Chapter 5

Dawn of the First Day

Daylight snook into the bedroom and came to rest across the muzzle of Turnover's body and across their eyes, stirring at least one of the beings within the mind of this pony awake. Turnover and Melissa had talked for a good chunk of the evening prior, before deciding to halt for the night and get the sleep that they did in fact sorely need after the events of the previous day.

The presence that awoke first was Turnover, the original owner of this body but locked out of control of all but receiving the senses his guest also felt, and the allowance of internal thought in this shared space with his new room-mate, a weird dragon (as far as he could tell) called Melissa. But another blessing he learnt about his limited position last night was that he could at least still sleep. That was a terrifying prospect he only realized waking himself up as he perceived the sunlight spilling through his old eye-lids. The only other alternative to being given the blessing of sleep would be being kept awake and in a dark void in his own mind-space while his guest slept soundly.

That thought connected to another. Awaking at the light creeping into his bedroom, he couldn't be sure if his guest was still with him, or if she had left and he was now gifted back possession of his own body, everything returning back to normal. He supposed that one simple action could answer that question. As a move to try and answer this question, Turnover struggled the most he could to crack his eyes open, so no success as they refused to allow this action. Moving away from trying to open his eyes, Turnover changed his focus to one of his fore-hoofs, putting as much intention into trying to move it, which again failed to budge. Dejection hit him, yet softly, and continued on to the last check he had to answer the original question; was he alone again? “Melissa?... Ma'am... Hey sleepyhead!” his presence prodded with increasing joviality and volume to the presence of Melissa within their shared mind-space. If what all tests so far had indicated, Turnover could expect for the feminine voice of Melissa to respond. But instead, the only response that Turnover received was the slight squirming of his body, unprompted by him, accompanied with a short whimper. A whimper that Turnover was sure he had never heard his body make before. So he continued, pressing a little harder “Melissa... You gotta wake up friend, the light's in my eyes, and you know fair well Ah can't turn away.” That seemed to garner a response of some type, a groan that sounded more like the Turnover that he knew before it continued “Please, just let me...”

The pause was followed by a sudden jolt of the body into a propped up position on Turnover's forelegs and the eyelids bolted open. “Wait, who... what... where?” Melissa was quickly flying through the 5Ws, stopping short of asking why and when, as her senses quickly returned to her groggy state. As if to check that she wasn't still in a dream-like state, Melissa looked over her new body once over, and then to the surrounding room. Overnight, Melissa had placed their body in a splayed out, natural animalistic position that she had found so comfortable the prior day when in the apple orchard.

“There you are friend, sorry 'bout that. You slept well?” Turnover queried to Melissa, his apologetic tone turning cheery at the question to the end.

Melissa retreated back to speaking within the mind-space now she had regathered her senses around her, replying back with a simple 'Yeah, it was fine, thank you.'

A silence fell for a short moment as Melissa seemed to gather both the consciousness and the courage to ask a specific question. 'Um... Turnover? How do you get cleaned up, and eer... relieve yourself?'

If Turnover's presence still had the ability to make his own face blush a deep red, it would be doing so at the uttering of the question, as Turnover grabbed the understanding of what Melissa was asking. Realizing that this body of his was foreign to her in many more ways than just being a pony and not a dragon, awkwardness overtook Turnover's senses before he was able to stutter out “Oh... gosh... well, Ah... hmmm... ” Turnover realized that he had not even invited a lady to spend a night with him before, let alone whatever this situation he now found himself stuck in was. And now he had to discuss his masculine aspects to a lady... “Lets... head to the bathroom and... Ah guess Ah'll guide you from there?”

Dismounting their bed, an air of awkwardness between them, Turnover gave the directions needed to navigate from his bedroom to the Apple family's bathroom and Melissa began following those given instructions. At the threshold of the door however, Turnover's nose was assaulted with the smell of sweet baked fruit-laden goods. Melissa couldn't identify specifics of what this smell was, but Turnover dreamily responded to the smell, telling Melissa “Mmm, Ma' must be cookin' breakfast! Oh you are gonna be in for a treat!” At that moment, the voice of Champlain called from the bottom of the stairs confirming to them the serving of Breakfast.

Excited by the prospect of indulging in a complete, varied breakfast as opposed to the quick and easy ones she had back in her own life, Melissa answered for them before Turnover could give any direction. “Sounds great Pa'! Ah'll be down in a minute!”.

“Hah, you're catching on quickly ain't ya Melissa. Just try not'a over-do it, we don't want to be found out right?” Turnover chided playfully, but he thought maybe he should allow a bit more slack to Melissa on what is said, it seems like she was understanding how he talked, and the importance of covering her existence in general. With that they continued their direction towards the bathroom.

After a short period of time getting use to the different systems that ponies had compared to humans when it came to using the toilet and showering, Melissa exited the bathroom with a freshened up Turnover-body. However Turnover's presence had never felt dirtier. He had struggled to accept that the situation wasn't a lady touching his body, especially in the more sensitive areas, but managed to instruct Melissa throughout the process despite his strong discomfort and embarrassment. He had managed to calm a bit after Melissa had assured Turnover that he should take this situation as like a nurse helping a struggling pony keep themselves clean, and who had to rely on the hooves of another force... even if they were ultimately his own hooves.

Re-entering the upstairs landing from the bathroom, the strong smell of the baked goods for breakfast once again surrounded Melissa and Turnover. However, these sweet smells were somewhat soured by the distant sounds of a heated discussion, no, more an argument in it's closing stages. “Listen, your dear brother is coming down now. After the day he had yesterday, can you at least say hello before you go storming off again?” the slightly more posher intonation of Carnation ordered to whoever she was talking to.

The following statement of “Mah lil' brother know where Ah am if he needs me. But Ah certainly don't need 'ta be here with you.” provided the answer as to who the other party in the argument was, the heavy country twang (heavier than Turnover's) was coming from Lobo Apple, the last word in that parting shot rolling out with a spiteful emphasis towards her mother.

After the exchange had calmed down, and the muffled, distant sound of a slamming door played throughout the house, Melissa prompted Turnover in request of further context. He reluctantly explained in response with an exhausted intonation “Ma big sis', ever since Carnation joined our family... well you can tell they don't enjoy each other's company. They seem to always be at each other's throats all the time.”

While Turnover explained the strained relationship between his sister and his mother, Melissa was making her way downstairs to join the rest of the Apple family at the kitchen. All at least apart from Lobo.

“Good morning, my darling! Come and sit, Your father and I went and got all your favourite baked goods, after what you went through yesterday” Carnation introduced as Turnover entered into the kitchen. There was not a single sign in how Carnation spoke to them that relayed that their mother had just finished an argument with their sister.

“You're as excited for this breakfast as Ah am Melissa, so you've got this” Turnover offered Melissa, confident that her response, whatever it would be, being fitting enough to mask that it wasn't their parent's son talking.

“Thank you ma', it all looks so tasty!” Melissa decided to announce, looking over the different baked goods on the table. Surprisingly it wasn't just apple products as Melissa would have expected for an apple-farming family, but then again Carnation wasn't an Apple to begin with she reasoned, so surely she had brought in the taste-palette for different fruits.

Carnation had manoeuvred from behind the table, which was also the closest side to the kitchen units as the room was shared between the kitchen and the dining area. The matriarch of the family pulled out a chair at the end of the table, offering it to Turnover, to which they accepted with a thank you and a move to sit down.

Again looking across the different baked goods on offer, and trying to make a decision as to what to try first, Melissa had the realization that after all the events and stress of yesterday, she had not eaten anything, and doubted that the food she ate that morning in her universe had carried over to this new body. She had only been relying on the presumption that Turnover had breakfast that day, not that in her panicked state she could have noticed being hungry anyway. A loud rumble of Turnover's stomach awoke Melissa from her thoughts about the day prior, and activated Turnover's presence to give her guidance, pointing out different items, identifying them, and most importantly giving recommendations as to what his absolute favourites were.

As if confirming Melissa's expectations that if it wasn't for Carnation introducing her own palette to the family that they would survive only on apple products, Turnover first suggested a slice of apple pie, despite the widely varied offering set out before them. This, according to Turnover, would have been prepared by his father, using secret Apple family recipes. And despite the prior thoughts of the apple-only diet of the family, the taste of the pie absolutely showed why this may be the case, as the heavenly home-cooked taste that the pie had seemed to demonstrate generations of experience behind the recipe.

Melissa was stirred from enjoying the taste of the pie by a question from Carnation's direction, turning her attention towards the tall mare. Behind Carnation, Champlain had begun cleaning the kitchen units, as Carnation sat on the chair immediately left to Turnover with a hot drink in front of her, some sort of herbal/floral tea Melissa guessed. Carnation had asked “So dear, are you feeling any better today? Doctor Rapid Aid said she didn't see you were injured anywhere but you were mightily shaken.”

So that doctor pegasus who visited them the prior night had the full name Rapid Aid, Melissa internalized, taking time to get direction from Turnover, who happily obliged after a moment to collect his thoughts.

“Yeah, Ah'm all good now ma', probably gonna get right back into working this morning.” To this, Melissa was prompt to questioned Turnover herself. She thought that their shared priority was to try fixing whatever situation this was, instead of Melissa taking up Turnover's farm-work chores for the day.

But Turnover responded confidently stating 'We're not going to work much. An' we still need to come up with a plan to solve this fuss we got ourselves in! We can figure something out during our day' Turnover ended reassuring Melissa that there will be work towards a solution, while working on the farm, no matter if Melissa held no experience in farm work, let alone her little experience with this new body.

Carnation chimed in again breaking apart the internal discussions between Turnover and Melissa. “I'd humbly suggest you go speak with your sister after you finish here darling.” Carnation requested of Turnover before continuing without giving time for Turnover to interject “I'd say she needs her brother's guidance right now. Some days that pony and her dogs...” She trailed off at that last part thinking internally to herself before suddenly blurting out “Don't you think it's time that she strike out on her own Turnover?” this earned a side-eye from Champlain who stopped cleaning at that moment, and from Turnover's presence, Melissa could sense a state of shock. Was this a new development that Carnation had in whatever conflict was between them?

Champlain voiced his opinions on the situation for the first time this morning, reminding Carnation “Now hun, remember you're as new to her as the rest of us. She's just having a hard time getting' use to it, you know. That cutie mark of hers, she takes that as serious as you do your flowers.”

From inside the shared mind-space, Melissa caught a snide comment from Turnover. She guessed it must not have been meant to be heard. Maybe like how her panic attacks were heard by Turnover, she could hear his heights of emotion as well, as she heard Turnover mumble to himself “Maybe if you didn't build that precious bedroom of yours when we all said you really shouldn't...”

Suddenly finding herself in the center of this family drama, and not in a comfortable fly-on-the-wall way, Melissa no longer felt hungry for the various baked goods on display. She did manage to scoff a few items for breakfast in the mean time, including that slice of apple pie, while all this discussion happened around her, but now she just wanted to leave this tense scene of familial-strife. 'Turnover... can we get our of here... please...' Melissa telegraphed to Turnover, pleading in tone from a place of awkwardness and just wanted to get out of this situation.

Almost immediately, Turnover replied, his tone confirming the shock at his mother's outburst suggesting Lobo be compelled to leave “Yeah... Ah say we leave my ma' and pa' to talk things out... Ah do agree though, we should talk to big sis'.”

By this point Turnover's head had hung over their plate, Melissa letting her emotions visibly show to the outside, and from that position she spoke to Turnover's parents. “Ah should... get on with chores... Thank you both for Breakfast... save some of that for later, please.” She said while simutaniously excusing herself from the table, Turnover directing to the front door to the house as it lead directly into the orchards, Melissa steering their body in that direction.

“Ah'm so sorry for all of that” Turnover apologized, pressing emphasis on the “so” to a great extent. Behind them were sounds of another brewing argument, as Carnation and Champlain were beginning to “discuss” the topics that were brought up over breakfast. Turnover and Melissa were now heading away from the house.

'What is it with your mother?... if... if you are okay talking about that?' Melissa enquired, starting with confidence mixed with shock, wanting to understand better the drama that she had found herself so unceremoniously dumped in the middle of, but backing off bashfully realizing that she was prying into the private lives of a family unit, despite technically being a member of that family unit now.

By the time that Apple Turnover began to respond to that question, Melissa had parked his body underneath a tree across from their house. “You see... Carnation wasn't always our ma'... Now she's come along, sis' don't want anything to do with her. Kinda hard though with how ma's now getting so much in sis' face.” Turnover paused for a second, sizing up how best to continue. He wanted to point towards somewhere, but his lack of bodily control still eluded him. “See that there white side of the building?” Turnover prompted instead to Melissa before continuing his explanation. “Ma' had that built, from the ground-up, top floor is her bedroom bottom floor is her office... Ah think... we're not allowed in there. Anywho, she's ended up building that bedroom right next to sis' kennels, and sis' kennels are only there because she made sis' move it before to make room for her new garden! Now she's complainin' the dogs keep her up at night! We darn told her not to build there!” Ending off with a frustrated sigh, Melissa could feel Turnover's presence backing down from his prominent stance in their shared mind. She could tell that this family struggle was frustrating Turnover to no end. Sadly, being new to this family unit left Melissa with little option in way of help, or at least advice. In her own life she'd not had to deal with a family member like this. But she knew of one thing they could do, and that is what Turnover was asked to do in the first place; talk to their sister, Lobo.

Melissa telegraphed to Turnover that intention, stating 'Well then... let's talk to Lobo, hmm? That's the least we can do!' and with an confirmatory “mhmm” of response from Turnover, Melissa raised up from her seated position, and started towards the kennels to the right side of the house.

The kennels sat on a rather large tract of land between the farmhouse and a large barn, and was surrounded in chicken-wire. They looked upon Lobo who was sat on her rear, surrounded by young dogs circling her, bouncing around, nibbling and nuzzling playfully. She wore a smile among all of this, but her eyes and posture of her body portrayed her real emotion to Melissa and Turnover. She was obviously very affected by however the argument with Carnation played out, and not even the relentless playful force of young pups seemed to fully snap her out at that moment. “Hey big sis'” Melissa called out in Turnover's voice, grabbing her attention as she shot her head towards the source of the call.

“Oh... hey lil' bro'... You didn't happen to hear all that did ya?” Lobo checked, seemingly embarrassed that her argument with her mother may have been loud enough to be heard upstairs by her brother.

“Just heard you leaving sis'. You okay? Want me to lighten the load for you today?” Melissa continued, at this point parroting the sentiments of Turnover as he navigated what to say to his currently vulnerable big sister.

Taking a short moment to consider the situation, in the mean-time picking up one of the pups who was nuzzling into her mid-riff into her fore-hoofs and hugging it closely, Lobo eventually responded to Turnover's offer. “Thank you mightily bro'... Ah'm gonna stick with ma pups today Ah say, so you can pick up mah chores in the orchard... Oh! An' Ah do got a delivery need pickin' up at the post-office... it's a biggie, so could you go grab it for me please?”

Without prompt from Turnover, Melissa agreed to these terms. It only made sense for her, as if they were going to do chores in the orchard today anyway, with Turnover hopefully guiding a rookie like herself in how to do them, then she might as well allow for Lobo's chores as well. If the worst came for worse and they couldn't solve the situation of sharing Turnover's body any time soon, Melissa would need to learn the ropes of farm work anyway.

The trip to the post-office was a second reason for Melissa to agree without consideration. She had felt a tingle of excitement for whatever reason at the thought of exploration. To see the world outside of the Apple family orchard at Willow Springs. And she considered that this was also something she'd need to do anyway if she ended up stuck here for anything but a short stint. Reading that book Turnover had last night about Mareyland and Baltimore only added to her excitement to see her new surroundings.

But before the giddiness would carry her away in excitement, Turnover chimed in and reminded Melissa to the entire reason she was given this opportunity to begin with. “Don't you think we should check if sis' needs anything else before we get to going Melissa?” Turnover chided, Melissa wondering slightly if he could sense the excitement she was barely containing, before coming to the realization herself that she had to compose herself.

“Ahh... Big sis'... do you need anythin' else? And also... sorry for what ma' ended up saying to you... whatever it was.” The last sentiment not being prompted by Turnover. Melissa felt like she needed to add that in as she did truly feel sorry for the pony before her.

“She ain't my ma', she'll probably never be as good as ma' was.” The heavy tone of sadness to come from Lobo as she completed that sentiment struck a heavy twang for Melissa's emotions, and she could tell the sentiment hurt Lobo to say as well, and to an extent Turnover too as Melissa felt his presence once again reduced in their mind. 'I'm sorry, both of you... Okay, no bringing up what happened to their mother... too sensitive a subject right now.' Melissa internalized.

As if in reply to the internalized note-taking, Turnover sadly interjected stating “Let's get down to the post-office. And Melissa... Ah'm sorry... you shouldn't have to be in the middle of all this.”

Following from that moment between Melissa and the siblings, she had said her goodbyes to Lobo, with a reassuring sentiment of “it'll all be a'right sis'” and directed Turnover's body towards the cart that Lobo had used on the first day to bring them back to the farmhouse after the incident. The approach to the cart was done in complete silence, and even as Turnover was instructing Melissa how to attach a harness around her body, no casual conversation was had as the emotions of the last hour continued to settle for them.

Soon they left the leafy confines of the Apple family orchard of Willow Springs. Outside Melissa had discovered that the estate was surrounded on two sides at least by more forest. Next door to Willow Springs was the tilled farmland of Madam Beets' family, while across the dirty, sandy road from Willow Springs was a thick forest. From the path, Melissa could hear close-by the trickling of running water from within the trees.

Apart from roads spurring off for Willow Springs and Madam Beets' farmstead, Melissa couldn't see any other residences, or any buildings along this road. This led Melissa to question the extent of the task that she had blindly assigned herself. 'Turnover, just... how far away is the post office?' Melissa questioned. She had come to realize that this wasn't just the outskirts of Baltimare. For a large city like that, she'd expect more scatterings of houses or smaller plots of farmland. But Willow Springs felt to be far out of the way of Baltimare.

“About... 20 minute walk Ah'd reckon” Turnover answered, before continuing with an explanation for Melissa “Honestly... there's not much here... mostly farms. The main village is about 20 minutes walk... If you ask any city-slicker pony where Mareyland is, they'll likely point to that village, they call it Mareyland and all.”

As they reached the end of the long straight road they were following from Willow Springs, they reached a junction leading to the left and to the right. Instructing Melissa to take the path to the right, Turnover then continued his explanation. “We Apples... a lot of us don't much like big cities...” Melissa was paying close attention, divided only by paying attention to Turnover's directions towards the village. “...Only family Ah can think live in a city are the bunch in Manehatten.”

For a short moment, this distracted Melissa from Turnover's explanation, as the pun-like name caught Melissa's attention and a train of thought formed in her head. 'These puns... if Maryland and Baltimore are similar in name just more.... horse-like... then surely Manehattan is similar to Manhattan right?... Should I make that play if Turnover asks more about where I come from?' she reasoned to herself. But then, how common were dragons to Equestria? Could it be believable that a dragon is living in one of the larger cities in the land? That if this world's Manehattan isn't as big as Manhattan is!

Melissa had been so focussed on that train of thought regarding her learning of Manehattan that it took a while for her to notice the change in surroundings as they continued their trek. They were now parallel to the river that Melissa was hearing previously. It carved a valley within the forest, which was otherwise covered on either side with a canopy of trees. However, soon Melissa began to notice the forest thinning out, as smaller lots of farms and meadows and gardens fronted by small houses with quaint thatch roofs dotted either side of the river. They past a pony here or there out on their plots of land, some gave a friendly wave as they past by.

Soon all signs of the forest they were travelling through disappeared, and before them was a busy crossroads. A market complete with a scattering of different stalls flanked each end of a stone bridge that arched over the river in a pleasant looking bump. Either side of the bridge also stood taller buildings than those Melissa and Turnover passed heading into the village, and had stronger looking construction for their roofs than the thatched ones of those residences.

“Over the bridge and down the road Melissa, you'll see a building with a tower, that's the post-office.” Turnover directed, to which Melissa followed, at a slower pace to allow herself to take in everything of this village, looking at every stall they passed as they showed different wares. Fruit and vegetables, baked goods, what looked to be hand-crafted furniture and decorations, hand-crafted clothing. Turnover responded to this slow inspection of every stall they passed with a short chuckle and followed it up with “Must not be this sort of place where you from huh? Dragons not keen on villages?” prodding at Melissa's presumed origins playfully.

'Suppose... it does remind me where I grew up, before I left for the big city.' Melissa explained, continuing with '...So I guess I'm just... kinda nostalgic for this? I guess?'

As they continued their journey to the post-office, crossing the small bridge which amused Melissa with it's quaint cuteness, like something you'd see in old-timey England, now on the other side of the bridge a shadow past over them for a split second. Looking up to find out what caused the shadow, Melissa saw something she had only seen the prior night in Turnover's book, a pegasus in flight. Too quick for her eyes to follow, she did manage a glance at those outstretched wings complimenting an outstretched body. The colours of dark grey contrasting with the sky-blue mane and tail, which were stretched out too with the speed of the wind flowing through them, Melissa could only compare with the colours of the only other pegasus she had seen in reality, Doctor Rapid Aid. At this point, Turnover alterted Melissa, regaining her attention again away from her thoughts and with another demonstration of how they were on the same level of thought, Turnover confirmed to her “Looks like Doc. Rapid got a patient...” Melissa followed the view of the street down, catching the figure of Rapid Aid making a soft landing on the balcony of a tower that stood at least twice tall as the building it loomed over, a single story building with a slate roof. “She always makes sure the post-office knows where she's goin'. Every time.” Turnover continued, concluding by explaining “That tower there, that Doc. Rapid went into, that's where the pegasi take-off from... Come on, lets get over there!”

While the outside of the post-office was mainly brick in construction, the interior inside was mainly wooden. The building stretched through corridors left and right from the entrance, and a rounded wall stood in the corner with a wooden door inlaid. In front of Melissa was a lengthy wooden desk, cluttered with stationary items and books, while behind the desk was a stack of shelves separated into boxes that ran up to the ceiling. Sat behind the wooden desk was a pony, talking with another customer at the moment Melissa spotted her, but it was clear that the pony also spotted Melissa, or at least Turnover's body, as they were greeted with a smile by the pony behind the desk, who professionally returned her attention effortlessly back to the customer before her.

At the same time, the door to the rounded wall opened, catching the attention of Melissa as she noticed a familiar pegasus walk through into the main foyer of the building. Rapid Aid had arrived to the front desk, and judging from the sight of a spiral staircase behind her within the round walled room, Melissa presumed that that was where the tower that stood prominent over the rest of the post-office was located.

“Hey there Mister Turnover!” Doctor Rapid had noted Turnover's body standing in the middle of the room, and had approached offering a friendly greeting.

“Hey Doc. Heading out for a patient?” Melissa replied, remembering that Turnover had mentioned that Doctor Rapid may just be doing that.

“Thankfully not, I've just come back from seeing Golden Sweetie's lil' one. Fell out of a tree, the poor thing. She's okay though, just some bumps and bruises, your regular adventure marks!” Rapid Aid jovially announced to Turnover with a relieved and happy smile.

“Hey Doc! Welcome back, how was Honeycomb?” Suddenly enquired a voice from behind them both. Rapid Aid and Melissa both turned to the source of the voice, which turned out to be the pony at the desk, who had now served her customer and was beckoning the two over to the desk.

“Honeycomb's doing okay Popcorn, nothing too bad, just some bumps and scrapes.” Rapid Aid responded, giving the same report to the pony at the desk as she had given to Melissa.

“Well that's good to hear!... Gimme that hat of yours. Celestia knows why you keep wearing them, you go through so many a week!” the pony at the desk blasted out after that statement of relief first, playfully snatching the boater hat from Rapid Aid that was her statement piece. Melissa presumed the name of this pony was Popcorn, based on the name Rapid Aid gave her.

Popcorn, the pony that was sat behind the desk at the post-office, had a deep dark blue coat, with an even darker purple, almost black, tail and mane. Like Doctor Rapid, Popcorn was a pegasus, but her wings continued the dark blue colour that her coat was, with no patterns like the spots on Rapid's wings. The colours despite being so similar contrasted from each other by her coat being a saturated pastel version of the dark blue, and her mane and tail being a high contrast of dark purple. Within her mane and tail, Melissa could note side by side stripes of a bright pink and yellow running the length of both mane and tail. Her mane seemed to be highly stylized as well, more-so than Melissa had seen on ponies so far in her experience. Her mane was braided in rows that remained puffy and fluffy, while Melissa also noted some glossy looking strings of popcorn running adjacent to some of the braids.

Popcorn's eyes switched attention onto Turnover, introducing herself to Melissa by saying “And Turnover! If this isn't a welcome surprise! How's Lobo? I didn't expect you to be here... I suppose it's for her package right?” the pony sat in thought for a moment before continuing on a new line of enquiry, turning to face Rapid Aid to deliver the next set of questions. “In fact, Doc, you went to Willow Springs yesterday right? Was that for Lobo?”

“Let me take this Melissa. Popcorn, Lobo and Ah go way back. Follow my lead” Turnover propositioned Melissa, who was more than willing to follow Turnover's lead since it did seem the two ponies knew each other better than Melissa knew this stranger.

“Hey Popcorn! No no... Doc Rapid was sent there for me... Some weird explosion gave me a mighty scare. Feeling right better now though!” Turnover explained to Popcorn, flashing a smile at the end, before continuing “As for why Ah'm here 'stead of Lobo... well... she's havin' herself a rest day! Ah'll let her know you said hi though.”

“Ahh! That reminds me Mister Turnover!” Rapid Aid interrupted, drawing eyes onto her from the two other ponies. “I had a chat with my cousin Windy, with the weather team. Said they couldn't find any reason for that explosion. Sorry to give you that bad news... But! I'm glad to hear you're fit as a fiddle again!”

“What on Celestia's name are you two getting up to without me on that farm Turnover?!” Popcorn complained before giggling to herself. “When're you or Lobo gonna invite me over again, even?”

'She's certainly an inquisitive pony, Turnover. And when were you gonna tell me you got friends!' Melissa poked Turnover with internally, which was responded with a playfully antagonistic “Just follow me” from Turnover.

“Next Running of the Leaves...” Running of the what now? “Sis' and Ah are gonna mop the floor with you! Wanna get embarrassed before then? Be our guest” Turnover teased to the dark blue pegasus. “And no flying!” Turnover quickly added onto the teasing, as if it had to be clearly stated “And that's with Doc Rapid as a witness!” to which Popcorn leaned over the desk towards Turnover and continued their volley of banter

“Don't need to use 'em. These babies may keep me fastest mail-mare in the east, but I'm still also fastest without 'em too!”

Melissa did her best to re-create the guttural “hmmf” that Turnover specifically said to copy, before continuing with his dictation “Either way... It's good to see you again Popcorn! Your right, we need to get you coming by soon... So 'bout Lobo's package, Ah got my cart ready to load outside.”

“Right! Yeah! Let me grab another mail pony, and we'll load it up for ya!” Popcorn responded, sitting back into her position behind the desk and flashing a smug smile at Turnover, obviously not quite over that moment of sizing each other up for this Running of the Leaves.

“Suppose that's my call to leave, you too play nice okay?” Rapid Aid playfully chided, sensing the competitive nature still lingering in the air as well, as she stepped away from the conversation and out the front door.

By the time that Popcorn and the second mail-mare she brought with her arrived to load up Lobo's package, Melissa had returned to the Apple family cart and strapped herself back into the harness, with aid from Turnover reminding her of the steps.

Popcorn and the mail-mare had arrived with a warning, and a shadow cast over Turnover that made Melissa turn her head around to see them both carrying the box between them.

Trusting the two mail-mares in their own work, Melissa struck up conversation with Turnover, commenting 'Popcorn seems like a nice pony. Sounds fun to be friends with. Seems like an athletic type, which my sister back home would love!'

Turnover responded back, explaining “Yeah, Popcorn's one of the good'uns. Me and Lobo 've been friends with her since we were fillies. 'course she knows Lobo better than me.”

A break of silence followed before Melissa spoke up again to Turnover. 'We still need to talk about what we're gonna do about... all this... should we loop Doctor Rapid in? Never know, maybe there's a medical explanation for this.' Melissa proposed. She didn't really believe that what happened was medical, she was from another universe after all, and hard for that to be the work of physical forces like a disease. But she just wanted to open up some sort of dialogue with somebody, somepony, to lessen the weight of the trouble they both found themselves in, maybe get another pony's thoughts on the matter.

“That might be a fair idea... but...” Turnover's response was cut by an announcement by Popcorn, who had flown to land beside Turnover, the other mail-mare being dismissed beforehand.

“Okay, package is all loaded up, strapped into place, you can get on your way Turnover. Please do say hi to Lobo for me... I bet she misses me...” Popcorn giggled slightly at the statement she herself made, before she continued “...come back here sometime this week, lets discuss when we can all hang out next, yeah? If Lobo is up for it, she should come too! We could all grab lunch together.”

Melissa nodded to that and both her and Turnover agreed to that, “Sure thing Popcorn! See you later this week then!” Melissa said to Popcorn, as she pulled forward and the harness tugged taught with resistance before they began their way with the cart loaded with Lobo's package back to Willow Springs.

They had approached the small quaint bridge across the river before Turnover continued with the statement he was going to make about Melissa's proposal on the next step to take. “... Ah think there's been other things we talked about first, other things that would take us further than just looping in the doc'.”

'What are your other ideas Turnover?' Melissa responded in kind. They had been skirting talking about the problem they faced all throughout yesterday; talking to Spike, or seeing somebody at the School of Friendship, or on her side thinking about contacting Applejack, or the most extreme of choices, contacting one of the Princesses, rather that be Twilight, or the former Princesses Luna and Celestia. and Melissa kept those in mind awaiting Turnover to expectedly raise them.

“Well... it seemed like you were receptive to speaking to a powerful as might unicorn.” Turnover returned as his primary suggestion on the matter.

Melissa mulled this situation over some more in her mind as they continued the walk back to Willow Springs. This was the first time she could really give herself the time to reflect on the circumstances of the issue itself; and she reached a conclusion that she shared with Turnover. 'I could only imagine... something with great, massive amounts of power, was able to do this. Either that or it's something cosmic. We need somebody who understands that. A powerful, strong unicorn... So I fully agree with that idea... however...'

Turnover sighed as Melissa left that statement hanging without conclusion to her thought, Turnover finishing the sentiment by replying. “If only we knew one to reach out to... Ah think Cousin Applejack may be our best choice here you know.”

Author's Note

This chapter's a long boi! Didn't feel right for the three segments to be separated across two chapters, or that anything be cut, so hope you enjoy a longer chapter! And with the new long chapter, we've laid down a bunch of new beats for the upcoming increase of intensity, very much transitioning out now from the introductory chapters!