14- Where a Bunch of People Visit Applejack
The cloaked pony got off the train in Canterlot. She spent a moment looking around, trying to get her bearings. There was definitely something wrong, and a quick reconnoiter of the area highlighted what it was – there were extremely few ponies around. Very few ponies, and absolutely no royal guards. She had to find out why; the last thing she needed was for something to go wrong now, when there was so much at stake. She quickly flagged down a nearby aristocrat, who seemed incredibly miffed at the interruption, and yet hesitant to outright ignore such a strange and intimidating looking pony.
“Excuse me. Can you tell me what’s going on? Where is everybody? Why are there no guards around?”
The aristocrat sniffed with a condescending air. “The reason the train station is empty is that the Equestrian rail system has been momentarily shut down. And there are no guards because the princess has sent them to the Crystal Empire to deal with the emerging crises there. Now if you don’t mind, I really must be going.”
He sniffed once again and thrust his nose into the air. He trotted off without a glance back at her, obviously relieved to be done with the disturbance. Crystal Empire? Wasn’t that where she just was? What could possibly be happening there? She rushed down the almost barren city street.
As she passed by the Canterlot denizens, they looked up in panic to see who could be so hurried and brazen to make so much noise in such a sensitive time. Several ducked behind benches and trash cans, while others rushed into their houses in panic. She ignored them. Things seemed to be going downhill quickly around here, and she needed to find the pony she was looking for.
After running halfway through the city, she came upon a humble townhouse in a poorer section of town. She stopped in front of it, panting from her exertion. She could run a lot faster as a pony, but she sure did get tired out quicker. She tried to breathe easy – it would do no good to be breathless while trying to have a serious conversation. After a few minutes, she trotted up to the front door, and gave a resounding knock with her hoof.
Nothing. She knocked again.
After a moment, the door opened a crack. She tried to look to see who it was she would be addressing, but the darkness in the house didn’t allow her.
“Can I help you?” a nervous stallion said from inside the house. The cloaked mare hesitated. Stallion? Something was wrong. Maybe the pony she was looking for had moved?
“Uhm… I’m sorry. I think I’m looking for the pony who used to live here. Do you know where I can find…”
An enormous eruption sounded behind her, shaking the ground and knocking her over!
She looked around wildly. Ponies screamed and the sound of fighting could be vaguely heard in the distance in the direction of the palace. The city was under attack! She looked in panic back to the door of the townhouse. The stallion had stuck his head out of the door, his eyes wide in panic and momentarily shell-shocked. She needed to find this pony, now more than ever.
“Hey!” she called, trying to get the stallion’s attention, “Where is…”
“Ponyville!” he yelled back before quickly slamming the door in her face. Ponyville? Wasn’t that the small farming village at the foot of the mountain? There was no way she would be able to get anyone else’s attention now that the city was under attack, so she supposed she would have to get to that village and hope it's the same one. Luckily, stealth was something she was fairly good at.
She crept through the streets away from the sound of fighting. Ponyville was her next stop.
***
“This is gonna seem kinda weird, but this here is Applejack.” Applejack’s human counterpart gestured toward her in introduction. AJ curtly shook hands with the fiery-haired girl. She knew instantly who it was from Twilight’s descriptions of her – Sunset Shimmer. While her physical appearance was quite to her expectations, her demeanor was not. Past tales of social hijacking and scheming of invasions brought to mind a very assertive personality. This was not the case. Apparently the very act of acquiring friends was sufficient to deflate her ego, as well.
“Hi. Nice to meet you,” Sunset responded quietly, not quite meeting Fluttershy levels of timidity, but close. “I’m sorry to hear about your friend.”
“Thanks, sugarcube, but we’re all missing a friend right about now.” She turned to Human-AJ. “What’s the news on that, by the way? Ya said y’all were talkin’ with Spitfire…”
“Yeah, she’s on her way over here now. We’re all gonna get together and figure out what the game plan is.” As she spoke, it was apparent to all that her voice and her face reflected a hidden sadness, a sadness that was thinly veiled behind confident words.
AJ knew that sitting around worrying about the two Rainbow Dash’s wasn’t the best way to overcome their anxiety, even if it seemed that her brain could do little else. However, years of careful management of the farm had taught her to look and plan ahead. She wouldn’t let her mind tell her that Rainbow was doing anything but waiting for them to find her with a huge smile on her face. Rainbow was fine. She was fine and they had to look ahead for what they were to do after they had rescued her. And there was one person in the room that they had tirelessly tried to talk to for several days – and she was currently sitting on the couch across from her.
“Sunset?” she started. The girl looked over toward her inquisitively. AJ took that as an indication to keep going. “Did, uh, did Applejack tell you about why we’re here?”
“She said that Rainbow and the Equestrian Rainbow went missing. I told her that planes were incredibly dangerous without the necessary safety precautions that…”
“No, Ah mean why we’re even in this world ta begin with?”
Sunset looked down, deliberately avoiding AJ’s eyes. She sighed deeply and answered without ever looking up. “I… I realize that it’s my fault. If I had never come through the mirror last year, then no one would have to be stuck here, and your friend—”
“Hey, Ah’m not mad at ya, if that’s what you’re gettin’ all emotional about. In fact, y’all might have unintentionally done us all a huge favor. Ya see, somethin’ strange has happened in our world, in Equestria. Twilight – y’all know Twilight, right?” Sunset nodded her head. “Well, she got herself stuck in some sorta magic thingy. I don’ really understand any of it, but the only way ta get her out is ta get the Twilight of this world ta help her.”
Sunset’s expression slowly warmed as Applejack told her that she didn’t blame her for their being stuck in this world. However, her face transformed back into a frown at her explanation. After several moments of rumination, she shook her head.
“You’re talking about a phurba, aren’t you?”
“A… whatsit, now?”
“A phurba,” Sunset explained, “It’s a type of ritual dagger that binds a soul to it whenever it pierces a pony’s skin.”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s it! Y’all know about those? Ah mean, we asked Princess Celestia about it, and even she didn’t know what it was at first. She called it the Kīla of Gothmog.”
“I’m not familiar with that one in particular. In fact, the only reason I know what a phurba is to begin with is that a strange pony asked me to steal a reference book about them from the Starswirl the Bearded section for them.”
“Maybe y’all better start from the beginning…” AJ suggested. Any information she could get and report back to the princess would be helpful. Everyone else in the room appeared to be vaguely paying attention, if hopelessly lost (except for Granny Smith, who was asleep in her easy chair). She didn’t blame them – if they had all started talking about how a light-globe worked, she sure as hay wouldn’t be able to follow. She had a hard enough time trying to pay attention when magic was discussed.
“Well, around the time I was researching the magic mirror for the princess,” Sunset started, “I started to get… disillusioned with her. I was planning on running away to this world where she couldn’t find me. Unfortunately, I was really unprepared for it, and I felt like maybe Celestia knew what I was planning. I felt like there was a rush to get here before she caught me and threw me in the dungeon or worse – lectured me.
I didn’t really know how to prepare; it’s a bit of a flaw of mine. I figured if I got enough money together, I could buy anything I wanted when I got here. I couldn’t ask the princess for the money because she’d want to know what I was spending it on, so I was stuck. That’s when a cloaked pony met me in an alleyway in Canterlot. I couldn’t see their face, and their voice was so androgynous I couldn’t even tell if it was a mare or a stallion. They offered to pay me a thousand bits to get them a book from the restricted section of the library called ‘The Greatest War’. So I did.”
“What did the book say?”
“I don’t know. Most of it was in a language I didn't recognize. The only part I could read was some notes in the margin about phurbas. I already told you that part.. It was incredibly old and most of the letters were so faded you couldn’t read them. The cloaked pony gave me the money and I fled here that very night. It wasn’t until I got here that I realize bits were completely worthless. I tried to buy some bread only to have the cashier tell me they didn’t accept gold coins. Luckily some guy offered to buy it for me in exchange for my useless bits.”
At this, every human in the room turned toward her, at a loss for words. AJ simply smiled.
“Well that was nice of him. But Ah think you were fixin’ ta tell me about Twilight?”
“Oh yeah. Sorry. She’s still in the city for the time being. She goes to the state university, but I think she’ll be here for another two days for Thanksgiving break. I don’t know how easy it’ll be to convince her to come to Equestria with you, though. She doesn’t really believe in magic. I can get you her number if you want. We might be able to convince her to meet up before she goes back to school. It’ll be easier to convince her to go with you when you leave in six months if she already knows who you are.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” exclaimed Applejack, “We’re tryin’ ta get out of here as soon as possible, not six months down the road. There is a way ta do that, right? I mean, y’all can jus’ yell ‘Open Sesame’ or somethin’, right?”
Sunset Shimmer shook her head. “Sorry. I’ve studied this portal for a long time before I came here. There might’ve been a spell to open it that I haven’t found yet, but you’d have to be on the Equestrian side to try that. Either that or you could try using a spell if you had an Element of Harmony with you. You did think to bring one, right?”
“Element of Harmony?” Applejack repeated, panic beginning to set into her chest, “Now why in Celestia’s name would we bring one of those? Twilight said the only thing that saved Equestria the last time an Element got into the human world was that no one competent got ahold of it. No offense, sugarcube…” she added with an apologetic smile.
“None taken. Unfortunately, I’m afraid you’re stuck here. At least for the time being.”
“No, it can’t be. Twilight needs us! We promised everypony we’d come back as quick as we could! We…”
“Sugarcube…” Human-AJ said, pulling her counterpart into a comforting hug, “We already talked about this, remember? Y’all will have friends here, and a place ta stay. Ah promised you that. But we gotta get our priorities in order. We need ta find Rainbow Dash first. Then we can look into our options. Sunset ain’t goin’ anywhere, right?”
Sunset shook her head, “Nope. I’m going to the city college, so I’m going to be living in the dorm for the next couple years.”
“See? We’ll figure somethin’ out. Chances are Twilight’s still in the exact same place ya left her, being takin’ real good care of by all your other friends. Everything’ll turn out fine.”
The doorbell rang. All heads turned toward it, momentarily immobilized from the sudden interruption. After a moment, Human-AJ got up and let the person in – Spitfire. Applejack had only seen the pony Spitfire a few times—at the best young flier’s competition, at the gala with Soarin as the only customers of the night, and as the drill instructor at the Wonderbolt’s Academy. Her mannerisms were much more like the latter, appearing gruff and frustrated, yet exhausted. She wore jeans, sunglasses, and a leather jacket. She placed the sunglasses on top her head as she entered, revealing dark circles under her eyes. She flopped down in the only empty seat, next to Big Mac.
“Nothing,” she groaned, “I circled around the path in her flight plan twice, but there’s not even a hint. Not that I was expecting much. She just made a photocopy of one of the plans I filled out for her training, and that fat idiot in the control tower didn’t even look twice at it. I swear, that girl can sure drive you to drink.”
“Oh! Here you go!” said Pinkie quickly, handing Spitifire a handle of vodka that she had once again materialized out of nowhere. She took it without thinking and gave the younger girl a curious look.
“Didn’t you just graduate high school? How on God’s green Earth do you keep getting these?”
Pinkie shrugged, and gave her a subdued smile. Spitfire simply shook her head and set the bottle on the floor.
“So what’s the plan, Ms. Spitfire?” Applejack asked.
“You don’t have to call me…” she started, before doing a double take. She raised her eyebrows as she looked quickly back and forth between the Applejack that had asked her the question and the one that had let her into the farmhouse. “What…”
“It’s a long story,” Human-AJ smiled, “It’d probably be easier to say she’s mah long lost twin.”
Spitfire shrugged. “Whatever you say. Anyway, I’ve searched her planned route, so I’m not sure exactly where she could be. I took the next couple days off, so I’m going to do some passes over some of the areas where we practiced flying in the past. If this is her first time flying on her own, then it’s unlikely she’d just fly out randomly.”
“Ah don’ know. She can be pretty adventurous sometimes.”
“That’s true, but if I just started searching everywhere I could spend the next few months flying and still not cover all the area she could have gone. And—” Spitfire sighed, too tired and emotional to continue. She held her head in her hands. Everyone else in the room knew to give her some time – it had been an emotional day for them all. After several minutes, she leaned back in her seat and wearily spoke. “I just don’t know about that girl, sometimes. She wants to join the military, but she has no discipline. She’s only been flying twice a month for the past year, and she decides she’s good enough to go out on her own without a license and do tricks. I’m worried about her, I really am, and I love Rainbow, but sometimes she drives me god damn crazy.”
“Story of our lives, sugarcube,” Human-AJ said with a weak smile, “I know y’all must be exhausted after bein’ out all day. You’re welcome ta stay as long as you need to; we got a bed if ya want ta stay the night. Tomorrow me and mah, uhm… twin, will go with you.”
Spitfire nodded. Big Mac got up off of the love seat to give her room to lay down. She did just that, and he went to the kitchen to start supper. Within a few minutes, she was asleep.
Human-AJ let out long breath, exhaustion and worry still readable on her face. She slouched down in her own seat on the sofa and leaned her head on Fluttershy’s shoulder. A small ‘meep’ escaped from the girl’s mouth at the sudden contact, but the look of surprise on her face was quickly replaced with motherly concern. Pinkie sat on the other side of Fluttershy, no longer drinking, but looking equally worried. It was funny, actually. AJ didn’t have much experience with alcohol, being somewhat taboo in Equestria, but from what she did know, drinking an entire bottle usually resulted in drunkenness. It appeared like Pinkie was immune to alcohol. Maybe she acted so drunk all the time that imbibing just made her act more sober.
Applejack smiled serenely. She had the most caring, most interesting, greatest friends a girl, or pony, could ask for. She reflected on how the Pinkie from back home must be doing. She had said she was going back to Ponyville along with Rarity and Fluttershy. They must be getting along with their old lives by now, anxiously awaiting a royal messenger to tell them that she and Rainbow had returned.
Rainbow… What if they didn’t find her? What if she had to return to Equestria without her? What would her friends say? Would they blame her? She did let her go off with that human girl, after all. And she did say some pretty mean things to her before she left. Maybe Rainbow was still upset about that, which made her take even more risks than she normally would have. Was this all her fault? She couldn’t help but feel like it was, no matter how illogical the arguments were. And the human Applejack, her friend. She was devastated. AJ could understand that – after all, the human Rainbow Dash had been her friend, no matter how much AJ didn’t care for her. Her friend and something a little more, just like her Rainbow was to her.
The door swung open and slammed against the wall. The sound of raucous laughter from three preteen girls brought all those present out of their melancholy detachment.
“Holy crap! You were right, Applebloom! There really are two Applejacks!”
Human-AJ was the first to recover from the sudden burst of energy into the room. “Sweetie Belle! What would Rarity say if she were here to hear you say that?”
“Lighten up, AJ,” Pinkie Pie said lightheartedly, “It’s super adorable how she can’t curse without squeaking. Like a Squeekie-Belle!”
Sweetie Belle blushed, but everyone else in the room smiled.
“So where’s Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked, looking around the room.
“Yeah, where is Rainbow Dash?” Applebloom echoed, “Ah didn’t even tell Scootaloo about our other visitor yet – I was gonna surprise her.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hold on, hold on,” Human-AJ shouted over the din, “Why are y’all three here, anyhow?”
“Don’t ya remember, sis? We’re havin’ a sleepover tonight!”
“Y’all never told me about that…”
“That’s cause you’d've said no.”
“…so who told ya y’all can sleepover tonight? Pinkie Pie was supposed ta throw a party before, well—”
“Big Mac did! Right, Big Mac?”
“Eeyup,” he replied from the kitchen door.
“Gosh darn it, Mac,” Human-AJ complained, “Didn’t ya think it was weird she was askin’ you instead of me?”
Big Mac simply shrugged while Human-AJ sighed in exasperation.
“Alright, look girls, the fact is ya can’t sleep over tonight, anyway. I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
All excitement was instantly sucked out of the atmosphere as the three young girls looked at Human-AJ with concern. She took a deep breath, thinking about how she should tell them before deciding that honestly was the best policy, as usual.
“Rainbow Dash went flyin’ without Spitfire today, and she… she went missing.”
Scootaloo dropped her bag. All three girls gasped.
“Is she okay?”
“We don’ know.”
“Which Rainbow Dash?” Applebloom asked worriedly.
“Both of ‘em, Ah’m afraid.”
“Wait, what?” Scootaloo asked, finding her voice. She looked between Applebloom and her sister. Her eyes suddenly found Pony-AJ sitting on the couch in the back with Sunset Shimmer, and her eyes lit up in realization. “No way! You’re telling me there’s two Rainbow Dash’s?”
AJ nodded. “We came through the portal together. Everything was goin’ fine until… until we heard. Spitfire here’s been flyin’ around all day tryin’ to find her.” She gestured to the figure still sleeping on the couch. “No wonder the poor thing’s so worn out.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Applebloom with concern.
“Well, Spitfire notified the authorities, so they know she’s gone. Ah guess we’re gonna go with her to look for them when she gets up. Until then…”
“I know where they are,” a voice quietly said.
All head turned toward Scootaloo. She blushed slightly from the attention.
“What?” everyone cried in unison.
“I know where Rainbow is.”
“Then what are ya waitin’ for? Spit it out, girl!”
“She made me promise to never tell anyone, but I guess if she’s missing, it’s okay. She took me up flying once by ourselves to show me some tricks. She said that she always goes to the same place, ‘cause she liked the wide open field there and there’s no houses or anything and…”
“Where is it?” Human-AJ asked with increasing impatience.
“Past the mountains to the north. I might be able to show you where if I was in a plane.”
Without even asking, Pinkie Pie jumped on top of Spitfire in a position that AJ was sure would be considered lewd. She shook the pilot to wake her, although ‘shake’ probably wasn’t an adequate descriptor. ‘Vibrate’ probably would have better matched Pinkie’s motion. The sleeping woman jumped up quickly, looking around at the cause of the frackus.
“Huh, what’s…”
“Come on, sugarcube,” Applejack cried as she grabbed her arm, “We’re gonna go get Rainbow.”
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I'm calling this right now
Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Dash are 'caught in the act
Anyway, as for now, another good chapter sir
3876768
Thank you very much. Every Friday I find myself checking FimFiction every couple of minutes because I can't control the excitement of seeing how (or if) people like my latest chapter, and you never fail to disappoint. Thank you.
As for your speculation... I don't know. I'm not giving anything away, but Scootaloo's going to be on that plane that's going to get Rainbow Dash.
I would hate to traumatize her by making her see something like that (or would that excite her? 
)
3877701 that's no problem at all. I think she would be a hell of a lot more confused than anything, seeing her idol make sweet sweet love to a replica of herself
. Anyway, I have just posted a blog recommending your work. I don't get much traffic since I only have two fics - and one of them was a one shot that took 10 minutes to write - but hopefully it'll be worth at least a few views 
3877816
That's awesome. Even if nothing comes of it, I really appreciate the consideration.
I also didn't know you had any fics up, you didn't the last time I checked. I'm going to put the longer one in my read later pile (which actually isn't that big, all things considering).
3877887 Thankyou. Also, when you get round to reading it, any feedback you could offer, positive or negative, would be appreciated.
I LOVE YOUI mean, uhm, great as always.
3880229
THANK YOU!I mean, I love you too
3950762
Who'd have thought the first comment on the first chapter would come around sixteen weeks after it was published?
3997867
Thanks! I enjoyed EQG too, and what made me want to write this story is to create a fic in the EQG world that doesn't suffer the same flaws (high school drama, pointless romance, plot threads that go nowhere, etc). I'm glad you like it, and I'd really like to hear what you think when you're done.
4011235
If that's really the worst imagery you've heard, then I welcome you to FimFiction!
Also, I didn't state it in the story, but I assumed the end result was something like this:
2.bp.blogspot.com/-CClcYUG9tII/T34YsFT5ebI/AAAAAAAAlJc/y0YohMvhd8s/s1600/161722+-+artist+hauteclaire+gilda+rainbowfeather.png
4093988 No problem. Oh, and even in the real world, equines are omnivores.
4093993
4093997 It's not widely known, mostly because it's not healthy for horses to eat meat, but horses can and will eat ANYTHING they're given. Some horse owners and breeders even like to give them bits of hamburger, etc. as treats.
4094264 Well, the "driving circle" thing and the "human-Rarity-woman" thing sounded a little Pinkie-ish.
4094271
I suppose I can see it like that. In this case I was trying to show how Rainbow Dash would discuss things where she didn't know the proper terminology, and couldn't be bothered to learn it. She started off very derisive of the human world and human culture, but she learns more about it and begins to find things she likes (coffee, meat, cars, etc). Even so, she still tries to appear cool and aloof, plus she's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed anyhow.
4095081
It's true they do have a crank. However, that crank only serves to recharge the battery inside the radio. Admittedly, the batteries in those things aren't the right size for any household 'appliances', but I'll use my artistic license card on this one.
4094832
Correct on all counts. Although I don't think anyone would get it if I called them "hoofscrews". I'll have to think of something else.
4399413
Yes, I believe MythrilMoth pointed that out to me as well. I was going by canon, where all the food the ponies eat are vegetarian, as well as fanon (there's a lot of fics about meat being taboo). I should change the things about eggs, though, as I had forgotten those show up in the series occasionally.
dis is....wow
4441511
Is wow good?
4441553 by wow I mean.....my minds blown.
Need to read moar!! lol a cliffhanger like this, it's gonna be stuck on my mind all day!!
I LOVE THIS STORY WAY MORE THAN I PROBABLY SHOULD.
4681138
Definitely.
I LOVE THIS STORY SOOO MUCH
P.S. When will you continue?
Yay! I'm the hundredth comment!
I'm still waiting for a new chapter.
4737546
4734163
Thank you for your feedback. I'm glad you like the story, I really am. I've decided what the fate of the story will be, and I'll make a blog post about it soon.
Why the Hiatus man?
Don't go breaking my heart man
4838403
I'm working on a new chapter right now. It'll be out within a week.