***Sunday, Day 16, Morning***
ZZzzz….
ZZzzz….
*Knock, knock, knock*
My one eye not buried in my pillow cracks open at the intruding sound of somepony at the door, the rest of my body warming up for the daily grind of basic motor and mental functions.
Ugh, I keep telling them, I am not a morning pony, I am a night owl! Who dares disturb my slumber?!
I groggily make my way downstairs as Specter snoozes on in his bed. I arrive at the door and open to find a familiar fashionista behind it.
She looks at me with a bright smile on her face, “Good morning Rhino! Lovely day isn’t it?”
I look at her and slowly blink as I try and get my mind warmed up enough to come up with a response after my rude awakening, I finally find one, “Good morning Rarity…” I decide to cut to the chase, subtlety not being one of my first traits to show itself in the mornings, “did you need something?”
She nods, “You remember our little talk about you continuing Sweetie Belle’s magic lessons?”
“I do.”
“Well, I was thinking we make them a little more scheduled, say every Sunday? This way we can plan around them if need be.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
She tilts her head to the side slightly as her smile falters, “Are you alright dear? You seem… not entirely here.”
If you are expecting exhilarating conversation before I have my morning milk, you will be severely disappointed.
I stifle a yawn as I reply, “Still waking up a bit, sorry if it comes off as rude.”
She perks back up, “Oh, well in that case, I’ll leave you to your morning then, come by the boutique later for Sweetie’s lesson alright?”
I wave to her as she heads off, calling after her, “See you then!”
One of these days I am going to find a way to sleep late, and it will be glorious. But for now… to the fridge!
***
I head out to the library with my usual passenger in his favorite spot. When we arrive I open the door to find Twilight, Volt, and a white pony with pink mane and tail who I assume to be a nurse judging by her hat. I walk in just as Twilight was asking a question.
“So what do you think Nurse Redheart?”
The nurse pony replies, “As far as I can tell Twilight, he can take off the majority of the bandages now and otherwise he’s fine.”
Volt is lying down on the couch, “Are we done with the needles?”
Twilight notices me as I shut the door, “Oh hello Rhino!”
“Good morning Twilight, everything alright?”
“From what we can tell, yes. According to what Nurse Redheart and I have found, while he’s in relatively good shape, Volt has gained a bit of a power boost from that incident with Fluffers.”
Lightning pony plus lightning equals stronger lightning pony… seems legit.
Redheart packs up her bag while I unpack the books from mine into the returns box, “Well, if that’s everything Twilight, I need to get back to the hospital.”
Twilight opens the door for her, “Thanks again for checking up on Volt!”
I decide to make conversation while browsing some new books, “So what was that you said about a power boost?”
She levitates a thick stack of papers over to herself and takes one out to look at, “Well, from what I’ve gathered,” Volt groans at the word ‘gathered’ “The excess lightning Volt was struck with served to increase his overall magical potential. Unfortunately his body isn’t quite used to the new amount of magic in him so it has been manifesting a few side effects… yesterday’s incident with the shovels being a prime example of a slight magnetic side effect that seems to come and go, and another one being that he seems to carry a static charge more often now as well. We’ve also surmised that certain mood spikes can cause an accompanying magical spike since his power is unstable while his body adjusts to the increase. But given time, this will allow him to do more than he could before he was struck by the lightning.”
Volt raises an eyebrow at her and said sarcastically, “What, am I going to be able to shoot lightning out of my horn or something?”
Twilight answers without a hint of sarcasm, “Its definitely possible.”
Volt blinked, not expecting that answer, “Oh… any more shocking future developments I should be aware of?”
I got enough of Twilight’s attention to borrow a few more books as she answered, “Hmmm, I don’t think there should be much else, just the spikes and small side effects like I said.” She puts a hoof to her chin to thought for a moment, “There is one thing I want to check though.” She walks over to Volt.
Volt looks at Twilight as she approaches, though his eyes widen quickly as she keeps getting closer. Finally she is only a few inches from his face as she stares intently at his horn, his eyes bulge for a moment before the lights flare and pop. Leaving us all in darkness.
Huh, déjà vu.
I decide to make my exit, “Well I see you two are busy so I’ll just be going now.” I start sidling my way over to the crack of light I can see around the door. I hear some scrabbling as I open and shut the door behind me followed by a shout from what sounded like the purple librarian “It’s not what you think- Hey! Watch where you’re poking that thing!”
Yeah, don’t want to know, leaving now.
***
I made my way over to the boutique, the warm sun having put Specter to sleep on my head a few minutes ago, my mind relaxing a bit too as I pretty much put myself on auto pilot for the trip to the boutique. As I leisurely made my way through town, a particular sight causes enough of a stir in my head to make me pay attention.
Is that… Applejack and Hydro?
I make my way over to the two ponies who are sitting at table in a little café enjoying what looks to be a light lunch. I slow down a bit since I don’t want to interrupt anything, but a quick wave over from Hydro gets me there without much delay.
I look between the two before addressing what I felt to be the important question, “So, is this what I think it is?”
Applejack just smirks while taking a sip of her drink, “Eeyup.”
Hydro chuckles and explains, “Well after that bit of work yesterday I felt it would be a good time to ask, and you know I’ve never been quite as hesitant about asking as you have.”
I glance over at the apple pony, “Well, I suppose she is your type. Congratulations then you two.” I turn to leave, “I’ll go ahead and get back on my way so you two can enjoy yourselves.”
As I leave Applejack speaks up, “One thing before you go sugarcube.” I turn back to her. “Ah meant to mention this yesterday but forgot. Ya might want to watch out for Dash, she was acting mighty strange after you and Fluttershy left Blue’s party the other night. She can be a little protective of Fluttershy, so just watch yerself.”
I digest this new information as I reply, “Thanks for the warning, I’ll keep that in mind.”
She tips her hat at me as I head towards the boutique again.
Hmm, this could be trouble. I’m sure if we can just talk about this we’ll be fine… but I don’t think it’ll go quite that smoothly.
***
As I walked home later I reflected on my time in the fashionista’s abode.
The boutique ended up being a very enjoyable affair. Sweetie Belle’s lesson went fairly smoothly, we focused more on control this time… a choice made doubly certain by the second horn I almost obtained when she put a little too much effort when trying to hold a pencil. Suffice to say we switched to tossing yarn balls after that, aided in distracting Opal from what she saw as stealing her toys by a surprise Fluttershy.
From what I overheard while supervising Specter, who was helping Sweetie Bell’s magical reaction time by diving at her from various parts of the store, Fluttershy had come by to repair a dress, though for some reason Rarity looked over at me whenever she found out. Meh, not worrying about it. Anyways, Fluttershy had to leave but I saw her off at the door with a quick nuzzle about the time Specter spooked Rarity after she walked in between him and Sweetie and thus became the victim of an unwanted face glomp. I think my ears are still ringing a little from that shriek.
Still overall, I think a very successful and much more fun lesson than last time, plus Sweetie’s question about sensing auras gives me a great topic for next time. Still, I can’t help feeling as though something happened that I missed…
*** (Just after Fluttershy left the boutique while Rhino was still teaching)***
A rainbow blur lands in front of a butter-yellow pegasus who was on her way home.
“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. Did you need something?”
“Fluttershy, we need to talk.”