Chapter 2
“Oh come on, Applejack will never let you leave Ponyville!” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes.
“AJ wants me to think about it,” Apple Bloom said, frowning at the brochure laid on the table. She’d looked at it all last night, practically memorized it and studied all of the pictures, and she was no closer to coming to a decision, so she’d gathered her friends in the clubhouse to help her.
Scoots shook her head. “Okay, well first we need to deal with whoever brainwashed Applejack.”
“No, I think I understand,” Sweetie Belle said. She looked at Apple Bloom. “This is a big thing, isn’t it?”
“Real big,” Apple Bloom agreed. “I’d be the first pony to ever go there who wasn’t a unicorn. And it’s been around about 600 years, accordin’ to the brochure.”
Scoots looked at the brochure, then pointed at a picture. “Those ponies look too happy. You can’t go to some school with creepy, happy unicorns.”
Sweetie frowned. “Hey, I’m happy!”
“But you’re not creepy happy,” Scoots explained. “Like, look at this. They’re doing homework happy. Nopony does homework happy.”
“Isn’t this where Twilight went to school? I bet she did homework happy,” Sweetie shot back.
Scoots rolled her eyes. “But Apple Bloom doesn’t!”
“She likes Twilight Time.”
“But that’s different.”
Apple Bloom broke in, “Twilight said I’d get to learn about the same stuff as I do with her, but more.”
“But you wouldn’t be in Ponyville.” Scoots waved her forehooves. “We’d literally never see you again!"
“You mean figuratively,” Sweetie corrected. “Literally means ‘really.’”
“But everypony uses it to mean 'not really,'” Scoots said.
Sweetie rolled her eyes. “Then everypony uses it wrong.”
“The meaning of words can change. Like how ‘cool’ used to mean ‘cold,’ and now it means ‘like Rainbow Dash.’”
“You guys, this ain’t helpin!” Apple Bloom frowned. “Applejack said everypony wants me to decide this like a grown-up.”
“And you should.” Sweetie nodded. “Getting to go to school in Canterlot is an important decision.”
“And so is leaving behind all of your friends and family and being the only earth pony there. It’d be like not having your cutie mark forever!” Scootaloo pointed out, her eyes wide.
“But, what if this is how she’s supposed to get her cutie mark?” Sweetie asked.
Scoots frowned. “How would that do her any good if she’s still totally different and not as good as everypony?"
Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes. “I can be as good as everypony! I mean, I can’t cast spells, but maybe I can be better than them at potions or math or knowin’ stuff!”
“Apple Bloom…” Scoots walked over and wrapped a foreleg around her. “What you’re talking about doing is like if I wanted to move to Cloudsdale and go to flight school… ponies are going to notice, and they’re not going to be nice about it.” Scoots looked into the distance and narrowed her eyes. “We’re both as good as everypony else, but… maybe Ponyville is the place to be that way, where there are all types of ponies and everypony knows us.”
“That… makes sense,” Apple Bloom said, looking down at her hooves. “Twilight said I could still learn stuff here.”
Scoots gave her a pat on the shoulder. “See? It’s the perfect place for you.”
“I reckon it is…” Apple Bloom nodded.
“That’s dumb,” Sweetie said, frowning. “You don’t even know it is! What if that school is the perfect place for you?”
Scoots mouth dropped open. “Sweetie Belle, do you want Apple Bloom to leave us forever?”
“No, but I want Apple Bloom to get her cutie mark.” She stomped a forehoof on the table. “Are we the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or the Cutie Mark Sit-Arounders?’
“That’s not even a word.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “You can’t just add ‘er’ to the end of something and make it something you are.”
Sweetie ignored Scoots and talked to Apple Bloom instead. “Crusading is like adventuring. And sometimes it might be scary, but you have to do scary things to find your special talent. Maybe Canterlot is the perfect place for you. Maybe that’s where your special talent is. This could be destiny, and you’re going to stay in Ponyville because you’re scared?”
“I… I dunno!” Apple Bloom buried her face in a forehoof. “I feel like whatever I do is gonna be wrong! This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
“What about that time you got, like, a million fake cutie marks?” Scoots suggested.
“Or the time you almost got eaten by a chimera?” Sweetie added.
Apple Bloom shook her head. “If I stay here I might never get my cutie mark, and I’ll never get to learn all that stuff, and some other earth pony’s gonna have to be the first one to go to that school someday. If I go, everypony’s gonna make fun of me, and I’m gonna have to be better than everypony just for them to see I’m good enough, and I’ll never get to see you guys or my family again!”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were silent, their eyes wide.
Apple Bloom sighed and the energy drained out of her. “How am I supposed to decide something like this?”
After a moment, Scootaloo spoke up, “It’s easy, you should stay home.”
“No, you should go!”
“Stay!”
“Go!”
“Stay!”
“Go!”
Apple Bloom sat down at the table and rested her face on the cool, smooth wood.
Apple Bloom came to a hallway where other foals and their parents were waiting outside the hall where the tests were taking place. There were about a dozen unicorn colts and fillies looking at flash cards, or being fussed over by their parents, or with their muzzles buried in books. Just about all of them wore expressions of dread and panic, so Apple Bloom felt right at home.
She parked her little cart against a wall, out of the way, and unhooked herself. Twilight and Applejack seemed to have attracted some attention and had fallen into conversation with a few grown-up ponies. So, Apple Bloom turned to look for Spike and smiled when he was right next to her.
“Can we go over the recipes one more time?”
“Yup! Lemme get the cards.” He turned to dig around in the cart.
A unicorn filly looked at them, her head cocked to the side. She looked at the cart, then back to Apple Bloom. “Are you here to bring the judges lunch?”
Apple Bloom felt the blood drain from her face. “I— I’m here to take the test.”
“By royal invitation,” Spike’s voice came from over her shoulder. She glanced back and he was holding her flash cards and glaring at the unicorn filly.
“You’re an earth pony,” the filly pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
Apple Bloom found the strength to fix the girl with a flat look. “You’re kiddin’.”
“So why do you want to go to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?” she asked.
“I can make potions, and Twilight’s been teachin’ me about the parts of magic, subthaumatic theory and resonance interactions… she said I could learn a bunch here.” Apple Bloom shrugged.
The filly raised her eyebrows. “That’s really advanced stuff.” Then she tossed her mane and turned away. “You’re weird.”
Apple Bloom turned to Spike, who was still glaring at the back of the girl’s head. She sighed. “Well that’s a nice way of talkin’ to a pony you might be goin’ to school with.”
“Just ignore her.” Spike said, loud enough for the girl to hear. “She probably won’t even get in. I’ve got your recipes, let’s go over them again.”
The sun was getting low in the sky when Apple Bloom made her way home from the clubhouse. As she walked through the orchard, she tried to imagine not walking through the orchard; walking home across the hooficured lawns of the School for Gifted Unicorns to a dinner not made by Granny. It was hard to imagine, a life like that didn’t seem real, it seemed like she’d be a character in a story or a movie. She tried to decide if it was a good story or a bad one, but it could be either. She started to suspect that grown-ups must make decisions like this by flipping a coin, because nothing she did got her any closer to knowing what she should do.
She heard the scraping of heavy bushels being loaded onto a cart and trotted over a few rows to see Applejack cleaning up her work for the night. Apple Bloom leaned against a tree.
“You’re really okay with me goin’ to Canterlot by myself?” she said.
Applejack didn’t look away from her work, bumping another bushel on the cart. “If that’s what you wanna do.”
“Just last year you wouldn’t let me stay here for a day,” Apple Bloom pointed out.
Applejack nodded as she trotted over to the next bushel. “I ain’t sayin’ it won’t be hard. It took me a bit to get used to the idea.”
“So why’re you okay with it now?” Apple Bloom asked, tilting her head.
“‘Cause I thought about everythin’.” Applejack finally looked over at her. “I listened to Twilight and Granny and Mac. And I thought about how I’d worry about you every darn day. And I thought about how someday you’ll be a grown-up pony, and you might not wanna stay here anyhow, and how I’ll worry about you when that day comes.” She bent down and loaded another bushel onto her back, turning back to the cart. “It wasn’t an easy thing to think about, but in the end I knew that givin’ you the chance to decide was what was best for you.”
“Thanks.” Apple Bloom tried to keep the sarcasm from her voice.
“You havin’ trouble?” Applejack raised an eyebrow at her.
“This is awful. Scootaloo thinks I oughta stay here, and Sweetie Belle thinks I oughta go, and there’s bad things and good things either way!” Apple Bloom sighed. “What would you do?”
Applejack thought for a moment. “When I was your age, I went off to Manehattan by myself. Of course, I also came right back home.” She glanced over at Apple Bloom. “Which, I oughta remind you, you can always do. Nopony will think less of you.”
“Except if the very first earth pony to go to Princess Celestia’s drops out, how’s that gonna look?” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow.
Applejack paused. “I reckon now I oughta tell you you gotta make this decision for yourself and not worry about other ponies…” She smiled sadly. “But Apples ain’t real good at that. When we let other ponies down, we let ourselves down. And you’re an Apple right off the tree, lil’ sis.”
Apple Bloom looked down at where the roots of the tree snaked through the green grass. “Can’t you just tell me what to do?”
“I can’t, sugarcube. I wish I could, but I can’t,” Applejack said.
They were quiet for a few moments as Applejack went back to work and Apple Bloom felt the rough bark of the three scratching her coat.
Finally Applejack finished and hooked herself into the cart. “So, you really like this magic stuff?”
“Yeah, it’s neat.” Apple Bloom nodded, walking with Applejack as they made their way back to the barn. “There’s magic all over the place, with different kinds of resonance. So, like, earth pony magic is one kinda thaum, and pegasus magic is another kind, and the magic in plants is the same kind as earth pony magic, and the kind in clouds is the same kind as pegasi have. Then there’s some stuff that’s not about types of ponies, like rainbow’s a different kinda magic all together, and it’s really unstable. It’s sometimes the same as pegasus magic and sometime it ain’t, which is why a sonic rainboom’s so hard to do…. you ain’t listenin’.”
“Oh, I’m listenin’.” Applejack scrunched up her face. “I just get kinda lost when you’re talkin’ about thems—”
“Thaums.”
Applejack nodded. “Yeah, that stuff.”
Apple Bloom sighed. It took forever to make Applejack or Big Mac understand stuff like this. “I can explain it better.”
“I know ya’ can, sugarcube.” Applejack looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. “But, do you really wanna?”
“I…” Apple Bloom frowned.
Applejack leaned over and gave her a nuzzle. “Why don’t you think about that and get washed up for supper?”
“Okay.” Apple Bloom left Applejack, occasionally glancing back as she walked towards the house.
“A shrinking potion,” Spike read.
Apple Bloom looked at the ceiling. “Simmer the poison joke extract. Add two zap apple seeds. Mix with four ounces of water and bring the water to a boil, stirrin’ it with a stalk of wheat.”
“Yup! Corroding oil.”
She took a breath. Was it pepper oil, or lemon oil? It must be pepper, pepper burned more. “Soak rust scrapin’s in pepper oil for five minutes, then strain the oil through ground obsidian— Spike, do I have the ground obsidian?”
Spike nodded. “A whole bottle.”
“Okay,” Apple Bloom breathed a sigh of relief. “Strain it through obsidian and make sure ya’ don’t drop it, cause that’ll leave a mark on the floor.”
Spike chuckled. “Yeah, better not bang up the room too much. The judges might not like it.”
Apple Bloom’s eyes went wide. “Spike, what if somethin’ explodes?”
He shrugged. “The rooms all have fire extinguishers.”
“Well, at least I won’t burn down the school when I fail.” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.
Spike walked over next to her. “You’re not going to fail.”
Apple Bloom shook her head. “The test is gonna be somethin’ I don’t know a potion for. I know it.”
“Okay.” Spike set down the flash cards and folded his arms. “So what do you do then?”
“Give up and go home?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully.
Spike frowned. “I thought you wanted to get into Princess Celestia’s School.”
“I do!” Apple Bloom insisted.
Spike raised an eyebrow.
Apple Bloom looked at him and swallowed a lump in her throat. Then she nodded. “I look at what it is, and I look at what I got, and I… figure somethin’ out. If it don’t work, they’ll see that I tried everythin’ I could think.”
“Yup.” Spike grinned. “You could also pray for a sonic rainboom. I hear that works too.”
“Heya, Spike.”
Spike was on his way back to the castle, a paper bundle under his arm with quills for Twilight. He hadn’t really been avoiding Apple Bloom, he didn’t usually see her enough to avoid her, but as soon as he heard her voice he cringed.
“Hi Apple Bloom!” he said over his shoulder. “Um… how’s it going?”
She trotted up next to him. “I wanted to ask ya’ some questions, if you got a minute.”
“What kind of questions?” he asked, glancing around and speeding his pace, hoping he could get back to the castle before he had to answer too many.
“About Canterlot,” Apple Bloom said, keeping up easily. “Like, what kinda place is it, and are the ponies there friendly?"
“Canterlot is awesome.”
“It is?” Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow at him.
Spike nodded and slowed down. “Yeah. Think of it like Ponyville, except instead of one Sugarcube Corner, there are ten. And instead of market stalls, there are shops for everything, like toys and comic books. And there are movie theaters and plays and concerts. It’s a really cool place.”
“And the ponies there?” she asked.
“They’re friendly.” He smiled. “They even tried to make friends with Twilight, but… she wasn’t very good at it then. But you’re great at making friends, I know you won’t have any trouble.”
Apple Bloom just frowned. “Even if I’m the only earth pony, and I don’t know nopony, and I talk different, and I don’t have a cutie mark?”
The smile fell from Spike’s face. “I guess it might be harder, in that case…”
Apple Bloom sighed. “I kinda figured. The brochure looks so neat, ya’ know? All these pictures of colts and fillies laughin’ together and makin’ potions and learnin’ stuff, and they all look real happy. And it talks about the new buildin’s for magical engineering and the professors who seem to know everythin’ about everythin’. But all the foals in those pictures are unicorns, and I feel like… that ain’t how it’d go for me, ya’ know?”
“I get it.” Spike nodded, then looked at her. She looked really worried, and he reached out and patted her shoulder. “And, I mean, that’s not really how it goes for anypony. I’ve been in those classrooms, nopony was ever that happy. They were always worried about a test, or sleepy because they stayed up all night playing games or studying. But there were cool times, too…”
She looked at him with hope peeking through her frown.
He went on, “I don’t think it would be like in those pictures. And it might be harder for you than for other ponies. But I do think there are ponies there who’ll be your friends, and I think you’d get to have some of those cool times, if you relaxed and let yourself without worrying.”
She smiled and snorted. “Sometimes I think all I ever do is worry.”
Spike grinned. “I’ve known ponies like that. They just need friends to snap them out of it.”
Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow, still smiling. “So I’ve gotta not worry to make friends, and friends will help me not worry? That don’t sound real useful.”
He nodded. “I guess it would be pretty hard for you, at first. But it would get better.”
“It’s just more to think about.” She sighed and shook her head. “There’s so much to think about, ya’ know? I made a list last night. There’s twenty different things I gotta keep in my mind all at once while I figure this out!”
“It’s a big decision. Bigger than anything I ever had to decide.” Spike looked up. They were approaching the castle. He’d been looking forward to lunch, but it didn’t seem that appetizing all of a sudden.
Apple Bloom glanced at the castle, then smiled at him. “Well, I appreciate your tellin’ me about Canterlot.”
“Yeah. No problem. I wish I could help… more.”
She trotted away, and he went inside, wishing that ponies would stop making him feel like this right before meals.
At regular intervals the hallway went quiet as the door opened, and a professor Spike vaguely recognized stuck his head out and called a name.
Finally the gray unicorn stallion called out, “Apple Bloom.”
Between the look on her face and the pale color, Spike was pretty impressed that she didn’t faint. But she also didn’t move until he gave her a nudge towards her cart. She fixed it around herself, fumbling with the latch, and then took a deep, shaky breath.
“We’re all gonna be right there, sugarcube,” Applejack said, running a hoof over her sister’s mane.
“And everything you need is in the cart. And you got every single recipe right,” Spike pointed out.
Apple Bloom nodded and walked into the lecture hall, followed by Spike, Twilight, and Applejack.
Inside were rows of seats going up like a theater, with the empty space of a stage at the bottom. Up towards the top sat three unicorns: the gray stallion Spike vaguely recognized, a younger looking brown mare who must be new, and a blue mare named Candlebright, who he knew pretty well as the Dean of Students; he’d delivered a lot of messages from Twilight to her in their time here. The stage level was empty, except for a large chest.
The three judges watched Apple Bloom with raised eyebrows as she pulled her cart over, unhooked herself, and stood next to the chest. Then they looked over at the ponies there to support her and started whispering.
After a few moments they nodded.
“Apple Bloom?” Dean Candlebright said.
“Yes, ma’am. Um, Princess Celestia said I could use my potion makin’ equipment for the test?” She nodded to the cart.
“We have that in our notes.” Dean Candlebright nodded. “Please try to open that chest without damaging it and retrieve the crystal inside.”
Spike bit his lip as Apple Bloom stared at the chest, then shot him the most pitiful look he’d ever seen in his life. He understood and swallowed a lump in his throat. They both knew that nothing Apple Bloom had studied that would open a locked chest without messing it up.
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And of course Apple Bloom isn't getting off easy. Because what kind of story would that be :p
Potion of Open/Close? Seriously... give the potion maker a test about opening a chest without damaging it... Maybe the loophole is in the fact that the lock technically isn't the chest?
She can pick the lock or dismantle the hinges.
tree
I just loved that conversation between the CMC. Scootaloo especially was too cute.
It'll be interesting to see how Apple Bloom solves this problem.
Hmm. That is a pickle.
It's almost like they picked something that wouldn't be possible with potions...
Or maybe that was just the test they were going with this year already.
This is an interesting way to tell the story. The flash-forwards would almost kill the tension, except that's actually where most of the tension really is.
In school we once read a text with three professors arguing about whether language evolves or decays. This exchange summarizes the whole text quite well.
They say nothing about the chest being locked. Applebloom should try to lift the lid at least once. And if it is locked then try picking the lock.
Thank you, Sweetie Belle.
I think there's something off with this sentence. It should be "there was nothing", or "both knew of nothing", or "nothing Apple Bloom had studied
thatwould open". Something like that.While the flash forwards and backwards are interesting, it does kind of spoil Applebloom's and Spike's decisions.
“Please try to open that chest without damaging it and retrieve the crystal inside.”
Simple. Shrink potion. Shrink yourself down small enough, go inside the lock's key hole, take it apart, and bingo. Chest open with no damage.
5925978
How does it spoil? It's a story about Apple Bloom attending the Unicorn School. "Oh, maybe they'll decide not to go!" /story over
Since AB's speaking in the next line of dialog. You need to delete the first line of dialogs end quote mark [bolded].
____________________
You are thinking of a grey unicorn mare. Not a grey unicorn stallion. That mare was who did Twilight's acceptance test, and is Apple Bloom's relative, Apple Polish. Apple Polish isn't a dude.
5928740
I kind of get why 5925978 said that. The whole story is about AB's and Spike's decision. Will she go, or will she decide to stay. It's the entire crux of the stories conflict.
Seeing the flash forwards, kind ruins the suspense of seeing what AB will do. Since we're given the answer. Although while it does spoil the answer, and it ruins the over all crux of the stories conflict. It's still a nice fic.
5931390 Or it could be a grey stallion. It's been years since Twilight's test, I doubt they would have the same exact judges as they did when she was a filly, it seems more likely they rotate the judges to prevent them from becoming too jaded or biased. Apple Polish could have moved on to entirely new things by now, seeing as Twilight is an alicorn in this story.
>Apple Bloom felt the rough bark of the three scratching her coat
u wot
semicolon here
What was that? Oh, it was the sound of my heart breaking.
"No, I mean, why here? Why not the Manehattan Institute of Alchemy? There's plenty of earth ponies there, you'd probably feel a lot more comfortable."
Come on Apple Bloom, if we hurry we can catch the next train to Manehattan!"
"Wait, what? D'oh, she's right! I have no idea how I forgot about MIA!
This bothers me too! And bothers Weird Al Yankovic!
Scoots is right, though. The meaning of words can change over time.
This reminds me of an old Robert Kline routine from the 70's, where he talks about college brochures: "You know, where in every picture there's always one guy going like this (strikes pose as if caught mid-stride, books under one arm, smiling unnaturally and waving at the viewer)"
I couldn't find that schtick, but I found another part of the same routine--on the very theme of collegiate culture shock:
"Baahb! Baahb! Muh father gimmie uh dollar t'git muhrrid!"
Thank goodness Bloom finally acknowledged earth pony and pegasus magic.
help me