***Monday, Day 30, dawn***
**Back at the train station**
After Twilight runs off and Volt follows her, the rest of us simply stare for a moment before Applejack breaks the silence.
“Umm… should we go after ‘em?”
Rarity adopts a knowing smile while gazing in the direction the two unicorns had taken and lets out a ladylike giggle, “Oh, I’m certain they’ll have it all worked out in due time. I for one look forward to hearing about it.”
A minute of silence and confused glances amongst the rest of our group follow the fashionista’s vague statement. The group collectively decides to shrug it off and head our own ways for now. Blue, Hydro, and I are dragged off by our respective marefriends, almost literally in some cases, while Atom heads to mine, Hydro’s, and now temporarily his, home. Iroh goes with Atom while Pinkie and Rarity mention that they need to get to work and trot, or in Pinkie’s case bounce, towards their abodes.
As Fluttershy and I make our way towards her cottage, there is silence similar to what was at the train station, but to me it’s more of a comfortable silence instead of an awkward/confused. I yawn quietly as we approach her cottage, but shake my head lightly to keep myself awake. Instead of heading inside, she leads me over to a tree in her yard and we settle ourselves down underneath it, both of us simply sitting close but not touching.
My ears perk up as she begins to speak, her voice quiet as it ever is, “Rhino… you worry me.”
My ears fold back in guilt as I try to keep my voice cheerful, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make you worry… is it the singes on my side and the bruise on my chest?”
She closes her eyes and shakes her head slowly, “Rhino, it’s not just that, it’s everything… When you told me you were going to help out Atom in Canterlot I thought you were just going to talk to somepony, but then Twilight comes to all of us this morning and tells us about your fight with some crime boss! Even before that, when I tried to check in on you with the Gemini gem, all I could see was the shelf you put it on because you didn't take it with you... I had no idea what you were doing or if you were hurt or...” By the trailing end of her statement her eyes are staring into mine, not accusingly, but sadly, and that probably hurts me more than anything else.
I look down, unable to stand the guilt from those eyes any longer, “I could never have known we would have done anything like this… even if I had… I can think of no possible way to make up for how much you probably went through worrying…”
Everything just escalated so quickly… in the span of one night… *sigh* I have to make this right… but how-
My mental moroseness is interrupted by the soft pressure of two hooves on my sides and a head on my chest. I hesitate for a moment, not expecting this, but return the hug to show my appreciation.
I look down and see her eyes closed as she hugs me, “I don’t want to see you hurt.”
The guilt slowly recedes and is replaced by the warmth of knowing somepony cares, “Seems like both of us feel that way about the other.” I lightly nuzzle the top of her head as I continue, “If it helps you feel any better: I am looking forward to things getting back to normal,” I yawn, “and I can think of no better way to work off the craziness of last night, than to continue sitting here in the arms of the one I care about.”
She smiles and sighs contently before adopting a slightly playful tone, “Well you know, there was one other who was worried about you leaving on such short notice.”
As she finishes, a familiar weight makes itself known on my head and I look up to see a set of golden eyes attached to the face of my favorite pet. Specter climbs his way down into my arms, which are still wrapped around Fluttershy, and settles himself between the two of us.
I smile down at my little friend, “Don’t worry Specs, I’m not planning on leaving again anytime soon.”
The three of us simply sit under the tree enjoying the early morning sun. As the minutes roll by I find myself getting more and more relaxed, my mind settled down a bit as well. I feel Shy start to stir beneath my arm and look down to see her peering at my watch before she nudges my arm to tell me to let her up. As she gets up she puts her hoof on my chest to push herself off me, unfortunately, her hoof lands right on the bruise I got from those thugs and causes me to hiss in pain.
She jumps up quickly at my reaction and stutters, “O-o-oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-“
I cut her off quickly with a kiss. Once we separate, I whisper to her, “It’s alright, a little bit of pain is no measure against spending time with you. Now, where would a pretty little thing like you be off to in such a hurry?”
She looks at me quizzically, “Well, we need to head to work soon. I was going to go in today to check in with Mane and Manila.”
The fact that we need to head to work barely registers in my head as I simply curl up on the grass with Specter still next to me as I chuckle and respond, “Work already? I suppose we must, but might we at least go ahead and plan what we shall do next? After all, you brought up yesterday that technically speaking we’ve only been on one date.” I stare off into the sky as I continue, “Although if you prefer, it doesn’t even have to be anything big, I quite enjoyed the small moonlit picnic that we began with. Dinner is the classic standby for these types of things but if you are more comfortable doing something else we can do that... I’m sorry, I didn’t give you a chance to say anything, I’m not cutting you off or anything I just kind of got lost in my thoughts and…” I let my sentence trail off and stay quiet for a few seconds. “I forgot where I was going with that. Silly me.” I chuckle again for a short time and the movement of my stomach as I laugh causes specs to jump off.
Fluttershy looks at me strangely, “Rhino... are you feeling alright?”
I roll over a few times in the grass with a smile on my face before looking back at her, “Fluttershy, as far as I’m concerned, as long as you’re around, I couldn’t be happier.” I flinch slightly, “Oh, that’s not creepy is it? I’m not trying to be that way I’m just trying to be sincere but sometimes it comes out cheesy or something. But it’s not my intention to make you uncomfortable. Speaking of comfortable, this grass is comfortable.” I roll a few more times giggling to myself, “Weee!” When I turn to look back at Fluttershy she has a concerned look now, I instantly become apologetic, “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m making you worry again.” I try to cheer her up, “You don’t need to worry right now though. I’m fine.” I laugh again as the wind blows and the grass tickles me.
“Howdy you two!”
I lean my head back to see a familiar farm pony and dam technician working their way towards the little slice of nature my marefriend calls home.
Fluttershy turns to our visitors, “Oh, hello Applejack, hello Hydro.”
I roll myself over and shakily stand up to greet the two earth ponies. I wobble slightly as I hail them, “Hello…umm… you.”
The apple pony raises an eyebrow at me, “Oooookay.” She turns to Fluttershy, “Hey Fluttershy, me and Hydro here had an idea we wanted to ask y’all ‘bout.”
The pegasus mare cocks her head to one side, “Oh?”
The orange pony nods, “Yeah, we were wonderin’ if y’all might wanna go on a double date with us sometime.”
I see the shy mare look over at me as I look at nothing in particular, “That sounds… nice.”
The farm pony notices the hesitation, “Somethin’ wrong sugarcube?”
Fluttershy turns back to them, “Oh umm, well… Rhino has been starting to act… strangely…”
Hydro casts his eye over to me, “What do you mean?”
She puts her hoof to her chin and looks upwards slightly, “Well, we were resting for a while but afterwards he’s been… different… he’s been laughing and talking so much more than normal that it just seems off, but he doesn’t seem like he can focus. He didn’t even remember what he was going to say at one point.”
Hydro’s eye widen in recognition as he turns to me, “Rhino, how do you use Res?”
I cock my head at him and almost fall over, “Ummm… with my horn?”
Hydro facehoofs, “Yeah, he’s gone.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widen in alarm, “Gone?! What do you mean gone?!”
Hydro motions for her to calm down with a hoof, “Now now, it’s not bad. He’s just tired, all of us have pretty much been awake for the last day and a half and Rhino… doesn’t take that well. Essentially, when he gets tired and starts to slow down, his brain shuts off.”
Fluttershy looks in my direction, “So he just needs to sleep?”
Hydro nods, “Yeah, but getting him to do that can be tricky.” He raises his voice towards me, “Rhino, you need to sleep!”
“Okay.” I reply absentmindedly as I continue meandering around the yard looking at all the critters.
My marefriend puts a hoof to her lip in worry, “So what do we do?”
Hydro watches as I almost run into a tree, “Well, at this stage really the only thing we have to do is to get him to stay still, to quote him ‘After a certain point, the only thing keeping him going is momentum.’ Normally I would suggest cuddling on the couch or something, but since he’s likely to be out for a while and you probably have things you need to do… just go hug him or something.”
Fluttershy’s face goes slightly pink as she turns towards me and trots my way. When she gets close she sits in front of me and taps her front hooves together, “Umm… Rhino?”
I tear my eyes away from some bunnies, “Yes Fluttershy?”
She suddenly grabs me in a hug, stunning me into place with a goofy smile on my face.
Awww, I love hugs-
*Thump*
**3rd person**
The red earth pony stallion chuckles lightly at his now passed out friend as he turns to the yellow mare, “Don’t worry Fluttershy,” he says as he lifts Rhino onto his back, “I’ll get him home and after a long sleep he’ll be back to normal. We’ll talk more about the double date later alright?”
The pegasus simply nods as the two earth ponies and unconscious unicorn make their way back into town.