The Bond

Chapter 18

Alto’s Cool Day

It was dark...

Everywhere anypony would look, you’d only find yourself staring into the black deeps that shrouded the world around you, especially on other side of the thin window. This rule was broken by the tiny lamp posts that lined up and down the roads and shone up the commercial districts of the Ponyville.

Yet still, it was dark...

But not for long.

Over in the distance at the top of the snowy mountains bordering the land, the sky suddenly lit up in an aspiring light show that penetrated through out the clouds and laid its heavenly rays throughout the whole world; from the mountain capital of Canterlot to the skyscrapers of Manehattan, ultimately ending up at the countryside town.

Now, as the whole of Ponyville was waking up from their slumber, minus a certain chestnut Earth Pony in his lair, so did a certain strange pattern of events, all tied together, begin to play out.

Events tied to three humans beings, who aren’t even supposed to be present in the magical land of Equestria, and most certainly not as three stallions.

Now a week has passed after the dreadful events that took place at the Ancient Castle and, moreover, inside the library of Ponyville.

In between those seven days, much has happened.

And now, let’s turn our attentions over to a specific house in the midst of the hatched rooftops and white cottages, spaced out over near to the center of the housing district and bearing the same resemblance as the ones close to it.

But what makes this specific house stand out amongst the ones next to it, and for us, is the grey pony staring up from the second floor windows with her yellow, wall-eyed, eyes.

* * * * *

Morning routines.

That’s one thing that Ditzy Doo was firmly attached to and perhaps the only thing, besides her postal work, that she went about every day with passion. She didn’t really mind waking up far earlier than needed, if she just could gasp at the show the princess set upon her subjects every morning.

And now as that was over, Ditzy turned away from the window and looked throughout the rest of her modest bedroom; an old, yet awfully comfy single bed stood over on top of large carpet that stretched out from other side to other. Opposite to the bed laid a work desk that also had custom mirrors for her to comb her long, blond mane. Beside those two, the only thing left was the old cupboard that stored the few clothes Ditzy had gathered, but it wasn’t anything too much you’d expect a mare to have.

The grey pegasus walked through the bedroom and opened the door to enter a narrow hallway that made up the bulk of the second floor. In total, there were only four doors in the whole upstairs; her own bedroom, the bathroom at the end of the hallway, a rope to pull down the ladders for the attic and, lastly, the violet door opposite to hers, towards which she now moved up to and pulled open.

And she smiled at the first of her little muffin’s room. It brought joy to her every time she eyed the walls that were colorful from all of the different hoof drawn pictures, from the simple hasty crayon ones to the more complex watercolour pictures, depicting whatever the little unicorn imagined in her head. Other than that, the room looked like any other foal’s with toys scattered all over and somehow even books had found their way to the floor, magically none being school related like a certain filly had claimed last night.

Yet Ditzy couldn’t help but to smile as she leapt across to the window and opened the curtains with a quick pull, prompting a faint groan to erupt from the bed next to the sudden light source. As the grey pegasus turned over, the blanket suddenly moved upwards and revealed the sleepy Dinky. And though Ditzy giggled as she watched her yawn loudly and rub her eyes, the filly instantly lit up as she noted the pony next to her.

“Morning Mom!” Dinky said as she jumped off from her bed and made the bed while Ditzy continued to hold her laughter. As the pegasus got over to the door, Ditzy suddenly felt something land on her back and almost silent breathing close to her neck. Shaking her head, the pegasus closed the room door and headed downstairs.

In comparison to upstairs, the down floor was in fact quite large, consisting of a proper kitchen area along with an oak dinner table and the latest equipment ready to be fired up. Connected to the kitchen was the meagre living room area where a couple of old armchairs laid around a coffee table and in between them laid a large green sofa.

“Mom, do you think mister Alto is awake?”

A loud snore resonated from behind the couch, and both of the ponies broke into laughter.

“I don’t think so.” Ditzy replied while Dinky leapt off of her and headed over to the kitchen, taking her place over at the table, as the grey pegasus moved over to the living room. Yet again she heard a faint mumbling sound right as she glanced at Alto.

On the sofa, and under the purple blanket, laid the sky blue pegasus and from the first look, Ditzy knew beforehoof what was going to happen.

“Come on sleepyhead, time to wake up.” Ditzy ordered while gently tucking the sleeping stallion who just rolled away from her and pulled his cover over his head, leaving only parts of his black mane visible.

“Ugh, ten more minutes Mom...” Alto muttered quite loudly, but Ditzy firmly grabbed the blanket with her mouth and pulled it away from the stallion. Without his cover the stallion finally cracked open his sleepy eyes to greet the mare above him.

“Don’t tell me it’s already morning,” the stallion grunted after having gotten to his hooves and as he got a look at the wall clock, he grunted again before heading over to the kitchen. “I need my coffee...”

“Time to move on with the routine...” Ditzy sighed as she followed after the grumpy stallion.

* * * * *

Now, although I seriously hate waking up early in the morning and that multiplied by seven, you’d think I would be climbing up the walls by now, something that’s actually now impossible for me.

Actually, quite the opposite, and that’s mainly due to three things.

“Mmh, delicious! Do you have some more?” I moaned as I continued to lick the remaining yummy blueberry soup from the bowl, but sadly Ditzy sitting next to me laughed and shook her head. Just then I noticed that the pot laying on the table had been also fully cleaned up.

“Nope; there isn’t any left thanks to your big stomach!” Dinky cried out from the end of the table and scooped the last bits to her mouth as well, so I simply shrugged and grabbed my empty dish.

Man, Ditzy makes some damn fine food!

If possible, I’d eat it all day long...

… But it does still bug me that I need to eat flowers.

“Hih, Alto, you’re drooling,” Ditzy commented while dropping hers and Dinky’s bowls in front of me “You better start washing these, work begins in a hour and we still need to drop Dinky off to school.”

I nodded, and instantly moved over to the sink and began to wash the pile of dishes. In the first days since I made came to here, it had become my job to act as some sort of servant, doing handyjobs all over the household.

Meh, if this gets me a roof to sleep under and free food, I’m all in baby!

I thought, but couldn’t help but to look towards the hallway leading to the front door where Ditzy was currently sorting out Dinky’s school saddlebag and eventually helping to put it on, who in regards fiercely fought back by claiming that she wasn’t a foal anymore.

In reality, Ditzy and Dinky were the main reason I enjoyed staying here. Whatever they, many times me included, did, usually ended up in a loud laughter, no matter if it was food gone bad or some picture they drew together and so on. It had taken me by surprise just how open and healthy their relation was, even when other ponies like me were watching by.

Sorta like me and Mommy...

During these seven days I had stayed by, I’ve learned a lot more about her as a person... pony... whatever, point is that she’s very cool; happy, say ‘bubbly’, personality that’s mixed with some decent humor, even if about all of it involved a pony, a dragon and a mule being in a bar.

But most importantly, Ditzy didn’t act all hor-

And as on cue, she threw up me a glare, I quickly returned back to my dishes and actually put the last one up for drying.

Goddamnit, why the hell I feel like this about ponies, freaking ponies?!

I mean...a man’s got his urges but...

… *mental sigh* Guess its one question more for To... Nucleus.

Thinking of which, guess I need to check up at him sometime today to ensure the plan-

“Come on you lazy flank; we all will be late and I won’t get to see what mister Nucleus will teach us next!” Dinky shouted before barging out of the front door along with a giggling Ditzy while I grunted at the hearing of ‘mister Nucleus’, like too many freaking times before.

But as I ventured out, I saw that Ditzy was eyeing the clock down the street and was already tapping her hooves in place while Dinky took her normal flying seat.

“Look, you can take Dinky to the school. I’ll meet up with you at work.”

“Okay.” she replied with some hints of relief in her tone, something I couldn’t really blame her for, but as she uncurled her grey wings, I recalled something.

“Oh, and could you tell Nucleus that I’ll meet him at the cafe by four?”

Ditzy nodded and then her wings began to make the launch of adjustment before starting the actual flapping motion. As soon as hitting the right spot, the wings simultaneously made the first swift push while Ditzy jumped upwards to catch the air beneath her. In mid air, her wings again adjusted in order to gain more uplifting push to raise the height but Ditzy seemed to stay up close to surface, likely due to Dinky onboard.

Yet one thought run up to me as I turned back at the road.

Who knew that flying was so fucking complicated?

* * * * *

“Hey Ditz’, did you check that pile already?”

“Yeah, but now that you mention I think I saw a C-letter at the bottom. Maybe I should-”

“Ugh, forget it; you’d only end up re-checking the whole pile. And what have we talked about this whole ‘must-be-efficient’ thing?”

“That I should cut it down. Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“.................Ah, screw it; let’s go for another quick check up swim!”

“Yay!”

* * * * *

“Tick...Tick...Tick...Cling*

The clock on the wall finally hit up at one and with that precious ‘cling’ yet another day of hard labour had been fully endured and hundreds of letters had been sorted out. For a small town, some four thousand at least according to Ditzy, these ponies sure did like receiving mail from basically  everywhere possible, even from some place called Saddle Arabia that had amused my friend.

A friend...

A mere week after having been turned into a pony and here I am, sorting out letters and calling a talking pony with wings my friend. Not to count that my two best friends had probably the same thing going on.

Seems like some folks were preeeeetty wrong about what happens in the afterlife.

… Then again, them ‘bronies’ pretty much nailed it up, and to think I despised them.

But at least I wasn’t a hater, thank God for that!

So I dropped the last mailbag down the hatch and joined up with Ditzy by the door, taking her side as we together headed down the narrow corridors.

My friend coughed to get my attention “So, you’ll be going to Rainbow now?”

I shrugged “It isn’t like I’ve got much choice. Besides, she hasn’t been that... direct with her approach in the past week.”

“You know that might just be cause you made her smell like a late night alley for couple of days, but then again it’s her fault for not taking regular showers,” she countered as we stopped to allow a large shipment to pass by. “Just watch your back.”

I snorted, knowing perfectly well what she meant just as we entered the lobby area that was full of, you guessed it, overly eager co-workers that shot me with alluring gazes as I appeared ahead of them.

And one minor fact, they all were mares.

So I tried my best to not think about them as I turned towards the main doors while avoiding making an eye contact, particularly with neither of the reception ponies that I had caught fully fixed onto me and wings stretched outwards and it wasn’t the last occasion something like this had happened with the other co-workers. Luckily Mr. Typo had noted this and had a chat with the head honchos, who in regards took the most blunt of the pegasus for a quick talk on harassment.

So it wasn’t that bad now as Ditzy and I continued to walk past the onlookers, not caring the slightest of them even as some looked at Ditzy, and soon touching the first gust of fresh wind outside. We exchanged looks and smiled just at the expense of the silly ponies back inside who still holstered thoughts of hanging up on me.

Heh, not a chance.

Unless you’re like Ditzy, of course.

Ditzy spurred her lips “It’s their own fault for having false thoughts about us,” then she backed off a bit to get enough space. “Anyways; hope you’ll have fun this afternoon. If you need to get to the house early, look for me and Dinky by the park and don’t forget about dinner like last time.”

And with that, she took off with the normal procedure and I looked at her for a moment, until she disappeared out of view, before sighing deeply with a hint of something tingling my senses.

Despair.

But I discarded it instantly and formed a more suited thought to fit me.

Now to make my day....

Agh, how can I hate something awesome like flying?!

* * * * *

The area was outside of Ponyville, yet not too far away from the nearest houses and in fact very close to the couple of farms that laid out around the vast fields of grass. There was a small patch of woods close by and even a large pond where many ponies were sunbathing or taking a swim... in swimming suits, something Nucleus had assumed was in order to keep the coat dry.

But then why the hell do they have the same build as back home?

For God’s sake, what do they NEED to hide?

… Alto, don’t take the same path as Nuc’.

But I wasn’t currently walking down the road to the pond. Instead, all alone and silent, I stopped in the grass field. I turned my head skywards, up towards the clouds that hovered much too close to the ground.

“Rainbow, I’m here!” I shouted.

For couple of seconds, nothing happened, but soon parts of the six colors of the rainbow appeared over between the clouds that now began to drop down towards me. Soon I noticed that two orange wings stuck out of the clouds and before I got to blink my eyes, I realized that something had grabbed me from behind and as I looked down, I saw two cyan hoofs wrapped around me in a tight embrace.

“Heh, gotcha!” sang Rainbow’s voice in my ear, lightly nibbling it with her breath, and as she pushed herself off me to walk up front, her wing ‘accidentally’ hit mine, sending a jolt too familiar down my spine.

Ugh, why does it need to feel so good?

Seriously, not even jacking off fe-

…...Alto, you sick f-

But my thoughts were cut off as I saw Rainbow standing in front of a small orange pegasus, wearing what looked like a rainbow colored wig, and giving her a high-five.“That’s it Scootaloo. Thanks for helping out me out!”

As they finished, the orange pegasus saluted and ran away while Rainbow looked at me over her shoulder, giving me that look.

“So, you ready champ?” she questioned while grabbing a hefty amount of the cloud for our training session. But she stopped as soon as she got a look of my disheartened face and walked up to me.

And she looked at me with clear anger.

“Now look; I know this has been hard for you but I won’t allow you to give up,” Rainbow lectured me, even pressing her hoof up my chest. “You’re perfectly capable of becoming an awesome flyer like me as your body is pure muscles. Only thing you lack is the rhythm and by Celestia, YOU WILL FLY OR I AIN’T RAINBOW DASH, THE FASTEST FLIER IN ALL OF EQUESTRIA!”

By the end of her little speech, she was basically catching her breath while I looked at her in a shock as this had been the first time she had expressed some sort of rage at me. She hadn’t even acted like this on our first training session, just a day after the little... fiasco.

Maybe...

Okay, let’s give it a shot.

For starters, I smirked to her and chuckled “Heh, don’t count on me giving in just yet,” then I on purpose nudged her a bit by the shoulder to get her attention “Besides, it’s my thick head’s fault that I haven’t learned anything, don’t blame yourself.”

As I backed off, I couldn’t help but to grin at the red tint painted across her face and then I even heard a loud-

*Whump*

-as her two wings stiffened up to full length.

Yes!

Got my payba-

But as I looked back at Rainbow’s face, I saw that she too was grinning through her blush and... I dunno, there was something in her eyes that seemed to mesmerize me a bit. Didn’t get much of a look, though, because she turned away from me.

“Now come on; we’ve got a lot of practising to do,” she commented over her shoulder, and suddenly my vision was fully blurred in the blaze of colors of her rainbow tail that swept across my face. As it passed by, leaving a couple of long strings in my mouth, I looked back to see the cyan mare re-forming the clouds.

But I kept looking as she grabbed a large, now somewhat like a board, cloud under her hooves and flew back at me with her eyes...

“You have pretty eyes...”

But I quickly slapped myself, round and hard across my blue cheek.

Oh goddammit!

Have to keep myself in line!

“Heh, all spunky already,” Rainbow commented while landing mere inches away from my nostril before shoving the cloud to me and a wicked smile formed up as she watched me climb onto it. “I like that in a stallion; now give me ten circles across the pond!”

I grunted, and laid open my wings, something I had learned only three days ago before turning my cloud up to the sky, concentrating upon the flapping and on the ridiculous pony swimming suits.

* * * * *

“And so there I was, trapped with that horny pony for yet another boring training session.” I explained and took a sip of my coffee while Nucleus next to me looked somewhat pissed off.

“Alto...” he sighed at me before shaking his head and drinking his orange juice.

“What?! Cannot a man say-”

Before I got to finish, a grey hoof shut my mouth and  Nucleus give a quick leer through rest of the cafe before releasing me from his grab.

Oh yeah, the whole humanish thing is a ‘nono’ subject.

I rubbed my face and put on apologetic smile “Heh, sorry ‘bout that; tend to forget this stuff.”

Nucleus shrugged and returned back to his book, nothing unusual with that, so I looked over to my left where Maero was supposed to be sitting.

My unicorn friend noticed my look “I checked with Maero. He had some unfinished work to do at both of the farms.”

“Both? I though he only worked at that Carrot one.” I questioned while mixing my coffee as some hints of bitterness began to arise.

“Yeah, but you know what he’s like.” Nucleus responded and finished up with his drink, now waving for a new one.

It was true; if there’s one thing Al...Maero disliked, that was receiving help of any sort unless absolutely necessary. So it figures that he sees lending a hand as a way of repaying for the hospitality.

But there was still something that I had seen in him in these past few days...

“Nuc’,” I began before taking a gulp of the black liquid “do you think he’s fine?”

“In body? Perhaps even healthier than ever before. Mental?...” he paused to ponder something, not making an eye contact “Something’s definitely not right.”

“Oh hell no.” I swore, as even now confirmed my belief of oddity in his behaviour and if Nucleus ever confirmed something, it was about nine times out of ten right. I stared down at my coffee, thinking the situation over.

Then a cough rang out, “How about we two confront him about this tomorrow?”

“You mean during our planned event?” As I leered at him from my cup, I saw him nod so I diligently also nodded, even if I disliked the idea very much.

Of course it has to be on our first proper day-off!

Then, I remembered something really important that Ditzy had mentioned and as I looked at the digital clock at the wall, my fears were confirmed. I finished up my drink with a single, long gulp and as my throat burned up, I hastily stood up while Nucleus shared my distressed look.

“Alto, what’s wro-”

But before I heard him finish, I barged out as fast as my hooves could take me and slid out of the door, releasing a gust of dust over couple of ponies.

“OH SHIT, MY SWEET DINNER!”

A/U: And here you go folks, the start of arc 2. Sorry for the short length of this, but I think the quick update compensates for something and the fact it’s hard to come up long chapters for Alto, dunno about that.I have also revised chapters 1-4 to fix the grammar and improve the flow (along with not creating contradictions to later chapters) by rewriting certain parts. Nothing too major except at the end of chapter 1 and the sauna scene in chapter 7. Other than those, expect yet another quick update soonish.

I’m basically lusting to write :pinkiecrazy: