Cracks Appear
Big Macintosh stared over down where that Scootaloo girl was trying to hide. She was just where Apple Bloom said she would be. And he just didn’t know what to say to her. Seeing her like that, it would just kill him to scare her even more. He went and invaded her inner sanctum, to save her, but she didn’t know that. So, staying back by the door to the shed, he said as consolingly as he could, in that voice of his that still needed a few years to deepen,
“Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo jump startled, despite her poor selection of hiding spots, exclaiming “Nothinz wrong! Juss go away!!” She pulled that hood even more tightly over her head. “Pleash don’ htell anyone. I’m finne! I’ be right out, misshter!” She was completely panicked. She probably didn’t even realize what ridiculous sayings were coming out of her mouth. Anything to get him to go away.
She probably thought he was going to see her, whatever happened to her. Probably the same thing as Apple Bloom, turning into a pony. She thought he was going to see her and grab her, and go parade her around like some kind of scientific exhibit. It wasn’t no rational line of thought, but it was just the sort of thing that goes through the head of a young girl who’s totally terrified at being seen.
He kind of wished it was over a bad haircut, or something.
But she clearly thought he was there to harm her, so he just had to convince her he was on her side. Get her calmed down. Get the truck over to this side of the parking lot, maybe. So Big Macintosh said,
“Ah’m with Apple Bloom.”
While not true in the physical sense, it certainly was true in the spiritual sense, and the sense of picking sides between the good guys and the other guys.
“Happle Bloom?” Scootaloo said disorientedly, lifting her head up to look around with one unfocused and scared eye. “Where’z she?”
“She’s at the farm,” Mac told the kid. “Called me to pick you up.”
Again, not precisely a lie. It was what Scootaloo needed to hear though, because she calmed down enough to actually get a good look at him, and settle her thoughts enough to recognize him. She asked again in that quivery weary scratchy tone of hers, “Big Macintosh?”
Mac kind of regretted not spending time around those four enough. Hiding in his room all day when he was around, just letting them play on their own was fine, but maybe they should’ve been a bit more familiar with him than this. So he helped her become more familiar, by smiling and saying simply,
“Eeyup.”
Well, that was it. Applejack was calling Big Macintosh, and telling him about the formerly top secret clubhouse. Apple Bloom had no hope of being able to find another golden opportunity like that again, not that she could exactly take advantage of their clubhouse, if she couldn’t get her little pony self to school. Maybe they could make a clubhouse on the farm or something. She sighed, and trotted in a quick circle heading back to the table, where Sweetie was just finishing off the last of her sandwich. Laying back and patting her stomach Sweetie murmured “Sho.. good...”
“You sure like our food, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom remarked up to her.
Sweetie nodded down in return saying, “Rarity ushually can’t... I mean, doeshn’t sherve such larzge portions. Her zjob at the boutique ish um, shufficient, but there’sh jus’ no beating your family. You’re really lucky, Apple Bloom.”
Apple Bloom blushed and lifted a hoof, rubbing her pastern saying, “Aw, yeah, kinda.”
Sweetie jumped down then and wobbled a bit, looking down at her feet and clearly feeling uneasy about going down onto her heels. The sight of her weird bare feet seemed like it was going to make Sweetie Belle start crying again, but she sighed huffily and looked to her left, to Apple Bloom.
“Wazh i’ rearry like thish for you?” Sweetie asked with difficulty the little pony at her side.
Apple Bloom nodded, well sort of nodded, then said, “Yeah uh, well, for the most part. Ah was a mite more nervicited, since ah didn’t know what was going on. Mostly ah just sat in mah room reading books trying not to turn into a uh, lose mah memories or something. Ah’m kinda curious how it feels, when you’re all walking around like that. Ah didn’ walk around, mostly just moped around like a dummy.”
Sweetie frowned thoughtfully, saying, “Well, it feelsh badth, rlike I’m going um hfall over, and um... be on all fours, but I can... canno’ really do it.”
She demonstrated, bending down to put her hands on the ground with her butt high in the air, somewhere partways between human and pony, but definitely too human to be walking on all fours. Then she stood on her two feet again, leaning back against her oddly shaped knees. “I fink I’d fall if I tried to run. It’s eashy to shtand like this, but when I thry to walk, it just...”
When Sweetie walked, she extended her leg, forward stepping carefully down on her toe, then her heel. “’s hard to puth my heerl down. I don’ know if I can eshplain... it feelsh... like my foot ish sideways?”
Apple Bloom puzzled over that a second and then brightened with realization. “Ah think ah know what you’re feelin’ Sweetie,” she said trotting around in front of the girl. “Check out this!” Then Apple Bloom sat back down on her haunches and reared up, wobbling a little, then settling solidly. With her forehooves curled in front of her chest, Apple Bloom looked kind of like a bunny. She knew because she seen herself in the mirror like this before. She looked at Sweetie, then waved a hoof down at her flat legs, saying, “Look at mah back—uh, at mah legs.”
Sweetie looked, and then her eyes widened as she realized it too. “Apple Bloom!” she exclaimed, “You have feet!” She blushed then as her voice cracked, and said more reservedly, “I–I mean of coursh you have fee...feet. It’d be dhumb if you didn’t, but I didn’ realizhe they weren’ jush the bottom of your hooves.”
Apple Bloom bounced on her ‘feet’ a couple times before going to all fours again, her legs rising back to their natural position with the ‘heels’ up in the air. “Yeah it’s just your heel’s gonna be more like part of your leg. The hoof is just the part right at the end. Like the knuckles or somethin’. Ah mean, the toes.”
They continued in that fashion a while, toying with Sweetie’s changing anatomy and telling her where it was going, until it got to the subject of her hands. Bit of a delicate subject.
“Y’see how your middle finger’s all thicker, right?” Apple Bloom explained, patting Sweetie’s hand with a hoof. “Your other fingers get small and kinda go away and that middle one becomes your—”
“Fronth leg?” Sweetie asked.
Apple Bloom shook her head, “No, just the hoof. See ah can wiggle the tip of my front hoof a little. That’s the fingers, or uh, the one finger ah got left. And between that and the bend in the middle is mah wrist. And the part from there to where it goes into me is mah uh, arm... the part below the elbow.”
Sweetie reached forward and waggled Apple Bloom’s lifted hoof curiously, poking her ticklishly in the arm pit, saying “Wai..., thish ish your elbow? I though’ it wazh your shoulder!”
Apple Bloom pulled her hoof free from Sweetie, and shook it a little experimentally at the elbow. “Mah shoulder’s all stuck up inside. It uh...” she went back onto her haunches again, reaching around with her other hoof, to touch the side of her body, up above where her arm went inside her.
“It’s right here,” Apple Bloom indicated, at last resting a hoof almost on her chest, “And it don’t bend, when ah’m walkin’ on it. But ah can just wiggle it loose an’ uh...” She stretched her front hoof out, the interlocked bones releasing to allow her shoulder to bend flexibly. “There, now that’s mah whole arm when ah stick it outta me.”
“Thas’... really weird,” Sweetie commented somberly.
“It don’t feel too weird, but yeah...” Apple Bloom looked aside. “Ah only get it like this, when ah’m wrapping mah hooves around something usually.” That gave her an idea. She got a sly look on her face and jumped to all fours, trotting up to Sweetie and rearing up again, to hug the girl around her midsection. Sweetie giggled and petted Apple Bloom’s back, but didn’t seem to understand, so Apple Bloom clarified,
“When mah shoulders come out, that means mah arms are in hugging mode!”
And Sweetie’s chest shook against her with a laugh so sweet, Apple Bloom just knew she did it right. Sweetie seemed a bit less horrified about the part of her that was changing the most at least: the loss of her hands. They had to sit together and think though, on the floor by the cool fireplace, because Sweetie then brought up a surprisingly difficult question.
“Oh well,” she sighed, “Zh..should I do anything wif my handsh, before my fingersh go away?”
Apple Bloom had to smile at that saying, “Yeah, if it ain’t too much of a bother. May as well use ‘em while you still got ‘em right?”
Sweetie nodded, then lifted her arms. Then she stared at her hands pensively, for quite a while.
She shook her head then, saying “I got nothing.”
“Huh?” Apple Bloom asked cluelessly.
“Is thish part of being a p-pony?” Sweetie asked her. “I jus’ canno’ think of anything tha’ I coulrd do with my handsz!”
“Well, uh, write, ah guess. Not gonna have much chance to do that without hands, are ya?” Apple Bloom said with another cheek/shoulder rub on the half girl.
“Yeah, about that...” Sweetie said, looking over across the floor. Apple Bloom followed her gaze to where a couple of her drawings and diagrams were still scattered about, next to a box of crayons that didn’t taste like pencil eraser and yuck.
“Well y’can draw still,” Apple Bloom admitted, “But that ain’t writing words it’s jus’ drawing pitchurs with yer mouth.”
She looked at Sweetie, who had a raised eyebrow. “Maybe you should htry drawing lettersh,” Sweetie said in an unsympathetic tone.
“Well yeah ah could—” Apple Bloom paused. She rubbed her chin with a pastern. There wasn’t any reason she could figure that she couldn’t. Could that mean...!
“Hold that thought!” Apple Bloom said trotting over to her drawing stuff. She looked at her work, the increasingly less jittery lines, and how easy it was to draw circles now, that met at the ends instead of being misaligned. She had never been able to do that, even when she had hands. Flipping over a drawing of a uh, well, of that boy from the dance, Apple Bloom stuck her nose in the crayon box, pulling out a blue, but then with some thought a red crayon. On the paper in front of her, Apple Bloom thought a moment, then carefully drew two slanted vertical lines that connected at the top, with a horizontal line through them about a third of the way down.
She stared at it.
Then she swiped it aside with her hoof and grabbed another paper that wasn’t covered in drawings yet. Sweetie had approached from behind, hesitant to say anything to disturb the intensity of Apple Bloom’s attention. Apple Bloom repeated the process above, but as small as she could this time, on the left edge of the paper. It was wobblier and less precise than when she drew it big, but she could tell what it was!
Then, she drew a long vertical line, with a circle intersecting it tangentially. She was so excited, it ended up twice as big as the previous one. But then she concentrated, repeating it, then drawing just a line. Then she paused, tilted the crayon up in her lips, and off to the side she drew a simple swirl. She returned to position, and drew a more confident swirl, and most importantly, a specific swirl. She kept on like this, until she hit the edge of the paper, and pulled her head back and looked at what she made.
A P P l e B l O C
She couldn’t stop smiling bigger and bigger. The crayon fell out of her mouth, because she had to open it to shout, “Ah can write!!” as it clattered to the floor. She looked at Sweetie with big bright eyes saying, “Sweetie Belle, ah can write!”
“You shaid you couldn’!” Sweetie exclaimed right back to her crouched there in excitement.
“Ah never thoughta writing with mah mouth!” Apple Bloom shouted back.
“But you were dhrawing wifth it!” Sweetie responded in confusion.
“Ah cain’t believe ah didn’ see it!” Apple Bloom said hopping in place excitedly. “Ah’m so stupid! This is incredible, Sweetie Belle!”
“Oh, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie cheered, the whitish girl grabbing Apple Bloom and pulling her up into a big hug.
“What’s all that racket?” Applejack said, walking up to and stopping at seeing them hugging, or Apple Bloom being hugged at least. “Somethin’ about writin’?”
“Applejack, look!” Apple Bloom said swinging a hoof around, trying to point at the paper. Sweetie put her down, and Apple Bloom zipped over to it, picking up the edge in her mouth and lifting it up for Applejack to see.
“Land sakes!” Applejack gasped, “You can write!”
“Ah jsth–” Apple Bloom spit out the paper saying, “Ah just never thought of drewing it with mah mouth!”
Applejack swept her up in a hug next, holding her tight and saying to her weepily, “Mah lil’ sister’s gonna be okay!”
With the sound of a headset dropping and swinging against the wall, Rarity rushed around the corner saying, “What’s all this? Something happened?”
Applejack stuck the paper in her face saying, “Mah little Apple Bloom can write!”
Rarity blinked at the paper before leaning around it, asking in an even but puzzled tone, “She couldn’t before?”
“Ah ain’t got no hands, lady!” Apple Bloom said to her irritably from up held by Applejack, waving a hoof at her.
Despite Apple Bloom being right there in Applejack’s arms addressing her, Rarity ignored Apple Bloom, continuing to address Applejack saying, “How did she...”
“With mah mouth!” Apple Bloom piped up. That was enough to get Rarity to glance her way, saying merely, “...oh.”
Then Rarity turned to where Sweetie was standing beside Applejack saying, “Isn’t that wonderful, SweetieEEEAHHHAHAHHH” Rarity jerked back from her sister, her arms swinging wildly as she stumbled on her heels. A sudden look of terror was on her face.
“Wha!?” Sweetie exclaimed, backing up a step herself. “Did shomething changze? Wha’s wrong?!”
Instead of answering, Rarity hissed angrily at Applejack, “I knew it was a horrid idea! Cortisone, do you have it? Antihistamine!”
“Whu?” Applejack said pulling her and the curling anxiously against her Apple Bloom away from the antipathic girl. “What’s wrong? Sweetie havin’ a—”
“Thanks to your horrid pastrami sandwich, Sweetie Belle is having an allergic reaction!” Rarity said frantically.
“Oh no!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, looking at her arms in horror.
“She could go into shock!” Rarity exclaimed, “She could stop breathing! We need to get her to a hospital!”
Applejack and Apple Bloom looked from Rarity to Sweetie Belle, from the terrified fashionist girl, down to the smaller, increasingly terrified, increasingly ponylike girl. Applejack turned to Rarity with a disgusted expression, saying,
“She ain’t havin’ no allergic reaction.”
“You lie!!” Rarity exclaimed, sweeping her sister up, saying, “Oh Sweetie, your skin is breaking out! It must hurt terribly, but don’t itch it, or it could get worse! I NEED A STOMACH PUMP does anyone have a stomach pump?!”
“That ain’t allergies!” Applejack shouted, trying to haul Rarity up from clinging to her panicking sister. “She’s fine!” Applejack said nose to nose with Rarity. “No allergies! No danger!”
“THEN W–” Rarity paused, and squinted at Applejack. “This is another one of those... pony things, is it?” she said in a considerably more level tone.
Applejack looked a little nervous now, saying, “Yeah, Apple Bloom went through the same thing. Ain’t allergies it’s just her skin is uh... changin’...”
“Why is it so... sanguine pink?” Rarity asked, kind of leaning away from Sweetie even as she hugged her to her. “These splotches look horrid!”
Applejack didn’t seem to want to answer, so from her shoulder, Apple Bloom called out helpfully, “Her fur’s comin’ in!”
Rarity’s face went blank. Oops.
“Her... fur,” Rarity said distantly. Sweetie had stopped struggling and just sat against her sister, looking up at her worriedly.
“Ponies have fur,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly, “All mah skin color went into the fur when it came in. That’s why ah’m still human colored, not brown or white, like a horse.”
“You mean to say your skin... is...” Rarity stared at Apple Bloom directly now. Finally paying attention to her, definitely a good sign!
“Yeap,” Apple Bloom said, “It’s all that weird pink color, but it’s too light to see it under the fur, except when the blood goes into it—” She would have concluded with “When ah’m blushing,” but she found it rather pointless to continue, because Rarity’s eyes rolled up, and she fainted on the spot.
Sweetie tried to hold up her weight, as Rarity sagged against her and... actually didn’t have too much of a hard time doing so. She sure wasn’t getting any weaker, even if she was getting smaller. Plus the thicker, shorter arms gave her better leverage. She managed to get Rarity laid out, and hovered over her worriedly, before turning to Applejack and Apple Bloom saying, “Do you have any shmelling saltsh?”
“Oh, Sweetie, your beautiful complexion...” Rarity would come to say sadly, cradling her sister’s head in her lap gently, after she recovered from coughing up a lung from inhaling the smelling salts. “You have always been fair as the driven snow, and now look at you...”
Everyone sat together in kind of a morose circle down on the floor by the dining table. Applejack kind of looking bothered by her inability to console Rarity, Rarity cradling the partial Sweetie Belle to her like she were made of glass, Apple Bloom flat on her belly feeling glum about the situation.
“You’ve alwaysh been fairer zhan me, shis,” the mottled looking Sweetie said; laying sideways so her head would lay in Rarity’s lap. Wouldn’t be a day before her everything could lay in Rarity’s lap. “It’ll cohme back ash fur, anyway.
“Ah never got what it was that fairness had to do with skin color,” Applejack said sitting by her, “Or beauty for that matter.”
“Well, the etymology,” Rarity put in, “Fairness’s origins are in cleanliness and purity. Whether cleanly skin or a cleanly agreement.”
“Mah skin’s plenty clean,” Applejack insisted, scrubbing at an arm to demonstrate the lack of dirt falling off of it, “And ah’m as orange as a sunset over Dallas. If’n I was white, how would anybody even see mah adorable freckles?”
Rarity’s hand went over her mouth to cover the titters, saying, “You do have admittedly adorable freckles, dear.”
“Yer darn tootin’” Applejack answered smugly.
“An’ what about chalk?” Apple Bloom put in, “Ah was white as th’ driven snow, an’ ah was still totally dirty!”
“Maybe next time you’ll learn not to use a broom to sweep off the blackboards,” Applejack chided offhandedly.
Rarity pinched her brow with that slender hand.
“Doesh anyone hear a beeping sound?” Sweetie asked, ear twitching towards the hallway.
That’s right about when the door swung open, and Big Macintosh walked in.
We all deal with adversity and turmoil in our own ways. For Scootaloo, it was holding onto to Big Macintosh so tightly and tenaciously that he had to carry her out of the shed. He didn’t have to pull the truck over because there was no way to get over there without bringing her along with. She even refused to use the passenger seat of the pickup, making his driving very unsafe.
She continued to cling to him, even after he pulled up the truck to a grumbling halt, and stepped out, jumping down to the packed dirt that occurred as a consequence of parking a truck there every day. Mac held onto Scootaloo with one hand while she hid her face in his side, her hood burying her head, neither of them speaking so much as a word.
It was okay though. She was real light for her size.
The swinging open of the front door brought Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Rarity, and Applejack running for the front. Sweetie was stumbling a little. Okay, a lot. She sort of looked like a funny midget at this point. Her tail was longer, and her lower legs were shorter. Sweetie Belle’s skin looked really weird. And there was this annoying beeping sound in the background like the phone was off the—
“The phone!” Rarity yelped, struggling up and dumping Sweetie unceremoniously off her. “I must have left it—” she jerked in the other direction, “Big Macintosh! Did you find her?!” Rarity called out, running for the front of the house, while also trying to run for the phone in the hallway. It wasn’t very effective.
Applejack was hot on Rarity’s heels, practically pushing her to the front door. Apple Bloom kept right along with them, until Sweetie started to stumble behind, and she stayed with her friend, walking along with her until they were all at the front of the house.
It was a sorry sight that greeted the others as they surrounded Big Macintosh and Scootaloo. Easily the lowest moment in Scootaloo’s life. The only time that could possibly have been worse for Scootaloo was that one totally crazy afternoon, when Big Macintosh found her cowering in a shed, halfway turned into a pony... about 10 minutes ago. She’d had a truck ride to calm down, and a quiet, strong man, or, boy rather, to hold onto, calming her nerves. She’d gotten so worked up over the... of course she was getting worked up. She was changing into a pony for freak’s sake. Freak is right!
No, she wasn’t a freak. Apple Bloom wasn’t a freak, so why would Scootaloo be? But seeing her own ears stand up like that in the mirror, and how they moved, and feeling the thing coming out behind her, less like a rat’s tail now and more like a brush. The frantic tearing off of her gym clothes, and getting every part of her covered up with her hoodie, or painfully pushed down the back of her pants. Going to lunch trying to find Sweetie Belle, only finding Diamond demanding to everyone, to know where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were. Scootaloo barely managed to avoid being seen by the girl and just ran for cover.
She was unable to help the distraught Diamond who was trying not to look distraught, because Scootaloo was having the same problem as Sweetie Belle! Maybe. Scootaloo had an answer for Diamond, a good suspicion of exactly what happened to Sweetie Belle, but was unable to tell her, from the fact that Scootaloo would have to admit it was happening to her too. That there was a tail growing out of her and she was some kind of freak just like... no, Apple Bloom wasn’t a freak. She just had some weird magic happen to her, and it infected Scootaloo or something.
All that being said, Scootaloo wasn’t in the greatest state of mind when she retreated to the Cutie Major Clubhouse to plan out her next move, and found no sign of Sweetie Belle there, not even a partly pony one. And Scootaloo was pretty terrible at planning in the first place, without her friends to help. Scootaloo’s idea of a good plan was to ask Apple Bloom what she thought would be a good plan. Well, Scootaloo would certainly get plenty of chances to ask her, when they were happy little ponies together at Apple Bloom’s farm. If she could get to their farm, at all.
That’s about as far as Scootaloo got in the planning stage, just circling Sweet Apple Acres. Because it was way across town, and that’s across town. That meant Scootaloo would have to ride, or even walk if she couldn’t balance on her scooter, really far through a crowded, populated area. There was just no route she could stand going on, that wouldn’t end in total humiliation, or worse. She quickly realized that she was so terrified of being seen, that she couldn’t even make herself leave the shed, much less go on a journey across town trying to hide from staring eyes. She wasn’t... she wasn’t a freak!
So she just hid in that shed, like there was no world outside of it, no idea what to do and nowhere to go, and every minute she waited the changes became more prominent and the physical features more obvious. Her skin was starting to get weird and splotchy. Her hoodie wasn’t baggy when she first put it on. She didn’t even look human anymore.
Then she heard it. Above the everpresent noise of the automobiles, someone walking along the pavement. Nobody came over here in between classes! But there was no way they knew about this place; it was a CMC sworn secret. Not even Diamond knew about it. If anyone found out, the three of the major hopefuls wouldn’t have anywhere to meet, or put their stuff, or make their videos at school. There just wasn’t anywhere they were allowed to meet, so they had to make a place, and they kept quiet about it. So there’s no way that those steady footsteps walking up closer and closer were coming to this shed. They had to be passing by. They had to be passing by!
Then the footsteps stopped, along with Scootaloo’s heart, right in front of the shed. She stared at the door with dilated eyes, completely at a loss of what to do. The door creaked open, and she bit back a scream, diving desperately for cover. There was nowhere to hide. She just tried to put herself out of sight behind the partial concealment of the bookcase, but she couldn’t stop shaking! It was no good; she was just there in plain sight, as he walked up to her. She knew he could see her, that he was staring down at her, judging her, but she just wished he would go away, just poof gone, and then she could... do something to get out of this.
And then he said her name.
So yeah, Scootaloo was pretty freaking pitiful, once Apple Bloom’s brother calmly helped her all the way across town and right to the farm. She should have been fine. He was nothing but helpful. He solved all her problems at once after all, except for one big, glaring problem. She didn’t want to be a pony!
Thus instead of relieved, Scootaloo was feeling downright irascible once they walked in those doors. She just felt so humiliated, her whole life being taken away by an invisible hand right before her eyes, and there was nothing she could do about it. She wanted to go places! She’d go crazy on the farm. She needed hands! And she wasn’t feeling relieved or grateful, even though she knew she should have been.
“Hi,” she said resentfully, actually falling a bit, once she let go of Big Macintosh. Because she couldn’t even stand up like a human anymore, apparantly. She immediately shoved her hands in her pockets, the hands that she still had... for now.
“Sho... pony happerning for you th.. also for you, huh?” Sweetie was the first to speak, reaching for Scootaloo’s hood. Scootaloo jerked back, from her hood being pulled off by Sweetie’s... weird looking hand. Scootaloo didn’t want to look at her own hands.
Rarity was next to speak, leaning forward and saying cautiously, “Scootaloo, are you... alright?”
“Doesh it look like I’m alhright?!” Scootaloo snapped at her, and it came out sounding more hurt than she intended. “I–I look terrible,” she added, quieter.
“You’ll feel better if you take off your hood and relax,” Apple Bloom said in a calculating tone, from way down there on the floor. Scootaloo wondered how long it would be until they were looking eye to eye again. She wondered what the world was like from down there. But she wasn’t this curious!
“I’m fine,” she grumbled, pushing past the very large Rarity and Applejack, just so she could walk into the room, and feel a little more in control of things. She lost her shoes in the truck; her feet just didn’t fit them anymore.
Sweetie didn’t again reach for, or approach Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle was so lucky that she just looked like a cute little half pony girl. Scootaloo was all weird and splotchy and... oh, actually Sweetie was covered in splotches too. That didn’t look that bad... she looked kind of like a... white and pink cow. Scootaloo couldn’t help but feel better seeing Sweetie not look like a horrible inhuman mutant, because maybe Scootaloo didn’t look as bad as she felt she did. Scootaloo felt... Scootaloo felt her tail was hurting.
“Shoothaloo, it ish alright,” Sweetie Belle said to her consolingly. “We’re going th... we’ll all be okay.” She said that. She actually said that. Like everything was fine! Scootaloo glared at her and said,
“Oh shure, izh going thoo be okay for you, mish I wan’ ha be a cute pony. Well newzh flash I don’th! I never wanthed thish! I juth wanthed to make ih, and... and noth be a freakg. Dho you fink a little cute baby pony coul’ join the foo’ball theam?”
Scootaloo hated this stupid mouth that was too stupid big and she was sure her teeth were loose, and nobody could possibly understand what she said. She just shut up, hunching forward again.
“Actually you kinda get four kickers with the deal, so it might be feasible,” Apple Bloom pointed out helpfully, pony-walking up to Scootaloo. “You should see how hard these babies can kick!” She demonstrated, snapping her stubby back legs at the air in two hot thrusts. Scootaloo actually... started to realize that Apple Bloom always used her front legs to kick the ball around when they played, never her back ones. She wondered if... no, no a pony football player, that would never win Rainbow Dash’s attention, or respect. It was probably totally cheating to play football as a pony.
“Doeshsn’t matther hanyway,” Scootaloo slurred sullenly, not even trying to speak good. She just flopped down on the couch like she owned the place. She just didn’t care how rude she was, if it wasn’t going to help her be human again. She...
She couldn’t help but think that she probably wouldn’t even count as human already, the way she was now. Wouldn’t be long before she and Sweetie Belle were unrecognizable. And Apple Bloom said she had stayed herself on the inside, but what if she was wrong? What if Apple Bloom was lying? What if the pony thing was like a monster that ate up all your flesh, and copied your memories so it could lie about being yourself?
Scootaloo swore to herself once again, that she was never going to start out another school year with a scary movie marathon.
“Scootaloo,” it was Applejack this time, standing over her ill defended couch fortress. (Which is to say, just lying on the couch.) “Ya gotta take your hood off. It’s too warm to be wearin’ all that. And your tail must be awful kinked.”
Scootaloo tried to brush her off, because what did she know about what Scootaloo was going through? She had no right to give tail advice, even if it was the truth! Scootaloo just looked up into Applejack’s steady green eyes and tried to be tough, but her resolve broke along with her voice, and the truth just spilled out of her.
“I don’ wanna be a pony.”
She said it a million times before, but something about that moment just felt like she was admitting it for the first time. There was no joking about this. It was real! Something was wet on Scootaloo’s face. She just lay on her side on the couch there, ignoring Applejack and hugging her overheated sweatshirt closer to her sweaty body.
A hoof poked her in the shoulder.
“Lemmelone,” Scootaloo mumbled. Apple Bloom responded by jumping up on the couch and climbing up on top of her.
“I shaid leaff me alone!” Scootaloo snapped, rolling the pony off of her to fall onto the floor.
Apple Bloom’s hooves barely touched the floor before she leapt up again, landing softly on Scootaloo, saying, “No.”
“Geroff Apple Blm,” Scootaloo mumbled into the couch cushions.
“No,” Apple Bloom repeated. Instead of four solid hooves pressing down on her, Scootaloo felt a broad, soft curve as Apple Bloom settled down on her belly atop Scootaloo’s back.
“Y’don’t have to hug me,” Apple Bloom said all casually. She settled herself more. “Ah’m jus’ here if’n you need it.”
Scootaloo rolled to her back, half heartedly trying to roll Apple Bloom off again, but Apple Bloom just walked around her like a log as she rotated. And now Scootaloo was lying on the couch with a pony on her tummy. Great. She reached down to just slightly conform her hand against where Apple Bloom’s head came into her body, down at the bottom of her cherry red... it wasn’t hair anymore, it was a pony mane. It looked like her hair, but it was growing out of Apple Bloom all the way down her thick neck.
Scootaloo sighed in resignation, and hugged her other arm around Apple Bloom. Bloom didn’t say anything, just scootched forward to make it easier for Scootaloo to wrap her ...unusually short arms around her. That was how Scootaloo lay, thinking, and changing, her tail hurting, her body sweating and her ears flattened under the hood, and her skin... falling off, or whatever it was doing. Scootaloo couldn’t get out of her head just how light and airy, and ornamental that dress Apple Bloom wore was. She didn’t say anything to Apple Bloom though, and Apple Bloom didn’t say anything to her. For now it was just half pony freak and freaky final pony product, hugging each other for comfort.
Applejack leaned over the back of the couch again, saying reassuringly, “Rarity’s talkin’ with Ms. Cheerilee.” She didn’t notice Scootaloo’s eyes widening as she said, “She’s been drivin’ all up down the city tryin’ to spot you on your scooter.”
“Mom!” Scootaloo yelled, sitting bolt upright, Apple Bloom crumpling with a protesting squeal into a tangle of hooves in her lap. “Oop, thsorry Apple Bloom,” she said.
“S’ fine,” Apple Bloom grumbled.
“I forgod thoo thell her!” Scootaloo declared. She punched herself in the forehead saying, “Sthupid! Sthupid!”
Applejack stepped back in alarm, and said in puzzlement, “Don’t... worry none about it? We got ahold of her, an’ she’s on her way. Should be here any minute.”
Scootaloo groaned and let herself fall back onto the couch. “Szhould’ve jusz toldh her andh zshe’d be able thoo giff me a hride. Or hi’ me, or something.”
Apple Bloom blinked, sitting on her haunches up on Scootaloo’s thighs, her expression of disbelief somehow even more accentuated by that big pink bow framing her head. “Y’mean to tell me you didn’t go straight to her?”
“No,” Scootaloo moaned, putting a couch pillow over her face, which didn’t help her communication abilities no matter how she wanted to push this muzzle back into being a nose. “Jus’ goth thsome clotheth on, an’ went thoo the thecret hlubhouse... can hyou rearlly underthand wha’ I’hm thaying?”
“Ah can get the gist,” Apple Bloom said self consciously. “Ah been studying accents an’ inflections an’ such, for Ms. Harshvoice. Ain’t working too good on the speaking part.”
“Z’nothing wrong wiff th’ hway you thspeak, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said. “I juth can’ hthop lithping. Mouth ith tho wrong now.”
Apple Bloom tapped a hoof to her chin. Then she looked at Scootaloo and said seriously, “It’s your lips, not your mouth.”
“Wha’ hyou an exthpert now or thomethin?” Scootaloo said to her irately.
“Well, as ah’m no-tuh lissping, yeah, ah sorta am!” Apple Bloom said proudly, admitting “But there may have been a professional voice coach involved, just a little bit. Trust me, just try to say like, teapot or something, but purse your lips when you say it, an’ really feel what they’re doing.”
“Theapth–” Scootaloo cut off and crossed her eyes... she could actually look at her own mouth now. That was almost as weird as how she didn’t see it without her eyes crossed, when it should have been a big honking thing in her vision. “Thh,” she said, pursing her lips like Apple Bloom. They felt really weird, like, Scootaloo hadn’t even thought about them being weird. They were more sensitive, or ...movey, or something. “Theepoth,” she said, and it happened when she left them loose that way, so maybe if she actually firmed before saying... “Teapoth. Woah!”
“Pretty cool, huh?” Apple Bloom said, kicking one of her legs jauntily under her.
“Theapoth. Teapot. Theapot. Teapot. Thath isth tho coorl!” Scootaloo stopped and blushed, smushed at her lips with her fingers... the middle finger was really thick. That was so creepy. “Thath,” she tried again. “That isth... that. Isth. Is. Th..s...so coor...coorl.”
“Thorry ith shill hardh,” Scootaloo said apologetically to Apple Bloom.
“It’s okay,” Apple Bloom said with a smile, “You’ll have plenty of time to get used to... it...” her smile died, and she blushed, lifting a hoof more nervously than jauntily, saying, “Sorry ah didn’t mean... we’ll figure something out. It cain’t take too long... ah mean...”
“How can hyou be tho happy abouth thith?” Scootaloo moaned, covering her face again. “Thith ith therrible! Hlook at me! Lithen to me!”
“Ah’m lonely, okay?!” Apple Bloom shouted out, her hooves coming down firmly on the back of Scootaloo’s legs.
Scootaloo pulled her arms away from her face and looked at Apple Bloom, who was staring off like she’d seen a ghost, or something in herself that she didn’t want to see.
The little yellow pony focused on Scootaloo again, saying, “Ah know you’re hurting, but it ain’t been so bad for me as ah thought it’d be. Ah cain even write maybe now, with practice. But it’s just... ah’ve been the only pony in this whole mess. Ah’ve been all alone, nobody who could see things like ah do, an’ everybody is so different from me now it’s just hard. Ah know ah got mah Granny and mah sis and brother and you three, but ah just...”
Apple Bloom sat on Scootaloo again, but curling instead of flattening out. “Ah thought it was me,” she said distantly. “Ah thought it had to be something wrong with me, sort of like ah made mahself this way, an’ it was something nobody else had a problem with. Something broken inside me that made me a pony on the outside. And nobody else even has a problem, or deserves... or has a problem.”
She focused on Scootaloo again, saying somewhat tearfully, “You visit on the weekends maybe, but ah’ve just been so alone! I just cain’t... it’s not all bad, ah mean, we’ll figure it out right? Even if we don’t... if we cain’t change back, we can still live together. And maybe we can be even closer friends. Ah’ll show you everything ah know, just... just don’t be sad about it, please Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom sniffled, adding, “It’s tearing me up, to see you like this... ah know you don’t want it, but ah just wish you could be happy. Ah... ah miss you girls.”
Scootaloo gave Apple Bloom a long look, feeling... calmer somehow. But she asked “Where’s Thweetie Belle?”
Apple Bloom rubbed her eyes, and gave Scootaloo a very disapproving look saying, “Wayll, after you accused her of doing this to herself, because she wished it would happen, I don’t suspect she’ll want anything to do with you.”
“I heard,” came Sweetie Belle’s voice from behind the couch, which she was apparantly sitting against on the floor back there. “Canno’ no’ hear with thethe sthup...these dumb eareth.”
“Thwee...Sweetie I’m thorry,” Scootaloo called out over the couch. “I wath jus’—was justh upthet an’ it wasnth...was noth your faulth.”
“Thith not something I want,” Sweetie said in a resentful tone. “Even asthked Apple Bloom change me back, buth she change herthelf back if she could. Was only a big joke. Only thry–rying to be ...cute.”
“Remember about the purse your lips thing, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom called over the couch. “Say ‘trying’ but say it like you’re gonna kiss a boy.”
“Trying,” Sweetie said with little hesitation. Then cheerily, “Hey, thath worked!” Then in outrage, “Hey!!”
Apple Bloom just snickered. Wait no, she literally nickered. But it was the same as a snicker, just... pony.
Scootaloo sat up on the couch entirely, Apple Bloom walking off her lap, to sit beside her. She sighed, and lifted her arms up, to pull the hood off her head. Her ears... fwapped as they were released to stand upright instead of being squashed. They–ow, they actually started falling asleep! What gives!
Ignoring the tingling in her ears, Scootaloo said, “Thorry, Apple Bloom. I-it does feel bether with my hood off. A-and my th... my tail h-hurths.” She bent forward to look at her butt, where her pants were cinched tight. “Gueth thith is inevithable,” she added glumly. She didn’t even have to uncinch her pants much. Tight two hours ago was pretty loose now. It... the tail twitched on her... in her ...something. She could feel it, like a long, tickly rope with fu—hair, all along it. As she pulled it out of her pants entirely, Scootaloo’s most salient thought was, that tail’s probably a longer haircut than she’s ever had in her life.
“Better...” she said quietly.
“Better?” Apple Bloom asked her, with a cute head tilt.
Scootaloo nodded to Apple Bloom, noting how the little pony next to her was sitting there on the couch like a doggy would. “I geth... I guess I’ll be sitting like thath thoon,” Scootaloo said glumly.
Apple Bloom blinked, looked down at her hooves. Then she kicked her hind hooves right out from under her and scooted her back up against the backrest of the couch, her front hooves curling in front of her like a squirrel as she nevertheless sat upright, with her legs splayed out before her. Just like Scootaloo was doing. Except Scootaloo’s legs weren’t quite as splayed out. “How about that?” Apple Bloom said smugly.
Scootaloo just folded her arms with a smirk.
Apple Bloom then...folded her arms... with a smirk. Her arms like... extended out with an extra joint, just so she could fold them.
“That looks... really weird, Apple Bloom...” Scootaloo said uneasily.
“Yeah, it ain’t so comfortable either,” Apple Bloom admitted, tilting her nose straight up as Sweetie Belle popped her head over the back of the couch curiously. The pink white girl looked down on Apple Bloom, only to cover her mouth as a smile erupted across her muzzle.
“You are so adorable!” she said to Apple Bloom, “You’re sitting there just like Scootaloo except pony.”
Apple Bloom kept looking up at Sweetie without responding at first though, saying uncertainly, “Hey, Sweetie you got a sorta somethin’ on your—”
The three girls’ ears perked. Apple Bloom’s turned easily toward the front, where an engine was riding up dangerously. There was another screech of tires, and the loud clatter clank of metal hitting metal. Then a door opening and closing. Then heavy footsteps.
“Ah think your mom is,” Apple Bloom managed to say before the door crashed open, revealing Cheerilee in the fading evening light.
“Scootaloo?!” she shouted in panic, “Where are you!”
Scootaloo’s answer was “Shorry, mom!”
Not “I’m over here!” or “Two guesses and the first one doesn’t count!” No, Scootaloo got straight to the point. You don’t have to say where you are and then apologize, if apologizing announces your location anyway. So her mom ran over and on seeing her said, “Oh thank... oh honey, thank...” Cheerilee sank to her knees then, looking at Scootaloo in measurable shock, saying “I was so worried—you know I worry about you. Why didn’t you tell me! I could have helped you.”
“Thorry mom, I... Shorry mom, I ... ....”
Cheerilee blinked, and put a hand to her ear. “Didn’t catch that, sorry.”
“Sorry mom, I forgoth,” Scootaloo mumbled a bit louder.
“You... forgot?” Cheerilee said in a disbelieving tone.
“She really did!” Apple Bloom piped up, making the cherry colored lady startle in place. “She was hitting herself an’ everything!”
“How do you forget, that I work in the library every day?” Cheerilee continued to ask in disbelief.
“I jus’ went to the clubh—I jus’ went and hid,” Scootaloo explained. “I was juth...just thinking how thoo get to Apple Bloom’th houth on my th...scooter. Forgoth that you could take me. ”
“She always does her own thing, you know that Ms. Cheerilee,” Apple Bloom said continuing to defend her. “Might’ve been different if it were any other girl, but you just gotta understand who—”
“Oh, I don’t even care,” Cheerilee said incensedly. She stood up and walked forward and just... picked Scootaloo up, just like that. Scootaloo was too surprised to even react, and Cheerilee just hugged her tight saying, “Oh, Scootaloo, Scootaloo...”
“M-mom,” Scootaloo whined vaguely, “My friendzh are here...” But Cheerilee would have none of it. And her mom, she was so very big and strong. Scootaloo thought it was impressive when Big Macintosh carried her all this way, but her mom just lifted her like she was a sack of feathers. She wanted to be lifted that way, granted, and hugged by her mom forever, but... just how light was she?
And why was it so uncomfortable, how her mom’s arms were scrunching up the shirt on her back?
As the sun came down, Big Macintosh left again in the truck, and returned with Granny at the end of the day, who was considerably sore at them for not informing her of these complications earlier. With all of them finally there, and nobody roving around the city desperately searching for anyone, things started to settle down somehow. Apple Bloom was happy to see Ms. Cheerilee so glad to reunite with her wayward child, as Scootaloo needed all the moral support she could get at this point. She wasn’t even protesting as Cheerilee trailed her fingers curiously through the hairs on Scootaloo’s new tail. Scootaloo, in the meantime, was trying to get through a...
Well, she near collapsed with hunger, after Apple Bloom pointed out how Scootaloo hadn’t had time to eat during lunch, and had been exercising her heart pretty heavily all day. But instead of the family’s signature beef, Cheerilee insisted that they just use some cheap canned tuna, mixed up with mayonnaise, on two pieces of cold bread. Apple Bloom didn’t even know that was Scootaloo’s favorite, and Cheerilee was happy to explain how she used it to calm Scootaloo down when she’s had a hard day and her nerves are shot. Much to Scootaloo’s protest and disgust. At Cheerilee talking about her life, not the sandwich. Scootaloo displayed the opposite of protest and disgust to the sandwich.
So Scootaloo was trying to get through a tuna sandwich, while Cheerilee sat behind her messing with that tail. Granny and Applejack were off making dinner for everyone who hadn’t already been fed. Big Macintosh went upstairs to study like he was doing so much lately. Eventually Granny managed to chase Applejack out of the kitchen despite her protests, to get to her homework too.
Sweetie was cuddled into Rarity’s embrace there on the couch. The couch had been dragged in front of the fireplace, that Apple Bloom had overseen the lighting of. And Apple Bloom was trying to be subtle about walking around the couch to stare at Sweetie Belle, without bothering the two of them sitting there, both gazing off at some unseen thing a thousand yards away.
Apple Bloom winced as her hoof hit the brick of the mantle, but it was so brief as to be unnoticed. It brought to mind the first time she’d ever tried to walk. She sure had come a long way since then. Instead of an impassable barrier, the brickwork was now an easy obstacle to avoid, just a feature of the terrain. Apple Bloom looked up at Sweetie Belle again, with worry but also with curiosity. She couldn’t really see, even from this angle. Sweetie’s generous curls were just too... generous! Sweetie glanced down at her.
Apple Bloom zipped her gaze away, tilting a hoof and pretending to whistle idly.
“Whaht are you dohing, Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle asked in a chidingly suspicious tone.
“N-nothing,” Apple Bloom tried to lie, “Ah was just... aw shucks ah give up. Could you lift your bangs, Sweetie?”
“My... bangsh?” Sweetie said, pointing a prominent fingered hand-ish thing at her hair.
Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah I... ah just wanna see what you look like with the um, the different hairstyles, yep.”
Sweetie complied, pushing her bangs away and Apple Bloom just had to sit there and stare again. Was she really seeing what she thought she was seeing?
Apple Bloom’s gaze must have been too intent, because Sweetie dropped her hair and asked with some alarm, “What’s wrong with my bangs?” Rarity’s attention fell on the two of them now, as Sweetie’s tone grew serious.
“th’sat your buth down,” Sweetie Belle accused Apple Bloom. “You only do zthat when you shee somesing shocking. Wha’ did it dho to my hair?”
Apple Bloom looked at her butt in surprise, then blushed peevishly. She lifted her butt up, standing on four hooves again, saying with a false confidence, if entirely truthfully, “There ain’t nothing wrong with your bangs, Sweetie.”
“You don’ haff to lie tho make me feerl bether Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said unhappily. “Isz my hair green, or shomesing?”
“No, she’s telling the truth dear,” Rarity puts in behind Sweetie Belle. “Your hair looks the same as always, ...even if it appears to be growing down your neck.”
“Yeah, uh, it ain’t nothin’ bad,” Apple Bloom said, shifting on her hooves uneasily, “But uh... hold on jus’ one sec!” She trotted off into the bathroom then, leaving the two of them looking after her with puzzlement and worry. She came running back with a hand mirror clenched in her teeth by the handle. “Here’re” she mumbled around it, rearing up to the couch, to pass it off to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie took it gingerly, wiping it off on her dress, which barely hung on by her tail at this point.
Apple Bloom fidgeted there. “Now uh, don’t freak or nothin, it ain’t anything alarming just lift up your bangs, and take a look at your forehead.”
Sweetie gave Apple Bloom a searching look, then lifted the hand mirror. It trembled a bit as she looked into it seeing more of a pony than a girl, and how she had to hook her finger around it since her thumb was mostly useless by now. But she still pulled back her bangs and took a look. She dropped the mirror with a squeak.
“What is it Sweetie?” Rarity uttered in a fearful tone, feeling at the girl’s bangs, “I didn’t get a look. Hand me the mirror again. I need a mirror!”
Apple Bloom didn’t even bother rearing up again, just grabbed the mirror’s handle from the floor with her mouth, and tossed it straight at Rarity. It turned end on end until Rarity caught it in her hand, whirling it around to stare a stunned Sweetie Belle in the face again with her own reflection. With both of their eyes on Sweetie’s forehead, Rarity’s delicate hand pulled back Sweetie Belle’s soft pink and purple curls. Sweetie Belle stared into the mirror, saying in a flatly stupefied voice,
“I have a horn.”
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6257864
Still, thanks for the save.
ouch, man. ouch.
I think I should point something out about your s/sh thing:
This is S
This is SH
They're sibilants, the difference is in the tongue, not the lips.
Not too sure about how the lips work in ponies, though, so I can't be too certain about anything else.
SADNESS DETECTED.
ENGAGE HUGGING MODE.
ADORACUTE SUPERCRITICAL REACTION TRIGGERING IN 3…2…1…
There were no survivors.
6302114
6302360
While I'm hardly an expert in things, I was trying to sound out the labialization of 's' which does sound like 'sh'. At least, if you stick out your lips, it's pretty impossible to say 's' without it sounding like 'sh'. It's the same way 'w' sounds like 'v' if you stick out the lips and squeeze them together, so some people don't bite their lower lip to say 'v'. (That's why Chekhov said "nuclear wessel" in the one Star Trek movie). So it'd be the symbol [sʷ] for what that's worth. It's not common if you don't have prehensile lips, I imagine, but when you shush someone, that's the kind of 'sh' that I end up using, rather than ʃ
Interestingly [ʃʷ] and [sʷ] both sound like 'sh' to me. Just the second is more whistley, since alveolar is higher frequency turbulence than post alveolar.
Oh and also the thing Apple Bloom said was lips related, you can get by trying to say "teapot" while using some fingers to squeeze your upper lip against your lower one a bit. thee-poth. Basically Scootaloo was trying too hard to keep a stiff upper lip.
Oh, also I B.S. it a lot just randomly, so don't take it as anything other than "Gee they sound funny and hard to understand."
6302482
Apple Bloom is adorbs <3
6302684
I see you know about phonetics, then.
"entymology"
You could have entomology, the study of insects, but I think you meant etymology, the study of words and their origins.
6303132
she's not that smart ok????
6302895
Enough to wish that everyone would start writing in SaypYu or figure out a way we could type in Quikscript.
I'm really enjoying this sequence. I wonder if this is just the beginning of something much greater or if it will be limited to those three and maybe Diamond Tiara.
I look forward to this continuing.
Gee I wonder what I should do after dinner today. Muck about on forums? Whine about stuff on my blog? Maybe work on that story I can never ever share because it's so horrible?
6313281
Okay!
Gee Sweetie, you're only cuddling your sister. There's no need to go getting all horn-y.
6332172
6332172 Oh
Bad taste.
"the hallwy"
"hallway"?
8244304
Got it.
6332172
BOOOO!
I sentence you to 10 years in the Pungeon for crimes of wordplay!