P. Applejack—Earth, Canterlot High. Mid-morning of Day Two.
Trixie waited until the end of First Period for Applejack to emerge from her class and immediately fell into step beside her.
“Alright, I know I promised to tell you everything first thing, but I seem to be having a thing with buses recently,” she said in a fast-paced patter.
Applejack stopped. Trixie stopped. They looked at each other.
Applejack had no idea who this blue-skinned girl was. But apparently she was supposed to. “Look,” she said, deliberately slowing the conversation down. “I don’t need to hear everything.” She saw something in Trixie’s expression, a feeling that this “everything” was a big deal. “At least not today. Tell me when you’re ready, and I’ll be there to hear it.”
“O...OK,” Trixie said, with an immense sense of relief. “Thank you! I’ll make this up to you, I swear!” And then she turned to race back to her locker, as Applejack continued on to hers.
P. Rarity.
Nearly an hour later, Rarity was stopped within a few steps of entering the school by the hall monitor, a towering young man named Spearhead. Her permission slip was accepted, and she was allowed on her way. It was now a few minutes before the end of Second Period.
Rarity opened the Notes application on her phone, where everything was written in a font that had been converted from a sample of the human Rarity’s elegant handwriting. This particular note told her where her locker was, and what its combination was. The locker was a foot and a half across and four feet tall. There were two rows of lockers along each wall, and the freshmen were the ones stuck with the bottom ones. Above one set of lockers was an electrically-powered clock in less than working order, which buzzed as its second hand crawled around its face. Putting her backpack on the ground, Rarity crouched down next to her locker, dialed the combination into the lock and removed it, and opened the door, revealing...
“Rarity!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, sticking her head out of the locker.
The buzzing had stopped.
“Pinkie Pie!” Rarity exclaimed, falling down on her bottom. She had to catch herself with one hand to prevent falling all the way over. “What?! How?!”
“Maud and I were at the military surplus store! The humans have invented the most amazing gun that I have ever seen! Here, let me show—”
Rarity quickly shoved a hand into Pinkie’s face. “No, Pinkie,” she said. “If you do that, we will both be expelled.”
“Oh, that’s right, isn’t it?” Pinkie said, scratching her head. (No, I don’t know how she fit the arm in so she could do that. Please stop making me think about it.) “Anyway, we’ve got a couple more spots, but it doesn’t look like we can tech our way out of this.”
Rarity figured if she was stuck sitting on the dusty floor she might as well get comfortable. It took her a few seconds, but she eventually managed to independently invent the cross-legged position, astounding herself with her flexibility. While she did this, she informed Pinkie Pie about what she had learned at the church.
“Hmm...I think I saw a girl with rainbow-colored hair today at the airport,” Pinkie said. She turned her head to add, “Hey, Maud, did you happen to see a blue girl with rainbow hair or a yellow girl with pink hair today? Rarity thinks they’re ponies.”
“Pinkie,” Rarity said quietly but very, very seriously, “I swear to Celestia if Maud sticks her head out of that locker, I will cause a spectacle.”
Pinkie Pie frowned. “Aw, you’re no fun. Anyway, there’s no room for Maud here, so she’d stick her head out of that locker.” She motioned with her head at the locker to her left. “Or no, that one would be funnier.” And this time she nodded her head at the bank of lockers on the opposite wall. “But she didn’t see anybody, so she’s not going to do it. Oh, and-somebody’s-coming-so-bye!” She pulled her head back into the locker, which spontaneously closed behind her.
As Rarity struggled to get up, she heard a faint buzzing sound from above her. The clock had just resumed ticking.
Spearhead came around the corner. “Rarity! Did you fall down? Here, let me help you up.”
Rarity let Spearhead help her get up. “Thank you, Spearhead. You really fill out that uniform.”
Spearhead puffed up, ignoring the fact that his “uniform” was nothing more than a yellow sash. “J...just doing my duty, ma’am.”
Rarity inclined her head. Spearhead moved along.
Rarity crouched back down, and cautiously opened her locker for a second time. The inside was stuffed with textbooks and beauty supplies. There was a shadowy face at the back of the locker, but that was soon revealed to be a mini poster for some celebrity named Chestnut Magnifico. There was no hole behind the poster. Rarity transferred a couple of the spiral-bound notebooks that the Pies had given her into the locker, and removed the textbook for Third Period, closing the locker.
As she stood up, Rarity realized that threats of a tantrum aside, she was more comfortable with what Pinkie had just done. It made no logical sense to accept Pinkie coming out of a locker that obviously had no room for her, just as it made no sense that Pinkie could just appear out of nowhere back in the truck last night. But somehow, not seeing her appear from nowhere made a world of difference. She made a note to herself to give Pinkie a note of encouragement the next time she saw her. At this rate, she may well be able to pass for normal in less than a week.
Just then the bell rang, and the hallways were quickly filled with students coming and going between rooms and lockers. Rarity fell in with the rest, and was soon joined by a light gold girl with hair that had a color gradient from grayish blue violet to light opal. A couple of pins in her hair showed what must have been her cutie mark: an eye inside a bow. “Pixel Pizzaz?” Rarity asked cautiously. Pixel was one of her classmates in Ponyville.
“Rarity!” Pixel exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me you got your mark yesterday? I was only a text away.”
“Yesterday was very weird for me,” Rarity replied, trying her best to be honest without revealing too much. She took the plate out of her backpack to show Pixel.
“That is so you!” Pixel exclaimed.
“Thank you,” said Rarity, putting the plate back. “So, how did you hear about it?”
Pixel pointed up at a speaker. “The principal made the announcement just a few minutes ago.”
Rarity smiled slyly. It appeared that her request for help had reached its intended recipient.
“Are you intending to throw a Marking Out party?” Pixel asked, as they continued to walk to their next class.
Rarity supposed that a “marking out party” was the Markist equivalent to a cute-ceañera. “Well I don’t know,” she said, “my parents are out of town.”
“Oh, right,” Pixel said, getting momentarily sad. “Why don’t you have it at my place? You could invite over Applejack...” The expression on Pixel’s face made it abundantly clear that she saw romantic elements in that relationship.
Rarity blustered for a few seconds, unable to say anything.
Pixel laughed out loud at Rarity’s display. “And you can invite that other friend you made yesterday...Pinkamena.” Pixel stopped as a somber thought struck her. “Hey Rarity,” she said, causing Rarity to stop and back up to rejoin her. “Have you heard anything about Pinkamena? She left the fair right after you dumped her to chase after Applejack.”
“‘Dumped’?” Rarity asked. “Now that sounds a bit unfair.” Of course, she had no memory of what her counterpart had actually done, but she didn’t think it in character to just dump somebody she had just befriended.
“You should have seen the look on her face,” Pixel said, looking a bit ashen herself. “I...one of us should have gone after her, but before we knew it she was gone and...I got this really bad feeling that she shouldn’t have been allowed to be by herself.”
She opened the door to the classroom, and they both walked inside. Pixel sat at her desk, and Rarity took the empty spot right next to her.
As for replying to Pixel, Rarity had taken in a breath to say something when she had started talking, but let it out through her teeth as the explanation had continued. “Look, I met her shortly after I got my mark, and I can assure you that you no longer need to worry. I just have to warn you: she’s...different now.”
“Different how?” Pixel asked. She noticed that a couple of other students were obviously listening in on their conversation. “Pinkamena Pie,” she explained.
This caused nearly everyone to look at them.
“Different like her sister Maud?” Pixel added when Rarity did not immediately answer.
“More like the exact opposite,” Rarity said. Seeing the teacher enter the room, she added, “I really should let her explain herself.” She hoped this would be enough to deflect the conversation.
“Good morning class,” the teacher, a Ms. Pansy, addressed the students. “Rarity, congratulations on your mark. I expected you to take the day off.”
“No, I’ll do that later,” Rarity said, leaving her human self an option to do that when she came back.
Thoughts of her counterpart led Rarity to think some more about the scene that Pixel had referred to, and in particular to wonder what Pinkie’s counterpart might be going through. Putting her hands to her temples, Rarity thought the name “Pinkemena” very strongly at herself. She had no idea if she might be able in this way to send a message to her counterpart, but if she could, she thought it imperative that the human Rarity check up on the human Pinkamena.
“‘Sing in me, Muse.’” Ms. Pansy recited the words from a paperback book held in one hand, using a dramatic voice and gesturing with her other hand to a far off land of imagination. These words instantly compelled Rarity’s attention. “‘And through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the Wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy.’ So begins the Odyssey, Homer’s sequel to the Illiad. Now, I didn’t think it fair to ask you to start reading a new book mid-week, so for the next two days I’d like you to listen to me read Book 1, and we will stop to discuss what I have read as we go along.”
Pixel raised a hand.
“Yes, Pixel?” Ms. Pansy asked.
“How many times is he going to use ‘wine-dark sea’ this time?”
The students laughed.
“Twelve,” Ms. Pansy replied with a playful smile, leading to some more laughter.
Rarity had meanwhile been paging through the thick World Literature textbook that went with this class, and contained the quote she had just heard. She had found the section on the Odyssey, and had been struck dumb by this bit from the introduction: “For angering the god Poseidon, Odysseus was condemned to wander the seas for ten long years, while his family suffered from his absence.”
Rarity had been confident that Princess Celestia would be able to reverse whatever screw-up had put her mind into this human’s brain, but what if she couldn’t? What if Rarity had to stay here, in this strange and sometimes wonderful world, which nevertheless was absolutely not Equestria? What if the human Rarity’s parents discovered what was going on, and had then kicked her out of their house for being an impostor? Would Rarity have to wander this world for the rest of her life, forever denied sanctuary because of her fundamental lack of humanity?
“This story is horrible!” Rarity wailed.
Her classmates, long since used to her theatrics, collectively rolled their eyes.
# # #
Rarity’s next period was World History II. This would be her first chance to see Sunset Shimmer, the new genius student.
All that anybody had been able to talk about during the break between periods had been the antics of this new student, who had apparently derived the quadratic equation using ten-dimensional tensor calculus in First Period, and had brought a dead frog back to life using two electrodes and a car battery in Second Period. Her Third Period had been P.E., and she had merely proved herself to be human in that class.
After the Fourth Period class had settled down, the severe Mr. Flattery used a ruler to point at the text he had written on the chalkboard behind him. “Students,” he asked, “how many revolutions were there in the year 1848?”
Rarity and Sunset’s hands shot up simultaneously.
“Sunset?” Mr. Flattery asked.
Rarity’s face suddenly went pale, and she lowered her hand.
Sunset stood up. “There was only one attempted Revolution of 1848,” she said smugly. “The Pegasus Uprising was actually a ruse, designed to split the Princess’ forces.”
The raised eyebrow on her teacher caused her to re-evaluate her answer. “Ha, ha,” she said dully, backed by a growing sense of panic. “That was a little history joke.” She started shrinking down, accompanied by the sniggers of the other students. “I’m going to sit down now.”
Mr. Flattery sighed. “Well, I suppose that was a bit of a trick question, so I deserved that. In fact, there were more than 50 countries affected by the Revolutions of 1848, although the actual answer I was looking for was seven primary uprisings: the ones in the Italian states, France, the German states, Hungary...”
Sunset looked around her nervously to see if her humiliating performance had had any lasting effect. What she saw was all of her classmates treating it like a joke at the teacher’s expense, which for her was perfect. The exception was Rarity, who was hyperventilating, but Sunset had already learned from the gossip about her at the Freshman Fair that most of what Rarity did was exclusively about Rarity, and nobody else, so that left her safe.
And in this one instance, Sunset was absolutely right: Rarity had been so terrified of almost outing her pony self to her fellow students that she completely missed the fact that Sunset Shimmer had said the same fatal words she had been about to utter.
There was actually a second exception, in the form of Trixie, the girl who sat directly behind her. Trixie wasn’t laughing.
# # #
After Fourth Period came lunch. Forewarned by breakfast, Rarity took her time going through the lunch line, examining every offering for potential meat contamination.
Oh, and the lunch lady had a strong resemblance to Granny Smith, but as that was completely ludicrous, Rarity chose to ignore that thought entirely.
Finally she sat down. Since she had taken so long, most of the tables were already full up, so she sat at one of the abandoned tables in the back. This was fine for Rarity, as it would give her time to recharge.
Only fate did not have that sort of thing in mind for today.
“...And that’s how I was able to see Lance Burton’s last show at the Monte Carlo,” Trixie said to Applejack, as the two of them were walking by Rarity’s table with their trays. She stopped Applejack, and pointed. “Wow, look who we just happened to bump into—it’s Rarity, your new friend. You two should talk.” She then practically man-handled Applejack onto the bench opposite Rarity. “This is my way for saying thanks for what you did for me this morning.”
Applejack looked over at Rarity, and immediately looked away. She then looked back up at Trixie.
“I’ll just stay here and—” Trixie began.
“No,” Applejack instructed firmly. Her voice then softened. “We’d like some privacy.” She looked imperiously at Rarity for confirmation.
Rarity nodded mutely, a bit spooked by Applejack’s attitude.
“Fine,” Trixie said playfully. “You two have fun!” She then skipped away, barely keeping her tray of food from flying in every direction.
Applejack decided to apply all of her attention to her lunch as she tried to figure out what to say.
Rarity was also puzzled. If this was the human Applejack in front of her, then there was that whole crush scenario to deal with. And if this was somehow the pony Applejack in a human body, well...that was if possible even more of an emotional knot to handle. She decided to settle the issue with a ploy that always worked on her Ponyville friend. “So how was Manehattan?” she asked innocently.
Applejack snorted. “Biggest city of phonies in all of...” She narrowed her eyes and studied the human in front of her. “Rarity?!” she exclaimed in realization, those same eyes going wide.
Rarity immediately knew which “Rarity” Applejack was referring to. “Ah, so you were caught in the magical net, just like me.”
“I’m becoming less sure of what is going on by the hour,” Applejack said, slumping down.
“Well the way I heard it, some pegasus named Rainbow Dash had a stunt go wrong, and suddenly six of us ponies have swapped bodies with the humans in this world,” Rarity exclaimed. “The bishops had all but two of the ponies identified: this Rainbow Dash, another pegasus named Fluttershy, an earth pony named Pinkie Pie, and myself. And now you are the fifth.”
Applejack poked at a rogue noodle with her fork. “And, um...what’s going to happen next?”
“We’re sending a message to Princess Celestia. She’ll probably get everything fixed tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?!” Applejack exclaimed, standing up.
Everyone looked at them.
Applejack looked around nervously. “Ah...sorry. Nothing to see here, folks.” She sat back down, and waited until nobody was looking at them anymore. “Tomorrow?” she then asked again.
“Is there a problem?” Rarity asked.
“Yes, there’s a problem,” Applejack hissed. “I don’t want to go.”
“Really?” asked Rarity, looking around her. “This place is so much more urban than Ponyville. I figured you’d be desperate to get back.”
“Well you figured wrong,” Applejack snapped back.
“Applejack, give me one reason why you’d prefer being a human to being a pony.”
“I’ll give you two,” Applejack said, pulling out her phone and bringing up a photo she took last night.
I don’t need to tell you who was in the photo.
“Oh,” Rarity said. She was able to figure out the identities of the two figures instantly.
“Please don’t tell those bishop folks about me,” Applejack pleaded with her.
“Al...alright,” Rarity said. “You can come forward in your own time. You...are going back eventually, right?”
Applejack looked away. “Yeah, I suppose so,” she said.
It was a lie. Rarity only feared that it was.
The rest of Lunch passed silently. And awkwardly.
H. Trixie.
The last period of the day was usually Trixie’s free period, which she would spend in her home room with her student advisor. Today she decided to stop by Detention Hall instead. She found it empty, with Vice Principal Luna sitting in the teacher’s seat and reading a paperback novel.
“Would you mind if I spent my hour here?” Trixie asked tensely from the doorway.
Luna put down her copy of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned and looked up. “Come on in, Trixie,” she said.
Trixie had spent quite a few of her free periods in the empty detention hall. This allowed her to self-medicate in peace, and Luna’s penchant for rooms with only 50% lighting was also good for her nerves.
“Thanks,” Trixie said, walking into the darkened room. Finding a seat in the back, she put down her backpack, fished out the yellow and black bottles and her water bottle, and dosed herself. “Much better.” She sat down in the seat and basically zoned out. There were a few minutes of furious battle between the colors that danced before her eyes, and after that her two medications had worked out how to get along with each other. She took in a big breath, let it out slowly, and then worked out the kinks in her neck and shoulders. Finally she got up, and slowly walked around the room.
Luna meanwhile had got back to her reading, having absolutely no trouble reading the small print in the dim lighting. She noticed Trixie’s wanderings in the corner of her eye, but did nothing.
The room was lined with cabinets holding spare copies of old textbooks. Atop the cabinets was Luna’s extensive book collection, which she allowed a select number of students to borrow from. Trixie stopped at a fat children’s book, the kind with thick cardboard pages. “Vice Principal? Did you ever find out where Sunset Shimmer came from?” she suddenly asked.
Luna put the bookmark back in its place and put the book down. “Why do you ask?” she asked, mostly to prevent answering Trixie’s question.
“She said something very odd in World History today,” Trixie said. She then repeated verbatim exactly what Sunset Shimmer had said about the Revolutions of 1848.
“I see,” Luna said darkly. So darkly in fact that Trixie was intimidated. She felt for a moment that she was in the presence of a Dark Power.
“Th...this is an odd book for you to be keeping,” Trixie said suddenly, pulling out the children’s book. It was called Somnia, Princess of Dreams, and it was written by “C. Equinia” and illustrated by... “Is this your work?” The cover illustration showed a semi-transparent woman in a shining white nightgown. She had billowing hair adorned with stars, and she was floating above a bed containing two children, curled up in fear under the blankets. Approaching the sleeping children was another ghostly figure, a slobbering monster. The woman had a hand stretched towards the monster to ward it away, and the hand was glowing with power.
“Yes,” said Luna, getting up and walking over to pick up the book and go through the pages. “My sister wrote it, under a rather obvious pseudonym. But the idea was mine. We wrote it back in the ‘80s.” She looked off into the distance. “It was a far different time.”
Trixie poked her head around to get a look at some of the illustrations. “I’ve seen that book before. Like, a lot. I think every one of my friends has a copy.”
“Yes, it sold pretty well,” Luna said. “I believe that its lesson of holding strong against your personal nightmares has resonated with many a struggling child.”
“They’ve dreamed about her,” Trixie said.
“So I’ve heard,” Luna said mysteriously.
“I missed out on that,” Trixie said, dejected. “I didn’t get to have my childhood in Canterlot. Didn’t even really get to have a childhood at all, come to think of it. Do...do you mind if I borrow this? I’m not exactly in the target age range anymore, but I’ve felt since the moment I came here that Canterlot is my home, and this looks like a rite of Canterlot passage that I missed out on.”
“Go right ahead,” Luna said, handing the book over to Trixie. “Just try not to be too hard on the grammar or composition.”
“I won’t,” Trixie said with a grin.
She went back to her seat, brought up the light on her phone, and used that to start slowly reading the book, being sure to take in all the illustrations.
She ended up reading it twice before the end of the period.
Luna meanwhile had returned to her seat. She pretended to read her own book, but really she was watching Trixie with a little smile on her face.