw Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo swimming about sixty feet below.
They both looked up and called out but I only heard someone yell; do a flip, I dug my claws into the board to give me enough time to say, "I can't do this!"
"Nonsense Gem, yah just need a little push," she said ask she bucked me off the board with her hind hooves.
"I don't know how to swim, " I screamed as I fell tumbling head over paw into the waiting water far below me.
Earlier that Day
I took my seat in Miss Cheerilee's class and followed along as best I could, I soaked it up like a sponge, and ever since I ate that stone it felt like my brain was on fire. Ideas and questions filled my head almost all the time. Class didn't seem to last very long before we were turned out into the playground for recess, all the children in their little groups and three fillies from before who called themselves the CMC led me around the playground until Sweetie Belle grabbed one of the colts who ran past her with a wooden sword in his mouth, "Gem, this is Pipsqueak, say hello Pip."
"H-hullo, knife to meef you," he said with a mouthful of sword.
"Hi."
"Wanna phlay phirates? We almosh ‘ave nuff for ah-"
His question kinda withered away when two fillies, a grey one and a pink one, walked up to us, "Well if it isn't the Cutiemark Lamers! I see you're trying to get your Cutiemark in dog training."
"Hey! You better knock it off," Scootaloo jumped into the conversation, "unless you want everyone to know about that time you-" Sweetie Belle shoved her hoof in Scootaloo's mouth to shut her up and smiled at Diamond Tiara.
"Hahaha, oh Scoots. She doesn't know what she's talking about~," she leans in and whispers to the orange Pegasus, "I know we should stand up for ourselves but you just can't drop something like that out of nowhere, it's best to save that for something we really need."
Scootaloo nodded and removed the hoof from her mouth, "Right~ good call Sweetie Belle, almost lost our trump card."
The gray one saw them whispering and she smirked, "Look Silver Spoons, they think they have some kind of secret. Thanks to daddies connections I can get all kinds of dirt on their families." The both just laughed, an annoying grating laugh that made me want to gnaw on something.
I knew what to do when someone who thinks they’re higher up than you are and would call them out on it; I backed down, curling my tail around myself as I tried to make myself smaller. The two of them say this and their cackling grew louder before stopping to trot away.
Pip switched the sword from his mouth to his hoof, however that worked, “Blimey, those two are worse than hog-mashed hay.”
“What’s-“
Pip flourished his wooden poker with amateur skill, “So what do you four say about joining mah pirate crew?”
The trio beside me huddled in hushed whispers while Pip and I just stood there, “So what are pirates?”
“Only the coolest and luckiest ponies tah sail the seas; treasure seekers, explorers, those that romancing with death as well as the mares and known users of the words arg, ahoy, and avast.”
“I’ve never heard of them before, can anyone be a pirate or just ponies,” I asked as I attempted to scratch a doodle into the rock but my rock digging claws haven’t come in just yet.
“Of course not, don’t let the girls know –they’ll just tell their sisters and get rid of them- but there’s a series about a group of pirates called The Griffin-“
He clamped his mouth shut when the Crusaders came out of the huddle and back over to use. Applebloom spoke first, “We’d be happy to join you but we’re showing Gem around unless he’d like to give it a shot.”
I looked them in the face one at a time before settling on Pip, “What was word? Avast?” Pip grew a massive smile, “Avast! Let us sail these seas!”
“You heard him lasses! He popped the sword back in his mouth and made his way up a metal slide, “Avast ya land lubbers, this here port be owned by the Ponyville Pirates! Snips, Snails, Archer! Round up thar balls and rope. We gone be needin’ supplies.” He pointed at the four of us,”You lot be rounding up all the carts an’ the like, can’t rightfully be pirates without a ship.” It was like he became another pony when he was pretending to be a pirate, he even wouldn’t back down with the two before tried to mock him into quitting ‘this nonsense’, he just tossed be two jump ropes and had me tie ‘em up and hang them by their hooves from the jungle gym. Needless to say it was the most fun I’ve ever had, well not much to go on there, but all good things must come to an end; someone went to get Miss Cheerilee and everything screeched to a halt, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoons were released although thirty minutes upside-down had done a number on them. The crew was told to move everything back to their original place, our captain had switched back to shy, quiet, and non-disruptive Pip.
School let out several hours later and we had to deal with our punishment; hold buckets of water –each of us were given a specific way- Scootaloo and Archer had to balance them on their wings, Pip and I had to balance a bucket on our heads, and Snips, Snails, and Sweetiebelle had to levitate the bucket with their magic with Sweetiebelle having particular troubles. We stood on the front porch to the schoolhouse –probably in case we spilled our water and to shame us in front of adult ponies; pony punishment is weird,mom and pop would have let my siblings take more to teach a lesson if I ever needed it.
“Hey squirt, what’s with the buckets of water,” a female voice asked from above us, we looked up and saw a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane laying on a low-flying cloud.
Scootaloo squee’d, a noise that was particularly annoying with how high-pitch her voice is, “Rainbow Dash! I-I-I- …we got in trouble.”
The rest of the group looked downtrodden as Rainbow Dash looked them over before settling on me, jerking a little, “Is that so, nothing I need to get your families after, do I or was it something cool~?” She put her hooves under her chin, smiling the biggest smile.
Pip spoke up this time, “We were playing pirates and tied up several other ponies, I don’t know what came over me but those two deserved it.”
The CMC muttered in agreement while the other boys mumbled their opposite opinions. Rainbow just laughed her guffawing laugh, “Ahh playing pirates, reminds me when I was a little filly but it was way cooler because we were sky pirates.” A hoof went to her eyes and wiped away a tear, “So who did you tie up squirt; those two that always pick on you? If so then I don’t see why you’re being punished, put those buckets down and go be fillys and colts. You lot are not going to be young forever, besides I’m surprised they still use this punishment, I thought it went out of favor with the more uppity ponies.”
When she said it wasn’t used much anymore I reached up and pull it off my head and dumped it. I only agreed because it seemed like important pony life. I emptied the bucket out in the dirt and started to roll in it, covered in mud I got up, “I’m going back to Princess Twilight’s. Thanks for asking me to play pirates Pip… it was… fun.” I smiled a toothy grin before shaking the mud from my fur.
“No problem Gem, wanna do something else later,” Pip asked as he and the others just let the buckets tip and pour out.
“Maybe, I’m going to look through the Library for that series you mentioned,” before I could say which series the schoolhouse door flew open, revealing Miss Cheerilee.
“What do you eight think you’re doing?!”
The ponies screamed at the loud bang of the door, including Rainbow Dash who then cried out, “Cheese it!” She flew up and bucked her cloud at Cheerilee before flying away at high speed giving the colts and fillies times to make a run for it while dropping their buckets. That left me in the mud slightly confused before I too took off at a mad dash while I failed to contain my smile and laughter.
I had split off from the others some time ago before finally making it back to Twilight’s Crystal Tree. The mud had dried by now so I stood and opened the door, revealing Spike going goo-goo over the white Unicorn –Rarity I believe he said her name was-, she was talking with Twilight be stopped when I came in, “Hold it! What in the name of Celestia do you think you’re doing?”
“…Going to my room?”
“Not with you dirty like that! Go outside and clean yourself up, this is a castle, anypony should know that.”
“But there’s a-,” Twilight tried to say but Rarity cut her off.
“Now darling you have to have a firm hoof with these dogs.”
I looked to Twilight for confirmation, she didn’t say anything but she pushed Spike away from Rarity to my side. She looked a bit apologetic then leaned down to whisper, “I’m sorry about this Gem, she can be pretty stubborn when it comes to things like this. I know you must tired from your day of learning but follow Spike over to Sweet Apple Acres. You’ve never had an apple before have you or seen an apple tree? I sure Applejack would love to teach you on the raising and care of apple trees.” She opened the door and pushed the pair of us out the door, we went back to the door and listened to the two of them arguing for a moment before Spike did the wise thing and pulled me away.
He lead me back down the trail to town, the two of us silent; one of us not knowing what two guys talked about and the other one not knowing what friends in general talked about. Spike decided to break the silence when we passed a yellow cottage, “So how was your first day of school? Did you run into three fillies; an orange Pegasus, white Unicorn, and a yellow Earthpony?”
I scratched a claw under my chin, the mud had been a good idea when it was wet but it quickly became itchy and irritating, “The CMC? Yes, I met them…”
“Oh no, they didn’t try to get you to earn your cutiemark did they?”
“No but they did ask about the lack I have.” I took a shot in the dark and told him about what happened. When I finished we had to stop for him to get catch his breath and I asked him the question I had been aching to ask my very first friend, “Why wouldn’t- weren’t you at school with others? You’re same size, same age?”
He did something with his thumb before answering, “I was hatched in Canterlot by Twilight when she was a little filly… despite my size I’m just a couple years younger than she is and… much older than the colt and fillies around here.”
“So you’re older than us, have any ‘cool’ stories,” I asked, adopting the rainbow mare’s word and ignoring the now obvious age difference. Smiling he thought back on stuff and started a story about how he and the six mares got sucked into a comic book to save a fictional city from The Mane-iac.
“…and she said, ‘oatmeal, are you crazy?!’” He laughed at the joke he said he heard from Pinkie back whenever, he stopped when he realized I wasn’t laughing, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t get it,” I stated somewhat confused.
“Well you see, oatmeal, it’s-“
“Hay Gem, Spike! Don’t go in thar!”
We stopped just outside the gate, Applebloom galloped up to us slightly out of breath; she looked like she was going to say something when a howl sounded nearby. Spike’s eyes widened in realized why Applebloom stopped us, “T-t-t-timberwolves…”
“Ah tried to warn ya-“
“Git back here ya pile of twigs! Ah’ve about had it up tah here with you varmints sneaking around trying to get at our Zapapple trees,” a voice that sounded like Applebloom’s but older shouted right as a large wooden creature came barreling out of the gate. It took a look at the three of us and stopped then started again at us when a pair of orange hoofs knocked its head clean off and the rest of the body fell apart. “That goes for the youngin’s too,” she huffed a bit before going back through the gate, “Applebloom, you gunna bring Spike and your new friend inside before that thing pulls itself back together?”
Applebloom trotted after her and motioned for us to follow them. I tapped spike on the shoulder, “What is a Timberwolf?”
He spoke in as much of a hushed tone as we followed them, ”They’re creatures from the Everfree forest,” he took the time to point to the tree line some ways away, “they’re basically a bundle of sticks held together by the magic of the forest. They can’t leave if for long before they start to fall apart.”
This bothered me a little, I wasn’t a Timberwolf, it may have attacked but it didn’t deserve to just be left there but neither was I a pony that could just leave it there. I turned on my hindpaws, running to the felled wolf and Applebloom say me do so but didn’t say anything. As they continued on I began picking up as many of the creatures branches as I could, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure every bit of you gets back.” I sniffed and grabbed all the tiny twigs that smelled weird, tossing them into my vest pocket next I grabbed the limbs under one arm and the body under the other, “You’re heavier than you look.” I could no longer see the group so I began running to the tree line when I started putting the wolf back together when it started to glow, “Wait wait, you’re missing something… your head!”
I dash full tilt back to where we had encountered each other but the head wasn’t around there, it wasn’t anywhere. A low whimper sounded somewhere in my throat as I sat on my haunches when a someone flew down next to me and rubbed me between the ears, “What’s wrong Winona; did you lose your favorite toy? Dinky does that all the time,“ she stopped talking when I stood up, shaking my head, “You’re not Winona.”
“I’m not… but I did lose something- a bundle of logs in the shape of wolf head.”
“I’m sorry not-Winona I haven’t seen anything like that today, oh let me check my bag,” half her body disappear into the bag before pulling out with the Timberwolf's head, “Now how did this get in here…”
“That’s it," I shouted causing her to drop it, allowing me to snatch it from the air and sprint towards the forest. The head started to brightly glow, I wasn't going to make it so I chucked that head as hard as I could, watching it soar and land right on the pile of wood right as it reformed. The wolf stood on shaky legs, glaring at me before bolting into the forest with a howl, I shrugged and headed back into Sweet Apple Acres. By the time I caught up with them, three had turned into five, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo must have been here already.
Spike turned around when he heard me walking up, panting, "There he is, told you he was fine. Gem, this is Applejack: Applejack, Gem. He's the Diamond Pup Twilight decided to take under her wing."
"Nice tah meetcha, Gem. Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, home of the best tasting apples pretty much anywhere," she reached over to a basket and plucked an apple out of the basket full of apples and tossed it at me, "Go on, try it."
I looked at the apple, it looked tasty, much like a ruby but I wasn't sure if it would taste like, so I took a bite and immediately spit it out, "Bleh, tastes like mud... I guess I can't eat apples," I passed it to Spike who just shrugged, popping the entire thing into just mouth and started chewing.
When he finished eating it, he belched; sending a small flame into the air that turned into a scroll. He snatched it out of the air, looked it over before curling it back up, "I have to take this to Twilight, do you mind if Gem hangs out with the Crusaders while you look after them?"
Applejack was still speechless from someone saying her apples tasted like dirt before shaking her head, "Ya-yah, sure thang Spike. Yall four just go play and don't let me catch you lot near the Everfree, yah hear?"
The trio made general sounds of agreement while Spike took off when Applejack said it was fine, his short legs carrying him as fast as they could. Applejack turned around back into the barn, leaving me alone with the three fillies who were whispering among themselves even though I could still hear them.
"What do ya say girls; we caint just go on with our list, it wouldn't be fair ta Gem."
"We could start over from earlier in the list! Maybe zip-lining or being a pony cannonball."
"And get covered in sap again? No thank you, Rarity made such a fuss last time, and besides Pinkie wouldn't let us near her party cannon again without some serious sweet bribery."
"Well what about that," Scootaloo added.
"Maybe but Granny Smith made Applejack and Big Macintosh tear it down, Ah thank it's still in pieces out back."
Sweetie Belle chimed in this time, "Alright so we're agreeing on that, correct? One of us will have to distract him while Applebloom and the other puts it together."
"1-2-3-not it," Scootaloo shouted while she and Applebloom took off.
"Ooh~ Scootaloo, that wasn't fair," she shouted at the pair then turning around, weakly smiling, "So, what's it like living at Twilight's castle?"
"It's alright... it's more roomy than my den was but she hasn't taught me anything about magic just yet..."
"She's teaching you magic; wait, you can do magic, never mind. She taught me too, maybe we group up and practice. If you want I can show you what she showed me, come on."
"If this is the attempt to distract me, it will not work. Where did they go," I asked, pointing in the direction of where the duo ran off.
"I afraid I don't know what you're talking about~" she said in a sing-song voice as she headed off somewhere, motioning me to follow her.
She spoke rather fast as she explained what Twilight had taught her about the basics; such as telekinesis, light, and changing an objects state -like water to steam and ice- she was currently holding making a pebble float on a cushion of air which she says is easier to maintain than telekinesis. She dropped the pebble into her hoof and held it out, "Remember the first thing about magic is the belief that you can actually do it, just try to imagine the air turning solid." I held out a paw like she did with her horn, I felt a tingling in my claws then I nodded for her to drop the pebble... which went straight to the ground without even hesitating. "Well... can't expect to get it right the first time huh?"
"I guess not..."
"Come on Gem let's try it again okay? Practice makes-"
"Hay we're done," Applebloom's voices called out weakly from behind the barn and probably over the hill.
"Aww... we were just getting started... well this will be just as fun, come on," she exclaimed as she took off, making me run to catch up to her.
"What will be just as fun? Is this why you were trying to distract me," I asked, peeved hat she [had] managed to distract me. She just smiled and continued on up the hill, when we reached the top I saw what they must have been working on; an incredibly tall ladder with a board on top of it. It looked real out of place until you look down and see the massive body of water underneath it, 'how did I miss that?'
"So what do you think Gem? Want climb up it? The view is amazing," Scootaloo added, wings buzzing in excitement.
"I don't know..."
"It's alright Gem," Applebloom cut in, "Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo can go first to show yah it's safe."
"We will," they both asked.
:"Yes yall will."
Scootaloo was the first one up, followed by Sweetie Belle, the two of them locked hooves and jump off screaming whee until they splashed down. Applebloom swung her hoof to the ladder which I begrudgingly climbed up with Applebloom right behind me to make sure I don't fall off or something. We made it to the top, the whole thing seemed to sway with the wind, 'Are those clouds below us?'
"Come on Gem," Applebloom said as she pushed me closer to the edge of the board, "just cause no Diamond Dog ain't gotten their Cutiemark before don't mean you can't get one. Maybe artistic high-diving is your special thang, never know if yah don't try, right," she asked in the little drawl she has as she pushed me to the very edge and I saw Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo swimming about sixty feet below.
They both looked up and called out but I only heard someone yell; do a flip, I dug my claws into the board to give me enough time to say, "I can't do this!"
"Nonsense Gem, yah just need a little push," she said ask she bucked me off the board with her hind hooves.
"I don't know how to swim, " I screamed as I fell tumbling head over paw into the waiting water far below me. The water rushing at me, I close my eyes; the only though I had was that I didn't want to fall in. Next thing I know my claws start tingling again and the falling sensation ceases, I open my eyes to see a bewildered Scootaloo and a smiling Sweetie Belle several inches below me in the water.
"You did it Gem!"
"I did," I asked, finally looking around, standing up on a cushion of air. I thrust my paws into the air and shouted, "I did it! I can use magic!" The girls cheered right before the tingling stopped and I promptly fell into the water.
Spike had finally gotten the letter to Princess Twilight and made his way back, just in time to see my little magic incident. We were walking home, him slightly away from me, "What's wrong?"
"No offence Gem but never go swimming in the lake again."
"Why?"
"Wet dog smell."