"What Are You Doing? Buy This Book Now!"

by Strawberry Sunrise

A Secret Message

“Hello? Applejack?” Twilight called. She half-expected to hear cries for help, but no cries came. “Applejack?”

After a while, Twilight bumped into Big Mac. “Have you seen Applejack?” Twilight asked.

“Nope,” he said. Twilight moved on.

After searching almost the entire orchard, Twilight finally found a clue – Applejack’s copy of “What Are You Doing? Buy This Book Now!” by Flimmy McFlammerson. She knew it must be Applejack’s copy because it had “Sucker!” written on every page, not just page three hundred eighty-seven.

Skimming through the book, she saw that there were identical tears on pages five, seven, and forty-nine. “That’s strange,” Twilight thought. Now that she thought about it, May 7^th, 1949 was Granny Smith’s birthday. She decided that she needed to find Granny Smith.

She went back to the house and knocked again. “Apple Bloom? Granny Smith?” she called.

“Oh, it’s the pony who doesn’t trust me,” Apple Bloom said, opening the door reluctantly.

“I need to talk to Granny Smith. Is she home?” Twilight asked.

Apple Bloom sighed. “Granny!” she called. Granny Smith walked around the corner.

“Apple Bloom was telling me about how you don’t trust her about anything,” Granny said angrily. “Why don’t you trust her? She didn’t lie to you!”

“I’m sorry, I think there was just a misunderstanding,” Twilight said. “I do trust her, I just like to see things for myself, too. I’m sorry.”

Granny Smith sighed. She looked to see if Apple Bloom was listening, but Apple Bloom had returned to her room. “I do the same thing,” she whispered to Twilight.

“Oh?” Twilight said rhetorically. Then she showed Granny Smith Applejack’s copy of “What Are You Doing? Buy This Book Now!” by Flimmy McFlammerson.

“Yeah, I recognize that book,” Granny Smith said. “I have a copy of What Are You Doing? Buy This Book Now!’ by Flimmy McFlammerson right over there.” She pointed to the table.

“I thought that was Apple Bloom’s copy,” Twilight said.

“She lied!” Granny Smith said, and laughed.

“But I thought you said she didn’t lie?” Twilight asked.

“Did I?” Granny Smith said, and winked. Twilight wasn’t sure what to make of that, but decided to move on.

“But the thing with this copy of ‘What Are You Doing? Buy This Book Now!’ by Flimmy McFlammerson is that pages five, seven, and forty-nine have these identical tears on them,” Twilight said. “And May 7^th, 1949 is your birthday.”

“That is strange,” Granny Smith said. She looked at the copy of “What Are You Doing? Buy This Book Now!” by Flimmy McFlammerson that Twilight was holding. “But I don’t know what it means. Sorry.”

Twilight frowned. She looked at the pages again. Suddenly, she noticed something. There was tiny, almost unreadable text written at the bottom of page forty-nine. “Do you have a magnifying glass, by any chance?” she asked Granny Smith.

“I think so,” Granny Smith said, and she went into a back room that the Apple family used for storage. “Here it is!” She came back out with a magnifying glass.

“Thanks!” Twilight said. She held the magnifying glass over the tiny text and read.

“I’m about to be foalnapped by changelings who want to take me back in time to stop Granny Smith from helping to found Ponyville,” the text said.

“What?” Twilight said.

“What did it say?” Granny Smith asked.

“Uh…nothing,” Twilight said. “It’s not really words at all!” She laughed nervously, unsure whether to trust Granny Smith or whether she might be a changeling.

“Oh, so you don’t trust me, do you?” Granny Smith asked. “You didn’t trust Apple Bloom, and now you don’t trust me.”

“What, no, it’s not…it’s…I…I’m sorry, I’ve got to go,” Twilight said, and teleported away before Granny Smith could say anything else.

“Whoops, I brought the magnifying glass with me,” Twilight said, and laughed nervously again. She teleported back to the Apple farm. Nopony was in the kitchen anymore.

Comments

[Godslittleprincess]

And now, time-travelling changelings. Things are getting really cray-cray.