“Oof!” I breathed as I stumbled into a wall for the third time in the hallway, it wasn’t as if it was a long hallway or anything but any time I tried to take a step my traitorous legs would try to go different directions. Of course being dizzy was a product blood loss and as far as I knew it could take a couple days to recoup from something like that. I think.
“I didn’t lose that much blood did I?” I asked.
“Yes and no.” She said evasively, I raised an eyebrow before she went on to explain what she meant. As it turned out while I was unconscious and apparently fighting death, Rarity’s friend Twilight Sparkle had sent half her lab in an effort to help stabilize me. Part of that effort was the delivery – via Spike of course – of the viscous red potion that I saw on my nightstand and vaguely remembered from the whole ordeal. Things had gone in an escalation scenario until Twilight finally just sent whatever stores of the potion she had, which explained all the extra glass equipment around the house. Rarity paused in her almost consistent talking then as she helped me into one of the chairs at the table, and then got the eggs going before she continued speaking.
“The potion works in two ways: firstly it will help heal whatever injury is left in your arm – I did what I could with magic to heal the bone but healing spells are not my greatest strength, you see, and with healing magic you can do as much harm as you can good if it is done wrong – sorry. Tangent. Anyways, the main and second purpose of the potion is to work as an anti viral, using both alchemy and magic to combat the rabies virus that I’m certain is in your bodily systems.” She said while slowly stirring eggs in the pan.
“Rabies exists in your world too, huh?” I asked, making the logical leap.
“Yes, you must take two table spoons of it until it is gone and it will cure you of the virus, but after that any healing that is left must be finished by your own body.” She said in a stern, motherly fashion.
“Beats the shots. I’ve had to have those before when one of my livestock was infected and nicked me before we could…anyways the shots hurt a lot. You’re sure about this potion?” I asked.
“Positive.” She responded, and the surety in her voice was enough to reassure me that it would work, though I’d probably still ask Twilight or Celestia myself later on. It was my health after all but if the same virus with the same name existed in a world where they spoke our language and had many of the same – yet different – customs, it would be good enough for me.
An awkward silence set in then as Rarity continued to prepare the eggs and I sat there feeling like a lump. An injured lump, but a lump none the less. I was a farmer, I had always been self reliant for just about everything I needed out of life and if it was something that I didn’t have well then gosh darn it, I probably didn’t need it. However, I was also avoiding the subject that I just told her I would tell her about, simply out of habit. Though Rarity was acting as though she were patient, she kept stealing glances at me when she thought I wasn’t looking. I had made her wait this long so I didn’t think I should make her wait any longer. I glanced at the place where the picture once hung on the wall, noticing that the mess and glass had been cleaned up at some point. I looked to Rarity for confirmation that the photo within was safe and she reassured me it was, telling me that she had put it in the drawer of my nightstand for safekeeping, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t the only picture I had of my departed family but it was definitely my favorite.
“So I guess I’ve got a story to tell.” I stated the obvious.
“If you’re ready, darling.” She said, and I began to tell her everything.
Sometime later we sat on the couch, an empty plate with a fork sat to one side of me with nary a particulate of egg left on it, and Rarity on the other. I had just finished telling her about how my wife and daughter had gone out for groceries and were hit hard by a drunk driver, in broad daylight. I told her about how I had driven to the scene of the accident and arrived just in time to find out from paramedics that my wife, and my daughter were gone. In the days and weeks that followed I had the pleasure of arranging two funerals essentially on my own – the parent’s on either side were no help – and put into the ground the two most important people in my life. That had been in my life.
I didn’t tell her that by some measure of karma the man who had drunkenly killed my world died on the way to the hospital. Though even years later that knowledge didn’t make me feel better, thought it would for some reason.
Surprisingly I didn’t cry during any of the story. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel anything for my long lost beloved ones I just…I felt as though I was numb. As if I had already mourned their assign to the point that I had been okay with it for a long time, but had not allowed myself to accept that I was okay with it. In fact, I don’t think I ever allowed myself to be alright with the fact that I could move on with my life and because of that, I had stagnated. Choosing instead to remain in a limbo sort of life where I never had to accept the fact that my family was gone but still had to live each day without them. The revelation that occurred in my head had caused me to stop speaking in mid-sentence somewhere back there, as a glance to Rarity confirmed the look of anticipation of whatever I was supposed to be saying next. Not that I knew what that was.
“I are derp.” I said at length.
“Excuse me?” Rarity tilted her head, not understanding.
“I’m stupid, Rarity. A stupid, stupid man.” I explained, and she blinked at me.
“Okay, let me explain. I’ve been keeping a metric-crap-ton of feelings inside that I haven’t needed to for many hard years, I’ve scorned pretty much any women that’s made an advance at me because of that, I’ve yelled at you because of that, and yelled at you even more because you smile just like me wife used to. So yeah, I’m not a very smart man, Rarity.” I elaborated, perhaps more than I needed, but at least I was letting it out.
It then clicked in my head in yet another moment of astonishing derptitude that in the while she had been staying with me Rarity had told me much about her sister Sweetie Belle, and that her sister was about the same age as Olivia had been. Maybe that was something I could relate to her with since up until recently she had been taking care of her sister as much as if not more than her parents had been.
“I…I smile like your wife?” Rarity asked breathlessly.
“Well, not exactly like Emy did but, yeah, it’s pretty close.” I admitted and Rarity sighed.
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry. I’ll try not to smile as much, this must have been hard on you these past few months.” She fretted.
“Don’t worry, it’s not like you’re a bundle of joy all the time. “ I quipped.
“Har har.” She responded while giving me a look.
Another awkward silence set in as I pondered what to say next.
“Look, I’m sorry I’ve been acting the way I’ve been acting lately, like I said you were bringing up memories and stuff and well, I’m sorry.” I said sincerely and quickly added, “And thank you for saving my life.”
“It was nothing, Ash.” She blushed, though I couldn’t understand why at that moment.
It was nice to know that after months of being here we had finally gotten to the point where I felt like I could talk to and at least get along with this woman. All it took was a rabid wolf getting a piece of my arm. No sweat, right? But it was then that I also felt the undeniable urge to hug the woman. I couldn’t explain it. Heck, looking back now I still can’t, but if I had to attribute it to something I suppose I would say that I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude towards the young woman who to this point had mostly just complained and while I realize that isn’t completely true, it’s how I feel.
“Alright.” She said commandingly, “I’m going to take care of those dishes just after I use the little filly’s room, so I want you to go lie back down if you think you can make it there.”
I essentially ran an internal diagnostic of myself by rocking back and forth a few times on the cushion before deciding that food had helped the dizziness enough that I could make it to back to my room, and nodded to her.
Left alone then with my thoughts – if only for a few moments – I pushed myself to my feet with a grunt and walked slowly back towards bed. I felt more energized having had some food, but still quite weak. Though Rarity said the potion could make me feel that way as a side effect. Maybe I should send that letter to Celestia or Twilight or whomever while Rarity was in the bathroom so I could actually put my thoughts down without a censor. Okay, that’s mean, but true. Fortunately I got to my room without much trouble, only swaying a little bit and sat down heavily on the bed. I surveyed my surroundings again taking note of the beakers and phials strewn about my room, and the frying pan on the far dresser. I smiled and in my head, lovingly dubbed the kitchenware ‘Rarity’s Awesome Defense and Apparatus for Life Saving, or RADALS for short.
I chuckled at my own joke and double checked that the holder of dragon fire was still across the room – it was – and glanced around for some paper. Again, fortune was on my side was there appeared to be a blank piece of parchment on the end of the bed that I must have not noticed before. But parchment it was, and if I was going to be sending a letter across dimensions I may as well use the medium that was recommended by the original sender. But upon snatching the note from the comforter, I noticed there was writing on one side of it.
Now normally I’m not the type to read someone else’s mail. But normally the letter isn’t from another dimension. And normally I don’t notice my name on the paper. And…oh heck with it I’m that guy. So turning it over I began to read.
Rarity,
I’m glad your friend Asher is doing better, please don’t forget to tell him how the potion is supposed to be taken as it is imperative it be done correctly. I can only assume that rabies is as serious on his world as it is on ours. Also remember that you should only use the healing spell on the bones once or they won’t heal correctly.
On a more serious note you might recall how I mentioned sending half my potion lab to you would delay your returning home and I thought now may be a better time to elaborate on that now that since Asher’s life is no longer in danger. I’ve done the math, and it turns out the reason we can only send you limited supplies before Spike has to ‘recharge’ his flame supply is because we are sending letters to you across five different magical leylines that happen to cross both our worlds and interact both at the point where Sweetie Belle accidentally sent you, and your friend’s bathroom.
“Huh.” I said aloud.
When Spike sends a letter or parcel by fire, the letter continues to draw on his own magical (in this case, fire) reserves until it arrives at its destination. Letters to you at the moment have to cross through all five leylines to get to the dimension you’re in which is the equivalent of sending a letter to myself, but making it circle our planet five times before it got back to me_____/\
The writing abruptly stopped with a scratch mark and continued in a different script.
Short and sweet version, what Twilight means is that sending anything to you is like trying to send a message in a bottle through an ocean of apple molasses.
The writing then changed back to what was apparently, Twilight’s hand writing. Hoof writing?….Script.
Anyways, to keep it ‘short and sweet’ as Applejack suggests, I’ve been able to calculate a way to open a portal that will bring you home, but because the portal has to cross such a long distance I have to be able to send you a powerful sort of homing beacon to make sure we just bring you, and not Asher’s bathroom, house, or planet, back with you by mistake. The problem is the beacon I’ve designed and built is quite large and because of that, is going to be difficult to send. We were ready to send it before Asher got sick, so please try not to blame him, these things happen.
Rarity, because we had to save Asher’s life we sent you so many parcels that Spike almost passed out by the time we sent the last potion. I want to bring you home, Rarity, but we also need to make sure we can do it safely for everyone involved. Unfortunately, that means we won’t be able to send you the homing beacon for sixty more days to allow Spike time enough to recover.
In fact, he’s taking a sabbatical from all mail duties for the following two months just to make sure he has enough fire built up to help get you home, so if you are running low on stored fire to send letters to us with, I suggest you make it last.
Please understand we are doing the best we can and if we discover an alternate way that get’s you home sooner we’ll let you know!
All our love.
Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Belle.
I sat there while my mind processed what I had just read, and while I wanted to make it complicated what had transpired was incredibly simple, and incredibly selfless. Rarity had given up an opportunity to get home in order to save me and I suddenly felt very, very small.
“Asher, there aren’t any more towels in the linen closet do you have any extra somewhere else in the hou—” Rarity stopped short, her blue eyes flicking between my own and the letter in my hand.
“Eh-hem, I see you found that note that I…forgot…was there.” She had a distinct hesitation to her tone, almost nervousness.
For my part I didn’t even know what to say to her. What could I say to her? Look what she had given up for me. Me! Have you met me?! I’m a moron! A moron with a broken arm that she healed, a likely rabies infection that she is helping treat painlessly, eggs that she made for me, and a frying pan that she used to save my life.
It was done. I couldn’t do it. There was no way I could keep my emotions in check. I was a farmer, a man’s man. I wasn’t good about talking about things that I feel on a given day especially more powerful emotions. So standing or stumbling from the bed I quickly crossed the space between us and wrapped my arms around her, hugging her tightly. I may not have been able to say what I was feeling, but at least I could show it.
Happily for me, she reciprocated the gesture.