=BiE 47=

>You were eating breakfast at the table with Rainbow.
>Miraculously, you had beaten Mous out here.
>Having Dinky stay hadn't been as weird as you though, which was good.
>You liked to think you liked kids.
>As if on cue, you hear a door open and the sounds of feet and hooves.
>Along with singing.
>"Pizza!"Mous calls out. Dinky mimics. "Pizza!"
>"Pizza for breakfast!" he sings and he half walks half dances into the kitchen and opens the fridge.
>He pulls out a pizza box from the fridge as Dinky jumps up into an empty seat. "It's the thing to eat to make your day the very best!"
>"Pizza! Pizza for breakfast!" Mous slides a plate with a piece of pizza in front of Dinky.
>He places his piece down, but doesn't sit until he's done singing. "Sauces and cheeses, they fulfill all your needses! When you eat pizza!"
>With that he all but falls into his chair and starts eating, Dinky starts clapping her hooves together. "I love the feel the crowd gives..." he waxes. "Especially the cute ones." he says as he ruffles Dinky's mane.
>Dinky laughs as she digs into her breakfast of champions. "Isn't singing Barry Manilow to a minor a crime in some places?" you tease.
>"No jury in the world will convict me." he says as he eats.
>"Tch." Rainbow snorts. "They will if you sing for them with that voice." she says.
>You laugh and brohoof Rainbow, just because you were together didn't mean you had to lose such base joys as ripping on your best friend.
>"Everyone's a critic." Mous says with a roll of his eyes.

>The four of you sat around the table eating in silence.
>Dinky was sitting next to you, trying to fit an entire slice of pizza in her mouth.
>Mous reaches over and pulls it from her mouth. "Stop that, you're gonna choke and make your mom mad at me."
>You chuckle. "Father of the year, mares and gentlecolts."
>"Nothing so noble." Mous says as he finishes his meal. "I just don't want to explain to Cheerilee that I was late bringing her in because of a surprise trip to the hospital."
>"Speaking of Cheerilee." Mous lifts his arm and sniffs. "Stay here while I go wash up poozer, then we can head out."
>Dinky nods as Mous walks off.
>"So, Dinky." Dinky looks up at you from her plate, she's back to trying to fit the entire thing in her mouth. "Have you been having fun?"
>Mous could always keep kids happy, probably something having to do with him having the mental maturity of a fifteen year old, but you had never entertained kids you weren't related to.
>You were curious to know how you did.
>To your relief, Dinky started nodding vigorously. "Yeah! I'm having lots of fun! You and Mous are really funny when you argue!" she laughs out.
>Oh yeah, you and Mous got into an argument during movies last night. You don't care what kinds of magnetic fields they have, Lightsabers should go on forever.
>A few minutes later, Mous walks out of his room and scoops Dinky onto his head. "All set to go to school Captain Whooves?" he asks.
>Dinky points to the door. "Make it so, number one!"
>You suppress laughter as the two of them walk out the door.
>You can't repel cuteness of that magnitude.

>You and Rainbow left home shortly after Mous did.
>"Love you." Rainbow said as she kissed you goodbye and flew off into the clouds.
>Work at Twilights had been all but consumed by your studies of applying spells to crystals, Canterlot was very interested in the idea.
>The library was loaded with boxes, mana batteries all the way from Canterlot, boxes of crystals from around the kingdom of various purities.
>You had your work cut out for you. "I'm here Twilight, what's on the agenda for today?" you call out as you tiptoe past the equipment.
>Twilight is nose deep in a book. "Today we're looking into the flash heating spell on the crystals from the western mountains." she said without looking up.
>Flash heating, that meant steam. "We headed out to the lake?" you ask.
>"Yep!" Twilight says as she levitates the book into her saddlebags. "I'll take the crystals and you grab the mana batteries, come on!" she says as she determinately marches out the door.
>Dammit, you always carried the batteries.
>And they were heavy.

-Some time later-
>The crystal hits the surface of the lake and erupts into a brilliant white light, steam bellows from the a single point at the center of the reaction and cascades across the water.
>"Okay, test number fifty two: Flash heating spell with western mountain crystal of B level purity got us about 60% conversion." you say as you jot down your findings.
>"I think next we should-" you turn to look at Twilight. She was sweating, her hair was frazzled and her chest was heaving. "-take a little break." you say.
>Twilight smiles as she drops down to the ground to rest. The two of you had been testing all morning with her being the only source of spellcasting, she deserved a rest.
>You ran through your head how this little system you devised worked.
>The crystal acted as a prison for the magical energies. When a spell was fired through the focusing lens, the mana battery hooked up gave the crystal a minute jump of power. That jump of power kept the spell inside powered indefinitely, the problem was the crystals themselves. 
>Any gem with enough internal lattices could work, you just needed something that could bounce the spell around inside it. Unfortunately, some of the gems you were getting were of poor quality, they were giving a crap conversion rate on some spells. Even the crystals you were using today were only giving about half as good a reacting as if you just used the spell proper, and they were some of the best you'd used.
>You sigh. Oh well, such was science.
>You rise to your feet. "You ready to get back to it Twi?"
>Twilight nods and rises herself.
>"Cool, I wanna try some of those bigger ones..."

>You got home around 8:00.
>You were soaked to the core.
>You stepped into the house and found Dinky and Mous sitting at the edge of the couch, Rainbow was lounging in her normal spot.
>"Okay, Dinks. Try shooting a portal over there and I'll handle this..." Mous's eyes drift over to you. "What happened dude?"
>You sigh as you close the door. "We were doing rapid heating experiments down by the lake today, there was a misfire and I ended up with half the lake dumped on me."
>Mous glances over you. "I'd call that experiment a success."
>Dinky giggles at his joke.
>You should flip him off, he deserves to be flipped off.
>But there's a filly here...
>"Whatever, dude. I'm gonna go wash this pond water off." you say as you step into your room.
>You throw your shirt off and feel a pair of hooves wrap around you. "Whoa now!" you call out as Rainbow nuzzles the back of your neck. "There's a filly in the other room!"
>"I got that take care of..." she says. 
>You hear the T.V. from the living room turn up. Way up.
>You can barely hear yourself get pushed onto the bed with over the sounds of science coming from the living room.
>Ha. 
>You grab Rainbow's ear. "You sly dog..." 

>Whatever was left of the night was spent by having a game stump the four of you.
>Dammit, you should have been smarter than that. Stupid conduction gel.
>"Alright Dinks. Bath and bed, let's go." Mous yawns out.
>The two of them walk out of the room and leave you and Rainbow alone on the couch.
>You sit there for a while, just playing with her hair as she lay on your lap. It was nice you just shut yopur brain off after a long day of testing.
>One thought nagged at the back of your mind thought...
>Oh well, now was as good a time as any.
>"Hey, Rainbow, what do you think about kids?" you ask, breaking the silence.
>Rainbows eyes shoot open faster than you can catch. "Uhh...I think there are some issues we'd have to work out first..." she says as she eyes you.
>"No no." you say. "I'm not asking you to let me stick a baby in you." God, were you not ready for that. "I was just wondering. If we keep this up, what do you think about kids?"
>Rainbow rolled over. "Kids can be cool...I guess. I just don't really see myself as the world's greatest mom, ya know?"
>You chuckle. "The Great Rainbow Dash? Backing away from a challenge as small as caring for another life?"
>Rainbow punches you in the shoulder and laughs. "Buck you."
>You scoop her up and carry her to the bedroom, she'd probably crash on your lap if you let her.
>You fall asleep wondering how well you'd do as a dad.
>And how terrifying the idea of Mous as an uncle would be.