//------------------------------// // 012 Sky and Earth // Story: Unlucky seven // by Pinklestia //------------------------------// ~~*Twilight The Wish Granter*~~ Twilight the pink unicorn woke up in her huge bed; well huge for her current small equine shape. That had been... a weird dream... or was it even a dream? Maybe that really was Moon Dancer? Her stomach grumbling from hunger, she decided to think about that later, and so instead went to eat the last few slices of the cake Surprise had made for her. Maybe it was her new body, maybe all ponies were crazy for sugar, or maybe the pegasus was just really good at baking cakes but it had been a struggle to not finish it all before. She didn't know why but lately it was like she was tired and lazy all the time. She barely left the beach house to see the stars at night, and that wish she had made was probably at fault. Something told her Earth just didn't have that much magic to start with, that made a mystery of how it could support magical talking ponies like her. Assuming of course that it could and that she and the others weren't going to die hideously due to a lack of magic... which was especially concerning with her Mary Sue like ability to grant wishes. Well not really Mary Sue like, more of a PG version of be careful with what you wish for, unless the Wish was worded very carefully or was made to help others. Even then, from what little she'd managed to research about Twilight, she seemed to cause more havoc than good with her wishes. She wondered if her wish was what was what was causing her to meet other ponies like Surprise and Moon Dancer. She also wondered if there had ever been a 'Megan' to start with. She frowned as she ate the last slice of cake, the Twilight of her memories had been a kind pony but also something of an idiot. She had been way too naive and with her head in stories, and hadn't actually learned to say no when it came to granting wishes. Or to warn others her wishes were dangerous. Well she had been a young idealistic mare and with first Queen Majesty around and later... Mmm wait.... Queen Majesty? No, that was something she had read online, her pony memories didn't show any Queen Majesty. That explained a lot. Any version of Majesty who was called 'Queen Majesty' would have abused the heck out of her wishing powers and forced her to be a decent mage if only due to all her raw power. Not leaver her to waste all her potential. And if anything seeing what that scary Queen did to her enemies would have made her a tad less naive. She started to walk back to the living room, humming an old rhyme and then... "Twilight Twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above other ponies so high, Like a diamond in the sky! Twilight Twinkle, little brat! How I wonder what you're at! Up above the world you don't fly, Like a tea tray falling from the sky!" The unicorn mare then tripped with a pillow on the floor, interrupting her strange improvised song. "What.... what the buck was that? And why the hay did I call myself Twilight Twinkle?" Well it made her a somewhat different pony from the one in her memories. And it avoided the Twilight Sparkle jokes. And her powers did come from the stars. "Fine, Twilight Twinkle it is." ~~*Clumsy but well-meaning Applejack*~~ Applejack woke to pain. A lot of pain. Like... inordinate amounts of pain. Everything seemed to hurt at the moment and she really didn't like it. Not to mention her stomach felt like she hadn't eaten in a weak. For a moment, she tried to get her bearings, she blinked open her bleary eyes a time or two, then stared. Standing over her, looking down at her with a look that suggested both worry and disgust, though mostly disgust, was a unicorn pony. The pony was a pale shade of blue with a purple mane with a red streak and a number of blue diamonds on their flank. "Oh good, you're awake," the pony remarked. She was definitely a girl, that voice and the prissy accent just screamed girl. Applejack blinked in response while the pale blue pony poked her head. "Right then, are you capable of standing?" she questioned. Applejack merely groaned in response. Considering it felt like her nerves were on fire, standing was the last thing she wanted to do. "Ugh... not really," she replied. "Oh of course it would be too much to ask that you could," the pale blue pony grumbled and then started to tap her chin. "What to do with you now I wonder?" she murmured while Applejack stared at her. The unicorn was silent for a moment before she sighed dramatically. "Well I suppose I should at least clean you up before you stain the carpets with all that filth you're covered in," she mused with a frown. With a groan, Sparkler idly leaned down and hefted Applejack up onto her back. She then gave a grunt as the earth pony weighed a surprising amount. She internally decided it was somehow due to the fact she was hefty. After all, weren't all the normal ponies the ones who were supposed to deal with food production or something. With a mutter of putting the other mare on a diet, Sparkler slowly made her way through the house. She internally decided that she'd probably have to help the other pony bathe, loath as she was to do so, since she clearly couldn't do anything for herself. 'It's just lucky that I've had experience cleaning mothers precious little snookums,' Sparkler thought with a roll of her eyes. Of course she had to pause a moment later as she realized that she no longer had something necessary to cleaning the dog in question... IE, she no longer had a pair of hands, or fingers for that matter. Also she'd need to bathe herself after carrying the orange pony... "Ugh, you better be worth all this trouble," Sparkler grumbled in Applejack's direction. The pony in question just gave a pained groan as her response. With a roll of her eyes, Sparkler continued to make her way to the bathroom and the shower. Once she reached the bathroom, and thanked heaven they never closed the door to it, she carried Applejack inside and then dropped her into the tub. The orange mare groaned at the rough handling from the unicorn, but vocalized no other protestations. Sparkler, instead looked to the handles for the water, internally thanking that they were the 'handle bar' type. With a flick of her... ankle? What was that part of a ponies forelimb called anyway? 'Definitely not a wrist,' she noted as she looked down at her forelimb. She then shrugged her shoulders, and wondered if that was what they were called, before she turned on the hot water. She then turned the handle that turned the shower on and idly watched as water cascaded down onto Applejack. The mare in question sighed in enjoyment as the warm water eased several of the aches and pains she'd been experiencing. She managed to open her eyes and glanced up at Sparkler, who seemed to be glaring at her hooves. Then, with a sniff, the unicorn looked down the length of her snout at the orange mare. She briefly glanced around for the dog shampoo, only to grumble when she realized it was pointless. Without hands it wasn't like she could actually get the shampoo bottle open, much less rub it into Applejack's coat. With a click of her tongue she decided to forgo that idea in it's entirety and instead focused on the mare herself. "So..." Sparkler began, Applejack grunted in response. "Well if you're going to be that way," the mare huffed and Applejack silently gave her a look. "Oh fine, I'll give you allowances," she remarked and idly brushed her mane from her face. "So then, what were you doing outside in the filth?" the mare questioned and Applejack sighed. "Woke up... like this... outside," she responded with a pained groan. Sparkler hummed in response, casually watching as the dirt and grime seemed to just slide off of her coat. 'Strange,' the unicorn thought to herself with narrowed eyes. 'Dirt just slides off of her,' she noted and then wondered if she was the same way. 'I suppose that would explain why our coats are always so pristine,' she decided internally. The two were silent as the shower continued, until Sparkler decided that Applejack was clean enough. "Right then, time to come out," she murmured as she turned the water off, "think you can stand now?" she questioned with a frown. Applejack gave a grunt as she slowly managed to get up onto her hooves. She swayed for a moment, but raised a hoof to the rim of the tub to steady herself, then slowly nodded her head. "Excellent," Sparkler decided, "Then kindly exit my tub and the bathroom for a moment," she began only for Applejack to suddenly shake her coat out, causing her to be bombarded with water. With a blink Sparler scowled at Applejack, "Wonderful... well I need to clean myself now," she remarked. Applejack pulled herself out of the tub, then looked to Sparkler as she hopped into the shower behind her. "Would you happen to have something to eat, I'm kind of," Applejack began, only for Sparkler to raise a hoof to silence her. "Later, I will not be covered in this... filth, a second longer than necessary," she stated firmly. She then turned the water on and sat back to let it clean her coat. As she did she noticed Applejack was still in the room and glared at her. "Do kindly wait outside," she stated with a flippant wave and Applejack muttered under her breath as she limped out of the bathroom. The orange mare limped through the house. She grimaced as her stomach gave a sudden growl and caused her to raise a limb to her middle. Unfortunately that also caused her to stumble and fall face forward onto her chin. "Ouch," she muttered with a frown, and gave a low growl. 'Of everything I've had to deal with cause of this weird species change, the clumsiness is by far the worst,' she decided with narrowed eyes. The gender flip kind of annoyed her, sure, but she was trying really really hard not to think about that. However the fact she was tripping all over herself all the time was far worse in her opinion. For one thing, it had made surviving the last few days a lot harder than it had needed to be. For another, she just wasn't used to being so... useless. She could barely take a few steps without tripping over her own hooves. Still, she got back up to her hooves with a shake of her head and then took a quick look around. 'There has to be something to eat around her,' she thought to herself as she searched around Sparkler's home... well, she assumed it was her home.