//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Applejack // Story: The In–Between Place // by Voidbinder //------------------------------// The In-Between Place Chapter 1: Applejack By Voidbinder Twilight Sparkle, the creator of a new dimension, fell out of the portal and flat on her face. She groaned, and rubbed her muzzle with her hoof as she climbed back to her feet. She turned her head, and caught a quick glance of a blurry landscape through the portal, before she trotted away and through her castle. She wove through the hallways, making her way to the front door. She reached out with magic and pushed it open, and smiled as she felt the sun shine onto her face. Staring out across Ponyville, she felt a buzz of excitement grow in her chest. She needed to gather her friends. An hour later, five of the Elements of Harmony were gathered in Twilight's castle, relaxing on their respective thrones. Applejack had taken her hat off and was idly spinning it on her hoof, Pinkie Pie was bouncing on the cushion of her throne with impossible energy, Fluttershy and Rarity were chatting idly, and Rainbow Dash was, unsurprisingly, napping. The doors at the end of the room burst open, and a certain purple alicorn walked through. "Oh, good! Everypony's here!" Twilight grinned as she took a seat at her own throne. "Yes, we're all here. Now Twilight, what was it that you called us here for? I do hope it's something important." Rarity said. "Well, you remember when I told you about my friends at Canterlot High in the other world?" Twilight asked. "You mean the one with Sunset Shimmer an' all those Sirens and what-not?" Applejack asked. "The one where there's different versions of all of us?" "Yes," Twilight smiled and she prepared what to say next. "And you remember when I said that it's probably too confusing for you to come through?" "What're you getting at, Twi-i-i-light?" Rainbow Dash yawned as she spoke, evidently sleepy from her nap. "Well, Sunset and I designed a way for you guys to visit yourselves from that world, without causing any inter-dimensional problems!" Twilight beamed. Dead silence followed the pronouncement, only to be shattered by the sound of an energetic yell. Twilight's vision was abruptly blocked by a mass of pink slamming into her. "You mean I can meet another version of ME? And we can talk and laugh and have a party TOGETHER?" Pinkie bounced off of Twilight, and practically levitated in wide circles around the room. Twilight blinked twice, still looking confused as to what exactly had just transpired. "Yes, Pinkie. You can meet another version of you. Sunset and I think you all should meet yourselves one on one, so we're trying to decide who should go first. The instant the words left her, a cacophony erupted as everypony tried to convince Twilight they should be the one to go first, overwhelming her with a mess of voices so loud she couldn't understand them. Twilight tried to back up, her just ran into her throne. Frantically, she reached with her magic, and cast a quick teleportation spell, sending her to the opposite side of the room. Twilight took a deep breath. "Will everypony just LET ME EXPLAIN!" she yelled. Silence fell as her friends turned to look at her, shock and a little bit of shame clearly visible on their faces. "Um, we're sorry, Twilight," Fluttershy's voice was barely audible, even in the silence. "I guess we just got excited at the idea." "It's alright." Twilight reassured them. "I just want to explain. All of you are going to get as long as you want to meet your other self, it's just that Sunset and I wanted to send someone careful-" "That's you out, RD." Applejack mumbled. Her face went red as everypony turned to look at her. "Sorry, Twi. Ah didn't mean to interrupt." Twilight nodded, and then continued explaining. "As I was saying, someone careful and level-headed, simply to make sure that meeting yourself isn't at all traumatic or frightening. Sunset's probably talking about it right now with her friends, and I'll let her know what we think." "Sounds fair." Rainbow interjected. "Completely ignoring AJ's comment, I guess that means that I won't be first?" Her ears drooped a little as she spoke. "Actually," Twilight said brightly. "I was thinking you'd be one of the least likely to freak out at seeing yourself, so you might be the first." Rainbow smiled at that, and flapped her wings slightly, lifting her about a foot off the ground. "So who d'you think's gonna go first?" Applejack asked. "I think it could be either you or Rainbow, since you both want to." Twilight nodded. "I'll just go write to Sunset Shimmer and see how she's doing on the other side." The journal was enveloped in a glowing purple aura, and floated over to Twilight. She flipped it open, grabbed a pen in her magic, and began writing. Hi, Sunset. We're thinking about sending Applejack or Rainbow Dash first over here. What about you guys? "Well, now we just have to wait for Sunset to reply." Twilight closed the book and set it back down. "Twilight," Rarity spoke up. "Suppose Sunset Shimmer writes back that both Applejack and Rainbow Dash are the most likely choices on their side as well. What will you do?" "Knowing those two," Twilight smirked. "I'm assuming a hoof-wrestle will be in order." "Hey!" Rainbow yelled. "What, you think she's wrong?" Applejack gave Rainbow a friendly punch as she spoke. "Well, uh, I didn't say that..." Rainbow Dash trailed off as she finished. "I'm sure we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Twilight said. A couple of seconds lated, everypony heard a telltale buzz, and they turned to look at the journal. It once again floated towards Twilight, who opened it and read the latest entry. "I'll read it aloud. She says 'hi everyone, over here we've had a pretty similar conclusion, though we were thinking more along the lines of Applejack or Rarity. I asked Rainbow, but she said she wanted to get something from her house.' Rarity, hmm." She looked up at the white unicorn. "Rarity? Do you want to?" "It's perfectly alright, darling." Rarity smiled slightly. "While I'm glad for the offer, I think it would be best for Applejack to have the honor." "It's settled then." Twilight said with a satisfied smile. "Applejack will be the first to go. Are you ready?" "Ready as I'll ever be, sugarcube." Applejack adjusted her hat. "S'not every day Ah get to meet myself." With that, she walked over to Twilight and let her lead her to the mirror. As she walked away, she could faintly hear Dash talking to somepony. "Now what do you think the other me had to go get?" Applejack fell out of the portal and onto what felt like soft grass. She grumbled as she pushed herself back onto her feet, reaching a hand up to fix her hat. As she lifted her arm, she noticed something odd. There seemed to be a faint orange glow coming off of her skin, and she faintly felt the same feeling of energy she got whenever she ponied up. She brushed her hand through her hair, and felt pony ears poking up. Huh. Ah didn't do anything particularly honest, or play any music, so why in the world am I ponying up? She shrugged, and ignored it for now. She'd have to ask Sunset about it when she got back. She looked around, and was greeted with what appeared to be a large clearing in a forest. In the center of the clearing was another tree, but this appeared to have windows and a door in it like some crazy treehouse. Glancing up, she saw a clear blue sky. The position of the sun looked to her like it was early afternoon, but without knowing east or west in this place she couldn't be sure. She didn't even know if there was east or west here. Sunset's explanation as she led Applejack to the portal had been rushed, and more than a little confusing. Sunset said that there was going to be a pony version of me here, but Ah don't see anything. Could she be behind that giant tree? Applejack began to walk to the right of the tree, trying to get a look at the other side. She saw a strange circle on the other side of the tree that reminded her of the portal, as well as a brief flash of orange and yellow that vanished around the side of the tree. What was that? She wondered. "Hey!" she called. "Anyone out there?" Then, something, or someone, or somepony, as Sunset sometimes said when talking about Equestrian, came walking out from around the tree. She was expecting the pony to look like a smaller horse, like the ones on the farm, but this was different. She looked much more human than Applejack was expecting, with a rounded face, large, forward-facing eyes, and a small muzzle. And she looked like Applejack. Her coat was a similar color compared to Applejack's skin, same hay-yellow hair, and same treasured Stetson hat. The pony Applejack stopped, her eyes widening briefly as she saw human Applejack. Then she broke out into an infectious smile. "Howdy there! Ah'm Applejack!" At that she chuckled. "But Ah guess you're Applejack too!" Applejack returned the smile as she heard her pony self's greeting. It sounded exactly like her. "Howdy Applejack! You bet Ah'm Applejack too. Though it feels kinda funny to say that." She reached out a hand, and the pony Applejack reached out a hoof. It looked like these ponies shook hands, or hooves, as well, because Applejack was getting a true Apple family greeting- from herself. "Us both calling each other Applejack is going to get really confusing." the human Applejack said. "How 'bout Ah call you Applejack, and you can jus' call me AJ. Seems like if anyone can use my nickname, it's myself." "Sounds good, sugarcube." Applejack smirked. "Or AJ, Ah guess." "So, uh," AJ began. "Is there a Sweet Apple Acres in your world?" Then she grimaced slightly. "Sorry, that felt like a dumb question." "Nevermind that." Applejack said. "And yes, there is a Sweet Apple Acres in my world. Ah run it with Big Mac. Is that the same with you?" "Sorta," AJ replied. "Ah don't run it, not yet. Ah'm only in high school. Aren't you?" "What?" A decidedly confused look had appeared on Applejack's face. "You're still in high school? How old are you?" "18, just had my birthday recently." AJ looked at her pony double. "How old are you?" "Ah'm 23, and just had my birthday too." Applejack's confused look remained. "Ah wonder why our ages are different." "Ah dunno. Doesn't seem to make much sense." AJ said. "So, uh what do you talk about to your dimensional double anyways?" "No idea." Applejack replied. "What Ah do know is that Ah don't really want to spend the whole time standing around next to the big tree house. Though," she used a hoof to break open the ground. "Whatever Twi did here, it made good farming soil." "Let me see that." AJ knelt down, and broke through the grass with her fingers. She ran some of the dirt through her hand, and grinned at her pony counterpart. "Ah'll agree with that. Ah should ask Sunset if Ah could some apple trees in here. She'd probably be able to control the weather too." "The weather? Oh yeah, y'all don't have pegasi in your world, do you?" Applejack said, still feeling the dirt. "Pegasi? Oh yeah, Sunset mentioned that they control weather in Equestria. No, we don't have any fancy stuff like that back on the farm. Ah won't deny that that sure would be nice, though." AJ answered. "Yeah, having pegasi really helps with keepin' everything runnin' smoothly." Applejack said. "Course, it would be better if Rainbow Dash can bother to do her job on time instead of practicin' her stunts." At that, AJ threw back her head and laughed. "Ah can totally see Rainbow doing that. She's your weather-pegasus?" AJ said as soon as her laughter died down. "Weatherpony, yeah. Ah guess some things stay the same across dimensions, from Rainbow's laziness to Pinkie's reality-bending... Pinkieness." Applejack smiled as she talked. "Yeah," AJ replied. "Or Rarity's crazy skill at making dresses, and then practically giving them away. Or Fluttershy and her ability to communicate with animals, and lack of ability to communicate with anyone she doesn't know." Applejack looked confused for a second, and mumbled something to herself, then shrugged. "Twilight told me about the first time she met Fluttershy, and how she could barely hear the poor mare say her name. She's gotten better, but still won't talk to just anypony." Now it was AJ's turn to look confused, and whisper something that sounded like "anypony?" to herself, but she shrugged it off as well. A sneaky grin snuck across her face. "Do you think you can convince Twilight to let you get an apple sapling through the portal?" She asked Applejack. "Probably," the farmpony replied. "You think Sunset'll let you?" "Maybe," the farmgirl said. "Ah do think this little place that Sunset and Twilight created could use a little personal touch..." Twin excited smiles grew on the two remarkably similar faces.