The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life

by Rhino


Chapter 21: New and Old

***Thursday, Day 13, late afternoon / early evening***

The train ride home was fairly uneventful, or at least nopony informed me of any eventful things that happened after I fell asleep for the ride home. It’s just one of those things, ever since I was little if I am even remotely tired and in a moving vehicle while not talking or otherwise keeping myself occupied I drop off to sleep pretty quickly. I think mom used to fly me around when I was a foal to put me asleep, that probably explains it. Regardless, as soon as we arrived, Pinkie ran off and told us to head over to Blue’s house and she’d meet us there. Blue still has no clue what he’s in for.

The group and I walk up to Blue’s house after a casually paced stroll through town while Blue slowly remembered where his house was. The place is pretty much the same as the one Hydro and I are living in right now: 2 stories, small front and back yards, similar architecture to those around it but with enough differences to where it can be easily told apart, and it has that “yet to be lived in” feel ours did until we turned it into a warehouse that first night.

Blue fishes out his key from his saddlebags and unlocks the door-

“SURPRISE!”

-and is immediately bowled over by our favorite pink blur.

Blue lays one the ground staring up at Pinkie until he manages to find his voice, “How did you get here before us?!”

Pinkie cocks her head to one side at his question, “I walked silly!”

This answer did nothing to Blue’s confused countenance, but a few renditions of the usual “That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie” and we were all inside Blue’s house for another famous Pinkie Pie Party, though this one being simply for the group seeing as Pinkie apparently only had time to set up a fully functional party in the 10 minutes it took us to walk here.

Pinkie, of course, was the music master, “Alright everypony, let’s get this party started!” She drops a record on the player and the music starts flowing.

Hit it!

We all stare at Pinkie’s choice of song, she takes the record off the phonograph and looks at the label, then back at us, “Woopsie, wrong song!” She literally dives into a bag next to the player and comes back up with what I assume to be a different record. As she places it on the player she comments to us, “This is actually a special song a DJ made for me one day as payment for his cupcake order over at the bakery. He said he liked my voice.”

The song starts to play.

Wow, it’s pretty much all Pinkie’s voice. Still, I like it.

As the music continues, the dance floor is taken by Pinkie, Twilight, Volt, and surprisingly enough Fluttershy. As I mentally record the song for future happy walking music, I notice Blue, Rainbow, and Hydro over in the corner having what looks like a very animated conversation judging by the various hoof motions made. I grab myself a cup of punch and go over to another spot where Rarity and Applejack seem to be having a more relaxed talk than the others.

Rarity smiles as I walk up, “Ahh Rhino, excellent timing, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something…” she trails off and her smile starts to worry me a bit.

My own smile starts reflecting my growing nervousness, “Umm, alright… what did you want to talk about?”

“I heard from my sister that you helped her out with her magic earlier that day when Twilight was trying her thought projection spell. She seemed very happy with the progress she made.”

Oh is that all? I hope she’s not offended that I taught her sister after she tried to.

I relax my smile a slight bit, “I remember that, did you have some concerns or something?”

Her smile goes out of its creepy stage and back to genuine happiness, “Not at all darling, in fact I was wondering… if you might be willing to make some arrangements for some future lessons?”

I raise an eyebrow at her, “You haven’t tried a magic tutor before now?”

Her smile changes again, but this time to sheepish, “Well, normally these things simply take time, but the poor dear does seem to be more and more bothered by it, and since you had such success with her in a spur of the moment lesson, I was wondering if you might be willing to assist her in… giving her a kick start down the magical path so to speak.”

“Well… sure Rarity. I’d be happy to help.”

And the smile gets turned up all the way to beaming, “Fabulous! We’ll talk later about the details!”

The rest of the party goes by smoothly with the usual party activities: eating, talking, laughing, dancing, or in my case bobbing your head and refusing to dance due to complete lack of skills and a tendency for anxiety spikes when even attempting it. There were fun little games as well, including one particular round of Volt trying to burst open a piñata and unintentionally getting revenge on Hydro for all the smacks to his head via a sloppily aimed swing of the stick. Though from the single words, traps, that I heard from Hydro’s grumbling afterwards, he’ll be remembering this for a bit.

After a while the party starts winding down, most of the others seem to be going strong, but I notice Fluttershy looking like she is ready to leave judging by the increasing looks she has been giving the door.

She gives it another look as I walk over to her and gently ask, “Fluttershy, are you alright?”

She whips her head back around at my voice and focuses on me before looking slightly at the ground and responding, “Oh, umm… yes, I’m fine, I’m just worried about Angel. We were gone for so long and I miss him. So I was thinking maybe I should head home to see him…”

Her statement starts a similar train of thought in my own head, my eyes slowly widening as I speak, “Hmm, now that I think about it, Specs is probably missing me too… I mean I only had him for about a week before we left and now we were gone for almost that same amount of time… Wow, I feel really guilty now.”

Fluttershy looks down a little more as I mention Specter.

Oh great, now I went and made her miss her pet even more with my talk about my own. Quick! How to fix this… oh there’s an idea. And I like the ways I could build off this scenario if it goes well.

I focus back on the gentle pegasus, “Fluttershy, would you mind too terribly if I escorted you home? This way we can both go see our pets quicker.” Well there are other reasons too, but this is the one I’m making my case with, I like to think of every other reason as a bonus.

Fluttershy lifts her head, revealing a slight blush but she smiles and nods nonetheless.

We both head over to Pinkie since it would be rude to leave with telling anypony else. I decide to be the one to let her know.

I tap pinkie on the shoulder. As she turns to me I explain the situation, “Pinkie, I hope you don’t mind, but Fluttershy and I are going to head out to pick up our pets from her place alright? The party was great, we just want to get going.”

The pink party mistress herself seems just fine with our plans, “Okie Dokie Lokie! Oh before you two go, here!” She hoofs us a basket of leftovers from the party snack table, because apparently she has these prepared before anypony even tells her they're leaving, “Just in case you get hungry.”

She bounces off as I magic the basket onto my back along with my saddlebags while Fluttershy grabs hers from a corner. Everypony else seems busy right now so we simply quietly make our exit, figuring Pinkie will probably get the word out soon enough.

***

**3rd person**

Pinkie bounces up to Hydro and Applejack sticking her head very close to the two conversing ponies, “Hi AJ, hi Hydro, what are you two talking about?”

The orange and red ponies pull back a bit before Applejack responds, “Oh, me and Hydro here are just talkin’ bout some plans we got for helping out both the farm and dam. What are you up to sugarcube?”

“Oh nothing, just finished seeing Rhino and Fluttershy off, they seem really cute together you know?”

Pinkie’s voice carries over to the other ponies at the party and they all walk over to confirm what she said.

Rarity asks the main question, “So they just left? For no reason?”

Pinkie shakes her head, “Not for no reason silly, they went to go see Specter and Angel over at Fluttershy’s.”

Blue raises a skeptical eyebrow, “You really think they left the party early to go see their pets?”

Hydro, knowing Rhino the best, gives his two bits, “Actually yes, that seems like a good enough reason for them to leave… I’m not saying it’s the only reason, but it definitely sounds like one of them.”

The silence and variety of looks on all of their faces betray the thoughts, both founded and unfounded running through their minds. Most of them either end up with a blush or a chuckle; all except Rainbow Dash who ends up with a scowl.

She takes a glance at the clock before saying quickly, “Oh hey, look at the time, well I guess I better go home and get some sleep, night guys!” She zooms out of the doorway after her sudden farewell, leaving her rainbow trail in her wake.

Blue looks at the door the pegasus just exited through with a thoughtful look on his face and says to himself, “Hmm, maybe I should follow her and make sure she doesn’t do anything rash…”

Suddenly Pinkie walks out of the kitchen carrying a steaming tray, “Who wants chimicherrychongas?”

“… I’m sure she’ll be fine.”