Chapter 2
“Hey Twilight, you in here?” Rainbow Dash’s voice echoed out from the corridor, punctuated by the regular clip clop of hooves on the castle’s crystalline flooring.
Twilight pulled her snout out of her book and called back, “Yes. Second door on your right!”
She made a mental note to consider some thick carpeting specifically for the corridor outside her reading room. Especially since it was more like the size of a hall, which didn’t help with its tendency to facilitate echoing. She could even distinguish a second set of hoof steps accompanying Rainbow’s.
A moment later, Rainbow Dash barged in with a somewhat less enthusiastic Applejack in tow. Rainbow had a camera slung around her neck, and she grinned mischievously upon spotting Twilight on her reading couch.
“Spike told us about the thing. We want to see it.”
An irrational surge of panic welled up in her chest before she realised that Rainbow hadn’t specified anything. Twilight took a moment to steady herself and then looked at her warily. “There are lots of things. What ‘thing’ are we talking about right now?”
“You know…” – Dash waved a hoof around vaguely – “the alternate universe thing where you got to see yourselves as the opposite gender and stuff.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “It was a private extra-planar excursion. He wasn’t supposed to talk about that so openly.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Well, you know, sometimes a dragon just—”
“Gets bribed with ice cream from grown-ups who should really know better?” said Applejack with a raised eyebrow.
“Applejack!”
“But nothing, sugarcube. It’s a bad habit.” Applejack shook her head at Rainbow Dash, then turned to Twilight and continued, “Mighty sorry to bother you for this, Twilight, but Rainbow just won’t stop sticking to me like a burr, going on about how interesting it would be to see if our stallion selves are exactly like us. Personally, I’d wait until after harvest season, but since she’s already more excited than a sheep dog on roundup…”
Twilight sighed and set her book aside. “Sure, why not? I could use another data point, anyway. Is there any specific event you would like to revisit?”
Rainbow looked at Applejack, who shrugged and said, “Any one’s fine with me, but I reckon we’d get the most out of a friendship problem involving both of us.”
That got a grin from Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, and I know just the one! Iron pony competition. Let’s go.”
Applejack hummed thoughtfully. “That’s nice, but how’s about we see the Running of the Leaves instead? We didn’t learn anything until our, uh… disagreements landed us in last place. We’ll even get to see Prince Celestia while we’re at it.”
Rainbow Dash glanced at Twilight. “Can we do both?”
She shook her head. “The spell doesn’t have enough staying power to keep us there overnight, and, well, it’ll be pretty tiring for me to skip time within an alternate universe. Sorry.”
“Eh, we’ll roll with Applejack’s plan, then.”
“Running of the Leaves it is. Just give me a minute to plot our trajectory and we’ll be off.” Twilight rose from the couch and trotted over to her worktable, where she conjured a pair of scrolls to pass to her friends. “In the meantime, you’d better read up a bit on some of my notes regarding the nature of this spell. Sorry to say, but that camera’s not going to work at all…”
* * * * *
“So let me get this straight,” said Rainbow Dash as they popped into existence atop a hill overlooking Ponyville. “Just about everypony here has different names but Applejack’s still called Applejack?”
“Yes.”
Dash grinned at Applejack. “Aww, that’s too bad. I was hoping we would get something else. I mean, I’m called Blitz in this universe. How cool is that?”
“That’s okay.” Applejack shrugged and smirked back. “You know you’ve got a good name if it needs no changin’ just because you have something different in your undercarriage.”
“Right, girls,” said Twilight before their conversation shifted further to something she didn’t quite want to discuss. “Let’s find the starting line and we can begin our observations from there. Since we’re non-corporeal, running won’t be tiring and we can easily keep up with the racers. Rainbow, if you want to fly, just make sure not to leave us behind. I don’t want us all getting split up in an alternate universe.”
They got to the edge of town just in time to see the participants lining up at the starting point. Bubble Berry was off to one side getting the balloon ready whilst Barbara watched from a distance, apparently working up the courage to ask him if she could be his co-reporter.
All around them stood the trees of White Tail Woods, ablaze in all the colours of autumn, ranging from fiery red to shimmering gold, just waiting for the rumble of hooves to shed their leaves. Twilight smiled and made another mental note to remind herself to take part in the event when fall next came in her part of the multiverse. She missed it.
Dash and Applejack had their attention elsewhere, though. Twilight chuckled as they gawked at just about everypony present; she’d made several trips back since the first one and had already gotten used to it, but her two friends clearly needed some time to process it as Rainbow Blitz came strutting up to Male Applejack, who was doing his warm-up routine at the starting line.
They traded verbal jabs for a bit, and since neither Dash nor Applejack reacted aversely, Twilight surmised that everything matched up with their memories of the event. So far, so good. But she knew that it probably wouldn’t stick to that script the whole way through.
And then Dusk Shine came trotting up to them.
“Dusk? What in tarnation are you doing up here?” asked Applejack.
Dusk Shine grinned. “I’m racing!”
Rainbow Blitz burst out laughing and thumped him on the shoulder. “Hah. Good one!”
Twilight shot a sideways glance at Dash, who simply smirked when she made eye contact.
“Umm, I’m not joking,” said Dusk.
Blitz choked halfway through his laughter and sputtered, “Bwuh? But, but…” He sighed and placed a hoof on Dusk’s shoulder. “I hate to break it to you, bro, but you’re not an athlete. You’re a nerd.”
“True, but I’m sure the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Research indicates that—”
Blitz yawned. “Sorry, what was that? I kind of zoned out for a minute. Or was it a year?” He gasped and whipped his head wildly to the left and right. “What did I miss? Has the race already started?”
“Nah,” said Applejack. “It’s already over. But if you hurry, you can still finish second-last.”
Dusk simply stared as Applejack and Blitz broke out into fits of sniggering. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. But I’ve crunched the numbers, and based on my caloric intake and daily activity, I believe I have sufficient stamina and speed to finish without deviating too far from the mean. If I pace myself, I might even have a shot at performing above average!”
Applejack barely managed to suppress a snigger. “Haystack, have you ever run in a race before?”
“No, but I know a lot about it.”
“And you know this from…?”
“Books. I’ve read several on the subject.”
Blitz flipped over onto his back and rolled around, laughing. He then paused just long enough to catch his breath and looked up at Dusk. “Bwah-ha-hah! Oh, that’s awesome! What’d you read? The Oubliettes and Ogres Rulebook for Running? Eh? Did you remember to put on your horseshoes of plus five stamina?” He laughed some more until his eyes teared and then wheezed, “Get it? Plus five stamina? Because you need more of it!”
Dusk opened his mouth, but whatever he’d planned to say didn’t come out. His ears flattened as he stared at the ground, apparently rummaging through his thoughts. A moment after that false start, he kept his eyes low and murmured, “Whatever. In any case, the Running of the Leaves is a Ponyville tradition, and I might as well get the experience.”
“Don’t you mean EXP?”
“Well, that’s just dandy, haystack. Good luck!”
“Gonna need a trinket to boost some of that, too,” Blitz added before they both succumbed to another bout of sniggering.
“I get it. You think I’m hopeless,” Dusk muttered.
“Well, that word’s a mite strong,” Applejack said, “but sometimes the truth is that—”
“This isn’t your kind of event,” Blitz finished for him. “Sorry to say it, but books just can’t replace good old muscle mass.”
And there it is…
She remembered being somewhat exasperated by Dash’s and Applejack’s teasing, but from the way Dusk had stiffened up, something they said had clearly gotten under his skin. A quick glance at her companions confirmed her suspicions; they both looked a little puzzled by his sudden shift in mood.
“By the way, you seem to know an awful lot about those counter top games and stuff. What’s that about?” Applejack half-whispered to Blitz.
Twilight involuntarily ground her teeth when Rainbow’s male counterpart didn’t even bother to lower his voice when he rolled his eyes and said, “He showed it to me. Total yawn-fest. Too many numbers, and there was even this ridiculous dice with twenty sides.”
She turned to Dusk and found him looking away from their direction, though his cocked ears were clearly picking up on their conversation. He was blinking somewhat rapidly, and his eyes looked a little red at the edges.
Oh dear…
“All right, ponies, are you ready?” Bubble Berry’s voice rang out from the speakers.
Barb cried, “Get set!”
Blitz and Applejack appeared to have worked the laughter out of their systems and largely ignored Dusk as they crouched at the starting line and gave each other mean looks. Dusk, on the other hoof, stared straight ahead with a creased brow and stiff jaw. A vein throbbed at his neck. Twilight didn’t remember seeing him this tense even in the duel against Trixter.
The bells rang to signal the start of the event, and as expected, Blitz and Applejack tore ahead of the competition. Dusk brought up the rear of the thunderous column of ponies, glowering so much at no one in particular that Twilight almost expected a personal thundercloud to materialise over his head.
Twilight saw Dash and AJ watching her from up front, and judging from their fidgety cantering, they were hanging back just because she was lagging behind with a mopey Dusk Shine. After a moments’ consideration, she put on a burst of speed and left him behind, too.
“You sure you don’t want to keep an eye on him?” asked Applejack when she caught up with them.
“Yeah, if you want to, we could just, you know…” Dash trailed off.
She smiled at their generosity and shook her head. “It’s all right. You both came here to observe Blitz and Applejack, and that’s what we’re going to do. In any case, Dusk’s trajectory will intercept ours at some point down the line.” She glanced back at him and murmured, “Probably…”
Things proceeded according to memory from there. Blitz and Applejack did their best to sabotage each other the whole way, losing their massive lead bit by bit whilst Bubble Berry and Barb provided mostly relevant commentary from above. The stallions even cheated every now and then with road sign tampering, beehive catapulting, impromptu tree-slingshots and balloon rides. At least Dash and AJ had the grace to smile sheepishly at her when she saw their male selves doing it. They’d apparently downplayed the extent of their bumbling around, from what she remembered.
Unlike her experience, though, when Dusk did cross paths Blitz and Applejack, he did not say a word to either of them.
Blitz and Applejack continued one-upping each other with dirty tricks right up to the final stretch before the finish line, oblivious to the ponies overtaking them as they stooped to an all-out brawl when Blitz attempted to fly to victory.
Twilight winced when Blitz punched Applejack in the face. In return, he got a swift kick in the jaw.
“Hayseed, there’s no need to be a sore loser, Blitz!”
“Right back at you, Loser!” Blitz growled back as he rubbed his chin. “Just admit that I won already!”
Applejack grimaced as he rubbed his swelling right eye, then scowled at his opponent. “What in the hay are you yammering about? I won!”
“Actually, you tied!” Barbara called out.
Both stallions froze for a moment, then slowly turned to the floating balloon that housed Bubble Berry and Barb.
“For first?” Applejack asked weakly.
“Nope. For last!” Bubbly Berry said with a grin. “Boy, you two must’ve really wanted it badly to fight so hard.”
“Wha—but, that’s insane!” Blitz sputtered. “How?”
After picking up his jaw, Applejack shook his head and asked, “Then who won?”
Right on cue, Dusk Shine came trotting up to them with a bronze medal around his neck.
Blitz blinked. “Oh. No way. You have got to be kidding us. You won?”
Dusk didn’t smile. “No. But I did get third place. Not too bad for a first-timer, huh?”
“But… how? Hayseed, you were hardly putting your back into it whenever we saw you!”
“A simple matter of keeping a steady pace all the way through, just as the books instructed. And when everypony else was worn out at the last stretch, that’s when I accelerated to full speed.”
“Oh. That’s… not a bad idea, I guess.” Blitz wilted under Dusk’s penetrating gaze and looked around awkwardly before turning to Applejack. “Unbelievable. Dusk actually beat us!”
“Yeah. Who’d have thought?”
Dusk snorted. “Plenty of sports coaches would’ve. Statistics show that athletes who follow instructions often do better than those who don’t. It’s all in the books.” He then shot them a glare before continuing, “Oh, right. You wouldn’t know much about that, would you? After all, books are no use and this event was clearly just a spatial-temporal anomaly created to mess with your heads. So, how does it feel to be beaten by a nerd?”
Without waiting for a response Dusk spun around and trudged off into the woods, leaving his two companions staring in silence.
Blitz recovered first. “I… I think my snark meter just blipped. Did Dusk actually snark at us?”
“He did seem a mite upset…” Applejack shifted uneasily and pawed at the ground. “You think we might’ve ragged on him a little too hard?”
“What, that? That was nothing!” Blitz snorted and gestured at the now empty pathway. “Not our fault if he takes it that personally.”
“Takes what personally?”
Both stallions spun around and found Barbara standing right behind them with her arms folded, smoke trailing out of her nostrils as she tapped one foot in anticipation.
“Oh, you know, stallion stuff,” Blitz said as he made a swirly motion in the air with a hoof.
Applejack said nothing.
Barb raised an eye ridge. “Did you hurt him?”
“Hurt him?” Blitz's eyes darted around as he nervously laughed. “Nah, he’s probably just tired after a crazy run like that. Crazy for him, I mean. It’s not that big a route. And—” His eyes widened as he stared at something behind Barb. “Wait, is that Prince Solaris?”
“Whoa Nelly,” said Applejack as he took his hat off. “We’d better go pay our respects before—”
Barb cut him off by snorting out a plume of fire. She didn’t even turn around to look at the prince. “Solaris can wait; he’s a patient guy. You can first talk to Dusk about whatever you did to him. I know when he’s hurt, and right now, I see only two possible suspects.”
Blitz and Applejack stared at her for a moment.
“Well, I suppose we could go talk to the haystack and see what’s wrong, but shouldn’t we wait for him to—”
A deep growl resonated from Barb’s throat. “Now.”
Both stallions shared a look before wisely deciding to appease the smouldering dragon. From the way they trotted into the woods with reluctant steps and their ears laid back, Twilight thought they looked like prisoners marching to their execution. Barb followed at an uncomfortably close distance behind them. Twilight glanced at Dash and AJ, who both looked mightily impressed by Barb’s display.
A little ways in, Blitz cast a sneaky glance back at Barb and whispered to Applejack, “Do we really have to do this? I’m not sure what the point is.”
Applejack stole a look at Barb, who casually popped a couple of topaz gemstones into her mouth and crunched on them rather noisily. He whipped his head back and put on a burst of speed. “I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty good reason.”
Blitz raised an eyebrow and looked back. Barbara met his gaze with a steely one of her own and snacked on a pair of aquamarine gems the same way as the topaz ones. Maybe a little more enthusiastically this time around, as gem dust puffed out of her mouth when she chewed.
“Okay, forget I said anything.” Blitz’s pupils shrank as he hastily resumed his march.
They had some trouble finding Dusk, though. The path ended abruptly in a clearing surrounded by trees, half of which were evergreens. It didn’t help that some of the deciduous ones still had their leaves on thanks to a half-done Running of the Leaves.
“Dusk, where are you?” Applejack hollered. “We just want to talk!”
“You’re not crying, are you?” Blitz called out. He then yelped when Applejack punched him in the shoulder and growled, “Dude, what was that for?”
Applejack shook his head and trotted in amongst the trees. Blitz followed.
“Dusk?”
Somepony sighed. “Over here.”
They found Dusk sitting underneath a shady maple, facing away from them as he gazed deep into the woods. After giving her two charges a pointed look, Barb climbed up onto a tree stump and sat down to observe from a reasonable distance whilst they both gingerly approached Dusk.
“Hey, you okay?” Applejack asked.
“What do you think?” Dusk slowly turned his head and stared at them. His eyes looked a little red.
“Oh wow, you really were cryi—oww!” Blitz hissed when Applejack casually back-hoofed his swollen cheek. He then glared at him and growled, “Right in the pain! What is wrong with you?”
Applejack ignored him and trotted closer to Dusk. “Mind if I sit here?”
“I won’t stop you.”
Applejack sighed and sat on his haunches, right next to Dusk. After a moment of silence, he turned to look at Blitz and motioned for him to sit on Dusk’s other side.
Blitz frowned and mouthed a silent ‘What?’ at him.
Applejack patted the ground emphatically in response.
Eventually, Blitz got the picture. But he shook his head and muttered, “The Blitz doesn’t do touchy-feely stuff.”
For a moment, Applejack stiffened and glanced worriedly at Dusk, apparently fearing that he might react poorly to that remark. But when Dusk simply stared straight ahead as if he hadn’t heard anything, Applejack rolled his eyes at Blitz and said, “Look, for a guy who keeps calling him ‘bro’, I don’t think it won’t kill you to act like one for a bit. Get your butt over here.”
Blitz snorted and planted his backside on the leafy ground next to Dusk. “Right. So there’s three of us, just sitting in a row. A bunch of crazy stallions in a row. What now?”
Applejack shot a glare at Blitz to shut him up. Then, he tentatively put a hoof on Dusk’s shoulder and said, “Look, I’m mighty sorry for the way I acted. I didn’t mean to make fun of your – what’s that word again? – athletic prowess and such. You’re not a nerd, you’re just—”
“Yes, I am,” Dusk interjected.
“Beg pardon?”
Dusk turned and locked eyes with him. “I am a nerd, and I don’t have a problem with either of you calling me that. But…” He stared at the ground and scratched at the dirt with a hoof. “I… never mind. It’s stupid. Just forget it.”
“That probably won’t help any,” Applejack said. “Could you please tell us? ‘Cause we messed up, but we don’t know exactly how or why we hurt you.”
Dusk inhaled deeply and released a ragged sigh. “This’ll probably sound stupid, but… I never got into sports. My big sis was a real killer on the field, but me? Never dared to try because I didn’t have friends who were into it. Then I found you guys, and I…” He paused for a moment to wipe his eyes. “I was kind of hoping to get some practical learning from you. Instead, all I got was, you know…”
Silence filled the space between them, save for a few leaves rustling in the wind.
Eventually, Applejack groaned. “Aww, darn it. I… I’m so sorry, haystack. I didn’t know you were looking up to us for that kind of support. Why didn’t you say anything about that?”
“Didn’t think I’d have to,” Dusk murmured. Then, his eyes narrowed as he turned to Blitz. “And you…”
Blitz leaned back and raised both hooves defensively. “Whoa, easy! What did I do?”
“I showed you Oubliettes and Ogres because I thought you might find it ‘cool’, as it were,” Dusk growled, jabbing a hoof at him. “But then you threw it back in my face and—argh…” A choked noise escaped him, and he blinked his eyes furiously as if dirt had gotten into them. “You made me feel ashamed back there for liking it. And what did the D-twenty ever do to you?”
Blitz blinked. “Umm…”
Dusk sniffed and shook his head. “Ugh, just… forget it. Like I said, it was stupid.”
He attempted to get up, but Applejack put a hoof on his shoulder and said, “It ain’t stupid, Dusk. If anything, we’re the stupid ones. Could you please stay and hear us out?”
Dusk looked at him for a moment and reluctantly sat back down.
Applejack took his hat off and set it aside. “I think I understand now, haystack. We had no idea our ragging was hitting that close to home, and for that, we’re awfully sorry. We didn’t want to make you feel unwelcome or inadequate. We were just… having a bit of fun.” His ears drooped. “At your expense. More than we had a right to take. Sorry.”
In the silence that followed as Dusk seemed to ponder on Applejack’s words, Applejack shot a glare over his back at Blitz, who raised an eyebrow and shrugged. Applejack quietly slapped his forehead and discreetly pointed at their friend and mouthed a rather forceful ‘Apologise!’ at him. Blitz simply stared back as if he’d been asked to decipher a piece of ancient, idiosyncratic calligraphy.
“Right,” Applejack growled, “I think Blitz has something to say to you too, haystack.”
Blitz’s narrowed eyes promised vengeance for the farmer, but he first had to deal with Dusk.
“Yeah, what he said. Sorry for making fun of you,” he muttered.
Dusk took a while to answer. The corners of his eyes were still red and a little puffy. After a while, he turned to look at him and said, “Do you really mean that?”
“I, well…”
Blitz gulped and flicked his gaze over to Applejack, but got only an unhelpful nod from him. He winced when he turned back to Dusk and ground his teeth. Then, when Dusk sighed and looked away with flattened ears and sagging shoulders, he groaned and said, “Aww, fluffing heck, dude. Do you really have to look like a kicked puppy? I… All right, just… just don’t tell anypony this, but I actually think your table top thing is kind of cool, okay?”
Dusk’s ears immediately perked up. “Wait, you actually like Oubliettes and Ogres? You’re not just saying that to—”
“Gah, I mean it! Don’t say it out loud!” Blitz cried, glancing around as if expecting a hundred ponies to pop out of the ground and go ‘Aha!’ at his admission. “Here, I’ll prove it to you. I remember that fighters get twelve hit points per level and start with, like, sixteen base constitution and fifteen strength. And I never remember anything with math in it. There! You happy now?”
“Oh ho, that’s some mighty useful blackmail material!” Applejack said with a grin.
Blitz glared at him. “Applejack, I swear, I will—”
Dusk cut him off with a chuckle. “It’s actually fourteen base Con, but I’m convinced.” He then put his forelegs around their shoulders and added with a small smile, “Thanks, guys. I needed that. I’m sorry I got so upset and made Barb come after your blood. I hope she didn’t do any damage.”
“Oh, believe me: you’ll know if they took any damage!” Barb called out from her perch.
“So… are we good now?” asked Applejack.
“Yeah, I think we are. I get it now; I’ll try not to take it so personally when you make fun of me.” Dusk nodded, then turned to grin at Blitz. “By the way, your dirty secret’s safe with me. Game Night’s on every Thursday. If you like the fighter, you’re going to become best friends with the D-twenty.”
Blitz moaned and covered his face with both hooves. “I’m doomed. Every mare is going to hear of this. Reputation gone. Poof.”
“Sounds to me like an important lesson was learned,” said a voice that resonated with equal parts authority and cheer.
“Prince Solaris!” all three of them cried in unison as they scrambled onto all fours.
Twilight gulped. Up close, Prince Solaris looked just as regal and imposing as Princess Celestia – maybe a bit more of the latter because of his broader form and rugged beard. She could see Dash and AJ also looking a little dazed on either side of her.
“Wha—what are you doing here?” asked Blitz. “Uh, not that you can’t do whatever you like, but—”
Prince Solaris chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. Fall’s one of my favourite seasons, so I came over to celebrate the Running of the Leaves.”
“Darn. We’re sorry you had to see us being such poor sports,” said Applejack as he bowed. He then winced as he rubbed his eye and added, “Ouch. I think I’m going to have a pretty shiner in the morning. Sorry about your chin, Blitz.”
“That’s all right. It’s easy to get swept up in the competition.” Prince Solaris swept his gaze around at the still-leafy trees and added, “By the way, it looks like the trees would benefit from another lap or two of running…”
“Sounds like a fine idea, Your Highness.” Applejack turned to the others. “Fancy another round? Let’s see you push your limits this time!”
Dusk grinned. “For science. Let’s go!”
“Wait, didn’t we just learn this lesson?” asked Blitz with a frown.
Prince Solaris raised an eyebrow. “Hmm? What lesson?”
“Not to be too competitive.”
Solaris blinked. Then, after a moment, he chuckled and nodded. “Oh, that. That’s a good lesson too, I suppose.”
“Wait, then what were you—”
Solaris leaned in close and whispered gravely into Blitz’s ear, “Never mock the dungeon master. This purple one is especially cruel with traps and puzzles, and he has a long memory.”
Blitz’s eye twitched. “Uh…”
“Well, then. I must be off, and you have another lap to run. Have fun, boys!”
And with that, the prince spread his mighty wings and disappeared in a flash of light.
“Uh, Rainbow Blitz? You okay?” asked Dusk as he waved a hoof in front of him.
Blitz shook his head to clear it. After taking a while to gain his bearings, he shook his head at Dusk and grinned, “Oh, okay, Book Butt. If you want The Blitz in on Game Night, you’re going to have to earn it. Let’s see you run like a real stallion!”
“Yeehaw! Up and at it!” cried Applejack as he broke into a gallop.
After the three stallions had thundered off down the path and left a cloud of dust in their wake, Applejack piped up, “Well, that was something. Twilight, I’m not sure if rightly remember, but did we hurt you on that day, too?”
Twilight tapped a hoof on her chin. “Actually, I don’t think so. It didn’t really bother me.”
“So… does this mean that stallions are bigger softies than mares?” Dash asked with a grin.
“Rainbow…”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m kidding,” she said, waving a hoof dismissively a Twilight. “Spike was right. Little bit of same here, little bit of different there.”
“I’ve got to say, though, Girly Spike is a real feisty one,” Applejack said with a glance at Barb, who was making her way back to the rest of the townsponies, sporting a rather self-satisfied smile.
“Oh yeah, she’s a total hardflank in this universe.”
“Dragons are extremely matriarchal, so it does make sense,” Twilight added thoughtfully. “Are you ready to go home?”
“Yeah. The Dash is hungry.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “I see the cross-dimensional contamination is spreading already. Let’s go.”
When they popped back into her reading room, Twilight wasted no time in opening up her notebook to jot down the finer details of their encounter for safekeeping. “By the way, girls, please try to keep this under wraps, okay? This isn’t something ponies in general need to know about.”
“Sure thing, sugarcube.”
“Rainbow?”
Twilight found her gazing rather thoughtfully at the reflective surface of one of the windows.
“Say, some of those guys were kind of hot…” Rainbow turned to Twilight, and a wicked grin slowly twisted her mouth. “You saw them. Did any of them, you know…”
Temperature rising… “No.”
“But—”
Heart rate climbing… “No.”
Applejack started grinning, too. “Really? What about—”
Blood flow to wings increasing! “No. Bye!”
Twilight instantly teleported out into the hallway and had to take a moment to wait for everything to settle down properly.
“Girls…” she muttered to herself as their giggles echoed out of her room.
Oh hey, another chapter. Needed it to get over a blockage again.
I'm still leaving the story tagged as complete, though it's certainly possible for more chapters to pop up down the line. Never know when something might be worth adding.
Toodles! 
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Too bad I can't upvote it again.
I just read the first chapter several days ago. That timing.
One of us. One of us.
Does it flow in the wind, too? Because good God, that's a hilarious mental image. Like a dwarf with a particularly agitated rainbow stuck to his chin.
oh god im dying
Huh. Didn't expect to see an update to this.
Haha. Nice update. It is interesting how accurate these portrayals feel. I know some guys that are just like Dusk, don't care about being called nerds but don't insult their games because that's personal.
This is so fun to read, I wish you had more, much more of those blockades of yours.
7071413 img02.deviantart.net/84ac/i/2012/204/3/2/solaris__s_beard_comic_by_ak47smith-d589ryv.png
7071413 I always imagine Prince Solaris as having kind of a rust-red beard.
Well, this is surprisingly fun and something I'd like to see more of. Personally, I'm waiting for both versions of Pinkie to meet one another and break Twilight and Dusk's minds, or for an inverted chapter where we see Dusk Shine and other male verisions reaction to the canon universe.
Also, because I'm an asshole, please don't picture Discord as female.
Have fun with that image.
What ruleset was that because pathfinder fighters get d10 and have no set stats, while barbarians have the d12.
Cool chapter.
Have to admit I was hoping for something a bit more of a radical departure, though.
Like... what was just a blink it and you miss it moment in the show being expanded to full friendship problem levels because the Dude Six has subtly different priorities and personalities, or vise versa. Not just a difference in dialogue.
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Problem is that it's really hard to pick a good one for those, because in all honesty, what's just a regular difference in personality is often attributed to gender when there's really no reason for it to be. Pick the wrong one and the only thing you'll get it a shitfest of sexists on both sides slinging insults at each other.
Feeling apprehensive about getting into sports because you've got an athletic older sister who'd outperform you at every turn is something a lot of nerdy younger brothers can probably sympathize with, though. In that sense, it was very well-picked.
I did not realize that I needed another chapter. Now I find myself requiring more and more of these little observational dips into the 63'd universe. When did the author become my drug dealer?
7071647
Fair enough reasoning.
oww....my sides....
Oh dear, I can already picture it.
orig00.deviantart.net/ac6e/f/2015/056/5/3/dusk_shine_s_fury_by_crowneprince-d8jj1nx.jpg
If my memory doesn't fail me (again...) Twilight got fifth place in her own race. Then I guess upsetting Dusk managed to improve it's performance somewhat.
On another note I want to say that I liked the first chapter better, it was more brief, better focused and the point came across more clearly while being very amusing. This chapter was good; but I would put it a tier below the first one if I'm being completely honest.
Regardless.
I like to encourage you to write more of this even if it's not all as remarkable as the first chapter, we simply don't get enough rule 63 on the site this days.
~Leonzilla
Nice continuation. Now I'm going to have to leave this on my tracking list in case you ever add more.
I like it! I like it a lot!
I toyed with the idea of something like this, but never wrote anything about it because, well, how would you make it interesting? So far, you've pointed out some believable differences between the two. I can see the stallions getting hurt feelings more easily; if Equestria is anything like earth, healthy outlets for emotions are hard to come by for young men, and for shut-ins like Dusk especially. I'm sure having a tough older sibling didn't bother Twilight like it bothers Dusk, either. There's nothing unusual about a little girl being bookish, but it's slightly less socially accepted for little boys. Reading about this Dusk feels similar to watching the human Twilight in Friendship Games. Lacking her friends and the support of Celestia, she became fragile and easily intimidated. I suppose having to live with the expectations placed on stallions rather than the expectations placed on mares, Dusk takes insults more personally and isn't as ready to talk about his feelings. He was sitting alone, and they had to come find him; I don't know whether he would have come to them himself.
I've often said that if your character is written well, then their actions will still suit them whether they're male or female. A writer should never depend on stereotypes so much that flipping that one feature uproots the character. And yet, gender does play a significant role in who we are. I like this balance you've found, where almost everything about them is the same, but they are different in small ways.
Anyway. Cool story, brony. Write some more?
Hah, this is a brilliant little gem!
Interesting.
oh my god I'm dying of laughter that has to be the funniest thing I've read.
Very good continuation, and a good pick for a divergeance that really makes sense given the gender change, as well as a nice lesson in its own right. A little lighter on the comedy this chapter, though. This felt more straight slice of life. I wouldn't mind more chapters along this line, but a tag change may be in order if you plan to continue with this tone in future.
The second chapter felt needed as the lesson "different isn't always better" is an important one. Many factors about the characters alter their effectiveness depending on the situation.. Dusk was able to beat the Alicorn Amulet faster because of her table top gaming knowledge, corrupting magical artifacts are everywhere in them, he'd recognize one faster than Twilight. By the same token AJ and Blitz making up took longer and required an apology to Dusk because males are generally more aggressive than than females. This fits in more with the show, not going for the easy cliche "lesson" that is BS.
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7072047
Fair enough. Could you elaborate on what you found unnecessary? Was Twilight's interaction with Dash and AJ or maybe the establishing exposition getting in the way? Or was it something else entirely?
7072967 Yeah, this one definitely took a more serious route. I'll certainly consider adjusting the tags if future chapters warrant it.
Solaris' lesson is one that must be learned very quickly, if one wants to remain in the game for any amount of time.
I cracked up when the male version of Celestia revealed he played the MLP version of Dungeons and Dragons. All in all, great story! Here, have one of "Barb's" moustaches.
7074368 It's not as simple as taking and subtracting this and that. The things that you can add and subtract to a story while you are editing it, goes beyond terms like, what is doing it a service and what is doing it a disservice.
I would say it's more of a matter of quality vs quantity. The criteria you should use depends on what exactly you would like the story to be like when you look at it in the big picture the small picture and everything in between.
Hope you are still following with me so far. You see, I wouldn't call anything you put here unnecessary. Everything adds something to the story although many things are more significant than others. The way I'm going to try to explain it is that is more of a matter of quality and focus. There were extended parts during the second chapter that didn't do much besides moving the plot along which is enough to justify them being there; but this parts don't manage keep the audience attention as effectively as the key events and dialogue. Those part could be summarized in fewer words to improve the overall quality. While by focus I mean the extent in which the sum of the pieces comprising the story contribute to one core message or the main idea. In those terms any given part that does not contribute or enhance the message, emotion, tone etc... that the overall story is trying to convey(that you would like the story to convey) doesn't have as much value in the story as parts that help in the desired aspects and keeping them around might dilute the overall effectiveness in which the story displays the things it's trying to portray. A key word here might be content. Just because a story is longer, doesn't mean that it necessary has more content, or better content.
When I was reading the second chapter I was thinking about how I would compare the two had you decided to publish them as separate stories, rather than two chapters of the same story. The way I see it, the second one would probably not have done as well if just on account of quality.
Let's take the pace for example, the first chapter moved faster and reached it's point and it's punch line much sooner. That is the result of it being more focused. While the content provided was fairly unexpected, more thought provoking and clearer in comparison to the second chapter. For this reasons I don't think it's unreasonable for me to consider the first one to be overall better than the second one. But that's just me trying to explain it so that it's better understood. I could just express the matter of fact that I enjoyed reading one more than the other. That's also a valid way to decide what to keep and what to leave in a story. Just ask yourself which way you think you would enjoy it more where you being the reader. Putting yourself in that position without letting self biases get in the way of looking at your work objectively and thoroughly.
Hope this helped you gain a better understanding when it comes to content quality and story focus. I only covered each briefly. Let me know if you have any questions or I wasn't clear about something.
~Leonzilla
7071386 Nice update!
7075067 All right, I think I got it. Thanks for the feedback!
you should try something with female discord, it would be cool to see the portrayal and personality differences, definently an awesome story
It would have been way better if Solaris randomly turned to Twi and was like 'and what are YOU doing here?'
7388339 Eh..
I never really was into R63 stuff, but this might make me change my mind. It's kind of cool. I still had trouble seeing the male version as anything but the original characters, but there's a level of intimacy that comes in when you realise that they are now no different from you, if you get what i mean. As someone who allways to distance myself from people in one way or another, its... refreshing.
Also, the second chapter seemed like a more full, engaging story to me, rather than just a quick one-off fluff/joke piece. I guess it was the fact that the second chapter had more character conflict/development? Idk, good stuff man
8771507 Glad you enjoyed it.
The first chapter was definitely made for the joke. The second one was written because I saw an opportunity to insert some personal experience into it. That's probably why it feels a little more solid.
7723571
I agree
And god damn it again!
Also, i did an oopsie and somehow commented on this story instead of the other one. Now i have read it and it was as amazing as the Flaming Tits. Great job!
This is an interesting take on things. And since this is happening in cannon-verse, you can be assured that Dusk Shine is leading a similar expedition from rule63-verse.
The last few paragraphs would be much more crude, I’m sure.
9654893
Thanks for reading!
That'd be Barbarians. Then again, pony world. For all I know, Fighters get the d12 Hit Dice in their world.
Wow, one of the very best R63 fics I've read, despite it's short length. The first chapter was more silly, but the second was solidly written and for me quite personal. I love this concept and how you've reimagined the events, the same but different. Honestly, I usually identify a lot more strongly with male characters than female ones, so this was quite evocative for me.
It is still natural for most people to think of men as being stoic and less sensitive than women, and to a certain limited extent this is true, especially outwardly, but men are generally very sensitive to what people in their ingroup think about them and in some ways are more sensitive than women. I really felt for Dusk Shine, and I think you wrote the dialogue and interections very naturally.
I hope to see more of this someday!
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Probably because it was based on personal experience.
Not quite the same situation, but more or less the same beats in terms of feeling a little betrayed by friends and then making up after that.
Yeah. The big problem men face is that they start running out of options for seeking moral support very quickly.
There's often the impression that going to Mommy and Daddy are big no-nos after a certain age, and you're straight out of luck if it's your friends who are making you feel inadequate.
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Yay! The strength of personal experiences! Also I'm sorry for your personal experiences! haha.
I was the, well, not really nerd but athletic geek, I guess you could say, amongst a group of mega-jocks, and I didn't really have any other options for friends. I was made fun of mercilessly for everything I enjoyed and was personal to me, so that was rough sometimes. I don't know that I had anything exactly like this, but it hit all the right emotional buttons.
At least for men things are becoming more open now and old stigmas are getting retired. Somewhat.
Great ending, although you missed an opportunity for the stallions to run off only for Solaris to stay and address twilight all "who are you, why do you look like my student, and how are you an alicorn?"
also would love to see dusk's ascension story.
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i can just see this interaction. Dusk telling Gleaming Shield about how he feels inadequate when compared to her, and her telling him that hes faced down things she never could.
"And what are you talking about 'not as strong?', you faced down Dark Night, Eris, Queen Chrysalis and a dozen other problems I can only dream about and came out on top! your far stronger than you give yourself credit for."
D'awww!