The parallel universes of Earth and Equus have met peacefully, so in a show of unity and cultural exchange, the Multiverse Expo is taking place in Canterlot City, where humans and Equestrians enjoy each other's accomplishments and company.
But in the midst of Apple Bloom's excitement over magic creatures and working with the family to sell good Apple family cooking to these fascinating visitors, she encounters a stallion who bears too much resemblance to her brother for it to be a coincidence.
So she steps forward to connect with family beyond the boundaries of her universe.
Brainstormed with and pre-read by Venerable Ro and Ninjadeadbeard, pre-read again by Casketbase77.
Will release all seven chapters, from two to three per day, preferably daily.
Now isn't that just the loveliest image?
Poor Mac's getting hit hard with the culture shock. And Apple Bloom isn't helping at all.
Well, I was going to write today but first I'm going to binge this cause I'm a sucker for heartfelt family reunions, even if that family is interdimensional.
I’ve said before that no one describes food like you do. In Langit at Lupa, food prep is Garlan’s emotional barrier against his surroundings. He works, he gets paid, he eschews socializing. He also focuses on cooking toils when he’s feeling troubled, like in the second act low point of his focal fic. His food cart is reliable. It's comfortably consistent. Plus his customers don’t prod at his character flaws the way his family does.
In this fic, Apple Bloom is if Garlan was completely inverted. She’s in no way indifferent to the setting; hundreds of words of narration is spent reveling in the Multiverse Expo. Nor is her commitment to helping run the family fruit stand a comfort; work obligation is actually the closest thing this story has to an antagonist, since it keeps Apple Bloom isolated from her friends and dimensional brother for the story’s first half, and then the sudden dearth of inventory drives tension in the story’s second half.
Apple Bloom does however parallel Garlan in one specific way: she retreats into her food prep after a discouraging social experience. For Garlan, it was friction with his relatives and wife. For Apple Bloom, it was a perceived failure to make a good impression on Big Mac. And while Garlan shakes his melancholia mostly on his own (give or take some minimal prodding from a priest) befitting Apple Bloom’s more extroverted character, she gets literally rescued by her two closest friends that drop everything and rush to find her.
Many fics that focus on one member of the CMC (or in this story the Cinema Club) tend to shoehorn in the remaining two out of some perceived obligation. Here though, Scoots and Sweetie were important tonal counterbalances. Every scene (with three deliberate exceptions) is filtered through Apple Bloom’s increasingly discouraged and neurotic POV. Her family constantly interrupts her marveling at Equestrians, her projection onto the pony version of Big Mac fuels a lot of apprehension, and the already mentioned low point causes her to completely withdraw into working the stand. In short, Apple Bloom’s heavy emotions are omnipresent and it's Scootaloo’s scrappy gumton and Sweetie Belle’s teeny bopper frivolity that add background banter to scenes that would otherwise feel smothered in introspection. There’s also unexpected payoffs to their ostensibly throwaway talents, such as Scootaloo’s skill with machines and Sweetie Belle’s knowledge of the concert schedule contributing to solving the Act Three crisis.
On a surface level, the ease with which Sweetie and Scoots respectively bond with Rarity and Rainbow Dash reinforces Apple Bloom’s shame at her own apparent failure to connect with Big Mac. They also seem to ignore her when she reaches out via the group chat, intentionally tipping the reader into feeling embittered towards the two. Once this tipping point is reached however, the POV shifts to Scootaloo noticing the message completely pivoting to selfless crisis-management mode. Only after the supply run sequence gets underway do both characters fall back into their role as bantering comic relief. Their brief sequence of dramatic relief can’t be overstated in its importance, since by the time of the jalopy’s implosion, Apple Bloom has dipped fully into depressive doldrums where her reflexively upbeat friends are needed most. Their loyalty is doubly meaningful when the narration puts special focus on the two of them abandoning their dimensional surrogate sisters to find Apple Bloom. In the context of this fic, that’s the most serious sacrifice a character can make.
It really does speak to this fic’s character writing that one of the most meaningful moments is Scootaloo racing in the opposite direction of the Rainbow Dash meet and greet. Aiding Apple Bloom is simply more important. On a cosmic scale, the stakes in this story are incredibly low. Sweetie Belle’s triumph is trying on hats with her sister’s counterpart, Apple Bloom’s despair is caused by a botched lunchroom conversation, and the all-consuming crisis of the third act is spurred by an empty fruit stand and a broken down car. Still, there’s never any doubt in the reader’s mind that these events are supremely meaningful to the characters who are present for them. It’s what allows for the ultimate release of tension to be an orchard run intercut with flashbacks to unremarkable moments in Apple Bloom’s childhood. Plotwise, the orchard run accomplishes the mundane task of restocking the family fruit cart. Characterwise however, its the culmination of cooperation that the protagonist has been aching for.
Speaking of the orchard run, its prefaced by a brief but highly deliberate POV shift. As mentioned, this story mostly sticks to Apple Bloom and her high intensity emotions. Until now, the only departures from her were the aforementioned rush of her friends to her side and a strategically placed insight into Big Macintosh’s perception of her talk with him. Both instances are uses of Dramatic Irony; with Sweetie and Scoots, we see their emotional responses and their snap decisions that Apple Bloom is too gloomy to expect out of them. For Big Macintosh, the reader sees that he’s actually intimidated by the human version of his sister, and her feels just as regretful as she does about their mutual awkwardness.
However, the third and final POV departure has a purely thematic purpose.
Cookie is mentioned a few times throughout the story, mostly as Apple Bloom’s point of reference for sorting out her feelings towards Equestrians. It’s perfectly believable that the EqG Apples would have a farm pony, and that Apple Bloom would hang onto said pony as a symbol of the bond between herself and her (real) brother. Allotting a few paragraphs to Cookie is unexpected, but her point of view enriches the story in two ways. First, it reinforces the bridge between species that is this fic’s focal point. Cookie is not sapient in the Equestrian sense, but her simple thoughts and feelings of companionship are universal. Second, due to Cookie’s aforementioned simple-mindedness, her opinions and perceptions can be considered more pure and unfiltered than Apple Bloom’s neurotic overthinking. Cookie considers Apple Bloom a “sweetheart” and is amazed at the arrival of Big Macintosh, so much that her only point of comparison is an equally fantastical encounter she had with Sunset Shimmer.
Through Cookie’s eyes we see the two leads - Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh- as they are. Not as they see each other, or see themselves, or believe the other sees. Cookie’s POV is a quick assurance that the bond has indeed formed. And immediately after this assurance, the harvest run proves it.
There’s not much to say regarding the story’s denouement at the return trip to the Expo. There is no high melodrama, no arcane artifact that needed retrieved or magical villain that had to be vanquished. The world would have kept turning whether or not the supply run was successful or whether Apple Bloom and Big Mac sufficiently bonded. But the run was successful and the dimensional siblings did bond. 11,000 words was a long time to maintain stakes through emotion alone, but finally everything is resolved with the promise of future meetings between the Apple Families.
Overall, this fic is a fully torqued showcase of EqG Apple Bloom’s emotional range as a character. We’re treated to aspiration, frustration, resignation, and sudden triumph. The Expo itself is a simple backdrop supercharged by the investment of not just Apple Bloom, but every other named character wanting the most out of their shared day. The reader is left feeling tired in the most wholesome way, and it's a shining showcase of how to make strong interplay between the Equestria Girls universe and the main one.
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I chunk of the way through and so far I'm really enjoying this.
If I were a pony, I'd enjoy the petting.
I've never seen a FiM/EqG story take this particular route. Interesting. I think you limited yourself a little by focusing solely on the Apples/Crusaders, but as it is, this ain't a bad story.