> A Mile in Their Horseshoes > by Kumei > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Who am I? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Mile in Their Horseshoes Prologue: Who am I? Twilight lay in bed, restlessly tossing and turning in her bed sheets as the sun dared to think about peeking its first glimmering rays of sun over the land, brightly painting the eastern horizon in a splendid orange glow. “Mmm, just five more minutes, Princess,” she mumbled, thinking not for the first time she was back with the Princess in her studies. Many moments passed before Twilight bolted upright, tossing all of the covers every which way as she did so, and sensed that something was very, very wrong. Just the act of opening her eyes confirmed her suspicions, for while she was in a cozy, wooden room, she didn’t have the same view out of her window. This room also seemed a little more, well rustic, really. There was a harness sitting on a chair, a rope draped in neat coils over it, and… well all in all it looked like Applejack’s room. Once again, the confused mare jolted, this time out of the bed. When she landed, she caught a glimpse of orange as her head dipped from the impact. Twilight looked down, and noted with a growing concern that she had been the source of the orange. “Oh, hahah, it must just be the sunrise… giving me this color… right?” As the words left her mouth, her concern continued to rise. She had come to realize that her voice was off. Not as though she had a case of the sniffles, or even like she had spent the whole night crying, but the voice that left her mouth was truly not her own. With a growing sense of dread, Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and personal protégé to the Princess of Equestria, tried desperately to deny her situation, surely what she thought had happened could only be impossible, the things of legend? But had the Mare in the Moon not also been impossible, merely a legend, those meager few years ago? With an exasperated sigh, the lone mare steeled her resolve and gazed icily into the mirror. The cool, silver portal showcased a near-perfect representation of the room, but Twilight didn’t focus on the perfect crystal surface, for all she saw were those eyes. Eyes staring into her, into her very soul, for that eternity, the only thing in her life were those cold, calculating pools of pitch, nigh devoid of glint, almost threatening to eat her alive. Those icy, terrible, soul sucking orbs contrasted vastly by an outlying sea of emerald, deep and true. After a few seconds, the figure reflected in that cruel portal to the twisted reality almost jumped, but remarkably kept it’s calm. The figure began studying her, like she were a petty thing to be researched, some hitherto undiscovered, unremarkable genus of pony. The figure had the shape of a pony, a mare in fact, with a straw colored mane that seemed to have seen better days and a matted orange coat that was certainly not unacquainted with hard work. At the ends of each of the figures’ lethal, muscular legs were thick hooves that could probably shatter boulders. By this point, Twilight had been holding back a cry of terror, and was slowly becoming consumed by it. In fact, after several consecutive aeons of being studied as though wholly insignificant, she heard a scream that seemed terrified to be heard. She was surprised to see that it was this cold, murderous figure in the horrible nether realm that had been staring into her. Then she collapsed, for she finally accepted what she had suspected since shortly after she jolted out of her bed. She had become her friend Applejack. Twilight – Applejack – whoever she was, slowly stood up. She decided upon a goal for the day. Several in fact. One of which would be not to let on what she thought was happening, and another being that she had to find a way to the Ponyville Library, if nothing else she might find that she hadn’t changed. The she that was still her body, not the she that was planning. “Augh, this is more confusing than I thought…” Twilight – for she’d decided to make things simple – mumbled softly to herself. It was right about then that there was a knock at her door, a little close to the ground and not that loud, followed by a hyperactive fillies voice that could only have been Apple Bloom, “Hey sleepy-head! Git outta bed already an’ git on over t’ the table! Ah’m starvin’ an’ Granny says Ah can’t eat ‘til everypony is there! Ya didn’t spent all night starin’ at yer marefriend Twilight again, did ya?” Twilight stood silently for a few moments, stunned at the last bit of that. She didn’t need to respond though, as she heard Granny Smith calling, scolding really, from a few rooms over. “Eh don’t ya be takin’ that tone witchyer sister, young lady! Ah thought Ah learned ye ta keep quiet ‘bout that! We may not understand her motives, but Ah’ll not have mah family passin’ judgement on isself fer…” What came next could lightly be described as a slumbering dragon deep within a cave, but was probably just Granny Smith falling asleep at the table. “I-Ah’ll be right out! Ah just, uh, shoot, lemmie just run a brush through mah mane afore I come out! Ah’ll not be but a minute!” Twilight called in her best Applejack impression, and doing rather well indeed. Just as her friend had helped her fill in the voice for the protagonist in many a sultry book, so had those books helped her impersonate her friend. Or so she hoped. If nothing else, she had an Apple Family Breakfast to look forward to, and then she could make an excuse to go to Ponyville, maybe something about needing Twilight’s… about needing her… Then again nopony would bat a lash at Applejack bringing apples to Ponyville, so surely that would be a good enough excuse. Why was cross consciousness so hard? > 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.” > (Re)Introductions > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter III: (Re)Introductions Twilight awoke, again, to the cruel sun streaming through her windows. She sighed and rolled out of her bed. Wait. She took a look around at her room. It was her room. She smiled and thought to herself, “Gee, maybe that was just a dream!” Her smile grew as she started hearing her friends’ voices down below. Oh, how good it was, hearing Fluttershy’s drawling voice, and Rainbow Dash’s bubbly ramblings, and her voice mixed between the two. Wait. Twilight took a quick look at herself and grumbled loudly. Finally, she opened the door, fumbling a little with the handle in her teeth, and walked out until she could look at everypony. There they were, all five of them looking back at her. Spike walked out from underneath, carrying a tray of pastries, and after he set the platter down he turned and joined their stares. “Erm, well, howdy-“ Twilight began. After a harsh glare from Fluttershy, she sighed and began again. “Hi, girls. I guess we already know that we’re not us anymore, don’t we.” Rainbow piped up at this, literally bouncing up and down where she sat with a hoof in the air, “Ooh, Ooh! Pick me, pick me! I wanna introduce myself as Pinkie first, just in case somepony else is secretly me unless I announce it first!” “Sugarcube, Ah don’t think that’s how this works. Yer still you, ye jest ain’t in yer own body. An’ I think Rarity over here would be more’n happy to git it back to ye.” Applejack said out of Fluttershy’s mouth. Pinkie Pie, or rather Rarity by deduction, nodded sullenly in agreement, apparently afraid even to speak. Her mane, normally as poofy as cotton candy, likely the same consistency, was straight and hung low. Twilight took another breath, still taken aback by the sudden personality shift. “Rarity, I’m sorry, I know how much pride you took in your mane, I-“ “It’s not that…” Rarity said softly, trailing off. “Beg pardon, Rar?” Applejack said “Didn’t quite catch that.” “I…” Rarity took a moment to compose herself. “The Voices… It’s the Voices with no tongue!” “Ah… Beg pard-“ “OOH! I wondered what became of those since I don’t have my Pinkie Sense anymore and so I guess they’re kinda related or something? Anyway, what she means is that she’s currently in shock by the tremendous Voices of the Elder Things whispering thunderously into her brain every second of every minute of every hour of every-“ “Wait wait wait.” Rainbow Dash said, stuffing a hoof into her own mouth. “Wait. Let’s take a step back from this… thing. That’s not the issue at hoof. At least, not yet, I guess. We’ll worry about that later. Or never, because that sounds totally awesome and I know it’s just gonna be disappointing and boring. Twilight, you know anything that might have caused all this… uh, stuff?” Twilight sighed and trotted down the stairs. “No, Rainbow, I don’t. I didn’t even know anything was wrong until I realized this morning that I was in AJ’s room.” “Now wait just a consarned minute! What in the hay is wrong with-“ “Nothing! Augh… except I had to deal with your family. AppleBloom and Granny didn’t think twice, I think, but Big Mac…” Twilight shook her head to get herself back on track. “That’s not the point! The point is that we have to figure this out! What’s the last thing you remember before this morning, girls?” Oddly enough, it was Fluttershy who stepped forward first, trying to hide behind her purple coif. “Well, you see, Twilight, we’ve already thought about that, and none of us did any special magic or explored any cursed tombs or anything. We just woke up like this,” She motioned gently towards everypony else in the library. “I’m sorry.” Twilight thought for a moment. “Girls, I think we should probably talk to the Princesses about this. Surely they’d be familiar with what’s happening to us, I mean they’ve probably seen just about everything, right? Spike, can you draft up a letter to send to the Princess about what’s happened?” The little dragon straightened himself up and flashed a quick salute as he scurried off to find some parchment and a quil. In the mean time, the mixed six shuffled somewhat awkwardly, not especially sure what to do. Finally, the quiet was interrupted by, surprise, Pinkie. “Oh! We should have a sleepover! You know, just the six of us! We’ll all go back and pack supplies for a few days here while we figure out what happened and then when Twilight zaps us back, barring some hideous mistake, we’ll all just get back to our homes!” “Um, excuse me, mistake?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight was impressed, she actually had to look closely to tell that she was shaking. “Sleepovers!” Pinkie shouted again, then abruptly stopped and took a deep breath. “That means we can have a party with all of us right here and it’ll be super duper awesome! C’mon, let’s go pack!” “Pinkie, that’s… Actually not a bad plan. Girls? You up for it?” Twilight looked four nodding faces and stopped at Dash. “You don’t think we should?” “Huh? I never said that! It’s just, what does it matter to me? I’m you now, as far as everyponies concerned, I live here. As such, you have my awesomely humble permission.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “Then it’s settled! Girls, let’s get packing!” Twilight started trotting to the door when her path was suddenly blocked by Applejack. “Erm, uh, Twilight, Ah think that Ah should pack for ye, erm, don’t you worry none, it ain’t goin’ outta mah way, ‘sides this gives ye some extra time to start yer research into this, right?” The yellow Pegasus said quickly, forcing a smile while biting her bottom lip gently. Twilight didn’t notice, or else didn’t respond to the suspicious behavior. “Hmm. You’re right, AJ, thank you! Okay. Girls? Let’s all meet back here in two hours, I’m going to start putting together some books that might help.” With that, she turned and began scanning her shelves, muttering a few unintelligible fragments of her sorting codes and patterns. Applejack sighed, evidently relieved, and motioned for the rest of the girls to head out. Just as the door was closing, Spike heard Rainbow Dash’s voice, so Pinkie, asking Applejack if Twilight knew about “them” yet, as he entered the library proper with the parchment and quill ready. After a few minutes, he flagged Twilight’s attention to him and he told her what he had written so far. She nodded, “That sounds perfect, Spike, just what I expect from my Number One Assistant! Send it off, and give me a hand with these books?” The little dragon smiled, nodded, and incinerated the letter in a jet of green flame, whisking it away to Canterlot. “Sure thing, Twi, what would you do without me?”