Home Again

by drnkntst

Chapter 6

Chapter 15

Rick was torn, he knew he had to wake all the other ponies so they could go about their day, but at the same time, there was something inside him that didn’t want to give up the close up view of the normally reserved alicorn before him as well as the feeling of the warm fur belonging to the high class unicorn draped over his side. Decisions, decisions. He decided he would be the better man… stallion and wake them as gently as possible.

Rick drew a deep breath, causing his ribs to rise gently but rapidly. “Rarity, psst, Rarity, it’s time to wake up.”

Rarity stirred, moaned quietly then slowly opened her big blue eyes, “mmm, good morn… ahhh, my head.” She raised a hoof to her forehead in anguish. As she opened her eyes again, it dawned on her that she had spent the night sprawled out on top of a very large stallion. Her whole face glowed a bright red, she giggled nervously and climbed off Rick.

“Heheh, sleep well?” Rarity shrunk at the question, making her appear similar to Fluttershy. Rick stood up off the floor, his muscles involuntarily shuddered to settle themselves back into proper position. Rarity’s blush intensified at the display and she turned away completely so as not to be seen. “Help me wake up the others, but be gentle, their heads will be hurting as bad as yours is.” His head was hurting too, but he had had hangovers before and knew how to deal with it. He only wished there was a little cider left so he could have a little hair-of-the-dog.

Pinkie Pie was lifted out of the cupboard by magic hands and awoken by the expedient of waving a cupcake in front of her nose. To Rick’s horror, her tongue shot out, wrapped around the treat and drew it back before he could even blink. The action earned a satisfied humming from this ever puzzling creature as well as wide, blinking, blue eyes.

Rarity had woken Applejack and Rainbow Dash by gently nudging them with a beautifully manicured hoof. They both stirred and opened their eyes. They jumped back when they realized they had slept in an embrace all night, then they groaned and held their heads in pain.

Fluttershy was a treated a little more delicately. Rick used his magic to lay her on the sofa in a far more dignified position for her sake. He then used a hand to brush her mane out of her face and whispered, “wake up, Fluttershy,” into her ear. Her eyes slowly opened. She looked around the room then greeted everyone present. Rick was certain they would all be asking her for some pain medicine very, very soon.

Twilight was a lot more reluctant to wake up. Rick tried shaking her, speaking into her ear and was very tempted to douse her with water. Rainbow Dash walked over and stopped Rick who had the glass of water poised. “Relax, I got this.” She got right next to Twilight’s ear and whispered, “Twilight, somepony put a reference book in the fiction section.”

“WHAT!” Twilight shot up off the floor and hovered a few feet high. “Who would… oww, my head,” she groaned and dropped out of the air. Luckily, Rick caught her on his back before she hit the ground.

“Gotcha.” He chuckled lightly. Twilight blushed when she realized she was draped over his back, then slid off, to amusement of the others.

The six mares sat in the chairs in Rick’s living room groaning and holding their heads. Rick placed a glass of water in front of each of them. “Make sure you all drink lots of water today or else you will get dehydrated and your headache certainly won’t go away. And when I say water, I mean water. Not tea or milk or juice but water, understand?” They all nodded in agreement and greedily drank. “Fluttershy, do you have any medicines for headaches?”

“Yes I do.”

“Good, I think we’ll need as much as you can get you han… hooves on.”

“Nhnn, I could definitely use some of that. I want to get some studying done but I can’t concentrate with my head like this. What happened last night anyway?” Twilight asked.

“Simple, we all got shi… drunk. That cider I found last night had fermented and turned alcoholic. Since alcohol is a form of poison, the body reacts by losing fine motor control first, this causes speech to slur. After that, you lose muscle control, making you unbalanced. Then there is memory loss and the loss of inhibitions. This makes you do and say things you normally wouldn’t and, if drunk enough, you pass out have no recall of what happened,” Rick patiently explained. Almost immediately following the completion of his explanation, a memory returned to him.

“I jesht wan say that I love yoou.”

“That sho saweet uh yoo. I luv you too.”

“Whud bout me? You luv me don yuu?”

“Uv coursh I doo. I love allya.”

Someone sitting at this table confessed their feelings to him, two someones in fact. He would normally shrug it off and say they meant as a friend, but ever since he came back to Ponyville, there have been signs. He didn’t recognize them at first, but now they were staring him in the face. He also might have said, they were just playing around, but alcohol has a nasty habit of making you speak the truth. His skin went cold. There were six mares sitting around his dining room table, each one cuter than the last in her own special way and each one was far too special to him to risk losing any of them. Which one… two said that and are they the only ones that feel that way?

“Maybe I can try a memory spell to help us remember,” he heard Twilight offer.

“NO!” All eyes were on him. “*Ahem* I don’t think that’s a good idea, Twi. Sometimes… sometimes when someone’s drunk, they… say or do things they wish they hadn’t. Let’s just leave it be. Nobody got hurt and we were all safe, so let’s just leave it be, okay.”

“I-if you say so… ” She was confused but seemed to accept the response.

“Well, that will buy me some time, but I have to figure this out.” Rick knew he had to tread carefully or risk losing his friends forever.

Chapter 16

The seven ponies slowly made their way to Fluttershy’s cottage to get some of her medicine in the hopes that their heads will shrink done to the appropriate sizes. Luckily, she had exactly what the doctor ordered. Thanks to her medical expertise, they were all able to go about their business. Rick had decided to help Applejack with her applebucking. It was already mid-Fall and the apples had to be harvested, especially if they were going to be ready for Cider Season. The Apple’s needed the help and so did Rick.

Applejack and Big Mac made short work of the trees in the orchard, clearing them methodically one tree at a time with one swift kick to each. Rick had gotten the hang of it and was going just as swiftly, but he was having a little more trouble. Apple Bloom had been so happy to see him that she climbed onto his back and refused to climb off again. She was light enough to not really cause him any issues and it made AJ laugh. Silently she marveled at the way he was not only able to keep up with her and her brother, but he was able to do so with her sister on his back without jostling or dropping her.

In fact, he had managed to keep her so steady that she had fallen asleep. Big Mac took her off Rick’s back and brought her into the house. “Ya’ll are very good with foals. How didja buck all them trees with her on yur back?” Applejack asked.

“Practice. I don’t know if you have carnivals or fairs here in Equestria, but when you have a young child, they get tired easily. I’ve carried Annie through many a busy crowd over more the a couple streets. I always loved… ”

Applejack was watching Big Mac carry Apple Bloom inside when it dawned on her that Rick not finished his thought. She turned to him, “Rick, are you… ?” She stopped, this stallion that had appeared so strong just a moment ago was silently staring at the passing clouds with tears streaking his face.

She removed her hat and walked over to him. Standing in front of Rick, she raised a hoof and wiped the tears from his face. When he looked down at her, eyes still watering, she wrapped her forelegs around him and squeezed tightly. Rick lowered his head onto her shoulders and let the tears flow. “I miss them so much.”

Applejack wanted to say something to help her friend, but what does one say in this situation? Instead, she just held him and added a tear or two of her own. She was a little surprised when he wrapped one of his own forelegs around her a squeezed her just as tightly as she did him. “It’s alright, Sugarcube, let it all out.”

After a fair amount of time passed, Rick released his grip on the country mare and as she did the same, he sat on his haunches and wiped away the tears. “Thank you, I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it, we all have something that we just need to get out every now ‘n’ then.”

“I guess that’s true.” They both smiled at each other, then something came back to the front of Rick’s mind. “Speaking of which, I have something I need to talk to you about.”

“Of course, ya’ll know ya cen talk ta me ‘bout anything.”

“Promise this stays between us.”

“That serious huh? Okay, Ah promise.”

“Alright, do you remember anything about last night?”

She seemed to give it serious consideration, “Ah can’t say Ah do. Everything after the little fillies went home is jest uh blank.”

“Well, I remembered something. Someone told me they loved me.”

Applejack barely managed to hide a look of shock by turning it into a simple look of surprise. “Do-do you remember who?”

“No I don’t and what’s worse, there were actually two different mares who did.”

“Ah see, that is uh doozy.” AJ considered how to respond. “Well, let me ask ya somethin’. Do you love anypony?”

Rick was taken aback briefly by this. “I-I don’t know. I mean, you are all very special to me. So special in fact, that I’m more worried about losing one of you as a friend than gaining any one as a partner.”

“Well that’s very sweet, but doesn’t solve anything. Let me ask ya this, is there a pony that’s yur favorite?”

“That’s not a fair question.”

“Is it Fluttershy?”

“Well, I, uh, mean, she certainly is cute and kind, but I don’t apprecia-”

“What ‘bout Rainbow Dash?”

“She does have a certain charm, bu-”

“Ohh… it’s Rarity then?”

“She is beautiful, but I don-”

“What about Twilight?”

There was a subtle pause, “she was my first friend here and she is really cute… wait, stop this. I already said-”

Rick was interrupted by a gasp and the sound of galloping hooves running down the road away from where the two of them were talking in between two rows of apple trees. He looked down the row but saw nothing but a cloud of dust, then he looked back at Applejack.

“Who was that?”

“Ah-Ah don’t know. Ah didn’t see anypony there.”

Rick stomped a hoof out of frustration, “this is exactly why I didn’t want to do this. Whoever that was could have been hurt. Ugh, what am I gonna do now?” Rick started walking away from AJ. He wanted to catch whoever it was that ran away, but there would be no chance of catching them.

“Oh, Rick, Ah’m so sorry. Ah didn’t mean-”

“I know, but I’m not the one who was hurt. I have to get to the bottom of this. I’ll see you later.”

Rick began trotting back to town, he was more frustrated than angry. He still had a lot of thinking to do. So much thinking in fact, that a couple times, he walked off the road and had to correct his path. “What now?”

Comments

[MuzaWaza]

Was probably Twilight. She still used the memory spell and found out about it.

[drnkntst]

2790502 there are five possibilities, we'll have to find out because right now I'm not even certain.

[Dragonfox]

It looks like he has a problem. He loves all the girls and doss not wont to hurt them. Can he have more then one? This is a different world. They may have different laws? It will be fun to see how he will solve this problem. keep up the good work and I hope to see the next chapter soon.

[damnaion]

6# hummm and oooo