Chapter 3: Blooming Knowledge
Their morning chores finished, the two Apple sisters set out for Ponyville. Apple Bloom trotted warily along beside her sister, Applejack, as they made their way around the outskirts of the town. It was actually a quicker route to the train station which lay just past the Golden Oaks Library on the western edge of the town. If the young filly had been keeping any closer to her sister, Applejack would probably have had to give birth to the younger pony in order to separate them. In any case Apple Bloom was happy to have her big sister looking out for her at this moment, especially after the events of earlier that morning.
It had felt very strange for Apple Bloom, front hooves on the side of the bathtub holding her scarlet tail in her mouth, exposing her most private parts to her sister whilst Applejack had carefully inserted the specialized thermometer. While Apple Bloom had held the warm, firm object in her little orchard plot, her sister had calmly and carefully explained the implications of ‘coming into season’. The young pony had listened as her older sister had told her about wetting, ‘spraying’ or ‘marking’ as some mares called it, and about how her body was behaving so as to tell a prospective colt that she was ready to bear foals. Though not up to Twilight’s level, Applejack did manage to deliver a rather substantial lecture on the matter in-hoof. Oddly, Apple Bloom found the whole concept of sex fascinating, albeit in a slightly unsettling way.
It was obvious to the young pony that foals had to come from somewhere, or more accurately, there had to be a way that they somehow got inside the mare’s belly. Apple Bloom could remember looking at pictures of Ma in the family albums, the orange mare’s middle bulging, and being told by her siblings and grandmother that she was the reason for the bulge. Apple Bloom supposed that it made sense; she knew hens laid eggs in nests and chicks hatched from the eggs, so … yeah, it made sense. It just so happened her eggs, along with the nest to keep them warm in, were inside of her, which was kind of odd in a way to Apple Bloom, yet not really. Still, the whole process of ‘getting covered’ by a colt as Applejack explained to her, that was well …, as Scootaloo would say, ‘Ewww, total cootie factory, waayyy uncool.’
A shallow growl from Applejack lifted Apple Bloom’s thoughts back into the present. The young blonde coated filly snapped her head up and quickly glanced about. A mere moment later she spotted where the offending colt had hastily dove into a nearby bush, a pair of nervous eyes peering out from the foliage betraying the other pony’s presence.
A year or so back Apple Bloom had, in the process of one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ early misadventures, seen first hoof, Fluttershy use an ability that most ponies commonly called ‘The Stare’. It was an almost supernatural gaze the butter-yellow pegasus could perform that seemed able to hypnotize animals, or, it was rumored, even other ponies. Well, if that was Fluttershy’s ability, Applejack had something Apple Bloom was rapidly deciding to call, ‘The Glare.’ The older Apple mare had but to make eye contact with any approaching colt or stallion and her green-eyed glance seemed to literally send the offending colt or stallion stumbling backwards, or otherwise fleeing from sight.
It was probably a good thing, Apple Bloom mused. For one, it would no longer necessitate Scootaloo needing to repeatedly administer more of her pegasi patented ‘cootie shots’. On the other hoof, when AJ had withdrawn the thermometer from Apple Bloom’s hind end earlier that morning, Apple Bloom remembered her sister’s eyes widening slightly before her expression fell to a grim expression of concern. It seemed, as young and blank flanked as she was, there was a good chance she could become pregnant by indications of her temperature if she got mixed up in the wrong way with a colt, and that was something AJ had told her that a ‘cootie shot’ wouldn’t be able to fix. AJ did offside mention a white halter and a pitchfork being one solution to the problem, not that Apple Bloom quite saw how.
It was truly perturbing to the young filly, that some stray encounter with a colt could make her a mother before she’d even graduated the sixth grade. The thoughts of accidental motherhood had, at the time, distracted Apple Bloom from how odd the feeling was of Applejack spreading the de-scenting anti-inflammatory salve across the tender parts under her tail.
Yeah, it seemed weird at the time, but the herbal balm had definitely, in just a short time made a huge difference in how Apple Bloom felt. By the time her morning chores were finished, the swollen itching in her hind-end had subsided to the level that Apple Bloom had to actively think about it to notice still itched a little. Even better was the fact she also no longer felt a continuous need to pee every few minutes, which, in light of last night, was a huge relief for the little filly.
Nuts. Apple Bloom chastised herself as a slow building dull cramp took ever greater hold of her now obviously full bladder. Why had she had to go and think about -that-? Everything had been fine until she had thought about -not- having to relieve herself. Apple Bloom was sure that Twilight would have said something about a ‘psycho-somatic response’ or something. It really didn’t matter, what mattered now was there was far too much ‘juice’ inside Apple Bloom for the little filly to keep it in for too much longer, regardless of what reason Twilight Sparkle might give for …
Twilight! Apple Bloom’s mind latched onto the thought. While the purple unicorn might not have been the cause of the young filly’s immediate problem, she certainly presented a solution, or more accurately, the library that she lived in did.
A quick glance ahead confirmed that the Ponyville library was definitely within easy trotting distance and coincidentally happened to be on the way to Ponyville Medical.
“Uh, sis?” Apple Bloom called to her sister, a soft, yet rising, whine of urgency in her voice.
“What is it, Sugarcube?” the older pony replied, turning her head from where the latest stallion to tuck tail and run from ‘The Gaze’ was disappearing into the distance.
“Could we stop by the library for a bit, Sis?”
“Why’d ya want t’ do that? I’m sure, if ya want t’ pick up some readin’ material ‘bout becoming a mare, it can wait until the trip back. Come ta think about it, I’ve still got that copy of ‘The Loveliness of Mare’ that Granny Smith gave me the first spring I came into season.”
“Uh, yeah, Sis, that’s erhm, great,” the little scarlet-maned filly quipped back to her big sister. “But I was thinking more of a spot to ‘juice an apple’ if you catch my drift.”
“Oh…, of course, Sugarcube,” Applejack grinned back as she caught on to the old Apple family’s turn of phrase for relieving one’s self, “I’m sure Twilight won’t mind ya making a little pit-stop.”
Apple Bloom nodded an eager agreement as Applejack continued. “Now, you remembered to put extra scent wipes and that can of cover scent in your saddlebags, right Sugarcube?”
“Yes.”
“And, remember to keep your tail out of the way when ya go, but keep it down otherwise.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And wash y’r hooves real good afterwards.”
“Okay, already.” Apple Bloom’s patience with her sister was getting as stressed as her bladder. “I’m gonna be using the toilet f’r corn’s sake not having lunch at the Queen’s Plate in Woodbine.”
Applejack backed a second at her little sister’s rebuke, and then blushed as she realized what she was doing to Apple Bloom. “Heh, sorry there, Sugarcube, alright, let’s go then.”
Apple Bloom scampered quickly ahead forcing AJ to pick-up to a canter to keep pace with her smaller sibling. Reaching the Library first, the young filly quickly tapped out an urgent message of need against the closed door.
Please, please, let her be home! Apple Bloom thought quickly to herself as she began to hop slowly from one pair of hooves to the other, right front and left rear then alternate as she waited for the Purple unicorn to answer the door.
Applejack had just reached the library door as the upper half unlatched, and the purple profile of the resident librarian popped into view.
“Oh, hi there, Applejack,” the perky unicorn smiled at her orange coated friend, seemingly oblivious to the smaller pony directly under her nose, “is there any chance Granny Smith is with you?”
“No such luck Twi, her her surgery was only yesterday. Doc Stable says she’ll be in for a few more days yet. In fact we were just on the way up to visit her.” Applejack replied, “Why’d y’ask?”
“Um, excuse me,” Apple Bloom tried to politely interject herself in to the conversation with some urgency, and keep the chances of deviation of that conversation to a scarce minimum until a certain necessity was tended to.
“Oh, I just wanted to ask her something about your extended family,” Twilight carried on, looking momentarily disappointed before perking up as she continued. “Actually, Applejack, maybe you know something that could help me.”
A pained whine of distress drew the attention of the two older ponies to where Apple Bloom was now quite noticeably dancing in place, a broad grin of distress stretched across the filly’s now scarlet tinted complexion.
“Oh, shoot,” Applejack cussed mildly over the distraction of Twilight’s initial question, “Twi, would you mind if Apple Bloom used your restroom? She’s gotta go pretty bad.”
“Bad? I gotta go Now!” the younger pony whined pointedly through clenched teeth.
“Oh, of course…” The unicorn librarian nodded with a tilt of her head as her horn took on a magenta sheen about itself and the lower portion of the door unlatched with a thought from Twilight.
Apple Bloom didn’t even wait for the door to fully open. Instead, she squeezed through the narrowest gap between door and jam that she could fit through and bolted for the washroom, her scarlet tail flying out behind her giving a genuine impression that her rump was indeed on fire.
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