//------------------------------// // The 'Talk' // Story: By and by // by Bysen //------------------------------// It was a few days short of a year since they’d first met and Pinkie had yet to break her promise. Everyday for ten months, or eleven moons, she had come to his camp and talked and helped him gather supplies and played and laughed and even occasionally cried. Sometimes she’d bring a few desserts she’d cooked and sometimes he would offer her some of the gooey brown muck that he ate… it was delicious! It hadn’t been too long ago that Inkie, or Octavia Philharmonia Pie as she now called herself, had gotten her Cutie Mark. And it was all because of Pinkie’s gift a year ago. My-first-instrument set had come with a little recorder, a note sheet and a guide to play each note. She enjoyed her time playing hot cross buns over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and you get the point and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and… I’m just gonna stop now. And over. She did hold a small grudge against her parents though. They tolerated her playing the recorder for a while and even started to like it when she played more than just one song. However, Clyde’s religion, and by extension hers, forbid playing music. He made an exception but she still wasn't allowed to buy a new instrument. She would travel to her friend’s house in town every weekend and stay there for the night. They had a piano there and she would play. But she finally got her Cutie Mark when her friend had found an old cello up in the attic. Not only had Octavia cleaned it and restrung it and tuned it, she had restored it. The neck had been broken and there was a hole in the body of it. She loved everything about music and instruments and practiced tuning even the smallest thing from glasses of water to the piano after her friend’s parents had purposefully detuned it just so she could do so. While Clyde was happy for his daughter, he knew it was becoming time for him to teach them about something he’d been putting off for ages: sex. He had planned to teach them once Blinkie had gotten her Cutie Mark, she being the oldest. Now it had happened in the opposite order and he worried it may already be too late. Octavia had been spending a lot of time at her friend’s place, and that filly had an older brother. And Blinkie had been hanging around that JD kid a bit too much. Even Pinkie had this mystery friend she’d been seeing EVERYDAY for ages now. He still hadn’t met him and frankly, didn’t think he actually existed. A lone pony living out in the woods, never coming to town, not needing supplies from the stores? Pinkie had an imaginary friend and that was fine. He’d made Blinkie go out there with her a few times to make sure she was being safe and not doing anything stupid. Blinkie never said anything about him either which only made Clyde believe his theory more. He didn’t want to have this talk with his children and neither did their mother Bonnie. She started out the day as normal but seemed nervous this school morning to the three sister and none of them had any idea why. She was a simple mare and had been taught this was a private matter. As such, it had been just as awkward when her parents had spoken with her about the facts of life some fifteen years ago. Their father came into the room they used as a classroom just before they usually began school. He nodded to their mother and said loudly, without shame, even though he was blushing deeply “Who knows what sex is?” Octavia giggled at him using a naughty word but quickly silenced herself. Blinkie raised her hoof slowly, looking just as flushed as her father, but not nearly as much as their mother who was content to just stand there quietly trying to keep at least some of her blood in any part of her body other than her cheeks. “Father… promise not to be mad?” “Of course not dear.” he said but thought ‘Oh, I know where this is going…’ “Well, um, me and JD have um… ‘done it’ a few times.” “Done what?” asked Octavia. “Had sex.” Clyde answered for her. “I was hoping to tell you all about this but now I have to ask you a few questions. Did you… do you know…” “Yes we were safe.” Blinkie answered. “I’ve um… we got this speech already… when his mom, um, caught us.” “Wait, what IS sex though?” Pinkie asked. “It’s um… father?” she pleaded for his help on this. It was his lesson after all. “I think you can tell her.” he joked. He couldn’t ground his daughter for doing what she’d done no matter how much he disapproved of it, but this seemed like a fitting punishment instead. “Well, I um… I told you it was something that older ponies do when they’re in love.” she said to Pinkie and slightly regarding Octavia as well. She then turned to her father “And I do love him, please don’t be mad at him!” “I am a little mad but… continue.” he said pointing a hoof back at Pinkie, who now only seemed more confused that her father would be mad at her sister’s friend for it. “Well… a colt has a um… shwing-shwong and a filly has a… bajingo." “Um… Blinkamena, what exactly did JD’s parents tell you?” and he thought he was an up-tight reserved pony… he didn’t let the torture go on any longer and took over from there. Blinkie seemed to cringe at every clinical word he used, Octavia giggled a few times but Pinkie just seemed excited to learn about something that everypony deemed to be ‘adult’. He taught them how a foal was made, what each part of the mare and stallion did and how to have safe, protected sex. Of course his religion prohibited conception too but he’d be damned if he was letting one of his daughters get pregnant. Ironically he would literally be damned for it too. He even told them about hybrids. How donkeys and ponies made mules or how gryphons and ponies made hippogryphs. Mule’s where pretty common. At least compared to hippogryphs, but he was a little surprised when Pinkie asked “What about buffalo, can they have children with ponies?” and honestly, he didn’t know. He thought it was just youthful curiosity and didn’t really think much of it. Blinkie however, raised an eyebrow wondering if she should speak with her father about Pinkie’s friend in the woods and what the two's relationship was. However, the lesson was almost over now and Clyde finished off by announcing that he was planning for a big dinner this Friday and he wanted Blinkie to invite JD, Octavia to invite her friend and her older sibling. He then asked if Pinkie had anypony she liked, or had some strange feelings for, to which she replied “No, but instead of Friday, could we have the dinner on Sunday instead?” “I don’t think so dear, that’s a school night and…” “Please?! It’s really important, Sunday’s a really big day an…” “Alright then.” Clyde said. Pinkie never asked for much and when she did it always ended up being more for other ponies then herself. If she wanted it to be on Sunday, he’d arrange that for whatever his daughter had planned. “Sunday it is. Now, you have the rest of the day off. Go to your friend’s places and ask their parents if they can attend dinner on Sunday night. They’ll say it’s a school night but tell them I insist and if they’d like to speak with me I’ll do so.” “Oh, can I invite someone too?” Pinkie chirped! “This is a special dinner Pinkie, for special someponies, you just said you didn’t have somepony like that.” “I don’t, but I’d REALLY like to invite someone!” “Alright, you may invite them.” “Yippee!”