I didn’t want to get up.

There was something about me that day. I didn’t want to work – or to talk with other people. I wanted to lay back in bed all day and do absolutely nothing. The blanket lay heavy on me, and the prospect of going out into the cooler autumn air wasn’t an enticing one. It was a workday, but I couldn’t gather the motivation to do it.

Applejack poked her snout into the room, “It’s morning, is something wrong?”

“I don’t know, yes?”

“That ain’t much of an answer pal.”

I groaned and kicked my legs, I felt sick. I knew that getting up would make me feel better. But I didn’t want to. “I don’t know – have you ever felt like staying in bed even though it makes you feel bad?”

“Maybe.” Applejack entered my room and set on the end of my temporary bed. “Is this about the room? It ain’t exactly high class.”

I had my complaints, but no – the room was perfectly fine. In fact it was an improvement from my previous one. There were no leaks, and the dust had been cleaned away a few days in. I nearly forget that it was an old storage room until AJ brought it up. The bed was too small for my fat ass though.

“I’m not Rarity AJ. I’d sleep in a box if I had to.”

“Then it’s something else.”

I sighed and pulled myself out of the covers. “To be honest, I’m not really comfortable with… this.” I motioned to myself. “It still freaks me out when I go into the bathroom. I keep trying to use my fingers too, and sometimes I forget to walk on all fours…”

Applejack patted me on the horse shoulder. “That ain’t nothin’ to keep hidden. I couldn’t imagine turning into a griffon, or a dragon, or nothing like that.”

“The problem is that it’s not about adjusting or getting support!” I explained, “This is something that people spend their whole lives dealing with. And Twilight told me that there’s no way to fix it right now.”

“You sure about that sugarcube? She can do all sorts of things with that magic of hers.”

“She said that even changing my gender back was too much, so I’m not holding out hopes for a pony to human spell either.” I tapped my leg with... another leg, which wasn’t helping matters. I really wanted my hands back.

“You alright? You’re looking a bit pale.” I could feel myself starting to break into a nervous sweat.

“No.”

“And that’s why I’m here,” Applejack concluded. Twilight was noticeably concerned.

“That’s not good.” Twilight levitated over a tome from her numerous shelves and flipped through the pages. “Since Toffee asked last week, I’ve been looking for ways to help.” Applejack leaned over her shoulder and read through the page.

“Mind… meld?”

“Mindmeld, it’s one word. I had to ask Celestia very nicely to even take this book out of the archives.”

“And what does it do?”

“It’s a spell that allows you to… change a pony’s mind.”

“Like uh, brainwashing?”

“Brainwashing is much simpler. Not only does it overwrite the personality of the pony targeted – but the suggestion will wear off when the spell is broken. A mind meld is much more advanced, and in some ways more dangerous.”

Applejack was confused and concerned. “I thought he wanted to get his old body back?”

“I know, I was just covering all of our options. There are two paths we could take, finding a way to turn him back, or… to make him comfortable with the change. A mindmeld is self-replicating, any suggestion made is reinforced over time. It doesn’t wear off, and it doesn’t erase the target’s personality.”

Applejack frowned; she didn’t like the sound of this. “I think that’d be a right old breach of his trust!” Gerry had been very insistent that he wasn’t comfortable with being a mare, even though she herself thought it was just swell.

Twilight shook her head, “No, no. I’d never cast a spell like this on somepony without their express permission! He’d probably find the idea preposterous anyway. What’s more interesting is the way it self-replicates. If we could apply this principle to a transformation spell – maybe we could make a permanent version for him.”

“He mentioned something like that.” Applejack’s hackles lowered slightly. Twilight usually went a bit too deep into spells and magic, but if she was sure that she wouldn’t do it without his permission…

“I hate to bring bad news Applejack. But it wouldn’t be helpful to lie to him about the prospects of turning him back.”

Applejack could appreciate that at least, “You’re right.”

Twilight closed the book and put it back where it came from. “If you’d like you could tell him about what I’m doing, I’m sure he’d like to hear what progress I’m making.”

“And that’s what she said!”

I chewed on my lower lip. That was an ominous path that Twilight was heading down in my opinion. “So I can either brainwash myself or wait for her to make up a new spell?”

“Twilight wasn’t sayin’ that you would…”

“I know, she’s working on the new spell idea.”

Applejack was angling for something with this discussion. I wondered why she’d gone down to the library the other day, I could have just gone myself. Maybe she thought that hearing it from somebody else would make me feel better. Twilight’s idea about a self-replicating transformation spell wasn’t a bad one. But I wondered if she understood the principles of DNA and how the body constructed itself. If she knew, maybe she’d make more progress.

I filed the idea away; I’d have to remember to tell her the next time I saw her. “Whatever, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Applejack chuckled, “Yup, there ain’t much use worrying much about Twilight. She’ll probably kick down our door tomorrow yelling about how she’s figured it already.”

“You sure? She made it seem like a lot of work when I talked to her.” My mind flashed back to the huge piles of books that buried the library. Twilight must be used to it, but it couldn’t be good for her health to drive herself mad over it.

“She’s the smartest darn pony I’ve ever met, put a little trust into her!”

The smartest pony who managed to drag somebody from another planet to her own on accident. Forgive me for not feeling optimistic about the chances of her reversing the damage. I just wanted to change the subject.

“Where’s Mac?” We’d been sat in the living room for nearly an hour and I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the big guy. He’d usually dip inside every so often to get something or grab a drink. Applejack looked around the room as if he was hiding behind the fireplace or something.

“Now that ya’ mention it. I ain’t seen him in a bit. Why? You got something you wanna’ say to him?”

“No, I was just curious.”

I stood up and walked to the door, looking out across the orchard. I couldn’t see his bright red coat anywhere amongst the trees. Mac really was dedicated to his work on the farm – I’d only seen him leave once or twice. So it was unusual to see him gone.

“So Toffee was asking me where Mac was.”

Rarity tittered and leant in over the table, “Oh! What a darling couple they’d make! Made for each other, if I may say.” Applejack visibly tensed up at the idea. She was imagining all of the ways that he would complain if put into a relationship outside of his normal body, and with a stallion. Did he like stallions already? Applejack filed the question away for later.

“I don’t know if Toffee’s looking for a special somepony right now… She’s just getting settled into town and all.”

“I don’t see her around that often, you should bring her down more!” Rarity took a sip of her tea, casting a sideways glance out of the window to the town outside. Some of the town’s folk were about their daily business. “Has she been a big help with the farm?”

“She’s a bright gal, and a strong one too. She can do a bit of everything.”

“Strong and tall. She’s a striking figure. I don’t think there’s enough fabric in this building to hope to craft a dress appropriate.” Rarity pouted. Applejack knew that she was thinking through how to coerce Toffee into letting her make a dress. Applejack also knew that Gerry would probably flip his lid if she tried.

“A formal event isn’t uh… something she’d be interested in.”

“Oh phooey Applejack, that’s what you said before we had our last grand galloping gala!”

“What now? The fun part was when we trashed the place and went to Donut Joe’s and talked about how much of a waste o’ time it was.”

“And we looked simply fabulous while doing it.”

“Do you know what Mac’s been up to? I ain’t seen much of him around the farm lately.”

“If anybody would know, it would be you Applejack. He has been to all of our rendezvous for the Pony Tones. Though he did seem distracted by something…” Rarity stared at the ceiling as if in deep thought.

Applejack fiddled with her cup, “Well, I’m not gonna’ pry too much into my brother’s business. He’s a grown stallion after all.” Applejack was a little bit concerned; it was natural for her to worry about her family after all! She had a lot of responsibility looking after Applebloom, and Granny Smith when she tried to do something that she couldn’t. Mac getting himself into trouble was a personal worry of hers.

“Oh don’t worry Applejack, I’ll try to ask him the next we meet.”

“Don’t make it out like I’m spyin’ on him, you hear?”

“You have my word. I shall approach him with my usual grace and tact.” Applejack had to do her darndest to not roll her eyes.

“…And that’s what we discussed!” Rarity finished. Mac blinked. Rarity’s composure was starting to break under his intense gaze. The community centre was busy in a break from tradition – usually most ponies didn’t make use of the building. The Pony Tones meeting was due in just a few moments, and Rarity had decided to broach the subject with the grace of a beached whale.

Rarity knew that Mac didn’t like to talk about himself that often. So the prospect of having to speak to him to learn about what he was doing in his own time was a daunting one – perhaps impossible. Rarity didn’t usually ask so merely expressing interest would surely arouse suspicion. She couldn’t just turn down a favour to a friend though.

“Nothing.”

…

“Nothing?”

“Yup.”

Rarity sighed. “I told her she was just worrying over nothing.”

Mac said nothing. It was like talking to a brick wall. Rarity was beginning to grow frustrated. She wanted there to be something, she lived for the personal lives of her friends and their relatives. A secret meeting with his lover? Taking part in the local pie eating competition? It could be anything! And Rarity didn’t like not knowing. Her verbal retreat didn’t coax anything more out of him.

“You would tell me if you needed some romance advice, wouldn’t you?”

Mac quirked a brow, “Uh…” He drawled for a long, long time. “Yup.”

“Because I’m a romantic at heart!”

“Uh-huh.”

“How about the new mare on the farm? She’s very fetching, isn’t she?”

Mac nodded slowly, “Yup.”

“So… you wouldn’t object to making her your special somepony?” Rarity batted her eyelashes to twist his leg even further. He blushed slightly. But Mac held his nerve. He wasn’t blind to Rarity’s usual game of trying to match up all her friends. She lived vicariously through other people’s romance.

“I ain’t even talked to her that much.”

Rarity tittered, “Now that won’t do! You’ve been working on the same farm for months now. You should talk to her once in a while.”

“The only thing I got to talk about is bucking apples.” It had always been an anxiety of Mac’s that he wasn’t interesting. Especially when it came to making friends or getting a marefriend. He was a farm colt, and nothing but. Most ponies weren’t interested in apple bucking, pig rearing or barn maintaining. Especially ponies from big cities.

“She’s a farmer too, isn’t she? I’m sure you’ll have a lot more in common than you think, and you’ll never know until you try!”

“Tryin’s what I’m worried about.”

“Rares…” Applejack shook her head. Rarity had dropped by the farm to say hello a few days after their talk.

“What?” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. Rarity believed that naught was amiss.

“I told ya’ that Toffee wasn’t right interested, didn’t I?”

“Yes…” Rarity gasped dramatically, “Could it be?” She leaned in close, “Does she like mares?”

Applejack nearly said yes but stopped herself. While it was true that Gerry technically liked mares, assuming that he did anyway, that wasn’t the reason for his objection. Gerry clearly didn’t want to use his new body for that purpose for a reason. A reason that Applejack knew was entirely genuine. “She just ain’t interested. She’s been clear about that.”

“Maybe if you weren’t keeping her so busy, she’d have the time to find a nice stallion.” In the distance, Gerry bucked another tree. Applejack could hear him working. She didn’t feel comfortable talking about this behind his back.

Applejack had to keep Rarity’s snout out of it for a little longer, “At least don’t ask her. She’ll probably be seeing red if you do.”

“Of course darling, when have I ever been inconsiderate of a friend’s feelings?”

Applejack could name several instances.

Crack! Another tree shook.

Author's Notes:

A huge thank you to:

Evo

For supporting me on patreon.

I was debating titling this chapter "Chinese Whispers," but I decided on the more commonly used term "Telephone."