//------------------------------// // Come In Stranger // Story: When The Mare Comes Around // by nanashi_jones //------------------------------// I guess I never expected a house in the upstate boondocks to be so nice, but it was. Comfy chairs, a plush couch, new-ish TV: the whole place was cozy and welcoming. It was only a little bigger than Max’s apartment, but it was nice. Much like its host. “Here ya go, hon. Sorry I don’t have apple juice.” “It’s fine,” I said to Cherry. She set the tray down on the coffee table and hopped onto the other end of the couch in an easy bound. She lazed back, looking me over in a slightly different way than before. After she’d had a good laugh at AJ’s expression, I’d regained control and prepared to run off again. She caught the twitch and slowed me enough to offer offer lemonade and cookies. My stomach grumbled in response, and I thought how it’d be nice to hold off on draining my supplies further. Raising my hoof for assistance, I let her heft me up and take me inside. Somehow, I only had a few wood splinters in my fur- no scrapes, cuts or breaks. I didn’t know if I was lucky or it was more of AJ’s earth pony-ness, but I didn’t object when Cherry said I looked fine. She even let Sam come in, though the dog had to keep away from the furniture. She mentioned something about a hose when she went to get food. “Thanks for your hospitality,” I said. “Don’t you worry ‘bout it,” Cherry said with an easy smile. I should have felt comforted by the easy smile, but I wasn’t. It worried me. Since landing upside down in her garden, I’d only seen one personality on this pony and AJ’s memories said that personality was all Cherry Jubilee. I knew I was pretty in charge here with AJ, even if the tussle with the PAPA man proved I could be kicked out, removed, forgot- No. I was present. I spoke. Consistently. If Cherry was here, chatting amicably, where was her human? “So,” Cherry said. “What had ya so worked up ya had to take it out on Jean’s new garden?” “Existential crisis,” I said, and picked up the glass to sip at the lemonade. Cherry laughed and it was a full, warm sound that actually broke through my unease and made me feel welcome. AJ, who had gone quiet after I’d taken over, revealed some nostalgia at the sound. I also caught a little guilt beneath the nostalgia. Unfortunately, I had enough on my plate, so the emotions only just registered with me. I could hold a conversation, freak out, go through a pony’s memories, and share in her feelings. I couldn’t do all at once. “You must be Applejack’s girl. Don’t think a five-bit word like that ever came out of her mouth when I knew her.” I cocked an eyebrow. “Who says I couldn’t have heard it around Twilight?” When Cherry spoke again, her drawl wasn’t as hard. “Because AJ calls Twilight, ‘Twi.’” Finally! A human! My freak out faded and a smile broke through on my muzzle. “Rachel,” I said, offering a hoof. “Jean,” Jean said, shaking my hoof in a way AJ knew was right and I knew felt weird. We leaned back, regarding each other. Now that Cherry was away, I could see that Jean slouched a bit, and her eyes were cooler, but her bearing was pretty much the same. Was it that subtle when AJ took over from me? “So, I get to meet one of the Mane 6. My life just keeps getting more interesting,” Jean said, picking up her lemonade. I could see a red mist hovering within the glass that told me she’d added in a little cherry juice. “That’s one way of putting it,” I said with a snort. “You a fan before?” “I’d seen the show thanks to a friend. I mostly knew it through memes.” Jean nodded, sipping. “Aaah. Damn, that’s good. Y’know, I never put cherry in my lemonade before? One of the perks of all this.” I looked at my hooves. “If you wanna call it perks.” Jean was quiet too long for it to be just a conversational lapse, so I looked up. Her cool gaze had shifted to an unimpressed version. “What?” I asked. “So, you wanted to be a unicorn or pegasus?” I scrunched my face. Oh great, she was a fan and a fan who took this whole thing seriously. “How about neither?” I said, squinting at her with one eye. “I was fine as a human, thanks.” My heart sped up and I set the glass down as it shook in my grip. “You okay, hon?” “Fi-” “She ain’t,” AJ said, taking over the mouth. “She keeps tryin’ to say she is, but it’s like when I came to ya, Miss Jubilee. She’s runnin’ scared.” My mouth returned to me. “You busybody fucking-” I yelled. “Whoa there, Tex!” A hoof rested on my shoulder and I looked into the comforting gaze of Cherry Jubilee. “Sounds like Applejack got something out you would have kept close,” she said softly. “Mind sharin’?” I shook her hoof off, looking down. “Yes.” She leaned back, assessing me. Stupid pony peripheral vision letting me see that. Stupid pony everything. “Fair enough,” she replied. We sat in awkward silence. I sipped some of the lemonade, which was actually pretty good. My eyes wandered and I noticed an oxygen tank in the doorway of a nearby room. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing. Cherry turned around and when she turned back, she was Jean. “Ah. That’s my old oh-two tank.” “You needed oxygen? Why? Were you a grandma or something?” She laughed. “I’m old, Tex, but I’m not that old.” She settled against the pillow, smiling. “Got in a pretty bad car accident about a week ago. Doctors were ready to leave me for dead. Then, I woke up like this.” She gestured to her white-furred body. “Asked if I could keep the tank that breathed for me for two days. It was about empty, so they said sure.” I stared at her. “You were in an accident?” I said, my voice feeling too quiet. “Yep,” she responded, as though my eyes weren’t the size of dinner plates. “Drivin’ home from work. Semi had a driver who was on his twenty-seventh hour and didn’t even see me. Pow!” She slapped one hoof into the other. “I was more meat than person. Had a bunch of tubes in me, they couldn’t get the swelling in my head to go down, so they gave me another day, two tops.” She leaned forward with a grin. “Didn’t happen like that, as you can see.” I stared further, my mouth slack. “Somethin’ on your mind, Tex?” “Just how freaking crazy the world is, really,” I said. I tried to close my mouth. It kept dangling. She snorted. “Yeah, doctors don’t exactly have ‘turned into a pony’ under listed recovery options, but there you go.” “You were going to die?” She nodded. “Livin’ dead girl. That was me. Last thing I remember was a pair of headlights comin’ at me, then wakin’ up puking my guts out as a pony. Thankfully, whatever did this got all the tubes outta me. Hate to think what coulda happened with human-sized medical stuff in Cherry’s body.” “So you... Knew who you were?” “Mostly. Knew I was a pony. Had to stare in the mirror for a sec before I recognized Cherry, I thought, ‘Now don’t that beat all.’ My niece was really blown away. She’s the other pony fan in the family. Don’t let her know I told ya. She’s a mite embarrassed about it.” I blinked at her, shaking my head slightly, still having trouble absorbing all this. “Yeah. No problem,” I responded, dull. My brain was starting to wrap fully around the chances of two women in the same kind of accident with the same kind of recovery meeting up to swap stories. The probability was staggering and the reality more so. To forestall the impending freakout, I said, “So... You’re Cherry Jubilee now?” “Mmm-hmm,” Jean responded, looking content. “And you hung on to the oxygen tank?” She nodded, looking back at the cannister. “I like to treat every day as a blessing. My dad died of a heart attack when I was young, you see. I wake up, day’s off to a good start. So, I feel like I dodged a pretty nasty bullet there. Keepin’ the tank? Just a little reminder about how right I was.” “You mean the pony in the mirror doesn’t help?” She laughed. “You’re definitely straightforward enough to be an Element of Honesty, I’ll give you that.” I glanced down and blushed. I don’t know where the stupid blush came from, but it was there. I suspected AJ was involved somehow. “Sorry,” I muttered. “Nah. Well, bein’ Cherry’s nice, but I like havin’ tokens. Got a bit of wire from the Empire State, still got a flower from the first boy I loved, which is- woo, way longer than I’d like to admit. Keep ‘em all in a nice box, but the tank, as you can see, wasn’t gonna fit.” “Yeah...” I said, smiling slightly. “So... You said you left your job? Before the accident? What do you do?” “Manage the grocery in Earlville. Ain’t too bad a drive. Well... It wasn’t. Huh. Guess I’ll have to figure that out.” I finally broke my staring fest to breathe deeply and accept reality. She’d been through practically the same thing I had. The only difference was that she had a job, a house, a life and didn’t have to run from some spooky P.I. How many people were doing what we did? Waking up as ponies when their life was just about to go? “You look like someone hit you in the face with a fish,” Jean said, picking up her glass and swirling the straw about. “I feel like someone just hit me in the face with a fish,” I said, raising my head to smile awkwardly at her. “Take it you didn’t like wakin’ up as Applejack?” “I woke up in a shallow grave,” I replied, my smile turning grim. She shot up, her drink nearly spilling over. She corrected the glass and looked me in the eye. “No,” she said. “Uh-huh,” I replied. She snorted, shaking her head. “Well don’t that... Two dead girls walkin’. How ‘bout that?” I nodded. “Well, how you usin’ your new lease on life, missy?” “Just... Getting AJ to New York.” She nodded. “And?” “Figure it out from there, I guess.” She nodded further approval. “Sounds like a good plan to me.” I cocked my head at her. “Really?” “Sure. I’ve been readin’ up and it sounds like the other girls could use you.” I felt AJ stir inside me, becoming active after just resting quietly through most of the conversation. Curiosity sprung up. If she hadn’t forced me into talking with Jean... I could follow up on her friends. “They could?” I asked. She looked at me hard. “Rachel. If you don’t mind me asking- how in the know are you?” I sighed, rolling my eyes. Holding up a forehoof, I said, “See this?” She nodded. “That’s the pulse of all things pony going on in the show or the world.” She nodded again. I then held up my other hoof as far from the first as possible. “And this is me. Way the hell out in yonkers.” She nodded and put down her lemonade. Hopping off the couch, she disappeared into the room with the oxygen tank and came back with a laptop balanced perfectly on her back. She slid it to the coffee table and hopped up, motioning me over. Scooching across the couch, I joined her. “First off, you should know the days’re all messed up. So if you hear someone goin’ on about Marsday or what not, they’re not nuts. Then there’s this...” She pulled up an already open browser, clicking over to a tab and my heart froze. Element of Harmony Survives Shooter! the headline read. My first thought was someone saw me, then that immediately disappeared at the picture of a yellow pegasus with a pink mane clutching a stuffed toy. She looked tired and wary as she stood next to a white stallion with a blue mane who came across pretty intense. They were Fluttershy and Shining Armor. AJ’s feelings of protectiveness and familiarity flooded right into me and suddenly, I was sharing memories and emotions I never had before. For the first time in this whole mess, I didn’t fight those outside emotions. Pony or person, nobody threatens anyone I know. Even if I only know them thanks to the pony in my head. “Yeah, she’s okay,” Jean said, scrolling through the text where I saw mostly quotes from police. “But. It was bad. Granted, she ain’t this...” Jean opened a new tab and whereas Fluttershy’s situation scared me into a near heart attack, what transpired in the Youtube video left me scrabbling for sense. “Is that a gazelle?” I said, flatly. “Yep.” “Why is it eating hash browns?” “I think because it’s hungry.” “But... IHOP?” Cherry shrugged, closing the tab. “I’d talk to Applejack. They’re her friends. Good ones too if they could lure her away from the job I gave her.” She winked at me and, again, I blushed. Why did I keep doing that? I look up to her. That’s all, AJ said. “Oh, hey. Finally decided to speak?” I said sarcastically. “You talkin’ to Applejack?” Cherry asked. I nodded. “Hey there hon,” Cherry said, waving as if she were across the room. “Long time no see!” I laughed. “This brain thing is weird,” I said. “It’ll get weirder. Wait till you start mergin’.” I sighed, removed Liana, and ran a hoof through my mane. “I’ve... Kinda been trying to ignore that. Among other things.” “How’s that workin’ for you?” I snorted. Cherry gave a knowing smile and nodded. “What I thought.” “It’s just... Too much, y’know? I woke up dead, and I also have some private investigator looking for me.” “Why’s somebody doin’ that?” Cherry asked. “I dunno!” I said with a shrug. “He impersonated a cop when he first sought me out and then when I bumped into him again, he talked about a reward for finding me. It doesn’t sound good- at all!” I slumped into the couch. “And that’s on top of this whole... Whatever AJ and I are doing. I mean, if you’d told me I’d be going on foot to New York, in record fucking time I might add, I’d say you’re nuts! But now? After being dead in a ditch, followed by a P.I. and getting threatened by a dude with a gun?!” I flopped back and let Liana slide over my face. “I want a break I can’t get,” I said. “Didn’t ask for this. Not even a little bit.” We were quiet. I’m sure some of what I said caught Jean/Cherry’s interest, so I expected some kind of clarifying question. Maybe a follow-up to what I’d rambled about. God knows I was expecting her to call me on my bullshit. I wasn’t expecting what she said next. “Nobody does.” I raised Liana up to look at her. “I didn’t ask to be hit by the semi. Didn’t ask to wake up as Miss Jubilee here,” Jean said, thoughtfully running a hoof over a knee. “It’s like that song says, ‘our choices are half-chance.’ Which means anything we get we didn’t ask for, half the time. So we gotta decide what to do with it.” She sighed, turning to smile at me wanly. “Here we are, Rachel, part of some really out there half-chances. Now, I know what I’m doin’ with my half-chance and I can live with that. How about you? Are you fine with the half-chances you got?” “No,” I said, my mouth twisted in distaste. “Alright. Then you can’t change anything that’s happened to you, so is there anything you’d do different?” I was about to say “no” on automatic, but I held back, mulling it over. I moved Liana from my head to roll her brim across my stomach. “I’d... Have hogtied P.I. Matthews back at Max’s,” I said slowly, tracking the hypothetical idea. “And then we’d have called the cops. Find out what he was up to.” “Kay? What else?” I shrugged. “That’s about it. Running wasn’t a great idea, but I’d talked with AJ about going to New York, so maybe that was just on my mind at the time. Everything since then, I’m okay with. I guess. I met some nice people on the way.” I looked at Liana the hat. “Some really nice people.” She smiled. “Then I think you’re doin’ okay, Tex.” I looked back to her, suspicious. “Oh?” “Life can throw every curveball it wants at ya, but as long as you have folk, it’s gonna have to work pretty hard to catch you off guard.” I was about to call bullshit when Applejack quietly reminded me of Max. And Carrie. And Jared. I thought I had to do this on my own. But along the way, I’d been getting all this kindness and help. Even now, when I was about to thrust it all away and claim my cool, collected exterior, AJ was there, making sure I knew just what I had. “Thanks,” I said quietly. It’s what friends do. “You reckon?” I said with a crooked grin. Yeah, I do. “Applejack do a brain thing?” Jean asked. “Yeah. She... Yeah. You helped too though.” Jean snorted. “Glad to know I contributed.” “No, really. You really have. And...” I sorted the memories that had welled up in Cherry’s presence and grinned. “AJ really appreciates the opportunity that Miss Jubilee gave her and feels mighty bad she had to leave her in the lurch.” Hey! It goes both ways, I thought with a chuckle. “So, if you, either of you, need anything. Just say it. We’ll help.” I grinned with a bit more embarrassed blush. “Especially since I kind of wrecked your fence and I can’t really stick around all that long to fix it.” Jean looked at me with her cool gaze and that Cherry Jubilee smirk popped up on her face. “Actually, Rachel... There is... One thing you might be able to help with.” “What’s that?” I asked, eager to pay back the kindness. “Well, you know how I mentioned my niece...?” The door opened with a squeak and I briefly turned to see who came in. Sam stood up, tail wagging and I did a double take. She was small. Way small. She was a filly. With white fur and a duo-toned, curled mane of pastel pink and violet. Her eyes were a darker green than mine and she wore a tiny, pastel blue hoodie that looked like it was designed for a child. On her back was a small paper sack. “Hey Aunt Jean, I-” She turned. Noticing me. Through her curly hair, I could see her horn and a new set of memories flooded up. Particularly ones that involved scrubbing tree sap off young little fillies. The filly in front of me... Sweetie Belle, worked her jaw up and down for a second at the sight of me. The feeling was mutual. Memories were flooding into me. Sweet, adorable Sweetie Belle, who’d asked AJ to be her sister. Who ran all over hill and dale with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom trying to find their cutie marks. This was Rarity’s less frou-frou sister, if her penchant for mud and tree sap were any indication. Cherry Jubilee showing up had been out of left field. This was out of the park. “May, this here’s Rachel. Though I think you might know her.” “No fuckin’ shit!” squealed the little pony, pointing a hoof at me. “That’s goddamn Applejack!” Well. That was a paradigm shift.