Home Again

by drnkntst

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Bright light filled Rick’s eyes. Even raising a hand to shield them did no good. The last thing he remembered was a monstrously huge bear about to do its best to turn Rick inside out.

“Where am I? What happened?” He got to his feet, that is, he would have if there was even a ground to stand on. He realized he was floating in a type of limbo. No up, no down, there was even an echo. His words just seemed to… cease, not swallowed or erased but just gone. He knew he was talking and he heard his words, but that was it.

“Well, to answer your first question,” a voice form his past started, “you are between worlds. And to answer your second question, you got yourself killed.”

Rick spun quickly and dropped his jaw. His eyes grew to the point of hurting, “Hanna? Annie?”

“We sent you to that world because you deserved happiness. When we died, you shut down your heart. After everything you did for us when we were alive, you deserved to better. Annie and I decided you needed to go to a place where a warm heart like yours is cherished.”

“Hanna, Annie!” Rick floated toward his long dead wife and daughter. He spread his arms wide to embrace them. There was no contact, he drifted right through them.

“We aren’t here, Daddy. We are in heaven with Grandma and Grandpa.”

Hanna patted Annie on top of her red hair. “That’s right; we are in a different world. But it’s not your time. You are going to be sent back to live your life with your new family.”

Rick felt crestfallen; he suddenly thought he had betrayed his lost human family. “B-But I want to be with you.”

“You can’t, as I’ve said, it’s not your time.” Hanna’s ghostly hand hovered over his cheek.

For a moment, Rick thought he would give anything to spend the rest of eternity just like that, when suddenly, a cloud appeared before him. Across the center of the cloud appeared his pony friends. Twilight was in a hospital bed, while the princesses, Shining Armor and the five other ponies Rick came to know and think of as family were also in the room.

He could see that Twilight was yelling at her brother. “What’s going on? Why is she so mad?”

“Shining Armor has just told her about your sacrifice. She blames him for your death.”

Rick looked closer, he saw Twilight’s horn flare, a jug nearly smashed into Shining, and all the things in the room float up to follow suit. “But I told him to leave; He had to in order to save her.”

“It doesn’t matter, right now Twilight is so hurt that she just needs to blame someone, it doesn’t matter who. You mean so much to her and all these other ponies even though you were only there for such a short time.”

Rick gave in, “okay, I’ll go back.”

“Very good. You will be sent back and changed to better fit in.” Hanna wrapped him in a spiritual hug.

“I just have one question before I go, why a world of talking ponies? Not that I’m complaining or anything, I like it there, a lot. I’m just a little confused.”

“That was my idea, Daddy,” Annie chimed in.

“I should have known. Where did you come up with the idea, Sweetie?”

He could see his daughter try to answer, but there was no sound. Hanna and Annie were beginning to fade.

“No! I want more time! I need to be with you! Don’t go, don’t leave me again!” He tried to reach out for them, but there was nothing there. He was enveloped in a blinding white light again. When the light faded, he heard birds chirping and felt a breeze on his cheek. He lowered his hand and opened his eyes. He was shocked to find he had lost all the fingers on the hand in front of him. He was even more shocked when he raised his other hand and fell face first into the grass.

“Oh yeah, ‘changed to better fit in,’ this is going to take some getting used to.

Chapter 2

Rick was surprised to find that walking on all fours was not too difficult. Years of playing hoarsy with Annie had been a master class. He tried trotting and managed to do so without falling, though he did stumble once or twice. Galloping, however, was a horrible failure. His first and only attempt caused him to step on his own feet… hooves and tumble down a hill and into a creek.

“Son of a bitch,” He cursed the soreness and newly acquired soggy fur. Rick slowly got back on to his fe… hooves and looked around the creek bed. The water was shallow and clean, at the very least, he could be glad for that. The problem came in form of steep banks. Downstream, the walls only seemed to get higher turning into small cliffs. “One more instance where feet and hands would come in handy. Upstream it is.” Taking care as to where he placed his hooves, Rick slowly picked his way against the gentle current.
He had been paying so much attention to his footing that he forgot to look around. Suddenly, he realized, it had gotten dark. It wasn’t dark because of sunset; he had wandered into a forest. On the bright side, he was out of the creek, even better, he found a path to walk on instead of stumbling through the brush.

Rick marveled at the strange plants. He had been in the forest in Equestria before, but he hadn’t seen these before. “Great, now I’m a pony and I’m lost.” A rustling in the bushes caught his attention. He watched as a green snake slithered out onto the path. He didn’t think it was venomous because it lacked any of the coloration one would normally find on dangerous reptiles. “Hey buddy, do you know the way out?”

The green snake answered Rick by springing up at him. Rick yelped and closed his eyes. The bite never came. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see the snake floating in midair suspended by an orange glow.

“Oh my, what’s this I see? Some pony has wandered into the Everfree.”

Rick jumped at the mysterious voice. He looked around to find a small zebra coming down the path. She had gold rings around her neck and one of her legs and a large gold hoop hung from each ear. He couldn’t help but notice that she also had a spiral with small triangles surrounding it as her cutie mark. He felt slightly embarrassed for having looked in the first place.

“Oh, uh, hello. Are you the one I have to thank for stopping this snake?”

The zebra looked a little shocked at the question. She grinned, “That simply isn’t true, the one who did that, was you,” she pointed a hoof at him, or more precisely, his head for emphasis.

Rick reached up, “What are yo…” he froze when his hoof bumped into something on his forehead. “Is this a horn? I’m a unicorn?” He plopped onto his haunches and continued to check his head to make sure he wasn’t going insane.

The unnamed zebra was looking like she thought he might be. “It is indeed a horn. How did you not know you were a unicorn?”

“Because, until a little while ago, I wasn’t even a pony.”

The zebra adopted yet another confused look, “how can that be, how did you become a pony? It goes against nature, of that I am sure.”

Rick sighed, he knew he was going to sound crazy, but he couldn’t think of anything else that sounded possible. “I was a human from Earth who had wound up in Equestria. I lived with my friends in Ponyville for a while,” he carefully omitted the whole ‘drove his truck off a bridge’ part. “Then something happened and I woke up,” he gestured to his new body, “like this.” With his train of thought altered, his horn stopped glowing and the snake dropped and slithered off while it could.

“By the way, my name is Rick Rhinestone,” he held his hoof out to the zebra.

She took and smiled, “Zecora is my name, potions are my claim.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Zecora. I don’t suppose you can point me back to Ponyville could you? I’m eager to return to Twilight and the others.”

“You wish to see Twilight you say? I certainly can show you the way. But, perhaps, before you go, there are some magic tips you should know.”

He recalled the snake that had been suspended in midair just a short time ago. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer. I certainly don’t want to hurt anybody simply because I couldn’t control my own magic.” The phrase struck Rick as surreal, he now had magical powers. He wished he had them from the beginning, maybe then he wouldn’t have spent so much time laid up in the hospital.

“Very well, now follow me to where I dwell.” The rhyming was getting a little old, but at the same time, Rick saw it as part of Zecora’s charm.

As they walked, Zecora explained how to concentration was key to magic control and strength of the will equaled the strength of the spell. Rick really started to pay attention when he was informed that Twilight Sparkle herself had come to Zecora for help.
Zecora had Rick do all sorts of strange exercises to better learn control. There was more to magic than just studying the spells. Zecora he even had him standing on water while floating objects around himself. Without focus, a spell could go awry, or worse yet, rebound. He had excelled in his telekinesis and managed quite well with his force fields. He had even figured out how to turn his horn into a light source akin to a flashlight crossed with a lamp.

After a month of training with Zecora, Rick decided he had learned all he could from her, plus, the rhyming was getting old. Zecora led him through the Everfree Forest toward Ponyville. She offered to go with him, but he decided against it. If he was going to come back from the dead, it had to be done subtly and delicately.

“For yourself, Rick Rhinestone, you must care, or your health, you may impair.” “Well, I’ve had weirder farewells.” He waved to Zecora and trotted down the road toward Ponyville.

Chapter 3

Rick had finally reached Ponyville. The familiar scent of Applejack’s apples on the breeze, the streets full of kiosks and ponies pedaling their goods, the Golden Oaks Library looming over the other buildings. He was home again.

A familiar voice arose from the crowd, “Paul, stop, come back!”

Rick spun in his tracks, “Twilight?” He was about to charge off to meet her, when he was half tackled by another familiar friend.

“Paul! Paul! Get back here!” Twilight called again, she was sounding worried.

Paul was jumping around Rick and licking his face. The dog seemed like he would explode if he couldn’t get all the energy out in the next thirty seconds. “Whoa, easy there, Buddy,” Rick was fending off the furry attacker with a hoof while resisting the urge to simply roll around in the dirt with his dog right then and there.

“Paul, stop that! Leave him alone!” Twilight came out of the crowd and approached the pair. It was taking every last bit of will in his being to not run up to her and squeeze the life out of her.

“Oh, it’s alright. He’s just excited to make a new friend.” “Ha, new.”

Twilight had formed a leash out of magic and latched it onto Paul. “I’m so sorry about that, he’s normally so well behaved. I just don’t understand.”

“Like I said, he was just excited to meet somebody new.”

“It’s still no excuse.” She glared at Paul who was pulling on his magic leash as she started to walk back the way she came.

“Well regardless, I’m not upset. Anyway, I have to be going. I suppose I’ll see you around.”

“Yes, I suppose.” The nonchalant words had cut Rick. Here was the first friend he made in this world and she was acting like she had never seen him before in her life. Slowly it dawned on him, “she never has seen me before, well, at least not like this.” He decided to follow her and try again.

Rick felt creepy as he trailed Twilight. Shortly, he neared his home. However, there was something different about it. “When did this park get here? Wait, is that my truck?!” The sight of all his friends congressing in the park was equally as shocking. The three princesses were there. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were also there, Applebloom was bawling next to her sister.

Eventually, he realized that this was a ceremony dedicated to him. The only other people who cared about him so much were his grandparents, Hanna and Annie. Now, here was the rulers of a country as well as its saviors. They were all here for him. They had gathered here to honor his memory. He had started to cry tears of joy.

Princess Celestia had finished up her speech and was stepping aside for Twilight. He could only tell it was her through his tears because of her colors. Then, that friendly voice filled the air.

“I’ll never forget the first time I met Rick. He stormed into the library with Pinkie Pie. He was actually afraid of us ponies at that time. He had been injured by a timberwolf when he had saved Apple Bloom from that same timberwolf,” she looked at Apple Bloom who was crying deeply into Applejack’s fur. “On three different occasions, he came to my rescue. The last time cost him his life. He was once asked why he kept putting himself into harm’s way for everypony, his response was simply ‘instinct’.”

He stepped around the corner he had been half hiding behind. Twilight stopped speaking when she saw him. She sprung from the stage and charged right toward Rick. She slammed into his barrel and wrapped her forelegs around him. Rick smiled and returned to hug. Tears streamed down his face and into her mane while hers soaked into his fur.

Now he was home.

Comments

[NyteSkye]

Cliffhangers!!! Damn it! Your writing is truly amazing, many smile and tears from me ;) Thanks for your amazing stories. Keep it up! :D

[JFK]

CH2 Now

[drnkntst]

2707748 I'm glad you like it. It's the reason I write.

[drnkntst]

2710849 I'm working on it. I want it to be right.

[damnaion]

1# huum and love the way you did this for the start of the next one

[The Cosmic Consciousness]

Would you please add a link to the sequel of your stories? I accidentally read the description of the story that comes after this one while searching for this one, now I can tell the story is mostly ruined for me with major spoilers.