Lonely Stalion Saga: from Everfree

Once again the sun rose, but the direct light didn’t pass through the cracks, as Nightstar had repaired them last afternoon. What woke him up instead was the noise coming from the kitchen and the dining room. He was a bit annoyed by it, but inside it gave him a good, familiar feeling; it remembered him of back when he lived with his family, the family that he would never see ever again…

“Crash!”

The sound of a dish breaking made Nightstar come back to himself, now annoyed for real. He got out of the bed, and quickly put on his coat, still, making sure that it was properly putted, and then he slammed the door open.

“What’s going on?” Said Nightstar with a slightly angry face.

“Sorry, we were making sum breakfast, but Derpy tried to help” Answered Aplebloom

“Sorry, My bad” Said derpy while standing next to a broken dish with a unfocused look, but with true regret. Meanwhile Lyra came inside the dining room again while holding a broom and a small shovel.

“Did we wake you up? Sorry for the dish, but you already should know” Said Lyra, while cleaning out the broken pieces the dish.

Nightstar let out a groan, followed by sigh. “Yeah, I think I can figure out what happened” he said while giving a quick look to Derpy, Derpy just smiled awkwardly while blushing. “What’s for breakfast anyway?” asked Nightstar.

“Oh! We got Hotcakes!”Quickly replied Sweetie Belle.

Nightstar didn’t say anything.

“Oh C’mon! We are making you breakfast! You could say thanks, or at least put on a good face” said Lyra nagging at Nightstar.

“You are eating my food, you know that I don`t have too much money, I can barely maintain myself” replied Nightstar in bad mood.

“You live in a castle! You surely can be that broke if you had once money for buying a castle!” said Scootaloo.

“I built this castle myself stone by stone, I never had too much money, I had to use mainly whatever I could get for free”

“You seriously made this castle all by yourself?! That’s simply awesome! You gotta tell us about that!”

“I built it carrying the stones with magic from not that far away since I was foal, end.”

“C’mon! you have to tell us more!”

“No, I don’t have to, the deal was that I showed you my abilities and then you would leave me alone”

“I don’t remember saying that, I don’t think anyone of us said that”

Nightstar gave Scootaloo a menacing look, one that was very scary, although not as bad as the one that he gave to Diamond Tiara before, Scotaloo was left shivering slightly, while Nightstar just went to take a couple of hotcakes form the kitchen.

“Was that what you talked about?” said an still slightly scared Scotaloo

“Yep, I wonder if Fluttershy and he learned it from the same place” replied Aplebloom.

While Nightstar carried his dish to the table, Sweetie Belle approached him with a book on her hooves; Nightstar’s pupils shrunk when he noticed which book was. It was the one that he had taken fomr the library yesterday, the one that he didn’t want anyone but twilight (and just because it was inevitable) to know that he had in his possession, It was…

“All about Cutie marks… could we please borrow it?” Said Sweetie Belle while putting on the cutest smile that she could.

“No way!” Said Nightstar while levitating the book away from Sweetie Belle.

“But, it’s just what we are looking for! We neeeeeed it, So pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaseeeeeeeee” Said Sweetie Belle, trying her best to convince him.

“No, also, I borrowed it from the library, I just can’t hand it over to anyone” Replied Nightstar.

“You borrowed it from the library? What for?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“I, uh, got a job related to it”

“A job? What’s your job anyway?”

“Umm, I make private investigations, look, aren’t you supposed to be in school already anyway?”

Sweetie Belle gasped “it’s true! Girls! We are gonna be late!”

The three foals finished eating as fast they could, said good bye and went away running, due to the fact that school was going to start in the next five minutes, and Nightstar’s castle was like ten minutes away from it, they better hurried.

Nightstar saw with a little smile the foals, running to their school.

“Admit it. You Enjoyed it too”

The words of Lyra pierced through Nightstar ears; it was really hard to admit, but he had indeed enjoyed last night; and even though he wouldn’t be able to take it if he had to go through it every day, he liked something about that chaotic breakfast; maybe this it was how it feels to have a family, he couldn’t know, he leaved his own family too long ago.

“Nightstar, Nightstar!” yelled Lyra.

“Eh, uh, What?”

“You are dozing off again”

“Sorry. What were you saying again?”

“I was saying that you definitely enjoyed last night”

Nighstar expression changed, he tensed up after hearing Lyra. “Im not going to lie; I did enjoy last night, although I can’t say the same from this morning”

Lyra laughed, and Derpy smiled, her smile looking very wise even with the derpinf eyes. You could tell just by looking that a happy memory had popped on her mind; which one though, remained a mistery.

After finishing the Breakfast, Nighstar Waved good bye to Lyra and Derpy; the light discussion that they had about last night had somehow made Nightstar relaxed instead of angry, and on top of that, it had made Nighstar smile. Nightstar still had that look of Relaxation on his face. While waving goodbye, Derpy noticed it, and she started to think about it. Nightstar didn’t smile very often, actually, seeing he smile more than once a day was very rare, and yet, he had a smile that just wouldn’t vanish in this moment. Finally, a idea popped on her brain; she might not be the smartest pony on the herd, but she knowed jus what had made Nightstar smile on the first place, and she was decided to make it part of his life.

When the Gray pegasus stopped to think, and then turned back in Nightstar’s direction, Nightstar relaxed look started to become one of worry. He didn’t know what she could have in mind now, but it probably wasn’t something good. When Derpy approached him and started to tell him something, his look started to change slowly from worry to sheer incrudelity.

“What?! No way! You can’t be serious!”

“Please, I know it would be really good to you”

“I’m all grown up, I think I know what’s good for me and that couldn’t possibly be good”

“Just trust me in this one, I promise you that everything will be ok”

Nightstar looked dierectly to Derpy’s unaligned, begging eyes, if those were the eyes of a random pony, he would get rid of them trough bucking if it was necessary; but those were still the eyes that he owed most, he couldn’ just say no.

“I promise” said Derpy again, while letting out a weak smile.

“Fine” Said Nightstar after giving up “I will do it. But only if they agree by THEMSELVES and you definitely can’t encourage them.

“YAAAAAY” cheered up Derpy “You won’t regret it” Said while flying close to Lyra.

“What was that about?” Asked Lyra to Derpy

“I told him that he should take care of those fillies more often, and help them get their cutie marks; everypony know these fillies, their families could definitely use a hoof in taking care of them, and Nightstar could definitely use the extra money, and also it would be really good for him” replied Derpy

WHAT?! You can’t be serious!” said a surprised Lyra

“Yep, I’m totally serious” Said Derpy closing her eyes, crossing her front hooves and putting a prideful smile “It would be really good for him”

“Nightstar can’t stand a regular mare, or stallion, or anypony, how is he going to take care of those three overactive fillies?!”

“Believe me, it will be ok”

“I really hope so; I don’t want to see “Stallion beheads three little fillies” on the headlines of the papers”

“Oh c’mon, Nightstar might be the grumpiest grumpy, but he wouldn’t hurt anypony; and if my plan goes well, he will stop being so grumpy soon” said Derpy, before finally flying away with a smile, sure that she had one of the brighthiests plans of her life.

“Oh for Celestia! I gotta make sure that those fillies don’t try to come back here”

Lyra took up quickly to the town. Maybe she couldn’t change Derpy’s mind, and Nightstar would never retreat from a deal, especially one with Derpy of all ponies, but she still could discourage the CMC from even trying to come back to Nightstar’s castle, and it shouldn’t even be hard! After all, not many ponis would want to spend time with Nightstar, why would they? Maybe she didn’t even need to do anything. These thoughts made Lyra’s worries vanish while she approached the school; then it hit her, it didn’t make any sense for her to come here yet; the kids wouldn’t go out at least until 3:00 pm, and it was barely 10:00 am, she wouldn’t even be able to talk them until them.

“Lyra? What are you doing? I thought that you would be home by now”

Lyra’s thoughts were interrupted by her friend and roommate, Bon-Bon. Lyra wasn’t sure how to respond, she hadn’t take her in consideration for her plans, or anypony else for that matter.

“Uh, oh, I’m… seeing the kids learn; yeah, isn’t it great how the future is being raised behind these walls”

“You are acting weird… more than usual”

Lyra let out a nervous smile.

“Anyway, how was it?”

“How was what?”

Bon-Bon deadpanned. “The… whatever you were going to do with that Nightstar Guy”

“Oh! That! Yeah, it was pretty good” replied Lyra while still smiling nervously.

Bon-Bon looked at her suspiciously, like she definitely knew that something was up with Lyra, but she couldn’t put her hoof on what could it be.

“Anyway, why won’t you come with me?” said Bon-Bon “I have some errands to do, and you could definitely give me a hoof… or a hand, like you say”

“Uh, why don’t I better wait here?”

Bon-Bon deadpanned and rolled her eyes “… No, you definitely are coming with me, now!”

Bon-Bon carried away Lyra while she resisted, but not too much though, she couldn’t let Bon-Bon know what she was up to, or Bon-Bon would accuse her of being childish, just to begin. Maybe if she helped her, Bon-bon would let her go before the kids go out, so she stopped resisting and started to try to get done with her errands as soon as possible.

Derpy flied happily across the town, she was sure that with this she would be able to finally “help” Nightstar; maybe Nightstar would always say otherwise, but he needed help, and she was the only one that knew, but Nightstar would never let her help him. But, this way, she wouldn’t be the one to help him, at least not directly, so maybe Nightstar wouldn’t put as much resistence and…

-Dunk!-

The sound of Derpy’s head and, well, the rest of her body, hitting against ponyville’s clocktower was very strong, it seemed like finally one of Derpy’s “favorite” spots to hit against had been reinforced, so for the first time Derpy suffered more damage than the tower, which by the way, came out undamaged.

“Ugh! That sure hurt!  Derpy, ya ok?”

Applejack was the first to help Derpy out, followed by Rarity, who was with her.

“My, my! You should definitely be more careful while you fly” said Rarity.

“Or, ya know, at least do it whit yer eyes open” added Applejack.

“Sorry, My bad” replied Derpy while Applejack and Rarity helped her get up.

“Very well, take care dear” said Rarity before walking away

“Yeah, don’t cha go crashing with more buildings, ya can’t hurt yourself, or the buildings” added Applejack

“Thanks, I’ll be more careful” replied Derpy. She started to walk the opposite way, when it hit her (figuratively) she was precisely looking for them! Derpy turned back and ran to them. Rarity turned around and saw her coming and tried to evade the upcoming disaster…

“Watch oooooo….”

Derpy crashed against them, and the three fell to the ground in a small heap of pony.

“I guess I forgot to tell ya, but try to not Crash into ponies either” said Applejack while Derpy and Rarity were over her.

“Heh heh, Sorry, again” replied Derpy

“My haaaaaair!!!” Screamed Rarity after noticing that her hair was a mess and was covered with dirt “I’m going to have to go to the Spa, I need an emergency hair treatment, if you excuse me”

“Well, Derpy, did ya need anything” asked Applejack.

“No… I mean, yes! I need to talk with you two about something”

Applejack and Rarity exchanged a puzzled look, what could Derpy what from both of them?

“Well, if we can help you with anything, then, by all means, just ask us” said Rarity.

“You know, your little sisters are always getting in trouble, don’t they?” said Derpy with a misleading smile.

“Yeah, they re, even when I would prefer to not admit it” Said Applejack.

“Why? Did they do something?” asked Rarity.

“Oh, no, no; they haven’t done anything, yet” replied Derpy still with the same weird expression “But, wouldn’t you want sometimes that there was somepony that could keep an eye on them? Just to make sure?”

“Are you saying that we should get them a babysitter” replied a slightly irritated Applejack.

“Oh, no, no! not a babysitter, but more like a… mmm…  umm….”

“A chaperone?” said Rarity.

“Yeah! That! A chaperoni!” replied quickly Derpy. “And I know the perfect pony for the job!” said Derpy with a prideful smile.

Applejack replied “You? Don’t take offense, but are you sure that you can…”

“No! no, no, no! not me! I already got a job! I mean my good friend Nightstar, the poor guy has been jobless for quite a while, and I just know that he is perfect for this!”

“Nightstar? Nightstar… Nightstar… who is him?” asked Applejack

“You know, black coat, blue mane, lives in a castle…” replied Derpy

“Him? I’m not sure…”

“Well, in what concerns me, I’ll always thank some help with Sweetie Belle, She’s too overactive and I’m a busy mare, although I don’t think that concerns to me, you should go talk to my parents” said Rarity.

“So it’s a yes?” asked Derpy expectanctly.

“Are you sure he’s good at this?” asked Applejack.

“Believe, he’s peeeerfect” replied Derpy.

“Weeeeell…” said Applejack doubtful

“Did I mention that it will be very cheap? Only 2 bits the hour, less than half than anyone else!” added Derpy “and also, he’s available the whole day”.

“Well, that IS cheap, and if somepony is willing to take care of them by just that, then he must definitely need the money. Alright, I accept” said Applejack.

“Mmm… I guess that it would be good to have someone have Sweetie Belle behave a little, if she wants to grow up to be a proper lady; im in too” added Rarity.

“YES! Now I only have to talk to Scootaloo’s mom” said Derpy excitedly before flying away. Seconds later, she came back “you don’t happen to know who is she or where she lives do you?”

“Alright! Thanks Lyra, you were very helpful, see you later”

Bon-Bon waved good-bye, while Lyra hurried back to the school. Bon-Bon had a lot of errands, much more than Lyra thought or wanted, and it had taken quite a while to complete them all; when they were over, School was too. Lyra was hoping that they were still around the school, because if they weren’t, she didn’t have many chances of finding them before Derpy or Nightstar. By now Nightstar was probably out in Ponyville, wandering and looking for Derpy and/or the girls to see if he had to take the job after all; and Derpy… she could be very clumsy, but she still could Fly, which gave her an enormous advantage in finding them. If she didn’t gave reasons to the girls themselves to be against this, who knew what would happen, what was sure was that Nightstar wouldn’t be able to the stand the fillies too much time, and who knew what would happen them.

She reached the school, and what a good luck! The girls were still there, talking about something, but that didn’t concern Lyra.

“So, I think it’s actually…”

“Hi Girls! How are you doing?” Lyra interrupted Aplebloom.

“Umm… Hi miss Lyra! How are you?” greeted Aplebloom

“I’m fine, thanks; I was thinking what you thought of Nightstar?” replied Lyra

“Well, he was… umm…”

“Wasn’t he scary?”

“I guess, you could say so”

“He knows how to scare just by with a look” added Lyra

“Yeah, I kind of had realized” said Scootaloo.

“But that’s not all, oh no, he has literally raised crows!” said Lyra in a bad attempt to spook the girls.

“Yeah, my head still remember the pecks” replied Sweetie Belle.

“But that’s actually nothing; you don’t want to know what he keeps on his basement…”

“Hi Girls! I was looking for you!” The Voice of Derpy surprised Lyra, who both metaphorically and literally bit her tongue.  “Hey! Hey! You won’t know just what I did”

The three fillies just gave a puzzled look.

“You are going to have a new chaperone!” said Derpy very excitedly.

“What?” said Scootaloo who still didn’t understand.

“I think she means Chaperone, it’s like a foalsitter” cleared Sweetie Belle.

“What?! We don’t need a foalsitter!” exclaimed Scootaloo.

“But that’s not the best part! You will never guess who is going to be your choperoni!” Said Derpy. Sweetie Belle and Aplebloom gave a puzzled look; Scotaloo deadpanned and arched an eyebrow. “Who?” She finally spouted.

“That would be me” Said Nightstar with his typical expression, while joining the group. Nightstar arrive meant that it was already too late for Lyra to do anything, she could only see if her attempts to discourage the CMC had paid off.

“Well, that’s surprising” said Sweetie Belle. Aplebloom and Scootaloo just stayed there, their eyes wide open, like trying to process it.

Finally Aplebloom spoke “That would be… cool”. Upon hearing that last word, Lyra realized that her plan had failed. Then she realized that she looked at Nightstar, whose expression was very neutral and even a bit relaxed, like he didn’t mind after all, and realized that she had gotten worked up for anything; after all, what was the worst that could happen? Nightstar wasn’t that bad indeed, if he wasn’t able to take care of them after all, he would just not take care of them again after that day and that was it. Lyra felt like a fool for her stupid plan to stop Derpy’s weird plan.

“So when do you start?” asked Aplebloom to Nightstar.

“Right away, I think”

“Cool! Let’s go!” said Aplebloom, while dragging away Nightstar and her friends. Derpy and Lyra stayed there, watching them walk away. Lyra looked at Nightstar expression, he didn’t look particularly happy, but neither he looked angry or anything; he just looked… neutral, and, for Nightstar, that was actyally a pretty good reaction to all this.

“I told you that it would be alright” said Derpy, smiling.

“Well, I guess that you were right” replied Lyra, while giving another smile and Watching Nightstar walk away with the three fillies.

Meanwhile, Nightstar walked with the three excited fillies that jumped around him.

“So, what are we going to do?” Said Aplebloom

“I don’t know, what do you want to do? I’m a chaperone, not a foalsitter, so, for what I know, I’m just supposed to follow you around and make sure you don’t do anything dangerous or bad or, you know, that kind of stuff. And while weare on the subject, while there are obviously other rules that you kind of know already, in what respects to me, there are three rules: 1)We don’t talk about my past before I moved to ponyville 2)we don’t talk about my talent…” in that moment, Sweetie Belle raised her hoof  “…and three, you can’t ask “why?” about rules 1 and 2” Sweetie Belle putted her hoof down.

“Can we go to your castle?” asked Aplebloom.

“I guess, but why?” replied Nightstar

“Well, we want to see what is that you have on your basement that Lyra was talking about…”