Rob's New Beginnings

Chapter 5

“WHAT?!”

Rob was visibly seething, trying his best to not stare down the medical pony before him, to little avail. Pacing back and forth angrily, with a look on his face that betrayed great pain, all he could think was, ‘What? How, when? And why him…?’ “You’re sure this isn’t a really really bad joke.”

“I’m sorry, but it’s the honest truth…

“McCloy has been diagnosed with pneumonia at the Belleview Hospital in Manehattan at 5:34 yesterday evening.”

Autumn was hitting the town of Ponyville in full swing. The air was rapidly approaching chilly, and the fillies and colts of young were winding up for Nightmare Night, the best holiday (at least, at the time) to the children, mainly because of two things: candy, dressing up, and candy. Unfortunately, none of that joy was being felt by Rob right now, hit hard by the news.

“There’s nothing more I can say, sadly…” the doctor said to Rob; both were within McCloy's ranch house, the doctor sitting at the table with two mugs of coffee, one halfway finished, the other untouched. A clock on the table read 10:25 am.

“How did we not see it sooner, though? Aren’t there any visible signs?” a greatly befuddled Rob asked.

“You mean you didn’t notice sooner? There are obvious signs…”

“Well, I guess we were too busy trying to harvest those pumpkins out there, and I just didn’t pay too much mind to it; I knew about the coughing, but whenever I asked if he was fine, he shrugged it off, and worked harder,” Rob stated, unease and anger tinting his voice ever so slightly.

“Unfortunately, with the older and younger ponies, it’s much harder to fight off…”

“So you’re saying he could… he could…” he didn't dare think the worst.

“Afraid so.” The doctor stood up, apparently with things to get around to within the town, before heading back to Manehattan.

“And you’re sure of the diagnosis?”

“Again, yes… I made the diagnosis in the first place.” The doctor put a hoof on Rob’s shoulder, as if to say, “I’m sorry,” before walking out the door… leaving Rob in the ranch house, empty of life, and void of all sound.

After several minutes of standing in the same spot, Rob finally shook himself out of his stupor. He began to look around the home to find any notice McCloy might have left right before leaving. Quickly, he found the note:

“To Rob, one of the best ranch heads I have had in a long time:

I will be away from the ranch for a while… I’m expecting at least 5 days. Until I get back, you’ll be ranch owner provvisorio until I return. I expect those pumpkins uprooted and sold by then! I’m sure Pinkie has been awaiting at least one! Do me proud, boy. I left you the 5 days’ average pay in the second right-hoof drawer next to the stove.

Take care,

Frank McCloy”

Reading the letter made him realize that he never knew his first name… Rob always called him McCloy, and he almost always insisted it. “Alright, Frank, I’ll get these pumpkins sold, lickety-split just for you!!” Rob stated out loud, ready to take over for McCloy… possibly permanently. He could only ponder upon this fact… with nothing else to do until those pumpkins were matured, he set about fixing some holes in the barn's roof.

As he was exiting the ranch house, he noticed a less-than-normally-bouncy Pinkie standing by the gate. “Heya Rob! Where’s McCloy?”

As if he’d been stunned, he just simply froze, looking into Pinkie’s eyes with sadness abound within his own. Noticing this, Pinkie stopped bouncing, instead, opting to stand still.

“…what? What aren’t you telling me, tell me now!”

“Pinkie… first off, I’m going to need you to… try to be calm.”

“…sure, I can try…”

“Second off, you are not going to like what I’m about to say, most likely… so, come on in. It's chilly out.”

“…alright? But, isn’t this McCloy’s home still?”

Rob responded with silence as he up the porch steps.

Slowly coming to a halt in front of the door, Rob began to speak. "Pinkie… I'm afraid McCloy is… Well… He might be gone…"

Pinkie looked at Rob, "Well where's he gone? Oh! Is he on vacation?" Rob's point and tone weren’t getting through to her.

Rob shook a confused face off and replied, "No, Pinkie like, gone gone."

Pinkie snickered. "What do you mean by that?" she asked in her normal high-pitched voice. The two walked inside, Rob thinking how exactly to explain.

Rob looked grimly up, and sighed. "I'm afraid he's caught a disease of sorts…" he managed to mutter, hating himself for talking about McCloy in this way, the stallion he'd come to love like a father, the one who helped him set up the roots of his new life in Ponyville.

Pinkie's eyes changed, "A-a disease? What disease?" she asked her voice winding down.

Rob sighed, and closed the front door. "It's called 'pneumonia…' It's a lung disease caused by a bacterial infection in the lungs. It takes a heavy toll on the carrier, laboring their breathing until..." he stopped abruptly, knowing the pink mare finally got his point.

Pinkie looked up, "So he‘s…" she said lowly.

Rob nodded, "I'm afraid so… He might not ever come back..." he finished grimly, still holding his melancholy tone and his hate for himself for not noticing McCloy's condition before.

His heart nearly shattered, however, when he saw the pink mare collapse in anguish, sorrow, and tears…

Rob could do nothing except freeze, as his mind began locking up with stray thoughts from all directions and venues... some as abstract as the fancy art you might see hanging on a wall. After a half-minute, the fog of his mind cleared, with a single thought resting within the clarity: comfort.

He slowly walked over to the fallen mare, wrapping his forelegs around her back, trying to give her solace. She returned the gesture, and hugged him tightly, the tears still flowing…

They sat there for what felt like hours to them. Eventually, Pinkie Pie stopped crying, and began to speak, if only to just talk… another hour or so passed, before Rob noticed she had crashed from exhaustion. He then glanced over at the clock on the table, noting it was already past 7, meaning he’d been here for half the whole day. He brought Pinkie up onto his back, and began walking towards Sugarcube Corner.

Eventually, he got to the Corner. He figured it was about 8 or so, so he knocked louder than he usually would on the front door. Almost immediately, it opened, Mrs. Cake seemingly right there, waiting for somepony eagerly.

“Oh, thank goodness she’s alright. Where was she?”

He tried to bury his emotion, and calmly said in response, “she’s been with me the whole time, don’t worry. Something… happened to McCloy,” he continued, traces of his sadness seeping through his façade.

“Oh… well, no need to explain, dear. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She tried comforting Rob with these words, with little effect. She didn’t notice, and continued on. “Thank you for bringing her back. You can set her on the couch, and I’ll get her something so she doesn’t freeze through the night.”

“It was the least I could do…” he replied, still trying to hold his emotion in check. After sliding her off of his back gently, he waited for Mrs. Cake to return with a thick comforter, before saying, “if you would, please be gentle with her in the morning… she was hurt, hearing about McCloy…”

“Oh, well, no problem, dear. I’m glad to see you caring so much for her,” she replied, holding a smile on her face. Rob looked away, trying to hold back a shy grin.

“I-it’s not that, I just… don’t want to see her broken… again…” he managed to say, his only emotion from before now mixing with others.

“Well, it’s still a nice thing. Thank you,” she stated, a little confused by his words.

After taking goodbyes from the Cakes (the Mr. walked down the stairs sometime after Rob set Pinkie down on the couch), and turning down a couple of cupcakes, Rob walked out of the door, intent for home, trying to put together everything that has happened today.

Slowly trotting up to the tree, he noticed something at its base… “What is… oh.” He got a good look at it, before he found a note tied to its handle.

“Winter’s coming, so you’ll probably need one of these lanterns.

-Twilight Sparkle”

He smiled, knowing he would have to get a few… but Twi just made his job that much easier. He smiled again, feeling happy for possibly the first time today.

He climbed up into the still-unfinished home, lantern in mouth. He knew he would need something to hang it from, or else the heat from the lantern could ignite the wood. Looking around, he realized that he had some wire lying about (he used it to attempt to secure his bed in case of really strong winds). He gathered some of it up, bundled it as tight as he could manage, then twisted it until it formed a hook. At the other end, he fashioned a cross base, slid it into a wormhole in the ceiling (the lumber used there was a little aged), and hung the lantern.

Checking to make sure the metal wouldn’t heat up from the lantern’s heat, he lit it, and climbed into his bed. After just a couple minutes, he noticed a change: the lantern was working, probably better than it should normally, and was filling the area with an even heat. It was then he noticed a particular aura emitting from the lantern. ‘Heh, she really does think of everything, doesn’t she?’ he thought, watching the aura turn purple in color, resembling Twi’s own magic. He lingered on this thought, then mused, ‘I’m gonna have to learn metal-working. It’ll help, I’m sure.’ Not long after thinking this, he fell into a long-needed sleep.

The next morning, Rob woke up early. He thought about breakfast, but this thought didn’t last long, as memories from yesterday flooded his mind. Shaking his head to clear it, he remembered: pumpkins. They needed to be plucked off their stalks, and shipped to town. ‘It’s going to be a long day, but this is what Frank would want,’ he thought bitterly, but adamantly. Walking into the barn, he heard a creak… followed by a crack. Startled, he ran towards the source, which was one of the support beams holding up what little of the roof that was done. It appeared to have been chewed through. ‘Add repairing that beam to my list.’

Sighing, he got out a recently-constructed cart, and headed out into the fields, where 4 large, fresh pumpkins awaited his arrival. “Now, if *grunt* I remember this *grunt* right,” he said out loud, pausing to buck the stems just hard enough to snap the stem, “two pumpkins need to *grunt* get to Sugarcube Corner, *grunt* and two to Sweet Apple Acres.” He then turned around, where the rest of the pumpkins lay. Much smaller than the four, but much more numerous, Rob continued to kick the pumpkins’ stems. “Then, of course, these need to be distributed around town.”

As he passed the smaller pumpkins, after kicking the stems to free the fruits, he picked them up, one by one, to place in the heavier-by-the-pumpkin cart he was pulling. “I’m sure the townsfolk will be glad to see these!” he added, trying to brighten the mood… of which nopony else was around to enjoy. He muttered a curse to himself, then continued his work. Eventually, he reached the large pumpkins. He knew these were going to be the trouble-makers, and, knowing full well the size they would get, McCloy insisted that the two of them load each one together… however, he remarked that, when it was just him, he had a thick piece of plywood to roll the pumpkins into the cart with.

Rob entered the barn to look for the makeshift ramp. Seeing nothing but hay, he almost left… when he noticed a corner of wood raised out of the sea of hay, not unlike a fin. Dusting off the hay, he found it to be a long piece. “Heh, probably to reduce the work load,” Rob surmised, thinking back to school, where he had taken a physics class. It stated that the angle of a ramp determines the force and energy required to scale it… that didn’t make his job easier, though.

He set the ramp in place, after unhooking one of the cart’s sides, and went to tip one of the pumpkins over… he found himself short of breath very quickly. Catching his breath, he remembered another physics topic: fulcrums and pivots. Looking for a very sturdy beam, he amused himself. “McCloy must have been mighty strong to do this on his own…” Saying this, however, brought a lump to his throat, and he quickly dashed the thought.

Finally finding a beam that he thought would do the job, he set about looking for a good-sized rock. Luckily, there was one near the set of pumpkins. Setting up the makeshift seesaw, he readied himself to tip the pumpkin. With a short heave, he pushed. Very quickly, he expected things to go very wrong, because the beam bent at a nearly awesome angle… it proved its sturdiness, however, when the pumpkin was suddenly sitting on its side, waiting to be rolled. Rob sighed in relief, and proceeded to push the heavy fruit into the cart, trying not to squish the smaller ones. He then repeated this process for the others.

By the time he finished, the sun was beginning to ride high into the sky, and Rob was extremely winded. He almost went into the ranch house, but decided hastily against it. ‘I’ll get some water in the town. I’ll make my first stop to the Corner,’ he decided. With a pull and some flying dirt, he was off, proud of himself for doing this task on his own. He quickly reached the Corner (seeing as how the farm was relatively uphill from a good portion of the town), and went to knock on the door. It opened before he could even tap, and, a surprised look on his face, was blinded by pink; before he knew it, he was on the ground, Pinkie embracing him.

“Hi Rob! I was just thinking about you!” This brought the slightest of blushes on his face. A long gasp could be heard from the mare, as she saw the pumpkins in the cart. “Oh WOW! These are this year’s pumpkins?? I bet we could make a lot of pumpkin pies with these! Oh-oh-oh, I wonder how good they’ll be as cakes and cupcakes?” she said, all in one breath, while running around the cart several times. This did allow Rob to stand back up, but not for long, as he was back down.

“Oh my, these look great, Rob! Must have been tough to get them here!”

Rob chuckled, and replied, “Yeah, but they were tougher to load. Listen, can I… ya know… get back up? We do need to get these where you’ll need them.”

Pinkie only turned a slightly darker shade of her normal pink self, as she got back up, and began to lead Rob to where the pumpkins would go.

“Here, they can go here.”

“Thanks. Now, let me get the ramp.”

“Oh, good idea. I mean I can’t imagine you or really anypony holding that on your back at all!”

“Heh, yeah, I did not want to try that, however… fun… it might be,” Rob said, a slight smile on his face.

With two of the large pumpkins unloaded, Pinkie turned to Rob and started up again. “Oh thank you, I bet these will make great cupcakes and cakes, what else can I make? I’ll think of something, haha!”

“I bet you will, and I can’t wait to try one. We need to get to Sweet Apple Acres, or we’ll never make it. There’s also the many small pumpkins we need to distribute around town.”

“Ooh! Can I come with?”

“Sure, I’m not gonna hold you back.”

“Yay!” she only yelped, as she dashed onto one of the pumpkins in the cart, having as much fun she could. Rob only shook his head, holding back laughter of his own. He slowly lumbered towards the farm, Pinkie apparently playing Pirate Ponies with the pumpkin serving as the crow’s-nest.

When they showed up, they were greeted by cheers, as the Apples waited diligently outside the farm for the pumpkins to arrive.

“These shure are big, no doubt ‘bout that,” Big Mac drawled, impressed by this year’s crop.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t imagine what it took to load them up, heh.” Rob looked close to collapsing.

“Say Rob, would you like a drink?” Applejack asked, noticing his slump.

“Yes please!” he quickly replied, having forgotten to ask back at the Corner.

“Heh, I’ll be right back out.”

“Well, let’s get these unloaded lickety-split, shall we?” Big Mac said slowly. It always seemed to Rob that he pondered on everything he said, is saying, or is ever going to say.

“Yeah, sure, lemme catch my breath a little.”

“Well alright.”

Instantly, laughter filled the air, as Pinkie hired a second-hoof mate to join her pirate crew, and Applebloom was the very pony for the job. Everypony there began to laugh at these antics, and AJ soon joined in, returning with the water.

Back at the ranch, Rob and Pinkie were placing the cart back where it was, when suddenly, Pinkie got a mischievous idea. Very quickly, she tapped Rob’s shoulder, and yelled “Tag! You’re it!” before running off giggling. He couldn’t help but give chase, laughing the whole time, this sort of amusement much needed at the time. When he reached the gate, he found it closed, Pinkie apparently reading his mind, and he simply leaped over it.

By the time Rob caught up to Pinkie (which only happened because Pinkie wasn’t running at Pink-warp; the chase still led all the way around town), they had reached the Corner, and it had gotten dark. Rob finally got what some might call revenge by taking down the pink mare in a tackle of his own. They could only laugh and laugh, as they realized what had happened… while a pair of bakers watched from the window, not wanting to disturb the two, with nary but a grin on their faces.

Eventually the laughter died down, and they stood up, shaking off the dirt they’d collected from rolling on the ground. As Rob looked into Pinkie’s eyes, he saw what must have been the truest form of happiness he’d seen since at least the day before last. Pinkie broke off the stare with a swift hug, and a whisper into Rob’s ear: “thank you.” Just as quickly, she entered the Corner, while Rob only smiled, knowing she was happy. As he turned away to walk home, he thought about the embrace… and recalled the smell of flowers. ‘That was a familiar scent… I don’t know from exactly where, though,’ he mused.

He headed home quickly, ready to end the day, for he realized: tomorrow was going to be pretty hectic… a couple of nights from now was Nightmare Night.

End of Chapter 5