Applebloom: Transform and Roll Out!

by Dusty the Royal Janitor


Ch6: Oh, Slag!

(A/N: This story takes place after issue 10 of the My Little Pony Comic Book and the Cutie Mark Crusaders Micro Series comic. This story also does not officially recognize any events of Season 3 onward. The story primarily takes place in the Transformers Aligned Continuity Family with certain smaller inspirations taken from the Transformers Animated and G1 continuity families.)

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Applebloom: Transform and Rollout!
by Dusty the Royal Janitor


Chapter 6: Oh, Slag!


Applebloom awoke to a hoof prodding her shoulder.

The little robot shifted in her bed. “Mmph… Five more minutes,” she grumbled, rolling over and pulling the covers over her face.

“Come on now, child,” came the wizened but firm reply, “We’ve already let y’all sleep later than you should’ve.”

Applebloom groaned, groggily pushing herself up into a sitting position. Blinking, she blearily looked around the room, waiting for her vision to come into focus. “Granny?” she asked, looking out the window, seeing the sun already risen outside, “What time is it?”

“‘Bit past eight,” came Granny Smith’s reply.

Applebloom gasped, only for a spike of pain to rush through her head. Growling a little she shook it off and focused back on Granny Smith again. The old pony seemed shorter than she should have been. Applebloom didn’t really notice though as she continued. “Why’d y’all let me sleep so late?” She protested. “I gotta get my chores done before school!”

“Calm down, young’n,” Granny Smith said, putting a hoof to Applebloom’s chest. “Big Mac an’ I went ‘n took care of them for you.”

“Really?” Applebloom asked, blinking. “Why’d y’all go and do that?”

Granny Smith chuckled. “We figgered you could’a used the rest after last night.” she explained.

Suddenly, the events of the previous evening came rushing back to the little filly. The nightmare, the accidental shifting, the chase, the story, and Applejack’s ultimate rejection of her all filled her mind at once. Applebloom looked herself over to see that at some point during the night, she’d shifted back into her robot form and that her legs were now dangling over the edge of the bed. With a sad sigh, the little robot swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up shakily.

“But Big Mac got hurt… why’d he go an’ do my chores?”

Granny Smith chuckled. “Yer chores ain’t no biggie, sweetums.” she said, waving her off. “He won’t be able to applebuck for a while, but feedin’ Winona, sloppin’ the pigs, an’ lettin’ the sheep out are all easy enough for him.”

“Oh…” she muttered, still pondering the previous night. “Granny?” Applebloom said softly.

“Yes sugarcube?”

“You and Mac…” Applebloom started, motioning to herself, “Y’all are… okay with me like this, right?”

Granny Smith quirked an eyebrow and gave her a wry smile, “I reckon we already let you know that, filly.”

“But…” Applebloom protested, “But it’s so weird!” she exclaimed. “And Applejack-”

“Now don’t y’all worry about Applejack.” Granny Smith said, sternly, reaching a hoof up to tap on Applebloom’s metal chest. “She’ll come ‘round once she stops acting like a bull what got his head caught in a milk pail.”

Applebloom sighed. “But it don’t bother you that all this time I weren’t what you thought I was?”

Granny Smith creakily got onto her hind hooves, putting her forehooves onto the robot’s shoulders. “Now y’all listen here.” she said, sternly. “You’re my granddaughter, and that hasn’t changed. That ain’t never gonna change.”

“But-”

“I said…” the old mare gripped Applebloom tighter around the shoulders “That ain’t never gonna change, filly.”

Applebloom sighed sadly, but embraced the old mare in a hug. “Thanks, Granny.” she mumbled, a tear rolling down her metal cheek.

“Now,” Granny Smith broke the hug and fell back to all fours. “Y’all better come downstairs.” she winked at her granddaughter. “Your two little friends are here!”

“Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo?” Applebloom asked. “What’re they doin’ here so early?”

“They wanted to see you of course!” The old mare laughed. “Now y’all best not keep them waiting. Go on, git!” she said, smacking the little robot’s back and shooing her out of her room. Grabbing her bow on the way out the door and fixing it on her head, Applebloom shifted back into her pony form and started trotting down the stairs.

As Applebloom entered the kitchen, she was suddenly bowled over by two little cannonballs of fur. “Applebloom!” the pair shouted as they dogpiled her, sending the trio tumbling back several paces. Applebloom felt the wind get knocked out of her as she landed roughly on the wooden floor.

“Are you okay?!” Scootaloo asked

“Big Mac told us what happened last night!” Sweetie Belle said, hugging Applebloom around the waist. “We are soooooo sorry!”

“That was totally uncool of Applejack!” Scootaloo said. “I can’t believe she’d say those things!” she snorted, stomping her hoof.

Applebloom shook off the sudden assault. “I’m fine gals. As fine as I can be, anyway.”

Big Mac got up from the kitchen table slowly, clutching his bandaged midsection for a moment, before he trotted over to the trio. “Now come on, y’all. Give her some space.” he drawled.

The two little fillies climbed off of their friend and stood around her, ready to pepper her with questions. Before they could get a word out though, Applebloom held up a hoof “I’m fine girls. I just need some time to adjust is all.”

“Are you sure?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“‘Cuz I can totally knock Applejack for a loop if you want me to!” Scootaloo said, buzzing her wings and punching at the air. “She won’t even see me coming!”

“No!” Applebloom snapped, shocking Scootaloo out of the air and making her land on her rump. Applebloom sighed. “No, Scootaloo. AJ may have hurt me, but that don’t mean I want y’all to try and take her on for me.”

“Aww…” Scootaloo said, scuffing a hoof on the ground. “Alright.”

Granny Smith tottered down the stairs, smiling at the three fillies. “Now then,” she said, happily, “If we’re all done actin’ lower than pill grubs, who here wants some apple pancakes?”

“Ooh ooh!” Sweetie Belle suddenly squeaked, waving her hooves in the air. “I do! I do!”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Yeah, I could eat some more.”

It was at that point that Applebloom realized just how hungry she was. It felt like her guts had shriveled up and wasted away sometime during the night. “Come to think of it, I’m starving, Granny.” she said, looking down at her rumbling stomach.

“Well then, y’all come and get it!” Granny said, leading the group to the table. “They should be ready in just a minute!”

The five ponies sat around the breakfast table together as Granny Smith served them from a large stack of pancakes. Sweetie Belle took a few, picking at them delicately like a lady should. Scootaloo took a more direct approach, grabbing the cakes with her hooves and chomping on them like a sandwich. Big Mac took his usual generous portion and ate slowly and thoughtfully, not saying a word. Granny Smith only took a couple for herself.

But it was Applebloom who stood out. The filly kept asking for seconds, and then thirds and fourths. The little filly shoveled the food down her throat like she hadn’t tasted anything in years. Whole stacks of pancakes disappeared faster than you could say “Whoa Nelly”, vanishing into her seemingly endless gullet.

The rest of the ponies at the table started staring at her around the third stack of pancakes as the little yellow pony stuffed whole cakes in her mouth, swallowing them with barely a chew. “More, please?” Applebloom would ask, prompting Granny Smith to serve her up another stack. Then the process would repeat itself.

“Um, Applebloom?” Sweetie Belle said. “Don’t you think you’re eating a bit fast?”

Applebloom looked at her quizzically, her cheeks stuffed with apple and dough. With a big swallow, she replied, “I dunno… I just felt really hungry for some reason.”

“‘Pparently…” Big Mac said with a slow nod.

“Can I get some more?” Applebloom asked, finishing her plate again, not a minute and a half after her previous plate. “Sorry, I’m just really really famished.”

Granny Smith shrugged. “Ain’t the weirdest thing what’s happened around here lately, child.” she said, serving up the last few pancakes to her granddaughter. “That’s the last of ‘em though.”

“Thanks, Granny,” she said, shoveling the flapjacks into her mouth one after the other.

“Y’all gotta get goin’ to school anyway,” Big Mac said, with a nod at the clock. “Y’all stay much longer and you’ll be late.”

“Oh right!” Scootaloo said. “That was why we came over in the first place!”

Applebloom cocked her head. “Whuzzat?” she asked.

“Well,” Scootaloo said with an awkward grin as she scratched behind her head. “It’s just that you gave Sweetie Belle a ride yesterday and I was wondering if…”

Applebloom raised an eyebrow. “Y’all want me to give you a ride to school?” she asked, her voice flat. “Couldn’t you just get there on your scooter?”

Scootaloo chuckled nervously. “Well… yeah. And I’d totally get there faster than you by the way!” she added quickly. Sweetie Belle chuckled causing the little pegasus to snap her a glare before continuing. “But it looked like fun yesterday when Sweetie Belle was riding in you, and I wanted to try it out.”

“Depends on your definition of ‘fun,’” Sweetie Belle muttered

“Shush!”

Applebloom gave the pegasus a flat stare for a moment before sighing and letting her head droop. “I ain’t sure I’m comfortable with that right now, Scoots.”

“Aw c’mon, Applebloom. Pleeeease?” The little pegasus flopped on the ground and grabbed at the yellow filly’s hoof. “For us?”

Applebloom groaned. “I dunno.”

Big Mac cleared his throat. “Whatever y’all are gonna do, decide quick. Y’all hang out here much longer and y’all are gonna be late.”

“There, see!” Scootaloo said, jumping to her hooves. “If you don’t get us to school fast we’re gonna be late!”

Sweetie Belle gasped. “Are we? I don’t want a tardy on my record! Rarity will be so disappointed!”

Big Mac blinked. “Uh, girls… that ain’t what I-”

“I just ain’t sure I feel comfortable, girls.” Applebloom said. “After what happened last night-”

“After what happened last night, you never want to use any of your super cool robot powers again.” Scootaloo said, dismissively with a wave of her hoof. “I get it. It’s like falling off a scooter. You get hurt and scraped up and you’re scared that it’s gonna happen again, so you don’t want to get back on.” She poked Applebloom in the chest. “But my mom told me that if you don’t get back on right away, you won’t ever get back on. So right now we gotta get you back on the scooter, Bloom!”

Granny Smith leaned over to Big Mac. “Filly’s smarter than she lets on…” she whispered conspiratorially.

Big Mac nodded and whispered back. “When she wants to be, anyway”

“So whaddaya say, Bloom? Wanna give us a ride to school?”

Applebloom hesitated, looking back and forth from Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, both grinning at her encouragingly, to Big Mac and Granny, both nodding at her with big smiles on their faces, and then to the clock, still ticking away. Finally the filly sighed and relented. “Alright, fine.” she said with a little huff.

“Sweet!” Scootaloo pumped her hoof in the air. “Now come on, we gotta hurry!” she said, scrabbling out the door, Sweetie Belle in tow.

Applebloom smiled nervously, looking back at Big Mac and Granny Smith. “I’ll see y’all later then?”

“‘Course, sugarcube.” Granny Smith said, nudging her out the door. “You just be sure to get to school on time, y’hear?”

Applebloom sighed in relief. “Alright. Thanks, y’all.”

“Come on, Applebloom!” Scootaloo said, trotting in place. “We have to go!”

“Keep your horseshoes on!” Applebloom said playfully, trotting between her friends. “Y’all ready?”

“Been ready!” Scootaloo said.

“I guess…” Sweetie Belle said, hesitantly. “Just not as fast as last night, okay?”

“Awww…” Scootaloo whined, huffing a little. “Fiiiiiine.”

Applebloom took a deep breath and let the transformation go. Her body compacted in on itself and her legs retracted as her little wheels split out of her hooves. Her tail was replaced with the little handle which popped out of her spine. In seconds, Applebloom was replaced by the wagon once again.

Rolling under its own power, the wagon scooted up to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, the two of them hopping in and putting their helmets on. Applebloom waved her handle at Granny Smith and Big Mac, standing in the doorway. “I’ll see y’all later!”

“Bye Sugarcube!” the two of them waved back, smiles on their faces.

Applebloom revved herself up and then shot off through the orchard toward the main road that would take them to the school. Kicking up a huge cloud of dust, the little wagon zoomed off, one of her occupants cheering as she rolled off into the distance and the other screaming and covering her eyes.

Big Mac and Granny Smith continued to wave after them until they were out of sight. With a smile on her face, Granny Smith turned to her grandson. “Big Mac?” she asked.

“Eeyup?”

“Did I just watch my granddaughter turn into a wagon and roll off into the horizon with her two best friends sitting inside her?”

“Eeyup.”

The smile never left Granny’s face as she took a deep breath and let it out. “This whole hootenanny’s gonna turn my coat gray, ain’t it?”

“Eeyup.”

* * *

Twilight Sparkle was having a good morning.

The purple unicorn trotted through Ponyville square with a smile on her face and a spring in her step, saddlebags full of a selection of her favorite physics and practical magic application books, as well as some ink and parchment. Just the previous night she’d had a flash of inspiration for a new alchemical formula and was eager to start drawing up the theory for it over breakfast. This morning she was feeling rather in the mood for a banana nut muffin, and there was only one place in Ponyville to go if you wanted the best muffins and baked goods you’d ever tasted: Sugarcube Corner.

As Twilight approached the bakery styled to look like a giant gingerbread house, though, she noticed something amiss. There was a small crowd gathered around the bakery’s windows, looking in curiously. And as she got closer, she noticed that the sign on the door was still turned to “closed.” Usually the Cakes opened with the sunrise, like most bakeries in Equestria. As Twilight looked around the storefront, she noticed a familiar blue mare with a pink mane shivering at one of the outdoor tables, a few ponies around her consoling her and two little foals burbling at her hooves.

“Mrs. Cake?” Twilight said as she approached.

The portly blue mare snapped to attention, her eyes wide and her pupils pinpricks. The poor mare was clearly on edge. “Oh, Twilight, dearie! Thank goodness it’s you!”

“What’s going on, Mrs. Cake?” Twilight asked, setting her saddlebags on the table as she sat down across from the poor baker.

“Oh Twilight, it’s terrible!” Mrs. Cake said, picking Pound and Pumpkin cake up in her hooves and clutching the two of them to her barrel. “Somepony broke in last night!”

“Really?!” Twilight gasped, horrified. “Was anypony hurt?”

“No…” Mrs. Cake shook her head. “At least… not yet.”

“Not yet?” Twilight asked.

Mrs. Cake nodded, pointing at the house. “He’s still in there!”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Did you call the sheriff and the guards?”

Mrs. Cake sniffled. “We tried, but the phone in Sugarcube Corner has been acting up lately. and we couldn’t get through. Somebody went to get them a few minutes ago, but they haven’t come back yet.”

Twilight looked around. “Where are Pinkie Pie and Mr. Cake?”

Mrs. Cake pointed at the doors. “They’re s-still inside.” she stuttered. “We heard the intruder in the basement, and they stayed inside to keep him penned in.” she said fearfully. “They told me to get outside with the babies… oh I do hope nothing has happened to them…”

Twilight looked at the door to Sugarcube Corner, then back at Mrs. Cake, and then back to the door again. “I’m going to go in and help.” Twilight said.

“Oh dearie, no!” Mrs. Cake said, putting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Please, don’t risk yourself too!”

Twilight shook her head. “Don’t worry about me, Mrs. Cake. I’m sure Pinkie and I can handle this. You just keep watch for the guards.”

Mrs. Cake gulped. “A-alright dearie. If you’re sure.”

Twilight nodded, leaving her saddlebags with the baker and trotted off towards the doors to Sugarcube Corner. The crowd parted for her as she approached, allowing her to quickly slip in the door and shut it behind her.

The inside of Sugarcube corner was very dim and still.The blinds were all drawn, so no sunlight poured in through the windows, and every light in the building was turned off, muting the normally bright colors of the bakery and casting the room in eerie shadow. The usual hum of the ovens and chatter of the customers was nowhere to be heard, leaving the bakery deathly quiet. Twilight snuck across the restaurant floor, inching her way towards the kitchen. “Hello?” she called out quietly. Nopony answered her.

Twilight looked around the main room for a moment before silently sidling into the back room where the kitchen was. As she turned the corner into the kitchen, she found herself suddenly tackled and pinned against the wall, the wind knocked out of her lungs as she gasped for breath. She brought up her hooves to protect her face with a weak cry.

“Twilight?!” she heard somepony whisper sharply.

Twilight opened her eyes and lowered her hooves to see two bright blue eyes looking into hers. “Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, Twilight, it’s just you!” Pinkie said, releasing her friend, causing Twilight to gasp for air. Pinkie may have been, one might say, a little plush looking, but any cushion on the mare’s figure hid a considerable amount of strength and muscle. She was, after all, still an earth pony. “I was worried that the cupcake burglar had gotten out of the basement somehow and was circling around to finish the job!”

Twilight looked over her friend. The pink mare, despite the direness of the situation, was displaying every last bit of her usual exuberance, bouncing in place and rattling her mouth off. Her big, poofy pink mane was concealed by a large metal pan which she was using as a helmet, her body covered by a purple hoofball jersey and pads, while an inner tube was wrapped around her midsection. The pink pony kept rattling on, “I mean, I don’t know how the burglar could have gotten out of the basement without me or Mr. Cake seeing him, since we’ve been keeping an eye on the basement door since we first heard the clatter this morning, but I suppose it’s possible if, like the intruder was a diamond dog or a unicorn that could teleport or a giant mutant gopher or… heeey, wait a minute!” Pinkie narrowed her eyes at Twilight. “YOU can teleport, Twilight! Are you suuuuure that you aren’t the cupcake burglar?” she said, booping Twilight on the horn.

Twilight waved the pink pony off of her. “Of course I’m sure, Pinkie. I just got here three minutes ago and Mrs. Cake explained what was going on to me.”

Pinkie didn’t budge for a moment, her eyes narrowing even further, until she suddenly sprang out in a silly grin again. “Oki Doki Loki!” she said, sticking her tongue out a little. “‘Course, that means we still have to deal with whatever Stealy McStealerson is down there.” she said, pointing into the kitchen where Mr. Cake had fainted dead away next to a trapdoor, a rolling pin hanging loosely out of his mouth.

“Mr. Cake!” Twilight gasped. “Is he alright?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Eh, he’s fine. he gets that way when he’s spooked.”

Mr. Cake made a noise that reminded Twilight of the time Owlowscious caught a bad head cold.

Twilight shook her head. “Well, what are you doing about the intruder, Pinkie?” she asked, looking at the trapdoor leading to the basement.

“Oh, we’ve just been watching the door to make sure he doesn’t get out.” Pinkie explained. “There are no windows or exits out of the basement, so the kitchen is the only way he can escape!” she chirped, reaching into her mane. “And when he tries that…” she pulled a frying pan seemingly out of nowhere, “BAM!” she shouted, swinging the pan to demonstrate.

“I guess that’s a sound enough plan…” Twilight mused, only for the sound of something shattering to suddenly pierce the air from under the floorboards. Twilight winced. “Of course, that does mean that he’s free to break anything he wants while you wait for the guard.”

Pinkie nodded, worry clear on her face. “Yeah, there’s been a lot of banging and thumping and crashing from down there. That’s where the cakes keep most of their stock, and if too much is damaged, they won’t have anything to make goodies from! And the next delivery isn’t for another couple months!”

Twilight tapped her chin. “Well, now that I’m here, maybe the two of us can overpower the intruder?” she suggested, “After all, we’ve all faced a lot worse, right?”

Pinkie gasped. “Twilight! That’s a super ultra amazing wonderfully fantastical idea!” she squealed, grabbing a police hat seemingly out of nowhere and slapping it on Twilight’s head. She giggled, shoving a police baton in Twilight’s mouth. “We can be like buddy cops! I’ll be the grumpy, by the book, jaded cop that’s a week from retirement, and you can be the loose cannon, newbie cop on the edge that don’t take no flank from nopony!”

Twilight blinked for a moment before spitting the baton out and levitating the hat off of her head. “Yeah, sure Pinkie, whatever,” she mumbled, approaching the trapdoor with a roll of her eyes.

“Don’t you sass me, Rookie!” Pinkie growled, an angry snarl on her face, before the act broke and she fell over giggling.

Twilight sighed as she stood over the trapdoor. “Alright, here’s the plan.” she said, looking at the latch to the door. “You whip the door open, and I’ll fire a stunning spell down into the basement. Once the flash goes off, we’ll rush in and I’ll grab the burglar with my magic, while you grab a rope or something we can tie him up with.”

“You’re gonna get us both killed, Rookie!” Pinkie growled.

“Pinkie!” Twilight snapped. “Focus!”

Pinkie giggled. “Oki Doki Loki, Twi! I gotcha!”

Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “On my mark.” She said, staring intensely at the door. “One…”

Pinkie grabbed the latch. Twilight’s horn lit up in a faint glow.

“...Two…”

Pinkie’s surprisingly considerable muscles tensed and coiled. The glow around Twilight’s horn grew brighter.

“THREE!”

The trapdoor was yanked open in one swift motion as Twilight fired a searing hot, white burst of magic down into the basement. Twilight and Pinkie quickly turned their heads away as the room below suddenly lit up in a flash of bright, blinding white light with a massive KA-BLAM!

“Now, Pinkie!!” Twilight shouted, darting into the basement, Pinkie close behind.

“CONSARNIT! WHAT IN THE NAME OF GRAMPY APPLESEED, MY EYES!” Came the shout as Twilight suddenly skidded to a halt, Pinkie tripping over her.

The two ponies tumbled a moment before coming to a halt in front of a writhing orange earth pony, clutching at her eyes and stumbling around the basement. Several large jugs of something were sitting at her hooves, one of them spilling its contents all over the stone floor of the basement. A single sniff told Twilight it was rum.

Twilight picked herself up, looking pointedly at the intruder. Her eyes were wide and staring with deep bags under them, her mane tangled and bedraggled. Her hooves were chipped and her coat was stained and dirty with sweat and grime. Twilight could smell the pungent scent of alcohol all over the mare.

“Applejack?” Twilight asked, stunned.

“WHAT?!”

* * *

Applebloom skidded to a halt in a little copse of trees hidden a few dozen meters from the front of the schoolhouse. It was only a few minutes before the school bell would ring and there was already a large crowd of foals gathered in the front yard of the building, conversing, playing, running around, and just generally acting like colts and fillies should.

“That was awesome!” Scootaloo squealed, flipping out of Applebloom’s basin. “It was like being on my scooter, but with no control over where we went! It was totally like being on a roller coaster!” She said, buzzing her wings and hovering a little.

“Oooooog…” Sweetie Belle groaned, curled up at the bottom of the wagon.

“Sorry, Sweetie” Applebloom muttered, her little emblem flashing faintly as she did. “Didn’t mean for the ride to be so bumpy.”

“You didn’t HAVE to take the shortcut through the construction site.” Sweetie Belle protested. “It was super dangerous and we could have gotten hurt!”

“But it was so cool!” Scootaloo said with a little whine. “And we might have been late if we hadn’t taken it. Now we’re early!”

“You shouldn’t pressure her to do things like that, though!” Sweetie Belle replied to the orange filly. She looked back down at the bottom of the wagon, addressing Applebloom. “Bloom, you only learned about this part of yourself yesterday. You should be more careful. You don’t know everything you can do yet, and you shouldn’t be dragging us through dangerous places when you’ve only had your wheels for half a day!”

Applebloom sighed, the little wagon dipping closer to the ground. “You’re right, Sweetie.” she mumbled. “Sorry.”

“Awww…” Scootaloo said. “Fine… but when she gets better at her wheels, then we can do cooler runs!”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “Anyway, you should transform here behind these trees,” she said, climbing out of the wagon and landing on the ground with a soft puff of dust. “You don’t want to transform in front of the whole class and freak everypony out.”

Applebloom sagged a little, but then the familiar sound of shifting metal rang out and where the wagon stood one minute, the little yellow form of a filly stood seconds later.

BONG BONG BONG

The school bell rang out, signaling the beginning of class in five minutes for all the colts and fillies in the schoolyard. The gathering of foals in front of the school quickly dropped what they were doing and filed into line as Miss Cheerilee appeared in the schoolhouse doorway.

“Alright, time for class!” Sweetie chirped. “Come on, girls!”

“I dunno…” Applebloom said, shuffling a hoof on the ground.

“What’s the matter, Bloom?” Scootaloo asked, fastening her saddlebags around her barrel.

“It’s just,” Applebloom murmured, looking away, “Sweetie is right,” she said. “I don’t know diddly-squat there is to know about me. What if I’m sitting in the middle of class and somepony says some kooky magic word like ‘Bah Weep Granah Weep Ninny Bon’ and I suddenly enter ‘Attack Mode’ and start shooting everypony with laser eye beams and buzzsaws?”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes and huffed. “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?” Applebloom asked.

“Trying to get off the scooter!” She said, poking Applebloom in the chest. “What, are you just going to shut yourself away for the rest of your life because you’re scared you might hurt somepony? That’s what stupid ponies do in bad comics and radio shows! Are you gonna be a stupid comic book character, Applebloom? Are you?!”

Applebloom blinked. “But-”

“But NOTHING!” Scootaloo stomped her hoof. “You’ve fallen in a vat of alchemical ooze and gotten your superpowers and I’m not going to let you keep them bottled up! Come on, Sweetie!” She said, trotting behind Applebloom and pushing her flank with her head, scooting her along the ground towards the schoolhouse. Moments later, Sweetie Belle moved in next to her and started pushing her as well.

“Wait! Gals!” Applebloom protested.

“Nope!” Scootaloo said. “You’re going to school and you’re gonna get over yourself! Besides, what are the chances somepony will say some sort of killswitch word and you’ll go insane? If it was gonna happen, it’d have happened by now!”

“Scootaloo’s right!” Sweetie Belle said as she pushed Applebloom’s flank. “We’re not going to let you shut yourself in a cellar or a cave or something just because you’re feeling paranoid! We’d be terrible friends if we let you do that!”

“I-” Applebloom stammered as she was pushed out of the copse of trees and into the open. “I dunno what to say,” she mumbled.

“You can thank us later.” Scootaloo said, releasing her flank. “Now come on, Bloom! It’s time to show off your new-”

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF BUCKING CELESTIA?!”

The three little ponies turned to see an absolutely seething little pink pony with a purple and white mane and a tiara on both her head and her flank, gritting her teeth and pointing at the three of them. Standing next to her with a befuddled, wide-eyed look on her face behind her thick glasses was a grey pony with a lighter grey mane. The pink pony snorted air out of her nostrils like a bull ready to charge for a few moments before seeming to take a deep breath and come down from seething rage down to just a deep, angry scowl.

“Hello, Diamond Tiara.” Scootaloo said with a deadpan eyeroll.

“How…” Diamond Tiara snarled, stomping up to them, the earth seeming to shake as her hooves hit the ground. “When and how did YOU get a cutie mark?!” She demanded, shoving her face right into Applebloom’s.

“Last night!” Sweetie Belle squeaked happily. “Guess you don’t have anything to hold over her head now, huh, Diamond?”

“That little ‘Blank Flank’ taunt is kinda meaningless when she has her cutie mark after all,” Scootaloo said snidely. “Guess you’ll have to find some other pony to pick on.”

“Come on, Diamond, let’s go.” Silver Spoon mumbled.

“No!” Diamond hissed. “You’re not getting off that easy, Applebloom!” The farm filly shrunk into herself a little as the pink filly looked the three of them over, her eyes narrowed dangerously before she zeroed in on Applebloom’s mark and she smirked evilly. “What is that even supposed to mean? An apple with a face? How pathetic.” She laughed, forcefully. “Bet you just realized you like shoving apples down your stupid face!”

“It’s for mechanics!” Scootaloo protested. “For your information, she… She built a robot last night!”

Applebloom blinked. “What?!” she whispered to her friend only to have Scootaloo slap a hoof over her mouth.

Diamond raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. “A robot? Seriously? That’s what you’re going with?”

“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle snorted. “She built a robot! Bet that’s more than you’ve ever done, Tiara!”

The pink filly snarled before regaining her composure. “I don’t believe you,” she growled.

“You don’t have to believe us.” Scootaloo said, waving her off. “You just gotta know that whatever it is she did to get her mark, it was definitely a cooler story than whatever you did to get yours!”

Diamond pulled a hoof back, looking like she was ready to sock Scootaloo in the face, only for Silver Spoon to grab her hoof and hold her back. “Diamond, no!” Silver protested. “They aren’t worth it.”

Diamond Tiara took a deep breath, before putting her hoof down and looking at the three of them, emotionlessly. “You know something?” Diamond said, not a trace of feeling in her voice, “I’m not mad.” She chuckled weakly. “I mean, after all, what are you three?” she asked. “A clumsy pegasus with stunted wings that will never fly, a tone deaf unicorn who can’t do magic, and an inbred, mud pony hick with the town bicycle for a sister!”

“That’s enough!” Applebloom roared.

The little yellow filly stomped forward, pushing Diamond Tiara away with surprising strength. The bully stumbled back a few paces before regaining her footing. “Y’all can say whatever you want about me,” Applebloom snarled, her teeth gritted, “but I am sick and tired of you talking about my friends like that!” Her eyes started glowing a fierce yellow. Diamond Tiara started to shrink in on herself, just as Applebloom had before. “And now y’all’re trying to bring my sister into it? I have had ENOUGH OF YOU!” She said, stomping the ground. The ground cracked under her hoof. She leaned into the pink bully’s face, her eyes glowing with such intensity that Diamond’s eyes started to water as she looked into them. “If y’all say ONE MORE thing about my friends or family, I am going to-”

“What’s going on over there?!” came the familiar voice of a certain mulberry teacher from across the schoolyard.

Applebloom’s eyes suddenly stopped glowing as she realized herself. Straightening back up, she looked down at Diamond Tiara, who was now shivering on the ground, plainly trying not to cry. Applebloom took a few steps backwards, taking a few panicked deep breaths as she realized just how close to actually hurting Diamond Tiara she was. At the same time, Tiara took a few deep breaths herself, blinking away the nascent tears and regaining her composure. Silver Spoon quickly scampered up to Diamond and patted her on the back, attempting to calm her down as Cheerilee trotted up to the group. The Mulberry schoolmarm looked over the group. “Well?” she asked. “What’s happening here?”

“I-” Applebloom opened her mouth to respond, only to see Diamond Tiara wave a hoof in front of her neck and speak for herself.

“Nothing, Miss Cheerilee.” Diamond responded, glaring at Applebloom. “Nothing happened here.”

Cheerilee looked over the group before looking down at Silver Spoon. “Is that true?”

Silver Spoon nodded. “Yes, Miss Cheerilee.”

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow, before turning to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. “Girls, did anything happen?” she asked, pointedly.

Both of the fillies looked between each other for a moment before shaking their heads. “Nothing happened here, Miss Cheerilee” Scootaloo said.

Cheerilee hemmed and hawed for a moment, looking between the group. Diamond Tiara’s face was stony, while Applebloom’s seemed filled with worry, her brow covered in sweat. The other crusaders and Silver Spoon all seemed mildly nervous. Still, none of them had any traces of wounds or bruises and there hadn’t been any physical confrontation that she’d seen or could prove. The teacher eventually sighed. “Alright then,” she said, skeptically, before looking pointedly at Diamond Tiara. “Let’s keep out of trouble. That goes for all of you.”

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee.” They all said together.

Cheerilee nodded towards the schoolhouse. “Now let’s hurry up.” She said “We’re holding up the rest of the class out here.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle scampered off towards the schoolhouse at a speedy pace while Diamond and Silver Spoon gave Applebloom one last glare before strutting off towards the open door. Applebloom slowly went to follow them, legs shaking when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. “Just a moment, Applebloom.” she heard Cheerilee speak. Applebloom’s breath caught and she gulped as she turned to look at Cheerilee. To her surprise, though, the schoolteacher was smiling widely.

“I see you finally got your cutie mark!” The teacher said cheerfully, true to her name. “Congratulations!”

Applebloom blinked, looking at her flank and then back to the teacher. “Oh… y-yeah!” she stuttered with a nervous chuckle. “I got it last night!”

“That’s wonderful, Applebloom!” The teacher said with a toothy grin. “What’s it for?”

“Um… mechanics.” Applebloom muttered with a nervous smile.

“Ahhhh…” Cheerilee nodded. “I always knew you were good with your hooves, Applebloom! How’d you get it?”

“I um…” the filly stuttered. “I built a robot?” she said uncertainly with a little squeak.

The smile quickly slipped off of Cheerilee’s face. “A robot you say…?” The teacher’s face looked ponderous for a moment before a knowing smirk reappeared. “How interesting.” The teacher looked a little closer at Applebloom’s mark. “Now that I look at it, your mark looks rather… familiar, Applebloom.”

“Um, yeah…” Applebloom said, shuffling a hoof on the ground before taking a deep breath. “Miss Cheerilee, I can tell you anything, right?”

“Of course, Applebloom.” Cheerilee said with an earnest smile. “But if I’m right, this is going to be a pretty long story, isn’t it?”

“Um… kinda.” Applebloom chuckled nervously.

The teacher patted her on the head. “Then how about we wait until after class is over?” she suggested. “That way, we’ll have all the time in the world and plenty of privacy. That sound good?”

“Y-yeah…” Applebloom let out a relieved breath. “That sounds great.”

“Now come along,” Cheerilee said, beckoning Applebloom to follow, “class is starting.”

Applebloom smiled a little, following her teacher into the classroom. The Ponyville Schoolhouse was a bigger building than most people would expect, containing four classrooms and covering eight grades. A hallway ran around the exterior of the four rooms, lined with lockers and billboards and projects the various students of Ponyville had completed. The fillies and colts of Ponyville would go to school every other day, save for Sunday when all colts and fillies had school off. Grades 1, 3, 5, and 7 had class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while grades 2, 4, 6, and 8 went to class on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Ponies who graduated from school tended to go into apprenticeships soon after leaving school. Ponies who didn’t yet know what they wanted to do in life, though, sometimes attended high schools, and ponies who wanted more academic jobs in the scientific, alchemical, or magical fields tended to go into universities, but those sorts of schools were mostly only found in bigger cities like Manehattan, Vanhoover, and Canterlot. This was the way things tended to be all across Equestria.

Applebloom slipped into the grade 5 and 6 classroom behind Cheerilee, taught both grades 5 and 6 from her teacher’s desk at the front. The teacher quickly stepped behind the desk, while Applebloom slipped into her desk between Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

The orange pegasus filly leaned over and whispered into Applebloom’s ear. “What’s up?” she muttered. “You took a while out there.”

“Nothing bad,” Applebloom replied, whispering herself. “I’m going to stay after class to talk to Miss Cheerilee though.” She looked around the room to see Diamond Tiara glaring at her. If looks could kill, Applebloom’s head would have split open at the mouth and spiders would have crawled up her throat and devoured her. She shuddered. “Good thing too. Hopefully I’ll get somepony else who’ll have my back.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “If the story Big Mac told us this morning is true, she’ll support you.”

“Quiet down, everypony!” Cheerilee called from the front of the room. The three ponies all turned toward the front and stopped talking. “Now today, we’re going to be talking about the digestive system!”

The class let out a collective groan at the topic of choice for the day. Cheerilee chuckled. “I know, I know, you’ve all heard the ‘Magic School Carriage’ radio plays, so you all think you know about the topic.” she winked. “But there might be some things the show passed over, after all. And besides, if you all know it so well it’ll just be that much easier, won’t it?”

The lesson began, Cheerilee drawing a diagram of the pony digestive system on the chalkboard. Cheerilee explained the purpose of the mouth and teeth, the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestines, and the large intestines to a classroom full of bored fillies and colts. As she explained the purpose and function of each part, though, Applebloom found herself paying rapt attention, at least at first. The more Cheerilee went on, the more Applebloom found her mind wandering.

The filly tapped her chin. ‘This is how a pony works, but I’m not actually a pony, am I?’ she thought as she stared at the chalk organs drawn on the board. ‘If I’m a robot, how do I eat? How do I go to the bathroom? What’s going on inside of me? I’ve never actually been to a doctor, come to think of it. Applejack and Granny Smith never really trusted doctors.’ Applebloom lowered her eyes, looking down at her desk. ‘I ain’t never been x-rayed or gotten a shot or had a doctor look in my eyes or down my throat… I don’t know the first thing about what’s going on in my own body!’ her thoughts raced.

Something thumped.

‘How am I eating? Shouldn’t I be chugging, like, oil or something? If I got guts, how do they not get all tangled and mangled when I transform? Do I have a brain? Do I have lungs? I can think and breathe, so I must, but what are they like? Are my bones made of metal? What about my muscles? And if my insides are all roboty, why am I soft and squishy and covered in fur like a pony if I’m metal on the inside? How did nopony notice this before now?

A glass of water on Cheerilee’s desk rippled.

‘If I’m a machine, how do I get tired? How do I feel pain? How do I have feelings at all? Am I really feeling things or am I just feeling some sort of… fake, programmed version of them? Is there even a difference? How can I know? What in the world AM I?!

The windows rattled outside the room.

“Alright, who’s making that fuss?” Cheerilee snapped, cutting off her lesson.

That was when the wall exploded.

Everypony screamed in terror, ducking under desks and hiding behind furnature as debris flew into the room. Burning wood splinters, smouldering books, ruined school projects and cork shards from the destroyed billboards and even metal scraps and glass shards from the lockers and windows in the hallways flew into the room at high speeds, peppering the students and teacher as the lot of them ran and ducked under cover. The explosion knocked a number of the little ponies from their feet, some of them suffering mild burns from the fiery blast. Scootaloo was one who found her primary feathers and mane and tail singed in the burst of flame that flew into the room as quickly as it was gone. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were knocked over in their desks, scrabbling to crawl out of them as the students around them screamed, Cheerilee calling for all of them to quickly get into single file and follow emergency procedures. Her voice, however, was lost among the din of the screams of pain and terror from the foals and fillies running around the classroom and ducking for cover like panicked chickens.

Everything seemed to slow down for Applebloom as she suddenly felt a massive pain in her skull. She felt dizzy as she pulled herself out from her desk. Everypony around her seemed to be moving in a weird, choppy sort of slow motion, as if she were slowly looking at the pages of a flip book one by one rather than flipping through it as one was meant to. The little filly stumbled and shook her head as she tried to maintain her balance, but that only sent a spike of pain worse than any she’d felt before through her skull. She heard somebody call her name, but turning to look for the source caused another lance of pain to fire through her head and she fell to her knees, staring blankly out the massive hole that had been blown into the wall. She felt something dripping down her face. She reached up to feel it, another shot of pain rushing through her head and down her spine. As she brought away her hoof, she noticed that it was coated blue with some sort of glowing, viscous fluid. Her vision flickered, when she suddenly saw Miss Cheerilee standing over her. The mare bent down and grabbed something in her teeth, quickly pulling it away. It turned out to be a huge shard of twisted metal from a destroyed locker, coated blue with the same fluid. ‘Was that in my head?’ Applebloom thought, drowsily.

“Oh... is this really it?” A booming voice said from outside the hole. The smoke and dust cleared and the ponies laid eyes on their attacker. A massive red and black robot, easily as tall as the schoolhouse itself. Its orange eyes glowed with malice as it stared into the wrecked room before locking on Applebloom in particular. “I was hoping I’d find something more interesting after searching that ship, but of course I’d just find a little nest of screaming organics and an allspark-damned autobot minicon that goes down after a single blow to the head. Just my luck, I suppose.”

Applebloom’s head swam. ‘Minicon?’ her thoughts latched onto lazily.

The giant robot seemed to sigh. “Oh well. I suppose it’s time I eliminated the big, bad ‘Autobot Threat’ Shockwave seems so frightened of,” he said noncomittaly, as he reached into the room towards the prone, blue-bleeding filly. He stuck out a shining, metal tongue that looked like mercury and licked it around two large fangs gleaming menacingly in his mouth. “At least you’ll make a nice snack to tide me over until I can find something decent to eat...”

“Leave her alone!” Cheerilee screamed, planting her hooves to the ground in front of Applebloom and lowering her head, about to charge. The schoolteacher snorted and pawed at the ground, like a rhino ready to gore something. “You will NOT touch my student!”

The massive robot seemed to raise an eyebrow for a second before snorting out a noncommittal chuckle and raising his hand like a minotaur about to knock away a spider. With just a flick of its index finger, the massive robot sent Cheerilee sailing across the room, her back colliding with a large bookshelf. The teacher cried out in pain as a cracking noise rang out through the room, then slumped to the ground, not able to move away in time as the contents of the shelf all spilled out atop her, before the shelf itself lost its balance and fell, burying the mulberry pony alive.

“Now then…” the robot said, as if nothing at all had just happened, “The ‘Autobot Threat.’” He said, reaching into the room and grabbing Applebloom up in his massive hand.

“Applebloom!” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both shouted at the same time, leaping for her, but the massive robot pulled his arm away too quickly, and the two of them ended up grabbing nothing but air. The little filly emerged out of the hole in the wall in his massive hand and into the open.

The robot sneered, tightening his grip around Applebloom. Even in her dazed, bleeding state, the filly felt the massive metal hand crushing her insides in the vicegrip of his hand. She screamed through the pain, her every attempt to move futile in his tight, crushing grip.

“This’ll be quick…” he muttered through a small smirk.