Reincarnation beats cider for forgetting what you did last night

by StrangeCreature

A beautiful day

Apple Bloom had spent the day running around town with the Crusaders, trying to get their cutie marks in one thing after another. It was summer vacation and Applejack had given her the day off from chores so they had had plenty of time to try everything they could think of. They had started out at Carousel Boutique, trying for cooking, until the second fire when Rarity had forced them out, after which they got breakfast at Sugarcube Corner with their pooled allowances.

Scootaloo told them about a new program at the library she had found out about when Rainbow Dash stopped there to pick up the newest Daring Do novel. The library had an instrument lending program now. Anypony could walk in and ask Twilight for an instrument to try out for a few days. The trio decided their previous attempts at musical cutie marks must have failed because they hadn’t tried the right instruments, and headed over right away. Twilight greeted them with a genuine smile that became strained when they told her what they were looking for, but she still showed them to the new instruments. Sweetie Belle’s eyes lit up when they landed on the keytar, Apple Bloom’s widened when she saw the mandolin, and Scootaloo decided she wanted to try bugling.

Twilight made it very clear that they weren’t allowed to play in the library, and encouraged them to practice outside of town. She wouldn’t lie and say it was illegal for them to try to learn in town, but she did remind them the local police had been given full discretion to deal with any crusader related incidents inside of Ponyvillle limits as they saw fit. It took multiple attempts to communicate this, but eventually Sweetie Belle took the hint and said they should try playing at the club house instead.

Scootaloo brought them out on her scooter, racing towards it at top speed. They had done this enough times that Big Mac had wrapped mats around the trunk of a tree near the club house so they could crash into something soft. Despite this, and the other two protesting that they needed to be careful with their instruments, Scootaloo refused to slow down, insisting she was entirely in control. Naturally, they slammed into the tree at full speed. Fortunately, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had both seen this coming and bailed out with the instruments in their jaws or atop their backs. Scootaloo peeled herself off Mac’s mats and landed back on four hooves, sheepish, but otherwise unharmed.

The trio raised the greatest cacophony the woods had heard since the time they had accidentally dropped a beehive on Rarity’s head while she was walking under a tree with Fluttershy. Fluttershy was only able to talk the bees down after Rarity had stopped screaming, and her hair had been completely soaked through with honey. Scootaloo’s attempts at Reveille alone didn’t match it, but with Apple Bloom’s attempts at translating her sister’s fiddle tunes to mandolin and Sweetie Belle’s striking at keys, the woods were louder than they had ever been before.

Sitting in her castle, Twilight heard the faintest hint of this and congratulated herself for managing to get the trio out of town, where Octavia wouldn’t try to murder them for crimes against music.

After exhausting themselves on their instruments, even passing them around to make sure none of them had a chance with any of the others’, the crusaders decided to find a new plan. Apple Bloom suggested “lutering”. Sweetie Belle eventually worked out she meant luthiery, building and repairing stringed instruments. Apple Bloom had heard it from a phone call Applejack had made with a cousin in Manehattan. Scootaloo was open to breaking the mandolin, but was bored of being in the club house, so repairing it was out. Instead, Sweetie Belle suggested they try some cloud busting, getting them out of the clubhouse and leaving the instruments unharmed.

The first task was to find some clouds left over. Making sure the skies were clear whenever possible was the weather patrol’s main job; Rainbow Dash might have preferred napping to working, but she was still plenty thorough. The three put their heads together and decided that some fog could probably be found around the edges of the Everfree, and as such it was worth visiting. With a cry of “Cutie Mark Crusader weather workers!” they headed for the forest proper.

The trees were tall, the shadows were deep, the leaves lay thick on the ground, and any sensible ponies would have been very very frightened. The Crusaders were absolutely confident as they blundered forth into the deep green depths. They had to abandon the scooter before they got too deep into the woods since the wheels didn’t roll over the grass smoothly, but the three had legs and were willing to use them. The further they went from the edge the deeper the shadows got and the higher the trees rose. Only a few beams of light snuck between leaves to reach the forest floor by the time they found what they were looking for.

The ground started to sink and suck at their hooves. They had arrived exactly where they wanted to be, the edge of Froggy Bottom Bog. A fog bank huddled over one of the marshes, and the crusaders found themselves right up against it. Scootaloo pulled herself into the air, spun around, and delivered it a kick, just like Rainbow Dash clearing the skies; Apple Bloom spun and bucked at it, just like Big Mac knocking apples loose; and Sweetie Belle fell upon it with her horn, screaming like a banshee, just like Rarity fighting changelings. All three immediately got nowhere. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom fell through the cloud flat on their faces and Scootaloo sank up to her knees in it, far deeper than she had in the mud.

Scootaloo buzzed her wings furiously, managing to pull herself out of the cloud. The others stumbled out of it a few seconds later. Both were covered in mud, but only Sweetie Belle was trying to get it off.

“Aw, Rarity’s gonna make me soak for an hour if I come home like this.”

After Scootaloo slid down the bank and landed next to them they put their heads together and began thinking. It was definitely possible for Scootaloo to hit the cloud, but she didn’t know how to bust it properly. That could probably be fixed with practice, so she had to keep at it. As for Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, they were in a harder spot, but they remembered Twilight casting a spell on Applejack to let her walk on clouds. As Scootaloo kept attacking the fog bank Sweetie Belle began alternating between throwing short blasts of sparks at Apple Bloom’s hooves and trying to use magic on the fog directly whenever Apple Bloom took another crack at cloud bucking.

There’s no telling if they would’ve kept this up for hours in desperation or given up in a few minutes when Sweetie Belle burned Apple Bloom’s hooves because after only a few tries an enormous eye rose over the fog bank and looked directly at them. The single eye was larger than two of them put together, so after one brief moment of silent eye contact all three screamed and galloped for the safety of the trees. Coming out they had thought they were moving at top speed, but going back they found they must have been dawdling. How else could they have cut the time to get back to the scooter in half?

Having fled the great unseen beast and having had their hearts stop racing they still found themselves next to the Everfree and hoping not to have to go back to town. Sweetie Belle suggested visiting Zecora. She could get the mud off her barrel, and Zecora might have a potion that would let them touch clouds. Or something they could spray on clouds to dissolve them. Either one would let them try for weather worker cutie marks the next time clouds came out of the woods. The other two glanced nervously at the forest, but the trees were tight enough together that whatever had the enormous eye would be unlikely to squeeze through them, and they hadn’t heard anything lumbering through the forest following them, so they decided it was probably safe. Thus, to Zecora’s they went.

The zebra was glad to see them, though she had only recognized Scootaloo at first, the other two being far too caked in mud. She gave them a tub to wash up in while Scootaloo explained what they were looking for. The others got clean far faster than they would’ve with Rarity’s thoroughness and quickly began helping Zecora brew a potion. It kept for weeks and could cut through cloud like a hot knife through butter.

By the end of it all three were sticky with potion ingredients, the hut was a mess and they had begun reflexively rhyming, but they had their brew. Zecora saw them off with a tired smile and they began heading home, happy. At the edge of the forest they had to go their separate ways, Scootaloo to her aunts’, Sweetie Belle to Carousel Boutique, and Apple Bloom to Sweet Apple Acres. All three said goodbye, looking forward to seeing each other again the next day.

Apple bloom went home, had dinner, and was planning her activities for the next day when she noticed fireflies dotting the fields outside her window. She was called to them. Down the steps and out the doors, she was on the porch and flashing beads of light surrounded her. Her heart was tugging at her to go deeper, to wander further from her home. She walked between the trees she had known all her life, growing so much faster than them they had seemed to shrink even as they reached taller every year, trailing the insect-stars as they blinked in and out around her.

At the edge of the field, she looked back, and her breath caught. She was looking over endless tiny lights, reaching towards the shining windows of the house she’d come from, where she’d lived all her life. They were as bright as any horizon stretching over Manehattan or Fillydephia, and she knew she would never leave that farm. It would always have her heart.

One of the lights was larger than the others. It grew brighter and brighter, getting closer and closer. It was Applejack, holding a lantern in her teeth.

“Hey there, sugar cube. I reckon you should be getting to bed.”

“I know sis. I’m sorry, but it was so beautiful, and I just wanted to see it from here.”

“I understand.” Said Applejack. She lay the lantern down and Apple Bloom saw she had saddlebags on. She reached in and pulled out two bottles of cider. She passed one to Apple Bloom and sat down. They looked over the field in silence, drinking the cider quietly. Once the bottles were bone dry she got up, dusted herself off, and pulled her sister to her hooves. The two of them began walking back through the now dimming lightning bugs. They were passing under the edge of the furthest tree from the house when Applejack spoke again.

“I love you sis. You know that?”

“I do. Absolutely.” Said Apple bloom.

“I’m glad.” Said Applejack, smiling.

There are three things you must understand. The first is that the Apples cared for their trees. They tended them to harvest, but they also tended them for their own sake. They did everything they could to keep them healthy and well, not only for the sake of having a healthy harvest, but because they cared for the trees themselves. Sometimes, that love blinded them. They failed to see when a tree was too old. They didn’t always cut them down when they should. Here, at the edge of the field, its mighty, heavy, limbs stretching far above their heads, was one of the trees they hadn’t seen for what it was.

The second is that a pony’s cutie mark is not given to them solely when they find a skill they adore. Many, many foals have tried their cutie mark’s skill and had nothing happen, only to return later and do it again with some greater knowledge of themselves and what makes them happy, only to get a cutie mark for something they’ve done for years. Sometimes something they’ve done all their life.

The third is that very old trees rot, and their branches can snap off with very little provocation.

As Apple Bloom walked through the fog of fireflies she decided she wanted to tell her sister what she had learned that evening.

“Sis, we spent all day crusading for our cutie marks.”

“As usual.”

“I know. But I just realized something, and I wanted to let you know.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t mind if it takes me a really long time to get my cutie mark. I don’t mind if it takes forever. I want to stay here. I like Ponyville. I like farming. I like Sweet Apple Acres. If I got something else, something that meant I had to leave, I wouldn’t want it. This is where I want to be.” She said.

Her hip began to shake. She looked down and saw something new. Seated there, right where it was always meant to be, was her cutie mark. An apple hanging off the edge of a branch, leaves around it.

“I got it! I got my cutie mark!” She yelled.

“Congratulations!” Said Applejack. “I’m so proud of you!”

Apple Bloom was jumping around, hopping from place to place in excitement. “I’m a Sweet Apple Acres girl through and through! I’m exactly where I want to be, and it’s right here! A farmer with you and Big Mac is what I want to be!” She bucked the nearest tree in excitement.

The tree they’d been walking under.

The very old tree, with the very, very large, heavy branches. Branches that would snap off with very little provocation.

“I love you, sis!” Shouted Apple Bloom. Then, a thundering crack ripped through the air around them, and both ponies looked up. A limb as wide around as Big Mac’s barrel hung over Apple Bloom. Then it stopped hanging.

The limb sliced through the air with all the unstoppability five hundred pounds of wood could bring to bear. It didn’t even slow down when it landed on Apple Bloom, turning her into a smear on the ground in an instant. She didn’t even get time to scream. Applejack, looking at the apple jelly oozing out from under the branch was briefly silent, filled with horror. Then she threw her hat on the ground and spoke.

“Dammit, not again.”

Comments

[Bicyclette]

“Dammit, not again.”

well, certainly not what one expects as a reaction!