Apple Bloom was both tired of her chores, and bored.
This was never a safe combination especially when one was talking about the spunky red-headed youngest of the three Sweet Apple Acres Siblings.
This might surprise Ponies who knew the Siblings from calm, level-headed Big Mac; and the older of his two younger sisters, the highly reliable and responsible Applejack. But the two older siblings were adults: aged 25 and 22 respectively; in contrast, Apple Bloom was barely 10 years old, full of vim and vigor and as yet severely lacking in any sort of sober appreciation of danger.
Right now, conditions were odd at Sweet Apple Acres, and very much not to the liking of the young filly. Things had been strange in general since that Summer Sun Celebration, since Nightmare Moon -- whom Bloomie had been starting to suspect was just a Nightmare Night story -- had actually shown up, and shouted at and scared everypony, and even zapped a few Royal Guards. And then Applejack and some of her friends and that Twilight Sparkle unicorn gentlemare from Canterlot, whom Apple Bloom had met at the Apple family Sun Celebration party, all went into the Everfree to some sort of old-time castle deep in the forest, and fought Nightmare Moon, which was itself kind of hard to believe when you just put it out straight like that.
Meanwhile, Mackie had taken Bloomie back to Sweet Apple Acres, and all those monsters had come out of the Everfree. And Big Mac had taken up their grandfather's huge old crossbow and led the Apples in defense of the farm, showing to everypony that he was in truth a hero like those in the wonder-tales, which made Apple Bloom very happy, because he had always been her hero.
And then Applejack and the others had returned from the castle in the Everfree, and they had brought back Nightmare Moon. Only Nightmare Moon had somehow turned into Princess Luna, who was nice enough, or at least was no longer shouting and throwing lightning bolts. Princess Luna seemed rather shy, and spent most of her time at the party Pinkie Pie threw for her just sitting in her corner, and looking a lot at Big Mac and at Twilight Sparkle.
But the important thing was that Applejack was a hero too, just like Mackie, along with those other mares who went with her. Princess Celestia was there and said they were heroes, and thanked them for bringing her sister Luna back to her, and if Princess Celestia thought Applejack was a hero, then Applejack was a hero. Even Luna seemed happy, if tired, and at one point she smiled at Applejack, so she must have had no hard feelings toward Jackie about losing to her.
It was around this point that Apple Bloom decided that she wanted to be a hero someday, too.
Though she wasn't sure exactly how to go about it. She was just a little filly, and little fillies aren't supposed to be heroes, they're supposed to stay out of the way while the real heroes fought the monsters.
When Nightmare Moon had attacked, she hadn't done anything heroic; she'd just been really frightened and cringed when Nightmare Moon had just talked to her. She had been afraid that Nightmare Moon would hit her with lightning bolts like she'd done to the Guards, or gobble her up like in the Nightmare Night stories, even though it she'd later realized that Nightmare Moon hadn't even particularly hated her at all, probably because she was just a little filly, and it wasn't Nightmare Night so she didn't want candy. Those other two fillies next to her had been scared too -- but that was no excuse, as it was Apple Bloom who wanted to become a hero, so she was the one who had to practice being brave.
It just wasn't fair! Big Mac was big and strong and had a huge crossbow and kicked monsters. Applejack was good with her rope and she was so heroic that Princess Celestia herself had invited her to the Grand Galloping Gala, so that those stuck-up Canterlot Ponies (Apple Bloom was sure they were all really stuck up except for maybe Twilight Sparkle, who seemed sort of nice) could find out how good the apples from the Acres were so that they'd buy lots of them and the Apples would have the bits to help Granny Smith have her operation.
Apple Bloom knew she could be heroic too; she could fight monsters, but nopony ever let her fight monsters -- when the monsters had attacked Sweet Apple Acres they'd made her stay inside, where all she could do was watch, even though she really needed to show she was brave after she'd been scared of Nightmare Moon. She'd seen Big Mac and Fritter fight back to back and really wallop the monsters -- she'd always known that Mackie was a hero but Fritter had surprised her,
Fritter was always really nice and sweet but she was like a different Pony in danger, all deadly calm and fast and not scared at all. Fritter had been in the Guard and fought Trogs down on the south shore of the Gulf River, Bloomie had heard, and she supposed that meant you had to be a hero. But Fritter showed that you could be really nice and sweet and still be a hero, which gave Apple Bloom some hope for herself.
And while Granny Smith had indeed stayed inside with Apple Bloom and they hadn't had to do more than squish some bugs that tried to crawl into the house -- they were big nasty looking bugs, to be sure, but none of them were any larger than rats, and they squished easy enough under hard-driven hooves -- Grand-Uncle Strudel, he'd whipped up special strudels and other pastries that exploded when you threw them, his "baked bads," as he called them, and those put a real dent into the monsters. And Strudel wasn't shy about using them, no-siree, when the fight was hottest, he got out on the porch with a sack full of baked bads and pitched 'em at the foe like he was a stallion half his age, and he was almost as old as Granny!
They had told Apple Bloom that she had to stay inside to protect Granny, and Granny had agreed to the necessity, but it was obvious to Bloomie that they were just saying this to spare her own feelings. Because, when Granny said that she needed protection, she had that twinkle in her eye Granny always got when she thought something was a great big joke.
When the bugs had broken into the house, Granny had gotten that deadly-calm look a lot of the Apples did when things were dangerous, that look Bloomie rarely saw on any other Ponies, and had moved very fast and started killing them, just like that, with not even so much as a pretense at feminine squeamishness. When things got dangerous, Granny Smith was all business.
Apple Bloom's Granny Smith was made of iron, and she needed absolutely no protection at all. Of this, Bloomie was certain. And Granny was actually protecting Apple Bloom, because Granny still saw her as a tiny little foal.
It was no fun being younger than everypony else. No fun at all.
Now things had gotten weird, but at least there was a chance for adventure in it.
First, Big Mac had pushed himself too hard when he ws still a bit hurt from fighting the monsters, and he hadn't dodged fast enough when a big tree branch had fallen on him and cracked his ribs. Not too bad, Mackie was big and tough and nothing could really hurt him too bad; but bad enoough that he couldn't buck the apples down from the trees. Which left Jackie the only one who could apple-buck -- Granny's hip was messed up, and Apple Bloom was physically too small -- you had to be bigger and stronger than she was to buck apples right off a full-grown tree.
So Applejack was running around like a firepony trying to put out a whole burning town with one little sprinkler can, and soon she was getting so tired she could hardly do anything but buck apples, and falling asleep on her hooves half the time while she was trying to do that. And Big Mac had taken over most of the light chores, but he also had to take medicines a lot and the medicines made him sleepy. So of course Granny and Apple Bloom were also doing more light chores than usual, and after Granny had done enough of those, she had to nap a lot too.
They really needed more help, but hiring help would cost and they didn't want to take no charity, on account of Mackie was just hurt, not "planted" as he put it, and Applejack flat-out refused to ask her friends. Jackie had her pride -- "lots of lots of it," as Granny Smith once muttered to herself when she thought nopony could hear her, but Bloomie had heard her.
Often Fluttershy -- the strange but nice hermit Pegasus mare who lived in a cottage in the woods along the road to Ponyville -- would come over to bring Big Mac more medicine and tend him, on account of she was good at tending to critters, and Ponies were basically just another sort of critter when it came to broken bones. Fluttershy must have helped, because Big Mac always got happy when she came, though it seemed to Apple Bloom that all she did was make him tea and soup and spend long hours talking to him in the sitting room. And because both of them were very shy Ponies, their conversations seemed mostly to consist of widely-spaced low mumbling.
It all seemed silly to Apple Bloom; silly and maybe a bit mushy, which was even stranger than mushy usually was because this was her brother. She wasn't used to her siblings acting like that, not lately -- Applejack had been sweet on this stallion Landscape Carrot when Apple Bloom was really young; 'Scape had been around a lot and always hanging with and often even leaning against Jackie, but Bloomie hadn't minded because he was really nice, and had often brought Bloomie herself little treats and asked her questions, listening to the answers instead of just pretending to care.
But Landscape had somehow vanished a couple of years ago, and Jackie had been really mad at Mackie, accusing Mac of driving him off, and there'd been yelling between them for a while. That had stopped quickly, though, and after that Jackie would just be sad when she thought nopony was watching, and Mackie seemed really sorry about what had happened. Which just went to show that getting mushy with somepony just meant trouble.
Fluttershy often helped with the light chores, though, and nopony seemed to mind the assistance. And for all that Fluttershy was really quiet, Apple Bloom know that she had to be pretty brave too, because she was one of the mares who had gone with Applejack after Nightmare Moon. So if Mackie wanted to get mushy with somepony, Bloomie supposed that Fluttershy wasn't the worst possible choice.
At first, of course, Apple Bloom had been a bit annoyed that Fluttershy was taking so much of Big Mac's attention away from her. And, unlike Landscape Carrot, Fluttershy didn't bring Bloomie treats or go out of her way to talk to her. This was her big brother, not Fluttershy's!
But then it occurred to Apple Bloom that, if Big Mac was talking to Fluttershy, and Applejack was working herself to exhaustion in the fields bucking apples, and Granny Smith was napping -- why, then nopony was watching her! Which meant that -- provided Apple Bloom got all her chores done early (no way and no how would Bloomie shirk her chores when the family needed her help), she could go out and seek adventure, sometimes for an hour or more at a time if she planned it right.
Apple Bloom didn't like to show it off in school, but she was in fact highly intelligent, with the same natural grasp of numbers, ratios and time management that had distinguished her father, Tangelo Orange. And she was a very hard worker, when she wanted to be. So it was not too difficult for her to streamline her chores for maximum efficiency, and arrange them so that she would be free of demands on her time exactly when Applejack would be harvesting the Southwest fields; Fluttershy and Mac would be tending to each other in the sitting room, oblivious to the rest of the world; and Granny -- as was her wont in the afternoon -- would nap in her favorite rocking-chair.
All Apple Bloom planned came to pass, and so one fine hot summer afternoon, when the mercury was standing at some 87 degrees Fahrenhorseheit, the flies buzzing lazily through the humid air, Granny Smith's snores droning far louder than the whirring wings of the little insects -- and Mackie and 'Shy conversing in low, slow dreamy tones, heads together in the parlor -- Apple Bloom finished scouring the pans, her last scheduled task until evening -- and softly and quietly slipped out the kitchen door, headed for adventure.