Theorizing that one could travel to parallel tooniverses where one's own species was sapient, Dr. Horace Horsecollar stepped into the Quantum Schlep accelerator...and vanished.
He woke to find himself trapped in one cartoon realm after another, facing equine mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change the overall cosmos for the better. His only guide on this journey is Mickey, an observer from his own tooniverse, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Horace can see and hear.
And so Dr. Horsecollar finds himself schleping from life to life, striving to put right what could go wrong, and hoping each time that his next schlep will be the schlep home.
This one isn't, though. This one has him schlepping into Big Mac's body just before "Applebuck Season."
And while this is definitely an entry in Estee's "Who Crossed Over My Little Pony?" contest in which it gained an Honorable Mention, it also might have something to do with this little TV series from the early 1990s called Quantum Leap...
What's schlepping?
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Schlep:
To proceed or move especially slowly, tediously, awkwardly, or carelessly. Sometimes spelled "shlep," too, but I always like using "sch" in any word where it's an option.
Mike
R.I.P. Dean Stockwell.
Horace never made it home.
11195669 Weeeelllll, he never went home. He decided to keep leaping to fight against the Devil, because suddenly God and Satan were a thing in the series about sci-fi time travel... writing decisions for series sometimes get... drunk.
Wracked my brain before giving up and google-ing. Its been...decades since I read Animal Farm. Poor Horace. Hope he can make something better out of that
Hilarious! This story made me laugh out loud. Somehow, Mickey as Al is perfect.
Howdy, hi!
This was an amazing read. Way more emotionally potent than I was expecting. I would 100% read this Horace's adventures, he's a super enjoyable character to read. I love how you interweaved stuff together to canon. Ugh, this was so good.
Thanks for the read~!
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Thanks, folks!
According to Horace Horsecollar's Wikipedia page, his chance at cartoon stardom eluded him yet again in the early 1990s when The Disney Afternoon was still a thing and a show about him called Maximum Horsepower didn't get past the pitching stage.
It would've essentially been Horace as the star of Galaxy Quest five years before that movie came out: Horace, tired of being second banana to Mickey, is on his way to demand bigger parts from Walt Disney himself when he's kidnapped by aliens to help them fend off their interstellar enemies since they think he's an actual hero rather than an actor.
Ah, what might have been...
Mike
I’ve always had a headcanon that Big Mac had a scholarship lined up for an agricultural college (Northern Agricultural University, or “Old Nag”), and had taken a semester and a half when his parents were killed, so he came back to the farm. In my headcanons that explains his “fancy mathematics”, and in your story it could explain why Horace’s math came back whilst in this body.
Brilliant blend of Bakula and Bdisney. No shame in having to craft a personality for Horace; given his minimal utilization in his own era, one could call him the original background pony. No wonder he ended up helping Applejack.
Brilliant use of patchwork memory and the known nature of the episode to craft a tense emotional arc. Especially the tragedy of losing it all just in time to land in the realm of Orwell. Thank you for a great "behind the scenes" approach. Best of luck in the judging.
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My brother lived in New York city for awhile. According to him, "schlep" is Jewish slang that made it into common usage. (In NY. Don't hear it much even in the rest of the USA.)
Ah, Quantum Leap. I remember watching it. Plus old nostalgic MLP eps... me like. Brilliantly combined.
11195965 He must convince the animals to fight against a far more terrifying evil than corporations: FURRIES!!
An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!
OMG, I haven't thought about him in years! Years ago, I mentioned him in a conversation about cartoons. The reply was "who?"
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Alas:
Poor Horace...
Mike
Quantum Leap!!!!!!!! I love this story, mostly because it's "complete." It's a clever take on one of the best shows of the 90s. Too bad nobody seems to give a huck about the series' modern reboot.