Tangled Up In Purple

by Crescent Pulsar

Chapter 8: Listing One Way and Another

Once Ranma felt he had enough energy to walk somewhere, he got up and began his trek to the library, making a concerted effort to not think about his experience with Rainbow Dash. He remembered the bedroom in the loft and thought he might have glimpsed a mirror there, which he wanted to use to see what he looked like.

When he got there, he hesitated a moment before opening the door and stepping inside. Pinkie Pie was already present, as he had feared, but after standing in the doorway for a few seconds it occurred to him that she hadn't noticed his arrival; or had, but kept her focus on the decorations she was putting up. Said decorations seemed more extensive and elaborate this time, but that may have just been a result of catching her later in the process.

Whatever the case was for not facing any immediate resistance, he nonetheless exercised caution as he crossed the room to reach the stairs. He kept his guard up until after he ascended them and entered the bedroom. With a sigh of relief, he looked around until he spotted an oval-shaped mirror on a dresser, then walked over and stood before it.

He stared at his face for a while before looking left and right to check his profile, but was annoyed to not feel illuminated by what he saw. While he thought that ponies were adorable, not that he'd admit that to anyone, he doubted that ponies normally shared the same sentiment for adults — which he assumed he was, if not mature enough to not be considered a child. However, the fact remained that he just didn't know what they found attractive, and thus if he was or not.

Did Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash think he was a pretty pony? It made more sense to him than gaining their affection from those activities. Granted, he couldn't say that he'd ever been that harmonized with anyone before. In fact, it was rather rare when he could do anything seriously without a disagreement or in-fighting.

The most surprising part was that they were both showing interest in the same sex. Was it a coincidence, or were ponies more open-minded about relationships? Personally, while conforming to the status quo in Japan was something he was currently willing to do in public, in order to save face, in private his unique situation had broken him out of that mold. Not just because he wanted to be treated the same by his significant other no matter which body he inhabited, given the prospect that he might be cursed to switch between sexes for the rest of his life, but because of the very real possibility that something could force him to remain female, and he just couldn't see himself being interested in guys.

Not that he really had to worry about that here, since the ponies weren't real and he had a fiancée in the real world. Well, unless he ended up trapped in the book forever, but he wasn't willing to humor that scenario just yet.

At any rate, as nice and interesting as some of his experiences had been so far, he couldn't allow himself to become attached to anything. Until he left the book, especially if it took a while, he'd have to use the pony in the mirror to help distance himself. Instead of stuff happening to him, it would happen to Twilight Sparkle, to avoid making connections.

Even so, he wanted to find out if his curse still worked despite being forced to assume the guise of a character in a book, hopefully so he'd have some peace of mind on that front. After confirming that there wasn't a bathroom in the loft, he went down the stairs to search for a source of hot water on the ground floor. Since he had seen all of it save the nook on the leeward side of the stairs, where two doors could be found, that's where he went first.

The closest door, thankfully, opened up to a small bathroom, containing a toilet and sink. He was a little surprised that it wasn't a squat toilet, given that ponies were quadrupeds and most of the town didn't look modern. Before entering, he moved over to the other, bigger door out of curiosity and opened it, revealing a staircase that led into a basement.

Curiosity sated, he walked into the bathroom and stepped up to the sink. He wasted no time and turned the handle with the "H" engraved into it, then stuck a hoof under the faucet. The water came out hot immediately, and he felt a peculiar sort of fluttering in his chest, where he knew his body's magic was focused. His interest piqued by that sensation, he turned the hot water off and tried cold water, which elicited the same feeling.

He went back and forth several times, to ascertain that it was consistent, and came to the conclusion — more from optimism than certainty — that his curse was still working but overridden by the book. Hopefully that meant that he'd be fine once he left the book, but he would only know for sure once he actually left it. Until then, it looked like he was once again going to be stuck as a member of the fairer sex for a while, albeit as a pony version of one.

Stepping out of the bathroom, he decided to proceed with checking out the next thing on his mental list: what kind of food the book had to offer. He hoped that he wouldn't be disappointed, because he was actually beginning to feel a bit hungry now. However, even if there were a lot of foods that a human wouldn't or couldn't eat, he supposed that it would be fine since he was another pony.

When he walked out of the nook and could see over the stairs, he was quick to notice how far the party preparations had progressed. What really caught his eye, however, was the spread of food and beverages, which were both familiar and looked delicious. He absently wiped a string of drool from the side of his mouth before forcing his gaze to Pinkie Pie, who had her back turned to him while she sorted out what appeared to be toys and games on a table separate from what he was interested in.

He briefly considered just taking whatever food and drink he wanted, since he was in a book and nothing was real, but realized that didn't mean there wouldn't be real consequences. Aside from Pinkie Pie probably succeeding in keeping him away from the food, there was also a chance that it would still negatively affect his relationship with her after a reset, and he'd honestly rather be on her good side and deal with her modest affection than be at odds with her.

Walking up beside her, he said, "Pinkie Pie?"

She whirled around to face him, smiling brightly. "Whatcha need?"

He pointed toward the food on the other side of the room and utilized his English. "Can I?"

Pinkie Pie crossed her forelegs in front of her face and shook her head. "Nope! You have to wait like everypony else."

Disappointed, but not surprised, he nodded his head in acknowledgement and began to head toward the door, figuring he'd just have to steal some food from somewhere in the town. Before he took more than a step, however, Pinkie Pie caught him by the shoulder and gestured for him to follow her back toward the stairs. Curious as to what she wanted, he fell into step behind her and let her lead the way.

She ascended the stairs until she reached the landing that was close to the loft but still out of sight of it, where she grabbed a drawstring and pulled down a hatch. There was a ladder on the topside of the hatch, and half of it slid down until it hit the floor. He followed her up the ladder, which led into an attic that was dimly lit by a dust-coated window overhead. It was fairly spacious, partly because there were only a half dozen or so boxes and the odd piece of furniture and furnishing.

After sparing a second to rub his itchy nose, he followed her to another ladder on the opposite side of the room, which led to a hatch that opened to the outside. Said hatch granted access to a small observation deck on the highest part of the building, one that barely had enough room for two ponies of their size. Why the library had one, and so out of the way for the wingless, he could only guess.

There was a telescope mounted to the railing, which Pinkie Pie finished using by the time he had all four hooves on the deck. She stepped aside and motioned for him to look through it. When he lowered his head and peered through the eyepiece, he saw the farm that he had only really seen from the chariot. He raised his head to get an answer that was simple enough for him to understand, for why she was showing him the farm, but she pressed a piece of paper to his breast before he could.

"Applejack," she said.

She prompted him to say it, then to try again until she was satisfied with his pronunciation. Once she was, she briefly nuzzled his cheek before hopping down the hatch, leaving him standing there and blushing. After he recovered, he lifted the paper up for inspection and discovered that there was a message written on it. Pinkie Pie had ended it with a doodle of her smiling face, and beside it was a... victory sign?

He blinked his eyes at that.

Rather than try to read some of the message and wonder at the unknown details, he decided to trust Pinkie Pie. And if he had read the context clues of recent events right, that meant she wanted him to go to the farm, find someone named "Applejack", then give them the letter to receive something to eat. So, he rolled up the paper, stuck it between his mane and ear, then levitated himself down to the ground and began the relatively long-ish journey to the farm.

---

Not long after he passed a building that had a sign out front with a picture of an open book on it, making him wonder if it was a book store or another library, he began to hear something hard striking wood within the apple orchard. The sound came regularly, and grew louder as he got closer to the large, red building that the fence-lined path was directing him toward. It wasn't until he walked through the trellis arch, and stepped onto the farm proper, that he learned the source of the noise.

"Yee-haw!" Yelled a pony, before they dashed toward an apple tree and bucked it.

He watched the apples fall into the wooden buckets before focusing his attention on the pony who shook them out of the tree. She had a light orange coat, blonde hair, green eyes and white freckles on the outermost area of her cheeks. Her blonde mane and tail were secured near their ends with simple, red hair ties, and she wore a hat that she recognized from the Western stuff in the United States.

Once he thought he was close enough to her, he stopped and called out, "Applejack?"

He suddenly found one of his forelegs being vigorously shaken by both of her forehooves as she warmly said, "Well, howdy-doo! It's a pleasure makin' your acquaintance, but ya'll appear to have me at a disadvantage, Miss...?"

Since he didn't understand much of what had been said, which was slightly exacerbated by the accent, he levitated the paper out from where it was nestled, unfurled it, then offered it to her. She released him from her grasp to accept it, and while she read it he tried to get his still-waving foreleg under control with the other, leading to him falling on his face because he forgot that his forelegs didn't have the same freedom as arms.

"Twilight Sparkle, huh?" Applejack remarked, slipping the paper under her hat while he finished picking himself up. "Mighty strange that ya'll only speak and understand a few licks o' Common." She smiled disarmingly. "But ya'll shouldn't need words to judge food, I reckon."

With that said, she dashed over to a triangle and rang it, yelling, "Soup's on, everypony!"

Hearing what sounded like a stampede, he had just enough time to look behind him, where the noise was coming from, before being swept up by a crowd of ponies and deposited at a table covered by a yellow, striped tablecloth. Once he got his vision to stop spinning, Applejack began to say something each time a pony came up to the table and dropped off a plate of food, which he assumed were food names. As more and more food was added, and literally piled up until it became a mountain several heads taller than he was, the more his eyes widened and shone with desire.

He was bearing witness to a dream come true. His hunger had rarely been truly satiated while growing up, typically by bland and uninspired food, and on top of that his father had often taken the best food if they had gotten their hands on anything noteworthy. So, while he certainly couldn't complain about the food that his mother and Kasumi made, it just couldn't compare to being served this many tasty treats, as if he were extraordinarily special.

Almost unable to believe what he was being offered, and desperately hoping for it to be true, he turned to Applejack and pointed to himself as he strained to ask, "Eat?"

"Don't wait on our account," she replied, making an encouraging motion.

That visual message was all that he needed to dig in with unrestrained gusto, his audience already forgotten. He shoved one apple-flavored treat after another into his mouth, not even noticing — in his fervor — that he was doing it with his hooves, and only paused intermittently to savor what he was eating, with his eyes closed and humming in delight.

He didn't notice how uncomfortably packed his stomach was until he swallowed the final bite, and he would have been surprised that his body could take in and compact so much food if he didn't feel so relaxed and content. All he felt like doing was hold his stomach, lean back and close his eyes. That is, until he forgot his manners and allowed an immense burp to escape, which managed to rock the area and echo in the distance, much to his embarrassment.

The crowd of ponies that he had forgotten about, who had been leaning forward with rapt attention, suddenly erupted into cheers. At first, he was dumbfounded as to why his burp had gotten such a positive reaction. Then it occurred to him that burps might be considered compliments to ponies, like it was for slurping noodles in Japan.

Applejack stepped closer and gave him a companionable slap on the shoulder. "Woo-wee! I wouldn't be surprised if your opinion was heard all the way in Canterlot."

He didn't know what she said, but everyone seemed happy so he didn't worry about it. The concern that his mind turned to was whether he could stuff himself like this again or not. If he could, he'd have to think of some way to thank Pinkie Pie.

For now, though, he just wanted to relax and allow some of the food to digest before moving again. Maybe he shouldn't have eaten quite so much...

Comments

[Squishtopher]

Did anyone ever really think about the part of the first episode where Twilight is incredibly full and bloated after eating so much food, then she gets tackled by Rainbow Dash and gets covered in a puddle of brown liquid that was not there in the previous scene, and then her belly is back to normal and she doesn't mention being stuffed anymore after that point?

Like, is that intentional fridge humor on the animator's part, or am I overthinking things?

[GlitchyFox]

11245647
thanks. I hate it

[Greenhorn]

That is, until he forgot his manners and allowed an immense burp to escape, which managed to rock the area and echo in the distance, much to his embarrassment.

Good thing neither Kuno nor Hibiki was here, otherwise he won't hear the end of it.

[Boldish42]

This is interesting, please keep it coming.

[Joe Toon]

11250438
Huh, I stand corrected. I guess it has been a while.

[Crescent Pulsar]

11250462
Absolutely.

11250469
I couldn't help making one Monty Python reference and turning the suggestive line into something innocent.