Even though I was silently complaining to myself the whole way, it didn’t take us long to get to Ponyville. Maybe half an hour when all was said and done. My trip was not too bad with Twilight there this time as opposed to usual. The reason why being that I managed to get her talking about her Daring Do books. It was when I mentioned the episode where Rainbow Dash got hurt and started reading it. I don’t really remember what got me there, but I don’t really care.
The mention of the book prompted her to go into detail about the series itself. I was able to learn quite a bit about the first two books that I didn’t know, or perhaps I didn’t remember, from before in just that short period of time. It did make me wonder about what it would be like if either of them met her for real. I doubt that’ll happen unless I punch another hole in reality. Still, it made nice conversation while we walked over to the Apple stand.
The two of us found her stand fairly quickly. We did end up waiting for a few minutes while Applejack took care of a few customers lined up at her stall. That finished, we calmly walked up to her with genuine smiles plastered across our faces.
“Well howdy ya’ll!” she spoke cheerfully, “What can I do fer ya?”
“Hey there Applejack,” Twilight began. “The two of us came to work out a problem we had that involves several ponies, including you.”
The smile on Applejack’s face fell at hearing those words.
“That sounds serious. What’s this all about?”
“It involves our friend Seth here. We seem to have lost our memories from when he was here before.”
“So ya got proof then didja?”
“Pinkie’s memories as well as my own have come back.”
“You know,” I interjected, “if you wanted proof you could have asked either Luna or Celestia. They both have memories of my last visit that you could have them describe to you. Celestia especially has some interesting memories of me. Discord could also have told you some things, though I doubt you would ask him.”
“Yeah, well, ahm still not sure how he convinced me to let him watch Applebloom while she goes crusadin’.”
“Wait, you gave him permission to do it?” asked Twilight without a hint of hiding her astonishment.
“Yeah, I know Twilight. Like ah said, I’m still not sure how he convinced me. Ah still gave my word that he could do it and ah ain’t backin’ out on muh word fer no reason.”
“Well I don’t like it.”
“Let it go Twilight. We need to focus on the matter at hand."
“Oh, yes, right. Alright Applejack, Pinkie's and my memories have already returned and I want to help recover the memories that my closest friends have lost. We’re starting with you if that’s alright?”
“It’s fine by me. What kinda spell did ya need tah cast on me?”
“Actually, spells don’t seem to work with this problem. We’ll need to jog your memory the old fashioned way.”
“Ah see. How do ya reckon that’ll work?”
“What?” I spoke up. “Does nobody know modern medical practice around here or something? What we do is take a trip down memory lane. I keep talking about our shared experiences and hope that something makes you remember.”
“That don’t sound mighty reliable.”
“Well, back on Earth it isn’t, but this is some kind of magical block of your memories. I’m pretty sure that this falls into the category of the magic of friendship which seems to overcome any obstacle in it’s path. It seems to be that kind of deus ex machina.”
“Deuceawhatnow?” Applejack asked quite bluntly.
“It’s Latin… I think. Anyway it’s beside the point. We need to work on the issue at hand.”
“Well alright. If both of ya’ll say so ah guess it won’t hurt none tah try.”
“Good. Now, I guess we need to figure out a starting point. Something that we both remember… Something dramatic or personal or intense.”
“Well ah ain’t goin’ tah remember anything if ya don’t talk about anything at all.”
“Yeah, you have a point. I gotta think about this.”
“Come on Seth!” Twilight yelled. “Surely you can think of something?”
“It’s not that easy Twilight,” I said as I turned my head to look at her. “I can remember several things that involved Applejack, but it’s all stuff that I saw on the show like overtaxing herself during applebuck season or working out issues with her family reunion.”
“Well, what about what happened when she was trapped in her portal?”
“Huh. Yeah. That might work.”
I turned back to Applejack with a renewed drive.
“Alright. It went something like this. Right after my fight with Discord, you and your friends got sent to some far off places away from each other and in totally different worlds.”
I paused when I saw her face and I could tell she was a bit sceptical, but it looked like she wasn’t going to try and stop me so I continued on.
“I was the only one who could track you down so I went after all of you in turn. When I came to get you, you were being held captive by an eccentric, rich, and evil ghost man by the name of Vlad Plasmius. I don’t know why, but that’s the eccentric part I suppose. Basically, I busted into his office building to come get you out. It took me a bit to force him out of hiding with you, but I managed it after some careful coercion. It took some convincing and a show of force, but I got you free and we had a tussle with him. Honestly, the best part was when I used a spell on you and turned you into a forty foot tall Applezilla and you proceeded to buck him into orbit. That was awesome!”
I almost missed it, but for a second I saw a twinkle in her eyes that reminded me of Twilight when she gets her strokes of brilliance. It was followed by Applejack smiling widely and giving a loud ‘yeehaw’!
“Yessir! That there was a mighty fine buck to that ornery fella! I remember the look on his face as clear as day. In fact, ah remember the whole kitten caboodle of that day. I remember it all!”
“SCORE!!!” I yelled triumphantly.
My little outburst got several ponies’ attention. That, in turn, brought me back to my awkward state of mind as until then I realized that I had actually managed to get used to the way the ponies were looking at me. Or perhaps I should say that I was getting used to it because they were actually staring at me less after yesterday’s debacle. Now I was back to the center of attention again and I didn’t like it.
“Alright,” Twilight said; interrupting my self-conscious behavior, “that’s one pony down and three more to go. Let’s head over to Rarity’s place and get her memory back!’”
I managed to start following her slowly as the stares started to taper away from me again. I suppose they can’t be gawking at the oddity all day, after all. Things to do and all that jazz. It did give me more confidence as it felt like they were no longer as interested in me as before or at least more careful about showing it visibly.
“Good luck with what ya’ll are doin’! And remember that ya’ll owe me a week a work on the farm!” Applejack exclaimed as we headed off to our next destination.
I grumbled a bit about her bringing that up as we headed off. It took us about another ten minutes before we made it to Carousel Boutique. The time we spent getting to there wasn’t really filled with any talking that go around. Well, silence was kind of my friend and I only talk to myself when no one is around… mostly. Don’t judge me.
“Okay. Same game plan as before. Right coach?”
“I’m your coach?” asked Twilight.
“Well, you used to be my teacher so, uh, go team?”
Twilight rolled her eyes and proceeded to head into the building with me following close behind.
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique!” came from Rarity right on cue.
“Hi Rarity!” I yelled back while scanning for her. “How’s business?”
“Oh it’s simply wonderful, darling,” she responded as I spotted her coming from a different room. I forget which room that led to.
"That sounds nice," I said a bit cheerily.
"Rarity," Twilight stepped in with, "we need to discuss a problem we have regarding you."
She barely said that and both Rarity and myself reacted to it. My reaction was slight aggravation and a bit of amusement since I could tell that Rarity wasn't going to take that the right way. Rarity's reaction was pretty much shock at hearing Twilight say such a thing.
"Why Twilight, I don't know what problems the two of you have with me. It's the clothing isn't it? I knew you wouldn't like it!"
She followed that up by rushing me and wrapping up my leg so fast that I almost thought she teleported to do it.
“Why didn’t you listen to me-he-he!?!” she finished looking like she was about to start crying.
I looked over from the pony at my feet and over to Twilight; giving her a deadpan look. She was busy rubbing her forehead with her hoof. She obviously had figured out the problem going on.
“No Rarity,” Twilight responded finally. “The clothes aren’t the problem.”
“Yeah, I like them,” I added trying to be helpful.
For a moment, Rarity looked at me like I had grown another head.
“I’d ruffle your mane to make you feel better, but I know that you would clobber me for it,” I said with a smile.
That seemed to break her from her little tirade. She stood back up and made to look like nothing she had done in the last thirty seconds had actually happened.
“Well, if that isn’t the problem then what is it?”
“We need to bring back the memories that we have all seemed to have lost from when he was here before. The two of us are here to help with your memories right now.”
“I see. I do suppose that forgetting about a friend is an awful thing to do. What can I do to assist?”
“I’m afraid spells don’t work in this situation. Therefore, I’m going to let Seth here start talking about any shared personal experiences that the two of you had and see if it jogs your memory.”
“Which is going to be difficult since I think out of everybody I spent the least amount of time with her.”
“That’s why you were going to use the time when she was stuck in that particular universe as your way of reminding her. Remember?”
“You know, I’m surprised that with all the memory issues going on that we haven’t had any memory puns pop up by now. I wonder if it’s because Pinkie isn’t around?”
“Focus Seth,” Twilight admonished.
“Right, right. Well, the place I went to there was actually an alternate reality of this place so I almost ended up grabbing the wrong Rarity. After I cleared that up without alerting anyone to my presence, I found out that you were being cared for by some eccentric pony by the name of Sandcroft who I’m getting the feeling wasn’t really a pony, but some kind of magic demigod dressed up like a pony. The top hat he was wearing was pretty nice though. You’d like it I bet.
“Anyway, he was taking care of you while you were in that dimension and when I went to get you back he asked to be compensated for his trouble. I didn’t have any cash, or bits, or whatever, on me to pay him, but he didn’t really want any anyway. Instead, he had me play a high stakes game where I had to pick you out of a room full of doppelgangers. It took me a bit before I used a question only the real Rarity would know to pick you out. I asked you-”
“-At the party you attended by Pinkie Pie who exactly was surprised?” she said with that twinkle effect going off in her eyes. “I can remember!”
“Yes! Four down and two to go!” I exclaimed with a fist pump.
“Great work. Now we need to head out and see if we can find Rainbow Dash.”
“Oh don’t worry deary. Rainbow Dash said that she was going to see how Fluttershy was doing today.”
I chuckled at hearing that.
“Wow. That was convenient,” I said while twirling the parasol Rarity gave me in my hand. It did remind me. “Oh yeah. Did you want your parasol back Rarity?”
“Oh that’s alright. You can keep it until you head back home.”
“Really? Thank you very much Rarity.”
“Oh it’s no trouble at all.”
“Well,” Twilight spoke up, “now that that’s settled we should head over to Fluttershy’s place. Let’s go.”
I waved goodbye to Rarity and headed back out on my way to Fluttershy’s. So far the method I was using was simple, yet effective in my endeavor. Things were going really well.
And then I panicked. Because I saw Miss Crazy herself; Lyra Heartstrings.