Everypony's Talking At Me—Part 1
"Applebloom! Applebloom!" Applejack hollered from the orchard in the strong sunlight of summer. It wasn't just any summer, for Applebloom that was. When she was younger, and more compliant, she'd be happy to help with the farm but now…everything felt different. It had passed the 5th anniversary of the Cutie Mark Crusaders in late spring, and now it was early summertime in Ponyville. But Applebloom felt alone and even more irritated and embarrassed at her lack of direction. She was nearing sixteen and still no cutie mark. She'd heard of late bloomers but according to the growth charts in Twilight's library, this was just ridiculous. She'd even passed Applejack and Big Mac's records for how long they went without a cutie mark. It was virtually unheard of for a pony to not have his/her cutie mark before 13 or 14. Puberty started after the cutie mark appeared usually, but not this time, for Applebloom was a rough, tough cowgirl country teenager and she had definitely gone through growth spurts, spots, awkwardness, tempers and dramatically less willingness to work on the farm like her sister practically forced her.
She loved her sister but like all sisters do Applejack got on the adolescent's nerves. When she passed about puberty-time, 12 to 13, a few years into crusading, she realised she was not going to find her cutie mark on the farm, no matter how much the Apple farmer family persuaded and persuaded. She just did not like farm work. She'd tried pulling the plow like Big Mac but didn't have the strength and ended up with a few dislocated shoulders. She tried bucking apples and ended up with nothing but a broken back leg one time and a sprained neck the next. She was adamant about never bucking apples especially after the time she strained her neck and died of embarrassment at school, she was not only one of two of the precious blank flanks left, but she had a huge cone around her neck that made her look like an alien or something.
She didn't like how easily her yellow coat got dirty when she began thinking about appearance. Not to impress colts mind you, just to look decent. Applebloom hated all the special somepony talk at her school. She liked it better when she was younger for some reason, but now at almost sixteen if she had known better she probably did it just to humour Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle when their friendship was new and delicate, not old and stable like it was when they were all 12-14. That was that Sweetie Belle was the youngest, Applebloom in the middle a year older, and Scootaloo, a year older than Applebloom and two years older than Sweetie Belle. In a twist however, the youngest Sweetie Bell after three years of crusading found a cutie mark, in her obvious talent of singing, at a talent show Rarity put her into. She sung 'Summer Time' and everypony was stunned at how such a young pony seemed to project an old soul and adult feeling into an old jazz standard. Needless to say, Sweetie Belle now had a job as a recording artist of gospel and jazz and wrote all her material. She had a cutie mark of Ella Fitzgerald singing a note, a pony whom was her favourite vocalist, and she hoped to be a new Ella.
Even Scootaloo, the second-last in the class got her cutie mark before Applebloom. Few months away from their fifth anniversary, in March earlier that year, when Scoots was sixteen and Sweetie fourteen with a cutie mark, Scootaloo heroically saved Rainbow Dash her idol when she had an accident and was about to fall to certain death in a trick gone wrong, falling off a cliff in the mountains near the dragon caves. As Scootaloo and Rainbow herself retold the great story, Scootaloo was still trying to learn to fly and then saw Rainbow plummet down the cliff. She knew she had to rescue her. She got her scooter and did what she did best as fast as she could down the steep cliff face and jumped off when she met Rainbow's level, somehow scooting and hauling Rainbow up another steep mountain. Rainbow had held Scootaloo in high esteem before, but now she would tell anypony who would listen how proud she was of the budding hero. Scootaloo was a popular loyal local Ponyville hero, like in Applejack or Rainbow Dash's fame before her. Her cutie mark was also fitting, a scooter and a cape representing her scooter and her heroic name.
Meanwhile Applebloom wondered if she'd ever even get that experience while she did her summer homework, what she'd been doing the entire season because she didn't have anything else she would have wanted to do. Did everypony get their cutie mark? She had passed the years when she had somepony to relate to. Now that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had their Cutie Mark…they decided it was time to put the Cutie Mark Crusaders episodes behind them. They told Applebloom sorry but explained she would need to find her destiny on her own now. She had to put behind what had so far been the happiest moments of her life. They may have not meant it, but Applebloom felt rejected. And they may not meant it but Applebloom felt left out. They'd always talk about their exciting new lives with their destinies whenever she wanted to hang out and could even because they were busy with those lives.
They'd then look awkwardly at Applebloom. It felt like half a friendship or hardly a friendship at all. They'd be too busy for her anyways, as Sweetie Belle was in Canterlot for months performing and publicising her album and Rainbow Dash took Scootaloo to the Wonderbolts practices in Cloudsdale for practically the whole summer as well so she'd have something to do while Sweetie Belle was away. So this summer Applebloom decided that tore it. She'd just sit in her room and do her homework, the only thing to get her through summer. She isolate herself and create her own world…introverting for the first time in years. Worst of all, she felt everypony except her family had completely forgotten she existed. She'd overheard Rainbow Dash asking Scootaloo to go to the Cloudsdale practice performances over the summer. "Come on kid. I really want you to be there and besides it's not like you have anyone to pal around with along the summer." "Well yeah I don't need any convincing! Thanks Rainbow Dash! I'll get packed in like ten seconds flat! And you're right, I have no one!" Scootaloo enthused and sped away at the speed of light to get her things. Applebloom's eyes watered despite herself. "But what about me?" She asked in a whisper from the wall she was looking out from.
A knock on the door got her back to real life and she realised she'd be doodling the old CMC on the same space of her homework for fifteen minutes, which made her cry on the inside, remembering the times which would no longer be. How it would feel to be thirteen again for a day. She never what she had until it was gone. "APPLEBLOOM!" Applejack bucked the door open. "What in the hay? I've been a-hollerin' for you for fifteen minutes! I thought you was asleep! I didn't know that being a teenager also meant becoming a spaced-out pain." Applejack grumbled. "Leave me alone Applejack." Applebloom grumbled back, turning around and facing the wall. "Look hun, I'm sorry with what happened with yer friends. But I'm sure as Celestia's sun you can find yerself some new ones this summer! Ok?" Applejack attempted comforting Applebloom. "Some friends they turned out to be." "Well…alright maybe I don't know exactly how it feels, I mean I had my cutie mark for sure before I was fourteen." "Not helping 'Jackie."
"Ok ok. But there's a light Applebloom. Sometimes being a teenager is a tough stage. It's a transition. I know some of my childhood friends didn't exactly stick it out with me over the years and it hurt. Now, maybe Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo will realize that you were a loyal friend and come back though when you're a mature adult. Did you know that me and Rarity were best friends as fillies as different as we were? We then fought all throughout our teenage years, it was then that I met Rainbow and we became close friends, which helped me a bit. It was when we finally matured that we got back together and reconciled, about a year before Twilight came to town. What you have to do now—is adapt but sweetheart you are doing the opposite of that. Sitting in here all day ain't good fer you. And nopony got her cutie mark doin' homework. You should be out with me working on the farm. Applebloom you might get yer mark while you're at it-"
"Shut up about cutie marks! I hate cutie marks, what good are they for anyways? Everypony thinks I'm dumb because I don't have one! Them damned cutie marks are the only reason that I can't fit in around here, have real friends…besides if I don't have one at this point, when am I ever gonna have one?! There's gotta be somepony who never had one!" Applebloom raised her voice. "Applebloom! That's one bit in the swear jar! We don't use that language here on the farm, lady. Stop with all that! Don't tell me to shut up, I darn well run this place and garner up the money to feed you AND Granny Smith AND Big Mac! That's three mouths without me and a lot of stress! You see where I'm coming from? That deserves respect." Applejack reprimanded. "Oh, so because I can't work on this damn farm I don't' deserve respect?" "Five bits ya silly filly." Applejack raised the rate. "What? I ain't gonna work on the farm because I'm useless! What good am I for anyway except racking up a total of thirty-seven, count-em, thirty-seven injuries while trying to help you on the farm?!"
"Well at this rate you're shovelling up the pig poop! Pig poop attitude means the pig poop job." "No!" Applebloom folded her forelegs over her chest. "Fine, for refusing you get to collect our manure from the outhouse this week AS WELL!" "Awwww ew gross!" Applebloom complained. "Well you got yerself in deeeeep shit." Applejack said with a hint of amusement. "Hey how come you can curse?" "Because." Applebloom growled in irritation and slowly came outside to do the pauper's work of the farm, everything to do with the waste of the farm. Well she caught the real hint. Who cares about Applebloom? Nopony. She thought as she collected pig poop and the family poop for manure. She threw up twice during the smelly torture. When she was tired and done for the day, in the cool twilight she collapsed in the orchard, not as suitable for being a workpony as her hardy brother or sister.
"Where's Applebloom! Consarn it she should've been done!" Applejack complained to Granny Smith as she worked on dinner. "Don't you think you're being hard on the filly?" "I understand she's a teenager but she should have more of a backbone—" "Consarn it Applejack! Listen for one second, I swear you're as stubborn as my son was! You don't understand what it's like being her age and not having a cutie mark. I've experienced it, myself. It's painfully embarrassing, and debilitating and can isolate you from other ponies yer age. I gave up finding it for a few years, wandering 'round doing diddly squat without no purpose, when it seemed everypony else had one. Applejack you're a good young mare, but there's no use in never showing Applebloom the softer side. I know you go through things too, you just never show it. Like yer Pa. You even look like him. You miss him don't you? His death anniversary is the same as…" "Applebloom's birthday." Applejack sighed but then hardened up.
"But listen Granny, she's been so badly behaved since Scootaloo got her Cutie Mark and their little group was done or something! Refusing work, cursin', insulting me and Big Mac, being unkind to the Apples that come to stay! I know what her punishment should be." "Oh no Applejack, yer thinking?" "Yep. Cancel her birthday tommorrow. See how much she whines after that." "No Applejack!" Granny Smith reprimanded Applejack with a smack on her shoulder. "Oww Granny…what she needs to learn!" "I've never heard of a punishment cruel as that. You can't. She'll never forgive you if she's already feeling underappreciated by most of Ponyville and now feels her family doesn't care for her. She'll run off if I don't know any better. Please listen, I've lived a chunk longer than you have." "Run away? How in the heck would she do that? Where would she run to and what money does she have?" "There's many places she could run to Applejack, she's not a little filly anymore. And she saved up plenty a pretty penny in her summer jobs last year as a substitute teacher at the Earth Pony kindergarden and cashier at Sugar Cube Corner. I've not seen her buy something since then." Granny Smith warned her.
"Well Big Mac will decide this one. BIG MAC!" Applejack called Big Macintosh over from the porch. "Um…Yup?" He responded as he walked over to the two mares. "Mac do you think Applebloom's birthday should be cancelled?" His eyes widened and he frowned. "NOPE. How could you?" "Well ok. I'll just do this thing myself." "No Applejack. Applebloom loves you and she needs your love now. Even if she's a bit shy to show it. Please." Granny Smith told her. "Whatever I'll think about it when I sleep on it." Applejack compromised, knowing that she couldn't say anything else about her plan. "Where's Applebloom?" Big Macintosh wondered. "Out over in the orchard. Could you be a dear and fetch the filly so we can have supper?" "Yup." Big Macintosh bounded off and picked up the teenage filly on his back. She had grown up to be a light pony from the constant running around on the farm and with her friends, so it was no problem to carry her.
Applebloom was so exhausted that Big Mac carried her all the way up to her bed that night right after supper. The filly slept, finally having something to do.