The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life

by Rhino


Chapter 73: Days and Nights

***Wednesday, Day 94***

**Veterinary Clinic**

I scribble down the last of my notes before turning to my current patient. “Alright Miss Joe, all you have to do is keep that walking cast on for about two and a half weeks. Drink plenty of fluids, try not to put too much weight on the cracked hoof if possible, and everything should seal up nicely.”

The familiar bovine face from my frequent milk stocking trips smiles thankfully at me as she steps down from the examination platform. “Oh, thank you Doctor. Sorry for troubling you about this, I just lost my balance after that rain we had the other day. Never know where the rocks are in all that mud.”

I hold open the door for her as she heads back to the lobby. “No trouble at all, accidents happen. See you tomorrow then for my next batch?”

She giggles, as all the cows tend to do when they discuss my milk consumption for some reason. “Oh don’t worry dear, we have yours already set aside and ready for when you drop by. You know, we never did get to meet the little one that seems to drink it almost as much as you do.”

The door slides open as two forms, one smaller than the other, walk in. I glance at my daughter and marefriend as I smile knowingly at Daisy Joe. “Well, here’s your chance.”

The happy filly waves as they approach, an excited grin on her face. "Hi, Dad! Who's your friend?" She gives Daisy a curious look, leaning over as much as possible without falling off Fluttershy's back.

I gesture to the cow. "Pinchy, meet one of the ones responsible for all that milk you and I put away. She was just talking about wanting to meet you when I got done fixing her up."

Her eyes light up and her ears perk up a bit. "Really? That's great!" She leaps off my marefriend's back, landing in front of Miss Joe. "Thank you for the milk! It's really delicious!" She glances at the cast. "I hope you get better soon!"

Daisy smiles at the filly. "So you're the one making this stallion have to visit us girls twice as often eh? Aren't you a cute one? Don't worry about this old thing." She wiggles the cast a bit. "I just won't be quite as fast as I usually am." The bovine leans down and whispers conspiratorially. "Between you and me, I'm actually looking forward to having a doctor's note saying I don't have to go running around."

Pinchy gives a little wink, giggling softly. "I understand completely. And I apologize for having Dad visit you so much, but I think it should be a compliment!"

The cow straightens up. "Who said it was a bad thing? He's our most frequent customer now!" She looks back at me. "Though if you come up with any more little ones with this same appetite, we'll have to give you a discount just for how often you'll need to come by."

I put on a dramatic grimace. "Oh boy... I don't even want to think about how much i'll need at that point." My face goes back to normal as I laugh. "But I don't think we're near ready for another few sets yet." I spot Fluttershy nodding in agreement with a small blush on her face.

"Suit yourself then, dear. I should start getting back to the girls, have a nice day now!" We all return Daisy's departing wave as she leaves.

Pinchy turns to me, smiling brightly. "She's really nice. Funny, too!" She glances at Fluttershy for a moment before leaning in to whisper into my ear. "Am I really not going to get a brother or sister anytime soon? Does the stork have a grudge against you, Dad?"

I flinch at the veritable Pandora's box Daisy unknowingly opened. "Umm... let's just say that there are certain steps that will need to be taken before we get close to the point where you get siblings..."

Fluttershy has turned a beet red and is nodding furiously as her mouth is unwilling to move.

She looks from me to Fluttershy and back, confused. "...does this have to do with that talk you gave me? You know, when I found you and sensei after your sparring match?" She scratches her head, frowning in concentration.

"Rhino..." Fluttershy starts, "what is she talking about?"

I speak quickly. "An impromptu explanation on the concept of 'Mommy and daddy hugs' that I worked hard to not actually go into any depth about-change of subject time!" I focus on Pinchy. "So how was hanging out with Fluttershy?"

"Really fun!" She beams, hugging my marefriend's foreleg. "We mostly stayed at her house, but I got to play with a few of her animal friends! Did you know she has a couple of ferrets?"

"I didn't know that. It's hard for me to keep track of all the animals she has over at her place." I give Fluttershy a thankful look while I continue. "So what else did you do on your half day off from school?"

"...um...well, Sweetie and her friends came by for a bit." Pinchy looks up at the ceiling, thinking for a bit. "We played outside with the animals for a bit, Scootaloo suggested we try falconeering - I think that's what she called it - and Sweetie and I practiced magic." She grimaces a bit. "...I feel bad for startling Harry...but I got one of my spells to finally work properly!"

"Oh? Which one?" I ask. "I know we've been practicing mainly with levitation just so you can get back your basic daily actions, but I didn't know you were trying other ones too."

"Yep! Watch!" She closes her eyes and concentrates. A few green sparks emerge from her horn, floating up and writing words in cursive. She looks up, beaming brightly at what it says - 'F. S. Braveheart'. "Ta-da!"

I beam at her. "That's wonderful Pinchy!"

Fluttershy giggles. "You should have seen her and Sweetie Belle jumping around in happiness. It was so cute."

I think for a moment. "It looks like I'll have to do something special for our next lesson..."

She tilts her head, looking up at me, her wide eyes filled with curiosity. "What do you mean, Dad?"

I look away with a smirk. "You'll see~"

A rumble in the distance catches my attention as it slowly grows closer and closer.

Pinchy looks like she wants to know now, but the noise distracts her, as well. "...what is that?"

I walk out the front door and look down the street. As I see a dust cloud in the distance, I squint my eyes to try and tell what it is, and I immediately run back inside as soon as I do. I lock the doors and move some chairs in front of them before turning and facing the others.

Fluttershy looks at me worriedly. "Rhino, w-what is it?"

I look at the two of them with horror in my eyes. "It's an army of Pinkie Pies."

***That evening***

**Ponyville streets**

Hydro and I are making our way to one of the newer guy’s night activities, bowling.

As we walk I notice my friend being a bit broody tonight. “Something wrong, Hydro?”

“Nothing besides my relationship with Applejack having some friction lately.” Hydro grumbles.

This peaks my interest seeing as, if anything, his and Applejack’s relationship has been smooth sailing, “What happened?”

He sighs and speaks in a tone that says how irritated the situation has him. “She has been questioning the integrity of our relationship since we haven’t said ‘I love you’ to each other yet. Apparently she got the idea because one of our friends said it to his own mare...”

I take a wild guess. “Volt.”

The red stallion nods. “Exactly. I never thought I would have to live up to the bar set by him of all ponies..”

A thought occurs to me. “You know... that does actually explain something Fluttershy tried to bring up the other day... she never actually said the word ‘love’ but she did seem to be trying to see where we were in regards to our relationship.”

He looks over to me. “How’d it go for you?”

I think a moment about how to respond. “Suffice to say... I spent that the entire time Pinchy was with her friends just hanging out with Fluttershy and showing small signs of affection. At the end, we agreed to continue our way of just going at our own comfortable pace... though I think she did end up jumping us ahead a few small steps.” I see the look he is giving me. “No, not in that way.”

He smirks as he faces forward. “I didn’t say a word.”

Soon enough we arrive at the bowling alley where the others are waiting. Included in the group besides our usuals is the quiet newcomer Pop Filter, whom I convinced to tag along. In a few minutes, we have a nice lane to ourselves and start setting up.

I check if everypony is ready. “Alright, everypony got their balls?”

Hydro just looks at me silently until I realize what I said and silently facehoof.

Blue reaches below himself and states, “Yep, still there,” before pulling out a blue bowling ball from under his chair.

Volt takes on a big smile “I am ready to have a ball.”

I can barely hear a subdued chuckle from Filter’s direction.

Atom quips from where he eyeing up the lane. “Are we doing anything to make this interesting?”

I respond with partial joking, partial seriousness. “I certainly hope not, I pretty much suck at this with the occasional lucky toss.”

“I’m mostly here to have fun. So basically I’m optimistically terrible.” Volt answers.

Everypony else pretty much shrugs it off with varying comments on ‘eh, we’re okay.’ The game begins and the pins start dropping, more so for some than others.

“So anything interesting happen while I was out of town?” Volt questions.

Atom remarks casually. “Well, beating Sapphire was the big one, but the only other thing I can think of was the Pinkie Pie incident and you were here for that.”

Volt answers back “The problem with all the Pinkie Pie clones? Yeah luckily we were all here to round them up.” He then proceeds to blow on his hoof and rub it against his chest. “Not to mention Twi blasting the fakes to kingdom come. She is awesome like that”

Blue turns to the earth pony of the group. “By the way Hydro, thanks again for letting us hole up in the dam during the worst parts of the Pinkie Flood.”

He smirks as he rolls a spare. “It’s times like that I’m grateful I work behind walls that are reinforced by concrete thicker than a pony is long.”

I turn to Atom as something occurs to me. “Oh, by the way, everything go well with Sapphire?”

He nods. “Yeah, got him on the prison train bound for Canterlot yesterday. I heard they got him a nice cell in the same block as Torchlight.”

The bowling continues, Hydro and Atom vying for the lead while the rest of us simply try to beat each other for nothing more than to say we weren’t in last place. Eventually things wind down as we get some overpriced drinks and food from the concession area. Balls roll, pins crash, and ponies cheer and rage as the time goes on. Finally the last ball is rolled and the score is tallied up. Surprisingly enough, in last place is Blue, who ran into a truly astounding streak of bad luck that I almost believe was where my own stroke of good luck came from. On the complete opposite end of the board is the overall winner, Atom, who won by a single pin in what was easily the closest game I have ever seen.

I check on Filter as we all head out and he states that he had a better time than he thought he would and is looking forward to next week. All in all, a very good-natured guys night with no unexpected developments.

***Volt and Hydro***

As everypony starts to head to their respective homes, the earth stallion is hailed by the electric unicorn.

He raises a hoof as he approaches the mechanical engineer. “Hey! Hydro! Buddy! Amigo!”

Hydro gives him a flat look because of the odd greeting. “Hey. You need something?”

“Well, okay.... I have kind of this odd favor to ask you. You are one of my more physically fit friends and I was just wondering how you went about obtaining such.... muscle mass.” Volt stammers.

Hydro looks surprised, not expecting that. “Oh... well, really it’s just because I do everything by hoof. All those pipes and metal parts over at the dam don’t move themselves. So... the short answer would be: exercise.”

“Well I do most of my work by hoof also and I do try to go for jogs every morning before I work, but I don’t seem to be getting a lot of payoff. So I feel I could use some help becoming a more well built stallion.”

“Well, earth ponies tend to build muscles more easily, but what’s with the sudden interest?”

Volt sighs, “Well Twilight and I started this new literary play reading exercise which is sort of like this role playing thing... well anyway. I feel like I have been getting some signals...”

***Flashback to Golden Oaks one day***

Twilight comes up the stairs, levitating three books. She lays down on the bed where Volt is waiting and sets the books down as she starts, “Ok, today I thought we could try reading one of these books. Let’s start with a high school romance.”

“Okay sounds like fun.” Volt quips optimistically.

Spike’s voice is heard outside the door. “You better wait for me to walk out the door. The last thing I want to hear is you reading mushy junk out loud to each other. And I especially don’t want to walk in on you...” The dragon shudders “making out again.”

“Anyway” Twilight begins annoyed as the front door slams shut. “Let’s begin our little activity.”

***Golden Oaks Library (Several pages later)***

"Then the tall muscular guitar savvy stallion was crowned prom king and the egg headed yet beautiful school mare was crowned the prom queen. HE held her close with his well toned fore hooves and into her ear, ‘I love you’." Twilight said with an elated sigh.

***Present time***

Volt looks at his own forearms lacking, while Hydro takes in what he just heard. “So basically, you feel insecure about not being like a male romance novel character in that one session?”

“Well it wasn’t the only time this happened.” Volt answers

***Another time***

“Lets move on to my second romance novel. I will play the princess and you will play the handsome royal guard.”

Volt blushes a little “Oh you.”

***Golden Oaks Library (Several more pages later)***

"While the princess was indeed beautiful her love of reading and learning kept her introverted. But the tall, handsome, and well physically built stallion that she ran into on a daily basis finally saw her as the flower she really was. When she had fallen over he helped her back onto her hooves with ease thanks to his obvious strength. They both proceed to make the most of the moment by engaging in an intimate kiss that seemed lasted forever." Twilight hugged the book while repeating the last few lines with her lips puckered out expecting Volt to play along.

Volt sits there with somewhat of a confused look on his face. “Um Twi?”

She opens her eyes and looks at him. “What’s wrong Volt?”

"Twilight a lot of these stories have a character that represents you really well, but perhaps is there one that would represent me better?" Volt asks.

She holds up the third book she brought “I have just the solution.”

***Present***

“It wasn’t a solution.” Volt deadpans.

***Golden Oaks Library (Several well written and thought provoking pages later)***

"The intelligent and beautiful yet unsocial mare went with her short and somewhat feeble stallion companion. They had been on a long and arduous journey, but it hadn't been in vain. The magic of their love changed the stallion into tall and brawny stallion. He used his new strength to carry her to their beautiful wooden cabin where they shared the rest of their lives happy and in love.”

Volt sat there staring at Twilight “Well I definitely feel somewhat of a connection....”

***Present***

Hydro nods. “Yeah, definitely starting to see a pattern there.”

“So you will help me?” Volt says

The red stallion puts a hoof to his chin in thought. A chuckle rumbles from his throat just as a smile slowly spreads across his face. “You know what? Sure,” he pats the other pony heftily on the back, “I’ll help you out.”