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A Mile In Her Horseshoes

by Fire Gazer the Alchemist

Chapter 1: Well This Could Be Problematic

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Apple Bloom carefully positioned the eyedropper over the beaker in front of her. Beads of sweat rolled down her face. The purplish-blue liquid in the beaker looked back at her, patiently awaiting the arrival of the orange substance she held.

“Just relax, Apple Bloom,” her mentor said from behind her. Princess Twilight Sparkle waited as patiently as the beaker for Apple Bloom to finish her work. “You only need to add two drops and then you're done."

“You can do it, Apple Bloom!” A voice called from a distance. She shifted her gaze from the beaker to Scootaloo. Her friend had barricaded herself at the other end of the library behind a fortress of books.

“We’ve got total confidence in you!” Sweetie Belle chimed in, also behind the book wall. Apple Bloom wanted to derisively snort at her friend’s hypocrisy, but she really couldn’t blame them for hiding. The notes in her Potions 101 book had stated very clearly that two drops of seapony tears must be added to the concoction. Any more or any less would result in yet another explosion of failure.

“You’re doing great, Apple Bloom,” Twilight encouraged, despite Apple Bloom’s lack of movement in the previous ten minutes. “Now just carefully add the two drops and you’ll be done for the day.”

Apple Bloom nodded, flinging a small amount of nervous sweat onto the floor. She shakily gripped the dropper in her mouth and lifted toward her concoction. She bit down on the dropper, sending a single drop into the flask. Her heart pulsated at an extraordinarily high rate. Apple Bloom bit down again, sending the second drop in. Immediately she recoiled, fearing a third drop had sprung free. Luckily it hadn’t.

Instead, the seapony tears spread through her concoction like a murky cloud, changing the color to a hue that resembled apple cider. Apple Bloom let the dropper fall to the floor with a sigh of relief. She was not going to blow up today.

“All right, AB!” Scootaloo cheered, finally leaving the safety of the book fort. “You finished it!”

Sweetie Belle inched out as well. “We can use it to switch bodies now, right?”

“Eh… not quite.” Apple Bloom stared down at the glass beaker that held the project she’d spent the last twenty Twilight Times working on. "Ah mean ya could try it, and in theory it would work, but right now it's incomplete."

Twilight fired up a levitation spell and brought the Potions 101 book up to her face. “Hmmm… it looks like the last ingredient you need is crushed zap apple seeds, right?”

Applebloom nodded. “Eeyup. And luckily the zap apple harvest is in tomorrow so I’ll have ‘em soon enough.” Twilight's brow knitted together, letting Apple Bloom immediately know there was a flaw in her plan. “What is it, Twilight?”

“Unfortunately Apple Bloom we won’t be able to have Twilight Time that day. There’s a Princess Summit in Canterlot and well…” Twilight sheepishly unfurled her wings. “You know.”

“Oh.” Disappointment flashed on to her her face. Sure she could always save a zap apple and hope it would stay fresh upon Twilight’s return, but they tended to turn rotten really quickly. If she tried just hanging on to the seeds, she’d lose them without a doubt.

Apple Bloom glanced down at her potion. She’d poured countless hours of work into making it. Waiting another year for the zap apples to re-arrive was out of the question as well.

“I’m sorry, Apple Bloom.” Twilight said, sensing she had let her pupil down. Suddenly, an idea sprung into the filly’s mind.

“Hey Twilight, what if Ah just take the potion home with me?”

Her mentor scrunched her face up, considering the request. In order to sway things in her favor, Apple Bloom put on the most responsible face she could possibly manage.

“Well… I guess it couldn’t hurt. As long as you promise to be careful.”

“Ah do!” Apple Bloom replied giddily.

“Okay then,” Twilight said. “I suppose there’s no harm in it.”

“Yes!” she screamed loudly, throwing out her forelegs in victory. Unfortunately, that action knocked her body-switching potion into the air. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gasped but were too far away to do anything. Apple Bloom dove to catch it, but didn’t make it in time. An inch from the floor, the beaker was wrapped in a lavender aura.

Apple Bloom breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Twilight.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Yeah, no problem,” Twilight replied, though her face made it look like she was having second thoughts about this whole thing. “Maybe we should–”

“Come on Twilight,” Apple Bloom interjected. “That was an accident. Ah swear it won’t happen again.”

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry,” Scootaloo added.

“We’ll make sure she doesn't break it,” Sweetie Belle said.

Twilight cringed, knowing the track record of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She glanced at the glass beaker she was levitating and bit her lip. “Well…”

“Plus, ya already agreed,” Apple Bloom argued. “Ya wouldn’t want ta go back on yer word, would ya?”

Twilight sighed, defeated. “Fine. But let’s at least put your potion into something less… fragile.”

Considering what had just happened, Apple Bloom nodded with no hesitation.

“Spike!” Twilight shouted.

“Yeah?” He replied, poking his head out from the kitchen.

“Do we still have a leftover mug from cider season?”

He blinked. “Uh, yeah I think so… why?”

“Just get it for me, please.” Spike disappeared back into the kitchen for a minute.

“Ya want ta put mah potion in a cider mug?” Apple Bloom questioned, guessing at Twilight’s plan.

“Well sure,” came her response. “They don’t break easily, and as long as the top is sealed it won’t leak or anything.”

Spike returned with Twilight’s requested mug. She levitated it out of his grasp and the young dragon walked away, muttering a slightly sarcastic “you're welcome” to Twilight’s unspoken thank you.

Twilight levitated Apple Bloom’s potion out of the beaker and delicately placed it into the mug. She sealed it with a lid, and allowed the mug to gently float into Apple Bloom's waiting hooves.

“Now just be extra careful with it, okay Apple Bloom?” Twilight said sternly.

“No problem, Twilight,” the small filly replied already excitedly walking to the door with her friends.

“Oh!” Twilight called out. “And whatever you do, don’t drink it.”

“Ah know not ta drink an unfinished potion,” Apple Bloom said with a hint of irritation.

“What I mean is, just add the zap apple seeds and don’t do anything else! We’ll get around to testing your potion, but in a controlled environment. You understand?”

“Yeah, sure thing Twilight,” Apple Bloom muttered. “See ya when ya get back from the summit thingy.”

“Bye girls.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle offered their hasty goodbyes as the three of them bounded out the door. Apple Bloom was more than a little excited to take her project home, and was holding her potion filled mug close to her body.

“I can’t believe Twilight let you take this home,” Scootaloo remarked from her scooter.

“Me neither!” she replied. “Ah’m so excited! This is mah first time workin’ on a potion outside of Twilight Time!”

“It’s a shame we can’t use it until she gets back though,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom agreed.

“Of course we can!” Scootaloo slowed her scooter down to be level with her friends.

“But Twilight said–”

“Twilight said you couldn’t use it, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo elaborated. “She didn’t say anything about me and Sweetie Belle using it.”

A mischievous grin broke out on the yellow filly’s face. “Hey, yer right Scootaloo!”

“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle interjected. “That seems a little dishonest.”

“Well it’s not like Twilight will ever know,” Scootaloo argued.

“She’d catch on,” Sweetie Belle said. “It would be hard to not notice two fillies switching bodies for crying out loud.”

“Actually, this potion is only supposed ta last an hour,” Apple Bloom clarified. “If y'all use it while Twilight is away, then the effects would wear off before she got back.”

Scootaloo clapped her hooves in triumph. “Well there you go, Sweetie Belle, we can do it.”

“Just because we can doesn’t mean we should,” Sweetie Belle retorted.

“Oh quit being such a stick in the mud. Besides, you might just get a body-switching Cutie Mark out of this.”

Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to respond, paused to think about it for a moment, and then sighed. “Fine, we can switch bodies I guess.”

“Awesome!” Scootaloo declared. She pumped her hoof in the air happily.

“I feel like I’m going to regret this decision.” Sweetie Belle stopped as she neared Carousel Boutique. “I’ll see you girls later.”

“Bye Sweetie Belle.” Apple Bloom waved to her friend as she walked home.

Scootaloo would have probably said goodbye as well, but she was already zooming ahead on her scooter, likely on her way to her own home.

Deciding that she should probably just head back to the farm, Apple Bloom chose the quickest route and began walking.

There definitely was a certain skip in her step as she made her way home. She couldn’t help but feel happy about being allowed to work on her potion. Granted, the thought of going behind Twilight’s back in order to test it didn’t add to that happy feeling, but she was happy nonetheless.

She whistled a tune to match her mood as she passed through the Ponyville marketplace. It was early afternoon, and dozens of ponies were around. Apple Bloom instinctively tightened the grip on her cider mug.

It took all of thirty seconds to worm her way through the crowd. During this time, her grip did not loosen on the mug. She only allowed her hoof to become a little laxer when she had passed through the throng of ponies.

Wham!

An unseen entity collided with Apple Bloom, causing her to stumble backwards and the mug to go flying from her grasp.

“Oh crap, sorry about that, kid,” the pony she’d walked into said.

Apple Bloom shook away any remaining disorientation and looked up. The pony she’d inadvertently hit was a tall white unicorn with an electric blue mane and dark purple shades. She looked vaguely familiar to her, as if Apple Bloom had seen this pony at one of Pinkie Pie's parties.

“You all right?” the unicorn asked.

“Yeah, Ah think so,” Apple Bloom said.

“Okay good,” the unicorn breathed with relief. “Last thing I need right now is an angry parent suing me for foal damaging or something.”

“Ah’m fine,” Apple Bloom stated more firmly. “Ah just need my…” she trailed off when she looked to find her dropped mug and saw two identical ones on the ground.

“You had some cider too?” The wild mane pony asked. “Aren’t you a little young to be drinking that stuff?”

“What? No, my mug didn’t have any cider in it. It’s a body-switching potion!”

The unicorn blinked. “Uh huh, sure it is.” A blue aura enveloped the two mugs, and one drifted over to Apple Bloom. “Look kid, I’ll admit I’ve done a little underage drinking myself, so I’ll pretend I never saw you holding this. Though, you should definitely come up with a better lie than 'it's a body switching potion' the next time you're caught.” The mug dropped in front of Apple Bloom and the unicorn mare turned to walk away with the other one.

“Wait!” Apple Bloom called out. “Are you sure this one was mine?”

The mare looked back. “I have no idea, but what does it matter? They’re both cider.”

Apple Bloom stamped her foot into the ground irritably. “No they’re not! I told you, my mug had a body-switching potion in it!”

The white unicorn laughed. “Yeah, sure it does.”

“I’m serious!” Apple Bloom insisted.

“Ugh, fine. If that’s the way you’re going to be, then I’m ninety-nine percent sure that your ‘body-switching potion’ is in that mug. Okay?”

“Really?” Apple Bloom asked skeptically.

“Yeah, whatever.” The white mare disappeared into the crowd before she could reply, apparently done talking.

Apple Bloom glanced nervously at her mug. She uncapped the lid to look at the liquid inside. It looked exactly like the potion she had brewed a few minutes ago… but then again it also looked a lot like apple cider. She recapped the mug and bit her lip nervously.

“Well… she did say she was sure,” Apple Bloom consoled herself. Of course, this was based off the word of a pony who was apparently okay with somepony her age drinking alcohol. “Ah guess this one is mine.”

The yellow filly continued her walk back home. While her step didn’t have a happy spring in it anymore, she didn’t allow herself to become too concerned. After all, she probably had gotten the body-switching potion back.

Right?

Next Chapter: Totally Not Ripping Off Freaky Friday Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 16 Minutes
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