Not so Magical Mystery Cure
Not so Magical Mystery Cure
It took Rarity a few tries in order to get the stiff doorknocker at the door of the boutique to even work. As she knocked, she heard an odd chunking sound and a cry of “dag nabbit”. She swore she could smell the scent of burnt rubber coming from the inside. An orange mare, blonde hair tied in a simple bun and wearing nothing other than a hat slightly fringed by burn marks at the front, greeted her at the door.
“Thanks again for agreeing to modelin' up my dresses, Miss Rarity. Honestly I was worried that nopony would come.”
“Oh, don't say that! Fashion has always been quite the hobby of mine, you know. I'm just delighted that I can finally get involved in modeling for—what was your name again, dear?--ah, yes: the Applejack Boutique!”
“I usually jus' call it my shop for dresses and such, but call it what you like. But enough chit chatter, come in already!”
Rarity eyed the boutique inside and looked up at her horn anxiously. “Yes...about that. I was actually coming in to reschedule...I should probably stay outside for a while.”
“Nonsense! What kinda welcome would that be, leavin' you out like that in the rain!”
“No, it's just—this pesky rain cloud has been following me ever since I woke up this morning. It's so bad tempered, I wouldn't be surprised if it were another one of those acidic rain clouds from the Everfree Forest. I certainly wouldn't want to risk damaging that floor, it looks like it's marble--”
“Rain won't do the stone any harm, I reckon. C'mon in!”
Rarity gave the mare a dubious look before stepping inside. The acid cloud followed her inside and immediately started whizzing about the shop before getting caught on the chandelier and disappearing in a stinky cloud of smoke. Rarity coughed. “At least that's taken care of...may I possibly have a towel to dry myself off?”
“Sure! I use the worst dresses as towels n' dishrags all the time.” Applejeck gestured vaguely behind her.
Rarity looked to where the mare was pointing. There were probably about thirty dresses, some slumped over mare-a-quins, others packed in on hangers, a few dresses on the floor next to some broken hangers, a few pieces of fabric that were presented as if they were dresses but barely looked wearable (at least not for a pony). These dresses...did not look like the ones she'd read about in the Manehatten Tribune. Then again, maybe the color and fabric choice was...different...here, to reflect the more agricultural culture of Ponyville. Maybe the dresses looked like they were stitched by a two year old as a design choice to reflect the virtue of function over style. This...Applejack had her cutie mark in fashion, after all. Her fashion genius was probably just too nuanced for her to understand...
...because everything in this room, with the possible exception of a purple shimmering roll of fabric that looked unused and the few remaining bare mare-a-quins in the corner, looked absolutely and terrifyingly awful to her eyes. Which dresses were supposed to be the bad ones? They all looked like they were made by a blind infant with one hoof severed off and the other tied to its tail. Rarity had read about how fashion was the art of bringing figure, style, and color together—but these dresses seemed to have none of these. She felt like gouging her eyes out with a spoon as she laid eyes on a lime green dress with orange highlights and white zig zag stripes, paired with a straw hat and a necklace that seemed to be made out of...dirt-caked weeds. So much so that she figured the ensemble would count as one of the “worst” dresses. Rarity headed over to the dress and was about to dry her hair before Applejack raced over and shoved the mare-a-quin away from her, causing it to fall and break, crushing the straw hat and causing a few stitches on the dress itself to pop open.
“What do you think you're doin'? That was one of the dresses you were gonna be modelin' today!” Applejack tossed a white, shapeless piece of cloth with flecks of brown that might have possibly been trying to emulate a wedding dress. “Here, use this. I gotta...git these knots retied, and quick.”
Rarity...was speechless. “Oh...I'm so sorry for ruining...your ensemble! Can I...help you, perhaps?”
Help her get a new pair of eyes and a new sense of fashion, maybe. Rarity half wanted to walk out while her eyes hadn't been completely scorched, but a part of her felt strangely drawn to the mare and her boutique. She certainly had no interest in spending the rest of the day trying to get the rest of the acid rain clouds under control and was interested in watching a real fashonista at work...although hearing yet another sewing machine go “clunk” and watching the fabric of what was the dress fold over on itself, Rarity was beginning to doubt the orange mare's title.
“Can I...”
“Help? I could actually use some help...I gotta go buy a new sewing machine, I reckon. Could you try to get the dress unstuck outa the old sewing machine, maybe? I bet if I could get half price back for the thing, if it's in good enough condition.”
Rarity nodded. “Certainly.”
“Great! Sorry about this whole mess, sugarcube...you sign up for modeling and end up doin' repair work. It's all part of the life of a...fashion pony I s'pose. I promise I'll try to get us to the modelin' part of this whole deal real soon.”
Applejack left, mouth full of a tiny sack of bits, leaving Rarity alone in the shop. Rarity first tried pulling the dress out of the machine with her teeth, like she'd seen Applejack do it, but quickly realized that using her magic she could control the cloth with much more precision and dexterity. Now that she thought about it, it was awfully odd that Applejack was an earth pony when Rarity had only ever heard of unicorn fashion designers before. Rarity delicately pulled the remains of the what Applejack very liberally referred to as a dress out of the sewing machine...but it was too late. The dress was in tatters, and the bits that were connected at all were often bits from completely different areas of the dress. The white zigzag outline was now more like a chaotic series of wavy bands that ran throughout the dress, stopping and continuing somewhere else as they pleased.
It simply would not do. Seeing the roll of unused beautiful purple shimmering fabric in the corner was simply to much for her. Rarity cleared the work table of everything except scissors and basic dress cut-out plans before bringing the roll of fabric over the table and beginning to work. The sewing machine, as it turned out, was not broken—the nozzle was for some peculiar reason screwed on incorrectly. Rarity was certainly no mechanic, but after a little tinkering she managed get it to work correctly. She had always been artistic in school and so cutting out and stitching together the different pieces of fabric proved to be no difficulty to her. A few times she would accidentally mix up two pieces and would have to make spares, and once she even took an ugly bit of green cloth off the floor instead of its purple counterpart and had, being so “in the zone”, not even noticed she had mixed the pieces of fabric up until she had already half sewed it into the dress.
In fact Rarity was so “in the zone” that once she had finished her masterpiece, hovering it triumphantly in the air, Applejack was standing in front of her, gaping. Panic immediately crashed down over Rarity. What...what had she done?
“Ah—oh my stars...”
“I—oh, goodness me, what was I thinking—the dress was simply not to be saved, Applejack, so I used some of this beautiful fabric to pull a little something together—I am so terribly sorry if you were saving it for something, I just thought--”
Applejack looked at her strangely, then laughed shortly, eyes resting on Rarity's...backside? “Oh...I'm not talkin' 'bout the dress, sugarcube. I'm talkin' 'bout—uh, your--”
Rarity turned her head, wondering what in Equestria Applejack was talking about--
Rarity gasped. “My curie mark! It's--”
“Exactly like mine,” Applejack said, moving right next to Rarity. “What in tarnation?”
But Rarity, eyes gone completely white, had already collapsed to the floor.
–
Spike knocked on Twilight's door. “Hey Twilight? Rarity's Element isn't red anymore...it flickered all weird for a second, and then went back to its normal color on its own.” No response, just the sound of faint sobbing.
“Uh, Twi?”
“You OK in there?”
–
Rarity woke up in her boutique, eyes dizzy. “Applejack? I...had some sort of strange dream.” she opened her eyes all the way: saw Applejack right in front of her, with her cutie mark, saw the brown-green dresses behind her. “Or...maybe I'm still having it.”
“Rarity! Are you alright? You...jus' kinda...passed out.”
“Yes, I'm fine now,” Rarity said idly, while trying to gather her thoughts. This finally explained everything. Why she had always hated clouds, why she was the only weather pony who couldn't fly, why she had had few memories of her past, all of them bleary, why she couldn't remember her own cutie mark story...it hadn't been her life! These new memories informed her that the weather pony in Ponyville was supposed to be a pegasus called Rainbow Dash...who Rarity strangely felt a close bond with, from these new memories. In fact, as she remembered more and more...Applejack? Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie? Twilight? So she wasn't the only one with a mixed up destiny—the same problem was happening with her friends, too!
“That's a nice...dress you made there, by the way,” Applejack said cautiously, gesturing to the purple dress Rarity had just made which was lying in a heap on the floor. Rarity glanced at it. In comparison to dresses she had made in the past (her new past, not her old past), it was quite plain and lacked a specific glamour that only gemstones could provide.
But it was nicer than every other dress in Applejack's “dress store” by far, so Rarity let the compliment slide.
“I...should probably go. In fact, we should probably go together.”
“Go? Go where? We haven't even gotten to the modellin' part yet!”
“Go find Rainbow Dash, of course. We simply must get rid of this dreadful weather!”
--
It wasn't that she didn't like talking to new ponies.
It was that she hated it.
Fluttershy knew that it was her job—throwing parties, talking and laughing with other ponies, making them smile. Which, using space and food generously provided by the Cakes', she had done, ever since her cutie mark had appeared.
That still didn't mean she liked it, though.
Today the Cakes' wanted to make apple cake, a flavor they hadn't tried out for a while. Mrs. Cake was dreadfully busy with the twins and Mr. Cake was out on catering business in Manehattan. Which meant that Fluttershy was to go pick up a bushel of apples from Sweet Apple Acres.
She'd been there before, but that was back in Winter Wrap Up when she was helping to plant seeds near the orchards. Back then, all she needed to to was put on her vest and follow orders and try not to make eye contact with anypony. But this time things were different. She had to go to the barn, and find a certain pony named Pinkie Pie who was in charge of the place, then ask to buy a bushel, then buy a bushel. Which was a lot.
Fluttershy soon arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, trotted nervously over to the teetering barn and softly tapped on the barn door. “Um, hello?”
No reply.
“Um, excuse me? Is anypony there?”
No reply.
Suddenly, Fluttershy heard a creaking sound coming from above the door. There was a loud metallic snap and Fluttershy flew out of the way just in time to avoid a broken water pipe crashing down next to her.
“Shoot!” somepony yelled loudly behind her. Fluttershy turned around at once and tried her best not to run away on the spot. “Stupid pipe!”
“Oh—I—I'm so sorry,” Fluttershy said quietly. “I—um—can give you the bits to fix it, if you like.”
“No, it's not your fault,” the pink pony called, trotting over to Fluttershy. “It breaks all the time. Stupid farm is so old—pretty much everything is falling apart. It drives me crazy!” she climbed up on top of the barn door and after a little while managed to shove the pipe back into its proper place. “There—that should last for a little while. Now—who are you and what do you want?” Pinkie Pie asked boredly.
The unpleasant manner in which the pony asked the question made Fluttershy feel even more uncomfortable. “Oh—I—nothing, really, just—if that's all right with you of course—if I could buy—just a few—apples, please?”
Pinkie Pie seemed to relax at the thought of finally having a paying customer. “You want to buy apples? For what?”
“The Cakes want to make apple cake.”
“How many apples do you want?”
“Um—a bushel, I guess.”
Pinkie Pie went into the barn and after a little while came back dragging a large basket of apples by her mouth with scrambling hooves. “There you go...that'll be ten bits.”
Fluttershy gave her the money and, very slowly, dragged the enormous weight behind her. After about five minutes she had progressed about a yard. Dragging the apples was hard work...she stopped to take a few breaths.
Pinkie Pie walked up to her. “I'd lend you a cart, but it broke last week. If you want, I can help you carry those apples to—where do you want to go again?”
“Sugarcube corner,” Fluttershy said.
Pinkie shrugged. “Never heard of it. But really, it'd be no problem for me to help. Better than bucking more apples,” she groaned, gesturing to the apple orchard behind her.
“That'd be lovely,” Fluttershy said, grinning slightly. “Thank you so much!”
Together, the two mares were able to lift the basket completely off the ground and carry it around instead of pushing. This was much faster and they reached Sugarcube corner long before noon.
“What are you doing for the rest of the day, Shutterfly?” Pinkie Pie asked once the two mares dropped the bushel of apples off back in the kitchens.
“Oh—I—um--” This was the fifth time Pinkie got her name wrong, but Fluttershy was far to timid to correct Pinkie Pie. “I'm—hosting a birthday party. For Featherweight, here at Sugarcube corner. It starts in an hour.”
Pinkie Pie looked around dubiously. “I've never been to a birthday party before, but this doesn't really look too..festive.”
Fluttershy blushed. “I still have to put up decorations.”
“In just one hour?” Pinkie Pie looked around. “You definitely have a lot to do. Do you need any help?”
“Well—I would appreciate the help, but you've helped me so much already. I wouldn't want to bore you anymore with my chores.”
Pinkie Pie laughed bitterly. “Bore YOU? I just want a good excuse not to do any more applebucking for a while. If anything, you're helping me. And besides--I don't want to have to walk in the rain.”
Both ponies jumped as thunder suddenly clapped and rain started pouring down.
How Pinkie Pie seemed to know that it was going to rain before it even started to, Fluttershy didn't even want to know. All she was worried about right now was getting to work. Who knows—with another pony to help, maybe her parties would turn out fun for once! She didn't want to repeat the incident with Diamond Tiara's birthday party, after all.
For a pony who had never been to a party before, Pinkie Pie had good taste. Fluttershy occasionally paused to watch the pink mare artfully hanging streamers, without even paying attention to color combinations or balance, hanging balloons everywhere in sight, stacking muffins in a tall, wobbly pyramid that seemed to stay upright anyway. In fact, despite the fact that they had so little time, by the time the party was completely set up and the guests were to come in in any moment, Fluttershy was certain that this party was one of the best, if not the best, decorated parties she had thrown. And it was just a small birthday party!
“Thank you so much for the help, Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy said, turning to her. But Pinkie was nowhere to be seen—which was strange, since she was just standing next to Fluttershy seconds ago. Fluttershy just shrugged this off as the “typical” Pinkie Pie she had gotten marginally more comfortable with in the last past hour.
“Don't mention it, Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie yelled from—upstairs? Moments later Pinkie Pie emerged from the attic, carrying a dusty record player on her back and a few records in her mouth.
Fluttershy looked at her as if she had grown a second head.
“What? A party's gotta have music, right?”
Of course. Music. So that was why everypony always looked so uncomfortable and out of place at her parties...ponies were probably expecting music, to dance to, to listen to, or just to make the atmosphere more relaxed...
Pinkie Pie blew most of the dust off of the player and slid a record under the needle. The music started playing, and—like magic—the party guests started coming in. The scene unfolded much more naturally than Fluttershy was used to. Usually she would try to liven the mood up by doing something silly (which usually didn't work, but it seemed like the only thing she could do), but here ponies were having a reasonably good time without her. Some ponies were eating cookies and drinking punch, others were dancing to the music, others were just standing around and talking.
“Who's birthday party is this?” Pinkie Pie asked Fluttershy from behind her, causing her to gasp shortly.
“Oh, Pinkie Pie—you startled me!” Fluttershy said, slightly breathlessly. “Featherweight. He's the one with the camera over there by the cake.”
“But he looks miserable!”
“Well, he's smiling and talking to ponies. He looks happy to me—but, I mean, if you think that he's not happy, that's fine with me too,” Fluttershy said quickly.
“Yeah, he looks happy, but he shouldn't JUST be happy—it's his BIRTHDAY after all,” Pinkie said, and before Fluttershy could say anything else (not that she would have wanted to—she didn't like arguing with other ponies), Pinkie Pie had left her.
In one swift motion Pinkie Pie exchanged the record for a much livelier, louder track, then skidded over to Featherweight. She jumped up and shouted: “HAAAAAAAAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY FEATHERWEIGHT!!!! IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, SO LET'S CELEBRATE!!!!!”
A few ponies looked at Pinkie Pie strangely, considering she wasn't invited to the party—let alone not a common sight in Ponyville—but the music was blaring loudly (Fluttershy covered her ears) and ponies were starting to dance and stomp their hooves loudly (Fluttershy crouched behind a table awkwardly) and laugh and dance and sing and eat and smile...
...and Pinkie Pie seemed to be having the most fun of all, dancing with everypony, wearing silly hats made out of balloons and stuffing herself with birthday cake. Fluttershy looked around and could not see one pony in the room that wasn't grinning widely.
But suddenly, in the middle of a complicated dance move involving balancing on a single back hoof and twirling about, Pinkie froze. Her eyes went an odd white color and she collapsed to the ground. As if scripted, the song faded out in a crackly mess and the atmosphere in the room changed at one from festive and carefree to confused and worried.
“Uh...what happened?”
“Is she OK?”
“Anypony here a doctor?”
“Give her room to breathe, maybe she'll be OK...”
At that moment, Fluttershy looked into Pinkie's eyes and she swore she could see colors swirling in them. Pinkie Pie closed her eyes and layed her head on the ground, only to spring up moments later, hair poofed up, rush over to the music player, kick a new record into place, rush back to the center of attention, grab Featherweight by the forehooves and launch him into the air with a burst of confetti--
“COME ON, PONIES! I WANNA SEE YOU...SMILE!!!!”
“PINKIE!!!!” everypony choroused back as Pinkie Pie caught Featherweight and put him back down on the ground.
And so began the laughing, chatting, eating, singing, and dancing once again. And it was only after three full hours that everypony (as well as the supply of cake and cookies) was completely exhausted and the party began to wrap up.
Needless to say, it was probably the best party thrown in Ponyville to date. And definitely the best party Fluttershy had seen in...well...ever.
Pinkie Pie, of course, was there to see the very last guest out the door. Whcih was then shut, leaving the two mares alone in the at last quiet room. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief until her eyes settled on Pinkie Pie's flank.
Her cutie mark.
–-
The acid rain chewed lightly at her skin; lightning and thunder only made the horrid weather worse. If Rainbow Dash weren't such an athletic outdoorsy pony, Rarity would have given up searching for her friend outside long ago.
She had asked countless ponies about Rainbow Dash—if they'd seen her before, knew who she was, and—especially—where she lived. It seemed like “old” Rainbow Dash didn't have many (if any) friends or at least didn't talk with many ponies in Ponyville. Starting to lose hope, Rarity began to wonder if Rainbow Dash perhaps didn't live in Ponyville at all—maybe she lived in Cloudsdale, Fillydelphia or Manehattan—or even in some distant land like the Griffon Kingdoms or Saddle Arabia? With Rainbow Dash, anything was possible. After all, Applejack had had a cutie mark for dressmaking.
Speaking of Applejack, the mare was not exactly giving Rarity an easy time for dragging her out all around Ponyville, searching for a pony she'd never heard of. This old Applejack was uncannily similar to the new Applejack in mannerisms Rarity wouldn't have expected that this different universe would have preserved—not just accent, but also little things like the general way of carrying herself and her obsession with her silly farm hat. However she seemed to lack the traits that Applejack, as the bearer of the Element of Honesty, so well embodied. She wasn't outright lying like back when Discord had gotten to her, but she wasn't quite as direct and quite as reasonable. This Applejack didn't possess any of the maturity and wisdom the normal Applejack had.
But the most starling thing was probably that when Rarity had tried to ask Applejack about her family, that the mare had simply pulled her had down in front of her eyes and said: “I don't wanna talk about it right now,” which, for the real Applejack would have meant come back in an hour or when she's not so busy and try again. For this beating-around-the-bush Applejack, it probably meant she was hiding a secret.
To be honest, Rarity didn't even want to know about this odd Applejack that had her cutie mark. As long as she could get her friend—her real friend—back, that was all that mattered.
Rarity had considered to go to Twilight. After all, She bore Rainbow Dash's cutie mark and Applejack bore her cutie mark...which was an odd coincidence, unless the cutie mark was restricted to the Elements of Harmony. Come to think of it...Rarity had seen and spoken with a lot of ponies in Ponyville so far, and as far as she remembered, nopony else had their cutie mark switched for somepony else's. Twilight might have an idea on how to fix this whole mess...or, her cutie mark might be messed up too. In that case, she probably would not be a bookish library mare and thus be no help whatsoever. But Rarity earned her own cutie mark back with relative ease, after all. She supposed that if the cutie marks of all of her friends were really switched, all they would have to do would be rediscover their talents by using them.
Deep in her thoughts, Rarity didn't even notice that for one, ponies were running and screaming, running into houses, slamming, locking, and bolting doors; and two, a certain familiar zebra was calmly trotting down the main street of Ponyville with a look of melancholy on her face. In fact, Rarity did not notice Zecora until she bumped right into her.
“Oh—dear me, sir, I am sorry—I mean, madam—I mean—Zecora?”
Why hadn't she thought of it before? Zecora knew about all sorts of strange magical phenomena. She would probably be able to help her and...Applejack, who was suddenly no longer by her side. Rarity glanced behind herself quickly to see the orange mare dashing off to some alleyway, presumably to hide from Zecora. Rarity sighed—she'd forgotten that they'd been like that once.
“It is quite the pleasant sight to see, that you have not forgotten me,” greeted Zecora.
“Forgotten me? But that means— do you know? About this mysterious cutie mark switch up, that is.” As Rarity spoke, a gust of wind from who-knows-where blew a mass of clouds over to the open are where she and Zecora were standing. The two rushed for cover under an abandoned market stall to avoid becoming completely drenched.
“It appears to me quite stark, that something is wrong with your cutie marks,” Zecora said. “Compared to this, the Cutie Pox are measly. A cure for this will not be easy.”
“Do you have any idea for a cure? Things quite the mess for sure,” Rarity said, gesturing to the weather above.
“My potions and powers will not be enough...but the friendships you have formed might have the right stuff,” said Zecora. “I heard you were searching for your friend Rainbow Dash...this morning I went by her cottage and got this large gash.” Zecora rolled up a woolen sleeve to reveal a long thin fresh wound. “I was lucky that I just quickly passed by there. Had I gone closer, I'd have been food for a bear.”
Rarity shuddered. “Rainbow Dash's cottage? Out of control animals? It sounds like she's trying to do Fluttershy's job!” A bolt of lightning struck a building nearby, startling both of them. “Thank you for your help, Zecora! Applejack and I will head over to Fluttershy's right away.”
“It is no problem for me, I just want to help you, you see.” Zecora waved as Rarity dashed over to Applejack, who was still shivering in the alley.
“Is—she gone yet? The evil zebra witch?”
Rarity rolled her eyes. It clearly would be a waste of time to try to convince this alternate Applejack of Zecora's goodness. “Yes, she's gone,” she said shortly. “But I know where Rainbow Dash is! Come with me!”
Applejack sighed. “Why am I followin' you around again?”
“To get rid of this horrid weather.”
Applejack groaned. “Let's just get this over with.”
Now that Rarity knew where Rainbow Dash was, it was quite easy to track her down. It didn't take long to get to Fluttershy's (or now, Rainbow Dash's) cottage. Over the sound of the pouring rain, Rarity could hear shrill calls of birds, the sound of a lamp breaking and growls of a bear. She even heard a shrill meow which sounded awfully like Opal—a very hungry Opal.
What surprised her even more was the sound of a familiar voice from behind her that was getting closer and closer. Rarity turned around and her suspicions were confirmed: “Pinkie Pie!”
Pinkie Pie, with a Fluttershy that seemed more timid than usual in tow, ran up to Rarity and tackled her to the ground. “Oh Rarity! I'm so so so so so glad that you're normal too!”
If the rain weren't so loud, everypony would have heard Fluttershy murmur: “That pony is anything but normal.”
Rarity glanced at Pinkie's and Fluttershy's flanks. Pinkie's cutie mark was back to normal, but Fluttershy had Pinkie Pie's cutie mark. So that meant Applejack had her mark, and she had had Rainbow Dash's mark. “Was your cutie mark also mixed up?” she asked Pinkie.
Pinkie nodded vigorously. “I had Applejack's cute mark, which was pretty silly since I don't know anything about applebucking! And then we threw a party! And I got my cutie mark back! And it was a lot of fun!”
So Pinkie Pie had Applejack's cutie mark. This was really starting to look like some sort of spell that only mixed up the cutie marks of her friends. She shook her mane rapidly, which was starting to lose its shape and was so full of water that it dripped a constant stream of water droplets. “Maybe we can go inside...Rainbow Dash is in there, you know.”
Pinkie Pie giggled. “Rainbow Dash taking care of animals...that sounds pretty silly. I guess she really does need Fluttershy's help!” she started to sing as she walked up ahead to the cottage door: “A true, true, friend...”
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck Pinkie. Thunder boomed as a raincloud directly above Pinkie Pie started hailing on her.
“Ow, ow ow! OWWWIE! OK, I get it, no song!” Pinkie Pie cried, ducking for cover under the awning of the cottage front door.
The others, and finally, Fluttershy, followed soon after. Together, Pinkie Pie and Rarity knocked on the large wooden door. When there was no answer, Rarity cautiously creaked it open.
Inside, it was—if even possible—more chaotic than out. Animals were running all about the floor, the reptiles all over the walls. Every bird cage was empty and every perch unused, all the birds were flying around crazily. Rarity's eyes locked on an Opal that was even more hostile than usual. The cat quickly turned away and shredded some of Fluttershy's—or Rainbow Dash's--curtains, to Rarity's horror—she had trained Opal better than that!
Rainbow Dash was tied up inside a cauldron that was dangerously close to the fireplace. Woodland creatures were dancing around her like savages with forks and knives in their hand, their incessant squealing chatter sounded like that of bloodlust.
The animals immediately started pummeling Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, who of course started fighting back for their lives. Rarity couldn't believe she was fighting against squirrels and mice...and strangely, losing. “BACK, YOU VILE VERMIN!!!” She screeched. “FLUTTERSHY!! HELP!!” She could hear various pleads of help from Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash as well.
Rarity wasn't sure how Fluttershy did it. But one moment, she was being pummeled to the ground by rabbits, mice and the like, and the next moment they all turned their attention to Fluttershy who was passing out snacks. And within minutes, the whole place was calm and peaceful once again.
Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack turned to Fluttershy.
“I...feel strange,” she said suddenly. “Like this is what I'm meant to do, like this is who I am...my...DESTINY!” She hovered in the air for a few moments, covered in a light pink aura, before falling to the ground softly.
Pinkie Pie tackled her in a hug. “Look, Fluttershy! Your cutie mark's back to normal!”
“I remember,” Fluttershy stuttered softly, words slightly muffled by the strength of Pinkie's hug. “About my past, about my real cutie mark...and about all of you. Oh, Celestia! How could I have forgotten you, my friends! And my animal friends! They would have starved to death without me! I...I'm so sorry.”
Once Pinkie Pie let go of Fluttershy, Rarity hugged her shortly. “It wasn't just you, Fluttershy. Something's wrong with all of our cutie marks. Pinkie Pie and I had different cutie marks before we reearned our old ones, just like you. But--”
Struggling noises could be heard from the back of the room. Rainbow Dash was still tied up tight in a cauldron with her mouth bound shut, Applejack was trying in vain to undo the many layers of knots.
“Sorry, sugarcube,” Applejack apologized between short breaths. “I'm not much of the strong, athletic type.”
“Me—neither,” grunted Rainbow Dash.
Rarity giggled as she saw Fluttershy look at the two mares as if they had each turned into a cat. “These aren't the real Rainbow Dash and Applejack,” she reminded her as she used her telekinesis to untangle the ropes. “There you go, Rainbow Dash.”
Once Rainbow Dash was untangled, she trotted up to Rarity. “Who are you and why do you know my name?” she asked cautiously.
Having had experience with Applejack, Rarity was only slightly unsettled at having one of her best friends not know of her and their friendship. She had found Rainbow Dash, after all—that meant Rainbow could earn her real cutie mark and Ponyville would finally be rid of the horrible weather. Which they could do on the way to Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack could finally earn her cutie mark back...
“Never mind that now!” she told a at this point slightly confused Rainbow Dash, “We need to go to Sweet Apple Acres!”
–
The group headed outside, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie the most enthusiastic, Applejack and Rainbow Dash following behind skeptically. The creek outside of the cottage rushed furiously as it struggled to keep up with the constant downpour. Fluttershy lead a few wet animals back into her cottage, whilst the others stood about, Pinkie was questioning Applejack incessantly about her work as a dressmaker, probably because she found it amusing. Rarity decided to use this opportunity to make progress with Rainbow Dash.
“Ugh, this weather is absolutely horrid!” she remarked. “Somepony really ought to clear the clouds away. It's rained more than enough for the week, after all.”
Rainbow Dash squinted at her for a moment. “Wait a second, now I know where I know you! You're Rarity! The Ponyville weather pony! You know, I've got a question for you—is it really true that you're named Rarity since, y'know, with you in charge of the weather, good weather is so—rare? Get it?” she collapsed into giggles as Rarity looked at her crossly. She felt a strange surge of embarrassment even though the old Rarity wasn't even her.
Rarity was quite thankful for her good acting skills. “Whatever are you talking about? I'm not a weather pony, I'm a dress maker. Look at my cutie mark!” She bit back an insult. To get her plan to work, she would need to be on at least friendly terms with this Rainbow Dash.
“Oh.”
Oh? Just Oh? No sorry, or pardon, or my bad? This Rainbow Dash was more obnoxious than Applejack.
“I suppose you don't know how to get rid of these clouds?” Rarity asked, trying to look forlorn as she gazed up at the clouds.
“Me? No way. I'm not a weather pony. Can't fly too high, either. Sorry,” Rainbow Dash said quickly.
“Could you at least try on a few clouds in the area?” Rarity asked. She figured that once Dash got going, it would be like with her and dressmaking, where everything would start to come back. “There's a low-flying one right by Pinkie Pie.”
“Who's Pinkie Pie?”
“The pink one.”
“Oh, right.” Rarity watched as Rainbow Dash trotted over to the cloud, then slowly started to ascend to its height., Despite her relatively slow flying speed, she reached the cloud fairly quickly, the cloud being no higher than a mid-sized tree. Rainbow Dash gingerly kicked the cloud, which instantly vanished.
“Try another one!” Rarity called.
Rainbow did so, and each time, she seemed to get faster and more comfortable with her wings. Before long, her rainbow tail streak was back and sunlight—oh, the glorius sunlight—was at last able to peak through the clouds and shine in all directions.
Rainbow Dash zipped over to Rarity and descended to a height just above ground level, her wings beating automatically like a pumping heart. Rarity watched as a red aura enveloped her friend, and just as it had been with Fluttershy, Rainbow's eyes turned white and glassy. The butterfly cutie mark vanished and was replaced by the familiar cloud and rainbow bolt.
“Now that's more like it!” Rainbow cheered, as Pinkie and Applejack headed over to the two mares slowly.
“Way to go, Dashie!” Pinkie cheered, giving Dash a quick hug. “Do we want to head over to Sweet Apple Acres now or should I continue distracting Applejack for you, Rarity?”
Rarity looked at Pinkie confusedly. “What do you mean, distracting?”
“I figured it would be easier for you to turn Rainbow Dash one on one, and I was right,” Pinkie said with a giggle.
Rarity smiled. Pinkie was certainly not one to be underestimated.
–
“Hey Twi? I just went back and checked the Elements again...Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's Elements are all back to normal too. And that weird weather stopped, too. I think the spell might just wear off on its own.”
The sobbing, though slightly died down, persisted.
Spike groaned. “Mares.”
--
Applejack had definitely lived through some weird days, though today was certainly the weirdest.
First of all, she had managed to have a model stay in her dress shop for more than thirty seconds without running out of the door, screaming, covering her eyes, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Strange ponies were dragging her all around town, talking to her like old friends, calling her Applejack as if they'd been calling her that for ages. And they went through cutie marks like she went through sewing machines.
They passed through town again, and as Applejack saw her shop she figured she'd better get back to work. But no, all of the ponies insisted she come with them to some place called Sweet Apple Acres. Except the yellow one, who just asked politely.
Once they got there, she could see why she'd never heard of the place to before. Sweet Apple Acres was an absolute dump. The trees were bare, even though it was apple season, and almost all of the equipment looked broken or severely damaged. The place looked like it yielded about ten apples a year, even though the orchard was massive. The trees looked shriveled, they were probably in extreme need of water. The plouw was dull and hooked up backwards, and as she turned towards the barn, a leaky water pipe fell to the ground.
She turned back around to see the four ponies looking at her expectantly.
“What do y'all expect me to do? Fix the place?” Applejack laughed shortly until she realized that they were serious. “Wait. Y'all can't be serious...is this real, or y'all just messin' with me?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I mean, we're being serious,” Pinkie said solemnly.
“But—I haven't got the slightest idea how to fix up a farm! And besides, why do y'all want me to do this anyway? Can't y'all call in somepony else?”
The yellow one stepped forward, which surprised Applejack—she had seemed so shy. “But we need your help, Applejack. It's really really important that you—I mean, that this farm gets fixed up. And you are just the pony to help out....if that's OK with you of course.”
“Of course she's OK with it!” Pinkie said. “Applejack is going to fix up this farm! With our help of course. Lead the way, Applejack!”
“Alright, I guess I'll help,” Applejack. “Uh...lemme see, one pony's gonna have to fix that water pipe--”
“NOT ME!!!!” Pinkie screamed shrilly. The others covered their ringing ears. “I mean, not me,” Pinkie said in a more normal volume. “Sorry about that. That water pipe and I have certain...issues.”
“Then you can help water the trees, and you there can do the pipe,” Applejack continued, “And I guess I'll start with the plow, but then we can take turns once we get tired, and--”
–
After about an hour and a half, everypony congregated back at the barn, exhausted from all of their hard work. Despite all of their hard work, the farm had barely changed. The water pipe was crudely taped up, but fell down every five minutes, the trees bore no fruit and sprouted no buds, even after being watered, and nopony could pull the plow for more than a meter at a time. All in all, the operation was a disaster.
“Ugh,” Rarity complained, “If only there were some sort of make-apple-farm-work switch. All this manual labor is making me positively exhausted!”
Her words sounded oddly familiar to Applejack. “What'd you say?”
“She said: 'Ugh, if only there were some sort of make-apple-farm-work switch. All this manual labor is making me positively exhausted!',” Pinkie quoted, doing her best to copy Rarity's accent.
“Some sort of switch...a switch! That's it!” Applejack rushed inside the barn, the others followed her bemusedly. “The family farm switch! Gotta turn the apple farm on, otherwise it don't grow nothing...” she opened a secret trap, entered in a sixteen digit hexadecimal code, turned a knob and slid out a wooden plank to reveal a simple black switch labeled “ON/OFF”. Applejack flipped it anxiously; the results were instantaneous. The trees outside started blossoming, the cart was filled with apples, the plough not rusty, the water pipe repaired.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Rainbow Dash groaned as Applejack rushed outdoors.
“It...it's all comin' back to me! My farm...my apples...my family!” she cried, as Apple Bloom, Big Mac and Granny Smith came into view. She hugged them fiercely as the sun set an the rolling hills of apple trees faded out of view.
“Uh, Applejack? Why are your eyes all funny and white?” asked Apple Bloom.
A few moments later, after the magic aura subsided and Applejack had earned back her cutie mark, she turned to her little sister and grinned. “Ya'll don' need to worry about that anymore.”