Chapter 6 - "Returning Policies"
An ecstatic Twilight led Church to the table in the middle of the library and promptly pulled back his chair, wanting to ask him all sorts of questions. She told Spike to go grab some glasses of water and quickly sat on the chair directly in front of Church to be more clear when talking to him. Tex slowly pulled the chair from beside Church and sat on it, eyeing Church carefully while Spike went to go get some water for the small group. When he came back, he gave the first glass to Church and he quickly chugged it.
"How are you back?" Twilight asked, eyes glassed with both happiness and curiosity.
"The princesses brought me back with the Necronomicon," he said simply, eyes resting on Tex. "They wanted to talk to Discord about something, but they didn't tell me what. When they freed me, they thought that he was hiding in my mind, so they broke me back down again to see if he was there. As you can probably guess, he wasn't there."
"Strange," she said quietly, then shook her head and frowned at him. "If you were broken down, where are the other fragments? Are they still outside?"
"No. I asked Celestia to keep them there for a little while longer before sending them," he chuckled. "I wanted to sort of drop by and say hello before I make my headache worse by begging Applejack to let the fragments stay at her place."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," she said, then looked to the floor and shifted slightly. "So... how was it inside the stone prison?'
"It was..." he trailed off, closing his eyes. "Well, horrible is one way to put it. The only thing Discord had left to play with was my mind, and he twisted a lot of my memories and messed them up. I know a few things that have happened for sure, but there are some that I'm still not even sure if they are real or not. He tampered with some things and..."
"I'm sure we can help you sort through your memories, right, Tex?" Twilight asked, looking to the mare that has been silent the entire time.
"Yeah," she whispered, studying Church with serious eyes.
"Is something wrong?" Twilight inquired.
Tex didn't answer. She just kept staring at Church, a gleam of uncertainty in her eyes.
"So what's Caboose doing here?" Church asked to break the awkward silence.
"Oh, after you went away, he..." she trailed off. "Remember how you told him to look after us?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, he's been here the entire month, making sure nothing happens to us. Pinkie sometimes drops by to say hello to him, but he's always watching us. He hasn't gotten a good night's rest ever since you left," she said quietly, looking at the sleeping Caboose, who was still on the floor, but now had a cover thrown over him. "But now that he saw you back, I think his brain switched back to it's regular old self, so his tiredness finally caught up with him."
"I didn't think he'd take it so literally. I mean, its obvious that he would, now that I think about it..." he chuckled, shaking his head at Caboose. Though he didn't want to fully admit it, he missed his annoying blue friend. Glancing back to Twilight, he decided to start wrapping things up. "So how are the others?"
"They're doing just fine," she replied, then smiled. "Want me to send them letters telling them you're back? I'm sure Pinkie would love to throw a party for-"
"No!" he yelped, then coughed into his hoof. "I mean, I wouldn't want to bother them right now."
"Alright then."
"Yeah," he grunted as he looked out the window. "So what did you guys tell the town when the fragments left?"
"We told them you simply moved away."
"And they believed that? Eight stallions just up and leaving at the same time?"
"Stranger things have happened," she laughed. "Besides, you, Delta, Eta and Iota didn't really get seen that much around town compared to the others. When we told them you guys moved, they didn't argue because they never really knew much about you. We told Mayor Mare that Gary had business to attend to back in Manehatten and would return when he could, and Theta and Sigma moved to a different school."
"And O'Malley?"
"Most ponies in town were happy to see him go, so nobody really asked," she said without a single hint of humor in her voice.
"Yeah, that sounds about right," he chuckled. Looking at the position of the sun, he was reminded of why he came here, so he got out of the chair. "Again, as much as I'd like to just relax here a bit longer, I just wanted to say hello to you guys before I went off. Do you think you could send a letter to Celestia telling her to send the fragments to Applejack's place in about ten minutes or so? I'm going to try to convince her to watch the fragments again."
"If you want, I could send her a letter asking to-"
"No, I'd really prefer to do this myself," he said honestly.
"Okay then. I'll send Celestia a letter when you leave."
"Thanks," he said walking towards the door. "Be back in a bit."
Church set a quick pace to Sweet Apple Acres, silently making his way through Ponyville. A few ponies around town greeted him as he passed them by, recognizing him slightly from before, but he never really stopped to answer any questions, telling them he had somewhere to be. He was pretty sure that he had never met any of them before, but he guessed that since Ponyville was such a tightly-knit town, word of mouth spread fairly quickly, so he wasn't surprised to be recognized by a few ponies. After nearly a dozen minutes, he found his way to Sweet Apple Acres. Pausing by the gate, he saw that the other fragments were already waiting by the barn.
"Ah, there you are, Epsilon," Delta said as Church trotted up to him. "How are the others doing?"
"They're doing just fine," he replied, keeping an eye on the less trustworthy fragments. "Tex seems a little off, and Caboose is pretty out of it right now, but Twilight and Spike are doing good. Did you talk to Applejack?"
"No, we just arrived here two minutes ago. I knew that you would be the one that wanted to talk to her about letting us stay here, so I decided to keep the others here while we waited for you."
"Great, thanks," he sighed, already making his way over to the fruit family's home. "Just keep keeping them out of the way while I go talk to her, alright?"
"Of course," Delta nodded.
With a deep breath, Church trotted up to the door to the Apple family home and knocked on it a few times. Within seconds he heard the sound of hooves walking on the wooden floor. When the door opened, however, Church wasn't greeted by Applejack, but instead was met by Sarge. When Sarge opened the door, a small but bright smile flitted across his face, but he quickly shook it off and gave Church an uncaring stare.
"Hey, Sarge. Applejack home?" Church inquired, trying to look inside the home.
"Maybe," Sarge replied coldly. "Why should I tell you?"
"Come on, Sarge. Aren't you happy to see me?" Church asked.
"Not particularly," he said with an added shrug. "Why aren't you the Alphamajicallit anymore?"
"Shouldn't your first question be how am I back?"
"No, because I don't really care. Now that I think about it, don't bother answering my first question. After saying it out loud, I realized that I really don't care, so I don't know why I asked the question in the first place."
"Well, can you go get Applejack?" Church grunted.
"I don't know, are you going to ask her to look after the others again?"
"I was-"
"Wait, I don't care," he grunted, looking to his side. "I keep forgetting that. I'd like my questions to be stricken off the record."
"Sarge, who's at th' door?" came Applejack's voice from inside.
"Nobody special," he replied instantly.
"That narrows it down t' either Grif or Tucker. Wait, let me guess. It's-" she started as she came to the door from the adjacent room, only for her eyes to grow wide in shock. "Church?"
"Hey, Applejack," he said with a weak smile. "Mind if I talk to you for a minute?"
"Ah, uh..." she muttered dumbly. Shaking her head, she focused on the stallion she thought she'd never see again. "Church?"
"Yeah, hi, it's me. Yes, I'm back, and yes, I'm no longer the Alpha," he said quickly. "That's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about. So do you mind if we..."
Applejack glanced over at Sarge, wondering what he was thinking about this, but he did not seem shocked in the slightest to see Church out of the stone. In fact, he wasn't even paying attention to Church now. Instead, he was shaking his head at Applejack, telling her not to go outside. But Applejack knew that he wasn't doing it to warn her of possible danger, but because Church was a blue.
"Sure," she said quietly after a five second pause. Looking at Sarge, she nodded at him, so he grumbled and walked back inside. Applejack then followed Church outside, convinced now more than ever that he really was a ghost.
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I gets this funny vibe that caboose and church are like little brother and big brother even though they're not.
I get that too,
Buck, you beat me,
Short but getting there. Keep it up!
I really want to see what happens to caboose after resting
2247540
Yeah, I'm getting really tired of these "short chapter" comments now considering the average wordcount for the chapters in MLCI was around 1300.
All the chapters in MLCII have been longer than the average MLCI chapter thus far, and it's getting pretty tedious seeing people say "short chapter" on every damned one. I update this daily and am in college and have a pretty decent social life, so obviously the chapters won't be 4k words long as I don't have the time for it.
Woo hoo, new chapter... I still feel that these are shorter compared to the first story's but oh well, still a great chapter.
it doesn't matter to me that the chapters are short, you update regularly and often; so its all good to me
2247574
Well short chapters are better than no chapters, which I'm beginning to get tempted to start doing nowadays.
2247571 Yea sorry I guess I just read fast but if it is anything like the last one I have a lot to look forward too
2247585 I think people just think the chapters are shorter because while you weren't constantly updating It gave them a chance to further explore more fanfictions and grow more as readers. So they became more accustomed to longer waiting periods and longer chapters. Now that your back they just gobble this up like tick tacks and it makes the chapters feel smaller.
2247693
Yeah, I know that was the reason, it doesn't make it any less annoying to see though.
2247571 I ain't saying jack crap about short chapters. This pace is just fine.
seriously
if dosent matter that the chalters are short because dark updates them almost every day
2247699 not much that I can do for you there except say please keep what you are doing you awesome son of bovine, and give you some advice about how to deal with stupid impacient people if you ever need it.
can't wait for favorite characters return
2247737 it this rooster teeth made or just some fan made thing? the song not the video.
2247552Carolina perhaps? She wasn't much in the last one and they are still(?) connected to that simulator.
2247827 Rooster teeth made it. It is really good in my opinion.
2247827Yeah, that is RT material.
2247827 the song is real it's from season 9 soundtract
It makes me so angry when i see that this fic has 10 dislikes. that's 10 too many.
derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTIvMTEvMTkvMDRfMTZfNDBfMTQ5XzE1NjkyM19fVU5PUFRfX3NhZmVfc3Bpa2VfYW5pbWF0ZWRfaW1hZ2VfbWFjcm8iXV0
Do you plan on doing anything special with Chrysalis or the changelings? I could think of so much shit like with one being disguised as Rainbow trying to get it on with Tucker.
2247571 Personally I think the pace for this story is just fine given how active a life you seem to have. Quality chapters too, keep up the good work mate I'm absolutely loving it so far.
2247998
Snicker Snicker... and all throughout he knows something's not quite right, and that it's too easy...
then BAM, the REAL rainbow shows up and smacks him (and the changlings) silly.
I promised I would wait a few days between times i read this fic to let there be enough to not leave me wanting more, after trying that i realize no amount would be sufficient, this is just addicting
Even if people think the chapters are short, you have to consider the origin too. An episode of RVB was not a full length feature film. Besides, I can blast through 30k word chapters in short order, so entire series seem like short chapters to me. I just enjoy what's already there, and wait patiently for the next update.
The chapters FEEL short, because of the shit ton of chapters you posted in MLCI
Dude, it's official, you are the best RVB/MLP writer ever.
They definitely feel shorter... However, whether it's due to less happening or everything flowing better is still a mystery to me.
so will this story have even more chapters then the first fic? heh not a problem I've read a forum fan fic on space battles which is an mass effect and exalted cross over with 600 pages and it has a second thread because of the new limit of 200 and keep up the good work
Wow, I'm actually up to date with a MLC story! This feeling, it's so amazing!
Before I posted this comment there was 333 comments already posted
This is going to be interesting...
I've been reading this since chapter 54.
2251471pity us who have been watching it slowly grow since chapter one... every damn cliffhanger
2247940 argeed.
"I thought he was dead."
"Yeah we seem to say that a lot."