This is a disaster!
The camera flashes blinded Apple Bloom for a blessed moment, before the gang of reporters all got in her face and made her tail droop weakly to the ground. Gosh darn it, they weren’t supposed to know about today!
“It’s true! It’s the pony girl!” was the only whispered warning she got before microphones were right up against her snout, like 5 different people all saying, “Is it true that,” and then various questions that all blurred together in one confusing collective babble.
Apple Bloom wasn’t really thinking anymore, when she fled right back into the classroom she came from, a classroom that had only one door out of it. Slamming the door behind her, she leaned up against it breathing hard. Apple Bloom had seconds before they’d be through it. She scanned the room frantically for hiding spots. All the classmates who remained in the classroom looked shocked at her! It wasn’t her fault!
“Oh crabapples, just let me through!” Apple Bloom squealed, charging for the teacher’s desk so quickly, that she sent one of the student desks tumbling when a stray hoof clipped it. She had to get to the teacher’s desk, because it was covered under there. It was hidden. It was safe!
Huddled under the desk, Apple Bloom came to the terrible realization that she’d screwed up. It wasn’t hidden. It wasn’t safe, and they were just gonna come around to get her. The teacher was yelling something, but Apple Bloom wasn’t listening. She was trying to think for just one minute. If they didn’t think to block the door, Apple Bloom could just run past them! She had to find officer Linky! Why hadn’t he stopped the reporters?!
A face swung around to face her, a broad, toothy grin on the maw of the crouching human, looking under the desk for her. Apple Bloom exploded into motion, leaping past him, and turning so fast she literally bounced off of the wall, then gallopping for the door that the reporters had left open in their haste to get to her. She turned to look over her shoulder as she shot into the hallway, and it was Rarity all over again. Like a whole army of people in news caps with microphones and camera equipment were charging after her shouting, “What do you think of the” and “How will our communities be” and such like that.
The hall was a maze of legs and bookbags, the likes of which the former human girl had never even imagined before today. She navigated it as best as she could, but spurred by the commotion, people were trying to see what was going on, and of course cutting off her passage in order to do so. Finally, she gallopped into another classroom that was empty by now, an art class it looked like. But what caught her eye here were the supply cabinets at ground level. Tearing one open, Apple Bloom found a lot of buckets and squeeze tubes, but enough space for her! Fighting a low wail in her throat as she frantically pulled the door closed, soon Apple Bloom was engulfed in blackness.
Breathing hard, she backed up until her rear hit the back wall, and huddled there, whispering quietly, “Oh please oh please oh please...”
But a minute went by, and nobody pulled open the door. Had she made it? Did they see her come in here? Was she really stuck hiding inside a cabinet? Apple Bloom tried not to cry, and failed, not from sadness but from sheer unimaginable frustration. “Why does it always go wrong?!” she whispered tightly, angry at her own burning tears. “You knew it was going to go wrong! Why couldn’t you have waited until the news died down?”
The answer was, unfortunately, that the longer she waited to return to school, the more people gone ponies had to miss out on their own education. Apple Bloom didn’t care about school herself, but people like Twilight and Sweetie Belle did, and it’d just kill Apple Bloom if she was in the way of that, just because of some silly fear of ... of exactly what happened just now.
Apple Bloom knew she should go outside, expose herself in the hallway, and go find the police officer just like she said she would. But out there just seemed so terrifying. She couldn’t have comprehended just how different things were now, if she hadn’t seen it herself. The school just felt like a big old ball of danger and shame, and Apple Bloom just wanted to hide in here, until... at least until the halls were empty, so she could sneak out without running into that maze of student legs again.
Her tears were almost done, when her sensitive ears heard people milling into the room, and scooting around chairs as they sat themselves in front of desks. Her panicked fear was eroded away by a healthy sense of disgust, as Apple Bloom realized she couldn’t sneak out if they were having a class in here. They’d all see her, the weird, stupid pony girl who ran and hid like an animal or a little kid, crying her eyes out. She settled back there in the darkness, the light filtering in from the door crack enough for her to see outlines of pretty much everything here. Pushing the supplies away from the floor and sitting on her belly, Apple Bloom didn’t even have to slouch much in order to fit in this cabinet.
But that meant she was stuck here for a whole nother hour! And what if someone decided to open the cabinet while she was in here?
“Ah sure could use some of that earth pony magic right about now,” Apple Bloom said miserably, looking over her pony rump and fluffy tail way back here in the supply cabinet. Her rump that was glowing. Wait, what?
As quietly as she could, Apple Bloom scooted around, finding that it wasn’t her rump glowing, but a mark on the wall. It wasn’t anything especially notable, just some sort of curved omega shaped symbol painted on the wall, glowing ever so slightly as if it was done with glow in the dark paint.
Apple Bloom’s ears went flat, as she recalled just what sort of classroom she’d fled into. Some art student must have done it on the back wall of this cabinet. There were probably a ton of doodles that Apple Bloom couldn’t see in the darkness, but that was the only one done with phosphorescent paint. She touched her hoof to it, feeling a weird sort of humor about the situation. Like her, these doodles were hiding in the cabinet, where they weren’t supposed to be, but still sort of appropriately. She—uhh...
She couldn’t help but notice that her hoof was just the right size to fit over the omega symbol. And wasn’t an omega basically a hoof shape, anyway? Apple Bloom scooted around curiously again, forgetting the class outside for now, to see if she could conform her hoof exactly to the shape of the drawn symbol. She could, and... it depressed inward when she pushed on it. With a click more felt than heard, the glowing hoof shape became a depression as it sunk into the wall a half inch or so. And that triggered... well, it didn’t trigger any huge, crazy mechanisms or anything. Just unlatched a door.
Apple Bloom was honestly intrigued as the whole section of wall could be slid aside, if she fitted her hoof into that groove the latch made. It was hard to make out in the darkness, but she was pretty sure that there was some sort of passage back there.
“Ah was kidding ‘bout the magic,” she whimpered quietly, to no one who could hear her.
“Alright,” came the voice from beyond the dark cabinet, making Apple Bloom look over her shoulder at the crack of light that the doors let in. “You can find your oil paints in the cabinets, beneath the drawers of acrylic. Each student to a station, and let’s get to creating some art!”
Well, horseapples.
After fleeing reporters, and her own stress levels, Apple Bloom had gone and hid in a cabinet from everything and everyone, and then she found some kind of secret passage? What was this thing? A vent? A maintenance tunnel? A secret passageway leading to treasure and adventure? A trap???
Apple Bloom didn’t know, but she knew she had to get out of the cabinet, before someone saw her in here. Shuffling herself along, Apple Bloom found she could get totally inside the passage, with plenty of room to stand up even. So in the passageway, she slid the panel mostly closed. It didn’t seem to be spring loaded or anything, but she didn’t know if she could get it open again, if it did close. Then she really would be in danger, not just her dignity. A sliver of bright light played over the little yellow pony as someone opened the cabinet she’d been hiding in, and started rummaging around.
“Like, oh my god, someone knocked over the paints. How long have they been on their sides?” came an unfamiliar voice sounding extremely displeased. Apple Bloom was pretty sure none of the cans had been open, but she did have to shove a few over to make room for herself. She winced, as the student uprighted the cans she’d disturbed, then finally made their selection, and closed the cabinet door again.
There wasn’t much light back here, so it probably wasn’t obvious to anyone opening the cabinet that Apple Bloom was hiding back here. So she could leave it open, just a bit. Apple Bloom placed a paint can in the way of the door, just in case it decided to try and close on her. It didn’t. Then, backing up from it, and looking forward into the darkness, Apple Bloom began to hesitantly walk forward.
Her hooves clopped on the floor of this passage, harder than the linoleum of the school hallways. She peered wide-eyed into the darkness, unsure of just how far this passage led. About 50 feet, it turns out. Her nose bumped into a wall, making her fall back on her rump, cursing lightly. No harm done, she’d basically been just creeping along. But waving her hoof in front of her, Apple Bloom definitely found a wall. Just a dead end? Oh, no it turned to the right, where there was... another glowing hoof.
Reaching her hoof forward, Apple Bloom again depressed the hoof, and with a soft click another panel opened, allowing her to push it aside with her arm, and emerge into... someone’s locker. Was this how they got the lockers bolted to the wall without being able to walk behind them? Couldn’t possibly be something this elaborate, but the fact remained she was staring out from the inside of a locker right now.
This panel, Apple Bloom slid closed again, and with a click the hoof-shaped depression popped back out. Looking back a second, Apple Bloom instead looked forward, where another glowing blue hoof was situated. She followed along these for a little bit, and each seemed to open into another locker, until finally she found one that opened into what looked like a broom closet.
“Oh, perfect!” Apple Bloom whispered, squeezing out through the space of the panel, and clip-clopping around a mop and bucket, to where the conventional door to the closet was securely closed. Rearing up, Apple Bloom could wrap her hoof around it though, and swinging awkwardly, turn the doorknob. The door to the broom closet cracked open, to reveal an empty hallway. Class was in session, and no reporters were to be found. Having found that, Apple Bloom retreated back to her maintenance... passage thing, and retraced her steps back to the original panel, making sure to push the paint can out of the way and securely close it, before moving forward.
Apple Bloom was not gonna let an opportunity like this pass her by. Maybe this was one of the seven school secrets! The seventh was so secret, nobody even knew what it was, and that could mean it was anything. But whatever it meant, she made sure no art student would accidentally stumble upon it, then exited from the janitor’s closet with any secret passages still safely secret.
Trotting gingerly, then confidently, Apple Bloom started roaming the halls, trying to find the police officer who was to take her home. She found officer Linky out on the front courtyard, busily attempting to conduct a search for her while not alarming anyone at the school. Apple Bloom peeked out the door to the hall she was in, and there he was.
“She’s not anywhere in the gymnasium!” a uniformed lady officer of brown and blonde said, jogging up to Linky, who replied with,
“Go find October in the courtyard and ask her to... annnd she’s right there.”
“Sorry!” Apple Bloom yelped, pushing her way the rest of the way out the front door of the school. “There were reporters! They were all... ah just kinda panicked, sorry.”
She trotted up to Linky’s legs, where the elegant looking tall blue man was standing with the shorter brown lady of wavy hair who frowned at Apple Bloom saying, “And just where were you the past half hour, young... pony?”
“Young lady is fahn,” Apple Bloom said grumpily. “I was just a little spooked, sorry! I went an’ hid in a cabinet!”
“Ugh, when I saw the news crews, I assumed the worst,” Linky said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “You knew where I was waiting, right?”
“I wanted to go there, I did, but didn’t even think until ah was all hidden in that cabinet,” Apple Bloom said, scratching at the ground abashedly. “There was like a whole army of people chasin’ me... well, more like three or four, but it felt like a whole army...”
“It’s okay, I’m just glad you’re safe,” Linky said. “They think they can sneak in and accost you, when we’ve very clearly stated it’s not okay to give unscheduled interviews. Let’s just... any other disasters I should be worrying about?”
Apple Bloom shook her head slowly, looking up at him in sober reflection over how it could possibly have been so much worse.
“Then let’s get you home, and get this whole kerfluffle over with,” he said in relief. “I’ll radio the other officers to call off the uh... search, and we’ll get you back to your farm. Other than the reporters, uh, how’d it go?”
“It went... fine...” Apple Bloom said tentatively. “Could have been lots worse. Ah ain’t really had time to think about it yet. Maybe it was a little too soon to come back.”
“Compass, can you escort her back to the squad car?” Linky asked, then he straightend and started saying stuff into his radio, like “Alpha Bravo has been retrieved, repeat Alpha Bravo has been retrieved. You can return to the station,” with a few responses of,
“Copy that,” and “10-4,” and such. Apple Bloom wasn’t really listening, because she went with the brown lady over to the police car.
“Sorry you were scared, cutie,” she said to Apple Bloom, opening up the door so Apple Bloom could clamber in the back. “Do you see now? High school is a big kid’s place. Linky should have been taking better care of you, and not let you get separated from him. Always stay in a grownup’s sight when you’re out playing, okay?”
Apple Bloom looked at the officer wide eyed, and said, “Lady... ah’m 14. I just look like a little girl pony. They don’t brief you on these things?”
Compass immediately proved that even one of as dark a tone as herself could blush, saying, “I–uh, no I just saw the news, and they just said that one of the ponies was missing, and uh, what?”
Apple Bloom shook her head slowly, fiddling with her bow in a hoof. She said, “You better tell your officer... or whatever, that people all ages been changing, and only a few ended up as adults. Mostly we all ended up as little kids, an’ ah’m one of the young ones. Didn’t they tell you about Noi?”
“The sergeant?” Compass said in surprise, “She got called away from duty for something, are you saying...?”
Apple Bloom’s eyes widened and she said, “Oh shoot! Ah don’t know if’n that’s a secret, or private or whatnot. Please don’t tell nobody I told you. She’s fine she’s just not exactly... ready to do police things.”
“So, she’s a... little kid pony?” Compass asked with a bemused expression. “Her? I really can’t imagine that.”
“Ah’m just saying you gotta be careful. We are little kids, but...” Apple Bloom rubbed her chin, trying to figure how to word it. “You cain’t be sure how old a pony was before, so just...”
“I’ll be careful cutie,” the officer said with a smile that faltered as she added, “Oh, i-is it alright if I call you cutie?”
“Yeah, you can go and do that, um...” she turned and curled on her side in the squad car, facing away from officer Compass so that she wouldn’t be able to see her blushing. Apple Bloom waved a hoof at her, hoping she’d get the picture and just give Apple Bloom a ride in peace.
“I think I scared her!” the officer could be heard whispering to Linky on his way to his police car. Apple Bloom sighed regretfully, but didn’t yell at them or nothing. She wasn’t supposed to be able to hear that stuff, anyway.
Apple Bloom had never ridden in one of these police cars before. It was scary, but it was also weirdly... normal? The back seats were just normal seats, didn’t have any chains and manacles or anything. There was a metal grill between the back and the front, though, and there were no handles on the doors. Linky was mostly silent as he drove, pulling out of the school and down the streets, lights off of course. But on the way to the country road, he said, “So, how was it?”
Apple Bloom snorted and lifted her head up from laying against the seats. “Fulla reporters and hiding in cabinets?” she offered uncertainly.
“Well, besides that I mean. I’m just curious if you were, you know, ready for school again.”
Apple Bloom sighed at that. “Dunno really,” she said in a lackluster tone, “Everything’s so gol’ darned weird now. Ah just wanna be home with mah m–my sister and granny an’ all. But home’s full of strangers now too. So it wasn’t worse, ah guess? Could stand to do it again.”
Linky gave a chuckle at that, and said, “You’re pretty smart, for a little...” Apple Bloom glared at the back of his white haired head. “...freshman,” he concluded as if that’s what he meant to say. “I sure didn’t think they’d be stalking you at school. Can’t believe they snuck right past me. Didn’t they get a press conference and everything?”
“Guess they ain’t got all their questions answered yet,” Apple Bloom said with a shrug. “Ain’t no problem, just ah was a bit too... frazzled-like. But yeah, maybe after the press dies down a bit. An’ maybe with mah friends along.
“Ah shouldn’t have left ‘em behind,” she admitted. “Sweetie and Scootaloo both wanted to go back to school, well Scootaloo just to cover me, but ah didn’t want ‘em to get skeered and chased and stuff. But actually it would have been lots easier if we were together, than just me on mah lonesome, the only pony in the whole school.”
“It went better than could have been hoped,” he said, as they crunched down the dirt road leading to Sweet Apple Acres. “I think we will have a lot better luck next time avoiding any disasters.”
Apple Bloom watched the house rolling up from perched up on the window, and said, “Glad ah only did one class. Dunno if I coulda made it the whole day. Thanks so much for giving me a ride and all.”
“Least I could do, with how much you helped the sergeant,” he responded.
“She got to figuring how to walk and talk again, mostly on her own power,” Apple Bloom said bashfully, “Ah just helped with any questions she had.”
“No that’s not... I mean...” Linky said in curious frustration. Apple Bloom tilted her head, holding tight to the seat as he pulled the car into the driveway, trying to find the words.
“I’ve known Noi for years,” he said finally, “And she’s never been really happy before. But now... well, it’s honestly adorable, but... you get what I’m saying right?”
“Guess so...” Apple Bloom said both embarassed and contemplative. She didn’t help Noi be happy, but also she kinda did? It was just getting around that lady’s shell, not anything anyone else wouldn’t do.
“Anyway, we’re here,” Linky said hurriedly, “So uh, hold on a sec.”
He opened the driver side door and walked around, opening the passenger door where Apple Bloom was just as Big Macintosh came walking out on the porch, with three little ponies gallopping out past him. One pony continued trotting on into the yard, while the two more familiar ones charged up to Apple Bloom even as she wiggled her rump out from the police car and down to the cold earth, both shouting simultaneously, “Did you do it? How did it go? How did it go??”
“Hey you two!” Apple Bloom said happily, hopping the short distance to meet her friends. “It went uh, coulda gone better. Ah’ll tell you inside!”
When she got in her home, Apple Bloom felt... safer, relieved, but... also excited for what she just did. “It was like we never left!” she crowed, scooting out of her saddlebags and going into them to pull out her notebook. “They were just giving a math lesson, and I didn’t know what they were talking about, but it was pretty cool! Any of you know what it means when a triangle is 3/4/5?”
“You’re the math whiz, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said shaking her head. “You should be telling us that!”
“Actually, technically I’m the math whiz,” Sweetie said demurely. “I took Geometry last summer, remember?”
“Jeez, I can’t believe you took math in the summer,” Scootaloo said, planting her face on the floor in disgust. “I’m just in Algebra...”
“Yeah, well you can fly,” Sweetie shot back in an unimpressed tone.
“Heh, good point,” Scootaloo admitted.
“Math isn’t too hard for me,” Sweetie said, “But I shouldn’t have taken it in the summer. I didn’t get to study it nearly enough.”
“Do ya know what uhm...” Apple Bloom nosed through her notes, “Pythagorean triples are?”
Sweetie looked up thoughtfully, saying, “I think so. You’re still talking about 3/4/5 triangles, right?”
“Hey, Happle Bloom’s bahck!” a pony named Piña called out, sounding a lot better at speaking than she did last week at least. But then, two new heads popped over the edge of the couch, a green, blue haired colt, and a green, sort of off blue green haired mare who looked pretty much full grown, neither of whom Apple Bloom had seen this morning. The colt said,
“Hey, szhe’sh teh whone on theevee, whoo shanged hfirsht!”
The mare’s ear twitched at the colt’s horrible butchery of words, and she just blushed and didn’t say anything.
“Noi’s been handling pony speaking lessons today,” Scootaloo told Apple Bloom in explanation, “With some help from Twilight and a speech therapist who came today.”
“Well that’s great!” Apple Bloom told her cheerfully, easily trotting to a halt to wave a little bashfully at the ponies looking at her from over the couch, “Uh... hi y’all.”
“Sheesh sho gratheful...” the green mare said in awestruck admiration.
“Anyway,” Sweetie said, attracting Apple Bloom’s attention again, “I know a little about Pythagorean triples. I could probably at least show you what they are all about.”
“It’s not a huge deal,” Apple Bloom said leading her friends over to the stairway. “Just what they covered in class. But ah really went to class! It was totally working too, until the end!”
Apple Bloom filled them in as best she could, and she even told them in hushed tones that she might have found a secret passageway behind the walls! That was way better a secret than some dumb old abandoned supply shed. Well, now Scootaloo really wanted to go back to school, to check it out. They pinky swore that this would be a Crusader secret, and they still had one finger so it counted as a pinky swear. Then they started making eager, if a bit overly optimistic plans about how they were going to go back to school.
Apple Bloom couldn’t help but be worried though that night, listening to all the new people and ponies sleeping or readying for sleep. The house was getting really crowded, and they hadn’t been able to set up portable buildings yet. The thought of those buildings made Apple Bloom think of the school as a possibility, but then wonder how they could possibly attend school, if it was being used for pony rehabilitation?
She was really glad Sunset, Twilight and Noi, and some of the officers had it set up pretty good on the farm here, to help anyone with the transformation, but there were a lot more people who needed help than people who could help them, and more were showing up every day. They were up to what, a hundred now? They were barely done with the month of April!
As the days passed, people were working really hard to help each other all around her, and everyone was being real good about it so far at least. It wasn’t too crowded just yet, so Apple Bloom still got to sleep with her friends. She snuggled up to Sweetie one night and drifted off, hoping to talk with the dream princess more. And as it so happens, Princess Twilight was there waiting for her, when Apple Bloom asleeped.
Tapping her hoof. Um...
“Apple Bloom?” Twilight said in a very disapproving tone. “Have you been meddling with my library?”
“Um... what?” Apple Bloom said, having materialized in the golden stone halls of Twilight’s library.
“Now that we’re all here, can you tell us what we did, please?” Sweetie Belle asked fretfully, getting Apple Bloom’s attention that the two of her best friends were both with her in the library here, and the princess was glaring daggers at all three of them.
“Well, come on then!” the princess said, turning on her hoof and strutting away from the central lobby. Giving her friends a look, Apple Bloom trotted after the princess shortly followed by them, saying,
“Princess, what’s wrong? We didn’t do nothing to hurt your library! Ah know how important it is to you!”
“Oh, and this door here just walked itself into my library, and planted itself in my subconscious?” the princess said snidely, gesturing with an elegant wing at where a bookcase once was, but now the bookcase was pushed aside, and the wall was taken up by a rather out of place looking cheap, rounded, wooden door, like a door you might see on a rustic cottage somewhere.
“You even tried to hide it behind a bookcase,” the princess whined in a hurt tone, “Do you really not trust me that mu—”
“Oh mah gawd, that thing!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in loud surprise. “I totally forgot we did that!”
In an ancient dream library, surrounded by ivory walls and sunlit windows, and shelves full of barely filled out books, one unicorn, pegasus and earth filly were clustered together while a graceful princess hovered above them with a disapproving scrunch. Beside them was a dream bookcase, pushed aside, and behind the bookcase was a roundish pink tinted wooden door on the wall, that looked seriously out of place in this grecian themed library hall. A door to a cottage, in a very different place entirely.
“We were going to tell you,” Sweetie Belle said to the princess guiltily, “We didn’t mean to hide it. Or put it in your library. We just needed a place to put the door.”
Scootaloo wasn’t nearly as guilty or regretful though, laughing, “Ah hah hah, I can’t believe I’m not the only one who forgot this time! Excuse me princess, but this is just too rich!”
“Hey, ah forget things!” Apple Bloom said in peevish response. “Like uhm...” but for some reason, she couldn’t recall the things that she forgot.
“So you were going to tell me, but you forgot? That’s better, I think?” the princess said, looking at the three more in confusion than anger now. “But why did you put a door there? Aren’t there plenty of other places that have doors already? What if you hurt the library!”
“It was kinda spur of the moment,” Apple Bloom said, flicking her tail. “If’n we hadn’t gone and forgot about it we’d have asked how to move it. I was afraid I’d forget how to get there, if I tried.”
“And why did you put a door there?” the princess repeated, albeit in a different way. Apple Bloom caught a glimpse of Scootaloo looking away from the princess anxiously, but Apple Bloom insisted anyway, saying,
“This was Scootaloo’s dream,” she explained. “The one that we pulled her out of, so she could dream normal again. We wanted to get back to it, in case we could figgur out what was goin’ on there. But um... we never figured it out. And then kinda forgot. Sorry.”
The princess looked at the door, and then back at them, then tilted her ethereally limned head. Her ire looked considerably cooled now, but replaced with a burning curiosity. “What’s behind the door?” she asked. “Can I see it?”
“She can see it, right Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo, who hesitated a bit too long before saying,
“Y-yeah, no problem.”
“I hope it hasn’t faded after a month,” Sweetie remarked, walking up to the door and looking at it critically.
“Well, I’m better at dreaming now too though,” Scootaloo corrected her, “So I should be able to hold it together more.”
“There’s some kind of fantasy land past that door, Twilight,” Apple Bloom told the curious purple pony princess. “With cottages and farms and even a castle! It was from a book Scootaloo read somewhere, or... or something.”
“Well don’t just sit there, open up!” the princess said happily, pushing Scootaloo towards the door.
“Me?” Scootaloo said reluctantly. But, not really picking up on that, the princess said,
“Yes, it works best if you’re the one to open your own door.”
“Well... okay,” Scootaloo said, turning the brass latch on the door, and pushing it inward. As the four of them peered through, the scene on the other end hadn’t faded. It was... curiously pristine in fact. Like they’d never left it. Scootaloo was followed by Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and behind them, a wide eyed princess taking in all she saw around her with that childlike curiosity that seemed to be the sum total of her personality.
“Y’see, princess?” Apple Bloom said. “It just sits like this, since we cain’t figure what comes next. It’s like an empty movie set. But there’s the road there, going down to the castle, and you can still see that there magic shell thing that almost came down on top of us.”
“Past the eggshell is a lot of farms,” Sweetie put in, “We were riding in our wagon past those.”
“Yes,” the princess said distantly, “It’s a very interesting dream. It feels... homey.”
“We tried to get in the castle, but me and Sweetie couldn’t make our way inside,” Apple Bloom said, “Any idea about that? Ah really wanted to ask you ‘bout this before we lost track of it. Any idea why a dream would be so uh, not changey?”
“A very strong emotion tends to make my dreams more stable, but mostly it’s its familiarity,” the princess explained. “My library is a place I know top to bottom, and so it’s always there when I need it. I don’t know much, but... but that much, I know.”
“But even I don’t know where this place came from,” Scootaloo protested. “I don’t remember reading about any story like this. It’s not in any TV shows, or video games.”
“Still...” the princess murmured, pawing at a tuft of grass, “Something about this place is so familiar. I know I’ve dreamt of this before. I... I remember these streets.”
“Oh, that would explain a lot,” Scootaloo said in relief, “If it’s your dream, then I don’t have to be the one who remembers it.”
“Yes...” Twilight said, looking down the packed dirt road thoughtfully, before turning back to look at that pearlescent shell surrounding the castle and surrounding area. “How did you say you got here, again? A wagon?”
“Oh, right!” Scootaloo declared, charging off to the spot they came from. She came back, pushing along with her hind leg, riding on a pony sized scooter. Hitched to it was that simple red wagon, with the blanket that covered them piled inside it. “See, it’s a pony sized scooter, and wagon!” Scootaloo exclaimed. The princess stared at it wide eyed, while the fillies continued to explain.
“The wagon’s normal sized,” Apple Bloom corrected Scootaloo. “It’s huge for ponies, enough for both me and Sweetie to sit in it.”
“We were riding through a forest, covered in a blanket for some reason,” Sweetie told the princess, waving at the wagon. “Scootaloo was pulling us... I think. But she wasn’t really there until the end.”
“Then some sorta scary thing started to happen behind us,” Apple Bloom added, walking slowly around the wagon as she told the story. “Like a million eyes full of darkness headin’ our way. And above us, that there shell thing started to appear.”
“I don’t remember any of this,” Scootaloo stated. “I only woke–uh–dreamed up here, after they got inside it.”
“It appeared above the castle,” Sweetie said, staring overhead at the strange sky they were under. “And grew bigger and bigger until it hit the ground, and covered everything.”
“We weren’t gonna make it!” Apple Bloom said in excitement. “But we just barely made it by the skin of our teeth, and flyin’ through the air and everything!”
“Wish I got to see that part,” Scootaloo said with a half smile, “That sounds like it was totally wicked.”
“Yeah, Scootaloo was here then, but she wasn’t... right,” Sweetie said uneasily. “She didn’t have a face. It was like everything about her was just... blank.”
“But then I woke up for real, and we were all here,” Scootaloo concluded. “I don’t remember the parts before, but I bet I totally was pulling that wagon when we caught air time to get under the thing in time, before it closed right in front of us.”
“It kinda stopped after that,” Apple Bloom said. “We just... ran outta dream ah guess, but didn’t wake up for some reason. Guess it’s because it’s your dream we accidentally made it into?” She looked at the princess who was looking around shiftily, mouthing something so under her breath not even pony ears could pick it up. “You got any idea why we’d dream of riding a wagon under a magic wall, and end up in this strange town, princess? Is it your dream, after all?”
“I remember...” the princess said quietly. She didn’t look at Apple Bloom, just said it, but Apple Bloom smiled and said,
“Well that’s good. What do you—”
“I remember!!” the princess outright howled, and everything around them just exploded into tumultuous activity. Suddenly, the square they were in was full of ponies, ponies like them, and a ton of them! Ponies were packed elbow to elbow on the roads, as far as the eye could see, and all of them were gallopping for the border of that barrier thing. Apple Bloom shrank back in shock, at the huge crowd towering over her, resounding with screams of fear and anguish, so many bright colors it was dizzying!
“What—” Apple Bloom managed to get out, before Scootaloo’s scream cut above them all. Whirling, she saw that even in the crowded mass, the ponies had made a wary circle around the four of them, with Scootaloo in the center of it being completely covered in the soft magenta glow of the princess’s magic. The pegasus was in the air, her wings were straining but not carrying her away. She writhed and arched back, and screamed again, a painful, agonized wail.
“Stop!” Sweetie Belle shouted, shoving at the princess whose horn was lit so brilliantly it was hard to look at. “You’re hurting her! Stop!!”
“I don’t have any choice!” the princess shouted in aggrivation. Tears were streaming down her panicked, anguished eyes, and every essence of her attention focused on Scootaloo. “I have to do this! There is no other way!”
“Wake up, princess, please wake up!” Sweetie begged, “You’re having a nightmare!” But the princess could not be moved. Scootaloo clutched her head and screamed again. Apple Bloom ran forward so fast she was just there, beside the princess, and she did the only thing she could think to do. Rearing up on her forelegs, a panicked Apple Bloom bucked the princess in the side of the head.
The whole world flashed into a swirling starscape, before snapping back to the empty courtyard once again, with only the four of them there. The princess’s head knocked sharply to the side, the light in her horn flickered and faded. Scootaloo fell to the ground in a boneless heap. Then the princess crumpled to the ground in a boneless heap. Neither of them moved.
Apple Bloom was going on pure impulse at this point. All she knew was they had to get away. She didn’t know how she’d scooter as a pony, so she smashed into that scooter with a forehoof, breaking the tether from it to the wagon. “Halp me get Scootaloo in, hurry!” she shouted to Sweetie Belle. The two of them lifted the limp, quietly moaning Scootaloo, tumbling her into the wagon. Then, Apple Bloom grabbed the tether in her teeth, and shouted, “H’m on!” yanking it up the road behind her as she made for the cottage door, still hanging wide open.
Apple Bloom was in the library then, and Sweetie ran up right on Apple Bloom’s heels, with the scooter precariously draped over her candy white rear end. This was still the princess’s dream though! They had to get out!
“Book!” Sweetie shouted, yanking out a volume on Sweet Apple Acres that they’d used often, slamming it down in front of them, open somewhere in the middle.
“Book!” Apple Bloom repeated tensely, pulling the wagon into it, tumbling into the pages like falling down into a well. Sweetie jumped in afterwards, and with a whirring ruffle of its pages, the book slammed shut behind them.
With Scootaloo collapsed in the wagon still, the three of them were outside the front yard of Apple Bloom’s farm house, the crisp, clear sunlight shining down on the bright white eaves. They weren’t really there, though. The house in this dream was silent, and the trees were impenetrable.
“Scootaloo, are you okay?” Sweetie Belle said, nosing worriedly at the pumpkin orange filly in the wagon. Scootaloo didn’t even seem to see her though, staring dully off into space, looking more indistinct and faded than she had been since she first came out of the dream. “Please, Scootaloo, say something!” Sweetie begged.
“Scootaloo, please!” Apple Bloom cried on the other side of the wagon, “You’re scarin’ us!”
“You have to wake up, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie told Apple Bloom urgently.
“But Scootaloo’s hurt!” Apple Bloom responded.
“The princess can get into our dreams!” Sweetie squealed anxiously.
“Why did she attack Scootaloo?!” Apple Bloom demanded frantically.
“I don’t know!” Sweetie moaned. “She just picked her up, and hurt her!”
“Hang on, ah’ll—ah’ll try,” Apple Bloom said. It was her dream after all. She closed her eyes, then opened them. There, she saw Sweetie in front of her, beside Scootaloo laying in the wagon, nope. Closing them again, Apple Bloom tried to imagine opening them, that when she opened them it’d be for real. She thought she could hear raindrops hitting the window from outside. She opened... the right set of eyes this time. There was a ghostly feeling of standing, despite being laid back on her bed in the darkness of her room greeted by pitterpatter of rain on the roof, but that feeling passed as Apple Bloom fought up, and quickly shook her two friends awake.
Sweetie sat up right away, the little unicorn girl breathing hard in the darkness. Scootaloo... didn’t. “Oh no,” Apple Bloom moaned. “Oh, no no no.”
“Get the lights!” Sweetie said urgently. So Apple Bloom did, leaping down from the bed to accidentally land on a girl named Aura, who gave a squeak of protest as she too was awakened. “Sorry!” Apple Bloom whispered, though she didn’t know why. She jumped up, flicking the light switch mid air, and as the room flooded with light from the light bulb overhead, she went hopping back to the bed. Sweetie Belle was with Scootaloo there, holding her up in bed. Scootaloo was awake, but she wasn’t... looking at anything.
“Oh Scootaloo, what did she do to you?” Apple Bloom asked, getting no answer, or particular response. Sweetie had her, and it didn’t feel right to touch her, so Apple Bloom yelped, “Ah’ll go get help!”
The other two ponies and the human in the room were waking up with the overhead light on, and in the commotion, but Apple Bloom didn’t pay them mind. She jumped over Aura this time, to gallop hard out the room. She was halfway into Applejack’s room, before she realized where she was going. She stared at her sleeping sister, wanting so bad for her to make everything better, but Apple Bloom firmed her lip, and ran away from there, where she should be going. She ran downstairs to where a number of beds had been set up in the living room. It was dark, but not too much for her to see shapes to avoid. Apple Bloom hopped around the sleeping ponies and people, and found the bed she was looking for. Rearing up on it, she shook the occupant, whispering urgently,
“Doc! Doc wake up! Scootaloo’s in—something happened!” Apple Bloom whispered to Dr. Cureall, the veterinarian who was living here on the farm in case any...pony got sick.
“Wha–what?” the lady doctor said, struggling to a sitting position. “What happened? Did she fall and hurt her head?”
“Yes!” Apple Bloom said. “No!” Apple Bloom said. “Ah dunno, yes and no,” Apple Bloom said, “She had—we had a really bad dream, and—and something’s wrong with Scootaloo!”
“Calm down, let’s uhm, let’s get up to see her,” the doctor said fumbling in the darkness for her glasses. “Hold on I don’t—” she said, stumbling around blindly trying to walk over the ponies lying on the ground. “I don’t want to wake anybody—eep”
Apple Bloom bit on the sleeve of her pajamas, pulling the doctor in the direction of the stairwell mumbling “’urry!”
“Apple Bloom I can’t—” the doctor pulled free, climbing up the stairs on her own pace instead of being dragged up them by the eager filly. “I can’t help her if you panic,” the doctor said, “Are you sure this wasn’t just a bad dream?”
“It was a bad dream, that’s the problem!” Apple Bloom insisted, waiting atop the stairs for the doctor before running to her well lit room.
“I’m sorry she had a—” the doctor said, before Apple Bloom was tugging her along again. “Sorry she had a bad dream,” the doctor said, the light and shadow playing over her yellow face as she struggled with Apple Bloom in the doorway, “But these things happen. You just need to rest, and I’ll be happy to show you the monsters aren’t real.”
“The dream princess ain’t a monster!” Apple Bloom said fussily, then corrected herself with an ear flick, saying, “Well, maybe she is, but ah didn’t know she was until now!”
“Seriously, you should be telling your parents if you had a bad dream,” the vet said soothingly to her, “I hardly think it’s a medical emergency.”
“Ohh, just—come on!” Apple Bloom shouted, dragging the vet by her sleeve into the lit up bedroom of hers. There, the vet came to witness a curious sight, the four ponies who were sleeping in there besides Apple Bloom and her friends had all woken up, and stood on either side of the bed that the CMC slept on. Noi, and Aura, and two that Apple Bloom couldn’t remember the name of, were watching somewhere between terror and concern, as Sweetie Belle cried her eyes out, holding a dazed looking Scootaloo, who didn’t even turn to look at them when they came in the door.
“The dream princess attacked us!” Apple Bloom explained frantically, “She attacked Scootaloo in our dream, and she was really hurting her!”
“Please, she won’t say anything,” Sweetie Belle said tearfully, “I can’t get her to sit up by herself!”
In puppy patterened pajamas, with uncombed blue striped hair, Doctor Cureall hurried over to the bed and stared wide eyed, saying, “What?! What’s wrong with her?”
The two ponies on that side moved to make room for the doctor, and she looked at Scootaloo, who looked back at her dully, with a face devoid of emotion. “Ohh man, I—I don’t—I’m just a vet!” the doctor cried, “I don’t know anything about head problems. Scootaloo, are... are you alright?” Scootaloo may have frowned slightly, but she didn’t say anything.
“We gotta get her a doctor,” the doctor concluded.
“You’re the only doctor living here!” Apple Bloom whined, “Ah had to get someone fast!”
“I’ll get the uh—hospital on the line, hold on!” the doctor said, running for the door. The pained thud outside indicated either she really hated her shins, or she still couldn’t see out there in the hallway. Apple Bloom started to follow, but... how much help could she be, calling a doctor on a phone? So instead, Apple Bloom jumped up on the bed, and went over to nuzzle Scootaloo’s cheek, trying to get a response out of her. And Scootaloo looked at her... sorta. But she just...
Scootaloo just looked at her, as if she didn’t even know who Apple Bloom was.
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"Like.... Never mind, i forgot. But still!"
Uh oh. This doesn't bode well!
Well that was unexpected...
Great chapter, really can't wait for the next one now. Talk about cliffhangers.
That's the first time I ever saw someone say their own story had jumped the shark.
I'd say I'm not a fan of this development, but I'm not even sure what this development is.
What it does strike me is of all the times Twilight Sparkle thought she was doing the right thing, only to muck it up because she lacks empathy. I highly doubt that the dream princess had no choice, and it's infuriating when a story has a character do a flawed thing that sets back the entire story on a flawed assumption.
*edit* That said, the beginning part was great, especially with the police officers and the strange hooves around the school that has secret passages. The more this goes on the more I'm nursing a theory that the entire setting is setup by ponies to secretly observe the people, but I can't for the life of me imagine how it all fits together.
7533837
Apple Bloom's a wee bit slow to the draw, sometimes!
7533864
This story just turned into A Nightmare on Elm Street!
7534727
Yup. The entire reason I wrote this story was just so I could have an excuse to use Zutheskunk's picture of Princess Twilight riding a jumping shark. Show's over, you can all go home, folks. Please file out the doors in an orderly fashion.
But no seriously, I did not know how to drop this chapter on people more gently. I swear I've been foreshadowing this the whole time, but jeez what a freaky development!
7536090
All will be revealed in the next... 10 chapters or so...
I loved that part too. Apple Bloom is back in the heat of things!
I'm going to remember this.
I think they've had it. The more time in those bodies, the more they'll forget. We already established mindsets changing by means of them, now those very bodies have taken their recollections or altered them in some manner. The author of LOPE has written something with a remarkably similar premise. Except that had a more clean cut trail of evidence. Dimensional travel is a big theme in that, too, but the entire EQG world is still its own separate work of fiction. Anyone who has looked at the posters, read the comics, or viewed the show has been exposed. No one from Earth knows it, but there is a horrific scheme. The only remedy for the infected is to incinerate everything, keep it secret, don't tell or inform anyone, and not think about what you've done after the fact. Ponies are capable of walking around in a non magic laced environment as that continuity has them as their own walking reactors. This is a sharp contrast to the other story where being in a non magic environment is lethal to them. Magic is no longer this give nothing take nothing energy source, but something that inevitably multiplies itself. The more of it they use, and the more of them are in one place, the more heavily concentrated it gets. It then proceeds to proliferate, especially if close contact, like touching skin, kissing or sex is had. One cough, one sneeze, one laugh, and it spreads. Rather than the effect be lethal to humans, it gradually changes their shape. If subject to the right circumstance, they take on forms not unlike these aliens immediately. Most will gradually shift as magic naturally accumulates. It always starts with the development of special abilities. Each time they use their new found special abilities or talk to ponies or even spend time in vicinities they regularly haunt, the process is sped up ever so slowly. Like the last story s/he wrote, there is no clear cut hero or villain in it, only two sides with bystanders in between and ignorant negligence from both sides. Once the whole thing is done, the only remedy for that is to cross the dimensional divide and come back, which creates an illusion in human shape, something permanent if too much sudden exposure doesn't break the guise. Every pony who comes through comes in this guise by inherent nature of the portal, and goes back to their own shape if they go back or overexert themselves. At first, they act no differently than normal all things considered, but the more time they spend in those bodies, the more their mindsets gets altered by the TF itself. Memories are intact, but they may see them differently. Almost as though this was always what was buried beneath the surface from the very time every man and woman was conceived. Whether or not this is true, once you've been equinised, you will always be that at your core, no matter how much you use the portal and avoid ponies or using your abilities. You can keep your original shape, and avoid gradually reverting, but you only avoid reverting because the horse is forever encased within you. One who hasn't used the portal but was contaminated will change their shape. Also anyone who has wings will always have them whether they are in horse or human shape, something they can't help. Everybody else doesn't have to carry over avian or equine traits, but they all carry their hip marks no matter what.
7536787
I think the story you're looking for is thattaway
7536806 In any case, I said I liked the first two adults who succumbed to this. I stated I liked them as the first original characters. You make scarcely a note of them here. I want more of those two. They both lost their pubescence, and I am sure that while they managed to adjust, they would like to have it back. It's enough to lose sixteen of your twenty digits without having your physical maturity taken away too. We partially explored the two of them, but we never got a good look at the third one onwards. And that's alright with me.
I know neither of them had a stellar childhood, so that takes some of the pressure off. I still cannot imagine anyone wanting to lose that. There's no chance their preferences got changed by the transformation, right? They both still have the same preferences they always had. I'd hate to think that my preferences would go away along with my digits and adulthood.
I am fairly certain "E" would like to work. (S) He loves work, and thinks it gives him purpose. It would take his mind off the entire situation, and create an excuse to take advantage of his replacement hands. (S) he is lucky to have something of a substitute for his hands, something most lack. Unlike she, Eli has friends, relatives, coworkers who care intensely. Some of which may disown him for this.
Hey, Elijah. You may have become a straw man in a world where everybody eats straw and paper. Count your blessings. You are better off than this hillbilly who had no precedent. You at least had some idea what was happening. You're not alone. You have known adulthood, she has not. Maybe you have more to lose, but only because you have more. I guarantee your preferences have not been screwed up by this. Give yourself twelve years and you will be able to get horny again. Have you ever wanted to act, Elijah? Yes, I have. They are auditioning for the lead in a local production for Peter Pan. How does that sound? Are you insane? Are you trying to rub salt in an open wound? Does Peter Pan sound like the kind of character I would want to be cast as given my situation? When has he ever been portrayed by a man outside of Hook film? I'm sorry, I forgot! That's not reassuring. Bad decision.
7536838
There is one thing I was thinking of doing with Elias... but it's not for a while, and there's a lot of other stuff to cover.
Sorry, but while Noi does come along here and there, and Elias shows up on occasion, mostly through her satellite relationship with Sweetie Belle... the story has always been about Apple Bloom, even if she is a hillbilly.
Oh my God the dream princess took Scootaloo's soul.
WHY DID SHE TAKE HER SOUL??!!
...Well there is the forest, for starters... And how they all forgot about Dinky... Not to mention how she forgot about telling Twilight about Spike for about three days...
8280157
"Apple Bloom still, got to sleep with"
"still got"?
...I was supposed to be going to bed after this chapter, ferret, but nooo, there just had to be that cliffhanger. :D
8308067
Thanks...
It's a cliffhanger in the same sense as Maud Pie in Ghastly Gorge, or the CMC going mountain climbing in season 1.