Bloom Filter

by ferret

The Calm

Apple Bloom watched Sweetie heading off into the dark hallway. Another restless night for Sweetie Belle, it looked like. As Sweetie went to go use the little pony’s room, Apple Bloom looked from the empty doorway over to the window of her room, where the dawn’s light was just peeking in over the horizon. Monday...

Apple Bloom could hear movement downstairs, clinking in the kitchen and boots on the floor. Everyone was real quiet when they got ready for school, all for Apple Bloom’s sake. It was silly because Apple Bloom didn’t even need to go to sleep and wake up at a certain hour anymore. She should just be able to adjust to be awake when the rest of the family was. But she still appreciated it.

Scootaloo didn’t wake as Apple Bloom wiggled out from the covers, trotting off in the direction Sweetie Belle went. Looking back, Apple Bloom could see her friend’s head was turned away, just a swoosh of purple visible, her breathing slowly rising and falling as Scootaloo curled on her side half under the covers. Scootaloo’s ear twitched at some unseen sound. Probably the princess bothering her now, not that Apple Bloom would ever blame that poor princess for seeking company in such a lonely place as dreaming alone.

Tip toeing out, Apple Bloom headed down the stairs quietly as she could, so as not to wake the only remaining sleeper in the house. Apple Bloom knew the three of them could sleep through a lot though, so she wasn’t all that careful about it. “Hey y’all,” she said in an inside voice, walking into an unfeeling, cold-cereal breakfast between Applejack, Granny Smith and Cheerilee.

Big Mac was still sleeping in today. Rarity was living in her apartment nowadays, but visited often after school hours. As for Rainbow Dash, well, Apple Bloom only got to hear about it from her sister Applejack’s depiction, but apparantly there had been some drama after the last time, as Dash felt bad about freaking Scootaloo out so much and thought she would mess things up by returning.

But Dash worked it out with her friends, and would be visiting soon again. Apple Bloom honestly couldn’t wait. She knew Scootaloo would be so much happier to be in Rainbow Dash’s presence, now that the pegasus could run around at least, and talk without sounding like she was chewing on marbles. She’d want to show Rainbow Dash everything she’d learned, even if flying wasn’t one of those things. Apple Bloom kind of wanted to see that.

With a flushing sound from overhead, Sweetie announced her presence, and subsequently the unicorn girl came downstairs and joined Apple Bloom. The two ponies sat there on the floor, watching with a detached sort of interest, Apple Bloom’s family busily getting ready to go at the very crack of dawn. Apple Bloom scooted a little closer to Sweetie Belle, and her warm friend nestled against her in return. The flurry of activity around them made them feel like an anchor in the storm.

Mac poured a tiny little glass of sweet orange juice, one for each of the ponies, and that quenched their morning goober thirst. Soon, he was making the three of them a nice warm breakfast. Whilst he did, Apple Bloom made herself useful by standing on a stool, and scrubbing the dishes that were dirty so far, making them all sparkling clean, continuing to think on who had visited her so far.

---

Apple Bloom didn’t have school to worry about no longer, but she still found herself studying even more than ever before. There wasn’t a lot to do besides study! Video games were a possibility now, but... it just didn’t feel fulfilling to sit there staring at a screen, when you could be learning stuff. When she, Scootaloo or Sweetie brought up a question that just drove the three of them up the wall trying to figure out, they’d be upstairs all quiet like, poring over the various textbooks and library books that they’d manage to amass a hoard of.

“Their nose?!” Sweetie exclaimed in disbelief looking at the marine encyclopedia.

“Ah thought so!” Apple Bloom said happily. “Ain’t nothing that’s gotta single spiral horn like that thing on your head. Narwhals got a single tusk that sticks out through their nose.”

“Wow, it says they live under the arctic ice all year!” Scootaloo exclaimed, scanning through the text on the creatures.

“Aren’t they whales though?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “Ah don’t remember how they breathe.”

“Hold on um...” Scootaloo continued reading, casually flipping the page with her nose, something Apple Bloom had figured out and taught her, but something that quickly came as second nature to the three of them. Scootaloo mumbled, “Feed on bottom dwelling... floating ice sheets come together... woah, it says they can suffocate under the ice!”

“Really?” Sweetie asked shoving her head where Scootaloo’s was. “But that doesn’t make any sense! Why stay under the ice then?”

“Guess the critters they eat stay under the ice?” Apple Bloom suggested. “It’s the same reason weasels gotta fit in mouse burrows.”

“Doesn’t say,” Scootaloo concluded uneasily, then, “Huh, it says they can dive up to five thousand feet.”

“Ah cain barely dive twelve feet!” Apple Bloom said in surprise, looking at the strange creatures with awe.

“Can you swim now?” Sweetie asked Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom lifted her head and looked thoughtfully into the air, before focusing on Sweetie and saying, “You know ah ain’t had the chance to try. Ah don’t have to swim, at the creek nearby. We should try it sometime. In shallow water.”

“That’s something we are going to have to have a human present for,” Sweetie said grouchily. “I’m not going near any water, with these... non flipper things,” she raised a cylindrical white hoof and waggled it in front of her.

“Let’s check the horse book,” Scootaloo suggested, looking up from the marine encyclopedia. “I bet horses can swim.”

“On those spindly legs?” Sweetie laughed. “Bet they can’t!”

Sweetie Belle didn’t really enjoy the taste of crow.

For most of her reading material, Scootaloo wanted to read about mechanics and engineering, so she could figure out if there was a way that a pony could ride a scooter. Big Mac was kind of helping there, but it wasn’t one of those things you just followed a diagram for. They had to figure out how the pony would stand, and propel herself, and what she’d steer with. Scootaloo was honestly getting a bit down on herself for that, because nothing that she or Mac thought up ever quite felt “right” to her.

With active lives Apple Bloom and her friend lived, they could have accomplished a lot, but that much excitement and activity raised a powerful need for them to sleep, and sleep a lot more. Apple Bloom didn’t feel exhausted though, despite her need for sleep. If anything, she’d never felt more alive. School was just so draining and tedious, this frustrating thing that was just waiting for you to slip up or fail. -

But now she could learn all the things she ever wanted to learn, useful things that actually helped her and her friends. Apple Bloom expressed as such to Twilight, and Twilight responded with some noncomittal thing about how ponies didn’t have some special “education mindset” built in, and in different circumstances, ponies could have had the same educational system as humans, and how neither system was superior to the other.

But still, Apple Bloom had to wonder. She had studied just as hard from assignments in school, but she was just learning so much more studying with her friends. Maybe it helped that Cheerilee was there, and she could get them just about any information they wanted, and even worked through some of the hard stuff with them. Who knew that bee hives were formed of hexagons not pentagons, because they tesselated! And that they were hexagons, not squares, because of all the polygons that tesselate, hexagons were the one with the most sides! Certainly not anything her old math professor had brought up.

---

Sweetie Belle was sort of starting to get tired of magic, and horn exercises. Not that Sweetie didn’t enjoy magic, or even horn exercises. They sort of felt good, even if her horn wouldn’t do anything, just they were kind of exhausting. As for magic itself...

Sweetie Belle was just fascinated with all the implications and nuances of the magic that Twilight and Sunset claimed now suffused all their lives. Magic was an important part of pony biology, and it could have far reaching implications for the world at large, if they mastered it. But Scootaloo was really not good at sitting still and learning stuff, and Apple Bloom seemed almost averse to learning about magic. She’d been through so much, and, really it was like she sort of blamed herself for all this, and learning magic was sort of like siding with the enemy, or something?

Not Sweetie though. She listened to those alien pony girls closely. What they said could prove essential to the three—four now, of them in the future. Those two older girls seemed to have a—no pun intended—magical knack for knowing when things were going to happen. And those two had a better understanding of the pony Sweetie and her friends had become, than they liked to let on. If only they would stop lying so much. It was hard enough to separate fact from fiction, when Sweetie Belle had transformed overnight into a little unicorn, but when Twilight said there was nothing wrong with Sweetie’s horn... it just didn’t add up.

Sweetie did all the exercises, all the meditations and mindfulness, and she really felt like it was doing something in her horn. But the only measurable effect was making her tired. It’d been a month, and she hadn’t even been able to get a spark going. Not that Sweetie even knew what it would look like, aside from “It’s usually roughly the color of your eyes, minus certain eye-specific pigments.” All she had was this uncanny feeling like it was going to spark. As if she had a flint striker stuck into her head. That sounds more dangerous than it really was, because Sweetie just couldn’t get her horn to even do anything.

Well, but it was weirdly good at poking holes in things. That was definitely magic. After the new year, Big Mac was out back breaking down trees for firewood, when Apple Bloom had a great idea to put a smile on Sweetie’s face. She approached the little unicorn still concentrating on her magic, saying, “Hey Sweetie, ah know how your magic could be of real help!”

“Really?” Sweetie asked, eagerly distracted, looking around hopefully, “Where?”

“You know how you cain make your horn real sharp and pokey?” Apple Bloom said slyly.

Sweetie blinked silently in response, so Apple Bloom sighed and just told her, “Mah brother’s out back choppin’ firewood. With an axe. Nice big, heavy axe, takes a lot of work to swing it. Bet he’d be grateful if somepony could split that wood somehow. Maybe you should go see if—” but Sweetie Belle was already gone, sort of trotting over to where Apple Bloom’s big brother was.

She wasn’t very good at trotting yet, but she made it work. And the more important thing is, she made her horn work! ...sort of. Sweetie Belle loved the look on Big Macintosh’s face when she split a good sized log just by head butting it. Surprised, but also grateful, and somewhat intrigued. It was a good magic, even if it got troublesome at times, and even if it made her friends a little bit more leery of getting near her horn.

Sweetie just wondered why her regular magic wasn’t coming to her, the way Scootaloo was starting to fly, and Apple Bloom was... doing things. The alien girls said unicorns could all levitate things, and that there were other things you could do, with the right spell matrix. You could make things light up, transmute materials, do complex and delicate construction, hold pencils, and... teleport: the rarest of the rare talents.

Sweetie Belle didn’t expect to be able to just wink out of existence, and appear somewhere else, but she at least wanted to get her horn to glow. Twilight told her what you had to do to accomplish that, Sweetie tried it, and it just wouldn’t work. That’s what didn’t add up. And Twilight had this awkward smile when she said how to do it, almost like she was feeling sorry for Sweetie, but too embarassed to tell her the truth.

Well, Sweetie was gonna have to figure it out on her own, if nobody would help her do it. Her magic might be the key to ending this whole disaster, or to worsening it, and either way she needed to know what she was capable of. She hated being stuck in the dark like this all the time. Sweetie wanted to be useful, not just a useless pony with half the stamina of Apple Bloom, and not nearly the weather resistance of Scootaloo. They were all a lot... hardier might be the word for it, so without a horn to use, Sweetie was far behind the others. She could tell they treated her like something delicate and precious, but ultimately not helpful. Sweetie found it flattering that her friends and their family, and Rarity still cared about her so much, but she wanted to help too!

At least she was cute again. Really, really cute. Really, really, really cute. Ridiculously cute. Okay maybe it wasn’t entirely a good thing, because Sweetie liked being cute, but this was another level entirely. She even found herself making moonstruck doe eyes at herself when she looked at the adorable little pony clip-clopping around in the mirror. But being cute was—if not the best—probably the least bad thing out of all of this.

Even if nobody could stop smiling at her anymore when Sweetie got angry.

Her adorableness, and her renewed friendship with Apple Bloom, both made all this worth happening. Sweetie would give up her hands a million times, if it meant helping such a good friend as Apple Bloom. Now that Sweetie wasn’t being kept busy by school all the time, she could help her friends in their time of need, and that was way more exciting than advanced algebra. Friends like Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were absolutely priceless, and Sweetie was willing to do whatever she could to help them.

She just had to figure out what she could do that would accomplish that.

---

Christmas was an especially exciting affair at the Apple Family household this year, because the one thing the Apples had had a hard time figuring out so far is what provisions to get for one, now three little pony girls. It was the perfect opportunity to spoil the heck out of the little ponies. Plus, they now had the exciting challenge of figuring out how to tear off wrapping paper. (Spoilers: it wasn’t much of a challenge at all.)

Each of the three of them got a new outfit from Rarity, and from Diamond Tiara by proxy somewhat. Diamond hadn’t been around much, busy with school or something, but she did send her best wishes, in the form of her insignia incorporated into their clothes. Sweetie got a knitted cap with slots for her ears, and some experimental auburn leg warmers, that she loved to pieces. Scootaloo got a grey hoodie, embroidered in patterns of flames on it in black thread, a genuine hoodie, which had been a piece of work to watch Rarity secretly trying to create it. The problem was getting the hood up without hands, or articulation back there. What did the trick was a couple of pull strings that Scootaloo’s wings could sort of hook around. Scootaloo was weirdly dextrous with those things, and they were fully feathered and ready for flight. Even if flight wasn’t exactly... a thing Scootaloo had managed yet. Scootaloo could pull the hood up enough to get her ears in the slots, and then an ear flick was enough to toss the rest of it over her head.

Remember when Sweetie first got her very first new dress? Scootaloo had pretty much the exact same reaction when the hood successfully went over her head. While Scootaloo was bouncing in place with how awesome she looked in the mirror, Apple Bloom got to try on Rarity’s latest experiment, which was an umbrella. No, get this it was an umbrella that a pony could use! How you might ask? Well, it had a hard curvy part instead of a handle, that fit right in the small of your back nice and snug. It was broad enough to serve as a base for the pole of a cannibalized umbrella, and Rarity added a strap to the base, which wrapped around Apple Bloom’s chest and pulled snug, keeping it firmly situated above her. And she studded the strap with costume jewelry, which was also sort of hanging off the pointy parts of the umbrella.

Apple Bloom was of mixed feelings about the umbrella. She thought it was a fascinating idea, and it was so cool that she didn’t even have to hold the umbrella. But on the other hand it did look kind of... weird having a pole sticking up from her back. Handled a bit weird too. Apple Bloom tottered over to the mirror to look at herself, and was again both indecisive and intrigued. The crimson gemstones hanging down looked really pretty in the light, but Apple Bloom wasn’t sure it wasn’t too over the top there. It looked like it would cover her in the rain, but probably not her tail. And it’d be a while until it rained again.

Apple Bloom hadn’t really held out much hope lately that she was going to be anything other than a pony, for a very long time. There was no reason to think she’d change into a pony, and now that she was, there was no reason to think that she’d change back. Not even that alien pony girl knew heads or tails of the situation, and the dream princess just apologized without knowing exactly why. But even if Apple Bloom had no reason to think this bizarre... experience was going to end any time soon, she still didn’t want to think that she was still going to be a pony all the way into the rainy spring.

Plus it looked kinda like a—hey!

“Rarity!” Apple Bloom whined up at the blurple haired girl, the little pony standing there wearing this thing in severe irritation, “Is this a saddle?”

“No it’s not a saddle,” Rarity countered hotly. “It’s a... ehm...

“Okay perhaps it is a saddle of sorts,” Rarity admitted with a blush at the rightously angry pony wearing it. “But saddles are so well adapted to your ...contours! It’s not really a saddle, just one I got off of a toy... horse.”

“C’mon sis,” Applejack told the offended Apple Bloom pleadingly. “We had ya open that one first because we weren’t sure about it. You’ll love the other stuff!”

It wasn’t worth raising a stink over. “It’s fine Applejack,” Apple Bloom said in a defeated tone, pulling the belt of it forward so she could slip it off over her head. “Ah don’t dislike it, it’s just... strange. It’ll surely keep me dry, if’n it ever rains!” When they didn’t seem convinced, Apple Bloom quickly gallopped back to the tree and said cheerfully, “C’mon, lemme see what’s in the other presents!”

Books, popcorn balls, weird pony foods (a few of the weirder ones personally vetted by the alien girls), a Chia pet, a new scarf for Scootaloo’s torn one, three very frighteningly sharp bristly brushes that quickly became Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo’s favorite presents, some other things. Applejack got new boots; her old ones were pretty worn out. Sweetie gave Rarity a new set of eyeshadow that the girl was just delighted with. (Of course Granny helped with the actual buying of it, and fetching the catalog for Sweetie to pore through.)

Cheerilee got an oddly touching present from Scootaloo. A bracelet you wear on your wrist, but made out of little strings all woven together into a colorful pattern. Apple Bloom didn’t even know Scoots knew how to do that sort of thing, or really much about that sort of thing at all, but it was real pretty. What made it odd was that Scootaloo had been working on this before she went pony, instead of buying something or... something, and once Scootaloo got done panicking that Christmas was just around the corner, she totally finished the bracelet as a pony, just by the skin of her teeth. No, not that she was running out of time, but literally by the skin of her teeth. Scootaloo wasn’t so good at using her mouth still, but she persevered with the last touches to that bracelet through sheer determination.

So, successful Christmas overall. Apple Bloom was just tickled pink that she got all this stuff people really wanted to give her. She didn’t really know why she was enjoying it so much this year, but there was just something timeless and magical about waking up on Christmas and knowing that you can finally open the presents, and that your life’s sure to be easier once you do.

Dinky’s Christmas wasn’t nearly as interesting. Oh there were presents in the form of donations, but he had other things on his mind. Plus a lot of people liked to come to shop around because of Christmas, and it was annoying having to deal with them. Prospective parents so full of optimism, he’d honestly gotten tired of entertaining them, since they’d always look aside for someone else. There weren’t too many younger kids at the orphanage this year, so of course there weren’t many visitors.

Dinky wished he wasn’t so old, if for no reason other than to get someone to love him, but really he wasn’t unsatisfied with his current situation. His roommates were chill, his needs were taken care of, and there wasn’t a lot more he could ask for. It was an easy life, and the staff were really nice. Lots of them cared very deeply about all the children in their care. Emphasis: all, as in, collectively. For the most part, Dinky wished he wasn’t an older kid, because then maybe he wouldn’t have these conflicting feelings about Diamond Tiara.

But enough talk about unimportant stuff like that. Apple Bloom was thinking about stuff again!

---

Apple Bloom had a lot of time to spend alone with her thoughts these days, and some hay maybe. Eating hay made it really easy to ruminate on stuff. Apple Bloom found herself considering the part people had to play, for all who were involved in this strange phenomenon that had transformed her and her friends into ponies. Ms. Cheerilee, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Apple Bloom’s family, Diamond Tiara, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, the doctor and Dr. Cureall the vet, all accounted for. But there were still Applejack’s other two friends in the know: Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, and Apple Bloom didn’t know much about them.

Pinkie Pie was Applejack’s friend, and had visited once, but hadn’t had much reason to visit again. She just came, cupcakes, and vanished, like some kind of cupcake delivering superhero. Apple Bloom sort of thought Pinkie was going to plan a “You’re a pony” party or something, but Applejack said Pinkie was way too busy with the Hearth’s Warming Pagent to even think about it, and that was coming up next week, so they were really down to crunch time.

Apple Bloom wasn’t paying much attention to Pageant. At least she didn’t think she was dumb enough to risk another one of those school celebrations. Then again, things were different now, with Sweetie and Scoots this way too, so who knows? Maybe it’d be a good opportunity to reintroduce yourself, and be treated like people, even though you’re little ponies, with all those big, tall people crowding around, trying to dodge their legs, ignoring the stares in class, having to sit on your books to see over the desk, eating hay in the cafeteria...

Or maybe they’d just skip it this year. Yeah. There was always the Spring Fling.

Of their various friends and acquaintences, that only left Apple Bloom unsure about Fluttershy. Apple Bloom didn’t know what was up with her. Fluttershy even visited Applejack’s farm once, but Fluttershy visited long before they all went through this crazy school year. Apple Bloom found that especially puzzling, because if they were in a time loop, how long ago was she really remembering the soft pink haired girl coming over, and getting all awkward around the horses? Did each loop count as time advancing, or could you still say it was a little over a year ago?

Now that they’d changed into the cutiest little ponies you could imagine, Apple Bloom thought Fluttershy would be all over the three of them. She loved cute critters, didn’t she? Apple Bloom remembered her vaguely, one of those typical Eco kids who likes passing out flyers about nature conservation in the courtyard. Well, Apple Bloom never knew Fluttershy all that good, so she just had to assume there was a good reason for her uninvolvement in ponies. All Applejack would say was it was a bad idea, and while she had been under a lot of stress lately, Apple Bloom’s sister was not the sort to act without good reason.

Even as Apple Bloom stood there munching on hay, watching her brother come stumbling down the stairs behind an eager and thirsty unicorn, she couldn’t help but feel like she was missing someone. Someone who oughta have been involved with this. Some missing piece of the puzzle.

Diamond had been here just last week. One of Twilight’s friends, maybe? But that was just Sunset. Maybe one of the doctors needed to come over? Apple Bloom just couldn’t put her finger on it. Or hoof, as it were. Her rumination was interrupted though, when Apple Bloom’s ears turned left, and her head lifted with the sound of a vehicle pulling up into their driveway. Now who could that be?

---

Dinky found it very hard to just blend in with the rest of the background lately at school. He was usually pretty good at going by unnoticed, but when someone like Diamond Tiara has you in your sights, it was hard to be unnoticed.

He was starting to get really scared now. Scootaloo still was completely absent from anywhere, and Dinky really was thinking that Diamond had done something bad to her. Why would Diamond Tiara be going after him so much, if she wasn’t the cause behind Scootaloo’s disappearance? Because that’s what it was now: a disappearance. There was no way Scootaloo was just avoiding him. She’d disappeared entirely! He even went to find Scootaloo’s other classes, when he could escape the attention of Diamond, but none of the students from those classes had seen her either.

Dinky wasn’t sure if he should call the police, or talk to the principal, or what. He didn’t have anything to go on besides a wild suspicion, and an absence of Scootaloo, from getting in the way of Diamond Tiara’s approaching him romantically. He wasn’t even sure of his own conviction! Maybe Scootaloo was sick. Maybe she switched schools. Maybe she moved to another city! Any number of things could be true, but the possibility he was most scared of was really starting to make him less attracted to the beautiful Diamond Tiara, and more horrified of her.

She acted like it didn’t even matter, like Scootaloo wasn’t gone at all. Except now Diamond could go block him off at lunch, before he could sit at the tech table and listen to the others talk about what they enjoyed. Now she could run up to him between periods without worry of getting in Scootaloo’s way, and say, “Heyyyy Dinky! What did you think about that Stat class? Histograms are like, so confusing am I right?”

“Uh, yeah...” Dinky told her passively. He wasn’t much for conversation with her lately.

“I gotta hurry to my next class,” Diamond told him chirpily, “But you like, doing anything after school?”

“Yeah, I have to study for um... robotics,” he said, trying not to make eye contact. It wasn’t just that he was afraid of her, but he was also afraid of himself. Dinky just wasn’t used to a beautiful girl being so friendly with him. Those sorts always stuck with the Fashionists and Dramatists, and ignored him. He dreamed of attention from a pretty girl as much as the next guy, but now that he had it, Dinky was feeling overwhelmed. He wanted to... do more with her, and he couldn’t because she was just so infuriatingly casual about the complete and total absence of all of her friends.

“Boy, you like, study too much,” Diamond said resentfully, “Guess I’ll catch you uh, later then.”

“I guess...” he said noncommitally, his thoughts swimming with conflict. She just wouldn’t give up, no matter how many hints he dropped. He couldn’t bear to tell her he wasn’t interested. That would be a lie, first off, because Dinky really liked Diamond Tiara, and wished he could talk with her, and open up to her. She had such a passion for... about everything she did, and it just made his heart flutter to think that she might be willing to do... well... that with him.

But he couldn’t be friends with her. It just wasn’t right. She just wasn’t right. His desire was losing ground before his sense of outrage and anger. She would have been such an incredible girl that just dizzied his senses. Not just her beauty, but her forwardness made him feel like gazing at her forever. Nowhere was the resentment or fear, from any other girl he so much as looked at who might take offense at his weirdness, or wouldn’t want anything to do with him. Diamond wanted everything to do with him! And that made her so much more tantalizing than some cruel girl who just wanted him to stop being so perverted and boyish. It gave her beauty a flavor and depth, that he just really wanted to... be with.

Dinky even had a class with Diamond, to which he headed down the halls of Canterlot High, with both excitement and trepidation. Dinky had ever in his life thought he’d be asking a girl out, his first year in high school, but it had been relatively simple to do so with Scootaloo. Dinky had asked Scootaloo to the dance, and thought that was that, but it just seemed so different with Diamond Tiara. He felt so much more intense at the thought that Diamond might want him. Scootaloo was pretty, but... she was Scootaloo. She was just so... anxious, and always trying to cover it up, it kind of got on Dinky’s nerves. Not Diamond though, she was just bold and unapologetic. And from her lusciously wavy hair, to her shapely hips even for her young age, Dinky really felt like he wanted to be a typical boy around her.

Yet he couldn’t, because all this attention she was giving him was just a front, to try to make him ignore whatever she did to make Scootaloo just disappear on him. It didn’t take much checking to know that Diamond had done some pretty cruel stuff to the people who got in her way. She and her roommates were certainly not chill. Dinky wanted to just hide, to just ignore it and hope the problem would take care of itself, but he knew he’d never be able to live with himself if he didn’t do something. Dinky had to... he had to um...

Oh fudge muffins, where was everyone?

Dinky had just walked into the classroom lost in thought, only to find it completely empty, save one. He wanted to spin on his heels and just run, but that might alert her, or make her suspicious, and then he could suffer the same fate as Scootaloo! Assuming Diamond did something to Scootaloo. Dinky really didn’t understand how this whole jealous girlfriend business would work in outside of the mangas he’d read.

He’d barely stuttered to a halt anyway, when Diamond remarked in a calculatingly casual tone, “Oh, hey Dinky. Class was canceled today. Teacher had a sick day.”

Dinky didn’t even humor her. He just calmly turned and started for the door, and she shouted,

“Wait! Where are you going?!”

“Class was canceled, right?” Dinky said over his shoulder a bit snappishly. “So there’s no reason to stick around.”

“But, I thought we could like, hang out!” Diamond responded, in worried disappointment.

“Well we can’t, so—” He shoved down a tightness in his chest. “So leave me alone,” Dinky said as coldly as he could. He just stomped out the door, and closed it behind him, leaving her there in that classroom, alone. She might hate him for acting like that. Well, good. Maybe now she’ll start thinking twice before she makes her friends change schools just so she can get at a boy, or... or something.

Hands in his pockets, Dinky went walking through the emptying halls, heading out into the sheltered back courtyard, where the trickling noise of the fountain sometimes helped calm his nerves. He sat there on the fountain’s edge, trying not to think of how she looked at him when Dinky had just said that and left, how she acted like she was so innocent, when Diamond Tiara had to have a part in this. It was just too convenient.

Two yellow boots with black belts came and stood on the ground he was staring at in front of him.

“Hey,” Diamond said to the hunched over boy. Not a ‘hello’ hey, but a ‘hey what the fuck’ hey. Dinky looked up in a tumult. When did she come over? Why did she come over? Why didn’t he pay more attention to his surroundings, when he was lost in thought!

“Diamond...” he said testily, starting to stand up despite her leaning forward to glare at him.

“What is your problem?” Diamond accused him angrily, making Dinky’s butt fall right the heck down to the stone ledge. “Why are you being so hostile? Is it something I said?”

“Why am I being hostile?” Dinky said gaping at her. “Why am I being hostile?!”

“Yeah, you!” Diamond Tiara said with her hands on her hips. “You’ve been like, avoiding me all the way since the Fall Formal! Didn’t we get along, then? What put a bug up your butt? If it’s that thing with Big Macintosh, I swear—”

“What? No it’s n-not... that!” Dinky stammered.

“What, then?” Diamond whined unhappily. “I just wanna be friends! Can’t we even be friends with each other?”

“No,” Dinky said in frustration, because he wanted it too, and he hated that. “We cannot.”

“Like, please Dinky!” Diamond said, actually clasping his hand. “Why do you like Silver better than me?” she demanded in her flummoxed mood, “Can’t you like, sit with me, for even just like one lunch period?”

“You’re crazy if you think we could be friends, after whatever you did!” Dinky said acidly, pulling his hand away.

“I’m—not—” Diamond’s breath came quicker, as she said shrilly, “But you won’t even tell me what happened. So like, how could I do anything about it?”

“No,” Dinky corrected her, “You won’t even tell me! How am I supposed to know what you did?”

“I didn’t do anything though!” Diamond retorted. “I haven’t been mean, or done anything bad to you or, or anything!”

“Then where is Scootaloo!” Dinky stated accusingly.

Diamond looked at him, hesitating no doubt in her guilt and fear of discovery. Dinky started to sweat, keenly aware that they were the only ones in this courtyard. No one would know if she did anything to him. He w-wouldn’t let her hurt him! He stared at her like a cornered animal, while Diamond said slowly, confusedly,

“She’s... at... Sweet Apple... Acres?”

Is that where she buries the bodies? Dinky tried to figure out what this girl meant. “That’s a... farm somewhere?” he said cautiously.

“It’s Apple Bloom’s farm,” Diamond said, in a more subdued tone. “Scootaloo lives there, now.”

“She... what?” Dinky asked in confusion. “It’s... great that she lives... there? But... why isn’t she at school?”

“Uh, hello?” Diamond said to him incredulously, “You know, like, pony?”

“I uh...” Dinky blushed and rubbed his wrist, staring up at the radiantly flabbergasted Diamond from where he sat at the fountain’s ledge. “...no?”

The realization seemed to crash on Diamond like the Titanic on an iceberg, as she blurted wide eyed, “Oh my god you don’t know.”

“Know what?” Dinky responded anxiously, “What happened to Scootaloo?”

“Didn’t she call you?” Diamond asked in astonishment. “Didn’t she like, send you a text or like... something?”

“I haven’t seen her since she disappeared!” Dinky protested, “Right when you started trying to take her place! I asked her out, and she’s my girlfriend, and I am not going to be friends with someone who... who drove her away just to get to me! How can you even live with yourself? What did you do to her?”

Diamond just kind of sat down... not even at the fountain, just on the snowy ground. “You really think I like, did something to Scootaloo,” she said distantly, “And it wasn’t just a freaky like, accident.”

“You’d tell me if it was just an accident, I think,” Dinky said in an unimpressed tone.

“She was supposed to tell you!” Diamond protested. “It’s not my place to do it! She really didn’t like, even... tell you anything?”

Dinky felt lost as he said, “I... no, she didn’t. But... what didn’t she tell me? I just... I just thought all this time she couldn’t tell me.”

“Dinky,” Diamond said seriously, “Scootaloo is a pony now.”

Okay that was unexpected. “She... what?” Dinky said dizzily.

“You know what happened to Apple Bloom, right?” Diamond said, climbing back to her feet and dusting snow off the bottom her pink skirt. “Like the same thing happened to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Just after the Fall Formal. Don’t you remember that ridiculous hoodie Scootaloo was wearing?”

Dinky blinked.

“Even I didn’t recognize her at the time,” Diamond explained, “I think she got some big boy’s sweatshirt or something to cover up her like, pony ears or something. A-and then like, Big Macintosh picked her up, so now she’s stuck at Apple Bloom’s farm. And like, a pony.

“She has wings too,” Diamond added bemusedly. “It’s weird but it like, works for her.”

“She turned into a pony,” Dinky replied flatly, so very unsure how to feel about that. “Is... anyone else changing into a pony?” he added worriedly.

Diamond Tiara shook her head, “No, just them. But like, it was just Apple Bloom before, so who knows? They had some kind of pony dream together, so maybe it’s just them.”

With Dinky’s racing thoughts, one coherent sentence made it to his mouth. “I don’t have a cell phone,” he said quietly.

Diamond Tiara...winced. “Oh,” she said. “Yeah. Because you’re at the...”

“Orphanage, yeah,” Dinky said dully. “They only give those out to 16 or olders there.”

“So, she like...”

“If she couldn’t tell me in person... Scootaloo really is like Apple Bloom now?” Dinky said, the idea of that still not quite registering with him. “That little pony, not any taller than your belly? She has a tail?”

“Scootaloo has a big tail,” Diamond said with a short laugh, “It’s more hair than she’s ever had to deal with before. She can’t cut it shorter either because like, alien ponies have a tail all the way down, instead of like regular horses.”

“How did you find out?” he asked Diamond in a strained voice. “You don’t have a cell phone either!”

“A-applejack told me,” Diamond said, glancing away. “I’ve been going over to play with Apple Bloom on like, weekends for a while now. So it was no big reveal or anything, just like... weird.”

“She didn’t tell me anything,” Dinky said, looking at his hands.

“Does Applejack even know that you’re Scootaloo’s, you know... boyfriend?” Diamond said hesitantly.

“I guess nobody told her, either,” Dinky replied. “But that still doesn’t explain why you started trying to b-be with me, all of a sudden.”

“I guess I have been a little... overboard,” Diamond sighed. She sat down on the fountain, but not right up next to Dinky like she usually sat. “It’s just all my friends either don’t care or they’re like, gone. Scootaloo and Sweetie can’t be at school, and Silver doesn’t even say hi to me anymore. You’re like, the only... friend I have left.”

Damn did Dinky feel like a heel now.

“I’m sorry Diamond,” Dinky said hanging his head. “I knew it was stupid, and I just assumed the worst. I should never have... you weren’t trying to take Scootaloo’s place, you were trying to put me in her place.”

“What?” Diamond asked, giving him a puzzled look.

“You were just trying to make me your friend,” Dinky explained, “You weren’t trying to make me choose you instead of Scootaloo.”

“Choose—” Diamond managed to say before blushing even pinker and saying, “No I wasn’t like, doing that. N-not that there’s anything wrong with it but like, whatever. Maybe you can’t be with like, Scootaloo anymore because she’s a pony and that would be totally weird. But just because you can’t have her, doesn’t mean you can’t find another girl. Someone nice, who you really like. Someone good for you.”

“Someone like you?” he responded, seeing where this was going.

Diamond protested, “What? No! I’m like—terrible girlfriend material!” Or maybe he wasn’t seeing where this was going. “You really thought I was trying to be with you?” she said blushing heavily, “C’mon Dinky, you gotta have some standards!”

“Well—what’s wrong with you?” Dinky exclaimed, still seriously thrown off by Diamond’s confession to not stalking him for romantic purposes.

Diamond gave Dinky a measured look, saying honestly, “Dinky, I’m not like, the best girl out there, or even the best person. I have... problems.”

She smiled self consciously, as if to appease him, saying “I just think you could do like... better.”

Nobody had ever prepared Dinky for anything close to this situation. He shouldn’t have done it, yet Dinky couldn’t see anything especially wrong with what he wanted to do. So he just did it. Leaning over to softly, gingerly touch his lips to hers, Dinky kissed Diamond Tiara.

Author's Note:

Dinky, stop. Dinky, what are you doing? Really, Dinky? Really?

Comments

[Snow]

The anachronisms is making keeping order clear rather difficult. The reader has no gauge to tell when something's happening.

[Reese]

Ah, and here's where the bit with the tree got moved to. It does still refer to "the tree", though, rather than just a tree; you might want to change that, as I'm not sure what specific tree it would be in this case.
("chopping down the tree for firewood" and "out back cuttin’ down the tree")

"Sweetie just wondered why the rest of her magic wasn’t coming to her, the way Scootaloo was flying"
Well, she's not flying much yet. Probably close enough that this wording isn't a problem from Sweetie, but I thought I'd point it out just in case it, um, wasn't supposed to be here.

"They were all a lot... hardier might be the word for it, so without a"
"They were both a" or "but without"? Or am I misunderstanding?

edit: Also, huh. I think the name of the chapter changed while I was reading it. I did wonder what was particularly verdant in it.

[Reese]

...Wait, now Christmas appears to have been moved into this chapter. Right, bit of rereading...

[Reese]

So there seems to be a bit of confusion now. Is he chopping down the tree that will be decorated, or is he chopping firewood? There appear to be indicators of both present. Well, in the version of the chapter I have loaded while I'm typing this, at least.

I find I'm somewhat confused about where in the timeline the Christmas stuff falls relative to the scene it's now been placed in the middle of, I'm afraid. I'm guessing it's... the future? Between that scene and the bits with Dinky following, with those in the new year?

[ferret]

8278621

He's chopping firewood, and then the tree after the new year. The exact thing being chopped isn't important, so I went with whatever remained in continuity. Except then it never got changed, because I must have the wrong memories again.

There was a lot of verdant stuff that got moved... elsewhere in the story.

Also the exact order I settled on was:
ponylike creatures:
treedecorating: decorating the Christmas tree, and knots
horn-email: Suntwi aren’t around, send Sweetie emails
hornpop: sweetie’s horn pops the ball
uropygial-gland: Scootaloo learns how to preen
into-dream: Into ch27

dreamseekers:
figured-out-my-name: Prin Twi’s name
dreamcider: dream cider for sweetie belle insecurity
introvidya: Introducing Vidya to Scoots
catching-up-the-princess: Telling Twi about Dinkydrama, she wakes up to dark
verdancy: dream about who can wake up where

the calm:
waking-up-slow: waking up while Apples get schoolready
studying-whales: what they’re reading about as pone
what-about-pinkie: Spring Fling, Flutters, what’s going on
christmas: saddles
horn-exercises: Sweetie reflects on herself
noi-arrives: Now who could that be?
dinky-kisses: Dinky kisses DT