Elements of Peace
Chapter 1:
Before the Storm
Through the eyes of AppleJack:
I gazed up at the stars for the hundredth time that night, contemplating the best, most agonizing punishments that I could deal out to Rainbow for dragging me out here. Here she is, waking Twilight just so that SHE could teleport to Sweet Apple Acres, wake up ME up, and tell me that DASH wants to show me something. Unless that mare had somethin' pretty buckin' important to show me, I was gonna kill her. Even then, I still might. Element of Loyalty be damned...
After much persuasion I had finally been able to convince Twilight to stay and sleep in my bed for the night. Though I was half tempted to just turn around and join her (Shut the buck up.), I couldn't help but feel that I should give RD a few more minutes. I was a hair away from leavin' when I heard the familiar flap of Pegasus wings.
"AJ! I'm so glad you made it!" I stifled a groan before turning to face her, just as her hooves touched down. "We're only in the South Orchard. Ya know, ten minutes from the house? Ain't much point in not showin'."
The cyan Pegasus furrowed her brow as she smiled embarrassingly. "Right, of course..." She seemed slightly distracted, but then again, that was how Rainbow was acting an awful lot lately. I shrugged it off as my patience began to waver. "Now what in tarnation is so important that it couldn't wait seven more hours till light?"
She apparently remembered as her wings fluttered in excitement -reminding me somewhat of a hummingbird- as her grin grew to ridiculous proportions. "Ohohoh! I wanted to show you an awesome stunt!" As she stressed the word awesome, I couldn't help but stress my patience... to the breaking point.
"A stunt? You dragged me outta bed at half past midnight... for a stunt!?" I felt sorta bad yellin' at the poor mare, but my "Element", demanded that I give my honest opinion on the matter. "You woke Twi up, sent HER to MY house, had the AUDASITY to keep me waiting for over an HOUR, FOR A STUPID STUNT!?" Either she was as out of it as I was, or she really deemed that her trick was worth the shoutin', because she simple closed her eyes, grinned proudly, and nodded once absolutely.
I was thus placed in the hugest bewilderment of my young-adult life. Aaaand, havin' no more metal in my blood, I simply plopped down on my plot and groaned. After several minutes of sitting there, eyes shut and head bowed, I felt a gentle hoof brush the loose strands from my pony-tail (And I mean my mane.) over my shoulder. Risking a glance up, I noticed Rainbow fiddling with my hat, doin' who-knows-what.
Raising my head up with a hoof, she smiled. Mind you, not her usual proud, dauntless, or reckless smiles, but one of her more rare, small comforting smiles. Most could easily mistake it for a smirk, but I knew better. It was her, 'it'll be alright, I'm here', smile that I had grown to love. It was a sign of how truly loyal she was.
"You wanna see my trick?" She said in a much softer voice, one that only I knew she was capable of.
I gave her a soft nod and a gentle smile in response, one which made her grin hugely again. Trotting over to a nearby tree, not much bigger than a sapling (We had it transferred just that week from Cousin Braeburn's farm over in Appleloosa.), I sat against it.
"So, what'cha got for me Dashie?" I was able to elicit a small blush, just barely visible in the moonlight, from Rainbow. "What's with the old nickname?" She countered.
"Well, it's after midnight, we're alone... I thought it was fittin'." She seemed pensive, then guilty, followed by determined. "Jackie... er, AppleJack. We agreed that we wouldn't do this again. And we've been doing good for this long, let's not backslide now."
I sighed. She was right, we did agree to break off our relationship over six months ago. It had been hard, but we kept to it. For Twi and Fluttershy's sakes. Twilight was too... Conservative for that, whereas Fluttershy was just too lighthearted, and well, too innocent to understand. Now Twilight did know, and she was understanding, but despite her best efforts her upbringing just seemed to drive an invisible wedge between us.
And so we broke it off, which was followed by much protest from Twilight, saying that she would never forgive herself (or us, for that matter) if we were simply separating for her sake. And no matter how much we assured her that we had debated and agreed, she even now seemed to hold herself responsible. Poor mare...
I shook the saddening thoughts from my head as Rainbow gave me one last reassuring smile, before backing up and settling into her take-off stance. "Try to keep your eyes on me." She smirked, then added, "If you can that is." Before she bolted up into the sky. She was right, I almost couldn't keep my eyes on her. She flew so high that the only way that I was able to spot her, was because she appeared as a faint black dot in contrast to the full moon.
She paused for a moment hovering in space, before angling herself downward, and shot down toward earth. The speed with which sh flew was enough to cause a Sonic Rainboom almost instantly, forcing me to shield my eyes with a hoof from the onslaught of bright color. Had I not shielded my eyes, I would have noticed that Rainbow Dash was losing control of her decent, while still managing to gain speed.
More importantly, I would have noticed her heading straight for me. Even MORE importantly, I would have notice the strange multi-color aura beginning to envelope her. Because almost as soon as she got a foot from me, low-and-behold, another Sonic Rainboom.
But this was different. How? Because this formed a multicolor bubble around us, where time seemed to stand still. I could see Dash, right in front of me, mid tumble, her beautiful cyan returning to her coat, with a look of pure shock plastered on her features. I couldn't move as everything faded away around us, couldn't even make a sound. And the pained look in Rainbow's eyes told me that she was experiencing the same problem.
It was then that the darkness began to take me, my consciousness slowly fadin' from me. And all too soon, I lost sight of Rainbow Dash's beautiful magenta eyes.
oo.0.o.
After who-knows how long, my senses began to eep back into me; vision blurry, hearin' muffled, and my muscles stiff and sore all over. For some reason I could have swore that I smelled something familiar, what is it that Rarity calls it? Sandalwood? Yeah, that sounds right.
After a few minutes of pain, I attempted to focus enough to study my surroundings, resulting in a massive headache. I raised a hoof to my head in protest, but was shocked when I couldn't see it. My hoof was gone! And all I could see was a strange thing that somewhat resembled Spike's claws. Wait a minute, what was Lyra always rambling on about? Creatures with things called 'arms' and 'Hands' which closely resembled the appendage in my hoof's place.
Shaking the dizziness and pain from my head, I attempted to stand, only to fall from a harsh realization: My back legs were longer. Or my newfound 'arms' were shorter. But I didn't have the correct balance anymore, so I tried somethin' else. Rearing up, I threw my weight back, and tried to balance on just my back legs (Which, luckily, where still hooves.), and found myself successful. With my newfound balance intact, I decided to try to walk, slowly, but steadily. Again, easier than I had anticipated.
My joy was cut short when my eyes fell upon the crumpled form of Rainbow dash. Not thinking anymore, I ran over to he and knelt beside her, lifting her head in my hands. She was still breathin', allowing me to let out a sigh of relief. Overall she appeared uninjured, which was good, but I also noticed some strange details about her new body.
She was Bipedal, same as me, and while she still had back hooves, her legs were definitely longer. As well, her arms were thin, but toned, smoothly curved with the lean muscle of an athlete, whereas her hands were small, much more so than mine. She still had her wings (She'll be ecstatic.), and her face didn't look any different, with her muzzle still small and impish, and her mane still multi-colored.
I the time it took for me to note all this, she had apparently woken up, and was staring right at me. Or rather, at my new chest. "Hey AJ, what are those?"
I glanced down to where she was pointing, and sure enough, I had two, round, plump breasts. Out of sheer curiosity, I glanced at the spot between my legs, finding only one of three things.
"Um, sugarcube? I believe those are mah teats..." After having them widen in realization, she averted her eyes while a deep blush crept across her cheeks. And me being the innovative pony I am, I simple took my hat off and covered my chest (Extremely glad I still had that).
After looking her body over closely, I found that both her breasts were placed the same way as mine, except hers were smaller and virtually non-existent compared to mine. So, again, being smart, I removed the red bandana from around my neck, and tied it around Dash's small torso (Yes, it's a big bandana, yes Dash is thin, she's a pegasus. Ya know, hollow bones?).
After that was taken care of, and I had given Rainbow instructions on how to walk and use her hands, as well as reassure her that her wings were intact, we decided to set off in search of help. And due to the foreign nature of the forest we were in, I'd say that we weren't anywhere near Ponyville.
In fact, one could say that we weren't even in Equestria. And we were about to find out just how right we were.
AJ: Hey ya'll! Thanks a bunch f'r readin' our little adventures-
RD: Yeah! We really appreciate it! Though it's not unexpexted, we are pretty awesome.
AJ:... Thank you for that. Now, as I was sayin', if ya'll are readin' this, it means that HOPEFULLY we made it back to Equestria at some point.
RD: Yeah... But it also means that we're not there currently to tell you ourselves.
AJ: So, if'n ya'll have got somethin to say, just leave us a comment.
RD: We'll be happy to reply when we return.
AJ+RD: See ya!
