Apple Bloom started the day as a pegasus. The sun was already high in the sky by the time she finally awoke. She let her eyes flutter open, yawned, stretched, and promptly tried to go back to sleep. Her seventeenth birthday had been last night, and while she had no regrets about the extent to which she had enjoyed herself, her pounding headache persuaded her that perhaps it was not time to get up just yet. Sadly, that same pounding also prevented her from getting back to sleep, and after a fitful half hour, she surrendered to inevitability and let her eyes open.
Before her lay spread the wonders of Equestria—her high perch atop her cloud letting her see all of Ponyville and the surrounding valley clearly. It was a bright and sunny fall day, just warm enough to be pleasant. The apples on the farm trees were bright and red, the town was lively and full of air traffic, and the birds’ tweeting was so sweet she hardly minded the things it did to her headache.
Grunting as she lifted her head, Apple Bloom saw a few other ponies scattered on the cloud near her: Featherweight, Silver Spoon, and Target Time. Opposite her, Sweetie Belle and Button Mash lay curled up together, Button’s wings spread over their heads to block out the harsh sunlight. That made Apple Bloom laugh, but she quickly regretted it, clutching her head with one hoof.
Deciding she needed water, Apple Bloom crawled towards the edge of the cloud, blearily scanning the area below her for a well. She could see the cloud actually wasn’t far from the farm. There was the edge of the property, the second barn, and...
Applejack.
“Apple Bloom! Is that you!?” she shouted from the ground, galloping up to the space directly under the cloud. Apple Bloom groaned, rolling backwards in the hope she hadn’t been seen, but it was too late. “You get down here right now, young mare! The one thing I ask of you is that you be home by midnight, and you go on and give me a scare drinking half the town! What if you’d wandered into the Everfree, huh?”
“I’m seventeen, Applejack! Get over it!” Apple Bloom shouted, but she flinched as soon as she did, the yelling producing further ringing in her ears.
“You think that’s going to stop me from plucking every feather right out of those wings of yours, you got another thing coming!” Applejack stomped her hoof down into the earth.
“Eh, come up here and say that,” Apple Bloom grumbled. Tuning out Applejack’s distant shouting, she rolled over, put a wing over her eyes, and focused on getting some rest.
It took another twenty minutes, but eventually, she got back to sleep.