Continuity Disrupted

by Doug Graves

90 Boundless Realms, Part One

September 1st, 1000 Domina Solaria

Applebaum’s hooves bring herself to a stop just outside the Ponyville Schoolhouse. Her mind is elsewhere, the young mare blankly staring at the closed door. Her foreleg lifts absentmindedly, hoof quivering as she pauses.

This is it. At the encouragement of Miss Cheerilee, she had finished her EVALs - Equestrian Volition and Aptitude Leanings - two weeks ago. The test was ostensibly for young mares and stallions who might have ‘difficulty’ finding employment related to their cutie mark, but they never said that on the literature. No, the test is for ‘atypical’ cases like her. Abnormals. Deviants.

After all, buildings in Equestria are supposed to stay up, right? Nopony wants to be in a house where the walls might come crashing down at the slightest provocation. And she has a cutie mark practically purpose-made to make them come down.

Well, if she really didn’t like the results, she could take the test again in another year.

But, as Miss Cheerilee explained to her, the results of the test didn’t really change much. You either had the ‘aptitude and inclination’ to a particular field, or you didn’t. And lots of ponies changed what they liked doing before they got their cutie mark. After? Well, hopefully she and the rest of society can come to some sort of agreement.

It didn’t help that she got a nice, warm feeling every time she thought back to blowing up that model house and getting her cutie mark, and every time she went to bed that feeling faded, leaving her cold and alone and itching to try to recreate it.

She had told Daddy about those feelings. He got a far off look in his eye, and mumbled something. When she pressed further, he went off on some tangent about addiction and coolers and how giving into those feelings, that desire, might work in the short term. But then it wouldn’t be enough, and she’d start blowing up hospitals and boats and giant piles of money and she got a little confused at that point because what kind of madpony would do that sort of thing? Even if it did sound pretty awesome.

Applebaum shakes her head, clearing away the idle thoughts. But, hey, there are probably lots of jobs that work with fireworks and explosions, right? Except that none of those had the same ‘oomph’ that finding the structural weak point in a building did, and the exact amount of charge that she would need to set in order to bring the whole thing crashing down.

Her hoof, still in the air, reaches forward to push against the schoolhouse door. It opens easily, Miss Cheerilee sitting at her desk, mouth pursed as she grades papers. Her pink and purple teacher glances up, muzzle curling to a smile.

“Come in, Applebaum. Ready to get started?”

Applebaum forces a smile, walking up to the seat already positioned on the other side of Miss Cheerilee’s desk. “Yup,” she hesitantly offers, looking over the stacks of papers cluttered around the desk, a hoofkerchief, and other assorted knick-knacks. She lifts a hoof at a plain, full sized envelope sitting all alone. “Is that it?”

“Yes, it is,” Miss Cheerilee readily answers, opening the already-opened envelope and pulling a stack of at least five pages out. “Would you like to know how you did?”

Applebaum nods, though she already knows the answer. The test had been hard. It wasn’t designed to be done in the allotted time, and she hated leaving questions blank. The questions also got harder and harder as you went on, so it wasn’t worth skipping sections. She had only completely finished two of the subsections, and she knew she had messed up a lot on the others.

Miss Cheerilee smiles, “So, the test is scored on multiple dimensions. How many questions you answered, how many you got right, and how well you did compared to every other test taker, and compared to young mares your age.” Miss Cheerilee’s smile grows more encouraging, “And, it looks like you did very well compared to other young mares your age!”

“Really?” Applebaum says, perking up a little. She gets up on her hooves, barely able to peek over the desk to see her results.

“Yup! On average, you scored on the seventy fifth percentile among young mares your age. That’s very good!” Miss Cheerilee points to a number at the bottom. “You did very well on arithmetic reasoning and mathematical knowledge. Is that something that Doug has gone over with you?”

Applebaum nods, “Yup, and the study book helped too. Ah get that stuff.” She points to the next line, “What’s that?”

“Oh?” Miss Cheerilee says, a bit of a frown quickly replaced by a smile. “Well, your reading and word comprehension could use a little work. Those were your lowest two areas. But that’s something that will improve with time! You’ll learn more words, and be able to use them better!”

“But you said this is compared to other mares.” Applebaum frowns, “Then, that means that they’ll get better at words, too.”

Miss Cheerilee’s smile draws tighter, “Yes, dear, I suppose that’s true. But, the rest of your sections were much better! Well, aside from thaumics, but no earth pony really gets that, right?” Miss Cheerilee hastily moves on to the next section. “Let’s see, general science you did fairly well. And mechanical knowledge, oh my! You got a ninety nine there!”

“Ah did?” Applebaum exclaims, spinning the paper around to see for herself. “That’s so cool!”

Miss Cheerilee smiles, though it fades slightly as she pulls aside the next sheet of paper. “Which leads us to the next section.” Her eyes grow serious as she scans over the page. “Applebaum, you like playing with blocks, yes? Building things?”

“Yup!” Applebaum nods vigorously. “It’s so cool to watch them come down! Ah mean, it kinda sucks to build it all in the first place-” Miss Cheerilee’s frown briefly returns “-but the way that sometimes a block will fall over and hit another block, and then that block will knock over another one? Sometimes Ah can build this whole huge house and it all falls down when Ah pull out the right block!” Applebaum’s hooves scrape against each other as she grins maniacally; she can practically feel the warmth spreading from her mark!

“Yes…” Miss Cheerilee hesitantly says, her hoof straying over the parts in the paper that say the same thing. “Let’s step back just a moment, shall we?” Miss Cheerilee smiles down at Applebaum, a somewhat pensive look on her face.

Applebaum’s ears splay back as she takes her front hooves off Miss Cheerilee’s desk, grudgingly retreating to her seat. “Oh. Um, Applejack doesn’t like it when Ah mention that, either.” She huffs out, her face turning away from Miss Cheerilee.

Miss Cheerilee smiles pleasantly, “Oh, I don’t doubt that for a second. Applebaum, what kind of job can you see yourself doing? What do you like?”

“Um,” Applebaum says, rubbing one hoof against the other. “Ah… Ah thought Ah could be a demomare. You know, when a building is old, and needs to come down? Or, or an engineer working in a mine! They blow things up too, right?”

A moderately distressed look crosses Miss Cheerilee’s face before she forces a neutral smile back on. “Well, um, Applebaum. Oh, dear, how do I say this.” Miss Cheerilee pauses for a few seconds, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

Applebaum sinks down, her muzzle resting against her hooves.

Miss Cheerilee slowly nods as she opens her eyes. “Applebaum, when I first saw your scores, I thought I had a budding little engineer on my hooves, one I would love to see sprout up and go on to design and build all sorts of wonderful houses and buildings.” She pauses as she pulls out a few of the blueprints that Applebaum had submitted along with her test, pictures of houses and bridges and a way to shore up a mineshaft. “But, do you see the flaw in these designs?”

Applebaum slowly nods, her voice quivering. “Ah tried to hide it, Ah really did.” She turns her head, a long glare at her cutie mark.

Miss Cheerilee sighs, motioning to the harsh red circles and angry remarks, some underlined three times. “Applebaum, nopony wants to live in a house that has a single point of failure. It’s why we build in so many redundancies, and higher load factors. Nopony would dare step hoof in a mine that is designed to collapse!”

A single tear rolls down Applebaum’s cheek, quickly joined by dozens more. “Ah tried, Miss Cheerilee! Ah tried to do it normal-like, and not include those. But it just… it just felt wrong, you know?”

“It’s okay, Applebaum,” Miss Cheerilee quietly says, getting up from her desk. She drops down to her hooves, eye level with the young mare. She nuzzles Applebaum, quelling the soft sobbing. “That’s why we have these discussions, right? So that we can find a place where you are working with your cutie mark. Not trying to oppose it, to do things that you don’t want to do. Right?”

Applebaum sniffles again, wiping the tears from her face, a losing battle as more keep coming.

“There, there,” Miss Cheerilee whispers, grabbing the hoofkerchief from the desk. She wipes away the tears, an encouraging smile. “Now, let’s see what kind of jobs you could get, okay?”

“Okay,” Applebaum hesitantly says, slowly pushing herself back up.

Miss Cheerilee returns to the desk, taking the last page. “Well, unfortunately, there aren’t any… demomare... positions. Available, I mean. Actually, I don’t remember seeing that profession listed at all.” Miss Cheerilee glances down at a different sheet of paper, shaking her head. “But, how does this sound? You could be a building inspector!”

“A what now?” Applebaum asks, reluctantly pushing herself up to look at the job description.

“A building inspector is a pony who goes around to different buildings and figures out what is wrong with them. How likely they are to fall down, or what it would take for something bad to happen. It’s just like what you do with your block houses!”

Applebaum’s eyes narrow, “But, Ah wouldn’t be knocking the houses down.” She sits back slightly. “Ah’d be figuring out what could go wrong, and then fixing it.”

“Exactly!” Miss Cheerilee says with a sunny grin. “Doesn’t that sound exciting?”

Applebaum’s huff goes acknowledged, “Yeah. Sounds like a real pear.” She looks over, “Was there anything else?”

“Hmm,” Miss Cheerilee replies, running a hoof over the page. “With the rest of your scores, it would have to be something more general, something anypony would be able to train to do.” She glances back at Applebaum’s cutie mark, “And, for somepony in your… situation, the earlier we find something that, how shall I say, satisfies that longing of yours, the better. Right?”

“Ah guess so,” Applebaum sighs. “Ah can always try again next year, right? Maybe Ah can do better then?”

Miss Cheerilee purses her lips, “Well, I suppose you can. Would you like a day to think about this? Maybe think up any more options?” She shakes the flimsy piece of paper, “Sometimes they don’t come up with a whole lot.”

Applebaum nods, “Ah think so.” She hops down, clearing her throat. “Thanks for taking the time to go over my options with me, Miss Cheerilee.”

“Oh, you’re more than welcome,” Miss Cheerilee says with a broad smile, getting up to open the door for Applebaum. “Have a nice day!”

“Good day!” Applebaum’s fake cheer sounds hollow even to her as she walks away from the Ponyville Schoolhouse. A heavy sigh escapes as she trudges away. A building inspector? She spots Daddy, resting against a nearby tree and reading through a book on Intermediary Thaumics. The tears threaten to come again as he looks up and spots her, a broad wave and smile.

“How was it?” Doug gently asks as she gets closer, raising an eyebrow as a white stallion walks away from the front of the schoolhouse, quickly following behind her. He is somepony Doug thinks he recognizes, but not from Ponyville.

“Horrible,” Applebaum grunts out. “They think Ah should be a building inspector.”

“Hey, that’s a perfectly fine job,” Doug says. Applebaum rolls her eyes; he always tries to put the best spin on things. “Maybe not what you were hoping for though?”

“Well,” the white stallion behind Applebaum says with a quelled smile. She turns around to look at him. He has a short black mane, parted down the middle, and a cropped tail. Black shades in white frames cover his eyes. A purple and black quarter suit covers his neck, a white tie at his collar. He continues, “There are some that say the life of a building inspector is boring. Unchallenging. The waste of a pony’s potential.” He flicks a business card through the air, Applebaum raising a hoof to catch the perfectly thrown projectile.

Applebaum raises an eyebrow at the statement, flipping the card to read it aloud. “Research, Inquest, Procurement.” She squints to read the smaller text underneath, “Need something? We find anything. For the right price.”

“Name’s Withers.” The white stallion tips his shades down, his amber eyes smirking at the two. “And maybe I can help you find something, too.”

Comments

[badninja]

Applebaum would be a great assistant to Michael Bay. He would make a killing if he just had a movie with explosions.

[PinkDragonJr]

recruiter for S. M. I. L. E?

[f0st3r21]

9481149
Michael Neigh, more like.

I wonder if Equestria has any special forces? Applebaum could be a ringer for a combat engineer…