“I’d say that one is… a can of soda?” You guess as you and your pink companion lay side by side on a hill in the park, on one of Pinkie’s Mandatory Cloud Watching breaks. Her reasoning was that it was to make sure you weren’t overloaded in the day with all the things you had to learn about Ponyville and beyond, and she swears she saw a cloud in the shape of herself, she just wanted you to be there to see it when it came by again.

“Soda doesn’t come in cans silly, it’d be a real bother having to carry an opener around all the time just to get into it!” Pinkie turns to face you.

“Probably because ponies never needed to make special cans for soda on account of the fact they don’t have fingers.”

“You guys must have awesome soda back home then with all of that advanced soda technology.”

“Oh yeah, every color of the rainbow, and more.”

Pinkie snorts at you, “Ok, now I know you’re joshing me, they only have one color of soda and it’s Soda Color.”

You turn to face her, “I’m serious, they have red, green, purple, and even,” you lean in really close to her, “orange.”

Her eyes go wide, “No. Way. You have to show me how to make literally,” she cups your face in her hooves, “literally all of those.”

You chuckle as she lets go of your face, “I’ll do my best Pinks. But honestly,” you turn back to the view of the bright blue sky and it’s gala of clouds, “I’d trade all the soda in the world to stay right here.”

“Well Nonny, I think you’re going to fit in just well here in Ponyville,” Pinkie says as she lies across your chest, “And I’ll be right by your side whenever you need me!”

Pinkie’s smile filled you with a nice warmth, the kind that leaves you gasping for air under the weight of that feeling. Wait, that doesn’t seem right.

You’re squeezed out of your daydream by the immense weight of the barbell you’re pinned under, and behind you was your gym bro and one of the first friends you made here, Bulk Biceps, cheering you on as you struggle.

“COME ON BRO, YOU GOTTA WANT IT!” he bellows.

Red faced and sputtering, you try to knock out this PR, you really do despite your mental lapse, but it just isn’t happening. Seeing that no amount of pushing would be able to get the bar the rest of the way up, Bulk hooks his forelegs around the bar and helps you rerack it. A good gym bro doesn’t want to see his bro embarrass himself like that.

“Thanks man,” you manage to get out in between laboured breaths.

“Come ON bro! You were so hype to hit this PR today and you flubbed it at the last rep!” Bulk comes out from behind the bench to face you and gives you an inquisitive look, “You skipping out on your training behind my back or something?”

“Just like you and your wing training?” you say as you chug from your shaker.

“Low blow bro, I did it yesterday so today’s a rest day.” his expression falters, and he begins to sound a bit more like his usual bashful self. And the usual self that’s a lying bastard about working his wings.

“Did you really?” You lean in closer to him.

He can’t keep eye contact with you anymore, and in classic fashion whenever you pressure him about skipping Wing Day.

“What’s the excuse this time man, get it out and I can spot you in your wing lifts today.”

He relents, and with a sigh he says, “I tried asking out Aloe and she totally bruised me bro.”

Oh man, another one of his hopeless romantic phases has come to an abrupt end. When you first started going to the gym here you struck a fast gym-broship with Bulk after you caught each other ‘mirin your upper body lifts. Ponies, what with all the pulling and other activities mainly relying on their legs take little effort to lift weight you took years to get to, and at maximum effort they far surpassed any world records that were held back home by a wide margin. Bulk saw that you were a kindred spirit that saw the value in underrated lifts like the bench press, and also had a mutual agreement to encourage each other to do the days that you both hated doing, you with Leg Day and Bulk with Wing Day.

Honestly you thought Bulk was going to be one of the Alphas that usually populate the gym, but under all that muscle and angry expressions was just a lonely bro who just wanted a marefriend. Would girlfriend work too? Eh, you don’t care. Your bro’s hurting and that makes you hurt, bro. But tough love is necessary sometimes, since Bulk tends to throw himself into these endeavors without really thinking.

“Bulk I’ve been telling you for weeks that Aloe wasn’t into you, she calls everyone her favorite customer.”

“Yeah… but I thought I was her favorite favorite bro…” he pouts.

“One of these days you’ll find the one, I promise, until then put that energy into building those wings up,” You wrap an arm around him and lead him to the Wings section.

The mention of lifting seems to brighten his spirits a bit, “You’re right bro, gonna find her someday!”

Seeing an opportunity present itself, you lean down to his height and comment, “Maybe if you work hard enough you’ll be able to impress Dash someday.”

Lo and behold Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were the only ones occupying the wing training section at the moment. Dash described wing training as tying a weighted vest to yourself and trying to achieve liftoff with it attached, and the logic behind it being that you would fly much faster with just your bodyweight after you master the heavier weights. You figured it was something like how baseball players use weighted bats to swing harder with regular ones. Rainbow had a vest that was twice her body weight easily, and Fluttershy offered encouraging words from the ground with only a 10 pound vest wrapped around herself.

“You can do it Rainbow! Just a little higher!” Fluttershy cheered in her demure fashion.

Rainbow Dash inched higher and higher off the ground, and just as she reached her target height and cheered to herself, Bulk Biceps whispered back to you:

“You kidding bro? I bet you she’s more into mares than I am.”

You laughed a bit louder than you should have at the comment, and in doing so caused Rainbow to have her concentration broken and she plummeted to the ground. Luckily they already had a soft mat set up underneath them.

Rainbow turns to you two looking furious, “OH YOU ARE SO LUCKY THAT I NAILED IT BEFORE YOU MESSED ME UP!”

“Whoa, whoa Roid Rage we’re all friends here!” You raise your hands up in a calming gesture, while Bulk’s shaky anxiety starts to kick in as he wonders if Rainbow heard his joke or not.

“Yeah, and you goofballs wouldn’t know real training if I did it for you!” the high test mare says still in a post workout huff, “Haven’t seen you here in a minute Bulk, finally going to get some wing training in?” Rainbow asks pointedly. The mare who dozed on clouds all day was a completely different animal in her training mode and Fluttershy could only slowly back behind a weight plate tree and witness the murder waiting to happen.

Rainbow was the gym-buddy of you two occasionally, but whenever she took the lead in training the tomcolt often left you two floundering in your own puddles of sweat gasping for air like dying fish. She was both terrifying but worth all of the mires she was given, and was by all means the Element of Gains in the gym.

Bulk becoming the object of attention was something you had to capitalize on, just to give your bro a healthy dose of loving-bullying as well as get yourself out of hot water.

“Well Bulk ran into some lady trouble again and needs to focus that energy on his gains Dash, think you can help him out?” Bulk looks at you and shakes his head pleadingly at you.

“No dice Bulk, you were supposed to do it yesterday, now you have Dash and I spotting you now.” You say like a parent disappointed in their child.

“That’s right soldier, hop to it!” Rainbow says shedding her vest with it dramatically crashing to the ground, “The DOMs you have tomorrow will be nothing compared to what I’m putting you through today!”

Bulk gives her a mock salute and trundles off to the weight tree to strap himself into a vest. Fluttershy peaks her head out and bashfully hands him the one she was using.

“Run him through warm up ‘Shy, I’ll be over there in a minute,” She says as she grips her shaker under a wing and sits beside you.

While Bulk gets himself all set up, Rainbow Dash takes a pull from her own shaker, and says “He tried smooth talking Aloe didn’t he?”

Thankful that she’s back to her lax self somewhat you say back, “Yeah, poor fella will find his special someon--somepony someday hopefully.”

With a smirk Rainbow side-eyes you, “A little ironic seeing as you’re in the same boat as him now, dude.”

You frown and turn to her, “You don’t mean--”

“Dude, I think the only pony that wasn’t aware of Pinkie being into you was you, Anon. She’s been laying it in kind of thick lately.”

You relent and blow out a heavy sigh, “Yeah, Rarity took it upon herself to be my Love Guru or something.”

Bulk finishes his warmup hovers with the vest, and Dash rises from where she was sitting.

“Well dude not going to lie I think it’ll be pretty helpful. Personally I’d say just go right up and tell her but Rarity’s probably the best at telling hopeless saps like you what exactly to say. Hell, set up an appointment for Bulky too while you’re at it,” Rainbow says as she starts to make her way back to the duo.

As she’s walking away you say to her with a restored frown, “You know you could be honest without being mean.”

Rainbow turns to you with a smile and says, “I’m mean to you ‘cause I love you dude.” Turning to Bulk she shouts, “All right Bulk, strap on the 40 and let’s drill!”

Despite having a white coat Bulk blanches and says, “B-but I hardly set a PR with 30 last time!”

Rainbow isn’t going to be merciful, “Yeah, and you did that without me last time, which means I know you were going easy on yourself! If you really want to build those wings up you do it with real weight!”

The rest of the morning was spent cheering on Bulk with Fluttershy while Dash put Bulk’s muscles through the wringer. You’ll buy his first drink on the next guy’s night out to make him feel better.

The Stables Bar and Grill, one of the veritable hotspots of Ponyville that ponies from all over town frequent multiple days a week for lunch. Not really surprising that even posh and high-standards Rarity would want to go here too, you couldn’t eat there personally seeing as you can’t digest hay but apparently their Double Down Animal Style Hay burger was to die for. You’ve never been here so hopefully you can get some grub here because you were post-workout starving.

Walking into the bustling diner you see the mare off in a corner booth at the other side of the restaurant… talking to someone? With the obscuring crowd moving aside as you make your way to the booth you see that Rarity’s new companion is Twilight Sparkle, whose face is buried in the menu. You dealt with her the most when you first came here on account of her being the “Aspect of Friendship” or some bologna, and the best way you could describe her was “off”. Not a bad kind, but you count yourself lucky there’s usually a third pony around to have a conversation with, otherwise there probably wouldn’t be one. Although if you were the Aspect of Social Interaction yourself you wouldn’t be needing courting advice, so you take a seat next to Twilight with Rarity at the opposite end.

“Oh and the stallion of the hour has decided to arrive in his sweaty glory! How delightful.” Rarity says condescendingly.

“So the whole point of this is to get dating advice from a mare who’s still single?” You retort.

Rarity gasps, “I’ve read enough romance novels and smooth talked enough stallions in my time to have any pick of them I please!”

“And yet you choose to spend that time grooming an almost of age dragon?”

“Huh?” Twilight says looking up from the menu.

“N-not true! The only “grooming” I would give to my Spikey-Wikey is polishing his little scales!” Rarity says.

“She says, desperately.” You finish.

“Anyway…” Rarity gives you a scathing look now that the score is 1:1, “The point of meeting today was to turn your sweaty self into something gentlemanly enough to earn the heart of a dear friend of ours.”

“However,” she continues, “Since Pinkie is surely quite the opposite of gentlemanly, I’m sure we just have to come up with some amazing gesture, you ask her to be your marefriend, bing bang boom, you two are letting me plan the wedding and letting me make all the foal clothes.”

Man, the second you have her in a verbal headlock she always finds a way to do the reversal on you. The talk of marriage and babies, makes you a little woozy.

“H-hold on just a second, how can you be so sure she’s just going to leap at the opportunity to… get into the whole shebang with someone like me?”

Rarity gives a hearty chortle to that, “Are you serious? Anon if you’ve heard half the things she’s said about you since the past few months you’d have a list as long as Twilight’s usual lists! ‘Nonny’s so handsome’ or ‘Nonny so strong’--”

“Or how Anon has a musk that could quote ‘make her able to drown a foal in her crotch.’” Twilight pipes up, putting down her menu.

You and Rarity both stare at her wordlessly.

“Well, she was kind of inebriated when she told me that during our last sleepover, which means I probably should have kept that confidential.” Twilight ponders out loud.

“Well, if anything this just makes my job infinitely easier, and yours by extension.” Rarity turns back to you, who is flush and shaking.

The food definitely helped you calm your nerves, especially since you found yourself pleasantly surprised by a beer-battered fish sandwich on the menu, so naturally you ordered three. Twilight commended you on how much you could put away, despite it not being anywhere near the 7 hayburgers and the extra large tray of fries to go with it. Rarity looked at your sauce-covered faces in a mild disgust as she gingerly ate a salad with a small iced tea.

“Listen Anon, the best thing you can do as of now is to let things happen naturally seeing as Pinkie is so head over heels for you. You are babysitting the Cakes tomorrow right?” Rarity asks.

“Well more like roped in, but--”

“Honestly doesn’t matter, darling. What does matter is that this is a prime opportunity for you to put the moves on, you can’t expect a mare to do all the work for you!”

“Oh! Maybe you can get Rainbow Dash to make it rain that day too!” Twilight says excitedly.

“How would that help?” You ask.

“It’s like, in every romance book I’ve ever read! Holding your true love in the rain and telling them your feelings is the most romantic thing!”

“Do you mean those comic books you’ve been reading?” Rarity asks.

“Actually, they’re called mane-ga, and they’re just as good as any of your novels.”

“I don’t think we need to change the weather at all in order to make things work,” you say to prevent this from becoming a scene, “But am I supposed to say anything specific?”

“Well Anon, how do you feel about her?” Rarity asks.

“I… ever since I came here I’ve literally seen nothing but smiles, happy faces, and overall just an overwhelming kindness that just seems like peo-ponies do around here without even trying. But with Pinkie, she’s always trying her hardest with anyone to make them happy, hell her ‘cutie mark’ literally says that her entire purpose is to do just that. I know I go on about how I want to give back to you guys because of all the things you’ve done for me but with Pinkie it’s not a matter of feeling obligated to give back that happiness, I want to. She has that kind of passion that I can’t help but… feel attracted to.” Geez, way to lay it on thick, Casanova.

Rarity gives a soft smile, “Anon, that was--”

“Beautiful-hul-hul-hul!” Twilight bawls, spewing special sauce on the table.

“Well, it wouldn’t sweep me off my hooves, but I was going to say that as long as what you’re saying is from the heart, it will be perfect when the moment is right.” Rarity finishes.

You give a sigh in reply to that. You should have expected this mamby pamby ‘follow your heart’ crap from your colorful horse friends but honestly, following your heart is basically the sibling to winging it. And you’re pretty good at that.

Right?

Author's Note

Here's another chapter for you guys, I'm trying real hard to make sure things pan out in the long run of this story, I have big things in mind.
Hope you all enjoy!