Though not much happened over the course of the next few weeks, Travis and Pinkie made tremendous steps in furthering their relationship.

Pinkie kept her promise to stop reading the story, and Travis kept his to allow Pinkie to look after him, starting by teaching her the bare basics of combat.

They spent their time together, building trust, showing affection in any little way that they could, and of course the weekly karaoke night was loads of fun.

But their favorite time together was when they were asked by Mr. and Mrs. Cake to look after their twins while they were out catering a wedding.

It was during this time that the two temporarily lost their minds in the sheer joys and gut-wrenching frustrations of looking after children, and started to fantasize about a family of their own. But it was agreed by them both that it was much too early to even be thinking about such a thing, and they went back to looking after the foals.

But that, dear friends, is not what this chapter is about.

The real point of this is to say that even though they two intimately enjoyed their time together, they both agreed that once in a while they needed a night with their friends.

Travis's preferred haunt was Stagger Jack's, the local cider bar, supplied personally by Sweet Apple Acres.

It was a small place where everypony knew each other's name, and were always glad that they came.

Here, Travis spent his time palling around with his group of barflies, Spike, Big Macintosh, and Mr. Waddle. These were the guys he got along with the best. Also present were locals such as Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, resident intellectual Octavia, down on her luck drunk Berry Punch, and her best friend the local mail mare Cliff Clav-- Derpy Hooves.

The time had come at last when Travis stepped inside, with Spike riding in on his back. Despite being very young, everypony agreed that Spike was loads of fun to have around, especially after he got a few drinks in him.

Everypony greeted him at once, "SPIKE!"

The two took their usual spot at the bar, already occupied by Big Macintosh and Mr. Waddle, both of whom were expecting them at exactly that time, same as always.

Also the same as always, Jack, the barstallion, had a glass of cider waiting for Travis, and a glass of chocolate milk for Spike (extra chocolate, the way he liked it).

"How's the world been treatin' ya, fellas," Big Macintosh inquired after he finished his cider. He then signaled Jack to give him another refill.

Knowing Big Macintosh, he'd probably gone through at least three of those before Travis and Spike arrived. While other stallions would quit after three or so drinks, Big Macintosh had the amazing ability to endlessly quash down mug after mug, and never get the slightest bit tipsy.

"Fuckin' awesome, dude," Travis said enthusiastically, "I haven't had to kill anyone, work around town's been excellent, and things with Pinkie are on the up and up." Travis drank heavily from his mug before he spoke his next words. "Speaking of babes: things are still going good with you and Cheerilee, right."

Big Macintosh quashed down his cider before he answered.

"Gentleman never tells, pal," he said while he signaled Jack for another drink. One look at his friends, and he could see that they were all eagerly awaiting his answer to Travis's question. "Yes they are," he said concisely as his new drink was placed in front of him.

"Hey, kid," Jack addressed Spike, "Ya haven't touched ya drink yet. What's eatin' ya, son?"

Spike's adult friends all turned to look at him, and saw him idly swishing his drink in its glass.

"Nothing," Spike said with a small sigh. "It's just you guys are so great at getting girls."

Travis nervously rolled his eyes when he heard that.

"You'd think that some of it might've rubbed off onto me, but I'm still single."

"You've been at Rarity's again, right," Travis asked, already knowing the answer.

Before Spike could answer, Mr. Waddle offered his encouragement.

"Hey, don't worry, son. These things start to make more sense as you age. Trust me on that. Right now, things are clearer than they've ever been for me," this would have helped Spike if Mr. Waddle's next words weren't, "How'd I get here, again?"

"You were dropped through the ceiling by an overweight penguin," Travis said sarcastically.

Big Macintosh finished his drink and decided to set the old stallion straight.

"Ya walked here."

"Oh, great. Just confuse me, why don't you," Mr. Waddle said, as Big Macintosh started drinking his newly poured cider.

Jack was listening to the patrons speak, as he always did, but he only joined the conversations he found enthralling. To him, nothing was better than topics of love and romance. He decided he'd offer his own two cents.

"Rarity'd be a real catch kid. Dose flutterin' eyelashes, dat snowy white coat, sweetest flank I evah saw. She's da type-a mare ya wanna put up on a pedestal," Jack said, building up and demeaning Rarity in the same sentence. A trait that Octavia found astounding. But she brushed it off and went back to sipping her imported cider.

"You ever been in love, Jack," Spike wondered.

"Yeah. She was a real treshah dat one," Jack said with a sigh that almost sounded sad if not for the glimmer in his eye as he reminisced about his lost love, "But den she toyned out ta be fruit bat crazy."

That last part got a mass of agreements from the barflies. They had all dated somepony who they thought was a little nuts at one point. After all, what pony hadn't?

"I don't tink ya undastand. She was a paranoyd schizaphrenic who had delusions-a toynin inta a timba-wolf onna full moon."

Immediately, there came another bunch of murmurs, but this time they were all conceding defeat to Jack. He clearly had won the crazy lottery when it came to former relationships.

"I bet I could handle the little nutbar," Mr. Waddle said, "Course there aren't many mares that would want to go out with a stallion my age. Sucks for them, because I'm the biggest boudoir bad boy this side of their age appropriate coltfriend! Oy," he said heartily with a small thrust of his hips, making a small cracking sound when he did.

"You know, that's something I've been meaning to ask you," Travis began, "How old are you?"

His question had piqued the curiosity of the other barflies who began listening intently.

"Yeah, I keep hearing ponies around town giving different ages, but none of them sound too sure about it," Spike added. Mr. Waddle rubbed his chin as he thought about it for a bit.

"Eh...you know: at some point in my life, I actually forgot my age," he said with a smile, "That's kind of a pain since my age is the same as my PIN number."

"That's four digits!" Big Macintosh said, his voice almost sounding like it had lost its calm.

"That's right boy! Four digits spells l-o-v-e! Ha ha! But speaking of age appropriate coltrfriends: anypony know if Granny Smith is still single?" The old stallion said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye that almost made him seem youthful again.

Meanwhile, on Travis's back, Spike's spirits had been lifted by the idle bantering of his friends and he finally finished his drink. He ordered another one, figuring that as long as he was feeling good, he may as well get enough drinks in him to keep it going.

That, and when he got that much sugar in his system, he could dance for the barflies and not feel stupid about it, and that was always fun.

The hour had grown late, and Travis had to get Spike home, lest he face the wrath of Twilight once more.

The whole way to the library, Spike never stopped moving. The chocolate milk had gone to his head, and he was running circles around Travis, bouncing on his tail like a pogo stick, somersaulting ahead and rolling back, generally doing anything that Pinkie would do.

Spike was so busy running around that he didn't even notice the door to the Golden Oaks Library, even after he charged face first into it. He only realized where he was when the door fell off its hinges under the force of him running into it.

Travis quickly left the scene, knowing Twilight would be none too happy about her door being broken down, again.

After three unsuccessful attempts to return home, Travis finally found his front door, instead of one that belonged to an after hours anger management group, or a rabies ward.

He staggered into his bed, not even getting undressed for the night, and laid down with his face in his pillow, the cider in his brain letting him hold onto yesterday, and forget about tomorrow. But not so much that he didn't realize that he was slowly smothering himself.

Travis took his face out of his pillow and gasped for air. Afterwards, he rolled over onto his back and passed out into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Notes:

So, obviously I was watching Cheers lately. I actually finished up the whole series a month or so ago (took forever, I might add), and now I'm watching Frasier. After that it's either Friends or Seinfeld.

Anyway, this chapter was just a kind of fun, spur of the moment kind of thing. I just wondered what activities Travis would take up in Ponyville that didn't involve dating Pinkie and working. Personally, I thought this chapter was a bit boring to write. Oh well, I hope you guys at least enjoyed reading it. Maybe I'll go back and fix it at a later point.

And I don't know why I gave Jack that accent. I just thought of adding it at the very last second before I wrote his dialogue. Plus, if anyone's wondering about him having a human name, so does Donut Joe. Believe me: I was just as shocked as all of you to see a pony named Joe instead of something like Bear Claw. Rock on. \m/