Rivet thanked the waitress with a small smile before pouring a steaming cup from the large pot he'd asked to stay at the table and downing the entirety of it in a single easy gulp.
"Ahhh," he murmured, a bit of steam escaping between his teeth. "Alrigh' ladies, let loose. You gots questions, I gots answers."
"How on earth did you just do that?" Rarity asked with the fascinated tone of a filly asking a bodybuilder how they'd just lifted a building.
"Practice," he said with a shallow grin and a wink. "Really though, most pony's first question is where I got the wings. Or the horn. Same answer either way though, I w's born with them. Freak occurrence of genetics. I think I hit every newspaper in the country thirty-five years ago, an' I weren't even a month old yet."
Twilight finished her notes and glanced up. "That's why I didn't hear about it! I wasn't born yet!"
Rivet nodded sagely. "Ah, that'll do it, right. There wasn't much hubbub about it for long. Princess Celly visited me soon 'nough and did some sorta mage-y scans, an' figured out I weren't a real alicorn. I was born with some facet of all three races, sure 'nough, but I didn't have the sheer power you two have."
He leaned into the table and whispered, "I'll tell you honestly, I barely had enough power to even have the surges a regular pony has. Never did break a door off've its hinges like an earth pony, an' I could barely fly or cast whatsoev'a until I got my cutie mark."
"Whoa," Twilight muttered, eyes narrowing down on her page. "That's a lot of information. And a lot of reading between the lines." She looked up at him with large, shining round eyes, almost twinkling in the light. "Would you mind telling us, uh, everything? Please?"
"Well," he said, leaning away and scratching behind his ear, "I'm very sorry, Miss Twilight, but I do have a job to finish, and I—"
"I'll pay for your and your crew's lunch," Twilight slipped in between his words.
Chuckling, he continued, "And I'm sort of just getting started with my comp'ny, so I don't wanna look lazy or incomp'tent and lose clients, right?"
Rarity glanced at Twilight before raising an eyebrow and leaning into the table. "You know, I was just considering adding some room to the Canterlot Carousel. I'm rapidly running out of storage room, and my current project room up there is starting to run out of storage space for my fabrics..."
Rivet's eyebrows jumped as he swallowed dryly. "An extension? We talkin'—"
He cut himself off quietly, looking down into his empty cup and swallowing again before looking back up into the mare's eyes.
"Ladies, I'm real sorry, but I don't feel right abandonin' a job in the middle just to secure somethin' better. I'm real sorry, but my contracts mean more to me than that."
Twilight blinked and glanced at Rarity, who was fluttering her eyelashes in surprise.
"Uh, how about after then? When you're done for the day?" Twilight asked, glancing around the diner they were in. "I could maybe even rent the dining room out here since you seem to like the coffee so much?"
He blinked at her, his jaw working for a moment. "You'd do that for me? You don't mind waitin'?"
"Well, your work obviously means a lot to you," she said with a smile. "I can wait for an afternoon. It'll even give me some time to find some old newspapers and see what they have to say."
He glanced at a smiling Rarity before sniffling and nodding. "You're real nice ladies, going so far just to listen to me talk at'cha about me. Ya gots a deal," he said, holding his hoof out. "You buy my boys dinner, an' you got me all evenin'."
"Deal," Twilight said, smiling widely and meeting his hoof with hers.
"Nice," he said before waving the same waitress over. "S'cuse me, ma'am, but would you happen to serve beer here at dinner?"
***** ***** *****
Twilight's ears flinched as she opened the door, the loud bellows of easy laughter rolling out into the twilit night. Rarity had chosen to sit out this time, and she entered into the diner with only herself, her pen, and a ream of paper.
"I'm sorry, miss," a pony sitting in a booth near the door said when he saw her, "but Boss's rented the place for the night. But if ya like, I could prolly work in a plus one!" he said with a wink and a gale of laughter from the other three stallions at the table. Wiping his eyes, he shook his head. "Really though, Boss's rented the place out."
Slightly blushing and wobbly-legged, she said, "I'm actually," before taking a breath and yelling over the crowd, "I'm actually here to talk to Rivet!"
"Oh, alright," the pony said with an easy nod before turning and yelling into the dining room, "OI BOSS! LADY HERE TA SEE'YA!"
The dining room's din quieted a bit, and Twilight blushed under the gaze of a crew of slightly inebriated construction creatures before a bellowing voice from the back called out, "Princess! Same table!"
She glanced back to see Rivet waving a broad leg at her before nudging a dragon out of the seat she was nearing. "Get now, tha's Twilight's seat."
The drake murmured before dipping his head to Twilight and swaying over to the front counter, and hitting up a changeling there.
"Wow, it's a bit loud in here, isn't it!?" Twilight called out, glancing around at the room with a slight smile. It was loud, no doubt, but it was the jolly, relieved loud after a day's hard work, and she watched as a pony knocked over a large tankard before snatching it up and sopping at it himself, yelling curses at his table with a giant smile plastered over his face.
"Oh, right!" Rivet said before narrowing his eyes and concentrating. Twilight watched his horn light up before his field covered his ears. With a tickling, she felt her own ears covered before the sounds began to filter out into a much softer, background roar.
"How's that?" Rivet asked, his voice transmitted directly into Twilight's ears. "It's an earplug spell I modified, so's I can still talk to my crew without them goin' deaf."
"Oh wow, it's so clear!" Twilight said, flicking her ears and smiling. "Thank you."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, a faint blush running over his cheeks. "I worked on it for a while, but you ain't here to hear about my spell castin'. I already ate, so it's jus' you and me. An' my crew, if they do somethin' out'a shape and I gotta bend their ear, but I trust 'em."
"They seem like good ponies, from what I've seen," Twilight said, pulling her pages out of her saddlebag and setting them on the table.
"Yeah," he said, smiling out on the noisy dining room. "Some've them have had a hard life, but they're all good in their core. Little mouthy, but good deep down."
"How did you find—" Twilight started to ask before chuckling. "Sorry, getting ahead of myself. We can start whenever you're ready?"
"Sure, sure!" he said, gesturing to a waiter behind the counter by tapping one of his hooves with the other twice. "Drinks incoming, and we can get gabbin'! Where d'ya wants to start? I c'in go back to my grandda's birth on both sides, so you lets me know."
"Maybe not that far," Twilight chuckled, shaking her head. "I found an old Ponyville Express from that time that tells a good bit about your birth and some of what your parents told the press, along with the copy three days later that went into your genetics and why you weren't a full alicorn. It was fascinating, but now I want to know more about you. How you grew up, and how you got to where you are today."
Twilight glanced up and blushed a little. "Sorry, I know it's prying, but you're just so fascinating!"
He chuckled and waved a hoof. "It's alright, Miss Twilight. Honestly, I get a couple of reporters a year who find out about me and want to do a full, uh, 'exposed' or whatever, until they fin' out that I can' lift the sun or help ponies find their one true love or nothin'.
"It's a little flatterin' you just wanna hear about me, honestly," he said, scratching the base of his mane. "Most creatures lose interest when I tell them I'm pretty much a normal stallion."
"Well, that's it exactly!" Twilight said, smiling widely at him as a couple of thuds on the table announced their drinks. "You could have done anything! Become a minor celebrity, focused on your magical abilities and wings to create a traveling show, anything you could think of! And you're here, working with your hooves to make creature's lives better. It's amazing!"
He looked down at the table for a long time; his face stayed blank as he thought before he shrugged. "I guess I could do all that stuff and maybe even get some good bits for it." He paused, then shrugged again. "I just don't think that would make me happy."
Twilight let out a little squee at that before blushing and shaking her head. "And that's why I want to know about you," she said strongly before reaching over and grabbing her drink to take a heavy gulp from it.
Her eyes immediately crossed, and she started coughing, setting down the large frosted mug full of dark liquid topped with a light-caramel colored foam before gagging.
Rivet burst into laughter, leaning back and slapping his seat with his hoof before nodding at her. "Yeah, it's rough stuff, but Sparkle Coat introduced us to some Griffon stout, and now the rest of the lads can't get enough of it!"
He pointed out one of the dragons, who raised his mug to Twilight before emptying it, to the cheers of any of the crew watching.
His chuckles trailing off, he took a sip of his own drink before shivering and taking a larger drink. "Princesses help me; I think I'm gettin' used to it too," he chuckled before placing it carefully to the side. "Get you somethin' else, Princess? I can get you something softer an' more local, or a pop?"
Her coat shivering, she shook her head and let a breath out. "No, no, I'm okay," she said quickly, shivering again. "I just wasn't expecting it. Uhm," she said, coughing a little and pushing the drink away a hoof's length, "I'll get to that later." Taking another breath, she looked at Rivet. "Are you ready?"
He took another drink, he nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Where're we startin'?"
"Let's start at your earliest memories," she said, clearing her throat again and glancing over at the tall, dark drink. "What were you like as a foal? What sort of home did you grow up in?"
"Ah," he said, almost sighed. "From the beginin' then? Let's see what I can gather..."