While they waited for an opportunity to present itself to search for Applejack and Rarity, the ponies kept on with their human lives, working human jobs and socializing with human friends. Twilight and Whoof went back to working at the library as Tamara and Brad, with Spike at school to keep up the pretense of being Tamara's little brother. Twilight wheeled her cart between the stacks, sorting and shelving. She missed her horn and being able to stack, sort and shelve entire collections in one swoop of telekinesis.
“Twi... uh, I mean, Tamara!” Brad hissed behind her.
“What?”
“There's a rodeo on in town!”
Twilight grimaced. “Uh, no thanks. Not really my thing.”
“No, but it's definitely Applejack's thing,” Whoof pointed out.
*** *** ***
Twilight, Pinkie, Spike, Fluttershy, Whoof and Rainbow Dash inhaled the distinctive fragrance of fresh hay, alfalfa and the strong scent of livestock. Pinkie Pie had experimentally scooped up a handful of horse feed when no-one was looking, but quickly spat it out when it didn't agree with her human taste buds, much to Spike's amusement.
“Don't laugh, Spike!” she told him in all seriousness. “You can't eat gems in this world either!” Spike made a strangled noise in shock at this new revelation.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 35th annual Cityside Rodeo!” the announcer boomed. “The bronco riding competition will begin in one hour! Contestants, please report with your horses to the marshalling area.”
“Ooooh! I love rodeos! Yeehah! Ride 'em cowpony!” Pinkie cheered. The human ponies and dragon were sitting side by side in the stands overlooking the main arena. Pinkie had somehow, in the last five minutes, come into possession of a bucket of popcorn and was munching away happily.
“Spike, we've got an hour. See if you can find Applejack!” Twilight nudged her assistant, who dutifully stepped down and out of the stands, clutching the amulet in his sweaty fist.
“Show me where Applejack is!” Spike whispered to the jewel beneath the buzz of the rodeo crowd. The amulet pulled him behind the stands and off in the direction of the bronco riders' marshalling area. Spike ducked and wove his way through the dense crowd until he reached the knot of horses, the animals looking tense. Then he heard a familiar drawl. “Whoa, boy! Easy there, sugarcube.”
“Applejack!” Spike gasped. He craned his neck, trying to see her over the large mounts.
“Hey, kid! Get away from there, you're gonna get kicked!” A hand seized him by the collar and dragged him away.
“Hey!” Spike protested. “I'm looking for somepo...someone!”
“If they're one of the bronco riders, son, you'll have to wait until their ride's over.” The lanky stable hand tried to shoo Spike away but he was having none of it. “It's urgent!” Spike tried to tell him. “I'm looking for...” Then the amulet made a direct line-of-sight connection, drawing Spike's eyes toward a blonde, sun-bronzed cowgirl sitting on top of a chestnut stallion. “...her!” He pointed. “I was told to find her! It's urgent!”
The stable hand looked in the direction of Spike's pointing finger and yelled out in the cowgirl's direction. “Amity! AMITY!”
The cowgirl looked up from her mount, annoyance etched on her face. “Yeah?”
“This kid needs to talk to you! Says it's urgent!”
“Hold on!” Amity pulled on the reins and steered her horse out of the marshalling area towards Spike and dismounted.
“Thanks, I can take it from here,” Spike told the stable hand. As Amity loomed over him, frowning, he grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the stables. “This way! Quickly!”
“What the hell is going on, boy?” she demanded, confused. “Do I even know you?”
Spike led Amity into a dark, empty stall. Not even pausing for breath, he slapped the amulet into her unresisting hand.
Nothing happened.
“What's this?” Amity briefly examined the amulet, then raised an eyebrow at Spike. Is this some kind of joke? I got a horse to ride.”
Spike didn't say anything, but just stared at her. Waiting.
Amity sighed and tossed the crystal back. To Spike's dismay, she walked out of the stall. “You're a weird little guy. Ain't you got parents to go find? Ain't your momma never told you...” The cowgirl was cut off midsentence by what any human would have seen as a grand mal seizure, but was really Cadance's complex, tightly-woven memory recovery spell finally taking hold in her brain. She staggered backwards and landed heavily on top of Spike.
“Oof!” Spike struggled to push her off him, but despite her slim frame she was too heavy to lift. He squirmed like a helpless worm on the grimy floor, worming out from underneath her piecemeal.
Huffing and puffing and covered in filth, Spike sat by Amity's side and waited for the spell to finish.
“This is a reminder to all bronco riding contestants. Please make your way to the marshalling area! Bronco riding starts in forty-five minutes!” the announcer could be heard faintly outside the stable.
After a short eternity, Applejack stirred.
“Ohhh, mah head. Ah'm never gonna try drinkin' Red Gala under the table again.”
“Applejack!” Spike cried joyfully. “I was worried for a minute there.”
“Spike?” Applejack smiled. “Good to see ya, pardner. Where's everypony else?”
“I've found everypony else except for Rarity. They're sitting up in the stands watching the rodeo events! Twilight sent me down with this amulet Princess Cadance made to find you and bring you back.”
“Aw, ponyfeathers, the bronco event!” Applejack put a hand to her forehead. “Spike, you git on back to Twi and the gang. Ah still gotta get in the saddle and ride that ol' horse. I'll meet up with ya after Ah'm done.”
“Sure thing, Applejack!”
“Oh, and clean yerself up a little. Ya smell like our stable hand out there after muckin' out the stables! There's a spigot 'round the back.”
“You know, it's awfully strange seeing equines in this world, they're so different to Equestrian ponies,” Whoof commented as the human ponies watched the crowd and the animals below. “If only they could talk...”
“No pegasi, no unicorns, no crystal ponies, no alicorns!” Rainbow Dash replied. “Kind of makes you wonder what Equestria would be like if it was just earth ponies. No pegasi to make it rain? No unicorns to... do all the stuff unicorns do? No Princesses to move the sun and moon? It'd be a pretty harsh existence when you think about it. No offense, Pinkie.”
“None taken!” Pinkie assured her. “You're right, Dashie, even though Ponyville is run mostly by earth ponies we still need other ponies to help. What would we ever do without Fluttershy to keep the animals calm?”
Fluttershy blushed a little at this, but then she boarded Pinkie's train of thought. “What would we do without the weather teams to regulate the weather? All our crops would fail!”
“Guys!” Spike climbed back up the stands and squeezed in next to Twilight. The others leaned in to hear what he had to say. “I found Applejack!”
“That's great, Spike!” Pinkie squealed. “I can throw a 'We Have Our Friend Applejack Back' party at my house!”
“Did you get her to touch the amulet, Spike?” Twilight reminded him.
“It took a bit of convincing to get her to follow me to somewhere where no-one would see the spell work on her, but yeah!” Spike was grinning madly. “Applejack's back! She's going to meet up with us later after she finishes her rodeo ride!”
“Rodeo ride?” Fluttershy squeaked, terrified. “Oh no!”
“Don't worry, Fluttershy, she still has her human memories!” Spike reassured her. “I bet Applejack's gonna be great!”
The six of them waited anxiously for their friend to appear in the arena. Soon the bronco riding competition began in earnest, human riders leaping into the arena on wildly leaping, twisting and bucking equines who made every effort to dislodge their riders. Fluttershy covered her face the whole time, only sneaking peeks and cowering again after seeing a human thrown to the ground.
Then, finally, it was Applejack's turn.
“Here she is, ladies and gentlemen, contestant number 86, the Golden Cowgirl! Amity Jackson, riding Caballo!”
“There she is!” Spike yelled, pointing for the ponies to see.
“Yeah Appl... Amity! Wooooo!” Dash bellowed. Applejack glanced up to see Spike and a group of other people waving at her. Her eyes lit up in recognition and she had just enough time to wave back before the rope was pulled and the gate swung open. Caballo leaped out of the enclosure like a Mexican Jumping Bean, Applejack hanging on like the seasoned rodeo pro she was in both universes.
“YEEHAW!” she screamed. “Ride 'em cowpony!”
Caballo dashed, stopped, swung around and bucked, forcing his rider to put all her strength into staying firmly seated on his back. The horse ignored everything else around him and threw the transformed pony around the arena for a good while until the siren finally howled. Applejack carefully jumped off Caballo, leaving him to the clowns, and made a beeline for the nearest exit.
“Boy howdy, that's one heck of a story,” Applejack said, shaking her head.
It was evening and the ponies and Spike were celebrating at Pinkie's. The townhouse living room was somewhat crowded, but there was still plenty of room for all the usual party-related accoutrements like chips and dip, soda, cake, brownies and slices.
“Now all we have to do is find Rarity and we can get back to Equestria, break out the Elements of Harmony and kick some draconequus flank!” Rainbow Dash declared.
“Speakin' o' Rarity, have you tried lookin' in any fancy dress stores, or those places where they print fashion magazines?” Applejack suggested.
“I tried the fashion stores, salons and beauty parlours, but the amulet didn't pick up anything,” Fluttershy told her sadly.
“The amulet only works when you're within a certain distance of the pony you're looking for,” Spike explained. “Twilight, Pinkie and I had to go all over town looking for Fluttershy.”
“We could try the magazine offices tomorrow, though,” Twilight promised. “Good thinking, Applejack.”