Rob's New Beginnings

Chapter 2

A new day was beginning in Ponyville. Rob, having simply passed out, was still asleep, in the same spot throughout the night. This didn’t last long, however, when he was abruptly awoken by a very loud and strong gust of wind. Trying to maintain his balance was turning out to be a losing battle, however, and he eventually tumbled from the branch, to the rough ground below.

Wincing from all this, he suddenly noticed that the gust had stopped, and that calm had replaced it… the only trace of anything being there was a straight rainbow mist… Rob straightened himself out, before searching around the tree, only to find his journal (which remained undamaged), his quill, covered in a few strands of grass, and his ink well, now nearly empty due to a crack. “Great. Now I’ll need a new well… might as well start early, I suppose. Also, I’ll need some kind of ladder to scale the tree… ow.”

After purchasing his new well, Rob made his way down to the ranch he had visited the night before; at this point, however, he was relying on memory to get there. When he arrived, the elder colt from the previous night hailed him, and Rob could see his appearance for the first time: slightly hunched over, skin taught against his body, with a saffron coat and dusty gray mane; his features betrayed his age. The elder colt’s titanium-colored eyes rested upon Rob’s, before speaking.

“Th’ name’s McCloy. We never got the chance to introduce ourselves last night.” McCloy extended a hoof. Rob took it in his own, saying, “Name’s Rob. I’m pleased to meet you.” The elder pony stopped shaking and asked: “no last name?” Rob, rather quickly, contested with: “I’d prefer not to use it… just Rob is fine.” McCloy chuckled at this, appealing to calm Rob’s slight temper.

He turned after opening the gate, and proceeded to say, “now, the job, or rather, jobs you’ll be doing are directly linked with mine. Essentially, a second-hoof assistant, if you want to call it. I can pay 5 bits to the hour.” Immediately, Rob’s face brightened. He’d heard of similar pays for jobs much more demanding! ’Well, that has yet to be determined, doesn’t it?’ he thought. He calmed a bit before speaking, trying not to betray his excitement, “that’s great. That’ll give me enough, thank you!” Chuckling again, McCloy dismissed him for the day, seeing as how there was nothing to be done.

Before he forgot again, Rob asked if the elder colt had any construction tools. “They’re over in the barn. You’ll find a hoof-saw and a hammer.” Rob replied, “These will do, thank you again!” McCloy walked over to his house, chuckling the whole way. When he was out of Rob’s earshot, he remarked under his breath, “what an interesting young colt!” With the knowledge of his job and tools for his home in his saddlebag, Rob trotted back to his home.

Later, Rob, after realizing he didn’t know how to start such a task, decided to go to the information center of the town: the library! Silently hoping that the owl wasn’t there, or, at the least, wouldn’t bother him, he didn’t notice that he’d walked straight into an apple cart. “Got som’thin’ on yer mind, sugarcube?” immediately remarked the mare behind the cart. “Nah, just wasn’t watching where I was going,” replied Rob, turning to see the speaker.

“Name’s Applejack,” the earth pony stated. She had an orange coat and a bright yellow mane and tail, both tied with a strap at the end. She was also wearing a hat that Rob had seen many times before in Stalliongrad. He tried to recall the name, but it wouldn’t appear; he only knew that they were a) really good at keeping the sun out of your eyes, and b) somewhat a fashion statement in Stalliongrad. “Nice to meet you, Applejack. I’m Rob,” he said.

“Say, one of those apples looks really appealing right about now. How much for one?” “Ya sure you just wan’ one?!” spoke up a voice from behind the cart. “Now shh, Applebloom, he can’t even see ya!” remarked Applejack in a low voice to the mysterious source. “I can fix that, easy!” said a young earth pony, one of the trio of fillies from yesterday. She was a pale cream color, with an apple red mane, and a large pink bow in her mane.

“Hey, I remember you from yesterday. You and a couple other fillies had some sort of fabric,” stated Rob. “Yeah, we needed that fer a trampoline we were makin’,” replied the filly. “Well, I remember being asked to fix one of those back where I’m from, so maybe I can mak--.” Before he could finish his sentence, an apple was stuffed into his mouth, shutting him up. “Well, Ah think it’s about time fer a certain filly ta head on home.” “But why?? Ah ain’t a baby!” whined said filly. Having finished the apple, Rob asked, “So how much again?” “Jes’ two bits. Lemme get that apple fer ya,” Applejack replied. As he walked away, apple in the saddlebag, both Applejack and Applebloom said, “Welcome to Ponyville!”

Rob began to slow his pace as he approached the library, unsure of whether the owl was still there or not. Again, the door was open, but he had the common sense to knock on it before entering. “Oh! There’s somepony here!” called out a voice. Trotting could be heard, as a lavender unicorn with a dark mane stepped to the open doorway. “Hello there! Need a book?” she asked with genuine earnest. “Oh, um, yeah, I do. See I’m building… a… treehouse, and I wanted to see if you had one on woodworking,” replied Rob, working the words around the ‘home’ part.

“Oh, yes! We have a lot of books here. Spike, there’s a--” she began, before stopping herself. “Nevermind, I forgot he was out. I’ll get it myself.”

“Um… alright?”

“Let’s see… ah! Here it is!” she muttered, before settling on a book that looked new. ‘Must not be used a lot nowadays,’ he thought. “Thanks, this will be mighty useful,” he spoke. “Well, that’s what the library is for. Unfortunately it seems that most ponies don’t need books nowadays…” she said with an inflection of sadness.

“Well, I’m sure I’ll need more books later, so I’ll make sure to stop by, heh!” remarked Rob, trying to liven the mare up.

“Great! I don’t think I caught your name,” said the unicorn.

“Oh, it’s Rob. I just got here from a long ways away.”

“Well, I would suggest avoiding Pinkie Pie for now. She knows everypony here in town, so if she gets word, she’ll be all over you, trying to learn about you.”

“Um, who?”

The unicorn chuckled. “Nevermind, just, don’t worry about it now. Oh! Never told you who I was! My name’s Twilight Sparkle.”

“Nice to meet you. Well, I better get going. Work to do, and all…”

“Okay, nice to meet you too! Take care now, and welcome to Ponyville!” replied Twilight.

“Thanks! And thanks for the book again!” called Rob as he left. Walking down the path, he passed by the dragon from yesterday, his arms full of assorted goods. “Oh, pardon me,” was all the dragon said in passing. Rob nodded in compliment, though he wasn’t sure the dragon could see it or not. As Rob turned around to look at the tree again, he saw the owl fly through the door and perch next to the window. He swears to this day the owl was burning laser sights into the back of his head.

Rob finally had everything he needed to get started. As he was working, though, about halfway through the pile of wood, he thought he heard… a spring compressing? He looked around, but there was nothing. As he got back to work, he heard the sound again, and could almost see a blur of… he wasn’t sure. He almost turned around, intent on finding this… noise, when all of a sudden--!

“Oof!” was all he managed as he was tackled by a pink earth pony. “Ohwowsoyou’rethenewresident!It’ssooooonicetomeetyouaftertryingtofindyouforforEVER,afterbeingmentionedbyRarity,andthenApplebloom,soIknewIhadtoFINDyou--!”

“C-can you at least let me breathe?” wheezed Rob. It took the pony a second to realize she was standing on top of him.

“OH! Sorry about that. Sometimes I get carried away, well, that’s what everypony says, but I can’t tell, I guess because I’m sooooo happy all the time!!” exclaimed the pink pony.

“Well, can you at least let me know who you are?” asked Rob.

“Well!! I’m surprised you don’t already know who I am, I mean you DID visit Twilight!”

It took him a moment, but he finally got what Twilight had said earlier. “So you’re Pinkie Pie, eh?” “Yup!” she replied. “Well it’s good to meet you. Unfortunately, I’m kind of busy--.” Was all Rob could say before Pinkie went off again. “Omigosh I have to throw you a party now! There’ll be cake and streamers and music and cake and balloons and cake and punch and CUPCAKES!!!” she started on and on. In the middle of this, she went from next to Rob to on the ground, then up on TOP of the tree, before ending up with Rob’s head in a headlock. As she went on, Rob had to interrupt her. “I’m sorry, Pinkie, I’m not much of a party person… time spent where I’m from will do that to you.”

Pinkie suddenly went into serious mode, her eyes narrowing until they were almost slits, staring at Rob intensely. “By the end of the month, you WILL go to a party, or my name isn’t Pinkamena Diane Pie!” As suddenly as she started, she stopped, and went back to bouncing. “Well, I see you have a house to build! Oops! I mean, treehouse! Haha!” Pinkie giggled.

“Yeah. Well, I ought to get back to working on this…… treehouse.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” she giggled, and jumped off the tree. Before Rob could say anything, she was back in the air. He finally looked over, and saw a trampoline. Sighing and shaking his head from all the excitement, he struggled to find his journal, before realizing that it was in his saddlebag, down by the base of the tree. When he turned to go get it, the bag struck him in the head. “There’s your saddlebag!” yelled Pinkie, somehow knowing he was going to retrieve it.

With Pinkie finally trotting (or rather, bouncing) away (Rob watched her the whole time to make sure she didn’t sneak up on him again), he relaxed as he opened up his journal to recount the day’s events.

Heading back to town to have dinner, Rob passed by a stage, where it appeared someone was setting up for something. ‘Hope it’s something nice going on,’ he wondered. He continued walking, but before he could step onto the patio of the restaurant, he was nearly trampled by the trio, each of them yelling at the top of their lungs, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: APPLE SELLERS!! (In response to which could be heard, “Oh no ya don’t!!” belonging to Applejack) YAY!!!” Not bothering to understand, he entered the restaurant, ready for a nice salad.

Making his way back home to finish up the pile of lumber, he was on the ground for the second time today, tackled by the pink pony, for the second time today. “I wasn’t sure if you met my friends, but if not, they want to meet you!” she said rather bubbly. “Standing on me again…” he tried to say. She got the hint though, and swiftly stepped off. As Rob stood up, he recognized three of the five other ponies standing there: Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity, who simply said, “Pleasure to see you again, darling.” Then there were the other two mares.

The first one he instantly recognized from the multicolored mane as the pony who woke him up this morning. “Name’s Rainbow Dash. Sorry ‘bout this morning, I was just practicin’ my flight moves!” she stated as the cyan pegasus flexed. “Well, it was very… loud, is all I can really say. I’ll try to wake up earlier, to avoid this from happening again.”

Rob then shifted his attention to the pastel-colored pegasus trying to hide from him… Seeing his confused face, Rainbow spoke: “Oh, that’s Fluttershy. She’s really shy. I mean really shy.” All the hidden mare could utter was, “u-um, h-h-hi,” before hiding again. “Great! Now that you met my friends, what about that party?” asked Pinkie again. “Heh, still gonna have to refuse for now, Pinkie.”

Pinkie only glared back, eyes squinting again. Rob could almost feel the words hanging in the tension: “You will relent.” As suddenly as she had stopped, she abruptly went back to bouncing. “Okie dokie lokie!”

As they each said their goodbyes to one another, Rob suddenly turned to Twilight. “Hey Twilight. You know that owl? Could you maybe ask him to not try to kill me?” She laughed at this question. Answering his confusion, she replied, “oh, you mean what happened yesterday? Yeah, that was Owlowiscious’s way of trying to say ‘hello’ to a new friend!” Still giggling, she trotted off, presumably heading back to the library. ‘His way of saying hello? Spooked me out of my mane!’ he could only think.

As he was heading back home, he realized he needed more ink. ‘Gonna have to get some before they close shop.’

On his way home, Rob passed by the stage again, except there was music emanating from it. Really beautiful music. He had to see what and who was making it! As he approached the stage’s audience, he saw the source of the enchanting music: a mint green unicorn, holding a lyre with her magic. As he stood there, surrounded by the music that permeated the dead silence, he realized what few audience members were actually there… and, apparently, so did the musician, tears in her eyes, already saddened by the low turnout.

As she finished, he made sure to applaud just slightly louder than the rest of the audience members, giving her his encouragement. She smiled subtly at this, and slowly walked off. Rob could remember the last time he’d heard such gorgeous music… it was the last thing he ever heard on the radio set his family owned, before his parents sold it due to ‘not using it enough.’ He even recalled the title of it, and the composer: it was the second movement of Pyotr Tchaikhoofski’s Symphony no. 1. He slowly walked away, humming the evening’s last remaining melodies.

Back working, Rob realized that he had completed the floor’s base and supports, and gotten a small area of actual flooring in place, plus a portion of two of the wall’s bases started. He reached down for a piece of wood, only to find none. Rob was surprised that it had even lasted this long, though he had that book to thank: it gave a tip to halve each plank, keeping each new plank strong while doubling the amount of usable wood. Glad about this turnabout, Rob situated himself directly below the thickest portion of canopy, trying to shield himself from tonight’s impending downpour. With a startle, he tried to locate the journal, before remembering that he uncovered a small section of flooring to make a cavity for the library book and journal. Head at ease, he went to sleep, hoping he didn’t get too wet.

End of Chapter 2