Episode Two - Revelations and Preperations
“You hurry up and get your work done, Apple Fries,” Apple Bloom said. “Get all them bushels on the cart for yer Uncle Mac, he ain't as young as he used to be, and we don't need him throwing out his back again. After you do that, there are a bunch of galas and empires in the kitchen that gotta be bagged in dozens to be sold.”
“But, Momma, I already told Shinespark and Mornin' Glory that I was gonna meet them at the lake today.”
“That's all well and good, but you need to take care of yer responsibilities first. I'm pretty sure those two will survive a couple hours without you. I'll tell you what, If you get it all done quick like, y'all three can come with me to Sugarcube Corner for some ice cream. That's where we gotta deliver those bushels to anyway. I know it's hard work, but I will be workin' in the barn, or in the south field mendin' the fences if you need some help. Now, off you go.”
“Fine,” Apple Fries said, as she shimmied under the wooden fence, and dragged her hooves towards the east field. Big Macintosh had already bucked a few dozen golden delicious trees in the area, and at the bottom of each tree was a bushel or two, waiting to be stacked on the wagon for transport. Apple Bloom watched for a few moments, making sure her daughter got to work, and once satisfied, turned toward the barn to fetch her tools.
“Oh, pony feathers!” Apple Fries yelled from the orchard.
“Now, you watch your tongue, that ain't how a lady talks,” Apple Bloom said over her shoulder.
“Sorry, Momma,” Her daughter replied.
Apple Bloom gave no more thought to her foul-mouthed foal as she sauntered toward the barn, her mind occupied by thoughts of the day ahead. She was starting to grow very tired of fixing the fences every week, but could not see any way around it. After the Livestock Liberation Act of 1636 had passed three years ago, it had become unavoidable. She had no problem with the act itself, allowing the cows and sheep free range of the farm seemed only fair. Penning up intelligent beings always felt wrong to her, but she could never convince the rest of the Apple Family to allow the sheep and cows free range. Soon after the law passed, however, she realized why everyone in her family except for her had voted against the bill. Cows, it seemed, have no respect for the sanctity of white picket fences, and more often than not would knock them over, or break right through, rather than walk around them like civilized folk.
As Apple Bloom approached the barn, she could see Featherweight flying around the roof of the barn, busily replacing missing shingles, and marking areas of the roof that needed to be reinforced or replaced completely. Before she married the pegasus stallion, the barn had always been a thorn in her side, simply refusing to stop sagging, and always threatening to collapse. Featherweight wasn't the best handy-stallion in Ponyville, but the ability to fly was a definite advantage when working so high above the ground, and Apple Bloom knew her husband was happy to take on the time-consuming, but relatively simple task of maintaining the shingles. She would never trust him to do any of the heavy carpentry, that had gone sour one too many times, but it was nice to be freed from the light work.
“Hey there, Bloom,” Featherweight said as he glided down to greet his wife. “I see you are trying to get Apple Fries to actually do some work. I've been keeping an eye on her, and I swear that silly filly must have spilled at least five bushels in the two minutes it took you to walk here. She almost let the wagon get away from her once or twice too.”
“That so? I swear I weren’t never that much trouble when I was a filly. Fool kid musta' got it from your side of the family.”
Apple Bloom could see her husband stifle a laugh. “Sure, darling, that must be it. You were always a perfect angel when we were young, I can't recall a single time you ever caused trouble for anyone.”
“I don't think I like your sarcastic tone there. Of course I was a perfect angel back then,” she said with mock frustration. “Well, anyway, I better get to it, the fences ain't gonna fix themselves.”
“Okay, darling, don't work too hard,” he said, and took to the air, resuming his own work. She watched him for a moment, admiring his graceful flight and determined spirit before heading into the barn. Her friends had never understood what she saw in Featherweight, and granted, he wasn't as large or strong as most other stallions, but he was as honest, caring, and hard working as any stallion she knew. There was also a certain appeal to the way he soared through the sky, never too fast, but always graceful and full of subtle beauty. She stood transfixed for a moment before finally tearing her gaze away and stepping into the barn.
Once inside, Apple Bloom took her sheet of measurements from her saddlebag, and spent the next hour and a half sawing planks of wood and fence posts to size, double checking each before lining them up along her workbench to be painted. Something about the repetitive task was almost therapeutic to her, the steady rhythm of the saw, the aroma of sawdust and paint. As far as she was concerned, this was a little piece of heaven. It gave her time to think, to reflect on her life, plan out her day, or simply turn off her mind for a while. Apple Bloom was lost in her own mind when she was abruptly ripped out of her thoughts by three terrifying sounds in quick succession.
The first sound was the voice of her husband. “Dear Celestia, no,” he had yelled with a desperate and horrified tone.
The second and third sounds came a few seconds later, only a second apart. The sound of Apple Fries screaming, and a very loud crash.
o:O:o
“I can't believe that I gotta do all this junk,” Apple Fries complained under her breath as she ducked beneath the fence and shuffled towards the closest bushel. While she was certainly proud of the Apple name, she often wished she had been born into a wealthy family like Shinespark had been. “I don't know why Momma expects me to do so much buckin' work. Between this, school and all my homework, I work way more than her or Daddy, I just know it”
She tried to stack both of the bushels that sat under the first golden delicious tree on top of each other and carry them together, but they proved to be much too heavy. She lost her grip before she had lifted it more than a few inches, sending dozens of yellow apples rolling across the grass. “Oh, pony feathers,” she yelled before she could stop herself.
“Now, you watch your tongue, that ain't how a lady talks.”
“Sorry, Momma,” she said. She wasn't actually all that sorry though. She stuck out her tongue at her mother's backside before picking up the spilled apples with a sigh.
For what felt like many hours, but she knew was probably only ninety minutes or so, she huffed and cursed her way across the orchard, stacking bushels on the cart, the sour expression never once leaving her face. A few times she dropped a bushel, and had to pick it back up, and once she had almost tipped the whole cart over, but she was finally almost done in the east field. She carried the last bushel to the cart, still cursing to herself despite her relief at finally finishing the outdoor phase of the day's labor.
“Thank, Celestia,” she said to herself, as she shoved the bushel on the the wagon, “at least now I can go inside to work, this heat is killin' me.”
She had just released the safety brake when she noticed that she had inadvertently parked the wagon on the very top of a hill. Apple Fries knew from previous experience how heavy a fully loaded apple cart was, and did not want to risk trying to get it to the bottom of the hill on her own. With an exasperated sigh, she trotted down the hill and toward the barn to get her mother to help her.
She screamed with shock and pain when the cart hit her, and for a frightening instant the cart pushed her sideways. Then there was an abrupt stop as the cart slammed her violently against a tree. She felt something in her spine snap, and all pain suddenly ceased. She was vaguely aware of the total lack of feeling in her lower body, as she struggled to pull herself from the mass of tree trunk and apples, thrashing wildly with her front hooves. After a few brief moments, her strength failed her, and her body slumped limply onto an overturned apple bushel. The last things that Apple Fries was aware of was her father landing in front of her, his eyes wide in horror, and her mother's voice desperately calling her name. In that moment her world faded away, and consciousness left her entirely.
o:O:o
o:O:o
It was far too much for Apple Bloom's little mind to handle. All she had wanted to do was find out what she and her friends' cutie marks were going to be, and this new information was shocking and unexpected to say the least. All that she could do was stare at the small shrine in a near catatonic state. She truly had no idea how to process it all. Her future daughter would die at only twelve years old, a mere three years older than her own current age. Apple Bloom had never even met this filly, yet somehow the loss that she felt was still greater than any she had ever before experienced.
Sweetie Belle slowly walked onto the orchard and sat down in the grass beside Apple Bloom, and the devastated pony leaned her head on her friend's shoulder. For a long time the two fillies sat together in silence. Having her friend there with her somehow helped her clear her mind, and eventually Apple Bloom broke the silence with a whisper.
“We gotta fix it,” she said to Sweetie Belle. “We gotta go back and make it right.”
The unicorn brushed a hoof through Apple Bloom's mane with a sigh. “I thought that you might want to do that,” she said softly. “I probably would want to fix it too. Rarity says 'the future is what you make it.' I think that it's true too, so I will help you however you want me too.”
“You're the best, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said, and pulled her unicorn friend into a tight hug.
Apple Bloom knew that she should have a plan, but in order to begin developing any sort of strategy, she first needed to know exactly what had happened. She knew that there was an obituary printed whenever a Ponyville resident passed away, because, for some reason she could never understand, Granny Smith always liked to read them. She also knew Twilight Sparkle had always kept an archive of Ponyville Tribune and The Canterlot Sun at the library tree, so perhaps whatever librarian was currently there would do that too. It was a place to start, anyway.
They headed towards town, forming a plan of action together, bouncing ideas off of each other, and assigning tasks. By the time they had reached the outskirts of Ponyville, the three friends had a well-formed strategy. Finally, they reached the hills that bordered town, and stood in wide-eyed awe when Ponyville came into view. The once tiny village had grown to at least twice it's previous size, and several multistory buildings stood proudly in the center of town. The stood together for a few moments, taking in the unexpected sight .
“Alright, everypony know what they need to do?” Apple Bloom asked, and both of her friends nodded in confirmation. “Good. We meet back at the Epoch at sunset, that gives us about three hours.”
The three fillies galloped together down the hill, and upon reaching the town border they split up, and headed toward their respective destinations, knowing that time was of the essence and failure was not an option.
o:O:o
When Apple Bloom had arrived at the library, she was relieved to find that Twilight wasn't there. She had been afraid that after all those years, the purple unicorn would still live there, though that turned out not to be the case. Apple Bloom asked about Twilight, her curiosity too much to resist, and the current librarian, an elderly pegasus stallion named Loose Leaf, told her that Twilight Sparkle was now head librarian at Canterlot Palace.
Loose Leaf had gladly allowed her to search the archive of newspapers, even offering to help, though the young earth pony declined, preferring to do it on her own. It took Apple Bloom quite a while to find what she was looking for, a short article in The Canterlot Sun, detailing the circumstances of the accident. Tears filled her eyes as she read the page, and saw the picture of a smiling earth pony that could never be mistaken for anything other than an Apple. She waited until Loose Leaf was distracted, and tore the article out of the paper and stuffed it into a fold in her bow. She felt a little guilty about destruction of library property, but felt that it was a necessary evil. Once satisfied that she had what she needed, she neatly stacked the papers back on the shelf, thanked Loose Leaf, and galloped back to the agreed upon meeting place.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were already waiting at the time machine when Apple Bloom arrived, and to the young earth pony's surprise, another quite familiar pink pony was there too.
“Oh my gosh, you are finally here not grown up Apple Bloom! I knew you girls would get the time machine working! I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and then finally I got the ear twitch, knee jerk, nose itch, tongue curl combo! I used to get it all the time when Minuette and the Doctor would show up in that weird blue thing. They left a long, long, LONG time ago and never came back, so when the combo happened again, I knew, I just KNEW that it had to be you three! I'm so excited to see you all!”
Apple Bloom stared in shock at the bouncing pink pony, noticing that while she looked older, she didn't seem to have aged nearly as much as she would have expected her too over twenty five years. She was a bit chubbier, and had a few faint lines around her eyes, but she had to be well into her forties by now, yet she looked no older than her teacher Cheerilee, who Apple Bloom knew was only thirty-four. Pinkie Pie's energy level, however, had not aged over the years all it seemed.
Apple Bloom turned to her friends. “Um, I thought y'all were supposed to not get seen by anypony we know.”
“We couldn't help it, she was already here when we got back. We tried to hide, but Pinkie had already seen us,” Scootaloo said apologetically.
“Don't you silly fillies worry, I won't tell anypony I saw you, especially not your adult selves. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie Pie said, as she did the motions inherent to the unbreakable promise.
The three fillies' eyes went wide when Pinkie said that, and they all yelled in excitement as one. “You know our adult selves?!”
“Well of course I do! I know everypony in Ponyville, always have, always will. Hey, that rhymed!” Pinkie began to sing cheerfully, inspired by her inadvertent rhyme.
I know everypony
In all of Ponyville
I've always known them all
I know I always will
I throw them parties everyday
'Cause partying is Pinkie's way
And everyday in Ponyville
Is somepony's birthday, Yay!
“Needs work, but I think I can manage to make a whole song out of it,” Pinkie said.
“Yeah, its nice Pinkie. So if you know our adult selves, can you tell us what our cutie marks are?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Of course not, silly, that would ruin the surprise! Anyway, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle told me about your plan to save Apple Fries. I really, really, really hope you can do it, everypony is so sad about what happened to her. Come find me when you go back to save her, I really want to help you girls. See you last month!” Pinkie Pie bounced off without another word, a hopeful expression on her face.
“Bye Pinkie Pie,” the Crusaders said to the pink blur as it disappeared down the path.
“Well, that was interestin',” Apple Bloom said.
“So did you find anything, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked.
“Sure did, what about you guys?" she said, as she pulled a newspaper clipping from inside the fold of her bow.
“Well, Pinkie says that we can stay at her place when we get to last month, so if it takes a few days to do what we need to do, at least we wont have to sleep outside,” Scootaloo said. “Other than that, we couldn't really find out much.”
“That's okay, I think I found just what we need anyway, look.” Apple Bloom handed the newspaper clipping to the other two fillies, who both began to read.
“That poor pony,” Sweetie Belle said, a tear streaking down her face. “I can't believe something like that happened right here in Ponyville. It's so sad.”
“I know, that's why we gotta fix it,” Apple Bloom said. She felt like crying too, but she had spent all of here tears at the library.
After much discussion, they had decided that they should prepare before attempting to alter the time line, and thus returned to their own time to set up for the upcoming rescue mission. Apple Bloom set the machine to send them back to the day on which they had left, only an hour after their initial departure. Once again, the machine shook violently, and again the Crusaders were hurled out of the contraption in a flash of light, but this time they were prepared, and they suffered fewer scrapes and bruises than before.
“We really need to do something about all that shaking, I don't think I can handle getting knocked around like that anymore,” Sweetie Belle said as she stood up.
“Yeah, we ain't gonna be happy if it shakes itself apart, especially if we ain't even in our own time when it happens,” Apple Bloom said. She trotted over to the machine and began examining all of it's vital components. “We gotta reinforce the frame, and secure the engine better. We should probably get some better seats too.”
Once Apple Bloom had drawn out plans for all of the necessary improvements, she gave herself and each of her friends a list of tasks, and they spent the next several days worth of Crusading time upgrading their invention. The copper frame was reinforced with crossbars and joined with heavier bolts, and the engine also got it's own frame, securing all of the vital parts. Scootaloo found out that Mr and Mrs Cake were throwing out an old sofa, and so convinced them to let the Crusaders have it instead. It made a fantastic replacement for the folding lawn chairs, both more comfortable and more secure. At the end of the fourth day, the upgrades were finally complete, and the three fillies all headed home to rest, agreeing to meet as early as they could the next morning, ready for their rescue mission.
o:O:o
“I still don't understand what two ducks have to do with it,” Scootaloo said.
“Are ya even listenin' to me? What I said was we gotta be careful about what we do, or there might be a paradox,” said Apple Bloom .
“Fine, I don't see what a pair of ducks has to do with it then. I'm also pretty sure that a pair of ducks is exactly the same thing as two ducks.”
“How did you get to be so dang thick, Scootaloo? It's amazin' that you ain't died from pure stupidity by now.”
“Me? You're the one who is trying to tell me that we'll be attacked by ducks if we mess with time too much. If that's not stupid, I don't know what is.”
“Ya know what, never mind about the paradox. We just gotta be careful is all I'm trying to say.”
“Okay, okay, I get it. Apple Bloom is in charge, and whatever dumb rules she pulls out of her flank have to be followed, or else we get attacked by ducks,” Scootaloo said sarcastically.
“Calm down, Scootaloo, I never claimed to be in charge. All Crusaders are equal, and you know it.”
“You sure act like you're trying to be in charge. You know what, I'll just meet you at the clubhouse in a little while. I wanna go get my scooter and see if I can get some bits from my foster mom anyway. I'll be at the clubhouse in like an hour.”
“If that's what you want to do, fine. Just don't take too long, we need to get goin' soon.”
“Alright, alright, I'll hurry, don't spit your bit!” Scootaloo answered.
Apple Bloom turned her head and checked her flank, and saw that Scootaloo was doing the same. “Dang, still no arguing cutie mark.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Scootaloo said. “Anyway, see you soon.”
“Yep, see ya soon,” Apple Bloom replied. She adjusted her overloaded saddlebag, and headed back towards Sweet Apple Acres. On the way, she realized that she was going to pass right by Carousel Boutique, and so decided stop by and get Sweetie Belle. Rarity told her that Sweetie wouldn't be available until her morning chores were done, a task which involved getting the smoke smell out of the kitchen, apparently. While she was there, Rarity put up a valiant effort to convince Apple Bloom to model some filly-sized dresses and hats she was working on, and it took her several minutes to finally escape with her dignity intact. All things considered, the trip into town had been mostly a waste of time, and Apple Bloom wished that she had spent the time getting an extra hour of sleep, and packing up the Epoch with supplies.
Soon enough, she arrived at the clubhouse, and was surprised to find that Scootaloo had actually beaten her there. The orange pegasus was covered in mud, tree sap, and pine needles for some reason, and was clumsily shoving their wagon into the Epoch.
“There, done,” Scootaloo said with a final shove, “Oh, hey Apple Bloom, what took you so long? And where is Sweetie Belle?”
“She should be here pretty soon. Hey, how's the fuel look?”
Scootaloo studied the flex capacitor for a moment. “Pretty low, probably should refill it before we go.”
“Aright. Unless you wanna suit up, maybe you should stand back. Why don’t you go down to the house and hose yourself off,” Apple Bloom said, and Scootaloo hurried off toward the Apple Family home. Apple Bloom opened a hatch in the Epoch's control panel, and removed one of the radiation suits, a pair of long tongs, and a box marked U-235. After donning her suit, she carefully opened the box and used the tongs to remove two rods of uranium, dropping them into the funnel atop the flex capacitor. Once that was done, she put all of the refueling supplies back under the control panel, and waited for her friends. It wasn't long before Sweetie Belle, and a much cleaner Scootaloo had arrived, and after a last minute check to make sure that they hadn't forgotten anything, they all loaded into the Epoch and departed.
TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE THREE
AN APPLE NEVER FALLS
TOO FAR FROM THE TREE
As always, if you notice any mistakes, please let me know, it is very much appreciated. Thanks for reading!
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but she new was probably only ninety minutes or so,
Apple Fries knew for previous experience how heavy a fully loaded apple cart was
I won't tell anyone I saw you
You know out adult selves?!
I know everybody in Ponyville
1. Knew.
2. From.
3. Anypony.
4. Our.
5. Everypony.
I smell paradoxes possibly occurring... mainly since it WILL be a different timeline after the rescue... now the question is... how are they gonna do it without being recognised?
709504 Thanks! I will be going back and fixing those in just a few minutes.
Stupid auto correct in Open Office turns 'anypony' into 'anyone' and 'everypony' into 'everybody.' even after I added both to the dictionary
I would turn off, but I am such a terrible typist, that its easier just to go back and fix those few issues than manually fix everything picked up by the spell checker. It turns 'Fluttershy' into 'Shutter Fly' too. 
Thanks for the read, and the corrections!
I'm Singaporean and when i saw Orchard road i shat brix
pretty good chapter, I loved the Newspaper thing, it gives a note on how much effort you're giving to the fic. it's sad that it has so little thumbs up.
)
I also love all the intended or unintended Chrono Trigger references that I found or made up in my mind.
1.- Changing the past to save someone loved.
2.- the resolution to change the past and modify the future.
3.- 3 seats time machine. (tell me they are going to name it Epoch
Anyways, good work overall, and you have been pointed out your flaws already. only other I found was a speech that wan't closed, don't quite remember which. so take a look at it.
Keep up the good work
719820 Ha! Those are good references, even if they were unintended! I was actually thinking I wanted to name the machine, rather than just call it 'the time machine' all the time. I forgot that the C.T. machine was named Epoch, actually, but I like it.
When I go to put the third chapter up within the next day or so, I will go ahead and edit in them naming the machine, and change a few spots of the text with the new name. I will throw a note at the end of the fist chapter with credit to you for naming it.
Thanks for the read and for naming the time machine!
no problem
709779
WHat do you mean, MLP is invading SG????
Cause i also live in singapore and i never noticed anything MLP related
837339 Chapter 2. Read the news paper First Paragraph
If I had a time machine...
...
...
...
Hey, I'm back! Guess what...
chzbronies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-brony-time-traveling-twilight.png
839008
Oh I see what you mean
Oh great, uranium in an orchard. Great!
I thought it was called a flex compactor