Bob woke up in the library the day after his concert with a start. He looked around for a moment. Twilight and Spike were already out of the room, that wasn’t a surprise; they often got out of bed before he did. Everything was in place. His guitar was sitting off to the side in a stand that Twilight had helped him build, and… everything seemed normal. Until Bob noticed the violin and cello cases next to it. Alongside a drum kit and the electric guitar and bass that were laying in a matching pair of guitar stands. “Last night wasn’t a dream?” Bob asked, looking around the room a couple more times before sliding out of bed. He walked into the bathroom and quickly did the usual, take a shower, brush his teeth, relieve himself.
When Bob got downstairs, Twilight and Spike were sitting at the dining table. There was a stack of pancakes on the table. The human took a seat and picked up a fork, only then did he notice the vinyl sitting in the middle of the table. It was an album of every single song Bob played on stage. “So last night wasn’t some sort of fever dream?” Bob looked down at the vinyl before back at the unicorn and drake.
Twilight answered his question. “No, it wasn’t. Just about everypony in town knows your name and wants to meet you, by the way. Filthy Rich stopped by with your portion of the bits, and this vinyl that he’s going to copy and sell to ponies in town. He wanted to give you a few to sign. “Each song on this album was from your world?”
“Eeyup. I more or less sang other people’s songs to a crowd of ponies, and I’m getting paid for it. It feels… wrong, but I’m glad I can find some way to bring the music that I love and grew up with into Equestria.”
“And somepony,” Spike added. “Really wants an autograph,” Spike said, staring at the album in front of his plate.
“You want an autograph?”
“No… yeah, I do. Every song I heard last night was so different from one another, and all of them were so different from anything I’ve ever heard! One moment you’re singing about how the Moon is made of cheese, and then the next you’re singing a song that sounds… heavy on the thoughts. I really liked the chicken song because of how… stupid it sounds on the surface until you listen to the song. It was depressing.”
Bob took the vinyl and signed the cover with a quill. “Glad to see I already have a fan.”
“Oh yeah! And a few ponies would like to finally meet you, so I set up a meet and greet at Sugarcube corner, later when we all go out for lunch.” Twilight pulled out a schedule, before slowly putting it away after looking at her friend’s face. “Okay, so maybe we won’t have fifteen different meet up locations…”
“Well, not that many ponies will show up anyways, so it’ll be a little fun at least… How many fans could I possibly get?”
“The entirety of your class,” Spike said. “All of our friends, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia,” everyone at the breakfast table let out a long, withering sigh at Celestia’s name. “Two popular musicians who want to speak with you, and Twilight sent one of the vinyls that Mr. Rich gave us to Mom and Dad. Oh, and you’re in the newspaper.”
“...How long was I out for?” Bob asked.
“A day. You were definitely stressed out,” Twilight said. “And nopony really blames you, since you apparently spent all day recording a majority of what was played on stage.” The three of them started eating dinner when Twilight spoke up. “I may have also told Mom and Dad about your play ahead of time… they’re staying in a motel. Shining Armor and Cadance also showed up just to see the show. They’re going to be there at the meet up when we get there.” Bob blinked. “And they have adoption papers.”
“...Oh shit.” Bob’s eyes widened. “Uh…” Bob broke and was moved out the door when the three of them were done eating, but quickly fell in pace behind Twilight as led the way. At some point, Spike ended up getting a piggyback ride from the human.
“Uh…” Bob was walking up to Sugarcube Corner with Twilight and Spike. “That is a lot of ponies…” Bob quickly noted that Luna was there, wearing an adorable little hoodie instead of her regalia, and Celestia was there, in her regalia, in all of her glory when they walked in. Luna was sitting away from Celestia in the corner of the room, and Celestia was near the middle. Bob quickly snuck away from Twilight and snuck over to the corner the Moon Princess was sitting at. She quickly took her hood off and happily hugged the human as they greeted each other. “Luna!” Bob laughed and hugged his alicorn friend as tightly as he could.
“Bob! It is good to see you!” She giggled. “I am glad that you wish to see me, but perhaps you should meet your fans first,” Bob slowly turned to see the full room of ponies that were staring at him. For the first time that he could remember, nopony in the room was giving him looks of fear, anger, or the usual hatred. No, it was curiosity and excitement. Still, it was a lot of eyes, and Bob chuckled a bit and waved. “Uh… hey,” Bob said awkwardly. “What’s up everyone?” Bob quickly hid behind Luna when one pony moved a hoof. The moon Princess shook her head, almost solemnly, she nuzzled the human a few times to calm down the human, who was already breathing quickly.
“Oh fuck, I could barely talk to other kids at my school. How the hell am I going to talk to anyone here?” Bob clutched the sides of his head. He only stopped when Luna draped a wing over him and held him tightly.
“Take a deep breath, Bob. These ponies are actually excited to see you, they won’t lay a hoof on you. If they do, Shining Armor is on the opposite side of the room from us with Cadance, who is no slouch in magic or combat, Twilight’s Sparkle’s dad, who was a captain of the Royal Guard before he ended up becoming my sister’s advisor, Twilight Sparkle and all of her friends, and myself to answer to. You won’t be hurt, and you’ll enjoy your time. And… stay away from my sister. She’s using this as an opportunity to ‘amend’ your nonexistent friendship.” She glared at Celestia, who looked as serene as ever while munching away on some cake, even if the elder Princess’s eyes flicked to her younger sister in slight depression for the briefest of moments. “There’s a reason why none of Twilight’s family are near her, and there’s a reason why I am sitting away from her.”
Bob closed his eyes and giggled. “Okay, I’m normal again. I can do this.” Bob got out from under Luna’s wing and waved to the crowd. “Sorry about that; old habits are hard to break… Should I be saying everypony? I don’t know if I should or not; I grew up with saying ‘everyone’ and not ‘everypony’. I’m also gonna be blunt and say… This is way out of my comfort zone, so I’ll just be chatting with Luna for a bit. If anyone wants to stop by, say ‘hi’ or talk to me for a little bit, feel free.”
So that’s what Bob did, sit and chat with Luna while a pony or two would come by and say ‘hi’ or ask for an autograph. To say Bob was still adjusting to the fact that ponies, a lot of ponies, were being nice to him, was an understatement. Occasionally he would be casually joking with Luna, and then get tapped on the shoulder and immediately get ready to run away, only to greet a friendly, smiling pony that just wanted to see their new favorite musician… A few ponies even stopped by and said ‘hi’ to Luna rather respectfully without any fear. In fact, it made Luna a little happier when ponies started actually trying to talk to her just as much as they talked to Bob.
Out of the blue, a golden hue picked Bob up and carried him across the room. Everypony watched with intent as Bob landed in a chair… at Celestia’s table.
“Hello, Bob. How are you doing this afternoon?”
“...What do you want, Princess Celestia?” Bob crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
“I just wanted to chat, and talk about your performance at your show last night. I can see that you are quite talented, and I must say… I’ve never seen a single pony even attempt to play as many instruments as you did, not just attempt, but actually play them all reasonably well! First, the piano, the cello, and then three different types of guitars!” Celestia clapped her hooves. “I just wanted to meet my new, favorite artist after all, and you seemed intent on staying with Luna, for whatever reason, the entire time that you’re here. When there’s a room full of your fans that you could be saying ‘hi’ to!”
“It’s not every day I get to see Luna, it’s pretty rare actually, and I like Luna. Out of all the alicorns, she’s definitely my favorite-”
Cadance, in her own corner of the room coughed.
“Cadance, you’re awesome, but I just like Luna.” The Princess of Love snorted before going back to chatting with Twilight Velvet. The elder Twilight cast a glare at Celestia the moment Bob was forcefully set in front of her, but she still managed to uphold a friendly conversation with the pink alicorn in front of her. “Princess, I am glad and ‘flattered’ that you want to meet me, but I’m still the same kid from a couple of weeks ago. And I…” Bob cleared his throat. “Oh look, I think Twilight’s mom wants me to go say ‘hi’ to her. She has to be one of my favorite Twilights, so I’m going to go ahead and say ‘hi’ to her and probably hug her. See ya Celestia!”
Celestia nodded, before letting Bob head over to the table the Twilight family was occupying. Meanwhile, though nopony noticed, save for Luna, the Sun Princess’s head hung just a little bit. Luna got up to go meet the Twilights as well, and to remain close to her human. The whole way, she gave the stink eye to Celestia, and only stopped when she saw Bob cradling Twilight Velvet while she showered him with nuzzles and kisses. The sight made the Lunar Princess smile, before shaking her head to join back in on the festivities.
After Twilight Velvet and Bob had settled down, the mare was set on her feet and she cleared her throat. “Now, Bob. I know how you feel about being adopted, especially after… what Twilight told us, but I have something to offer you!” Velvet took out an adoption form. “I already signed my side of the paperwork, if you want to become a part of my family, everypony here will welcome you with open hooves!”
Bob stared down at the adoption paper for a moment, reading every line. “I… I don’t know.” He sighed. “I-I…” Bob choked for a moment and everyone in the room froze and looked at him. “I can’t truly forget my own family, Mrs. Twilight. I know, you want to offer me a family, but I just can’t forget my siblings, or my Dad. I just can’t forget the people I’ve been with for my entire life.” Bob wiped a single tear from his eyes. The human took a deep breath. “I don’t think I’ll be going home any time soon, if ever. I can learn to move on, even if I really don’t want to move on.” The human picked up the quill and moved to sign the paper, his hand was shaky. “You guys… you all agreed on this?”
Every one of the Twilights nodded.
“Of course we did! Everypony is for it,” Twilight Velvet’s grin got even bigger when Bob signed the paper. “Yes! You’re going to tell me your birthday, young stallion. We will be celebrating your first birthday as a part of our family. Even if we have to drag you to Canterlot to do that.” A small smile formed on the human’s face at the idea, before he was promptly smothered by the Twilight Family.
The next day, everypony from out of town went back home, save for Cadance. She wanted to spend just a little more time with Bob, but went back on a chariot in the morning. Bob yawned as he was walking through town, towards school. It was one of those days where he was bored out of his mind and figured he could go to school to have something to do. A pony would happily wave at him, which he would happily return, or a pony would walk up to him and ask for a few ear scratches, which he also happily gave.
He walked into a cafe to grab a coffee before getting to school, and froze at the door. Every single pony in the cafe was now eyeballing him. Bob’s even been inside this specific cafe, since it was one of his favorites, but that was almost always with Twilight or one of her friends. “Uh… hey,” Bob got in line only for some of the ponies to quickly move out of the way. “Why… are you guys giving me your spot in line?”
“Well sir,” the mare that was in front of him said. “You’re probably busy, aren’t you?”
Bob blinked a couple of times and jammed a pinkie in his ear and scraped around in there. “Am I hearing you right, m’am? I’m busy?”
“Yeah… aren’t you-”
“I can wait in line guys, a few minutes won’t kill me. Get back in line; I’m no different from the average pony; I’m just some guy going through his day.” The ponies before him slowly got back in line and Bob shook his head. A few minutes later, Bob was walking out with his favorite blend of coffee and sugary stuff. This time around, the cashier actually wrote down his order so that they could remember it for later, which was a nice touch and a step up from only listening to Twilight whenever he wanted to order something from the little shop.
Bob got to school on time, despite his little detour and sat down in the back of class. Arrow sat down beside him, as usual, before just hopping up in his lap anyways. Bob chuckled and spent a few minutes petting the colt while the rest of his classmates started filling the room. The human sighed; he was getting tired of all of the looks he was getting. First, it was regular ponies, now it was the children too. They weren't malicious or anything, so Bob wasn’t scared, he just didn’t like the attention. At least Arrow didn’t seem to be treating him any differently.
Until Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon took a seat next to him, both on opposite sides of him. Arrow looked around, noting that his seat had been taken, before shrugging; he had a human lap to sit on, and it certainly beat sitting on the wooden floor of the school house. So he didn’t really complain, and since Bob wouldn’t be using the desk much anyways, the colt set up his writing utensils. He also pulled out a notebook full of little tricks for math class that Bob had been teaching him.
“So Bob,” Diamond Tiara side eyed the human. “How was your concert?” She asked.
“Weren’t you there with your Dad, since he sponsored and set up the whole thing?”
“I was,” she hummed. “Perhaps you can spend some time with me and Silver Spoon after school? You could show us how you managed to record all those songs…” Diamond Tiara began giving him a sultry look that went completely over the human’s head; he was too busy staring down at the notes Golden Arrow was taking out.
“I said I’d hang out with Arrow today, can’t do that.” The human’s voice was muffled, as he was speaking into the back of the colt’s head.
“But… you owe me! My daddy’s the reason why you even got to have a concert to begin with!”
“I owe your dad, I am very grateful for what he’s done for me. When I get the chance, I’m going to try and set up a chat over some coffee, or something, with him. However, as far as I’m aware, you are a filly and his daughter, not Filthy Rich, so I don’t owe you anything. Besides, what happened to only referring to me as ‘ape’ and making fun of my family?” Bob asked while Cheerilee finally got to her desk to take attendance.
“I said I was sorry!”
“No you didn’t. Bob left before you even got the chance,” Arrow said, looking over his notes. “You then bragged at recess about making him storm out of class like that.” He finally looked up from the notes and calmly stared at the spoiled filly. “You’re lying, and if you keep lying to him, I will buck you in the face. You can pick on me all you want, but you leave Bob alone. Period. Don’t speak with him, don’t lie in his face or give him that fake little act you give when you’re only sorry for getting caught. Got it?” Bob slowly looked down at Arrow. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were now trying to look at anything other than the colt.
“That is the scariest thing I’ve heard anyone say in my life. Just… how calmly you said it.”
“If she hurts you, physically or mentally, I’m not standing for it. I’ll… beat the shit out of them-”
“Where’d you learn that language?”
“You. Who else?”
“God dammit; I’m a terrible influence on you. You need to stop hanging out with me.”
“No I don’t! My friend’s a super cool musician, an alien, and has the best back scratchers in the world for paws! I wanna spend more time with you.”
“...Your mother is going to kick my butt if she hears you use that language around her… If she asks who you learnt it from,” Bob slowly pointed at Silver Spoon. “She taught you, alright?”
“Alright.” Arrow cooed again when Bob’s hand slipped under his jaw and scratched an itch that had been bothering the colt all morning.
A few days later, Bob was sitting in the library, sipping on sugar with some tea in it. Sitting beside him was Twilight Sparkle, and sitting before him was another unicorn, a white one with a messy, blue mane. She had a pair of goggles that made it almost entirely impossible to see her eyes through them. Beside her was a light gray earth pony, she had a neat, clean dark brown mane, and wore a collar with a bowtie on it.
“So,” Bob said, breaking the silence between the four of them. “You’re DJ Pon3, or Vinyl Scratch?” Bob asked, pointing at the unicorn.” She nodded. “Octavia Melody?” He asked, pointing at the earth pony. The mare also nodded. “Twilight said you wanted to chat and neither of you have said a word yet. We were just about to go camping and you ladies showed up… so what’s up?”
“Well, Bob. We were just stopping by to talk about your performance at your concert,” Octavia spoke first. “You’re quite the talented fellow, you know? I’m not sure how aware you are of this, but most ponies that even pick up an instrument only know how to play that one instrument. Whether that instrument is a cello, or a guitar, or whether or not it’s singing, most ponies only know how to do one thing. You seem to be at least knowledgeable in several instruments. You played the cello, you played the violin. I believe I heard you use a xylophone throughout parts of the tracks you recorded…
“You’re simply an anomaly to most pony musicians. Most ponies, myself included, struggle even picking up a second instrument and you’re playing several. Granted, you aren’t playing them all at once, but you can play the piano. You can play the cello. To top it off, you can sing. I was…”
“How about we set up another concert,” Bob interjected. “You and I, somewhere in… maybe Canterlot, maybe here in Ponyville. It would be fun and if we go to Canterlot, my adoptive mother and father can watch me play.”
“We… could do that.”
“Cool. Do you know how to play the bass?”
Octavia scoffed. “Of course I can! It’s a bit harder with how much heavier the bass is, and how much thicker the strings are, but I can play the bass well.”
“So how do you feel about swing music?”
“What is swing music?” Bob grinned.
Twilight Sparkle side eyed her new brother. “Bob, what are you thinking?”
“I have a song to write.” Bob hopped from his chair and ran upstairs to throw some ideas onto some paper. Vinyl Scratch shook her head.
“If his idea involves writing a killer song, then I’m all down for any devious schemes that he’s planning!”