The Bond

Chapter 19

Nucleus’s Studious 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 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 of 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 Ponyville was waking up from their slumber, minus a certain chestnut Earth Pony over in his lair, so did a certain pattern of events, all tied together, begin to play out.

Events tried to three human 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 upon at the Ancient Castle and, moreover, inside the library of Ponyville.

In between those seven days, much has happened.

It was, in fact, wrong to claim that everypony was currently waking up, as inside one tree in the middle of Ponyville, a dragon and a unicorn were already having a nice chit-chat between one another.

Subject? Their current house guest.

* * * * *

A stream of smoke lingered throughout the air as the hayfries met with the boiling oil on the metal pan. Swiftly the purple claw returned back to the handle to raise it up and away from the oven, as the rest of the purple, scaly body flung round on the spot.

And as Spike turned, so did his frustrated face meet with Twilight’s, though she was too busy reviewing her book to even notice the dragon dropping the food down to his, her and their guest’s plates.

Great, just more work for me...

Not for him.

“Food’s ready.” Spike commented while sitting down to his chair opposite from the unicorn who now lowered her book, and down onto the floor much to his dismay. But as the dragon was ready to dig his fork into the food, a cough rang out and his eyes met with Twilight’s.

“Forget something, my dear assistant?” she said and Spike followed her eyes to only see her eyeing the bulky door visible from the reading hall.

“Oh for Pete’s sake.” Spike muttered audibly, not caring about the look Twilight gave and how he probably lost his tomorrow ‘GemDay’ sweets, but, in all honesty, he couldn’t bring himself to care over it.

It’s unfair!

What’s so special about him that...

And as he grabbed the doorknob, he breathed in deep before allowing light into the deeps of the library basement. A bit scared of the dark, Spike kept close to the wall to avoid miss-stepping on the steep steps until finally feeling the flat bottom floor and coming in contact with the light-switch rope that he pulled with his tail.

Instantly the room lit up from the light of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling, and directly above the white bedroll on which the grey unicorn was laying over, surrounded by books. So deep in his dreams that he didn’t hear as Spike limbered up to him and snickered as the dragon rolled a piece of paper in front of his mouth.

“Hehe...” Spike continued while lovering close to the sleeping pony, however as he inhaled in deep-

“You don’t wanna do that.”

-the paper cone found itself deep inside the dragon’s mouth as he gagged while also landing backwards to his back. At the same time, the blanket fell over to reveal the rest of Nucleus who quickly ducked down away from the green flame and bits of burned paper that fell over the tangled copper mane.

“Ungh, looks like I need a new wash,” the stallion commented and picked up his glasses as he got back up while Spike did the same. “So, I assume the breakfest is ready?”

But Nucleus got a cold look as a response and the dragon slowly leaped up the steps. Spike did, however, stop at the top of the stairs and partially look over his shoulder.

“Food is getting cold.” he merely said before heading away, leaving the unicorn at the bottom with his thoughts while himself trying to holster his desire to lunge at the stallion. And as he got back to the kitchen, he couldn’t look at Twilight’s smiling face that greeted him...

Spike tried to calm himself down as he began to eat the food from his plate, although he didn’t enjoy it that much, and moreover as Nucleus appeared inside the kitchen, he fought hard against the usual desire to lunge head on at the stallion.

What is happening to me?

I’m not usually like this...

But he already knew the answer as he watched the two ponies greet each other and see Nucleus glaring at him momentarily before hitting the hay. And Spike could feel himself squeezing the fork more tightly.

* * * * *

Guess the little fellow still feels the same.

I wondered as I kept chewing the hay and eyeing the dragon on the other side. My fork drew deeper into the greasy hay, and so did my gaze search for any of the ‘normal’ marks that Spike had on whenever around me like clenching of teeth, wagging the tail over etc.

It hadn’t been like this all the time, mind you; on the first days, Spike had been very friendly to me by helping me set up my new sleeping quarters in the basement and giving me a helping... claw whenever needed. Initially I had though Twilight had ordered him for it, but when I mentioned about it to her, she had just giggled and said that friends tend to help each other out. And then I had thought on just how many other males Spike knew...

But it had all changed after the weekend.

After the first proper lesson on my magic.

“...and I think it would be wise to move onto the next phrase,” Twilight finished her little speech beside me before as I did too with my plate, now drinking the fresh apple juice straight from Sweet Apple Acres. And with a smile, she levitated a new book from the pile next to her chair, one of the many educational books she had either found or ordered from Canterlot’s bookstores. “After all, you have been studying hard.”

I shrugged and lowered the empty glass, “Guess that’s fine. Just don’t expect me to read another ten books about proper horn usage.” Now Twilight sheepishly smiled from behind her open book while Spike had gathered the empty plates over to the sink and I watched him walk out to the main hall, looking completely... bland.

As if I haven’t got enough trouble already with someone like him...

But then I saw the clock, and my current thoughts on reconciliation of terms with Spike were wiped out as I stood from the chair and left the reading unicorn all to herself. It wasn’t like she even noticed me walk out to the room, catching Spike’s tail disappear to the upstairs bedroom, and soonish out from the main door with my green saddlepack tucked to my back.

Guess I need to settle issues with Spike soon.

That or have Rarity drop out...

But for now, I discarded those thoughts and instead focused onto what was going to happen next on my daily schedule in the world of My Little Pony.

Could be worse, could be worse....

Oh, who am I kidding, I’m doing absolutely fine!

* * * * *

A twiddle of a hoof.

A fondle of a mane lock.

A quick check on her look.

With this small ritual Cheerilee greeted the morning sun as she stepped out to the porch of her cottage, just outside of main town area. A faint ‘click’ came as the mare locked the front door before heading down the path leading through her small garden of flowers, merging with the dirt road. From there her four hooves trotted down the road, away from the town, and she occasionally greeted anypony that passed by her with a warm smile. She even saw some of her students in the distance, laughing and screaming as they raced up the road to be first on the school’s swings.

That and many actually wanted to get to the lessons, especially the wilder ones.

And that was all thanks to the her new co-teacher.

As Cheerilee finally came to her destination, an intersection opening to two paths; on towards a hill in distance, behind which the red school building laid and probably where dozens of fillies filled the yard with a heartwarming laughter.

That one type which Cheerilee couldn’t produce herself...

Not like she didn’t even try after so long...

Then the green eyes fell down to the other path, an open one that narrowed down as it closed down between the first few houses, and over to the stream bridge over which a stal-

Both of the half-open eyes darted open as she witnessed her working partner trot over the bridge. He then seemed to notice her as the unicorn paced himself, rapidly closing the distance with a full gallop.

Cheerilee’s composure totally revamped; her hooves fully straightened, head rose up to an eye-level and, most noticeably to her, across her face formed a real smile.

But it wasn’t much of a shocker to her anymore.

In fact, she found it... filling to endorse the feelings and that was one reason that allowed her to connect to the teal eyes of the stallion.

“Hey.” he greeted in his sultry, rich voice that her perked up ears picked up like musical masterpieces, directly from the hoofwriting of the great Beethoof, and sending her mind lusting for more of the deep basso like a foal for a candy. Same time, the beautiful teal ovals drove her into their deeps of active fantasy land, fueled by her active imagination.

“Hello.” she finally replied.

Her companion smiled in return and both of them took off towards the hill in distance, trotting side to side although keeping a solid breathing gap. Nevertheless this little fact Cheerilee didn't mind as long as she got to view him...

Even the nature seemed to be on her side as it send a gust of wind to blowing past them, and moving the elegant brown mane like waves in storming sea and-

“Brr, isn’t it a bit cold out here?” Nucleus cut in, spurring his lips, ending her imaginary view on him and somehow founding herself speechless, except for the silent laughter at her own silliness.

Oh Cherry, Cherry....

Since when did you revert back to an young filly?

The road ahead took a dip downwards as they reached to the top of the hill.

Cherry, now that’s an old name I haven’t heard in long time.

Neither of them stopped to view the otherwise nice sight that opened up from the hilltop; with most of the children playing around the yard and sun’s rays flickering off from the bright red walls. This scene didn’t last for long, however, as when the two teachers reached the gate.

Over at the gate, stood the grey pegasus Ditzy and beside was her daughter, Dinky, and both waved to the pair that stopped next to them.

“Hey Ditzy,” Nucleus hearty greeted to the pegasus before looking down at the filly next to her mother “And you too; are you ready for today’s lessons?”

“Am I?!” And before you knew it, the filly charged right between them and over to the front door where now a mass of little ponies flooded the entrance. Her mother gave a look after her before opening her wings but before she got to flew away;

“Oh, Nuc’, Alto said that he’s free at four.”

He nodded in acknowledgement, although most likely the flying pegasus didn’t got it, before turning back to the gate and at his co-worker.

“Well;” Nucleus began while keeping his gaze fixed at the onlooking crowd “Shall we?”

As Cheerilee nodded and both of them walked through the open gates.

But deep inside, Cheerilee had heard something ruining her plans.

Looks like I won’t be asking it today.

For Celestia, the first day I’d had the apples to for it and now...

But somehow, a smile crept up her nostril as she heard Nucleus shout out to the children to give them a way and then presenting her the open doorway.

Guess I need to them make the best out of it now.

With my sweet Nuc’...

* * * * *

“Umm teacher, Ah need help!” cried the voice over from middle of the room. And although the room was packed full with constant blabber accompanied by sounds of quills scripting down the math formulas, it was loud and clear.

And specifically, pointed to me.

“Very well,” I said while standing up from my desk and walked up to where the voice rang out. I didn’t find surprising to see the three fillies, desks clamped together, all frowning at their papers “Once again having trouble with the formulas?”

Applebloom was first to answer “Ah just don’t get it;” she desperately said and planted her face to the desktop “That’s it, Ah won’t pass the upcoming test!”

Her two friends seemed to share her mood, so I knelt over by them and took a quick look at their notes. Last days we had been revising basic multiplying along with moving to two digit numbers on multiplying, something that had made me scratch my head at first as most of the students were mostly at five or six, minus couple of older and younger ones. It had took me awhile to understand that in Equestria, most of the ponies finish their studies at the age of ten unless driving to get into higher education based in Canterlot or places like Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns, and even that was divided mostly on what race you were. For example, almost all of the pegasus would end up working in the weather maintenance while unicorns, due to their magic, had jobs positioned in many science fields. Now Earth ponies had it different, they could basically do everything that didn’t involve magic or flying.

It looked like an invisible racism at first, to have your fate partially based on thou’s race, then I had ended up at ‘practicality’’ and left it there... for the moment that was.

“Let's see...” I viewed one of the papers, as I was absolutely sure all were the same, and soon found the issue. As I gave the paper back to Applebloom, I pointed at first of the medium level formula. “Here’s the problem; you first remove the division marks, not the minus and plus ones. Recall the order rule-”

Now all three of them let out a long ‘oooh’ before grabbing their erasers (that somehow manage to clear ink) and rethinking over their answers. It did a bring a smile to myself to see them even try to work hard, actually interested in learning rather boring stuff, even for me.

*BRRRRRRRNG*

That or they knew the day ends soon...

Sounds of screeching chair and rapid hoofsteps blasted into my ears full force. While I stood back up, I saw that the whole class had somehow vanished in a mere second, leaving only couple of notes lying around, and even the Cutie Mark Crusaders had managed to slip under my nose. As I turned, I saw Cheerilee eyeing me from behind her desk and opening her money box.

“And the normal pay, as usual,” she said as the bits dropped to my open pay pouch, that she got from my saddlepack, before handing it over to me with a too familiar smile. “And I expect you to finish up that math test by the weekend.”

But I slyly smiled and flapped open the pack on my back.

“In fact, I got it right here;” I replied and a clip of papers landed to the oak desk, just under the lemon green eyes that quickly went through it “Got that finished up last night. Only thing that remains is to have the questions and answers re-checked.”

Cheerilee turned at me in amazement “These are simply brilliant; not too hard yet challenging. And so fast...” Eventually she chuckled and stored the test to her own pack whilst I had already gotten out of the class. As she joined me, it didn’t take us long to stop at the front gates that Cheerilee now locked behind her, though it was pretty pointless seeing that there were no line of fences around.

Still the mare pulled the iron key out, before leaving it hanging to a crook right on the wooden bim, and glared past me up the road leading to the hill top.

Suddenly, she winked at me and sultry walked past me.

And I noted her awfully waving flanks...

“Well,” the cherry mare asked as she stopped ahead of me, just at yet another dividing crossroad point. “Shouldn’t you be going back to Ponyville?” and for an added effect, I watched her poi at the road that we had took earlier this morning.

And practically leading just outside her doorstep...

A sigh escaped between my lips as I pushed myself past the mare and down the other path leading away from her. I then heard a muffled breath sound over, so I gave a brief look back.

"Sorry Cheerilee, but there's one place I need to visit."

And as I turned back, and away from her puzzled expression filled with those lament eyes, my hooves hit the dirt beneath as I made my way away from the school building, down the road leading further away from the country town I’d lived in the past week.

A week...

Has it been only that short period of time? I coulda swore that it was only a day got when we woke in this beautiful land of hopes and dreams... and magical ponies, no less. Especially the ponies.

The time had indeed passed by in fast pace. There wasn’t a single day in those seven that didn't go slow in fashion; between studying alongside the fillies about Equestria as a land and too many times finding it hard to lay any book. Basically I lusted for any information that my bronyself so desperately desired over. Although over the course of the week, my own research had been utterly diminished to a standstill.

All thanks to Twilight Sparkle.

And the mares of Ponyville...

If nothing, they at least were persistent little buggers and hadn’t given up quite just yet. But for the moment, I had settled on just playing nice for them and acting polite whenever somepony came to me. Surprisingly the mares weren’t that pushy, but it did get creepy to see a mass of ponies trotting few feet away from your back.

Well; at least I have few ponies that don’t act like that around me.

Like Twilight and.... well, I guess Cheerilee counts as a pony I know.

Gracious, I’ve lived under a rock, haven’t I?

Once again I found a sigh to fit the situation as I crossed a field patch to cut the trip down to half. From there, it took me far less than ten minutes to get my first glimpse of the white wood fence all over the vast flat cultivated piece of farmland. It took much effort to climb over it, finding unicorn physical disability pesky minor fact, but at last, I dropped down to other side.

The things I do for friends...

I wondered as I brushed the dirt off and turned to face the bright orange barn that stood like a sore thumb at the edge of the field. Careful not to step on anything growing, I steadily progressed through the fields of hay, cabbages, spinach and at last, yet not least, the major field of the product this farm was named after.

“Howdy.”

My attention now focused to the source of the greeting, that happened to be an olive coloured pony wearing a straw hat over her head along with a bag hanging over her neck at the end of a long rope. The Earth pony mare left her plow plumed deep to the ground as she walked over to me, bearing a welcoming look.

“Hello. Nice day, isn’t it?” I greeted Golden Harvest, the de-facto ruler of the Carrot Family Farm “Say, would-”

“Maero happen to be around?” she finished my question and tilted her head to the barn yard behind her “Sure, he just finished up with today’s work and was just returning the tools. You might catch up to him up by the front gate if you hurry up.”

“Thanks.” and with that, I took off in a slight hurry to catch up with my friend. Down the light brown, muddy you could say, trail my hooves galloped like a gust of wind, soon passing the big farm manor and turning around the corner to the front of the barn...

My hooves hit the stop shift.

… to see my maroon friend leaning over the yellow mare whose two hooves wrapped over his neck as their foreheads touched one another, blond locks mixing with the orange ones. A little bit down their-

Oh dear.

-mouths stopped a tongue length away as both of the eye pars now locked onto me. They both seemed to froze up, keeping the awkward composure on for couple of seconds. At last, Carrot Top backed off a bit and planted a small kiss over the maroon cheek until ending the embrace. She did, however, shot me with an angry look as she disappeared inside the dark barn and as the door bang shut, I approached Maero.

“Well look at you; playing all Casanova on the mares.” But my little joke didn’t hit the mark, instead I got a muffled groan and him giving his back on me. I sighed and walked between beside him “Anyways, how are you doing?”

No respond.

“Okay, again; how’s your day been like?”

No respond.

“...A least the weather's nice, isn’t it?”

No respond.

“Very well then; what’s your thing with that pony?”

Both him and I stopped at the gate as Maero’s face briefly light in the blazing sunlight.

And it didn’t look any differ from normal...

For the sake of...

Well, how about Luna, yes, that does sound about right.

For the sake of Luna, he’s still like that?!

Even though our looks crossed only momentarily, his face was... disgusting to look, to say the most of it. Those emerald eyes that stuck out from the otherwise dull and... utterly bland face wiped from any positive or negative emotions. In all of my life, I had never witnessed so much of of nothing, in anyone’s face, not even in those poker faces as none could beat a look not acted up. There was no word powerful enough to express just how different this Maero was from that I knew and loved.

Perhaps from one, and that was depressed.

But then a shadow once again fell over as he turned away “Friends, just friends.” he said in a tone I had sadly heard too many times; it wasn’t in sense a half bad sounding, rich in sound packed with a slow pace that allowed each word to sunk down, yet this wasn't anywhere close to the real one. It was in fact near to total opposite.

And it didn’t help he lied to me...

“Look;” I paused for a moment to think whenever to pursue his relation, ultimately deeming it only harmful “Would you happen to be free later this afternoon? Me and Alto are having our regular meeting at the cafe for, you know, talks and stuff.”

Any of which you haven’t attended...

A shook of a head to me.

“Cannot do; gotta work to do.” Maero reported and hit his first hoof down, as my eye burrow cocked. But as I opened my mouth, his quick look made me realize that he wasn’t honestly interested in hanging out with us, his friends.

“Very well then, if that’s how it is. Just remember to have the basket ready for tomorrow.”

“I will.”

And we separated by the gate, each of us going to our own direction.

But my lingering thoughts rapidly grew more attended at the task lying ahead of me, and inside a certain treehouse.

* * * * *

“Hnngh!”

As yet more drops of sweat found their way down my cheeks and craving neck, so did my closed off eyes try to form a transparent imagine.

“Don’t keep your eyes closed; open them and get a proper look of the object.”

I followed the given advice and cracked open my lids.

Nothing had changed inside the room; the same shelves on the sides with the same thick books, the minimal plant life present at the windows, the diminish natural light that shot down from the sky and down to this reading hall. From the corners I saw the purple unicorn looking at my direction with an excited gaze while beside her, on a small table, laid the many books I had accustomed myself to each day and night. However my main attention laid in front of me and at the greystone, completely flat and round on its surface.

A new grunt scratched over as first of the my energy washed throughout main portion of my body and storing it near to my head, near to base of my pointy bump that now glew in a sparkling glow. As so did the stone ball as it suddenly light up, engulfed by the light blue color of my magic.

My... magic.

Wow; didn’t think I’d see the day I thought up something quite like that

“Great job;” I heard Twilight comment from her place “Now focus at the moment and let the energy do rest of the work.” And so I did; I locked my eyes into the sparkling sphere and set out a plan, deep in my mind, for something rather basic.

From the floor to middle of air.

And it did happen.

A feet away, the stone rose, slowly but steadily, up to air until reaching the level of my nostril.

And I couldn’t believe it at first although as I looked over to Twilight, her smile confirmed just what had happened and I let myself relax over, however still keeping my horn pointed at it.

Then I heard Twilight giggle “Oh, you shouldn’t worry over that. That stone won’t fall down unless you end the magic or run out of steam, which actually rem-”

“Yohoo!” the sudden voice cut in, scaring the crap out of me. Nevertheless, when I saw Twilight’s face staring past me, it basically just confirmed my theory of proper insert -timing, fully in its place here in Equestria.

So I wasn’t that surprised to see the marshmallow unicorn standing by the doorframe and her blue eyes shining like pieces of gem just above her flattered smile. Even her elegant purple mane had a swoon of perfection in it as it fell down to her left, leaving rest of the face exposed, and tucked above her was a huge dress hat with all sorts of accessories tied together from feathers to real life sapphires cut to the fabric.

Not that I was utterly surprised as this hadn’t been the first time she wore attire during these lessons. But there was just this minor fact that caused some issues;

She did all this just for me.

Now... honestly, I wouldn’t have found it bad at all if it had been any other mare, and trust me on this, but it was more pain in the flank to have Rarity doll up for me.

All due to one baby lizard’s crush.

Rarity seemed to notice my eyes wandering over her and widened her smile before levitating her hat over to the hatstand (don’t question the fact, somehow these sorts of things are there whenever needed), along with slashing her mane side to side.

“I’m so sorry I’m late. It’s just that the mare selling my dresses in Fillydelphia had her pegasus carriage late.” she explained as she sat down next to Twilight and leaned over by the open book “Anyways, shouldn’t we get started?”

“Umm... Rarity;” Twilight facehoofed herself and pointed out at the floating rock “We’ve already done it.”

Oh boy...

This won’t end well...

“WHAAAAAT?! AND WITHOUT ME!” was her immediate response as she scrambled up and walked over to the rock. She kept on her horrified look, however it progressively formed first to a smile, then a giggle followed by stomping hooves and finally embra-

“Oh that’s so great. Well done!”

A flush painted over my coat.

And so I did see how the stone fell down, forming a crater on impact.

“Rarity, I think Nucleus understands that...”

But just then mine and Rarity’s horns collided.

Not even a blink of an eye later, both of me and Rarity engulfed in Twilight’s magical aura that pulled us apart and to other ends of the room. As my slide ended, I saw that Twilight and Rarity already had their heads pushed together, and far from friendly manner.

“Hmph; such an unladylike fashion and from you, dear Twilight.”

“Yeah, only to end that profanity happening in my home! There could be little foals around”

“Hmm? Didn’t quite catch that dear; I and mister Nucleus were just sharing each other's comfort and excitement over his new achievement in magic. And in such of a short time, no less. Such a fine work you and I-”

“Us?! Most of what you do is look and comment upon just how ‘unqualified’ work I did.”

“Tell me, was it honestly important to teach something like a proper stance and horn adjustment?”

“YES BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT I DID MYSELF!”

“You don’t need to shout dear, and it hadn’t been for my intervention-”

“Well I didn’t want to be left out of the same action you received every day. And shame on you for hiding that from me, your friend!”

“That’s different; it was only for...”

*Bang*

The cold surface of wood struck me as I leant back against the door and let out a wheeze of sort. As I pushed my ear up the door, I still could pick up the muffled up argument raged over. For as it seemed like today’s lesson was over early, I slowly took off away from the door and down towards the road opening, into the hub of Ponyville.

But as I trotted down the path and past many happy ponies minding their own business, new unanswered questions and logical thoughts drilled in.

Nothing too unusual in it.

Am I harming the friendship of the girls? Should I try to negotiate some sort of agreement between them or just try to be neutral on this and hope for the best. They are, after all, the Elements of Harmony and friends.

Pass this crossroad.

Horn bonding...

So that’s what it's called, seems legit enough if I believe what Alto talked about his co-workers pushing their wings on his. Although I think Twilight...

On our first day of training, Twilight had examined my body through some sort of anatomy spell. What followed was that Twilight had nearly fainted out from pure shock; there wasn’t near to none reserves of magic within me. Later that night I had read more over it and it's basically like this; every unicorn produces her/his own reserves of magic and, put easy, it's this energy that you channel up when conducting magical procedures like levitation. This energy source is build up by the pony throughout his/her foalhood, henceforth why young ones don’t do much of magic, and used majorly during maturity when the reserves are vast and there's no need for caution.

In fact, my earlier attempts with magic and the pain were due to the lack of energy to channel.

And on my case, you cannot do much with less than a weeks worth of it.

In the end it was just resolved with Twilight borrowing some of her reserves for me.

Although I honestly think Twilight didn’t mean it in the same fashion as Rarity.

Or did... Nah, I’m just overthinking; that’s all.

Turn around a corner.

And then there’s Spike? Just what I’m supposed to with him; he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me as long as Rarity is around me and she isn’t half-bad as a... pony, perhaps a bit talkative but she has vast interest in culture and such so the long talks aren’t that dull. Just as long as she doesn’t get into the dresses.

And I don’t really want to bring this issue up to Twilight but my bedsheets are starting to smell...

But just there, I stopped as I had arrived to my destination; the local coffeehouse.

From outside it looked a lot like a bar, in fact I think that’s why Alto had been the first to find it, with the green windows and a small terrace up front where most of the customers enjoyed foods and drinks while sharing each others company or eyeing at the passing ponies. However, it didn’t serve near to non alcohol products and even most of those were so mild that even a pegasus could drink a whole pack of it without drunk flying past midnight, and this had made a tear fall down Alto’s cheek as he ordered a glass.

And as I entered through the flip doors, the stallion up by the counter spotted me instantly and trotted over to me.

“Ah, good day to you Nucleus. You’re a bit early,” Cherry Cola commented and pointed out to the corner of the lounge. “Your normal table is free and I assume you want your normal drink of orange, yes?”

Just then my stomach growled, and we shared a common laughter.

“And how about a tasty daisy sandwich for your stomach there?”

I snickered “Sounds good.” With that, the waiter pony was off back to the bar while I made it to the corner table, nowadays also the meeting spot of me and Alto. It was last Sunday when he had informed me of this place and so it had been unanimously decided to take this as regular place to visit.

And it had also been in luck that the owner of this establishment was a stallion and he was delighted to see us. In fact he had been the one to offer this corner spot and when I asked why, he told how this table was just out of eyesight just before tilting his head towards table where a group of mares eyed at us. Afterwards he had smiled and told how the same had happened to him few years back when he had moved in town but it had stopped soon enough.

Too bad it was all due to a relationship with Berry Punch.

Now as I sat there, staring out of the window that opened up to Ponyville’s busy streets, my mind wandered off once again.

This time to major questions.

Just what is that book?

But I instantly discarded it as it caused me to stay up countless times to wonder of it and what that Voice had meant back at the palace with the whole ‘Answers-will-come-soon’ and ‘It’s-up-for-us-to-find-them’ stuff. Only thing it had caused was a sleep depress that wasn’t a good formula with working with children. When I had asked advice from Twilight, she had just said that I shouldn't at the moment bother myself with it and just to be patient with my magical training. Still, my curiosity laid on whatever was supposedly written between those locked up pages.

But then I was turned to a real one, rather interesting question.

But what then lay behind those glaced emerald eyes?

A/U

Whew; well wasn’t that a fun chapter to write.

No sarcasm; I quite enjoyed this chapter, even with its hard spots that I let you guess on your own. But for the next chapter... lets just say this Maero chapter will possibly take the normal time to write a.k.a I’ll most likely see you around in seven days.

Also, check out this work here if you enjoy seeing Berry Punch shipping. This is also where I got the idea of naming the bartender after background pony Cherry Cola.

But for now, my attention focuses on fixing out Sandstallion out of awkward phrases, like the dear EQD pre-reader clarified out for me and thankfully pointed out some spots. Lets hope that these fixes will get me spot on the site.

And before you ask, Cheerilee is the best pony.