HiE - A Hollow in Equestria

by Charlie_K

Chapter One Hundred Thirty Two

Chapter One Hundred thirty Two

With Sweet Apple Acres being located in the Ponyville territory, and situated so close to the edge of the Everfree Forest, Applejack knew that strange activities and sights were to be expected from time to time.

But catching sight of Princess Twilight more of less nosing around the barn on this fine Wednesday morning was a bit more on the unusual side than she'd been prepared for encountering in between tending to morning chores.

But unusual didn't mean unwelcome. And this version of Twilight was just as much a friend to her as the other version. And it'd be mighty unfriendly to just ignore her.

"Howdy, Twi'," she called as she approached.

Whatever Twilight had been doing at the time must've been very focus-intensive, going by the fact she actually jumped at being addressed, before looking around almost frantically. Once she laid eyes on her, she seemed to calm down significantly.

"Oh! Applejack, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were there," she stated as she breathed.

While the statement was perfectly logical and easy enough to believe, considering how Twilight could get when she focused on something, the delivery had felt off; suspicious-like. It was easily enough to trip Applejack's senses and make her suspect that something was up and out of place.

"Ya a'right, Sugarcube? Ya on the run from the palace or somethin'? Did ya manage ta break out?" she asked as she stepped closer.

"What? No! No, no, no, nothing like that," Twilight protested as she vigorously shook her head in response. "It's not like I'm restricted to the palace or anything like that. I can come and go as I please. I just... didn't directly tell anypony that I was going to be out and about this morning..."

"Ya snuck out when nopony was lookin'," Applejack surmised.

"I left a note where it could be found," Twilight replied in a sheepishly defensive tone.

Something about seeing her friend acting in such a timid manner, as if she were being accused of doing something wrong and unable to deny the validity of the accusations leveled against her, was amusing in some fashion. Maybe it shouldn't have been, but it was. To see a princess acting like a foal who'd been caught doing something naughty was just not something usually witnessed; not by her anyway.

"Well Ah won' go an' tell if you don'," she replied as she chuckled. "So what brings ya here?"

"That's actually what I'm trying to figure out right now," Twilight replied, before lifting her right foreleg to gesture off to the side, towards the remnants of the scorched circle in the ground near the barn. "This is the spot where I arrived in your reality. So I'm trying to see if there are any clues here that might indicate just what happened, that served to bring me here in the first place. Or at the very least, point me in a direction that might help me figure out how to get back home."

Applejack nodded in response, it being about as far as she could go until she had more to go on.

"I've seen the teleportation techniques used in this world and my own, and as far as I can tell they're both identical in structure and execution. Physical damage like this isn't normal, so even if I accidentally stumbled across some way of teleporting between dimensions, this still shouldn't have happened. There has to be something else at play that I'm not seeing or understanding. Something that might've interacted with the soil when I was delivered since the ground was scorched. I'm hoping there might be physical traces of... whatever... still here in the ground and surrounding territory that I can pick up on with the detection spells I uncovered in the palace library. If I can separate them from the normal background traces that're native to this world, I might be one step closer to getting back home."

"So you're tryin' ta find yer home reality's harmonic frequency an' see if ya can backtrack it?" Applejack asked

Twilight looked like she'd just been floored by what she'd heard, her eyes wide as she all but stared at Applejack, blinking in surprise as her brain tried to process everything.

"Ah... that's actually very close to what I'm doing," she admitted. "How... how exactly did you know that, if you don't mind my asking? Was I mumbling to myself out loud when you found me?"

Applejack shook her head in response. "Actually Ah was jus' guessin', Ah didn' really have a clue wha' ya were up to," she admitted.

"No, not that. I meant, how did you know about harmonic frequencies and such?" Twilight clarified.

"Oh, that. Ah've got Discord ta thank fer that," Applejack stated. "Ya see, Twi', he was absent while Nightmare Moon was runnin' around an' causing trouble. We thought he was up ta no good, but it turns out he was tryin' ta keep Ulquiorra compatible with our reality. Turns out his own frequency isn't a hundred percent compatible with ours, but it's close enough in most cases ta not cause him any problems. An' if Mr. Cifer has his own harmonics frequency, it jus' stands ta reason the same goes fer everyone in every reality in the multiverse; like individual mailin' addresses an' whatnot."

"... Huh," Twilight replied as she rubbed at her chin, before setting her hoof back down again. "There's a lot in that explanation to unpack that I wasn't fully prepared for. But that is more or less the gist of it. If I can find something, anything here that feels out of place, something that would let me find the right harmonic frequency, I might be able to find my way back home. Or at the very least, get word to Spike and the others to let them know that I'm alright. Maybe they can find something on their end of the divide that I can't find here. Maybe they can even use the scroll I send them to backtrack to here. If I can actually figure out a way to transcribe the frequency onto paper, maybe Discord can use it to find me like it's a mailing address.

"At the moment it's nothing but supposition and hope. But at the moment it's all that I've got to go on. Somewhere in these burn marks and dead grass may be the key to getting back to my world, if I can only figure out what I'm looking for, and what I need to look for."

"Ah've got a dirt siftin' box if it'll help any," Applejack offered.

Twilight smiled, but shook her head in response. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm afraid it wouldn't do any good. What I'm looking for would be found in microscopic particles of magical energy. I can't even ask Ulquiorra to help me with this. He might be able to identify the existence of the differences that I'm trying to find, but his being able to detect them won't do me any good if I can't do the same myself. The simplest way I can explain it would be like learning a foreign language; learning how to read and write the words correctly doesn't necessarily mean you know how to pronounce them."

"Ah reckon Ah'll take yer word fer it, Sugarcube," Applejack replied and nodded. "Ah'll jus' leave ya be unless ya need me for anything. Roommatin' with the other you fer 'bout a month got me smarter, but even Ah know this is outta mah league."

"Wait, what now?" Twilight asked, her own focus on the ground forgotten about at the moment. "You and I were roommates? I mean you and she? You and the other me?"

Applejack nodded again. "Happened durin' the whole Nightmare Moon thing before we knew she was back. That nag attacked me right smack dab in mah own danged orchards! Made me believe Ah'd killed friend an' family alike. So she insisted Ah stay wit' 'er so Ah could recover. Prob'ly kept me from goin' insane. She'd sit up wit' me when Ah was too afraid ta sleep, did everything she could think of ta help me keep mah mind off what Nightmare Moon put me through. Even tried ta fill mah head wit' as much scientific stuff as she could ta drown out those thoughts that wouldn' go away."

"... Did it work?" Twilight asked, not sure how else to respond after hearing what she'd been through.

"Ah don' know, but Ah think it helped, once she figured out mah understandin' speed. It sure gave me somethin' else ta try an' focus on," Applejack replied and shrugged dismissively. "Ah know Ah'm smarter than Ah was in book terms, but wha' yer talking about is obviously beyond me. So Ah'll jus' focus on what Ah can do an' understand so I don' distract ya."

"Alright," Twilight agreed and nodded. "If I need you, I'll come and find you."

Applejack nodded, the conversation having run its course as far as she was concerned.

"Um..."

Were it not for an almost polite interruption of hesitation just as she turned around to depart, she would've been off to tend to the next task on the list of things to do.

"If it's not too much trouble, sometime today could you let my counterpart know that I'm here? I'd do it myself, but Ulquiorra pointed out that somepony seeing the two of us together in the same place would be hard to explain, even with the incognito spell that I got from Princess Luna to make myself appear interestingly uninteresting to those around me. I can't really fault his logic, since twin Twilights probably isn't the most common sight around here."

"It sure isn't," Applejack agreed and shook her head in agreement. "A'right, Sugarcube, Ah'll let 'er know when Ah can. Big Mac's got market duty today, but Ah reckon Ah can swing by after a couple hours. Give ya a chance ta sort this stuff out before ya start questionin' yerself an' gettin' in yer way."

"I appreciate that," Twilight replied, thankful that her position was so clearly understood without having to explain it.

"But jus' outta curiosity, Sugarcube, how come ya don' jus' try an' write yerself direct?" Applejack asked.

"I actually thought about doing that. But without more information to go on, I don't know what might happen in a situation where there are two of me; Spike's flame network has never been used like that before. It might just come right back to me if I tried," she explained.

"Oh," Applejack replied and nodded. "Well, why not write Spike direct instead, since there's only one of him here? Worst case scenario, it'd jus' go back to the Spike from yer reality, right?"

"I... actually never thought of that before," Twilight admitted sheepishly. "All this time I've been operating on the assumption that I'd simply be compatible with the flame network in this reality, because I had no reason to believe otherwise. But if that isn't the case, then I could get word to him and let the other know that I'm alright. And if that doesn't work, then I can communicate with the Spike in this world and he can let the other me know that I'm here so we can talk face-to-face! Applejack, that's right up there in terms of brilliance with your idea for dealing with Sunset Shimmer, and the complications that'll inevitably arise from her actions."

"Shucks, Twi', a lot o' what ya call brilliance is jus plain ol' common sense," Applejack replied, even if she did appreciate the compliment. "It's like walkin' around a pothole in the road rather than walkin' through it, just 'cuz it's there."

"I suppose. But at times the common sense in this reality feels like it's a lot more advanced and developed than it does back in my reality. Like it's stuff that I should know but simply don't. I honestly don't know what to do about that, stuff like that kind of scares me. It makes me feel like... like I'm not actually fit to be a Princess if common sense is something that eludes me," Twilight admitted. "Just two days ago I'd concocted an elaborate idea to bribe Chrysalis with more love than she could ever get on her own if she'd simply stop trying to conquer Equestria. I never even stopped to think that she might use it against us, until that got pointed out to me. How can I be a ruler if I can't even see that for myself?"

"Twilight," Applejack started, only to realize she didn't really have a concrete answer to the question. "Sugarcube, all that any of us can do is simply try our best. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. And when it doesn' work out, we try harder ta make things better the next time. It's jus' how it is."

"I know," Twilight reluctantly admitted and sighed. "But failure is... scary."

"Ya got that right," Applejack agreed. "But what's worse? Failin' 'cuz ya made the wrong decision, or failin' 'cuz ya were too scared ta do anything and let failure happen?"

"... Definitely the second one," Twilight admitted. "When I manage to find a way back home, could I take you with me? I could use some of that common sense for myself."

Applejack laughed hardily in response. "Visitin' might be nice, but there's no way Ah could stay. But if ya want more common sense, speak with Mr. Cifer. His way o' thinkin' over problems might rub off on ya like it has fer us. Every time we get ta conversin' Ah feel like Ah'm getting smarter listenin' to 'im explainin' things."

"Then... maybe it's not so much a greater deal of "common sense" that this world has over mine, but more an understanding of how he thinks and views things?" Twilight asked. "He does tend to explain things in great detail, in a manner that makes it somewhat easy enough to follow along with if one is paying attention to what he's saying. It's like listening to a post-graduate level professor giving a lecture, but who's using laypony terms so those in attendance can follow along step-by-step, without coming off as condescending.

"I may have to do just that. But later; much later. I've been working almost the entire time I've been here, detailing a list of events that my reality has experienced, that may or may not occur in this reality. Ranging from friendship disputes, all the way up to villain incursions. As well as a myriad of other details related to such. I don't know how applicable any of it might be here, but he sort of guilt-tripped me with my counterpart's own friendship teachings into telling him everything I knew. I'm still a little bit mad at him for doing that, no matter how good his points were. And now that that's done, I'm doing something for myself."

"Ah'd be lyin' if Ah said Ah wasn' curious now," Applejack admitted. "But Ah won' press ya fer details right now, Sugarcube. Ah'll let ya get back to what you're doin', although Ah might ask ya fer details later on."

Twilight nodded in understanding. "Later on," she agreed. "And thank you, I really appreciate that."

A quick hug between the two was borderline mandatory at this point, before they separated again, ready to continue with their own respective endeavors.

Author's Note:

I could've gone much further in this chapter, but I decided to just let it end there and leave it light. It felt more fun to do it that way for a change.

Comments

[Fireeaters]

nice chapter

[hydra30]

Doing good.

Hey, princess Twilight should throw caution to the wind and just spill everything. Applejack is right there, save her the heartache. Forewarn her about the genealogy debacle regarding Pinkie in the future, hell, tell her about the Hearths warming eve fiasco, don't plant the flag pole so close to holder's boulder. The world was already knocked of its axis before you got there, and, according to Discord, the path they now tread will lead to more violent conflict than you had to deal with. Take a look at Chrysalis, she slammed head long into a fate worse than anything the other Chrysalis went through, not to mention all the casualties from Nightmare Moons return.

Hey does princess Twilight even have a version of Discord in her reality, or is he an omnipresent being, existing simultaneously in all realities but technically being a single entity?

[Charlie_K]

11491753
Were it not for each of them having their own work to do, Twilight would've likely done just that.

Hey does princess Twilight even have a version of Discord in her reality, or is he an omnipresent being, existing simultaneously in all realities but technically being a single entity?

That is a scary thought she's desperately trying not to think about right now.

[Black_Knight]

Love Twilight's reaction discussion on Applejack's common sense and her higher educated mindset.

Reminds me of my time at college when doing interclass project and how the teacher remarked that some young rowdy students would better behave among older more mature students, because the class atmosphere isn't the same.

[Taltharius]

"I know," Twilight reluctantly admitted and sighed. "But failure is... scary."

"Ya got that right," Applejack agreed. "But what's worse? Failin' 'cuz ya made the wrong decision, or failin' 'cuz ya were too scared ta do anything and let failure happen?"

"... Definitely the second one," Twilight admitted.

Maxim 70: Failure isn't an option. It's mandatory. The option is whether or not to let failure be the last thing you do.

[RanmaChaos]

A nice little chapter, thanks.

[GrimmWolfDragon]

Keep going enjoying the story.