//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Volt // Story: The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life // by Rhino //------------------------------// ***Day 4, Monday, noonish*** After manually resetting our brains from Pinkie induced blue screens of death, Hydro and I say our farewells as Specter and I head back to the house to kill some time until the party while Hydro finishes his shift. As I thought, on the way downhill Specter decides to do some long distance gliding directly above me until we get to the bottom. Once again, he lands squarely on my head at the end of said flight. Wow Specs has good accuracy. Though I still think he might freak a few ponies out if he does that to them. Note to self: remember that for quick gag next time Pinkie appears out of nowhere. She seems like the kind of mare to take a joke and it’ll be my way of rebooting my brain the next time she breaks it. Specter and I find a nut stand on the way home so we stock up some food for him. I never thought I’d see the day. Me, buying bags of nuts for my house. I hate nuts, yet here I am. Well, at least he doesn’t have to worry about me snacking on his food. The same cannot be said about him with my food, but he’s cute so he is forgiven. We arrive at the house, again, and this time I get Specter to hang around for a moment. I had to catch him before he went exploring again so I can show him where he can find his food bowl. He gives me a nod after I show him then climbs on top of the fridge. I remark off-hoofedly to the squirrel, “Let me know if you ever find something good anywhere in the house while you’re climbing around.” I head upstairs and put his bed on one of the shelves of my bookcase next to my bed. Specter peeks in a moment to see what I’m up to, but quickly pops back out into the hall once he sees I’m not doing much. Hmm what to do… I suppose I could read one of my fantasy novels. Which one to reread… oh, Blue Dragon is always an interesting read. Still think having the world get sawed in half then break apart into cuboid mini worlds is a pretty good plot twist, never saw it coming. I head back downstairs and set down the book on the coffee table while I get comfortable on the couch. Ahh, you know I always did…like……this………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. *** *SLAM* Huh? What? *yawn* Must have closed my eyes for a moment. The familiar voice of Hydro resounds in my ears, “Rhino? Why were you sleeping? I thought nothing happened last night.” I yawn, “Sleeping? I just closed my eyes for a second while I was getting comfortable.” He asks simply, “The couch got you didn’t it?” I look down at the furniture in question, “I guess it did.” Couch, once again I am reminded of your power. The power to make anypony with even an ounce of fatigue drop within one minute of resting upon your cushiony surface. You are the master of forced power naps, and I am grateful for your blessing. Hmm, how long do we have until Pinkie’s party? Hydro's question echoes my thoughts, “So how long until we have to get to Pinkie’s party?” I give him a look, “You’re in my head again.” He gives me a look right back, “Hey, you’re guilty of it just as often as I am.” I concede to his logic, “Fair enough.” It’s not my fault we can randomly read exactly what the other is thinking, magic has nothing to do with it. It’s all just knowing each other for a long time and somehow having an innate sense of what the other is doing at certain times. I look at my watch that I didn’t have a chance to take off before passing out on the couch. I remark to my friend, “We could probably start heading over there now. Seeing as it’s a surprise party and all we should probably get there a bit early, if for no other reason than to get good hiding spots.” He walks to the kitchen, “Alright let me get a swig of water then we can head out.” You’d think he’d be sick of it by now, but I swear he just lives for this stuff. I call out for Specter and he lightly bounds in from the kitchen with a peanut in his mouth. I lean down to the squirrel, “Alright buddy, Hydro and I are going to go to a party for a while, you be good while we’re gone okay? You know where the food is and don’t stay up too late, alright?” Specter nods at me then resumes eating his peanut. Hydro in the meantime has made his way to the door. He raises an eyebrow at me saying goodbye to my pet, “You done?” I roll my eyes at his impatience, “I’m done.” Hydro and I make our way over to Sugarcube Corner where we see, surprisingly, the lights are on. It turns out standard procedure, if anything Pinkie does can ever be described as standard, for a surprise party is to leave the light on and let everypony talk until about 15 minutes before the guest of honor arrives so that they can get all of it out of their system before lights out. We got there about 2 minutes before lights out so we didn’t have much time to do anything other than pick a spot, near the edge of the room at my insistence. The lights go out, the silence creeps in, and we wait. Not for too long though as about 5 minutes until his scheduled time to arrive, the guest of honor arrives and we do our duty. SURPRISE! The lights brighten for a second when he jumps but they fade back into normal brightness as I get a good look at the new guy. He's a sea green unicorn with average height and build. His horn is one of those uncommon types that curves upward slightly, and his ear has a chunk cut out of it. His mane and tail yellow with black tips, the mane looking almost windswept and the tail being of the popular very short look. His eyes are light blue, and his cutie mark is a high voltage symbol. Hmm with the combination horn and ear he certainly looks a little different, but let’s see how he acts before making any judgment calls. I walk away from the crowd gathering around the new guy and head over to the punch table. Not really for thirst, but having a drink in hoof gives one an excuse to not talk at some points, at least for a moment to gather one’s thoughts. I tune in for the end of the Pinkie speech to hear the new guys response: He smiles at the pink pony, “I like your optimism.” She smiles back at the compliment, “Really? You should meet the other new ponies!” Wait is she talking about… Pinkie grabs his hoof and leads him over to us. She is. The party pony pony deposits her newest dragging victim next to us, “Hey guys! Since you’re new too I thought you could help Surgio here by being his first friends!” Pinkie runs off to play hostess again leaving the new guy with us. Well at least I have backup this time. Hydro starts us off. “So… Surgio huh?” He rubs the back of his head with a hoof. “Actually it’s Voltage Surge, I’m a recent graduate from Baltimare and am currently an intern for Magitech Industries.” Hydro introduces himself, “Oh, Hydro, dam technician, recent graduate from Canterlot.” They shake hooves. Voltage looks over at me next. Analysis of previous introductions suggests optimal results from simply continuing the pattern. I spill my information out in the same way Hydro had, “I’m Rhino, I’m a Veterinarian down at the clinic and I also graduated from Canterlot, though a different college than Hydro.” He nods appreciatively before looking back tot he hostess, “Wow, so is the pink one always…” I’ll take this one. “According to her friends the answer is yes, she seems to have her heart in the right place though.” His eyes light up at something on the table, “If that pie I see behind you is from her then I have to agree!” He rushes between us toward the snack table and it’s apparently mystical pies. Hydro looks at me, “What’s so great about pies?” Voltage apparently heard this comment, “Hey don’t be mean to pie, it’s off pudding.” That pun was both clever and terrible. Hydro doesn’t seem to get it. Voltage just shrugs at Hydro’s silence, “What can I say? I like pie.” Hydro finally snaps out of it and responds, “I can see that.” Volt smirks, “Dam you’re good.” I laugh at that one. “Well while you two chat I’m gonna go mingle.” Hydro looks back at me for a second, “I take it that means you’re going to skirt around the edge of the party only really talking to ponies you already know?” I nod, “Mmhm.” I turn around and see that I’m hemmed in but see Pinkie pie over on the other side. I cast my short range teleport spell I call Blink and then levitate my punch over, along with a spare glass, from where I was standing before. I approach Pinkie Pie as she seems to be wrapping up a conversation with Fluttershy and the others. Seems like a good time for something that’s bothering me. I get the pink mare's attention, “Hey Pinkie, would you mind if I ask you something?” She giggles, “You just did silly!” “Fair enough, but I have to ask: how did you get this many parties cleaned up then set up again? It seems like a lot of work.” More giggling, “Oh cleanup’s easy, as for setup... well that's why I have my PARTY CANNON!” She pulls a cannon out from behind her and points it over the crowd, then pushes the button launching a cloud of confetti. That answers one question but raises so many more, I should have just kept my mouth shut. She suddenly perks up, “Oh! Thanks for reminding me Rhino, I have to go do something really quick.” She darts over to where I left Hydro and Volt, leaving me with Fluttershy as she had stopped to cover her ears when Pinkie pulled out the canon when the others had just wandered off. I offer her the spare punch cup. I ask with a concerned tone, “Are you alright Fluttershy?” She slowly opens her eyes and uncovers her ears, “Oh umm yes I’m fine. Thank you for the punch. I just don’t like it when Pinkie fires the canon so close.” I remark to her as she sips her drink, “You know, I’m surprised you come to so many of these parties. If you’ll pardon me saying so, it just doesn’t seem like you would like the crowds that much.” She looks down as she fiddles with her drink while she answers, “I do prefer it when the parties are smaller but Pinkie believes it’s important to help new ponies make friends when they come into town and it means a lot to her for us to be here to support her.” I nod, “Well then I suppose she already succeeded with me then.” She looks at me, “What do you mean?” I gesture to us, “You and I are friends right?” She smiles at me. “Yes, we are.” Suddenly I hear Pinkie’s voice coming over a loudspeaker: “Can I get everypony’s attention please? Thank you. Now as you all may have noticed I have DJ-PON3 up here with me tonight to change up the music a bit. Well I figured as a special treat we’d let our newest friend come and pick a few music snips to play. Come on up Volty!” Fluttershy and I see Voltage Surge walk up on stage, speak to the DJ a moment then turn to the console. He pushes a button… And this plays. As time goes on and ponies dance to the music Volt presses two more buttons then Pinkie walks over to him. “Alright, we’re gonna put some classics back on, alright?” Volt smiles and starts walking off the stage, “Alright Pinkie this bass was getting hard to hold…” he leans over and clicks one last button. Click “Oops, dropped it again.” The whole room laughed with him at this. Well, three days in and things are already looking a bit more interesting.