Applejack stood in the middle of what ponies used to call Ponyville, even though one could hardly recognize it. Every building in the town was either gone, burned down, floating, upside down or distorted. The land surrounding the town was every colour from pink to brown. The trees and flowers had become lollipops of various sizes. In the middle of it all stood Discord the draconequus. A pink aura of chaotic magic was leaking from his body, changing whatever it reached.
He had been encased in stone for over a thousand years, but had broken free. Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy had managed to lock him back up in his stony prison using the Elements of Harmony. Now, he was free once again, and this time he hadn’t been fooling around. He had come straight for Ponyville with a vengeance. Applejack and her friends, along with the two princesses, had come out to face him, but they hadn’t even had the time to gather the Elements of Harmony. Discord had been his joking, random self, throwing insults wherever he could. Princess Luna, however, had lost her temper and charged Discord, who had simply dodged her assault and was now holding her throat in his talon-esque hand.
“Oh, now isn’t this so very delightful. I do hope you didn’t really think that brute force could overcome my stunning wit and charm,” he mocked. His expression instantly changed into one of sadness. “Do my words not impress you? What about my latest interpretation of Ponyville, hm? Does it not scream chaos?” Getting no response, his face showed signs of boredom. “Very well then. I suppose I’ll just have to make things more interesting for you all,” he said while letting his paw glow with pink magic.
This is nothing like the Discord from last time, Applejack thought. He’s just crazy, and he’s enjoying it too? I don’t like this one bit.
Discord brought down his paw, flaring with chaotic magic, to Luna’s now-glowing horn as Rainbow Dash charged in.
Gosh darn it, Applejack thought while Rainbow flew towards Princess Luna. Can’t ya see he’s just lurin’ ya in?
Applejack charged after Rainbow Dash, hoping to catch up to her friend before she could do anything too stupid. Rainbow, however, was accelerating much faster than Applejack could run. Realizing the chase was futile, Applejack stopped and watched the scene.
She saw Discord’s paw touch Luna’s horn, causing a massive pink eruption of magic. Applejack heard Princess Celestia yell for her sister, and also saw her taking a step back. Shielding her eyes from the explosion, she could barely make out Princess Luna, who had been shrinking. Not a moment later, Luna disappeared. Discord managed to scream, “What? Oh for the love of... ” before disappearing in the pink explosion as well.
Applejack looked in front of her and saw Rainbow Dash trying to turn away from the explosion; but it was too little, too late. She had too much forward momentum and flew right in the shockwave, vanishing immediately.
“Run, my little ponies!” Celestia yelled before being engulfed by the chaotic pink magic, and disappearing from sight.
“Horse-apples,” Applejack muttered, only now realizing that the shockwave was quickly coming her way. She swiftly turned in her tracks and ran the opposite way towards Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. The former had a confused look on her face, and the latter was trying to fly away.
Applejack looked the other way to see Twilight Sparkle trying summon up a magic shield. She saw Rarity running from the explosion, yelling, “You heard the princess. Let’s get out of here!”
The chaotic magic hit Twilight before her shield spell was fully completed. “I... can’t stop it!” Applejack heard her scream before she disappeared in the pink chaos.
She turned her face when she heard a squeak. Fluttershy, was the first thought that popped into her mind. She looked back to see Fluttershy on the ground along with Pinkie Pie, who had covered the pegasus with her hooves in an attempt to protect her from the blast. Applejack immediately wanted to turn back to save the two, but her momentum caused her to scoot on for a second. Facing the pink shockwave, she saw the two ponies vanish.
Realizing there was now no escape from the wave of chaos, she turned her head back to Rarity and yelled, “Warn mah family!”
She saw Rarity turn her head and nod, then continue on her way to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack looked back at the pink wave, straightened her hat, and braced herself for the inevitable impact.
Ah hope this doesn’t hurt, was her last thought before chaos engulfed her and darkness took over.
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Beep Beep. I smacked my alarm clock, trying to look at the time. 7 o’clock. Friday 13 April. Last day of the week for me, filled to the rim with classes. Just one more day of chemistry. Last week the Easter holidays had ended, and after just one week of classes, I couldn’t wait for the weekend, just to get some well-earned rest. The professors were picking up the pace with their teaching. Even though I enjoyed living on my own very much, which I did during the week, it was tiring, and not being the greatest cook, I missed the nice dinners my mom made.
My alarm went off for the second time, notifying me that I had been sitting in bed for five minutes. Sighing, I climbed out of bed, put on my clothes, and dragged myself to the kitchen which seven people shared besides me. But they didn’t have to get up as early as I did, at least this morning. I praised myself lucky to find this place so close to the campus. Because of classes starting at 7:45, it meant that you either had to live close, or get up even earlier in the morning. I quickly poured some cereal and ate them even quicker. My wristwatch beeped, warning me that it was 7:30, time to leave for classes. I rushed down the stairs into the garage, jumped on my bike and went on my way.
Riding out of the building, I noticed the weird colour the sky had. Pink. And not sunrise pink. Fluorescent, flashing, pink. Not paying attention where I was going, I smacked against a traffic sign and got thrown off my bike. I quickly stood up to monitor the damage. Nothing broken, a bit of blood on my elbows, nothing major. When I looked at my bike, however, I noticed that my steer had snapped right off. I cursed myself and everyone for having to buy a wreck, just to make sure someone didn’t steal it, as was common tradition at the university.
Taking another look at the skies, seeing it was still pink, it freaked me out. Also the clouds were... Brown? And everywhere hung the strange smell of... Chocolate? no... Fudge. This was getting too weird. Now realising I was going to be late, I left my bike where it was and started running for the forest separating my home from the campus. There was a small path which I usually rode my bike when I was going to be late, and it could usually make up a minute or two, which was huge on such a small distance.
Running as fast as I could, I suddenly heard a moan. Stopping to check it out, I see a girl, a somehow familiar girl, lying on the ground. Dressed like a cowgirl. Okay, this is one of the strangest days ever. As I approached her, she threw up. The sight of it almost made me barf as well, but I managed to hold it down. Remembering it was Friday, she was probably a girl that had been drinking too much yesterday night, because Thursday nights were the nights to go out here in Leuven. I wondered how she got here however, the campus was quite a ways from the town centre.
“Hey, gaat het?” I said to her.
“Wha?” she said with an accent from the southern US.
God, she’s so drunk she’s even keeping up the apparent act from last night. Is she serious? “I asked if you were OK?” Let’s go with it then.
“Ah’m fine. Where are we?” Not even a second after she asked that question, she threw up again.
“I can see that you’re fine. C’mon, let’s get you to an actual bed.” I put my backpack behind a tree, out of sight from everyone, so that I could come pick it up later again. I then pulled her on her feet, lifted her on my back, and gave her a piggyback ride back to my apartment. She was clearly not used to the concept, and nearly fell off a couple of times.
She’s weird, yet somehow, I know her, even though I’m positive I’ve never seen her. And she smells like fudge. I made it to my flat, then realising she had fallen asleep on my back, meaning that now I had to carry her seven floors up. I cursed to myself for going with a place that didn’t have an elevator. I knew it would come back to haunt me one day.
When I finally made it to the seventh floor, I tried to walk to my door as silently as possible. Other people were still sleeping, and I wanted to keep it that way. Trying to find my keys in my pocket, I apparently moved so much that I woke her up. I heard a sound that I did not want to hear, and not a second later, I felt a splash of warm fluids against my neck, then dripping down my back.
Just great, why was I the one to find her? My keys were, of course, in my other pocket, so I opened my door and let her fall in my bed, took a quick shower and changed into my spare clothes, then went to clean the mess on the hallway, hoping we hadn’t woken anyone up. Looking on my watch, I noticed it was 8:30 by now. Carrying this girl all this way had exhausted me, and I didn’t feel like going to class anymore. I went to get a bucket and placed it besides my bed.
“If you ever feel the need to... you know, here’s a bucket. Anything else I can get you?”
“Water,” was the simple response.
I went to the kitchen to get a bottle, and from my room I heard the sound of vomit hitting plastic. Glad I gave her that when I did. I returned with the bottle, only to find her sleeping. Man, she must have been exhausted. I put down the bottle next to my bed. Seeing her sleep, I suddenly felt tired myself, because this had been an early day. So, I closed the curtains again, having one last look at that strange pink sky, but it was just blue. Did I imagine it? I just wanted to go back to sleep on the couch. I laid down, but my mind kept wandering at all the things that had happened in the past hour. Everything that just happened is connected... somehow...
Suddenly remembering that I left my backpack in the forest, so I went out to get it back, a bit hesitant to leave that girl alone. She’s fast asleep, and I’ll only be gone for ten minutes tops. I rushed down the stairs and walked outside. I suddenly realised that I left a complete stranger alone in my room. Then my mind jumped to the fact that she was a helpless girl and, before my mind could freak out more than it already did, I remembered that I had locked my door.
Now a bit calmed, I ran past my wrecked bike. Damn, I’m gonna have to buy a new one, well I suppose my parents will pay for it if I can explain it. I rushed to the forest, grabbed my backpack and ran back to the main building, straight back up the stairs to my room. I suspected to find my laptop missing, or find everything in a mess. But nothing had transpired, the girl was still sleeping on my bed. She looked a bit better.
I turned on my laptop to try and think this all through. I googled for “Flashing pink skies” and I got articles from all over the world. From the UK, to the USA, Australia, China, Russia... Everyone everywhere had seen the pink skies... “Scientists are clueless...”
Perhaps this has to do with increased solar activity? A wave of electromagnetic particles could have... no, they would have been blocked by the Earth’s magnetic field. Maybe some photochemical reactions... What gasses would colour pink when under increased radiation from light... None, pink is a purely synthetic colour, certainly so for gasses... There goes that theory...
“This is not making sense” I grumbled. Frustrated with having no results, I had a look on Facebook... Religious groups saying it’s judgement day, of course... Nothing special. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon as soon as possible. I wonder how many people killed themselves in pure panic, afraid of the Apocalypse, or whatever.
“Where am Ah?” I heard a faint whisper behind me. I turned to see the girl wake up.
Still talking English? “Uhm, hi. I found you passed out on the road to campus and I brought you to my place.”
When she saw me, her face suddenly turned into a face of fear. “What the heck are you supposed to be?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’ am I?” Ok, she’s crazy, you need to get her out of this place, quickly. You shouldn’t have brought her in anyway.
She looked at me with doubt in her eyes, and then she looked at her hands, and then she screamed.
“Shh, you’ll wake my neighbours. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Wh-wh-what am Ah? Is this some kinda magic? Ya better turn me right back, ya, ya... Whatever ya’re.”
“Okay, you are completely making no sense. Did you lose your memory? Do you remember your name?”
“Ah’m Applejack”
Southern accent, blond, cowgirl-like... No way... I stared at her for what seemed an hour. “Applejack... THE Applejack? The Applejack from Sweet Apple Acres?” She nodded through all of it.
Oh man, I’ve lost it. I’m imagining ponies. “Okay, considering the possibility that this is no side effect from me smacking my head against the ground when I crashed my bike, and you are actually here, and you are not just some figment of my imagination...” I didn’t know where to go with this.
“What the heck are ya mumblin’ about, get me back to Ponyville, right now.” She had walked right up to me, her face a few inches from mine.
Okay, this is real, somehow, but I can feel that it’s real. How’s this possible? “Okay, listen. This might not make much sense, but I know who you are. I just have no idea how you got into my world from yours, and even less how you got turned into a human for that matter-”
“What did ya call me?”
“A human. You’re on Earth, a planet mainly populated by humans, about seven billion of them. Like I said, I know who you are, and I know a lot about you and your world Applejack, but how you got to our Earth from Equestria, I have no idea. Do you remember what you were doing before you got here?”
“Well, me and mah friends and the princesses were fightin’ Discord-”
“Discord... I bet he’s the reason behind all this. Right before I found you, the sky was flashing pink, the clouds were brown, and there was an odd smell of fudge hanging around. Do you think he teleported you here?”
“Ah... dunno.” She said with a soft voice. She sat back down on the bed, looking down. “Ah can remember us fightin’ Discord, but after that... Nothin’, just...Pink... What if he did teleport me. They need me. This isn’t good.”
I sat down next to her. “Hey, don’t worry. I’ll get you back to Ponyville, somehow. First though, you need to recover. Are you feeling sick still?” She shook her head, still keeping silent. “Okay, that’s good. Just go lay down and try to get some sleep. Meanwhile, I’ll try to figure this mess out.”
I waited for her to fall asleep, trying to get her as comfortable as I could. Then I went over to my bookshelf to get some books of basic chemical theory. The basic solutions are often the best, Andrew, think. Discord... being of Chaos... Chaos... Entropy? If the entropy of a system rises, it can explain unnatural reactions. Pink skies flashing... flashing.... light... Laser? Pink lasers would be close to red lasers, the minor change in wavelength could be explained by means of concentration. Red lasers are mostly made by having an electric current go through fluorine gas. Ok, a high increase of entropy could mean that fluorine could start emitting wavelengths by itself. Considering Discord is a being of pure Chaos, the rise in entropy shouldn’t be a problem. Now in order to achieve the pink wavelength, the concentration of fluorine gas in the atmosphere would need to be... 20%... That would have killed us all in a matter of seconds.
“I guess there’s no point in explaining how Chaos works. There probably are a million other explanations for what happened circulating right now, and I’ll be damned if they don’t all end in ‘that would have killed us all’. I’m done philosophizing about this,” I mumbled to myself.
Looking at my bed, Applejack was still sleeping. Realising it was Friday, I had to call my parents to say that I wouldn’t be coming home this weekend. When they asked me why, I told them I had some work to do with a friend of mine for one of my classes. It was a lie, but that way my parents wouldn’t investigate further. They cared for my studies more than anything. Telling them I’d miss them, I laid down my phone, and looked at Applejack. Suddenly, I hated myself for lying, but it was the only thing I could’ve done. Right? I shook my head. Suddenly feeling tired, I decided a nap couldn’t hurt. I set my alarm clock for 12, took my spare blanket and lied down on the couch. I fell asleep immediately.
I woke up from the sound of a phone call. “Andrew” I answered.
“Hey Andrew, why weren’t you at class?”
“Something came up. Did you see the skies this morning?”
“Yeah, weird huh? Anyways, I was just calling to make sure you were fine that’s all.”
“Yeah, I am. I’ll see you Monday?”
“Sure. See ya.”
I hung up. Apparently my conversation had woken up Applejack, as she was staring at me.
“Oh hi, What’s up? Are you feeling better?”
“What the heck were ya doin’? Ya just kept talking to yerself. Should Ah be worried?”
“What?” Then I realised she was talking about my phone call. “Oh, that.” I showed her my phone. “This is a phone. It’s a device that allows me to talk to friends who have a phone as well, no matter how far they are.” Then I realised something. “There’s a lot of things you don’t know about this world. If you want, we can go over the most important stuff, just in case you... Just to not make you appear strange to other people.”
“Ah want to know one thing first... How did ya know who Ah was?”
Should have seen that question coming. “Right. Okay, this will be weird for you. Basically, there’s this cartoon of... well, you guys... Maybe I should show you...”
I looked up the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on YouTube and let it play. While it played, I thought of all the things I’d need to go over with Applejack. I should get a world map, maybe... Oh crap, meat. People are going to be eating meat... Oh god, horse meat... This isn’t good. I wonder if now that she’s human she’s going to have to eat meat too. Oh god, how am I going to break that to her...
“How do ya stop this thing, this is gettin’ too weird.” I closed the video for her and looked at her, worried. “Okay” she said, turning to face me, “That’s not how we looked at all. Not even close.”
“Well, I suppose. They say the camera adds a few pounds. It is a cartoon, made for children, so-”
“Right, okay” I could see her mind trying to grasp things, and it wasn’t going too well it seemed.
“If I’m going too fast explaining stuff, just say something.”
“Ah’m fine, keep going” She urged me on. I went to get a world map, and spread it open on my desk.
“This is a map of our world, Earth.” I pointed at it and said “We’re right there in that little country, Belgium. You got all that?”
“Wow, this world is big. Sheesh.”
“And the last thing you should know for now...This is going to be really strange. But what I’m saying is the truth, and nothing but the truth. In this world, animals, including ponies, cows and horses... They aren’t... self-aware.” Applejack kept quiet, so I continued. “Also, a lot of animals are...”
“Yeah? Just tell me already, better to get this over with as soon as possible.”
“Humans eat... Humans are omnivores, not like ponies who are herbivores.”
“So that means... you eat... We eat...”
“Meat, yes” Pow! I did not expect the punch, and I certainly didn’t expect it to be that hard. I got knocked back into my couch.
“Yeah, right. Like Ah’m gunna believe that. This is all some trick from Discord. You’re Discord. Nice try, but ya’re gunna change me back and take me back to Equestria.”
“I should’ve seen that coming. You’ve got to believe me, Applejack. Everything I just said is the truth, I swear. I’m not Discord, I’m twenty years old and chemistry student. I don’t know how I can prove it to you, but this is all real, honestly.” I looked her in the eye as I said those words, hoping she could see the honesty in me.
“Ah’ll only believe ya if ya can prove it to me.”
She seems less sure of herself. Maybe I can convince her. “Okay... You were Smart Cookie in the Heart’s Warming Eve play.” Thank god for seeing that very episode last night.
“Yeah... And?”
“Well, if I were Discord, I wouldn’t know that, since I would have been a stone statue.”
“Well ya could’ve heard that from somepony.”
“I suppose” I wiped my mouth, wiping a bit of blood from my face. Ouch, she really hit me hard.
“Is that blood?” Applejack asked, genuinely concerned. When I nodded, Applejack started apologizing like a madman. “Ah’m sorry, really sorry. Ah really thought ya were Discord. Ah’m sorry.”
“Why do you believe me now, all of a sudden?”
“Right before the battle with Discord, Princess Celestia told us that Discord doesn’t bleed. And ya did. So ya can’t be Discord. Ah’m sorry for doubtin’ ya. And, ya know... hittin’ ya”
“So Discord doesn’t bleed, huh? Well, that’s good to know, I guess...”
Beep beep! My alarm went off again, which meant it was noon. “Are you hungry?” I asked Applejack.
“No, not really.” Her stomach however, let out a thundering roar, and seeing it was only the two of us in the room, I quickly figured what was the matter.
“There are ways for humans to live a completely normal life without eating meat. We call the people who do that vegetarians. However, they have to eat more and they have to eat special stuff which is either not tasty, or very expensive in my opinion. I’m not saying you have to eat meat, I am saying, however, that you are going to have to consider it, that’s all.”
“Tell me... Do ya eat ponies?”
“No, not ponies... Here in Belgium, though, some people eat horses, and about everywhere in the world they eat cows, pigs and chickens. Those are the main 3 sources of meat.”
We were both silent for a minute, until Applejack’s stomach decided to growl again. “C’mon, let’s grab something to eat.” I said to her, as I showed her the way to the kitchen.
I grabbed us both a place and a glass, and poured us some water. She waited for me to take a sip, before doing so herself. “You really can trust me” I said, a bit hurt.
“Ah know, Ah just... didn’t know how to grab that with these... So Ah waited for ya to show me.”
“I’m such an idiot. I totally forgot you never had hands before... How are you liking them so far?”
“They’re strange, but good. Ya can grab things way more easily than with hooves, but they lack a bit of strength though.”
“Lacking strength? Tell that to my face!” I started laughing, hoping to get a smile on her face for the first time today. It worked for a couple of seconds.
“You did what you thought you had to do, so I’m fine with it. Now, to eat...” I handed her a jar. “You should really try putting this on your sandwich.”
“Nut...ella? How in the heck are ya supposed to even say that?”
I grabbed her a knife, showing how to smear it on the bread, and waited for her to take a bite.
“Oh, thish ish good,” she said with her mouth full.
“I’m glad you’re liking it. There’s plenty more of those jars, so take as much as you want.”
She had four more Nutella sandwiches before she said she was stuffed.
For the rest of the day, we discussed more differences between our two worlds. She told me about her friends and family, I told her about college and my own family. We had dinner together, I made us a simple salad, not wanting to freak her out by starting eating meat myself. But sooner or later, it would happen. Sitting at the table, I realised there was no reason to stop our learning session, and so I taught her the basic principles of table manners here on earth, how to use a fork, knife and a spoon, and others. After that I taught her some of the basic vocabulary that might differ between our worlds. We ended our little teaching session talking about different types of apples, which I knew a bit about, since my sister had been studying them. It was starting to get late, so I gave her a towel and showed her where the shower was, and how to use it. When she got back, I had changed my bed sheets.
“You can sleep in the bed, I’ll take the couch.” I told her.
“No, Ah’m the guest, so you just give me whatever place ya have left.”
“And you’re a lady, and I wouldn’t be so impolite to give a lady a place on the couch to sleep. So please, take the bed.”
She considered this for a second.
“Thank you,” she said with a smile.
“You’re welcome.”
As she got into her bed, Applejack asked me one more thing. “Actually, what’s yer name?”
“Oh god, I never told you, did I... I’m Andrew Hughes, nice to meet you” I said sheepishly.
“Hi, Ah’m Applejack” she said, before falling asleep.
I logged into my IRC to check out with my online brony friends, only to see that everyone was discussing the pink skies. Not wanting to appear crazy by saying I found Applejack, I quickly left a comment “It’s like Discord did all of this, lol” before going to sleep myself, but keeping the IRC on.