Surviving in a Strange Two Legged World

by aCB

4 - Cougars Find Rarity Irresistible

The figure cloaked in shadow passed through the mirror on the Equestrian side of the portal. She breathed a sigh of relief – there were no guards or anyone else around. She took a slight step forward but stumbled, falling on all fours. Right, I’m a pony now, she thought to herself.

She started off with trepidation down the crystal hallways of the palace. Something wasn’t right; this wasn’t Canterlot Castle. Had the mirror been moved? This wasn’t going according to plan at all.

She tried the best she could to move through the expansive hallways without making too much noise or running into any guards. She sighed with frustration - she was hopelessly lost. Seeing a large window in the corridor ahead of her, she rushed to it to get an idea of where she was. What she saw didn’t fill her with confidence. Outside was a large, relatively flat land filled with building made out of some kind of crystal. This definitely wasn’t Canterlot. What was more, the window was a good two stories above the ground below. She was going to have to find a flight of stairs.

A faint light and sound of shoed hooves clacking against the floor made her heart rise into her throat. She couldn’t get caught – not now. She started to scurry in the other direction before seeing a guard patrolling on the other side of her as well. Quickly making up her mind and taking a deep breath, she charged at the window, shattering through it and plummeted toward the ground below.

***

Rarity looked around. They were presently located on a dry tundra. The only features in sight were the train tracks upon which they had recently rode and the Galloping Gorge in the distance. It was very similar to the Ghastly Gorge that Rainbow Dash held her silly pet contest, but was infinitely colder and bleaker. The evidence of the northern autumn cold was present all around them – from the biting chill in the air to the grey frost-bitten grass crunching beneath their hooves.

“Where are we?” asked Fluttershy, as if reading her mind.

“Maneitoba,” responded the mysterious stallion as he began to walk off toward the Galloping Gorge. The three mares followed.

“Maneitoba?!” Rarity demanded as she hurriedly trotted up to the stranger, “I don’t think you understand my situation. I have very important orders I need to be working on. I simply cannot afford to waste time in all this… wilderness.”

The stallion turned around briskly and stared straight at Rarity as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

“Look babe, I don’t think you really appreciate what’s happening here. You have no idea how lucky you are. So why don’t you just shut your jaw before I have to clamp a muzzle on it?”

“Humpf… Well I never… Babe?!” Rarity blustered angrily.

Pinkie Pie giggled at her friend as she hopped along the stallion leading them.

“So that was pretty cool how you saved us from an explosion and stuff, huh? So why’d you do it? Who’s after us? Was it that guy you threw under the train?”

The stranger stopped and rubbed his chin with his hoof.

“Huh, I guess I did throw him under the train, didn’t I?” he pondered without interest, “Wasn’t really paying attention at the time. We need to get a move on, though. It’ll be dark in a few hours and we have a lot of ground to cover, so it would be a real blessing if you could keep your yap shut.”

Pinkie was not to be so easily silenced, however.

“So where are we going? Is it a long way?”

The stallion threw his head back in frustration.

“I said SHUT IT!”

Fluttershy and Rarity jumped at the sudden outburst, but Pinkie just smiled happily at him as she continued hopping along. It seemed a minute was a little too long for her however.

“Can’t I ask you one question?” she asked innocently, “Oh wait, I just asked you one. So can I ask two? No, because that was two. Okay, four?”

“If I answer your question, will you shut up?” he responded gruffly.

“Of course!”

“What do you want?”

“What’s your name?”

“Dartmoor Bronc,” responded the stallion, “Now be quiet. The pegasus is bleeding, and this is predator country. I need to pay attention to my surroundings.”

Fluttershy emitted a meek sound at Dartmoor’s mentioning of her. It was true that she had suffered scraps from exiting the moving train in such an ungraceful fashion. Upon being injured, she had thought that she might not be able to walk. However, it seemed that no functional part of her leg was seriously injured. Rarity had generously given her scarf to wrap her injured leg in, but by now it was beginning to bleed through. As the terrain upon which they walked began to slope downward toward the gorge, her injured leg suddenly buckled from pain causing her to fall flat on her face.

“Uhm… excuse me…” she called softly after the three ponies ahead of her. Rarity looked back and saw her helpless friend on the ground.

“Stop!” she called to Pinkie and Dartmoor. Without looking back, he groaned in disgust.

“Did you not just hear me yelling at the filly with the ADHD problem just now? Keep your voice down!”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, Dartmoor,” responded Rarity, putting as much disdain as she could muster into pronouncing his name, “But Fluttershy can’t go on like this. We need to stop.”

The stallion groaned in annoyance as he walked back to them. With a single effortless movement, he hoisted the injured Fluttershy onto his back and walked onward. Rarity was taken aback – she had never seen that kind of strength from anypony before, not even Applejack.

“You coming, sweetheart?” he called back to her, “Or you need me to engrave you an invitation?”

“Oh, I have one right here!” cried Pinkie Pie as she materialized a pink card.

“Don’t call me sweetheart,” demanded Rarity angrily, ignoring Pinkie.

“Whatever…”

“No, you’re going to listen to me,” demanded Rarity angrily as she trotted up to him, “If we’re going to be traveling together, then I’m going to have to set some ground rules. First, I am a lady, and you will address me as such…”

“Absolutely, your highness,” Dartmoor replied snidely, “Maybe next time I should throw you from the train instead…”

“Excuse me? What was that?” demanded Rarity.

“Nothing. How about this ground rule? You shut the hell up and I don’t let any predators eat you. Now if you don’t mind, barring any more interruptions, we need to make it to the gorge. If you’re nice, I’ll explain everything when we get to where we're going.”

Rarity swore under her breath. She was starting to regret jumping from that train.

***

“Well that’s quite a tale…” said Human-AJ as Applejack finished her story. The rest of the Apple family stared at them in a state of disbelief. It was indeed quite a tale, something that those who didn’t personally experience the effects were not wont to believe.

“Wait… so why did Twilight stab herself?” asked Applebloom.

“Well ta be honest, I don’ rightly know. The princess didn’t really explain that part. Ah assumed it had ta be something ta do with that dagger thing… What was it called again? Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash, however, was busy staring at a bag of coffee beans hungrily.

“Huh?” she said, finally looking up.

“Ah said, what was that dagger thingy called?”

“Right. I think it was… the Killer… no, that’s not right. Oh yeah! The Kīla of Gothmog!”

Rainbow Dash went back to inspecting the bag of coffee. When she thought no one was looking, she carefully opened the bag and removed a bean.

“Yeah, so Ah think that’s what happened,” continued Pony-AJ, “Either way all Ah’m concerned about is getting the human Twilight back to Equestria so she can remove that thing.”

“Ya don’ wanna do that, sugarcube,” said Human-AJ suddenly looking over as Dash, who was about to put a coffee bean in her mouth, “They don’ taste all that great like that and it’ll give ya a stomach ache besides.”

Dash ate it anyway once Human-AJ looked back toward her counterpart.

“Have ya ever considered that maybe that dagger is doin’ more ta Twilight than y’all realize? Ah mean, it already had some sorta control over her mind. How do ya know it hasn’t… affected her some way?”

Applejack shifted in her seat uncomfortably. She hadn’t considered this.

“Ah trust Princess Celestia will know what ta do about that…” she responded eventually, “She always seems ta know what ta do about anything.”

“Then that’s good enough for me,” Human-AJ responded, standing up, “Ah figure there’s about three more days of apples left ta harvest. If y’all will help me out, then we might get ‘er done by evenin’. After that, Ah’ll spend all the time Ah have helpin’ y’all out. That sound fair, Granny Smith?”

Everyone looked toward Granny Smith, who was already asleep.

“It’s alright by me,” Big Mac said, “But it’s gettin’ late. We better get started.”

Everyone followed him out of the farmhouse without another word. When Big Mac spoke, people listened. Even Rainbow Dash didn’t complain about the unpleasant aspect of upcoming work, although she did grab another handful of roasted coffee beans.

Big Mac jumped into the pickup the girls had seen the human Applejack pull up in not two hours earlier. Following her lead, Pony-AJ and Rainbow Dash jumped into back of the truck. Applebloom got into the cab with Big Mac.

“Ah have ta say, Ah’ve never liked ridin’ in these carriage things…” Pony-AJ said nervously.

“But you’ve only done it once,” reminded Rainbow, “And that was after we’d been arrested. You’ve never gotten the chance to.”

Applejack was about to argue when the gears of the truck ground as it set into motion. She gripped onto the side of the truck as the wind started sweeping past her hair. Admittedly, the ride in the police car was unsettling mostly because of the circumstance they were in, not because the ride itself was necessarily unpleasant. But this was a whole different story altogether. She felt so much more exposed out in the bed of the truck watching the trees fly by them. Applejack was an earth pony, meaning the fastest she had ever travelled was when riding on the Friendship Express (which by human vehicle standards, was fairly slow). It didn’t help that they were travelling on a dirt road, complete with rocks, ditches and hills that created a bumpiness that accentuated all the fearful thoughts in her head.

“Woah, this thing is pretty cool!” shouted Rainbow Dash over the wind, “It’s kind of slow, though. I could fly way faster without even trying!”

“That’s ‘cause we’re on a hilly part of the farm right now!” responded Human-AJ, “We’re probably only doin’ about 10 miles an hour. Wait till we get to the smooth section connectin’ the two orchards, then we’ll really fly!”

Applejack didn’t like the sound of that. She was having a hard enough time not screaming as it was. She wanted to protest this planned speed increase, but she was afraid if she tried to talk they’d hit a bump and she’d bite off her small human tongue. Rainbow Dash turned toward her and said something with a huge smile on her face, but all AJ could do was nod with a green tinge. Human-AJ took off her Stetson and sat on it. Without quite understanding why they were doing this, Pony-AJ did the same.

“Alright, Big Mac, hit it!” yelled Human-AJ as she banged on the glass of the truck cab. As if knowing beforehand what she was planning, Big Mac shoved his foot down on the accelerator. Applejack could hear the sound of the old farm truck’s engines rev, and the sudden lurch as they sped up.

“Awesome!” cried Rainbow Dash as she threw her hands up in the air.

Thirty. Forty. Fifty. The truck was quickly picking up speed as they flew down the (admittedly much smoother) dirt road. Applejack could feel the force of drag as her hair whipped in the wind, tangling itself into a plethora of knots. She was really grateful she had decided to remove her hat, or it would have been lost to the roaring wind.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough. Caffeine was flowing through her veins, making her highs higher than they had ever been. Usually when she went fast like this, she had to fly. This took away from the experience slightly as she had to spend a part of her concentration on exerting herself to keep flapping her wings. This, however, was amazing.

“Alright, y’all! Wait till ya get a load of this!” shouted Human-AJ, although she was barely audible over the sound of the wind.

Big Mac accelerated at the base of a hill, and didn’t let up until they were over the crest and cruising down the other side. Applejack had the most unpleasant lurch in her stomach, like she was falling. The last time she had felt like this, she was falling in panic to the earth below while visiting Rainbow at the Wonderbolt’s academy. The sudden flashback of the stress and fear of that event were too much for her. She closed her eyes as tight as she could and instinctively grabbed onto Rainbow Dash, burying her face into Rainbow’s chest and holding on for dear life. Rainbow looked down at her friend and recognized the cause of the pale girl’s shaking hands.

“Uhm, AJ?” she called to Human-AJ, “Can we slow down? I, uh… I bumped my… knee.”

Human Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash curiously and banged again on the cab window. Big Mac slowed down until they were going the same pace they had been before they came to the smooth part of the road. Pony-AJ breathed a sigh of relief before realizing, to her embarrassment, that she was clutched onto Rainbow’s shirt. She let go and looked up sheepishly at her friend. Knowing Dash, she would never hear the end of it. However, Rainbow Dash just smiled down soothingly at her; it was a look that she didn’t give often.

“Alright, y’all, here we are!” called Human-AJ, hopping down from the truck. Big Macintosh and Applebloom exited the cab, and the pony-girls soon jumped off as well.

Looking around, Applejack was surprised. There were hardly any apples here! There had to be only fifty trees left with apples on them, at most. They even had baskets already aligned underneath them. She laughed to herself - this would be too easy.

“Why don’t y’all just let me handle this,” she said with a laugh, “Ah’ll be done in an hour.”

She walked over to the nearest tree, got down on all fours, and with a great effort from her tiny legs and arms, gave an impressive buck to the trunk of the apple tree.

Nothing happened.

She tried again with all the power she could muster.

“What the hay is goin’ on here?” she fumed, “It’s gotta be these stupid tiny fore legs!”

“What the hell are you doin’?” questioned Applebloom bluntly.

“Applebloom! Y’all watch your mouth,” admonished Human-AJ. She turned to her counterpart, “Look, sugarcube, Ah don’ know how y’all harvest apples in the pony world, but we don’ have any fancy way of doin’ it around here. Take this.”

She handed her a small duffle bag with a strap on it. AJ took it with confusion.

“So how do y’all do it here?”

“Well, ya just gotta climb up into the tree an’ pick the apples an’ put ‘em in those there bags. Ah think there’s a ladder around here somewhere…”

Pony-AJ sighed. This was going to be a long day.

***

“You need to be very quiet as we pass through this area - mountain lions all around.”

Fluttershy looked up. They were in the middle of a cold, barren canyon. On the sides surrounding them were various sized caves, even darker and more intimidating now that the sun had set and the last remnants of daylight were retreating. She has had experience with a great many animals in the past – squirrels, eagles, weasels, foxes, even bears. But she had never come across any mountain lion before; they simply didn’t live anywhere near Ponyville. She could feel uncertainty starting to well up inside of her.

“Uhm… excuse me, sir?”

“Don’t call me sir. Just Dartmoor.”

“Uhm, ok… Dartmoor?” Fluttershy quickly corrected herself, “Have you ever seen a mountain lion before? What are they like?”

“I’ve seen quite a few, but in Maneitoba they only live along Galloping Gorge. Around here, they’re pretty nasty. There’s not a lot of wildlife in the area, so they eat what they can.”

“I know!” shouted Pinkie, “I’ll just give them some cupcakes! Nopony can be hungry after eating a box of my special rainbow cupcakes!”

“They don’t like cupcakes, crazy nitwit,” sighed Dartmoor, “They like pony!”

“But that’s why I’m using the rainbow…”

“Just keep quiet!” hushed Dartmoor, “The more noise we make, the more likely we’ll attract unwanted attention. Look, just to be safe, we’d better come up with a game plan.”

He stopped for a minute, sizing up the three mares around him. He first pointed at Fluttershy, who flinched.

“Okay, you there, the injured pegasus. You’re going to stick with me if we get attacked. Chances are, you can’t run very fast like you are and if you did, the mountain lion would chase you down as soon as you tried once they’d smelled the blood. You two…”

He pointed at Pinkie and Rarity.

“…the Ritalin pony and the attention who…”

“Excuse me!?” Rarity cut him off.

“You two are going to run as fast down the gorge as you can. Try to stay hidden. If you eventually hear me calling for you, then we lived. If you don’t, then we died and you’ll probably die from exposure or another mountain lion. Are we clear?”

“Okie dokie lokie!”

“Wait, that’s your plan?” asked Rarity incredulously, “Just run and hope we don’t die?”

“Unless you want to try discussing it with a very hungry mountain lion, then yes.”

Rarity opened her mouth as if to argue, but realizing she didn’t have much of a point, closed it.

“How much longer until we’re there?” asked Fluttershy quietly.

“I would guess another two hours or so.”

“Where are we going again?” asked Pinkie Pie at the top of her voice. All present company winced as her voice echoed off the canyon.

“Just keep quiet and maybe you’ll live to see!” whispered Dartmoor angrily. Pinkie took the hint and didn’t question him anymore.

The twilight had by now receded with the sun, and the only thing left to light the ponys’ way was the waning moon. It was quiet and eerie; the only sounds were the whipping winds and the patches of frozen grass occasionally crunching beneath their feet. Fluttershy shivered. All ponies present were visibly shaking in the sub-zero temperatures with the exception of Dartmoor, who seemed to be used to it. Even Pinkie, usually the very essence of energy and activity, was reduced to timidly walking behind him, too cold to do anything more. A light snow started falling around them, merely a flurry, but it helped to solidify in their minds the situation they found themselves in. Fluttershy instinctively got as close as she could to Rarity, getting some small ounce of comfort from her body warmth. Rarity nuzzled her comfortingly, but she could feel her chattering teeth.

A soft swooshing sound could be heard above them. Fluttershy looked around curiously. None of the others had seemed to hear it. Working with so many small animals had given her a gift of noticing small sounds. There was definitely a pair of wings following them. Emitting a slight squeak of fear, she walked a little faster to try to catch up to Dartmoor. She didn’t want to call out to him (she doubted she could if she tried), afraid to rouse the suspicions of the thing flying above them. Was it a pegasus, or perhaps something more sinister? She couldn’t quite tell over the sounds of the wind.

“Uhm, excuse me…” she said to Dartmoor as quietly as she could, “I think there’s something… What I mean is, there’s something flying behind…”

“I know,” he interrupted, “Don’t draw any attention to it – I don’t want anything else seeing. I have it all under control. Go back and act natural.”

His words did little to calm her, but her actions did arouse the attention of the other two mares. When she was back next to Rarity, she hissed a question in her ear.

“Fluttershy, dear, what’s going on?”

“Dartmoor says he wants us to act natural.”

“Act natural about what, d-d-darling?” Rarity’s teeth chattered in the cold, interrupting the flow of her normally precise speaking pattern.

“About the thing following us.”

“WHAT?!”

Fluttershy flinched at the volume of her shouted response. Dartmoor froze, looking back at them with furious eyes. All Rarity could go in return was grin sheepishly. He walked up angrily toward them, apparently about to chew them out. He opened his mouth…

A great roar rang out, echoing through the canyon!”

He closed his mouth, looking about tersely. The three mares grabbed each other, shaking this time in fear. They couldn’t tell from where the roar originated, but they could tell what it meant – danger.

“RUN!” shouted Dartmoor, as he took off in the direction they had been traveling. It took the three Ponyville ponies a moment to register what was happening, but they were off as fast as their little hooves could carry them. The last time they ran with hearts as stricken with fear as they were now was when they first arrived at the Crystal Empire, and were chased by King Sombra. That time they were only a few hundred feet from safety. That time Shining Armor had stopped to save them. Fluttershy winced. That time she didn’t have an injured leg.

They could hear thundering footsteps behind them. Something was following them. Something big.

Fluttershy felt a pain in her hoof as it impacted upon a large rock. She felt herself flying toward the ground with all the momentum she had been galloping with. Pain coursed through her body for a second time that day as she tumbled along the frozen plain.

Dartmoor heard the sound of the falling pony, and quickly reversed direction to go save her.

“Keep going! Ayden will watch you!” he shouted at Pinkie and Rarity as he ran past them. They stopped hesitantly, as if debating whether they should go back for Fluttershy. “Go! I’ll save her, I promise!”

They seemed to be satisfied with that response, and kept galloping forward. Meanwhile, Dartmoor had reached the injured pony and stood over her, staring at a shadowy figure that lurked just beyond Fluttershy’s range of vision.

“Get up!” he hissed at her quietly, “If you want to live, get up and stand behind me.”

With a great effort, she shrugged off her fear and painfully struggled to her feet. As she looked to where Dartmoor was now staring, her pupils constricted in fear and she emitted an unconscious gasp. Illuminated by the faint light of the moon, she could just barely make out the figure of a large cat.

It snarled and hissed at the ponies before it. She could see its dagger-like teeth, easily able to pierce the throat of any pony unlucky enough to be its target. The light of the moon reflected off its eyes, which glowed yellow with thin, catlike pupils.

“I want you to do exactly as I say,” whispered Dartmoor, “This thing doesn’t want to kill us; it wants us to go away.”

Fluttershy had some trouble believing that as she looked into the cat’s venomous eyes.

“Wh-What?”

“It’s protecting its litter!” he hissed back, “A mountain lion that wants to eat you wouldn’t roar first. Now just back away slowly, but don’t look away. And whatever you do, don’t run!”

It was all she could do to listen to his advice and not bolt in the opposite direction as the mountain lion. He began backing away with her, and to her surprise, the creature didn’t follow. They continued backing up slowly and cautiously, her heart still beating furiously, until they could neither see nor hear the predator. Dartmoor turned around and walked toward where Pinkie and Rarity had gone. Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief. She knew she hated dragons, but mountain lions had to have become number two on her most feared animals list.

“That was too close…” Fluttershy mumbled after several minutes of catching her breath.

“We’re not out of this yet, toots,” responded Dartmoor, “We’ve made too much noise. Can you walk?”

“Uhm… I guess so.”

“Good. We have to catch up to the others, fast.”

Dartmoor started walking even faster, and even though Fluttershy wouldn’t admit it to him, she was starting to feel woozy. After a few minutes, she started lagging so far behind that she could barely make out his grey tail in the distance. She was about to call out to him, when a bloodcurdling scream cut through the night!

“Rarity!”

***

Harvesting apples in this world had been hard work. Not hard work like it was in the pony world – that was hard work in that it was exhausting. This was hard work as in boring. Rainbow Dash couldn’t handle more than ten minutes at a time before she started jumping wildly out of the apple trees, either to elicit a cheap thrill or imitate the lost feeling of flying. Either way, Applejack was mildly surprised that she didn’t break anything. True, she had been through much worse crashes as a pegasus, but the limbs they bore now seemed so… fragile.

“Alrighty, y’all,” Human-AJ called out, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow, “Ah think that’ll about do it.”

She glanced at the pickup truck they had driven there this morning. The bed was full to the brim with baskets of apples. Applejack was about to ask how they would be getting back, but Human-AJ seemed to have read her mind.

“Looks like it’ll be a cramped fit. No big deal, it’s not that long of a trip.”

Big Macintosh opened the rusted driver side door and hopped in behind the wheel. Human-AJ opened the other door and motioned Applejack to take the middle seat. She did as she was told and crawled in next to Big Mac. She looked back at her counterpart with a raised eyebrow. There was no way that all five of them would fit on this bench seat. Four maybe, but what was she thinking? Was Applebloom going to lay on the floor under their feet? To her surprise, her counterpart was looking back at her with a mischievous smile.

“Hey Rainbow Dash!” Human-AJ called over her shoulder.

Rainbow Dash came running up, still covered in dirt from a day’s worth of jumping out of trees and rolling down hills.

“What’s up?”

“We’re leaving, sugarcube. Go ahead and climb in.”

Rainbow did so and sat in the seat next to Applejack.

“Now how are we all gonna fit in like that?” asked Human-AJ with a smirk, “Ah’d say we’d have to sit in each other’s laps to fit, wouldn’t you, Applejack?”

Applejack looked at her counterpart in horror, but Rainbow didn’t seem to catch the… intimate connotations of what was requested. Without another world, she scooted over and planted herself in Applejack’s lap. AJ gasped as she felt the weight on her thighs. Dash wasn’t heavy, but she was surprised at how soft she was. She knew what pony plots were like, and they weren’t like this. They were hard – all bone and muscle. Right now, Rainbow felt soft – and warm. As surprisingly pleasant as this was, Applejack still felt awkward and nervous. She didn’t know where to put her hands. Should she hold on to Rainbow? That seemed like the natural place to put them in this position, but it felt like it would be overly personal. She settle on laying them by her sides.

Human-AJ jumped in the truck unceremoniously, making it rock slightly as she did. She fastened her seat belt and called out to Applebloom, who had been watching the whole situation wordlessly.

“Come on, Applebloom, time to go?”

“Ah’m not sittin’ in your lap. Ah’m twelve years old for Pete's sake!”

“Oh, come on now, sugarcube. Rainbow Dash here is sittin’ in someone’s lap, and she’s twen… Actually, Ah don’ rightly know how old she is in pony years. Just get up here, we’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Ah think Ah’ll walk back.”

“Now, Applebloom!”

Applebloom groaned and with flamboyant frustration crawled into the cab of the truck. She threw herself down onto her sister’s lap with as much force as she could in an obvious attempt to goad her sister on, but she wasn’t falling for it. A metallic grinding sound let out as Big Mac shifted the aging truck into first gear, and they were off.

The trip was not as scary as the trip to the orchard. Applejack assumed that was because she didn’t feel as exposed, or maybe it was because they weren’t going as fast. It was, however, more awkward. Rainbow Dash was bouncing up and down in her lap due to the unevenness of the dirt road, making Applejack feel very uncomfortable. Dash, it seemed, didn’t think anything unusual of it. She sat on her lap with a bored look on her face, obviously disappointed that she wasn’t riding in the back this time. Looking over, she saw Applebloom sitting on Human-AJ’s lap, arms crossed and a frown on her face. Her sister, however, was looking at her counterpart while wearing a knowing smile. When she saw Applejack looking at her, she shifted her eyes down toward where Rainbow Dash’s rear now sat and gave her a subtle wink. She blushed and looked away. What is that crazy human doing?

After a short ride, they were back at the farmhouse. Big Mac drove the truck into the adjacent barn and put it in park. Almost before the truck had stopped, Applebloom had opened the door and jumped out, ignoring her sister’s protests. The rest of them shortly followed suit. Applejack gave a small sigh of relief as the uncomfortable ride ended. Her lap quickly started to cool as Rainbow’s warm posterior vacated it. She was exhausted and hungry after having spent an entire day working after being awake almost the whole night. Rainbow looked to be even worse off than she was, her caffeine high finally starting to come to an end.

“Alright, y’all,” Human-AJ told them, “Why don’t ya go get yourself a hot shower while Ah get supper started.”

“Wait, shower?” Rainbow asked, “I uh… I usually just fly through a cloud to get cleaned off. Is there anyway…”

“Sorry sugarcube,” Human-AJ laughed as she opened the front door for them, “Y’all are a might dirty after all that horsin’ around ya did today.”

“Horsing around? I find that off...” Dash started.

“So y’all are getting’ a shower,” Human-AJ said with a twinkle in her eye, “If ya need help, Ah’m sure Applejack here wouldn’t mind…”

“She don’ need help!” Applejack exclaimed loudly. So loudly, in fact, that everyone started looking at her, “Ah mean, yeah, Ah’ll show her how the water works an’ everything.”

Applejack led Rainbow upstairs to the bathroom, taking for granted that it really wasn’t her farmhouse. It was true, they were very similar, but there were little things here and there that were a little different. Instead of lantern hangers, this house had little bulbs that used some sort of magic to emit light. The bathroom was no different. The counter was littered with things both foreign and familiar to Applejack. There were toothbrushes and soap, but also a strange object looking somewhat like a razor, but had a cord leading directly into the wall. She shook her head. If she spent all her time trying to figure out everything about this world, they’d never get anything done.

“Alright, you’re going to have to help me with this one, Applejack,” Rainbow called as she inspected the spigots of the shower, “I mean, I’ve taken showers before at friends’ houses, but usually there was just one knob to control the water…”

Applejack walked over to look at it. The knobs looked old and battered, one of which looked like it had fallen off and had a kitchen cabinet knob glued in its place. The other one simply had a large ‘H’ on it. She shrugged.

“Ah don’ know what that other one was for, but Ah’m assumin’ you just turn the ‘H’ one. Ah’m guessin’ that’s for humans, and the other one must be for Winona or somethin’.”

“Sounds good to me. You going to wait here until I’m done?”

Applejack blushed, “Naw, Ah’ll be waitin’ outside. Jus’ hurry it up. Ah’m mighty hungry – and tired.”

“You and me both, sister.”

Applejack walked outside the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She heard Rainbow turn on the water. Good, Ah got the right one.

“This is awesome!” called Rainbow after a minute, “It’s like somebody’s heating up the water as I shower. Man, I have to say, this world may be weird, but they have some pretty cool stuff.”

Applejack smiled. It had been a long time since she’d had a hot bath. Usually somepony had to heat up the water on a stove and prepare the bath for you – something a simple farm pony didn’t get often. She really only got hot baths when she was a guest of one of the princesses. But boy howdy, could she use one right about…

“Ahhhh!”

She jumped up. Rainbow was screaming. Without even thinking, Applejack ripped open the door to see what was wrong.

Rainbow Dash stood right outside the shower, naked, dripping wet and red as a lobster. Seeing her naked friend, Applejack blushed and put her hat over her face.

“That was the hottest water I’ve ever felt in my life,” Rainbow Dash panted before looking at her friend, “What? What’s wrong with me? Why aren’t you looking at me?”

“Well, um, Rainbow… You’re naked.”

“So? You see me naked all the time. You saw me naked last night, for crying out loud.”

“Yeah but…”

Applejack couldn’t finish her thought. How was she supposed to explain to Rainbow that she was embarrassed to see her human body naked? There was no way she would understand. Hell, AJ couldn’t really understand it herself. There was just something about it. Something embarrassing. Something that made her nervous. Something she… liked. She gulped as the thought hit her.

“But what?” demanded Dash.

“I… uh…” she stammered, not knowing how to explain, not sure if she wanted to.

At that same moment, like a little guardian angel coming to save her from embarrassment, Applebloom rounded the corner into the bathroom.

“What’s goin’ on? Who was yellin’? Is…”

She froze when she saw Rainbow Dash standing naked in the bathroom. Blushing, she covered her eyes with her hands.

“Put some clothes on you crazy woma… perso… whatever ya are!”

Rainbow Dash shrugged and grabbed a red towel off the nearest hanger and wrapped it around herself.

“Hey!” cried Applebloom as soon as she looked, “That’s mah towel! Ah guess Ah’m gonna have ta go out an’ burn it now.”

Applejack chose to ignore this comment, “Rainbow Dash said the water jus’ kept getting hotter. Is y’all’s shower broken or somethin’?”

“Did ya turn on both knobs?”

“No, just the ‘H’ one.”

“Well duh. Y’all just turned on the hot water by itself.”

Applejack facehoo… facepalmed. She should have known that was what ‘H’ meant. Applebloom turned on both spigots in equal amounts and felt the water.

“There. Now hurry up. Dinner’ll be ready in a minute.”

She left without another word. Rainbow jumped back in the shower and Applejack took her place sitting outside the bathroom door. After only a minute, Rainbow called out that she was done.

“Didya use soap, sugarcube?”

“Dammit!”

Applejack smiled. Even though she had only known Rainbow for a few years, she felt like she knew her so well. It was just like her to take shortcuts, or forget things altogether. In most ponies, she would find this to annoying and sloppy, but with Dash, it felt more… endearing. It was cute. Even when being outright lazy, she couldn’t help but feel secretly amused. A little bit.

“All right, I’m done,” said Rainbow as she exited the bathroom in Applebloom’s towel, “Should I put my old clothes back on, or…”

“Go talk to Applejack. She might be able to set ya up with somethin’.”

After Rainbow went downstairs, Applejack took her turn in the bathroom. She fumbled with the buttons on her dirty blouse, being unused to such things. Pony clothes didn’t normally have buttons (being very difficult to fasten with hooves or teeth), and she was no expert at the subtle art of hands, either. After a few minutes of struggling (a lot of that spent on trying to unhook her bra), she stood in front of the bathroom mirror naked. It was the first time since coming to the human world that she really got a chance to look at her human form in detail.

She had to admit to herself, she was kind of attractive. (Boy that felt weird to admit). She was fairly muscular, but not unattractively so. Her breasts were quite a bit bigger than those of the thin, athletic Rainbow Dash, but she didn’t see how that affected anything. She turned around and looked over her shoulder at her backside in the mirror. She smiled. Yeah, this was weird, alright. It’s one thing to change the very basics of how one moves and looks, it’s another to become attracted to a weird alien species.

Not that weird, she reminded herself. Twilight had talked over and over about that Flash person she met. The human, not the pony. She hadn’t been the least bit interested in the pony Flash Sentry when she talked with him later. It was something about the human form that she was attracted to, that AJ was attracted to… Maybe humans were just the most attractive species on the planet. They probably think so. It’s not like any of them would be caught dead fantasizing about ponies…

Smiling, AJ stepped into the pleasantly warm shower and let all her worries wash away.

***

Rarity and Pinkie Pie fled from the sound of the paws thundering toward them, as Dartmoor had instructed. The ground thundered under their feet as they galloped through the canyon wasteland. When they could no longer hear the beast behind them, they halted, panting. It was especially hard on Rarity, who often did not find the time to work out. Besides the fact it was icky. Such frivolities were not on Rarity’s mind right now, however. The only thing filling either pony’s thoughts was the well-being of their friend.

“Do you think we should go back?” asked Pinkie Pie with uncharacteristic anxiety.

“Well, even though that brutish Dartmoor fellow said to wait for him, I do not feel so trusting. I mean, how well do we really know him?”

“Ooh, didn’t he say something about an Ayden?”

Rarity looked around. They stood right next to a cliff that led up to higher ground around five yards above them. As far as they could see, there was nopony in sight.

“Maybe we were supposed to meet him?” continued Pinkie with uncertainty in her voice.

The state of their situation was grim. If they went back, they probably wouldn’t be any help to Fluttershy anyway. If they waited and something happened to Dartmoor and… well, their chances of survival were slim. Even if something had happened, maybe they would be able to care for the wounded, or find something on Dartmoor that would let them know where they were going. The choice seemed clear – they had to go back.

“Come on, Pin…” Rarity trailed off as she saw something in the distance. Pinkie Pie apparently saw it too, because she immediately began hopping excitedly. Dartmoor approached them, followed by a walking but obviously injured Fluttershy. A wide grin broke out on Rarity’s face. She started following Pinkie over to them.

Something jumped on her, pinning her to the ground!

She let out a bloodcurdling scream. A mountain lion, bigger than any cat she had ever seen, was on top of her, crushing her chest. She felt razor-sharp claws dig into her sides.

“Rarity!” Fluttershy screamed.

Fluttershy and Pinkie froze, unable to move due to shock and fear. Dartmoor galloped as fast as he could toward her, but he was still a hundred feet away. Rarity felt and smelled the hot breath of the beast as it growled in her face. She winced, knowing that any moment the beast would use its powerful teeth to rip into her throat. She closed her eyes as tight as she could, expecting the end…

WHAM!

The mountain lion screamed and rolled off of Rarity. As she opened her eyes a sliver, she could clearly hear the screeching cry of a falcon echoing through the gorge. Swift, powerful wings beat against the wind as the bird flew high in preparation for another dive. The beast shifted its focus from Rarity to the circling bird, hissing as it eyed it as a house cat might eye a bug.

Dartmoor caught up with the scene just as the falcon swooped down once more upon the big cat. The bird’s lethal talons made contact with its face just as its claws clipped the falcon. The falcon cried out simultaneously with the mountain lion. Quick as a flash, Dartmoor bucked the cougar with a kick that would surpass even Applejack and sent the cat flying several feet onto its side. He jumped on it and bit the back of its neck, causing it to roar with pain. Without pause, Dartmoor placed both fore hooves around the cat’s massive head and jerked. A resounding crack could be heard through the canyon as the mountain lion’s neck broke. The beast fell limp as it died.

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who had been watching the whole scene with amazement and horror, snapped out of their catatonic state and galloped over to Rarity. She lay on the ground, but they could see the faintest hint of a smile on her face. They both breathed a sigh of relief to see their friend was still alive.

“I could use a little help,” Rarity said weakly with a complete absence of her usual pompousness. Pinkie Pie immediately picked her up, and with Fluttershy’s help, placed her onto her back.

“Ayden!” Dartmoor called. The injured bird slowly flapped over to him. He held out a hoof and the falcon landed on it. It emitted a weak cry, and Dartmoor checked its wings.

“You’re just scratched there, buddy,” he said, relieved, “That was too close.”

Fluttershy noticed Ayden now, and rushed over to him.

“The poor thing!” she cried, tenderly brushing its feathers, “Is he going to be okay?”

“He’ll be fine,” Dartmoor responded gruffly, “We have to the safehouse now. It’s only about half a mile away. You there, hyper-pony, you think you can carry her that far?”

Pinkie nodded quickly as Rarity gripped her fur and groaned.

“Let’s be off then. Hopefully that body will keep the other cats distracted until we get there.”

Fluttershy looked back of the corpse of the monster cat that had nearly eaten her friend. She shivered at what Dartmoor had just implied. As much as she was glad that Rarity was going to be okay, she couldn’t help feel sorry for it. First the train attendant, then this mountain lion; he seemed to make a habit out of killing anything in his way. She was beginning to question his character. How much did they really know about this guy, anyway? Could they really trust him?

“Hey, hurry up!”

She looked over her shoulder and saw the others had started off. She winced a little as she dashed ahead to catch up with them. They had no choice but to trust him, for now.

***

Shining Armor finished giving the standing orders to the night captain and sent him off. He opened the door to his enormous and regal bedroom, and took off his princely attire. His wife was already in bed reading a book.

“Everything go alright?” Cadence asked without looking up.

“Yeah,” he responded distractedly, “I have something to tell you, by the way. You might want to listen to this.”

She finished the paragraph she was on, placed a marker in the book and set it down, giving her husband her undivided attention.

“What is it?”

He breathed a deep sigh, “I just got done talking to one of our informants. It appears that we have a spy among us.”

She gave a small laugh, “Of course we do, dear. This is a new kingdom, with new, inexperienced rulers. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a nation that had a spy in the capital.”

“No, that’s not it. I mean, you’re right, we are surrounded by spies. But this one’s different.”

“Different how?”

“Different because of whom they are spying for. I mean, Princess Celestia briefed us about them and everything, but I didn’t know just how active they were.”

“You don’t mean…” Princess Cadence looked up in shock.

***

Flash Sentry lifted his head from the bedroom chamber door. Looking around, he was relieved to see there were no guards in the vicinity at that time. He walked away casually with an unreadable look on his face.

Comments

[Raistlin]

Maybe humans were just the most attractive species on the planet. They probably think so. It’s not like any of them would be caught dead fantasizing about ponies

pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw2604-Luna_saw_what_you_did_there.jpg

[Rainbow87dash]

“They don’t like cupcakes, crazy nitwit,” sighed Dartmoor, “They like pony!”
“But that’s why I’m using the rainbow…”