The Bond

Chapter 8

Adventure in town

The class room was buzzing with activity, when students began to sit down to their respective places. I also took my place along with my friend Mike. We had just been discussing about the new game that was coming out called Kingdom Hearts when the teacher had come in. After the class had settled down, the teacher informed us that a new student had just moved in and that he would be joining our class. As he said this, the door opened up and small blonde kid came in, slowly walking over to the teacher.

Me and Mike gave a look at each other when the new kid coughed little before starting to talk.

"Hi, I'm Alex and I've just moved into this neighbourhood. I like board games and books." he quietly said and teacher then told he would be sitting in the empty desk just couple of rows in front of me.

Mike nudged my shoulder before passing me a scrap of paper he had ripped off from one of the notebooks. The paper only had one word in it:

prey

* * * * *

The light from the living rooms window shone directly at my face waking me up from my deep slumber. We had hit the bed early after an intense bundle for the only bed in the whole house. In the end, Alto had won so I and Maero went downstairs to set something up for ourselves. Somewhat luckily the sofa was too small for Maero, so I got it while he had to make a bed down on the floor. Luckily for him there was an extra bed roll stuffed under the bed, so at least he didn't have to sleep directly on top of wood.

Immediately after waking up, my back started to give me bad times. Though the sofa looked really comfy, it actually was rock hard when you would lay on it. I honestly felt like sleeping on the floor the next night if I would need to, unless Alto would switch places with me.

My thoughts were interrupted by noises that came from the kitchen. As I stood up, I noticed that Maero wasn't sleeping, as his bedroll was lying on the side. While walking towards the kitchen, I heard a faint whistle that I didn't recognize at first, but soon I was also humming along to the tune.

When I got the opening that led to the kitchen, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Maero cooking something. Then I remembered that when we had checked the fridge the other day, it had some ingredients in it, but nothing that was already done. Maero didn't notice at first me coming in and continued to fry something in the pan, making a very delicious smell that made my stomach rumble out. This caught his attention as he stopped whistling and turned to face me, bearing a faint smile on his face.

"Morning. I woke up early, so I decided to cook us something to eat." he said before moving the pan off from the stove to the worktop and dropping what looked to be like fried hay onto one of the three plates. He also took some salad from the fridge and added it to the top of it. Soon, there were three plates of fried hay along with salad leaf. Maero started to carry the plates to the living room and I helped him by taking one of them.

"You've always been a good when it comes to making food. But how did you know to make a meal like this?" I asked after placing the plate on the table and leaning back onto the sofa. Maero explained that he found a cooking book in one of the cabins this morning and he decided to test his cooking skills without hands.

"And besides, this is the least I can do to thank you and Mik..erm Alto for carrying me around. Also think this as an apology for what happened... you know...." he said while looking around the room, as it was now filled with the morning light and it looked much more better than last evening.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked from him while eating the food, which turned out to be really delicious and I basically ate the whole plate in one go. Maero didn't look at me and instead he continued to look around.

"This is pretty good house...." he said while taking a bite from his food.

"It is... Remember when we discussed about getting apartment back on Earth?" I asked from him, knowing he didn't want to discuss about the breakdown. He smiled and nodded, but he didn't get to say anything else, as Alto had gotten up and was looking at us from the upstairs.

"Morning everyone or rather everypony! Do I smell food?" he said as cheerfully as one could do after a good sleep. Maero nodded and pointed towards the table that had one plate remaining.

After we all had settled down, we started to discuss about yesterday, particularly about the names. I explained that what Nucleus meant while Alto explained how good his names was; being both weather related and also pointing out that he likes music. Maero just said that his name was Latin, making me and Alto look in each other in confusion.

After we had finished eating, we carried the plates to the kitchen and washed them together, while planning what to do today.

"Well, we need to get jobs as soon as possible. The fridge didn't have that much in it, we need to pay the first rent in the next few days, find two more beds for us and collect some other necessities." I said after we had finished the washing and went back to the living room.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go and find jobs!" Alto shouted while running towards the door in excitement, making the cooking book Maero had found fall to the floor. Maero kneeled to pick it up, but I asked him not to as I wanted to try something out. He shrugged before going after Alto who had already gone outside.

I stared at the book a while, making mental notes of what it looked like, before focusing my mind solely onto thinking about it floating right above my nose.

But something happened inside my head, like a spark that tried to get more energy onto itself, making me stop the thinking and grab my head in pain. But as I took a look at the book, I saw a faint glow around it for an fraction of second before vanishing. Still holding my head, I grabbed the book and placed on the counter.

"Nucleus! Are you coming?" Alto shouted from outside.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" I said while starting to walk towards the front door.

* * * * *

As we got to the street that connected from the small side road where our house qas, I saw that for being quite early in morning, many ponies were already up and walking down the street; most of them were likely opening their respective business and others were just going to work.

Alto, Maero and I walked down the street hoping that somepony that run store needed extra-hand, but sadly we saw no signs that indicated that, so we found ourselves wandering aimlessly around the town.

Alto kept his cheerful attitude on running, even after hour or so walking and getting awkward stares from everypony that saw us walking. Figures that most of the lookers were mares, but they seemed to be more interested in our blank flanks than to the fact that Alto also ran across the streets and looked inside every store that we ran into, but every time we were let down, so the wandering continued until I was pressed on doing something I didn't want to do...

Soon enough, we found ourselves in front of the library. But before we got in, I noticed that paper had been put on the door.

-Out for the day. Check back later or if you're in hurry, you can find me in the Sugarcube Corner-

-Twilight Sparkle-

After reading it out loud, going through several hidden meanings and attempting codebreaking, both of the guys looked at each other in confusion. I sighted before saying:

"Sugarcube Corner is local bakery and also the residence of Pinkie Pie and the Cakes." I explained while turning towards the guys and Alto's face light up, as he recognized the name while Maero just looked as confused as before.

"So what now? Shall we go to this bakery or will we continue the search?" Maero asked from both of us, making me scratch the back of my head.

"I would prefer to stay away from Pinkie as long as possible, so we should continue the search. But how about instead of walking another hour we go to the town hall? Maybe they have some kind of public jobs open." I answered to him, getting a nod of agreement from both of them, so we ventured towards the town hall, which we could see from here, as it was the tallest building in Ponyville.

Roughly after ten minutes of walking, we got to the square that holstered a fountain, some statue of pony and of course, the town hall. To our surprise, many ponies were walking around the square and there were many stands that offered food along with drinks. As we got closer to the hall, we saw some kind of public bulletin board on the side, so we rushed to it. Sadly there was only the week's weather schedule along with every event there was going to be held in the upcoming weeks.

We didn't talk to each other as we opened the door to the town hall and were greeted by the secretary mare behind work table.

"Welcome, how can I help you?" she enthusiastically said with bright voice.

"Were looking for work so...." I said, but before I got to further away, she told to stop there and she walked off to door on her left. She went in and after a minute, she informed that the Mayor would like to meet us.

Odd... Why would the Mayor want to meet us?

As we went into the office, we saw big worktable and behind it old looking mare that I assumed to be the Mayor. After we all were in, the secretary closed the door behind us and the Mayor cleared her throat before addressing us.

"So, I hear you lovely gentlecolts are looking for work?" she asked from us. I nodded to her and she smiled at us before proceeding to ask our names, which we told to her while she went through her papers. She then proceeded to give papers for me and Alto. Before I got to read the paper, I saw that Alto's face went blank on expression; making me little worried what I might have on my paper.

"Sorry, but what about me?" Maero asked from the Mayor, who sighed before saying that she didn't have a fit job for him. As I heard this, I started to go through my paper, which said:

The Public Job Application Notice

Place/Town: Ponyville

Job/Position: Co-teacher or Assistant of Teacher - depending on training -

Needed training: Basic knowledge of science, math, history, geography, biology and, if possible, magic.

Pay: Discussed on placement.

Work time: 5 days per week from 9am-1pm

Other notes: Pay minimum of 300 bits, Work materials are provided.

After I finished reading, I found myself just looking at the pay minimum. I had never worked before, so didn't know if the number was small or large for this kind of job. From what I needed to know, the science and math were piece of cake, but I was worried about the rest, but I relied on that the materials would provide the needed information.

"Where do I sign?" I asked from her and she pushed an appilcation paper in front of me and four other pages. Soon, I had signed my name on the contract with my mouth and declared everything I knew about myself, which amazed the Mayor who asked why I didn’t use magic at any point. Faintly, I diverted this question and turned towards Alto, who still stared at his paper. He slowly raised his head before saying:

"Not the best job, but it will do." he said, while also signing his name. Before we got to leave thought, the Mayor gave us couple of papers that included information like working hours, work place etc. She also informed me that the materials would be given to me at the school. She also said that we would start out tomorrow and she bid her farewell to us before starting to sort out the rest of the papers on the desk.

As we got out, Alto suddenly turned towards the mayor, making me dazzle little bit

"By the way, do you know where Sugarcube Corner is?"

* * * * *

"Okie-dokie-lokie Twilight. I promise not to do you-know-what to them until they settle down." the pink party pony cheerfully said to her purple friend, that breathed in relief. It had taken Twilight over half an hour to calm Pinkie down when she had told about the three stallions that had just moved in. Pinkie was always happy when new ponies moved into, but after hearing they were stallion, she skyrocketed up to air while Twilight tried to explain to her that the guys needed some time to get used to the town before Pinkie could holster a party.

"Pinkie promise?" Twilight asked from her and soon the pink pony acted out the sacred promise, which made Twilight even more relieved, as Pinkie honoured this promise more than anything else. Before they got to talk about anything else, the doorbell rang and soon Applejack walked in along with her younger sister Applebloom, who was already looking at the many goods the store had to offer.

"Howdy! I'm just here to ask if you're coming along to get something to eat. I promised to Applebloom to take her out for some pizza." she said to them, while looking at Pinkie with anger, as she handed out Applebloom cupcake.

"Of course. I was supposed to eat some time ago, but Pinkie needed some calming down after I told her about..."

"THE STALLIONS! Oh boy I cannot wait to meet them."  Pinkie interrupted Twilight while starting to bounce up and down on her place, making both Twilight and Applejack giggle, but Applebloom just groaned before starting to eat the cupcake.

Out of the corner, the doorbell rang again, making everypony turn their heads.

Soon, in walks three stallions that Applejack and Twilight immediately recognize, while Pinkie just literally hits her jaw to the counter top before it rolls up to its original position.

"Hi Nucleus, Alto and Maero." both Twilight and Applejack said, while the three of them greeted them before turning over towards Pinkie and Applebloom, who was still eating her cupcake. Before anypony got to say anything else, Pinkie just jumped over the counter and started to hop around the guys, who looked at her in utter confusion. But soon the pink pony stops and faces them with big smile on her face.

"I finally got to meet you. I'm Pinkie Pie! Oh, how come none of you have Cutie Marks? Oh wait, let me guess..." she said while looking at Nucleus, who nervously gulped before Twilight stepped in and Pinkie fell silent.

"We're just going to eat, will you join us?" she asked while Applejack grabbed Applebloom and led her outside. The guys just looked at each other for a while, before Nucleus turned to face Twilight.

"Umm... We don't have any bits..." he said before blushing little, Twilight recalled that they had lost all their bits after the incident with the wolf.

"It's okay; I'm sure we got enough money to pay for your food." she said while Pinkie nodded enthusiastically, making Nucleus grin.

"Very well then." he shortly said while still grinning and soon all of them were walking down the road towards the local pizzeria. Unfortunately for the guys, Pinkie bombarded them with question after question and there was no stop to them. Soon enough, Twilight and Applejack stepped in and told her to quiet down for a minute, so she instead started to hum a tune.

After ten minutes of walking, the pizzeria came into the sight and soon the group was sitting around a large round table that was just outside of the pizzeria, right next to the path, so you could look at other ponies walking past. Soon, the waiter appeared from inside and started to take out orders from Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack and Applebloom, while the guys took the same that Twilight had ordered. As the mare disappeared inside, Twilight turned to face the guys, who just happened to be opposite to her.

"How's your day been?" she asked from them. Nucleus smiled along with Alto, but Maero just stared down the street, looking at the ponies that walked past.

"Actually pretty good; we visited the town hall and they had jobs for me and Alto." he said, surprising her along with Applejack and Pinkie. Applebloom didn't care a bit about what they talked about and instead looked along with Maero what happened in the street.

"Well ah be... What jobs exactly?" Applejack said while the mare appeared from inside, carrying drinks to the table. After having them served, Nucleus took a drink before answering to her.

"Well, I got job as co-teacher..." he said before being interrupted by a gasp from Applebloom.

"Wait, You're gonna teach me?" Applebloom asked from him,receiving a nod as a reply. She just stared at him before looking at her big sister, whose face bore an expression of disbelief along with Twilight. Pinkie just smiled before taking out an umbrella from somewhere, but nopony noticed this. Even Alto looked at his pal in surprise.

"By the way Nucleus, you didn't mention how much you're paid..." he asked before taking a sip from the glass.

"It's still to be decided, but the minimum is 300 bits a week." he said, making Alto spurt out his drink right onto Pinkies face. She didn't mind this, as she had the umbrella already covering herself.

"WHAT! But I...." he said before stopping in middle of his sentence in shock. Even Maero looked a Nucleus, but he smiled instead of being shocked.

"Well, where do you work at Alto?" Twilight asked, trying to get the conversation to other tracks. Alto snapped out and groaned before facing her.

"At the post office, and before you ask, I make only 175 bits per week." he stated shortly, making Nucleus turn his head away from his friend. Maero stared angrily at Alto, before turning over to Nucleus, who continued looked down onto the ground.

"And you Maero? Ah recall that you didn't get a job." Applejack said to him, making his head turn towards her, but still keeping an eye on Alto, who was avoiding an contact and instead stared at the glass of water. Maero nodded before replying;

"They didn't have anything for me." Applejack then continued on.

"Well good news for you; ah heard that the Carrot family is looking for work at their family farm. You ought to go and check it out." she exclaimed, while Maero turned towards her.

"Thanks", he said, smiling "I'll check it out tomorrow." the waiter just then appeared from inside, carrying the pizzas and after little fiddling around with who ordered what, the group started to eat. After eating, the three of them told the rest that they still needed to check out the rest of the Ponyville. Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie offered to accompany them, but they refused, saying that they needed to memorize the layout themselves.

"Well that was odd..." Twilight said, getting a nod from Applejack while Pinkie just smiled, as they looked while the guys turned around the corner.

"Well they aren't that bad. I just have to host super-duper welcome party for them and...." Pinkie said before seeing Twilight glaring at her. She didn't say anything as she pounced off towards the Sugarcube Corner.

"Well, that leaves Rarity, Rainbow and Fluttershy." Twilight said as she started to walk along with Applejack, as Applebloom had excused herself along with the guys, saying that she was going to meet her friends. Applejack didn't say anything until they neared the library.

"Ah just hope they can sort their stuff out before being sought by every bucking mare this town has."

* * * * *

Applebloom rushed through the streets and corners, soon nearing her destination; the Carousel Boutique, where she knew her friends was waiting for her. After getting to the steps of the shop, she turned to face door.

"Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, are ya'll here?" she shouted and soon her unicorn and pegasus friends appeared from inside, bearing faint smiles on their faces. Before they got to talk thought, very angry looking white unicorn mare appeared on the door.

"WHO SHOUTED? WHO RUINED MY PERFECT DRESS!" she whined while looking at Applebloom, who looked down to the ground.

"Ah am sorry, but ah had to tell the girls about our new teacher." Applebloom said, while Rarity dropped her angry face and Scootaloo along with Sweetie Belle looked at each other in confusion.

"Oh, who is she? Must be one of the many students that have returned from Canterlot." Rarity asked from Applebloom, who didn't care about her, as she turned towards her friends.

"But the big thing is that he...." she said, before being interrupted by Rarity gasping.

"Excuse me, but did you say 'he' ?" she asked while lowering herself to face Applebloom, who looked back at her in confusion.

"Yeap. Twilight and Applejack invited three new stallions to join as we went to eat and..." she said before being interrupted by Rarity yet again.

"You mean that there are three new males in town?" Rarity asked and Applebloom nodded.

"But what about Cheerilee?" Scootaloo asked and Applebloom just shrugged while Rarity stood on her place and seemed to be thinking something. The fillies slipped without her notice and started to head towards their clubhouse.

"Ugh! What is it with my sister and stallions?" Sweetie Belle groaned and Scootaloo nodded in agreement. Applebloom didn't care, as she remembered the big thing she was supposed to say.

"Oh yeah, the new teacher doesn't have Cutie Mark and he seemed to be like over fifteen years old."

* * * * *

After we got eyesight away from the pizzeria, Alto sighed before turning towards me.

"Look, I acted like jerk back there..." he started out but I immediately stopped him by laughing little under my breath, while he still looked at me.

"No bad feelings." I said after calming down, making him smile in relief, but soon he turned towards Maero, who had kept to himself after leaving; most likely he thinked about the work that Applejack had told about.

"Agh, smile big fellow! Aren't you happy that there's job for you?" he asked while we turned over the corner, only to arrive at the main road where the most of the businesses operated along with the only post office of the town.

"Well what do you know? Now I don't need to worry about finding the damn place." Alto whistled while memorizing the location. Some ponies that were near us flinched little when he sweared little. I quickly turned over to them, but they avoided my gaze and instead moved on before I got to say anything. As Alto turned over, I glared at him angrily.

"Keep the swearing at minimum Alto." I said and for first time in a while, my voice actually echoed from anger. Both Maero and Alto shivered little before they both nodded furiously.

We kept on walking down the main street for a while and soon we had found the grocery store along with furniture shop which sold beds. But as we checked inside, the prices ranked very high when it came to getting two beds, so for now we were stuck with only one lousy bed. It also didn't help that we had to pay our first rent in couple of days, so we had to spare every bit we could get our hands onto.

After leaving the store, we all were tired from all the ruckus this day had offered us, so we all agreed on to spend the rest of the afternoon in the house.

Suddenly, a bright flash erupted on our right side, making us dazzle little bit before turning to only see some pegasus pony wearing some sort of hat flying off, while writing something to her notepad. But what frightened me the most was the camera that hung around her neck.

"What is it Nucleus?" Maero asked while looking at the pegasus along with me and Alto, before she disappeared around the corner.

"For once I hope that my logic is wrong and that wasn't who I fear it to be." I said, getting worried expression from both of them, before I regained my composure and gave them a smile before continuing towards the next street, seeing that we were nearing the street where our house laid.

As I had predicted, we arrived at the house only after minutes of walking but then a horrible idea struck me.

"Maero, Alto? Does either one of you have the key to the house?" I asked, making them look at me in confusion.

"No, how come?" Alto said, before I face hoofed myself and groaned in frustration.

"Cause I locked the front door..." I shortly said, and silence fell down to all of us, as the guys realized what I mean.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Alto screamed out. Maero just walked past me to the door and used the handle.

*Creek*

Turning around, I saw that the door was now open and Maero looked at me in more confusion. Soon, I could hear Alto laugh behind me, before muttering something about me screwing us over.

But I HAD locked the door...

"Hey guys, you might want to come in..." Maero shouted from inside, sounding really confused. Both me and Alto rushed in, but stopped right in the living room, as we crushed into Maero’s rump. He moved aside and what I saw shocked me.

On top of the table laid really large basket, that was filled full of all kinds of sweets, baked goods and I could also see some sort of bottle sticking from the side. Red bow tie was wrapped nicely around the handle along with a pink envelope, which had three balloons: two blue and one yellow, that was lying on top of the pile of food.

Maero calmly walked over to it and took the envelope. Soon, he was reading out loud perhaps the silliest letters I had ever heard.

Dear mister Nucleus/Alto/Maero

When I saw you first time, I was like "I need to welcome you in somehow without breaking Pinkie promise that I'd made of letting you find your feet before I threw you a massive party" so I came up with this after you left.

Don't eat too much or your tummy will get itchy.

From your favourite party pony, Pinkie Pie

P.S Silly you; locking the door when leaving your keys inside.

After Maero had finished off the letter, we all just stared at the basket in confusion. It took about minute before Alto came up with the first question.

"Pinkie promise?" he said while looking at me.

"Across my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." I told him while acting out the sacred promise, making both them laugh at me when I hit my glasses. Maero walked over to the basket before starting to lay out many of the goods. To our surprise the bottle was filled with apple cider, making Alto basically jump on his place.

"Sweet, beverage!" he shouted while going down to the kitchen to get glasses while I and Maero chuckled a bit.

"Here." Maero said, while handing me over one of the many chocolate covered cupcakes before taking one himself.

"By the way, how did she get in if the front door was locked?" he continued after sitting down on one of the chairs and soon Alto appeared from the kitchen, carrying three glasses. I took one of them before addressing him.

"That's Pinkie Pie for you; she does random stuff and nopony knows how she does it." I explained to him, while Alto took the bottle and started to fill the cups with the cider. Sadly, there was just only enough cider to fill the three cups once.

"What shall we cheer for?" Alto said while laying the bottle down and grabbing the glass. Maero just shrugged before grabbing his glass and when I took mine, I raised it upwards.

"Well, we have a house along with jobs..."

Alto smiled before raising his glass along with Maero and soon the glasses reached each other, making a clear click sound.

"To that then! Hey, who ate all the cupcakes?" Alto said while starting go through the basket, while Maero blushed little before throwing the last cupcake in his mouth.

Sorry Pinkie. I think we can't keep our hooves off from these , I thought to myself when I took a sip from the glass.