Hearts Desire - 2

>The discovery of our new pony ears went over a lot better than I had thought it would.
>I mean, compared to the previous shock of losing our hands and feet, this wasn't much.
>Granted, it was still weird as all hell and took a bit of getting used to, but I didn't freak out as much as last time.
>It was strange, being able to hear a lot clearer and my ears also seemed to swivel to pick up the exact direction of a sound when it happened.
>You know how when you hear something you can tell the vague direction of where it's coming from?
>This is exact.
>Like, fucking pinpoint.
>I could hear a distant animal call and immediately be able to look at where it was.
>I explored my new addition for a while, but it became second nature after a short while.
>Now, I was really, /really/ bored.
>Who knew you could get bored by doing nothing but play one video game for hours on end?
>I could tell Applejack was getting bored too, but neither of us had anything better to do.
>Eventually, we just started talking to each other about things.
>It wasn't a very common thing for us to do.
>If we did talk, it was usually about things like video games, hot girls, inconsequential shit really.
>This talk was definitely different.
>"Rara... Did you ever suspect anything?"
"About what?"
>I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention at that point.
>"About... My feelings about myself."
"Oh."
>I paused the game and looked over at her.
"Well... Not really. I mean, I guess you didn't really associate with a lot of the manly man stuff, but then again, neither did I."
>"I guess so."
"You're never going to stop being my friend, you know that?"
>"O-of course!"
"Good."
>I smiled and nudged him playfully.
"So to answer, no. I never really suspected a thing. So it doesn't change a thing. Besides the whole, y'know. Turning into a pony thing."
>"I'm really really sorry about that. Don't worry, I'll get that pony Twilight to turn you back and everything will be back to normal."
"AJ, you know that's not true."
>"What? Why?"
"Because. You'll still be a pony."
>"I fully intend on asking her to change me back too."
"Really? AJ... I don't want to take this from you."
>"You wouldn't be taking a thing."
"Yes I would. You don't want to be in this world anymore. If it wasn't what you felt, deep down, then it wouldn't have been granted when you read that letter."
>"N-no, I want..."
"Stop lying."
>AJ looked off at a wall.
>I could tell she was avoiding eye contact with me, but her face betrayed her words.
"Listen... You're my best friend. You're the one thing that's stopped me from wanting to kill myself, to be honest."
>"Don't say that..."
"It's the truth. When I lost my voice, I lost a part of me. Imagine if you were a cyclist and you were in an accident that caused you to be paraplegic. Besides the horror of losing your ability to walk, you've lost your ambition. You've lost the ability to cycle. It's the same thing for me, dude. I /lost/ that part of my soul. My dreams and aspirations to be an artist are... Gone."
>I thought about that phrase for a second.
>They were gone.
>But now, they weren't.
>My heart began to beat faster and faster as the full gravity of what had happened bore down on me.
>I COULD SING AGAIN!
>I had been so worried about turning into a pony that I actually forgot I could now sing!
>No, stop.
>Celebrate later.
>Console friend now.
>I calmed myself down and looked back to Applejack.
"AJ, we got our dream's back. I got my ability to sing, you got your hopes of being a girl, but I don't... I don't want that without you."
>"Rara...?"
"I... I can't. I can't gain my voice only to lose the person who means the most to me."
>"What're you saying?"
"I'm saying that if you go to that pony world... I'm coming too."
>"No! If T-Twilight can change us back, I-I'm gonna change back too!"
"Applejack, stop! I've made my decision!"
>"But what about... Your life here? What about your friends?"
"Are you kidding me? I don't have any friends! Besides you, I'm alone. I work at a shitty minimum wage job, I do nothing but play video games all day, I've lost all I cared about in this world besides you. I'm honestly surprised that the letter didn't interpret my wish as to go to another world."
>"Rara... I... I don't know what to say."
"Say that you'll always be my friend. I don't need anymore than that."
>She lurched forward and wrapped her arms around me, sobbing into my shoulders.
>The hug came as a bit of a shock, but I reciprocated and hugged her back.
>I stroked her hair and held her close.
>She needed me.
>I needed her.
>That's the way it would always be.

>It took a while, but eventually, Applejack finished crying and we got back to our normal joking attitude.
>I made crass jokes, she scoffed and made worse ones.
>It was a good dynamic that always managed to help pass time.
>I looked at the clock.
>Holy crap, it was 5 already.
>I started thinking about dinner and what we could have.
>There wasn't a huge amount in the pantry or fridge, so I might have to go out shopping tomorrow.
>Wait.
>Shopping.
>FUCK.
>We look like fucking human pony hybrids!
>We can't go shopping tomorrow!
>Who knows what changes will happen overnight, we can't risk it.
>That and we'll need food for the next week.
"Hey, AJ."
>"What's up?"
"You're not gonna like this. We gotta go shopping."
>"...Fuck."
"Yep."
>"So... What do we do?"
>She looked down at her hooves and pursed her lips in thought.
"Well... I guess we could cover them in socks?"
>"And what, say that we /both/ lost /both/ of our hands?"
"Well, I don't really think people will ask. If it actually looks like we lost our hands in an accident, I doubt people will be insensitive enough to ask what happened."
>"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Alright. So, socks on our hands and feet. I got some Doc Martins that are big enough that they should be able to hide our foot-hooves and give us the extra balance we need. Now the ears..."
>"That's easy, dude. We got beanies for that."
>Oh right. Duh.
"Okay, so the shops close in less than an hour and we need to get food for a full week."
>"Shit. Let's go."

>We rushed around the house, hastily searching for stuff to cover up with.
>The shoes were a lot less effective than I had hoped, but they did a lot more for me than nothing at all.
>Plus, they made me look vaguely normal.
>I still had to hobble a bit as I walked, but it looked close enough to limping to pass.
>The beanie covered up my ears, but they still twitched involuntarily every once and a while.
>Socks on my hand-hooves looked stupid as fuck, but also passed well enough as just missing hands.
>I could tell people would be confused as hell, but we had to throw caution to the wind.
>Eventually, we were ready to go and I walked out the door.
>I turned around to see AJ looking around nervously as we walked toward her car.
>I could tell she was nervous, and rightly so.
>We got in the car and she fumbled to start the engine.
>After a few tries, the car started and AJ breathed a sigh of both relief and preperation for what we had to do.
>"Alright. You ready, Rara?"
"Yeah, AJ."
>Suddenly, her eyes were filled with another look of extreme worry.
"What's wrong."
>"Uh... Your eyes, man."
>I rotated the rear view mirror and looked at my eyes.
>Bright fucking turquoise.
>Great.
"Ok... Let's speed this up. I'm gonna just have to avoid eye contact with everyone or something."

>With a little trial and error, Applejack got used to driving with hooves.
>It took her swerving a whole bunch and narrowly missing a cat, but she got the hang of it pretty quickly.
>We arrived at the store and got out of the car.
>The store was mostly empty due to it almost being closing time, but there was still a fair amount of people walking around.
>I walked in as confidently as possible, trying my hardest to look as normal as possible.
>Trying so hard just seemed to make me look even more awkward.
>I had my hooves in my pocket, hiding them as much as possible.
>I only brought them out to push the shopping trolley once we got it.
>We decided that I would push and AJ would pile the produce into the cart.
>"So what should we get?"
"Well, it only has to last us for a week, so perishable stuff is OK."
>"So lettuce,  baked beans, instant noodles, spaghetti-"
"NO SPAGHETTI."
>"Fair enough. What about some bacon?"
"Bacon sounds great, but if memory serves me, ponies are vegetarian. I don't want to deal with any consequences of eating meat if I don't have to."
>"Damn. I'm gonna miss meat."
"So veggies. Pretty much just that."
>We walked around, grabbing a bunch of shitty snack food and junk food.
>This was normal for us, but buying the vegetables was not.
>Carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, apples...
>Apples.
>We approached the fruit isle and immediately, AJ abandoned me to run toward a stand.
>I followed her, confused.
"AJ, what's up? Why'd you run off?"
>"Apples..."
>What?
"What?"
>"Dude... I really want these apples."
"Uh, sure."
>I grabbed a bag and began to fill it with apples and AJ stood there, staring at me.
>Salivating.
>What the hell.
>"Can... Can we get more? Please?"
"More? More apples? We have like, 10."
>"I know. I want... I don't know. I don't know why, but I really really really want more apples."
"Whatever dude, sure."
>"Thank you."
>I rolled my eyes and picked up 10 more apples, placing them next to the others.
>I guess her new name had something to do with this fascination, I mean she is called "Applejack".
>Wait, does that mean I'm gonna go through some mental changes as well?
>My name didn't really give any hints.
>Coloratura...
>I knew it was a singing term of some type, but nothing more than that.
>I already liked singing, so that wasn't going to be anything new.

>As we were finishing up our shopping, I noticed a small girl staring at us and pointing.
>I looked down at myself, but none of my limbs were exposed, so that wasn't why she was staring at me.
>So why was she?
>I tapped AJ on the shoulder and she turned around.
>I gasped in shock.
>Her face had started to shift a little and her nose had began to flatten against her face.
>Oh shit.
"Hey, AJ. We gotta get out of here now. Like, now now."
>"What? Why- Oh. Fuck."
>We quickly threw the last few things it the cart and rushed to the checkout.
>As we got there, we started piling our groceries onto the counter and the girl behind the checkout stared at us.
>"Uh, are you girls alright?"
"Y-yes, sorry miss."
>AJ stood up at that.
>Tears began to brim her eyes.
>That must have been the first time someone ever called her a girl.
>And me too...
>Never mind that now.
>We had to hurry up.
>I tapped Applejack on the shoulder which snapped her out of her stupor.
"C'mon, AJ. We gotta get home."
>She nodded and helped finish unloading the groceries.
>The girl behind the counter raised an eyebrow before beginning to scan the items one by one.
>I tapped my foot-hoof nervously.
>She was taking forever!
>Well, she probably was taking a normal amount of time, but we didn't really have that much time.
>I could feel my face almost shifting as I waited.
>Eventually, she finished and cited the cost.
>I pulled out my wallet and with a lot of fumbling and frustration, managed to pull the money out to pay with.
>Practically throwing it on the counter, I piled the bagged items back into the trolley and pushed off as fast as possible.
>We threw the groceries in the car and drove off.
>As AJ was driving, I could see the sweat visibly dripping down her forehead.
>We were out of the store, but we weren't out of the public's eye just yet.
>"Rara..."
"Yeah?"
>She pursed her lips and her eyes darted between me and the road.
>"Do you... I... Nevermind, dude."
"Are you sure? You really looked like you had something to say for a second there."
>Her cheeks were bright red.
>"It's not important."
"Look, if it's about you being called a girl by the checkout girl, then I'm happy for you."
>"It's not... Exactly that. I mean, everything seems to be affecting everything else at the moment. This whole pony shit has just... Swept up our boring lives. It's kinda... Fun."
>I blinked.
>You know what?
>It kinda was fun!
>We were getting to do all of this stuff that might put us in danger or affect our lives in the future, but... We weren't going to stay in this world for too much longer.
>Doing this stuff was fun.
"I think I know what you're talking about, AJ."
>"Heheh, yeah."
>She chuckled and smiled warmly.
>It was nice to finally see her happy.
>And not just happy, but alive.