Twilight Sparkle watched from inside Town Hall as Pinkie Pie directed pony after pony to the two available repurposed voting booths. There was a third booth, but it remained empty for the time being. Twilight crossed her forelegs and pouted. "This is so aggravating," she said. "That third booth is just standing there, empty! I don't know why I agreed to sit on the sidelines like this."
Rarity gently placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Pinkie Pie told me about the arrangement, Twilight, and I'm afraid I agree with the others. You and Rainbow Dash have terrible poker faces, and Spike's isn't much better," she said, gently. "We need somepony to handle quality control and manage this entire undertaking, and that is precisely where you excel. Meanwhile, Pinkie's at the 'front of the house' where she belongs, Rainbow Dash and Amethyst Star are busy locating everypony and keeping them in order, and Fluttershy, Starlight Glimmer, and Applejack can pony the booths."
Spike nodded. "It's not so bad, Twilight. You get to handle the edge cases, and you're here if anypony has an emergency. It's not like you're being lazy."
"There haven't been more than a hoofful of edge cases, Spike. We seem to be moving quickly with just two ponies doing the sorting, but Applejack hasn't even returned yet—which is starting to worry me, too," said Twilight, pointing at the empty booth. Then she sighed and rubbed at the base of her horn with a hoof. "Look... I'm sorry, guys. I shouldn't be complaining. I just feel like I'm weighing everypony down by sitting here and waiting, and I know how stressful this must be on all of you."
"There's no need to fret, Twilight," said Rarity, removing her hoof from her friend and using it to adjust the medical bandage covering her own forehead. "After I've rested a few more moments, I'll go ahead and pony the third booth until Applejack arrives."
Twilight Sparkle continued to sulk while watching all the activity going on inside Town Hall. Pinkie Pie was as efficient as she was cheerful, greeting each pony one by one as they slowly entered the building in a long queue that snaked back and forth over most of the free space inside. What little Twilight could see of the outside suggested the queue continued on for blocks. Most ponies who came through the line were dismissed relatively quickly, but the small number of ponies who required additional attention sat nearby playing board games and eating snacks as they waited. Although everypony had been headbanded by Rainbow Dash while still outside the building, Pinkie would sneak a peek at each pony's forehead in order to screen out some of the non-toggling ponies whose dates were so far in the future they didn't need to be checked. This helped speed things up considerably.
Spike was busy writing up more sorting cards labeled Still Toggles, Kinda Early, and Really Early for the mares in the booths to distribute to ponies who needed further study. So far, neither Starlight nor Fluttershy had requested any extra cards, but it gave him something to do. "Um, Rarity, I forgot to ask. How did the physical screenings go?" he said, wearing a concerned look on his face.
"They went very well. If you must know, yes, they found a small lump. But it can be easily removed, I won't lose the teat, and they can do wonders with implants these days. I suppose I might as well go the whole nine and get a full set," she said, with a wink.
Spike's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and his tongue slipped out of his mouth where it began to collect on the wooden floor, slowly coiling up into a pile.
"Spike!" said Twilight, her brow furrowed sharply.
The little dragon put his claws up in Twilight's face, still staring at Rarity. "Met meh heb tiss mument, Twuymuyght," he mumbled around his ribbony tongue.
Rarity blushed and smirked in response.
"We really need to talk about you leading him on," Twilight whispered to Rarity. "Blast it. I should have had this conversation with you years ago."
"Whatever do you mean, Twilight?" Rarity whispered back. "Spike is in his twenties now. I don't see anything wrong with flirting."
"We'll talk later," said Twilight. "And yes, I know my poker face is terrible. I just feel useless right now, and we have so many ponies to work through," she added.
As if on ironic cue, Fluttershy slipped out of booth two. "I have an exception case, Twilight. Mr. Waddles doesn't remember when he was born," she said.
Twilight pursed her lips for a moment. "Mr. Waddles is ancient. He doesn't need a card unless his date toggles or says something within the next year or so," said Twilight.
"But..." said Fluttershy, wincing.
Rarity nodded. "I'm afraid Twilight is correct, as usual. It's okay, Fluttershy. Ponies get old," she said. "The trick, of course, is to do so fashionably."
Fluttershy hung her head low and returned to her booth. The others could hear her muffled voice from behind the curtain, "It's okay, Mr. Waddles. You can head home now. Just keep the band on until tomorrow noon."
Twilight breathed a nervous sigh of relief. "This... this is way too much. I'm asking too much of you all."
"Nonsense, Twilight. We're always here for you," said Spike. "Fluttershy understands, too."
"Indeed. We're in this together, darling," said Rarity. "Our extraordinary service to the community is just part of the price of being... how would Rainbow Dash put it? 'Amazingly awesome', or something along those lines. Saviors of Equestria and all that silliness."
Twilight Sparkle chuckled darkly. "Yes, I suppose," she said. "I definitely think you're all awesome for putting up with my shenanigans, at least."
"Just a moment," Starlight Glimmer said to somepony as she stepped out of her booth and looked around. "Oh, hello Rarity, welcome back. I assume everything went well?" Without waiting for a response, she turned to Twilight Sparkle. "Twilight, I thought you'd like to know something interesting: I just handled our first triple-toggler."
"That's fascinating!" Twilight responded, with an open-mouthed smile. "I didn't think we'd have any, given how the spell works. What happened?"
"I agree it's pretty strange. I don't know how to fit it into theory yet, but it wasn't hard to solve. The dates were cycling from latest to earliest, which is the reverse of what I would have expected. I wrote down both of the earlier dates and followed the rest of the instructions, then the whole thing went solid," she said. "Anyway, just wanted to share. Back to the grind." Starlight Glimmer smiled tiredly and returned to her booth.
"I feel even more guilty for finding this data so... so horse-feathered interesting," said Twilight Sparkle. "Er, sorry for the language," she added. Spike giggled at the profanity as he sucked his tongue back into his mouth like a plate of spaghetti.
"There's nothing wrong with how you feel, Twilight. It is interesting, even if it is a touch macabre," said Rarity. "At any rate, I think I'll go pony AJ's booth now. I assume this page holds the various instructions for classification? 'Look for toggle but don't read the date; if it stops, go to step 2a. If it doesn't toggle, ask the pony if it toggled previously...' Seems clear enough, but I'd expect nothing less from our resident genius."
"Thanks," said Twilight, now blushing herself. "Fortunately we haven't needed hardly any of the cards. Apparently, most of the togglers can be fixed right on the spot."
"Woo-hoo! We've hit the one-quarter mark!" announced Pinkie.
"I guess we're going pretty fast," said Spike, with a smile. "At this rate, we should finish the sorting before nightfall, and given the small number of cards being hoofed out, we'll have a lot of time to handle the special cases too."
Twilight smiled and exhaled deeply. "Oh, thank the Sun and Moon."
"I don't know how Pinkie keeps track of all of them," added Rarity. "You know, I'll wager she's not even counting the total. She probably remembers exactly which ponies have been through the line."
Twilight nodded. "Honestly? Pinkie may act like a lunatic much of the time, but sometimes I think she's a genius in her own way—"
Just then, Applejack burst her way into Town Hall, apologizing to each and every pony she bumped into along the way. "Pardon me, miss. Beggin' your pardon. Excuse me, sir," she said repeatedly, finally arriving at the side table where Twilight, Spike, and Rarity sat. "Um, hay, Twilight? I'm... I'm here to help now."
It was obvious from Applejack's reddened eyes that she'd been crying, which her friends recognized as highly unusual for the stoic mare. In fact, in the ten years they'd known each other, Twilight couldn't remember ever seeing her friend look this distraught.
"Oh no. What happened, AJ?" Rarity asked, walking up right next to her.
Applejack removed her hat, briefly exposing her date. "I, well, uh... I believe I can confirm that the date thing is indeed accurate," she said, softly.
"Dear sweet Celestia," said Spike, covering his mouth with his claws. Twilight and Rarity were completely speechless.
"No, no, it's okay. We knew she was gonna kick it sooner or later," said Applejack. "It's maybe a little premature, but it ain't a shock. She had yesterday's date, oddly enough, which means she must have passed on before you cast that horrible spell. So, I guess it works on corpses too."
"Oh Applejack, I am so sorry," said Twilight, grimacing as her own tears began to well. Rarity said nothing, but took an olive-colored headband she'd picked up from the table and wrapped it around her friend's head, then simply embraced Applejack close to her barrel.
"Again, it's... it's okay, honest," said Applejack—yet she held Rarity in her legs as tight as one of Harry's bearhugs. "And it ain't your fault, Twi. I'm not sayin' you were apologizin' for it, but even if you wasn't, just know that you shouldn't. It was bound to happen one way or the other, and I'm grateful for the times we had together." She replaced the Steedson hat on her head, now less awkwardly tilted.
"I can't even imagine," said Spike. "You probably need to go, like, make arrangements... or something?"
Applejack shook her head. "I reckon we got things under control now that Big Macintosh knows what's what. His forehead's so red you can't even see the EXP unless you squint, funny enough. I did squint, though, and he's got a long life ahead of him, thank the earth beneath our hooves. I told him to look out for Apple Bloom and to bring her here if her date ain't way off in the future or if it blinks. He's gonna keep her out of Granny's room as well. Bloom may be a grown mare now, but she don't need to see Smith Apple cold and stiff with that cursed mark still on her noggin. Granny already had her special air cooler thing on freezin' cold, so she'll be good for a couple of days at least. No worries."
"Applejack, I... I really don't want to bring this up now, but did you check on the cattle and sheep, by any chance? If not, I can send somepony to take care of them," said Twilight.
"Neigh, Mac got that covered too. They never complain about nothin', bless their hearts. There were a few of them with the blinkin' forehead thing, but I told him what to do to help them, so that's probably all fixed up by now," she said. "I'll check up on them later tonight." Applejack took a deep, empty swallow, and the muscles in her cheeks quivered.
Rarity gently broke the hug, and put on a very serious face. "You are not going to work in here, Applejack, and that is final."
"Nothin' doin'. I'm here, and I aim to help y'all," said Applejack, her voice less firm than the words it carried.
"Rarity's right. She can pony the third booth for you. You should go find Rainbow Dash and help her round up the rest of the ponies in town, excluding the ones in the hospital. Sparkler probably needs a break by now, and Dash has a list of likely stragglers Pinkie's been keeping her up to date on," said Twilight. "I'll send Starlight Glimmer to handle Ponyville General once we're done sorting here, though Rarity's already taken care of most of the staff and patients."
Applejack stared at the floor and pulled her lips tightly together, still stalwartly holding back any further waterworks. "Right. Right, yeah. Good plan as always, Twilight. Thank you kindly," she said. "And good luck on this end, guys."
Twilight smiled and brushed a tear aside. "Thank you for understanding. Even from the start, this whole thing hasn't exactly been easy for you."
A soft smile broke across Applejack's face. "Yeah, I guess not. But then, nothin' worth doin' ever is, is it?" she said, then winked and tipped her hat before trotting back toward the door.
"What a trooper," whispered Spike, shaking his head.
"Of all ponies, I can't imagine Amethyst Star requesting a break," said Rarity, with a sad smile. "Besides, we don't even need two ponies rounding up the rest of the town, do we? I mean, everypony who hasn't been checked is probably in line as we speak. That monstrous queue wraps around town square five times at least. When I came in here not ten minutes ago, Dash was entertaining the crowd, and Sparkler was idly fetching water and chairs for those who need them."
Twilight nodded solemnly. "Oh, I know. But Rainbow Dash will commiserate with her, and that's exactly what Applejack needs right now."
Rarity looked back at Twilight with misty eyes, then took her instructions and headed to booth three.