The Bond

Chapter 7

Who are you ponies?

"T-me -o wa-e up." bland voice quietly said. My mind only registered only parts of the speech, leaving me confused and still believing I was sleeping. But soon enough, the world started to tremble around me, forcing me to give up the idea of still sleeping peacefully.

Opening my eyes slowly. I could see that Mike was next to me, shaking the bed, and me along with it. As I rose to a sitting position, I was surprised to see that also Alex had gotten up, sitting on the edge of his bed. From the looks he was in okay condition, besides of course having a scar where the horn had gone in. This made me grin, as he now looked even more like Big Mac on bodily appearance. He must have noticed my grin, as he stood up, walked next to me, making me disappear under his shadow.

"Nurse just came and informed that were free to go." he said, sounding somewhat cheerful but still not being his normal self I remembered back from Earth. But for now, I was willing to accept any act of normality from him. As I stood up next to him and balanced my stance, cause even if walking was okay, standing still proved to be a little problematic from time to time, I noticed that Mike was already heading towards the door. Just before he got to open it, the door opened right to his face, sending him flying onot his back.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" the purple-violet unicorn said to Mike, who by now had already got up. Mike didn't say anything, but he just nodded to her and walked past the door. Sighting, I walked past Alex and to Twilight, who was looking sadly towards Mike’s back.

"Forgive him. He didn't mean to act like that." I told her while trying to find out why she was here. Then I remembered what I had promised the other night.

Oh crap!

"Twilight, why are you here? I thought your job was already done by getting us here." I asked her, making her giggle before turning towards Alex, who by now had walked next to me.

"Good to see you've turned out fine." she said to Alex, making him blush little. "Anyway, you need a guide to show you the town and the quickest road to the spa." she said to both of us, making us look at each other in confusion.  Before I got to ask, Alex had decided to make his first move in sociality.

"The Spa? Why we would need to go there?" he asked from her, sadly with his sober tone. Twilight flinched a little from hearing him talk, but soon regained her composure.

"Well, just look at yourselves." she said while starting to walk towards Mike, who had stopped just around the corner to lean to a wall. As me and Alex looked at each other, it soon became clear what Twilight meant. Both of us were covered in dirt, particularly around the flank and our manes plus our tails were in disorder and couple of leaves were stuck on them.

Alex just looked at me for a while, before saying:

"Spa actually might be a good idea." he stated shortly.

"You think? Come on, we need to catch up to them." I said, while starting to walk, hoping that the spa was only thing Twilight had on her mind.

* * * * *

It took us about ten minutes of walking to get to the edge of Ponyville. We had already seen it from a distance, and I couldn't help but to gasp on just how big the town was. I had seen in the show that it was big, but seeing the real deal proved to be a quite experience. Twilight noticed this and giggled before adding that Ponyville was actually quite small town.

As we had Twilight as our guide, we soon found ourselves walking down one of the main roads towards the center of the town. The closer we got to the center, more ponies we saw, conducting either their daily businesses or just trotting around chatting with their friends. From what I could see, many of the ponies were actually mares, making me believe the theory about Ponyville’s gender ration actually had some truth in it. Thought I also saw two stallions along the road.

It didn't help out that many of the ponies turned their heads towards us. Many faces bore an expression of curiosity mixed with a little fear. I became a little nervous, as quite many of the gazes were given to my horn. Luckily for the three of us, our flanks were covered, so none could see that we didn’t have Cutie Marks. Twilight informed that we had been lucky, as it was Monday morning and many ponies were down on the market. Thought it didn't help in one occasion, were a small filly screamed when she saw my horn and ran away...

"Well, here we are." Twilight announced to us while pointing towards the building in front of us, which I immediately recognized from the show. Alex and Mike just were quiet, like they had been the whole trip. This I understood, as all of this was new to them and that they had little adjusting to do. We followed Twilight inside of the spa and soon found ourselves being pushed in front by Twilight's magic. The mare on the counter gasped from seeing us and soon Twilight had arranged for us to be fully cleaned. She even paid for it, claiming that it was a gift for our recovery.

"After you're done, follow the road signs to the library. I'll see you there." she said before leaving us to be guided by the spa ponies to the first stop. As we approached the washing room, we noticed that there was a small room to leave any trinkets or objects you might be carrying. I put my glasses on a box that was free and we went through the door to the room.

All of us were placed in big tubs, which were filled with hot water. All I could do was give a relaxing breath, and I wasn't alone; my friends were also having the time of their lives. Who wouldn't after having endured the same we did? We laid there for at least ten minutes or so, just savouring the warmth of the water. It took me only about five minutes to get my mane straight, but the blood proved to be problematic, as I didn't get a clear image where there was blood and where there wasn't. The pink spa pony said she could clean it for me, but I didn't like the idea of having an opposite sex clean something for me. Instead I asked for some kind of soap, and soon enough, my horn was back to being silver grey.

"Hot dang this feels goooood!" Mike said with so much joy and relief that made even Alex laugh.

Good to see at least one of us is his normal self

"So you're okay if we move on?" the light blue mare said behind Mike, catching him off-guard and making him trip down the tube. As he rose, his mane was down from the wetness and as he turned towards the mare behind her, she all out blushed at him and soon she muttered an apology. Mike just smiled at her and said it was okay, making her blush even more. As we got out of the tubs, we were handed out a robe to put on, which was good, as the dirt had been cleaned off and it was clearly visible that we didn't have Cutie Marks.

The sauna was just next to the washing room, so soon we found ourselves in a big, wooden area. The room was big enough for all three of us; expect that Alex had some trouble getting through the door, so we could lay out little open. Oddly, the mare from before accompanied us to the room and she had a bucket of water along with a ladle to throw the water to the stove. Before she got to do it, I politely interrupted her and said that we had been in sauna before and that we would like to be alone for a while. She accepted this, but I could see her eyeing Mike while she left the room, closing the door behind her.

"What's matter Tom? Why couldn't she..." Alex started out, but never got to finish, as I got next to them, while carrying the bucket with my mouth. As I dropped it to the floor, I took the ladle and threw some water to the stove, making a puff of steam erupt from it. As this happened, I laid my back to the wooden wall, looking towards Mike and Alex.

"Do you remember what we talked about just before getting out of that forest Alex?" I asked him while throwing more water over the stove. Alex simply nodded, and soon Mike asked what we meant; good for me, Alex explained to him in short what we had talked about. As he finally finished, the room was filled with steam and we all were sweating heavily. Mike just let out a long whistle.

"But that still doesn't explain what you mean. I thought..." Alex started out, but I knew already what he meant.

"Remember what Twilight said? She'll be waiting us at the library and what do you expect she'll most likely do?" I said while still looking at the ceiling, which became harder as steam started to go upwards. Alex was dazzled and gave a look to Mike, who just sat there, looking down to the floor. Slowly, he raised his head and I could see that he wasn’t his normal self.

"Shortly, we need come up with new names before getting out of here?" he said rather blandly, his eyes lacking that feel Mike had. I simply nodded before throwing more water to the stove. We all fell silent; as if rule of silence was set before we all come up with new names.

In all honesty, even I was totally lost on this matter...

The silence contniued on, like a cloack that fell over our mouths and tying them shut with its velvet fabric. Mike was rubbing his chin with a hoof while another rested on top of his head, not to mention the tongue that stuck out his mouth. Compared to his ridiculous look, Alex seemed calm, even relaxed as the cloud of steam hit upon him, breaking up into tiny trails upon contact. In constarct, his emerald eyes seemed glassy in vision, like he was in his own tiny world paraller to the real one.

And as I threw last of the water in, I joined them in this deepening relaxation...

My front hooves fell over my neck, and so did my eye lids fell down, enclosing me into my own world of calming darkness.

Name...

Name for the rest of my life as an unicorn.

It felt utterly odd; no one is going to come up with a name in mere minutes, not to mention pony names that were completeky diferent from names we grew up with... expect perhaps me with some adequate knowledge. At first I began to think about what I was good at, followed by my dreams, ambitions, fears, weaknesses, strenghts and in the end only thing I achieved was a headache with feeling of desperation lurking up on me.

Oh for the love of...

This is hopeless, just how-

A single word.

What?

A single word crossed my mind.

Then as I began to examine it...

Its perfect; simple, elegant, easy to remember...

"I got it!" Mike glamorously stated, making me flich in a surprise and cutting my current thoughts.

"Well that was fast. Care to say it?" I asked while laying the bucket of from the seat as it was already empty. Mike just ginned to me and shook his head,

"Now where's the fun in that? I'll say it when we'll need to explain all this," he replied while sitting down and giving a look at Alex, whose open eyes had regained their normal look. "Well how about you, have you come up with yours?"

And to ur surprise, he nodded.

But no more than a second had passed and the door opened up and the light blue mare informed that our time was nearly up, so we should go and get ourselves cleaned before leaving. So we were lead back again to the tubes, but this time they had a shower attached to them, making it easier for us.

Enough soon, we found ourselves back in the reception room along with the two spa ponies. From what we could see, there was already another customer waiting for them, so we quickly said our thanks and left the building in search for the library.

* * * * *

"Jeez Twilight! You said you were only going to interview some ponies." Spike said in agony as he lifted yet another pile of books from the ground and started to place them back to the shelf. Though this didn't differ from his daily routine, he found Twilight's interest in the soon coming ponies very irritating. She had only explained to him that there were three new ponies in town and that she would like to have a chat with them.

Twilight gave Spike alluring look before stuffing her head back into the book, titled Educing Information. Spike just groaned again before returning to his work.

Suddenly, the door opened up, making Twilight drop the book to ground and gallop towards the door.

"Finally you've arrived. Now lets..." she said before seeing that it wasn't who she was expecting. Instead, she found her orange Earth pony friend looking at her with asking face, carrying a saddleback of books.

"Ah suppose I ain't the one you're expecting'? Don't worry; I'm just here to return couple of books" Applejack said to her while going in and greeting Spike, who was still quite angry from the extra work. Twilight just smiled to her and returned to her book, but she didn't realize Applejack was looking directly at the cover.

"Twilight, what cha' you reading there?" she said while dropping her saddleback down to ground. As soon as Twilight noticed her looking at the cover, she blushed and levitated the book back to the shelf.

"N-nothing. I'm just waiting for couple of ponies to show up." she hastily said, making Applejack more interested. But before she got ask further, Spike stepped in the conversation.

"Yeah, she's waiting for some stallions to..." Spike said before having a zip appear over his mouth, making anything else he said sound nothing but blur. But the part he said was enough to make Applejack jump in the air.

"What in the hay Twi'?" she asked from Twilight, but before she got to explain, somepony knocked on the door. Spike just walked to it and opened it up.

"Excuse me, is this the library?" the familiar sound asked from Spike, who just simply nodded before making way for them to get in.

Both Applejack and Twilight had their jaws hit the ground as they saw the stallions.

"Is something wrong?" the Unicorn asked from them. His coat was silver-grey colored and his mane was copper brown. His body was quite puffed up for a unicorn, but it gave him quite strong appearance compared to others they had seen.

The Pegasus besides him just grinned before starting to shake his head. He had blue coat and black mane that went down on his shoulders. He also had puffed up appearance but it had more effect on his look, as he looked like pro-athlete flier.

The Earth pony on other side just looked down to floor, not trying to make an eye contact. He had maroon brown coat along with short blond mane. But it was his size that caught the attention, as he rivaled Big Mac when it came to height and mass.

"Awkwaaaaard..." Spike said quietly, which made the Pegasus crack up and the Unicorn grin.

"N-nothing is wrong. Oh, this is Applejack. She runs a local farm with her older brother." Twilight said while Applejack tilted her hat to them.

"I have everything set up here, so we can begin." Twilight continued, while pointing at the center of the library, where four chairs laid; three on one side and one opposing them.

"Could ah join in?" Applejack asked, getting a nod of approval from the Unicorn, so Twilight levitated an extra chair from the next room.

The three stallions sat down; Pegasus on right, Unicorn on middle and Earth pony on left. Applejack and Twilight sat opposite to them, while Spike went to the kitchen to get some drinks. The Unicorn pulled his glasses upper to his nose, while looking at his friends. They both nodded to him before he turned towards Twilight and said:

"I assume you would like to first know our names?" he asked, getting a nod of approval from both of them. He turned towards his Pegasus friend, who was already ahead of him.

"I'm Alto. Alto Stratus." the now known Alto said in a joyful tone, while turning towards his unicorn friend. To Twilight's and Applejack's surprise, the unicorn's face bore an expression of surprise.

Strange for somepony to be surprised of hearing his friend's name. Twilight thought to herself.

The expression didn't last more than couple of seconds and soon the unicorn turned towards the girls.

"I guess it's my turn. I'm Nucleus." he said while giving a glare to his last companion. Alto just chuckled before also looking at the last who hadn't introduced himself. The massive Earth pony slowly raised his head and, to everyponys relief, he smiled.

"I'm Maero..." he shortly said while looking at Twilight and Applejack, before returning to his normal position. Awkward silence then fell between the sides, but luckily Spike saved it all when he returned with some apple juice and after having it served, the unicorn Nucleus turned towards Twilight.

"What else would you like to know?" he said before thanking Spike for having brought the drinks. Twilight just blinked before levitating small notepad from one of the shelves. She quickly went through What to ask check list, ticking of the obvious first question and soon asking the second one.

"Okay, why your horn was all bloody when I first found you?" she asked from him and Nucleus just sighed before starting to tell what had happened to them.

"Before you ask, the blood on the horn wasn't from any wildlife. It's actually Maero's blood...." he said just before finding himself trapped to the ground by the orange mare, who looked at him with both fear and anger. Before Twilight got to do anything, Maero got up and tackled Applejack off from Nucleus. He looked at her with anger radiating from his eyes, making Twilight shake slightly from just seeing somepony that appeared so timid to do something like that.

"Before your friend interrupted me Twilight, I was going to explain what happened. We were camping on the edge of forest after a day's worth of travelling. Alto here had just gotten the fire up, when suddenly a timberwolf leaped out of the darkness, right on Maero's back. Without thinking, I charged to his help, but before I noticed, the cunning wolf jumped just right off him and before I got to slow down, I hit Maero where he has the scar right now." he explained to them while Maero showed to them his wound. Applejack rose up and tilted her head down as she walked towards him.

"I'm sorry." she said, while also looking at Maero's direction. Nucleus smiled and said that it was okay, so she returned to her seat. Twilight just sighed in relief as the situation calmed down and everypony returned to their places.

Then Nucleus proceeded to explain what happened afterwards. It seemed like the wolf had grabbed their only saddleback that had all their necessities, like food and the bits they had left. And after morning came, they proceeded to go into the woods, knowing they had to get out as fast as possible. Nucleus then told about the mysterious encounter with the hooded figure and lastly about the hunger. Both Applejack and Twilight found it disgusting to hear about it, but relieved after hearing what happened after they had got out and about their luck with the apple tree. Then they heard about how they had to carry Maero for the rest of the trip and how Twilight found them.

Finally after Nucleus stopped talking, the room fell silent yet again. But this wasn't enough for Twilight, as there was still the biggest question of all left...

"Okay, final question: how come none of you have Cutie Marks?"

Both Applejack and Spike spurted their drinks out from their mouths in shock. Neither one of them had noticed this little fact when they had come in. Maero and Alto both looked at Nucleus in the middle, who just shrugged.

"Who knows? We've never got ours. Besides, its doesn't stop us from doing anything, does it?" he answered to them while looking up at the wall where the clock was.

"Look, me and guys need to still find place for the night, so if you have any last questions, ask them now." Nucleus said while standing up along with his friends. Twilight decided that she had enough answers for now, but Applejack still had something in her mind.

"Mind if ah ask, but how old are you fellows?" she asked from them, getting a light laughter from all of them.

"Were all seventeen years old. Now if you'll excuse us, we need to find a rentable house." Nucleus said to her while opening the door and soon enough Twilight, Applejack and Spike were left alone to ponder what they had been told.

"Well, ah suppose I've got to get going. Big Mac must be waiting for me." Applejack said while quickly emptying her saddleback to the floor, to Spike's dismay. Before she left thought, she turned towards Twilight.

"Will we tell the other gals?" she asked from her. Twilight didn't know what to say, but in the end she told that when either one sees them, they should tell that three new guys have come to town. Applejack nodded and left for the farm.

"'What's the big deal? Some new ponies moved just moved in." Spike asked from Twilight while carrying the books Applejack had left back to the shelves. Twilight giggled before answering to him.

"It's big deal when we have three stallions moving in into town which is full of mares."

* * * * *

"Well that went pretty good. But seriously, Nucleus?" Mike, or Alto, asked from me after a while of quiet walking. I couldn't help but to laugh as he questioned my name while his name was just a cloud formation that he had cut. But to his credit, he actually was pretty musical, so Alto actually suited him in that way.

"Let's leave it there for now. We still have a house to find. Also you should start to use the names we have now, right Maero?" I calmly said, while Alex, or Maero, nodded in agreement. Alto just groaned before galloping past us to the billboard we had seen before going to the library. As me and Maero got there, Alto grabbed one of the many papers that were on display. Soon, I found myself reading an advertisement for a house that was being rented out. But what caught my eye was that you could by the house by paying years rent in advance and you could do this at any point while living there.

Looking back, I could see that Alto was almost bouncing up and down from excitement, while Maero was giving me the "what is it" look. As I gave him the paper, I turned over to Alto.

"Okay Alto. Let's go and take look at this house."

Turns out it was actually quite small house, but its design was same as the other houses in Ponyville. Luckily for us, the owner, a mint green unicorn mare, was just visiting the house to get her last stuff out. We quickly made a deal with her on the rent and she happily agreed to wait for couple of days until we get some bits. Before she left thought, she gave us two keys to the house and a little hint that sleeping might prove to be problem. Before I got to ask, she left us for our own.

As we entered the house one by one, we were greeted first by a quite large living room, which had a sofa, table and two chairs on top of mattress. From what I could see, all the walls of the house were painted with the same white color while the floors were made out of wood. The house had one basic bathroom, but it also had a shower in it. Alto had decided to check upstairs while I and Maero checked downstairs, mainly the kitchen that had a fridge, an oven and couple worktops. It seemed like we would eat the food in the living room from the looks of it.

Suddenly Alto rushed downstairs and said that we needed to see something. As we got up, I could see there were only two rooms and a small balcony. Alto said the other room had some cleaning supplies in it and rushed to show us the last room.

Now I knew what the mare meant with problem.

The room was quite big, being almost at the same size as the living room. But now there wasn't anything else there besides a small worktable, a cupboard and a single bed.

We looked at each other for a minute, before I silently said:

"Hoof, hoof and hoof?"