//------------------------------// // I Ain't A Song // Story: When The Mare Comes Around // by nanashi_jones //------------------------------// For a second, I thought I was back in the dirt. I felt heavy and covered and like I couldn’t breathe. Then, I felt the rain and my eyes snapped opened. The sky was a boiling mass of ink-black clouds with thunder and lightning crashing above. Water pelted down on my face sloughing the painful memory off me. I took a greedy breath. My skull throbbed in response. “Agh, my head…” I grumbled, rising to sit. “I’m with you on that,” said a voice. I turned at the unfamiliar sound and my jaw dropped. AJ was next to me, but it wasn’t the AJ I’d gotten used to seeing. She was still a pony, still muscular and powerful, but her fur was lighter, looking less orange and more tan. Her mane was also cut short, just below her ears and the same color as my sandy-blond hair. Her freckles were completely gone. As she blinked at me, I realized her bright green eyes were now hazel. “What’s happenin’?” I asked, realizing my voice was more Southern. “I think this is it,” AJ said, her voice more Yankee. Blinking, I realized I had a muzzle. And a tail. And pony ears. “Great,” I muttered. Looking down, I saw I still had human hands and feet. They looked durable: powerful with thick nails. I wiggled my toes for comfort. Thunder crashed around us and my head snapped up from the self-inspection. The trees around us were whipping back and forth violently. Rain crashed down in buckets through the clearing. We were just beyond the treeline and through the downpour I could see we were directly across from our houses. Separated only by a door, they swayed in the same powerful wind that shook the trees. “This is weird,” AJ said. “No kiddin’,” I replied. Lightning struck nearby, blinding me briefly. “We’re screwed,” I yelled over the howl of the wind. “Matthews got us.” “He got us for a bit,” AJ responded at the same volume. “Soon as we wake, we take him out. Break out Bucky McGillicuddy and Kicks McGee again.” “Because that worked out well for us,” I said, throwing my hands up. “Well, if you have a better plan, I’d love to hear it!” AJ snapped. “Why not talk to him?” I retorted. “That’s what we did last time!” AJ yelled. “No! We tried to bully him and he got us in a bar fight!” “So? I came out fine!” “Till he tranq’d me!” “That’s why we gotta get him when we wake up!” “Oh for-!” I turned away from her, scrunching my eyes shut and digging my hands into the sodden earth. I could feel the muck squelch up in my fingers. Thunder cracked above us. “We can’t keep doing this,” I said. “Doing what?” AJ said. “This,” I said, opening my eyes and looking at AJ. “We can’t… I want to kick him. I want to kick Matthews so bad, AJ. But I know that’s not going to work. He’s smart. He got us good. We gotta use our head.” AJ turned away, her face red. “That’s… not exactly my strong suit.” “Bull,” I said. “You may not be good at the same kind of thinking as me and Twilight, but you’re whip smart in your own right, AJ.” She looked back at me, the question clear on her face. “You’re great at other folk. You knew how to watch your back without ever using your eyes. I know you know how to take care of your crops- I have your memories. So, don’t go feeding me the line that when it’s time to use your noggin, you can’t step up.” AJ was a different kind of red now with wide eyes. She ducked her head, a small smile on her muzzle. “You know how to flatter a girl, don’t you?” she said. “I know how to deal with a friend honestly,” I replied. The rain roared around us. I watched as a skinny tree was ripped up by its roots and shot into the air, skimming over the roof of our houses. Our houses. They were barely separated by that door. They might as well be one house now. I kept looking at those houses. They had been here as long as AJ and I had. They were always inching closer and closer. So what happened when the walls fell and they actually became one? Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled. I smiled. “And Thor lifted his mighty hammer...” I murmured, grin in place. “What?” AJ said. “If we’re going to deal with Matthews, I’m thinkin’ first, we gotta deal with ourselves,” I said. “Whatcha got in mind?” AJ asked. I looked around. I didn’t look too hard because, for all that this was where AJ and I talked, this was still a dream. And in dream logic, if you expected there to be a sledgehammer by a tree, you’d find a sledgehammer by a tree. So, I found one. I got up, went over to the tree, ducking a whipping branch and picked up the hammer. It was heavy, I could tell, but I also knew I could handle it. I took a few experimental swings. “Get something you can wreck with,” I said, over my shoulder. When I turned around, AJ was slipping on what looked like iron slippers. I raised an eyebrow at her and she stood, tossing her short mane with a cocky smile. “Can’t beat a set of iron shoes if you want to wreck some shit.” I nodded and tilted my head at the houses. AJ followed my lead and we started walking. The rain came down, steady, heavy, but not stinging. The sky continued to slam into itself above. “You know… AJ? For what it’s worth,” I said. “I think you’re pretty cool.” AJ smiled at me. “For what it’s worth,” she said. “I think you’re pretty cool too.” We stopped just in front of our joint houses. The rain picked up, blanketing us. The strange part was I felt like I was being cleaned. Like I was being prepared. “I just want you to know, I’m not really sure about this,” I said. “That’s okay,” AJ said. “I’m not either, but it’s the best idea we got, right?” “Yeah...” I said. Even stranger than the rain was how I felt like I was on autopilot. Not as intense as the fight in the bar, but it was similar. I felt like I was in charge of what was going on, but only because I’d decided on what I was going to do and say a long time ago. It was weird, but not the weirdest thing I’d come across since I came out of the grave. I snorted. Had it really been just two days since that happened? Not to sound like the experience was blasé, but it felt like longer. I guess a lot really had happened since then. “So, you know what we’re doing here?” I asked, hefting the hammer in both hands, getting a sense of its weight again. I could feel just how powerful my arms were, too. “We’re gonna tear down these walls,” AJ said, pointing her hoof at the red house, then the white. “Then, we’re gonna tear down these roofs. Then, we’re gonna build a big ol’ house just for us.” I nodded, agreeing. “I’m scared,” I said, blinking fast. “Me too,” she said. “But I’m more scared of what would happen if we didn’t go through with this,” I said, looking pointedly at the sky. Thunder boomed back at me in response. The rain started stinging as it picked up speed. AJ nodded. “Better to take charge than have the charge taken from you.” “Which crappy Equestrian fortune cookie did you get that from?” I snarked. “Probably from one of your stupid Earth memories,” she chuckled. She smiled and shook her mane out of her eye. She offered me her heavy shod hoof. “Pleasure getting to know you, Rachel Shelton.” I took the hoof. “See you on the other side, Applejack Apple.” We shook on it. We turned to the houses. I stepped over so I aimed at mine. AJ walked over in front of hers. We glanced at each other and nodded. Rearing back and up, we raised hoof and hammer high, then came down on the houses as one. Together, we broke down our walls.