A Mile in Their Horseshoes

by Kumei

And you are?

Chapter II: And you are?

An orange, earth pony mare with hay-blonde hair in a neat ponytail who was in no way Applejack bolted through Ponyville, muttering greetings to the townsfolk that she passed that managed to be somewhere between a country drawl and a learned Canterlot collegiate.

Her goal was clear, to anypony who might have been watching her movements, she was headed to the town library. When she got there, she raised a tired hoof and tried to gingerly pound on the great wooden door. She had succeeded, at least in half of her intentions, and the resultant resonant booming could likely be heard halfway to Sugarcube Corner.

The oak door slowly slid inward, greeting the mare to the image of a little purple dragon. “Oh, hey Applejack! Come on in, Twilight’s up in her study, said something about doing research on non-unicorns or something.”

“Oh, erm, thanks Spike,” the mare replied, giving an awkward smile. “Ah guess Ah’ll just, eh, go see ‘er then.”

“Oh, you finally worked up the courage to do it? Good for you, AJ, everypony deserves a special somepony.”

“Erm, wanna run that bah me again?”

“Oh, right, don’t worry, I Pinky swear that I won’t tell anypony about it, I know some of them aren’t as accepting as others.”

“What’s going on down there, Spike? I thought that you would be… Oh, Applejack! Good to see you! Come on up, I have a question you might be able to answer!” Twilight Sparkle, or at least a lavender unicorn with a dark purple mane with two lighter streaks of purple and pink that looked a lot like her, was standing at the top of the stairs, smiling brightly at the two in the foyer.

The orange mare smiled back and began trotting around to go up the stairs. “Hey there, Twi, Ah don’t reckon Ah could be of much help, but Ah’ll do whatever Ah can. Anyway, Ah had a question ‘er two fer you, though it’s not much fer public ears, if’n ye catch mah meanin’” As Twilight ascended the stairs to Twilight, Spike chuckled knowingly. Twilight gave him a quick glare before continuing her climb.

When the two got into the study, Twilight gently pushed the door closed with an orange hoof, while Twilight moved a few books into a stack, and not, as Twilight noticed, with her magic.

“Before ya ask, Applejack, I ain’t Twilight. I think it’s real sweet what you’re tryin’ to do, and I’ll keep it a secret for you, but you’re just gonna have to wait until we can figure how to get her back.” Twilight was looking at Twilight, very confused with her face scrunched up until Twilight interrupted her thoughts. “Now, that’s not to say I’m not flattered by this, I mean, I am kind of awesome, and I’m totally… well, I was, the fastest flier in all of Equestria!”

Moments seemed to blend into an eternity, before finally Twilight broke out of her stupor. “R-Rainbow Dash? B-but, what… Wait a minute, what do you mean by what I’m trying to do? Is there some secret about Applejack that I don’t know about?”

“Whe-hell! Color me pink and call me a Pie! You’re not Applejack just like I’m not Twilight! Wait. Does that mean that… You’re not Twilight are you? Whoo boy, um, about what I said earlier… just, erm, forget about it?”

Twilight stared in shock, apparently not registering Rainbow Dash’s slip up. Dash took this opportunity to interject in hopes of changing the subject before Twilight caught on to what had not too terribly subtly hinted at.

“So, uh, I don’t suppose we could be the only ones this happened to, huh?” Rainbow Dash chuckled softly at this, before realizing that Twilight hadn’t budged much since the once-pegasus proclaimed to be Twilight. “Uh, Twilight? You okay over there?”

A few long moments passed between them, and the purple unicorn waved a hoof in front of the orange ponies face.

A few more moments passed, and Spike heard a loud thump come from Twilight’s loft and scurried up the stairs as fast as his little legs could carry him. He opened the door, worry in his eyes, to the face of Twilight with a look that seemed to plead him to not panic.

Next, the little purple dragon saw that she had reason for her pleading look, as he noticed the familiar orange figure collapsed on the floor just a few feet behind Twilight. “Umm, Twilight?”

“Spike, I need you to gather the rest of the girls here, can you do that? I’ll explain everything once they get here, okay?”

Spike nodded slowly, eyes never leaving the apparent corpse of Applejack, before finally rushing down the stairs. Twilight, or, rather, Rainbow Dash, sighed in relief as she heard the heavy oaken door slam shut.

“All right, Twilight,” she spoke, to nobody in particular, “Let’s at least get you comfortable.”

Author's Note:

I'm not sure if this chapter is done yet, but I may as well put it up so that I can publish the story and start getting some feedback. Feel free to let me know where I screwed up, or if something is too confusing, or if you don't like it for reason x. On the other hand, if there's something you really liked in it, please don't hesitate to let me know, so I have an idea how the rest of the story will go!

-K

Comments

[Visuality]

If Twi is in AJ, and RD is in Twi, then I guess Pinkie's in Rarity, Rarity's in Fluttershy, and AJ is in Pinkie. Am I right? Do I get a cookie?