The Bond

Chapter 9

The Article

"Spike, have you checked the mail yet?" Twilight asked her assistant while pouring more juice into her glass. Spike just groaned before standing up and walking out of the kitchen towards the front door. As he got outside, the sun was just raising up and greeting him with its rays while he went through the daily mail.

"Let's see.... two letters; one from the parents and one from the post office, must be the book Twi had ordered..." Spike muttered to himself while grabbing the letters, but then he saw something that caught his attention.

There was a copy of Ponyville Times on the bottom of the mailbox.

"Strange, it isn't supposed to come today..." he said while taking the paper and looking at the front of the paper. As soon as he saw the front and the main article, his face dropped down.

Inside, Twilight was starting to worry for him, as he was taking awfully long for just getting the mail. Just when she took another bite from the hay bread, Spike came back carrying two letters and to her surprise newspaper.

"Well, what was there?" she asked, while Spike dropped the mail onto the table and proceeded to sit down, as Twilight started to go through it. She got the usual letter from her parents and she was happy to hear that the book she had long waited for had arrived.

After reading the letter, she looked up at Spike, who was visibly nervous from something.

"What is it Spike? Is something wrong?" she asked, but Spike didn't answer and instead looked at the paper that Twilight hadn't yet touched.

"Umm... You might want to skip the paper..." Spike hesitantly said while rubbing the back of his head. Now Twilight was even more eager to see why the paper had arrived.

"Oh Spike; It couldn't be th..."

She stopped at middle of her sentence, as she saw the headline:

THREE NEW MALE RESIDENTS

"WHAT!" Twilight shouted, sending Spike falling backwards to the ground while she levitated the paper and started to read the text out loud.

Our town has been blessed with three new stallion residents that seem to have come to stay. To give them a heart-warming welcome, we at the Ponyville Times have decided to tell you a bit more about them along with couple of interesting facts that might prove to be quite interesting.

"Ohh... my back." Spike groaned while standing up, making Twilight look towards him.

Twilight pretty much blanked his complaints. Spike just shrugged while walking to the fridge to grab more juice, while she resumed reading.

From our reporters keen intuition we have a window into their personalities:

First, we have the polite unicorn Nucleus that talks and acts in orderly fashion. But don't let this fool you into believing he's like one of them Canterlot males that walk nose up in the air, as we've heard from the Mayor that he acted very pleasantly to her, but from what we've gathered it seems like he's the head of the group.

"Well they got that part right." Spike exclaimed while walking back to the table, Twilight just sighed before continuing on.

Next comes up the radical pegasus Alto (Stratus), who might be lesser variant of our dear Pinkie Pie when it comes to being joyful. But luckily he also has a calm side that comes up sometimes, according to our local spa operators claim. Other than that, expect fun times when hanging out with him.

"Well he didn't seem that radical, but I agree with the joyful nature." Spike said, but for now Twilight didn't care about anything else but the paper as she read the next description.

Finally, we have the quiet Earth pony Maero. He's the mystery of the group and perhaps the weirdest of them all. His mood is generally blank from the looks, but he occasionally emits happiness along with sadness. But then again, don't we like the quiet ones more?

Spike chuckled little as he heard the last part.

But there's lot more into these fellows.

1. None of them has Cutie Mark; now you shouldn't be afraid, as this opens a way for us to show our hospitality by helping them out as much as possible.

2. They like to move in a group, so this should help you and your close friends if you will prefer to go together.

3. We've been informed by the Mayor that unicorn Nucleus has taken the co-teacher's position at our local school while Alto (Stratus) has been taken in by the post office, but sadly it seems like Maero doesn't have a job from the three of them.

But for now we should welcome them open hearted into our community and show just how wonderful ponies we are.

"Ugh, isn't there anything else in it but that?" Spike asked and to his surprise twilight went quickly through the rest of the paper before looking at him.

"In fact no. There isn't anything else but this along with the interviews of the Mayor and the spa ponies. Well, if you don't count the photo of them, obviously taken without their notice." she told him while going through the article again, but soon her eyes caught a small line at the bottom corner of the text.

Oh and to all of you mare's out there; yes, all three of them are single.

* * * * *

"Get ready; he's getting closer." Mike whispered to me after looking around the corner. "Your call Tom; we've got about two minutes before yard watch comes."

I also looked around the corner and there he was, walking around while trying to avoid other kids walking by. But knowing from past experience, there wasn't nearly enough time to do much to nothing.

"Lets just go with basic routine." I told to him before turning back as he was now close enough.

"Okay, go." I said, and Mike walked past me over the corner, crashing right into our target. He fell down while Mike only stumbeled as he was the larger one. Before he got up though, Mike took him around the neck while I walked over the bag he had drop in the fiasco.

"Hey what are you..." he started, but Mike shutted him up by giving a light punch to the stomach, making him whimper a bit. After a brief run onto his bag, I opened it wide open before starting to empty it right down to the ground. He tried to say something again, but this time I placed a punch on him while Mike let go of him, making him fall down. We could hear him crying lightly as we walked away.

"See you next day Alex!" Mike shouted behind his back.

* * * * *

*KLANG*

"W-wha?" I muttered while slowly opening my eyes and raising myself to sit on the edge of the sofa. As I grabbed my glasses from the table, my back thankfully wasn't as sore as it had been on the first morning and it made me think that this just added more reason for Maero having the first bed when we had the bits.

Thinking of Maero, I looked over to where he had laid the bedroll, but immediately I had a deja-vu moment when I saw that the roll had been tucked to the corner like last time.

As I stood up, I heard weak thump noise from upstairs and soon it was followed by some minor swearing. Smiling, I climbed up the stairs and opened the door to the single room that was now Alto's domain.

"Morning. Slept well?" I enthusiastically asked from Alto, who was still lying on the floor after having rolled out of the bed.

"Screw you..." he muttered under his breath while standing up. Still smiling, I offered my hoof towards him and he eagerly grabbed it. His face bore an apologetic expression as he faced me.

"Heh, sorry about that. Didn't sleep well last night." he said while we started heading downstairs.

"To be honest; even I had trouble sleeping." I said as now we'd gone downstairs and Alto sighed as he grabbed one of the two chairs in the living room.

"About the jobs?" he asked from me while he sat down. I decided to stay up for now, but I nodded to him and he just chuckled before taking his normal sitting position; hands behind his head while stretching the legs forward.

"Isn't this just crazy?" Alto silently commented and then it struck me that I hadn't had private talk with him since all this happened.

"Alto, are you feeling fine?" I reluctantly asked while trying to sound as normal as possible, but he saw past this and laughed out loud while standing up before placing his hoof on my shoulder.

"Don't you worry about me; think more of Alex." he calmly said while looking me in the eyes. I moved myself little to get his hoof off while raising my tone bit.

"Alto... Be honest with me." I silently said while locking my eyes to his, but he now avoided my gaze as he returned to sit down. He calmly breathed for a while before returning the look to me.

"Tom, have you thought about your parents?"

I felt like a little crack had formed into my heart from hearing him saying that. But I stayed cool and proceeded to nod, but he just waved his hoof at me.

"Then you should know why I wouldn't want to talk about it." he said before starting to head to the bathroom, leaving me staring at the wooden floor.

Had I given thought to my family?

Whenever I would think of them, I just saw my father and mother looking at me with their faces gleaming from happiness. Then again, I knew that by know if time passed at the same speed, they ought to know what had happened and that I had died...

Part of my mind started to say that it was natural to want to remember your loved ones at their best moments and not at their worst.

But the bigger part told me to just face the truth and form the image of my parents weeping at my grave...

"By the way, where is Alex?" Alto shouted from the bathroom, making me snap out of thinking.

As I walked to the kitchen, I noticed that the basket from the last day was laying on the corner, empty of course as after our little private celebration, only quarter of the goods had been left intact and we had decided to save them by putting them onto the fridge.

But the point was, that Maero wasn't there. Panic started to creep into me, but then I noticed the envelope from the yesterday hanging from between the fridge door. As I grabbed it, I noticed that text had written on it.

Left already

Of course! The noise I had heard earlier had been him leaving and closing the door.

"Well where the hell is..." Alto said as he got to the kitchen, but stopped when I handed to him the envelope. Quickly he read it while I checked the fridge for something to eat.

"Strange.... Why he..." Alto said before suddenly opening his eyes in shock and looking at me in panic.

"WHAT'S THE TIME!" he shouted while looking around until noticing the clock on the kitchen wall and soon he was panicking even more when he saw it was 7.48 am.

"OH SHIT I'VE GOT TO GO!" he said before randomly grabbing a bag from the fridge, which just happened to have the last four muffins, and leaving off in haste. Then I remembered that his shift began at eight, so he had some right to freak out but at least he knew where his working place while I still needed to find the school.

I ate two of the croissants along with glass of water before putting the rest back to the fridge. Then I did little chores in the house etc. cleaned the dust from the tops, moved the furniture back to the place and so on, before seeing that it was just little over eight when I had finished all the things to do.

Oh well... Might as well go to the school little ahead of time.

As I got outside, the rays from the sun greeted my face, making a thin shadow fall on my face from where my horn was. Smiling, I tucked the door closed, hearing a faint click sound when the door clicked locked, but this time I left one of the keys under the front door mattress.

Now to see what the day will be like, I thought to myself while starting to head towards the main road.