As Twilight Sparkle cantered along the road she saw the arc reaching its apogee above her and her hooves slid a little as she stopped and waved a forehoof frantically, both the sudden stop and the slight rearing up making Spike nearly fall off her back. He managed to avoid the fall and to avoid grabbing on too hard as he didn’t want to do to Twilight Sparkle’s sides what he’d done to that other Pony’s neck. Twilight Sparkle considered magic and her horn started to glow but this faded as she saw the arc fade and she realised it was too late to signal Rainbow Dash that way.
“Ooooh, I just hope they are still at Fluttershy’s!”
“I don’t understand,” Spike replied, keeping his seat as Twilight Sparkle went straight to a gallop rather than returning to a canter. “Why is everyone acting this way and as if it was normal? Except Joe and us?”
“I… might… know what caused it,” admitted Twilight Sparkle.
“You do?”
“And if it was connected to my magic then that would explain why I was not affected.”
“But what about me and Joe?” Spike asked, trying to match the rhythm of the gallop. “Why us and not everyone else?”
“I don’t know… unless… maybe it is everypony rather than everyone that has been affected? Which explains you and Joe and could explain why Rainbow was having such trouble as well, if the animals knew this was wrong and wanted Fluttershy back…”
“Or Fluttershy could just be that good?” Spike pointed out, remembering even Cerberus had succumbed for tummy loving.
“Or that.”
Twilight Sparkle’s hooves thundered on the bridge across the stream, drawing an indignant chittering at the noise from the hole beneath it, and she threw up more dust as she slowed suddenly again. Spike took the chance to hop off and open the door in what he thought was quite a cool looking dismount and his ‘big sister’ nodded to him as she entered. Things had sounded peaceful and inside they found that was not deceptive as to their mutual happiness Fluttershy took care of the animals. For a moment Twilight Sparkle allowed herself some hope, but then she saw her friend’s Cutie Mark was still balloons.
“Joe, Applejack?” Twilight Sparkle asked tersely.
“They left not long ago with Rainbow…” began Fluttershy.
“Did you glow?”
“Yes…” began Fluttershy again, but Twilight Sparkle was already turning and, snagging Spike in some magic, away out the door again. “Erm, goodbye,” Fluttershy shrugged as she went and closed that behind the vanishing pair.
Galloping back down the short slope and across the bridge, to more indignant chittering, Twilight Sparkle took a chance. They’d not seen them on the road to and from Ponyville and if Joe was taking Ponies back to where he thought they should be then it would make sense that they’d have turned towards Sweet Apple Acres. To her relief as Spike bounced on her back she could see them not too far ahead.
“Joe! Applejack!”
==
“You know,” Joe said, making conversation on the walk and wondering if they should be jogging, “was only when I saw Dash fly away like that I realised there was another similarity with that mythology.”
“How so?” asked Applejack, trying to take an interest.
“The Gods of which Thor was a member had various ways to travel, but their most unique one was the Bifrost… the Rainbow Bridge.”
“Funny coincidence,” nodded Applejack, still trying.
“I know, I know,” Joe smiled, “I’ve gone from not saying much about anything to talking too much. I’ll just say that your family seems to grow better apples than the Golden Apples of Idun.”
“Golden Apples?” asked Applejack, feeling a twinge of interest.
“Unlike most Gods these weren’t immortal, unless they ate that fruit from the tree the Goddess Idun tended. Which caused trouble when Loki stole…”
“Loki?” Applejack interrupted. “As in Okie-dokie-loki?”
“I… don’t know, depends how any of that is spelt, but Loki, with an ‘i’, was the God of Mischief so…” Joe shook his head. “Never mind, he was far crueller than Pinkie Pie so a bad comparison, and one problem at a time.”
“Ah think that sounds a fine idea,” Applejack said, glad that Joe was going to shut up and focus.
As she looked back down the road she didn’t notice the slight betraying twitch, which was a relief to Joe as he didn’t want to explain his thought. But it had occurred to him that not only had Loki not had the same problem as he did with finding a horse ‘compatible’ but as it had been a stallion that Loki was distracting he’d not even had a problem with being a Mare. Saying how those Gods had cheated a Giant by preventing him from meeting what they’d thought an impossible deadline was embarrassing. Saying they had done that by having Loki shapeshift and enflame the Giant’s stallion was more so. Saying how Loki had then demonstrated what a thorough job he’d done was too much.
There was a flash of magic and suddenly there was a purple unicorn with a equally purple, but marginally shinier, Dragon sitting on her ahead of them. Joe blinked a few times from the flash and the surprise of having his thoughts interrupted so dramatically, and Applejack recovered faster since she’d seen this before and hadn’t been thinking of eight-legged foals.
“Whoa! Startled us there Twilight,” Applejack commented.
“Yep,” nodded Joe, moving his hand away from the hilt of his knife and leaning to one side to check. “Glad to see you have the right Cutie Mark, though we thought we had accounted for them all…”
Joe’s voice trailed off at the glare Twilight Sparkle was giving him and continued to give him as Spike hopped down from her back. It took a slight effort to not let his hand go back to his knife again and that was partially possible by reminding himself how little good it would do him if she really was that angry that he’d need to defend himself in that manner.
Deciding Joe was sufficiently intimidated for now Twilight Sparkle looked instead to her friend. “Applejack, have you glowed yet?”
“Not yet, we’re still on…”
“Good,” Twilight Sparkle said, giving Joe another glare for good measure. “I might be able to cure you, despite Joe’s efforts.”
“Say again?” asked Applejack.
“Glowing suggests powerful magic is being released,” Twilight Sparkle explained, “which I might have been able to channel into a better cure. One that would mean Pinkie Pie and Rarity and Fluttershy wouldn’t still have each other’s Cutie Marks!”
“Crap,” said Joe. “I’d realised from what Rarity said that you were probably unaffected, but I thought I could help out straighten things out a little…”
“Well you thought wrong! This is powerful magic and your blundering…”
“Steady on there Twi, we were looking for you as well as ‘blund…”
There was a zoom and a trail of dust as Rainbow Dash descended and streaked in low above the road, spreading and angling her wings to slow and happy as her hooves came down just as both her altitude and speed dropped to zero. The disadvantage was the cloud of dust continuing a little ahead of her and that hiding how neat the touchdown was though. Still, next time she’d try a different angle or do it over grass so they could see how light hoofed she had been.
“That was awesome!” Rainbow Dash declared, ignoring how unimpressed Twilight Sparkle looked. “You should have seen me clear those clouds…”
Joe appeared in imminent danger of being kissed in her joy, but then so did she as their eyes met. As much as a happy triumphant person could be inclined to kiss in the moment so could that happiness make them look more kissable and Joe did seem tempted after having been so concerned and now so shocked. It had been an effort to stick to trying to help the others rather than go straight to Fluttershy’s cottage, and now he’d found that spending his time trying to look after the animals with Rainbow Dash would have been time better spent.
“Rainbow!” snapped Twilight Sparkle, breaking the moment. “Did you glow?”
“Oh yeah! I must have looked like a rainbow meteor,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, looking to her friend rather than Joe, “do you think you could make me glow for my next display, it wou…”
“Gaaaah!”
Rainbow Dash blinked and looked back to the others. “What’s her problem?”
“She’s just explained she could have used the magic that glow released to better cure you,” Joe replied, rather gloomily.
“Or maybe used that moment of realisation,” amplified Twilight Sparkle, “built on that sudden feeling that that was what you were meant to be doing…”
“Looked like powerful feelings,” Applejack agreed.
“It was such a rush!” nodded Rainbow Dash.
“At least there is still a chance for Applejack,” Twilight Sparkle muttered, fixing her with her eyes. “Applejack, this is important. Do not try to do chores at Sweet Apple Acres, we can’t risk you glowing until I have managed to do some research.”
“Well, Joe got Pinkie the few hours off,” nodded Applejack, “so ah can wait a while and ah’m sure mah family would understand if I waited longer, but ah do owe them an explanation so ah do want to go there now.”
Twilight Sparkle then gave Joe the best, or worst, example of ‘stink eye’ he’d suffered since his arrival in Equestria, exceeding even her own previous effort after the visit to the Diamond Dogs. “Joe, you are coming with me,” she ordered. “I don’t know what you were thinking…”
“He was thinking that he’d get Ponies back where they belonged,” Applejack interrupted, “while we were checking those places to try ta find you. After they saw Pinkie glow they checked th’ library before they came to th’ Carousel Boutique and…”
“It’s alright Applejack,” said Joe, interrupting the interruption, “I’ve made a mess of things.” He gave Rainbow Dash a sad smile. “I should have done what I was tempted to do when I saw whose Cutie Mark Rarity was wearing and just come straight to help you with the animals.”
“If Pinkie Pie was already with you,” Rainbow Dash reassured him, “and you’d already got her that far from Sweet Apple Acres you couldn’t have just abandoned her.”
“Maybe not,” conceded Twilight Sparkle, “but he should have just tried to find me, not taken Ponies anywhere, once he’d seen Pinkie glow. So he is coming with me now so I know what he’s doing and so he can help Spike carry books.”
“Of course,” Joe nodded, to her and to Spike.
“If it’s okay with you guys I think I’ll head back to Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash, accepting that Joe had accepted his fate, “weather is my thing I know, but it feels like I should help her. And clean up the rest of the mess the animals made while I was making a mess of looking after them.”
“As long as you remember weather is your thing and you are only helping her,” Twilight Sparkle warned.
“Sure,” nodded Rainbow Dash, exchanging one last glance with Joe before she took off and flew away, at moderate speed for her and so in a few eye blinks rather than only one.
“Ah’ll see you later,” said Applejack, also nodding. “Good luck with your thinking.”
Applejack trotted off and after watching her for a moment Twilight Sparkle turned back towards Ponyville with a sigh. “Come on Joe.”
==
Fluttershy was making the rounds of the animals she kept outside and the more of them she saw the happier she was. It had seemed natural to be entertaining at Sugarcube Corner, despite how scared facing all those ponies made her feel, but this felt better and she kept on remembering things. If her destiny had been elsewhere then why would the Cutie Mark Crusaders have spent the night here, and in the Everfree when they went after her escaped chicken? If looking after animals was Rainbow Dash’s destiny rather than hers then why would it have been Rainbow Dash who’d come to her when she wanted a pet? There had been too many Ponies, and Joe, who had visited her here for this to not be her home and her vocation.
There was a distinctive swoosh of wind through wing feathers and her oldest friend rejoined her. They’d met at flight school and Fluttershy was very glad that she and Rainbow Dash had both ended up in Ponyville where they could remain close friends and make such wonderful new ones. Though today she had begun considering wasting that incredible good fortune.
“Hello Fluttershy.”
“Rainbow, welcome back,” Fluttershy replied, a look of concern coming to her face. “Did something go wrong? Something more I mean…”
“Clearing the weather went well, but when I got back to Joe and AJ I found Twilight was just telling them how she could have cured us, if not for Joe.”
“If not for Joe?” Fluttershy repeated.
“She could have used that glow somehow.”
“Oh my,” Fluttershy said, moving on towards the next group of ‘little friends’.
“So now Joe is feeling guilty,” nodded Rainbow Dash, giving a few flaps for height and then gliding past her friend.
“Well,” Fluttershy mused, scattering a few treats, “if he did make a mistake then perhaps he should feel guilty…”
“I think he was also feeling guilty he’d let me struggle here,” sighed Rainbow Dash, “so finding he’d have avoided the mistake by doing what he wanted…”
“Hmm. Well he was trying to help us, and I don’t know how much more I could have stood. I’d even considered flying away to a new town.”
“You, flying away to a…” Rainbow Dash began.
“I was going to buy a balloon ticket,” admitted Fluttershy, finishing with the treats here and moving on, to the vocal disappointment of some beasties.
“Oh. Er… no offense?” Fluttershy just smiled back until Rainbow Dash continued. “I wasn’t feeling that bad, but… I know Twi wanted to get on and check on everyone, but she’s so organised it felt like she could have helped…”
“And no offence, in return Rainbow, but organising you could have taken a very long time.”
“Long enough Joe and the others might have caught up?” Rainbow Dash smiled.
“Maybe,” smiled Fluttershy back, “though would already have been too late for Pinkie Pie and Rarity.”
“Still, I’m not sure what to do about Joe,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “AJ defended him to Twi, and it feels like I should have been the one to jump in, but…”
“But she thinks of him like a brother, and she’s used to talking for Big Macintosh,” suggested Fluttershy, “while you think he is a… well, however you want to describe him… but able to defend himself?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Anyway, even if I’m not sure about Joe I am sure that I need to help clean up the mess and help you.”
“I could do with some help,” Fluttershy smiled, starting to scatter more treats, “since somepony was having a hard time, but the company will be even nicer.”
==
The walk back into town had been uncomfortable. Joe had been brooding on his actions and his guilt and so had Twilight Sparkle. A few times Spike had tried to get a conversation going and they’d made an effort to oblige him but those had soon run down as their thoughts returned to the problem and what extra problems Joe had caused. That they’d both had the same thought about it being only Ponies affected had been interesting and Twilight Sparkle had reluctantly accepted that checking the Golden Oaks Library twice, before and after going to the Carousel Boutique, and hoping to see her at Fluttershy’s had been some effort, even if nowhere near enough.
Rainbow Dash having cleared the weather had brought a few more Ponies onto the streets so Twilight Sparkle found a good spot, remembering times like the snoring Dragon or when she’d been visited by herself from the future that she’d needed to make an announcement. At least what she was about to say was more plausible than the latter.
“Your attention please!” Twilight Sparkle called, making her voice carry. Spike and Joe stopping and standing to either side and behind her as she waited for the Ponies to pay attention. “As you will have noticed from the clear skies and which Pony was responsible today has been a strange one. My fellow Holders of the Elements of Harmony have had their Cutie Marks swapped. Despite what you might remember those they have now are not the right ones. Despite what your wrong memories might be they are now doing the right jobs rather than the wrong ones their wrong Cutie Marks suggest…”
“What makes you think our memories are wrong?” one Pony called.
“The Cakes thought Fluttershy worked for them and lived there,” Twilight Sparkle replied, “and the same was true with the Apples and Pinkie Pie.”
“That wasn’t actually what I meant…” the Pony muttered, he knew what he remembered and he knew that was right.
“Also,” Joe called, drawing on the practice of having to talk to tour parties or audiences at the castle demonstrations, “there were complaints to Rarity and quite a few dirty looks directed her way about the inclement weather, rather than anypony being puzzled why she was attempting to control it… ow!”
That last came as Spike hopped up onto Twilight Sparkle’s back and then from her up onto Joe’s head for a better vantage point to address the crowd from. An interesting expression came to Joe’s face as the Dragon balanced. “And even if you did think it was her job,” Spike said, sounding annoyed and jabbing one handpaw at them, “you could have offered to help… so if you didn’t think it was her job and you still didn’t offer to help then that makes you a bunch of…”
“Spike!” snapped Twilight Sparkle, wondering from his tone what exactly he was going to call them.
“Sorry Twilight,” Spike replied, reversing his route and hopping down.
“I hope to find a way to correct their Cutie Marks,” concluded Twilight Sparkle, “and the memories of us all so we, and they, can better accept they are doing the right jobs. Thank you all for your time.”
The Ponies nodded and murmured and began gossiping and the trio began walking again. As they did Joe ran his fingers over his head and then looked at them with a wince.
“Ouch, please don’t do that unless I am wearing a hat, Spike.”
“Why?” Joe showed him the blood on the fingertips. “Oh! I’m sorry Joe…”
“Ah, don’t worry, a lot of blood vessels in the skin over the human skull, so even scratches bleed a lot. Which these are.”
“I am still sorry.”
“No problem,” Joe nodded, “though I’d better give them a bit of a wash as those are the claws you walk on.”
They continued on to the Golden Oaks Library with Joe having to resist the temptation to keep rubbing at his head. It would be undignified and would upset Spike so he wanted to avoid it. He was also glad his hair was black so any blood would not show up as much and that it was not raining as though he wanted to wash any blood out of his hair he wanted to do that in private. At the library Spike and Twilight Sparkle began collecting books together while Joe excused himself for the ablutions. To his relief a thorough rinse did not produce much red, but enough that he mopped his hair dry with the cloth from his pocket rather than dirty one of their towels.
As Joe returned Twilight Sparkle turned to him from a case she had been looking into. The glare had returned.
“Look!”
“Are those the Elements of Harmony?” Joe asked in interest. He’d been in the library a few times but had always been chatting or studying or working rather than wandering and looking into things. The tiara had been eye catching but although he’d noticed the case and that there was jewellery inside he’d not asked and they’d not shown him before.
“Yes!” said Twilight Sparkle, visibly wondering what else Joe would think they were. “And they’ve changed.”
“That is some powerful magic,” Joe nodded. “Changed how?”
Twilight Sparkle gave Joe a withering look at his lack of attention to detail, one he’d have been insulted by if this wasn’t the first time he’d seen them. “Their colours are different, they used to correspond to their true bearers.”
“But those colours changed to where the Cutie Marks ended up?” Joe asked.
“Which shows the link, and that I might have been able to change them back as well as my friends! Or with that link between the Elements and my friends that might have been how I could changed them both, if the magic had not been wasted.”
Joe paused and looked at Twilight Sparkle. “I am willing to accept a lot of blame,” he said, trying to remain calm, “and I have accepted that I am worthy of that blame as I could have investigated more before acting. Just as my actions in Canterlot were also judged too hasty, so I should have learned from that. But please accept that my motives were good, even if that proves the proverb about the bad places good intentions can take you.”
Spike rested one handpaw on Twilight Sparkle and when, after a moment more glaring at Joe, she looked at him she seemed to read something in his eyes. She nodded slightly and after one last look at Joe she slumped down to sit and look at the floor. Despite how angry she’d been to him Joe still felt instantly sorry for her and took an automatic half step towards her as Spike patted her on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Joe,” said Twilight Sparkle to the floor.
“No need to apologise.”
“No, there is,” Twilight Sparkle contradicted him, looking up to meet his eyes. “I am taking out my guilt on you.”
“Guilt? What do you have to feel guilty about?… oh!” Joe stopped. “You think this was an attack?”
“Attack?” frowned Twilight Sparkle.
“Alter the Elements and their bearers so they can’t be used…” Joe started to say, fading as he saw her expression. “I have the wrong idea again don’t I?”
Twilight Sparkle gave him a sad smile. “Yes. There was no attack.”
“Sorry,” Joe said, wondering what it said about him and what impression it gave of humans that he’d suggest that. “It just seemed that such powerful magic would be rare enough to need some drastic motive, and your guilt might have been for not blocking it.”
“No, my guilt was for casting it.”
“Pardon?” Joe blinked.
“I was hoping there was another explanation,” Twilight Sparkle sighed, “but last night while Spike was taking a bubble bath I got a delivery from Princess Celestia. It was the spellbook of Starswirl the Bearded…”
“Sounds familiar,” said Joe when she paused and looked at him, “I think there was a library wing named after him, or there’s one with a similar name I got told was private and to stay clear of.”
“There is a library wing and it is limited access,” Twilight Sparkle confirmed as she stood and walked to a table, her horn starting to glow as she spoke. “He was the greatest Unicorn wizard ever, and his spellbook had his last and unfinished spell. Princess Celestia’s letter said she thought I might be able to complete this spell so I read it. And I was baffled so I tried casting it.”
Joe moved across and he and Spike looked the book on the table and where it had been opened to. After a moment or several of trying to get the rhythm of the words, as it felt to him that a spell should be part poetry rather than prose, Joe nodded. “That is quite cryptic, but I think I can see how it might apply to Cutie Marks with the talk of signs of destiny.” He sighed. “So you made a mistake and I made it worse, like… I wonder.”
“Wonder what?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“No,” said Joe, shaking his head. “I was going to suggest casting the spell again but that would probably make things worse.”
“I don’t see how that would improve things.”
“I was going to say it was like you’d broken a bone and I’d set it wrong, which led to the thought that the solution there was to break the bone again and set it again it so it would heal right.”
“Except in this case,” Twilight Sparkle pointed out, “the spell is too random, so it might break a different bone or break it in a different place.”
“What about the spell you used when Discord affected their memories?” asked Spike.
“That won’t work either,” Twilight Sparkle said, closing the spellbook, “it is not their memories but their true selves that are affected.”
“Are you sure?” asked Joe, tilting his head. “They still seem to have the same talents and personalities, though Pinkie was a little snarkier, ‘just’ to be misremembering what their jobs are.”
“It goes deeper than that, Joe. Trust me.”
“Okay,” Joe nodded, “though that might rule out another solution.” Twilight Sparkle and Spike looked at him. “If the spell to reverse Discord’s influence won’t work then it’s less likely that he could influence them back to normal.”
“Why would he do that?” asked Spike, sounding baffled at the idea of asking Discord to help.
“He did seem genuinely fond of Fluttershy when I met him that one time…”
“Discord is out,” Twilight Sparkle interrupted, “this is my fault and I have to solve it.”
“And it is my fault that you might have more trouble solving it,” added Joe, “so I do owe you and them whatever help I can give.”
“And,” Spike said, “remember the Crystal Heart and…”
“I do remember, and the trouble we had because I thought I had to solve that problem alone,” replied Twilight Sparkle. “I also remember Applejack trying to harvest an entire bumper crop of apples and the problems her sleep-deprivation caused. So if I need help I shall accept it, and I shall ask Zecora and Princess Celestia for advice. It is still my responsibility though.”
Joe and Spike looked to each other and exchanged nods, silently agreeing that her number one assistant and temporary occasional number three would do their best to help her. Spike bore less guilt than Joe, but that was more than made up in the deep love he bore Twilight Sparkle so they were both well motivated.
“The first thing we need to do,” continued Twilight Sparkle, “is try her element on Applejack and see if I can use that to channel the magic and cure her.” She sighed. “But the first thing I need to do is apologise to my friends for the heartache I have caused them.”
“And I should apologise to them for making things worse,” Joe added.
“Cheer up Joe,” said Spike reassuringly, “maybe you haven’t made things worse.”
Joe gave him a smile and a sad chuckle. “In some ways I hope I have as that would be proved by Applejack being cured.”
“Keep looking for related books Spike,” Twilight Sparkle said, crossing to the case, “we’ll be back soon.”
“You can count on me,” nodded Spike as his ‘big sister’ retrieved the Element of Honesty and her own Element of Magic and floated them to Joe.
With Joe carrying the unique and special jewellery they hurried to the Carousel Boutique where they found a few Ponies loitering and gossiping as they watched Rarity work. It seemed they had wanted to witness how much more skilled she was at this than with the weather for themselves, and were very glad of the chance to witness Twilight Sparkle and then Joe explaining and apologising, and these being graciously accepted. A few Ponies left to spread the word and Joe couldn’t help but sigh as he saw this.
“Joe?” asked Twilight Sparkle.
“Living quietly, then an event and possible gossip in Canterlot,” Joe explained, “but that was in Canterlot, so fine. But now gossip here…” He managed to give her a smile. “Which only adds a little to your legend, but affects me a little more.”
“Not as much as you think,” said Twilight Sparkle, managing a small smile in return. “Before they quietened down the Cutie Mark Crusaders were doing their best to spread stories about you, then you wandered through Ponyville in that suit and in that company, and I expect the parents of every filly and colt in Cheerilee’s class have heard all about your talk.”
“Probably not the last, they seemed pretty bored aside from Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Diamond Tiara asked a few questions to try to expose flaws in what I was saying, but then she lost interest as well.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded as they approached Sugarcube Corner. She wasn’t going to argue but even if they’d been as bored as Joe had suggested the fillies and colts would still have mentioned the strange looking human and his boring talk rather than him and his interesting one. So it seemed it was too late for Joe to avoid gossip, even if he might be luckier than she was when she’d had to levitate an Ursa Minor out of the middle of town after not even wanting to ‘show off’ at a magic show.
Inside the shop they were both concerned when rather than finding Pinkie Pie they found only Mr and Mrs Cake and the couple told them that Pinkie Pie had left to return to Sweet Apple Acres and had taken Gummy with her. As Joe ran and Twilight Sparkle cantered he commented that as Pinkie Pie had been the first one to glow she hadn’t see it happen to the others and Twilight Sparkle reassured him that Pinkie Pie had still seemed convinced. But then Rainbow Dash had also seemed convinced and had still wanted to return to help Fluttershy, the difference was that Twilight Sparkle had been able to warn her to remember her true job. As the pair approached Sweet Apple Acres they saw Pinkie Pie and Applejack chatting outside.
“Pinkie!” Twilight Sparkle demanded. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, hi Twilight! Joe,” replied Pinkie Pie, bouncing over in a reassuringly normal way to where Twilight was standing and Joe was leaning forward and taking deep breaths. Joe took the hand off his knee to wave vaguely in greeting as Pinkie Pie continued. “Mr and Mrs Cake were nice about it and I know that is my room there but I just felt like I’d be more comfortable sleeping here.”
“And ah have a feeling like ah should sleep at the Carousel Boutique,” Applejack added, walking over, “but as this is where ah grew up ah feel comfortable enough here and am willing to share mah room with Pinkie.”
“As long as you do remember it is your room,” cautioned Twilight Sparkle, “which hopefully will be easier soon.”
“Ooooh!” Pinkie Pie squealed in enthusiasm. “Applejack mentioned you might be able to cure her when she glowed!”
“First though, I am sorry girls,” continued Twilight Sparkle. “I think the spell that swapped your Cutie Marks and caused all this trouble was one Princess Celestia asked me to try to complete, which I tried casting to see what it did, and which I think we found out did this.” There was a few seconds silence and as it was so quiet they could hear Joe’s breathing had returned to normal, so he didn’t have that excuse. Twilight decided to prompt him. “Joe… your turn.”
Twilight Sparkle turned to where Joe had straightened up, he was still looking a little flushed but he was also looking worried and at Applejack. “I’m…erm… you both have my apologies for how I may have hampered Twilight in curing you properly…” he said, with more hesitation than embarrassment or the diminished effects of the run would account for, “but… oh no, can you move into the shadow of the barn, please, Applejack?”
“Sure thing sugar-cube,” smiled Applejack, trotting across to the long patch of darkness the low sun was casting.
“Oooh, pretty,” Pinkie Pie breathed as she saw the aura around Applejack become visible as she entered that.
“I told you to not do any chores here!” almost wailed Twilight Sparkle.
“And ah haven’t,” Applejack nodded, “ah’ve just been settled and talking to mah brother and granny and baby sister.”
“And feeling this is where you belong,” suggested Joe, “and this is what you are meant to do, but in a comfortable slow way rather than suddenly.”
“Ah suppose so.”
“There might still be a chance,” Twilight Sparkle said, sounding slightly desperate.
“So ah can finally get ta work?” asked Applejack, fixing on what seemed important to her.
“Please,” Joe nodded.
“Let me help! Let me help!…” cried Pinkie Pie, stopping and giggling as she noticed the looks Joe and Twilight Sparkle were giving her. “And I wouldn’t be so happy about helping if I thought they were my chores rather than being happy to help a friend would I, sillies?”
“I suppose not,” Joe admitted, “your mane and tail are still nice and poofy.”
“Thanks!”
The quartet walked to the nearest orchard where Applejack neatly arranged a tub, turned, and with one precise hoof strike filled the tub with apples. Joe watched as she repeated the process a few more times and tried, once more, to figure out the mechanics. Leaving aside that it felt like you risked bruising the apples with the drop there was that all the apples fell into the tub rather than all around the tree. With a shrug Joe decided, once more, it was magic. After several trees had been cleared Applejack shook her head and mane in satisfaction.
“Hwhoooooo-wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! A lot more mah style than dressmaking!”
“And you have glowed a little brighter,” Joe nodded as he squinted at her.
“This isn’t working,” sighed Twilight Sparkle, “I can barely see the glow and from what I heard it should be obvious.”
“Dash wasn’t wrong when she suggested she might have looked like a rainbow meteor,” Joe nodded again.
“Ah’m not sure realising things suddenly is what ah’d do here,” commented Applejack. “We swapped our Cutie Mark stories, all connected to Rainbow Dash’s first Sonic Rainboom as they were…”
“They were?” Joe asked.
“Tell you another time, if you are interested. Or she can.”
“Sure.”
“And ah got mah Cutie Mark when ah returned home, but only when ah actually arrived,” Applejack continued. “Ah’d thought ah wanted to go live with Uncle and Aunt Orange in Manehatten but ah’d been feeling homesick and ah realised how much ah wanted to go home and back to what ah had been doing since I was an even littler filly. But ah didn’t get mah Cutie Mark there and then, ah only got it after ah’d slept the night and had the whole trip back to accept going to Manehatten had been a mistake and this was where ah was meant to be.”
“That makes a worrying amount of sense,” agreed Twilight Sparkle, “the rest of us it was more sudden…”
“I saw the Sonic Rainboom and it was so colourful it made me so happy I wanted everypony to share that smile!” Pinkie Pie interrupted. “So I organised a party for my family and when they smiled I got my Cutie Mark!”
Twilight Sparkle nodded. “And that was within a few hours. Myself I was about to fail my entrance exam, when I got startled by the boom…”
“The way she told it was like a bottle of ketchup,” Applejack interrupted with a grin, “her magic wasn’t flowing, but with that whack it sort of went everywhere.”
“Thank you Applejack.”
“Mah pleasure.”
“But I was going to say that it was only a few minutes later, when Princess Celestia had helped me regain control of that magic…”
“Cleaned up the ketchup,” Applejack whispered to Pinkie Pie, who giggled back.
“And told me she wanted me as her student,” said Twilight Sparkle, trying to ignore this, “that I found I had my Cutie Mark.”
“Is there a different chore that might get more reaction, Applejack?” Joe asked. “That you feel is more you?”
“Nope. Big Macintosh does do some applebucking, but ah’m better at it, don’t have ta be so careful ta not knock th’ tree to splinters, so ah do more of it and he does more of the rest.”
“And you remember enough to know that,” sighed Twilight Sparkle. “But, let’s see if we can do anything.”
Twilight Sparkle’s horn glowed purple and she floated the Tiara of the Element of Magic from the crook of Joe’s arm and onto her head. Then as she began to float the necklace across towards Applejack a puzzled expression came to Pinkie Pie’s face.
“Isn’t that mine?” Pinkie Pie asked as the necklace clasp clicked together, then she nodded. “Oh wait…”
“As you said,” nodded Joe back, “when remembering how you got your Cutie Mark, you wanted every Pony to smile so you are the Element of Laughter. The Balloon.”
“And since Applejack was honest with herself she’s the Element of Honesty,” Twilight Sparkle added. “Which as it’s her is an Apple.”
“Hmm,” mused Joe, “sounds like if I’d asked them how they got their Cutie Marks that would have been convincing…”
“Or they’d have been confused and your efforts at least cleared their minds this much,” Twilight Sparkle suggested. “Now quiet, I need to concentrate.”
Magic built around tiara and horn and then surged across into Applejack, her aura becoming visible even in the sunshine and glowing even brighter in unison with Twilight Sparkle’s horn as she put even more effort into this. The colour of the Element of Honesty flickered and pulsed back and forth between how it was and how it should be but every time it looked as if it had stabilised on the latter it reverted again. Eventually Twilight Sparkle had to give up as her magic began to fade and the periods of correctness became fewer and shorter and further apart.
“Ah do feel a little better,” Applejack tried to reassure her as she slumped, her horn glow fading. “Ah still want to sew but not as much.”
“I’m sorry that you don’t feel entirely better,” sighed Joe, “despite Twilight’s very impressive efforts.”
“Don’t you fret none, either of you,” Applejack smiled, “Granny Smith will be pleased ah’m interested in sewing now and to teach me, which if ah’d thought about it the fact ah don’t remember her teaching me much would have tipped me off.”
Twilight Sparkle’s horn briefly glowed again to float the Element of Honesty from around Applejack’s neck and back to Joe. “Did it have any other effect?”
“Ah think ah remember something more now,” Applejack nodded slowly. “How everything seemed perfectly normal even as it changed. Seemed normal when ah woke up here that this was where ah’d slept, but then normal that ah’d have to walk into Ponyville, and by the time ah arrived it seemed normal that ah actually lived at the Carousel Boutique rather than where ah’d woken up, feeling normal, less than an hour before.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded back to this, horn again glowing briefly to float the tiara of the Element of Magic from her to Joe. He settled this back in the crook of his arm as she spoke. “We’d better go see Fluttershy to make our apologies now.”
“Come back any time,” Applejack reassured them, again, before adding, “especially you Joe as we do have today’s chores to catch up on.”
Joe winced at that reminder. “And I’d been concerned we already had enough chores to catch up on that seeing Pinkie I’d first wondered if you’d decided we needed the extra help…”
“What did you second wonder?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Why you’d had your mane and tail straightened,” replied Joe, continuing before she could ask the follow up question. “Then I next wondered about the Cutie Mark… which, as that was the third thing to wonder, at least shows I don’t go around staring at lady’s rears, even if Rarity accused me of such…” Pinkie Pie giggled in memory as Joe looked to Applejack. “Tomorrow is my delayed visit to Zecora, but I might manage to get here that day as well.”
“Hope to see you,” Applejack nodded.
The pairs parted, Applejack asking Pinkie Pie to carry some of the full tubs back to the store while she continued with the orchard and Twilight Sparkle leading Joe away from Sweet Apple Acres and her relative failure. They were both silent for a few minutes as they walked before Joe shook his head with a sigh.
“I’m glad Applejack is a little better, but if she’d not been then at least it wouldn’t have confirmed I’d made things worse.”
“Would that have been any consolation?” Twilight Sparkle asked, a little snippily as that comment seemed self-centred.
“No,” replied Joe, glancing at her, “I far rather that she’s better and you’re right.”
“Sorry Joe, that was…”
“I know. Hopefully the improvement in Applejack will help give a clue for a cure.”
Neither felt much like more conversation so they fell back into silence for the rest of the walk. As they’d half expected when they reached Fluttershy’s cottage they found Rainbow Dash was still there and had made the round trip to fetch Tank. Her reasons were the same as Pinkie Pie’s, except more so as she lived alone and they agreed that friends around you were important when you were not feeling yourself. Twilight Sparkle and Joe made their apologies, with Joe adding to his a large hug for Rainbow Dash when she made the ‘mistake’ of hovering too close to him to look at him in concern.
“It’s okay Joe,” whispered Rainbow Dash as she nuzzled his neck a little. “Twi will find a cure…”
“She has found a cure,” Joe whispered back, “just not one that will work, thanks to me.”
“She’ll find another! And we might have to wait, thanks to you, but we know what we are doing, also thanks to you, so we can wait.”
Joe reluctantly nodded to this, he’d been focussed on what he’d prevented rather than what he’d accomplished. The two factors were still far from cancelling out but if the cure had been less simple or less affected by his actions then at least he’d have made the wait more tolerable, and he still had. As his arms relaxed Rainbow Dash got the message and accepted that this time it was Joe’s turn to end the hug that way rather than hers by starting to flap. Her wings unfurled and she hovered back a little again.
“So,” Joe said, changing the subject a little, “Applejack and Pinkie Pie mentioned how they got their true Cutie Marks…”
“Mine was awesome!” nodded Rainbow Dash. “As I said to you was when I did my first…” She stopped and looked down at her rear, then smiled. “When I did my first Sonic Rainboom, which doesn’t really fit with butterflies.”
“While mine was when Butterflies broke my fall,” Fluttershy smiled shyly, remembering. Then a twinkle came to her eye as she looked at her still hovering friend. “Rainbow had defended me at flight school and challenged the bullies to a race…”
“Was in that race I did the Sonic Rainboom,” nodded Rainbow Dash again.
“And was at the start of the race, when I waved the flag to start it, that she and the others knocked me off the cloud.”
“Yeah,” admitted Rainbow Dash, “there was that part.”
“If Butterflies broke your fall then it does sound like that,” Joe said, gesturing towards Rainbow Dash’s rump, “would better fit on you. I can’t really imagine Dash falling from the sky…” Rainbow Dash preened, metaphorically, at the praise and Joe winked to Fluttershy as he continued. “Or rather I can’t imagine her coming down so slowly that Butterflies would make any difference.”
“Hey!”