//------------------------------// // Changes - Romance, Random // Story: Krizak's Compendium of Concise Chronicles // by Krizak //------------------------------// The day everything changed had started like any other day on Sweet Apple Acres for the past year or so: Applejack and Fluttershy had both awoken with the dawn, exchanging a few tender expressions of their love before they reluctantly separated to deal with their respective morning chores. After Fluttershy was done tending to the diets and other needs of her animal friends, she came back into the farmhouse to find her beloved’s famous apple flapjacks awaiting her and the other members of the extended family she was still getting used to having. Mealtimes were a lot more rowdy than Fluttershy had known when she lived alone; Applejack did her best to keep things calm enough for her wife, but the pegasus secretly found it wonderful, the Apple family expressing their love through good-natured ribbing. She’d never tell Applejack, though, as she loved that little thrill in her heart whenever AJ stood up for her. After breakfast, Applejack got started with the day’s applebucking, Fluttershy hovering behind her under the pretense of helping out. It wasn’t as though the farmmare really needed help, but she appreciated the company; this was when some of their best conversations happened. “…and that’s where she lost me. Pinkie’s always talked fast, but ever since she’s started dating Twilight, she’s starting using all these complex words that I’m not entirely sure what they mean,” Fluttershy related with a shake of her head before moving an apple basket to a better position. “Honestly, I’m not even sure if Pinkie knows what ‘piercing the dimensional veil to explore alternate timelines’ means herself.” “Well, it’s good that those two found some common ground.” Applejack delivered another of her expert bucks to the tree, shaking the apples loose into the awaiting baskets. She wiped her brow with one foreleg as she glanced back at her wife. “I know I was a mite skeptical when those two got together, but darn it if they ain’t just made for each other. Oh, thanks, ‘Shy!” Applejack gratefully accepted the juicebox that Fluttershy had just offered her, causing the pegasus to smile in delight before adding, “Oh, I told you they were perfect for each other! You need to start trusting in my romantic instincts a little more!” “Sure, honey, and any day now, Dash will be declaring her undying affection fer Rarity!” Applejack shot back with a smirk. “They’re in love, darn—” Fluttershy’s rebuttal was drowned out as a bizarre noise filled the air, like an explosion tearing apart hundreds of yards of fabric all at once. “What—what was that?” Applejack had no response for her, her eyes widened in fright as she stared past Fluttershy, and Fluttershy realized with horror that she had her back to Ponyville. She turned in midair to see that the peaceful town had been consumed in a blinding, expanding sphere of white light, that even now was approaching them at speeds that made the thought of outrunning it seem silly. Landing from where she had been hovering, Fluttershy couldn’t tear her eyes off the approaching wall of energy until Applejack walked up and embraced her, drawing the pegasus’ eyes to the apple-green irises of her wife. “I dunno what’s happened, but there ain’t much time! I love ya, ‘Shy! This last year has been the happiest in my life ‘cause of you, and if this is really the end, I can’t think of anypony I’d rather spend it with.” “…I love you too, Applejack,” Fluttershy replied, tears filling her eyes before she closed them and leaned in to kiss the mare she loved. A few seconds later, the white energy caught up with the two ponies… …and washed over them, filling Fluttershy with strange notions and the most bizarre sense of being grounded. There was no pain, however, and she still felt Applejack on her lips, so she chanced opening one eye. When she saw everything was alright, she broke the kiss and exclaimed, “Applejack, we’re not dead.” “Huh. So we ain’t.” Applejack blinked a few times and then looked out to the horizon. “And Ponyville’s still there.” She turned back to her wife. “Well, that was a tad—’Shy! What happened to yer wings?” “Huh?” Fluttershy craned her neck around to look at her back, and sure enough, the two feathery appendages she had lived with her entire life were gone. Stranger still, her cutie mark was different; no longer did a trio of butterflies adorn her flank, but a trio of flowers instead. “Um… I think…” “Yeah, ‘Shy?” Applejack was desperate for an explanation. “I… I don’t think I’m Fluttershy anymore. I think I’m… Posey.” The name felt strangely right on her tongue.