Colours whizzed past her head. Applejack felt herself spinning head over heels. Gravity was up. Then down. Left, right, up down, up, right, left, up, down, right. She would have vomited if only she could.
She could feel the changes happening to her body. It wasn’t painful exactly. But it felt like it should have been. Her body was twisting into strange proportions. Some parts were getting smaller, others were getting bigger. Other parts were disappearing altogether to be replaced with things entirely new parts. Other parts were moving from one place to another. Finally it was too much. She closed her eyes and darkness settled in.
Opening her eyes, Applejack found herself looking up at the blue sky. She could feel a hard surface beneath her. She rolled onto her front, seeing paving stones cutting through a grassy lawn. She tried to stand. And immediately fell.
“Hey there!” A voice spoke up. “Try not to move too much. First time through the portal can be pretty weird.”
Applejack looked up and saw a strange figure. It was... well she could hardly describe it. She had never seen anything quite like it.
“I’m Sunset Shimmer.” The figure spoke. “I don’t know if you remember me. Twilight said you were both there that night when I stole...” she trailed off for a moment, “well that’s not important right now.”
Looking at the girl more closely, Applejack remembered vague details. A yellow Unicorn with a red and yellow mane. This...creature, for want of a better word, looked a little like her. Suddenly, to her side, another voice spoke up.
“That was awesome!” Rainbow cheered. “What a rush! I haven’t been on a ride like that since the Dizzitron at the academy!”
Applejack smiled despite herself. Typical Rainbow Dash. Always living in the moment. Applejack turned to look at her. And her eyes shot wide open in shock. The figure next to her didn’t look like Rainbow at all. Well, sort of. The figure was blue enough, and she certainly had that mop of rainbow mane. But she looked more like the creature claiming to be Sunset Shimmer than a normal pony. She was also wearing clothes, a light blue hoodie, black sweats and white sneakers. That couldn’t be Rainbow, Rainbow hadn’t been wearing any-
Then it came back to her. She had zoned out for most of Twilight’s lecture, but she had caught a few snippets here and there. Something about changing form, walking on two legs, having arms and claw-like things called “hands”. Steadying herself, Applejack looked down at her own body.
“GAH!” She cried out and started thrashing around, trying to gain some semblance of control over her new form. It all seemed so wrong! Her limbs were long and skinny, her joints bent in different directions, her face was smaller, her tail was gone, her front hooves split into five weird little-
“Take it easy!” Sunset took hold of her. “It’s okay! I went through the same thing, you’re going to be fine.
Applejack forced herself to calm down, taking some deep breaths. She could do this, she could do this. Twilight did it, Sunset did. All she needed was to-
“AAAUUGGHH!” Rainbow’s scream filled the air. “What’s happened to me?”
Applejack rolled her eyes as Sunset went to tend to the other girl. She took a moment to look down and inspect herself. Like Rainbow she was now wearing new clothing, in addition to her still present cowpony hat. She had an orange button up shirt, blue jeans and brown leather boots.
“Huh. Well this ain’t so bad.” Applejack thought to herself. “Although...” She rolled the sleeves of the shirt up to her elbows. “Much better.”
She returned to watching Sunset trying to restrain Rainbow. The blue Pega-...blue...person... was still flailing around like rat in a trap and it was clear that Sunset was going to need some help. If Applejack was going to be of assistance, it was clear she would need to figure this new body out. Seeing how Sunset appeared to be walking on two legs, Applejack figured she ought to do the same. Couldn’t be too hard, right? Spike did it all the time after all.
Placing her booted feet firmly on the ground, Applejack rose up. She wobbled a little. But then she steadied herself. She planted her...hands...on her hips proudly. Hah! That wasn’t so-
WHAM
Applejack touched her nose tenderly. The bleeding had pretty much stopped and it didn’t feel like anything was broken. Though she did have to wonder why that stone paving was really necessary. Wouldn’t have been so bad if she had just fallen on the grass...
By this point Rainbow had calmed down. Sunset had managed to get the two of them to sit up against the base of a stone statue of a pony, which apparently was the portal back home, and she was now introducing herself properly to Rainbow.
“It’s okay.” She was saying in a soothing voice. “I freaked out pretty bad the first time I came here-”
“Woah, woah, woah!” Rainbow cut her off. “I did not freak out! I’m totally chillaxed! If Twilight could handle this, I can handle ten times as easily!” She started looking at herself, checking out her new body.
“Okay.“ Sunset seemed to sigh and smile at the same time. “I’m glad you’re taking this so-”
“Where the hay are my wings?”
It had taken another five minutes, but Applejack and Sunset had finally managed to calm Rainbow down again. Well, at least she wasn’t hyperventilating anymore. As the blue girl struggled to comprehend the cruelty fate had bestowed upon her, Applejack once again rose to her feet. She still stumbled a little, but she managed to not fall this time.
“So I guess introductions are in order.” She spoke to Sunset. “I’m Applejack and this here is-”
“I already know.” Sunset gave her an apologetic smile. “That’s the other weird thing about this place. I’ve already met you two. Well...other versions of you two.”
Applejack blinked for a moment. “Right, o’ course. There’s another Applejack runnin’ around these parts. That’s gonna take some gettin’ used to...”
“I can’t imagine.” Sunset replied. “Still, even if I kind of know you, I guess you don’t really know me yet.” She held her claw, no, hand out to Applejack. “Welcome to our world.”
Applejack stared at the appendage offered to her. She tentatively held out her own and allowed Sunset to grasp and shake it. That was...odd.
“So,” Sunset continued, “Princess Twilight said the two of you had a mission of some kind?”
“That’s right.” Applejack replied. “It’s a little hard to explain, I don’t always understand it myself, but we got a job to do. Basically we gotta find somepony-”
“Somebody.”
“...Some...body...with a friendship problem. Then we find a way to fix it. Once that’s done our Cutie Marks glow to tell us- Hey wait a minute.” Applejack looked down at her hips. “We still have our Cutie Marks, right?” She tugged at the sides of her jeans. If the Marks were anywhere, they’d probably be-
“Woah!” Sunset reached out and gragged Applejack’s arms. “I don’t know how much Twilight told you about this place, but you should really keep those on!”
“Uhh...”
“Just...trust me. We still have our Marks, right where they should be. It’s just that this world has kind of a strange custom about clothing.”
“Why would-”
“Hey!” Rainbow suddenly cut in, having finally managed to get to her own feet. “Are we gonna hurry up and get this job done or what? The sooner we get out of here, the sooner I get my wings back!”
“Ugh.” Applejack pinched the bridge of her nose. Surprisingly that move was a lot more satisfying with a finger and thumb than with a hoof. “While she ain’t got her priorities exactly right, Rainbow does have a point. We need to figure out what the friendship problem is.”
“So you guys just go wherever you’re told to and find problems to fix?” Sunset asked.
“Well actually we just kinda go where the Map says and wait around ‘til the problem finds us.” Saying it aloud, Applejack realised it didn’t come across as the best plan.
“I see...” Sunset obviously still wasn’t convinced. “Well I guess if you need to solve a friendship problem, it’d help if you had more friends to talk to.” She pulled a strange device from her pocket and tapped it a number of times with her fingers. She held it up to her ear and after a few moments, began talking. “Hey guys, they’re here... Yeah they’re a little confused, but I think we’re past the worst of it, you wanna come on over?”
“Um, Applejack?” Rainbow nudged the cowgirl in the ribs. “I think this girl’s lost it. Who’s she talking to?”
“I have no idea Sugarcube...”
Seemingly done with her one sided conversation, Sunset returned the device to her pocket. “I told the others to wait until I had a chance to help you two get used to things. I figured it would be kind of overwhelming to meet everyone all at once.”
“I can see why.” A new voice suddenly piped up from behind the statue. Well...it was new...but strangely familiar...
Applejack wasn’t sure how much time had passed. Upon hearing the new voice, she had turned away from Rainbow and found herself face to face with...Rainbow. But the strangest of all had been when she saw the human version of...herself.
To be fair, she clearly wasn’t the only one who found this situation weird. Both Rainbows and the other Applejack were all staring at each other open mouthed. Even Sunset seemed apprehensive.
“Okay.” Sunset awkwardly stepped in. “So Applejack and Rainbow Dash, meet...Applejack and Rainbow Dash? That’s going to be confusing...”
“Um...” the other Applejack fidgeted before holding out her hand, “hey there...partner.”
Applejack looked at the hand for a moment. It was identical to her own. Remembering what Sunset had done earlier, she took hold of it with her own hand and shook.
“Nice to meet you...Applejack?” Applejack winced.
“Okay, we have to do something about this!” Rainbow interjected. “We can’t keep calling each other by our own names, it’s just...weird!”
“Well duh!” The other Rainbow replied. “At what point did you think this wasn’t gonna be weird?”
“We should probably try to think of different names for the different Rainbows and Applejacks.” Sunset interjected, cutting off Rainbow’s incoming retort to her double.
“I know!” The other Rainbow exclaimed. “How about Human Applejack and Human Rainbow Dash, and Pony Applejack and Pony Rainbow!”
“That...sounds like a mouthful.” The other Applejack gave her a disparaging look.
“Well, our Applejack and Rainbow already have nicknames.” Sunset stepped forwards. “How about we call them A.J and Dash, while the pony versions can keep being called Applejack and Rainbow?”
“Hey, why do we have to use different names?” The other Rainbow cut in.
“Maybe because they are our guests, Dash.” The other Applejack lightly smacked her on the shoulder. “I think that’s a perfectly fine idea Sunset. As long as they’re here, I’m just fine goin’ by A.J.”
The other Rainbow grunted in reluctant agreement and the group collectively let out a sigh of relief. At least there would be one thing made a little easier.
“So just so we know exactly what’s goin’ on here,” A.J continued, “how long are you aimin’ to stay here? Not that we ain’t happy to have you or nothin’, we just need to-”
“Nah I get it.” Applejack replied. “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with hashin’ out a few details.” Applejack smiled. Her other self seemed pretty easy to get on with. Which was more than could be said for Rainbow and Dash, who were currently eyeing each other like two caged animals. “We don’t know exactly how long this job is gonna take. As we were sayin’ to Sunset, it just kinda happens when it happens.”
“So, we talkin’ hours? Days? Weeks?” A.J asked.
“Hopefully no more than a couple o’ days.” Applejack replied. “It ain’t never taken more than that yet.”
A.J grinned. “Then it sounds to me like you’re gonna need a place to stay!”
TO BE CONTINUED...