Applejack and Matte Palette were best friends when they were younger. Like her, the poor colt doesn’t seem to have much in common with kids his own gender, so they formed an unlikely duo. The two were inseparable, right up until Applejack moved to live with the Orange side of her family, and the childhood friends fail to keep in touch.
But time passes, and Applejack returns to Ponyville. Her biggest hope is to pick up where she left off, and that includes her friendship with Matte Palette. Something seems different about him, though.
Written as a birthday present for Dessert, who also did the cover art. More of their art can be found here 
Chapters (1)
Pretend this says "When you convince your friend to get a sex change and become the biggest slut in Equestria"
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I just want to remind everyone before they comment, let's not feed the troll
Edit: OP came forward to clear up the post below, so there's really no need to start drama by replying to it
You may have some unconventional themes to your stories, but they always ring true to me. Well done. - The Shipshelf
7703054
I am a rather unconventional person
I'm glad you enjoyed it
7703021
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7703031
This was decent, as usual.
7703031 Calm your tits, I was making a silly comment.
7703073 Take your tantrum back to Reddit.
7703074 My tantrum?
I'm not the one making shitty, sub-tier memes on a story with sensitive themes, darf. Have you ever looked in a mirror, or were you too poor to ever afford one?
Fantastic. Great story with a view into a group of people that truly feel alone in their struggle with who society wants them to be and who they desire to be. Hope this gets featured.
7703080 Sorry that my comments hurt your feelings and caused a temper tantrum, goddamn. FYI I was homeless, I could only look in dirty puddles. So yeah, too poor.
What the fuck are makes, by the way?
7703073
Thank you, I do what I can
7703086
Glad you liked it, but I'm not holding out for a feature here
7703087 Memes. Just another feature of autocorrect.
Anyway, sorry you ended up in the situation you were in.
7703094 Oh okay.
It's fine, didn't mean for that to come off as "abloobloobloo pity muh homelessness and dont get mad" way. Just being tongue-in-cheek, as a result of humor becoming my coping mechanism for pretty much everything that's even remotely uncomfortable in life. Feel free to take that as you will, I'm just leveling with you and being honest because at least you said sorry. I still dislike Rarity though because she probably has been fucked by every stallion, mare, and everything else in town
7703093 I'd be a cock if I didn't own up now. Sorry for coming off as an insensitive dumbass. No, not coming off, that's wrong. I made a retarded choice.
7703105
No worries, it happens, though I appreciate the clarification
7703142
That sounds like a solid idea to me
adorable
7703389
Thank you, I'm glad you thought so
Headcanon accepted
I can't even handle how freakin' cute this is.
Also:
Absolute truth. I have to guard my voice like a motherbucker, and even then I don't sound very male. At best, I sound like a little boy. But it all goes out the window if I get upset about something; it gets so high-pitched, I want to punch myself in the mouth. Then I know I've really blown it and there's no way anyone thinks I'm a guy now. I could be doing more work on it to train myself into a lower range, but that requires that I listen to it, a lot, and there's nothing that makes me more uncomfortable.
7703021 Wat.
This story is sweet and kind of adorable!
7703580
It wasn't even my headcanon (part of the birthday present aspect, both Rarity being trans and AJ being non-binary were headcanons of the person this was written for) but it definitely grew on me while writing this
7703640
I hate listening to my own voice as well, for pretty much same reason. Granted, that's shooting for something somewhat androgenous on my part, so I can really only imagine it's more frustrating for you.
I can definitely see where you're coming from there
7703785
Thank you, I'm happy to hear it
7703842
I definitely hoped any attention to this story would spill over to mouch's 
That is literally the best thing that could happen from this story
7703875
That's definitely a good point, hadn't thought of that. This story was written months ago, before Where the Apple Lies aired. I just hadn't rushed off to publish it since it was intended as a birthday present primarily. It never dawned on me that anything was noncanon about the story, since it wasn't when written.
I think adding the AU tag would be a bit much, though. I kinda reserve it for stories with significant differences from canon. If this story was about Big Mac, I'd probably tag it AU. My worry is also that people would assume the AU tag is because Rarity is trans. I'd really sooner people think I'm just wrong on my knowledge of show canon
This was very sweet
So precious
And sweet~
7703968
7704130
Thank you both, I'm glad y'all liked the story
Ooh, congrats on the feature! You deserve it!
7704578
Thank you, I'm quite surprised by this one
Ah, very rich, nice robe, flavoursome and warming. If it isn't a grand cru by Krickis I don't know what it is
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Indeed ideal for dessert
7704517
Not a problem.
7704623
Not surprised that one with such distinguished tastes as yourself can recognize the subtleties at work here. We here at Krickis™ are honored by your patronage
Congrats to the second feature on the front page
7704690
Really wasn't expecting this, I just hope I can keep it up 
Thank you
7704693
Of course you will :D and btw because of you i am now 1 year on tumbler and the hungergames still haven't started xD
7704702
Dessert never got enough people to start, and now they're in college with very little free time. I won't say for sure that it's cancelled (it's not my thing, after all) but I don't think it's likely to go anywhere.
Yeah that... may have totally fallen apart
7704726
it's ok my oc wouldn't had a chance against twilight and the others :D
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm literally shrieking and crying from joy because of this fic, you don't even understand, positive trans representation and well-written at that, on top of my OTP and my favorite character? YES.
7704828
If you haven't yet, I'd recommend checking out And 1000 Kisses. Rarity being trans and Applejack being nonbinary come directly from that story (well, the AJ as a demigirl thing was something the author said they planned on elaborating on, not in the story itself) 
I'm thrilled you liked it so much
Mmm sweet sweet RariJack
Interesting to see someone use Rarity for their trans story. In my experience, the vast majority of the time it's Twilight. I think Rarity definitely gives that extra bit of complication of growing up non-normative in a rural area, as opposed to a metropolitan area. Nice job.
This was nice. I still don't like the ship but this was nice.
7704997
I've always liked the idea of Rarity as trans. I suspect more people go with Twilight since most trans stories tend to based on the author's experiences, and from what I've noticed more people on Fimfiction tend to relate closer with Twilight (makes sense, this is literally a website devoted to reading/writing).
For me, I was just writing my friend's headcanons into a story for their birthday
Glad you enjoyed the story 
7705074
I didn't like Rarijack for a long time, but a few fics wound up changing my mind
Glad you enjoyed it, despite not being into the ship.
Thank you so much for such a wonderful story. You don't know how much this truly spoke to me. I'm literally crying and smiling at the same time. As somepony who struggles with gender identity herself, I fully understand what Rarity is going through. I was born a "colt", as one would say, and desire to be a filly. But unlike Rarity, I don't have anyone who would ever support me in person. My entire family is appalled by the idea... I came out 4 years ago, only to be ridiculed, and went back into hiding... I said that I no longer felt that way... But little does anyone know, Sarah is now Silverwing, and she desperately wishes to come out to play... But see, she's so afraid of being ridiculed again, and becoming homeless because of how her family feels about these things... But thank you again, for this story...
7705134
Unfortunately, staying in hiding is often the best thing to do if you're dependent on someone who isn't understanding. I hope you don't have to deal with that for long, and remember that it does get better; you won't have to stay hiding away forever 
I'm glad to hear the story means so much to you, and sorry to hear about your life situation
That mental picture.... to cute.... system overload... lights fading.....
7705628
The manufacturers of Krickis™ brand products assume no liability for Cuteness Overload Syndrome. If problem persists for more than four hours, consult a physician.
7705637 Worth it!
7705219
Thank you so much! Oh, I actually want to try to start training my voice to sound my feminine, and I was wondering if it was alright if I used your fic to do so? I'm planning on recording Fan fics to help with my training, and I'd love for Side by Side to be my first.
7705823
I wish you the best with transitioning as well. It's never easy, but I know you got this 
I'm happy to hear the story message so much to you
7705829
I'd be flattered for anyone to record a story of mine, and having it help you in the process makes the whole thing better 
That would absolutely be okay
7704687 Also, was the frog bit a reference to Ruby and Sapphire? Or am I seeing things that aren't there?