Chapter 6
“So what does everyone have planned for today?” Rick asked as he finished washing the dishes.
“Well I gotta get back to Sugarcube Corner! We’ve gotta have a huge Coming-Back-From-the-Dead party!” Pinkie announced to the world.
“Well that sounds morbid. Have fun with that. Rarity, what about you?” Rick smiled to himself as she blushed ever so slightly again.
Rarity had managed to regain her composure. “I simply have far too much to do at the boutique. I’m afraid I will be busy all day today.”
“Fair enough. Fluttershy?”
“Oh, I have to get back home to take care of all the little animals.”
“Alright, Rainbow Dash, what are your plans?”
“I have weather duty. It's supposed to be sunny today, so I have to make sure the clouds don't form up too thick.”
“Okay, Applejack? I suppose you probably have to get to the farm don’t you?” Rick was starting to look deflated.
“Well, Ah do have ta get back. It’s applebuck season and Ah have ta help Big Macintosh buck all the trees on the farm. Ya’ll can come along if’n ya want.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me, so long as Paul can come too. It’ll give me an opportunity to practice my magic and I’ve always liked working with my hands… er, hooves.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Twilight asked. She had been watching him work his magic hands to wash the dishes and seemed like she wanted to see more. “I just have to tell Spike he’s in charge of the library while I’m out.”
“Ya know Ah never turn away uh hard worker. How ‘bout you just meet us at Sweet Apple Acres?”
“Got it, I’ll meet up with you there. See you then.” Twilight told them as she walked out the door. Rick caught himself inspecting her cutie mark as she left. “I’ve got to stop doing that.”
He turned back to Applejack who had a knowing look on her face. “What? Shall we go? Don’t want to waste the day.”
“Whatever you say, Sugarcube.” AJ chuckled as she left the home along with the other mares.
Rick was a little confused by the statement but followed her into the street anyway, grabbing an apple on the way out.
Chapter 7
After thirty minutes or so of harvesting, it had been obvious that Rick’s strength that he earned doing handyman work on Earth had been transferred into his pony form making him almost as strong as Applejack. He was digging being able to strip a tree of apples with one or two kicks of his hindlegs. He was even more delighted that he could lift half a dozen baskets with his ethereal hands. He was enjoying himself to no end.
“Amazing, you’ve really taken to magic haven’t you, Rick?” Twilight’s smiling face could be seen as she trotted up the path.
“I sure have. It makes this all go so smoothly. Just watch.” His horn glowed and dozens of small hands appeared in midair. Each picked a different apple and dropped it into a cart parked nearby. Sweat was pouring down his forehead as he concentrated on controlling them all. Within a minute, the tree had been picked bare of all its fruit and the cart had been loaded without a single apple being dropped.
Twilight’s jaw hung open, “incredible.”
“You bet it is. An’ that ain’t all neither. Rick, show her yur buckin’ skills, ” AJ prompted.
“Alright.” He placed several baskets on the ground around the tree’s base, backed up to the trunk and with one swift, hard kick, dropped all the apples on the tree. “It’s a lot faster than magic, but I have more to pick up afterward,” Rick informed as his magic hands grabbed up the stragglers.
“Whudaya think, Twi, pretty impressive ain’t he?” AJ asked as she sauntered up next to Twilight and jabbed her ribs.
“He sure is… I, er, his magic, his magic is impressive!” Twilight looked around in a near panic at her barely avoided foot-in-mouth situation.
“You alright back there, Twi?” Rick asked as he hitched himself up to an apple cart.
“Ah don’t know, Rick. Maybe you should take her inside,” AJ suggested.
“Alright, if you say so.”
“Wha… whoa… ” Rick scooped Twilight up with one huge orange hand and laid her across his back. She seemed to resist at first, but after a short time, she relaxed and allowed him to walk her up to the farm house, all the while towing the heavily loaded apple cart. The weight would have been too much for his human body, but his pony body didn’t even realize the cart was still attached.
“Hmm, his physical strength ain’t nuthin’ ta scoff at neither.” Applejack said under her breath as she watched the muscles under his skin flex and move while he hauled the extreme weight up the hill.
Rick unhooked the cart and entered the house. Once again, he lifted Twilight with a magic hand and laid her on the sofa. “There you go, feel better?” Twilight looked into his eyes and simply nodded. “Good, I’d hate for you to be sick.” He sniffed the air, “smells like lunch is ready and it smells excellent.”
“Why thank ya kindly, young’un. I’s just finishing up. Just wait uh spell ‘n’ we’ll be all set.” Granny Smith called from the kitchen.
“Do you need any help in there?” Rick offered
“That’d be much appreciated.”
Rick headed into the kitchen and magically carried plates of apple fritters, trays of apple dumplings and pans of apple pies to the table. He floated plates, drinks and napkins and placed them at their appropriate places. All the while, he was being watched.
“Ya sure got tha hang of magic haven’t ‘cha, Rick?” Applebloom asked as she trotted into the room.
“All thanks to Zecora. She found me in the Everfree Forest where I accidently levitated a snake. She trained me for a month and helped me master my telekinesis and helped me learn how to make small force fields.”
“Why only small force fields?” Twilight asked from the sofa.
“Zecora said that magic was based on will and concentration. So while my force fields are strong, I have trouble focusing on something too large. I can make a bubble about the size of my truck, but that’s my limit. But, I can do tricks with them.”
For emphasis, Rick formed a sphere about the size of a softball in front of Applebloom. The sphere started to jiggle and then change. It started to bulge in one spot and then another right next to the first. Under the two small bulges, a larger one was forming. On the opposite side, A much larger bulge formed and stretched. On top of the largest came two more huge, symmetrical, flat bulbs came into being. Lastly, two elongated points formed on either side of the largest bubble.
Applebloom started to giggle, “that looks like me!”
Rick smiled and concentrated hard. The force field Applebloom smiled and danced through the air. It floated around her head a couple times then stopped right in front of her and silently giggled.
“That’s amazing,” Twilight said as the magic puppet vanished.
“Thanks, Zecora is one hell of a teacher. I don’t know if I’ll ever need to make a force field puppet, but at least I know I can.” He smiled at Twilight who giggled.
“Soups on everypony,” came AJ’s singsong voice from the dining room.
“You feel well enough to walk? I can carry you again if you need.” Twilight shook her head at the offer and blushed ever so slightly. “Alright, as long as you’re certain.”
They all took their seats at the table with Paul and Winona resting at their feet… hooves. Rick served out the treats with his magic. “Ya’ll are really gettin’ the hang of yur magic,” AJ observed as the meal was happily devoured.
“I’m trying, going from not believing in magic to suddenly showing up in a world that runs on magic and then dying and coming back with magic of my own does take some getting used to. I’m just glad I found a teacher who could help.” There were nods from around the table, then Rick’s eyes fell upon Twilight. “What’s wrong? You look so sad.”
“It’s just that, you did die. You were attacked by a bear to save me and wound up dying. It was all my fau-”
An orange hand clamped around Twilight’s snout, effectively muzzling her. “It was not your fault. I don’t want to hear that from anyone. The bear did me in, not you. I even have the scars to prove it. These scars are from claws, not hooves,” Rick pointed to them for emphasis. “I antagonized it, I made it chase me. You had nothing to do with it. In fact, weren’t you only out in those woods to chase after me? Doesn't that make it my fault?” Rick patted Twilight on the shoulders with his hoof. She looked up at him through watery eyes and grinned. “There we go. Now, no more of this, only happy topics for lunch, okay?”
“Here, here. What matters is Rick is back with us ‘n’ frum wut Ah can tell, he’s better than ever. Wouldn’t’cha agree, Twi?” AJ finished with a slight sneer at the fore-mentioned alicorn who blushed a little and nodded.
“Well I don’t know about ‘better,’ I mean, magic does come in handy, but I will miss my old body. I was told this body would allow me to fit in and it does. I certainly don’t hate it. Now, I need another fritter, on the double.”
After lunch, the table was cleared and Rick cleaned all the dishes in a few large groups finishing in a matter of minutes. After the cleaning, He, Twilight and Applejack went back out into the orchard while Paul and Winona played in the yard.
Chapter 8
A couple of hours bucking apples were about all Rick could take. Applejack thanked him and Twilight for their help and gave him a small bushel as a way of showing her appreciation. The two magically gifted ponies strolled down the lane with one dog trailing along after. It had gone fairly late in the afternoon and the autumn air was starting to become a bit brisk.
“You know, I may have said I’ll miss my human body, but in this cold, you really can’t beat a fur coat.”
Twilight giggled at his revelation, “I really couldn’t say which is better, I’ve had fur all- Aahhh! Snake! Snake!” Twilight screamed as she shot into the air.
Rick looked up at the hovering Twilight, “ah, so you can use your wings,” he chuckled and magically plucked the snake off the ground. “It’s alright, Twi. It’s just a harmless rat snake. They lay on roads at dusk to get warm,” he levitated it to the bushes and released it. “Come on back down here.”
She landed and sheepishly kicked the dirt and giggled. “Sorry about that, I’m just so scared of snakes.”
“Nothing to be ashamed of, millions of people on Earth are afraid of snakes too. Heck, even Earth’s horses are often spooked by snakes. Come, Milady, I shall protect you,” he jokily bowed and indicated the road toward Ponyville.
“Thank you, kind sir. Your princess is most grateful,” Twilight bowed her head to play along then lifted again and trotted down the road smiling. Rick trotted up next to her and they continued into town.
They walked back to town side by side making small talk the whole way. “I really am glad you came back you know. Be it in your pony form or your old human shape, I’m just… so happy you’ve returned.”
Rick looked down at Twilight and saw tears forming in her eyes. At least this time he could believe they were tears of joy. She had cried many times in the last two days, this was happiest he had been since he met her more than six months ago to see her cry. He wrapped one of his large forelegs around her shoulders and pulled her close for a hug. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you too. Remember, the reason I came back was because I saw how sad you were when I died. I never want to make you, or anyone for that matter, feel that way again.”
She leaned into the hug. Rick could feel her ragged breathing due to the crying. He also thought he could feel something else. “Is she… nuzzling me? …Nah, I must be imagining things.”