Chapter 13
Fluttershy woke Rick up when she got up out of bed. She had tried not to disturb anyone else since it was still a bit before sunrise. Sadly, with five people on a king sized bed, it’s nearly impossible not to bump someone. Rick silently watched as she slowly walked out onto the balcony before he followed her. Twilight stirred as he got up, but she rolled over and cuddled up with Rarity and started to snore quietly and extremely adorably. He didn’t happen notice Applejack had been watching out of one half-closed eye.
She was leaning on the handrail when he came out onto the patio. She seemed to be watching the stars slowly fade and the sky turn from purple to a deep rich red. The light from the sun painted an absolutely incredible picturesque silhouette of the surrounding mountains. If it weren’t for the fact that Fluttershy was so distraught about something, Rick might have been able to enjoy the scenery.
He walked up next to her and leaned on the rail too. He didn’t say anything, he simply wrapped one arm around her shoulders and gently held her close. She stayed silent and just continued watching the sky.
“You still think you’re being selfish don’t you?” he quietly asked her. She simply nodded. “I thought I told you, you’re not a bad person… or pony for simply wanting.” She turned her head away from him but made no move to step away. He decided to take another tact, “well, I know you don’t dislike Twilight, Applejack or Rarity, are you angry at them because they married me too?”
Fluttershy was shocked, of course she wasn’t angry at the others. How could she be? They had all been there for her, even when she was so scared of a dragon that they had to practically drag her up a mountain to confront it, once or twice literally. They were some of her best friends, so there’s no way she could be angry with them.
“Oh no! I love them. They’re far too precious to me to be angry at them.”
“Ah, so you’re confused then. You don’t want to share, but you want them to be happy. And for them to be happy, you have to share. I can see how that would be troubling. Hmm, I don’t really know what to say. Humans rarely share spouses and having more than one partner is often viewed as a betrayal.” He gave it some thought, “did you feel like this in Equestria?” She shook her head, “hmm, well, maybe when we go back home, you’ll stop feeling this way.” Rick turned his back to the handrail and leaned on his elbows. “Maybe it would help if you talked to the others.”
Fluttershy looked up at him and followed his gaze. Applejack was standing just outside the door listening to their conversation. When they locked eyes, Fluttershy’s grew to the size of saucers, especially when Applejack rushed forward and wrapped her arms around her friend.
“Is that wut’s been botherin’ you?” AJ asked as she pulled back and looked into Shy’s eyes. Fluttershy nodded again and looked down. “Sugarcube, we all feel like that sometimes. We all want more uh wut makes us happy, that’s only natural ‘n’ nothin’ to be ashamed uv.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself. You’ve done nothing wrong and are most certainly not a bad filly.” Fluttershy looked into his eyes while still being held by Applejack. “Now, let’s go make breakfast.”
*****
They were in the middle of cleaning up after breakfast, when suddenly, Rick, Rarity and Twilight froze. They stared at each other.
“D-do you guys f-feel that?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, it feels like… magic,” Rick answered.
“Yes, only a massive amount of it. I-I haven’t felt magic this strong since-” Rarity was cut off by a knock on the front door.
All five looked at each other with the obvious question hanging in the air, ‘should we open it?’ Rick raised his armor and slowly walked to the door. As he did, Fluttershy hid behind Twilight and Rarity, who were both charging up their own magic. Applejack seemed torn. She appeared to want to protect her friends and family, but at the same, she seemed unable to do so.
Carefully, he turned the knob. Slowly, he opened the door. Cautiously, he peeked around the edge of the door. Standing there were two women. Both were tall and very beautiful. The taller of the two had pink hair while the other had a pale blue. They both hold long, flowing dresses, both of which were a pure white and hugged their figures in a way that was both flattering and fairly sexy. That feeling of extremely powerful magic was definitely coming from these two women that he didn’t recognize.
“Um… can I help you?” he asked.
The taller one giggled and looked at her companion, “well, the thing is,” she asked in a familiar voice, “my sister and I, well, we’re new to this area and were hoping you could show us around.”
Rick looked at the four ladies inside the house who were still huddled together, then turned back to the two women at the door, “uh, I’m sorry, but I’m not native to this area. I could maybe point you in the direction of a visitor’s center if that would help.”
Both women giggled at some unknown inside joke. “Oh, that simply won’t do. Two princesses should not be sent to roam a strange world on their own.”
Realization dawned on the five ‘humans’ already in the house. A unified ‘squee’ rose up from the girls that nearly made Rick’s eardrums burst. Even though they rushed up to the visitors, all but Twilight stopped short. Twilight however, hugged both princesses.
“Well then, I suppose I best not leave the rulers of Equestria standing out on here on the porch. Please, come in,” Rick waved them inside.
They sat for about an hour in the living room, simply discussing all the amazing things they had done since they came to Earth and interesting events that happened back in Equestria, the latter was a short list. The princesses seemed to be very interested in the television. It was also amusing to see them blush when the nature show they were watching showed a pair of zebras in the process of making more zebras.
Rick turned of the television and stood from the couch, “pictures only show so much, how about we go and see some of it first hand?”
*****
The heritage village they went to visit was a fairly standard one by Earth standards, but not something one would easily find in Equestria. There were the usual attractions, the blacksmith, the log cabin, the barn and even an animals. Though getting all seven there took some re-arranging of the seating, luckily, Applejack was never one to fuss over her hair and it was easy for her to fix it back the way it was. They moved from one exhibit to another, looking, watching and learning.
“Look, Flut-Florence. They have a petting zoo over there.” Rick pointed out across the field between structures, “oh, and they tiny ewes too.” He had barely gotten the words out and she was gone.
“My, my, she certainly does love animals, doesn’t she?”
“Seems she does, Tia,” Rick answered. Tia was the pseudo name they gave Celestia, Luna’s was Lucy. “Well, while she’s occupied, what say we see what they have in the blacksmith’s shop?”
The blacksmith had many things that one would expect. There was the anvil of course and the forge, plus a plethora of tool and hammers. What was out of the ordinary, was the fact that the smith himself was not only giving demonstrations, but he was also selling his wares. Such wares included horseshoes, nails, ladles, fireplace implements and even a fine assortment of coat hooks. On the wall, there were even a few swords and yard tools.
After they talked with the smith about his craft for a while, they purchased a couple souvenirs. Twilight had purchased a sword for Shining Armor. The sword was short and simplistic, but it was very elegant and beautiful. Celestia, who had borrowed some cash from Rick, had bought a pair of horseshoes for herself. They were fused together at the ends and bent in the curve to form a heart and linked together. One of them was polished steel and the other was carbon steel, giving the former a shine while the latter stayed dark. Celestia felt it made for a good representation of herself and her sister.
After that, they went to an American-Indians display. Again, there were standard displays, spears, pots and bowls. The visiting pony humans were very interested in the model village. When most humans think about an Indian village, they think teepees and horses running everywhere, but that’s almost exclusively the plains tribes. The tribes in this part of the country didn’t need to chase their food source, and therefore built permanent structures instead.
Again, there was souvenirs to be purchased. Rick had advised against the leather products, though he still refused to say why. Though there was something that got his attention and seemed to be a perfect gift for her. He pulled the ring down from its hook and brought it to the counter to purchase it.
“What is this?” Luna asked as he presented it to her. “Is it some sort of net?”
“In a way,” Rick held it up so it could be seen clearly be everyone present. The ring had twine, leather just wouldn’t be right, strung together to from a net that looked completely inefficient. Hanging from it were three more strings that held dark blue beads and raven feathers. In the center was a painting, it showed a raven black mustang galloping across the plains that were being lit by a full moon hidden by only a few small clouds. “This is called a dream catcher. It’s believed that these, when hung above one’s bed, catch all the bad dreams and allow only the pleasant ones to flow through to the sleeper.” He leaned in closer to Luna and whispered, “not unlike a certain someone I know.” This comment made her giggle a little, then she covered her mouth and blushed because of it.
“Thank you very much, Rick. I shall treasure this always.” Luna held the dream catcher up and admired it again.
“I’m glad you like it. Now, how about we collect Florence and head onto the best place around here to see the world from.”
They found Fluttershy sitting on the ground in the petting zoo. She was completely surrounded by critters. She even had a ewe in her lap. She was humming to herself and it was hard for Rick to interrupt her. But then again, the Shetland ponies were bothering him. He was probably the only human to ever get jealous of such a small equine, but it was happening just the same.
*****
The mountain was the second tallest in the Appalachians and offered a view unmatched for hundreds of miles. The downside was, the peak and observation tower was half a mile from the parking lot and the walk was at about twenty degrees. In short, it was not an easy walk.
Applejack, of course, had no problems, seeing as she was used to working her tail off for hours on end. Twilight struggled a little bit, but managed. Both Luna and Celestia cheated and simply flew low enough to the ground that no one could tell they weren’t walking. Fluttershy had given it her best, but in the end, she joined Rarity and sat on Rick’s shoulder, one on each side. Rick, for his part, was enjoying the walk. There are far worse places to have your head than between the thighs of two beautiful women. Judging by the looks he was getting from the few men on the trail, seemed to indicate they agreed.
Seeing as it was fairly late in the day and the tourist off-season, the other people on the trail were few and far between, and almost all of them were heading down the mountain. That should mean they would have the tower mostly, if not entirely, to themselves. That was comforting to him, the girls still brought some attention to themselves and Rick was sure it was due to something other than them just being gorgeous. If it were, then there would be less attention from kids, but they seemed to be doing the most staring.
From the tower at the peak, they stared out at the rolling hills and steep mountains in speechless awe. It wasn’t something that happened often for the two ageless princesses.
“Rick, I must say, your world contains some unrivaled splendor,” Celestia said, finally breaking the silence.
“No argument here, Princess, but there are many places on this planet nowhere near as nice as this.” She merely hummed her acceptance at this. “Hey, how about a picture to remember this?”
There was a chorus of agreement from the others. Rick stepped up onto one of the benches on the tower, careful of the edge. First was a photo of the sisters. Next, the Elements. Then the whole Rhinestone family. Finally, a group photo with everyone together. Luckily, no one was around to see the camera taking the last photo all by itself.
“Today was fantastic, thank you all for putting up with my sister and I.” Celestia turned from the view and hugged as much if the Elements as she could, “I know it was incredibly rude of us to barge in, especially on your honeymoon.”
“That’s alright, Celestia. We were glad to see you. Besides,” Rick smiled at her, “I would imagine, running someplace as large as Equestria, as well as controlling the sun and moon, don’t allow for much in the way of vacation time.”
“No, no it does not.” Celestia seemed forlorn. Suddenly, she looked up as if a thought suddenly struck her. “You know what, I must return to Equestria in order to lower the sun, but, Luna, why don’t you stay here for the night? Enjoy a little time off with friends.”
“But, Sister, we must raise the moon,” the look on Luna’s face was a mixture of confusion and hopefulness.
“Dear Luna, I believe I can handle the moon for one night.” Celestia’s face was starting to light up.
“Um, Celestia,” Rick whispered to the solar princess, “no offense, but we are on our honeymoon.”
Celestia looked over her shoulder at Luna and the others, Rick looked past her as well. When he saw the joy on her face, he knew what had to be done. “Just think of it as revenge for the spa,” she smiled slyly.
*****
They had said their goodbyes to Celestia at the observation tower before the headed back to the cabin. When they arrived, it was largely agreed that they needed some time in the hot tub. Luna stood and decreed from within the tub, that Canterlot needed to have one installed immediately. When she did, Rick found himself being torn between wishing they had a larger spare swimsuit and being glad they didn’t.
After, they simply laid on the roof of the cabin, with three that could fly and four that could levitate things, getting on the roof was easy, and enjoyed looking at the stars. Luna had designed all the constellations in Equestria’s night sky thousands of years ago and, needless to say, the stars held no mystery for her anymore. She stared up at the Milky Way, which, this far from any city of any real size and surrounded by mountains, was very easily seen.
“Truly spectacular,” Luna said from where she lay.
“It is, it’s one of the few things I miss about this world.”
“I can certainly see why.” Luna reached down and picked something up, “Rick, I found something peculiar in the bathroom.”
Rick’s color drained as he watched the princess of the night hold up a small, square, plastic wrapper with a raised ring in the middle.