My Little Delirium

by Bookworm S.

"So what did they say? What's your talent going to be? Are you going to be a farmer too, huh? Huh? Huh?" Applejack was sipping her cup of coffee in the pastel-colored lobby of Sugarcube Corner while Pinkie Pie bounced in circles around the table. "Ooh, I am sooo jealous you got to be in a real-life inside stampede! I've always dreamed about being in an inside stampede! Well, my whole life since I realized you could have an inside stampede. Which was this morning, but still!"

Twilight was smiling softly at her friend, while Rarity simply rolled her eyes. "Were you very afraid darling? None of our names had been called yet, so we were all outside when it happened. And a good thing too, I'd hate to think what those cattle would have done to my new dress!"

Now it was Twilight's turn to roll her eyes. "Apparently, there was a mix-up with some paperwork, and instead of a shipment of medicine that they had been expecting, they got a delivery of cattle."

"How does somepony even make that mistake?" Applejack sipped at her coffee again, its warmth soothing away the day's events.

"Oh, I'm sure those horrid blank flanks are behind it. It's not enough they refuse to accept the Cure, they want to make sure nopony else can be saved as well!" Rarity's mention of the group of ponies who actively defied the rest of society, living outside the wall surrounding Ponyville, made Applejack shudder once again.

"Oh, that's just silly! Everypony knows that the Blank Flanks can't get into Ponyville, duh!" Twilight's face indicated she wasn't so sure about Pinkie's assurance, but she said nothing.

"Still, however it happened, what does this mean for our cutie marks? I never got t' finish my exam, and the rest of y'all didn't even start yours."

Again, Twilight spoke up. "I heard they are going to throw out the results, even for those that had finished their exams." Applejack couldn't help but let out an audible sigh of relief at that.

"So I got myself another chance not t' make a foal of myself?"

"Oh, I'm sure it didn't go that badly. The Board already has all it needs to know from the start, the exam is just a... formality, darling." Applejack was tempted to ask Rarity why she made her work so hard on her presentation if that was the case, but she bit her tongue instead.

"So when are they gonna make us do it again?" Applejack tried to not sound too bitter at the prospect. Twilight just shrugged.

"Who knows, I don't even think they've had a chance to assess the damage yet. Hopefully not too long. I want to make sure all this knowledge of Equestrian history is still fresh in my brain."

"What's there to remember?" Pinkie Pie briefly paused her bouncing to address Twilight. "A thousand years ago, Black Snooty got all uppity and decided to make the night last forever, Celestia loved her too much to do anything, and poof! Equestria was made!"

Rarity and Applejack both rolled their eyes, and Twilight actually facehoofed.

"Pinkie, there's a bit more to it then that. Yes, Nightmare Moon rebelled and fought against her sister, but it didn't just go instantly from then to today. It took six brave ponies to harness the Elements of Harmony to banish the princesses and develop the Cure."

"So that nopony would have to suffer the ee-ffects of the deliria again that stopped Celestia from fightin' back against her beloved sister, yeah, we know. We've all studied the Book of Shhh too, y'know!" The Safety, Health and Happiness Hoofbook, or the Book of Shhh, as it was more commonly known, was required reading at all levels of school in Equestria. In fact, more than that, it was the text that guided ponies in their everyday lives, to make sure their bodies and minds remained unpolluted by the horror of the deliria.

Applejack recalled her history lessons. As Twilight said, Princess Luna became jealous of her sister. All the ponies would frolic during the day, and sleep during the night, and Luna wanted to change that. So she defied her sister, and created the Long Night, a night that would last forever.

Celestia feared for her little ponies, since without the sun's warming rays, plants wouldn't grow, and the world would grow colder with each passing day. She tried to reason, to bargain with her sister, but to no avail. Luna had taken on the guise of Nightmare Moon, and would not listen to her sister. Celestia despaired, and when a group of wise ponies, their names lost in the mists of time, came to her with a solution, she would not hear it.

A collection of powerful artifacts, the Elements of Harmony, had been found and brought the Celestia. With these, the ponies reasoned, Celestia could defeat her sister, killing her and restoring order to the land. But Celestia, out of love for her sister, could not raise hoof against her, and so the Long Night continued. Equestria starved, and grew colder, but still Celestia's love kept her helpless, until those wise ponies who recovered the Elements of Harmony learned how to harness their power, and used it to banish the Princesses forever, finally destroying the Elements to create a powerful magical device that would raise and lower the celestial bodies in the absence of the princesses' power. And so, the Long Night ended.

Vowing to never expose the ponies of Equestria to the evils of love again, those ponies toiled long and hard until they developed The Cure.

"Ooh! I just thought of what would make a great cutie mark!" Pinkie's exclamation, unprovoked as it was, served to bring Applejack back to the present, and she noticed her coffee had gotten cold. She finished off the cup just the same, and waved to Mrs. Cake indicating she would like a refill. The brown, beige-haired mare quickly trotted over and, with a serene smile, topped off the cups of all four ponies. Applejack thanked her, and she went back behind the counter.

"And what's that, Sugarcube?" Applejack enjoyed indulging her friend's whims. She never could be sure where they would lead.

"Why, a cutie mark, of course! If I worked at the Treatment Facility, I could have a cutie mark of a cutie mark."

"And just what would that look like?" Twilight's exasperated tone betrayed the fact that she had less tolerance for Pinkie's randomness.

"I don't know, but it would be pretty amazing, like having two cutie marks in one!" Applejack could see Rarity barely suppressing a smile, while Twilight facehoofed again.

"Well, I'd love t' stay an' chat, but the sun's not gonna stay up forever, and I reckon I could use a good run to forget about... well, everythin', I suppose." She looked into her second cup, feeling bad for having barely touched it, and decided to take another long drink, to at least not let all of it go to waste. "You wanna join me, Twi?"

"Oh, I'd love to! Let's just gallop over to the library so I can get my gear first."

"You leave your running gear at the library?" Rarity looked like she couldn't decide whether or not that surprised her.

"Are you kiddin'? Twilight practically lives at the library! Why, I reckon that if her parents didn't have that big ol' place, she'd move on in with the librarian!"

Twilight blushed. "It's not like that. I was just... studying there last night, until the librarian reminded me that curfew was coming up, and in my rush to get home I kinda... left all my things there." She began to stare off into space. "Though I can't say I wouldn't mind living there..."

"Maybe you'll get a book as a cutie mark! Or a tree! Or an owl!" Again, Pinkie's train of thought seemed to have derailed, and the four ponies just stared at her.

"Yeah, well, I'm gonna head out, we'll head over t' the library and get warmed up. Last one there is a rotten apple!" Applejack winked at Twilight, then playfully trotted to the front door. Twilight let out an exclamation and, finishing off her own cup of coffee, hurriedly followed her to the door. "And I suppose I will be picking up the tab. Again." Applejack waved at Rarity as she held the door for Twilight.

"I'll getcha next time!" Rarity rolled her eyes at this, but made a shooing motion with her hoof as she leaned over to whisper conspiratorially to Pinkie Pie.

...

As they began stretching in front of the Tree that housed the Ponyville library, Applejack realized that she had let time slip away from her. They had enough time to make their usual big circuit, but only just barely, if they wanted to get back before curfew. Together, they limbered up first their forehooves, then their back, making sure that neither of them would get a cramp halfway through the circuit. The two of them often ran together, as they complemented each other well. Applejack, being the earth pony raised on a farm that she was, was a better endurance runner, but Twilight was a better sprinter. When they ran, Applejack would often keep Twilight from trying to run too fast, and burn out too early, while Twilight provided the motivation to put in that extra little burst of speed at the end of each leg, when both their muscles began to feel heavy from the exertion.

"Y'all ready, sugarcube?" Applejack glanced over at Twilight to see her just straightening herself after her last warmup exercise.

"Ready when you are, AJ." Twilight paused only to tie her hair back in a tight bun, before trotting in place a few steps.

"Then try'n keep up!" Applejack winked and, before Twilight could muster a reply, Applejack took off at a full gallop.

It wasn't long before Applejack could hear the sound of hooves on dirt just behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Twilight quickly closing the gap she had created with her head start. Applejack let out a whoop, and focused straight ahead again.

The feeling she got from running was exhilarating. She loved the feel of the wind in her mane, the dirt beneath her hooves. She never exactly was envious of the pegasus ponies' ability to fly, but when she was running, she felt like all she had to do was give a good kick with her back legs and she'd be among the clouds.

Applejack and Twilight had a few paths they liked to run. The one they had settled on today, the big circuit, was the longest of their runs, and also one of the more challenging. But it also happened to be one of Applejack's favorites. Their path took them through the heart of town, passing by shops and restaurants, the rich aromas filling the air. They ran past Sugarcube Corner, where Rarity and Pinkie were still sharing what Applejack could only imagine were two very different conversations with each other. Then they ran past the Carousel Boutique, where Rarity helped out after school for her part-time job. After that, they ran past the town spa, and out of the city limits.

The buildings became more sparse as they ran past crops and orchards. A small road branched off of the main thoroughfare, and Twilight turned off on it, having briefly taken the lead between the two ponies.

The small path led into a wooded area, and Applejack enjoyed the sounds of the birds chirping in the trees overhead, before they exited into a small copse surrounding an ancient-looking statue. The figure in stone was imposing, wings outstretched and teeth bared, Nightmare Moon watched them with a menacing, if unchanging, glare.

Applejack sprinted ahead of Twilight and leaped up in front of the statue, placing a hoof in the slightly-ajar mouth of Nightmare Moon. Twilight followed close behind, giggling as she did so.

This had become a bit of an inside joke between the two of them. "She looks so hungry." Twilight had quipped once, remarking that Nightmare Moon's mouth looked like it should be holding something, and every so often, when they would run alone, they would pause and leave little notes to each other tucked behind the statues once-sharp teeth. As far as they knew, nopony else knew of their secret hiding place, not that many ponies ventured out to the statue. Applejack wasn't sure why it was erected in the first place, and even Twilight with her wealth of knowledge could only make assumptions about its original purpose.

"It was probably built as a reminder of what awaits us if we give in to the deliria." Applejack was unconvinced.

"Well, if that's the case, how come they didn't build it closer t' town, where somepony might actually see it once in a while?" Twilight only shrugged, which didn't exactly answer Applejack's question.

The statue served another purpose as well. It was a marker for the nearing end of the first leg of the race. Applejack and Twilight slowed to an easy canter, as they made their way to the stream the flowed through the forest near here. Pausing for a few moments to catch their breath and sip the cool water, the two ponies were mostly quiet, enjoying the crispness of the fall day.

"Y'all gonna race in the Runnin' of the Leaves again this year, Twi?" Twilight shook the sweat that had begun to bead on her coat off, and took another sip.

"I don't know, I don't want to make you look bad again." Twilight's teasing was good natured, though Applejack knew it didn't come easy. Case in point, Applejack actually was still a bit disappointed in her performance last year, where a trip over an exposed root nearly caused her not to finish at all, while Twilight had run the race at an easy pace and managed to take fifth place despite that.

Applejack had known Twilight since they were both little fillies. They hadn't always been good friends, and in fact it wasn't until a two or three years ago that they spent much time together at all. Twilight was very much into her books, and not very good at socializing, while Applejack much preferred to spend her time in the great outdoors.

Three years ago, Applejack signed up for cross country after school, and was surprised to see Twilight had signed up to. She claimed that she wanted an extracurricular activity, and between chess club, book club, drama, yearbook, and the other five or six programs she was taking, cross country was the only other one she could fit into her schedule. She even showed Applejack her schedule. She was right, she had everything color-coded and neatly arranged. Twilight's schedule looked nothing so much as a patchwork quilt to Applejack's eyes. As for herself, she could only fit in one extracurricular between her duties at the orchard, and cross country felt to her like the best fit to her skills.

It wasn't long before Applejack and Twilight began getting to know each other better, and they soon became running partners, and then best friends, along with Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Rarity was Twilight's study partner for a long time, and Pinkie... well, none of them were quite sure how Pinkie befriended them. As far as they could tell, she just showed up one day, as if they had been friends all along.

Applejack didn't want to risk a cramp by standing still too long, so she urged Twilight to continue their run. Their path took them out of the small forested area, and among the farms of the land surrounding Ponyville once again. The terrain grew more rugged as they continued, and when they rounded a bend the neared the Fence.

The road they ran on followed the fence for a good half mile, near enough that the magical energies that powered it made Applejack's hair stand on end. Beyond the Fence was the Everfree Forest and, beyond that, the Wilds.

After the Long Night, there were still some ponies who refused the Cure. The Blank Flanks, succumbing to the sickness, waged a terrorist war on the ponies who allowed the curse of love to be removed from their hearts, and the only solution, though one that came only very difficult, was to protect the cities behind tall fences and magical sentries that kept the skies impenetrable as well.

Then came the Purge.

Though officially the fences were in place to protect the towns against dragons, hydras, and other horrors that had reclaimed the wilds as their domain, ponies still spoke in hushed tones about camps of Blank Flanks that had somehow survived the purge, infiltrating pony society and carrying on their war of terror and sabotage against civilized ponies. All these stories were officially denounced, if commented on at all, but the whispers persisted.

Running this close to the fence was, well, not exactly forbidden, but Applejack imagined that if certain ponies found out, they would not be pleased. Twilight always grew quiet on this stretch of their run, and Applejack could tell that being this close to breaking the rules about approaching the Fence deeply unsettled her. They always ran this stretch in silence when they ran together, and Applejack suspected Twilight bypassed this segment altogether when she ran it alone.

Applejack, on the other hoof, was fascinated by the Fence. When she ran alone, she would often slow to a canter, trying to catch a glimpse of what was on the other side of the Fence. Though she could usually see nothing but dark forest beyond the stretch that was magically kept barren, she still sometimes imagined she could see shapes moving among the trees. Ponies, she imagined, or maybe some of the horrible beasts that haunted the Everfree. But each time the shapes proved to be nothing but branches and shrubs on further examination.

The Fence, magically charged to ward off any attempt at breaching it, stretched three pony lengths into the air. After that there was an invisible barrier, though this one was merely used for detecting intrusion rather than preventing it. Should the barrier be breached by anything more substantial than a cloud, magical drones would be dispatched to intercept it, and the Air Force called in as a backup should the threat prove greater than the odd raptor or other large bird. All in the interests of keeping Ponyville safe, of course.

Twilight unconsciously picked up the pace, and Applejack followed suit. Before long, they were moving away from the Fence and back towards town. The run from here on out was an easy one, flat roads and a slight downhill slope, and Applejack and Twilight made good time, racing the setting sun. Before long, the low buildings of Ponyville appeared in the distance, dominated from this angle by the monolithic building of the Treatment Facility. There was a bend in the road with a park bench that served as the end of the second leg, and Applejack could just see it come into view.

"Race you!" Twilight pulled ahead as she called out to her friend. Applejack was beginning to feel the weight of the running seep into her hooves, but she entered into a sprint to try and keep up with her friend. Her breathing burned her lungs, and her hooves felt leaden, but Twilight still kept a good few ponylengths ahead of her. When Applejack finally reached the park bench, Twilight was already levitating a water bottle from her saddlebags and sipping it slowly.

Applejack's breathing was ragged, and the sweat from her forehead was making her eyes sting, but she smiled at her friend just the same.

"I let y'all win!" At that, Twilight laughed.

"You always say that, Applejack." After cooling her throat with a sip from her own water bottle, Applejack looked up at the grey facade of the Testing Facility. She had forgotten all about that morning on their run, but now the memories of her exam came flooding back to her.

Twilight, on the other hoof, seemed to have found something fascinating, and trotted towards the chain-link fence that surrounded the facility.

"Where're you goin', sugarcube?" Applejack trotted behind her, perhaps a bit reluctantly, trying to figure out what had caught Twilight's eye.

"Over here, Applejack, there's something wrong with the fence. These links don't quite match up." Applejack swallowed nervously, but followed her friend nonetheless.

"Sugarcube, I don't think we should be gettin' too close to that there fence, we might get in t' trouble." Twilight gave her an odd look.

"This might be how the Blank Flanks got in. We should investigate and report it, don't you think? I'm sure we won't get into trouble!" She gave the fence a good stare, her horn and the fence beginning to glow a light purple.

With what looked to Applejack like almost no effort, the fence pulled away like the flaps of a tent, leaving plenty of space for a pony to pass through.

"I thought so. Somepony must have tried to make it look like the fence wasn't cut here, but didn't do a good job of re-closing it."

"Ooooh, how exciting! Let's see what's inside!" The two ponies turned around at the sudden exclamation to see their friend Pinkie Pie standing behind them, looking over both their shoulders at the gap in the fence. Before Applejack could even open her mouth to ask where in Celestia's name Pinkie had come from, she rushed past the both of them and slipped through the hole in the fence.

"Pinkie, what are you doing? You'll get in trouble!" Twilight rushed after her, and Applejack, with a roll of her eyes and a groan, chased the two of them inside.

On the other side of the fence, a narrow courtyard was watched over by a single guard station, which looked to Applejack like it was vacant at the moment. Pinkie was bouncing along the wall of the facility, trying to look in the high, barred windows, while Twilight was trying to convince her to leave before somepony discovered them. Applejack scanned the courtyard nervously, and noticed the mark of cleft-hoofed prints in the dust, evidence that the stampede actually had happened, and hadn't been something Applejack dreamed up the night before.

"PINKIE!" Twilight's bellow snapped Applejack back to attention, and seemed to have the same effect on Pinkie Pie, as she was now staring directly at Twilight, eyes wide. No, Applejack realized, not at Twilight, at her.

Or to be more precisely, _behind_her.

Applejack gulped and turned around, and found herself staring into the rose-colored eyes of a uniformed pegasus pony, staring at them with an unamused look in her eyes.

"And just what do you think you are doing here? I was taking a perfectly good nap, and here you have to make all this noise and wake me up..." The pony's voice was scratchy, and her eyes began to gleam with a smile, though her face was still frowning.

Applejack was speechless, just staring into those eyes the color of the sky at sunset, but Twilight was quick to respond.

"Um, we saw the hole in the fence, and we just wanted to, um..."

"Oooh, are you a guard here? Are you the one who let the cows in?" Twilight blushed at Pinkie's insinuation, but the blue pegasus just laughed.

"Oh, I wish. I don't know who came up with that prank, but it. Was. Awesome!" The Pegasus' face lit up now in a genuine smile, and she winked at Applejack.

Suddenly, the image of those eyes smiling and winking at her flashed into her head, but in a different setting.

She was the mare in the observation bay!

But before she could open her mouth to accuse her of spying on her exam, Twilight spoke up.

"We were just leaving to go find somepony to report this to. And now that you're here, missus..." She paused as she read the name stitched on the guardsmare's uniform. "Dash, consider it reported. We'll just be going now." Twilight gave a nervous laugh, and began pushing Pinkie back towards the hole in the fence.

"Not so fast!" The guardsmare held up a hoof, and Twilight gulped.

"Please don't tell anypony! We didn't mean no harm by it, really, we jus' got a bit carried away, that's all!" Dash slowly walked towards the two mares that were currently petrified in a state of pushing and being pushed, and Applejack for the first time got a good look at the mare's flank. A fluffy white cloud decorated it, from which extended a jagged lightning bolt in blue, gold and red. Applejack shook her head, telling herself she had only been looking at the cutie mark, as the mare bore down on the other two ponies.

"You know my name, it's only fair I learn yours too." Twilight looked like she wished she could shrink into the ground, but Pinkie proudly extended a hoof. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, and I thought I knew everypony in Ponyville, but I don't think I met you. What's your name?"

"Pinkie..." Twilight's voice was a growl, but she looked into the guardsmare's eyes and gulped a second time.

"My name's Twilight Sparkle." She looked furtively at Applejack, who stuck out her chest and answered loudly.

"Name's Applejack, and if y'all would be so kind as to let this one slide, I'll personally hoof-deliver you one of my famous apple pies, that sound fair?"

The guardsmare's eyes locked on Applejack's and narrowed. "You wouldn't be trying to bribe a member of the elite TF Guard Team, now would you?" Her voice made it sound like a threat.

It was Applejack's turn to gulp. "O-of course not, ma'am. I jus' meant... that is..."

"Oh, lighten up! I'm not gonna turn you girls in! Besides, that 'elite team' consists of me and three other ponies who get paid far too little as it is. I wasn't gonna turn you in, it's not like you were trying to break in, right?"

"Oh, no ma'am, we were just leaving." With this, Twilight resumed pushing a reluctant Pinkie with her forehead.

"Please, call me Rainbow. And I promise I won't tell a soul. But," she winked once more at Applejack. "I will hold you to that apple pie!"

Applejack blushed "Oh, er, of course Rainbow. Would y'all like me to bring it.. here?"

"Nah." Rainbow waved a hoof dismissively. "Tomorrow's my day off anyway. Do you know where the college is?"

Applejack nodded. It made sense, even though Rainbow didn't look much older than the other three fillies, she did already have her cutie mark, so she probably was already in college.

"Okay, well can you meet me there tomorrow, say at two-ish? I'll probably be napping somewhere, so remember to look up."

"Um, sure, I'll be sure to have a nice fresh apple pie delivered to y'all, and thank you so much for lettin' us go."

"Yeah, yeah, now get out of here, before the Elite TF Guard Team catches us chatting!" Her smile was sincere and reassuring despite her words, and Applejack and Twilight quickly made their way to the hole in the gate, Pinkie Pie being dragged along by her tail behind them.

As they left the area, Rainbow Dash began to close the hole and twist what looked like plastic hoofcuffs around the links to form a temporary seal. As the three of them trotted toward town, Applejack tossed a glance over her shoulder, and she was almost certain she could make out a rainbow-streaked trail encircling the facility.