I woke up to find myself with a smashing headache, because for some reason, my body had decided it would be way more comfortable with my head hanging besides the couch. So, for the last few hours, my blood flow had mostly redirected to my head, causing me to have a headache, as well as probably being the reason why I woke up. I tried to look through the curtains, only to find that it was still dark outside. Now, I was annoyed, because today was Sunday, and that was usually the day I choose to catch up on sleep. And once I wake up, I don’t fall asleep again, especially with the headache I was having at this very moment.
Still sleepy, I let myself fall out of my couch causing a minor thud. I heard some muttering and that’s when I remembered why I was sleeping in my couch in the first place. Applejack was in my bed, and I really didn’t want to wake her up. I tip-toed my way to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and stayed there, pondering what I would be doing for the remainder of the day. It was Sunday today, but I recall checking the episode list and sadly finding that there wouldn’t be a new episode on April 14. So that was out of the question. This also made me chuckle, considering that one of the Mane Six was sleeping in my bed right now, I wondered if Applejack would still be in the episode.
If AJ is here, but there are still episodes being made, which are no doubt going to involve her... How does that work... She’s a character from a cartoon show, but somehow transported to Earth, yet the cartoon is going to keep going as if the events that clearly did happen, namely the pink skies and all that, didn’t happen. So we have a split timeline on our hands here... I don’t think AJ is going to understand any of this. I don’t understand any of this, so let’s just stick with our old explanation of “Discord happened”. It doesn’t make sense, neither does Discord, so in total this makes sense. Yay! Problem solved. Ow, headache...
For some reason, every time I got out of bed way too early, I was incredibly active, more active than I was supposed to be for not getting enough sleep, anyway. My brain especially had a tendency of going into overdrive in these situations. This included random outbursts of thoughts in my mind, which was quite annoying with the headache I was having. I poured myself some cereal and started eating.
I wasn’t really a cereal-guy, but having cereals around was very useful for both quick and early breakfasts, as well as midnight snacks, which I often had due to both my studies and the distractions of the Internet in general. Which reminded me, I had some work to do for school, and even though Applejack was around, I couldn’t slack on my homework, or my parents would kill me. So, as quietly as humanly possible, - Hmm, what would be the pony equivalent of humanly? Ponyly? Ponyngly? “Shut up Brain!” - I entered my room again, grabbed my laptop and books, and went back to the kitchen so I could study while letting Applejack sleep.
Industrial and technical chemistry. It was one of my favourite subjects, not because of the contents, more because of the professor. He didn’t just teach us our subject, he actively asked for our opinion on some matters, asked for possible solutions for problems, suggested we do experiments ourselves. He was enthusiastic about his course, he cared. The experiments were the reason for me to want to study chemistry in the first place.
But, frankly, that was more a child’s view of things. Every experiment so far had to be hurried; a race against time, and therefore it was inaccurate. It wasn’t what I expected chemistry to be. Somewhere in my mind I wanted to know the thrills of finding some new substance after working with substances that essentially could kill you, not some rushed job of following commands written on a piece of paper and where nothing possibly could go wrong. I sighed, I had chosen chemistry, my parents had paid for my studies and I was going to have to make the best of it. And it wasn’t all that bad, which brought me back to the book that laid open in front of me.
“So, whatcha doin’?”
“God, AJ, don’t scare me like that, I’m gonna get a heart attack this way.”
“Hey, Ah told ya good morning an’ everything, I even had breakfast right in front of ya, but ya didn’t look away from those books. So Ah checked what ya were doin’ is all”
“Well, I didn’t notice you, sorry, I guess I just was engrossed in all this school work.”
“Ya remind me of a certain purple unicorn sometimes, ya know that?”
“Was it that bad? What time is it?” I looked away from my books now.
“Ah keep forgettin’ that you know who Ah’m talking about. But yep, it was that bad. And it’s 10 in the morning.”
“Okay, I definitely need a break. Would you care for some tea?”
“Tea would be nice, yeah.”
While I was boiling water, a couple of other things popped into my mind, things I had been wondering about. I decided that asking them over tea would actually be a nice time to ask them.
“AJ, do you mind me asking some questions? There’s just some stuff that I’ve been thinking about that I’d like to know.”
“Sure, Andrew, ask away.”
“Which question would you like first, the easy one or the hard one?”
“Ah’ll take the easy one first, because if Ah can’t answer that one, don’t even bother with the hard one.” she said with a chuckle.
“Do you still have your cutiemark?”
“What kinda question is that? Of course Ah do.” And before I could stop her, she pulled down her pants and turned her hip to me, revealing the three red apples that were already familiar to me. “See? Now Ah’ve been willin’ to ask ya the same thing, what’s yer cutiemark looking like? Ah haven’t been able to see it with all the clothes ya’re wearin’”
“I don’t have any.” Seeing Applejack’s face, I chuckled at her shock-filled, confused look. “Humans don’t get cutie marks. They never have, and I doubt they ever will, seeing as we’re a species that don’t use magic. Hence my question whether you still had your cutiemark.”
“If Apple Bloom knew about that, she would be freakin’ out. What was yer other question? Ya know, the hard one. And don’t let it be any of that fancy mathematics, because I never was any good at that stuff.”
“Well, I’m wondering why you were so accepting when I showed you the “My Little Pony” stuff. I mean, I wouldn’t have understood a thing of it.”
Applejack pondered that question for a moment, putting her hand to her face and tapping her chin. Finally, she said “Ah believed ya because ya immediately showed me that. Even though everything here looked like some kind of bad dream and Ah didn’t know what to believe. But back home, ponies have said that Ah was too quick to judge sometimes, and they were right. Ah could tell that ya weren’t lying, and Ah woke up in a bed, so Ah knew that ya had tried to help me.
To be honest, Ah thought ya were crazy when ya said all o’ that stuff. But Ah decided to give ya a chance. Ya showed me that ‘My Little Pony’ stuff and Ah thought that this was all crazy, but somehow very believable. Then ya showed me that world map, and I had a lil’ harder time believin’ ya. But then ya told me that we were both... ya know... meat eaters, and something inside me said that something wasn’t right at all, and Ah snapped and punched ya. Sorry about that, because it seems Ah was wrong yet again.”
“You know what, if I would have been transported to a world I didn’t know, I probably would have reacted way worse than you have, honestly. Especially considering you are stuck in a different body... I can’t even imagine it... I’d probably hurt myself and any others who would be helping me. Thinking about it, if you ever need any help with anything in this world, be it customs or names or whatever, don’t wait to ask me. I never realized this, but everything must be very strange to you. And hey, I would have punched someone in the face too if I couldn’t eat bacon anymore.”
“Bacon, huh? What’s that?”
“Oh god, you are going to have to try it at least once. You just don’t know what you’re missing.” Realizing who I was just speaking to, I quickly added, “You know, if you feel like it. It is meat; after all, I mean I’m not forcing you to eat meat... never mind...” I just continued drinking my tea.
“Ah’m not gonna eat meat. There’s just no way Ah’m gonna. Ah understand that you do, but it’s just not for me. Sorry.”
“It’s fine; it’s my fault for bringing it up. And I’ll never force you to eat meat. Like I’ve said, I want you to consider it, that’s all. Now, let’s change the subject. What are you planning to do during the week? I mean, I’ll be in classes, which you are welcome to join, but I don’t think you’re a science kind of pony... girl... lady. So that means you’ll be alone for the most time. Any ideas for what you wanna do?”
“Well, Ah’d love to get a job to pay ya back for all this. Ah mean, Ah’m very grateful for all that ya done for me and probably will do for me, and Ah kinda feel guilty for eatin’ yer food and buying me those clothes.”
“I’d gladly pay for whatever you need, but I won’t stop you from getting a job. Unfortunately, I don’t think there are any apple orchards close by. But when I think of something I’ll let you figure it out.”
I finished my cup of tea and sighed. “Well that was refreshing, but I have to get back to work. Anything you wanna do in the meantime?”
“Well, Ah’d love to finish the rest of the movie from yesterday, if that’s no problem for you.”
“Sure, I’ll just get everything set up for you then.” I moved my laptop from the kitchen to my coffee table in front of my couch, resumed the movie from where it had stopped the night before, went back to pick up my books, and then started another subject. Cellular Biology. This was one of the subjects I absolutely detested. Boring as hell, and almost no relation to chemistry, but apparently enough of a relation to be an obligatory course. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about what the differences were between an apoenzyme and a holoenzyme. I had to study it nonetheless.
“Andrew, what’s this?”
“Hmm?” I looked around to find Applejack snooping around in my wardrobe. She pulled out one of my shirts, my favourite one even. Then, I remembered why exactly it was my favourite. It was my brony T-shirt of Applejack. “Oh yeah, that. Uhm... Well, I’m a fan from the show, and I liked the design so I bought it.” For some reason, I even had difficulties admitting to a character from My Little Pony that I was a brony. I guess that shows just how much of a closet brony I really am, huh?
“Ah thought ya said the show was for children?”
“Well, there’s nothing wrong about liking a show for kids, right?” I didn’t tell her about the brony community, because there were some things about that community I’d rather not let her find out.
“Ah suppose not. But Ah don’t see any other pony T-shirts in here. So why this one, huh?”
“Well... uhm... I guess you could say that you were my favourite pony in the show.” God, I hope she doesn’t take that the wrong way.
“Oh... Okay Ah guess.” She folded the T-shirt back up and went to sit on the couch. Yup, definitely the wrong way.
I didn’t have any experience with women, and my favourite pony being transformed into a woman surely didn’t help in the matter. So, not knowing what to say to that, I just ignored her and went back to work.
“Hey, Andrew, the movie’s done, ya know, got any ideas for any other stuff?”
Not looking up from my books I said to her “No, I don’t know what you could do. Just figure something out alright?” I focused on my books again. About half an hour later, my stomach started to growl. “Hey AJ, you wanna eat something?” There was no response. “AJ?” I asked again, turning my chair around. She was gone. Oh god, what did I do? Good job Andrew, ya screwed it up again, like you always do. I gotta find her, now.
I rushed out my door, and down the stairs, hoping that she hadn’t gone too far. As I opened the main doors of the building, I saw Applejack sitting on the sidewalk.
“I’m sorry, AJ, there’s no reason for me to have snapped there.” I sat down next to her. “It’s just that I didn’t have a good sleep. And I get really cranky for no reason when I don’t sleep enough. And frankly, I was so frustrated with all of this. I mean there’s a girl living with me. I knew her before she even heard of me. She wants to get back home and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“It’s okay, Andrew, Ah shouldn’t have been looking around in your wardrobe anyway,” she said with a sniff. Has she been crying?
“AJ, is something the matter? C’mon, let’s go back inside. Mi casa es tu casa. My home is your home.” I tried to cheer her up.
“Home...” Oh God, Andrew, ya did it again. You are such a great person, you have no idea. “Ah miss them, Andrew...”
“I’m sorry, AJ, I really should pay more attention to what I’m saying...”
“Ah hope they’re fine.”
“I hope so too AJ. Could you tell me just what happened that day?” I asked, while throwing my arm around her in a friendly hug.
“Sure, Andrew. Well, Discord got loose again and...” She told me the tale about what had happened. “And then you showed up and carried me to yer bed.”
“Well, the way I see it, you don’t have anything to worry about. Either the wave of chaos didn’t reach your family, which means they are fine in Equestria, or they got caught in it and are now here.”
“But what if they aren’t found? Ah mean ya were lucky to find me in the first place. What if they aren’t that lucky? And what if the people who find them don’t know who they are?”
“Trust me; with both the pink skies and the fudge smell, people are bound to find them. Also, even if people don’t know who they are, they will help them out, in some way or another. So trust me, they are safe either way. C’mon, let’s grab something to eat.” I stood up and pulled Applejack along with me. We started walking back up the stairs.
“Frankly, Ah haven’t been entirely honest with ya. Ya asked me why Ah believed ya, well it’s because Ah thought Ah should have been dead...”
“And to be perfectly honest with you, I haven’t been saying everything either. You found my shirt in my wardrobe, and well, it’s actually frowned upon to be an avid fan of a children’s show, especially as a guy being fan of a little girl’s show. You know, macho culture and stuff like that.”
“Oh, is that why ya were so upset when Ah found that?”
“Well, it’s a part of my life that I haven’t been willing to share with people so far. There’s actually a community consisting of teenage and adult fans of the show, calling themselves bronies. I am what they would call a ‘closet brony’, meaning that I haven’t gone public with it yet.” My stomach growled, causing me to burst out in laughter for no reason at all.
“Why are ya laughin’ like that?” Applejack was suppressing a chuckle as well now.
“I just feel happy, isn’t that reason enough to laugh? I mean I haven’t felt this genuinely happy in a while, just because I said I was a brony to someone I knew wouldn’t judge me for it.” We reached our floor. “C’mon, I’m making you a salad. Have you ever had a boiled egg?”
“Can’t say Ah have... but it doesn’t seem too bad from the sound of it. Sure, I’ll be willing to try it.”
“Like I said before, I’m not forcing you to eat it. I’ve been looking up some guidelines as to how to live a vegetarian life. If you don’t like eggs, there are still plenty of other ways to get your proteins.”
I placed a big bowl of salad in the mid of our table. I took out two plates and scooped up a large portion for myself. “I don’t know what vegetables you like, so take whatever you want.” Man, I haven’t eaten this healthy in years. I suppose there are some benefits about this entire mess. That, and I have freaking Applejack living at my place.
After lunch, we both sat there in the kitchen, doing nothing. “So, what do we do now?” Applejack asked. I shrugged, not really knowing what to do. If I had spare time during the day, it usually went to my schoolwork. My life was boring, but that was going to have to change. I then reminded the offer Antonio had made me.
“What would you think of working for Antonio and Maria? That way you won’t be alone when I’m off for classes and you’ll have a job like you wanted to.”
“Ah dunno, Ah’m not that great of a cook, so Ah don’t know if they could use me...”
“Well, would you mind giving it a try?”
“Sure, Ah guess...”
“I have to call my parents first though to see if they allow me to work during the weekends. I’ll give them a call right now.”
My parents agreed to the deal. They didn’t need all that much convincing, seeing it would be a way for them to reduce their allowance. I then called Antonio and Maria to take her up on her offer, as well as asking if they had a job for Applejack during the week. They said that if we were both okay with it, I could help in the kitchen, while she could be a waitress. I asked Applejack, and she said she was fine with the idea. We could start our jobs tomorrow, with our free days being Tuesday and Sunday.
“Well, that’s that sorted then, thanks Andrew,” Applejack said. “So, do ya have any plans for tonight?”
“Not really, I’ve pretty much finished all my schoolwork for this week.” I sighed, just realizing how boring my life was. I went to classes, cooked dinner, did my homework, watched a movie or read some fan-fics, and then went to sleep. “I’m sorry for my boring life, I’d do something with you, but I have no idea what.”
“Well, what do ya do normally for fun, apart from stuff like reading or watching those movies?”
“I play chess... God, I’m so boring... Well I suppose we could play football. I mean I used to play it before college, but now I just don’t have the time for it.”
“Football it is, though ya’re gonna have to explain it to me.”
“I’ll explain it on the way there. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from here. I just gotta dress into something a little more appropriate.” I took out my football shoes from the bottom shelf of my wardrobe, as well as my Barcelona shirt and shorts. I needed to inflate the football again after a year of not using it, which took a while. When I was ready, we left for the football field.
“Football is a game of two teams, each consisting for eleven players. The purpose of the game is to get the ball into the other team’s goal. You can’t touch the ball with your hands or arms, except for one player on each team, the goalkeeper. Minor contact between the players is allowed. That’s about it really. Those are the rules of the game, but since we’ll be the only two people playing, we’re just gonna kick the ball around a bit.”
When we arrived, I went over how to properly pass a ball, how to keep the ball close to the feet when running, how to put force behind kicks, among others. Applejack was a quick learner, and we went over some minor training exercises. Her shot is pretty strong, and her passing is very accurate. It probably has something to do with her applebucking. We were taking turns shooting the goal and goalkeeping, when I saw three guys approaching.
“You guys wanna join in?” I called out to them. I saw that one of them was wearing keeper gloves. “We can do two versus two on one goal.”
“Alright, sounds cool,” the keeper says. “My name’s Nick and these guys are Jimmy and Tom.”
“My name’s Andrew and that’s AJ,” I pointed at the goal. “So, let’s get started all right?”
Applejack ran over. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, care for a little competition AJ?”
“Let’s show ‘em what we can do”
Apparently, we couldn’t do anything. Nick was an amazing keeper, and the John and Tom could play the ball around like it was nothing. Final score: 12-1. Applejack and I said goodbye and we went back to my place. On the way back Applejack seemed sad.
“You’re not sore about losing, right?” I said to her. “I mean they knew each other for a couple of years probably, and looking at them they were probably a duo of strikers in the same team.”
“What do ya mean, strikers? And how can you tell?”
“Right, I haven’t talked about football positions. Basically there are six positions in football. The goalkeeper, central defenders, wing defenders, midfielders, wing attackers and strikers. As for how I can tell, it just comes with experience. Keepers are usually tall and have great reflexes. Central defenders are pretty tall and sturdy. Wing defenders are usually fast, but still pretty sturdy. Midfielders have great stamina and their passes are accurate. Wing attackers are fast and nimble, and usually know tricks to pass defenders. Lastly, strikers are usually pretty fast and they know how to score. Seeing that they are friends, it wouldn’t surprise me that they play in the same team.”
“You can tell all that just by looking at them?”
“Yup, years of experience. I’m guessing you can tell which trees are ready to bucked just by looking at them?” Applejack nodded. “Same thing. My old coach said I had a good eye for things like that, so I always looked out for weaknesses on the opponent’s team.”
“So, what position do you think I should play?” Applejack said with a grin.
“I think you’d make a pretty good midfielder, from what I know of you and your style of play. Your stamina is great, your passes are very accurate and you have a powerful shot. I was a wing defender myself. I’m pretty fast, yet sturdy and I can give an accurate pass.”
My stomach growled. “Let’s grab something to eat, and I know just the thing. Belgium has a whole culture on fries, so that’s something you just have to try. There’s a ‘fry house’ real close to my place.” Applejack agreed, and after a couple more growling stomachs, we both entered the place.
“Ah never thought you could have an entire meal just eating fries... But man, were they good,” Applejack stated when we were both back at my place, about an hour later.
“You bet. Belgium has the self-proclaimed best fries in the world,” I said, laughing with Applejack. I had a look at my watch and saw that it was 7:30. “All right, you have work tomorrow. Antonio asked that you be there at 10 tomorrow. So you take the bus at 9 and you’ll be fine. I won’t be there to wake you though. I already have classes then.”
“It’s still a bit early to go to bed though, so what do we do now?”
“Do you want to watch another movie?” Applejack shrugged and then nodded. “Okay, how about The Fellowship of the Ring, it’s the first movie in a trilogy of fantasy books called Lord of the Rings, which have been filmed.”
“Sounds good to me, Andrew.”
We both watched the movie in silence, apart from Applejack immersing herself in the fight scenes. I had a laugh, and then thought about how magical and strange everything must seem for her. I only hoped that I was doing a good job of helping her.
When the movie ended, we both yawned. “All right AJ, time for bed.”
“Are ya my dad all of a sudden?” She chuckled. “Good night, Andrew. Thanks for spending time with me.” She climbed into bed.
“My pleasure. It’s been a while since I just went out and did something, rather than study all day long.”
“Nice goal by the way. Doesn’t it hurt to hit the ball like that with yer head?”
“Nah, as long as you put more force on the ball than the ball puts force on you, it doesn’t hurt. Newton’s Third Law of Mo-” A loud, clearly fake snore interrupted my explanation. “Good night, AJ.”
“Good night, Andrew.”
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Author’s Note: Sorry for the long wait before the update. The team at Ponyfall had to sort out a lot of stuff, and when that was over, I got a little bit ill and then I went on holiday. So don’t worry, the following updates won’t take as long. Also my story now has a prologue, as was demanded by the admins. It’s written in chapter one, and it’s also the story that Applejack tells me.