The Life in Ponyville series: Thundering Rivers, Rivers of Flame

by SeaBreeze173

Thundering Rivers...

Thundering Rivers…

“Thunder! Don’t put that there,”

“You said to put it there five minutes ago,”

“But now I’m telling you not to,”

“So where do you want it?”

“I don’t know.”

Thunder Cloud stared at his wife, Ocean Light, as she struggled to put up streamers for their son’s eighteenth birthday party. Despite Thunder Bolt begging his parents not to put up a big fuss about his birthday as they had every year, they still worked hard, making sure that their colt had a wonderful birthday. Ocean was more insistent on it than Thunder Cloud, who was content to just give his son a gift card and let the almost-grown stallion have at it.

“You did ask the Cakes to have the cake ready by today, right?” Ocean asked as she fluttered around the living room. She was a teal and cyan pegasus with blue eyes and a wave cutie mark.

“Yes, I did,” Thunder chuckled at his wife. Thunder was a large brown and black pegasus with dark blue eyes, his cutie mark being a cloud with a tornado descending down from it.

“Did you buy the candles?” Ocean called from the kitchen.

“Yes, dear,” Thunder said, trying to hide the little groan he did after. He couldn’t wait for five o’clock to arrive.

---

“It’s late. The train is late. How can it be late!?” Bolt walked to the right.

“Bolt—” Sea Breeze lazily lounged on a bench while she watched her coltfriend pace. It was fine an hour ago. Now, she was bored.

“What if she isn’t on the train?!” Bolt frantically walked to the left.

“Bolty—”

“What if she decided to stay in Manehatten?!”

“THUNDER BOLT!” Sea Breeze shouted at her pacing coltfriend.

“What?”

“You’re worrying for no reason. The train will get here when it gets here. She will be on the train. Calm yourself,” Sea yawned. “Besides, you’re wearing a path into the boards.”

Bolt sighed and sat down beside Sea. The grey pegasus wrapped her arms around him and kissed his neck.

“Happy birthday, by the way,” she nuzzled his cheek. Bolt nuzzled back.

“Thanks,”

“How does it feel being eighteen?”

“Feels just like being seventeen. I don’t see the point in celebrating. Age is just a number; it’s how you are on the inside that counts,”

“Look at you, being all philosophical,”

“I have my moments,”

“You’re such a dork,” Sea laughed.

“But I’m your dork,” Bolt pulled Sea in for a kiss just as the Manehatten train came in.

“Yuck, get a room,” Bolt and Sea jolted upright on the bench to see a bright cerulean and navy blue mare standing in front of the open doors of the train.

“River!” Bolt jumped off the bench and embraced his older sister. River was a pegasus, like her brother and parents. Her eyes were the same blue as Bolt’s. Her mane was up in an elegant style, as it had been for the past few years whenever she came home from Manehatten.

“Happy birthday, little brother!! Though, I guess I can’t call you ‘little’ anymore,” River laughed as she looked up to her brother. “You’ve grown since I saw you last Hearth’s Warming.” River’s eyes landed on the grey pegasus still sitting on the bench.

“Is that Sea Breeze?” River asked her brother. Bolt nodded.

“Sea, come here,” Bolt smiled. Sea hopped off the bench and trotted to her coltfriend.

“Sea, I’d like you to meet the best sister ever,”

“But Junie always said that I’m the best sister ever,” Sea laughed. River laughed too.

“Nice to meet you, ‘Best Sister Ever,’” River extended her hoof. Sea shook it.

“Nice to meet you as well, ‘Best Sister Ever,’” Sea smiled.

“Hey Babe! A little help here?” River turned and saw her coltfriend struggling with their luggage. He was a grayish-blue pegasus with a light and dark red mane and tail. His eyes were a light green.

“Sorry Flame, just reuniting with my bro,” River said as she took several bags, placing a light kiss on Flame’s cheek as she did.

Sea felt Bolt stiffen up beside her. “Bolt? Are you okay?” Bolt continued to glare at Flame.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Sea Breeze, this is my coltfriend, Flame Warden. Flame, this is Bolt’s marefriend, Sea Breeze,” River smiled as she introduced the two.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Flame smiled politely. “How are you today, Thunder Bolt?”

“Fine,” Bolt grumbled. “I was better before you showed up,” he growled under his breath.

“That’s good,” Flame said, not hearing the last part.

“Well then,” River glanced back and forth between the stallions. “How about we head home,”

“Sounds good to me,” Bolt said as he turned and began walking home. Sea and River glanced at each other and followed, Flame coming up behind.

“Bolt, what’s wrong?” River asked several minutes later. She had caught up with the brown pegasus, leaving Sea Breeze to talk with Flame Warden.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing him?” Bolt growled.

“Well, he is my coltfriend. And Ponyville is his home, too, you know,” River retorted. “Maybe he wanted to see his family?”

“But—”

“Stick it,” River glared. “I came home so that I could be with you on your eighteenth birthday. I missed both your sixteenth and your seventeenth
birthdays and I want to make sure that today is awesome.” River sighed. She continued.

“Look, you know I love you,”

“Yeah,”

“And I know you love me,”

Bolt laid his ears back. “Yeah,”

“Then please try to get along with Flame. He’s been trying to get on your good side for years. He really wants to be able to have a brotherly relationship with you and you aren’t making that easy for the poor guy,”

Bolt grumbled again.

“Pleeeeeaaaaaassssseeeeeee?? Please please please with a cherry on top?” River hopped on Bolt’s back and gave him a noogie.

“Fine,” Bolt laughed as his sister continued to assault his mane.

---

“So, how did you and River meet?” Sea asked Flame Warden as the followed behind the siblings.

“I moved to Ponyville with my mother when I was fourteen. River and I just hit it off. And in our junior year of high school, I asked her out. Been together ever since,” Flame smiled.

“That’s so sweet,”

“What about you and Bolt there?”

Sea blushed slightly. “It’s kind of a long story. We ran into each other on the train, flew into each other later that afternoon, and then my dog tried to eat him…”

“Wow, you could write a book about that,” Flame laughed. Sea laughed with him.

“Yeah, our beginning was right out of fairytale. But we’re still together eight months later so I think everything is okay.”

Sea and Flame caught up with River and Bolt. Sea Breeze shuffled up beside Bolt and leaned into his shoulder while River fell back beside Flame.

“It’s been nearly eleven years, Riv. I don’t think he’ll ever like me,” Flame said.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get him to come around,” River smiled. “One day.”

---

“I don’t get why she had to bring him,” Bolt grumbled as he and Sea Breeze left his house after dropping off River and Flame Warden. Thunder Cloud and Ocean refused to let Bolt in, so the two decided to go to Sugar Cube Corner.

“I don’t get why you don’t like him. Flame seems to be a pretty cool guy,” Sea said.

“That’s just it! He’s too perfect. Everypony has a flaw. This guy doesn’t. He’s hiding something, I’m sure of it,”

“Are you sure you aren’t just being an overprotective brother? Shining is like that with Twilight. You should have seen the interrogation he gave Twi’s new coltfriend. And Flash is in the royal guard,”

“It’s my job to look out for River, Breezey,”

“No, it’s not. River’s what, seven years older than you? She can take care of herself,”

“You’re just saying that because you’re a mare, too,”

“And what if I am?”

“I—” Bolt raised a hoof, then set it down. “—I got nothing,”

“I thought so,” Sea smiled in triumph.

---

An hour later the two returned to Bolt’s home.

“You know my parents are doing a surprise party, right?” Bolt asked.

“Wasn’t it obvious by the way they shoved us out earlier?”

“Yeah, I’m sure they have half of Ponyville in there hiding,”

“If they hired Pinkie Pie, it’s probably all of Ponyville,” Sea deadpanned.

Bolt nodded as he opened the door, revealing the pitch black house. The lights switched on and everypony jumped out, shouting an enthusiastic “SURPRISE!!” Bolt feigned shock as Thunder and Ocean trotted up, smiles on their faces.

“Happy birthday, Bolt!” Ocean embraced her son.

“Thanks, Mom, Dad,” Bolt returned his mother’s hug. He looked over his shoulder at Sea Breeze. Sea smiled lovingly at her coltfriend before being dragged away by Sweet Heart, Phoenix and Moon Glow.

River trotted up to her brother once their parents left the room.
“Happy birthday, again,” River laughed.

Bolt chuckled with her as Thunder and Ocean came back into the room holding between them a large cake in the shape of a soccer ball. If Bolt didn’t know better, he would think that it was a soccer ball. On the sheet pan the cake sat on was an icing replica of his cutie mark with the words “Happy 18th Birthday, Thunder Bolt!” written out beside it. Bolt starred speechless as his parents carefully sat the cake on the table.

“So, what do you think?” Sea asked as she shuffled up beside her coltfriend.

“Did you have a hoof in this?”

“I may have given your parents the idea,” Sea giggled. “Pinkie Pie and the Cakes figured out the details.”

“It’s amazing! I’ve never seen a cake with this shape,” Bolt admired the pastry. “I almost don’t want to eat it.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to tell you how it tastes,” Sea smirked.

“I said ‘almost’,” Bolt smirked back.

---

“You’re what?!” Ocean shrieked from the kitchen. Bolt, Sea and their friends all froze, Skye’s hoof hovering over the board game they were playing.

“Mom, relax, please,” River’s voice could be heard soothing her mother.

“River, this is a big step,” Bolt heard his father say. “I mean, this is wonderful news, but, are you sure?”

Bolt and Sea glanced at each other. Bolt stood up from his laying position on the carpet and trotted to the kitchen.

“Yes, Daddy. I’m—”

“Um, what’s going on?” Bolt asked. River flinched and turned to see her brother standing in the doorway.

“Oh, hey Bolt,” River chuckled nervously.

“Riv, you’re hiding something,” Bolt said knowingly as he stepped into the kitchen.

“Yes, I am, but I don’t want to tell you right now. It’s your birthday and today is all about you, not me,”

“River, you can tell me anything, you know,”

“Promise you won’t freak out,” Bolt raised a brow, but nodded anyways.

“Okay. Flame asked me marry him and… I said yes. We’re also going to be moving to Baltimare in the winter—Bolt! You promised! Oh my gosh, Flame are you okay?!”

---

“I can’t believe you punched him,” Sea glared at Bolt as they sat in the empty waiting room of the Ponyville Hospital.

“It wasn’t that hard,” Bolt grumbled, an ice pack wrapped around his right hoof.

“You nearly broke his nose!”

“That’s what he gets for taking my sister,”

“Oh geez, this again?”

“It’s true!”

“You’re being a foal about this whole ordeal. Grow up!”

“You don’t know how it is!” Bolt shouted.

“Oh I don’t, do I?” Sea stepped forward aggressively.

“No! You don’t. Flame Warden has ruined my life! He convinced River to leave me here for four years so that they could go to college together. I didn’t even see her for a big part of three years! Now he asks her to marry him and they’re moving to Baltimare!”

“Well at least she isn’t moving to another country. She’ll just be a train ride away,” Sea said.

“But—”

“It’s her life, Bolt! You’re not your sister’s keeper,”

“It’s my job to protect her!”

“No! It’s not!” Sea and Bolt glared at each other. Sea huffed and turned around to leave, her tail smacking Bolt in the face as she did. She stopped when she got to the doorway. Not looking at him, she said,

“When you decide to grow up, you know where I live,”

“Sea, please wait,” Bolt stood. Sea continued on, pushing through the revolving hospital doors. Bolt sunk back onto the chair and rested his head in his hooves.

River trotted into the waiting room, having heard the whole thing.

“Bolt, I—”

“Don’t. Just, don’t,”