The mornings would come later, as winter approached this time of year. The one thing Apple Bloom liked least about this season was having to look forward to getting up before the sun came up. So it was a small favor that as a pony, her obligation to get up and get ready for school was gone. She didn’t have to look forward to waking up early anymore, at least. Or look forward to anything, for that matter.
Waking up on the second day wasn’t quite as disorienting as when she woke up the previous morning, but it was pretty weird. Apple Bloom was in her bed when she woke up this time, snug under her smooth sheets and warm blankets. She wondered for a groggy moment just how the heck her pillow had gotten so giant. Then, she looked down at her furry little forelegs hooked neatly over the edge of the blankets. Apple Bloom sighed, and the sigh turned into a whimper, but she shook her head fiercely, squaring her jaw or... scrunching it or something, determined she wasn’t going to just up and cry like a baby, not even about this.
She just wanted it all to be a bad dream, to wake up her old self again, even if her old self did have to go back to that stupid high school. At least that would result in cool things eventually as she was told. School would give her all the world of possibility for anything she wanted to do, as long as she put her nose to the grindstone and stuck with it despite it not seeming helpful in the slightest at the time. But like this? How was she going to major in anything now? Grass eating? Hoofy kicks? Awful lisping?
Her mouth problems weren’t quite as bad from her practicing, at least not by the time Apple Bloom had near passed out from how late it was getting. They were still pretty bad, though. Apple Bloom was starting to feel self conscious about talking at all, when someone else was in the room, because she sure did sound funny, and who was going to understand her anyway? She tried so hard to say ‘s’ without whistling and it was just... she wasn’t sure how to do it. All Apple Bloom had really figured out about speaking so far was that she didn’t know how to say ‘s’ in the first place. When she thought about it, why didn’t it sound like whistling to say ‘s’ when you put your tongue like that, and exhaled? There had to be some trick to it. Or maybe Apple Bloom wasn’t supposed to talk in the first place.
Because she was a fucking horse.
Swearing silently to herself, Apple Bloom rolled over in bed, trying to get up. The plush mattress was challenging to stand on with just your toes, but it was huge compared to Apple Bloom now, so she had plenty of room to walk before she had to deal with the edge. It looked like a... long way down. She fidgeted at the edge of her bed nervously, wondering if she should call for help, or just try to work up the will to just jump. It couldn’t be that far down. It just looked like it, on account of how small she was now.
Apple Bloom hadn’t gotten herself into bed last night. She didn’t know who it was at first, because she had dozed off on the floor, falling asleep on her feet practically. It had been a struggle to rouse her attention back then, even when big strong arms wrapped around her body and lifted her up, depositing her gently in a comfy softness that Apple Bloom sluggishly recognized as her bed. It was just so easy to fall asleep; she hadn’t even wanted to open her eyes. The blankets were pulled up to her neck, and with a slight hesitation, the heavy comforter on top removed. Apple Bloom was quite warm though. Having fur did that to you.
She did crack her eyes open at the “G’night sis,” recognizing the sound of her brother’s voice. The window in her room was pitch black with night, until he retreated to the hallway, switching off Apple Bloom’s light. She yawned in the darkness as her eyes started to adjust, the speckles of stars glinting through overhead, as the blackness in her window adjusted to its tiny amount of tiny light, soft and blue.
And... then Apple Bloom awoke. She hadn’t even noticed falling asleep.
Apple Bloom hadn’t had any dreams she could recall last night. She hoped horse... things like herself had dreams. Maybe she could dream about being human again. ...something about that seemed really unsatisfying.
But this morning, on the edge of her bed, Apple Bloom was thorougly awake, and not going to get one more lick of sleep. Her throat was parched, and her stomach was grumbling earnestly. Not that Apple Bloom got to look forward to breakfast, or anything. Just grass, grass and more grass. But first, she had to get to the floor.
Wiggling to the edge of the bed, she managed to stand shakily, but she didn’t know how to turn around to slide down backwards. She finally just tensed up, and shoved off with her hind legs, and they slipped back against the sheets, sending her flying face first into the floor. “Woah! Uff!”
Moaning disconsolately, Apple Bloom lifted her head, then braced her hands—hooves, and her feet—her other hooves. Then, she rose to her ‘standing’ position, if you could even call it standing. What she felt like standing, was as if she were still lying down on her belly, but up on stilts. Apple Bloom wobbled around walking in a broad circle, coming right back to her bed, and strutting up to it with purpose. The light faded in her eyes though, as she looked up at her bedpost.
Apple Bloom reached out... that is to say, she stretched out her neck, and bit down on a very familiar thick pink ribbon. A tug of her head pulled it easily off the bedpost, where it pooled uselessly at her hooves. She looked at her clothing bureau, and back to her fallen ribbon, and both her ears and tail went down. It really was impossible, then. She couldn’t wear clothes anymore. She...
She couldn’t even tie her own bow anymore.
The other members of her family were already up, not having slept nearly as long as she did. Apple Bloom couldn’t quite figure why she’d need more sleep. Maybe it was a horse thing. But that meant more trouble for her, and more embarassment. She bit down on her ribbon again, shaking her head back and forth until she managed to whip it up over her shoulders. She left it dangling there, and started her slow walk to the head of the stairwell, the ribbon trailing on the floor along behind her as she did.
Someone was down in the kitchen below, cooking up what smelled like... Apple Bloom inhaled carefully... pancakes and ... oh lord almighty did Apple Bloom want bacon so bad. That smoked ambrosia that cut the sweetness of syrup like a lumberjack split apart a cord of wood tickled her nose like nobody’s business. She’d make her way down the yawning abyss that was the stairs all on her own if it meant she could get a piece of that.
That was just an impossible fantasy though, on both counts. The bacon, and the stairs. Apple Bloom squeezed her eyes shut self consciously, and called out, “Hey! Coul’ ah ge’ some helpf here?” Her words didn’t come out sounding... too bad. It was Applejack who poked her head around the kitchen doorway and said, “Apple Bloom, you’re up! How’re ya doin’?”
“Hungry,” Apple Bloom said, resentful of her own stomach.
That quenched the brightness in Applejack’s eyes, and she said abashedly, “Oh, yeah. ‘course. Sorry about... ah mean... it was right thoughtless of me–”
“Ah needh help wif mah bow,” Apple Bloom said, before her sister could apologize herself into the floor. “And... shtairs,” Apple Bloom mumbled inaudibly. Her head drooped down along with her ears again.
“Well, sure thing, sis!” Applejack exclaimed enthusiastically, charging up the stairs fast enough to make Apple Bloom’s head (and ears) snap up straight. “Whoops, sorry didn’t mean to spook uh... startle you,” Applejack said pulling back from Apple Bloom.
“Ith fine,” Apple Bloom said resignedly, holding up a hoof with the ribbon dangling over it. “Jus’ please ah... ah wantehd to wear at leasht shomething!”
“We can hook you up with some doll uh some pet uh... clothes...” Applejack shut up inelegantly, and just started tying on Apple Bloom’s bow. Standing back and adjusting it, then critically appraising her work, Applejack assured her sister, “We’ll figure something out.”
Apple Bloom gave her a look, then said “ok, fine.” She sat back on her haunches, and held her front hooves up for Applejack to take ahold of. Applejack looked at her, confused. Apple Bloom glowered at her and prompted, “Pick me up!”
Applejack nodded numbly, and lifted up Apple Bloom by her waist, holding Apple Bloom to her chest from behind, hands hooked around underneath Apple Bloom’s forearms, then stood there uncertainly. “Ok...?” Applejack said uncertainly.
“Go down the shtairs,” Apple Bloom instructed, pointing down the stairwell imperiously. Applejack descended the stairs, with Apple Bloom swinging in her arms. Once she reached the bottom, Apple Bloom said, “OK now put me down.” Applejack did so somewhat robotically.
“Thanks shis!” Apple Bloom finished with a bright smile. Applejack blinked at her, then said in realization,
“Oh right, the stairs! Dang, those must be giant for you!”
“Ah’ll geth the hang of it eventhually,” Apple Bloom said, turning away to hide her blush and walking to the kitchen in as much grace as she could manage.
“Hold on, wait just,” Applejack interjected, hurling herself in-between Apple Bloom and the delicious baconkitchen, “Sorry you don’t wanna go in there ah was just cookin’ up some bacon and oh lordy ah’m sorry you can go outside if it’s too bad a smell.”
“Itsh okay,” Apple Bloom said leaning on Applejack as she sauntered her away around Applejack’s legs. “Ah don’ mindh it one bit,”
“So, it still smells alright to you?” Applejack said confusedly, “Because you’re a... little... horse and all.”
Apple Bloom looked back at Applejack and gave an exasperated sigh. “It shmellsh sho good. Y’have no idear. Ah wish ah coul’ have some.” Her voice was starting to get trembly near the end, so she just shut up and walked over to where the bale of alfalfa, with a little bit chewed out of it, was still sitting against the wall, right next to her water ...bucket.
“Well alright, if you’re okay with it,” Applejack said uneasily, walking back to the sizzling pan, from which she poured off the excess grease just as God intended. Apple Bloom walked outside through the propped open back door, filled up her water bucket and returned. Big Mac met her on the way back in, him returning from taking the cows out to pasture. By then, Applejack was already onto the pancakes, frying them in the leftover bacon grease just as God intended. This was just about as holy a breakfast as you could get, without sacrificing a pig on the altar.
The alfalfa tasted as pleasantly mild to Apple Bloom as ever, but there was a bitterness in her heart that the most pleasant taste couldn’t get rid of. Apple Bloom felt like she was a stranger, watching her family eat breakfast. She hadn’t even bothered with trying to sit at the table, just standing beside the bale of what was now food. Apple Bloom couldn’t even eat the same things as them anymore. Could she even call herself an Apple anymore? She was more closely related to Winona now, than Applejack, or any of the others.
Plus, the smell was driving her absolutely bonkers. Apple Bloom had to hold herself back from shuffling towards the table, when the sweet smell of maple syrup hit her nose. She wondered if she could put maple syrup on hay. That sounded like an awful idea, but, maybe, just a... little bit and... and then her hooves go and fall off. Why did the stupid vet have to have such frightening warnings?! Apple Bloom always knew it was wrong for horses to have sugar, and it could kill them but... she never had to be the horse who can’t have the sugar cubes.
She looked down at her hoof, front left, while in the slow process of chewing through more alfalfa. The hoof itself, her fingernail so to speak, was still the same color as her fur. It hadn’t bled out pink like the rest of her skin. She settled back and tapped it with her other front hoof, the clop noise resounding as they clicked together. It was so weird having these things. Giant thick fingernails, and an oddly pliable fingertip that stiffened up nicely whenever she put weight on it. Her frog really was huge, proportionally at least. Apple Bloom knew from experience that with real horses, they had a big empty cavernous space in there, with a tiny little V of thick skinned, barely pliable flesh, on the inner part of the hoof. These hooves Apple Bloom had just looked... different, from that. Very slightly convex, but pliable, and instead of touching down with only her nail, she could really get a good grip when she braced them on the floor.
But no matter how different her hooves were, the thought of that big thick hoof nail detaching, and filling underneath with painful, infected, nasty... it was rightly terrifying. So Apple Bloom continued to eat her hay like a good little horsie, and tried to ignore the wonderful smells coming from the table, at which her loving family sat. Someone’s loving family, at any rate.
After breakfast, Applejack and Granny Smith headed off to Canterlot High in their beatup old pickup, leaving Apple Bloom and Big Mac stranded on their lonesome, three miles away from the nearest bus stop. Soon as they left, Big Macintosh came up quietly behind Apple Bloom, who was watching the truck drive away. Once it was out of sight, she turned at last to give him her attention, and he knelt down in front of her holding up a piece of.......
“Saved a piece,” he said. “Should be alright. Got salt in it and–”
Apple Bloom snatched the little strip of bacon out of his hands faster than you could blink exclaiming “Thank you! Thank you! Thanhk you!” She brought her other hoof up to cradle it between the two front ones, looking at it like a treasure, the little slice of fatty meat. Then she took the smallest of little nibbles out of the tip of it. Her eyes rolled up and her foot thumped on the ground as she exclaimed, “Oh man ah neededh htat.”
Big Macintosh gave her a confused look in response. “How’d you do that?” he asked.
“Do wha’?” she said taking another teeny nibble of bacon. Her incisors were just perfect to bite off little crunchy pieces you didn’t have to chew apart.
“Holdin’ it, ah mean,” he said, pointing at the bacon.
Apple Bloom tilted her head, “You mean wif mah hooves pinned togezher?” She held up the bacon, clumsily pinned between her hooves. Didn’t seem all that hard to imagine. One hoof, two hooves, bacon in between?
“No ah mean, before ya– ahh, never mind.” Big Mac stood up, turning to walk away. He looked back at Apple Bloom one more time, and gave a little smile saying, “Enjoy.”
Apple Bloom nodded brightly, taking another teeny little bite. Maybe if she ate it slow enough, it would last long enough to satisfy her.
It didn’t.
Big Macintosh actually spent a good portion of the day with his schoolwork, retreating upstairs to read quietly. Most people didn’t even know he was a techie. Though his reserved nature and his nonexistent social life kind of predisposed him for that sort of thing, he just didn’t look the part. Didn’t even really fit in with them at school. Still, it left him with plenty to study, certainly more than Apple Bloom ever wanted to take on. Or at least she hadn’t ever, until now.
Apple Bloom made herself busy with an old football, kicking it around in the backyard. The day was overcast, but not rainy. It was weird kicking a ball with hooves, but it was pretty easily mastered. Your front hooves, you just walked into it, and your back hooves you turned your back to it and pretended it was a snake. But seriously though, back kicks were easy. Part and parcel of being a horse, no doubt.
Problem is, having mastered kicking around a ball, Apple Bloom was getting bored of it. It was so dang quiet around here. The cows were all taken care of, the pigs were all slopped, the horses were too terrifying to contemplate. They’d gotten so used to this new school schedule that the farm practically operated itself, nowadays. So finally, Apple Bloom just ended up in the farm house again, looking up the stairs where Big Macintosh was studying in his room. She wondered if he’d share with her.
Anything would be better than just repetitively kicking a ball around, in mindless circles.
Apple Bloom stared up the stairwell apprehensively. They didn’t look that intimidating at least... at least not from the bottom. The lowest step, she could get up on just by rearing up slightly. At that point, it was just pulling herself up like a mountain climber. She was surprised at how easy it was, in fact, though she doubted it would be nearly as easy going down.
The hall was like she remembered it. Same hall as she always walked down, just bigger and wider, with the undersides of the tables in view instead of the top side. It felt like her home, but it didn’t look like it from down here, and that unnerved her. She hurried to Big Mac’s door and climbed up against it, lifting one of her front hooves to rap several times, then climbing down to stand squarely in front of it.
Big Macintosh opened the door and turned his head down, noticing her immediately down there. She gave him an earnest look and said, “Big Mac, can ah shtudy wif you?”
His eyes softened as he gazed down at her, and she waited for him to say yes, but instead he just said “D’aww.”
Apple Bloom blushed hotly and turned her head away.
“C’mon in,” Big Mac said above her, heedless of her embarassment, turning around and returning to his drafting table. What could she do though? He was totally right, so Apple Bloom just shuffled in behind him.
Big Mac’s room was... well, big, but that’s a given now. He had a bureau dresser like she did, but taller and narrower, and a bed that wasn’t a poster bed, and a broadly surfaced desk, or drafting table is what Apple Bloom liked to call it. As she walked in, Apple Bloom noticed kind of a funny smell in here, that she somehow found familiar. It wasn’t any kind of food smell she could place though.
She walked over to where Big Macintosh was sitting in his chair. There were a couple piles of textbooks on the floor around him to make space for the desk. Apple Bloom placed her hoof on some sort of Electronics reference text, one of the books on top of one of the piles. She figured how to flip it open, but soon found she was worried about tearing the pages with those solid hooves of hers. She tried rubbing her cheek against one, and found she could flip them pretty easily with her nose, if slowly. It wasn’t like she was in a hurry to read it, though. It was way above her level anyway, talking about ohms and integrals and circuitry terminology, as if the reader already knew all that stuff.
“Don’t ya have your own books?” Big Macintosh asked, looking down with concern at the confounded-at-Electronics Apple Bloom.
“Lef’ ‘em at shcool,” she answered unhappily, not even looking up. “Most of ‘em are in mah locker.”
“Ah’ll call AJ,” Big Macintosh said, making to stand up, “She can pick them up on her way back.”
“What’sh the pointh?!” Apple Bloom shouted surprisingly loudly, at the poor, unsuspecting Electronics textbook. She looked up then, and her brother looked down at her wordlessly, his soulful gaze an epic in of itself. Apple Bloom sighed.
“Ah’m goin’ to bed,” she mumbled, turning from the book and walking out of Big Macintosh’s room. She didn’t even really care that her ears were tilted down again.
After having failed to get up on her own bed, Apple Bloom had just collapsed on the floor in disgust. She traced her forehooves around in circles on the floorboards. She really should get her textbooks. This might not be permanent, after all. Or maybe she could be the first horse... something smart. Apple Bloom just didn’t feel like she had the heart for it though. Any ambition she had just seemed dried up and so far away.
Her patience was certainly worn way too thin, to put up with all that bullshit school liked to throw at her, on top of being turned into a horse. With her luck, Apple Bloom probably missed a big surprise pop quiz today, or yesterday, or... the day before. All the days she’d missed. And when she got back, she’d have to catch up on that quiz, and that’d make her fall behind on the current lesson, which she’d have to catch up on, making her fall behind on the next lesson. Forever catching up, with everyone saying that all you have to do is catch up and everything will be fine.
Everything wasn’t going to be fine though. It was about as far from fine as it could possibly be. Apple Bloom’s life was over, whether or not she wanted to admit it. You can’t fall behind in this cutthroat world; the other kids will get ahead, and they won’t stop running. Apple Bloom rested her head on her hooves, surprised at how wet her face was. Angrily she wiped at her tears. What good was crying going to do? Yet, she just couldn’t hold it in.
Big Macintosh had the courtesy not to make his presence known in her bedroom door, until Apple Bloom’s little fit had passed. “Hey,” he said, making her turn wearily and bleary eyed to face her doorway. “Wanna go look for that clearing?”
“Clearing?” Apple Bloom asked uncomprehendingly.
“The one in your dream,” Big Macintosh clarified. “It was somewhere hearabouts,”
Apple Bloom perked up at that, and nodded, adding, “An’ ah coul’ see the farm houshe from it.”
“If we can find it, then...” he hinted to her.
“Then it mighth shtart to clear up thish myshtery!” Apple Bloom concluded. She jumped to her hooves. No, really, that’s literally how you get to your hooves. She had to rear up in the air and then bounce forward when her front hooves came down, to let her hind ones make their way to their proper places underneath her.
“Better than jus’ moping aroun’ here,” she further agreed.
Together, they went downstairs and headed around behind the farm house, to search through the woods at the west edge of their property. Big Macintosh had to carry Apple Bloom down the stairs, but other than that, she was pretty much under her own power of locomotion the whole time. He had to walk along slowly to allow her to keep up, but still it was... something at least she could do on her own. Apple Bloom needed to cling to every little accomplishment she could get, because they were sure to come rarely from now on, if she didn’t figure out how to stop being a little horse... creature.
The woods were thick and brambly. Amusingly, it was Big Macintosh who had the hardest time fighting through them. Most of the stuff, Apple Bloom could just squeeze under, or climb over. It was... really easy to climb over things. Like a fallen log now giant before her, she thought would be an impassable barrier, but Apple Bloom found she could practically just walk up it and jump off the other side without even breaking a sweat.
“We gone far enough,” Big Macintosh said eventually, interrupting her exploration of her environment, and her abilities within it.
Apple Bloom raised her head in protest, saying, “Bu’ ah think it migh’ be right over–”
“Nope,” he interrupted, “Can’t see the farm house no more.”
Apple Bloom stopped on the rock she was in the process of jumping across, and turned her head around to look at Big Mac, who was himself looking back the way they came, at the featureless woods they came from.
“Bu’ bro,” Apple Bloom whined, pointing a hoof in the direction in front of her, “The farmhoushe ish righ’ over there!”
He turned forward to face her, and beyond her, with a surprised look at the farm house. It was just barely visible through the trees in front of them, but it was definitely there.
“Didn’ we already turhn around a while ago?” Apple Bloom said crabbily.
“Nope...” Big Macintosh said, looking nonplused.
“You jus’ got yourshelf all thurned around,” Apple Bloom said, “Ah remember this ish the way we came. Shee where the bushesh are brokenh?”
Big Mac looked at the bushes, then turned around and scratched his head. He turned back to Apple Bloom agreeing her with a, “Sounds right.” He said in a more serious tone though, “These woods are dangerous. Easy to get turned around in ‘em, and you won’t be able to find your way home.”
“I guess thish meansh we h’caint look for it anymore?” Apple Bloom sighed, her tail drooping a bit from its normal bouncy curl.
“Eyup,” he replied. “Maybe later.”
She just looked at him sadly instead of moving, so he added, “With all of us on the weekend, we can cover a lot more.”
“Yeah it’s jus’...” Apple Bloom looked forward at the farm house, wistfully. “Ah though’ we’d fihnd something.”
Big Macintosh shook his head. “Sorry. Let’s go home.”
Apple Bloom stayed outside once they got back, while Big Macintosh returned to his studies. Well, to be specific he insisted on calling up Applejack, and having her and Granny truck home Apple Bloom’s school supplies, then returned to his studies. Apple Bloom didn’t want to play with the ball anymore, but amused herself by climbing up on the picket fence around their house. She was just hanging onto it and swinging at first, but she managed to get on top of it entirely at one point, tilting her hooves inward to form a sort of four point line. It felt like she was riding the fence on her hands and feet, but when she was like this, she could keep her head up and forward without straining. It was kind of cool.
Apple Bloom didn’t really have anything else to climb on, though. So, eventually she was just sitting there on the ground, flat on her belly, bored stiff, staring grumpily at the swaying grass before her. It reminded her she was getting hungry. That’s what Apple Bloom had been reduced to. Grass makes her hungry. If only Ma and Pa could see her now. She stood up and bent forward, no wait. She stood up and craned her neck down, to reach the grass. It was weird how the more she did that, the more it felt like she was bending forward, instead of just moving her neck. Apple Bloom didn’t really... bend at the waist at all, anymore.
So she craned her neck down, and took a half dozen bites of grass, hesitant at first, but then methodically adding it to her mouth. At least it wasn’t as plain as the alfalfa. Had more of a sharp bite to it, and was lots more juicy. She chuckled at the irony of turning into a horse, right when the grass is going dormant, though it sounded more like a giggle to her ears. Apple Bloom really didn’t know what was up with her voice. It was just so high pitched and funny now!
Some time later, Big Macintosh jogged out of the farm house, up to where Apple Bloom was standing around sounding out random words trying, and failing, to make her voice sound less babyish. She flicked an ear at his approach. Woah, even that was becoming second nature. Apple Bloom turned deliberately, instead of flicking any ears, and gave him a small smile.
“Phone call for you,” Mac said hurriedly. “C’mon inside.”
Now who could be calling Apple Bloom at this hour?
“Hello, Apple Bloom?” the sound of Doctor Stable’s businesslike voice came over the phone speaker.
“Hey dohc!” she said amiably. “What’sh up?”
“I just wanted to let you know,” he said, “I’ve taken the liberty of looking into any local speech therapists. You sound like you could use one, no offense.”
“None tak’n,” Apple Bloom grumbled, offended.
The doctor continued, “At any rate, the best one I could find is in a nearby city. I forwarded my credentials, and asked their opinion on a case such as yours, keeping your identity completely confidential of course. I didn’t get a positive reply so much, but I was asked to forward it to you. You don’t happen to have an e-mail address do you?”
“I go’ a Trotmail,” Apple Bloom offered disinterestedly. Before he took that as a good sign she added, “Ah have to use the school computer to get it, sorry. We ain’t got one at home.”
“I see,” he said discouraged. “May I have it anyway, in case you ever get an opportunity to check?”
She gave him her address, and he wrote it down, then said consolingly, “There really was only one sentence that seemed relevant to you. Would you mind if I read it over the phone?”
Apple Bloom shook her head, even though he wouldn’t be able to see that. “No, that’sh fine,” she told him, curious what the consultant might have said.
“The only thing it says is,” the doc says, then sounds like he’s adjusting his glasses. “Pull back your lips for sale, only purse your lips for shoe. I assume it’s articulatory.” He paused and then clarified, “About your mouth shape when speaking.”
“That’sh–wait... that’sh that’s that’sh oh mah gawsh iht ain’ the thongue at all!”
There was a pause and he said, “...what?”
“Mah lipsh,” Apple Bloom said emphatically. Then corrected herself. “Lips. Ah thoughth ah couldn’ pronounce ess ‘cause mah thongue was weird, but it was mah lips all along. Your shpeech... speech guy ish a geniush! Genius. Who is it?”
There was a pause of a keyboard clicking, and Doctor Stable said, “I’m not personally familiar with the man, but his name is Red Sea. Doctor Sea, I presume. He’s helped a few of my patients with brain or mouth injuries.” Dr. Stable coughed and added, “Or other conditions, no offense.”
“None thaken,” Apple Bloom said, then scrunched her face frustratedly. “Now if ah coul’ only stop sayin’ thhuh instead of tee. Thup–stupid tongue.”
“Shall I set you up for an appointment?” Dr. Stable said. “It is quite a drive, unfortunately.”
“If ah can htalk better, then sure!” Apple Bloom said eagerly. She hesitated and added, “If he don’ mind that ah’m a... y’know...”
“Yes, yes I know: a farmer,” Dr. Stable said kindly, “I’m sure he won’t mind.”
“Hey!”
She definitely heard the doctor snickering over the phone this time.
Dr. Stable said he’d call back if he heard anything from Dr. Sea. Apple Bloom said he could go ahead and give the doctor her phone number and... well, he said beyond that, she’d have to fill out a form if she wanted him to send his medical record of her over there. Fill out a form. Fat chance of that happening. But, at least she could look forward to a phone call from Dr. Sea’s office!
It was only after Apple Bloom hung up the phone that it occurred to her that Dr. Stable had forgotten to give Dr. Sea’s phone number to her. Odd, that. Not worth calling him back though. It wasn’t like Apple Bloom was going to be unavailable to take phone calls any time soon.
When Applejack returned, Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh both ran for the front door, Apple Bloom shouting, “Sis! You’re back! Ah learnedh how ta say ess!” ‘S’ in fact, was one of those letters that was a lot easier to say when you were smiling from ear to ear.
Applejack laughed enthusiastically at that, and said, “That’s great! And you’re movin’ around so well!”
Apple Bloom’s smile fell to a confused frown, as she tried to recall how she moved just now. All she had done was “walk but run,” but it happened... different somehow, all on its own. “Thanks...” Apple Bloom said reservedly, “...ah think.”
“And boy have ah got a treat for you,” Applejack said, sticking her long arm into her backpack and rifling around, pulling out a big sheaf of papers. “Three days worth of homework!”
Apple Bloom groaned, her ears going down at the thought. She definitely felt no need to correct their position or conceal her emotions about homework.
“Yer say that now,” Granny Smith said, walking in behind Applejack, “But just you wait until yer ain’t got nothin’ to do! Then you’ll be beggin’ for home schoolin’!”
“Thanks, Granny,” Apple Bloom agreed, walking up with a welcoming smile and rubbing the side of her face on Granny’s leg. Wait, why did she do that? Apple Bloom pulled back, and blinked at herself.
“It ain’t no problem, Apple Bloom,” Granny said bending down to ruffle Apple Bloom’s hair, “Ah’m always happy teh help ya out.”
“Uh... y-yeah,” Apple Bloom said nervously, keeping herself perfectly still. Why did she do that?
“Ah made a casserole,” Big Macintosh said, smiling at the two new arrivals and carefully added, “It’s all vegetarian.”
Apple Bloom snapped out of her worries to look at her brother disconsolately. “Ah still cain’ eath it,” she said morosely.
Applejack started to say, “You could—” but Apple Bloom interrupted irritably saying,
“Ah don’ wanna jus’ eat hay. It’s boring!” She didn’t add that the smell of the cashew cheddar pepper broccoli squash casserole with thyme and oregano had been torturing her for the last hour it had been cooking. Apple Bloom didn’t want to smell something so delicious, that she couldn’t eat, but she just couldn’t force her family to go without good food, just because she hadn’t gotten used to being a horse yet.
Maybe the hay would taste better this time.
“Sorry sis,” Applejack said kneeling down beside Apple Bloom as Granny strode past to poke around in the kitchen. “But you heard about all that terrible stuff. We gotta play it safe and make sure you have a healthy diet, not a... human one.”
“Ah know, it’s jus’... it’s jus’ hardh is all,” Apple Bloom said, her eyes watering. She really wanted to eat that casserole. But why was she crying over a silly thing like that? “Forget this,” she said grumpily, wiping her eyes off on her hoof again. “Ah’m gonna go eat mah hay.” She wandered in that direction then, ignoring Applejack’s half hearted attempts to console her.
Apple Bloom sort of found she could make the hay sort of taste like that casserole, by smelling while she was eating it. She closed her eyes trying to imagine the stiff fibers as a tasty meal, hoping maybe the smell was enough to make her feel like she was eating good.
It wasn’t.
Apple Bloom ate as much as she comfortably could, then retreated outside, where the smells weren’t so tantalizing. Evening was coming on, the sun getting low in the sky. She looked at it, then walked out of the fenced area the farm house was in, making her way into the trees around it. She traveled a path she’d gone a lot of times before, whenever she wanted to find somewhere to think, and to watch the sunset. It went up a hill that Apple Bloom remembered as being a whole lot steeper than it was, but atop this hill, she could see over the tree line, with her back to the city, looking away to the west where the sun was dipping down to touch the horizon.
Apple Bloom settled down on her feet, sitting like a dog again, then just slid down on her legs until her belly was flattening the rough grass atop the hill she looked over. It was funny how the world looked like a bowl from here, like an upside down fishbowl that the sun slid on top of, on its way across the sky.
The sunset was always striking when you found a spot high enough that you could see that atmospheric effect on the horizon, that made the sun’s disk stretch out and lens into almost a flat line, with the uneven stripes of blue and green tilting off the edges. It lit up the uneven puffy clouds in the sky, in a nonuniform spectrum of reds, greens and oranges as it set, looking finally more like a ring around the earth by the time the last edge of light passed beyond the horizon. Apple Bloom loved sunsets. Just something about them. Sunrises just weren’t as dramatic or spectacular.
The light had fallen to a uniform grey, and the air was cooling fast, so Apple Bloom lifted up her butt and walked forward, tilting down the slope of the hill as she went. She was worried about slipping at first, but her hooves had a pretty good grip, and there were plenty of rocky outcroppings she could anticipate to brace against, if she needed something to stop her from sliding down. She got to the farm house before the stars were out, finding her family turning the place upside down looking for her. ...wait, what?
“Apple Bloom!” Granny announced accusingly, striding up to tower over Apple Bloom like a vengeful ogre, “Yer didn’t say you were gonna be runnin’ off! What if somethin’ happened to ye?!”
“Ah was jus’ watching the sunseth,” Apple Bloom said irritably. “I do thath all the thime!”
“Applejack! Big Mac! Found her!” Granny called over her shoulder. She turned to Apple Bloom then, and knelt ponderously down to the ground, looking her in the eye and saying, “Ye know... you’re right. You didn’t do nothin’ wrong. We’re just all on edge from this, an’ we don’t want ye to go disappearin’ on us.”
Applejack tromped up beside them saying, “Oh, thank heavens Apple Bloom. Where were you?”
“Watching the sunthet,” Apple Bloom said less spiritedly than before. “Ah didn’ mean to make y’all worry.”
“On Promise Peak?” Applejack asked in surprise.
“It’s the betht place to watch it,” Apple Bloom pointed out scuffing her hoof on the ground guiltily.
“Well you need to be more careful, sis,” Applejack said vigilantly, “You coulda fallen an’ we wouldn’t know where you were!”
“It’s a lot harder to fall acthually,” Apple Bloom said holding up a hoof and waving it at Applejack demonstratively. “Four legs, remember?”
“Well, what if a dog had gotten loose and was wanderin’ around the farm?” Applejack suggested nervously. “What would you do then?”
“Ah’d kick him if he came a’ me!” Apple Bloom declared, throwing her hind leg out behind her like a bullet.
“An’ when he bites your hoof?” Applejack countered, squatting down next to Granny.
Apple Bloom frowned. “Then ah’d...” she said, finishing excitedly with, “Kick him with the other leg!”
Nobody was laughing. Apple Bloom’s ears went down. “Ah’ll be more careful...” she admitted languidly. “Won’ go anywhere unthil ah tell sho–someone.”
Big Mac’s broad palm came down on Apple Bloom’s head, ruffling the hair in between her ears. “Just glad you’re safe,” he said warmly.
The family then settled down together, to relax in front of the fire. Applejack talked about her school day, and Apple Bloom didn’t give her a hard time just because she was feeling left out of school. It was fun to hear about Applejack’s crazy friends anyway, especially that firebrand who wore leather around Fluttershy. If Applejack’s opinion was accurate, and it always was, that Sunset Shimmer girl was acting even weirder lately than she usually did.
Huh, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but notice that girl had the word Sunset in her very name. Apple Bloom wondered if she liked sunsets too. At the very least, her parents must have liked sunsets. Applejack’s friends were way out of Apple Bloom’s league though, and gosh darn it now Apple Bloom’s own friends were out of her league. She wondered what it would be like to have Sweetie Belle looking down on her. Apple Bloom was so used to being just about the same size as them. The three of them had all grown up together inch by inch, and now Apple Bloom’s childhood development had just gone straight into left field.
Apple Bloom wondered what her friends were doing. That made her miss them though, and she didn’t like feeling so empty inside. They were probably missing her too, but they all had lives and... all Apple Bloom had was alfalfa. Still, maybe she could figure a way for them to visit her once and a while. If she could ever summon enough courage to face them like this, that is.
Big Macintosh actually did talk a little, though mostly he just prompted Apple Bloom, who recollected the greater portion of their day. At least, of what she knew about their day. About searching out in the west woods, getting the call about the voice doctor, trying to study with Big Macintosh. She skipped talking about the crying part.
“Oh hey, that reminds me!” Applejack said, struggling up from where they were all cuddled around the fireplace. She jogged off, and returned with Apple Bloom’s book bag in her hand, looking just about bursting full. “Ah got your books too, all that ah could, not just your homework,” she explained. “You’ll have to let me know if ah missed anything though.”
Applejack set the bag down beside Apple Bloom, where she laid a hoof on her familiar, if much bigger textbooks in there. “Thanks Applejhack,” Apple Bloom said, her eyes brimming with liquid gratefulness. “Ah just hope ah can live up thoo what they need from me. Ah cain’ even write anymore.”
“One of us can write for you,” Big Macintosh suggested.
Apple Bloom looked at him with disapproval, saying, “Ah cain’ ask you ta do that! You got’ your own work to thake care of.”
“Ah ain’t a pony,” he countered gruffly.
“Oh ah’m a pony now?” Apple Bloom shot back, blushing hotly.
“Too small for a horse,” he pointed out.
“Ah’m too small for a pony!” Apple Bloom declared.
“Fair ‘nuff,” he admitted. “Mini-horse?”
Apple Bloom shook her head, “Nao that don’t sound right, either.”
She didn’t tell him that when he said “pony” it did sound right. Unsettlingly so.
Apple Bloom had a strange dream that night, in fact. She’d settled into her bed, a challenging feat as towering as it was above her, and as horse as she was below it. She hoped she didn’t have to give up sleeping in a bed too. Really, she was desperate for just about anything from her old life that she could still cling to. She may have pulled out her old teddy bear to sleep with. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing she’d brag about to her friends, but there was something comforting about it tonight.
Apple Bloom felt calmer, with the thing cradled in her little hooves. Little, because she didn’t remember having to stretch that much to wrap her single arm around a football sized doll. It wasn’t much of a stretch, but it was noticeable. Her plush bear went from football sized, to uh... larger than football sized. About the size of a watermelon? One of them big watermelons. Honestly, Apple Bloom was going to say bigger than a bucket, but... the bucket had become bigger too. Apple Bloom didn’t like that. With everything bigger all at once, relatively, it was starting to feel like everything was just normal sized, and that made Apple Bloom feel really, really small.
It’d have been nice if her dream had some detail or clarity to it, instead of just the feeling of rushing forward in a murky darkness. Apple Bloom couldn’t even dream of being human anymore, apparantly, as she was running forward heedlessly on all fours, just like she had been all yesterday. There was something after her. Something terrible. Something huge. She saw a faint light in the distance and she had to reach it, had to get help somehow.
The light expanded as she approached it, but it wasn’t like running out of a tunnel. It was like a lens coming into focus, that she passed through like a curtain of water. Apple Bloom stopped short in shock, at a glorious starscape. It was not just above her, but below her, and all around. She was still walking somehow, despite nothing to walk on, and as she did, she started to perceive a geometry to this strange place. It wasn’t as large as it seemed. It was like the stars were a projection on a small and cozy space, a sphere in which Apple Bloom walked, as though an invisible platform were stretching across its expanse. Some sort of planetarium?
What drew her attention was something that wasn’t a star. A little bright lavender blob that resolved itself, as Apple Bloom neared it in the center of the sphere. It was some kind of horse, just like the way she was! Some kind of thing like her, except this one was so much more... magical, somehow. She seemed more like the ocean tides, or a storm front than a physical being. She was sitting perfectly still on her belly, neither breathing nor blinking, her unflinching gaze on something laid before her, cradled gently on her relaxed forehooves.
It was a book.
Apple Bloom had to ask. It was just too weird to not ask about it. Her voice sounded echoey, as she curiously asked this purple horse of nature, “What’cha readin’?”
There was no response. Apple Bloom felt nervousness creep into the edges of her awareness. Was Apple Bloom the only horse whe could talk? Was she just talking to a statue? Some kind of horse shaped doll? Apple Bloom was just about to give up, but she half jumped out of her skin, when the purple horse startled into motion. It was scary because the horse’s hair flared up, somehow, just a little. Her head only tilted down just a fraction of an inch though, looking at the book as if for the first time.
“I’ve forgotten,” the creature said, in a very puzzled tone of voice, as if she didn’t believe it herself. As if a magical horse being sitting there, reading a book full of weird hieroglyphs wasn’t unbelievable enough. It was the voice of a woman that came forth from this equine being, a strangely familiar voice at that. One Apple Bloom couldn’t quite place. The lady mare didn’t say anything more, just staring off into the distance, and Apple Bloom felt rushed, as if she was on a time limit here.
“What are you?” Apple Bloom asked hastily. She qualified with, “Ah mean, what kinda horse are ...ya?” Apple Bloom almost said ‘we’ she almost did. It didn’t look like the horse lady was going to respond again, but this time, Apple Bloom just had to guess that this strange being was something that took a long time to respond. What she didn’t expect was how that strange being was going to respond.
“I’m not a horse, I’m a pony.” the lady mare said abruptly, turning to Apple Bloom with a calm smile beneath her vivid, violet eyes. Her smile froze then, even more than it had before. Apple Bloom felt chilly as the lady mare stared at her disconcertingly, the mare’s irises narrowing expressively, and her body stiffening up as her face dropped into something between wonder and shock.
“You’re a pony!” the lady mare exclaimed, surging to her four legs. They collapsed under her then, and she fell on her side, still staring at Apple Bloom exclaiming, “You’re a pony!” The sphere felt like it was closing in around them. Apple Bloom tried not to recall what had been lurking outside. She backed up in terror as the lady mare stretched a hoof towards her, the very air rippling and going fuzzy and indistinct, as she shouted again, “You’re a pony!”
“Ah’m not a pony!” Apple Bloom cried out miserably, covering her head in her hooves. Because she had hooves. Because she was a pony. Everything seemed to be pressing in around her. The whispering wail of a soundless wind crashed around her as the lady mare continued heedless, her voice coming from all around as she said, “You’re a pony! You’re a pony!”
“Ah’m a girl!” Apple Bloom shouted against the raging storm, desperately. The mare’s increasingly frantic cries fell silent, then. Had Apple Bloom scared her off?
The mare was abruptly looming in her face. “Find me!” she near shrieked only half coherently. There was a crazy look in her eyes as she shouted, “You have to find me! Hurry! Find me!”
Apple Bloom inhaled sharply, as she woke up like a wrecking ball. She heard the voice then, echoing beyond an impossible distance, crying out, “Save me!” Apple Bloom lurched up from her pillow, her little yellow hooves holding the blankets over on top of her in a death grip. Even though she didn’t have anything to grip with. Apple Bloom’s ears turned left and right as she breathed hard in the silence, but there were no more voices, no more craziness or panicked entreaties.
Apple Bloom’s bed was dissheveled. She must have been thrashing about an awful lot. Her bear had gotten kicked off it entirely and was laying forlornly on the floor. Apple Bloom scooted to the edge of her bed, and stuck her back hooves over the edge of it, slipping off of it backwards to join her bear, as a pile of pony on the floor. Apple Bloom knew exactly who to blame for all this. Climbing to her feet, it still felt weird to stand up straight by only standing up halfway, but Apple Bloom didn’t have any trouble walking across her room. She walked across her room in a daze, through the door they left propped open for her, and on down the hallway.
There, she hammered on Big Macintosh’s bedroom door, shouting through it at him, “Ya gave me a bad dhream you hlunkhead! Ah tol’ you ah’m hnot a pony!”
The sounds of movement within resolved themselves as his door swung open, bringing her face-to-face with those ridiculous slippers. She looked up at him, and said a little less angrily and more apologetically, “Ah need you ta write something for me. Ah hadh a dream again, like the one before.” Even Apple Bloom was surprised at how quickly he spun around, and snatched up a writing utensil and some loose paper from his desk. But soon he was ready for her.
She tried to recall it, and–she was already starting to forget it! Stupid dreams! She was... the lady mare was, yeah some purple po–horse thing just like her. How had she found the mare? Something about stars? Something...
“Somethin’ was chasing me,” Apple Bloom said feeling a chill at the memory of that, “And ah foun’ a big ball of stars. Like a room, but it was shpherical an’ had stars all over ith. An’ there was a po–p–a whatever I am in the middle of it. She was real pretty, and all—I dunno—magical and starry and stuff. She was colored like a human not a horse, jus’ like me, ‘cept she was purple, and ah’m yellow and red. She was distracted by something... by a book, right, and ah asked her about it before I would wake up. She kept tellin’ me ah was a...”
...
“A...?” Big Macintosh prompted, causing Apple Bloom to blush again, and turn her head aside. She was sitting in his room on the floor, with him up in his desk chair, and he was writing down her words on some paper pinned to a clipboard.
Apple Bloom turned back to face him and reluctantly admitted, “She said ah was a ...pony.” To his credit, Big Macintosh’s only reaction was a snort, and the scratch of pencil on paper.
“She kept sayin’ it though,” Apple Bloom continued, “Not like she was tellin’ me, but like she was surprised, like she was tellin’ herself! And then ah started to wake up, but she shouted that ah needed to find her. And... save her, ah think. And then ah woke up.”
He finished writing silently, and Apple Bloom started to speculate, a little excitement rising in her as she did. “Ah think it might have been an alien princess!” Apple Bloom uttered admittedly gushing a little, “Maybe from mah home planet! And she needs me ta save it!”
Big Mac started to write that, but stopped then, and looked down at Apple Bloom with a wry stare. “You been readin’ too many comic books, sis,” he teased her amusedly.