Suspiciously Similar
Applejack continued to follow Torque Wrench to the damaged rainbow billboard, a toolbox clenched between the orange-coated apple farmer's teeth. After her and her friends' hot air balloon had toppled it over, destroying itself in the process, Mayor Sunny Skies had assigned Torque the task of repairing both the balloon and the billboard. Applejack, partially influenced by the mechanic's frustration and annoyance with the task, had decided to step forward and lend her a helping hoof. After all, Granny Smith had always said, "You break something, you fix it." And seeing as the rest of her friends were currently preoccupied, it seemed as though she had to be the one to step up to that particular task.
Repairing the damaged items wasn't all that was on Applejack's mind, though. When they'd gone to grab the tools in the first place, Applejack couldn't help but notice that, like before, Torque seemed annoyed with, well, practically everything. It was definitely something she'd have to look further into. However, those inquiries would have to wait until after they'd gotten to the remains of the balloon and the billboard. It almost went without saying that it was hard to ask questions with something in your mouth, let alone partake in simple conversation.
And so, the two ponies continued to silently trot through the equally-silent streets of Hope Hollow. Applejack was actually pretty startled by exactly how silent it all was. At this time of day, the center of Ponyville could be one of the liveliest places around; unlike the bigger cities, life moved slowly enough for the ponies there that they could typically find the time to meet up and amicably chat. In spite of the similar circumstances, Hope Hollow, on the other hoof, was completely silent. No ponies talking to each other (not even the ones walking side-by-side), barely any birds chirping... Eeyup, it was certainly rather quiet.
Maybe even quieter than Big Mac starin' at a sunset and thinkin' to himself, Applejack thought. After all, her older brother's bouts of quietness had garnered a bit of a reputation even outside of the Apple family.
Yup, things were certainly very quiet in Hope Hollow. In fact, in these circumstances, even the slightest hypothetical dent in the silence could feel like a full-on explosion...
BOOM!
...Which would make an actual explosion sound like the end of the world was forthcoming.
Instinctively pressing her hat down against her head, Applejack looked up towards the source of the sudden loud noise. There, up in the sky, she saw an all-too-familiar, rainbow-colored ring.
Applejack lowered the toolbox to the ground.
"A Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow?" she asked, knowing full well that the pegasus in question couldn't hear her. "That's you and Twilight's big solution to this whole 'everypony being colorless' problem?"
Applejack looked back down, then turned to look at all the other ponies in the town square. While they were certainly startled by the sudden blast, their dull, lifeless colorations had not regained any of the luster they'd once apparently had. Almost as quickly as it had barged its way in, the incident faded from the forefront of most of the ponies' thoughts.
"Ah guess the Rainboom didn't work, then," Applejack said to herself, sighing in disappointment.
Oh well. Going off of past experiences, the first go-around at solving a problem as big as this one usually wasn't that successful. But she and her friends would always have a second jab at it, a jab that tended to be far more successful than the first. Possibly a third, if the second didn't work out either. Maybe even a fourth, if they were particular unlucky...
It was at this very moment that Applejack's wandering train of thought was violently rammed off of its tracks by a sudden collision.
"Gah!" Applejack exclaimed as she tripped over her toolbox and fell to the ground. The toolbox tipped over, it and its contests spilling out onto the cobblestone pathway.
"Ope!" a stallion's voice exclaimed, "I am so, so sorry about that!"
Applejack groaned. She hadn't been that hurt, but the sudden impact had certainly jarred her senses. In an effort to get rid of her sudden bout of dizziness, she quickly shook her head back and forward. Satisfied with her efforts, she looked back up at the pony who'd just spoken to her...
…
…
…
...And saw a strangely familiar face staring back at her.
One that looked suspiciously similar to a certain older brother of hers.
"Are you okay?" Are you okay?" the gray-coated stallion asked - though to be fair, everypony in this town was gray-coated. "...Do you need a hoof or anything?"
"No... No, Ah think Ah'll be good," Applejack replied, shakily lifting herself back up onto her hooves.
She shook her head again, then looked back at the pony who'd just bumped into her. Much to her surprise, his stangely familiar appearance hadn't been a dizziness-induced illusion. He was the same height, had the same manecut, had the same tailcut, and his coat didn't reach all the way down to his hooves... aside from his coloration, he looked almost exactly like Big Mac.
"Um, do you want any help picking up your tools and stuff?" Not-Big Mac asked.
"O-Oh, um, sure thing," Applejack answered.
"Well this is just perfect," Torque Wrench sighed, rolling her eyes as she spoke. "Why couldn't you just look where you were going, Whopper?"
The stallion, whose name was apparently Whopper, scoffed indignantly. "Well, Torque, I'm sorry that I got distracted by the giant rainbow explosion in the sky!"
"Okay, okay, settle down you two," Applejack said, gesturing towards the two ponies with her front hooves. "This ain't something worth blaming ponies for. It was just an accident."
She turned to Torque Wrench. "Why don't you just go on ahead to the billboard? Ah'll catch up with you in a few minutes once Ah finish picking up all my stuff."
Again, the mechanic rolled her eyes. "Ugh, fine. But make it snappy, okay?"
"Can do," Applejack responded, nodding her head as she spoke.
With that, Torque started walking away from the other two ponies.
"Don't even think about dilly-dallying, Applejack!" she called out as she walked away.
"Wouldn't dream of it!"
Applejack turned to face the stallion who'd bumped into her.
"So... Whopper was it?" she asked, pushing her toolbox back onto its bottom as she spoke.
"Well, my real name's Cottonflock," he answered, scooping up a stray hammer with his forehooves as he spoke, "But most folks here in Hope Hollow just call me Whopper. Well, they don't do that as much anymore, but still."
Applejack tilted her head. "Seems like an odd nickname to have. How in Equestria did you manage to get saddled with it?"
Whopper chuckled. "Well, in case you haven't already noticed, I'm one of the biggest ponies here. By a pretty wide margin at that." He dropped the hammer into the toolbox, the tool making a loud clank as it fell to the bottom of the box. "Been that way for most of my life, in fact. Seems like I spend most my time looking down at everypony else."
"Can't say Ah know that particular feeling," Applejack replied.
"I haven't found anypony who does know it."
"Oh, Ah might just know somepony…" On that cue, Applejack's eyes trailed over to the wooden cart Whopper had presumably been pulling, and the yoke miserably lying against the ground beside it.
"Is that cart over there yours?" she asked.
"Yup, it sure is," Whopper answered.
"Can you step back into your collar for second?"
"...Um, okay? I guess I needed to do that sooner than later, anyway."
Without another word, the colorless stallion trotted over to his cart. nudged the metal collar upwards, and carefully slipped his head through it. A few more subtle movements and other minor adjustments pushed it further down his neck, and within the next few seconds it was back to where it was before he'd stepped out of it.
"There you go," he stated. "...Er, just curious, why'd you want to see this so much?"
Applejack bit her lip as she studied the oddly-familiar image before her. "Well, it's a bit strange..."
"Ms. Applejack, I'm an abnormally large stallion who lives in a town that lost all of its color because of some guy's weird magical machine. I think I can handle whatever it is you want to try and throw at me."
In spite of herself, Applejack chuckled. "Well, y'see... The thing is, you look almost exactly like my older brother."
Whooper blinked/ It seemed Applejack had managed to hit him with one of the few things he wasn't expecting. "Wait, what?"
"Ah'm not kidding! You look almost exactly like Big Mac! It's... it's actually a mite frightening, if Ah'm being honest with myself." As she spoke, she continued to pick the various tools up off the ground and put them back in the toolbox.
"Well, I've never met this 'Big Mac' before." Whopper shrugged his shoulders. "Exactly how similar are we talking?"
"Almost exactly like him."
"No, there's no way," he said in disbelief, "You're exaggerating."
"Ah'm telling you, it's downright scary!"
"Show me a picture of him. Then we'll see how 'scary' it is."
"Ah'm afraid I can't do that right now. Do you really expect me to just randomly carry around pictures of my family wherever Ah go?"
"Nope. But still, unless you have proof with you, I refuse to believe we look that alike."
Applejack groaned, but ultimately had to give in. "Fine. But Ah'm telling you, you look like somepony dumped a ton of gray paint on him... Err, no offense."
"None taken." He shrugged again. "But I do kinda miss being blue."
"Yeah, sorry that happened to y'all."
"No need to be sorry. I've accepted it, y'know?"
"Well, the good news is—" Applejack took a few steps closer to him as she spoke— "me and my friends are trying to see what we can do about it."
Whopper's eyes widened. "W-Wait, really?"
"Eeyup," Applejack nodded, "Ah can't 100% guarantee that we'll work it out, but we have a pretty good track record with this sort of thing."
"W-Well, in that case," Whopper sputtered, "good luck with all that!"
"Thank you," Applejack replied.
She reached down to grab another tool, but found that none of them were left on the ground.
"Well, Ah guess that's my cue to leave," she said. "Ah'll see you around, then."
"Same to you!" Whopper replied. "Y'know, I actually can't remember the last time I've talked to somepony for this long."
That managed to catch Applejack's attention. "Really?"
"Yeah, really. For the last few years, it was like somepony would just say 'Hey, Whopper, I'll pay you five bits to carry this thing to the other side of town,' and then I'd say 'Okay,' and then that would be it."
"Huh." For whatever reason. Applejack thought to herself, that little tidbit of information seemed pretty important.
"Well, Ah'd better be going. For real this time."
"Sure thing!"
"It was nice bumping into you!"
"I hope you don't mean that literally, Ms. Applejack."
"Eenope!"
"I thought so." Whopper started to walk away.
Applejack started walking towards the place where she and her friends had crash-landed, which coincidentally happened to be in the opposite direction Whopper was going. "I guess Ah'll see you around, then... 'Big Mac'!"
"Oh, har-har," Whopper playfully rolled his eyes, "I still need to see a photo of that guy, by the way!"
Applejack turned around for one final time. "In that case, Ah'll have to get back to you sometime."
"Yeah, I guess you will."
And with that, the two earth ponies finally separated and headed off towards their respective destinations. And as they walked further and further away from each other, a similar thought creeped its way into both of their minds.
They probably wouldn't be forgetting this strange encounter for quite some time.
END.