A Tale of Two Minds

by AcesCalifornia

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Adventure, Slice of Life, Human, Drama, Original Character
Length: 38018

A Human-in-Equestria story, but this time around, the human doesn't get their own body. Instead, both human and the pony they possess the body off are going to find out the troubles it all causes.

You've seen Human-in-Equestria stories of many types. You've seen them remain human. Given their own pony-body; be it filly or adult. You've seen them take the role of characters in the show. You may have even seen them from birth into this new life.

But, in some stories, they aren't given their own body. The laws-of-physics demands that a new body cannot be formed out of nothing, so when transplanted into Equestria, they are placed into the body of an existing pony. But what happens to that pony? What if they stick around?

Meet Melissa. Transported into Equestria, and into the body of Apple Turnover. However, Apple Turnover is still present within his own body too. Now with two minds at the helm of this pony, the challenge begins of discovering what caused this, and trying to fix it.

Welcome to my first fic, and the first bit of creative writing I've done for a long time. Please be warned, this story will eventually be covering themes of familial-drama, crisis of gender identity, and in terms of potential kinks transformation (although it won't be sexual or graphic.) alongside other potentially triggering topics that I will warn of as the story progresses. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer!

Published 2024-06-13 21:20:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-11-27 12:11:17 UTC

Chapter 4 - Settling Down for the Evening

Chapter 4

Settling Down for the Evening

The book that laid closed in front of Melissa was to her human understanding of scale maybe an inch and a half thick, bound with a heavy dark blue cover, a hard-back which she could only presume most of the books in this universe were judging by all the hard-back books she saw on Turnover's bookshelf. Decorating the front was a gilded title at the top espousing “History of Mare in the Moon Era Mareyland”, and below the title, framed by the same gilded gold colour was a colour photograph of a cityscape. The architecture looked familiar, yet all the much alien to Melissa. The build up and density the photograph relayed reminded Melissa of the same experience of where she had lived in the human world. But the architectural styles seemed older, and looked more organically shaped.

Shaking herself from the thoughts of home; there'd be time to share about her experiences later tonight if Turnover allowed her to follow through with her promise of sharing tales, although for Melissa it would need to be shrouded in an air of ambiguity, if she wanted to at least continue playing to Turnover's belief that she was a resident of this universe, a bipedal dragon at that. To that, that was one thing Melissa hoped this book would shed more light on. How common dragons were in pony society, and their lifestyles, hopefully to make it all the more easier to disguise her true identity with that of a dragon.

Melissa had the impression that Apple Turnover's presence within their shared mind-space was dis-engaged with reading the book with Melissa. She could not blame him if he wanted some time to rest-up for himself. She returned her attention back to the book in front of her, still taking the time to examine the cover. She could tell that the book was relatively new still, the gloss of the gilded lettering and frame to the photo inlaid into the cover was not dull, and the photo itself wasn't worn or faded. So at least what was shown in this book, Melissa was confident was the most up to date information on this topic.

As Turnover had taught her before Doc Rapid's visit, Melissa focused the intentions of her thoughts to grabbing the cover of the book, how physics dictated in this universe that a hoofed creature could grab a hold of items. She had flipped the cover of the book onto the first page, containing only an inscription laid out in it's center. Reading the inscription, it appeared to be paying tribute and dedication to a 'Princess Luna' who the dedication explained was returned to Equestria with the strength of friendship and 'her caring sister, Princess Celestia', closing the dedication with the statement 'may they find peace and greater closeness in retirement.'

Already at the first page of this book that Melissa was aiming to glean information off of, she could check off one question from her pile of questions. The 'Celestia' that Turnover had made her use the name in vein of in conversation with Doc Rapid, appeared to be a princess of this land of Equestria, or at least a former one, now retired with her sister, also a former princess called Luna.

“Ah can't believe it's been so many moons already since they stepped down from ruling!” Turnover suddenly interjected, sending a sudden shock of surprise throughout Melissa, whose focus was being intensely spent on the book in front of her, rather it be reading it, or telegraphing the intention to grab it's pages. “Must've been some two, three apple-bucking seasons since they did that, Ah reckon.” That train of thought being completed by Turnover.

Melissa flicked through a few pages without reading them. A page that held some publisher information, an index of chapters, nothing in particular she needed to pay mind off during her quest of knowledge, and landed on the first page she was wanting to read. However, before that, she wanted to pose a question to Turnover while his attention was still shown to be present, wanting to know a bit more about the former rulers of this land, and maybe get Turnover to mention who the current ruler was. 'How're the sisters getting on in their retirement? Don't think they've snook back into working have they?' Melissa hoped that the questions posed were ambiguous enough to not give her foreign-nature away, but to give the answers she was seeking.

After a moment to collect his own thoughts, Turnover responded back striking a re-assuring tone. “Ah have full trust that Princess Twilight is doing a great job! Her and the Friendship Council... Pa' didn't mention that cousin Applejack is a member of that there Council, right?” he boasted with a hint of familial pride that only served to enforce how close it seemed the entire family unit of the Apples were, even between branches. “There's been no trouble as of recent, nothin' that'd need Princesses Celestia and Luna getting involved.” Melissa nodding along in understanding, before returning her attention to the book in front of her.

Within the first few chapters of this book, which had been retelling the fable of the “Mare in the Moon”, Melissa had been able to strike a few more questions she held off her list. Firstly, that this world was not Earth in any manner, but instead it was known as Equus. Secondly, that there was different species of pony residing in this universe; split between the regular looking ponies, like Turnover and the Apple-family at Willow Springs, who were called Earth-Ponies; the winged-ponies like Doc Rapid, which were called Pegasi; and the magic users that Turnover had mentioned earlier in the day as a possible direction they could take to figure out what happened to them, being the Unicorn race. That possible direction, talking to a unicorn, a particularly strong one, was something Melissa would need to bring up with Turnover again at some point.

She had also learnt more about the two former princesses of Equestria, as the folk-tale of the “Mare in the Moon” surrounded how the former princesses ended up divided for a thousand moons after Princess Luna became corrupted and became the being known as Nightmare Moon and refused to lower the moon for her sister, Princess Celestia. The conflict had ended with Nightmare Moon being banished to the moon above Equus by Celestia.

This had indicated to Melissa that the princesses, former rulers of this land, were more than just mere political figures, but held god-like powers to move celestial bodies.

The rest of the book, despite being a new publication, was set historically. As the title exclaimed, it was an exploration of the period in history when Princess Luna was banished to the moon; of Mareyland, Baltimare, and the wider eastern shores of Equestria where they sat and where Melissa now found herself for the while needing to call home. It was hard to tell what exactly the state of technology in Equestria was, judging just from what was in a book documenting a period of greater than “a thousand moons ago” and the rural way-of-life she saw being lived at Willow Springs.

Satisfied that she'd been given some more answers from this book, and more knowledge on the history of this world as a bonus, Melissa closed up the book and set it to the side. What she learnt of the area's history would also serve to help Melissa steer away from placing herself in the retelling of her life in the big, technology filled city she had resided in before finding herself stuck in this new universe; Baltimare wasn't exactly New York.

Melissa took a couple of deep breaths, before speaking out to the empty bedroom, but in reality prodding for Turnover's attention, asking him “Are you with us Turnover? Are you okay to talk... on that promise I made earlier today... stories of our families, our friends?”

'You've been so kind... to share, to allow me to share your family while we're caught in this situation... So it'd only be fair, since you wouldn't even have known what I looked like, let alone seen my family, that I talk about them first, hmm?'

Finished with reading the book, at least for now (there was something enchanting about learning the history of this new universe. For Melissa, it was as if learning the lore of a fantasy-novel's setting), Melissa had prodded Turnover's presence in their mind from his dis-engaged slumber to follow-up on the promise made by Melissa earlier in the day, for them to share stories of their lives. Once Turnover had regained focus and knew what he was being prompted for, a tone of happy agreement was made.

But, Turnover had a new thought cross his mind after Melissa had just stated what she did. “Speakin' of, ya right! Ah don't have a clue what your ol' body looked like! Ya don't get much dragons 'round here, but Ah have seen 'em before!” Oh sugar, Melissa had slipped into a too comfortable state of mind, and offered chance for Turnover to ask more about how she use to look like. A wave of panic crashed over Melissa whose eyes shot wide open... a movement that she was sure that Turnover was aware of, this being his body and all. Relax... relax... she felt confident at least, underneath the initial shock which struck, that she would be able to stretch the truth for Turnover. And anyway, the whole point of this evening's talk was for the two of them to try and grow closer together, and that included trusting each other enough to open up about their previous lives before today.

'Well... I'd estimate that I was taller than you...uh...your body is, but not by much... are you and your mother actually on the taller side for ponies? Never mind, you can answer that later.' it felt clear to Melissa that she was struggling, becoming a bundle of nervousness and swinging wildly in her description of her body, transcribed to that of a dragon. 'I'd say... bipedal as I told you this morning... afternoon?... earlier today. In colour, pink in the body. Not a bright pink, more like your body... a muted pink I think it'd be described, and more towards white than red like your body. My mane, could you say a dragon has a mane?'

A tactical pause was put in place by Melissa. Possibly the only way she could continue a description, as it was now in Turnover's court to confirm or deny if dragons had anything that could resemble hair, or a mane. “Ah can't say for certain, but I do suppose they must have them frilly-parts that run down their head...” Turnover offered, his own pause in answering back to summon up whatever limited knowledge he had on dragons. And before handing the conversation back to Melissa, Turnover broke back in one more time, exclaiming in a prideful tone a sudden idea “Oh! Ah'm only makin' these guesses from what Ah know 'bout Princess Twilight's dragon... Spike Ah think he's called. Ah say this 'cause maybe we should try an' get you talkin' with him! Dragon to dragon, hmm?”

This suggestion rattled Melissa a bit, and she tasted the idea with a thick slice of hesitancy. She wasn't really a dragon, despite how much Turnover believed it to be the case, and now that had led to this idea, steering the poor pony's thought's down the wrong track. Speaking with Spike then would not help in this situation, Melissa gambled. But if she could get a word with Princess Twilight? That would be a better option. Could Melissa bring that idea up to Apple Turnover? However, surely the Princess must be inundated with other pressing matters than their situation. No, Melissa took some more consideration of all the options placed on the table for her at this moment, and right now the prior suggestion of speaking to a powerful unicorn might be the best bet.

'I...don't know about that Turnover' Melissa finally replied with a tone that at the same time said “let's put this idea down, and forget it forever” before she continued. 'Lets start figuring those things out tomorrow. But for tonight... My dragon... frills?, right... I'd say that I had a black... mane for lack of a better word.' The description finished, another pause followed, a natural break in the conversation as one topic of discussion pivoted into another.

'So your Apple family name, it sounds like you have family members all over the place! But, reducing it to only who lives with you, you have your mother and father, a big sister, and... if I remember a grand-father? And that's just your immediate family?'

“Mhmm” stated the simple response from Turnover, nothing more to add at this point. Melissa continued; 'For me... well, I had never really been a big family per... uhh... pony. I had a mother and father who raised me, but looking back at things, I may have been too quick to leave the nest, as they say...' the tone taking a down-trodden mood towards the end as Melissa began to sink into her regrets.

Apple Turnover's interjection shook her out of that state as he posed a question of his own. “You just had your mother and father? Or did you have any siblin's?”

This brought up to Melissa what was probably a coincidence, but something that connected her and Turnover in a deeper way. 'Oh! Well, I had an older sister too! What a coincidence... I wonder if that had any part in why it was specifically me and you that this happened to?'

“That'd just be buckin' for apples 'fore they're ripe, Ah reckon” Turnover responded in a delightfully apple-related countryism.

It struck Melissa too that the discussion they were having was surprisingly casual in nature, or at least the first they were able to truly converse with each other since the whole situation began. Before hand, Melissa had been too pre-occupied by being suddenly thrust into this crisis for anything more than thoughts spawned from confusion and an activated fight-or-flight state to occur, while Apple Turnover surely fought with his own reactive state, but also being the only one able to sense distress, to calm down, and to wrangle this wild-animal thrown into puppeteering his own body for any casual conversation to be made either. Now sat here, just herself and Turnover, talking casually and learning of each other's lives; though right now not on the most conventional topics, felt like they were setting up a foundation for them to build a friendship off.

'My sister and myself were always close, looked after each other well. I can tell that you and Lobo have that same energy! Hmm... I'd guess, if your talent is baking, that you're a more creative type? And I sense that Lobo is the stronger of you two? It was kinda the same between my sis and I. She was the athletic one, I was the smart one.'

“An' if you were the smart'un, what was your special talent. What would've your cutie mark have told you?” pressed Turnover deeper into wanting to understand Melissa more.

'Hah... well I can tell you, being smart doesn't translate into knowing what you're gonna do with it! I felt happiest when I was trying to teach something, but I never really knew how best to put that into action.'

“Well... for the time bein', your an Apple, a rather weird addition at that, but once we get us separated, you'll always have our hooves to help ya!” Family really did mean a lot to the Apples, even if you were found family, and even for a temporary moment in time, and that offered a great sense of warmth for Melissa. More comfort to know that the family-unit she found herself in couldn't have been much better.

'Speaking about your... larger Apple family... Your cousin? Applejack? Your pa' said she was a hero, and you said earlier on she was in the Friendship Council? Is that mainly what she is up to now?' Probed Melissa, for two reasons. The first being general interest in this cousin who was portrayed as a hero for the family, and did seem to be close enough to the Princess to have a seat on a “Friendship Council”. And the second being, if she was any part the hero and had ties to leadership as the family said she did, then there was a good chance in Melissa's mind that Applejack may know one of those strong unicorns who her and Turnover can talk too about this situation.

“Yup! Mainly she's splitting work between the farm in Ponyville with the family there; and I think she's teaching at Twilight's School of Friendship... Hey! What'd'ya know! There's an idea for you now, courtesy of an Apple” This time they both had a chuckle at the sudden prompting of an idea, far before the time for those ideas to be made had even been seen on the horizon!

'Who's... uhh... bucking apples before they're ripe now, huh?' teased Melissa, a smile translating onto Turnover's physical face.

Turnover continued after their jovial burst settled. “Can't blame a pony for being excited to help another, heh! Well, our cousin Applejack ain't doing much adventuring now-a-days. As said, Equestria's been mighty peaceful of recent. But between you an' me, Applejack's the kinda pony that's not one for resting. Ah'm sure next family reunion she'd have herself plenty new tales!”

'And what about you Turnover? You have any exciting tales to tell? Exciting things you get up to when you're not working?' Melissa enquired, excited to carry on deep into the night talking with the other presence sharing the mind-space who was quickly becoming their first pony friend.

Author's Note

Next chapter is here, Wednesday as the note promised! Quite a bit more establishing of the story, but there's only a couple more chapters of that left to go, and we'll be beginning setting up for the first arc over those chapters. I always intended that this story would be equal parts slice-of-life and adventure, so I hope you're enjoying this slow lead-in non-the-less.

Chapter 1 - Who Is This?

Chapter 1

Who Is This?

The blindingly white flash of light abated, only to be replaced by a wall of darkness as Melissa stirred slightly, feeling drained of energy from whatever explosion of light had engulfed her. Her senses screamed at her, most obvious of all the ringing in her ears. Well, not quite her ears, it must have been bad if the ringing felt like it was higher in her head. Underneath her back, she felt tingling. She feared the worst had happened by the fact it was tingling at all, had she been paralysed from that explosion? No, it didn't feel like pins-and-needles, more like laying in a grassy field, if it wasn't for the fact she was in the middle of a city when whatever happened had happened. As her senses began to calm down, her eyes opened a peak, then wider, and wider between blinks to reveal to her bright blue skies above, dotted with swirling puffs of cloud, and...what appeared to be the canopy of a tree? No, this wasn't the right image to see.

Within the back of her head, obscured within a growing flood of anxious thoughts about the situation she had now woken up to, a masculine voice in a southern drawl exclaimed with a whooping holler at the beginning; “Woah doggeh, just what was that? Wait, why can't Ah move?”

Melissa stayed in place as the senses continued their gradual return, questions swarming her mind such as 'what was that explosion?', 'what happened?', 'this doesn't look like the city?', 'wait, could I be dead?', spending enough time laying with these questions until she could feel confident she could at least prop herself up and get a proper look around.

She pulled her arms back to her side, slid them back enough to elevate her from her lain position on the ground. Within her mind still buzzing with thoughts, the masculine voice commented “Hol' up! Ah didn't do that! What the hay's going on here?”

With her eyes wide open, and enough clarity in consciousness to take in her surroundings, she found that where she had regained that consciousness was not the same as where she lost it. She had expected brick buildings stretching into the sky and down towards the horizon. She had expected the greys and blacks of concrete and asphalt. At the least crowds of people to surround her after what appeared to have happened. But instead, she saw in front of her rows of trees on one side instead, stretching down to the horizon, and a stretch of wooden fence doing the same on the other, dipping in and out of view as rolling hills covered the landscape. A mix of green and brown on the ground, split between grass and strips of dirt between the rows of trees, and on the other side of the fence, what looked like a tilled field?

But then her focus turned away from taking in the landscape, and towards herself. Or, it couldn't have been herself. Questions as to the status of her life returned to the swarm of thoughts, as the light red shape in-front of her, stretching out as her body would, was very clearly not her body. It was light red for one, almost a pink. But what was it she was wearing, was it a costume? From under the shape. off to one side was a waft of lengthy hair, equally light green in shade to the red the shape above it was. None of it made sense to her, and only made worse when she decided to attempt lifting a leg into a bent position. What made it worse was that the red shape had corresponded to her request; that truly was her legs. They didn't end in shoes, of any kind really, just stubs. She sat in place after this for some time more, absorbed in the racing thoughts.

“Come'on Turnover, you can get through this” the masculine voice in her head stated, louder than the other thoughts floating around this time, and that was enough to break Melissa out of her frozen state, to slowly move her arm from her side, where it was propping her up, to her immediate sight in front of her, confirming that the red...costume?... wasn't only from the waist down, or what she presumed was her waist, but was instead her body, at least up to the neck.

“Oh my, Turnover! Are you okay darling?” an older sounding, almost mid-western voice of a feminine source catching her attention from inspecting this weird costume she was wearing, if not just because it was the first voice she had heard since coming back to her senses.

That voice she heard inside her head, the masculine one, suddenly proclaimed “Madam Beets! Please help!”.

“Uhh...erm...Madam...Beets?” Melissa ended up being able to mutter out, unknown how she was so sure of the name of the source of this voice.

“I saw 'dat 'dere explosion from across the farm! I'm glad ta see you're at least here with us” the source of the feminine voice said, but Melissa had frozen again at the sight of the source. Like what she saw of herself, this...being... looked like she was wearing a costume as well? But, she was on all fours? All four of her limbs, like an animal. No wait, it was a sort of horse-shaped design, even to the head with ears poking from the top of this being's head, and this being had a horse-like muzzle. Unlike her shade of light red, this being, who was apparently addressed as a 'Madam Beets', was coloured a deep shade of purple, with hair, and a tail, matching the depth of shade of purple, but more towards the blue-side of the spectrum.

Melissa's thoughts began spiralling, panicked and loud, anxiety getting the better of her in this situation now, her chest feeling tight though was it even her chest now? Her heart pounded quickly inside her but was it her heart? The being known as 'Madam Beets' looked on with concern in her eyes, tilting her head sideways at a slight angle. Inside Melissa's head, questions shouted out 'What is going on? Where am I? What is this...THING? I gotta get out of here!'

But in chorus with these questions, the masculine voice in her head added his own “This ain't me, this ain't mah thoughts...who are you?” but as Melissa's breaths became heavy, laboured, and panic engulfed her, the voice continued inside her; “Woah, hey, lets take a good deep breath here, hmm?”. Melissa internalized an agreement to the re-assuring sentiment from the voice in her head. For some reason or another, to have a calm voice in her head standing against and above the panicked thoughts she was having helped massively, and she was practising what the voice said, deep breaths against the growing panic. It was somewhat comforting, as it was confusing. This wasn't her thoughts she was sure, coming from this masculine voice. Then the voice returned “Hey, good job there. Now, Ah don't wanna push none, but when you can, please leave me.”

“Deary my darling! Are you okay? Must 'ave been some bump you had there?” questioned Madam Beets, cutting that introspective thought there, still looking on with concern and a little fear. This being obviously was showing some care, which set Melissa at ease some more.

“I'm...um...sorry... Madam Beets? I'll be...okay...” Melissa responded in a blatant lie, but to share some sort of care back. Now to try and sit up, and get up. Melissa didn't feel like whatever body this was hurt. She was able to prop herself on her 'arms' again. Yup, no hands, just ending in stubs like her legs, but that they ended in flat surfaces meant she at least had purchase on the ground below her. She scrunched herself up, shifting weight eventually from those arms to her legs, before beginning to stand, and yet her body fell forwards with a surprising lack of balance for Melissa's expectations, ending with her face-planting the grass below her.

Chastising herself, Melissa thought to herself 'right...this body must walk on four legs, like Madam Beets', to which the masculine voice responded in a calm, but authoritative manner “You... we... are not okay, Ah'm sorry, but dat's the bare truth. Ah can't move, and Ah doubt you can move! And unless you can give me my body back, ask her to get some help. Then, we should get to talking” the masculine voice ordered of Melissa.

With Madam Beets asked to go back to the place it appears this being who Melissa now found herself as occupies, and to grab some help from those who lived with this being's body, it left Melissa with this masculine voice in her head, a source of thoughts that were not of her own making. And for all intents and purposes, it seemed that the masculine voice in her head presumed the same, that Melissa was some sort of invading force actually inside the mind of this masculine figure.

Melissa had recovered herself from her face-plant into the grass, and was now laying on her side in this weird new body of hers. She had seen 'Madam Beets', and though not taking in her anatomy deeply, due on account of having a panic attack, she still understood from it that not only was this body not just a costume for humans... bipedal humans... but this was a different body all together, something quadrupedal. Laying on her side, her legs relaxed and settled back to it's apparent natural state of being perpendicular to her body.

There was silence for a short moment, before it was broken by the masculine voice living inside of her head. “Ah'm mighty sorry. Ah can tell you're confused, you're scared, and you're panicking. Ah'd be lying if ah said ah wasn't mighty confused and scared. But ah'd reckon you ain't 'ere for evil reasons... But, what ARE you 'ere for?” the masculine voice enquired. Unsure if she should just think the answer, if that would even work, Melissa spoke out-loud for the masculine voice. At this point, calm enough to notice it, Melissa noticed the voice that emitted from this body was the exact same as the masculine voice in her head.

“I... I don't really know... how I got here?” She questioned the wisdom of telling the masculine voice everything, of where she came from and the body she was meant to be in, but decided just to stick to reporting that... “Last that I remember, there was a bright flash in front of me, a white light, like an explosion.”

A brief pause of silence followed, before the masculine voice responded. “'Ah reckon what happened to you, also happened to me. I don't remember ault 'part from a bright flash either.”

Another long, silent pause followed, Melissa still gathering her sensibilities from the stressful moments just passed. The masculine voice again broke the silence and continued speaking to Melissa from inside her mind “So, you were alive 'fore you wound up 'ere, so I reckon ain't sharing mind with a new-born foal. Can ya tell me 'least if you're a pony? Not any one of dem Changelings or Griffins or what not?”

This question puzzled Melissa. Pony? Changeling? Griffin? She'd known ponies existed as small horses in her own world. Griffins, a mythical creature in that same world. Was this a land of myth? A land of legend? Changelings were a new concept to her earthly knowledge. Yet, she wasn't any of these, and she couldn't be sure what was, or wasn't in this reality. “Um...I was a bipedal creature, that I can say for sure. But... um... I... don't really remember.” She thought the best policy on this line of questioning was staying as loose with her answer as possible, even if it meant a small lie.

“Well... 'Ah believe that some dragons walk on two legs, might'en you have been a dragon?” Dragons too now? In this existence? This very much was a land of myth Melissa decided. “Suppose since we're sharing this noggin of mine for the time bein', we should 'least introduce ourselves. Name's Apple Turnover, or, ya can call me Turnover like Madam Beets did. And what's your name ma'am?” and yet another pause of silence followed before this time, Melissa decided to break the silence, after taking some time to think and consider.

“I feel a tad stupid talking to myself, or at least, that it must look like that on the outside... can I try... answering you in thought?” and with a verbal go-ahead from the newly titled Apple Turnover, the test began; 'Um... hello can you hear me? I suppose... I'm thinking that you should be hearing this too... my name is Melissa'.

“Melissa huh? Melissa alone? Ahh shoot, guess you don't need me to tell ya it worked! Well... it's not a common name among ponies, but I can't vouch for Dragons an' the like” responded Turnover, confirming the test was a success. “Listen, Melissa...” if not for the lack of body, the gap between that and when Turnover would continue could be explained as Turnover seeing how the unusual name fit “...Melissa, Madam Beets is bringing some of mah family up to help us out. Would ya be as kind, to let me do the talking. You just gotta copy my words. Okay?” The tone at the end turning reassuring and comforting, as if to say that this plan was the easiest way to respond to the upcoming challenge. 'I'll do my best' Melissa responded in thought with a somewhat grown sense of bravery, if only a slight bit.

The sense of bravery lasted for a moment, Melissa re-assuring herself that at least Apple Turnover was a kind being, a pony, she gambled with the fact that the body she now had was horse-shaped. Then, that bravery, and all sense of calm in her body cracked at a realization, shattered like a mirror, to the extent that she forgot she could even speak in her mind to Apple Turnover and stuttered out into the wild air “Turnover... aren't you... a male?” the sound of those words coming from a masculine sounding voice the body produced, not the voice of Apple Turnover in her... their mind, only compounding her sudden realization.

“Oh... Ah... that didn't come to mind to me... Suppose you're not use to the pony body... let alone a stallion bo...dy... Oh... Oh My Apologies, I didn't think but... Ah must be invading your privacy... gosh, I didn't even clock your mare-like voice”.

Disregarding Turnover's statements towards her, Melissa just had to check for herself, to make sure she wasn't mistaken, or imagining things, or that in this fantasy universe of Dragons and Griffins and talking horses, that there wasn't a lack of sex or anything crazy like that! She raised one of her rear legs that remained laid perpendicular to her body and craned her pony neck around to her... his... their nether regions. The area was covered, nearly smooth in look with the amount of fur, but closer inspection provided a confirmation, this was definitely Apple Turnover, the male stallion's body.

But it was also this opportunity that Melissa took to look over her new body, a somewhat masculine form, if Madam Beets was anything to go off of as comparison for a female pony, but not looking like a tank in size or muscles. Melissa also noted with the tail that it wasn't a solid light-green colour as she had previously spotted, but instead had two silvery-white stripes running down it's length as well. Elevating from the tail, she also spotted a peculiar mark on the rump of Apple Turnover. It had the shape of an apple, but was formed out of a criss-cross of crust; the sort you'd lay over the top of an apple pie. A “heh” from Apple Turnover broke Melissa's focus on studying this graphic, when Turnover continued by almost boasting “you can probably tell, yeah, 'Ah am Apple Turnover, of the Apple Family. Best family o' apple farmers in Equestria we reckon. You may know best our family branch out in Ponyville.”

Melissa resigned that there's an 'Equestria' and a 'Ponyville' and what made this 'Ponyville' branch so special, and instead tried to fit two-and-two together regarding the graphic on Apple Turnover's rump, and his family connections he boasted about with a sense of pride, despite the situation they were in. 'You must excuse my ignorance... but this image on your side, I take it's the family crest then?' Melissa questioned the voice of Turnover

Who responded with a chortle, “You must be a Dragon whose never met a Pony then, if ya don't know what a Cutie Mark is! No, no, Cutie Marks show you, and others, what ya special talent is. 'Ah did tell ya we're best apple farmers in Equestria, so a lot of our marks relate to apples. Myself, Ah make some mean apple deserts.”

The discussion was interrupted from beyond the two-sided, internal conversation, far enough away that the shout was barely noticeable. “Lil' bro! Madam Beets said cha got in trouble, ay'ma coming!” the shout was coming from a smaller, obviously strong, and yet still feminine pony coming up the line of trees, pulling behind her a cart that was attached to what seemed to be her waist.

Apple Turnover reached out again into the mind that him and Melissa shared to say “Remember, follow ma lead. Dat's ma big sis', Lobo Apple.”

“Lobo Apple, okay... this will be difficult.” Melissa consigned with a sigh letting her thoughts slip into mumbling out into the open.

Author's Note

Hello and greetings! Thank you for choosing to have a read of this story, and for making it through to the end. I've not written creatively like this in years, and frankly it feels great getting back into the swing of it! Total transparency, I'm already up to Chapter 7 of this story, but I'm going to try and reasonably space out the uploads. Unfortunately, I'm more a story-teller than an artist, so I do apologize for the lack of cover image! Maybe one day. :raritywink:

Chapter 2 - Coming Home

Chapter 2

Coming Home

Lobo Apple had laid herself down next to Turnover, on her belly, with both fore-legs and rear-legs folded in, Melissa reckoned just like how a cat would sit. As Lobo took her place, Melissa was able to stutter out a “Hey... Lobo”, feeling like getting use to Turnover's masculine voice was a long-journey ahead, as well as coming to any level of comfort with the situation she had somehow found herself in.

Lobo had leaned down, the body which had belonged to Turnover still laid flat on it's side where Melissa had placed it, and the sister of this foreign body to Melissa gave a short nuzzle on the neck with an accompanying statement of “Oh Celestia, Ah'm just glad ya still 'ere with us. What Madam Beets said got me right scared! You don't got right to do that to ya big sister!”

Lobo appeared to be a similar shade of red to Turnover, but more vibrant and darker in shade, and matched it with short cut, straight hair that ran half way down her neck that was orange on the outside, but quickly faded into a shade of silver in steps, the same pattern existing on her tail. Her cutie mark was an apple, a brighter shade of red than her coat, which held a silver paw-print right in the center. Noticing the mark, Melissa made a note to herself to ask, if Turnover's mark meant he was good at cooking, what did Lobo's mark mean? This was added to the growing list of questions Melissa eventually wanted to get answers too, but most of them would probably betray her intentions of masking that she wasn't of this mythical universe.

The cataloguing of the questions piling up inside of Melissa's mind was interrupted by the intruding, calm voice of Apple Turnover gently ordering “Now, copy me.”

“Uhh... Ah apologize for scaring you there... big sis. That... there... explosion took the wind out of me. Ah'm sorry to ask, but could ya cart us back to the house... Ah' don't think Ah' can walk right 'bout now.” Melissa copied from Apple Turnover's dictation in her mind, trying her best to copy Turnover's distinct southern twang, over her own city-living accent she still had.

It had seemed to have worked the best it could, as with just a flicker of one of Lobo's ears, obviously picking up something different about the tone of her close family member, Lobo smiled warmly and responded saying “Sure thang lil' bro, you get yourself rested up, right?” with the 'right?' the end seemingly more an order than a question.

Melissa attempted again to get herself into a standing position, this time understanding that her new bodily experience was meant to be quadrupedal, rather than attempting to stand on their two rear-legs as she had last time which resulted in that undignified face-plant into the grass. This time, with small injections of encouragement courtesy of the mental-voice of Turnover; Melissa managed a standing position, legs splayed wider than they should, and a wobbly foundation, ending up looking like a new-born deer-foal, but successfully stood on all fours either way. “Now hol' it Melissa. This ain't like your dragon tootsies. Let me say, take your first step with your front left, an' pair that with your back right.” Turnover instructed to Melissa, who followed the steps in turn as Turnover continued “Now, close yourself back up by taking your front right and back left forward. Think you got that?” And with that, Melissa had somewhat successfully taken her first step in this body. A singular step, her final positioning not set to propel her a further step as her legs returned to a standing position.

Her congratulatory feelings to this were interrupted by Lobo, who watched the slow, unsure first step forward with a look of concern on her. “That explosion must'a knocked right sense out of ya! 'Ere, let me give ya a hoof” and with that, Lobo took a position beside Melissa, wrapped one of her brighter-red hoofs around Turnover's faded-red torso, and held Melissa in a way to provide support.

“Ahh that's my sis', bless her. Wish Ah' can thank her myself... Umm... just do those same steps, an'... try an' follow her lead.” Apple Turnover's comments trailed off into a tone of sadness towards the end, but the instruction was clear, and Melissa tried her best with her new found skill in walking on all fours, matching the slow canter of Lobo towards the cart she brought with her.

“Uhh... Thank you, big sis” Melissa stated with a sad hesitancy, the least she could on behalf of Turnover.

The entry into the cart had to be aided by Lobo, who pushed her brother up from the rear with her head and neck, as Melissa could not find a way to position herself in this new body to help climb up the ledge. But now they were inside the cart, and the rear flap had been shut behind them by Lobo. Melissa laid Turnover's body back down the way she had before. The cart had just enough room to splay herself out like before, but not much room for further movement. She also made an attempt to elevate her head to look over the side of the cart, following how she perceived Lobo being able to move her head as she was laid on her belly, settling down to look out towards the farmland, confirming rows and rows of apple trees as what she saw stretching out into the horizon. She swivelled her head to watch as Lobo attached the harness for the cart back up to her back and torso, before turning back to meet the eyes of her little brother with a weary smile “Jus' setting off, Ah'll try ta be gentle for ya... No promises.”

The journey back for a short while was silent. Melissa could tell that Apple Turnover was still sorrowful about the position he now found himself in, and guessed that Lobo was still worried sick about her little brother. But she still had questions to ask, to dig her a bit further out from the sense of anxiety she still held, but pushed down for the moment to put on a brave face for the siblings. 'So, Apple Turnover...' Melissa began, before being hit with another pang of realization at how absurd this situation was, these beings, these ponies, it seemed at least from the three ponies she had met so far, didn't have names like hers, human names she was accustomed to saying. This was naming people after items... it must have been the same feeling Turnover had when he had his first taste of saying Melissa's very different human name.

The directed thought calling on Apple Turnover woke him from his unfocused state with a responding “hmm?”. Melissa decided to continue off of this response, somewhat confident that though Turnover was in a sorry state, he'd still do his best to talk to his new guest, or new host?

'Sorry Turnover... I just wanted to ask... where exactly are we?'

“You've wound up at Willow Springs farm... hmm, where might'en a Dragon have heard of before? You heard ah Mareyland? Baltimare?”

You gotta be kidding, Melissa internalized, she couldn't be sure that this wasn't just a different version of Earth, but if it was, even though this wasn't anything like the Maryland she had heard of, how did she end up somewhere 180 miles, give or take, from her home? If this was Earth, how could she be so sure?

Great, more questions spawning from the answering of a simple question. At least now she could locate herself in this reality. Willow Springs, what she presumed was Mareyland. She had recalled from her memory that when Turnover was boasting about the fame of the Apple family, that he had mentioned Equestria. Was this the country? The continent? The name of the world? The least that she knew was that she could greater locate herself to Equestria as well.

Silence fell again as the journey continued, before Lobo turned her head to look back towards her little brother “How ya doin' back there bro? Ya resting ah know, but ya also awful quiet.” Melissa waited on Turnover to dictate what she should say to his big sister, but the longer she waited, the more awkward the silence... maybe things weren't as okay as she expected from Turnover.

None-the-less, his sister awaited an answer, so Melissa stumbled out a “We're okay back here...” wait, she just accidentally said WE'RE okay? She watched Lobo closely, as she flicked the same ear as before, and turned her head back to focus on the trail ahead. 'Oh jeez, that was a close one... I got to be careful with what I say now'... although now she thought of it, how many more ponies will she be needing to mask speaking to as Apple Turnover? It'd be near enough impossible to speak to a whole family unit of Apples as a fake rendition of their little brother, their son, their grandson if they still had...their father if Turnover had somebody special in his life...and if he did, that would be another being she'd need to fake being Turnover as to, she'd have to fake being in love, fake being a male in this relationship! She needed to wake Apple Turnover from his stupor, and if she can, also get him to inform her of how many other family members she could expect to see when they arrived at their final destination. Without questioning if this line of enquiry was a good idea, she ploughed ahead.

'Turnover, I'm gonna need your help here. Speaking to your family, whoever is there when we finally arrive. I know right now you are hurting... um... if it helps, tonight we can share stories about our families, our friends? But right now, you need to tell me about who we're gonna see when we get back to your house, and who they are to you. If I'm gonna be you, it's best they not think you've gone crazy or got yourself amnesia or something! So please, come and help me.'

It was a short time after that Melissa heard a response back. “A'right, suppose if you're bein' strong for yourself... Ah should try an' be strong too. Apologies ma'am.” another short break happened, with Melissa worried that Turnover had already gone against his rally to himself to be strong, but those fears were quelled when Turnover continued. “You already met ma big sister, Lobo. You see the type'ah character she is by how she's helping an' all. She looks strong, an' has a stubborn head to boot, but there's a very gentle heart under there. She raises the dogs in the Apple family, an' beyond too!”

As Turnover continued regaling the different family members who lived at Willow Springs farm, Melissa settled in place to look out over the orchard as the rows of trees passed, little to take her attention away from the thoughts Turnover was relaying to her.

“There's our ma' Carnation, and our pa' Champlain Apple. Beautiful parents they are. Pa's a hard-working stallion, farm's his still, me an' Lobo help when we can. Ma's actually from a family of flower growers, a mighty name too, like the Apples are. Part of the farm is her's for growin' her flowers... We ain't allowed in there however. An' finally, there's Pappy Pippin, grand-pappy on pa's side, retired as all though now. An' that's us all living together, well 'part from Lobo's pups.”

The lines of trees faded out soon after Turnover finished explaining the family dynamic of the farm, and gave way to a somewhat grand farmhouse, and to the side a set of barns and sheds. The farmhouse seemed to be a story of two buildings; where one was a square building, with exposed dusty-coloured bricks with little for ornamentation in the design apart from blue shutters on the upper windows, and a roof of what seemed to be hay? However, beside this square face of the building was a neatly painted white tower, rectangular in shape and jutting out further than the square farmhouse directly joining it to it's side. The front was decorated with thick, round, white pillars which stretched from ground to roof to hold it up, as well as a second floor balcony guarded by an ornate white fence.

Laying between the farmhouse and the largest of barns was a penned off area made of chicken-wire fence, where inside a scattering of pups that were running around the pen halted, and in quick succession gathered around the closest side of the fence and began barking for their care-giver's return. Turnover interjected here as Melissa took in the sights of the farm-stead. “That there is where Lobo raises her pups. And that white part of the house is ma's new bedroom. Ma's been trying to get Lobo to move her pups elsewhere. Ma'...” Turnover halted there, deciding not to air the family's drama to his new guest, despite Melissa sensing a turn of frustration entering his tone. “Our bedroom... is up on the second floor in the other side of the house”

“A'right lazy-flank, time ta get out and lets get cha to bed. Ah'd reckon pa' 'as gone out to fetch a doc, just in case.” Lobo stated after the cart stopped it's roll in front of the grand farmhouse, and began uncoupling from the cart's harness. Attention was then spun towards the front door of the house, as a new voice chimed in.

“Ahh! My baby! Are you okay? Wild Beets came over all a-flutter saying you got injured!?” Standing there was a white female pony, a slim, tall, and graceful figure, a vast contrast to Madam Beets who was standing behind her. This white pony was Turnover's mother Carnation, who sported a lengthy mane that was a mix of Lobo's pastel red coat, with Turnover's two stripes of silver running down her mane. But the stripes of silver in her mane weren't the only similarities with the body of Turnover. Turnover's figure seemed to be more similar to his mother's body, in being tall and slim, than Lobo's was. Melissa considered the possibility without seeing their father, that Lobo's body shape would to be discovered to be more like her father. On this white mare's flank her cutie mark consisted of three red blooming flowers, Melissa presumed them to be carnations, judging from what she had gleamed about cutie marks from Turnover, though she had only heard of carnations and never seen them.

As if to confirm Melissa's suspicions, Turnover announced in her head “Yup, that's ma', that's Carnation... Hmm, just say...”

“Hey ma', Ah'll be okay, just need some rest... I reckon... OH... ahh... thanks for goin' to get help Madam Beets.”

To this, Madam Beets approached closer to the doorway, but still not passing in front of Carnation, and responded with a simple “Oh it wasn't an issue deary!”

“Well, I'm just glad you're back home safe darling. Get yourself rested, and we can talk about what injured you when you're better, m'kay? 'Cause I swear, if it was one of those weather-mares again...” Carnation trailed off at the end of that thought in her own grumbling complaint, but she had ordered her son rest, or what she knew as her son at least; for Melissa she'd need to ask Lobo to help her get to the room Melissa and Turnover would in a way have to share as much as their shared mind-space.

But without even needing to ask, Lobo was at the rear flap of the cart, awaiting Melissa's response. The movement Melissa did to once again get into a standing position was again wobbly, but she managed to stumble forward to catch Lobo's stubby existence of a hoof that Melissa was still getting use to seeing, and complete with a clumsy fumble down from the cart, Turnover's body was standing upright in front of the doorway to the house. Carnation and Madam Beets had retreated further into the house to allow Turnover and his guide in Lobo through and up the stairs beyond them in the hallway. As they passed Carnation and Madam Beets, Melissa was able to quickly catch the mother talking with Madam Beets. “I really cannot thank you enough Wild. It looks like my darling Turnover will be okay, but we'll see what the doctor says...”

Melissa did not stick around for more of the conversation however, ushered down the hallway and up the stairs, not allowed the opportunity to slow and look around the house on her journey through, where they ended up at a bedroom at the furthest end of the house from Carnation's comparative mansion of a bedroom. The lack of any statement from Apple Turnover was enough to confirm that this bedroom was indeed his. Lobo left her brother past the threshold to the room, and turned tail to return downstairs to their mother.

“Pardon, Melissa?” Turnover called once they were alone in the bedroom. “With pa' goin' to fetch a doc for us. Ah think it'd be best we keep this whole... two of us in ma noggin, from him.”

'I'm inclined to agree with you Turnover, somehow I don't think this is your average illness that a doctor can fix' Melissa continued in conversation as wobbly steps were taken towards the bed in the room.

“Yah right on that one ma'am. Reckon we may need a mighty strong magic user” Turnover reasoned. Okay, another question to internalize in trying to understand this new universe, Melissa just put the fact that magic existed in this world with the ever-growing pile of things she needed more understanding of here. But Turnover was correct that they had to prepare for whatever this coming doctor would have to examine, so as Melissa climbed onto the bed, whose mattress sunk under the pressure of their legs, making an uncomfortable attempt to lay on their belly like she saw Lobo doing when they first met; the two creatures who shared this same body's mind-space got to planning.

Author's Note

Chapter 2 has arrived, huzzah! I'm glad for the otherwise positive response from the first chapter. I just want to say a thank you for everybody who read the last chapter and has returned to read this new chapter.

Chapter 3 - A Doctor Calls

Chapter 3

A Doctor Calls

By the time the doctor arrived to Willow Springs farm, accompanied by Apple Turnover's father; Champlain Apple, who on being informed that his son was injured had left to collect the local doctor, Turnover and Melissa had discussed and decided on a plan for what they would do during the doctor's examination. If the doctor asked Melissa, who was in control of Turnover's body, to do anything physical; if it was something she could do already like raising, walking, talking, the best thing to do in that situation was to comply. If it was something Melissa could not do, or had not yet experienced, then they'd apologize and blame fatigue from the whole experience. If they required answering any questions or prompts from the doctor, Melissa would let Turnover dictate their answer through her, no matter how stuttered or weird the answer may end up sounding.

Melissa requested to Turnover to allow her to walk around the room for a bit to finally get use to the experience of walking on all fours while awaiting the arrival of the doctor, which Turnover wasn't opposed to. At the same time, Melissa had also wanted to try and at least get more answers to the questions she had that she could not ask Turnover, the questions which would reveal she was not of this universe.

Off to the side of the bedroom, standing flush against the wall and beside a window was a bookcase, filled with many books of different thicknesses. What confused Melissa looking at the spines of these books was the weird language it was all written in, but what confused her more was that she could read and understand the words? Taking a gambit that surely, like on Earth, this world at least had different languages spoken, she asked Turnover about the confusing development. 'Turnover, you have an absolute ton of books here... but I gotta ask, how can I read the titles of these? It's no language I'm familiar with!' to which Turnover replied, delayed by a short chuckle at the sound of Melissa's amazement at being able to read this language.

“Well, Ah was born an' raised in a land where we speak Ponish. Ah'd say as a dragon, you might'en not come across this before. But, if Ah were to guess, Ah'd reckon since this is my brain, you're reading it 'cause I know the lingo. If it were in dragon lingo, then you'd might'en know what each character is but Ah couldn't make head or tail!” to which Melissa confidently doubted, but still it seemed that Turnover was under the impression Melissa was a dragon, and this was a aspect of the situation that Melissa accepted wholly, as it was most likely the closest analogue to being an earthly-human.

Melissa's gambit on attempting to learn more about this land involved reading a random book from the bookshelf, and scanning over the titles, a lot of the books were cooking books, books on different pastry recipe collections. Knowing what she presumed to knew of Turnover, she guessed Turnover's interest in the books were only for the recipes involving apples. Towards the lower shelves were books on more miscellaneous items. Included among them was a small hard-back book 'History of Mare in the Moon Age Mareyland'. This she felt confident would be the one to answer a few questions. It seemed to combine basic history with basic geography at the least.

Then she realized...all the time she had been in this body, Melissa had never attempted to grab a hold of anything. Never attempted at taking and moving something. She froze a moment, her mind buzzing frustrated thoughts now, opposed to the anxiety inducing thoughts of when she first awoke to this situation. She was beginning to grow tiresome of the different functionalities of this body she was thrust into.

“Hmm, Ah think, when you get all in one of these states where your thoughts take over, Ah can hear 'em too.” Turnover commented, breaking through the swarm of frustrated thoughts, before continuing in a jestful, playful tone “An' Ah think Ah know what got you all fuzzled. Never had to pick up anything with hooves have you? A'right, Lesson 2 of being a pony comin' right up!” well, Melissa was happy to sense that Turnover was in a lighter mood trying to mentor this inexperienced being foreign to his body, but what he said about racing thoughts breaking through to be audible to him too, Melissa had to be careful with not letting her emotions cause a chain-reaction of uncontrolled thoughts from now on. Thankfully Turnover seemed like a capable hand... or hoof? In staving off floods of overwhelming emotion, and looking on the bright-side of the situation, it was better that she ended up with a pony like Turnover, than somebody who was less patient, or understanding, and in the same way welcoming to this invasive presence.

In reply to Turnover offering a brand new lesson of pony-101, Melissa giggled back to her mind room-mate's jest and replied 'I'd love to know how... uh, you don't mind me having a read of this? Might help me get my bearings better to where I ended up'. She had pointed to the book in question she wanted to pick up, which to an outside perspective must have looked weird as just a pony pointing in silence, alone, to a single book on a bookshelf... she hoped the doctor wouldn't walk through the door at this point.

“No harm Ah suppose to help you get your bearings. Right, holding onto things as a pony... you know how you can talk to me by thinkin' that a thought needs to be heard by me? 'Least... that's how Ah can end up talking to you! It's much like that. Think about wanting to pick up that book, and let our body's instinct do the rest!” the explanation seemed simple enough, but in this universe it worked so differently to how it did in Melissa's own. As with getting to grips with walking, getting to grips with using these hooves would take some getting use to, some training up of muscle memory like she had been doing by pacing the room for walking. But Melissa made her first attempt none-the-less, focusing thought on picking up that book by the spine. For a moment, it was successful, dragging the book back from the shelf, then into the air attached only to her hoof. The excitement of her success broke her concentration of thought of wanting to hold the book, and at that moment, it thudded softly to the floor below her. “Ah shoot” she said out loud.

By the time she had focused long enough to carry the book onto the bed with her, and get herself laying down, that is the time the doctor called.

Alongside the doctor entering into Apple Turnover's bedroom was Turnover's father, back from accompanying the doctor to the house, and letting out a sigh of relief as he saw his son sat on the bed, at least seemingly awake and not looking visibly injured from the explosion as Madam Beets had described seeing it.

Champlain Apple's stature was a confirmation of Melissa's guess that while Apple Turnover had his mother's body, Lobo Apple had Champlain's body, as Champlain was smaller than his young son already, though not by much, and had a very capable looking strong figure. His coat was a more vibrant shade of green than Turnover's tail, mixed with a hint of yellow, like how a green apple was expected to look. Most of his mane was covered by a brown Stetson hat, complete with a black belt circling it's crown, but peaking from underneath it and colouring the entirety of his tail was a dis-coloured orange-y straw colour, probably closest to what a human could call auburn.

Champlain had let the doctor into the bedroom, and stood at the door's threshold to give the doctor room to perform her examination, but this left Melissa unable to see the patriarch's cutie mark, and if it conformed to the Apple family name and was related to apples in some form.

The doctor however was a completely different story for Melissa to soak in seeing. For one, this pony had wings! At the time, they were closed up, laying plastered to the sides of the pony, but the difference in material and texture from fur to feather was impossible to not notice for Melissa.

Okay so we had ponies who could potentially perform magic, and we have ponies with wings. Many questions floated in Melissa's confused state, but remembering how Turnover warned how he could hear when Melissa's thoughts were racing, she did her best to calm herself and ignore this matter for the moment. And any way, she had to perform in front of this doctor now for her examination. Turnover chipped in quickly as the doctor began her approach to her patient, stating “Remember our plan Melissa, do what you're comfortable with, say you can't because you're tired to things you ain't comfortable with, and let me handle any talking” to which Melissa replied with a succinct mental 'got it'.

“How. Are. You. Doing. Today. Mister Turnover” the doctor began, punctuating every word in a cheery song-like salutation as she walked up towards Melissa and Turnover's shared body. “I hear you came into some trouble at the farm, do you feel hurt anywhere?” the doctor continued. Matching Champlain, the doctor was also wearing a hat, this a cream boaters hat rather than a Stetson. Her physique was similar to Champlain's and Lobo's, smaller in size than Turnover, but the doctor looked sleeker than the father and daughter, probably on account of the pony having wings, a sleeker figure being better to fly with. Her coat was darker grey in colour, with a white stripe running from her muzzle up between her eyes and under the cap she donned, while her wings were peppered with white spots. Even though Melissa could not see the doctor's hair underneath the hat, her exposed tail taught Melissa that her mane was likely to be the same shade of bright sky blue as her tail was.

“Hey doc... Hmm can't say Ah'm feeling much pain... Just mighty tired is all” Melissa copied from what Turnover dictated to her, completing the sentence with a half-than convincing yawn.

“Well either way, I've only heard of what happened from a pony, told by another pony, who only witnessed what happened. So can you tell me in your own words Mister Turnover? What happened to you?” the doctor pressed further, still presenting a kind and patient tone with a smile and a swing of her head side to side as she recounted the chain of ponies that her knowledge of the situation came from.

“Ah can't tell you much... of that either honest to... Celestia?” Okay, Turnover, you'll have to tell me who Celestia is, if you are gonna use her name... in vein like the JC or the big G even. Urgh, maybe this book will hold that answer too. But we must continue, internalized Melissa at that hiccup in proceedings “Ah... All Ah can tell you Doc, is I was collectin' some apples, then boom, bright white light and before Ah knew it, Ah was on my back!”

“Okay well, as for the explosion that was seen... that'll be to other local ponies to check out, the local chapter of pegasi who control the weather will want to be by, make sure you lock your mother away for that, heh-heh” the doctor giggled. Clearly there was some sort of prior engagement between these pegasi, the winged ponies Melissa pieced together, who monitored the weather? Like meteorologists? And the family's matriarchal figure. Seemed like a question that Melissa could finally ask Turnover, and one he can divulge with pleasure.

The doctor continued unabated by the inaudible internalizations of Melissa “still, if that explosion landed you on your back, we should have a check there for damage. And I don't see any singeing on your body, but could you roll over for me, I'll need to check your underside and your hooves for any damage.”

'Yeah, I can do those Turnover, I got this' Melissa confidently proclaimed in thought to Apple Turnover, as the doctor pegasus rounded the bed before softly placing her hooves on the pony-Turnover's back and explaining “Just give me a holler if this hurts at any time, okay?” and began to press differing parts of the back, whatever noises, or lack of noises, were being produced by these different presses and prods by the surprisingly dexterous hooves of the doctor, didn't seem to be producing any more concerns to the pegasus, and in time she asked for Melissa to flip the body of Turnover over for examining of the underbelly.

Moving from a laying down position seemed to be a simple task for Melissa to accomplish with this inexperienced bodily control of hers, it felt like one of the things she held most confidence in when moving the body of Turnover, more so than walking which was only now becoming a thing she had confidence in. A simple flip over, and Melissa was presenting the belly of Turnover to the doctor, all four legs elevated into the air above her, but resting and folded, not out-stretched like some fainted-goat.

In quick succession, the doctor had a thorough look at the fur throughout the underside of Turnover's body, for the singed fur that the doctor had indicated, and taking a hold of each hoof to inspect for singeing and damage there, before finally returning to placing her hoofs on Turnover's underside and repeating the instruction “And again, if you feel any sort of pain, do tell me, okay” before proceeding to press and prod again across the body, with much the same results.

At the end of the inspection, the doctor pulled away from the bedside, turned to face Champlain, who was still standing at the doorway of the bedroom, and reported back to him “Well, I can find no injuries, no damage, no tenderness, in your boy Mister Apple. I'd say he's mighty lucky! The whole shock of the sudden explosion probably got him disorientated and drained his energy. A fair night's sleep and he should be all good tomorrow. Now, if anything changes, you know where I'm based in the area, and if you can't find me there, head to the post-office and one of the delivery-ponies will know where I am and inform me.”

“Ahh, well that's fantastic to hear, just superb! Thanks for comin' to have a look at our boy anyhow Rapid.” Champlain finally spoke in front of Melissa, and she could tell where the southern drawl that Turnover and Lobo had came from, obviously from the father's side of the family. “But t'is mighty confusin' this explosion here. Don't you worry, I'll be in contact with the weather ponies soon.” Champlain concluded as he stepped aside to allow the doctor out of the room.

“Yeah, and I'll be sure to tap my cousin Windy to see what she knows about all this. Best of luck Mister Apple” the doctor, who at the parting moments with Melissa revealed her name to at least be partly “Rapid”, surely a noun would follow that for her full name? If Melissa understood naming conventions right.

After letting Doc. Rapid past, the name Melissa would be assigning to this pony until knowing their full name, Champlain stepped into the bedroom for the first time since he arrived back home, where Melissa could now see that indeed, Champlain's cutie mark was straight-up just an apple! A particularly red one, though framing it in a diamond shape were four shape-hugging triangles in silver. “Oh what are we gonna do with you Turnover, boy!” Champlain began in jest as he walked over towards the body of his son. “Don't you go all hero like this was asking somethin' of you, you can't be becoming the next Cousin Applejack you hear? Ending up cozied up to the Princess and all!”

Following the dictation of Turnover still, Melissa responded to Champlain by saying “Ahh, Ah wouldn't dare even think about doing that pa'!... Ah'm sorry pa', but Ah need some rest, can ya leave me be... oh an' tell the rest of the family the same please.” And with an understanding nod and a smile, pa' Champlain turned around, exited the room, and shut the door behind him.

“Ya did great there Melissa! Ah think we're somewhat becoming natural at this now... sad to say... but let's hope we can get some answers soon!” Turnover congratulated in Melissa's mind-space, however with the sentiment dipping at the mention at that at least for the while, this was their new normal, but a cheery belief to cap off the message. Melissa could only make this body of her's smile at the sentiment, the commanding thought that she had done well in piloting this body and copying Turnover's words, and more gratefulness that she had landed with somebody like Turnover.

Melissa turned her head towards the book she picked out from the bookshelf before the doctor's examination began, and still filled with positive energy from the congratulations, excitedly but quietly asked aloud to Turnover “shall we get started on this book then?”

Author's Note

I have to admit with this chapter, while I was writing the character description for Doc. Rapid, I quickly fell in love with the design for her that was in my head. I'm kinda considering making her my pony-sona, but my overthinking brain raises some arguments;

Against ;- Doc. Rapid doesn't feel personal enough to represent myself.

For ;- Doc. Rapid is personal enough because it's a detailed character I created that I enjoy.

Against ;- is it weird for me to take a character of my own fic as my main sona?

For ;- I don't see why I couldn't if I enjoy the concept of the character. I can always give her slight tweaks.

What do y'all say? Can a fic author adopt one of their characters as a sona? And I'm specifically talking fic to sona, and not authors who self-insert their own sonas into a fic!

Thank you for continuing to read this fic of mine!

Chapter 5 - Dawn of the First Day

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!

Chapter 6 - Of Flora and Fauna

Chapter 6

Of Flora and Fauna

The trail back to Willow Springs would transition slowly; through the dense cluster of buildings at the center of the village that most outsiders just pointed to as Mareyland, through the scattering of small farms and rural homes of ponies on the village's outskirts, into the dense forest that lined the sides of the river leading back to the Apple farm.

Behind Melissa, hitched to the wagon carrying it, was Lobo's package picked up from the village's post-office. Alone on the journey save for the presence of Apple Turnover, the journey back to the Apple farm offered them time to continue their conversation started just as they left; on what they should do to remedy the situation that they had found themselves in.

'I don't suppose you know of any powerful unicorns we could actually contact... It'd be more likely that you'd know than me.' Melissa questioned to Turnover continuing their internal conversation.

“Ah must admit, Ah don't know any myself... Ah could only guess that, the princesses would be the best magic users, but Ah'd reckon they're all too busy. That's why I suggested the School of Friendship before! If what the stories Cousin Applejack had told is right, there's some might-fine magic users there!”

Explaining how the School of Friendship could be a valid plan, a suggestion that Melissa had dismissed out of hand previously, a twang of guilt mixed with sorrow hit Melissa.

However, Melissa continued through that feeling. 'And what about your cousin, Applejack? You and your family are saying she's a hero and all, and a member of... what was it... the Council of Friendship? Do you think they could help?' Melissa suggested, wanting to make sure she had crossed every idea that she had dismissed beforehand in her own way of repentance.

“Well, Ah'd reckon, from what the stories say, that only Princess Twilight was a great magic user. There's Rarity, and while she may be a Unicorn... she ain't no mage like Twilight is... The rest, well Applejack's a normal earth-pony, like us Apples are, there's another earth-pony, and the other two are pegasi. Myself? Ah think the School is the best direction, frankly” Turnover responded.

A short lull in the conversation followed, before it was picked back up again by Turnover. “Am Ah right in guessin'... you might'en not know much about these six ponies? Suppose if you weren't a dragon in the crowd with ponies, you might'en not know them.” Turnover reckoned to Melissa, suddenly realizing the disadvantage Melissa might be in with their discussions on the Elements of Harmory. “Ah think...” Turnover mulled over the thought he was forming for a moment before continuing “...Yeah! Ah got their friendship journal when they released it! Reckon the family wanted an upper-hoof on those Ponyville Apples since we ain't that much special. Ah hear it got some right juicy stories!” The statement having a hint of chiding with a familial pride to it, followed with a chuckle and humouring their situation by saying “Suppose now we're in this situation, we finally got that upper-hoof Ah'd say!”

Melissa giggled along with that statement, before chiming in to Turnover's proposal of learning more about his hero-cousin's friends. 'Now hold up there, must I remind you that this situation won't be forever? As for that friendship journal you say... That doesn't sound like too bad an idea. I might just take you up on that! If this farm-work today you've got me doing doesn't leave me too tired, I may just start on it tonight.'

Turnover was right on why she needed to read the friendship journal, she was none the wiser to the supposed heroic exploits of the Apple's cousin, including what it was they exactly did to get themselves, and their friends, the titles of heroes. Plus, any book that would add to the growing stockpile of knowledge that she held of this new world would be something she'd want anyway.

Soon after finishing this conversation, the duo turned the penultimate corner of their journey leaving the stream that paralleled the path behind them, out of the dense forests, and onto the path bordered to one side by the ploughed fields that was Madam Beets' property. The sound of running water returning as they made their way up the road indicated to Melissa that they had finally arrived at the Apple family's property at Willow Springs.

Pulling up through the threshold of the property, off of the trail and towards the family's farmhouse, the farm stood otherwise quiet compared to the argument-laden chaos that they left among that morning. Melissa figured that Champlain, the patriarch of the family, was busy out doing work in the orchards or maybe inside the farmhouse in an unseen office that Melissa may have missed seeing on her brief stay within the house. Carnation's presence was also missing, and Melissa presumed the same; either that the matriarch was tending to her gardens or inside her own offices inside the ill-fitting posh looking addition to the otherwise quaint farmhouse.

However passing by the front of the house towards Lobo's kennels, and unsighted by Melissa, the front door of the house creeped open and Carnation stepped out behind the arriving cart of Melissa and Turnover.

Arriving to the kennels, Melissa looked out across the chicken-wire fence that divided the lot off from the rest of the farmstead, and locked eyes with Lobo who was still surrounded by pups, giving varying amounts of comfort from cuddling up next to her, leaping up at her demanding her attention, or just paying her no heed as they played among themselves in her vicinity. Melissa couldn't help but to d'aww at the sight that her comparatively human sense of cuteness comprehended as an absolute overload of cute! A cute creature being surrounded by yet more cute creatures was a sight that would fill the sugar-needs of any human for a whole month, and could only be found on the cheesiest of greetings cards.

And the playtime seemed to be working to return the mood of Lobo from it's doldrums this morning post-argument, as when she locked her eyes with Melissa's, a bright smile plastered her muzzle, met in return with the bright smile on Turnover's face from Melissa's enjoyment at the sight. However, that bright smile quickly faded as Lobo's eyes drifted from Melissa and locked on instead to the approaching figure of Carnation from behind the cart.

Melissa had only time to get out “Hey big sis', Ah'm back from the post office with tha...” before the loud announcement of Carnation's presence cut off that remark with a commanding “Lobo Apple! You did not get another thing for this abomination of an enclosure did you?”

Lobo's energy instantly went more defensive, as she scooped up two of the puppies that were leaping up at her and held them close to her torso. “An' what of it? If Ah asked your permission, Ah'd knew you'd been against it from the get go!”

“Lobo Apple, this was your last straw. If you won't listen to me telling you to move your... dogs... then I am left with no choice...” it was somewhat obvious that whatever word that Carnation wanted to use for Lobo's pups, was not the word she used, as she tried to at least contain her bubbling-over anger.

“I want you out of here by the week's end. Get your own place, where you can do all... this...” Carnation began, swinging one of her fore-hoofs in a wide arch to signify the entirety of the kennels, before continuing “Or you get rid of them... all of them.” Ultimatum completed, Melissa swung between looking at Carnation and Lobo; Carnation's face stern and confident, while Lobo's face portrayed a look of shock, mixed with a blend of worry and anger.

Internally, those emotions were copied by Turnover, who mutters to himself “Dear Celestia, Ma' what are you doing?” and at this point, the wave of emotions that Melissa could feel that Turnover was experiencing, she couldn't be entirely sure if Turnover meant that to be heard by her.

But before another word could be spoken, by any of the parties present, the sound of sniffles broke the tension, and as Melissa pivoted her attention back towards Lobo, she witnessed before her what was formerly a pony who had in her first impressions seemed strong and tenacious had been reduced to a pony who was holding a fore-hoof across the front of her muzzle and hiding herself away as the sniffles continued, evolving into the sound of sobs.

The short, stocky red pony then shot up from her position, pups scattering from their position to give her space, before she whipped her head from it's concealed pose and responded to the ultimatum given to her, shouting out towards her mother “Fine! If'n y'all wanna see me gone so badly, then Ah'll just go!” Lobo breaking into a sprint rapidly as she vaulted the chicken-wire fencing and darted past Melissa and Carnation, past the cart, past the house, and out of sight into the dense woods that held Carnation's gardens.

“Melissa, Ah'm so truly sorry you ended up here... with all this... but you're gonna need to let me dictate for a moment.” And with a deep breath to collect herself for whatever it was Turnover wanted to scald his mother with, she began, hoping she could play the best performance of her life with the energy and emotion that Turnover was dictating to her.

“Ma'! What did you do? What have you done Ma'?! How did you expect, in any way, that this would go? Hmm?” The emotions and tone in Turnover's angry rebuttal to his mother impossible for Melissa to transcribe with a put-on impression of Turnover she usually had.

“I... I didn't kn... I thought she...” Carnation stuttered between Turnover's many questions shot at her, her face; from where it was post-ultimatum as a confident face of someone who thought she had won a conflict, instead turned into a dower face that portrayed a cross of shock and regret.

“Ma', you need to go speak with Pa'. Before either Lobo or I run into him... Ma! What did you think was going to happen?! We've told you, and told you, and told you... guh!” Turnover had concluded, a guttural grunt of annoyance before an informed Melissa steered the body of Turnover in the direction of Carnation's gardens. “I'm going after my big sister. I won't be back until she's ready to come back. Go an' find Pa'.” And with that, Melissa made a slow trot towards the entrance to the gardens.

“Ah' can't believe that Ma' did that... just... that nerve...” Turnover's presence ranted to Melissa, and this wasn't due to the overflowing of Turnover's emotions, although what he held would have been audible to Melissa if Turnover attempted to ramble to himself. Instead, Melissa had invited Turnover to speak his mind to her as they began to pass through the far side of Willow Springs farm, into Carnation's flower patch.

The area wasn't completely forested, opposed to how it looked from the outside from the farm-stead. Thick trees scattered in loose clumps creating canopies that frequently broke open into clearings. And among all of these, flowers of different shapes and colours and groupings flooded the forest floor as a winding spiders-web of paths shattered the otherwise continuous presence of flowers. The canopy above made the forest darker, but somehow friendly, somehow comfy, as the gloomy dark nature of the forest was penetrated by many rays of sunlight as they broke through gaps in the canopy. Off to the side, and feeding the garden with many small branches was the same stream that had taken them from Willow Springs to the village center earlier that day. Beyond the far bank of the stream was where the manicured nature of the gardens ended, as wild bushes and a thicker density of trees blocked the view of the forest behind the bank from view.

Melissa would want to enjoy this scene more, if not for the situation at hand, and the fact that Turnover had made it very clear that this was Carnation's patch of land, and she had disallowed either of her children access. If not for Turnover disregarding this rule as the well-being of his dear big sister took priority, then Melissa may have never been able to be present in this setting, but she hadn't the time to take everything in as her eyes scanned everywhere as they made a slow crawl through the garden, both Melissa and Turnover observing for any sign of Turnover's sister on their journey through the gardens.

With a heavy and resigned sigh, Turnover brought Melissa to awareness as she had her entire focus on scanning the gardens for Lobo. “Ah think she ain't in the garden Melissa... There's only one other place she could go, and Ah don't much like the idea of her being there any.” Turnover confessed, before continuing to inform Melissa with the next stage of their search for Lobo. “Deeper into this here garden, there's a cave. None too deep... but me and sis' use to like how comfy and secret it felt. Just follow up the stream.”

Melissa did just that, and followed the flow of the stream up, back towards it's source which sounded like it may be this cave they were looking for. Continuing to keep two sets of eyes, or visions at least, on the surroundings on the look out for Lobo, they had eventually arrived at the entrance to the cave with still no signs of Lobo on the way there.

Before them stood the mouth of the cave. It wasn't the most cavernous looking cave to begin with, as big as a room of a house, but it's depth stretched on as it dug into the side of a hill. Flowing from it's mouth was the stream that permeated the gardens and lead down to the village previously. From the very entrance to the cave, stalagmites and stalactites decorated the cave and offered the creepy sound-track of dripping water from within.

From within their shared mind space, Melissa could sense the increase in worry streaming from Turnover, before he spoke out saying “If sis' came here, then it must be bad... We ain't been here since we were foals...”

'If it use to be where you felt you could get away, why did you stop going Turnover?' Melissa questioned as she piloted the body of Turnover through the wide open mouth of the cave.

“Use to be comforting... that there cave use to be deeper, but one day when we were in there...” The story being regaled froze as Turnover had to fight through the unpleasant memory “...Deeper into the cave, there was a collapse. Thankfully, sis' and Ah weren't on the side that collapsed, but it scared us something nasty... haven't come back since.”

'Are... are you okay with me doing this Turnover?' Melissa asked in shocked trepidation, realizing that she was unknowingly forcing Turnover into an uncomfortable place for him.

“No, no, it's all fine Melissa... gotta be strong for Lobo, ain't Ah?” Reassurance given, they both continued their way into the cave.

Deeper in, not too deep as that the entrance to the cave that sat behind them was out of view, they began to hear the familiar sounds of sniffles and crying, and as Lobo came into view, they found her curled up against the wall of the cave on her side.

“Hey big sis'... Came to give you some company... So... Ah'm coming to sit with you now...” Melissa parroted from Turnover, providing an authentic tone of comforting as she agreed with the whole sentiment of taking care of this pony in her time of pain. As such, she proceeded with sitting herself down, awkwardly on her haunches for the first time as a pony, trying to copy the position she had seen other ponies place themselves in.

For a small moment, they sat together, Melissa and Turnover just keeping the older sister company. This stayed the same until Turnover suggested Melissa give his sister a comforting hoof, to which she complied with slowly placing her closest hoof on the side of Lobo's curled-up torso completed with another comforting statement of “Ah can stay here as much as you want me.”

This garnered a response from Lobo, who while not moving from her position, still spoke out. “Thank you lil' bro...” pausing for a moment of hesitation before letting out another sniffle. “She's taking everything from me... Why... Why can't she see that?”

Lobo then shot her head up into an elevated position, swinging her head to face the body of Turnover. They could both clearly notice the tear-stained, flat strips of fur where her tears had fallen, and the red strain of exhausted eyes. “She's destroyed the house! She's taken where Ah had the kennels, all for her stupid garden! Now she's wantin' to take the kennels an' all! She's taken everything from us that ma' had...” her tirade against her mother stopped short as her mood took a noticeable dive as her elevated head began to hang down, eyes closed hiding away those strained eyes, as more tears began to fall from the pony's eyes. “She's taken ma' from us... taken ma' from me.”

Hearing the pony before them bearing all her emotions out, broke Melissa and Turnover's combined heart, Turnover more so to see how whatever developments had happened before Melissa's arrival had gotten into the horrid state it was now in. “Ah get where my sis' is coming from...” Turnover began espousing to Melissa internally. “When Carnation first came into the family... Well we thought that enough time had past and we were all ready to move on. But the more that Carnation changed things! The more everything hurt to see... Ah' need to speak to Lobo, Melissa, if you don't mind any...”

“Ah know how you feel 'sis, you ain't alone in bein' hurt and all... Ah miss ma' as well, and what Carnation is doing is not right, one bit. Ah'm hopin' least from this that she's learnt her lesson. Can't say Ah didn't see some regret before we came after you... But, as much as she has done, how much she's ignored us all, it's not 'cause she wants to remove everything that ma' was to us! Ah can tell you that.” Turnover explained to her sister through Melissa's copying of the sentiments.

'I wish I had more to say Turnover. I'm so sorry for her, and for you, and this whole situation... I just haven't been here before... I'm sorry I can't do more on your behalf.' Melissa lamented internally to Turnover, before arriving at an idea that to her felt risky, but she had an idea of what she could do on her own volition and was a possible way that Melissa could come to better empathize with Lobo. 'Turnover... you trust your sister with complete confidence, yes? Like, childhood secrets kept until now types of trust?'

“Ah do, wholly... What are you plannin' Melissa?” replied Turnover, a tone of uncertainty and cautious questioning in his voice.

'I want to tell your sister about us... Our situation specifically. I feel like from what I can see, your sister is going through a massive change in her life that she's not adapting well to... well one that isn't her fault. But you understand... we're kind of in the same situation? A massive change in our lives, life-changing in every sense, that neither of us are at fault for. Maybe together, all three of us can work through all our problems together?'

Turnover stayed silent, the occasional hum to himself as he considered Melissa's proposal for Lobo to be the first pony that they share their situation to. While Melissa continued applying comforting strokes to the distraught pony beside her. Before long, Turnover provided his response to the idea “Ah'm not too sure you know Melissa... sis' has so much goin' on as is. How would she even be able to help in this situation? But if you feel like both of us together can tackle this together... would be worth a shot. And if there's anypony that I can trust with this, there's nobody more than Lobo.”

Melissa took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for first introductions. This being the first time that they'd need to tell another about this situation, they prepared between each other the best that they could; Melissa being given complete rein to talk as herself for the first time since she arrived into this world, with Turnover ready to jump in and have Melissa dictate answers to questions that only Turnover would be able to answer. With procedure sorted internally, Melissa looked over towards the pony, who had returned to being fully curled up with her head nestled on her belly, and placed a hoof on the pony's torso again getting her attention with a quick “Hey... Lobo... I have something I need to tell you... about yesterday, what happened to me.”

Lobo opened an eye, still in position and unmoving, but looking towards her brother, a muffled “What d'ya mean bro'?” coming from her buried muzzle.

“Remember that explosion yesterday? That you came down to help us with? Well...” Melissa gave another deep exhale and closed her eyes as the precipice was reached. If she wanted to pull-out of this idea of hers, this was the last opportunity, but with Turnover's confidence behind her, she continued onward. “We weren't telling the whole truth about that... to anyone. This is going to sound super weird, like we're making this up, but your brother Turnover, wasn't the only creature present. That explosion, somehow, ended up merging your brother's being with another being... Hi, my name is Melissa, and honestly... I am terrified right now...”

This all resulted with Lobo shocking herself from her curled up position with a jolt, looking at her brother with an incredulous look of disbelief, before stifling a laugh before being barely able to say “Good one bro'... This has gotta be the worst joke you've ever pulled!”

Melissa gave Lobo a soft smile back, at least glad that the pure absurdity of the situation had given them a little levity from the doldrums they were in. “Okay yeah, I get this is hard to believe...” Only then could Melissa see a huge gaping flaw in any plan her and Turnover made to reveal Melissa's presence. This is still Turnover's voice, and Turnover's body. There was no way they could think of proving Melissa's presence. Melissa continued with Lobo, reflecting on this revelation “Can't say I know how I'd prove it to you... But I'm going to stay convicted on this! Either way, we decided to tell you this because... well what happened to your brother and I, it's a big change for us, one that wasn't the fault of either of us... feels a lot like you and Carnation, right? And the minimum we can all do for each other is to give each other comfort, right?”

“This is weird... even for you lil' bro'... you sure you didn't hit your head from that explosion? You making no sense right now!” Lobo rebutted, head tilted to the side in confusion at whatever game her little brother was trying to play.

Melissa let out a deep sigh and tilted Turnover's head back to rest against the side of the cave wall, eyes closed as she became frustrated in not being able to think of a way to prove to Lobo the situation they were in. Maybe it was for the best, but at least it did raise Lobo's spirits somewhat, so she allowed herself to crack a slight smile none-the-less.

Melissa decided that at least at this moment, Lobo was at least feeling better, so she fell back on trying to push the matter of her presence any further, and slipped back into impersonating her little brother. “You know big sis'... you might'en be right about that. I've not been feeling best since yesterday... So what do you wanna do? Want me to stay with you here, or you gonna come back to the house with me?”

Lobo raised herself from sitting on her haunches, and trotted past Turnover towards the cave's entrance. “Suppose Ah' better come back to house with ya. Who else gone look after ya but your big' sis'! 'Least ya right about us giving each other comfort.” And with that, Melissa raised Turnover's body in response and trotted herself beside Lobo ready to make the journey back to the Apple's home.

From inside, Turnover could be heard chuckling softly at Melissa's efforts to enact her plan, before jesting “Well, least ya tried ma'am! Blue ribbon for efforts! If you're serious about telling Lobo, or anybody else... maybe we should plan better?... don't want our future plans to be screwed up by thinking we're screwy!”

'Oh shush you!' Melissa chided back to her mind-space room-mate, as she pushed forward in the walk back 'But yeah... this is going to be a problem to prove'.

Alone in a setting surrounded by darkness, a cloud was swirled into existence by a set of clawed hands and stretched to cover a wide, platter sized space in thin air. Glowing within the swirling clouds were veins of green lightning that swirled within, before they began to spiral into the center of the swirling mass of cloud, connecting and producing a bright green glow which gave way to an aerial view. Shown below in this aerial view within the cloud was a patchy section of forest with hints of river breaking through the canopy and snaking through clearings that were smeared in different colours like a painter's palette. The perfect top down view of the flower-patches of Willow Springs.

Looking at this scene through the summoned cloud, a figure hummed to itself, watching the two ponies below pass through the flowers. It considered it's actions, both already done, and to do in the close future. It was disappointed that the actions it had already done had come to nothing, it's plan an abject failure on it's first attempt. But they already had ideas as to what could be done to remedy this, as instantly as the figure could. If it wanted it's plans to result in the outcomes they wanted, they'd have to target some other different ponies.

It had seemed, from what the figure inferred from the two ponies' interactions on their walk back, that the smaller female had been experiencing a great moment of fragility... perfect. The figure did not need to look far after all. It watched on, considering the pony, and had a fantastic idea for bitter irony creating a second swirling cloud of green veins to open a new view to elsewhere. They were going to be successful if it meant trying over and over again.

Chapter 7 - Heart to Heart

Chapter 7

Heart to Heart

“Consarn it Carny'...” Champlain had returned to the farmstead not five minutes after the breakdown of the relationship between his new marefriend and his daughter. When he passed through the final row of apple trees, his sights fell on the elegantly tall and striking figure of Carnation, but who now wore a concerned face, and paced in front of the chicken-wire fence of Lobo's kennels with a slow, confused portraying gait. She had told Champlain all about the argument that her and Lobo had, how it ended with their daughter breaking down completely and running off, and how Turnover was present at the time and elected to chase after his sister on a mission to comfort her. Meanwhile, Champlain knew what he had to do. Carnation's stubbornness and egotistical bend was the most major aspect of her personality that Champlain disliked. Before, whenever the issue was raised, that ego itself resulted in the mare not paying any heed to the warnings from her family, but seeing the state she was in now after this incident, it seemed like her ego was at it's weakest and prime for being shaped out of it's worst tendencies.

That had led Champlain and Carnation into the family's kitchen, abandoned since the morning apart from the constant presence of Pappy Pippen, Champlain's father. On their entrance, noticing the dower tone that Carnation carried, Pippen had spoken up, a rarity for how disconnected and insular he became into his old age. “What'dda she end up doin' now?”

“She's done something she regrets now, Ah'll tell you that Pa'” Champlain responded diplomatically. Due to his reclused nature now, only Champlain knew of Pappy Pippen's disdain towards his new marefriend and expectantly at some point, his second wife, so Champlain knew that his father wouldn't pass up an opportunity for a “told you so” or “serves you right” if not for the preface that Carnation wasn't in the state of mind for receiving any more kicks to her flank.

“Well'ah suppose... don't mind me then... Ah won't be in yar mane.” Pippen resigned, knowing that the couple would be entering a serious talk now, and returned his focus out of the kitchen window.

“Consarn it Carny', Ah know you know we been talking to ya about your stubbornness! You gotta know that we been doin' it to make sure you don't ever get into this here situation!...” at this point, they had both found seats at the kitchen table and were sitting kitty-corner to each other. Champlain took in a deep breath and a sigh, looking his lover in her eyes, which were now recovering from her state of shock and resigned into a state of obvious regret “... Look hun'. Ya know Ah love ya, an' Ah'm sure deep-down the kids love ya as well... But you also know... we've struggled after the loss of their ma', an' Ah' don't think they've gotten over her yet.”

Carnation had affixed her gaze down to the table, taking in everything that Champlain told her. Probably for the first time internalizing and actually reflecting on those words and not dismissing it for her surety they were over-reacting.

“I doubt that the children love me... I don't think they can even bare me here... Lobo... I was so sure that Lobo had been hating me, spiting me, for no other reason but to do that.”

“And ya never reckoned... that Lobo was feeling threaten'd by you?... Not only were ya stranglin' her and bein' right harsh, but ya were so sure that she was the one in the wrong?!”

“I thought... since you all introduced me into this family... that you made me feel at home here... that you were properly settled with the past... I'm...” tears began to well in the eyes of Carnation, her lips quivering before she continued in a shaky voice “I'm so sorry, I didn't know!”

A fore-hoof wrapped around the white pony and pulled her in close to the barrel that the fore-hoof belonged to. Soft strokes began being applied in aid of comforting the mare. “Ah know, jus'... ya gotta get better now, ya hear? Take this, an' learn from it, be a better ma' to Lobo...”

The front door squeaked open as the couple remained in this embrace, eyes closed and were only made aware of who had just entered by the feminine voice of Lobo introducing her presence in the house. “Hey... Carnation... uh... Ma'.” This had beckoned the attention of both parents as they looked beyond the kitchen through the doorway to the duo of red ponies at the threshold.

“Oh... my babies!” Carnation called out with a wobble in her voice. “Lobo, darling... I am so, so sorry!”

Champlain took another deep breath and turned to face both Lobo and Turnover. “Lobo, Turnover, take a seat if you may... Ah think it's right time we all sat as a family and talked.”

The following moments in the Willow Springs Apple household consisted of the four family members sat around the dining room table; Champlain, Carnation, Lobo, and Turnover, while Pappy Pippen sat aside at his window seat but continued to chip in to the conversation where he felt his presence was needed. Most of the talk that was had covered the same grounds that Lobo and Turnover covered in their talk with each other, and those covered by Champlain and Carnation between each other before the siblings returned to the farmhouse.

Lobo had apologized for what it's worth in her part in reacting so hostile to her surrogate mother, understanding that what the new matriarch was doing wasn't purposeful slights against her, but made no mystery her feelings still towards Carnation's stubbornness and egotism. To which Carnation finally admitted her flaws within the family-unit, including her as mentioned stubbornness and egotistical bend to mark her presence in the farm, and belief that the problems were with Lobo's and not reflecting inwardly at herself.

“I... I know that everything won't be better instantly, Lobo darling... but the least I can do to start, is tell you that what I said before... about threatening to make you move out... or getting rid of your pups... All of that is gone, you don't need to worry about any of that now... and... and I do love you” Carnation concluded in her apology towards Lobo for all she had done.

“Ah... ah love ya too Ma.'” Lobo responded, taking in the peace offering that Carnation had provided, before slowly reaching a fore-hoof across the table to offer her mother in a show of freshly rebuilding compassion. At this point in the conversion, tears were welling in both of their eyes as they professed their reforged familial bonds.

“I cannot begin to tell you how seriously I want to try and... find a way forward with you... together... And that goes for you as well Turnover darling.” Attention fell on Turnover across the table, as Carnation turned her head in their direction, Carnation extending her olive-branch towards her other surrogate offspring. Melissa was doing well to hold back tears in Turnover's face to present the more masculine pony as himself, up until that point Carnation turned her attentions and proclamation of love towards Turnover.

“Ah trust you Melissa... an'... don't worry none about letting the floodgates open...” the voice of Turnover mocked, while allowing Melissa to finally break down in front of Turnover's family and handing her control over his response. “Ah'm just mighty glad that we're finally mendin' things.”

“...Thanks Ma'...” Melissa began, a smile cracking on Turnover's muzzle as Melissa finally allowed tears to fall from Turnover's eyes. “...Ah'm sure me and Pa' will be keeping you to your word... But Ah'm mighty happy this is happenin'.”

Melissa mirrored Lobo's action of reaching for Carnation's other fore-hoof as a sign of acceptance, to which Carnation obliged, with the three sitting around the table with tears flowing freely.

Champlain let out a relieved sigh and wore a wide smile as he dismounted from his place at the table and took position at the counter-tops of the shared kitchen-space the dining room was set in. “Well... Ah' think we all deserve a right filling lunch, if Ah say so myself!... Certainly y'all be needing it.”

The rest of the day was spent with Melissa and Turnover staying by Lobo's side, one to keep her company, but also to continue on from how they helped deliver the package from the post office earlier this morning, a morning that felt like it occurred on a very different day at this point. Afterwards, the pair took to just hanging out together.

Meanwhile, the parents had returned to doing their jobs for the day as well; Champlain returning to the orchard to tend to the apple trees, while Carnation resigned herself into her office to give her more time to ruminate on the changes she would need to make to herself, while burying herself in work.

And as the day drew to a close, the sun setting on the Willow Springs farm-stead, Melissa and Turnover retreated to their room, to allow themselves time to internalize the events of the day, especially for Turnover who Melissa could accept had been present throughout the entire development of this family drama and was so much more effected by the events of today than her. In lieu of making any conversation during this time, Melissa picked back up the book surrounding The Mare in the Moon that she had began reading the evening prior. The feeling was shared between both of the presences that the stresses of the day just left them too drained for anything else that night.

Melissa had positioned their body to be loafed on the bed, all four legs tucked under their torso and tail wrapped parallel to it. It had been a position that Melissa had been getting use to throughout the day, as opposed to just flopping down on their side and splaying out like a wild animal, which had been her preferred placement otherwise.

At this point, the house had settled into quiet, dinner having been eaten, the parents retiring to their own room while Turnover and Melissa returned to their room. Lobo was the odd pony out, still outside and seeking comfort with her pups before the sun had been fully set below the horizon. The atmosphere at this point was flooded with warm colours as the sunset sent streams of yellow-orange-y tint everywhere.

The silent rest taking place between the two was cut off suddenly and drastically, as the room they were in was suddenly flooded with an interrupting bright flash of pure white light, brighter than the setting sun's streaks of autumn could achieve, and bright enough to temporarily blind them for the duration of the flash to the point that differentiating between light and shadow proved difficult to do. If Melissa intended to or not, her thought of “Oh lord... don't let that mean what I think it means. No, no no no no...” with a continued panicked repetition of the noes ran from the mouth of Turnover as she entered a state of panicked shock.

And this was responded to internally by a more composed, but still shocked Turnover, who replied with uncertainty in his voice “Melissa... we don't even know for sure that was is... but... wait... wait, no!” as the cogs slowly turned in Turnover's own domain of their shared mind-space as he realized quickly and entered that same state of panic Melissa was in. They both had a clue, a head start on coming to conclusions as to what the flash was, and if they were correct in their collective uncertainty...

Melissa called out into the air of the bedroom, even though she was aiming to relay the message internally to Turnover only, “You know what that was right? That's what happened to us!” requesting clarity that Turnover was along the same train of thought that Melissa found herself on. Before giving Turnover time to reply, Melissa leapt from their position on the bed, scrambling upright like a baby deer taking their first steps, again, before Melissa moved with an instinctual speedy-gait faster than she had attained with this new body to this point.

The duo were not alone in the house in coming out of their bedrooms in response to the flash of light that seemed to engulf the farmhouse from an origin source outside. The scrambling Melissa skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs before both Champlain and Carnation, who both shot them a look that equally said 'We don't know what that was, but we are also equally worried' but at the same time, being the parental figures they were (inexperienced as Carnation had now self-professed herself to be) they were quick to offer statements of calming reassurance in a facade of confidence to Turnover, betrayed only by the cracks in that aforesaid facade.

“Everything'll be okay son.” Champlain reaffirmed.

Carnation stated in succession a confirmatory “Whatever this was, it will be okay... and we'll get through whatever this is together.” trying to apply the lessons she learnt earlier that day to heart in a clunky manner.

As they moved in procession down the stairs towards the front door, Champlain let out another hefty sigh, clearly in worry, and muttered to himself, and a lesser extent to Carnation, “This'ud be the second time in two days... Something goin' on here.”

Outside of the farmhouse, nothing had seemed to have changed. Like the section of the orchard that Turnover was found in by Madam Beets, there was no scorching of the ground, not even the moving of dirt or grass to signify anything was different. But quickly, there was a notable outlier to the situation, in Lobo.

Lobo remained within the bounds of the kennel's fences, circling a section of it closest to the angle the family approached at. She paced the ground of the kennel, with a look of confusion and fear etched into her face, swinging her head around to take stock of her surroundings as if she found it an alien environment she had no familiarity to.

The trio had pulled short of the kennel, by a couple ponies-length, and watched as Lobo paced around. Champlain was the first to take the lead fresh from their shared concern and fear energized stupor. He approached slowly, and only slightly, craning his short neck to get a closer look at Lobo for any visible injuries.

Physically, on initial observation, like with Turnover there did not seem to be any physical injuries on the surface level. But still... concern bubbled away, despite the fact that there seemed to be no indication that Lobo was any more worse off than Turnover was. He made the decision then to play the same plan he executed with Turnover, rush into town and call the expertise of Rapid Aid. As he decided this, he turned his extended head back towards Carnation, who had followed behind her stallion-friend but continued a larger gap between herself and the kennels.

“Carny hun'... Ah'm gonna dash into town and grab Doc Rapid again... can ya look after Lobo for me?... Both the kids for me... yeah?” He added after looking back and spotting Turnover frozen in place. 'Celestia's damnation, Ah hope this ain't causin' Turnover any pain to see...' he internalized. Despite this, he still managed to fit in another confirmation of reassurance, saying to both of the ponies behind him “It'll be all a'right. We'll get through this if we got through everything already!”

Carnation took one step further after this affirmation and planted a kiss on the cheek of the family's patriarch, and gave a following nod of acceptance and put on a steely, confident face. Champlain then took his leave as he broke into a dash heading out of the farm-stead.

Turnover and Melissa both know, or had a better educated guess, as to what had happened. The same exact thing that brought them together inside of Turnover's body. But whatever happened between them, it seemed to be different with Lobo. Her movements were already more confident on four hooves at the least? It took Melissa longer to realize that she even needed to stand on four hooves. 'I don't like this Turnover... I... It can't be happening again...' Melissa stumbled out, although now having herself collected enough to say this internally to Turnover.

“Ah can't much believe it either... If this is... what we think, then what happened to my big sis'?!” Turnover responded, still echoing shock in his thoughts, his internal monologue wobbling with emotion.

'Ahh, damn it all you're right! This is your sister it's happening to! I'm so so sorry this is all happening to you, of all people.' Melissa responded after coming to the realization of just how serious a situation this is for Turnover of all ponies.

“There's no need to be sorry for me... but Ah just... How can we help her? We haven't even helped ourselves yet!” Melissa could sense that Turnover was beginning to spiral at the thought of what his sister would be going through now... he had the best experience of being the back-seat driver in your own body as anybody in this admittedly rare scenario.

'Okay Turnover, hey Turnover! Lets keep a focus on my voice okay, take some deep breaths, or least... count your breath with me I guess?' Melissa instructed, trying to offer what Turnover had in calming her rushing mind when she had first arrived here, although she couldn't be certain he could do the same as just a thought in their mind. But none-the-less she took some deep breaths herself, with guidance that Turnover should try and follow, or at least count along with, and this did seem to help him as it had helped her. 'Are we okay Turnover? 'cause your big sis needs you, she needs us, 'cause we are the only ones who can know what she's going through right now... what they are going through right now. Are you okay with me approaching?' Turnover responded with an quick affirmative hum.

Melissa pulled the body of Turnover up equal to where Carnation was standing, who had closed the gap to Lobo in the time it took to calm Turnover. As they pulled equal, Carnation glanced over with a worried look cracking through her confident and reassuring smile, and leaned her muzzle over to gave Turnover's cheek a quick nuzzle. Returning her attention to Lobo, Carnation took a short breath to steady her nerves as to not break any further in displaying her confidence. “Lobo, my darling... You are going to be okay! Ma' and your lil' bro' are here. It'll be okay baby!”

The introduction of Carnation's voice to the otherwise quietly growing night gained Lobo's attention who shot a glare in the direction of the two ponies, before her face fell into a deep fear-laden open-jawed shock. Before either of the two ponies on the outside of the chicken-wire fence knew it, Lobo had shot back, retreating deeper into the kennel's pen, corralling as many pups behind her as she could handle, before splaying her stance wide and lowering her neck.

From her came an uncharacteristic, growly tone that was underlaid with a sense of fear. “Don't. You. Dare. Touch. My. Babies.” She proclaimed, punctuating every word in her warning.

Carnation's head tilted to the side, like a confused dog herself, her facade of confidence breaking at this point, but rather than into a negative emotion, she just entered a confused state as she tried to make sense of the scene in front of her. They had talked earlier today about her daughter's kennel. Carnation thought she made it clear to her that she would be allowed to keep it, to keep all her pups. She wanted an answer to this contradiction, so she prodded further. “But... we discussed this darling. Today? You can keep the pups. Remember that?”

But all that returned from the being that was in Lobo currently was a deep growl through clenched teeth and a barking of “You want to steal my babies! I won't let you!” she completed the second part of the sentiment with a cracking, wavering tone as her emotion started to betray her.

Seeing how the situation was evolving before her, Melissa decided to grab the initiative. She didn't know who, or even what, was sharing the mind of Lobo. Her responses didn't strike her as something a human would say, this was more animalistic. But if she could attempt to bring some calm to the situation at the least, she wanted to speak up. She moved Turnover's body a few steps forwards beyond Carnation. “Hey! Hey focus on me, okay! I know you're scared, I am too. I don't know how we got here, but you are not alone! You have to trust me, I'm like you.” It was the best she could do, and she only hoped that it'd be enough.

And it did seem to be enough for the situation Lobo found herself in. A look of recognition broke through the look of fear she had as her head turned and fixated on Turnover. Within her mind-space, the shared presence began replaying that moment in the cave earlier in the day, where Turnover played that awful, stupid prank that made no sense to her, having another being trapped in his body... but now, in the situation she found herself in, it was far more believable.

Everything down to the bright flash that the two beings inside of Lobo experienced were a shared experience with what Turnover had told had happened to him, Lobo could internalize that. Her brother wasn't just talking hogwash.

All conflict that Lobo held at that moment towards Carnation, in a guttural instinct to protect her pups was replaced with a deep and heavy well of fear and uncertainty. Her growling ceased and was replaced with a whimpering, as she fell onto her belly, fore-hoofs stretched and crossed in front of her, her withers raised as she laid her head and neck against the ground.

Behind Melissa, Carnation just watched on, muzzle agape at what she had witnessed. She was still in a confused paralysed state, and the actions of her son had only added to it, despite him doing it in the strangest way. Carnation had spotted that when Turnover spoke up, not only did his father's inherited country accent disappear, but he was speaking to Lobo's condition with a sense of a personal connection. That those strange displayed behaviours of the out of character growls and whimpers were things that he shared experience of.

She approached Turnover, placing a fore-hoof on her side of his torso. “How did you do that darling? What did you mean?... Are you... Okay?” Carnation questioned.

The only response she got from Turnover was “Ah'm okay Ma'... it's... complicated... Ah don't think Ah can tell you right...” before letting out a sigh, lowering their head before continuing on a different tangent “Ma'... Ah' should best be out here with sis'... least til' Doc Rapid gets here... You should head'ta bed.”

“Hmm... well okay darling... you sure you don't want me watching over?” Carnation rebutted.

“Nah Ma', we'll be okay... Ah think Lobo'd rather you not honestly... We'll be alright Ma'... Love ya.” Turnover stated, closing the conversation by making their way forward towards the kennel. Carnation could understand the argument he was making, as much as it hurt her that this soon after they had began mending the bridge between them... that Lobo had appeared to suddenly grow afraid of her.

So she started to make her way back inside the farmhouse, turning back once on her way back to give a quick response to Turnover. “Love you too darling...” before she disappeared inside, as Turnover positioned himself in the kennel and laid himself down next to his prone sister.

Come tomorrow over breakfast, she'd have to continue trying to ask Turnover about whatever happened this evening. It felt like there was something he needed to say... maybe she'd need to start working on gaining his trust again now as well? Either way, that's all questions and decisions to make for tomorrow.

Author's Note

Hahah! Even through illness I shant drop my plan of posting the backed-up chapters on a weekly basis!

It's fair to say now, the proper meat and potatoes of the story begins from this chapter, where-as the prior chapters I feel are more establishing. Oh there's certainly more to be established yet to come, but here we see, it appears Melissa isn't to be alone in this situation! And I only hope I'm telegraphing correctly what the ultimate mystery within this story will be.

Thanks again to y'all who read this. And hope to see you next week!

Chapter 8 - Second Opinions

Chapter 8

Second Opinions

If Doc Rapid was given a bit for every emergency visit to the Willow Springs estate, she'd have two bits, which isn't a lot but it was weird that it happened twice.

In such a short period of time at least. Usually, if an ailing pony had required medical intervention, a family member would take them themselves to a centralized hospital. Rapid Aid's service of flying out to meet those ailing ponies was unique to her due to her flying speeds.

However, the speed of her response also heavily depended on if she had been out seeing a previous patient before being called again, and that was what caused her delay in responding to the patriarch of the local Apple family this evening. After the usual visit to the post-office to inform the staff there of her return, she had arrived back to her clinic to find standing at the door Champlain Apple who practically jumped at her when she came into view. Rapidly explaining the entire situation that the family had now found themselves thrust back into.

So now she found herself flying at quick pace back towards the orchards of Willow Springs, Champlain in tow from the ground. While in the air, she couldn't help but be struck with the strong fascination in this family's sudden ailments, at least if she could call it that? Turnover appeared to not be injured in any way after what happened to him, maybe Lobo got off from whatever this was much the same? This didn't seem to fit anything in her medical knowledge, nor did the meteorological knowledge of her cousin have any bearing to this matter. And quoting from a short she once saw at a bit-odeon, the same strange anomalous thing happening twice definitely felt more pattern than coincidence.

What also ate her up inside as she continued on-route to Willow Springs was the fact that because of the delay to first meeting Champlain, Lobo had been under effect of whatever this affliction was for 40 minutes up to this point, and every minute more until she arrived to the farm-stead was a minute longer than a time that would sit well with her.

Meanwhile, at the farm-stead, Turnover and Melissa kept their promised guard of Lobo until the arrival of Doc Rapid. Picking up the same comforting position they had with Lobo earlier in the day at the cave, sat beside their sister, a hoof softly stroking Lobo's back between her withers. They could at least begin to see Lobo returning to her senses gradually, as the strokes being administered loosened the tension the pony held in her back.

At this point, the medical pegasus crested the top of the forest beyond the farm, approaching in a straight line towards where she would land on the front lawn. The first that Turnover and Melissa were aware of Rapid Aid's imminent arrival was actually the frantic sounds of galloping from Champlain as he rounded the corner from the path leading into the farmhouse, Rapid Aid landing with a speed enough that she had to quickly transition from flight to a canter slowing until it turned into a steady trot forward, while Champlain chose to roughly stop with a skid on his front hooves.

“Hello there Mister Turnover!” the pressing nature of the situation clearly not breaking the cheery tone of the doctor's introduction as she trotted closer towards the kennel's fence, continuing “We have to stop meeting like this!”

But from there, the doctor transitioned into a more serious, professional tone as she turned her head and attention towards the second pony within the kennels. “And hello to you too Miss Apple, I trust your brother is keeping you company well?” to which Lobo responded with a slow, unsure nod.

“Now, your father's told me a lot himself, but you know how I work, I like to hear from the source themselves. So do you think you can tell me about what happened?” Doc Rapid asked, angled at Lobo presenting as neutral and friendly as possible with an invitingly warm smile.

“W... Well... Ah can try doc'.” Lobo responded, with a sniffle stating the end of that confirmation. She took a moment to recollect herself, rejecting Turnover's hoof from her back with a quick flick to the side, and sitting herself up. “Ah was 'ere with all the pups, it's... been a rough day ya' see... When all of a sudden, this mighty-as-all-tartarus flash happen'... then... Ah honestly cannot tell ya.”

Lobo seemed to take another moment to think to herself, tilting her head down diagonally to stare absent of focus on the ground as she assembled her thoughts. “Ah reckon... Ah weren't myself for a moment there then...”

She darted her head back up however after finishing that statement, with a weak but sincere smile on her muzzle as she capped off her statement. “'Least, Ah don't feel hurt... So, Ah think ah'm gone be okay doc.” That statement more than any dripping with the most confidence she had up until this point.

Rapid Aid reacted with a huff of dissatisfaction at the answer provided by Lobo. She had held a kernel of hope deep down that the two incidents she had now attended were not connected, but so far the report from Lobo had corroborated with her brother's experience. Rapid ended up pinching at the bridge of her muzzle alongside that huff, before she continued with the rest of her examination. “Still, I need to check that you haven't picked up any injuries and have just been so out of it you haven't the time to register them yet.” Rapid explained approaching the gate of the kennels all the while maintaining eye-contact between herself and Lobo.

She carefully approached the earth-pony mare, though the previous skittish behaviour that Lobo had been demonstrating in front of Turnover had by this point completely disappeared with the comforting offered by her little brother.

As performed on Turnover, Rapid Aid went through the process of inspecting for everything she could have imagined to have happened to Lobo that originate from the explosion of light, poking and prodding at different places on her body and interpreting the reactions, to inspecting the fur and the skin underneath for marks. But as with her younger brother, the mare did not seem to hold any physical injuries.

Concluding the examination, Rapid Aid wheeled herself back slowly, her face remaining neutral and professional. “Well Miss Apple, Mister Turnover, you'll be happy to know that Miss Apple, you have a full bill of health! Only prescription I feel right to give ...” Rapid's attention swung over from Lobo towards Turnover, continuing without pausing “... is that you need to keep looking after your big sister, Mister Turnover.” Concluding that statement with a light giggle.

“Oh! but I'll say the same as I said to your father yesterday ...” continuing to direct her findings to Turnover. “... If anything changes with Lobo at any point, you, or your parents, come visit me in town and let me know, okay?” Doc Rapid finally concluded.

Shortly after that, Doc Rapid turned tail in preparation to next inform the duo's parents of her findings, but halted with a second of hesitation before swinging her head back in the direction of the siblings, the mask of neutrality she had bared the entire visit so far cracking slightly as a hint of confusion leaked across. “There's nothing else either of you could remember... anything you can tell me, about what did happen to you both? Rapid pressed.

'We're not gonna tell her anything yet... at least not right now... right Turnover?' Melissa checked of her mind-space companion. They already began forming a plan to tell somebody else about the situation with the explosions, but would still end up facing the frustrating barrier of explaining the existence of Melissa within Turnover's body. However, it was becoming clear to both Melissa and Turnover that Doc Rapid was growing as equally frustrated in trying to understand what happened as they were. And Rapid was starting off with less information than they had.

“Ah reckon... we gonna need ta make a decision on what we do now, right fast. Ah don' think we should tell the doc' anything yet... maybe once we got a plan ourselves, we can get Doc Rapid in too.” Turnover responded.

Melissa ended up giving Turnover's head a solid shake towards Doc Rapid's probing. Responding to that, Rapid Aid let off another hefty sigh of resignation into her confusion and shot a shallow smile at each of the siblings before she did away with exiting through the gate like she had entered, and instead gave a couple flaps of her wings to jump the kennel's fence and propelled herself towards the farmhouse with a few more lazy flaps.

It wasn't five minutes later that the pair within the kennels spotted Doc Rapid trot out of the farmhouse, presumably after telling Champlain and Carnation about Lobo's state, and had launched herself into the dark skies to return to her base of operations. It was after this that Lobo had gained her little brother's attention with a tap from one fore-hoof to another. “Thanks mightily for being here lil' bro... for everythin' today. Ah think... Ah'll be all fine heading back to mah room.” From there, she picked herself up and began making her way back to the house, followed in-tail by Turnover.

They had finally split at the upstairs landing to head to their respective bedrooms. Melissa realized that the only rooms she was sure of the position of on the upper floor was Turnover's room itself, and the bathroom, so had observed Lobo disappearing into her room from the threshold of their own.

Melissa clambered onto the bed, placing Turnover's body in a loafed state. From there, the night progressed slower than Melissa and Turnover would have liked. With all of the emotional upheaval of the day which concluded with fresh new worries about Lobo and whatever may come from her experiences tonight, any sleep they did get for the few hours they tried was patchy at best.

“Hey Melissa...” the silence of frustrated attempts at sleeping was finally broken by Turnover, who proceeded to state the obvious “Ah can tell you ain't sleepin' tonight either, yeah? It's all been... a lot to think about.”

There was one primary difference between Melissa and Turnover when it came to this situation. Turnover, being a farmworker at heart, was use to the long hours awake, and infrequent long nights. Melissa however, was not. So when Melissa responded with a sigh, frustratedly muttering out loud “Yeah... you could say that”, Melissa was barely paying attention to Turnover's follow-up. Just praying for the final relief of sleep to hit.

“We need ta go take action now... Now that whatever's happenin' is now happenin' to mah big sis'.” Turnover paused for a moment, letting the anger that was slipping into his words peter out before continuing. “Ah'm just might-worried for her, Melissa. Whatever's in her now... it don't feel like it's like you.”

Melissa once again mumbled out in the voice of Turnover, coming out curt and groggy in her sleep-addled state. “Yeah... we need to do something... Turnover, can we discuss this tomorrow? I know we can't sleep, but I want to at least... try? You know?”

Letting out a lengthy sigh himself, Turnover conceded that Melissa was just too far out of it to hold any sort of discussion. 'City-slickers' he said to himself with a little amusement. But if Melissa did manage to get the sleep she needed tonight, they could at least plan out their next moves first thing in the morning. It shouldn't be too hard, since all the building blocks were already there, after all it was the culmination of the discussions they had prior. “Well... g'night Melissa. Hope you find ya' sleep.” Turnover finally telegraphed before trying himself to get some sleep.

'So you want to send a letter off today, to Applejack, calling on her and the Council of Friendship to help us?' Melissa summarized back to Turnover after being looped into his plan. It was the direction they had discussed prior, so it came as no surprise that this was what the plan eventually came out to. It had seemed their best option in those talks after all.

It was hours after the previous attempt by Turnover at holding this discussion. The sun had still yet to break over the horizon, yet both of the presences within Turnover were still awake. Within the hours since then, Melissa had managed to sleep enough to rejuvenate her. However the same could not be said for Turnover, who retained the worries and emotions he held all night, yet seemed no more tired from it.

“That's the plan, eyuup... eh... You feelin' awake enough to get to writing friend? The quicker we get this done, the better.” The reasoning was fair. They had also decided that they'd send the letter off as soon as they could this morning.

'I'd like to bring Doc Rapid into this as well, Turnover. Not only does she know that both us and Lobo have been affected, but... it feels like she knows as well as we do that something isn't right here.' Melissa requested, without dismissal from Turnover.

“Ah agree on that. Last night, she seemed to be wanting to know more of... this whole thing. And, it couldn't hurt to have our local doc' in the know. She deserves to know what we're doin' so if... and Celestia bless this don't happen again... but if it does, then Doc knows something is being done on it. But, ah... we agree we don't tell her 'bout you Melissa?”

'Agreed, to all of that.' Melissa then found herself pondering one more complication she had overlooked. 'Ah... Turnover? How do I write with hooves? Wuh... Would I even know how to write?'

Turnover let out a chuckle and Melissa could feel the warmth of a joyous smile from Turnover's presence as that chuckle transformed into a full on laugh. “Ya' forget! you know Ponish now, thanks to me! You gone need to teach me some dragon-talk at some point... as a payment for using all mah knowledge.” Another chuckle as Turnover finished playfully prodding at Melissa, before he slipped back the best he could into 'educating mode'. “Writing Ponish... well it should come natural to ya', Ah reckon! As for how you write, same as picking anything else up. Just pick up the quill and get to it!” And as a final piece of repudiation of Melissa's questioning, Turnover ended by joking “An' if ya need any more than that... well Ah'm. Not. Goin'. Anywhere!” punctuating each word at the end for emphasis of his cheekiness.

'Ah! Well thank ya' kindly good sir!' Melissa decided to prod back, putting on her best impression of Turnover. A smile grew across Turnover's muzzle as Melissa slide the pony's body off the bed and trotted towards what Melissa presumed was Turnover's desk inside the bedroom, adjacent to the bookshelf that Melissa had read from on the first night here.

Melissa sat herself down at the desk on her haunches, managed to pick up the quill from the ink pot it rested in, and took a deep breath, thinking to herself 'okay, here we go.'

Author's Note

This chapter here, while I like slower-pace stories that take their time to go major event to major event, sprinkling in slice-of-life scenarios in between, I'm not content with how this chapter specifically feels, maybe because I feel it rehashes Rapid Aid's visit to inspect Turnover in Chapter 3 too closely? But then it also begins deepening Rapid Aid's involvement, she's certainly growing more invested in what's happening.

Plus if I were to choose to combine this Chapter and the next; it'd come out to the highest word-count of a chapter so far, and in my mind I'm trying to hit below 5k words a Chapter.

Either way, I'm content in the following chapters and how they eventually link back to this chapter, so... no harm no foul? What do y'all think?

Also, kudos to those who spotted the obvious, gratuitous reference I rammed in there.

And to AvoidingFever17, thank you for replying in the last couple of chapters. Admittedly, they've not been comments I could really add anything onto, but as a whole, thank you for showing your interest by commenting!

Chapter 9 - A Harsh Morning

Chapter 9

A Harsh Morning

The second morning within Equestria for Melissa was heralded by the warm autumnal sunrise lighting up Turnover's bedroom. A torrid night of interrupted sleep had passed by after Turnover and herself had wrote up the letter for Turnover's Ponyvillian cousin. They had planned to mail it off later in the morning. After finishing the writing up, the sun had not yet broke past the horizon, so between the two they decided to at least try to get more sleep.

While Melissa had bouts of interrupted sleep, the same could not be said for Turnover. Even though the night prior to last had provided the comfort to Turnover that his presence could still sleep, the night just experienced had demonstrated the other side of things, proving how horrid a situation it would be if Turnover could only stay awake, existing within a blank, black void as Melissa slept.

But, Turnover wasn't discouraged, this was something of his own mind's doing, and it wasn't the first time, or even uncommon for himself, that he stayed awake throughout a night. He was an Apple after all, and if there was one thing the farming family knew was the long hours of work and comparative short time of rest they often had during Apple-bucking seasons. So not having a single night's sleep didn't faze Turnover. As Melissa's presence came into being, slowly awakening, Turnover meekly welcomed her back saying “Good morning there sunshine.”

Equally groggily, Melissa raised a fore-hoof to one of Turnover's eyes, rubbing it awake. “Hey Turnover... you got much sleep?” the voice of Turnover croaked out as Melissa spoke out to the empty room, not awake enough to make the conscious decision to telegraph the question internally.

“No less than I sometimes get when the farm's at the busiest” Turnover reassured.

Melissa took Turnover at his word on this, choosing instead to focus on getting their shared body fully awake and stretching their fore-hoofs forward producing a slight groan, before trepidatiously elevating the rear of the pony to stretch in much the same way a cat would. “Enjoying yourself there?” Turnover teased, although he had began to miss the feeling of his own body and his own movements.

'Well... I would if you didn't have the body of somepony having a mid-life crisis!” Melissa teased back, continuing “I mean seriously, what are you doing with your body?!”

Stepping down from the bed, Melissa piloted their body through the motions needed just after waking up, freshening up primarily. Soon Melissa and Turnover found themselves downstairs, on the threshold of the family's kitchen and ready to receive breakfast.

Inside they found a spread of breakfast goodies laid across the dining room table as equally as lavish as they had yesterday. 'Ahh... Is this how I can be expecting breakfasts to just be here Turnover?' Melissa questioned in an incredulous tone, pressing emphasis on the 'just be'.

“Shouldn't be... Ah reckon if anything, they put this on for big sis', given all what she gone through.” Turnover reasoned, before jovially continuing saying “But if ya want this Melissa, we can tell Ma' 'bout it... Ah'm sure she's open for the idea more-so now!”

At this point in the conversation, Carnation herself made her presence known, spotting her son appearing to be frozen and zoned out at the threshold of the room. “Ah! Good morning my darling! Did you sleep well?” She asked from over her left wither, before turning in place, fore-hoof raised and presenting the buffet on the table before them. “Made this for your big sister this morning. And when I say 'made', I mean I made it myself... If it's fair by you darling, could you wait until she's here to begin eating?”

“Eyuup, she pure-as-all insisted she handled breakfast today, to make it up to y'all...” the heavy accent of Champlain chimed in, the patriarch sitting at the far-end of the table. He was sat cradling a cup of coffee resting between his hooves, and following his wife's orders, had not seemed to have eaten anything that was placed down in front of him either. “An' she also insisted she cook everythin' herself. Did her best, Ah'd say, so just give'em a try.”

“Well, ah promise not to touch 'em until big sis' gets down here.” Melissa promised, holding a fore-hoof to somewhere she expected the pony's heart to be located, and hoped that the 'hand on heart' symbolism translated into pony as well.

Turnover's attention was occupied elsewhere to be bothered inspecting Melissa's actions. His focus was completely on the cup of coffee nestled in Champlain's hooves. The only time that Turnover had a coffee or a tea in the morning was during those early-morning rises of Apple-bucking season, but the lack of sleep he had over-night was just as affecting on Turnover as those early-mornings. Noticing a natural lull in the conversation among all present, Turnover reached out to Melissa. “Melissa... Could ya' kindly ask Ma' or Pa' to make us up some coffee?”

Melissa did so for Turnover. She had never been much of a coffee drinker herself back on Earth. Champlain raised from his seat to brew them another cup of coffee, which soon found it's place in front of Turnover's fore-hoofs. Internally, Turnover was pleading to any force that would listen; Celestia, Luna, even hedging his bets that Twilight or even Cadence would be able to answer his humble request that he would receive the blessing of the coffee's effects, and it wasn't yet another thing deprived to him by not having control of his own body.

However, after Melissa had a few sips of coffee, Turnover was left devastated when the buzz of awakening he would have expected did not manifest for his being. He could sense everything still; the warmth of the drink, the rich taste of the beans, even the growing energy he felt within his body, but his tired mind remained such.

Meanwhile, Melissa was having a better experience with the coffee. Never had she tasted a better coffee. After the first sip, for all that followed she took a small moment to savour the taste and texture, and to form some thoughts about the world she was in.

The thought process followed as such. If each pony had a cutie-mark that identified their best skills, the things in life they enjoy the most, and then if every pony then utilized that skill as their job, then everything produced in Equus must always be a better quality than the mass-produced, fully automated, cheap products found back on Earth. It would be like every item would be hand-crafted, artisan, and highly personal to the crafter. That is, as far as she could tell for this farming family. Maybe there was such like automation and mass manufacture, but she hoped not.

While both Melissa and Turnover were lost in their own thoughts, Lobo had appeared in the kitchen.

The first to notice Lobo's presence was Carnation, turning around at the sound of approaching hoofsteps and putting on the warmest of smiles she could give through some amount of nervousness. “Good morning Lobo my darling! Have you slept well?” Opened Carnation.

“G'mornin' Carna... Ma'” Lobo cut herself off, quickly correcting herself as she made conscious effort to be kinder herself to Carnation. “Yeah... slept fine enough thanks.” She concluded, before her eyes fell across the spread of food on the table, cocking her head to the side. “What ya' do all 'dis for Ma'?”

“Well, it's all for you dear! I wanted to make an effort for you this morning. All of your favourites, hoof-made by myself!” Answered Carnation, that applied smile on her face growing more genuine at the pride she held in doing this for her newly re-sparked relationship who she hoped would become her daughter.

“Well... ahh... Thank ya mightily Ma', but... do you got anythin' else?” Lobo had scanned the table over, and the various goodies that Carnation had baked for her. They were all some form or variety of vegetarian pastries, from apple-filled produce to pancakes paired up with a boat of syrup. However, Lobo could not feel drawn to any of it this morning, despite Carnation having gotten every item that was usually a favourite of hers spot-on. Instead she had harboured a different craving, one which she could not lay a hoof on at that moment.

Carnation was struck by a wave of dejection, causing her to drop that smile she held, hesitating before responding “Hmm... well... I suppose...” A second wave of confidence and resolution gave her an updraught of determination, and she continued “... It's no issue dear! But I do say, why don't you pick up some of what I made you, while I get whatever it is you are wanting done for you?”

In return, Lobo was now hit with a feeling of dejection falling upon her. This dejection transformed into a growing sense of frustration from somewhere inside her. She needed, wanted, something else that she couldn't identify. What it certainly was not was anything laid out on the table. “Nah. Ah won't worry myself on any of that Ma'.” Lobo blurted out, while scooting her way around the table and towards the kitchen cabinets.

Her muzzle now raised into the air, Lobo began sniffing around the cabinets, opening them systematically but impulsively as she left each cabinet she opened, wide-open. This she was feeling was the best way she could attempt to sense something that would satisfy her cravings.

Carnation looked on bewildered, figuratively pushed aside by Lobo as she barrelled her way into the kitchen-space in search for something. Carnation's jaw hung open in attempt to prompt the formulating of a rebuttal. Champlain at this stage interjected, targetting what he was to say to Carnation. “Carny-hun, let'er get what she wants first. Ah'm sure there's plenty an appetite their after yesterday an' all for everythin'” he reassured, before he turned his attention over towards Turnover. “Ah think ya can start eatin' up now.”

Both Champlain and Melissa began to pick-out their selection of breakfast items, Melissa with the greater enthusiasm, piling up her plate with food. Carnation joined them shortly after they began, after some further prompting from Champlain to leave Lobo to her own deeds. Carnation had proceeded to pick out food with low energy as she began to become lost within her own thoughts and emotions.

Behind them at the kitchen-space, Lobo had finally sought out what she was craving, sort of... finding a box of eggs among the cupboard, she knew that they were not what she needed, but it was something she had a gut feeling about that it would satisfy it enough. Setting them on the counter by the gas hobs within the kitchen, she had to hold herself back from just devouring the eggs raw as they are, pushing herself to at least have them fried up first.

At the table, Carnation found herself struggling to focus, eating slower than the rest of the family as internally she began battling herself. On one side, she felt confused, rejected, and saddened that her attempts to make niceties with Lobo had to her been so harshly denied. The other side had pressed Carnation at the point that Lobo challenged her to throw out any progress she had made with her daughter and to berate her once again for purposefully rebelling against her in a scornful manner. It was hard for her to ignore that that side of her had a strong argument. Surely, Lobo's rejection of this breakfast that she had purposefully poured her heart into as an olive-branch had meant Lobo had decided to ridicule her once more for ridiculous reasons. And nothing had changed from the previous day.

It was only the contact of hoof on hoof, as Champlain reached over the table to rest a fore-hoof on his partner's fore-leg, and the accompanying reassurances uttered by the stallion, that kept her grounded enough to keep repeating that they both want to become better for each other as mother and daughter, with a strong, loving bond there. And that she had to continue being strong and keep at it with all her efforts to get to that.

Lobo promptly completed frying up the eggs that she had cracked open, slopping them onto a plate before taking her seat beside Turnover and Melissa. She glanced over the laid out spread on the table once more, before her muzzle flinched quickly in a scrunch, a movement that nobody else surrounding the table had noticed. She sat, slowly eating the eggs with as much enthusiasm and pace as Carnation did. Lobo still did not feel satiated, but there were other things that she felt a gut craving for, and it continued to frustrate her like an itch that refused to be scratched.

The rest of breakfast passed with uncomfortable silence. Lobo was the first of the table to finish and take their leave, heading out to try and figure out what was eating her up inside. She had not touched a single item of the hand-crafted goods on the table, resulting in Carnation's head dropping onto a set of crossed ore-hooves held close to her chest with an audible thud as she let herself fall into the side of her that fought on behalf of confusion, dejection, and resignation. Champlain continued his best to reassure and positively re-enforce Carnation, but seemingly with little effect.

Melissa and Turnover departed from the dining room not-so-soon after.

After a brief detour to pick up the letter that was neatly folded into thirds inside an envelope from within their bedroom, Melissa and Turnover were on route back towards the village centre.

“Hopefully...” a yawned pronunciation beginning Turnover's sentence “...Everythin' gone well, this letter should be at Sweet Apple Acres by next mornin'.” He completed in explanation to Melissa. Turnover had barely barely kept awake throughout breakfast, now fighting himself to keep his presence awake. During the breakfast, he had began to realize just how grateful he should be for how dependent on it he was for carrying him through Apple-bucking season. The lack of coffee this morning, and the following lack of the awakening effect it usually had really emphasized the reliance he never knew he had in it.

Melissa followed the route that she had followed Turnover's directions for the day prior, simple enough as it followed the banks of the river that slithered through the forests separating the farm from the village until thus mentioned forests began to peter off to infrequent small farms and cottages. Through the entire journey, the pair had remained silent. Melissa could make an educated guess as to why, reflecting on the breakfast they shared among the family this morning. So she had decided not to press any conversation with Turnover unless he reached out to her first, until they proceeded into the village far enough that the forest had completely dissipated to be replaced with the density of the centre of the village.

At this stage, Melissa stopped herself at a bench that was closer to the bank of the river and sat herself on it on her haunches, choosing this time to summon Turnover out of his funk. 'Turnover, you good friend? We're here... well at the village at least.' Melissa began, trying to rouse Turnover from his distracted state.

When no answer was returned from her mind-space room-mate, Melissa pressed again. 'Turnover...? We're here hun...' When Turnover didn't respond for a second time, worry began to grow within her. 'Turnover, do you need to talk about any...' Melissa began to ask, hoping that this gambit would break Turnover out of whatever distracted him, but the questioning was interrupted by a mumbled noise from the presence of Turnover. Melissa's question then proceeded to collapse on itself as she drew out the final '...thing'.

The annoyed grunt of a mumble was followed by what sounded at best interpretation as “Jus... gim' five mo' mins Pa'.”

'You have gotta be kidding me!” Melissa proclaimed internally, stressing the emphasis on the 'gotta'. Finally she had a clear understanding at least of why Turnover had been quiet and ignoring her. 'Come on Turnover, don't leave me out in the cold here!' Melissa followed up, this time telegraphing the sentiment directly at the sleeping pony within their shared brain. Melissa didn't even recognize that Turnover could sleep in the position he was in.

'Oh lord... Turnover! Turnover! You better get up, I swear to god...' She basically shouted at his presence. 'Uhh... should it be swearing to Celestia? Does that mean it should be “Oh lady” instead of “Oh lord”... “Oh Princess?”' her mind raced in attempt to stem oncoming panic by latching onto something from her last attempt. 'Turnover, please wake up' she continued pleadingly.

Panic grew exponentially as realization that the more time passed that Turnover didn't wake up, that she'd eventually just have to go on without him to deliver this letter of utmost importance, and that she'd be doing it solo for the first time in this unfamiliar, weird world she found herself trapped in, and worse, she'd still need to do it posing and acting as Turnover without his input. Melissa hadn't realized just how much an anchor Turnover was being for her these past few days... and it didn't hurt that there were other issues that she was distracted by.

'Turnover, don't make me throw our body into the river to wake you up... if that would even work...' Melissa spouted as an empty threat that even she was unsure the effectiveness of. She would rather not get Turnover's body drenched, of which she should be the only one having to deal with the effects of it for the rest of the day, and that was one of the better outcomes that could come from that action.

After more moments of silence between the two on the bench in front of the river, which provided the only sounds at that moment alongside the rustling of the autumnal leaves, Melissa finally gathered her own bravery enough to know that in this situation she now faced, the only way forward would be solo. 'If you managed to collect yourself when you first came Mel... you can do it all now' she encouraged herself, thinking back to the moment she found herself fresh to Equestria, and repeating the advice that Turnover gave when she had her first panic attack in his presence.

“Lets take a good deep breath here, okay” the memory spoke to her, and she followed it's instruction. It almost felt like Turnover was back awake and telling her to breathe. But another quick prod of the snoozing stallion dismissed that feeling.

Melissa then produced the letter they were making the trip to send in the first place, staring at the closed envelope, with Melissa's best approximation of the Ponish spelling of Applejack that she had the knowledge off. At least, she knew and understood what each letter looked like, but lacked the muscle memory for. It was interesting in it's own way, what was kept and what was forgotten by Turnover's body when Melissa became it's driving force.

Melissa applied another deep breath under the instruction of the memory she summoned, she thought about the whole purpose of the letter. They were now finally reaching out and getting a start on understanding at least how to reverse this, and hopefully they would be able to send her back home.

She held a slight smile, before stating some more reassurance to herself 'You can do this Mel! If this don't... no, no... until this works itself out, you can't be completely reliant on Turnover. Anyway... it's only posting mail...'

She then stood from the bench, head held up high in a show of confidence to herself more than anybody else. 'And you, Mr.“I can stay up all Apple-bucking season”... you gotta tell me what that means sometime... anyway! Sweet dreams' she cheekily prodded Turnover a final time, before resuming their journey into the village.

Author's Note

Melissa is now shot unceremoniously into her first solo actions, and interactions, in this world. She may not be quite ready for it... but at the same time, she has a good head on her shoulders... err, withers.

So we're now officially at the point where the stocked-up chapters have been posted, Chapter 10 is being written so... We'll see if this weekly upload stuff can go for at least another week, that'd be nice for lil' ol' me who has a taaaad issue with commitment. Maybe expect a week off before my next chapter.

Chapter 10 - A Solo Mission

Chapter 10

A Solo Mission

Content Warning; The latter end of this chapter will briefly touch on a Crisis of Gender Identity.

Melissa trotted through the village with her posture of confidence. It was a faux confidence, identified by the slight wobble of her smile and frequent repeating of the mantra 'It's just the post office' to herself was any evidence.

She was making a beeline directly to the post office, not risking running into anyone who might know Turnover and who would then decide to stop for a talk. She'd rather not have to perform as Turnover at all today if she had the opportunity to, but she had to put a brave face on at the least for the visit to the post-office and then to Doc Rapid's office.

Melissa had soon enough made it to the post-office, successful in not being sidetracked by anybody on the way. However, she knew that her peace wouldn't last much longer as she passed through the doorway of the brick building into the foyer. Unfortunately, throughout the events of yesterday and the focus spent on maintaining her performance as Turnover today, Melissa had completely forgotten just who she was going to see manning the desk at the post-office.

Melissa's mind flipped into distraction-mode to avoid the growing anxiety she began to gain after laying eyes on the mare at the desk. 'I suppose it can't be “manning” the desk here... Would it be... ponying the desk? Stallioning it? Mareing?...' her thoughts raced before producing a bout of frustration internally. 'Urrgh, Why'd you have to fall asleep now of all times Turnover?!'

Sat behind the wooden service counter was Popcorn, the dark blue pegasus who sported a dark purple braided mane and the instantly identifiable glossy string of porcelain popcorn weaved into her hair. She was also Turnover's long-time childhood friend. And who Melissa ended up locking eyes with almost instantly upon walking into the post office.

It was still early enough in the morning for the front of house of the post office to be dead quiet besides for Popcorn and Melissa standing there at opposite ends of the room. If there were other mail-mares or mail-stallions around the back of the building, Melissa couldn't guess. All that was pertinent for Melissa to recognize is that Popcorn was right in front of her.

And Popcorn seemed to notice the frozen Turnover at the entrance opposite to her, proceeding to call out to one of her best friends.

“Yoohoo! Turnover?! Nightmare calling Turnover?! You okay bud?” Popcorn called out, flailing a fore-hoof in the air in the direction of Melissa. All of which seemed to break Melissa from her internal panicking. She made an exaggerated shake of Turnover's body to get out of her funk.

“Ahh, hey there... Popcorn...” Melissa wildly guessed, hoping she had remembered the mare's name correctly. “Just... uhh... here to post a letter is all.” She eventually explained.

“Well that we can do!” Popcorn shot back enthusiastically, beaming a smile towards Turnover. “Is it still Apple-bucking season? You seem totally checked out.” the mail-mare continued.

“Erm... ye... yeah... it is...” Melissa unsurely replied while fumbling to pull out the envelop containing Applejack's letter, Turnover's muzzle now holding a tight, straight expression in the best poker-face Melissa could make.

“And this your letter?” Popcorn asked, softly taking the letter out of Turnover's hooves as Melissa held it out for her. She only replied with a nod.

Popcorn proceeded to follow-through with her regular procedures for accepting a letter for post. As she did, she continued attempting to strike a conversation with her “customer”.

“Did Lobo like whatever that package was yesterday?”

“Ye... yeah she did.” Melissa replied, wishing to get this interaction over with as quick as humanly possible.

“How are you all doing? Actually... your probably still out of it from that medical thing from a few days ago, right?” Popcorn probed, trying to find a reason to explain the awkwardness of Turnover towards her today.

“You... could say that, yeah...” Melissa confided, a weary smile cracking at the internal thought where she had that continued 'and you don't know even the half of it!'

Popcorn turned around and approached a series of fabric sacks aligned on the back of the wall, each labelled with a different location as far as Melissa could make out.

Names such as Fillydelphia, Manehatten, Canterlot, Trottingham. Even places that seemed to break from those pony-pun naming conventions, replaced with names incorporating what Melissa guessed was other sentient creatures; names such as Griffonstone and the Dragon Lands. Some sacks seemed to be made of a thicker material than the others, like the ones labelled Yakyakistan and Crystal Empire.

As Melissa inspected the line of sacks, Popcorn deposited the letter into the sack labelled Ponyville, before her attention turned back to Melissa.

“So what do you got planned for rest of today bud?” She asked making her way back to the counter. “If you don't mind sticking around, I wouldn't mind catching up a bit!” Popcorn proposed, making Melissa tighten back into that straightened poker-face she held earlier in the conversation. Unprompted, Popcorn continued “So yeah, how things going on the farm? Has that weather team apologized to Carnation yet?”

“Ahh... Ah'm sorry... but Ah... gotta be in a rush foooor... meeting with Doc Rapid, right!” Melissa stumbled through her hastily formulated excuse.

“Oh okay okay, got you! Well... do you want to meet up at my lunch hour? Say... 2 hours time?” Popcorn ended with.

Melissa was already well on her way towards the door, rushing to get out of this situation, so before taking any time to think on Popcorn's proposal, she instead uttered a muted “Yeah, sure.” And she stopped in her tracks, shot a fore-hoof up to her muzzle, almost giving herself an upper-cut at the suddenness, and instantly questioned what she just did. What she had just did was both figuratively and literally, as Earth would say, “shoved a foot in your mouth.”

“Okay awesome! Meet out front of here in 2 hours then?!” Popcorn chirped back.

“Why did I do that? Why did I do that?!” Melissa reprimanded herself, out-loud but in hushed tones in Turnover voice. She had walked a bit away from the post office back towards the bridge. She had stopped herself short of the bridge, and followed the river down slightly to a bench where she plopped herself down.

On this bench, she was now collecting herself, attempting to rationalize her actions, and not fall into a new panic over her promise to meet with Popcorn for lunch. It was yet more masquerading as Turnover that she'd rather not have to be doing today.

'You know... I joked about throwing us into the river to wake you up earlier, but it seems like the more preferable option right now Turnover.' Melissa internalized, directing the statement to Turnover's presence, to which her only response was a moan of complaint. 'How could you still be asleep?!' she scoffed before letting out a sigh, letting their head drop against their torso.

“You know... maybe this should be good for me... Turnover did say Popcorn was a “good pony”... and what if I ghost her and it ends up breaking Popcorn and Turnover's friendship apart?” Melissa fretted out loud to herself.

She adorned her brave face again, raised Turnover's head up and stared off into the patchy autumnal sky. Letting out another sigh, this time paired with a slight smile, she continued her path of reasoning. “And... huh, I don't know how long I'm gonna be stuck here... I'm gonna need more people to lean on. More than just Turnover at least. Maybe Popcorn just handed me the perfect start for that.”

With revitalized confidence and commitment, she continued to gaze at the skies above and made a silent promise to go through with befriending Popcorn. Raising Turnover's body off of the bench and giving it a shake to loosen up the muscles, it was only then that she realized how tense she had been for that entire time.

“Okay Mel, one task done... Gotta hit Doc Rapids now. That shouldn't be hard at all” Melissa reassured herself before finally setting off.

Across the river from the post-office, and nestled among the stalls of the market streets of the village, Melissa had arrived at what she was sure was Doc Rapid's office. The building was rendered in a brightly coloured design that would not feel out of place in an amusement park. But now she noticed it, she couldn't ignore that a lot of the other buildings around her were equally bright or fantastical, sporting equally cliché cheesy designs.

The building's design clearly mirrored an old European style of cottage. It's front plastered in white, divided only by Tudor style wooden beams that were painted a faded red alongside the front's architectural features, mainly the window-sills, frames, doors, and even sets of shuttered adorning the windows. Even the shingle slate roof was coloured a rose-pink. Hanging above the painted front door was a wooden sign, spelling out that this was the town's clinic.

The clinic was surrounded on three sides by streets, where the architectural details continued on each respective side. To the right of the building, jutting out over the street from the roof was another cylindrical tower like what the post-office had for their pegasi to use. Melissa guessed that this was where Rapid Aid would shoot off from when she was needed in a rush.

Melissa pushed open the door to the offices, which were on the furthest left of the front-facing facade, and entered into a small foyer that took up the rest of the front of the building, complete with a lengthy segment of bench that butted up against the back wall. Directly in front of her was a hallway that extended back with a series of doors, which Melissa concluded was split between two doctors, and a remaining administrative room.

Behind the desk in the foyer was an earth-pony mare, sat on her haunches and smiling towards Melissa as she took in the building. “Hey there, name's Franky, how can I help you sir?” the pony introduced herself casually. Melissa's attention turned towards this pony, and at a glance from Melissa, the mare seemed to experience a twinge in her emotion as the smile she held twisted slightly in confusion for a split second.

On top the desk was a simple green triangular name-plate which gave the mare's full name seemingly as Frankincense, the pony of this name sporting a plain beige coat with a brown mane and tail, her mane curled up and cut short on her head.

Startled slightly at being addressed as a “sir”, Melissa was slow to respond but eventually ended up responding “Good Mornin', ahh... Ah'm looking to speak with Doctor Rapid Aid?”

For a second, Franky seemed rejected at the mention of Melissa seeking out Doc Rapid, but turned her attention away from Melissa and towards a large tome that sat on her desk. Opening it to the middle of the thick book, she quickly scanned through both pages before turning up to face Melissa. “Don't seem to be an appointment scheduled... but she is free right now. Can I get your name please?”
Melissa complied, answering “It's Apple Turnover, she's seen him... uh... me, recently about an issue... just wanna update her on things.”

“Okay, just head down that hall there. Third door down and that'll be Rapid Aid's office.”

Melissa gave her thanks to Franky, and began her way down the hallway, inspecting the doors as she passed them. The whole clinic gave off a vibe more befitting a private-eye's office than a medical clinic from the inside. Outside at the least the colours used seemed to reflect the caring, comforting feeling a clinic is meant to give off. But inside, each of the doors down the hallway had a glass-window front-and-center at the perfect height for a pony to peer into, had they not been guarded off with horizontal shutter blinds. Each of the three doors sported a metal plaque that carried the name of the room's intended occupant.

She was somewhat correct in her suspicions as to the usage of each room. A door was labelled under Frankincense's name, assumedly where she stored all her massive tomes and other records. Further down was a door labelled under the name Camomile. Finally, Melissa approached the last door in the hallway, labelled Rapid Aid.

Entering into Rapid Aid's own private office, Melissa first clocked a mini mezzanine that looked like the interior of the tower that she had a glancing view of from the street, which to her confirmed more that this office was that of Doc Rapid.

On scanning the room, Melissa's eyes eventually fell on Doc Rapid who was sat behind her desk, surrounded in stacks of loosely assorted papers and files. Those papers and files spilled off of her desk and scattered across the floor in an unorganized mess.

Doc Rapid had her muzzle buried into an file held in front of her by her wings, completely unaware of Melissa's presence, until Melissa made her presence known with a quiet cough from Turnover's chest. This made Doc Rapid peek over the top of the file she was engrossed in.

What followed was a flutter of panic from Rapid Aid, her wings dropping the file as they shot back to a defensive, extended position on her back before she collected her composure and awkwardly coughed back to clear the air. “Hey there Mister Turnover!” she chirped in her usual happy tone, seeming nonplussed by Melissa's unintentional jump-scare. “Didn't expect to be seeing you today... Err... How long were you waiting there?” She continued, flushed embarrassment growing on her face as she slowly slid the file she was just reading underneath a pile of papers before ruffling them into order.

“Ah just arrived in here doc'. No need for the panic.” Melissa responded in her Turnover impression, capping it off with a little chuckle. “What was... all that anyhow?” She proceeded to ask, approaching the desk and taking a passing glance at all the files. She couldn't tell what any of them were, but they all seemed to be in the same style of format.

“It's ahh... nothing to be worried about Mister Turnover. Just some uhh, research into a local case!” Rapid Aid re-assured, but in a barely passable lie. To some level, Melissa already knew well enough to knew what “local case” it was she was looking into.

“So what brings you to see me this fine morning?” Doc Rapid proceeded, crossing her fore-hoofs while doing so, resting upon the stacks of loose papers still on her desk.

“Well doc', Ah just wanted to shoot by while Ah was in town to tell ya. We've gone sent a letter to Cousin Applejack down in Ponyville, try an' see if that... Council of Friendship there could help with what's goin' on here.” Melissa explained.

Doc Rapid gave a slight nod in acknowledgement, her smile continuing to show, but a sense of disappointment beginning to radiate from her as that smile had shallowed at Melissa's information. “Sounds like a good plan. Do keep me in the loop about this Mister Turnover, please.” Doc Rapid responded, before looking back down, towards all the papers on her desk, her face portraying a pony in process of making a decision.

“Do you... need any help with anything doc'?” Melissa probed, out of kindness.

“No no, it's fine, I just got some thinking to do now. It was nice to see you this morning though Turnover. Do keep looking after Lobo, will you?” Doc Rapid closed out the conversation, her thoughts seemingly already occupied again by the papers on her desk, and hurrying Melissa through the rest of the conversation.

“It was nice to see you as well doc'. Ah will keep an eye on Lobo, don't you worry 'bout that!” Melissa stated, ending her side of the conversation and trotting back towards the door.

On the other side of that door, she stood in place and took another deep breath, regaining her composure, and smiling at herself for a job well done in lasting through that conversation. She then made her exit.

Stepping out of the clinic, Melissa went through the mental checklist of tasks her and Turnover had intended to do today, and found it finished. Her smile continued as she began walking back through the market. This smile was short-lasting however, as a missed item in the checklist was suddenly remembered. Melissa had still inadvertently promised Popcorn that her and “Turnover” would hang out over the mail-mare's lunch break.

Frankincense, or Franky as she preferred to be called, waited for the strange stallion to leave the clinic, barely holding her excitement into the intrigue she felt for the pony.

She scooted around her desk and hurriedly trotted to the door of Camomile, the other doctor at this clinic, and her confidant, giving the door some excited but gentle knocks, accompanying it with a sing-songy call of “Oh Camille!”

Answering the door was a pale green pegasus with a white, puffed up, cloudy looking mane. “Franky? What got you in this good mood?” Camomile questioned, before she was unceremoniously shuffled back into the room by Franky.

“How I got to tell you about this pony!”

Camomile let off a frustrated sigh, approaching the door once again now they were both inside the room. “Franky, what have I told you about sharing what isn't yours to share?” Camomile admonished, slowly shutting the door.

Melissa had found herself wondering the streets of the village after leaving Doc Rapid's clinic, and she had ended up at the base of the clock tower in the village's center. She glanced up at it and it told her that there was still an hour before she would need to meet up with Popcorn.

After leaving Doc Rapid's clinic, Melissa did encounter an intrusive thought that advised that she should just ditch the get-together and just return to Willow Springs, but she quickly sought to correct this line of thought. She would not be ditching Popcorn after promising her they would hang out, despite the fact that it was Turnover that Popcorn was expecting to hang out with.

And after everything was said and done, was it not Melissa herself that said making a new friend would ultimately be good for her in the long run? And she would not risk breaking up Popcorn and Turnover's friendship. So for the good of everybody's sake, she will push herself through this meet up.

To occupy her mind away from the worries she held about the meet-up, and as a side, being able to satisfy her curiosity, she chose to spend the time before the meet up exploring what the village's market had to offer.

Never had Melissa seen anything quite this quaint and old-worldly before while she was on Earth. Sights like this market were commonly something you'd only see in Europe, or a very poor recreation of one at a Renaissance Fair.

Each stall was “mared”, or “stallioned”, by ponies of varying hues, and seemed to primarily consist of earth-ponies or pegasi. Each pony's stall reflected their cutie-mark and talent that came with it, from greengrocers of varying singular fruits and vegetables, to artisans like crafters, painters, and jewellers. Tailors, seamstresses, and ironically farriers who in Equus seem to fill the roll of cobblers. And those were just the common types of stall that Melissa clocked.

Each pony also had their own response to Melissa browsing their wares. Responses that varied from friendly welcomes and attempts at sparking up small talk, to stoic disinterest, to glares of suspicion.

Moving away from the front of the clock tower, Melissa resumed her window-shopping endeavours. One stall that caught her eye was specifically selling woollen-weave berets from within a portion of their store.

While back on Earth, back as a human, a woollen beret would have been right up Melissa's ally to wear. She never had any regard towards the concept of cliques and stereotyping fashion, not that she had any regard to fashion either. But if you would describe her aesthetic in any way, it would be that sort of “arts-college student” look. Glasses, jumpers and pullovers, often seen carrying a book or two, fabric jackets, and berets of course.

The temptation for Melissa to get one of these berets was tricky for her to ignore. It'd probably give back some homely-comfort for Melissa, or at the least be something a bit more personal for her to wear going into the future.

While her eyes studied a particular scarlet coloured beret, the owner of the stall had trotted her way over to the browsing pony, and made her presence known. “Greetings my dear! Looking at getting something for your special mare-friend, hmm?” She began, Melissa's attention whipping away from the beret to focus on the store's proprietor. “Maybe you plan for an early Hearth's Warming gift, perhaps?”

Melissa stared back, gauntness and flustered. Being herself as her personality still, yet trapped within the body of a stallion, had stunned her slightly before. But she'd always thought of the situation as being “a guest in Turnover's body”. But now, being as true to herself as she had been so far today, made it all the more real that Melissa was in a body that was not hers, specifically a body that was not female. This left her even more flustered than any point before.

“Ahh, um... yeah... yeah sure...” Melissa stuttered out in Turnover's masculine voice, a blush developing on their face and diversion of eyes to the floor, as each additional word Melissa heard in that deeper tone added another layer of fluster.

“Well, I'm sure she would love it, my dear.” The muted-pink earth-pony continued with a giggle.

“Ah'm... uhh... only window-shoppin' for now... but... how much would it cost?” Melissa braved to ask, shrinking further into herself.

“For that scarlet one you were looking at? A Silver bit and 5 Gold. The quality is worth it!” the mare announced.

That was about as much as Melissa could handle of the situation, slowly drawing herself away from the stall, giving a quick and bashful “Thanks” to the sales-pony as she departed.

For the first time since arriving here, Melissa had an extreme pining for her old body, her old existence on Earth. How quick events had hit back-to-back and how quickly she and Turnover were focused on fixing this issue, had not given any time for Melissa to truly reflect on the entire situation.

More so than ever now, Melissa's apprehension towards the meet-up with Popcorn flared. But it had evolved from thoughts of ditching Popcorn, into an indifferent determination to just get it over with.

Author's Note

If you've spotted the one purposeful easter-egg reference I added to this chapter, kudos to you, and kudos to your tastes in analogue horror series.

To answer to how they appeared to react in this chapter; no they are not canon, yes they do sense Melissa's presence. That's all the aid the rest of you are getting in figuring out the reference!

I know I've said this before and never acted on it... but maybe if this concept won't leave my head alone, I'd make it it's own story... still not revealing what the reference is.

And to explain the currency as explored in this chapter. I have my own beliefs about how the “bit” works as a currency and how goods are traded in general in this universe... I may explore it further in a later chapter. But what I decided here, is that Silver is more valuable in the universe than Gold when it comes to currency, explains why Fluttershy paid that hot-air balloon operator in Silver during the Season 4 finale. A personally-chartered hot-air balloon ride would be far more expensive than say... a train ride, let alone say an apple. I'd say 20 Gold makes 1 Silver piece. So that crimson beret Melissa was looking at, would cost the equivalent of 25 Gold.

I was going to combine Chapter 10, and what will be Chapter 11 together to begin with. But the more I considered how much dialogue will be going into the lunch-break meet-up, I realized it'd make this Chapter uncomfortably long for me. (As prior mentioned, I'd like to keep the word count below 5k per chapter if I can.)

Also, next Chapter being at the meet-up is gonna be difficult for me... who usually does not talk when I get together with friends. After next Chapter, I might hold off from posting again until I build up another bank of Chapters, say to Chapter 15, as my motivation wains.

Chapter 11 - Banter

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