The Bond

Chapter 14

The Super-Duper-Extra-Sweet-Welcome Party

This is getting out of hoof...

The shadows fell down from every object looming around, leaving long thin strips of black across the roads that were starting to get empty of the normal daily huzzle, as shops started to close down and ponies were waving goodbyes to their friends.

Rays from Celestia's sun still shone bright from the sky, painting it a deep orange colour that stretched from one end of the skyline to the other, but it had already started to descend down for this day and soon the moon of Luna would come from its hiding place.

Sadly, this all this went unnoticed by the purple unicorn mare, who was walking down the road towards what used to be Lyra's house, at least according to the directions what Pinkie had given to her before returning to the Carousel Boutique to get the last of the things set up for the 'bachelors'.

For the love of Celestia and Luna, it can't be that every free mare of this town is after them!

Twilight shouted deep inside her head, just as her hooves stopped at the opening that led to a smaller street. After a deep breath she headed in, while she started to think of the best way to get them to the party without telling them.

And I would gladly tell, but Pinkie must have seen this before making me Pinkie swear... Aha, there it is!

The lavender unicorn stopped by the closed wooden door, knowing that after a knock came the point of no return...

*Knock Knock*

She backed off a bit, as her ears started to pick up noises coming from behind the door, until they suddenly stopped and nearing hoof steps were heard. A faint 'clank' noise was heard as the lock on the door unlocked and it opened, revealing the maroon Earth pony, still wearing his hat, looking down at her.

Twilight gulped a bit from nervousness before looking back at him.

"Hi Maero, can I come in?"

The maroon pony looked behind him for a moment, as if looking at something, before moving to make a way while keeping the door open for her.

"Thanks." Twilight said while stepping in, but Maero didn't seem to care, only locking the door and walking past her towards the living room area, where the dark blue pegasus and silver grey unicorn were looking at her.

"Good to see you Twilight," Nucleus started before pointing at the last free chair "please, have a seat."

The lavender unicorn walked right up to them, seeing that on the table laid some sort of board game with three figures on the board along with couple of dice, but she didn't sit down and instead turned to look towards Nucleus.

"Actually... umm... I came to ask if you're possibly free now." Twilight muttered while rubbing the back of her head and nervously laughing on just how bad her act was. Nucleus faintly smiled before turning to look at the dark blue pegasus sitting next to him on the couch.

"Well Alto, it's your turn."

The blue pegasus groaned a bit before taking one of the dice and throwing it to the small cup. After a brief look, he took the bright green figure and proceeded to move it forward four spaces before cautiously taking the round emblem resting on the space.

"MOTHER OF FUCK; ANOTHER DIAMOND DOG!" Alto shouted out loud, sending Twilight falling on her rump from the sudden shock of both the shout and the content of what he had shouted.

But Nucleus didn't seem to care, as he took all of the paper notes away from Alto, who was still shaking from having lost all of his in-game bits for the third time, and just after he had found a buried relic.

"Alto, what have we talked about cursing?"

"Come on; I just practically lost the whole game!"

Nucleus only sighed as the paper notes fell to the box, much to Alto's dismay, and his look moved onto the large Earth pony sitting on the other side of the table.

"Your turn."

The dice fell from the inside of the cup to Maero's hoof before being thrown back to the deeps of the cup. His dark purple figure moved two steps forward before he turned over the intact emblem.

On it, was an picture of an sparkling sapphire statue.

Nucleus grinned to Maero, who put the emblem next to the few paper notes he had, while Alto had dropped his face the instant the thing had been flipped.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Alto muttered while turning to look at Maero. "You just won."

The maroon Earth pony stayed silent and instead started to clean up the table, relieving the cover of the box titled 'Daring Do and The Quest for the Sapphire Stone: The Game'.

Nucleus kept his faint grin on while turning back to Twilight, who was now sheepishly smiling.

"On your question; yes, we're free." he said while leaning towards her, "But why?"

Oh horse apples!

Twilight panickly thought while trying to think of an answer.

"Well... you remember Rarity from before? She...umm... wants you three to meet up at hers for... some tea."

The silver grey unicorn continued look at her, his blue eyes drilling into hers, like trying to find something in them.

"You're a terrible liar Twilight."

Twilight stepped back couple of steps, shocked at how he had seen past her so easily, but he just smirked while standing up along with Alto and Maero, who had gotten the board game fixed away under the table.

Nucleus adjusted his glasses a bit before turning to look towards his friends.

"Well what do you think? Should we go?"

Alto shrugged, "Better than spending the rest of the day between four walls."

Maero seemed to agree with him, though really he didn't seem to really care.

"Seems like that settles it." Nucleus said while turning to look back at the still shocked Twilight, who tried to comprehend on what had just happened.

Finally; she gave up, groaned and headed out of the door.

Just as good at spotting lies as making them.

* * * * *

"Oh this is going to be so great!" Rainbow exclaimed while pumping her hoof down to the counter, making rest of the gang look at her.

AJ took a sip from her plastic cup before answering to the excited cyan mare.

"Ah don't get it sugah', how come you’re suddenly all over this Alto fellow?"

Rainbow slurred her lips to the orange cow mare, making Pinkie and Rarity giggle while Fluttershy stayed silent, looking down at the rest of the party room.

"Goodness there's a lot of ponies here..." the yellow pegasus said, getting a hum of approval from the rest of them.

"But Applejack dear; isn't it great that even Rainbow has finally found somepony she's interested in?" the white unicorn asked from her, who just grunted for an answer before turning over to Pinkie, who was looking out of the window.

"Has Twi' come?"

Pinkie shook her head and kept looking out.

"Nope, but it shouldn't take too long."

"What if they ain't coming with her?"

AJ could have sworn, even if not seeing it, that Pinkie had her goofy smile painted all across her.

"Now THAT wouldn't make any sense, what possible reason they could have for not coming?"

This the orange mare had to reluctantly agree on, as she leaned up to the pink pony, making sure neither Rarity nor Rainbow were listening.

"Pinkie, please tell me you ain't gonna be like those two over there." AJ asked while pointing her hoof at the end of the counter, where Rainbow and Rarity were talking away about how cool Alto and how elegant Nucleus were.

The pink pony now turned to look at her and, wouldn't you know it, she had her goofy smile on.

"Nope; none of them strike my interest."

AJ breathed in relief and backed off, as Pinkie turned to look back outside but suddenly her face dropped and she quickly took a megaphone from somewhere, much to AJ's surprise.

"ATTENTION EVERYPONY! PLEASE CLEAR THE WAY TO THE MIDDLE WHILE STAYING SILENT. OUR GUESTS HAVE ARRIVED."

AJ tilted her head past Pinkie, who was trying to silence the crowd moving around, to see that Twilight had indeed appeared to the end of the road, followed by the three ponies this party was holstered for.

"LIGHTS OUT....NOW!"

The room fell to a total darkness, as even curtains were moved in front of windows so that not an single stray of light could enter and reveal the mass of ponies, waiting in the silence.

Minute passed by; AJ holding the frightened Fluttershy, Pinkie aiming her party cannon towards the door and Rainbow and Rarity trying to get as much of close to it as they could possibly do.

Then, the door opened.

* * * * *

Let's see...

Lights out? Check!

Eminent silence? Check!

Nervous Twilight Who Insisted On Us Entering First? Check!

This could only mean one thing and that is...

The lights suddenly went on.

"SURPRISE!"

Just as I had predicted.

The main room was full of all kinds’ ponies, but most of them share the same aspect of being a mare, though some occasional stallion head popped out from the crowd that started to slowly descend onto our direction.

*BOOM*

My ears rang, as I saw thousands of confetti particles fill the air before falling down onto the floor, and just then I noticed Pinkie standing behind a large cannon, from which small streams smoke lingered out off.

"Holy shit..." Muttered Alto faintly on my right, but maybe cause of the shock value he had just had in total along with the fact that I was in a party holstered by the one and only Pinkie Pie, I let him go with it just this one occasion.

On the other hand, Maero on my left had frozen still, barely even breathing in and out, while the blood seemed to have run from his now pale face and the only alive thing alive was his rapidly moving emerald eyes.

Is he frightened?

My thoughts didn't last for long, as Pinkie bounced from her cannon up to us while her face gleamed from happiness and joy, so much in fact that she continued on with her jumping even on her place.

"Surprise! I'm so duper sorry this party being a teenie-tiny bit late but the now-angry-looking Twilight there made me promise not to held this for you but it doesn't really matter now *gasp* Almost forgot, you've gotta give a speech for all of your guests."

Pinkie then proceeded to stretch her head out of eye view and drag back an microphone stand.

I took one cautious step forward, so that the mike came just to the same level with my mouth, and turned to look around the crowd around me, seeing that every single eye pair was locked onto me.

"Check, one, two..." I said for starters, getting the crowd to laugh a bit for an response.

This attention's a bit demeaning...

"First off; we'd like to thank each and every one of you for having come here on this occasion. I'm sure you're as excited as the three of us."

The crowd burst into cheers, stomping their hooves down to the floor.

"Second; let’s give a big shout out to the pony behind all of this, Pinkie Pie!"

The pink pony besides me bowed towards the still cheering crowd.

"Now, we know that you're eager to get to know more about us, but we would like that for now things would go slow, as we're still new to this town and we'd like to get to know more about you all."

Some groans erupted from the crowd, but the rest of the ponies kept silent as they watched me pass the mike to the waiting Pinkie, who didn't waste any time.

"Let's get this paaaarty rolling everypony!" She shouted to the mike and, within the same fraction of an second, the music started to come out of the many bassos fixed around the sides of the room while all of the ponies began either dancing, chatting or do the two things at the same time.

I need a drink...

I thought while turning round to see that, at least, Alto had gotten back to his normal self, a slight smirk painted across his face.

"You knew about this, didn't you?"

I shrugged, getting a light chuckle as an response, before looking over at the direction of the now sitting Maero.

"Are you alright?" I cautiously inquired, making his still slightly pale face turn over towards me.

"I..." He started, before suddenly standing up and charging away to the small opening in the mass of ponies.

But as I turned to go after him, the dark blue hoof of Alto's fell down to my shoulder, halting my steps.

"Let him be." Alto silently said.

"But he's..."

Alto sighed before turning his yellow eyes up towards me.

"Tell me; what could we possibly do?"

I looked at where Maero had gone, but he had already disappeared.

"Guess you're right..." I finally muttered, but he just laughed before moving his hoof around my neck.

"Cheer up, this is a party! FOR US! I'm totally sure that even he's going to have a fine time."

Just the confident tone of his voice made me crack into laughter, but it stopped immediately as two ponies blocked our way forward.

Oh horse apples...

I thought as the white unicorn with purple mane and her cyan pegasus companion started to head towards us.

"Oh hell no!" Alto shouted before quickly dashing past me.

The cyan pegasus rolled her eyes and started to follow him, while the unicorn giggled a bit before stopping in front of me and flipping her purple mane.

This is going to be a long night...

* * * * *

*SPLASH*

Just what I needed...

The cup I had been holding fell to the kitchen counter, just next to the still running sink.

The noises coming from the main room could be heard, though not so loud that one could make out which was which.

Small water drops fell down to the counter, as I reached my hoof to the towel hanging from a crook above the now closed sink.

My eyes turned around the room, only to confirm that none but me was here, before I started to rub my head to the piece of cloth.

... a reminder of past...

The towel dropped of my grasp, as I turned over to grab the straw hat from the upper edge of the kitchen stool.

Even you're a reminder, thought a good one...

As I tucked it deep down, my gaze slept to look through the window.

The sky was now only orange in the horizon, where the setting sun currently laid its last rays over the sky before the darkness would fill the void and the white moon would rise.

Hopefully there are stars... Rosie loves them.

Rosie...

"There you are!"

I turned my head away from the window and towards the doorway, where now stood an familiar yellow pony with bright orange mane.

And she was deviously smiling...

"Hi Carrot."

Her smile grew even wider and she walked up to me.

"How come you're here honey?" she asked, her voice sounding too smooth compared to her normal tone I knew too well.

"Needed water."

Carrot snickered and shook her head before suddenly wrapping her hoof around mine.

"Come on; Pinkie just got the 'Pin the tail to the pony' started!" she said while trying to pull me back to the party, but I stayed put.

Should I?

I would only ruin the mood...

I turned to look at Carrot, who was starting to give me 'that' look and working herself out to a near exhaustion.

"Okay.

Hehe, got you big boy!

Carrot thought as she led the maroon stallion of her through the crowd, which was fully into dancing, towards the game corner.

Many mares, even some she knew, shot her with jealous looks, but Carrot didn't care about them as she knew that nopony would be dumb enough to come and try to take Maero away from her.

By the end of this, you're all mine!

The game corner laid at the edge of the main dance room, as many ponies liked to listen to the music while either hunting apples from the large tube or, like now, playing some social games.

Small cheers came from the group of ponies there as Pinkie had just perfectly pinned the tail to the picture strapped onto the wall, making her ever so perfect score even higher.

Pinkie removed the eye cover, just as Carrot had managed to squeeze the two of them to the front.

"Oh, hi Carrot and *gasp* Maero!" The pink pony started, but Carrot stopped her there, as Pinkie was notorious of her loose talk, before tilting her head towards the maroon stallion, standing by next to her.

"Pinkie, how about Maero gives it a shot?" She said, just before letting go of him and pushing him up to the pink pony, who didn't waste any time, and soon Maero's eyes were hidden under the cloth, his hat still intact, while he was given a piece of tail to be held in mouth.

Just as Pinkie was ready to give him the spin, Carrot leant to his perked up ear at the edge of the straw hat.

"Oh, and there's a 'special reward' waiting for you." she whispered, making the particular ear twitch, before letting Pinkie do her job.

Although the spin didn’t last long, Carrot could clearly make out that Maero had really big trouble keeping his hooves straight immediately after Pinkie had stopped.

"Get that tail pinned!" Pinkie said while tucking him towards the picture, practically sending him stagger towards it as his hooves crossed each other in their path.

That's it, a little bit more...

As one could have predicted, Maero's hooves hit one another, making him fall forward and hit his head right on the wall.

But, as he fell back and down to his rump, everypony cheered as the tail had been pinned and actually pretty close to the target spot, lacking only an inch or so.

Carrot immediately ran to the still dizzy Maero, who was trying to get the eye cover off, while Pinkie along with the rest of the onlookers kept cheering for him.

As the cloth finally fell away, she took him in firm embrace, sending small shivers down her.

Mmmh... so warm.

The yellow mare backed off a bit, though still keeping the embrace, to look him deep in his emerald eyes.

"Now for your 'prize'..."

And before Pinkie got to say another 'wohoo', she closed her eyes and kissed him directly mouth to mouth.

The crowd around fell silent.

Is this happening?

Is this actually happening?

My look turned downwards to see that Carrot was...

This feeling, what is it?

She kept her eyes closed the entire three seconds it lasted before finally withdrawing, but still keeping the embrace, and opened them to look back on me while her mouth slowly turned into an smile.

Time seemed to freeze as I kept looking down at her, my mind losing the sense of sensibility.

How...

My hooves acted on their own, as they pushed her away from me, making loud gasps erupt on the sides...

... she...

I stormed out, my dizziness vanishing in the same second, off the ring, avoiding an eye contact with anyone, and away from her...

...dares!

I kept moving, past the dancing ponies, past the food table where Alto was eating, past the...

...

My hooves, even if having an mind of their own, stopped at a door, which frankly was open, leading outside to a back yard that had many pieces of cloth drying all over on long ropes

Without thinking, I sat down and leant my back against the tree.

A tiny breath escaped my mouth.

"... Why?"

The orange colour in the horizon had faded, leaving only the burning sun left that was giving its last shines for today.

"Why am I here?"

Painful memories, the ones that have changed me, came back...

The screams, the animal like screams...

"Doctor!" Shouted the female nurse besides me, but this didn't matter any to me.

My body desperately tried to move, to get this pain go away...

The caskets clinked to the metal sides of the bed, catching the attention of the nurse, who put her hand over my forehead.

"Please stay still, the doctor's coming soon." She calmly said to me, but a rapid coughing came deep from my lungs, stopping the horrible voices at least for a moment.

"Mom... Dad..." I was able to mutter in between the coughs, before returning to the pain.

The nurse looked away to the side, taking something from away my eye sight.

Suddenly, the pain started to ease...

"Thanks." I muttered, thinking that she had given me another shot, but she had frozen still, looking at the monitor next to the bed while a phone laid on her hand.

"DOCTOR!"

Darkness started to creep to the edges of my vision, making the room slowly disappear from sight.

I tried to fight, to move, to somehow escape from it, but it kept coming, not stopping.

Some figures appeared at the tiny patches of vision left, but what they said went by, as this ringing voice kept going on.

I'm sorry.

So sorry...

"CLEAR!"

Then the world fell fully dark...

"Hey..."

The darkness vanished away and I found myself back at this reality, looking at the still setting down sun in the horizon.

My look fell to the left, and there stood Carrot, her apologetic face turned down.

It... hurt me to see her like that, for some odd reason.

She calmly walked next to me and sat down right next to me.

"Look, I'm..."

I put my hoof over her mouth, making her eyes dart wide open.

"Could you stay here with me?"

Carrot looked over at me before snickering.

"Can I hold you?"

I nodded and she crawled up to me, resting her head on my shoulder while the rest of her body leant onto me, warming my side, and her hooves went as far around me as they could possibly go.

Both of us kept silent, as we watched the setting down sun.

And to think that was my first kiss...

* * * * *

Has she already given up?

I crawled to the edge of the table and used my hoof to raise the tablecloth out of way, but only a little, to see many different colour pairs of hooves moving around or staying still.

And from the quick looks of it, none were cyan in colour... but then again I remembered she had wings, which meant that she could be just hovering over.

Great, so I'm basically stuck here!

"Hi!" Chirped the voice behind.

My head sent itself flying up, hitting the wooden table above and sending a wave of pain through me.

"Aah, son of a..." I muttered while rubbing my head in agony and turning round, to see a familiar grey pegasus laying down and smiling at me.

"Ditzy?"

She crawled herself up next to me, still keeping her gaze fixed onto me and holding an already bitten muffin on her hoof.

"Umm... why are you lying under the buffet table when there's free muffins just above you?" She asked before taking a bite out of the muffin, revealing its blueberry inside.

"I'm hiding." I said, looking again over the edge, but Ditzy only giggled before, from the voices, finishing her muffin.

"From who?"

I turned back at her "There's this crazy pony named Rainbow..."

Ditzy broke into laughter right after having heard the name, making me only groan at her.

But then an idea struck me.

Maybe a bit mean one...

But I love it!

Where the hay is he?

Rainbow thought as her wings continued flapping, though she was now still and giving a general look around in the hunt of anything with dark blue colour, yet she had only been able to figure that he wasn't at least inside one of Pinkie's pies one of the ponies accidentally threw at her.

Then something touched her from behind and as Rainbow turned over, her already frustrated expression grew even worse.

"What Derpy?" Can't you see I'm busy?" She asked in frustration, but the grey pegasus flying just giggled, making Rainbow's already thin patience go right at the line...

"Are you looking for somepo-" the cross eyed pegasus started, before being grabbed by Rainbow to meet face to face.

"Derpy, have you seen a dark blue peg-"

"You mean Alto?"

Rainbow nodded.

"Yeah he jumped out of the window ther-"

And before Ditzy got to say more, Rainbow darted away from her like an lightning bolt and, in an second, flew out of the window the grey pegasus had opened just an minute ago.

Wow... it worked!

She flew back at the buffet table, trying to keep her laughter down, and landing just next to the trait that had large muffins piled up towards the sky, all different kinds of flavour, straight from the master baker of Ponyville.

"The way's clear!"

The table trembled a bit before the grinning face of the dark blue pegasus appeared from beneath, just below her frontal hooves.

"Serious?" He asked while looking around, but Ditzy hummed for an answer, making him his grin grew even wider.

As he got up, Ditzy took two blueberry muffins from the pile and gave another to him, who eagerly took it down in couple of hasty bits, making her finally crack up.

"What's so funny?" Alto asked her, small bits of muffin covering his mouth area. Ditzy continued her laughter, but reached over at the paper towels on the middle of the table.

"Cause you're kinda like Dinky." She got to say between inhales and, before Alto got to say anything, proceeded to clean his face with the paper, making him blush.

"Always in haste when eating."

"By the way, where is Dinky?" Alto asked from her, just as the paper fell to the bin next to the table.

"Dinky's staying at her friends until I get back from here." She started before turning her head past the buffet table to the dance floor, where the music had just changed into a little bit more beaty one.

"So... wanna dance?"

So tired...

Though the bass beat had already quiet down, both my ears and my mind rang still had the tune ringing over and over again, wanting to make me move.

My eyes opened... just before a breath of exhaustion left me.

Shit; dancing's hard on all fours!

A faint giggle made me turn over to left, where sat, from the looks of it, as tired Ditzy.

Damn; you're one heck of an dancer!

"You're *pant* good."

Ditzy looked at me with a smile "Heh, you *pant* weren't that bad either."

But I shook my head, while my breathing had started to steady down.

"Are you kidding me? I must have tripped like over forty times while you did those amazing flips!" I exclaimed, but Ditzy only tucked me with her hoof.

"Well, at least you gave it your best." she started.

"Though you honestly were pretty bad..."

Both of us laughed there for an moment, while drops of sweat fell down us, until I stopped and turned back to look at the crowd of dancing ponies.

"You're amazing Ditzy Doo..."

She shrugged "Nah, I'm nothing special."

Her eyes turned to look at me in the corners of mine.

"I'm just a letter sorter and a mother..."

I smiled before tucking her with my hoof.

"By the way, how old is Dinky?" I asked with totally honest curiosity, making her look at me in confusion, thought her other eye kept looking away a bit.

"She's turning three soon."

....... Is she serious....

I hid my shock behind the smile before turning to look at her.

"And how old are you?"

Now she giggled, making me a bit relieved.

"I'm fifteen."

WHAT!

Her look turns into concern and she nears me to hold me, though I didn't see this as my vision went bland from the shock.

"Alto, what is it? Is something wrong?"

"Oh... umm... it's..."

Crap, figure something out!

"...just that I didn't know that you..."

Ditzy's warming smile faded away, as she backed off me to.

"Me what?"

"... are younger than me!"

She locked her eyes onto mine, as if searching for any indication of lie in them, but soon she shrugged.

"Well that's true, though I can't really blame you, as I'm kinda young for already having a school age filly."

Suddenly she playfully punched my chin.

"But I hope that it doesn't matter to you..." she said before moving the hoof over me and leaving it there. "...friend?"

For a time, I stared her along the hoof, to see both of her yellow eyes turned onto me.

But then, a grin grew back onto me, as my hoof rose up.

Maybe this is start of great friendship...

*Clap*

And besides, it isn't like I'm gonna get into trouble for making friends.

* * * * *

Just how did I get here?

The tea cup on my hoof rose for an sip, before I turned back to look on the white unicorn sitting opposite, who was leaning over the small round table towards me, her purple mane lowering to the left and the deep blue eyes firmly locked onto me.

Rarity, just what are you up to?

"So Mr Nucleus..." she started, but I politely interrupted her and laid the cup on the small plate below.

"Please, call me Nucleus." I said, and turned to look around this room she had brought me into, which I recognized from the show as this was the main design room with all the mannequins and sketches laying around.

"So all of these are made by you?" I asked before waving my hoof over at the sides, where the mannequins were orderly in line, all dressed up in fine, sparkling dresses.

Rarity nodded "Yes, these particular ones are going to a regular client in Canterlot."

She then turned back to me, smiling.

"You're originally from Canterlot, aren't you?"

To be or not to be?

"It's my speaking manner, isn't it?"

Rarity giggled, while leaning even closer.

"Yes dear;" she said while picking the teapot with magic and pouring more tea to the two cups.

"I have met my share of Canterlotian ponies, but none like you..." she told, leaving the end in thin air as if she remembered something, most likely about the snob attitude most of the ponies had in there over anyone else.

Suddenly, Rarity's hoof fell over mine that lay on the table.

Wait...

She faintly smiled to me before flipping her long mane out of way.

Is she actually.... no.... on me!

Her eyes turned to glitter, like some sort of gem, and she leant herself even closer, in which I responded by backing away.

...

"Oh isn't this just so wonderful?" Rarity whispered just an inch away from my gaze, fluttering her eye slashes to me.

To feel lucky, or unlucky....

"Just the two of us, in total serenit-"

*CRASH*

Both of us snapped back to reality, as our heads turned towards the ceiling, from where the sudden voice had erupted from.

*CRASH*

Rarity's face dropped and she quickly stood, her face still turned upwards, along with me.

And she looked angry...

Very angry...

"Sweetie, if you DARE..."

*CRASH*

Rarity let out a groan of frustration before turning her face back to me, nervously smiling.

"Excuse me for a moment dear, but I have to check on..."

*CRASH*

"...that." she ended, before walking to the room door with me and leaving off for upstairs with a haste.

A tiny breath of relief escaped my mouth.

Now I definately need that drink...

*sigh*

The cherry red mare kept leaning on the counter, her light green eyes looking down onto the small cup in which was still left some of the neon green punch she had given her first shot at.

As she dropped the last drops down her throat, her gaze fell down along the long counter, looking through the other by sitters, who mostly were talking to each other, and the many kinds of punch bowls, all holding different in colour and taste.

Who am I kidding, I had no chances on him...

She raised the cup and reached out towards the large glass bowl, containing pale orange variant.

But just the, some other cup also reached at the punch and the two cups collated.

"Oh, I beg your pard-, Cheerilee?"

That voice!

Cheerilee flung around her stool to see the silver grey unicorn with glasses looking towards her.

"Nucleus?" she asked in disbelief, but the unicorn stallion smiled before taking the stool next to her and sitting down onto it.

"Didn't expect to find you in here, and at the punch table no less." he said while taking a drink and turning round towards her, who was still staring at him, both in shock and disbelief.

Nucleus raised his eyebrows. "Is something wrong with my mane or..."

Cheerilee, due to her experience as an teacher, was able to act calm and holster her blush, though she was sure her coat would have hidden the bright red colour.

"Just surprised to see you." she said, trying to keep her emotions out of way, while filling her cup with the orange liquid.

But does this mean...

Nucleus smiled before turning away from her to look around the room and take some more of the punch.

He isn't with Rarity?

"So... how's the party been like?" Cheerilee carefully asked, getting him look back on her and shrug.

"Seems to be alright, thought I haven't had much of an chance to look around." he said before grinning and shaking his cup to her.

"Besides, I needed a drink."

The two of them broke into a light laughter, but soon they calmed down and fell silent between one another, occasionally coughing, as they turned to look down onto their respective cups. Just then, the music changed from a techno song to a bit more classical one.

Cheerilee saw on the corner of her eye that Nucleus was slightly moving according to the melody.

"You like Beethoof's symphonies?" she asked in a slight surprise, as Nucleus definitely didn't look like an stallion interested in centuries old music.

He snapped out of his trance "Not specifically, but I do generally enjoy classical ones over the new ones. Especially the ones with string instruments strike my interest."

The crowd of ponies had started to boo at the music, demanding for an change, and soon the wind instruments changed to an high tempo rock track, making the crowd cheer again and Nucleus sigh.

"Shame, it was a beautiful melody."

He turned, from looking at the crowd, back to her.

"Cheerilee, may I ask something from you?"

Could... he be asking that?

The cherry red mare nodded.

Nucleus breathed in and out.

"Have you ever worried over a friend, specifically over your best one?"

Was hoping too much...

Cheerilee turned to look at him in confusion, to which he responded by taking more of the punch.

"Yes, how come?"

Nucleus lowered his cup.

"I'm worried about my friends." he started before sighing once more.

"And particularly on Maero..."

"Well, how come you're worried about them?" Cheerilee asked, but only made Nucleus look away from her.

"We..." he started, but fell silent for an minute.

"Have suffered some personal losses, if you get what I mean."

Cheerilee's eyes widened, as she heard those words left his mouth.

Oh you poor thing...

From an instinct, and maybe a bit because of the punch, her cherry red hoof rose up but stopped just before touching down onto his elbow.

Should I?

Her hoof stayed still before falling down back to the counter top.

"I'm sorry, I cannot help you."

Nucleus kept still, looking down onto the cup while swirling the punch around.

"It's okay..." he quietly said before leaning over the counter in similar fashion like Cheerilee had been doing.

Sometime passed by in silence, until Nucleus dropped his gaze on her.

"Got any ideas for a plain conversation?"

* * * * *

It must be about nine.

AJ thought while looking out of the window into the dark night sky.

She turned over, wooden mug of cider on her hoof and her Stetsen hat hanging around neck, to see the lavender unicorn still flipping through the book of hers, disregarding her surrounds and focusing solely on reading.

AJ sighed "Twi', what's bothering you?"

Twilight didn't respond at first, her horn still glowing purple and pages being turned over, until AJ tucked her.

"Oh sorry, you said something?"

AJ pointed her hoof towards Twilight.

"Ah asked if something's bothering you? You've been reading that book of yours since having arrived back."

Twilight eyed at her book for a moment before sheepishly smiling to her while putting it away.

"Sorry, this book is just fascinating so I was kinda into it." She said before laughing, but AJ, being an honest pony herself, saw past her without any trouble.

"Twilight..." the farm mare quietly said, making Twilight laugh a bit more and rub the back of her head.

"Say, where's the other girls? Haven't seen the-"

"Fluttershy left some hour ago to feed her animals, Pinkies bouncing around and taking care of the party. Rarity I've seen walking past couple of times and Rainbow has disappeared." AJ recounted before leaning towards the still nervous Twilight.

"And sugarcube, Ah can see something's bugging you."

Twilight turned her look away from the farm mare, trying to come up with words.

"This might sound a bit crazy but... Alto, Nucleus and Maero have been dishonest with us."

"Now what makes you say something like that? They seem to be fine fellows to-" AJ started but the lavender unicorn interrupted her with an hoof raise.

"Then let me prove it; Remember when they told us about the Timber wolf attack on them? I searched through my books to find that the location they descripted didn't fit to the area where they've been sighted at."

"Then they tell about how Nucleus 'accidentally' hit Maero with his horn, but when I took a look on the angle of the strike, it showed that Maero would have needed to be still in order to Nucleus's horn to have gone through, which would have been impossible if there was an Timber wolf on his back!"

"And today, when I and Rarity were at the cafe with them, Alto slept that Nucleus didn't know how to do magic, which he responded in by that he knew how to do it, but it simply hurt him to do it. At first this didn't bother me, but when I digged further into book about magical activity, it read that only reason for it to cause pain is that either the pony is too young, which is of course out of question, or that he/she is Magichousis."

"Magicwhat?" AJ asked while Twilight was catching her breath.

"Very rare magical disorder, in which unicorn is from birth unable to conduct any sort of magical activity due to a change in horn structure. But even that's out of question unless Nucleus one of the richest stallions in whole of Equestria!"

"Now hold on a second... How this Magicwhatsoever wouldn't be on Nuc'?" AJ asked, still trying to catch onto what her lavender friend was trying to prove.

"Because the horn of one would be deformed, and in many cases the horns are cut due to massive head pains. There is an experimental surgery developed in Princess Celestia's Hospital at Canterlot that allows the horn to grow normally, but the amount of bits needed would be able to buy about third out of Ponyville!"

Twilight's head dropped on the table.

"So either Nucleus is a one case in whole existence or he's hiding something really big... unless of course being part of some rich family, which I doubt."

AJ kept looking down onto her, before faintly chuckling and making Twilight turn to her, face gleaming with frustration.

"Aw shucks, Ah was thinking you would at least mention their lack of Cutie Marks as a one fault."

Twilight groaned and face hoofed herself at the same time.

"The lack of Cutie Mark isn't that big of a thing when I got into digging about it more; there are literally hundreds of adult ponies in all over Equestria that haven't gotten theirs. Of course it causes a bit of trouble, but most get past it and get to do what they want to."

"ATTENTION EVERYPONY!"

Both AJ and Twilight turned their looks towards the centre of the room, where Pinkie was standing on her hind hooves and shouting into the megaphone on her grasp.

"I NEED OUR GUESTS HERE!"

The two mares turned back to look each other in confusion.

"What's Pinkie up to?" AJ asked, but Twilight groaned yet again before laying her head onto the table. She shrugged before turning back on Pinkie, who was now pointing her free hoof towards particular part of the crowd, which had already moved out of way to reveal...

"ALTO!"

The dark blue pegasus grinned and began walking u front, but the crowd wasn't cheering along with Pinkie...

Twilight raised her head from the table for an quick look before lowering back.

"Who's that besides him?"

AJ could only stare, along with the rest of the ponies in the crowd, as Alto walked down to the centre and all the time, a grey pegasus mare stayed besides him while her crossed eyes looking around a bit nervous.

"Rainbow's ain't gonna be happy about this..."

"NUCLEUS!"

AJ turned her head towards another opening in the crowd, from where came towards centre the silver grey unicorn, but unlike Alto, alone, only holding a small cup in his hoof, thought everypony could see he was having slight trouble, as soon after getting to the centre, he leaned onto Alto standing by.

"Seems like somepony has been tasting the punches..."

"MAERO!"

The farm mare once more turned her head where Pinkie was pointing at and...

Her jaw dropped down onto the table, as she saw...

The maroon Earth pony began his slow walk towards the centre, keeping his look fixed down, while a light yellow mare with bright orange mane was leaning herself onto him, her hoof wrapped around his.

The crowd broke into slight 'awws', but the sight was anything but that to AJ...

"Carrot Top you..."

Twilight turned to look at AJ in a shock of her friend's reaction.

"Something wro-"

"Wrong? Ah tell you what's wrong! That... that thing besides Maero shouldn't be there!"

"ALRIGHT, HOPE EVERYPONY IS READY FOR SOME CAKE!" Pinkie shouted out before disappearing in a cloud of dust, which no pony frankly questioned, to the side and soon all ponies had their eyes looking down there at the...

"Well, hope you guys like this!" Pinkie chirped, while pushing the trolley towards the centre, but the three fellows were too busy looking down onto the thing that was supposed to be the cake.

It consisted of three different parts laying on top of one another; the bottom one was maroon brown in colour with yellow frosting on top, the middle section was silver with brown frosting and the top one was dark blue with black variant.

The trolley stopped in front of the three stallions, still looking up at the monster cake with an awe.

"Well what you're waiting for?" the pink pony asked and soon put a cake knife on each one of their free hoof.

The three friends looked at one another before Alto grinned and let the knife fell down.

Suddenly, he took a hold of both Maero and Nucleus before falling right onto...

*SPLASH*

All of the ponies in the room watched as the cake fell down, covering the three stallions in cream and frosting.

Silence fell over; even Pinkie was looking at her master piece covering them.

The three ponies looked on one another, looking down onto one another while Alto was wiping his face from cream, Nucleus removing his glasses and Maero staring down to his frosting covered body.

Alto turned to look around the mess he had created, before snickering and breaking into laughter, rolling around the cake mush on the floor.

Nucleus, after having cleaned his glasses, soon followed, thought he regained from rolling around and instead gave a taste to the cake.

Maero, on the other hoof, kept looking down onto himself before slowly standing up and starting to clean himself, though even he was smiling faintly.

Soon even the crowd of ponies broke into a light laughter, but this wasn't the case in point with one certain lavender unicorn hiding in the corner, her face still planted onto the counter.

"Have your fun now, but tomorrow you've got to answer for yourself!"

* * * * *

"Sister, are thou absolutely sure about this?"

The older of the alicorns turned to look at her younger sister, who was still gazing upon the report from this afternoon.

"I trust what I've been told about, and this is something that needs to be looked upon, my dear sister."

The dark blue Alicorn lowered the scroll and turned towards her, sharing the similar firm look of concern.

"When shall We leave for Ponyville then?"

"At the moment you lower the Moon and end the night court. Understand that this cannot wait."

The younger of the Royal sisters nodded, knowing that this was now their upmost important duty of all.

"Should We expect trouble?"

The older Alicorn sighed "Honestly Luna, I don't know, but you have to be wary and vigilant on this matter."

Princess Luna nodded and stood up along with her older sister.

"Thou must not worry, our dear sister; We'll deal upon this matter."

A/N:

Yet once more ahead of my normal schedule :rainbowlaugh:

No, it's seriously lucky that I've had time from my tidious studying to do the fixing and otherwise improve certain parts (Yes, my pre-readers, I do listen to you, so please do point out any flaws!)

Other than that; I'll see you in the next week and propably at the start of Summer Vacation :ajsmug:

Oh, and I'll leave you with this corny joke;

"Ahoy, a ship named Marrot has set sail... May Lord save those poor fellows."

Curse Shogun 2 and it's amazing naval battles