The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life

by Rhino


Chapter 56: Crystal Evaluation

***Saturday, Day 48, afternoon***

The lamb and I approach the Crystal palace after our journey back into the empire proper. It was certainly a much different trip than our first eerie and empty journey through the city when I had arrived with the others at the beginning of all this. Now, ponies were out and about with smiles as bright as their crystal coats, a trait it seems both the lamb and I had picked up. I was a bit concerned about the new look at first, but I reasoned that in light of recent events, becoming a sparkly emerald coated pony wasn’t the worst thing in the world. I had originally planned to drop the lamb back off at the petting zoo, but after checking over there, it seems they were moved back to wherever they were beforehoof. For now, the little one is sticking close to me until I can find Fluttershy, so she can tell me where to bring him.

As we near the entrance to the castle, I can just barely hear voices on the other side of the large doors. I nudge them open and the lamb prances inside causing all the voices to stop abruptly. I enter the large room myself to briefly see my group of friends, stallions and mares alike, as well as Armor and Princess Cadence before I suddenly find myself knocked back onto my flank by a blur of yellow.

“Oof!” I gasp out as I get stunned for a moment from the impact.

I look downward to see my marefriend clinging tightly to my chest, eyes closed as she says with extraordinary speed, “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness! You’re back! I was so worried! King Sombra was right outside, smoke and crystals were everywhere, and I had no idea where you were in all of that!” She pulls herself out of the hug but keeps her hooves holding me as she starts looking me over, “You didn’t get hurt did y-!”

I cut her off with a quick kiss before she can work herself up more than she already is. After, I lean my forehead against hers and say softly, “I missed you too.”

A weighty pat on my back draws my attention to Hydro standing by my side. He simply smiles at me for a moment before saying in a light tone, “Well, after all these years I knew it wouldn't be that easy to get rid of you. What were you doing out there anyway?”

Before I can open my mouth, the lamb next to me lets out a bleat.

“Baa!”

I look down at him before looking back up at Hydro and gesture to the lamb, “I went to make sure this one-”

“Baa!” The lamb interrupts again.

I look down at the little blue creature and ask pointedly, “Did you want to tell the story or something?”

“Baa.”

Fluttershy coughs quietly so we look at her while she comments, “He said yes.”

For the next few minutes, all of us are entranced by the sheep’s retelling of what had happened to us. Of course, since none of us aside from Fluttershy could understand anything he said, most of us were simply observing how she reacted to the various bleats of the storyteller.

When the lamb finishes his tale, Fluttershy simply quietly mutters, “Oh my.”

Hydro simply pats me on the back again, “Well… glad to see you got out of all that in one piece bro.”

A question from the princess in the room draws the three of us out of our little isolated conversation we had unintentionally started, “So he is your brother then?”

I look at Princess Cadence confused before I look back at Hydro and realize what she is implying. I chuckle as I respond, “Brother in all but blood actually, your highness.”

The princess smiles serenely as she replies, “Oh, my mistake, Mr.-” her eyes widen as she cuts herself off before continuing, “My apologies but I don’t actually know any of you gentlecolts’ names.”

“Oh!” Twilight exclaims, “That’s right, we never introduced them with Sombra’s attack starting as soon as we arrived!” She beings immediately by pointing to each pony as she names them, “That’s Blue, weather pony and Rainbow’s coltfriend, Hydro, dam technician and Applejack’s coltfriend, Rhino, veterinarian and Fluttershy’s coltfriend, Atom, former royal guard…”

Shining Armor cuts in during his sister’s pause, “Atomic Vortex? As in the guard whose suspect termination led to a mysterious group of ponies infiltrating the castle and revealing double agents within the guard ranks?”

Atom simply offers a salute and a “Yes sir,” while the rest of us keep our mouths shut.

Armor gives us a look before motioning for Twilight to continue.

The lavender mare gulps slightly as she looks at the only unnamed stallion in the room. She takes a deep breath before saying very simply, “This is my coltfriend, Volt.”

Armor doesn’t show a particular reaction to this information, but his face does appear to have defaulted to a stoic guard appearance as he asks levelly, “Really, since when?”

Twilight continues her straightforward approach and answers simply, “We started dating a few weeks ago.”

The brother’s response doesn’t betray his thoughts, “This is the first I’ve heard of this.”

Twilight gives her brother a smug look, “Should I have waited longer and just sent a wedding invitation?”

Volt eyes shoot open, “Wait, a what now?”

The white stallion flinches slightly at that, “Never going to let me live that one down…” He composes himself and turns to the rest of us, “Well, on behalf of myself, my wife, and the Crystal Empire, I would like to thank all of you for your help today. The return train won’t be running until tomorrow morning, so we set aside some of the guest rooms here in the castle for you to stay in. You are free to check them out now, if you like, and tell us if you need anything else.”

Various noises of agreement are made by the collective group as we all start making our way towards the stairs.

As Volt turns towards the stairs, a large white hoof rests itself on his shoulder, his face paling as Shining Armor speaks, “Volt, I believe you and I should have a talk.” Twilight walks back in quickly after she hears this, though her brother talks before she can say anything, “Alone, if you wouldn’t mind.” His tone suggests he is merely being polite and actually wouldn’t care if others minded or not, the talk would be alone.

Making my way up the stairs, the last thing I hear is Princess Cadence speaking, “Come on Twilight, you and I can talk in the other room until the boys are done.”

***Twilight and Cadence***

Cadence shuts the door to the lounge-like room she and Twilight entered before turning to the young mare, “Phew, what a day! Glad we can all finally relax now, right Twilight?”

The unicorn’s response is to simply let out a massive sigh and flop onto the nearest couch.

The pink alicorn giggles at the display, finding herself a comfortable seat as well, “Yeah, I remember feeling like that after my tests back in the day too.”

Twilight groans at the mention of the word ‘test’ holding her head in her hooves as she mutters, “I’m happy we saved the day and all, but I still can’t help but think that I failed Princess Celestia’s test.”

Cadence looks at the student before stating, “Thinking too much about it will only make you more depressed. Be happy Twilight! You and your friends helped save an entire empire! Try and think of all the things you have to be happy about right now, instead of just dwelling on something that might not even come to pass.”

Twilight rolls over onto her back to stare up at the ceiling her voice still quiet, but slowly building up to normal, “I guess you’re right. The empire was saved, the crystal ponies are happy, I still have all my friends who support me even when we have to do crazy stuff like this, I have you, my brother…” Her voice trails off as her eyes slowly widen in alarm. Suddenly she sits up straight as she finishes her thought, “My brother who I left alone in a room with my coltfriend!”

The princess simply looks at her, “And this is bad… why?”

Twilight holds her head in her hooves as her mind winds itself up more and more, “This is bad, this is bad, this is bad! Cadence, Shining was always VERY protective! You weren’t in town when it happened, but he once beat up some ponies who had been bullying me in school! They transferred the next day! If he gets the wrong idea about Volt…”

Cadence simply looks on as Twilight begins pacing frantically, “Twilight, I seriously doubt you would be with a pony that Shining would feel the need to get protective because of. From what I’ve seen, that stallion of yours is funny and sweet.”

“But Volt can be very inarticulate when he’s nervous, and all it takes is one wrong thing said for the situation to get out of hoof!” Twilight’s ears suddenly sit straight up and her eyes shrink to pinpricks, “What if he thinks we got physical? Or that Volt pushed things further than I was comfortable with?”

Cadence stands up and holds a hoof out to the unicorn, “Twilight, you’re starting to panic. Just let them talk and I’m they’ll get along fine. You can’t just force Shining to accept Volt.”

Twilight freezes in place and mutters, “Force him to accept Volt…”

Cadence’s eyes widen in alarm, “Twilight? Twilight, are you listening to me?”

***Shining and Volt***

The white stallion sits calmly at a table, sipping coffee as he remarks, “It sounds like you have quite the potential future with your internship you have.”

Volt nods, nursing his own cup of caffeine, “Thanks, Electrical Engineering is a growing job market right now, I even have enough to set aside for later right now.”

Shining armor smiles, “Good, financial stability is always important. From what you’ve told me, and from what I’ve been seeing from her, you and Twilight seem to be very happy together.” He chuckles before he takes another sip and continues, “I was wondering when she would finally find a stallion, it seems she picked a good one.”

Volt smiles, “Yes, things have thankfully been very clean and straightforward so far.” He starts raising his cup to his mouth, “So you don’t have anything to worry abou-”

*SLAM*

The door bursts open and in runs a frantic Twilight, eyes twitching and mane frazzled. Not even taking in the situation in front of her she immediately shouts out, “Shining, don’t hurt Volt! I’m pregnant and I need him to support the foal!”

Volt does a massive coffee spit-take even as Shining’s shouts, “WHAT?!?” The soldier’s magical aura immediately wraps around the unfortunate intern’s form and pins him to the nearest wall. Shining approaches slowly, each pace measured as if holding back something, “’Clean and straightforward’? Is that what you call taking advantage of my sister?!”

Volt coughs as the pressure put on him by Armor’s magic increases, “I don’t know what she’s talking about! We haven’t done anything!

This only seems to make the soldier angrier, “More lies!” He slams the colt into the wall again.

As Volt groans, Twilight appeals to her brother, “Shining, stop!”

Shining doesn’t break his eye contact with Volt, but his voice grows quieter and more serious, “I’m just going to teach him a lesson.”

Volt manages to croak out as flashes of the Torchlight fight come back to him, “Heh, isn’t this familiar…”

Armor tightens his hold even more, “So you make a habit of sleeping around and impregnating mares, do you?”

The doors to the room fly open, revealing Cadence as she rushes to the scene, “Shining Armor, let him go. Everything is just a big misunderstanding.” She casts a disappointed glare to Twilight, “Isn’t that right?”

Twilight tries to pull her brother away from Volt as she answers frantically, “Yes, yes, I’m not really pregnant! Volt and I haven’t done anything close to that! I just thought you wouldn’t hurt him if I gave you information that forced you to accept him!”

Shining eases the seas-green unicorn onto the floor as his faces reflect confusion and regret, “What?”

Twilight rushes to Volt to cast her healing spell as Cadence explains, “She was worried you were going to do the ‘overprotective brother’ routine. Unfortunately it seems she caused exactly that after she worked herself into a panic.”

Twilight finishes healing her coltfriend and tries to talk to him, “Volt? Are you okay?”

He simply gets up and walks away without a word.