I was glad as ever to walk back through the archway and onto Sweet Apple Acres. It seems that anytime anypony from Ponyville goes to Canterlot, they’re either there on business or the fate of Equestria is in jeopardy. Lovely city and all, but I’ll stick with a rural life thank you.
I’d stopped by Twilight’s library as soon as I had gotten back. I told her what had happened, admittedly I airbrushed out the fact that her brother had been using Strong Shield like a punching bag when I arrived and had nearly killed him when I left, never mind the fact that I’d almost strangled him to death. Nevertheless, I told her both what had actually happened and the cover story that would be fed out in a few days. A rogue changeling was captured and the guard it was impersonating freed. Only a few ponies would ever know the truth. While Strong Shield had no qualms with ponies, it was doubtful that any guard would be willing to follow his orders as a Changeling.
I now considered the matter closed and above all else, wanted to move on from it and get on with my life. Said life of course had taken an odd turn. I was now stuck here, forever, as was my family. I still wasn’t sure what I ought to be feeling. But so far, we all seemed to have taken it well. Mum and Dad both had good jobs and a home, I was more than content with my lot, and even Lizzie seemed to be fairly happy with Fluttershy. I’m sure you’d expect us to all be sad, but why? If we had been separated then yes, anyone in their right mind would be. But we were all together, we were all happy; there wasn’t really anything to cry about. We had a good life.
As I reached the farmhouse, I was quickly set upon by the two younger females of the household. Apple Bloom immediately bounded up to me and wrapped herself round my neck in one of the most adorable hugs I’ve ever been given. Her sister was slightly more restrained, smiling at me as the filly clung on for dear life. Seeing the opportunity to do something anypony with a cowpony hat does, I touched the brim of my Stetson.
“Ma’am,” I said, grinning slightly. AJ briefly hugged me in return.
“Howdy, Bones,” she said kindly as she released me. “Good to have you back with us.” At this point the littlest Apple could hold on no longer and dropped to the ground in front of me. I leaned down and briefly nuzzled her. She was such a wonderful little filly. While I never saw myself as having children, I treated her like the daughter I never had. After all, her only father figure aside from me was Big Mac, and he already had the job of an older brother.
We all headed back inside, AJ had just finished her rounds with the cattle and they were all about to sit down for lunch. Train breakfasts aren’t exactly much, so I quickly followed suit. We were all treated to a proper hearty meal, I'd missed the most important meal of the day after all. It wouldn’t be long now before the farm started up again. By early February, we would need to start ploughing the fields for the next crop and planting everything as part of Winter Wrap Up. After that, the trees would all have to undergo a health check. Inevitably, some didn’t survive the winter and would be chopped down, a new sapling replacing it. That meant visually inspecting every tree on the farm. Fun times.
I relaxed for a while back at the farm with AJ and Big Mac. After greeting me, Apple Bloom had gone back to her friends. They were still heavily into astronomy as a possible cutie mark, but even more interesting (and alarming), was the fact that Scootaloo had created some sort of shrine with the various bits of Rainbow Dash merchandise she had acquired, the centrepiece being the brushable pony figure she had found amongst the objects from the rift. I may be a bit of a hard-core brony, but Scootaloo took things to a whole other level.
In the end, with not much happening back at the farm, I decided to go out to town to see a few ponies. In particular, I wanted to apologise to Rarity for snapping at her like I had. With all the chaos and confusion of the rift opening and Strong Shield’s unmasking, I hadn’t had the chance.
Like everypony else, Rarity had little to do in the bleak midwinter. Most of her orders had been completed before the snow came. Now all she had to keep herself occupied was her new spring line, and she had a good couple of months before she would need to have those ready. I entered through the front of the shop, the small bell above the door chiming happily. Rarity called from her back room.
“I’ll be with you in just a minute, Darling.” A few moments later she trotted out, her spectacles still perched on her snout. She smiled kindly when she saw me, looking decidedly out of place in her froufrou shop. “Hello, Blade Star.”
“Mornin’ Rarity,” I replied, pausing to remove my hat, as a gentlecolt ought to. “Ah’m not interruptin' anythin' am I?” Those glasses of hers usually meant she was busy working. I’m a bit of a Fluttershy in that way; I don’t like inconveniencing people.
“No, not at all, Darling. I was just about to take a break from all that anyway. Would you care to join me for a cup of tea?” While I am not usually one to partake in high tea, I hadn’t had a cup in days and it would probably do me some good. Tea does help restore the soul if you ask me. I therefore accepted her invitation and after hanging my Stetson on a hat stand, we adjourned to her kitchen.
About ten minutes later, I found myself sitting with Rarity in her lounge, a typically stylised affair bearing the hallmarks of house in Canterlot. Okay, at times Rarity likes to play the upper-class mare, but deep down she’s no different from anypony else in town. She wouldn’t be her element otherwise. Rarity had sprawled herself out on a sofa, with a cup of tea (in fine china of course) sitting on a small attendant table. I on the other hand, had settled myself down on one of the comfortable cushions than dotted the room, the tea held in my magic.
“So, Darling,” Rarity began as she fully settled herself. “What brings you to my humble abode this fine day?” I couldn’t help but smile at that; humble was not a word that described Carousel Boutique.
“Well, first of all Rarity, Ah wanted to apologise for snappin' at ya the other day. That wasn’t right of me, you meant well after all.” She blushed a little at that. “And Ah figured Ah might as well hear you out, since we were all interrupted at the party.” I had undergone something of a change in mind-set over the last couple of months. I had known for a good long while that Applejack and I had gotten close, but it hadn’t been until she kissed me on Hearth’s Warming Eve that I’d truly started to realise how close. I was now in a sort of middle ground, torn between the idea of romance and my long standing attitude toward love.
“No you were right, Darling. I shouldn’t have been as pushy as I was. But what do you mean ‘hear me out’?” she asked.
“Well, Ah’m sure you’ve got a load of advice you want to give me,” I replied. “Ah mean, other than the Princess of Love, you are the foremost authority on the subject.” She tittered at that, setting her tea down on the tray.
“I can hardly do that if you haven’t answered my original question though, can I? Do you love Applejack or not?” I paused, sighing to myself.
“Ah’m not sure, Rarity,” I answered after a lengthy silence. “Ah mean, Ah like her, but…” I trailed off. Rarity quickly started up again.
“Darling, given what you told me back in Canterlot, I’m assuming this is your first foray into the romantic world, correct?” I nodded, somehow that made me feel slightly ashamed. “You’ve never had so much as a crush on somepony, er, someone?” Again, I shook my head.
“It is kinda weird when you think about it, isn’t it?”
“Not if you haven’t seen someone who you like, Blade Star,” she replied comfortingly.
“You do realise that’s cheesy even by your standards,” I countered, doing my upmost not to laugh. Rarity briefly sent a glare my way before cracking a smile herself.
“So what has your plan been then, Darling?” she asked. “You haven’t just been ignoring her have you?”
Well, I hadn’t been ignoring her, had I? I mean, okay I hadn’t exactly given a clear indication of whether or not I felt the same, but I hadn’t flat out ignored her. I may not care for love, but I do have a basic understanding of romance. I suppose you could say I had been neutral about it. Yes, that fits, neutral. I hadn’t rejected or accepted her feelings; I was thinking about it. We were still really close friends. When I told Rarity this titbit of information though, she was not best pleased.
“You can’t just leave her waiting for an answer like that!” she said, all but exploding at my apparent stupidity. She paused, taking a moment to compose herself; a lady does not shout after all. “Darling, that is something of an irresponsible attitude, and as Applejack’s friend, I must ask you not to ‘lead her on’ as they say. If you do like her, then for Celestia’s sake take the plunge, if not, let her down now else you break her heart.”
“Never mind breaking her heart, what about when Big Mac breaks me?” Okay, I was redirecting the conversation, but I had taken on what she had said.
I stayed with the fashionista for another twenty minutes or so, before I took my leave. Rarity would be looking after the Crusaders this evening, not to mention her work on the new spring line. As for me, I intended to drop by the library to help Twilight with her ‘research’; at present the place resembled Warehouse 13 and the academic was cataloguing everything. So, taking my hat from the stand, I headed off, wishing Rarity a good afternoon, and with my attitude toward love slightly altered.
I found that Twilight had already sequestered herself in her basement when I arrived. Having left Spike in charge of running the library, she had gathered all of the ‘artifacts’ from the Everfree and had taken them down there. Heading into the basement, I found her examining, in minute detail, the various books, clothes, and random knick knacks she had deemed important. Much to my amusement, she had separated everything into neat little piles, one of which was labelled ‘unknown’.
“Hey Twilight,” I said as I walked down the stairs. The alicorn looked up at me; the fierce need to learn in her eyes.
“Oh perfect!” she exclaimed. “Blade Star, I need you to tell me what these things do!” I quickly found myself levitated over to the ‘unknown’ pile.
From my perspective it was quite funny. Most of these items were run of the mill with little to distinguish them. But to Twilight and other ponies, the idea of a die cast toy car was quite out there. I began to sort through the random junk.
“Right, let’s see,” I muttered to myself. “Toy, electric shaver, Swiss Army knife, Ah’ll take that. Er, 360 controller, broken, broken, hair dryer, ballpoint pen, boson’s call and that’s a wad of blue tack.” Twilight looked at me amazed, and with a still semi-manic look on her eye said;
“Tell me everything.”
So I spent the next twenty minutes explaining the concept of motor cars, video games, hair styling, and the basics of sailing in the nineteenth century. That seemed to satisfy her curiosity, for a while.
I took a look at the various other things she had collected. I first took a look at all the books she had scavenged. A few quickly caught my eye.
“Oh, I bet Dash would love these Twilight,” I said, levitating a few Commando comics my father had given me. I quickly caught on to others. “And Pinkie would love this one.” Twilight took the large almost-tome from me.
“How to think like a bat?” she asked.
“It’s a philosophy book my old teacher gave me back in high school,” I explained. As I continued I found some others for various other ponies. For AJ, ‘Heart of the West’, for Rarity ‘Great Expectations’ and for Fluttershy ‘Watership Down’. I took the book for AJ, whist Twilight said she’d suggest the rest to her friends next time she saw them.
We then took a look at the various videos, CDs and DVDs that had come through. I quickly found a copy of ‘The Untouchables’ and asked Twilight to turn it into a film reel. The alicorn promptly levitated the DVD, case and all, and began to cast her spell. She told me it took a fair bit of effort, but a unicorn could accomplish it. With that, she cast the spell and the case began to warp, eventually forming into an old fashioned film reel, which then settled back on the table. I then attempted to copy her example and we took turns turning good films and albums into reels and records.
After that, I moved on to the various clothes she had collected. While I didn’t really have much need for them, I did ask Twilight to send those that belonged to my family back to them. She was mostly curious about the synthetic materials used to make them more than anything else. Scootaloo of course, had promptly made off with my brony t-shirts, presumably to add to her collection of all things Rainbow Dash.
However, as I searched through the pile, I managed to find another one that I had. It was dark blue, slightly past navy blue. On the front was the eerie image of the ‘Mare in the Moon’ and above and below it was the legend ‘The Moon shall rise again’. I quickly seized onto this with both hooves.
“Twilight, can you alter this to fit a pony?” I asked excitedly. The purple bookworm nodded, having somewhat calmed down from her initial knowledge high and cast the spell on the t-shirt. Like before it began to warp and contort, before eventually stabilising again. It was pretty much the same as it had been. Only now, it was slightly longer to fit around my barrel and the shoulders and chest area had been altered to cope with the new shape. I quickly tried it on for size; it fit perfectly.
“Wow, Rarity better watch out, Twilight. This is great,” I said. The alicorn shied away from my praise. Even though she’s an alicorn princess, she still doesn’t like to be seen as boastful or prideful. I removed the shirt and tucked it into my saddlebags and resettled my hat.
It was getting fairly late in the afternoon now, so I figured it would be a good time to head home. Twilight sent Spike out with me; he’d be returning clothes to Lizzie and my parents. We chatted for a bit about the sheer amount of stuff Twilight had in the basement. Feeling kind, I handed him one of the small toy cars I’d picked up.
As I walked in through the kitchen door, I took out the boson’s call and piped the side, startling Granny Smith out of her afternoon nap. I also managed to attract Applejack’s attention.
“That you, Bones?” she called from the hallway.
“Yeah, ‘Jack, it’s me. C’mon back here; Ah got some stuff for you and AB.” After successfully corralling the littlest member of the Apple family, Applejack came through to the kitchen. Setting my saddlebags down, I began to remove the various trinkets I’d got for them, placing them on the table.
“What’s all this stuff, Blade Star?" Apple Bloom asked. I chuckled, handing her a small Jew’s harp I’d picked up.
“Just some late Hearth’s Warmin’ presents. You’d never believe all the stuff that came out of that portal. Twilight’s been in her basement for hours.” I passed the book I’d picked up to AJ. “Thought you might like this too, ‘Jack; it’s a collection of stories about the Old West, kinda like Dodge Junction and Appleloosa.” The two thanked me for the numerous little gifts I brought back for them. Between me and Twilight, a lot of the stuff had been shifted around.
In addition to returning my family’s old clothes, Twilight had also sent the copy of On War to her brother and sent a few books to the archives in Canterlot. I’d also found a few coins and notes from my dad’s collection, including a one million mark note (which was worth about thrupence in the 1920’s). I’d also found some old teaching books my mom had had, along with some work books for primary schools. Maybe she could take them in to school some time.
By late evening, everypony had settled down again. In spite of its difficult nature, Apple Bloom had mastered her new harp quite quickly, though she was still sore about not getting a cutie mark for it. With a little help, AJ had gotten into the book I had given her and was translating almost as quickly as Twilight. She was currently halfway through a tale entitled ‘A Call Loan’.
Granny Smith had gone to bed not long ago, at her age she needed the extra rest considering all the work she did. Big Mac on the other hand, had joined Apple Bloom with his new harmonica and was succeeding in given the whole house a Badlands sort of feel.
As for me, I was flicking through the calendar. It wasn’t long now until Winter Wrap Up when we’d all be back at work. At this point I was genuinely looking forward to it; the winter felt like it had been going on forever, it would be nice to see green fields again.