//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Blitzing Brows // by hawthornbunny //------------------------------// The next day WHAM! The tree shuddered and released dozens of juicy apples into the wooden buckets placed underneath it as Applejack gave it a solid kick with his heavy hindhooves. Just as he was lining up for another kick, he heard frantic gallopping coming up the hill. He squinted at the rising pink mane of Berry Bubble, frowning as the party pony rushed toward him in a hurry. "Applejack!" Berry yelled. "Applejack, you have to come quick!" Applejack sighed. Much as he was always willing to help out his friends, it wasn't always easy to take Berry's requests seriously. The pony didn't always seem to know when he was asking for something too trivial or inappropriate, and Applejack had got into the habit of asking him what he wanted first. "Berry, Ah'm in the middle of buckin' here. Whatever it is it's gotta be important." "It is important! Super duper important!" said Berry, hopping up and down frantically. "I don't know what to do! When I saw him yesterday he was fine, but now... I just don't know how to cheer him up! He didn't go to work, he didn't show up for my cupcake derby... he's just sitting there, drinking!" "Whoa, wait up!" said Applejack in concern. "Who're we talking about?" "Rainbow Blitz of course! I think what you did to him yesterday really upset him!" said Berry worriedly. Applejack's stomach dropped. "R-really? It wasn't supposed - Ah mean, okay, Ah knew he'd be mad, but... gosh, he ain't really upset is he? Ah never meant to hurt him, Berry, Ah swear!" Berry just shrugged. "Well, he's totally depressed about something. It's not like him! I don't know what to do, which is bad because usually I always know how to cheer ponies up! I tried singing, but the bartender said there's a no singing rule in place before moonrise, so I couldn't do that, and I couldn't bake him a cake because you can't bring outside food in, and he couldn't guess any of my charades, and -" "Berry, stop blatherin'! Where is he?" Applejack asked hurriedly. "Bourbon's bar," said Berry. "Then let's go," said Applejack firmly, leaving the half-full apple buckets where they were and breaking into a run down the hill, followed by Berry. "Dammit, Ah knew Ah was bein' selfish. Ah mean, all Ah had to do was just leave alone. What does it matter to me what other ponies look like? So what if those eyebrows made me want to hoof him in the face every time Ah saw him? Ah can't believe Ah let that get in the way of our friendship." "I'm sure he'll forgive you, Applejack," said Berry, galloping alongside the orange pony. "Ah hope so," said Applejack. "Heck, even if Ah have to make him a special batch o' cider I'll make it up to him somehow. Is he really upset still?" "Well, he's calmed down a bit now," said Berry. "At first he was all like 'don't look at me!' and 'is this some kind of cruel joke?' but now he's all kind of 'whatever' and 'you look kinda hot, Berry Bubble', which I guess is an improvement?" Applejack increased his pace. After a short gallop across town, the two earth ponies arrived at the run-down bar owned by Bourbon Punch. At this time on a weekday morning it was mostly empty, as most ponies were either selling wares at market, tending their shops or working the fields. As Applejack burst into the dimly lit bar-room, he could see a few old ponies were huddled in a corner, and the blond-maned mailpony sharing a drink with a brown-coated earth pony mare. Sure enough, at the end of the bar was the rainbow-maned pegasus, slumped on his stool with a hoof wrapped around a frothy-headed mug of ale. Applejack trotted nervously up to him. Blitz looked withdrawn, shrunken, his mane unkempt. As Berry had said, he did seem rather depressed; his face was hidden in the crook of his foreleg, and he wasn't paying much attention to anything else. "Hey, Blitz," said Applejack timidly. "How ya doing?" "How am I doing," Blitz repeatedly dully, in a strange voice. "How am I doing. What am I doing, Applejack? Am I out there, fixing the weather for you? Am I?" He lifted his head and turned to face Applejack, and the earth pony recoiled in horror. Rainbow Blitz was a mare. "No!" continued Blitz in a raspy female voice. "I'm not! And you know why? Can you think of a reason why I haven't shown my face in public today? Can you?" "Holy horseapples," Applejack gasped, looking Blitz up and down. There was no question that he - she - was a mare from head to toe. Her build was completely different to a stallion's, from her slender ribcage to the curve of her hips. Even her rainbow mane had grown out slightly, looking quite wild. "What the... what the heck happened?" "Betrayal!" Blitz snarled. "That's what happened! 'Oh, let's mess with Blitz! Don't worry about how he feels about it! What could go wrong?'" She took a huge gulp of her ale. "But... but... Ah don't understand! How'd this happen? You were fine!" said Applejack in a panic. Blitz put her mug down again. "Oh, you're asking me?" she said, wobbling a little on her stool. "Huh. Why'd you bring him here, Berry? I thought you were going to get somepony who could actually, you know, help me." "I just wanted to cheer you up!" said Berry earnestly. "Come on, Blitzy, AJ's your best friend!" Blitz drained the rest of her ale. "I don't know who my friends are any more." "Ah'm gonna fix this," said Applejack, his voice trembling. "Ah'm gonna get Elusive and we'll turn you back to normal. Ya hear that, Blitz? We'll fix you and we'll even give you your old eyebrows back." "Don't want 'em," said Blitz placidly. "I love my new eyebrows. They're sooooooo awesome." She hopped off her stool and landed rather unsteadily on four hooves. "And besides, Elusive said that Blitz's eyebrows would break the universe or something!" Berry pointed out. "Elusive is full of crap!" Applejack growled. "Jus' stay here, Blitz, I'll be back in no time." "Oh no, I'm coming with," said Blitz, straightening up and stretching. A pit formed in Applejack's stomach as he watched the mare's slender body untense. "Elusive, you say? I remember that guy. Let's go!" "I thought you didn't want to show your face in public?" Berry said. Blitz peered at him blearily. "Rainbow B-Blitz ain't afraid of nopony. Besides, I don't trust my friends to do what's in my best interest," she added, glaring in Applejack's direction. "Fine, let's go," said Applejack desperately, waiting for the mare to stagger in the correct direction to leave the bar, shepherded somewhat inefficiently by Berry. The three left via the front entrance, Blitz raising a pained hoof in front of her face as the sunlight hit her. Her other hooves dragged on the ground as she sluggishly propelled herself using only her wings. "You'll look faaaaabulous, Rainbow Blitz!" Blitz pantomimed sullenly as Berry steered her along behind Applejack. "The universe will explode if Applejack doesn't violently assault you! Now stand still while I take away your dignity!" "Blitz, it weren't like that," said Applejack guiltily. "Whatever," sneered Blitz. "Keep telling yourself whatever makes you feel better." "Blitz, really, Ah am truly sorry about this," said Applejack, lowering his head in shame. "This weren't s'posed to happen. There was s'posed to be like a surprise where it'd make yer eyebrows glow because apparently that's cool or somethin', but that's all. Ah don't understand how it coulda turned ya into... this!" Elusive whistled happily as he hoof-stitched a rather complicated part of his current project, a special order for a colt's cuteceañera party. The tradition of cuteceañera outfits had declined somewhat in recent decades, so he was pleased to be able to apply his hoof to one at last. If all went well with this, he thought, he might even be able to revive the old custom. This had to be perfect! His ears twitched as he heard the door jingle and the sound of three ponies entering behind him, but he didn't look up from his work. "Just a second!" he sang, pulling the final stitch through and severing the thread with a floating pair of scissors. He carefully inspected his work, then folded it neatly and floated it onto a pile of works in progress. "Good morning, Applejack!" he said to the earth pony as he turned to greet them. "And to you, Bli... Blitz?" Elusive's eyes widened in confusion as he saw the mare standing behind Applejack, leaning rather heavily against a dress form. "No, actually, I'm not having a good morning," said Blitz, as Berry closed the door behind them. "But don't worry about me. Carry on with your..." - she gestured vaguely - "...stuff." Elusive trotted over to her, looking over the mare speechlessly. "What... what happened to you?" he demanded. "Got new eyebrows. Went to bed. Woke up," Blitz recounted. "Maaaaare." "That's impossible," said Elusive flatly. "You don't think this was anything to do with me, do you? That's not possible!" "It has to be!" said Applejack. "What kinda spell did you cast?" "Applejack, I'm not capable of a gender-switching spell!" Elusive protested. "My spell was purely cosmetic, there's no way it could alter a pony's biology at such a fundamental level! This is something else, it has to be!" "So what you're saying," said Blitz calmly, "is that I'm stuck like this." "No, no, we're not sayin' that! We'll find a way to fix it!" said Applejack. "Come on Elusive, it must be somethin' you did. Maybe you made a mistake." "I honestly cannot see how," said Elusive, scrutinizing the mare closely. He sniffed and grimaced a little at the whiff coming from the pegasus. "Have you been drinking, Blitz?" "Not in the last ten minutes," said Blitz. "I think I'll go back to the bar though. You guys don't seem to know what you're doing." "Hold up there," said Applejack. "Give Elusive a moment to think of something." "Eyebrows, eyebrows," Elusive muttered. "I mean, there was a small biological component to the spell, but it was only to alter the hair follicles. Applejack, the magical power required to fully transform a pony's body is orders of magnitude greater! I simply don't have that kind of power!" "So what are you suggesting?" "I don't know, I don't know what could have happened!" said Elusive. "Blitz, are you sure nothing happened after you left?" "Well, I went for a bit of a fly-around... went back home... read some Daring Do..." "What's that?" "Daring Do? Oh, it's..." Blitz shrugged. "You know. Adventure stories." Applejack blinked. "Since when do you read books?" "Oh, that's nice," scowled Blitz. "Real nice. Forget you guys, I'm gone." She flicked her tail angrily and turned to leave. "No, Blitz, he didn't mean it," said Elusive desperately. "Please, let us help you." "You idiots don't have a clue what you're doing!" Blitz raged. "No, I'm going back to the bar and I'm going to drink until I fall asleep and maybe when I wake up again this nightmare will be over." "Dusk, we can ask Dusk," said Applejack hurriedly. "He's gotta know something about how to fix this." "Good idea," said Elusive. "How about that, Blitz? We'll go and see Dusk and he'll find a way to reverse whatever caused this." "And what if he can't?" said Blitz accusingly. "What then?" "We won't know that until we try, Blitz. Please, just let us do what we can. I won't stop until I've found a solution, and I know Dusk won't either!" "I think seeing Dusk is a good idea," Berry squeaked quietly from the corner. The tinge of worry in his voice was unusual enough to get both Applejack's and Elusive's full attention, and they both quickly turned to look at him. Berry was standing by the window, blinking a set of suddenly elongated eyelashes, his curly mane now much longer and fuller, looking even more like a cloud of cotton candy than before. Although there wasn't much difference in his stature - he had always been somewhat diminuitive compared to the rest of his friends - the subtle curves and softer muscle tone clearly indicated that he, too, was now female. Blitz snorted. "Haha! Marey Bubble!"