//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Giving Love a Helping Hoof // by Kroqgar //------------------------------// Giving Love a Helping Hoof Chapter 4 In a small, seldom-used antechamber off the banquet hall of the great capitol of Canterlot, two seriously freaking out ponies stared dumbly at each other. Two minds, normally so able, were completely incapable of stringing together a coherent thought. With a sharp twang, a single hair in the mane of each flew askance. As one, the two started rambling, not so much talking to each other as they were voicing their thoughts. “This makes absolutely no sense!” “How can this even be possible?!” “You can't be real!” “Is this all a dream? Did I have too much of Granny Smith's 'special' cider?” “Maybe I fell off the chariot on the way to Canterlot and I'm in a coma!” “What if we all never even had a sleepover?” “What if I never even went to Ponyville!?” “What if Ponyville isn't even real!” “What if I'M not even real!” “What if-” “What if-” Finally, in what two eavesdropping Alicorns would call really, really creepy, they both shouted in perfect unison, “Oh, just look at me! I'm CUTE!” … Celestia snorted loudly, before slapping a hoof to her mouth. It was funny. By the Sun, was it funny. The fillies traded glances, concerned. Rarity looked in shock at having heard such a noise from her. “Are you alright, your majesty?” ventured Rainbow Dash. Exerting a titanic effort to contain the explosive force of her steadily building mirth, the princess merely smiled benignly. “Nothing to worry about my dear, just clearing my throat.” At that the pegasus turned away, apparently satisfied with her improvised response. Tuning her senses back towards the next room, the Alicorn thought to herself, “Heavens, I certainly hope things wind down from here. I think I felt one of my ribs break.” … The two purple ponies stared at each other, glowing like the setting sun at what they'd each said. Both fervently wished they hadn't blurted out something like that in the heat of the moment, but what's done is done. Eventually, rationality was prodded awake and rose grumbling out of bed to impose itself on the situation. Clearing his throat, the colt said, “This is going nowhere. Slowly.” “Well...” offered Twilight, “What now?” After a moment's consideration, the colt walked over to her. Up close, it really was disconcerting, seeing oneself reflected in the opposite gender. He raised his hoof. “Pleased to meet you. My name is Dusk Shine.” “Dusk Shine...”. His words echoed through Twilight's mind for a moment. She latched onto his practicality. “Pleased to meet you, Dusk Shine.” She raised her own hoof. “I'm Twilight Sparkle.” As their hooves connected, it was all they could do not to shy away. Moon and Stars, this was awkward. And warm. Twilight suddenly remembered the depth of the situation. She cast out a simple magical scan, so cursory she barely felt it, but the results were unmistakeable: He was saturated with magical residue. It almost felt like the magic of Princess Celestia, heady and comforting all at once. Yet it was not quite right. As if... as if wielded in a subtly different manner. The same quill, yet two ponies' hoofwriting. That puzzle could wait for another time. A time when she wasn't locked in a room. With a colt. Desperate to derail that train of thought, Twilight clenched her eyes shut for a moment, her horn glowing. Dusk Shine blinked as two cushy pillows popped into existence. Twilight smiled. “Why don't we sit down? I'm sure you've got quite a tale to tell.” Dusk laughed as he collapsed down onto a pillow. “Yes, I suppose you could say that Miss Sparkle.” The filly settled on the second pillow with a bit more grace. “Please, just call me Twilight.” He looked at her with a smile. “So long as you call me Dusk.” Twilight laughed. “I think that can be arranged!” She looked down and he quickly glanced away, clearing his throat. The silence stretched. Dusk abruptly spoke up. “Anyway, my story!” Grinning like a foal, Twilight said, “Yes! Of course!” The colt crossed his hooves in front of him and rested his chin upon them. “Well, there isn't really all that much to it. I woke up yesterday evening, and found myself in a small copse just outside Canterlot. I have no idea how I got there, or how I managed to sleep through a night and almost a full day, but all the guys were there too. I assumed it had something to do with the Elements.” Twilight's eyes widened. She wet her suddenly dry lips. “Elements?” He looked at her like she'd grown a second head. “Yeah, the Elements. Of Harmony? Surely you know... about... them...” He trailed off, clearly coming to the same conclusion as her. They both sat there in silence, lost in the incredible oddness of the situation. “Dusk... What are their names?” The colt looked at her, ticking them off in his head. “There's Rainbow Blitz, Applejack, Berry Bubble, Butterscotch and Elusive. And yours?” “Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity. AJ's still the same.” The moment spiralled into silence yet again, the pair trying to wrap their minds around the situation. Dusk eventually spoke up, saying, “What's going on?” Twilight massaged her temples with her hooves. “At this point Dusk, I have no idea. Why don't you finish your story?” He nodded. “Fair enough. So, we all woke up outside Canterlot. I thought we might have been summoned there by the Princess or something, so we waited around for a little while. Nopony showed up, so we headed into Canterlot to see her. Everything seemed normal, right up until I requested to see Princess Celestia. The guard let us in, but told me that we weren't expected by the Princess, nor had he ever heard of a pony by the name of Dusk Shine. My suspicions compounded when the princess didn't recognise me, or any of us.” Twilight could well imagine. “I'm sure that was a shock.” Dusk looked at her, a hint of a smile on his face. “You have no idea. Imagine if she didn't recognise you, Twilight.” The filly shuddered, and he smiled properly. “My feelings exactly. In any case, after a few questions she gave us all a place to sleep right here in Canterlot and we were woken up by Princess Luna this morning. I have no idea how she stays up all night and doesn't seem tired, but I suppose she is an Alicorn. We've been with her ever since.” “So...” Twilight cast an appraising glance over him, gaze roving over his angular face, his short, well-trimmed mane and (she had to look away) his horn. “Let's get this straight...” She sighed. “You're me, aren't you.” It wasn't a question, but Dusk still answered. “Yes. And you are me.” Twilight was shaking her head before he finished. “This isn't possible.” Dusk laughed, sputtering for a moment. “And yet here we are!” “Yes,” said Twilight. His grin was infectious. “Here we are.” She noticed how deeply Dusk had sunk into his cushion; it almost seemed like the colt was falling asleep. “Tired?” He answered her question with a huge yawn. “Sure as hay. Couldn't sleep. I was up all night trying to figure everything out. How we got here, why the Princess didn't recognise us...” “Come up with anything?” He rubbed his eyes. “Well, sure. Nothing that made much sense though.” Twilight laughed. “I'm sitting here with a male version of myself. At this point we've kind of thrown sense out the window.” “Point taken. The first idea I came up with was that we are from parallel planes of existence, and my group somehow ended up here.” Twilight raised a brow. “Even for a wild theory that sounds pretty crazy.” “Exactly, that's why I discarded the idea so quickly. I think I only came up with it because I read it in a book not too long ago, as a matter of fact.” “That's funny,” said Twilight, a hoof to her chin. “I think I might have read the same book. Cross...Cross... Crossing something?” “I think it was 'Crossing the Arrow' Twilight.” The filly shook her head. “No, it was definitely 'On the Arrow's Crossing'. I only read it three weeks ago.” Her pondering screeched to a halt as Dusk shot to his hooves. “Three weeks ago?” Perplexed, Twilight responded, “Yes, three weeks ago. Why?” He ignored her question. “Right after you finished reading 'Supernaturals' again?” “Yes, as a matter of fact.” The filly narrowed her eyes, suspicious. “To find a cure...” “...for Spike's laryngitis”, finished Dusk with a sigh. “I was afraid of this. We have the same memories. Exactly the same memories, give or take some here and there for being different genders. None of the theories I came up with make any sense at all now.” “We need to focus on what we know”, said Twilight practically. “We can figure out everything else later, and I'm sure the Princess will have some additional information for us.” “Ok,” agreed Dusk with a nod. “What do we know?” “Firstly, we know that your group came here, otherwise why wouldn't the princess recognise you?” After a moment's consideration, Dusk nodded. “We know that we are each other, somehow. The only difference between us is our gender and some adjusted memories.” Again, Dusk nodded. “At this point, that's really all we've got. We don't know how you got here, we don't know how this affects the Elements, and we don't know why you're saturated in odd magic.” This was news to Dusk. “Magic? I haven't noticed anything weird.” Twilight pursed her lips in thought. “You must have just become used to it.” She told Dusk everything she knew about the whole situation, from the scroll sent by Celestia to the quick chat with the Princess herself before being shunted into the room. Dusk Shine groaned. “That just raises more questions than answers! Now I'm covered in magic that no one has experienced in living memory and Princess Celestia herself has no idea what's going on.” His mouth twisted in a wry grin. “Fantastic.” Unable to sit still with her thoughts in such turmoil, Twilight rose and began pacing the small room. “The one thing I'm concerned about is the Elements.” Dusk's ears pricked and he raised his head. “The Elements? What about them?” “Well, what becomes of them now?” The purple filly met his gaze, her eyes shining at this new puzzle. “There can't be two sets of Elements. Or can there? Is one group now the Elements of Harmony, or both? Or neither?” The colt rose from his cushion and placed a hoof on her shoulder to steady her. “There's no point in getting worked up over something we can't figure out. Besides, I think that's exactly what everypony else is doing outside right now.” He tilted his head towards a side-door. “I say we go and wait in the banquet hall like the Princess said, and let everypony else have their own little meetings. Then we can see what else the Princess might be able to tell us, and whether we can make more sense of the situation.” Twilight was a little slow on the uptake, still stuck on processing the hoof on her shoulder. His touch felt firm, warm and undeniably right. She realised that Dusk was looking at her quizzically, expecting a response. He lowered his hoof. With a slight shake of her head, Twilight smiled. “You're right. No need to make an Ursa of a parasprite. Come on.” With that, the filly started trotting towards the door. Dusk stared at his hoof for a moment before following her. … One by one, each filly and each colt met their counterpart and one by one each pair followed Dusk and Twilight out into the banquet hall. The two unicorns, though sorely tempted, did not try and overhear what went on in the room. They patiently waited in the hall, seated a respectable distance away from each other and trying not to think about how awkward the silence had gotten and how much they hoped the other didn't notice their blushing. First to trot out of the room was a chuckling pair of Applejacks, both with smiles on their faces. Though Twilight had tried to prepare herself for the shock of seeing one of her best friends in stallion form, it wasn't exactly an easy thing to shrug off. Her jaw dropped in unison with Dusk's. Applejack (the colt) stood almost a full head taller than Applejack (the filly) and his workhorse musculature definitely showed through more on a stallion, though aside from that he was unsurprisingly similar to her. Same cutie mark, same freckles, same old Stetson hat, though perched on a shorter mane. The farm ponies approached the two gaping unicorns. “Well howdy!” said Applejack (the filly), offering a hoof. “You must be Dusk Shine!” “And you,” said Applejack (the colt), “must be Twilight Sparkle!” He offered his own large hoof. Smiling awkwardly, Twilight endured the colt's vigorous hoofshake. “I suppose you're Applejack?” Dusk was surprised that a filly's grip was able to leave his own hoof so numb. “And I suppose you're... also... Applejack?” The tan pair laughed, completely at ease. “Already thought of that!” responded the big stallion. “From now on, Ah'm gonna be Applejack,” he announced, indicating himself before pointing at his counterpart, “and she's gonna be AJ.” “We hoofwrassled for it,” explained AJ, glaring at Applejack, “which I STILL don't think was fair! Just look at how many more muscles you've got!” She quickly looked away and cleared her throat. “If only you coulda' hoofwrassled Big Macintosh...” Applejack, a slight blush evident, raised an incredulous brow and smiled cheekily. “Now who ain't bein' fair?” AJ sighed wearily. “Yeah, yeah. Anyways...” She raised her gaze back to the unicorns. “Ah guess we're all on the same page now. These guys,” she tilted her head towards Applejack, “Wake up outside Canterlot one day, nopony recanises 'em, and they find out that they're all fillies here. Sound about right?” Unsurprised at her ability to put things so succinctly, though still unaccustomed to hearing it in such a high tone, Dusk nodded to the farmfilly. “Couldn't have said it better myself AJ. Twilight and I had gotten to that point, but after that, all we could keep thinking of was wild, crazy theories. We decided to just come out here, wait for everypony else, and see what the princesses might be able to tell us.” Applejack lowered himself down to the floor and crossed his hooves. “Sounds good to me haystack.” The four ponies sat and chatted for a short while, really having little to say. How exactly does one politely enquire about the life of somepony who is essentially a stranger, whilst simultaneously knowing almost every detail? The situation was quite unique. So they chatted about that too. From what they could deduce, the one and only notable difference in the lives of the colts and the fillies was that in Dusk and Applejack's world, Blueblood was a princess, not a prince, which was accepted after a moment's thought. “Though I'm sure her behaviour was exactly as rude,” remarked Dusk. Beyond that, everything was shockingly, eerily identical. Applejack and AJ, perhaps being a bit more stubborn than your average pony, grilled each other mercilessly over every small detail they could think of, trying to find just one small difference, but it was impossible. Eventually, the pair relented. “Ah give up,” sighed AJ, “Tain't no use. Everything's exactly the same.” “Well...” Applejack was holding a hoof to his chin, eyes roaming the ceiling. “Almost everything.” “What'd you say?” In an instant, AJ was nose-to-nose with Applejack, so close she may as well have been looking at her own eyes in a mirror. “Whaddaya mean, 'almost everything'? We couldn' find a single difference!” The stallion chuckled. “Well there's always what happens when the bathroom door swings shut behind ya!” AJ drew back, red in the face, and swatted a hoof across the back of Applejack's head, sending his Stetson to the floor. “Honestly, talkin' 'bout things like that. You're lucky somepony like Rarity ain't here.” With a laugh, the farmcolt flipped his hat back on. He smiled warmly at AJ as he said, “Me and Elusive never did quite see eye-to-eye.” The filly smiled right back, before they both looked away, suddenly far more interested in their own hooves. Twilight and Dusk caught each other's eye and grinned, seeing exactly what was going on between their two friends. It was cute, really. Though they both felt kind of bad for that colt/filly from the marketplace. After a moment though they remembered precisely who they were currently looking in the eye and grinning at, and became just as interested in the health of their hooves as the farmer ponies. Slowly, relentlessly, painfully awkwardly, the seconds ticked away, each pony trying desperately to think of something, anything, to say. Interesting books suddenly faded into nameless, bland tomes. Different types of apples became much of a muchness. Recent events became distant memories. Finally, like the tolling of the bell that every schoolfoal prays for, the handle of the door before them started turning and a cultured voice floated towards them. “...and you simply must meet them, my dear Elusive!” Simultaneously, Applejack and AJ gulped.