The Bond

by Hydkore

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Slice of Life, Human
Length: 112107

Read a tale of three friends and their journey, as they learn more about themselves and each other.

After a tragic accident, three friends must learn that you can't judge a book by its cover. Their friendship is put to the test through many trials, but will it come out unscathed? Follow Alex, Tom and Mike through their adventures in Equestria, as their forced to give up their past lives and forge new ones.

Official pre-readers:

None, for the time being.

The cover is done by the awesome fellow named Stalin The Stallion.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-11-06 11:02:21 UTC

Chapter 2 "What happened?"

Chapter 2

What happened?

The pain was gone.

My body was gone.

But my mind wasn't.

Slowly, I opened my eyes to find out where I was. Looking around, I couldn't see anything as the place was covered in complete darkness. Come to think of it, what was I standing on? I wasn't able to get answer to that question, as the whole place was engulfed in light so bright that I had to turn away and shield my eyes with my palms. I saw from the slits of my finger openings how the darkness crept away and was replaced with a fog of smoke-kind of substance.

It took me a while before I lifted my hand from my face and this time I wasn't struck with a light.  Instead I saw how the whole place had turned into a big light show of goodness. I felt kind of sick as the lights started to flicker around faster than in amusement park ride. Still I couldn't bring myself to throwing up as I would have pleasantly done.

...Tom...

I got spooked and my skin got Goosebumps.

Someone or something else was here besides me.

...Tom.

I rapidly looked the whole place up, but no matter how hard I tried, I didn't find the person who spoke to me. I tried to calm myself down, as by now I had started to hyperventilate and I had started to get exhausted.

...Tom...

It was kind of funny actually. Just sometime ago, I had been run over by a van, left to die in the road with immense pain and here I'm being tugged around by some kind of higher being while waiting to be able to throw up.

...Wake up Tom...

By now, the entities voice had gotten much more clearer but it still sounded more like a whisper than an actual full out shout.

...Wake up...

"SHUT UP!" I shouted from pure anger, even shocking myself as I very rarely showed any signs of it and at this amount. Shivers went down my body as my fists clenched shut on my sides and I felt like a need to punch something. But then the light shone over me from above once for an fraction of an second and all of my anger just... vanished, just like that.

...Your friends need you...

My knees gave up on me as my mind flickered from hearing this. Touching my face, my palms became wet with tears from the sadness of realising that my friends faced the same fate as I did.

"What's the point? They're dead like me..." I said before looking down, silently weeping while the light around me shone its normal value before starting to diminish very slowly.

...Don't give up so soon...

After saying that, the substance below me vanished and I fell to the darkness below me. I screamed like I never had before, but after a minute the speed of the falling started to gradually slow down. In the end, when I hit the next level of dark substance, it felt more like an elevator ride but without the annoying music. I tried to prepare myself for what would come next and in the end I still was struck with a wave of disbelief.

The ground below me suddenly burst into life as grass began to rapidly take over while flowers began to pop up as well. Soon even bushes and trees began to appear, making the world shiver a bit around me. After all  activity had settled down, I just turned to to look around only to see myself being in little field that had trees covering all the sides while some sort of sun like object hovered above me, giving the needed light to the area.

My crying had stopped by now and instead an expression of disbelief dominated when I walked off to the center of the field while looking around. Suddenly ground began shaking again for a minute but as it stopped I just saw that large pilar had appeared in the center of the field. It appeared to be made out of stone, but nothing like what I had ever seen as it seemed to glitter as if light reflected from the surface but still appearing to be tough enough to withstand earthquakes or any other hazards.

What caught my eye though was the object at the top of the pilar.

"No... it can't be." I muttered after silently staring at the sculpture of an large pony that had an horn. From the looks it seemed to be representing an male as it had little bit archaic look to it as its hooves were laid open while pointing the horn towards. The face however was covered in shadows, as if it seemed to regret something. Without thinking, I looked around the flank of the creature only to see that the whole body was being covered in robes and some sort of cape.

"Unicorn? But..."

The world began shaking again, but this time I was staring at the pillar that was now moving slowly. If it would have been anatomically possible, my jaw would have hit the floor at the point when a bolt of some sort of energy erupted from the sculptures horn to the side. My eyes clenched shut as the place was once more covered in light that seemed to want vaporize everything in existence.

Still unsure if it was safe to look, I opened the eyes a little bit to see that the light had faded away and where the bolt had struck now stood a door right between the trees

I turned back to look at the oldish looking door with some carvings on the sides. From what I could see the carvings represented some kind of equine creatures while vines stretched upwards the sides. Right middle on the door there was an two of these equine creatures in circle that had sun and moon in the middle.

The door opened itself as I got to it, but by now I had gotten used to surprises so I wasn't bothered. Before entering though, I turned to look behind me to the statue, only to find it back to its original place.

Taking a deep breath, I entered through the frame only to find myself falling in the deep darkness below as the light from the door began to fade away every second that passed by.

... Namesake...

My lungs suddenly emptied out of all air.

* * * * *

Somewhere in the falling I had lost my consciousness yet again, but this time the post-traumatic rage wouldn't happen. As I finally grasped the reality, the first thing I would get was a smell of the grass. For some odd reason, my body felt a lot lighter than usual and my head felt like it was hit with a sledgehammer. It didn't also help to find out that standing up was out of question as if I was back to baby style of crawling around. Without even noticing, I had threw up quite a lot and very rapidly.

"Easy there pal. It soon passes over, I promise"

Mike!

I tried to respond, but instead I found myself throwing up even more so I decided to stay quiet. But enough soon the vomiting stopped, but it left an unpleasant taste to my mouth. I could hear him chuckle.

"See I told you so. I also had the same thing when I woke up."

I felt a lot better now as I was able to raise my head and I tried to open my eyes. At first my vision was quite blackened, most likely due to trip to the Limbo, but luckily my eyes soon adjusted. What I saw turned my eyes into big round saucers.

From the looking the place seemed to be a forest as there were trees scattered here and there, with some tall grass hedges covering the ground in irregular patterns. I was lying next to a quite small pond that had crystal clear water and what seemed to be a small pier on the other side shore with a small rowing boat tied to it. But it wasn't the fact that I was in the most beautiful patch of land I had ever seen. It was the colours and the shading that caught my attention as it seemed like the god was quite an artistic fellow when he created this place. The colours and the shading looked like they were straight from children's weekend cartoon shows.

A little bit like....

…. No....

"Look into the water" Mike said behind me.

With some fear, I tilted my head down, looking at the water.

I kept silent for a minute, staring down at the water, as my mind was struggling trying to compress the information. At last, I muttered silent swear, followed yet again with a silence.

What was the information?

I wasn't in my normal body.

My body had been changed into a pony form.

My pony body was quite fragile looking, but it still had a little puffed look to it. Only knowing little about pony anatomy, I couldn't know how tall or short I was compared to the normal height, but that wasn't currently my top priority.

My coat was a silver grey colour which was quite fitting to my personality. My mane and tail were both copper brown, with the mane being medium in length and curling down my neck, leaving the forehead bare.  My iris was an unknown mix of sapphire blue with some light green mixed in. For some odd reason, I still had my glasses on. Mike informed me that I had them on when he found me.

The most noticeable part of my new body was a horn that stuck out of my forehead, and I could feel as my... hoof... touched the hardened surface of it.

This cannot be...

I turned a bit in my base in order to get a look of my behind. The tail was also brown, but very short as it didn’t even touch my rump that was bare.

How...Just what is this, why am I a pony?!

Wait... if I am a pony, then...

I turned round in my place and my face dropped as I saw a dark blue pony grinning at me past the unruly black mane. My eyes traced along him, catching the pair of wings curled up, past the blank rump and ending at a black, stretched out tail.

Mike sighed and trotted over, coming face to face with me.

"Look, we don't have time to glare and be amazed at our new bodies. There is a problem."

Looking back at him, I asked "Problem? What problem?"

Mike sights yet again, but this time it sounded more sorrow as he points his head to a tree in a distance.

"It's Alex."

* * * * *

Walking down the field of grass my mind is puzzled as it tries to understand the situation. It has only been one hour from the accident if I trust what Mike stated to me. I had been the last one of us to wake up, so a lot had happened. Mike was the first one to wake up and he was soon followed by Alex. From what I had understood, Alex hadn't said a word since he woke up. Mike tried to get him to talk, but Alex had just gazed to the distance with a glassy vision. This had happened some half hour ago and by then Alex had moved to the tree, perhaps to get some alone time.

I argued with Mike that what could I do, but Mike insisted that I at least give it a shot. In the end I had agreed to try, so we parted our ways, as Mike started to look for some firewood as the sun was soon to set down.

I sighed yet again, as I was now only few feets away from the tree and I could now see the pony Alex.

He had turned into maroon brown earth pony with blond mane and tail. He was little larger than what me and Mike were, as opposed back on Earth where he was the smallest of us. His iris were green coloured, which matched quite well with his coat.

By now, I had stopped a foot away from him, but he still keeps watching the horizons.

"Hey.." I said, trying to get his attention but with no luck. Alex turned to see me, but soon started to look back on the horizons. I sighed, sat down and leant my back to the trunk. We must have sat there for some time, as the first stars started to appear on the dark sky. Luckily it was full moon, so there wasn't any light problem.

"How long it took you?"

I looked at Alex and asked;

"What do you mean?"

By now, Alex had turned his head to face me. I could see he had cried long and hard some time ago.

"How long it took you to die?" Alex said and I could see he was on the edge to cry yet again.

I tilted my head down, trying to remember what happened after accident. It took me a while, but finally I had the answer

"About ten minutes. And you, how long it took you?"

"Two hours.."

My eyes were yet again big saucers. Two hours!? Now I knew why Alex was like that.

"D-do you want to talk about it?"

Now it was my turn to hear a sight as Alex leant back on the trunk. I assumed he was finished talking to me, so I stood up and was ready to walk back to Mike. But I was interrupted.

"After the van hit us, we were thrown on the sides of the road. Mike...... he was the first one the van hit, so he died instantly."he said plandly.

I stopped dead on my tracks.

"Y-you were the second one the van hit. You didn't die instantly, but not long enough for the ambulance to arrive.. The doctors said you had internal bleeding and that you're lungs had been filled with blood." he said, with his voice starting to crack up.

I trotted back to Alex.

"By the time the van hit me, it had lost some of its power. But it was still enough to throw me around and cause internal bleeding."

I stopped next to Alex.

"Someone had seen the accident so ambulance soon arrived, but I was the only one of us alive. I...I had massive p-pains that not even the pain medication would make go away."

I put my left hoof on Alex's shoulder.

"By the time I was in the hospital, I was s-suffering with so much pain I couldn't even scream. I was immediately put in room for extra-monitoring, but what the doctor told me was that I..I wouldn't live for long."

I stood there quietly.

" T-then they called my family of what had happened. I was told that they were on the way, but my condition got far worse in a short amount of time."

By now, I had shed a single tear, as I knew where this was going.

" I-I promised to myself and to my family I would stay alive for them to arrive. B-but even though I tr-ried..."

Alex turned to me and started to cry on my shoulder. I just stood there, still keeping my hoof on him. He cried for some time, until settling down. I felt like a jerk. I didn't have any right to complain about my pains after hearing what Alex had suffered. We sat there for a while, staying quiet and watching as more stars appeared on the sky.

Watching back, I saw a dim fire on the distance. For the first time in the day, I grinned. That bastard actually got the fire started. I stood up and offered my right hoof for Alex

"Come. Mike must be waiting for us." I said and Alex nodded. As he grabbed my hoof, he asked;

"Tom.... Do you know where we are?"

I laughed a little and then turned back to look at the horizon where I saw the looming, vast forest close by to the diminish fire, and to the dark silhouette currently waving at our direction. As I pulled him up, I waved my hoof at the sky and at glowing full moon.

“Yes, and I’m happy to inform that we’re currently in the land of Equestria. Just don’t ask how or why, that I don’t currently know...

Chapter 3 "Breakdown"

Chapter 3

Breakdown

Glaring down the fire, I let out a deep sigh as my mind yet again started to roll out the questions, as if I didn't have enough trouble already.

Me and Alex had trotted back to the campfire Mike had somehow lit up, but for the time I ignored the obvious question and instead just sat down by the flame. Both Mike and Alex did the same, so we soon find ourselves just staring at the fire with bland expressions, stripped of all emotions and pain we had experienced. To me this was little absurd, as I remembered us always planning to go on a camping trip on the summer holidays to have some time away from our normal routines, but the plans were never put into action.

Well, here we are in the wilds but the fun is nowhere to be found.

I cleared my throat and the guys looked in my direction. Without raising my head, I stated:

"Look, if you're gonna blame anyone, it might as well be me."

Chuckle blinged out.

My head rose to find Mike stifling the rest of his outburst. To my surprise, even Alex was grinning. They looked at each other.

"Which one of us?" Mike said. Alex looked like he wanted to talk, but instead he just lowered his head back to the fire with the same emotionless expression as before. Mike sighted and turned towards me.

"Why should we blame you? You weren't the one that drove the van and you tried to warn us before it....you know.." Mike said, lowering his voice at the end as he recalled what happened.

I gazed over to him, trying to come up with answer but I was cut short by Alex.

"Guys... It doesn't help to talk about it at this point." Both me and Mike glance at him. Mike raised his hoof as if to put it to his shoulder, but Alex quickly stood up and walked away before either of us could talk to him.

Mike looked at me with frustrated look in his eyes.

"What has gotten to him? I know we died, but that doesn't explain his current state."

"Mike..."

"Normally he would have just laughed at our bickering, but now it's like he has lost all hope."

I look over to him and I don't know if it was my eyes or my voice that gave me away.

"Mike... Let's give Alex some time to deal with it himself. He has suffered by far the most of us. We'd just hurt him more if we get involved too much.”

Mike just groaned in defeat and turns back to the fire. I sighted and also turn back to the fire, but with a pain in my chest.

Should I tell Mike what Alex told me? Alex showed all the signs of very depressed and emotionally wrecked person, but he trusts me. I mean, how can I explain to Mike that Alex had suffered for hours and had to go through us both passing on when he died instantly? Even I was emotionally affected, but I hadn't suffered much in body and mind. Also it doesn't help that we are in world filled with talking rainbow coloured ponies and we have turned into them.

"This is pretty fucked up."

I looked at him again.

"Well, except for you. This has to be a paradise for you. But for me and Alex, this is pretty fucked up place."

Rage! That was what I felt before I leapt over Mike, imprisoning him down under my body. Back on Earth this would have been out of question, but Mike was now a Pegasus so he weighed quite little compared to me. He struggled to get up, and to my surprise, he flapped his wings few times, perhaps from instinct. Before Mike could react to anything, words were splurging out of my mouth.

"Say that again and I will cut your wings with a rusty spoon. I might be a brony, but that doesn't mean that I hoped this would happen. If I would have any part on this, I would have gone to hell on the second I died.”

Mike looked like he had been hit with a brick to the forehead, as he struggled to come up with a answer, while trying to get up. Suddenly, he stops and looks behind me and his face just radiates fear. I slowly turn my head, preparing for the most evil monster to pop up, ready to eat us in a blink of eye.

It was Alex, but something had happened, as this wasn't the mentally struck Alex. This one was enraged as he pointed at us.

"Okay, that's it!" He was shivering, but not from fear but from the adrenaline that his body pumped into him.

Only one thing crossed my mind. He was on the edge right now, only one more step from insanity. I let MIke go and he just jumped straight up to Alex.

"Alex, what are you talking about?." Mike muttered while trotting towards Alex, who just glanced at us.

All of sudden, Alex just sucker punched Mike, making him fly about five feets away. Now I was really terrified, as I had psycho earth pony who cannot face the truth. I swallow nervously, while taking a light step forward.

"Alex, what happened?" I said, trying to get his attention from Mike, who by now had gotten back to his feet and was coming back. Turning his head back to me from Mike, he burst in all out maniacal laughter, while pointing at me and trying to stand on three hooves.

"You sound like my best pal, so perhaps my mind hasn't gone all that insane from this pony bullshit." He said while maniacally laughing all the time. I saw from the corners of my eye, that Mike was down on the ground sobbing. I knew that if this continued, someone wouldn't survive.

"Alex, don't you remember what we talked about under the tree? You said that..."

I was cut short, as Alex had now stopped laughing and started to trot towards me.

"I was really down there, so of course I opened to someone else. Even to a creation of my mind." Alex said blandly, now standing right infront of me, looking directly at my eyes with a cold stare.

"After I left you, my friends, alone, I started to think about this whole thing about death and rebirth. Then it struck me." He said, looking more massive, as I was basically kneeling infront of him. He started to laugh again, but more blandly.

"What if all this is just a hallucination or a dream the medication caused? That makes sense, as I'm a human, but now I'm a pony, a talking pony no less."

I could just stare back at him as even a whimper wouldn't come out of my mouth. He must have noticed this, as he stopped laughing and turned back over me.

"Now, I don't know how you came up with me being your pals, but it's time to stop this lie. I'm now going to wake up and greet my family waiting beside my bed. I can almost hear them, talking ab..."

He never got to finish his words, as Mike was back in action and leaping to his back. Alex had been too busy chatting with me, so he hadn't noticed Mike coming behind him. I didn't know what Mike thought he would gain from doing this, but at least it gave me some time to back up and gather my thoughts. Alex had been completely surprised, but soon he had the upper hand yet again and Mike was thrown few feets away. I had to resolve this situation and quick!

But what could I do? Alex was more powerful than me and Mike combined. He didn't listen to a word we tried to say and was now most likely going to kill us. What could I do?

By the time I was back from thinking, Alex had trotted over to Mike was now standing over him, perhaps to make sure he doesn't interfere anymore. Alex raised both of his front hooves and lowered them over to Mike's throat, basically choking him. Mike let out wheezes, trying to catch breath, and started to wriggle around, but Alex kept him in place. All the time, he laughed maniacally.

"Wake up dear, wake up dear. I can hear my mother talking to me and I NEED TO WAKE UP!"

Panic struck me. I started to gallop towards them, gathering speed to strike him down. Luckily, he was too busy talking and choking Mike, so he didn't see me coming. I tilted my head down, to make my horn act as battering ram.

Alex didn't see what was coming. My horn struck him from the side, causing what seemed to be like a minor flesh wound. He screamed and called on his back, trying to cover the wound. Mike was still on ground, but was still able to mutter a little thanks to me.

I had just hurt my best friend...

I touched my horn with my hoof. It was wet from blood and some of it started to dribble down to my face or down the ground, forming red stains on the green ground.

Alex was still down, covering his wound. It bleeded, but not as much as I had thought. I still feared for him, but it was unnecessary as he seemed to have calmed down. I approached him carefully as I didn't want him to surprise me.

"H-h-how c-can you h-hurt me? Y-you're not real..." Alex said, looking at me with fear in his eyes. How could I blame him? I would be scared if someone would approach me with a bloody horn. I just sat down next to him, putting my right hoof to his shoulder. I sighed deeply.

"Alex... You, me and Mike have been through a lot, so I know you can handle the truth. THIS IS REAL! This isn't something your mind or the pain medication has made up. We really have turned into talking ponies, specifically My Little Pony: Frienship is Magic ponies and it seems we're also in the same world as in the show."

Alex just stared at me and Mike had gotten up, also looking at me. I ignored both of them and continued.

"You are sane, whatever you may think. So stop this madness and get a hold of yourself. I know it will be tough for all of us, but we have to just get over the fact that WE DIED! I have no idea why we are here, but think of it as a second chance."

Silence. None of us said or did anything for a minute. Even Alex had calmed down, so I let him go but he stayed down. Alex just glared down, just like before so I was afraid he would go back to the depressed mode. Mike was also silent, but he trotted next to Alex, also putting his hoof over his shoulder. Alex had by now started to cry.

"Oh God what have I done..." Alex whispered silently over and over again. This time, Mike was ahead of me. He lifted Alex from the ground and looked him straight in the eyes.

"We don't blame you. Even I was shocked when I woke up. Just promise us that this won't ever happen again." Mike said sternly, with still some compassion ringing from his voice.

Alex simply nodded in agreement, and soon Mike was leading him back to the campfire. I just stood there for a while, glaring at their backs. I allowed myself to breath again, as the situation had resolved with only one injury and a sore throat. Touching my horn, I find that the blood has already dried up. I muttered a swear and started to gallop towards the pond, hoping the blood would come off with a wash. But even though I tried, the blood was stuck in my horn as if to mock me. Ultimately I give up and pray that we won't get into trouble because of it.

By the time I was back to the campfire, both Mike and Alex were already sleeping around it. I smiled and happily joined them in the sleep, taking my place around the fire. I glared at Alex, who looked so calm, even though he tried to choke Mike only couple of minutes ago.

How could I blame him? It could have happened to anyone of us. Hell, I would have been more surprised if none of us would've gone nuts over the fact that we had been reborn as My Little Ponies.

I sighed, as I glared down the forest, which surrounded us, knowing we would have to wander through it and hope to find some other ponies soon. If not, we would starve to death or far worse, end up as dinners for the forest creatures, as I remembered from the show the manticore and hydra.

Knowing, that thinking wouldn't help me, I decided to quit for the day, as I took my place besides the fire and laid down. I looked at the moon before closing my eyes.

I even prayed a bit, thought I soon embraced the darkness.

Chapter 4 "Forest"

Chapter 4

Forest

The sky was filled with dark clouds, indicating that rain was coming. It was the start of autumn and my first school year, so I was feeling pretty cool, as this also meant that I was ready to become an "adult". I had even got new glasses, as the old ones had got small.

As I got closer to the school, more and more kids started to pop up from the corner roads that dotted this suburb area. Most of them seemed to be at the same age as me, but some obviously were older. Perhaps they were siblings, who lead their younger selves down to the school building.

After a while, I was on the schoolyard. I was awestruck just on how large it was, covering a small forest and even a football field. As I walked down the yard, some other kids started to look at my direction and soon enough, a group of boys walked down to me, surrounding me.The biggest one of them, who wore a wool hat and had a black hair, started to talk me.

"Hey four-eyes. Whatc'ha doing in here? This is the normal kid's school, not some chess school down in the rich area." the boy said, chuckling with the other kids. I fixed my gaze at the fatty, who was little stunned. They must have hoped to find an easy target in me, but I wasn't going to give in. The fatty raised his fist in what seemed to be an attempt to hit me, but luckily he was quite slow, so instead he got a hit on his stomach. Luckily for my and everyone else's safety, the school bell rang and the teachers started to assemble us in rows. Before I got to leave, something grabbed me by the leg and made me fall down. Soon, I found myself staring at the eyes of enraged bully, who had been ashamed in front of his audience.

"Friday, at three, in the forest, don't chicken out."

I gave the kid an mnemonic stare and blandly stated.

"Don't leave me waiting."

* * * * *

I snapped out of my slumber and immediately rose upwards, only to be greeted by Alex and Mike, who sat next to the campfire. Both were grinning, while looking at me. Mike trotted over to me and gave his right hoof off to me.

"Finally, you're awake. We were just pondering about waking you up" Mike says while still holding his hoof towards me.

I also grinned and quickly I find myself up nose to nose with Alex. Suddenly, he changes totally, dropping his grin off and starting to stare down to the ground. Before he got anywhere, I had grabbed him by his shoulders with my both front hooves.

"And don't you DARE to make a cheesy apology. I..."

My stomach rumbled.

Alex smiled smugly as he rose his head to match my height, which proved to be little difficult as he was taller.

"Heh. We're a bit short on the food right now." Alex said, while he took off towards the already dead fire. I just stood there with my lower jaw almost hitting the ground and finding Mike laughing his living lungs off while rolling on the ground. Looking at Alex, I could see that he still had the wound from yesterday, but it didn't seem to bleed so it didn't raise any alarms.

"I need a wash." I stated blandly, perhaps a little grumpily way, as Mike stopped laughing and took this as a tip to leave me alone. I just sighed and headed off to the pond, while thinking of what we were going now. As Alex had just said, we didn't have any food and there probably wasn't anything we could safely eat here. Also as if it helped to know, that meat was out of option, as ponies are herbivores. By then, I knew I would need to have a little chat with the guys, telling them more Equestrian life in general.

By the time I got to the pond, I found myself staring at my face which mirrored off the surface crystal clear. My mane was all messed up, I had bags forming under my eyes and my glasses were covered in a layer of dirt. In an attempt to make myself presentable, I quickly washed the dirt of my face and I also attempted to comb my mane somewhat straight, but with little luck as it seemed to just puff up into a afro type style

My thoughts then drifted onto explaining the situation to them; Now what should I tell them about? Well, Mike is a somewhat a fan, even though he doesn't admit it, so he knows some basic stuff. He would probably want know more about Pegasus, but sadly even I knew very little, as the show only stated that they can control weather, fly and are little more powerful compared to unicorns but still weak compared to Earth ponies as I had seen last time... Alex would be my main focus, as he was literally new to all of this so it could be easier to explain that he's an Earth pony, so he doesn't need to bother himself with magic and flying; thought I knew that it would take some time for him to adjust to being quite a powerful pony. I smiled on that right now, I was the most reliable source of information for us, but still I was quite lost on some subjects and although I was an avid fanfiction reader, I didn't trust any information they offered on any subjects, as most were based on rather bizarre ideas or conclusions the fans have proposed to fill in those rather elementary questions.

"Hey Tom! Are you coming?"

Turning, I saw Mike looking at my direction.

"Yeah.....I'm coming." I shouted while standing up and starting to pace back to them.

* * * * *

It must have taken me a good portion of the day to answer all the questions that Mike and Alex made to me about Equestria and about ponies in general. To rather unique surprise, Mike was more interested in the down area that stallions had, making me face hoof myself many times and generating an confused look from Alex who never got the dick references, even back on Earth. Sadly, I knew very little to nothing about pony anatomy, so it left Mike little displeased but luckily Alex diverted the conversation by asking questions about culture and technology level in Equestria, which I knew a lot more about. Of course, both of them asked questions about their new bodies, particularly Mike as Alex didn't have anything extra on him. MIke was happy to know that he could manipulate weather and walk on clouds in conjunction to being able to fly. I tried to calm Mike's excitement, as Alex seemed to be down a little, as he was only a normal Earth pony. He tried to smile to me, as to implicate that he was okay, so I stopped to pester Mike around and decided to tell Alex about himself. It must have took him by surprise to find out that he was now the strongest one of us, which equalled an eruption of protest from Mike but a quick glance from me shut his mouth. In the end when the guys laid down on the questions, the sun was at its highest point. As it seemed like there wasn't nothing else the talk about, I stood up to and began to make my leave when,

"Tom... What about you? You haven't said anything about unicorns."

It was Mike, who must have had snapped out of daydreaming. I sight, lovering myself back to ground and looking back at him.

" Not much to say. The only major difference is that unicorns are able to use their horns to perform magic. Oh, Unicorns are also weaker than Pegasus ponies, but not a whole lot." I said, while Alex looked at me.....with a hint of jealousy?

"Can you do any magic?" Mike asked with a curious tone.

"I haven't tried yet. Besides, it's not the main thing on my mind right now." I said to Mike, who seemed to think otherwise, but I had to get this conversation to other tracks. Alex seemed to bite the bait, dropping the awkward face.

"Like what?" He asked, turning his head to Mike, who also looked at me with an odd look. I sighed and turned my head to right, which they also did.

The forest loomed about five feet away from our current place, which gave a good look for them on what I meant. Simultaneously, we all gulp and turn our heads back. As I looked at them, both were shivering, perhaps from fear? I had told them about Equestrian wildlife, basically telling about manticores and hydras. I sighed yet again as I began to stand up.

"We need to go through the forest, whenever you like it or not. We cannot stay here, as we have no food and there isn't anyone else nearby." I said, while walking towards the forest. Mike was first to answer.

"Oh yeah? And what makes you think there lives peop....erm, ponies there?" He said, getting a nod of approval from Alex, who also seemed to dislike the idea of going in the woods.

"Does the name Everfree ring any bells in your head Mike?" I said to him, without bothering to turn and face him and instead continuing towards the woods. As I had predicted, Mike immediately ran to me and joined me, while Alex remained still.

"Alex, Are you coming?" Mike said as if he read my mind. I could here Alex frowning in defeat and joining us, claiming that he would follow us wherever we would go, erupting an comical sniff from Mike, which made me crack up and Alex soon had us both touching our heads in pain. But then again, Alex didn't smile at any point when doing that...

But enough soon, we found ourselves on the edge of the Everfree forest. I don't know what got to me, but I made a little prayer for both Celestia and Luna as if it had any meaning. Still, it gave me some comfort inside, although I was never a really religious guy for even being an agnostic. Hell, at this point I was even ready to believe that Moon was made out of cheese.

Looking at my sides, I could see both my friends moving in their places little anxiously. I didn't express any feelings towards them, as I raised my left hoof and started to walk to the woods, knowing what we might be facing off.

"And we're off...."

* * * * *

Even though all of us were pretty scared of the forest creatures, none of us admitted this openly and instead each of us kept to himself. Whenever I tried to engage in a friendly conversation, both of my friends refused to say more than one or two words before falling silent.

“It shouldn’t take too long for us to reach the other side.” I assured to them, and slightly to myself. From them, only Mike turned his look at me and simply nodded in acknowledgement.

I just sighed yet again, as I tried to search for any indication that we were on the right tracks, but it didn't help since not much of the Everfree forest had been shown so far. I didn't want to tell this to the guys, who by now had began to give me worried looks.

Then ahead of us, a bush started to rustle.

My eyes turned into big saucers as I backed off towards Mike and Alex, keeping my gaze at the bush.

Alex was shivering in his place, planting his face down to the ground and covering it with both of his hooves as to safeguard it.

Mike's wings just flapped out open, as if telling him to fly to safety. His face bore no expression what so ever.

I lowered my horn, ready to jab it at whatever nasty thing would come out.

In a millisecond, the rustling stopped but nothing came out.

We all just sighed in relief, excluding Alex who still laid on the ground. Mike went over to the bush as I convinced Alex that nothing was going to eat us. As he stood up, he flinched before falling back to the ground. Before I could wonder why, I saw the wound. Some kind of infection had started to form over it.

"Didn't want to worry you guys. I tried to keep the wound from getting infected, but it didn't help to spend the night laying on ground and I didn't have anything to cover the wound with." Alex said, while carefully standing up. I decided to trust Alex, as he was only one of us who had some kind of medical training from his time in the Red Cross.

"Hey guys! I found something."

It was Mike, who was over at the bush, poking his head deep into it. We walked to him and he presented us with his founding.

It was an old looking brown fabric, what seems to have been part of an bigger outfit; Perhaps an jacket? Sadly, it didn't give any other indication and it seemed to be old enough to have been there for some time, so it didn't raise any thoughts from my Bronypedia. After a brief talk, it was decided to move on as we still had the energy to move.

After an another hour and many video game one-liners later, we still hadn't found any indication of an road or to that matter no other living form besides us. We had seen some animals from a distance, mostly a deer eating grass, but all had runned away from us at the first sight.

It didn't also help that all of us were hungry as hell. If nothing, I would start eating the grass we were standing on. Also Alex had started to whine a while ago that someone or something was keeping an eye on us. Even Mike claimed he saw something on the sides, but I wasn't in the mood for jokes as my stomach gave me bad time.

By now, I was starting to lose hope little by little. How could I have been so stupid? I didn't even know all of the compass directions and here I'm leading two of my pals most likely to their death through starvation. I even hoped that an animal would come to end our misery when we would be laying on the ground just a few feets away from an apple tree...

Then it struck me.

Maybe.......just......maybe this is..........a dream?

I felt like openly crying....

"Tom...."

It was Mike, who had come next to me and had put his right hoof to my shoulder, as if to show an act of solidarity. Thought it didn't help my hunger, it light me up little on the inside. As if some mind link had been broken, Mike backed off and headed ahead of me, leaving me with my thoughts. Perhaps......he understood me?

Then Alex came to me, but he instead came face to face with me, lowering his head to match my height. He looked around him, as to see if anyone else was near, but soon he turned towards me, bearing a stern look in his eyes.

"Tom. Trust me on this.... Please don't go down the same road I did, as it doesn't lead to anything good. Besides, I and Mike need you right now more than ever."

By now, tears had gone down my cheek and down to the ground below. Alex didn't point this out though, as he raised me up and lead me towards Mike to catch up with him. Soon, we came to a clearing.

The scene........ It was just godly beautiful. The clearing was filled with flowers of all colours, that created irregular color patterns that would make even the most experienced gardener jealous. How ironic it was that such an majestical place existed in this forest? Perhaps it was just that there were no ponies to pick up the flowers, so they could multiply rapidly, but I disliked it and instead put on as one of the natures miracles.

MIke was ahead of us in the field, bearing the same face of disbelief that I also had.

But something wasn't right, as Mike looked at us and pointed out something that was on the other side of the field.

As I looked at what Mike pointed out, I heard a growl from behind. As Alex turns around, his face slowly turns white. I couldn't blame him for his cowardice as I saw what was behind of us.

It was a wolf, a timber wolf to be precise, that seemed like it was still quite young, as it was small compared to us. What it didn't have in size, it had in its mouth that it happily clapped open and shut, producing an ominous noise.

Neither one of us said anything as we turned towards Mike and started to gallop for our lives. Even though Alex might have been able to defend for himself, his wound effectively prevented it and I wasn't a match for it, even with my horn as the wolf was too small to try to stab with it.

It seemed like an eternity as we galloped towards Mike, who was unaware of the whole ordeal. He tried to shout something at us, but he stopped immediately as he saw what was chasing us. His wings popped up yet again and he joined us in the running. The wolf behind us was panting heavily as it seemed to catch us very fast.

As we got closer to the other side of the clearing, I saw something coming from the woods. Was it other timber wolf? If so, then we were officially screwed. But to my surprise, the figure stood still, as if it waited for us to come. Deciding that this figure was much better option than getting eaten, I just continued running. Getting closer to the thing, I see it wearing some kind of an cloak, that seemed oddly familiar, and the thing stood almost at the same height as me and Mike.

Perhaps..... an another pony?

The cloaked figure took something out from its saddlepack. It seemed to be an pouch of some sort, but with ropes attached to its end, just like with boala. To my surprise, he/she started to roll it around, as if gathering speed. Soon, the pouch flew over our heads. I looked behind my shoulder, seeing that the pouch opened in middle of the air and some kind of powder spread from it over the wolf. The thing stopped dead on its tracks, sniffing the air and in a blink of an eye, it fell down to the ground. We also stopped just in time to meet our saviour, who seemed more interested in the wolf that had chased us.

None of us said anything, as the cloaked fellow inspected the wolf for few minutes, getting some claws from its pawns and some fur of its coat. Soon the figure turned towards us and we only saw the glowing eyes beneath the hood.

Something clicked inside of my head.

Wait....... It couldn't be.....

But before I got the chance to say anything, the cloaked figure left us and started to walk towards the direction that we had just came out from.

Zecora......?

Chapter 5 "Conflict"

Chapter 5

Conflict

"Hey Tom...."

Ignoring Alex and Mike, I stepped foward towards the Zebra. Although I knew who it was, I had to be extra careful not to expose that factor as it would cause nothing but trouble for everyone, especially us.

"Hey! Please wait!" I shouted, making her turn and look at us with her glowing eyes.

"I...No, we want to thank you." I muttered, trying to keep my gaze fixed at her glowing eyes and praying that neither Alex nor Mike would say anything stupid.

The Zebra gave me a small nod of approval. Before I got to even ask, she turned her head towards to her left side. She turned and started to calmly walk to the woods behind her where we had originally come from before the incident with the wolf. I turned towards the guys, who were obviously pretty out by this point as they didn't seem to notice that she had shown the way out of this forsaken place.

I turned to our right side and started to walk to the way Zecora had pointed at. Oddly, neither Mike nor Alex questioned this and just followed behind me, perhaps a bit reluctantly. I couldn't blame them from this as Zecora didn't give a great first impression for the guys, even if she did stop us from becoming a dinner of the day for the hungry wolf.

Looking back, I saw that she had already left us and gone to the forest, presumably back to her cabin that laid somewhere there.

"Tom. Who was that?"

I sighed and turned to face Alex, who had asked the question. I could see from his eyes a glimpse of uncertainty of our current situation after the meet up with her. Even after she had saved us, Alex and Mike were still unsure of the whole ordeal that had happened.

Should I explain to them who she was?

"I'll explain later. What matters is that we now know the way out of here!"

* * * * *

*Rumble*

My stomach erupted into pain; it was almost incapacitating!

Even after Zecora pointed us the way out, we found ourselves still wandering in the woods. All of us were really down, as Mike wasn't saying any jokes and Alex was nearly crawling his way through. We hadn't eaten in so much time that Alex even resorted in eating some random leaves from some bushes, but he soon found himself spitting it out and cleaning his tongue. Neither me nor Mike laughed at this sight, even if it was very hilarious. We needed to conserve the little energy we had left on walking and observing our surroundings for any possible food. Even though we searched high and low through the dense bushes, we couldn't find anything that would pass as food. for now it was decided to focus on moving foward and not think about eating.

While all this happened, my mind was keeping itself busy with questions and all kinds of theories. Although some say its called wisdom, I preferred to call it logical thinking, as I very much dislike the idea of being superior to someone else. That was just the way I was, always trying to think my way out every situation possible. It also made me speak and think in formally, which has surprised many older people and too many younger ones, as it seems like teenagers aren't supposed to talk nothing but slang. Sometimes, I just feel like I was already born old....

As we walked, it was decided between me and Mike that he should take the place in front, so that if we were attacked again, I was able to defend both front- and backside. This also allowed me to relax a little, as now I wouldn't need to bother myself with both being only one us with some kind-of an weapon, even if it was still bloody, and guiding us. Me and Alex chatted a little, but not whole lot as he seemed to be in more worse condition, even if he insisted that he was fine and that his condition comes from the hunger. Still, I coudn't not help but look at his wound from time to time, as it seemed like the infection spread every minute...

This must have continued for an hour or so, until Mike had disappeared ahead of us, as I by now, I had to let Alex lean onto me and help him take step by step. This wasn't odd, as Mike constantly surveyed the area ahead with his Scouting skills, making sure it was safe for us to continue forward. As an unspoken rule, me and Alex would stop to wait for him to give the green light. I helped Alex to sit down and I took my place beside him.

"Tom... There's something I would like to ask you." Alex said to me, but not turning towards me. Then I knew it was something a little bit more serious than another question concerning us and Equestrian way of life.

"Yeah, what is it?" I said, not needing to even sound calm. It was perhaps the only good gift I had; when I wasn't angry or frustrated, my voice always bore calm, perhaps a little serene, tone. It had it's advances but most of the time back on Earth, people would just give me odd looks as it sounded like some good-looking guys voice, not some nerd's voice.

"What are we supposed to do after getting to the town?" he said while turning his attention towards me and getting another bad coughing spree, sighing, I turned my head upwards while trying to come up with an answer. Finally I had it, but I was unsure if it was what Alex was waiting for.

"Rebuild our lives from scratch. That's what we need to do: we need new names, a place to stay and past that is acceptable." I said while looking at the birds that flew above high above us.

"You mean, forgetting our past?"

I turned towards Alex who by now was sniffing. I knew it would be especially hard for him; he'd very loving family that had supported him through the best and worst and now I was asking him to let those memories fade away.

"No Alex. No matter what happens, don't ever forget your family. We just need to, ponify our memories; when we speak about our past or try to avoid situations where it might come up. Nothing is stopping you from talking about them; just remember to not leave lose ends." I said while raising myself up, as by now Mike had taken too much time for a normal check-up.

As if lady Fortuna was smiling on me, Mike appeared immediately from behind the trees.....laughing?

Indeed, he laughed while gallopped towards me and Alex, who by now also was interested in this unusual sight. Before I got to even say a thing, Mike stopped at the other side of Alex and helped me to carry him forward. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically as Alex flinched from pain every couple of steps we took. Before I got to point this out, a bright light shone from gap between the trees, blinding me temporarily. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I could hear screams of joy that seemed to erupt from Mike. I could even hear Alex giving in a small laughter, soon followed by intensive cough.

As I soon saw what they saw, I also joined them in their joy, screaming and crying at the same time.

We had made it out of the forest!

* * * * *

We just stayed there for a couple of minutes just celebrating after the horrible time the forest had offered us. But soon enough, my mind gave me a mental kick in the nuts and I immediately turned back to my serious form. Sadly, I had to give Mike a little smack to his face to stop him from laughing, but as I was unicorn now, the hit didn't bolster any power what so ever, so no major injuries were done to Mikes face.

As I started to look around the current place we were, I immediately saw something that had to be a gift from Celestia herself or from some local farmer that had been quite reckless when throwing seeds.

It was a lone apple tree. The trunk fostered a dull grey colour, as to indicate that 'I'm old so get away from my apples.' I couldn't care less even if apples were rotten to their core.

By now, we all had noticed the tree. Mike just galloped to it without thinking, so I was left alone to help Alex. At the tree, Mike was hopping up and down, trying to catch one of the many apples it holstered in its branches. It amazed me just how high he could jump; perhaps he's just so lightly built now. As we got to him, he finally stopped trying and turned to face me.

"We've got a bit problem here." Mike said while giving a glimpse to the tree to, while some drool started to come from sides of his mouth.

"I noticed. Give it a kick" I commented, while letting go of Alex who informed he could stand on his own. Without any words said, Mike raised his right back hoof and gave the tree a kick. Sadly, the kick didn't cause any apples to drop down. Of course I knew from the show that only Earth ponies were powerful enough to buck apple trees, but Alex was definitely not well and I didn't want him to get in any worse condition. Mike was seemingly angry, as he gave the tree another kick but with even worse success. Even I took a shot but I did even worse than Mike, cursing in my mind I didn't know how to levitate objects.

"How about we try to kick it together? It might just do the trick." Mike said while giving me the "oh come on" look. I just shrugged and moved to the other side of the trunk while he got to the opposite side.

"Okay! On three! One..... two..... three!"

We both kicked the tree simultaneously, praying it would give us the thing we wanted.

It seemed like the prayer didn't go to waste, as I heard small thump voice. Looking back at Mike, I could see him bearing a faint grin as he raised his left hoof to show the apple that had fallen on his head; I walked over to him, raising my right hoof forward. Luckily he got the idea and in regards raised his hoof, making the two meet.

"Brohoof." I said while grinning. Mike chuckled little before answering to me.

"Yeah, I knew that one already." He said while lowering his hoof back and starting to walk towards Alex, who also had noticed the apple, basically drooling for it. Mike must have noticed this, as he quickly backed up while at the same time covering the apple, to Alex's dismay.

"Whoa! We've only got one apple; we're going to have to share." I said, trying to get the situation to calm down. Both of them just looked at me with asking gaze. Ignoring Alex for now, I asked Mike to hand over the apple. He did this, but a bit reluctantly.

Is this what hunger has done to us?

Without further do, I took a bite of the apple. A gasp erupted from both Mike and Alex, but before they got to say anything, I walked to Mike, handing the apple over to him.

"Easy. We all take a bite of the apple. It's big enough for each one of us to take a bite."

It seemed like both of them got the idea, as Mike took his part of the apple; eagerly chewing the crunchy part he had, savouring the taste while at the same time handing the apple over to Alex.

Alex gave the apple only glimpse before taking the whole thing down his throat, not leaving even the middle seed part behind. I couldn't help but to grin at the sight, when Alex tried to stand up, but was still unable to do that; single bite from already bitten apple was just not enough to keep pony like him working properly.

I walked over to him and helped him to stand up, while giving a glimpse back over to Mike, who was still looking at the tree. He sighed, while at the same time turning over and lending me a hand with helping Alex.

"Hope you know where to go next Tom." Mike said while taking over the left side of Alex.

What could I say?

"We'll just have to see." I said, while taking small balancing step forward.

Chapter 7 "Who are you ponies?"

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?"

Chapter 8 "Adventure in town"

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.

Chapter 9 "The Article"

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.

Chapter 10 Alto "Muffins!"

Chapter 10 Alto "Muffins!"

Chapter 10

Alto

Muffins!

Crap crap crap crap crap crap cart CART!

Jumping up, I noticed that I must have jumped at least ten feet up in the air without any trying.

A grin grew to my face as I narrowly avoided hitting the cart and hit the ground on the other side.

"Hey watch it!" some voice, a mare from the higher pitch, shouted behind but I ignored it as I paced myself even more.

GOD I LOVE THIS BODY!...OH CRAP A CORNER!

Slowing down, I slid around the corner, making some dirt and dust rise from the ground. Turning round, I saw that I was on the main road from yesterday when me and guys had left the pizzeria.

Wicked! Now where the hell is.. oh it's there.

Gazing over in the end of the street, the two floors high post laid with "large letter having wings and tiara" -symbol marking its importance, just like yesterday.

Royal Equestrian Mail read the bright white text over the building.

Have to say it's.... OH YEAH; crap crap crap crap crap...

The distance between me and the building grew shorter and shorter with every second I ran. Sadly I couldn't run with my full speed, as I even now needed to constantly avoid pretty much everything that stood between me and my destination. Jesus, I didn't even have time to get a look at other ponies walking around, as I kept my gaze locked on the building, as if fearing it might disappear from sight.

To my dismay, this didn't happen and soon I was opening one of the two doors that marked the entrance to the place I would need to start call my work.

Honestly, I was pretty jealous of Tom, or Nucleus as he preferred nowadays, as he made almost the double what I made.

Oh well, at least we won't have any trouble with money. And besides, at least I don't need to work off time like he most likely will need to do AND HOLY SMOKE THIS LOBBY IS BIG!

Indeed, the lobby of the post office contained three parts along with a sitting place and mail drop-off point. In the centre of the room laid big round reception desk that had two pegasus mares taking care of the lobby activity. That is if there would have been any ponies here, but then I recalled that it was only about eight in the morning and...

Oh yeah; the work

Approaching the desk, I saw the mares talking to each other while all of them were reading some newspaper called Ponyville Times. I could overhear their discussion:

"Gosh they look so cool, especially the pegasus!"

Huh. They must be talking about some band or something similar to that.

"Tell me about it; finally we've got some new..."

The mare in front of me had stopped talking when she raised her head behind the paper. She looked at me for a minute before looking back at the paper before returning to me. I dropped the bag that had my daily meal of three muffins to the top before turning back to her.

"Hey! I'm here for the job." I said, but the mare just stared at me along with the other one, making me a bit nervous as why they acted out like that. But soon the mare in front of me got a hold of herself and smiled to me before turning over to face the other one.

"Could you inform Mr Typo that we've got the new worker here?" she vaguely said, making me shiver a bit.

"Hey I went last time! Why don't you go?"

"Cause I'm talking to our dear co-worker here and somepony has to show him the build..."

"Still; I'm not going!"

"Me neither!"

"Want to fight?"

"Sure! Come here you..."

I didn't get to hear the rest as I quickly grabbed my muffins and slip past them without notice. Thankfully the signs pointed me the way to the head ponchos office that just happened to be on the second floor along with the cafe lounge that seemed to serve food along with drinks.

Good to know here I can get my daily coffee.

But my eyes caught the clock that hang just above the entrance to the lounge.

07:56

Breath of relief escaped my mouth before I resumed my walking but more I decided to relax and go calmly than when I had left the house.

But hot damn I feel good. Have to ask from Tom more about pegasus pon...

My mind monologue was interrupted when I arrived at the end of the signs and to that blandly stated:

Typo Fixer

Post Master

Odd name. But remember what Mom told you Mike.

Politely, I knocked to the door and almost immediately male voice shouted to come in.

Now Mike; we know you hate what the job description said, but what else can we do? Just keep your nose clean so we can get the money.

After entering, I found myself in some kind of office that didn't exactly look like one; thought there were couple cabins on the sides along with many diplomas on the wall, as majority of the rooms space was taken by a large wooden desk that had neat pile of papers, a framed picture and a typewriter. But the eye catching thing was the large chair that stretched upwards and almost reaching the ceiling. Behind the chair and desk laid large window that opened up a perfect view to the street below.

And of course we had my new boss sitting on this comically large chair. He was pegasus, like every pony I had seen in this building this far, and quite adequate looking as he was wearing tuxedo outfit that covered his light yellow coat while his chestnut mane fell down back naturally.

"Ah, you must be mister Stratus." Mr Typo said to me while grabbing the first batch of papers from the pile. I walked to the table and dropped off the bag before talking to him:

"Yep, but I would like to be called Alto." I said, but the tuxedo guy didn't care as he quickly went through the papers, practically only giving a glimpse before turning a page.

Heh, almost like when Alex used to read; only a second and flip the page.

"I understood that you're unaware of what kind of work we've got for you. Am I right?" Mr Typo said while placing the papers at the bottom of the pile and giving an odd look at the bag, like he had remembered something important.

Rubbing the back of my head, I finally was able to mutter out:

"Well, the paper told something about 'sorting' but that's pretty much it." I told to him, making him snap out of staring at the muffins.

"Indeed... But what do you think you're supposed to do?"

Ah screw it! Get your nose dirty.

"...cleaning..."

He didn't even blink when a smile grew to his face. To my surprise, he stood up from behind the desk and walked past me towards the door. Then I noticed that he had letter A in Blackletter style as his rump symbol.

Just like Tom told; symbol, Cutie Mark if I recall right, represents the person/pony. Wonder what mine will be like when it decides to show up?

"Come with me mister Stratus." Mr Typo said as he opened the door and headed down the corridor. Quickly I caught up to him, as for one of them office guys he seemed to be in pretty good condition. Many pegasus ponies greeted him when we walked past the lounge from earlier. Soon we arrived at downstairs to the lobby area.

Grin grew to my face as I saw the mares from before; now calmed down, but obvious bruises were visible along with their manes being totally messed up. Mr Typo must not have cared as he simply moved on and turned to go through a door which blandly said PERSONNEL ONLY.

From the looks of it the place seemed to be like some sort of docking bay as many freights and boxes were laying around, but to my relief I wouldn't need to be 'sorting' these things out as we continued on through narrow passage to even further into the deeps of the backroom.

Note: bring a piece of chalk along next time to mark the way out.

After minute or so of walking and greeting unknown ponies, Mr Typo stopped and moved to the side to give me the glimpse of the door.

"Mr Stratus, do you know how the mail system works?" he asked from me and I shook my head, as this was one of those things that even Tom couldn't answer, claiming that "it hasn't been ever mentioned in the show".

And to be honest, I didn't really care either.

"As you know, thousands of letters are sent every day in all over Equestria; from Canterlot to Manehattan and from Ponyville to Trottingham. Of course there has been recently talk about magical mind links, but letters are still the only reliable way to contact others in farther places. Are you still with me?"

I nodded and Mr Typo then opened the door in front of me.

Gasp erupted from my mouth.

H O L Y  S H I T

"About some fifty years ago, some unicorn pony in Canterlot came up with a way to effectively transport a mass of light objects between certain fixed points. After that, all the offices of Royal Equestrian Mail are required to have one and it has led to this."

The room I looked into didn't even look like a room. Besides the small table in the centre, there was.... well letters. These huge piles filled the room from floor to ceiling, from corner to corner.

"And if you think this is bad, you wouldn't believe what it's like in the headquarters back at Canterlot. And the worst thing is we cannot even use unicorn magic to sort these out, because the teleporting makes them basically magic proof for some unknown reason.

Gulping down my throat, I looked back to him.

"Y-you mean I have to 'sort' all this?" I asked hesitantly asked and Mr Typo nodded.

"Simply putting, yes. Your job is to sort these letters out to the mail saddles which are then given to the specific mail pony, according to what code it has on it."

He's gotta be kidding me.....right?

Mr Typo must have noticed my amazement, as he chuckled a bit before turning to face the room.

"If you're fearing that you need to do this alone, then don't worry." he said while entering the room and I hesitantly followed just behind. Mr Typo cleared his throat a bit before turning over to the largest pile of letters

"Ditzy, I know you're here. Come out and meet your new partner."

A pile started to shiver a bit before the whole pile fell down like an house of cards. Luckily a nearby desk protected me and him, as we ducked underneath it until the wave had passed.

Even from under the desk I saw that the letters had pretty much covered the centre area, making the floor practically invisible. But as I raised my head from the behind, still unsure if it was safe to go, I saw that Mr Typo was ahead of me and had stood up next to me while pointing his hoof towards

"Mr Stratus, meet your partner and manager Ditzy Doo."

Looking at the direction of his hoof, my mouth dropped open a little before wide grin grew to my face.

"Whoops, my bad." said a voice from somewhere under the small pile of letters and soon a pair of grey hooves appeared from underneath it while two wings popped out on, making more letters fly to sides from the wind they generated. After the dust had settled, I saw a grey pegasus mare rubbing the back of her head while her face bore an apologetic look.

She doesn't look that ba.. JESUS WHAT'S WRONG WITH HER EYES!

As she turned to turned to look at Mr Typo, her eyes opened up while her previous expression faded away. Little gasp escaped from my mouth as this happened but luckily neither her nor Mr Typo noticed this.

"Heh, was looking for those B-mark letters and..." the mare started out before noticing me looking at her from behind the table.

"No B-mark letters were marked to arrive in yesterday’s transport." Mr Typo said while looking at the grey pegasus, who just kept staring at me with her weird eyes for a while but suddenly her face light up and she started to jump in excitement.

"NEW WORKER! NEW WORKER! NEW..."

Mr Typo faintly smiled while laying his hoof over the pegasus, who calmed down immediately but from the looks she was still gleaming.

"Yes Ditzy. Now I need you to show him how things are done here in Sorting Department and perhaps give a tour of the building after finishing work. Can you do that?" he asked from her, who turned serious for a minute and saluted to him. Mr Typo then turned to face me.

"Ditzy here will guide you in these first days. Don't hesitate to ask questions from her." he said to me before heading out of the door. Soon the door closed behind him and I was left alone in the room with the grey mare.

Before I got to say anything however, she walked next to the table and raised her right hoof towards me.

"Hi, I'm Ditzy Doo and I work here in Sorting Department." she excavated while giving me a heart-warming smile, but only one of her eyes was fixed onto me as the other was looking at opposite direction.

"Oh, um, I'm Alto Stratus." I faintly said to her while grabbing the hoof for a shake before finally standing up.

"Great name, but we have to get back to work." Ditzy said while starting to look through the letters and soon she had grabbed three of them with her mouth.

"Okay ifsh thivsh shimpfel really." she started out before dropping the letters to the table. From the looks they were all in different envelopes, so I guessed that it was some sort of color code that helped out.

"There are four different kinds of letters that we get; A, B, C and D letters. They..."

"Are marked by the colour of envelope." I said, making her drop the speech. But she instead giggled a bit before grabbing one of letters and giving it to me.

"Nah it isn't that simple but I really hope that it would be. Take a look at the mark next to the stamp."

Then to my dismay I noticed she was telling the truth. Right next to the stamp was marked dark letter C that seemed to have been written in haste. Suddenly something heavy seemed to drop, making me dazzle a bit before turning to see Ditzy along with three saddle packs lying on the ground. Quickly I ran to her and helped her to get up.

"Thanks, the packs are quite heavy when they aren't strapped onto you." she said in relief while pointing towards them. Then I noticed that each one of them had different letter on the sides.

"Anyway, we need to fill these packs with the letters that have the same mark." she told me while starting to lay out the bags

Oh boy this will be long shift

* * * * *

"By the way Ditzy, when will we have a break? My back is beaten out!" I exhilarated while dramatically falling to my back. Ditzy giggled again like so many times after we had started working about three hours ago.

To Ditzy's honour, she was really great personality when I got over the fact her eyes were like they were. She was really care free when it came to working but she was still hard working, always going through every letter she found. Many times I had to point out that she was checking the already checked pile, but she insisted on double checking and that there were standards they needed to meet for being the Royal Mail.

"Well usually I work until the shift ends so you've got about hour of sorting to do, so get back to work." she pointed out before diving back inside the pile of letters. Smiling, I also jumped from top of the pile back to the insides in search for the specific letters.

Dude, who knew sorting could be this cool?

The past three hours had went actually pretty fast considering that we mostly just went through the many piles in hunt of the C and D letters that go outside of the town. A, B and C letters are city bound and they're pretty much eight out of ten letters I came across, excluding the B letters.

But most of the fun came from Ditzy, as she showed how the thing works. Basically you dive into the biggest pile and search the bottom for the letters and after that pile was fully searched, you would grab the A pack and stuff as much letters as possible in it and drop it inside the hole next to the door. Ditzy said that it dropped to room where the bags were to be issued to the post carriers’ tomorrow morning.

But this just too much..Uhh D letter!

"I see that you're doing well." echoed the familiar voice of Mr Typo. Quickly I swam towards the edge and soon my head popped out from the side to face my smiling boss.

"Yes, this job is awesome!" I exclaimed before remembering that I was talking to my boss, but he just laughed before turning towards Ditzy who had just appeared from her pile, carrying couple of letters in her mouth.

"Ditzy, I've just been informed that we will be not getting any letters for tomorrow due to problems in the central office." he said and Ditzy just groaned before spitting out the letters from her mouth.

"Yes I know but we just have to cope with that. Your work is basically done for now, as you can sort out the remaining letters tomorrow." Mr Typo said before heading out, but he suddenly stopped at the doorframe.

"Oh and Mr Stratus, I believe this is yours." he said while taking out from his jacket the bag of muffins I immediately recognized. I nervously chuckled a bit before taking it from him, who then proceeded to leave. Behind me, I could hear Ditzy groan again.

"Just great, but what can we do? Oh well, at least I get to eat sooner." she said after dropping the last saddle pack to the hole and turning to walk past the door, but she stopped after she noticed the bag I was carrying. Her eyes shot open, and to my shock both of her eyes were fixed onto the bag.

"Umm, is something wron.."

"MUFFINS! MUFFINS! I LOVE MUFFINS!"

Her outburst made me fall to my back and thanks to our efficiency, I had an unpleasant meet-up with the floor. But soon Ditzy calmed down and rushed to help me.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Here let me help you." she nervously said but I just stood up and shot her with a smile, making her calm a bit.

"It's okay. You can make it up to me by eating with me." I told her, but she just dropped her face before looking down at the ground while rubbing her hooves on the ground.

"Well... I don't have a meal with me." she finally spurted out while giving a little look at the bag I had accidentally dropped next to me.

"Well I've got three muffins so I guess I could spare one." I said before grabbing my bag and opening it to see to my dismay that one of them had been smashed to bits. But still, I took one of two remaining muffins and threw it to eagerly waiting Ditzy, who had some drool already dropping from her mouth. She caught the muffin in middle-air and proceeded to swallow it with one go.

"Mmh, chocolate, my second favourite!"

Chuckling, I took a bite out of the last muffin before starting to head out of the door.

"Wait."

Turning back, I saw Ditzy looking at me.

"Don't you remember what Mr Typo said? You know, show around the building." she said as she walked next to me, but I shook my head to her.

"It's okay; I saw most of upstairs when looking for the boss and he in regards showed off most of the areas here in downstairs." I said before taking bite from my sweet muffin, but it stopped middle on its tracks as I caught a glimpse of Ditzy. Her face bore an expression of visible sorrow from hearing this.

I can be quite an ass sometimes, can't I?

"But if you could show me more of Ponyville..." I started out before being interrupted by her laughter.

"I would be more than happy to do that," she said before smiling to me, making me relieved that she wasn't sad anymore, and soon we were walking towards the lobby, as it seemed like there wasn't no back door entrance. But Ditzy explained that the roof also acted out as the landing area for the post carriers, so you could count that one also.

Yeah except that I don't know how to fly...

"By the way Ditzy, may I ask a couple of questions from you?" I said while we stopped to wait at the cargo area, as there was really big shipment arriving and it was cut off due to safety reasons. Ditzy rubbed the back of her head before answering.

"Well I guess its okay. What you want to know?" she answered, but I could hear a little bit of hesitance in her otherwise joyful voice.

Now Mike, don't ask the obvious question first.

"Well, how did you get into this job?" I asked while watching a really big cart, dragged by four pegasus ponies, come from the side and soon the big brutes of the docking bay started to haul the many boxes to the sides.

"It was my fillyhood dream to become a mailmare, as I imagined that I would soar the skies in hurry to deliver important letters from the Princess to the various parts of Equestria. I've also always wanted to visit cities like Trottingham and Manehattan when I first saw them in the various photos and pictures, so I figured this would be the dream job for me."

"But then why you're working in the Sorting Department?"

Ditzy turned to face me with her eyes trying to lock onto me and then the realization struck me.

"Cause of my eyes. I flunked at the health examination when I applied; they said that my depth view was just too bad." she silently said before turning to watch the boxes being hauled to check-up.

"I'm sorry.... But honestly, I think you're the best when it comes to hunting letters." I said, trying to cheer her up and she giggled before turning back to me.

"It's okay, as I was hired to fill in the open spot at Sorting Department and to be honest, I'm happy with my current job. And besides, sometimes I get to act as replacement if somepony gets suddenly sick."

*TWUMP*

Both of us turned to see that many boxes had fell from the cart and from the looks we would be stuck for even longer.

"Okay then what about your mark?" I continued on and Ditzy just burst out in laughter, as if it was some kind of joke. After she had settled down, she wiped her eyes before turning to me.

"Honestly I don't even remember when I got it. And I also don't what it means so don't ask. But can I ask something from you?" she said catching me off guard for the third time since I met her.

Well Tom said to avoid answering, but the again he isn't here, so...

"Shoot it."

"Why don't you have a Cutie Mark? You must be like over fifteen:" she said while pointing at my rump, which indeed was still clear from the symbol I had seen on everypony.

Remember what Tom told.

"Well, me and my pals just don't have ours. Guess we haven't just found what we truly are yet. And to be clear, I'm seventeen along with my friends." I told her while she kept her look at my rump before giggling and looking back to me.

"That's the oth..."

She was interrupted however as the docking bay was now again free to walk, so we continued on to the lobby, but I just wondered what else Ditzy had wanted to ask from me. The lobby seemed to be quite empty, as there were only the reception ponies along with a violet pony with a purple...

Isn't that Twilight?

"Here you go miss, the book you had ordered." said one of the reception ponies to Twilight, while she went through her saddle pack and soon levitated pouch to the table. From that, she took out ten small round objects that I recognized to be bits, and gave them to the receptionist before turning around just to get a glimpse of me.

"Oh hi Alto." she shouted while walking to me and Ditzy gave an odd look at me.

"You know her?" she asked from me and I just shrugged to her.

"Long story short; she saved me and the guys." I blandly stated and she made long 'oooh' sound just as Twilight got to us.

"How's your first day been?" she asked from me, while Ditzy walked off towards the desk.

"Perhaps one of the best, taking note that this is the first day in regular work." I answered to her. "Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"I had ordered a book from Canterlot and I came to pick it up." she said just as Ditzy arrived back carrying a small bag in her mouth and she gave it to me.

"Here you go; your today's payment. Remember to get the payment before leaving unless you take them between certain days, like I do." she told as I opened it to see many glimmering bits inside.

"Sweet! Closer to paying the rent and getting the beds." I exclaimed, making Ditzy giggle and Twilight look at me oddly.

"Anyway, what are you going to do Alto?" Twilight asked from me while I noticed a clock was hanging from the wall just above the entrance.

12:48

Oh crap is it that much already!

Sighting, I looked at Ditzy.

"Sorry, might want to skip the showing around and just point out where the school is." I said to her and she just gave an odd look at me before Twilight step in.

"You're going to meet-up with Nucleus?" she asked and I nodded, but the Ditzy just giggled a bit.

"What a luck! I had planned to ask if it was possible to go first to the school and pick up Dinky."

Dinky?

"Umm... Who's Dinky?" I hesitantly asked from her, who just shunned hoof at me.

"Well my daughter..."

WHAT? SHE'S A MOTHER!

"Oh...umm..." I started out before Ditzy put a hoof over my mouth to silence me.

"I get that a lot, so please don't do that."

I gently moved a hoof away before returning a big smile to her and I think she got the idea. Then both of us heard a faint laugh coming from Twilight.

"Come on; let's go if we want to be there when both Dinky and Nucleus get out." she told to us before starting to head towards the entrance. Ditzy ran after her while was left there little dumbfounded on three realizations.

1. My work is awesome!

2. I just made a new friend

3. This friend is a mother, meaning there's a fiancée somewhere.

"Alto! Aren't you coming?" shouted Ditzy from the entrance before opening it. I just grabbed my little bag of bits before heading to meet with the girls outside.

In the end, not a bad start of day. Wonder how well it went at the school?

A/U: And yes, the name's Ditzy "Derpy" Doo

Chapter 11 Nucleus "Lesson"

Chapter 11 Nucleus "Lesson"

Chapter 11

Nucleus

Lesson

The roads were, as always, filled with ponies either talking to each other or conducting their daily business with many shops on the sides or by the many standby carts that offered anything from flowers to many odd trinkets that puffed up in the air while making loud noise. All this registered to my mind as I walked down the roads through Ponyville while keeping an eye out for any fillies or colts that might be going to the school.

My luck that those signs from yesterday only marked the way to the market area. Now the only clue I have is that the school is somewhere outside of the town...

*THUMP*

Something hit me from behind, making me stagger forward couple of hasty hoofsteps before regaining my balance. Turning over, I saw, to my delight, a small white unicorn filly sitting down and rubbing her head while rubbing her head. Then the bronypedia section of my mind registered her appearance and soon the roll came in.

Bronypedia----Sweetie Belle; Part of the CMC and younger sister of Rarity

"Uhh my head..." she groaned silently, making me snap out of thinking and walk to her.

"Are you okay?" I asked from her, fearing that she had injured herself but she didn't either hear me talking or she didn't care, as she quickly stood up and looked behind towards the corner where she probably appeared from.

Strange, is something following...

"Oh no, she's still chasing me!" Sweetie shouted before turning over towards me. "You've got to help me mister; my sister is trying to use me to meet with the new teacher!"

My eyes popped open from hearing this and soon I figured that the pegasus from yesterday had indeed been working for some kind of local paper or magazine tabloid. But I didn't even get to bother my current situation before the marshmallow mare appeared from behind the corner Sweetie had just looked at and she was visibly outright mad.

"SWEETIE WHERE ARE YOU!" Rarity shouted out loud before looking right at our direction and immediately her face turned from mad to the one fascinated mixed with little relief. Sweetie quickly hid behind me and even I gulped nervously as Rarity started to walk towards me while flipping her mane.

Tom, I know you can handle this. Even though you had planned for Twilight introducing us to her friends.

"Ah Sweetie there you are." Rarity said and her little sister looked at her from behind me.

"No, I won't help you meet the new teacher, so stop pestering me around!" she shouted, making me blush a little as she had to be unaware that I'm the new teacher. Rarity just glared at her in frustration before turning to face me.

"I'm terribly sorry for my younger sister mister Nucleus."

Sweetie's eyes turned into saucers and she proceeded to look down onto my flank before gasping.

Well isn't this awkward.

"It's okay. I was actually looking for the school, so it was quite lucky that she bumped into me." I told to Rarity, but just then Sweetie started to jump around in excitement.

"APPLEBLOOM WAS TELLING THE TRUTH! YOU REALLY DON’T HAVE A CUTIE MARK!"

Rarity looked at her sister in horror, but I stepped in before this could end up in a fight by placing my hoof over Sweetie's mane and giving a quick brush, making her giggle a little.

"It's true but I'd hate to repeat myself, so you just have to wait for the lesson where I'll introduce myself."

Sweetie just looked at me with her big round eyes for a moment before running off. Sighing, I turned to look at Rarity who just kept staring at the back of her sister while her eye twitched a little.

"Could I ask a favour from you miss..."

Ahh, the irony of acting like I don't know her already.

Rarity turned towards my direction and flipped her mane once more before looking me directly in the eyes.

"Rarity; local fashionista." she said while fluttering her eye slashed, making me stagger a little bit before getting my patented mental kick to the nuts.

"Miss Rarity, could you guide me to the school?" I bashfully asked from her while rubbing the back of my head and looking down at the ground.

Did she seriously plan to use Sweetie as a way to get near me?

Rarity just smiled before walking past me towards the direction where Sweetie had ran off.

"Certainly, just follow me and we will be there in ten minutes."

A breath of relief escaped my mouth and I quickly walked next to her in hopes that I would be there on time.

* * * * *

One could say the trip was... quite an experience.

First; just walking with Rarity was odd; she didn't talk much and instead greeted many of the ponies walking past. When she talked, it was to ask irrelevant questions concerning me and my guys' fashion interest. Actually most of the time she would just look at me until turning back whenever I would look back at her.

Second; as we walked down the streets, I noticed that just too many ponies were carrying newspapers around and frankly all of them seemed to be mares, mostly in groups of four or five chatting to each other while pointing something on the paper. This didn’t bother me at first, though I knew it was most likely about the three of us, but it changed at one point when one mare saw me and squealed little, making ponies next to her look at me as well. Somewhat luckily Rarity stepped between me and the group, but it felt awkward as she then proceeded to grab my hoof and lead me away.

Hopefully Maero left early enough so that no mares got to him. His current condition would only get worse when dozens of mares would try to push on him. Then again I think that Alto doesn't mind the attention at all...

She kept her hoof around mine for the rest of the trip, that ended just at the edge of the town. There she finally let go of me, which erupted a little gasp as she was quite a frisky holder, and pointed her hoof towards the small hill some thirty feet away, where the road continued on.

"The school is just behind that little hill there, so just follow the road." she said before lowering her hoof and turning to look at me. "Unfortunately I must hurry back to my Boutique but might it be possible to meet when I come to pick up my sister?"

This caught me a little off guard, but I smiled back to her and this time it was her turn to blush a little.

"I don't see a problem with that, but I'm not promising anything as my friends might want to meet up later." I told her while starting to head towards the top of the hill. "Oh and thanks for showing the way."

Rarity didn't answer back, but I could hear a faint squeal behind me that grew silent as I got to the top of the hill.

Immediately I recognized the school building from the show; its red outer colour with a flag pole outside while there was a little playground just next to an open area that had many little ponies running around while cheers and laughter filled the air.

My admiring was interrupted however when the bell rang from somewhere and the children began trotting inside. Luckily I didn't even need to hurry as I was literally a rock throw away and even when I got there, the last ones had just gotten in.

Just before entering the school, I gulped from overall nervousness.

What am I doing here? Do I really have the qualifications to teach younger ones?

Stepping in, I saw I was in a long hallway that seemed to act as a place to drop your belongings before entering class. The first door appeared to be the classroom, as it was open and I could hear sounds like desks rustling coming from it. The second door was at the end of the hallway and it blandly read out STORAGE.

"Alright class, settle down." echoed a female voice with some authority, as suddenly the voices fell silent. As I walked over to the first door and peeked inside, I saw a somewhat regular classroom with about twenty desks arranged in single rows and large teacher's desk laid in front of the class. There was also a bookcase at the end of the room and many posters filled the walls along with what seemed to be like group-works on various different subjects. Every desk was occupied, but most of the foals were fillies. About five of them were colts.

But what caught my eye was the pony up front.

Bronypedia---- Cheerilee; The teacher

"Is it true that we've got new teacher coming?" somepony shouted from the rows and all the others murmured the same question also. Cheerilee just smiled as she walked between the rows to the back towards the bookcase.

"Yes it is true. I was informed by the Mayor yesterday that a suitable candidate appeared and we need all extra help as you know what is nearing." she said to them while going through the bookcase and occasionally taking a book to the forming pile. All of the students were looking at her, so I decided to move in while their attention was elsewhere, but my idea was doomed in the very second as I saw Sweetie Belle looking at me. She quickly bent over to her other side to wake the filly with a red tie on her mane.

Bronypedia---- Applebloom; Part of CMC and Younger sister of Applejack

Applebloom only looked at me for a second before leaning to her other side to make the orange pegasus filly turn over.

Bronypedia---- Scootaloo; Part of CMC and a chicken

"Excuse me..." I started out, but stopped as every student in the class turned their heads towards me while loud gasps were made in every corner except at the bookcase, where Cheerilee just raised her head to llook at before walking to me. Instead of talking to me, she turned to face the class which was still talking to itself.

"Alright settle down, as I would like you to meet your new teacher Mr. Nucleus." she told them before taking a chalk and writing my name to the board behind. What fascinated me was that I wasn't really nervous, not even when the whole class was looking at me. After Cheerilee had written the name, she turned to face me.

"Why don't you introduce yourself to them and answer a couple of questions while I get your material?" she told me and almost the whole class fiercely nodded to me, especially the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

It seems that some questions have to be answered.

"Certainly. But there are some questions that I'll not answer." I said to her and to my surprise she nodded before starting to head out and closing the door behind.

As I turned back to the class, every single one of them was looking at me and particularly at my blank flank. But what uneased me was the silence that wasn't present when Cheerilee was here.

Perhaps they're just a little shy?

I cleared my throat little bit before starting to talk.

"Hello to all of you. My name is Nucleus and I'm going to help Cheerilee teach you the various subjects." I said, perhaps a little bit too stern as many looked at each other in a little bit of confusion. ”Now you shouldn't worry as I'm here to help you so don't hesitate to come and ask for it."

Some breaths of relief were heard but still many looked at me with a little hint of fear or curiosity. But then I saw that Sweetie Belle had raised her hoof up and then I recalled what I had promised her. A little laughter came from me, making the entire class look back to me in confusion.

"Let me guess Sweetie; you, along with the whole class, want to know why I don't have a Cutie Mark."

Sweetie lowered her hoof and nodded, making me laugh a bit more.

"Well isn't it obvious; I simply haven't got it, not even after seventeen years of living." I told to all of them, but soon regretted it as many looked at me in either horror or with a somber expression. Particularly the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were in shock and looked down at their desks.

Tom, you need to resolve this as smoothly as possible without leaving any traumas.

"But in the end, does it really matter if you have the Mark or not?"

Now many of those looks turned into curious ones, but Sweetie Belle turned to look at me in sorrow.

"But you don't know what you're good at without the Mark..."

Perhaps it was a bit inappropriate, but I laughed yet again before walking next to her.

"Tell me, what differs from having a one and not having a one?" I asked from the class, but none were able to answer me.

"Now I'm not expert when it comes to Cutie Marks, but I know that being a blank flank hasn't stopped me and my two good friends from traveling around Equestria..."

I didn't get to finish, as suddenly all the filies and colts started to whisper to themselves, particularly Applebloom and Scootaloo. Those two were looking at me with awe in their eyes. But after I walked back to the front of the class, the door opened and soon Cheerilee came in carrying some sort of saddle pack with her mouth. After placing the pack next to the table, she turned to look at me before leaning over to my ear.

"Good speech. I think we will get along just fine." she whispered silently, and after looking at me she giggled a bit along with many students as I most likely had blushed from hearing the compliment.

"Now now class. Remember that we still have some studying to do." she cheerfully said before the whole class groaned, but as I looked, I saw that Applebloom had raised her hoof.

"Yes Applebloom, what is it?" Cheerilee asked from her, who then turned to look at me.

"Is it true mister that you fought a timber wolf?" Applebloom asked and then the awkward silence fell down and all faces turned to look at me as even Cheerilee holstered a surprised expression.

*mental sight* Might as well get over with it.

"It's true, I suppose your sister told this to you?" I inquired and she nodded, but then the class bell rang.

"Okay it's time for the recess." Cheerilee shouted and soon all the kids went outside while the air filled with cheers of joy and laughter. Yet as I turned to look at Cheerilee, she closed the door of the class before looking at me with a somewhat worried expression.

"Are you alright?" she asked from me while walking back to me. Sighing, I looked at the pack leaning to the table.

"I assume my teaching material is in that?" I asked from her, but she just came closer to me before looking down to the floor.

"I'm sorry for that, it seems like I need to have a talk with Applebloom about what to ask and what not to ask." she said before turning to face me, but I just smiled before walking next the table while also looking at her in the eyes.

"It's okay. She was just curious, but it's something I don't want to talk about..." I said before grabbing the pack and placing it on top of the desk.

"But you didn't answer my question, is my material in this?"

* * * * *

Outside, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were hanging around the swings as they waited for their turn. To Scootaloo, it was question time.

"Did your sister actually tell you about that wolf thing?" she said, making Applebloom turn towards her friend before shaking her head.

"Nah. I overheard her talking to mah brother two nights ago and she also talked a lot about somepony named Maero and how he could help around the farm. But Mac insisted that they were doing already fine and that we don't have the bits to hire extra work."

Sweetie just shrugged before turning over to her friends.

"I don't know what it is but my sister acted all weird this morning. After waking me up, she first gave me my favourite food as breakfast and told just how good I'd been these few days. But soon she wanted to make me up and finally she insisted on accompanying me to the school like I was some little filly! Luckily her gaze slipped a little and I was able to make a run for it, but she started to chase me around until I accidentally ran into the new teacher."

Applebloom just started to think why their sisters had acted so weird while Scootaloo jumped to the now free place on the swing. After a couple minutes of silent looking and being, Scootaloo jumped off from the swing while gliding next to her friends.

"But the new teacher isn't that bad. I guess it might be little odd having two at the same time, but I'm fine with him. Maybe he'll tell us about his travels around Equestria?"

Before either Sweetie or Applebloom got to say anything, all three of them turned to see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon talking to themselves.

"Seems like standards have fallen pretty low for an blank flank to be allowed to teach us. An adult blank flank no less." Diamond Tiara said out loud, obviously trying to catch the attention of the three fillies.

"Yeah tell me about it. And that speech about Marks not being important..." Silver Spoon continued on before laughing at the end like it was a joke.

"But what could you expect when one blank flank talks to three of the same kind?"

Suddenly, Applebloom escaped from the grip of her two friends trying to hold her in place and jumped screaming on top of Diamond Tiara.

"Now are you going to quit it?" Applebloom asked the frightened Tiara but something grabbed her from behind and to her surprise it was Miss Cheerilee.

"Girls, what are you doing? You should be ashamed of yourselves!" she asked and her voice was very stern and it lacked the usual kindness. Before Applebloom got to say anything, Silver Spoon shouted that she had attacked Tiara while they were talking. Of course Sweetie and Scootaloo defended Applebloom by saying that they had talked awful stuff about the new teacher.

"I have told you constantly that no fighting is allowed. Applebloom, your sister and brother will hear about this. Same goes to you Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo."

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon just smirked, but Cheerilee then turned towards them.

"As for you two, I think an essay about acceptance is the most fitting punishment."

Now it was the Cutie Mark Crusader's turn to smirk from seeing the two bullies’ faces.

"Alright, the recess is over! Time for class!" Cheerilee shouted, making all activity stop at the playground and soon all were making their way to the class.

* * * * *

Lets see...

Counting Hoof vol.III; some basic mathematics along with start to advanced parts.

Bestiary of Equestria; contains every living creature there is with pictures and facts.

Allons-y Atoms!; very basic level chemistry and physics, but there were lot of differences like that water boils at a different temperature.

Encyclopaedia of History Short Edition; the longest book of all and perhaps the most interesting for me, as it holds information from times before the show. Have to see if library has the Long Edition...

Compile Maps of Equestria and Nearby Regions; actually really well made book with really detailed maps. Need to check it for possible names to use later.

Herbs of Life; odd book that listed many plants, both poison and healing ones, and telling basically what to eat and what not to eat in wilderness. Just if we would have had this back there...

Along with these books came some kind of notebook, for grades I assumed, some ten quills to start with, two ink bottles and of course the saddle pack.

Cheerilee had told me that for today I should just look at the side and go through the books while observing the study. I didn't mind this at all because I needed to study all these along with revising the math. This went on for the first two lessons about different birds and even between the breaks. Occasionally I would observe Cheerilee while she taught the students that listened to her with their ears perked up. It was just simply fascinating to see such authority without raising her voice a bit.

The bell rang for the third time and soon only Cheerilee was left along with me. But oddly she took the wet sponge and cleared the board from the amazing pictures of birds she had drawn and it felt like a crime what she did. As I put the book back in the saddle pack, I saw that she had already written small text on the board.

Basic Multiplying

A grin grew to my face and an idea came to my mind. I stood up from my chair, that was at the side next to the window, and walked to the board where Cheerilee was still standing and reading the Counting Hoof, but she stopped when my shadow fell over the book. She was little dazzled as I had kept to myself for since the first recess, yet she still smiled, perhaps a little awkwardly.

"Look, you told me that I should just observe this day but if you don't mind I would like to teach the next lesson along with you." I said to her before turning over to the book of hers and looking at what part there was needed to be done. Cheerilee didn't say anything as she grabbed the chalk from the table before proceeding to write down some basic multiplying formulas.

"Would you kindly go and tell that the recess is over?" she asked from me while looking back at the book and I simply walked outside to the hallway and down to the front door. After shouting that recess was over, I quickly trotted back and took my copy of the math book as the class started to fill up. Whispers erupted when I walked next to the table and laid the book open on the page about Multiplying.

"Now class, for the final lesson we'll continue with multiplying math but first let's check our homework. Does anypony volunteer to go to the board?" Cheerilee said, but only got silence and nervous coughing as an answer. She sighed before walking over to the desk and grabbing her notebook.

"Very well then... Scootaloo, you're next on the list, please show us what you've learned." she said while glancing over her notes towards her while I walked over the board. From the looks of it, Scootaloo was really nervous, amd it seemed like she didn't know a thing she was supposed to do, but she still stood up and walked over the board right next to me. She took the chair from the desk to get to the same height as the formulas were.

"Come on Scootaloo, you know what to do." Cheerilee said, but she gulped before looking over at the first one.

6x3

Scootaloo just glared at the formula for a minute before turning over towards, to my surprise, me. I looked over at Cheerilee, who tilted her head towards the board and I got the idea. Smiling, I took the chalk from Scootaloo and quickly wrote another formula next to the original one.

6+6+6

Now Scootaloo's face light up and eagerly took the chalk back from me before writing the right answer to the board.

"Very good Scootaloo. Now what Mr Nucleus did is to break down the formula so it's easier to count the numbers. Try to remember this when you're unsure what to do." she told to the class while Scootaloo jumped off the chair and walked back to her desk. From there she smiled back to me before turning over to her friends.

For the next ten minutes I stood by the board and whenever some student had trouble with the formula, I would either break it down or provide an hint of what to do. After this, Cheerilee cleaned the board and started to write notes about basic multiplying with the tens numbers. After explaining and presenting a couple examples, she gave some work for the class before turning over towards me.

"Could we have a brief chat?"

"Umm sure." I said and headed out of the room while Cheerilee informed the class that we would be away only for a moment. The door closed behind her as she turned to look at me.

"Now Mr Nucleus..."

"Please, Nucleus will do." I politely pointed out, but she sighed before returning to look at me.

"Nucleus, how well can you do magic?"

For a moment, I just turned to stare at the ceiling before muttering a response.

"What gave me away?"

"Well, when reading the books you didn't use magic to flip the pages and at the board you used your hoof to write."

Sighing, I turned to look back at her and, to my surprise, she was still looking at me with her light green eyes. But I took my glasses off and placed them to the edge of the window while taking a step back. Then I fixed my gaze to them and focused my mind solely on their appearance while trying not to catch that spark deep in my head.

But what I feared happened; the spark took a hold, causing now even more pain than last time and making me fall on my knees while Cheerilee quickly ran to my side.

"Are you okay?" she asked while helping me to get up. Still feeling the pain in my head, I grabbed my glasses from the edge and put them on before turning over to her. I tried to put on a smile, but instead got a weak grin that made an even worse statement than being bland.

"Head's still little bit sore but otherwise I'm fine." I told her but she just shook her head before putting her hoof over my forehead.

"Odd. I'm not an expert when it comes to magic, but it shouldn't cause that much pain for trying to lift an object so light." she said before backing off and soon she shot me with relieving smile. "But still, you can teach even without magic so don't think about quitting."

Urgh, my head feels like it's being squished from inside. Have to ask Twilight about this...

As Cheerilee opened the door, the air filled with silent whispers as dozens of fillies and the few colts talked to each other. Cheerilee coughed out loud, making the whispers stop and every head in the class to turn towards her.

"As it seems like you're doing so well, I think you can leave a little bit early." she said before the whole class erupted in cheers as everyone started to pack their books before running outside. After the wave of laughing kids had passed, I walked to my chair and took the saddle pack, which quite frankly fit perfectly on me, before also starting to head outside. But I was interrupted by a giggle coming from the desk.

"So you don't mind not getting your salary?" Cheerilee said before taking a small wooden box from one of the drawers and placing it on the desk. She then took out a little pouch from within and handed it to me. Nodding, I put it to my pack before heading out of the class and soon outside of the school.

Certainly a very mixed day... Agh, my head!

"Hey Nuc'!" cheered a familiar voice from just behind me, around the playground. As I turned, I saw Alto along with Twilight standing around the swings when a grey Pegasus with blond mane was pushing small unicorn on it.

Wait...isn't that...Derpy?

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I said as I walked the distance over to them. Twilight smiled to me along with Alto and even Derpy turned to look at me.

"Mom, more speed!" shouted the little filly with pale purple coat and Derpy smiled before rubbing her head.

Well look at that; fandom actually got something right: Dinky is daughter of Derpy.

"Well my day ended little bit earlier and Ditzy..

Her name is actually Ditzy? So Derpy is most likely nickname.

"..here needed to pick up Dinky. Twilight here was just at the post office when we left and she tagged along." Alto said, but before I got to say anything:

"Oh mister Nucleuuuus!" said a voice behind me.

Oh crap I forgot!

Twilight looked behind me and her face turned into one of surprise.

"Rarity, what are you doing here?" Twilight said and soon the white unicorn walked to our little circle while flipping her mane.

"Well Twilight, I'm here for mister Nucleus. He agreed to meet me after school." Rarity said and Alto just chuckled before covering his mouth with a hoof but Twilight just dropped her jaw to the ground before turning towards me.

"If I recall right, nothing was agreed on." I blandly said and Rarity just grinned before grabbing my hoof but luckily Twilight came in between by grabbing Rarity with magic.

"Will you excuse us for a moment?" she said while sheepishly smiling and soon they disappeared to the other side of the school. I turned over to the swings and raised my hoof over to Ditzy.

"Anyway, I'm Nucleus, Alto's friend and nowadays also Dinky's teacher."

Ditzy smiled as she grabbed my hoof for a shake but Dinky just jumped over to her mother's back.

"Mom, we've got to go! Club starts soon." she said and Ditzy slapped her face with a hoof before turning over towards Alto.

"I'm so sorry! I forgot that today is Dinky's club day, so...." she started but Alto just smiled before brushing Dinky's mane.

"It's okay. I'll see you tomorrow at work." Alto said and then Ditzy backed off little bit before opening her wings and soon she started to fly towards the town while Dinky grabbed her from the neck. We waved as she left and as she disappeared from sight, Twilight and Rarity came back but both just looked at each other in anger from the corners of their eyes.

"Anyway, so what now?" Alto asked from me as the girls got to us, still angry at each other, but both of them acted all happy to us.

"Well we could go and check on Maero." I said and Alto just shrugged while I turned to look at Twilight.

"Do you know where..."

My words stopped as I looked behind her over to the road. Confused, both Twilight and Rarity also turned over but neither got the chance as Alto squeezed between them and ran towards the huge maroon brown pony with a blond mane that was covered by a large straw hat.

A/U: Now I need you folks to go back to the start of the Chapter 2 and re-read it, due to a change in the start. Please don't hate me :unsuresweetie: Note that this applies only if you've read it before 13th of April.

I'd also like to welcome our newest editor Meliron, the finest grammar nazi thus far, on-board this train wreck of an fiction.

Also thanks for the 2,000 total views. You've made this young brony very happy. :twilightsmile:

Chapter 12 Maero " Thoughts"

Chapter 12

Maero

Thoughts

Where did it go wrong?

The ground beneath me, that I stared at, just responded by raising more dust as my massive hooves took steps forward without any proper destination. This actually calmed my thinking a bit, as my mind seemed to not even care where I went and only wanted to let out some steam alone from the guys.

Raising my bulky head for another look, I saw that some more ponies had appeared from insides of their houses but still very few wandered the streets and most of them seemed to be still quite sleepy as if none had awakened more than couple of seconds ago.

But all this vanished as my head returned back to staring at the dirt road beneath this massive body that was mine now.

No! Focus Alex, we still need to find that Carrot farm.

My hooves continued the rhythm of walking that came unnaturally right; front right, back left, front left, back right and so on, without any proper trying needed to be done.

Damnit, focus boy!

Sighing, I looked up again, but now thanked my stubborn head as I would have hit my head on the side of the cart blocking the way ahead of me. It shared the similar appearance with all the carts I had seen thus far, only that this one had a large cloth on top to cover the cargo, which seemed to consist out of boxes.

"Hey! Watch...it" started out the light yellow male pony pulling the cart before only seeing my chin at his eye level. Slowly he raised his head to look at my face while his face turned from anger to one of anxiety.

"Oh...umm...pardon me." he quickly added and just continued to look at me, like searching for a way out of an fight that I didn't look after.

Alex, this is your chance! Ask for a way.

"You can repay me by showing the way to the Carrot farm." I said while taking a step forward, but the stallion just flinched before dropping his cart and running away, not even looking behind his back to see my dazzled and confused face.

Am I...really that scary?

Then I felt a small thump on my shoulder and turned to be greeted by yet another male pony, but this one seemed to be calm around me, making me feel somewhat relieved. He had a light brown coat while the mane and tail were dark brown which oddly fit just right. For that weird flank tattoo he had a large hourglass but before I got to think, he coughed and caught my attention before speaking.

"I'm sorry if I overheard you, but you're looking for the Carrot family farm, am I right?" he said with some sort of English accent clinking in my ears. Simply nodding, he laughed a bit before pointing at the cart behind me.

"Don't worry about that, Caramel is sure to return soon. Any who, just continue your way forward until nearing Quills and Sofas. There you turn left and... Voila, in ten minutes you're at the start of the road to the two farms this town has."

As he told this, I could see the pony from before looking around the corner, like waiting for me to walk away. I turned to look back to the brown pony who just re-adjusted the green tie he had around his neck.

"Thanks." I said to him quite blandly, as I wasn't in mood for idle chit-chat. The pony just shook a hoof at me.

"Not a problem; I was new here some time ago and I know what it’s like to be lost." he told me before looking up at the sun and smiling.

"Well, I'm going to be late soon, so Allons-y for me mates."

Not a word escaped from my mouth as I stared at the hourglass pony walking and whistling away like this was casual for him.

Wait... didn't Tom mention that... I thought he was joking! Holy smack, actually a Doctor Who cameo as a pony. From the looks it's the eleventh one but he still used the phrase the tenth had at series two to four.

After the Doctor pony had turned around the corner though, I turned to see the male pony was still looking at my direction, but this time from behind some other cart. Assuming he was waiting for me to leave, I took off for this shop the Doctor had told about; my head still hanging low and eyes firmly fixed to the ground.

Nevertheless... it's bad enough I have to act around...

* * * * *

The hoe drove deep to the ground, making a perfect hole for the first seeds of this season to be planted. As the tool re-emerged from the ground, the olive coated mare smiled before grabbing a couple of seeds from the bag hanging around from her neck, past her light green mane.

Three seeds dropped to the hole and the olive mare patted it shut with a hoof before grabbing the hoe with her mouth. Though her ruby eyes were hidden under the shadow of the straw hat, she could see that the sun had already made its travel to show that it was in the midst of the morning.

A smile grew to her face as she planted yet another seed group to the ground before turning to sweep the sweat off her forehead. She looked at the orange barn where all the products from the farm were stored to be sold later at the market. From there, her gaze fell to the vast fields that dominated the landscape. Though the lands were bare when compared to the Apple family farm, she found it calming to see the emptiness in the long rows of plowed land.

Feeling that the bag was nearing the end, she strapped the hoe to her back. The metal head stopped just above her Cutie Mark; the bag that had a hoe and spading fork leaning on the sides. Everypony could guess what the Mark meant when she was young. She would be the one to take care of this land they've had from the beginning times of Ponyville.

Ma' and Pa' would be proud... she thought before dropping the bag, along with the hoe, next to the large wooden door. Before she went in she looked towards the entrance area, where a couple of smaller fields were instituted to grow some rarer products like seasonal flowers and pumpkins for Nightmare Night.

A sigh came from her mouth as she saw that the fields were still empty and even from here it was visible that no hoof had touched the land since yesterday. The olive mare turned over to the barn door to give a quick glimpse to the inside, but it wasn’t necessary, as faint irregular snores could be heard coming from inside.

Slowly opening the door, she couldn't help but to smile as her gaze fell over the large bag pile that laid on the back of the barn, perfectly visible as the light coming from the doorway light up the barn fully.

There, on top of the ten foot pile, laid her younger sister, sleeping happily without any worries whatsoever. Her yellow coat was, as always, in perfect condition along with her orange mane and tail that fit perfectly on her. Her Cutie Mark consisting of three carrots wasn't visible as she was laying on her back.

The yellow mare snored loud, but the olive mare didn't care as she walked over to the pile and jumped to the top, right next to the sleeping beauty. She inhaled deeply before leaning over to her younger sister's ear.

"WAKE UP CARROT!"

In a fraction of a second, Carrot was laying on the ground on the base of the bag pile while rubbing her head in pain, as she had hit the ridgepole after having been taken from her quick nap. Hearing a giggle, she looked up towards the top of the pile to see her older sister giving a look at her before jumping off and landing next to her.

"Ouch... my head." Carrot whimpered as she stood up and faced her sister who was still smiling at her, making her rage boil even more. ”You jerk! Why did you do that GH?"

Her sister stopped smiling before stomping a hoof to the ground.

"And don't you call me GH, dear sister."

Now it was Carrot's turn to smile as her mischievous side turned on. She knew she had hit a sore point by calling her GH as opposed to Golden Harvest. Before she got to continue, Golden Harvest raised her hoof but this time put it on Carrot’s shoulder before sighing deeply.

"Look Carrot, I'm sorry but you know that we've talked about this."

Turning red, Carrot looked away from her sister before gently pushing her out of the way and walking out of the barn. She knew perfectly well what her sister meant, but it wasn't like Golden Harvest could use that trump card all the time.

"I know... But you can see that the fields are in okay condition, so no harm done...right?" she told Golden Harvest after she also exited the barn, but Golden Harvest just face-hoofed before handing over the ridgepole to the surprised sister.

"Wrong, you still ought to cultivate the land to get nutrients for the growing roots." she expressed to her before grabbing her own hoe and strapping the full bag of seeds around her neck, making Carrot puff in anger.

"Then I hope you don’t mix the seeds like last harvest."

Golden Harvest stopped dead in her tracks, just couple of feet’s away from her sister.

"That was an accident..."

Carrot hit the ground with the fork, leaving it standing, before turning over to Golden Harvest.

"That accident cost us over a thousand bits GH!"

Golden Harvest jumped around, nearing to the point of screaming and jumping over to her cheeky sister, but the elderly side of her mind kept her from over reacting. But she still planted her face right in front of her sister before sizzling her response:

"That's why I ought to DO something, unlike somepony else around here."

Carrot responded by pushing her face closer and giving a cold stare. No words escaped her mouth, so Golden Harvest continued on.

"Who's the first to wake up? Me. Who's the first to be on the fields? Me. Who's the one that seals the deals with the major suppliers? Me. Who's the one that needs to take care of a fifteen year old baby, who cannot even stay awake for four hours straight? ME!"

Every time Golden Harvest said 'Me', she closed the distance between her forehead and Carrot's until the two met. Carrot continued to give a cold look while giving her response;

"Your deals with the major ones are nothing compared to what I make in market every week, don't you forget that. And when it comes to my sleeping, you should know that it's healthy to take naps during the course of the day as I still need to go to the market today as somepony is afraid of crowded places..."

"I AIN'T AFRAID OF CROWDED PLACES!"

"Oh please, you literally shivered last week when we visited the town to get the cart fixed. Seriously GH..."

"Don't. Call. Me. GH."

"What's the matter? Afraid that anypony might hear it? Oh that's right, silly me. THERE'S NOPONY EXPECT US HERE!"

Golden Harvest just shook in rage, it boiling deep inside her, burning especially her heart from hearing her sister saying something like that. Just as she was ready to counter-attack, a shadow fell over both of the mares.

The stare off between the sisters ended as they simultaneously turned to look at what caused the shadow.

"Is this the Carrot family farm?" addressed the maroon brown Earth pony stallion from them, but neither Harvest nor Carrot responded as they both stared at the arriving stallion; Golden Harvest in confusion and Carrot Top in curiosity. The sheer size of him was one thing that caught their attention, but really it was just the fact that it was a stallion in front of them.

The Earth pony stallion sighed before turning over, but didn't get far as Carrot Top ran in front of him.

"Yes this is it. I'm Carrot Top and I take care of this place along with my sister there." she exclaimed and the stallion glared at her, actually making Carrot really nervous for some unknown reason.

"Heard you were hiring." he said, but before Carrot got to explain anything, she got tackled to the side by her olive sister.

"It's true." Golden Harvest answered before offering her hoof to him "The name's Golden Harvest, the current head of the Carrot family and older sister of Carrot Top."

The stallion nodded as he took the hoof for a firm shake. His blond mane swept across his face but Golden Harvest got a view of the chestnut eyes that seemed to have an constant bland stare, almost like the eye balls were made out of pure glass.

"I'm Maero."

* * * * *

Typical sisters; always at each other’s throats.

I thought to myself as I looked at the two of them walking ahead of me while pointing out the different fields. Though they acted like everything was alright, the airspace between them could have been cut with a knife as they kept a formal distance between each other and neither gave a single look anywhere else besides the fields and me.

"And finally, we have the back fields there that have nothing planted yet." pointed the olive mare with the farming tools symbol as we arrived back to the barn where we had left some minutes ago. This mare, Golden Harvest, turned to face me before pointing at the tools hanging from the wall outside of the barn. "Now Maero, have you ever worked at a farm?"

"No, but I've done some gardening."

She smiled, but as she opened her mouth, the orange mare cut in between us and her face bore an threatening smirk.

"It's fine. You'll learn along the way, right GH?"

The olive mare blushed before hiding under her straw hat, but the mare named Carrot Top just giggled before grabbing a large hoe from the wall and plowing it into the ground next to me. She then took some sort of bag from a wooden chest right next to the tools before dropping it on top of the hoe. This seemed to get Golden Harvest back from her thoughts, as she also took a hoe but smaller compared to mine before strapping it to her back.

Weird... looks like the tools have strings so that they can be hung around your back. Kinda like rifles back at... home

"You'll catch up soon with how it's done. For now, just look how I do it." the olive mare told me as she headed off past me. Carrot Top just huffed before sticking her head back into the chest while I hung the bag around my neck and saw that it was full of seeds.

"Hah, knew that it was here!"

Looking back up, I saw that Carrot Top had raised her head from the chest and was walking towards me. But it was the thing that she was carrying with her mouth that caught my attention.

"What's the matter sweetie? Haven't seen a straw hat before?"

Nothing like this I haven't...

It was, in regards to the name, made out of straws but it was just so well put to together; the surface was smooth from as not a single piece of straw hung loose and the inside part had thin layer of cloth to make it comfortable to wear for long periods. The grosgrain was dark red, not really my style but I didn't mind as it actually gave it really good nostalgic feeling compared to many hats I had worn.

As I put it on top of my head, it seemed like two magnets had met each other; the hat fit perfectly on my head and it felt really good to get some cover from the ever boiling sun above me.

I... needed this.

Then I did something I hadn't done in long time.

I looked Carrot directly in the eyes...

And smiled.

Carrot Top just giggled before shaking her hoof towards me.

"GH must be waiting for you, so you might wanna hurry up, unless you want to face her anger."

Taking her advice, I strapped the large hoe around like GH had done and started to walk towards her, as her figure was visible from here thanks to the barren face of the land below.

Looking back, I saw that Carrot had taken one of the other tools and headed to the smaller fields next to the barn.

"Thanks..." I  mumbled quietly while I turned my gaze back towards the ground beneath and sighed once.

You made me feel happiness for a moment...

Luckily the shadow covered my eyes as they got wet.

Oh God, why can’t I get you off my mind Rosie!

* * * * *

The school bell rang bright and clear, echoing around the large yard and especially around the small corner I was standing by.

Raising my head from the book by Pratchet, I could see and feel that the weather had stayed pretty much the same for the past hour; there was a constant weak breeze that kept the snow moving around both on the ground and in the air. The temperature itself wasn't that low for being January, but the freezing breeze kept it so that even walking around proved to be problematic if you didn't have proper clothes on.

After taking a deep, calming breath, I placed a mark on the current page and let the book drop inside the large leather satchel hanging around my elbow before stepping out of this little corner to get a better view of the front doors. Immediately the cold breeze struck my face, but I just leaned against the wall and narrowed my eyes before covering them with my right hand so that I could keep an eye at the door through this blizzard.

Three, two, one...

A smirk rose to my face, as I saw the double doors flung open and dozens of small kids start to pour out of the old school building. It had done an amazing job for the past thirty years, so there wasn't any hurry to replace it, though I clearly remembered that even when I was there, the age had started to show clear marks all around. Most of the kids that came out went straight to the playground but many younger ones walked past me as their day had ended. Some of the first and second year students gave looks at me, but I didn't mind as I kept my gaze firmly locked at the doors, waiting for her to come.

My patience paid off, because about half a minute later, a small girl with a light blue jacket and black winter trousers stepped out to the yard. She greeted some other kids as she walked past them and kept walking towards my direction until noticing me. Even from over twenty feet away and through a minor blizzard, I could see her smiling while her pure platinum hair waved back and forth as she started to run towards me.

"Big Bro!" she shouted just before grabbing me in a firm hug, though her head only reached my chest area. After having stood in this weather for an hour, it felt good to feel her close to me as the heat coming from her young body was really strong.

“Umm...”

Gently I brushed her long hair while turning to look towards her and see the surprised look on the face. Her bright emerald eyes looked over at the clothes I was wearing before turning to look up at me.

"So how was your day champ?" I jokingly asked from her, but she just backed off from me before grabbing her backpack and taking out some paper that had formulas on it.

"Great! I got full points on that Math test." she told me while handing the test over to me and it had indeed full points on the corner.

"Really good. I see that you read those papers that Tom gave you."

She smiled before taking the paper from me and putting it back to her back.

"I've gotta thank him; the memory rules he gave me were so good that my friends also demanded to look at them." she told me as she stepped next to me and gave her left hand towards me, which I grabbed with my right one.

"... Maero?"

"I can tell him that for you." I told her as we started to walk out of the school yard and she shot me an asking look.

"You're meeting him today?"

"Along with Mike."

Silence fell between us as we stopped at the lights to wait for a turn to cross. The air filled with the fumes as tens of cars drove past as, and I could hear a faint coughing from my right.

"You okay Rosie?" I worriedly asked, but she just smiled and the lights turned green, so we walked over to the other side. From there we went straight on towards the road that went through a small forest patch and after we got to the start of it, Rosie pulled my arm before looking up to me.

"Umm..." she started out before looking down onto the ground. Sighting, I kneeled to match her height and put my arms to her elbows.

"What is it?" I asked from her, but she kept her look down onto the ground.

"Well... There's this movie coming today and my friends are going to look at it..."

"Let me guess; you need me to get in to view it?"

She quickly turned to look at me with her puppy eyes that could have heated even the most frozen man’s heart.

"Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseeee?"

Chuckling, I stood up and looked over at my phone to see that Mike had left a message.

Come a.s.a.p to me. Need to check the buss time

"Tell you what; because you made it so well in the tests..."

I didn't get to finish as she quickly jumped up and grabbed me by the neck, making me lose my balance and fall to my back. It didn't hurt that much as there was snow below and the smile Rosie had made my heart light up.

"THANKS BRO! YOU'RE THE BEST!"

"MAERO!"

I snapped put from the deeps of my mind and saw that the hoe had stopped just inches away from the ground, while the seed bag still hung half-full around my neck. I could feel sweat drops dripping somewhere around my forehead and on my necks as I turned to my right where the yell had come from.

"What happened?" the olive mare Golden Harvest asked from me and I could see worried expression on her face as she walked next to me. I simply grunted before grabbing the hoe and quickly striking it into the ground.

"Nothing." I bluntly answered as I dropped couple of seeds to the hole before patting it shut. But as I tried to move to the next one, GH blocked my way and I as I tried to move past her left, she blocked my way again.

"Well hope you don't mind giving a hoof." she noted before pointing her hoof past me and as I turned my head, I saw Carrot Top pulling large brown bags from the barn to the very old looking cart, barely standing, by the entrance.

"Carrot is leaving to supply a couple of regular ponies and as there ain't nothing else for you today, so you can call it quit after helping her."

I turned back to her, but didn't mutter a word as I only nodded in acknowledgement before strapping the hoe to my back and heading towards the orange mare struggling to lift the bags to the cart.

Are you thinking about me Rosie?

Front left, back right, front right, back left...

Carrot Top saw me approaching and waved a hoof to me before pointing at the cart now filled with bags.

You, Mom and Dad must miss me...

The seed bag fell to the ground right next to the chest and the hoe was left to lean to the wall.

Why?

Carrot's mouth moved, but my ears didn't register anything, while I slowly made my way to the front of the cart.

Why is this pain so great?

The cart strap fell to my back.

Tom and Mike...

Carrot started to put it on and soon I could feel it tighten around me.

They don't feel the same.

Carrot walked next to me before slamming her hoof to her face and disappearing somewhere back to the barn, leaving me with my ever growing thoughts.

They just act like nothing had happened; Mike laughs and jokes while Tom... is being his self.

Carrot came back from the farm, now carrying some sort of saddle with packs on the sides which had her Mark. A big smile was on her face as she got next to me, turning to look at me and tilting her head towards the road before heading off.

But my body was frozen.

How can they just shrug and let it be?

Carrot turned to look back and she stopped as I hadn't moved an inch.

My head suddenly rose up, making her back off little bit from shock.

Do I... hate them?

"What's the problem?" she inquired while slowly walking up to me and staring right at my face, her green eyes piercing mine. Her smile had faded away and now a worried expression covered her ever so bright face.

My closest friends, do I hate them?

Carrot Top started to wave her hoof intensively in front of my face.

"Hellooo, Equestria to Maero!"

A sigh came from me.

I'm confused.

I turned to face Carrot, who stopped waving her hoof and now pointed it directly to my face.

"What just happened?" she asked while I could see some sort of temper burning behind her eyes.

So I decided to tell the truth.

"I'm just confused." I said dully before giving a quick check on the cart and on the straps before turning back to see her mouth open while some weak voices tried to make their way out.

"So, are we set to go?" I asked, not even jokingly, and she immediately snapped out of her thinking before shaking her head.

"Seems like the paper was like..." she muttered before stopping to look at me. "Anyway, you're right; we ought to go before GH figures I took her bits."

I'm not even surprised...

I thought to myself as we started to make our way to the same road I had taken. The cart wheels weakly squealed under the heavy cargo, but it seemed like that it would last at least for this trip.

* * * * *

*THUMP*

A small amount of dust rose as the last bag fell to the porch of some sort of restaurant that had a French build to it. This had been the fourth stop so far after arriving in town.

Tiny drops of sweat dripped their way down my neck and back while I walked back to Carrot, who seemed to have finished her business with the manager. From the looks, she was rather angry as she huffed quite loud when the manager turned her back to her.

Not again...

"Some mares just have the nerve..." Carrot muttered before noticing me standing next to her. ”You finished?"

I nodded and slowly headed to the front of the cart while Carrot seemed to check on her pouch, likely counting the money she had made from the six bags we had delivered around the town.

"Seems to be alright." she recounted as the pouch disappeared to her 'saddle' pack and her hooves made their way to me to get the straps on. After they had been tightened, she took a glimpse at the cart and I saw her grinning, most likely from relief.

"Well there's only one pony left and I know we won't have any trouble with her."

The wheels squealed as they started to roll down the road towards the alley laying ahead that, according to Carrot, led to the centre business area. However, that wasn't the place where the next regular lived.

“And you aren't gonna say anything for your defence?"

My head tilted a bit to the side and I just could make out the orange hair from behind the last bag, which was quite small when compared to the ones I had lifted wherever I was asked to.

And oddly enough, that's why all Hell broke loose in first place.

"Oh I'm so tired!" Carrot exclaimed on the back after having laid her head on top of the bag while embracing it same time as if it was an oversized pillow. Her half open green eyes turned to look at me, but my head had already turned over to the front.

A loud huff soon followed.

"Didn't you hear what I said?"

Do you really think I want to talk about what happened at the shop and in the cafe?

"Yes." I staed with my normal dull voice while my body stopped the movement, as we arrived to a narrow intersection and some other carts were blocking the way; from the noises two mares were arguing about who should go first. For the moment, my gaze fell to the sides of the road, as many ponies walked past and nearly all gave an look at me before walking off. Like earlier, nearly everypony who walked past was a female, though I also saw few males, but all of them were accompanied by females.

Is this town really that lacking in males?

"Hey Carrot," I started while tilting my head to look towards her direction, catching her from nearly falling asleep. ”did those mares really try to fight for me?"

Carrot snickered and shook her orange mane before answering:

"Yeap, they were big fellow; at least until I stepped in."

By claiming to be my 'mare' friend, whatever that means.

The silence from the front made me turn back and to see the way was now clear. As the squealing of the wheels began, Carrot started to give instructions on where to go next, which I tried to memorize at my best.

"... after getting to the road, follow it out of town for so long until path to the left comes to view: take that path and we'll soon arrive at our desti- HEY YOU TWO; CART COMING THROUGH!"

The poor ponies in front nearly jumped ten feet in the air from surprise before making a way for me and the cart, where Carrot was now leaning to the front, as if trying reach my neck.

"Anyway; it shouldn't take us too long as there ain't any traffic there LIKE THIS! MOVE, THE LANE'S FREE!"

The green pony up front just muttered something before turning to let us through, opening the way to a small park area. Some picnic tables were laid in the open close to the small dirt path that led straight through the field before dividing in two parts near the other side.

"Was it the right?"

A hum of approval came from the back, soon followed by loud irregular snoring. Many ponies in the park turned their heads in our direction, and all shot angry glares to Carrot, who was still hugging the last bag with all her strength. I couldn't blame them, as she really was a noisy sleeper, maybe even noisier than Mike, and he sounded like a jackhammer.

The left path took us to a patch of houses laid out in the open, unlike in town where they were all built almost next to each other, on top of having the same basic cottage structure. These houses were actually a little bit bigger, as many had space for their own gardens and some sort of barbecue spots, though I doubted that meat was on the list of goods.

*KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG, KLONG*

Is it twelve already?

Carrot seemed to have woken up, as I heard loud groans followed by even louder yawns after the bells on the clock tower in the distance had fallen silent. The cart slowly turned as we neared the end of the road and a small bridge came into view, crossing the tiny stream below.

"*Yawn* Okay, let's leave the cart here." Carrot ordered before jumping to my right side and crossing the bridge. This didn't alarm me, as she had always gone ahead to deal with the customer on the pay, and I'd come soon after carrying the bags wherever I was asked to.

Those gazes they gave to my hinds... No, focus! You're a man, not a freaking pony!

I slipped under the straps. The sweat acclimated from working helped, though I felt really dirty after having worked almost non-stop for the past four hours.

My hooves soon took me to the back where I grabbed the last bag with my mouth before hauling it to the ground. Then I raised it to my back and after some minor adjusting, I took off past the stream towards the small opening between the trees.

Carrot stood by there, nodding me to come closer but as if to keep it down. Hard to believe from her. Her orange hair swept in the small wind that came from the direction of the opening, but she didn't seem to mind as her eyes turned to look at me.

"Expecting 'trouble'?" I muttered, ever so dull, but Carrot smirked before shaking her head.

"Not that kind." she started before pointing her hoof past the opening. "Just keep it to yourself and let me do the talking, okay?

I shrugged before heading past the trees.

Guess I was supposed to expect this.

The road below continued on for some hundred, just at the edge of the stream, before stopping at yet another bridge, but this one seemed to have formed naturally, as grass grew on the sides and dirt was visible on the sides. Just as Carrot and I got to the front of the bridge, my eyes noticed the thin tree just next to the bridge that had many birds nesting on it, their chirping voices filling the air with natural melodies.

If only Rosie could hear this...

Small critters roamed the grass, running off when Carrot walked towards the door leading inside this large tree that seemed to act as a house. She quickly looked behind and smiled before nodding for me to come closer, so I headed towards her, the bag still on my back, while she knocked at the door.

The upper part of the door slowly opened outwards, and soon a light yellow pony with pink hair appears from the archway.

"Oh, hi Carrot." the female pony quietly said, as if she was afraid of speaking too loud. "Is it that day already?"

Carrot grinned "Yep, we're here to..."

The yellow pony looked confused, but then she turned at my direction before whimpering and backing off inside while Carrot just giggles.

"Don't worry ‘Shy, this fellow here is Maero and he works nowadays at our farm."

The pony still seemed to be a bit reluctant, but she finally made eye contact with me before quickly hiding behind her long mane.

"...I'm Fluttershy. Nice to..." The end goes unheard as her already whispering tone went lower with every word said.

"Hi. Where do you want this bag?"

She looked confused before pointing at the porch, so I dropped the bag there while trying to relax my muscles as they had gotten really stiff, though not too much. Carrot didn't notice, as she took her pouch from the pack.

"Well, it'll be the usual amount Flutter' dear."

"Oh yes, wait for a bit." she stammered before disappearing inside while I turned to look at Carrot, who in regards looked back.

"Before you ask; yes, she's always like that."

Okay, you got one of the two questions right.

"I was going to ask about the pay."

Her green eyes pierced me while her hoof went inside her pack. Soon, a small pouch similar to hers started to swing back and forth just above my nose. But as I tried to grab it, Carrot moved it back before grinning deviously.

"Naha, you've gotta allow me do something for you first."

Before I got to say anything, she closed the distance between me and her with single step. I tried to back off, but my way was blocked by a bush.

What does she want?

She moved her head closer to mine. Panicking, I turned to look at my left towards the bridge. Then I felt something really warm touching my left cheek.

No... She didn't just...

"Oh my..."

Carrot and I simultaneously turned towards the door to find Fluttershy staring at us with her eyes wide open. I took this opportunity and quickly grabbed the pouch from her while she was distracted.

"What is it Fluttershy?" Carrot giggled before wiping her smiling mouth with her right leg. The yellow pony just blushed before giving Carrot the money, which she eagerly put into her pouch.

"Well, see you next week." Carrot whispered and the yellow pony smiled before returning inside while Carrot turned to walk towards the bridge. I reluctantly followed behind her, the pouch hanging from my mouth.

"Aren't you gonna put your money away?" Carrot asked, surprising me, before pointing at my straw hat. Confused, I took it off, and saw that there actually was just enough space for the pouch.  As I put it back on, I couldn't even feel the pouch on my head, though the hat felt a bit heavier now.

We stopped at the cart, as Carrot started to put the straps on herself, not needing the same help as I did though she did seem to have some trouble.

"So what are you gonna do now?" she mentioned while tightening the last piece of buckle.

Either Mike or Tom... Wasn't the school somewhere outside of town?

"Know where the school is?"

Carrot gave me an odd look before snickering as if she remembered something, though her expression didn't differ that much from her normal self.

"From where we turned, just continue on and you'll come to the school in ten minutes." she claimed before turning to look at the clock tower in distance. "Thought if I was you, I would hurry as the school ends in less than five."

She shook her orange hair once more, now touching the tip of my nose, though I highly doubt it was accidental, before starting to pull the cart, leaving me to my thoughts.

Should I hurry or go slowly, possibly missing him?

I adjusted my straw hat on my head before stretching my back and front legs.

A natural smirk rose to my face from thinking of the challenge.

Well, I had planned to test just how good of a runner I am now...

The legs darted forward, starting the running, or rather the galloping, taking note the fact that I wasn't human...

It only took me five seconds to catch Carrot as she moved really slowly. She didn't get a look at me, but I could hear her shouting something really loud. I didn't hear anything as my mind was fully focused on running.

Front right, back left, front left, back right...

The crossroads came to view, so I cut it a little bit by taking a straight line through the grass field.

The wind swept across my face, making my back hair flow along with the long tail, thought I only got a brief glimpse as I didn't dare to be distracted by anything.

Last thing I would want is...

...a small girl with a light blue jacket and black winter trousers...

My speed fell a bit, but not too much as I got to the road and started to run along it..

...her pure platinum hair waved back and forth...

Back left, front right, back right, front left...

..."Big Bro!"...

My legs hit each other, making me stagger couple of steps before regaining the rhythm.

*KLONG*

The bell rang in the distance, so I raised my speed as much as possible.

With every passing second a building started to come into view, and I could see many ponies walking away from it.

Rosie...

I dropped my speed to catch a breath, though I didn't fully stop and instead continued with walking.

I know you'll get past me; you're strong in both heart and mind...

Take care of Mom and Dad, will you?

I stopped by the entrance to the school yard to see Mike and Tom talking to the purple unicorn from before and to some white unicorn that I didn't recognize.

Immediately Mike noticed me, and started to run towards me, while Tom along with the other two ponies just stared at me.

Could I hate them?

Time slowed down, as Mike neared me with each step taken, but every second seemed to last a minute as I coldly looked at Mike's grinning face while his yellow eyes were lit up from joy.

Could I hate you Mike, who can smile and laugh?

Tom didn't have an expression, but his eyes had that usual glare of calculation that was natural to him.

Could I hate you Tom, who is able to act that calm?

Mike's mouth started to move as he was now only twenty feet away.

You haven't changed a bit so why should I hate you?

Fifteen feet.

Only I've changed...

Ten feet.

No... I don't hate you, my close friends.

Five feet.

I hate myself.

"MAERO!" Mike shouted while crashing into me, making me fall on my back.

A/U: Here's one particular comment I wanted to share with you that came to me couple of days ago from my lovely pre-reader, who's ever so late with his work;

Carrot Top is a hoe. LOL IRONY

-MisterFluttershy-

Thank you dude, you made my day that morning :twilightsmile:

Chapter 13 "Plans"

Chapter 13

Plans

A puff of smoke slowly lingered its way upwards, fading somewhere in the middle of the upper mosaic window where a ray of light shot through. There wasn't any particular picture on it like the ones on the Royal Hall, but the small symbol of the Sun had been painted on the middle, like all of the windows in this part of the castle.

A white hoof reached towards the table to grab the mug while the red eyes of the old stallion eyed the room, from an old habit, only to find himself alone, sitting on the stool next to the table; the only door lays on his left, still closed shut.

Well, not that alone...

A small cough erupted from the other side of the table, making the hoof stop just before touching the handle. The old stallion cursed his bad luck, while turning to look at the light red mare dressed in the normal purple robe that the scholars from the Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns wore. Around her neck hung a small pendant that marked her rank as a professor, though the old stallion thought she had gotten it from being a member of a noble house instead of actually having done hard work.

"What is it Miss?"

The unicorn mare looked over towards the door before reaching inside her pockets to give a look at the silver pocket watch while puffing some more smoke from her long pipe.

"What's taking her Highness so long... Any ideas Captain?"

The old stallion shrugged.

"Her Highness is always very busy, as you probably know."

The mare sneered before taking the small tea cup and drinking a long sip. The Royal Pegasus Captain just sighed before taking his mug to drink the cherry wine they had been provided by the servants. Though he disliked the idea of taking a drink on duty, the temperature in the room was quite high and his armour didn't make it any easier. At least his grey mane was free from the helmet.

Suddenly, the door opened and two guards from the Unicorn Brigade walk in, which could only mean one thing for the Captain and the Professor. They both stood up and bowed their heads towards the door.

Neither one raised their head, as they both heard the faint hoof steps nearing them before stopping at the door.

"Ahh, good to see you two." Echoed the regal voice in the room, sending small shivers down the spine of the old pegasus like always when dealing with his Commander, both in duty and on free.

"Your highness." The captain said with a formal tone before turning to look at his Princess, who he had sworn to protect with his life like many ponies, both stallions and mares, before him. He knew that this was absurd, as everypony loved Her Royal Highness.

The two guards stepped outside of the door, closing the door behind.

"Please Shimmer, you have the right to address me as Celestia." she said before walking over to the table, her multi-coloured mane flowing back and forth like always while her pale coat glittered against the swarthy rock walls.

Captain Shimmer firmly shook his head.

"That would be... rude, your Highness."

Celestia just kept smiling while turning to look at the light red professor. She had inhaled more smoke from the pipe, so some smoke still lingered around her. She didn't seem to notice though, as she tilted her head to Celestia before taking a scroll from her side and placing it to the table.

The scroll was soon engulfed in a yellow glow as Celestia started to read out the report. After a minute passed, Celestia lowered the scroll before making it disappear in a bright light.

Just then, Captain Shimmer noticed that Princess had dropped her smile.

"Professor, what can you tell personally?"

The mare inhaled deep, before puffing white smoke out of her nose.

"Five days ago, our School noticed large amounts of magical activity around the edge of the Everfree forest. At first we didn't give it much thought and instead continued on with basic procedure of calculating the amount of energy, the total time of the activity, etc."

The mare paused to puff more smoke.

"The results we got... First we thought there had been error in the statistics or in the calculation, but after having re-done the same thing for five times with different ponies, we had to believe them."

She turned to look at Celestia.

"We started to think of possible reasons for what might have happened; maybe some raw magic had escaped the forest or perhaps something had happened inside the ruins of the old castle. But none of these made any sense, so the only choice left was to go to the site itself."

Celestia nodded in agreement, but her expression didn't change.

"So I and couple of other professors, accompanied by Captain Shimmer's guards, travelled to the site, as we expected trouble because of the high concentration of magic. But after we got there, we didn't find anything; no burnt grass, no unnatural reactions, nothing."

More smoke travelled from her mouth towards the ceiling.

"But we did find trails, three to be exact, leading into the forest."

Celestia first raised her eyebrow before turning to look at the Captain.

"Are those guards fine?"

Captain stayed still before shaking his head slowly.

"Two got medium level wounds, mostly cuts and bites, but one had his wings cut really bad and he's currently in intensive care... Those darn Timber wolves!"

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment before turning back towards the professor.

"Where did those trails end?"

Professor laid the pipe to the table before turning to look at her, while at the same time taking the tea cup into her hoofs and starting to mix it with spoon.

"To the other side of the Everfree, some eleven miles from the town of Ponyville."

Celestia looked over the mosaic window up, particularly at the light coming in.

"Are you absolutely sure that the numbers are right?"

The professor nodded once, before taking a sip from the cup while Celestia turned towards the Captain.

"Send my regards to the wounded guards." She stated before heading out of the room, leaving the professor smoking her pipe while the Captain saluted to her.

A sigh escaped from Celestia's mouth as she started to head towards the upper areas of the castle while being accompanied by her personal unicorn guards, who followed her everywhere.

But now she couldn't bring herself to think about her daily duties, not after having seen the report.

Luna needs to hear about this...

* * * * *

A light blue glow engulfed the tiny metal spoon, raising it up from the plate before dipping it in the white tea cup laying on the same plate. Slowly, the spoon started to spin around the still hot orange tea, trying to get it to cool off a bit.

A couple of seconds passed, as the spoon made its way around the cup, before the glow faded off and seemingly moved to the cup, which quickly rose upwards before stopping at the lips of the white unicorn mare.

As she took a sip her royal purple mane fell elegantly to the side, opening a view to the other side of the small cafe table where the three new stallions were sitting tightly next to one other while savouring their own drink of choice.

"So, how's your second day in Ponyville been like?"

Rarity's eyes turned to look at Twilight sitting next to her, her own cup of tea resting on the cafe table. She felt a bit angry for not having been the first to start the conversation, but this didn't last long as the pegasus Alto lowered his cup of steaming coffee before smiling, showing his shining white teeth.

"Simply put, awesome! Didn't know that postal-work could be so much fun... Oops, sorry Maero." He said after noticing that he had accidentally spilled a little bit of the coffee on top of his Earth pony friend's resting hooves. Maero looked at his friend's apologetic face before turning to grab some of the paper towels from the small basket in the  middle of the table.

"No problem." The maroon stallion replied while starting to clean his hooves and Alto breathed in relief. Both Twilight and Rarity turned to look at the straw hat wearing stallion, now taking a sip from his glass of water.

"Well what about you Mr. Maero?" Rarity politely inquired, getting a nod of approval from Twilight, but Maero just placed the glass on the table and turned to look towards the open square area next to the cafe where they arrived some twenty minutes ago. Alto snickered before pushing his elbow to Maero's rib.

"Come on, don't be shy." Alto said, looking like he was about to crack up in laughter. Maero sighed once before removing his straw hat and taking out of it, to everyone's surprise, a small bag.

"Went to the farm, got the job and that's my pay." He silently muttered while putting his hat back on and turning back to look at the square.

Rarity, Twilight and Alto all looked at him in confusion before being interrupted by light laughter coming from the left.

The silver grey unicorn adjusted his glasses a bit before reaching over to the bag and weighting it on his hoof before taking out two bags; one similar looking and other which was about the twice in size.

"Let's see... You, Alto, got thirty five bits and Maero seems to have gotten the same while I made sixty, so that equals to...one hundred thirty bits"

Nucleus then turned to look towards Alto and smirked.

"Seems like we're going to get those beds soon."

The blue pegasus broke into laughter while Nucleus raised his mug containing apple juice and took a sip. Twilight giggled a bit as her cup engulfed in purple glow and rose to her lips but stopped as she saw Nucleus looking at her.

"Twilight, may I ask an question?"

"Oh, what is it you want to know?"

Nucleus sighed and turned to look down onto the table.

"You... must have noticed that I don't really use much of magic," he started out and raised his head, "haven't you?"

That's actually true, he hasn't used magic at any point. At least when I've been around, Twilight through to herself, but she didn't get to say her answer as Rarity leaned her head over the table, right between them.

"Really dear, how come?" Rarity inquired in the most ladylike tone as she possibly could do. Now both Maero and Alto were also listening to this conversation while tasting their drinks.

"It's just.... that...."

"He doesn't know how to do it."

*CRACK*

Twilight's tea cup fell to the ground, breaking into multiple pieces and spilling the remaining tea all over.

But... how... Twilight thought while her eyes stayed wide open in a round shape along with her mouth, which tried to form words of question with no luck.

Rarity beared a similar expression, thought her mane covered her other eye, but she was able to mutter a response.

"H-how’s that possible?" She said, her voice cracking a bit from the shock.

"Alto..." Nucleus sneered in an angry tone, making the pegasus back towards Maero's lap, but he decided against his better judgement and turned to look towards the shocked mares.

"Let me re-adjust what my friend said; I know perfectly well how to do magic, but it causes much... pain."

Neither Twilight nor Rarity said anything, as they tried to comprehend what they just had heard.

"How about we change the subject?"

All turned their heads towards the Earth pony, before humming in agreement as Twilight used her magic to clean the mess she had created.

Rarity took her chance now, trying to forget what she had just heard and putting on her normal social smile.

"Well what could you tell about your past? I'd love to hear about your families."

The instance she mentioned the word 'family', all three of them changed totally, especially Maero who quickly stood up and walked away, his head hanging low.

Nucleus quickly grabbed his saddle pack and took out the two small bags, containing Maero's and Alto's pay.

"Alto, go after him and if possible," he instructed before handing the bags to Alto, who was already standing, "you could go and do the groceries."

The blue pegasus nodded once before quickly heading in the direction Maero had walked off to, soon disappearing from sight.

Nucleus tried to breathe calmly while looking back at Rarity and Twilight.

"Sorry about that. Maero's pretty sore about that subject."

"How come?" Twilight cautiously inquired, but Nucleus avoided her gaze and proceeded to grab his juice for a drink before answering.

"Its complicated." He explained before turning to look towards them, and now both Rarity and Twilight noticed that his blue eyes lacked that feeling of normality. "Please, don't bring that up when talking to Maero."

"We promise." They said in unison and Nucleus smiled before standing up.

"Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Rarity and Twilight watched as the silver grey unicorn walked off, both waving a hoof for him until he turned around on the first corner.

The silence that followed seemed to last forever, as both the unicorns pondered what they had just heard.

For Twilight, the pain Nucleus mentioned seemed odd as it shouldn't hurt to do magic unless performing some of the most powerful spells. But then again, she didn't know if the same rule applied to a fully grown unicorn that lacked his Cutie Mark, as it represented what magic one would excel most well at.

She sighed once before turning to look at the puzzled Rarity.

"Look Rarity..."

Twilight's face dropped as Rarity flipped her mane before smiling.

"So, what's your stance on them?"

"What do you mean?"

Rarity shook her head while standing up along with Twilight, as they started to walk away from the outdoor cafe.

"I mean do you like them?" Rarity continued on, trying to get her catch what she meant.

"Well... Alto's really awkward, kinda like Pinkie, and he also acts a bit like Rainbow, at least on the verbal level."

Rarity nodded in agreement, so Twilight continued on.

"Maero on the other hoof... it might sound weird, but there's something wrong with him. Like he's hiding something really important."

"What about Nucleus?"

Twilight shrugged.

"Even he's a bit odd; calm, assertive... "

Rarity snickered as she turned to look towards her.

"So you don't mind if I try my luck with him?"

The hoof steps stopped, as Twilight stopped in front of her friend.

"Rarity, remember what you promised..."

Rarity shook her long mane before shooting a look at her purple friend.

"But if he's the one to make the move, then it's fine, right?"

Twilight slowly nodded her head.

"And if you break that promise, I'll tell Pinkie and-"

"Did somepony call for me?"

Both Twilight and Rarity screamed, as their pink friend had just appeared besides them.

"Pinkie! I thought I was going to have a heart attack!"

Pinkie just shook her hoof towards her fashionista friend.

"But surprises are FUN!" She said, getting a huff for an answer, before turning over to Twilight. "Anyways, am I fine to hold the super-duper-extra-sweet-welcome party for them?"

Twilight rubbed the back of her head, as she knew that Pinkie wouldn't give up until getting it her way.

"Pinkie, I don't think..."

"Pinkie, I think that's a perfect idea!"

Twilight turned to see Rarity walk over to Pinkie, grabbing her around the shoulder.

"Look girls..." Twilight tried to mutter to them, but they didn't even notice her.

"Pinkie, could you get the party done this evening?" Rarity asked from the pink mare, who rubbed her chin with a hoof.

"Well we would need some extra-large place..."

Rarity's smile grew even wider, as her plan started to get some base.

"Would my boutique work?"

Pinkie gasped in joy before turning to look at Rarity in confusion.

"Wait; didn't you once say that 'no-party-in-my-studio'?"

Rarity backed off dramatically while holding a hoof over her forehead.

"Oh Pinkie! How could I say something like that?" She dramatized before turning to look downwards. "But if you don't want to have a party..."

Rarity knew that it was an dirty trick, but it did its job as Pinkie took on a serious face and saluted to her.

"Meet me in your shop at three. This is gonna be the welcome party no pony is going to forget, or I am not Pinkie Pie!" she said before hopping off and soon she disappeared around the corner.

"Twilight dear, what is it?" Rarity asked from Twilight, who was staring down at her hoofs.

"..You're dirty Rarity, you know that?"

Rarity giggled, before flipping her purple mane like a long whip.

"Love tends to have that affect my dear."

* * * * *

What the fuck Alex?

Alex was leaning against the alley wall, looking towards the opening on the other end of this alley I had followed him into. I nervously gulped before walking up to him, one of the bags hanging from my neck and the other I carried with my mouth.

He must have heard me coming, as he slowly backed off from the wall, still looking away, and started to walk away, towards the other end where some cart just passed by.

Oh come on; don't act like a little brat, I thought while kneeling down and darting up like a lightning bolt. I must have jumped over twenty feet up in the air. The glide itself lasted only for a second before I landed in front of my maroon brown friend.

To his honour, Alex actually looked very intimidating, as he stood a couple of inches taller than me while his massive body laid a shadow over my more elegant pegasus one. If I hadn't known him from before, I would have thought twice before approaching him in the same way I was going to.

I spat out the bag from my mouth, hearing a small 'thump' somewhere below, before putting on my most serious face I could possibly do; basically dropping the grin, narrowing my eyes and stomping my hoof for a good measure.

"The fuck just happened?"

Tom would be all over me from swearing right now... Luckily he isn’t here.

"Nothing." Alex mumbled, that bland voice screeching in my ears like a buzz saw making its way through a solid rock.

Don't know why, but I was really pissed off right then.

"Really? Didn't know that storming out of plain cafe talk was a normal thing to do." I scolded, my voice heavily dripping from sarcasm.

Alex kept looking down to the ground, his face still hidden under the shadows of his hat and behind the hair that fell down to the front.

So you want it the hard way?

I stomped my right hoof down again before lunging over to him, getting just inches away from his face.

"Now you're gonna stop with that self-pity act of yours; you aren't the only one having the hard time from this and th-"

My verbal onslaught dropped as the brown head slowly rose up while the blond locks of hair moved out of the way.

Well done Mike, well done...

The green eyes turned to look at me, both glassy and wet. Though no tears fell down, the amount of sorrow I saw on them made me turn away in shame.

And this is why Tom will handle these situations from now on.

"Look, I stand by what I said so don't expect me to apologize for that." I cautiously started, still looking away from him. "But I'm sorry for bringing it up to you."

A minute passed by in silence until I heard a step near me; and to my shame, I covered my face with my front hooves.

Come on, hit me. I deserve it.

The massive brown hoof rose up above me.

My eyes closed up.

What are you waiting for?

The hoof came down on me.

At first I thought I must have been knocked out by the strike, but as no pain seemed to come, I slightly opened my eyes to see the hoof had stopped just an inch away from my face while the green eyes, still wet, looked at me.

But not directly at my eyes...

"Fine." Alex muttered while his hoof lowered itself down to the ground.

* * * * *

There were two things that the cyan pegasus mare loved in her work as one of the Weather managers of Ponyville.

One: She usually finished her daily work way ahead of time, allowing her to practise the awesome flying tricks towards the near point of perfection. Although she didn't want to admit it, her passion for flying usially got her in a lot of trouble. That is, until she finally gave up and moved her practise space outside of the town.

The cyan wings uncurled around her, kinda like a blanket made out of feathers.

*Yawn*

Two: She could lay off whenever she wanted. How many other ponies could do that right in the middle of the day?

Well... if she just could...

"Boooring..." Muttered the cyan mare as her head moved to the edge of the cloud bed she was currently laying on. Although she had been there, just some hundred feet above the town, for the past hour, she just couldn't get ahold of her normal day dream, in which she flies with her idols.

A small 'crack' sound erupted from her now stretched wings, ready to take off, while her rainbow colour mane fell down the back of her head, all messed up.

The half-open eyes scanned the streets below, seeing all kinds of local residents, mostly normal ponies, walking around on a normal day.

Everywhere her dimish eyes turned to look at, nothing caught her ever so moving attention.

Seems like I'm gonna have yet another dull day...

She thought while standing up on top of the cloud before jumping off from it, moving her wings to the sides and catching the regular stream of wind that loomed above the town.

The wings started to flap in perfect rhythm, something that all pegasi could do from a natural instinct, as they started to take her towards the surface.

Could check on Pinkie; she's always up for som-

The movement stopped, just some twenty feet off from the ground and above a lone food store from which a pegasus stallion stepped out of.

The gloom look on her face totally changed.

Oh.My.Gosh!

The dark blue stallion turned around, making his long black mane shake along with the just as impressive tail, to look inside the open doorway.

"Geez, what's taking him so long?" Alto muttered just as the cyan mare landed behind his back without any notice.

Kinda cool voice, a little bit high but still definitely a male.

She quickly licked her hoof and tried to rub her messed mane straight, but stopped as the stallion groaned while turning over towards her.

"Hey tough guy, what's your name?"

Alto backed off a bit, his yellow eyes looking over at this strange pony talking to him, but his mouth soon caught up with the runaway mind.

"Alto... what's yours?"

The cyan mare grinned before placing a hoof over her chest.

"You must have heard about Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in all of Equestria and the upcoming Wonderbolt?"

Alto rubbed his chin with a hoof, deep in his thoughts of what Tom had said and what he himself remembered from the show, before also grinning.

"Nope, sorry."

"So you haven't heard of..."

"No."

"Not even about..."

"No."

Rainbow finally gave up, but decided to move on with her plans with this new piece of meat.

"So Alto, how long have you been in Ponyville?" The cyan mare said and Alto opened his mouth to answer but stopped as a shadow fell over him.

Rainbow's mouth fell as she saw the maroon pony, also a stallion, standing in the doorway.

"There you are. What took you so long?" Alto noted, but the Earth pony only pointed at the two large sacks hanging from his mouth, making it clear that speaking was not an option.

Alto chuckled a bit before turning back to the still gasping mare, which made him laugh even louder before finally calming down to find her glaring at him angrily.

"That face was priceless..." He started while wiping his eyes "Besides, you aren't the first pony today to look like that, right Maero?"

A low grunt followed before the maroon pony walked away.

Looks like all of the big ones are the same, Rainbow thought as a large smirk grew to her face and she crept closer to the unaware Alto, who still looked at his leaving friend.

Time to see if this works...

Rainbow uncurled her wing and purposely hit the laying wings of Alto, who shivered a bit before turning to look towards her. She kept the smile on while starting to rub the wing back and forth, making him blush.

"So, are you up for an race?" Rainbow asked in very seducing way while giving a wink to him, making his face turn even redder.

"Umm... I....Look: a two headed monkey!"

Rainbow turned to look behind where Alto had pointed at, only to see nothing.

"What are you talking ab... Oh no you won't!"

Alto had taken his chance, running off only to leave a big cloud of dust from which a cyan flash flew off to give a chase.

* * * * *

The Counting Hoof vol. III laid on top of my stomach as I myself rested on the living room sofa, my head on a large pillow while turned upwards towards the ceiling.

Agh, this headache...

My latest attempt with magic hadn't gone so well, as the puke mark on the kitchen floor and my current near-bed condition made very clear.

The air was filled with amazingly delicious smells, giving more than enough proof of the excellent skills of cooking that Maero had put fully in action, counting the amounts and taking the time from outer memory without any doubt.

The fridge and the cabins were now fully packed, though it bugged me a bit that all of the money they brought had been used, but at least we wouldn't starve for some time.

A meager thirty bits left...

Our landlord, the mint green unicorn who now introduced herself as Lyra, had come to pay a visit soon after Maero had come. She however didn't stay for long, taking only the bits I gave her, before telling that this covered for the weekend.

My eyes kept looking to the top, trying to concentrate on the wooden beacon crossing the ceiling, before turning to look at my right towards the still distressed Alto.

"So let me get this straight: this cyan pegasus approached you outside of the shop, acting all normal until suddenly she started rubbing her wing against yours, making you panic and run away."

He rubbed the back of his head while his cheeks turned a bit red, though not as red as they were when he had come back.

"The rainbow maned mare then proceeded to chase you around all of freaking Ponyville for the next half hour before you finally lost her by hiding in this bush that just happened to be..."

Alto shook his bandaged hoof at me.

"Yeah, I'm stupid for jumping into a rose bush."

I smirked before rising to sit.

"Didn't think I'd see the day that running away from a girl would get to you."

Alto groaned before grabbing the Allons-y Atoms! from the pile of school books I had started to go through in an attempt to memorize something.

"Well then all mighty brony; care to explain why this town is acting so fucked up?"

The noises coming from the kitchen started to lower and soon Maero came in, carrying with his mouth a large tray containing three steaming bowls along with glasses and a jug of milk.

"The reactions are due to one major reason." I told them both while making a room for the tray and taking my bowl along with the guys.

"And that is the gender ratio of Ponyville. There have been many speculations of it, even I had mine, and it seems like they've been pretty accurate from what I've been able to see."

Mmh... tasty soup.

My friends were eating away, but their eyes were locked onto me.

"Simply put; there are more females than males."

Both of the metal spoons stopped in the middle of the air and some of the contents dripped back to the bowls below.

"Now I cannot specifically say what the ratio is, but my guess would be  from five to seven mares per one stallion."

"Waitwaitwait..." Alto started in disbelief while I took more of the soup, "Are you implying that the crazy cyan pony actually tried to get on with me?"

Only an nod later, Alto excused himself before his hooves slowly made their way towards the bathroom. Maero just stayed put, letting his gaze wander around a bit before focusing on me.

"Marefriend, what does that mean?"

This actually surprised me, hearing that word coming from his ever so tightly shut mouth.

"The same as a girlfriend while coltfriend means a boyfriend. How come?"

He either didn't hear me, deep in his thoughts, or he simply decided not to answer, which wouldn't have been the first time so I didn't go further.

Suddenly, rapid vomiting noises started to come from bathroom, filling the silence with the horrible agonizing sounds.

Brace yourself Alto; you're going to be a stallion for the rest of your life.

I thought while raising the spoon to continue on with the dining.

* * * * *

"Woo, we're finally done!" Exclaimed the hyper pink pony out loud after having thrown the last of the confetti around the large open room, now fully party ready.

Rarity could only try and imagine how long it would take her to clean up all of what Pinkie had come up with for the 'super-duper-extra-sweet-welcome party like no other' in these last few hours. It had in fact taken so long that in a few hours the sun would be settling down,

Well, Sweetie still needs to be punished, meaning I've got more time for my dear...

Rarity thought as she walked up to Pinkie, who was now packing the invitations for the party in her saddle pack.

Just then, the boutique door opened and in flew a very distraught cyan pegasus, panting like she had been practising all day long.

"Hi Rainbow!" Pinkie shouted while flinging the saddle pack on her back, but Rainbow didn't seem to hear as she landed in front of them.

"Pinkie, have you seen a dark blue pegasus stallion with a black mane running around?"

The pink pony shook her head before jumping off past her and outside of the boutique to deliver the invitations while Rainbow groaned before looking around the shop in confusion and opening one of the invitations from the floor..

Looks like Alto has caught our dear Rainbow's mind.

The white unicorn thought while making her way to the dress room.

But you, my dear Nucleus, are MINE!

A/U

What's this blasphemy! :flutterrage:

So... yeah, uploading this a bit soon from my normal schedule.

Hopefully some of you're happy cause of this :pinkiehappy:

Only thing that might explain this is that my editors + pre-readers have been extra nice to me. That and the fact my this years studies are nearing their end, meaning that my 'serious' writing begins soon...

That reminds me, my test week is nearing me (actually only about 5 days left...) so I'm off to read now.

Cross your fingers for me :twilightsmile:

Chapter 14 "The Super-Duper-Extra-Sweet-Welcome Party"

Chapter 14

The Super-Duper-Extra-Sweet-Welcome Party

This is getting out of hoof...

The shadows fell down from every object looming around, leaving long thin strips of black across the roads that were starting to get empty of the normal daily huzzle, as shops started to close down and ponies were waving goodbyes to their friends.

Rays from Celestia's sun still shone bright from the sky, painting it a deep orange colour that stretched from one end of the skyline to the other, but it had already started to descend down for this day and soon the moon of Luna would come from its hiding place.

Sadly, this all this went unnoticed by the purple unicorn mare, who was walking down the road towards what used to be Lyra's house, at least according to the directions what Pinkie had given to her before returning to the Carousel Boutique to get the last of the things set up for the 'bachelors'.

For the love of Celestia and Luna, it can't be that every free mare of this town is after them!

Twilight shouted deep inside her head, just as her hooves stopped at the opening that led to a smaller street. After a deep breath she headed in, while she started to think of the best way to get them to the party without telling them.

And I would gladly tell, but Pinkie must have seen this before making me Pinkie swear... Aha, there it is!

The lavender unicorn stopped by the closed wooden door, knowing that after a knock came the point of no return...

*Knock Knock*

She backed off a bit, as her ears started to pick up noises coming from behind the door, until they suddenly stopped and nearing hoof steps were heard. A faint 'clank' noise was heard as the lock on the door unlocked and it opened, revealing the maroon Earth pony, still wearing his hat, looking down at her.

Twilight gulped a bit from nervousness before looking back at him.

"Hi Maero, can I come in?"

The maroon pony looked behind him for a moment, as if looking at something, before moving to make a way while keeping the door open for her.

"Thanks." Twilight said while stepping in, but Maero didn't seem to care, only locking the door and walking past her towards the living room area, where the dark blue pegasus and silver grey unicorn were looking at her.

"Good to see you Twilight," Nucleus started before pointing at the last free chair "please, have a seat."

The lavender unicorn walked right up to them, seeing that on the table laid some sort of board game with three figures on the board along with couple of dice, but she didn't sit down and instead turned to look towards Nucleus.

"Actually... umm... I came to ask if you're possibly free now." Twilight muttered while rubbing the back of her head and nervously laughing on just how bad her act was. Nucleus faintly smiled before turning to look at the dark blue pegasus sitting next to him on the couch.

"Well Alto, it's your turn."

The blue pegasus groaned a bit before taking one of the dice and throwing it to the small cup. After a brief look, he took the bright green figure and proceeded to move it forward four spaces before cautiously taking the round emblem resting on the space.

"MOTHER OF FUCK; ANOTHER DIAMOND DOG!" Alto shouted out loud, sending Twilight falling on her rump from the sudden shock of both the shout and the content of what he had shouted.

But Nucleus didn't seem to care, as he took all of the paper notes away from Alto, who was still shaking from having lost all of his in-game bits for the third time, and just after he had found a buried relic.

"Alto, what have we talked about cursing?"

"Come on; I just practically lost the whole game!"

Nucleus only sighed as the paper notes fell to the box, much to Alto's dismay, and his look moved onto the large Earth pony sitting on the other side of the table.

"Your turn."

The dice fell from the inside of the cup to Maero's hoof before being thrown back to the deeps of the cup. His dark purple figure moved two steps forward before he turned over the intact emblem.

On it, was an picture of an sparkling sapphire statue.

Nucleus grinned to Maero, who put the emblem next to the few paper notes he had, while Alto had dropped his face the instant the thing had been flipped.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Alto muttered while turning to look at Maero. "You just won."

The maroon Earth pony stayed silent and instead started to clean up the table, relieving the cover of the box titled 'Daring Do and The Quest for the Sapphire Stone: The Game'.

Nucleus kept his faint grin on while turning back to Twilight, who was now sheepishly smiling.

"On your question; yes, we're free." he said while leaning towards her, "But why?"

Oh horse apples!

Twilight panickly thought while trying to think of an answer.

"Well... you remember Rarity from before? She...umm... wants you three to meet up at hers for... some tea."

The silver grey unicorn continued look at her, his blue eyes drilling into hers, like trying to find something in them.

"You're a terrible liar Twilight."

Twilight stepped back couple of steps, shocked at how he had seen past her so easily, but he just smirked while standing up along with Alto and Maero, who had gotten the board game fixed away under the table.

Nucleus adjusted his glasses a bit before turning to look towards his friends.

"Well what do you think? Should we go?"

Alto shrugged, "Better than spending the rest of the day between four walls."

Maero seemed to agree with him, though really he didn't seem to really care.

"Seems like that settles it." Nucleus said while turning to look back at the still shocked Twilight, who tried to comprehend on what had just happened.

Finally; she gave up, groaned and headed out of the door.

Just as good at spotting lies as making them.

* * * * *

"Oh this is going to be so great!" Rainbow exclaimed while pumping her hoof down to the counter, making rest of the gang look at her.

AJ took a sip from her plastic cup before answering to the excited cyan mare.

"Ah don't get it sugah', how come you’re suddenly all over this Alto fellow?"

Rainbow slurred her lips to the orange cow mare, making Pinkie and Rarity giggle while Fluttershy stayed silent, looking down at the rest of the party room.

"Goodness there's a lot of ponies here..." the yellow pegasus said, getting a hum of approval from the rest of them.

"But Applejack dear; isn't it great that even Rainbow has finally found somepony she's interested in?" the white unicorn asked from her, who just grunted for an answer before turning over to Pinkie, who was looking out of the window.

"Has Twi' come?"

Pinkie shook her head and kept looking out.

"Nope, but it shouldn't take too long."

"What if they ain't coming with her?"

AJ could have sworn, even if not seeing it, that Pinkie had her goofy smile painted all across her.

"Now THAT wouldn't make any sense, what possible reason they could have for not coming?"

This the orange mare had to reluctantly agree on, as she leaned up to the pink pony, making sure neither Rarity nor Rainbow were listening.

"Pinkie, please tell me you ain't gonna be like those two over there." AJ asked while pointing her hoof at the end of the counter, where Rainbow and Rarity were talking away about how cool Alto and how elegant Nucleus were.

The pink pony now turned to look at her and, wouldn't you know it, she had her goofy smile on.

"Nope; none of them strike my interest."

AJ breathed in relief and backed off, as Pinkie turned to look back outside but suddenly her face dropped and she quickly took a megaphone from somewhere, much to AJ's surprise.

"ATTENTION EVERYPONY! PLEASE CLEAR THE WAY TO THE MIDDLE WHILE STAYING SILENT. OUR GUESTS HAVE ARRIVED."

AJ tilted her head past Pinkie, who was trying to silence the crowd moving around, to see that Twilight had indeed appeared to the end of the road, followed by the three ponies this party was holstered for.

"LIGHTS OUT....NOW!"

The room fell to a total darkness, as even curtains were moved in front of windows so that not an single stray of light could enter and reveal the mass of ponies, waiting in the silence.

Minute passed by; AJ holding the frightened Fluttershy, Pinkie aiming her party cannon towards the door and Rainbow and Rarity trying to get as much of close to it as they could possibly do.

Then, the door opened.

* * * * *

Let's see...

Lights out? Check!

Eminent silence? Check!

Nervous Twilight Who Insisted On Us Entering First? Check!

This could only mean one thing and that is...

The lights suddenly went on.

"SURPRISE!"

Just as I had predicted.

The main room was full of all kinds’ ponies, but most of them share the same aspect of being a mare, though some occasional stallion head popped out from the crowd that started to slowly descend onto our direction.

*BOOM*

My ears rang, as I saw thousands of confetti particles fill the air before falling down onto the floor, and just then I noticed Pinkie standing behind a large cannon, from which small streams smoke lingered out off.

"Holy shit..." Muttered Alto faintly on my right, but maybe cause of the shock value he had just had in total along with the fact that I was in a party holstered by the one and only Pinkie Pie, I let him go with it just this one occasion.

On the other hand, Maero on my left had frozen still, barely even breathing in and out, while the blood seemed to have run from his now pale face and the only alive thing alive was his rapidly moving emerald eyes.

Is he frightened?

My thoughts didn't last for long, as Pinkie bounced from her cannon up to us while her face gleamed from happiness and joy, so much in fact that she continued on with her jumping even on her place.

"Surprise! I'm so duper sorry this party being a teenie-tiny bit late but the now-angry-looking Twilight there made me promise not to held this for you but it doesn't really matter now *gasp* Almost forgot, you've gotta give a speech for all of your guests."

Pinkie then proceeded to stretch her head out of eye view and drag back an microphone stand.

I took one cautious step forward, so that the mike came just to the same level with my mouth, and turned to look around the crowd around me, seeing that every single eye pair was locked onto me.

"Check, one, two..." I said for starters, getting the crowd to laugh a bit for an response.

This attention's a bit demeaning...

"First off; we'd like to thank each and every one of you for having come here on this occasion. I'm sure you're as excited as the three of us."

The crowd burst into cheers, stomping their hooves down to the floor.

"Second; let’s give a big shout out to the pony behind all of this, Pinkie Pie!"

The pink pony besides me bowed towards the still cheering crowd.

"Now, we know that you're eager to get to know more about us, but we would like that for now things would go slow, as we're still new to this town and we'd like to get to know more about you all."

Some groans erupted from the crowd, but the rest of the ponies kept silent as they watched me pass the mike to the waiting Pinkie, who didn't waste any time.

"Let's get this paaaarty rolling everypony!" She shouted to the mike and, within the same fraction of an second, the music started to come out of the many bassos fixed around the sides of the room while all of the ponies began either dancing, chatting or do the two things at the same time.

I need a drink...

I thought while turning round to see that, at least, Alto had gotten back to his normal self, a slight smirk painted across his face.

"You knew about this, didn't you?"

I shrugged, getting a light chuckle as an response, before looking over at the direction of the now sitting Maero.

"Are you alright?" I cautiously inquired, making his still slightly pale face turn over towards me.

"I..." He started, before suddenly standing up and charging away to the small opening in the mass of ponies.

But as I turned to go after him, the dark blue hoof of Alto's fell down to my shoulder, halting my steps.

"Let him be." Alto silently said.

"But he's..."

Alto sighed before turning his yellow eyes up towards me.

"Tell me; what could we possibly do?"

I looked at where Maero had gone, but he had already disappeared.

"Guess you're right..." I finally muttered, but he just laughed before moving his hoof around my neck.

"Cheer up, this is a party! FOR US! I'm totally sure that even he's going to have a fine time."

Just the confident tone of his voice made me crack into laughter, but it stopped immediately as two ponies blocked our way forward.

Oh horse apples...

I thought as the white unicorn with purple mane and her cyan pegasus companion started to head towards us.

"Oh hell no!" Alto shouted before quickly dashing past me.

The cyan pegasus rolled her eyes and started to follow him, while the unicorn giggled a bit before stopping in front of me and flipping her purple mane.

This is going to be a long night...

* * * * *

*SPLASH*

Just what I needed...

The cup I had been holding fell to the kitchen counter, just next to the still running sink.

The noises coming from the main room could be heard, though not so loud that one could make out which was which.

Small water drops fell down to the counter, as I reached my hoof to the towel hanging from a crook above the now closed sink.

My eyes turned around the room, only to confirm that none but me was here, before I started to rub my head to the piece of cloth.

... a reminder of past...

The towel dropped of my grasp, as I turned over to grab the straw hat from the upper edge of the kitchen stool.

Even you're a reminder, thought a good one...

As I tucked it deep down, my gaze slept to look through the window.

The sky was now only orange in the horizon, where the setting sun currently laid its last rays over the sky before the darkness would fill the void and the white moon would rise.

Hopefully there are stars... Rosie loves them.

Rosie...

"There you are!"

I turned my head away from the window and towards the doorway, where now stood an familiar yellow pony with bright orange mane.

And she was deviously smiling...

"Hi Carrot."

Her smile grew even wider and she walked up to me.

"How come you're here honey?" she asked, her voice sounding too smooth compared to her normal tone I knew too well.

"Needed water."

Carrot snickered and shook her head before suddenly wrapping her hoof around mine.

"Come on; Pinkie just got the 'Pin the tail to the pony' started!" she said while trying to pull me back to the party, but I stayed put.

Should I?

I would only ruin the mood...

I turned to look at Carrot, who was starting to give me 'that' look and working herself out to a near exhaustion.

"Okay.

Hehe, got you big boy!

Carrot thought as she led the maroon stallion of her through the crowd, which was fully into dancing, towards the game corner.

Many mares, even some she knew, shot her with jealous looks, but Carrot didn't care about them as she knew that nopony would be dumb enough to come and try to take Maero away from her.

By the end of this, you're all mine!

The game corner laid at the edge of the main dance room, as many ponies liked to listen to the music while either hunting apples from the large tube or, like now, playing some social games.

Small cheers came from the group of ponies there as Pinkie had just perfectly pinned the tail to the picture strapped onto the wall, making her ever so perfect score even higher.

Pinkie removed the eye cover, just as Carrot had managed to squeeze the two of them to the front.

"Oh, hi Carrot and *gasp* Maero!" The pink pony started, but Carrot stopped her there, as Pinkie was notorious of her loose talk, before tilting her head towards the maroon stallion, standing by next to her.

"Pinkie, how about Maero gives it a shot?" She said, just before letting go of him and pushing him up to the pink pony, who didn't waste any time, and soon Maero's eyes were hidden under the cloth, his hat still intact, while he was given a piece of tail to be held in mouth.

Just as Pinkie was ready to give him the spin, Carrot leant to his perked up ear at the edge of the straw hat.

"Oh, and there's a 'special reward' waiting for you." she whispered, making the particular ear twitch, before letting Pinkie do her job.

Although the spin didn’t last long, Carrot could clearly make out that Maero had really big trouble keeping his hooves straight immediately after Pinkie had stopped.

"Get that tail pinned!" Pinkie said while tucking him towards the picture, practically sending him stagger towards it as his hooves crossed each other in their path.

That's it, a little bit more...

As one could have predicted, Maero's hooves hit one another, making him fall forward and hit his head right on the wall.

But, as he fell back and down to his rump, everypony cheered as the tail had been pinned and actually pretty close to the target spot, lacking only an inch or so.

Carrot immediately ran to the still dizzy Maero, who was trying to get the eye cover off, while Pinkie along with the rest of the onlookers kept cheering for him.

As the cloth finally fell away, she took him in firm embrace, sending small shivers down her.

Mmmh... so warm.

The yellow mare backed off a bit, though still keeping the embrace, to look him deep in his emerald eyes.

"Now for your 'prize'..."

And before Pinkie got to say another 'wohoo', she closed her eyes and kissed him directly mouth to mouth.

The crowd around fell silent.

Is this happening?

Is this actually happening?

My look turned downwards to see that Carrot was...

This feeling, what is it?

She kept her eyes closed the entire three seconds it lasted before finally withdrawing, but still keeping the embrace, and opened them to look back on me while her mouth slowly turned into an smile.

Time seemed to freeze as I kept looking down at her, my mind losing the sense of sensibility.

How...

My hooves acted on their own, as they pushed her away from me, making loud gasps erupt on the sides...

... she...

I stormed out, my dizziness vanishing in the same second, off the ring, avoiding an eye contact with anyone, and away from her...

...dares!

I kept moving, past the dancing ponies, past the food table where Alto was eating, past the...

...

My hooves, even if having an mind of their own, stopped at a door, which frankly was open, leading outside to a back yard that had many pieces of cloth drying all over on long ropes

Without thinking, I sat down and leant my back against the tree.

A tiny breath escaped my mouth.

"... Why?"

The orange colour in the horizon had faded, leaving only the burning sun left that was giving its last shines for today.

"Why am I here?"

Painful memories, the ones that have changed me, came back...

The screams, the animal like screams...

"Doctor!" Shouted the female nurse besides me, but this didn't matter any to me.

My body desperately tried to move, to get this pain go away...

The caskets clinked to the metal sides of the bed, catching the attention of the nurse, who put her hand over my forehead.

"Please stay still, the doctor's coming soon." She calmly said to me, but a rapid coughing came deep from my lungs, stopping the horrible voices at least for a moment.

"Mom... Dad..." I was able to mutter in between the coughs, before returning to the pain.

The nurse looked away to the side, taking something from away my eye sight.

Suddenly, the pain started to ease...

"Thanks." I muttered, thinking that she had given me another shot, but she had frozen still, looking at the monitor next to the bed while a phone laid on her hand.

"DOCTOR!"

Darkness started to creep to the edges of my vision, making the room slowly disappear from sight.

I tried to fight, to move, to somehow escape from it, but it kept coming, not stopping.

Some figures appeared at the tiny patches of vision left, but what they said went by, as this ringing voice kept going on.

I'm sorry.

So sorry...

"CLEAR!"

Then the world fell fully dark...

"Hey..."

The darkness vanished away and I found myself back at this reality, looking at the still setting down sun in the horizon.

My look fell to the left, and there stood Carrot, her apologetic face turned down.

It... hurt me to see her like that, for some odd reason.

She calmly walked next to me and sat down right next to me.

"Look, I'm..."

I put my hoof over her mouth, making her eyes dart wide open.

"Could you stay here with me?"

Carrot looked over at me before snickering.

"Can I hold you?"

I nodded and she crawled up to me, resting her head on my shoulder while the rest of her body leant onto me, warming my side, and her hooves went as far around me as they could possibly go.

Both of us kept silent, as we watched the setting down sun.

And to think that was my first kiss...

* * * * *

Has she already given up?

I crawled to the edge of the table and used my hoof to raise the tablecloth out of way, but only a little, to see many different colour pairs of hooves moving around or staying still.

And from the quick looks of it, none were cyan in colour... but then again I remembered she had wings, which meant that she could be just hovering over.

Great, so I'm basically stuck here!

"Hi!" Chirped the voice behind.

My head sent itself flying up, hitting the wooden table above and sending a wave of pain through me.

"Aah, son of a..." I muttered while rubbing my head in agony and turning round, to see a familiar grey pegasus laying down and smiling at me.

"Ditzy?"

She crawled herself up next to me, still keeping her gaze fixed onto me and holding an already bitten muffin on her hoof.

"Umm... why are you lying under the buffet table when there's free muffins just above you?" She asked before taking a bite out of the muffin, revealing its blueberry inside.

"I'm hiding." I said, looking again over the edge, but Ditzy only giggled before, from the voices, finishing her muffin.

"From who?"

I turned back at her "There's this crazy pony named Rainbow..."

Ditzy broke into laughter right after having heard the name, making me only groan at her.

But then an idea struck me.

Maybe a bit mean one...

But I love it!

Where the hay is he?

Rainbow thought as her wings continued flapping, though she was now still and giving a general look around in the hunt of anything with dark blue colour, yet she had only been able to figure that he wasn't at least inside one of Pinkie's pies one of the ponies accidentally threw at her.

Then something touched her from behind and as Rainbow turned over, her already frustrated expression grew even worse.

"What Derpy?" Can't you see I'm busy?" She asked in frustration, but the grey pegasus flying just giggled, making Rainbow's already thin patience go right at the line...

"Are you looking for somepo-" the cross eyed pegasus started, before being grabbed by Rainbow to meet face to face.

"Derpy, have you seen a dark blue peg-"

"You mean Alto?"

Rainbow nodded.

"Yeah he jumped out of the window ther-"

And before Ditzy got to say more, Rainbow darted away from her like an lightning bolt and, in an second, flew out of the window the grey pegasus had opened just an minute ago.

Wow... it worked!

She flew back at the buffet table, trying to keep her laughter down, and landing just next to the trait that had large muffins piled up towards the sky, all different kinds of flavour, straight from the master baker of Ponyville.

"The way's clear!"

The table trembled a bit before the grinning face of the dark blue pegasus appeared from beneath, just below her frontal hooves.

"Serious?" He asked while looking around, but Ditzy hummed for an answer, making him his grin grew even wider.

As he got up, Ditzy took two blueberry muffins from the pile and gave another to him, who eagerly took it down in couple of hasty bits, making her finally crack up.

"What's so funny?" Alto asked her, small bits of muffin covering his mouth area. Ditzy continued her laughter, but reached over at the paper towels on the middle of the table.

"Cause you're kinda like Dinky." She got to say between inhales and, before Alto got to say anything, proceeded to clean his face with the paper, making him blush.

"Always in haste when eating."

"By the way, where is Dinky?" Alto asked from her, just as the paper fell to the bin next to the table.

"Dinky's staying at her friends until I get back from here." She started before turning her head past the buffet table to the dance floor, where the music had just changed into a little bit more beaty one.

"So... wanna dance?"

So tired...

Though the bass beat had already quiet down, both my ears and my mind rang still had the tune ringing over and over again, wanting to make me move.

My eyes opened... just before a breath of exhaustion left me.

Shit; dancing's hard on all fours!

A faint giggle made me turn over to left, where sat, from the looks of it, as tired Ditzy.

Damn; you're one heck of an dancer!

"You're *pant* good."

Ditzy looked at me with a smile "Heh, you *pant* weren't that bad either."

But I shook my head, while my breathing had started to steady down.

"Are you kidding me? I must have tripped like over forty times while you did those amazing flips!" I exclaimed, but Ditzy only tucked me with her hoof.

"Well, at least you gave it your best." she started.

"Though you honestly were pretty bad..."

Both of us laughed there for an moment, while drops of sweat fell down us, until I stopped and turned back to look at the crowd of dancing ponies.

"You're amazing Ditzy Doo..."

She shrugged "Nah, I'm nothing special."

Her eyes turned to look at me in the corners of mine.

"I'm just a letter sorter and a mother..."

I smiled before tucking her with my hoof.

"By the way, how old is Dinky?" I asked with totally honest curiosity, making her look at me in confusion, thought her other eye kept looking away a bit.

"She's turning three soon."

....... Is she serious....

I hid my shock behind the smile before turning to look at her.

"And how old are you?"

Now she giggled, making me a bit relieved.

"I'm fifteen."

WHAT!

Her look turns into concern and she nears me to hold me, though I didn't see this as my vision went bland from the shock.

"Alto, what is it? Is something wrong?"

"Oh... umm... it's..."

Crap, figure something out!

"...just that I didn't know that you..."

Ditzy's warming smile faded away, as she backed off me to.

"Me what?"

"... are younger than me!"

She locked her eyes onto mine, as if searching for any indication of lie in them, but soon she shrugged.

"Well that's true, though I can't really blame you, as I'm kinda young for already having a school age filly."

Suddenly she playfully punched my chin.

"But I hope that it doesn't matter to you..." she said before moving the hoof over me and leaving it there. "...friend?"

For a time, I stared her along the hoof, to see both of her yellow eyes turned onto me.

But then, a grin grew back onto me, as my hoof rose up.

Maybe this is start of great friendship...

*Clap*

And besides, it isn't like I'm gonna get into trouble for making friends.

* * * * *

Just how did I get here?

The tea cup on my hoof rose for an sip, before I turned back to look on the white unicorn sitting opposite, who was leaning over the small round table towards me, her purple mane lowering to the left and the deep blue eyes firmly locked onto me.

Rarity, just what are you up to?

"So Mr Nucleus..." she started, but I politely interrupted her and laid the cup on the small plate below.

"Please, call me Nucleus." I said, and turned to look around this room she had brought me into, which I recognized from the show as this was the main design room with all the mannequins and sketches laying around.

"So all of these are made by you?" I asked before waving my hoof over at the sides, where the mannequins were orderly in line, all dressed up in fine, sparkling dresses.

Rarity nodded "Yes, these particular ones are going to a regular client in Canterlot."

She then turned back to me, smiling.

"You're originally from Canterlot, aren't you?"

To be or not to be?

"It's my speaking manner, isn't it?"

Rarity giggled, while leaning even closer.

"Yes dear;" she said while picking the teapot with magic and pouring more tea to the two cups.

"I have met my share of Canterlotian ponies, but none like you..." she told, leaving the end in thin air as if she remembered something, most likely about the snob attitude most of the ponies had in there over anyone else.

Suddenly, Rarity's hoof fell over mine that lay on the table.

Wait...

She faintly smiled to me before flipping her long mane out of way.

Is she actually.... no.... on me!

Her eyes turned to glitter, like some sort of gem, and she leant herself even closer, in which I responded by backing away.

...

"Oh isn't this just so wonderful?" Rarity whispered just an inch away from my gaze, fluttering her eye slashes to me.

To feel lucky, or unlucky....

"Just the two of us, in total serenit-"

*CRASH*

Both of us snapped back to reality, as our heads turned towards the ceiling, from where the sudden voice had erupted from.

*CRASH*

Rarity's face dropped and she quickly stood, her face still turned upwards, along with me.

And she looked angry...

Very angry...

"Sweetie, if you DARE..."

*CRASH*

Rarity let out a groan of frustration before turning her face back to me, nervously smiling.

"Excuse me for a moment dear, but I have to check on..."

*CRASH*

"...that." she ended, before walking to the room door with me and leaving off for upstairs with a haste.

A tiny breath of relief escaped my mouth.

Now I definately need that drink...

*sigh*

The cherry red mare kept leaning on the counter, her light green eyes looking down onto the small cup in which was still left some of the neon green punch she had given her first shot at.

As she dropped the last drops down her throat, her gaze fell down along the long counter, looking through the other by sitters, who mostly were talking to each other, and the many kinds of punch bowls, all holding different in colour and taste.

Who am I kidding, I had no chances on him...

She raised the cup and reached out towards the large glass bowl, containing pale orange variant.

But just the, some other cup also reached at the punch and the two cups collated.

"Oh, I beg your pard-, Cheerilee?"

That voice!

Cheerilee flung around her stool to see the silver grey unicorn with glasses looking towards her.

"Nucleus?" she asked in disbelief, but the unicorn stallion smiled before taking the stool next to her and sitting down onto it.

"Didn't expect to find you in here, and at the punch table no less." he said while taking a drink and turning round towards her, who was still staring at him, both in shock and disbelief.

Nucleus raised his eyebrows. "Is something wrong with my mane or..."

Cheerilee, due to her experience as an teacher, was able to act calm and holster her blush, though she was sure her coat would have hidden the bright red colour.

"Just surprised to see you." she said, trying to keep her emotions out of way, while filling her cup with the orange liquid.

But does this mean...

Nucleus smiled before turning away from her to look around the room and take some more of the punch.

He isn't with Rarity?

"So... how's the party been like?" Cheerilee carefully asked, getting him look back on her and shrug.

"Seems to be alright, thought I haven't had much of an chance to look around." he said before grinning and shaking his cup to her.

"Besides, I needed a drink."

The two of them broke into a light laughter, but soon they calmed down and fell silent between one another, occasionally coughing, as they turned to look down onto their respective cups. Just then, the music changed from a techno song to a bit more classical one.

Cheerilee saw on the corner of her eye that Nucleus was slightly moving according to the melody.

"You like Beethoof's symphonies?" she asked in a slight surprise, as Nucleus definitely didn't look like an stallion interested in centuries old music.

He snapped out of his trance "Not specifically, but I do generally enjoy classical ones over the new ones. Especially the ones with string instruments strike my interest."

The crowd of ponies had started to boo at the music, demanding for an change, and soon the wind instruments changed to an high tempo rock track, making the crowd cheer again and Nucleus sigh.

"Shame, it was a beautiful melody."

He turned, from looking at the crowd, back to her.

"Cheerilee, may I ask something from you?"

Could... he be asking that?

The cherry red mare nodded.

Nucleus breathed in and out.

"Have you ever worried over a friend, specifically over your best one?"

Was hoping too much...

Cheerilee turned to look at him in confusion, to which he responded by taking more of the punch.

"Yes, how come?"

Nucleus lowered his cup.

"I'm worried about my friends." he started before sighing once more.

"And particularly on Maero..."

"Well, how come you're worried about them?" Cheerilee asked, but only made Nucleus look away from her.

"We..." he started, but fell silent for an minute.

"Have suffered some personal losses, if you get what I mean."

Cheerilee's eyes widened, as she heard those words left his mouth.

Oh you poor thing...

From an instinct, and maybe a bit because of the punch, her cherry red hoof rose up but stopped just before touching down onto his elbow.

Should I?

Her hoof stayed still before falling down back to the counter top.

"I'm sorry, I cannot help you."

Nucleus kept still, looking down onto the cup while swirling the punch around.

"It's okay..." he quietly said before leaning over the counter in similar fashion like Cheerilee had been doing.

Sometime passed by in silence, until Nucleus dropped his gaze on her.

"Got any ideas for a plain conversation?"

* * * * *

It must be about nine.

AJ thought while looking out of the window into the dark night sky.

She turned over, wooden mug of cider on her hoof and her Stetsen hat hanging around neck, to see the lavender unicorn still flipping through the book of hers, disregarding her surrounds and focusing solely on reading.

AJ sighed "Twi', what's bothering you?"

Twilight didn't respond at first, her horn still glowing purple and pages being turned over, until AJ tucked her.

"Oh sorry, you said something?"

AJ pointed her hoof towards Twilight.

"Ah asked if something's bothering you? You've been reading that book of yours since having arrived back."

Twilight eyed at her book for a moment before sheepishly smiling to her while putting it away.

"Sorry, this book is just fascinating so I was kinda into it." She said before laughing, but AJ, being an honest pony herself, saw past her without any trouble.

"Twilight..." the farm mare quietly said, making Twilight laugh a bit more and rub the back of her head.

"Say, where's the other girls? Haven't seen the-"

"Fluttershy left some hour ago to feed her animals, Pinkies bouncing around and taking care of the party. Rarity I've seen walking past couple of times and Rainbow has disappeared." AJ recounted before leaning towards the still nervous Twilight.

"And sugarcube, Ah can see something's bugging you."

Twilight turned her look away from the farm mare, trying to come up with words.

"This might sound a bit crazy but... Alto, Nucleus and Maero have been dishonest with us."

"Now what makes you say something like that? They seem to be fine fellows to-" AJ started but the lavender unicorn interrupted her with an hoof raise.

"Then let me prove it; Remember when they told us about the Timber wolf attack on them? I searched through my books to find that the location they descripted didn't fit to the area where they've been sighted at."

"Then they tell about how Nucleus 'accidentally' hit Maero with his horn, but when I took a look on the angle of the strike, it showed that Maero would have needed to be still in order to Nucleus's horn to have gone through, which would have been impossible if there was an Timber wolf on his back!"

"And today, when I and Rarity were at the cafe with them, Alto slept that Nucleus didn't know how to do magic, which he responded in by that he knew how to do it, but it simply hurt him to do it. At first this didn't bother me, but when I digged further into book about magical activity, it read that only reason for it to cause pain is that either the pony is too young, which is of course out of question, or that he/she is Magichousis."

"Magicwhat?" AJ asked while Twilight was catching her breath.

"Very rare magical disorder, in which unicorn is from birth unable to conduct any sort of magical activity due to a change in horn structure. But even that's out of question unless Nucleus one of the richest stallions in whole of Equestria!"

"Now hold on a second... How this Magicwhatsoever wouldn't be on Nuc'?" AJ asked, still trying to catch onto what her lavender friend was trying to prove.

"Because the horn of one would be deformed, and in many cases the horns are cut due to massive head pains. There is an experimental surgery developed in Princess Celestia's Hospital at Canterlot that allows the horn to grow normally, but the amount of bits needed would be able to buy about third out of Ponyville!"

Twilight's head dropped on the table.

"So either Nucleus is a one case in whole existence or he's hiding something really big... unless of course being part of some rich family, which I doubt."

AJ kept looking down onto her, before faintly chuckling and making Twilight turn to her, face gleaming with frustration.

"Aw shucks, Ah was thinking you would at least mention their lack of Cutie Marks as a one fault."

Twilight groaned and face hoofed herself at the same time.

"The lack of Cutie Mark isn't that big of a thing when I got into digging about it more; there are literally hundreds of adult ponies in all over Equestria that haven't gotten theirs. Of course it causes a bit of trouble, but most get past it and get to do what they want to."

"ATTENTION EVERYPONY!"

Both AJ and Twilight turned their looks towards the centre of the room, where Pinkie was standing on her hind hooves and shouting into the megaphone on her grasp.

"I NEED OUR GUESTS HERE!"

The two mares turned back to look each other in confusion.

"What's Pinkie up to?" AJ asked, but Twilight groaned yet again before laying her head onto the table. She shrugged before turning back on Pinkie, who was now pointing her free hoof towards particular part of the crowd, which had already moved out of way to reveal...

"ALTO!"

The dark blue pegasus grinned and began walking u front, but the crowd wasn't cheering along with Pinkie...

Twilight raised her head from the table for an quick look before lowering back.

"Who's that besides him?"

AJ could only stare, along with the rest of the ponies in the crowd, as Alto walked down to the centre and all the time, a grey pegasus mare stayed besides him while her crossed eyes looking around a bit nervous.

"Rainbow's ain't gonna be happy about this..."

"NUCLEUS!"

AJ turned her head towards another opening in the crowd, from where came towards centre the silver grey unicorn, but unlike Alto, alone, only holding a small cup in his hoof, thought everypony could see he was having slight trouble, as soon after getting to the centre, he leaned onto Alto standing by.

"Seems like somepony has been tasting the punches..."

"MAERO!"

The farm mare once more turned her head where Pinkie was pointing at and...

Her jaw dropped down onto the table, as she saw...

The maroon Earth pony began his slow walk towards the centre, keeping his look fixed down, while a light yellow mare with bright orange mane was leaning herself onto him, her hoof wrapped around his.

The crowd broke into slight 'awws', but the sight was anything but that to AJ...

"Carrot Top you..."

Twilight turned to look at AJ in a shock of her friend's reaction.

"Something wro-"

"Wrong? Ah tell you what's wrong! That... that thing besides Maero shouldn't be there!"

"ALRIGHT, HOPE EVERYPONY IS READY FOR SOME CAKE!" Pinkie shouted out before disappearing in a cloud of dust, which no pony frankly questioned, to the side and soon all ponies had their eyes looking down there at the...

"Well, hope you guys like this!" Pinkie chirped, while pushing the trolley towards the centre, but the three fellows were too busy looking down onto the thing that was supposed to be the cake.

It consisted of three different parts laying on top of one another; the bottom one was maroon brown in colour with yellow frosting on top, the middle section was silver with brown frosting and the top one was dark blue with black variant.

The trolley stopped in front of the three stallions, still looking up at the monster cake with an awe.

"Well what you're waiting for?" the pink pony asked and soon put a cake knife on each one of their free hoof.

The three friends looked at one another before Alto grinned and let the knife fell down.

Suddenly, he took a hold of both Maero and Nucleus before falling right onto...

*SPLASH*

All of the ponies in the room watched as the cake fell down, covering the three stallions in cream and frosting.

Silence fell over; even Pinkie was looking at her master piece covering them.

The three ponies looked on one another, looking down onto one another while Alto was wiping his face from cream, Nucleus removing his glasses and Maero staring down to his frosting covered body.

Alto turned to look around the mess he had created, before snickering and breaking into laughter, rolling around the cake mush on the floor.

Nucleus, after having cleaned his glasses, soon followed, thought he regained from rolling around and instead gave a taste to the cake.

Maero, on the other hoof, kept looking down onto himself before slowly standing up and starting to clean himself, though even he was smiling faintly.

Soon even the crowd of ponies broke into a light laughter, but this wasn't the case in point with one certain lavender unicorn hiding in the corner, her face still planted onto the counter.

"Have your fun now, but tomorrow you've got to answer for yourself!"

* * * * *

"Sister, are thou absolutely sure about this?"

The older of the alicorns turned to look at her younger sister, who was still gazing upon the report from this afternoon.

"I trust what I've been told about, and this is something that needs to be looked upon, my dear sister."

The dark blue Alicorn lowered the scroll and turned towards her, sharing the similar firm look of concern.

"When shall We leave for Ponyville then?"

"At the moment you lower the Moon and end the night court. Understand that this cannot wait."

The younger of the Royal sisters nodded, knowing that this was now their upmost important duty of all.

"Should We expect trouble?"

The older Alicorn sighed "Honestly Luna, I don't know, but you have to be wary and vigilant on this matter."

Princess Luna nodded and stood up along with her older sister.

"Thou must not worry, our dear sister; We'll deal upon this matter."

A/N:

Yet once more ahead of my normal schedule :rainbowlaugh:

No, it's seriously lucky that I've had time from my tidious studying to do the fixing and otherwise improve certain parts (Yes, my pre-readers, I do listen to you, so please do point out any flaws!)

Other than that; I'll see you in the next week and propably at the start of Summer Vacation :ajsmug:

Oh, and I'll leave you with this corny joke;

"Ahoy, a ship named Marrot has set sail... May Lord save those poor fellows."

Curse Shogun 2 and it's amazing naval battles

Chapter 15 "Wonderful Forenoon"

Chapter 15

Wonderful Forenoon

*BRRRRR*

"Alright, that's it for today!" announced the teacher up front, making all of the kids in the room start to pack their books into their backpacks, though my focus currently was on finishing the last of the math problems and leaving me with no homework whatsoever.

"Whew, I'm exhausted!" said Mike, sitting beside me before standing up and dropping his books down to the pack.

I only smirked, as he had basically copied all of the answers from me and had fooled around with his cell phone.

Soon we left the class and turned to walk down the long hallway towards the entrance to the school.

"So, what are you planning to do today?" I asked from Mike while opening the double-doors and stepping out.

"Nothing too special; gonna turn the PS2 on and play something until Mom gets home."

"Mind if I join?"

Mike shrugged before reaching into his jacket pocket and taking out his bicycle keys. Soon the two of us were walking down towards the street, talking about our usual stuff, and after getting out of the yard we mounted our cycles and took off towards Mike's house.

Nothing too unusual happened for the first ten minutes; the usual traffic went by without any notice, people walked down the sidewalks, some older kids hanged around the supermarket yard, etc.

Mike was ahead of me, his mountain bike rolling down the last hill and past the last of the cement cubes before disappearing into the small patch of woods. Thinking that he wanted to have a race, I started to speed up and soon also came to the entrance, but I didn't even bother to look around and instead continued on inside.

But just as I turned my bike to the left where the road continued on...

My carefree smile faded away, as I saw...

The two wheels stopped that instant and I let my bike fall down to the asphalt before I ran to my friend lying on the ground.

"MIKE!"

He didn't answer, and then I noticed his white wool cap was soaked in red, some dripping down past the rest of his face.

Panicked, I quickly searched my pockets for my cell phone, but then I remembered I had forgot to took it this morning. I took Mike's, only to find that the battery was empty, due to him having used it to play the Snake so much...

"SOMEBODY HELP!" I tried to shout, but there wasn't anyone around and I didn't dare to leave Mike alone. I moved the bike from on top of him before taking hold of him, but no matter how much I tried to, I didn't have the strength to  get him up, due to his heavy nature.

Despite this I didn't give up, and I tried to get him up multiple times before finally backing off and seeing that some of the blood had fallen onto my jacket and jeans.

I dropped down onto my knees from exhaustion and I could only watch my friend's breath fade away, sometimes having very large gaps between in- and outhales.

Small streams of tears fell down my cheeks before I buried my face in my palms, trying to get away from this situation.

"Someone, anyone..."

Then suddenly, without any indication whatsoever, I head rapid steps near me. As I turned to look I saw a very familiar kid looking down to me, his gaze keeping upon me while he reached into his pocket and took out a cell.

"A-alex?"

-----

Is this actually happening?

I leered to my front, where the white coated doctor stood.

"How is he?" I coolly said, trying the best to keep my voice from cracking.

The doctor viewed me a bit and took his clipboard.

"He's lucky; besides a concussion along with the tiny fracture on the skull he should be fine." he blandly recounted from the paper until dropping his gaze on me.

"Your friend's a very lucky boy to be alive, because of the two of you."

Grimly, I eyed my side, where the miniscule blond kid sat, head turned downwards above his backpack.

"Indeed... When he's free?"

The doctor faintly smiled before pointing out to the door on the middle of the hallway and walking off.

I sighed and stood up, alarming Alex who turned to look at me.

"Come on; let’s not leave the patient waiting." I frolicked while taking a hold of the frightened Alex and starting to head down to the long corridor.

"W-what y-you're-" he mumbled until seeing something that I very rarely did, even when alone.

A smile.

"Well, Mike needs to see the third member of our little group, doesn't he?"

Alex kept glaring up at me, shivering a bit besides me, as I reached for the metal handle on the door.

A deep chuckle came from me, lasting the time for the door to open, as I pushed the surprised Alex into the room before taking a step in.

* * * * *

Crackling filled the kitchen as the oil started to heat up on the pan.

Slowly the maroon hoof took an egg from the counter top and cracked it open on the metal side, being very careful not to let any parts of the shell fall, before pouring the egg down onto the pan.

A faint whistle soon started to come out of the large Earth pony while his hoof took a hold of the handle and moved the frying egg around so that it would burn steadily, until throwing the pan up, making the omelette flip around in the air before landing back with the perfect brown side on the top.

"Uuhh..." whimpered a voice from the living room, making the Earth pony turn his gaze to see a glimpse of blue colour disappear from sight and soon hear a door close. But as he turned back to the omelette, remembering to flip it, the sounds of vomiting filled the air.

The ready omelette slid off from the pan to the plate resting on a large tray, which already had two still warm omelettes ready, and grabbed the handle with his mouth, soon emerging to the living room that bathed in the morning sun light.

As the tray fell to the table, he slowly made the way to the closed bathroom door and knocked onto it, getting the vomiting to stop for a moment.

"You okay in there?"

For the time, the vomiting stopped and soon the door opened, with an slight crack, to reveal the dusky pegasus; his dark blue coat tangled up in a mess, eye-bags forming under the bloodshot eyes and black mane upraised.

The maroon pony tried to keep his chuckle down as he watched his friend walk past him to the sofa before falling down onto it and grabbing his head in pain.

"Alex... can you tell what the fuck happened?"

Maero shook his head and turned to walk upstairs, only to see a smiling unicorn on the other end.

"Morning!" Nucleus indicated of his precense while descending down the stairs and stopping by the bottom, turning over towards Maero and still laying Alto, now holding a pillow over his head.

Maero tilted his head to the tray "There's the breakfast."

The silver grey unicorn continued smiling and took one of the plates before sitting down next to his maroon friend. By now, even Alto had risen under the pillow, thought he definitely wasn't his usual self at all.

"Now, could someone please tell me WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?"

Nucleus lowered his fork down while his eyebrow rose.

"You mean you don't remember?"

The pegasus shook his head.

"Seems like I'm not the only one then."

Alto raised his eyebrow, but Nucleus turned to look upon the Earth pony, who had continued on with eating.

"Maero, care to enlighten us on?"

The maroon pony lowered his plate to the tray before looking at his two friends.

"You both had too much."

Alto groaned before rolling over on the sofa "Bravo Einstein; even I was able to form that conclusion!"

Nucleus on the other hoof was rubbing his chin "Exactly how much?"

"Mike had three cups an-"

Before he got any further, the pegasus flung over back to them and he was laughing out loud.

"HAHA, good one! Now, tell me how much I ACTUALLY drank?" Alto said after calming down, only to see Maero looking at him, not even flinching as the pegasus looked him straight in the eyes.

"Wait... you're serious... aren't you?"

The Earth pony nodded once, making Alto's hooves fell down to the sides, before turning to look at the unicorn, who had watched the stand-off with an interest.

"You had about six cups, thought I have to say you seem to be doing well." Maero said and got a smirk for an answer

"Honestly, I'm currently having an terrible head ache..."

"HEYHEYHEYHEYHEEEEEY!" Alto shouted, getting the attention. "How am I like this when you had twice the much? That makes no sense!"

"Actually it does." Nucleus countered and reached over to the floor to grab the Bestiary of Equestria.

"Ah, here." he said after having gone through most of the book. "According to this, Pegasus ponies are more influenced by alcohol due to their light body structure and it's also believed that the different pressures they feel when flying also affects in their ability to comprehend it, though this is unproven."

"So basically because they have their heads up in the clouds, you also get..."

"Drunk far more easily, yes that's the point in your case." Nucleus said before flipping one more page. "And on my condition? It says here that Unicorns very rarely have what we call 'hangovers' cause of their magical nature and complex nature of mind following of this."

"Oh, so now Unicorns are more superior compared to others?" Alto said in rage.

"Look, I'm just saying what the book says."

"THEN I CALL BULLSHIT ON WHAT IT SAYS! AND ON THIS FUCKING PLACE!"

Nucleus calmly kept his gaze on the boiling pegasus, who's eyes were filled with some sort of primal rage.

"Alto, shouting won't solve anything; calm down first and we can then talk."

The pegasus continued stare at him for an minute, before falling down to the sofa.

"Now, I know each one of us has had an hard time adjusting to our current situation but we have to come to terms and agree that this is now the reality."

"Oh, that we're in an reality filled with marshmallow coloured ponies and that we have just happened to become one of them near an town that wants nothing more than to Snu-Snu us!"

"No, that this reality actually exists outside of ours and that we have been able to cross over here, even if becoming part of the resident population."

"And our DEATH seems to have been only an minor setback?"

"Alto..."

The pegasus sighed before burying his head in his hooves.

"I... I don't know how to feel about this; granted this world is beautiful and everyone’s friendly, but..."

Maero stood up and walked over to the table, silently piling the plates on the tray, while Nucleus had walked over to the distraught Alto, placing a hoof over his shoulder.

"You want to know why we're here, don't you?"

The pegasus nodded, thought he still kept looking down.

"So do I, but who knows the answer?"

At the table, Maero had finished piling the plates and had just took the tray to his mouth.

.... Answers....

All movement, even breathing, stopped.

Even the sounds seemed to vanish from the room, soon filled with an demeaning silence.

"Dude..." Alto muttered while his head had rose up, eyes wide open and mouth hanging loose, and turned onto Nucleus, who was looking as surprised, though he had only his pupils shrunk to small dots.

"I-It cannot be..."

"What are you talking about Tom?" Maero asked, letting the tray fall down to the table, before quickly dashing to get an hold of the unicorn, whose hooves had given up on him.

"I-It's the statue!"

Maero and Alto both turned to look at him in confusion, though the two of them were also shocked about the sudden voice and the fact their friend knew what it was.

"What statue? You haven't men-"

.... Do thy seek them ....

Silence fell over again, as Alto's words fell down under the sudden impact of the foreign voice.

Suddenly, Nucleus shook his head rapidly before pushing the Earth pony off him.

"Yes, we do!" he shouted out loud.

.... Then thou three need head these words....

.... Auld castle perches deep in the ever so free forest near....

.... Seek thou must there, for thy answers....

The maroon Earth pony and the dark blue pegasus continued to look upon the silver grey unicorn, who slowly turned his head down.

A faint smirk bore on his face.

* * * * *

Spike yawned out loud, his hands stretching to the sides and neck knacking. Although he had been awake for the past hours since the first rays of the dawn, after having been woken by his older sibling like always, tiredness seemed to still have an firm hold of him.

"SPIKE!"

The small dragon immediately snapped out of his trance and turned to look at the other side of the table, where the lavender unicorn had her eyes turned on him from behind the large book titled What Every PONY is Saying: An Guide to Speed-Reading Ponies.

"What?" Spike asked while looking back at her.

The lavender unicorn rolled her eyes before levitating the book down to the floor.

"Haven't you listened a single word of what I've said?"

"About how today you're going to go and question these stallions along with your friends and try to get them to crack, which I think is even more crazy than you're making this whole thing out to be? Geez, Twi' just relax a bit."

Twilight groaned out loud, but just as she was going to politely correct her assistant, somepony knocked onto the library door.

"Spike, can you get that?"

The purple dragon muttered under his breath some incoherent words before disappearing to the front part of the library, leaving Twilight to eat the jam toast and the scrambled egg while her mind had started to revise today's schedule, which at this point had every possible minute marked with a red INTERROGATION.

But Spike had a point.

It does indeed sound crazy that they are lying, though I'm absolutely sure on that.

Still... Why would they lie in the first place?

"Umm... Twi'?"

Twilight turned her look at the doorway to see her assistant standing there, mouth still full of the toast and egg.

But that changed, as she saw hints of dark blue behind him.

And as her gaze slowly tilted upwards, her mouth sent the food flying right onto the wood wall.

"P-p-p-princess L-l-luna!"

Spike moved aside, allowing the smiling Alicorn to trott in.

"Greetings dear Twilight. We trust thou fare well with thy studies?" Luna politely asked from the confused unicorn.

"Umm, yes; it's going well." Twilight answered nervously, still looking at the regal Alicorn and trying to understand the situation at the hoof.

Luna kept smiling while walking up to her.

"Twilight, We request thy assistant in an very important task my sister has bestowed upon Us."

A mission from Princess Celestia!!

"YES! OF COURSE I'LL HELP" shouted Twilight while standing up, but Spike, who was now at the fridge getting some ice-cream, snorted.

"Very well then; let us explain." Luna said before the air above her suddenly puffed and an scroll fell down to Twilight. Not even an minute passed, as Twilight's eyes rapidly moved amongst the lines and numbers, before she came back from beneath the scroll.

Her face wasn't the same...

Luna sighed, knowing exactly how the young unicorn felt like.

"Our objective is very simple; to seek out where those three trails exactly lead and to find out, who has left them."

But Twilight's expression didn't seem to change at all...

"It couldn't be..." she muttered quietly under her breath until slowly turning to look upon the confused Luna.

"Princess, I might know who made those trails... "

* * * * *

Why?

Why the hell did that voice come to talk to us?

A tiny breath escaped me, though it came more from anxiety than relief, as I kept looking to the long green patches of grass and hay.

Guess we'll find out soon enough...

"Hey Tom."

I turned my look to the left.

"Yes Alto?"

My Pegasus friend looked pissed.

"Okay first off, why do you keep using those names between us three, even when we're freaking alone and outside of the town, where no one is listening to our blabber?"

I kicked a rock with my hoof while thinking of an answer.

"So that I'd grow fonder of them and start to use them naturally without any fear of accidentally slipping." I calmly explained to him.

He snorted "And let me guess; you're going to order us to do the same?"

"No." I immediately answered without any hesitation, making him turn to look at me.

"I'm asking as your best friend to trust on me and believe it is the best thing to do."

Alto continued to stare at me, his yellow eyes clashing onto mine and I wouldn't have been surprised if some actual sparks would have erupted.

And then, out of the corner, he smirked.

"Well Nucleus, if that's what you think is the best, then I'm fine with it." he said to me before turning to look on his left.

"What do you say Maero?"

The large Earth pony grumbled.

"We're here."

I turned to see that he was right.

From where we now stood, opened a breathtaking view over a immersive forest. The large timbers stretched high up into the air, green leaves covering the top for a mile after a mile into every possible direction, before finally disappearing from the eye view.

"Damn it's huge!" Alto whistled aloud.

Inaudibly, we followed the road until stopping again, now right at the edge of the woods.

It's exactly the same from the second episode!

The road went straight on, leaving a wide opening behind; until vanishing under the lurking shadows falling down from the wood trunks. And though it was very early in the morning, the light didn't seem to be able to pass through the treetops.

Actually there was something that I didn't recall from the show.

A sign stood just on the side of the road.

EVERFREE FOREST

ENTER AT OWN CAUTION

Looks like the Ponyville Tourist Department finally saw that manticores and hydras aren't the best attractions.

Maero turned his eyes on me.

"So this is where we're supposed to go?"

"There's still a long way left." I responded, only to make him grunt and have Alto slyly smile to me before we all planted a hoof down to the ground and entered into the 'forest ever so free'.

Just hoping that I can recall those hazards between us and the Castle...

Oh well, at least there isn't Nightmare Moon waiting at the end.

* * * * *

How could it have gone unnoticed by me?

I feel so dumb now...

Twilight's eyes kept looking down to the table, where the parchment Princess Luna had given to her laid rolled up open.

Princess herself was sitting opposite to her, however eyes closed up and she seemed to be deep in her thoughts.

"Twilight, thy shouldn't blame thou self."

"But..."

Luna's eyes slightly cracked open, but even the tiny gaze she gave to the lavender unicorn was enough to shut her down.

The Princess of the Night respired without a word, though her frustration was clearly visible.

"Thy among with the Elements had no reason to believe these 'ponies' were lying. Celestia and We don't blame you for anything. Understood?

Twilight disheartendly nodded and the Princess backed off, now reaching over for the side to an bookshelf and aimlessly taking out a random book.

She herself couldn't help but to eye the piece of paper once like so many times since seeing it.

It doesn't change the fact 'she' fooled us and the whole town...

"Twi', I'm back!"

Only Twilight turned to look at her purple dragon assistant standing at the now open library door. He moved to the side while also holding the door open and Twilight watched as her five friends, the holders of the Elements of Harmony, walked in one at an time.

Their expression varied a whole lot:

Applejack appeared like her normal self, both in appearance and spirit. The only remarkable thing was the look that she had on whenever trouble had arisen.

Pinkie Pie acted like her goofy self, looking around and expecting something interesting to happen while her hooves tried to keep still.

Rarity's face bore the exact social smile she had on everywhere, yet her act clearly showed her boiling anger that Spike had woken her so early.

Fluttershy was as timid as ever, though she didn't seem to be uneasy when she stepped in, like Applejack and Rarity were.

Rainbow, on the other hoof, was the most distinctive looking. Her tiredness was clearly visible from under the messy coat and mane she hadn't had a chance to clean this morning.

All five of them lined up right front of the door, only to find themselves glaring down to the back of the room.

"Spike, you know what to do." Twilight noted to the dragon, who saluted and flung the door shut.

Please be careful...

Thought the day had been a mess, she was able to muster a gentle smile as her eyes turned back and saw the look on the five ponies faces

"PRINCESS!!" all of them shouted in a choir, granting neither Luna nor Twilight were amused at the reactions, knowing that the time was at hoof, so

Twilight stood up and pointed at the centre of the room, where five chairs laid in a half circle.

"Girls, there's something that needs to be addressed..."

* * * * *

"How much longer?"

Something cracked beneath my hoof, most likely some loose branch.

"Don't know, just like five minutes ago. Now, for the love of Celestia, shut your mouth and keep your eyes open."

My pegasus friend narrowed his eyes and pulled a wry face before walking away from my side, heading towards the bushes that laid ahead. Knowing that he was pissed off for me, I let him be and instead turned my attention to Maero, who was being his 'normal' mute self.

To my shock, he actually turned to look upon me, which was kind of intimidating, seeing that he stood higher than me and had to turn to look down onto everyone else.

I swear he looks like Big Mac, except he's even more withdrawn.

At least Alto isn't angry that he isn't the largest; the wings are great compensation for muscles.

"How was the party?" Maero calmly whimpered.

I shrugged.

"Honestly can't tell; I recall that the start of the night was okay but everything else seems to have completely vanished from my head." Having recounted that, I playfully grinned.

"Just gives another reason to stay away from drinks in the future."

Maero didn't give any indication of response to me, only keeping the emerald eyes fixed on me.

Either cause of luck, irony or just some totally random cause, I remembered something that had caused my drink to spill on the sight.

"By the way, who was the pony holding onto you?" I mentioned, only to get him look away.

"My boss... Carrot Top." he responded, now hiding under the shadow of his hat and locks.

What is it suddenly with these background ponies popping up?

"So you're friends?"

The light yellow rolled over in her dreams, bright orange mane rubbing between her and the bags.

"Oh you're such a naughty colt..." Carrot whispered mutely. Her body flung again, now to the other end of the pile, just that one bag fell over her back and hitting her rump quite harshly.

A moan left her mouth and her cheeks turned bright red.

He simply shook his head for an answer, just as we trotted under a branch to arrive to a small trail that some local wildlife had probably trembled for themselves between the trees and bushes. Ahead, I caught a glimpse of Alto's black tail waving back and forth.

"Do I recall right that she along with Alto's friend Ditzy hanged with us for some time?"

Maero yet again nodded.

"Carrot and that grey pony stayed for some time, until Carrot was dragged away by her sister and the grey one left to pick up someone named Dinky, whoever that is."

"And we left soon after that, correct?"

He chuckled a bit, possibly recalling something from the last evening neither I nor Alto didn't necessarily want to hear and remember.

"The ponies were quite shocked when seeing you pass out. At least you didn't throw up until getting out of the party."

Even I nervously laughed, trying to keep the high mood up for his sake.

"Anyways, you seem to be do-"

"OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!"

Alto!

Both of us immediately turned our gazes back to the front, only to see him nowhere. I took the lead and galloped up the trail, only to soon see...

Oh bullocks, I had totally forgotten about the cliff!

I watched as the curled body of Alto rolled down the steer hill, unable to stop, and rapidly nearing bottom where he would...

Without any hesitation, I jumped from the flat top and started to slide down, having much trouble keeping myself up as dirt and small rocks covered the surface.

Every second that passed, I neared Alto inch by inch, until there was just an tiny gap in between.

I reached my head as far as I could go towards the rolling blue ball, trying to get a hold of the tail that whipped over every time a roll came full.

Just.. an.. inch!

Then, the ball dropped down right in front of my eyes.

My eyes shot open while my movement stopped right on the edge.

Oh no...

"ALTO!"

"Yeah?"

.....................................Wha-WHAT!

My look fell down off the cliff.

Alto whimpered loudly beneath me on a small ledge that stuck out of the solid rock wall.

"Well, aren't you gonna come?" he mumbled between his swears before tilting his head to the side, where similar kinds of ledges made the whole way to the bottom.

Maero had just stopped next to me, as my mind had been able to comprehend only two possibilities.

Either Someone is watching us or Alto's simply the Gladstone Gander when I'm the Donald Duck

Still, I closed my eyes and leapt down.

* * * * *

Demeaning silence...

The worst kind of one, when even the most natural voices you grant as a self-explanatory seem to have fell down.

All this, just cause of an simple parchment, a Royal Alicorn and a twenty minute speech...

The five ponies sitting around in the half circle no visible expression of neither joy nor disgust, yet each one's head currently holstered a mini warzone of emotions that erupted on different scales but sharing the same taste of betrayal.

Twilight and Luna were the only ones that kept cool and looked over each one, before Luna had the scroll disappear in a purple smoke.

*SLAM*

All of the faces turned to look at the enraged farm mare.

"AH AM GONNA BUCK THEIR SORRY FLANKS!" roared Applejack as her hooves slammed once more down to the library floor.

Fluttershy meeped on the sight, however none noticed, as Twilight stood from her stool and walked in front of her friends.

"Girls..."

"So, wait, I hosted a super-duper-extra-sweet-welcome party for some meanie pants?" asked the confused Pinkie Pie in regards to her ever so goofy attitude.

"Yes Pinkie, now-"

Pinkie gasped "Oh no, now 'she' knows how to hold the perfect super-duper-extra-sweet-welcome party!"

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Pinkie, I highly doubt that your party secrets have fallen into wrong hooves. And besides, you hold these 'special' parties basically on every occasion."

"But never-ever for the EEEEEEVIL ONES!" Pinkie emphasized to her, making Twilight lower her face to her extended hoof.

"Look, the point is that..."

"When they come through that door, we'll have some baddies to deal with." sneered the cyan pegasus on the corner and Applejack opposite to her nodded.

"Rainbow, Applejack, there's no need fo-"

"OH WHY!"

Everypony turned to and watched as the marshmallow unicorn rolled on the floor and pounded her hooves down.

"THIS HAPPENS E-V-E-R-Y SINGLE TIME!" Rarity sobbed out loud, thought it came out more as an whimper than actual cry.

"WHY EVERY REGAL STALLION I MEET HAPPENS TO BE EVIL! WHY, WHY, WHY..."

"Rarity, please!" Twilight plead, but it went unheard.

"WHY, WHY, WHY, WH-"

"Enough!"

An enormous crack formed on the nearby window following the booming Royal Canterlot Voice. The six ponies reluctantly viewed the Princess, who had finally lost her temper for a brief moment.

Luna's eyes continued to glow bright white for a time, until turning back to the normal stern one she had had on since the beginning.

"Thou five of the Elements don't need to concern thou selves; We'll handle the situation along with Twilight. Thou only needed to know about this 'involment' of our old foe."

A small squeal came from behind Twilight, where Fluttershy had taken cover.

"Umm... Shouldn't we... give them a chance?" the timid pegasus quietly pointed out, yet to no avail, as Luna firmly shook her head.

"There is nothing reasonable to discuss with Nightmares."

Out of the blue, the front door burst open and smashed against the wall with full force, sending one of the flower pots down to the floor. Immediately all of the ponies jumped up, specifically Luna who took a proper combat stance and pointed her horn at the door.

"Spike?" Twilight began in disbelief.

The purple dragon panted heavily while he leant against the open door, visibly exhausted as the sweat drops clearly indicated to everypony eyeing him.

"H-hold on a sec..." Spike plead and continued to breath away, until nervously rubbing the back scales on his head.

"Okay, which you want first; the good or the bad news?"

Luna took an step forward, making a shadow fall over the now even more anxious dragon.

The look the Royal Alicorn made on him, was enough to get him to talk.

"The bad one it is then. Heh..." Spike laughed, only to hear a grunt come from the Goddess in front of him.

"Yeaaah, the guys weren't at their crib."

Just the shock value was enough to keep even Pinkie Pie quiet.

Only Luna was able to, once again, keep her cool.

"And the good news?" she added, only to see the purple dragon smirk and show a small piece of paper in his claws.

"They left a note." Spike responded, before clearing his throat.

We're sorry.

There's something that we need to check alone.

Please don't follow us.

If we aren't back by next day, search for us in the Everfree Forest..

As soon as he had finished and lowered the note, Spike was thrown back by the roar that erupted from the Alicorn, which made the window next to the door literally explode into dust. Soon thought, Luna calmed down and turned to gaze at the six ponies behind her.

Twilight levitated the Book of The Elements off from her bedroom and laid it open on the floor.

"Come on girls; we have to chase after them!" Twilight commanded, as she placed the tiara on her head.

* * * * *

*Crack*

"Aaah!"

Oh for Luna's sake!

Both Maero and I could only groan for an response to our feathered friend, who tucked firmly in between the two of us.

"Your phobia is still this bad?" I mumbled, my words slurring a bit.

Alto didn't respond, yet he kept shivering like it was freezing.

One note, it is quite cold here.

Must be the lack of light.

"It's okay." I reassured, but I couldn't help but to make a brief look behind my back, at the shadowy path we had been following for some time now, since having gotten down from the cliff.

"... I'm an coward..."

"Nonsense! Everyone's afraid of the dark at some point in their life." I tried to tell him, but he shook his already shaking head.

"... A seventeen year old who's afraid of the darkness..."

Admitted, that is a bit odd.

He had always been like this in an 'unknown' darkness; something he knew to be safe worked.

Then again, I never got to finish my psychology courses...

I turned to look at him, praying that this might have some effect on his general mood.

"Look, how about you tell me about last night's party? Let’s say... ah, what's your thing with Ditzy?"

Alto's shiver slightly tuned down, though his yellow eyes were still missing the joy as they glared at me.

"...She is a work pal..." he whispered as if fearing to be heard.

"Yes, but what she's like?"

Alto huffed and narrowed his eyes.

"Wee!" cheered Ditzy as she swam through the letter pile in search of those precious letters that might have gone unnoticed yesterday from her and the 'assistant'.

Yet soon, they grey pegasus re-emerged out of the not-so-more large pile, only to admit to herself that there was none left to quadruple check.

Seems like we were good.

Too good!

Ditzy gradually made her way to the side and took one of the basic mail saddles from the hangers.

"Where is he anyways? she wondered.

And then the 'obvious' realization clicked her.

"Oh yeah, the party..."

The pack fell down onto the centre table, sending couple of letters flying, and soon Ditzy's head followed.

Her crossed eyes scanned the room fully, admitting that there were couple of piles left to be sorted to the respective saddles.

Guess I can handle this on my own.

Too bad Alto isn't here. He's such a funny Pegasus...

But you owe me a BIG TIME!

"...Fantastic..." he replied in a confident tone.

"Hey."

Alto and I leered at Maero in confusion of what he meant. He groaned before tilting his head to the left, where...

First to react was Alto. His shivering stopped on the instant and he squeezed out from the pocket between me and Maero.

"Light!" he cried out loud.

Indeed, a small glimpse of light glittered in the distance. Kind of in a similar fashion to one of those 'light at the end of the tunnel' pictures, expect the brick wall was replaced with old timbers and the top...

Actually, what is keeping the light away?

From the looks of it, there isn't actually anything above-

I shook my head in disbelief, just as Alto watched Alto jump into the brightness and Maero slowly walking towards it.

Maybe it's something that I shouldn't question.

After all; this is a world based on a cartoon.

Or...

A surge hit my head.

And an idea came to me.

Or maybe...

Nah, I'm just overthinking again.

Besides, it wouldn't make any sense.

For now, I discarded my thoughts and started to walk towards the light.

However, as I entered it.

"Nuc', we've got a serious problem." echoed Maero from out there.

Instantly after I stepped into the light, a pain struck into my eyes, probably from the lightness level change. Luckily it only lasted a while and soon I was able to open them to see that my memory had served me correct.

River.

We're getting closer.

As I turned to look around, Maero stood still right next to me. Alto had sat down at the shore, his head leaning over the water for a sip. But otherwise, he seemed to be fine, as he didn't shiver anymore.

"Let me guess; there isn't a way across?" I jokingly said.

Maero's face twitched a bit, still he nodded. A playful smirk rose on me, as I walked past him and up to where Alto was now laying on the grass. He breathed in relief from the light of the sun above and seemed to nearly fall to sleep on the spot.

"Looks like we'll need to get ourselves wet." Alto grunted from his slumber state.

Heh, good to have you back, my friend.

"Not necessarily."

He, along with Maero who now stood beside him, raised his eyebrow and glared at me, while I turned my back to the running stream and inhaled deep.

Hopefully he's here...

"Hello! Anyone hear me?" I shouted, much to my friends’ confusion.

Alto rose to sit "Umm... Nuc', why you're-"

And without any warning, the ground began to tremble underneath us. I calmly kept my look at the water and particularly on the middle section, where large quantities of bubbles had started to appear. Alto and Maero, on the other hand, had their eyes bulging out from their sockets, as the three of us witnessed how the water suddenly burst everywhere.

"OH JESUS MONKEY CHRIST!" snapped Alto, much to my dismay, while the large scaly head appeared from underwater and the large pupils turned to look at us.

Alto you...

The violet sea serpent, thought, didn't seem to mind his outburst and instead smiled for us in an very awkward fashion while some water dripped off from his orange moustache.

"Oh this is just wonderful! Thought I must ask who is this sea-serpent 'Jesus Monkey Christ' you're confusing me to. Oh never mind my blabber, I'm just so excited to finally see anyone civilized in these part of the woods!"

"Yes;" I started while making 'that' glare to my feathered friend, who sheepishly smiled back at me.

"We're very sorry to disturb you mister..."

The sea-serpent cleared his throat.

"Magnet. Steven Magnet, the keeper of the Everfree Stream."

...Perhaps sometimes it isn't good that fandom is right...

"And let me guess;" he continued and pointed at the other side of the river "You want to get across?"

* * * * *

In the middle of a small meadow, deep inside the deeps of the Everfree's hallow trees, was a lone stump sticking off from the moulded ground. The stump itself wasn't a single bit different from one's basic image of one; old greyish colour coating the sides while mushrooms grew from the sides in large bunches.

On it, sat a perfect example of adorable little puffy critter; a bright orange squirrel to be exact. The tiny thing silently kept still on its place, using the large fluffy tail as an oversized pillow underneath it.

In fact, nothing too unordinary caught the attention to the critter.

Suddenly, the thing extended its arms forward, to reveal what it was holding.

And that definitely would have caught anypony's attention.

Between the tiny claws was a dark purple crystal that had a dim light inside.

* * * * *

Don't look down.

Don’t look down.

In my darkness, I kept moving;

onwards through this plain which didn't know the word calm.

"Come on, just a couple of feet left!"

Extensions of mine feeling the scraps the wood beneath left;

ears savouring the squeal that the stretching ropes made.

Don't look down.

Whatever you do don't-

*Snap*

And came to end the dark world;

it's outer gates penetrated by the light from the empty countess.

I wonder...

The brush ran through the locks of the curly light rose mane in long strokes from the top to the near bottom.

... what'll happen when he walks in?

Thought she was inside of class, the clear laughter and screams from the outside yard made the cherry red mare come back to reality. She put the brush back to the small box and instead took out a hoof mirror to confirm her look was okay.

But instead, she found herself staring at her reflection's green eyes.

Will he... greet and talk with me?

For the couple of seconds, her emotions ran wild yet none came to be expressed on the outside.

However, a large smile slowly painted across her as the mirror lowered down back to the box and she turned to look outside into the yard, thinking of starting the first lesson soon.

Of course he will. What are you thinking Cheerilee?

"Gah!" was the only thing that escaped me as my stomach rose to my throat from the sudden drop.

I reacted fast, trying to not freeze still from fear, and quickly clenched my mouth to part of the snapped rope. It seemed that it was close, as the wood planks that made the swing bridge fell down to the crevice and I lost my foothold. The rope that I had grabbed swung forward towards the rock wall and I crashed into it back first, though I was lucky the impact wasn't strong enough to make me loose my hold.

"OH SHIT!" I heard Alto shout in despair, echoing around the solid walls.

I leened up, careful not to let go, and saw him along with Maero looking down at me.

Both breath in relief.

This is it.

The last obstacle in our path is done!

For some odd feeling, I glared down just as the rope began to rose.

* * * * *

Why am I feeling such unease over this?

It feels like I'm missing out something very important...

"Your Highness; the delegation is waiting for Your presence." spoke the dark grey unicorn guard.

The white Alicorn nodded and turned her back to the balcony while her two guards opened the door ahead her.

Still, she once looked back to get a glimpse of the town afar in the distance before descending down the stairs.

How 'she' could have possibly returned?

* * * * *

Broken bricks and centuries of old dust littered around the floor from the years of ignorance and the natural elements running free. Large holes both in the walls and on the inner ceiling were the only light sources available, as only the metal stands for the torches were left, though some old stone windows had been preserved and rays shone past the lattices of the openings.

All this the three eye pairs, minus the yellow ones, registered at the end of the steps and under the huge archway that once must have had a gate leading in.

A lone whistle echoed over between the long ivy covered columns, that formed a straight path forward until dispersing into a large circle around what once must had been a fountain.

"Heh, reminds me of Castlevania, expect without Dracula's minions running around." commented Alto while stopping at the middle circle and looking over the edge of the fountain, only to find no water in it. He groaned, though his dry throat made his voice rattle a bit, and turned to look back,

where the large Earth pony had his eyes fixed onto the columns that disappeared into some sideway.

"Hey M', what does this place remind you off?" the blue pegasus joked.

Maero briefly glanced at him for a moment, emerald eyes barely visible under the locks of blond mane,

"None."

The groan coming from the blue pegasus echoed throughout the hall, yet the maroon pony only tucked his hat deeper while glaring behind his back where the silver grey unicorn still observed the room from the doorway.

He finally snapped out of his thoughts and sheepishly smiled to his friends before joining them at the centre.

"Sorry, this place is just so fascinating!"

Alto could only roll his eyes to this obvious statement.

"Yeah yeah, we know it's exciting for you to be in here but remember why we're here."

Nucleus sat beside him, only Maero stood as the stone didn't look reliable enough for him and instead decided to take a look over at the other side of the fountain, only to let out a troubling sigh.

"And that's where the second problem comes in..."

"Which is?"

Nucleus leaned up front and dropped his gaze up to the ceiling, particularly at the one hole that was just above the fountain that was meant to be there.

"That we don't specifically know where in here these 'answers' specifically are:"

Alto rubbed his chin and thought about it until returning his look back on the leaning unicorn.

"Huh, guess that a major prob-"

Then something about his friend caught even Alto's numb attention, leaving him momentarily speechless. Nucleus noticed his sudden change and fixed his eyes back to the blue pegasus, whose eyes now bulged past the eye socks while his hoof pointed up towards the unicorn's forehead, where...

Even Nucleus dropped his bland face as he turned to see his horn fully engulfed in the silver glow.

"Huh, what theAAAAH!"

Without any warning, Nucleus's head shot to the left and away from the fountain. The horn kept glowing, actually now shining even brighter, and turning to point itself at the end of one path that led away from the centre, making the rest of the body follow behind.

At the end of the path laid a large pile of stones, blocking the way past.

Now even Maero had noticed this, now galloping back, just as Alto tried to get a hold of the moving unicorn that now had started to gather some speed. His effort was however futile, as the horn continued to glow and point at the crumble.

Then, the something that shone escaped from the tip of the horn, sending Nucleus backwards and into the two ponies behind him, making the three of the fell down.

As they rose back to look, none could believe what they saw.

"The fuck..." Alto swore.

"How's that..." even Maero muttered in disbelief.

"It's magic. If I was you I'd start to get used to it." Nucleus commented to the tow of them, as they all stood up.

The depriss of the path didn't simply 'vanish' or 'disappear' out of the way. Somehow the archway had rebuilt itself back to looking pretty much the same like the rest of the walls, even mimicking some of the carvings. But what was interesting was that this archway didn't continue straight on as a corridor.

In fact, the quite opposite.

Immediately after sticking their heads past the archway, they saw that somewhat large step that descended downwards onto the stone. None of them whispered a single word, as they started to carefully make their way down into the... light?

Indeed, they had actually dropped from the second floor into what now looked to be an underground dungeon.

"Okay, now this definitely reminds me of Castlevania!"

The room consisted of couple of columns similar to ones upstairs dotting the side and also including torch stands that were actually holding burning torches. It looked like the room was round in shape, though it was hard to tell as the walls were covered in some sort of chalk and lines that crossed paths with one another, forming some sort of lines. From the centre ceiling hung a tiny chandelier, which had all candles light up, waving from left to right and making some wax fall down below.

Their amazement was further subdued by what laid in the centre.

Right in the middle, where the stone floor suddenly seemed to blacken, there was a odd looking stone pillar that reached up until stopping at the eye level. The end of the stone curved downwards, a tiny slab resting on the base, like there was supposed to be something there.

Which wasn't there...

.... Answers....

Now the amazement turned into shock.

.... You shall have them....

.... In time....

"Hey wow wow, time out!" Alto objected "You said that the answers were here."

.... Lies make a path for the real truth....

Alto snorted "Great, this must be how Kratos must have felt like..."

.... Answers....

.... Those you three have to find on your own....

"And, may I ask, how will that happen?" inquired Nucleus carefully.

Then what seemed to be a like a large sigh came to be.

.... We're sorry....

* * * * *

Out of all places it had to be this one...

Gently the dark hoof ran across the stone surfaces, re-tracing the slopes that had been carved into her former home's walls centuries ago.

Ironically they relaxed her a bit inside here, a place of sad and tragic memories, where she had personally swore not to enter ever again.

A long breath came deep from her and she turned back to look on the Elements, who all leant over the small fragment of paper and watched as Twilight's magic did its job.

On the other hoof, Luna wasn't going to allow anypony to disgrace this area with any vile magic. Less, that of whom she had harboured so much hatred for so long in her time as a prisoner of her desires.

"Aha!" Twilight finally exclaimed and stood up, making the pile behind her fall back.

"They're definitely here and according to the map in... somewhere there." the purple unicorn told while pointing to left where laid stairs that led up.

Without any words, Rainbow uncurled her wings and darted up in the air, leaving only a cyan flash behind. Applejack also was the first to react and quickly followed behind, leaping up the steps in a hurry and making the necklace bounce up and down. Pinkie Pie hopped after them, though even she had her 'serious' face on and she looked like she was ready to take on a dragon. Even Rarity firmly followed after her three friends while also dragging the reluctant Fluttershy from the pink tail.

Now only Luna and Twilight remained. The two exchanged a brief look before slowly heading up the stairs.

"Princess... what will we do to 'them'?"

Luna sighed, knowing there was only one option on how to deal with these things.

"The only thing that there is to do with their kind." the Royal Alicorn stated as they rose up the steps and stopped at the end, where a large archway led in.

Neither spoke no more, though both viewed the room in avail; Twilight from only knowing little about the deeper parts of the Old Castle and Luna from having the tiny scraps of memory from the classical times remind her of just what happened to what she had once called her home.

How dare those *things** come in here!*

Luna and Twilight kept walking up to the centre of the room, where Rarity and Fluttershy were relaxing their hooves at the fountain. On the other hoof, Pinkie Pie didn't seem even a tiny bit fatigued from the long trip and instead continued to bounce around the lines of pillars like it was an huge obstacle course.

"Hey! There's something in here!"

Everypony turned their heads to see Rainbow and Applejack standing at the side. As they all trotted by there, a dim light shone from the far, deep, end of the stairs.

"We'll take the lead." Luna sternly ordered, receiving nods from the six ponies, before starting to walk the steps down, her eyes gleaming in the dark and her mind ready to withstand any possible surprise attack.

But as they got to the end of the stairs...

The emotion of confusion washed over every single one of them, as they all stared at the centre of the room.

But nopony was as shocked as the Princess.

Ones they had been chasing all this time, in such of hurry and haste to make sure no harm would happen, laid motionless down on the stone floor. The 'Pegasus' and the 'Earth pony' looked like they had been thrown back away from the middle, as they laid on their sides and had some bruises over them. Right on the middle laid the 'Unicorn' over something made out of stone.

"Are they..." Fluttershy worriedly whispered, but soon Luna shook her head after having done a minor life scan over the room.

"They're... unconscious..." Luna muttered in disbelief, making Twilight gasp and rest of the girls look at one another in confusion, yet she still calmly approached the middle and proceeded to push the 'unicorn' to its back.

The something fell down beside the silver grey body with a tiny 'thump'.

It was a book.

Chapter 16 "Secrets"

Chapter 16

Secrets

Dear Princess Celestia,

Luna wanted me to inform you that her mission has been successful; she, along with me and my friends, have secured the three creatures.

Currently 'they' are tightly bound and are not going anywhere. Luna has been keeping an eye on 'them' since we got back from the Old Castle, not leaving them alone for even a second.

But there's something really odd about 'them'...

When we approached them at the Old Castle and afterwards, our Elements didn't react at all like they had done with... Her...

Also, I personally witnessed, along with Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow and Rarity, how they 'acted' around everypony else and I can tell that they aren't anywhere near to the ones you, Luna and the few books have mentioned about. This could pose to be a serious threat against Equestria!

And then there's the book we found within 'their' possession.

It was... nothing like I had never ever laid my eyes on and so it's hard for me to describe it in great detail without hurting Spike's arm from overwriting. But what I can tell is that it looks awfully similar to the ones in your personal library and according to Luna, it has one of the most complex locks on it.

Not even Luna and I combined were able to open it!

Even Pinkie gave it a shot. Luckily the book came out fine, though still firmly shut.

Currently both of the book and the captives are with Luna downstairs and she has forbidden anypony from interrupting her, very much to Applejack's and Rainbow's dismay, due to safety reasons and because she's the only one who has dealt with 'their' kind in great detail.

Luna has been alone with them for the past half hour or so. When we had to leave her she asked for me to write this to tell about the situation and to ask for any further orders on what to do.

Please answer soon.

Your prized star pupil and friend

Twilight Sparkle

P.S: Girls also say hi

P.P.S: Say hi to Philomeena from Fluttershy

"There, that should do it." Twilight finally finished with her long speech and let Spike drop the quill before letting out a tiny breath of relief, which was followed by giggles erupting from all over the main room. Soon though, the purple dragon rolled the scroll shut, tied the normal red tape on it and breathed his green flame over it, making the message disappear in a flash.

An awkward silence fell over the room as everypony continued on with what they had been doing as Spike left for the kitchen.

"Ah am sorry Twi'."

Twilight turned to view the stairs, where the orange cowmare sat down on the steps and her head hung low, eyes hiding under her large hat.

"Ah ought to have listened to you back there. Can you forgive me?" Applejack soberly asked.

Twilight sighed, rose up, and walked up to her friend before sitting beside her.

"It’s okay," the lavender unicorn started and placed a hoof over her shoulder. "And it isn't like you were the only one fooled."

"Yeah AJ, just chill out, like me, and wait until we get our our own hooves on them!"

Everypony could only look at the cyan pegasus, who was laying in the corner and resting her head on a cloud pillow she had taken from outside, with blank expressions.

"What?" Rainbow exclaimed, throwing her front hooves in the air. She got a loud huff from over the centre of the room as a response.

"Is such vague violence really that necessary, Rainbow? In the end, it isn't up to us to punish 'them'." questioned the marshmallow unicorn while she poured more tea for herself.

Rainbow pursed her lips, "You just say that because you've-"

However, she was instantly cut short by a loud snort from Rarity, who saw where Rainbow was heading for.

"Do I need to recall dear, what you yourself told all of us last night."

Now Rainbow fiercely blushed and rolled her back to the rest of the girls. Soon loud, obviously fake, snores followed from under the cyan wings.

"Umm..."

"Hmm, yes what is it dear? Do you want more tea?" Rarity asked, but the yellow pegasus shook her head.

"No thanks... It's just that... we haven't given... *gulp* 'them' a chance to explain..."

"But Flutter' dear! You listened to what Princess said; 'their' kind cannot express anything but pure evil!"

Fluttershy meeped and gazed out of the window, her face disappearing under the long pink locks, while Rarity lightly blew into her tea.

Then, a giggle ran throughout the room.

"Oh, what is so funny Pinkie?" Rarity politely inquired after taking a sip, but the pink pony kicked her 'boredom' ball once more, sending it flying over the room and into the kitchen.

"Oops, sorry Spike!" Pinkie apologized to the purple dragon as he came from the kitchen, rubbing his head while carrying the ball, before she began to bounce the ball with her head.

"Pinkie... You didn't answer."

The pink pony looked confused, though still bouncing the ball on top her head.

"Since when have I needed a reason to laugh?" Pinkie sincerely asked the fashionista.

This even Rarity couldn't argue with, and she decided to let it go.

"Say, what time is it? I still have orders to be filled by next week."

"It's... about half past twelve and no Rarity, you cannot leave until the Princess is finished." Twilight responded from behind a large book as she flipped over to a new page.

"By the way Twi', do you know what's happening down there?"

Twilight shrugged and turned her eyes at the bulky basement door.

"Luna only mentioned the word 'cleanse'..."

Suddenly, the front door burst open in a bright light.

* * * * *

There, finally ready...

Cyan eyes gleaming in the shallow mix of artificial light and natural shadows, the dark blue alicorn headed back over to the work desk, fully cleaned of the chemical equipment and mixtures Twilight had stored down here. Her hoof fondled the few crystals, and couple of broken shards, that were left over. Each one was pure purple in colour, bright as midday's ray, and perfectly oval in shape, like they had to be in order for them to function properly.

Tis strange that these are mostly used as a fine jewerly in the ranks of nobility. Even in these times.

One shard accidentally fell down to the floor, instantly breaking down into a fine glowing dust, not leaving a single solid piece left.

Fragile to direct impact, yet very durable on every other field. And nopony could suspect their deadliness...

Her hoof, however, stopped at the mystery book.

And then there is this...

In a blink of an eye, the book rose upwards as it was engulfed in the magical glow, and began to spin in mid-air.

Just what art thou?

The alicorn narrowed her eyes on the floating object, only to see it hadn't changed since the last attempt at unlocking it. In fact, it looked like it had been printed only a couple of hours ago.

The only thing was that they didn't have printing houses back in the Pre-Classical Era.

Her still gleaming eyes traced along the thin silver lines that crossed both of the covers, crossing the path of one another until ending at the rose engraves in the corners. One could easily get lost in simply trying to follow the lines, as Luna now witnessed it. The lines were actually pure silver, not just some paint thrown across to make it look fancy and important.

Yes, it was in fact very interesting; finding a book that dates back to to the pre-classical era and more, under 'that' thing...

And why art thou locked away?

Directly in the middle of the fore edge, connecting to the covers, was an iron block that clenched the book firmly shut. It reflected the rays from the glowing orb above back from its clean surface. It looked remarkably similiar to some kinds of lock systems used in pre-classical times by unicorn scholars.

After all, only they were able to open these.

So it had taken her back by just how resentful it was to magic; not even her alicorn might combined with the Holder of Magic was able to produce any visible effect, and they had bombarded it constantly until finally giving up. Even the more cunning spells, with somewhat questionable backgrounds, were useless.

Ah! Alas, we've let our mind wander.

The book returned back to its place on the table, as the alicorn hastily turned around.

Although she gave the appearance of being completely solemn, on the inside she was relieved. She neared the edge of the light and her vision.

Her dark blue horn glowed briefly and instantly the orb of light hovering near the inner ceiling concentrated its rays in front of her.

Thou...

She watched as the light revealed the three figures chained together with steel shackles that covered every inch of 'their' lower bodies. 'Their' eyes were covered with a cloth and each had a gag in their mouths, although it didn't matter as none had regained conscious, while the three leaned onto each other's backs. Along with these precautions, the horned one had its magic blocked away just in case.

Filled with hatred, her eyes stared down on the three 'ponies' while her mind was puzzled.

The question not even The Princess of Night and Extinguisher of Nightmares was able to fully answer.

What

Art

Thou

A minute passed by in silence. Finally, her head slowly shook.

It doesn't matter; the Taint is obvious and that's enough for us.

Directly ahead each of them had been placed on a wooden candle stand, stretching upwards above their height. On the top of each, hovering in air was a familiar looking purple crystal, a faint glow beating inside like a dim fire and spinning in place.

Then, Luna's horn began to glow.

Soon, her eyes followed, turning bright light in colour and glowing the same.

Those eyes, they weren't filled with anger or frustration any more.

No, they instead gleamed from joy.

The light inside each of the crystals began to grow out of their stable boundaries.

The joy, from witnessing barehoof 'them' suffer a fate far worse than simple death.

No mercy was to be given nor expected on each side.

Suddenly, a spark left each crystal and connected together, forming a triangle.

'Them', who bow to that who kept her as it's slave for centuries;

trapped inside her own flesh and mind.

Even now, none of the three in middle moved in the slightest.

It wasn't an act of justice...

No, it was pure revenge, driven solely by her on hatred.

Luna smirked. "Alas, it shall end here!"

With that said, Luna channelled more of her magic into the crystals, bringing them to the absolute edge of their capacity and growing the sparks into full force, very much resembling real lighting bolts though bearing far more energy.

Even the light orb above began to flash rapidly as it received tiny amounts of the energy that escaped from the shock triangle beneath it.

And then it fell dark, only leaving tiny sparkles in mid-air where the light had been, slowly starting to descend down.

Luna didn't even flinch and continued to look at the display, feeling immensely satisfied.

Thou

Shall

Pay

*BANG*

The dark Alicorn shot a gaze towards the end of stairs, careful not to interrupt her 'work'.

She gawked.

"S-s-s-sister?"

* * * * *

In the same instant I regained some form of rational though, I was presented with an odd dilemma.

Is it really necessary to feel like this every single time I woke up?

A breath escaped from between my dry lips.

Then again, being forced into unconsciousness might differ from a normal nap...

What I could understand at that point was very limited; I was laying down on my side, curled in some sort of sleeping posture. Some sort of soft substance beneath me made it feel really good, like I was relaxing on the most comfy bed in whole world.

I rolled onto my stomach while my front hooves rubbed against my face.

And why the heck does it always need to cause an immense head ache?

But then it struck me.

I wasn't wearing my glasses.

Odd, how com-

.... Oh no.

I desperately wanted to dart up and see where I was, but my body fiercely fought against this and instead made me calmly rise up to my rump. From there, my eyes fully opened up and again I needed to rub them gently, trying to get the dizziness to vanish and get my vision clearer.

"Ah, at last you're finally awake."

My hooves dropped down.

The same thing happened with my now gaping mouth, inhaling once deep in and out, yet it sounded more a rasp due to a sore throat plus the overall shock of recognising that voice.

The voice of authority, yet bearing also marks of kindness and tenderness, like a mother talking to its baby.

Carefully, I cracked open my eye lids and first thing they did was to turn onto where the voice had spoken from, though by now my mind had already figured who I was to expect.

So I wasn't that surprised, at least in my mind, as my gaze fell onto the large, regal looking white alicorn who looked upon me from her position. She sat on a large red pillow and next to her was a small table, on which was a full tea set ready to be used.

Ho

ly

mo

ly.

"Don't be afraid, my little unicorn." Celestia reassured me, before pointing beside her where, with a loud puff, appeared a pillow similar to hers.

"Please, sit down."

Gulping once, from the obvious nervousness of being in the same room with the ruler of Equestria and the Goddess of the Sun, I stood up, now noticing the large mattress resembling a cloud below me, and went on to look over the rest of the room.

Definitely in the library, was my initial though when I saw the rows of shelves that had tons of different books in long rows. It wasn't just that alone, the whole appearance of the inner wood build on the walls and the ceilings along with the many different paper notes that painted the room resembled the library.

Those, and the fact there was a small basket directly on the end of-

Well, isn't this awkward. I'm in the bedroom of my favourite pony...

But then I saw my two friends. Both of them laid out on the same mattress as I had, leaning onto one another's back.

"Your friends are just sleeping, like you had been until now."

I sighed in relief and finally headed over to the table, hoping in the depths of my heart that it would go well.

The Princess warmly smiled at me as I sat down onto the pillow. Her horn engulfed in a yellow glow along with the tea pot, which rose up and poured the steaming tea down into the two tea cups.

"Now, Nucleus, do you and your friends know who I am?"

Is she honestly asking that?

"Yes, Your Highness."

Now the tea pot fell back down, the glow vanishing off it, and the Royal Alicorn turned her magenta eyes on mine.

"Please, we aren't in public and this situation calls for some level of informality." Celestia said, while taking a sip from the cup that floated in front of her. I did the same with mine, though I fiddled with my hooves a bit.

However, the alicorn beside me sighed and let her cup land onto the small dish.

"I need you to tell me what exactly happened to you three this morning."

I kept gulping down the warm tea down, savouring the apple taste of it and the fact it helped to clear my sour throat, until finally lowering it down.

"I really don't have a choice, do I?" I joked and the alicorn nodded.

"And these are yours, I assume?" Celestia asked and took out my glasses from her side, leaving them on the table next to the pot. Sadly, I noticed that the right lens had a small fracture on its edge. Thankfully, as I took it to my hooves and put them on, it didn't really hinder my sight.

... In the end, what would it honestly change?

I sighed. "It started this morning, when this voice..."

* * * * *

Everypony in the room had their mouths shut.

By common knowledge of Ponyville's residents, one of the clearest signs of apocalypse was the day when Pinkie Pie would keep quiet without any specific orders from anypony.

Now, that sign had come...

However, the world didn't end itself just yet and instead, due to dramatic perfection, resulted in everypony simultaneously looking to the upstairs bedroom door.

Less than couple of minutes ago they had watched how both of the Princesses had walked out of the basement, neither speaking a word to them. Behind them floated the three stallions, yet they didn't get a proper look at them as they alongside the two alicorns had disappeared upstairs.

Then, one single thought ran through all of them.

They could be dead...

* * * * *

And so I told her about our little trip into the woods; the journey, hazards, close-calls etc., though I left out anything that could give out who we were and especially the re-build archway. On a couple of occasions, like when we were in the dark path, Celestia would cut in and inquire for a more detailed explanation before I could continue on.

And all the while, Celestia had this calculative look on her face, like she was pondering something.

Finally, some twenty minutes later, I got to the part when we lowered into the dungeon and found out that we had been fooled by the voice.

I paused there for a moment, but Celestia raised her long hoof up. "Please continue. What happened after this voice spoke to you?"

"Well..."

.... We're sorry....

That one line caught on, as I realized its meaning.

"Wait, you aren't alone?" I asked in confusion.

Now Alto behind me rustled up and charged ahead of me, stopping at the stone pillar and tilting his head up.

"Answer Goddamnit! Are you alone or not?"

Then, it went dark...

Celestia lowered her head to my level and laid her warm, caring eyes upon me.

"And that's the last you recall, is it?"

I nodded "Positive, nothing else since waking up in here. I assume the Voice most likely knocked us out."

As I finished my second cup of tea, I decided it was time my turn, seeing as Celestia had stayed quiet, yet I wondered what happened behind those magenta eyes as her look gave nothing away, not even for me who was adept at noticing my friend’s lies.

"Now, can you answer how we got in here from there?"

Celestia's head rose back up and she turned her attention elsewhere. Soon, though, she sighed.

"You were found by the Holders of The Elements led personally by my sister..."

Princess Luna! Oh no...

"...who was on a mission herself." Celestia said, still looking away and bearing the best poker face I had ever seen, not giving out any clues.

"And let me guess, that mission was to find the three of us?"

Now she quickly looked back to me, openly bearing a surprised expression. Before she got to speak, I pressed on, somewhat enjoying the fact I had been able to impress a living goddess.

Oh well, if we're going to get discovered, might as well end it with a bang.

"Think about it; it's the only possible reason judging by how she came to Ponyvile in first place and organized a search party for us. And the fact that your own sister would be ready to do that itself means something."

I smirked at the Alicorn, who by now had regained her blank composure, knowing whole heartedly it was kind of inappropriate.

And now for the finishing touch.

"There's something about us that you're interested in."

*Clop, clop, clop*

Confused, I turned around on my pillow and found myself starting at the shadowy end of the room. Then, out of the corner, and much to my excitement, two teal eyes popped open and soon sounds of hoof steps followed.

"We must admit we're impressed of thou." echoed the voice from the shadows, until the dark blue Alicorn revealed herself. She didn't stop there though, instead closing the distance inbetween us, the whole time staring at me.

"Sister, can thou explain?"

Celestia nodded before looking at me while Luna helped herself to some of the tea.

"About six days ago, some extraordinary magical activity happened to pass by on the edge of the Everfree Forest, causing much hassle over at the School for Gifted Unicorns. A research team was immediately sent on the site to seek for any possible signs and to clean the mess it had left behind."

The regal alicorn put on a calculative smile.

"But when the team got there, they were amazed beyond belief; there weren't any natural signs of the magical activity that should have been there when compared to the amounts of energy concentrated on the spot. The only thing there was a single spot of burned wood and ash."

Luna finished off with her tea, while I tried to keep myself timid.

"Yet there was one single decisive clue; three hoof tracks that led away from the site."

........

Both Luna and Celestia now looked at me, as if indicating it was time for me to confess.

I chuckled, much to their surprise.

Oh shit, we're so screwed...

"Guess I own an explanation?"

Both of them nodded.

"Very well then; yes, those trails were left by us. And before you ask, we also happened to be there six days ago." I told as neutral as possible while my rational thought waged a conflict against the creeping up panic.

Luna and Celestia stared at one another until the older Alicorn spoke;

"Can you tell us what happened on that day?"

Choices...

I lowered my gaze down and away from theirs.

My life, my friends lives... now they're in my hands.

From the corners, I saw Alto's and Maero's sleeping bodies.

These next words will determine our lives from now on. And that choice, lies on me...

A distressed breath escaped from me.

Choices... I hate them so much.

I felt very uncomfortable, as I swore I could feel the two Alicorn's eyes pierce through me, tearing me apart in search for answers.

I sat quietly and pondered.

Ultimately, in the end I was left with only one plausible choise.

And... it actually fet comfortable to me.

Alea iacta est.

My head rose back up, to meet Celestia's gentle smile while Luna took more of the tea, leaving me to seriously think of breaking down and confessing anything.

"I don't know..."

Luna for a second forgot that tea was for drinking and soon she was coughing the life out of her lungs. Even Celestia looked surprised, yet she kept her look on me and averted both the gaze that Luna gave to her and the tea that had fallen over her pristine coat.

"I don't understand what you mean." Celestia said.

"What I mean is that I don't remember... anything prior to these last six days." I mumbled and shamefully looked away from them, fearing that my expression would give me away to them.

Nopony in the room spoke in the following minute, though I wondered if Luna and Celestia had some sort of mind link between one another to allow them to talk without fear of me hearing them.

But then, I felt something fall over me.

And the next thing I know, I saw Celestia standing beside me, her hoof laying over my head, and gently smiling.

Hold on, did they...

"Nucleus, we both want to help you, so please do tell us more; what kind of amnesia are we talking about here?

... they actually bought that?

"Umm, it's... really weird actually." I started, trying to figure out how to explain it credibly and so that our past behaviour wouldn't endanger it, as I believed the Elements had already told her everything about us.

"It's that... the only thing that I cannot recall is past events of me."

Celestia nodded. "You mean that only common knowledge is intact?"

Hesitantly I shook my head. "Yes... and no; for instance I cannot do magic and my friend there cannot fly."

Now, the two of us set our looks upon the two ponies that continued to sleep away, not aware of the whole situation that unfolded next to them.

"It's a strange thing really..."

"How come?" Celestia inquired.

"When I woke up, I met with them and... Instantly, we had this connection between one another; a deep bond, one could say."

Now Celestia laughed, her voice sounding like a choir of clear bells ringing on a grassy meadow while birds flew by above.

"Friendship at its best is like that..."

*Cough, cough*

The two of us turned back to the table, where Luna seemed to have finally gotten her tongue back.

"My sister, our time is running low, as thou perfectly well know, and there's yet one important thing remaining."

"Ah yes, indeed." Celestia replied and turned back onto me while her horn glowed once more. Then I saw that at the table, a book rose and it flew over to me, stopping only inches from my nostrils.

"This was under your possession when you were found." Celestia explained while I took ahold of it and inspected it.

One word could only describe it.

"It's beautiful..." I mumbled while touching the cover and feeling the leather(?) cover under my hoof.

And to my surprise, Celestia broke into a light laughter and I again savoured the angelic voice, trying to memorize it.

However, I noticed that Luna over at the table wasn't happy in the slightest.

As Celestia calmed down, she put on a serious face.

"Nucleus, I need you and your friends to keep everything you've said here to yourselves. We'll talk to the Elements downstairs and explain the current situation so that they won't question you. And that includes the book, however the Elements know about it already, and Twilight can tell you more."

I bowed to her, and let a smirk rise onto my face.

Holy crap, I actually pulled it off!

"As you wish." I promised to her and laid the encrusted book onto the table

Then, an idea struck me when I recounted the end of her speech and a part about our 'common knowledge'.

Let's roll the dice once more.

"Princess, may I request something?"

* * * * *

*Click*

Every pair of eyes at the table, that now laid over at the centre of the room, darted to the upstairs ledge from where the voice of lock opening had finally come. Tea cups passed down from hooves and quickly the six mares and the small purple dragon formed a neat row at the end of the steps, finally bowing their heads down when they heard the sound of hoof steps nearing them.

When it came to an end, the seven heads rose to see the two alicorns looking at them.

"We shall await outside. Don't take too long, dear sister."

Having said that, Luna began to walk up towards the front door. Halfway through, her horn began to glow and it engulfed her body fully. All of the onlookers witnessed as she slowly began to disappear from sight, starting from her hooves, the rest of her body following, until finally seemingly vanishing out of view.

The only thing that gave away her invisibility was the large shadow that still loomed below.

Celestia waited until the front door, which opened itself in light blue glow, slammed shut and then turned back to the six mares.

"Now, my little ponies, I need you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to say."

She paused and viewed everypony's face, seeing bits of confusion in each one. But to her surprise, her student stepped forward.

"Are they fine?" Twilight whispered, fearing the worst.

Celestia smiled, "They're well."

All of the mares, including Spike, let loose a breath and looked at one another with relief.

"And what about... you know..."

Celestia shook her head in response to the lavender unicorn. "No, they are normal, healthy ponies."

Now everypony smiled, and Celestia especially noted the ones that Rainbow Dash and Rarity wore. However the alicorn herself dropped hers.

"Nevertheless, there's an obvious Taint in each of them." As she saw the concerned looks on her little ponies, and a dragon's, faces, Celestia looked upstairs. "It's truly a mystery..."

"B-b-but-"

The Alicorn cut in, knowing what her student was trying to say, "Twilight, and the rest of you, do not be worried. I can assure you they're acting according to their own belief and that they're exactly the same ponies as before." She turned back to her audience. "I'd like you all to treat them well."

They all nodded and Celestia knew they would keep those three out of any trouble.

Thinking of trouble...

"Now; Twilight, Rainbow, could you two step forward?"

Rainbow and Twilight followed her order, yet both couldn't help but to think what the Princess had on her mind.

"These next words I'm going to say may shock you, but, for the first time in years, I'm ordering you to not question it. Neither from me or them."

"Oh you mean that Nucleus can't do magic and Alto can't fly? Oops, I think I shouldn't have been the one to say that. Oh well at least I saved us from the long and boring explanation that would be only a waste of words and space..." Pinkie Pie laughed to herself while her friends looked at her oddly for a bit.

Then, slowly, the five mares realized just what Pinkie had said.

"WHAT!?"

Celestia sighed, mentally cursing her luck, and the pink party sheepishly grinned back to her.

"What Pinkie Pie just told you all is true, and that's where you trot in." Celestia's gaze now turned to look at the cyan pegasus, "Rainbow Dash; it goes without saying that you're one of the best pegasi flyers in all of Equestria, even rivalling and perhaps surpassing those ones you so eagerly look upon in your dreams."

Rainbow snickered at the praise she received and her chest pushed forward.

"Now, would you be willing to help Alto Stratus get off the ground and soar the skies?"

Rainbow's ears perked, yet her cocky smirk didn't fade and instead grew wider.

"Heck yeah I'll do it!" she exclaimed and, as Celestia's gaze fell away, Rainbow pumped her hoof in the air, generating a light murmur from the orange cowmare and slight blush from the yellow pegasus.

However, this went unnoticed by Celestia who now gazed at her star-pupil's round eyes.

"Twilight Sparkle; you represent the element of Magic itself and you're one of the most gifted magicians to ever set a hoof over these lands in centuries. So passionate about learning anything there is to know about it and everything else."

Twilight blushed and nervously moved her hoof over the floor.

"From this day on, I shall place Nucleus under your guidance. This is a large responsibility for a mare at your age but you have proven yourself to be more than capable to teach anypony the basics of magic."

Not even a second ticked pass by until the lavender unicorn began to hop around the Alicorn, heavily smiling and repeating the same phrase all over.

"Oh yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes! I get to teach somepony!"

"Ahem!"

Every eye looked over to the corner, where the marshmallow fashionista stood; she flipped her purple mane away from her head and placed a hoof over her chest.

"Can I participate in this 'teaching'? I might not be the most adept unicorn but I'd like to offer my helping hoof."

Now Twilight stopped with her hopping.

"Rarity..." Twilight growled, but Celestia stepped in between.

"Twilight, I don't see any problem in that."

Rarity showed her tongue to Twilight, who reluctantly nodded to her mentor in acknowledgement and immediately began to memorize many different teaching methods.

"Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack. For you three I don't have anything special other than to possibly look after Maero."

Pinkie and Fluttershy both bowed, but the orange mare stood still and instead tucked her hat deeper.

"And Ah suppose ye expect me to trust 'em?"

"AJ, the hay you talking about?" Rainbow muttered under her breath, however Applejack continued on.

"Those fellows hav' lied to us and you expect me, Element of Honesty, to suddenly come in terms with 'em? No chance of happening..."

"But Applejack, they aren't meanie pants anymore." Pinkie Pie tried to reason with her, who instead withdrew to herself.

But then, Fluttershy leaned over to her and whispered something quietly into her ear before leaning away.

A couple seconds ticked by untill the cowmare grunted.

"Tell this to me, did they have a good reason to lie?" Applejack mumbled from beneath her hat.

Celestia didn't need to think about it for a second. "Yes, dear Applejack, they had a perfect reason for it."

Applejack's head rose to reveal her smirking face. "Ah guess I can give it another shot."

Celestia replied with a nod and finally turned to look upon the six mares as a whole group.

"Now there's only one thing left before I'll have to leave and that is the ordeal of this morning involving Luna."

*Click*

Everypony turned to look at the top of the stairs, where the door began to open up.

"Don't mention about it to them along with the Taint, no need to worry them over nothing." Celestia whispered and everypony nodded in agreement, while the three stallions walked through the doorframe and came to view.

"Now, I’ll bid you my goodbye. Hopefully we'll meet again soon."

And with that said, Celestia began her walk towards the front door. As soon as her hoof touched the door knob, her body disappeared under the same invisibility spell her sister had used earlier.

At the same time as the door closed, the three stallions had made their way downstairs. At that point Twilight, along with the others, saw that Nucleus was carrying the book Princess Celestia had taken.

However, none of them dared to question it at that point, not after what they had been through this day,

"Hi girls." the silver unicorn greeted them and followed it with a smile.

"Hey!" the blue pegasus followed his friend and waved a hoof to them.

Only Maero kept quiet and stood still, straw hat firmly on his head.

All the girls smiled at them and approached them.

"Heh, nice to see you three back on your hooves." Twilight commented and Alto pursed his lips.

"Bah, believe me when I say I've been through a lot worse."

"But... umm... you're fine now... aren't you?" Fluttershy timidly added from behind her multi-coloured wall, only to hear Alto's laughter that was soon followed by a groan.

"Now now Alto. Don't be rude." Nucleus pointed out to the blue pegasus, who rubbed the back of his head in pain and muttered a couple swears under his breath.

"Wohoo, you know what this means, don't you?" Pinkie exclaimed and disappeared out into the kitchen only for seconds to soon reveal the metal tube that went-

*BOOM*

-shooting confetti and glitter in the air and over her friends.

"Thanks, but I think I'm talking for us three when I say no." Nucleus apologized and wiped his lenses clean from the paper scraps.

"Huh, why not?" Pinkie asked in confusion as her cannon seemed to have vanished in thin air.

Nucleus looked upon his two friends, who both lightly nodded in acceptance.

"Let’s just say that this day has been quite stressful and I think we might retire ourselves to our apartment."

What followed after that was an awkward silence, in which the six mares looked away, rubbed the backs of their heads and nervously whistled.

"...There's something you aren't telling us, isn't there?"

Chapter 17 'Lending a hoof'

Chapter 17 'Lending a hoof'

Chapter 17

Lending a hoof

"This is so fucking unbelievable..."

"True, so true..."

"... So, what now..."

The dark blue pegasus shrugged to his maroon friend and instead began to walk away from the site.

"Alto, where do you think you're going?"

"Away from this place!" he shouted from over his shoulder, disappearing around the narrow street corner and past the crowds of onlooking ponies.

The other two remained silent as they continued to look at the sight.

Then, the larger maroon one leered at his companion.

"...So, what now..."

His companion adjusted his glasses.

"Look, just give me a moment, will you?"

Throughout their whisper, they saw that the masses began to grow larger and larger. Many new ones gasped audibly and covered their mouths with their hoof. Above, somepony even took camera shots of the street above and furiously wrote into a small notepad afterwards.

The unicorn sighed and kneeled by the wooden beam that laid on the pile in front of him.

But then the larger pony grunted and calmly walked off. As he passed by the crowds, they gave him, and his humongous body, a way, though the unicorn saw that many gave somewhat doubtful looks after him, tracing parts that went beyond the comfort zone. Luckily the Earth pony didn't seem to note this, at least not when he was in sight and soon his hat vanished from out of view.

Now the only one left was the silver grey unicorn, but ultimately even he had to admit defeat.

Inaudibly he got back up and began his own walk, not looking behind.

But he still could smell it...

The ashes of defeat.

* * * * *

"How could I've let this happen?"

Applejack, whose hat now rested on her hoof, could only lean herself on to her lavender friend's shoulder as her eyes began to swell.

"Sugahcub' it's not your fault..."

"Yes it it! Who do you think told the Princess about them?" Twilight said to her orange friend, followed by a sneeze, as her glassy eyes kept staring at forward, at...

A loud hudd rang out.

"I must disagree with you dear." Rarity cut in "It wasn't you who did this..."

Yet not even the marshmallow unicorn laid an eye to the sight ahead and instead lightly nudged the cyan pegasus next to her.

"Yeah Twi', cheer up! It totally wasn't you who lit this place up and offered the basement to LunAAUGH!"

Twilight sneezed once more, while Rarity and Rainbow exchanged furious glares at one another.

"HEY, I KNOW WHAT TO DO!"

Four pairs of eyes simultaneously rolled.

"Pinkie, I highly doubt this calls for 'Sorry-for-losing-home' party."

But now it was the pink pony's turn to roll her eyes, this time a full circle inside its socket.

"Well duh, and silly Rainbow, I'd call it 'We-are-sorry-for-not-stopping-the-Princess-from-burning-down-your-house' party, W.A.S.F.N.S.T.P.F.B.D.Y.H in short, but even I have my standards and anyways, that's not what I meant and honestly, that eye rolling thing is getting really, really old, how about instead..."

"Pinkie!"

* * * * *

"Here you go; one blueberry and one vanilla. That'll be five bits."

In a blink of an eye, the pale purple unicorn filly took snapped the white ice-cream from the sales pony and enthusiastically began to lick it, being careful not to spill any of it.

"Now now Dinky;" spoke the grey pegasus while she placed five bits over to the jar on the counter "What do you say to the nice ice-cream stand seller?"

Dinky's smile gleamed with joy as she looked at the stallion behind the stand, "Thanks for the ice-cream, mister! It's really sweet!"

The stallion lifted his paper hat to her and turned to serve a new customer, a chestnut stallion, while Ditzy and Dinky walked off. Both enjoyed each others company along with the their treats and how calm it was in the park; a couple of ponies had set up a picnic, an old mare threw old bread to the ducks, at the bench sat a dark blue peg-

"Look Mom, isn't that mister Stratus over there?" Dinky exclaimed and pointed her ice-cream towards the bench.

As Ditzy herself turned to look, she found that it indeed was Alto, however he had his hooves crossed and his head turned skywards. His whole outer appearance just radiated misery clear as a rainy day, or rather a storm cloud.

Before Ditzy got to do anything other than to wonder, Dinky galloped past her and so the gray pegasus flew after, landing ahead of the bench just as the lavender filly caught up to her.

"Hello mister Stratus!"

Alto slightly lowered his head to look at her, yet soon he moved it back to gazing at the sky and mumbled something under his breath. However, maybe due to being a child and a bit naive, Dinky sat down next to him and licked her ice-cream a couple of times.

"Want some?" Dinky offered, but Alto didn't even turn to look at her.

By now, anypony else would have given up, but Dinky persevered and she poked him in between the ribs before waving the cone front of him.

"Come on; it’s really good."

But then Alto's hoof flung over and the ice-cream went flying away, landing somewhere further along the road. As the hoof fell down, so did Dinky's mood as her eyes began to swell up.

A sigh echoed from Ditzy as she walked up to the bench and reached back to her saddlepack.

"Dinky, how about you go and get yourself a new one? I'm sure the nice ice-cream seller is still there."

After sniffing and having wiped her eyes, Dinky rose up and took the five bits from her mother. She didn't say anything as she walked away from where they had came from.

While Dinky disappeared from view behind them, Ditzy took her place on the bench and leant backwards.

A minute passed in silence as there was nopony else around beside them and the only voice that came was the occasional burst of wind, sending leaves flowing across the fields.

In the end, it was Alto who broke it by coughing.

"I'm sorry..."

Ditzy laid her gaze on him and sighed, as she saw that even now he hadn't lowered his eyes from the sky above.

"Alto, what is it? You aren't being your normal self."

"Really, what gave it away?"

"Alto..."

*SLAM*

Alto's left hoof hit the side of the wooden bench, causing a small fracture to form onto it.

"WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE TO STICK THEIR FUCKING NOSES WHERE THEY AREN'T NEEDED!"

But then, much to his shock, he felt something wrap around him. As he looked down, Alto saw Ditzy firmly hugging him, her hooves around his body on the wing level while her head leant onto his shoulder.

"Because I'm your friend and I'm worried over you. That's what friends do; stick their noses into each other’s business."

As she backed off, a smile formed on her face.

"Not to cause trouble, only to help."

Shame overwhelmed Alto from tip to toe as a blush tainted his face and he couldn't face his 'friend's' wall-eyes.

"I'm sorry..."

"Heh, don't apologize to me but I think a certain unicorn needs one and her mother wouldn't want it to ruin a good friendship over it."

Alto nodded and smiled first time in a while his eyes locked over to the horizon, specifically at a certain humongous cloud formation that he had noticed when he had sat down.

"Hey Ditzy. Do you know what's that over there?"

"Huh? That's Cloudsdale, home to us Pegasi and it's also where the Weather Bureau is located. Geez, don't tell me you haven't been there?"

"Well-"

"There you are!" a sudden voice cried out loud, followed by a cyan pegasus landing in front of them

------

Oh no...

It's her!

I could only watch as the rainbow-maned pegasus deviously grinned and leaned up at me, her nostrils now only a couple of inches away from me.

"Uh, hi." I mumbled to the crazy pony and her grin grew wider.

"Say Alto, do you have a place to stay yet?"

.... She cannot possibly-

She suddenly crammed next to me on the bench, leaving me literally in a tight spot between her and Ditzy; both of their bodies pushing up against me, which felt... awkward, to say the least and not counting that the cyan one practically pushed her onto me.

"I mean, I got a place, you don't have a one... You know."

I had to wipe the rainbow lock away from my face before I could answer her.

"Look..."

"Rainbow." she sultrily added.

"Rainbow," I muttered, and her smirk somehow grew even wider, "give me one good reason to come and stay with you? Last time I recall you chased me around the whole freaking town after trying to... you know what with your wings."

Somehow, even after my outburst, she narrowed down her eyes and gave me a simple tuck just below my wings.

"Heh, at least you didn't seem to mind the touch of a mare's wing on you."

I felt how the weight on Ditzy's side fell away a bit.

"W-WHAT!? R-RAINBOW!"

However the cyan pegasus didn't care about Ditzy's shout and instead went on.

"And I can give you two reasons."

She then fully leant herself onto me, and oddly I could see in the corner how Ditzy's face engulfed in pink.

Hey! I'm the one getting sexually harassed here.

"One, I'm supposed to teach you how to use those long wings and staying with me would help to do that."

"Bu-GAH!"

A shiver went down my spine, as I felt the cyan hoof take me by my the base of my wings. As Rainbow continued to slyly smirk, her hoof began to gently rub me from there, sending jolts through out the rest of my body. Instantly my breathing became labored, as the feeling...

Oh the feeling...

"Second," Rainbow whispered into my ear as her hoof began to trace along my wing lines, "I think you'd love to stay at a single mare's place, wouldn't you?"

*WHUMP*

By the time drops of drool began to drop down from my mouth, suddenly my wings also popped open for the first time in the whole time I'd been a pony. However I didn't get a proper look at them as my mind had frozen due to the amount of pleasure it received from the work on the wings.

I saw Rainbow, and to my surprise even Ditzy, gape.

"Heh, a real stud, aren't you?" she slyly commented as her hoof returned back to the base of my wings.

Jolts of brain surges continued to bombard my whole body, both sending it to shake furiously from the immense amounts of pleasure, which my body began to crave for more like some sort of drug. Although her hoof had slowed down, she had instead began to pull long strokes from the bottom to the top of the open wing, somehow working even better, and I could even feel her warm breath against myself.

A excitable moan escaped from within me.

"Uhh, Rainbow?"

I could feel how the hoof stopped only an inch away from my erect wing tip and also hear how the rainbow pony let out a growl to the other side of the bench.

"Ugh, what Derpy? Can't you see I'm busy?" she said in a rather intimidating tone and just then I noticed that her two wings also stuck out from the sides in full glor-

Hey wowowowowowowo!

Why.. in... the... Hell I think of her-

All of that pleasure that had build up to that point quickly vanished away in the dawn of realization. And first thing in me to react to it was my gut. By now, both the two ponies next noticed my sudden change and especially the cyan one, who leant over to me to get a look of my pale face.

"Huh, what's wr-"

Her words cut out, as her face got covered in puke...

And it didn't end there, I tried my best to push her out of the way, but in the end too late as no her blue lap turned into the brown mush and as I watched in the corner, even her odd mane had gotten its share of the mess.

Her immediate reaction was... well...

"AUGH! WHAT THE HAY WAS THAT?! IT'S ALL OVER ME AND I... WAS THAT A SANDWI-"

But I didn't really hear the rest, something that I don't really regret losing, as I kept emptying my stomach down onto the grass and it felt actually far more better than any amounts of.... you-know-what that pony could ever do at that moment. Like that it really mattered, as I both heard and felt as something lifted into the air with a strong gust of wind hitting against my kneeling frame.

Heh, serves that bitch right!

But after I had wiped my mouth, I found soon found out that standing up was out of question as my hooves gave up upon me when I laid a weight upon them. At first I blamed my inbalance, something that had bugged me ever since this new body came to action, but after the third attempt...

"*gasp* Oh no, are you hurt?!"

I finally succeeded with help from Ditzy, who ducked under my hoof and raised me up beside her with ease. At first it felt degrading, getting help to stood up, yet this soon vanished as I saw her worried face.

"Do you need a doctor?" Ditzy worriedly asked and I shook my head.

"No... You can let go of me now."

She giggled with a smile upon her face and instead of applying to my words, I instead felt her hoof wrap tighter around my neck.

"Oh no mister; you aren't going anywhere in that condition. Now come on, we've got to get you to a bed and fast." Ditzy said and looked upon at the sky. "And besides, Rainbow ain't gonna be happy when she gets cleaned."

Even I took a quick look up and nervously gulped, knowing what that mare was capable of.

"..... Good point. Should we-"

"I'm back!"

I looked back down where Dinky now stood with a new green ice-cream in her hoof and eyes staring up to both me and Ditzy, tilting her gaze between the two of us.

"Why are you holding Mister Stratus like that Mom?"

"Well Dinky," Ditzy started while winking at me, "Mister Stratus here is going to be staying with us at least for a while, isn't he?"

Dinky gasped at the same time when my face twitched a bit from hearing out the siling pegasus.

"Wow, really mister? Will you be staying at us?"

"Uhh.. Well... I guess-"

But sudden stomach pain cut in and my hooves began to give up on me, however Ditzy didn't allow this to happen and ducked a bit closer to me to get a better hold.

"Dinky, I think Alto here needs to rest."

Without any more saying, Dinky kept quiet and instead walked off, presumably towards the exit of the park, while Ditzy looked at me and faintly smiled.

"Come on; lets go home."

But then one fateful thought crossed to me, enough to drive me halt.

"Ditzy?"

"Yeah?"

I gulped and cautiously looked at her.

"What about your.... you know, fiancee? Don't you think he might mind that some stranger moves in?"

A second passed by in the silence as yet another gust of wind blew between us, sending both of our manes waving around.

Ditzy sighed and took another step forward.

"Oh boy, isn't this awkward..."

* * * * *

Screeching squeals poured out of the old, near to its breaking point, hauling cart and more specifically from its axle. Many ponies had to cover their ears as the cart travelled down the down the road and nearly everypony shot angry glares at the two mares who pulled it.

But neither of them noted this as they were already too busy bickering with themselves.

"Ugh, why in the hay are we bothering to get this slab of rotten wood fixed? It's only going to last for a week or two, if we're lucky." Carrot Top pointed out to her older sister besides her.

She snorted, "Cause this 'slab of rotten wood' happens to also be our only wagon and I doubt you can carry all six bags by yourself." Golden Harvest replied. At the same moment, they slowed down in order to turn over to the next street, generating a loud pitch from the cracked axle.

"Maero could."

Golden Harvest instantly groaned as she heard her younger sister's 'love' affection mentioned for the tenth time, not to mention the countless times when their regular conversations, that mostly consisted out of prickly comments, had slipped to Maero and in most cases they consisted of about how perfect a stallion he is.

"He's so... strong; I'm sure he could even beat beat Big Macintosh in hoof wrestling. Not to mention how sincere he..."

During all that constant blabber bombardment, Golden Harvest could only wonder if Maero was fully aware of how her sister saw them as a couple and talked like they were only couple of months away from engagement?

She concluded with a sure no.

"Shut it, we’re here." Golden Harvest ruled out, provoking a loud huff from the yellow mare.

The cart stopped in front of the only workshop Ponyville had to offer. On its yard laid out couple other carts alongside with piles filled with replacement parts and one wagon even stood at the roof of the building. Faint banging sounds echoed around the whole place, coming from the inside.

Without saying anything, Carrot wiggled out of the straps alongside her sister and headed directly inside.

And now as she was away, Golden Harvest could finally let out a distressed breath as she landed over to the back of the cart and tried her best to relax her overheated nerves.

In short, Golden Harvest very much disliked the narrow and long roads of Ponyville. Nor did she like to be so close to so many strange ponies, no matter how friendly everypony acted to her like seeing an old friend, which in many cases was true. With one or two ponies Golden Harvest could chat with ease, larger crowds would only cause her to hyperventilate and search for an escape route, preferably out to the open fields.

So she knew it was in luck that she had her younger sister.

"*sigh* Too bad she's the laziest mare in whole Equestria." Golden Harvest dozily muttered to herself as she rolled over to face the street.

At the exact moment her ruby eyes noticed something rather surprising.

A familiar maroon stallion had just appeared at the end of the street only a few feet away.

------

Front right, back left, front left, back right...

That strange pattern continued to repeat itself in an endless loop, regardless to what happened around me or inside myself.

Real mess... That's what this day has been all about.

Although my gaze was firmly locked slightly downwards, I still could see how a couple of ponies ahead made a way for me, mainly due to not wanting to get trampled over and perhaps out of simple fear to this body of mine. At least that was my initial thought, until I saw the leer on everypony's eyes, and then I noticed that every single one of them happened to also be a mare, evoking a rather awkward memory from last day.

I tried my best to ignore the lusty gazes, mainly by hiding under the shadow of my hat, and furthermore, I slightly paced myself but made very sure not to outright gallop past them. Rather thankfully, every one of them was too busy staring at me not to notice the growing distance between me and them.

In the end, I was able to cut into a new street just to make sure I'd lose any possible pursuers. I couldn't help but to smirk at the absurdity of the situation at hand; here I was being overly cautious in the form of a pony due to being really well endowed, at least in the perspective of the opposite gender.

Then I turned around.

My smirk fell as I saw ahead of me an old cargo wagon that I immediately recognized. That, and the fact Golden Harvest was resting on top of it, now staring up directly at me.

And she didn't look happy at all when she landed in front of me.

"Well look what the cat dragged in?" the olive mare started out and planted her hoof up to my chest "You better have a darn fine explanation for your absence in the morning or you're ou-"

She however stopped as I sighed and gently moved her hoof away from me.

"Look, this day has been bad enough for me." I said to her while giving a quick look past her but Golden Harvest noted this with a snort.

"Atta boy, you aren't getting away that easy! Now what in the-"

"Our house burned down. There, happy?"

It took less than two seconds for her to drop that 'boss' act and to muster enough apologetic expression in order to look back at my bland one, still hidden under the shadows. At first she tried to say something but the meant words went unheard as I sighed.

"Honestly, you don't need to say anything in between an apology or regret. I've heard enough of that for one day." I explained as I lifted my face to her and let my own expression talk for itself out. It seemed to work out, as Golden Harvest herself also sighed before sitting down onto the back of the cart and leaning onto the back. From there, she reached out towards a bag that hung out from a crook and took out of it a pouch.

"Here," Golden Harvest said before throwing the bag out to me and as I caught it, I felt the tiny metal bits through the thin fabric. "There's your pay for today, but don't expect anything tomorrow. I am after all in charge of a farm and every saved bit is needed."

Heheh...

Now this is definitely Carrot's sister without doubt. Thinking of which...

"Where is Carrot anyways, or are you here all by yourself?" I asked while putting the bag under the safety of my hat. Golden Harvest only tilted her head to the building next to us and now I noticed it was a cart workshop.

"She's negotiating out with the owner to get this cart fixed out. It shouldn't take too long for her to come if-"

"Well ah’ll be! Ah finally caugh’ up to you!" exclaimed a sudden voice from behind me and as I turned over for a look, I was met with a surprise.

Even Golden Harvest shared my eye-opener. "Applejack? By Seasons what are you doing in here?!"

The orange cowboy hat wearing pony approached the two of us with firm and long steps. As she stopped, she at first eyed the sitting olive mare and shot her with a friendly look.

"Howdy Harvest! Cart's giving you hard times?" the cowmare said while viewing the cart itself and specifically over at the bottom of it. Golden Harvest nodded to her, but her surprised expression stayed the same as Applejack now turned to look upon at my direction.

I have bad feeling this isn't going to end well...

"And you're coming with me, pardner."

... Damn hindsight!

I cocked my eye brow at her and leaned a bit to match her height to get a proper look at her face. It wasn't that big of a surprise to me not to see any trace of fear in her and moreover, not a single bit of that look.

"And I suppose you expect me to go with you just like that?" I asked, trying to muster extra deepness into my already strong voice, to which the orange pony replied with tipping the end of her snout.

"Ah suppose you're right. Then again, do tell where do you plan staying at for the time? Since last year, there hasn't been any active inn in Ponyville and there ain't currently no free houses left."

As she finished out, the realization struck out to me.

"Basically I don't have much choice, do I?"

"Nope. Now come on; there's a healthy apple dinner waiting for us at the farm."

Briefly I glanced over to the cart and at Golden Harvest. She didn't say anything and instead proceeded to tilt her head towards the workshop before tilting back at Applejack who had already headed away. Taking it as a cue, I breath in deep and galloped after the cowmare.

... Still, I've got a hunch this won't end well.

------

Less than a minute later, the yellow mare re-emerged back outside.

"Hmpf! Some mares just have the nerve... Anyways, did I miss anything important?"

* * * * *

The long quill dipped deep into the depths of the dark blue inkwell and soon emerged out, spilling a couple of drops onto the messy pile of papers put on the side of the wooden desk, near the stack of school books. Then the cherry red hoof began to scribble out the current scores from today's math test to the large notebook and occasionally stopping to ponder whenever giving a little plus for at least trying out.

But only in matter of seconds, or a rather more minutes, the quill gently swooped down inside the open desk alongside with the notebook. That done, the pony stood up from her place, the office chair beneath her ominously screeching out, and reached out towards the light green saddlepack.

A sudden sigh then echoed out as Cheerilee turned her look out throughout the window and she could see the emptiness of the school yard, something rather surprising in fact as many fillies liked to spend time out there even after school.

Then again, it's Friday and everypony is only thinking about the upcoming weekend...

Yet she couldn't help but to wonder about one thing...

Where is Nucleus?

Cheerilee pondered this while clenching her teeth as she pulled the straps of her saddle and placing the last of the books inside it. This question had rose up early at the start of the lesson, both from the ranks of students that wanted to hear more about him and from Cheerilee herself, who was worried over him.

But in the end, she had a school to run and so the day had went on... until now that is as the cherry red mare whipped the pack close and gave a brief overall look of the classroom before heading towards the door.

She, however, stopped just as her hoof rested on top of the doorknob and let out a breath.

I so wanted to see him...

Then, the door opened...

The distance between Cheerilee and the floor grew in a second to zero as she hit her muzzle straight onto the wooden plank with the sudden loss of balance.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the voice cried and the confused mare could feel a pair of hooves grab her. "Here, let me give you a hoof."

The mare shook her head pounding up from pain "Nono it's fine; I can help myse-"

Just then, she realized the silver grey hoof that rested on her shoulder. From there, she traced along it to meet with the worried face of the unicorn stallion, whose teal eyes gleamed out from behind the pair of glasses tucked a bit too far down his muzzle.

His mouth formed a weak grin and with a single swift pull, Cheerilee found herself back on four hooves, although her look was locked onto the unicorn stallion, now rubbing the back of his copper mane

"Look, before you say anything, I have the perfect explanation for skipping out on the work."

Even Cheerilee rubbed her hooves together out of nervousness, though from totally different reasons...

"It's... really okay. I trust you had your reasons, it's just that you could have informed in advance." Cheerilee said and continued to stare back at Nucleus, now closing his eyes as his head shook weakly.

"I wish I could have... Anyways, I came here for two reasons." the silver grey unicorn muttered quite audibly "First one was, of course, that apology for missing the work alongside with a promise for it not happening ever again."

To that Cheerilee replied with a nod "And the second?"

"I..." Nucleus started out, but then suddenly averting the mare's gaze

"I need another set of those teaching materials"

An eyebrow cocked up as Cheerilee's mind kicked in.

"Yes, I think there's some older books at the storage and the rest you can whip out from the general store." the cherry red mare recounted to the seemingly relaxed stallion.

"That's great; I was really worried over it." Nucleus replied and turned around to face the storage room at the end of the corridor. However as he took his first step, he found himself stopped by the sudden red hoof.

"It's fine; I'll have those ready out for you by Monday."

"Are you sure? You don't really need to do anything for me." the unicorn assured the mare, but she shook her head and stepped forward. As the classroom door behind clicked close, Nucleus smiled and turned back at Cheerilee, both now facing the main door to the building.

"Well, I guess that settles it." Nucleus said to Cheerilee and tilted his head to her before beginning to make his way outside, leaving the cherry red mare behind in a dazzled state of mind. It didn't last for long, however, as Cheerilee's mind soon kicked in and she slammed her hoof down.

"Wait!"

The silver grey unicorn stopped and gazed over his shoulder.

"Yes?"

Cheerilee, yet again thanks to being a teacher, was somewhat able to keep her cool and to form an eye contact with the stallion, although her hooves had a bit hard time keeping still.

"D-do you happen to have any plans for the r-rest of the day?" she stammered.

The stallion shook his head, "No, not really? How come?"

The mare gulped her throat clear from the sudden gag before continuing on.

"I-it was just that... T-there's this cafe and-"

*Crack*

Out of the corner and without any warning whatsoever, the front door slammed open against the wall so loud that both of the ponies had their ears ringing. As the two also turned to glare at the door, both immediately gawked at the sight of the lavender unicorn.

"Twilight, what are you-"

But Nucleus was rather harshly cut off as Twilight quickly stepped in and up to him. Then, before the stallion got to say anything else back, in a blink of an eye he found himself fully engulfed in the raspberry glow from horn tip to hoof followed by him lifting up a feet or two.

At this point, Twilight's humming mixed with coherent statements began.

"Oh here you are; listen, we need to start to plan out your timetable in order to fully maximize your training- Oh, and we also definitely need to fix you some basic training tomes. I guess there's some in the library, but if not I think that-"

And with that, both her and Nucleus had vanished outside.

Back in, one certain cherry red mare had her head hung low

Oh I'm such a fool...

------

"-we can book-order some from Canterlot and I don't think that Princess Celestia would mind if I'd ask to have one of her training books!"

After finishing that one big blabber, she gazed over behind her and at my direction, meaning couple of feet up in the air-

"Isn't this just great? I get to teach you the depths of magic and you get to finally use magic!"

"I guess..." I muttered quietly and avoided her gaze, though she smiled and turned back to look forward, seemingly unaware of my current mood and otherwise acting very thrilled over the fact she got to teach somepony like Celestia had taught her.

I wonder if she'll even use the same methods.

.....Then again, this is Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic and the only pony who has a book on Slumber parties.

Twilight giggled somewhere up ahead while I continued to float and spin in the air inconsistently.

"Don't you worry; it'll take you only a week to master the basics if you work hard enough, I promise."

I sighed, accepting my fate, and tried to look back at the school house in the distance.

* * * * *

Although the weather pegasi of Cloudsdale, Ponyville and Canterlot kept the skies clean from any stray clouds and other bad weather phenomenon, it was the opposite as one got more than a thousand feet up in the air and past the normal zone where most of the air travel was conducted. Long, puffy clouds formed massive units that consumed the skies, somehow allowing the sun to pass through them with ease. This was the place from where the pegasi of all Equestria, and occasionally outer ones, got their basic building material of Hard Cloud from which all of their buildings were made out of.

But one thing that it also had, was the calm and quiet nature that so many places lacked.

And that way, it was perfect for the two flying alicorns flying side to side one another.

"Sister, thou art to explain thyself."

Celestia lowered her gaze at her younger sister and sighed.

"What there's to explain, my dear sister?" the regal white Alicorn said as her long wings pushed past the clouds. At the same time, Luna flew a bit ahead and halted in front of the older Alicorn.

"How come thou allowed that mockery happen back there? That unicorn clearly lied to thou!"

However Celestia didn't stop and instead flew past the frustrated dark alicorn, who with a muffled out groan gave her a chase. As Luna caught up to her, she was rather remarked to see that her older sister hadn't flinched out from her 'social' look.

"Answer to us!"

Finally, Celestia sighed and looked at her sister.

Her smile had dropped...

"Because he didn't lie. Throughout that whole conversation I had cast a spell to detect any lie and it didn't go off at any point. And don't give me that look, dear sister." Celestia commented as she saw the shocked look of Luna.

"B-b-but t-then how come he acted out so nervous?"

"I don't know..." Celestia replied just as they got past one certain humongous cloud formation, opening up a perfect view to the sparkling city of Canterlot below them.

"But;" the white Princess started as her gaze locked onto the buildings "there's something very odd in them, especially in the unicorn... Something that isn't supposed to be right and... somehow, it also felt comforting deep inside of me. Don't claim you didn't feel the same as he spoke, Luna."

Luna nervously coughed, "What does this then mean to Us, our sister?"

Now Celestia allowed her smile to rise back as her wings prepared themselves.

"It means that we have a lot of work to do, my dear sister."

They both dropped downwards.

* * * * *

It was already late evening and, partially because of the past day, the timid yellow pegasus was frantically galloping inside her treehouse. In her mouth was an open box filled with food for her little animal friends that had been left unnourished in the morning with her sudden disappearance. But thankfully, now the only ones left were the small critters that lived alongside her inside the house.

"Now, time for supper everypony." Fluttershy sing-songed as she poured the food in the bowls across the living room. It didn't take long for the animals to dig into them as the room filled with sounds of ravenous eating. The pegasus giggled a bit as she watched some of the animal families share a same bowl together as the parents divided the food amongst the younger ones.

Then, something caught her eye.

Fluttershy instantly gasped out loud and flew across the room to the corner.

"Oh aren't you the cutest little huffy, puffy, softy squirrel!" she gawked to the little critter as she hugged it, simply because of how adorable it looked, and felt,  in her grasp. The big round eyes of the animal looked up to her and it then pointed out to the little acorn in its claws.

"Oh my, you lost your nest, didn't you?"

The little critter nodded.

"Well don't you worry, there's a plenty of room in here." Fluttershy said before pushing up towards the edge of the ceiling where the many hoofmade nests laid hung up from. She gently dropped the little thing down onto the fake branch that stuck out from the wall,which acted out as a way to get up and down to the floor.

"Are you hungry? I've got some food th-"

But the squirrel didn't listen to her and instead went straight on inside one of the free ones. Fluttershy didn't mind this, thinking that the poor thing had a hard day behind it, and instead continued on with her schedule.

Inside the nest, the little squirrel laid down onto the hay bed laid out on the crammed up floor. Even though the space was very limited, with only the bed and a small hole for food, the critter was able to stretch out its claws out to get a look of the acorn about its size.

It glew in faint azure color, illuminating the room and making the shadows on the walls dance.

The squirrel wickedly smiled and chuckled.

"mISTRESS..."

The Bond

End of Arc I

Interlude I

Interlude I

Your author for this fiction here to mark out this important spot with some questions and answers.

How did we get here?

That one question has been with me throughout these past few months that I've written fanfiction here in Fimfiction. When I first started out in January (if I recall right) I instantly thought 'The Bond' would face the same fate as too many Human in Equestria -stories, meaning that they're instantly forgotten in the midst of other works and shot down to the deepest parts of Hell...

So I found it amazing that some of you actually enjoyed my crappy first chapter.

With that one faitfull move, you guys helped me to achieve this milestone of first arc done with 17 chapters about Nucleus, Alto and Maero in the land of Equestria. With me now nearing 80k words in total, I cannot help but to find it shocking it's actually me who has done this amount of work and to this genre so despited in certain circles...

So it's really dumbfounding to see this at over 1000 views on first chapter and 5200 in total.

Very, very dumbfounding....

I dunno, maybe it's just cause the fact I kept on going and not really stopping to think too much about it. Now, as I start to think more of it, I don't think I'll ever get the answer to it...

Have I gotten better?

My grammar was, and partially still is, very atrocious like you can read out from the first three to four chapters. Any other after those tends to be on the same level if you discard the latest ones.

But overall, it has gotten a lot better, at least according to what you guys have told me.

Anything I regret?

At this point, nothing thanks to the change I did with the start of the second chapter. Don't think I've forgotten that or any other unanswered stuff through out the story.

Although I tend to break the important rule of telling and not showing to you readers, so that's one thing I really regret of doing. But I doubt this has happened on many occasions as one of my goal in every chapter is to provide you with the proper, believable surroundings alongside with the expressions and emotions each of the characters deal with, minus some minor ones.

One another thing is the formatting of the lines, especially the dialogue and mind lines. At somepoint during the character specific ones, I seems to have tried to create some sort of 'three-strike' rule in order to cut down the lenght of the text. That... was disturbed in a bit as I wrote out my other stuff and it's visible in the last one.

Also the OOC moments; for example the first draft of chapter 6 had Twilight saying perhaps the worst line I've ever written for any none OC character. Also the dialogue of Rarity in chapter 14 with Nucleus... Lets just say I'm thankful that I've got amazing fellows pre-reading for these kind of silly mistakes.

Who's my favorite OC character?

By far, I think that either Nucleus or Maero deserves the spot. Now, I do love Alto as well, however his character isn't nearly as powerfull when it comes to these two. Nucleus was actually the first one that got drafted out, due to my initial plans involving him being the only main character and having Maero + Alto be only side characters.

Do tell who's your current favorite and we'll re-check on this in the next interlude in far future.

I also hope I don't anger any possible Alto fan out there :twilightsheepish:

But I'm also pleased over the personalities of Ditzy Doo and, particulary, Carrot Top seem to be fine with you. I was a bit worried over that many of you would be displeased over what kind of mare Carrot is, but it seems I was overworried.

What reasons I think made this story a succesful one?

Now, I'll let each and everyone of you think out this on your own. I cannot really tell why in the hay you guys keep coming back to read this perhaps a bit higher quality fiction. But I'd very much want to know what do you people overall think, so I can think ways to improve myself.

What are we to expect within the Arc 2?

Ahh, rather interesting question that needs an answer...

In short, somewhat different to what you've seen up to this point. Meaning you'll see a lot more physical action, emotional build-up and most importantly, the actual plot that was partially missing in the Arc 1.

Alas, I cannot really tell more as othewise this would be as long as one of my regular chapters and I don't want to spoil out anything.

Any major changes up ahead?

In fact, one really important and that is the update dates. As you presumably know, I try get a new chapter out once a week, sometimes a bit faster and too many times late.

This..... might see a change in pattern. It'll all depend on how I shall decide upon Sandstallion and this other shortish story (about 10 chapters). Nothing fully decided, but don't be surprised if I'll be taking a bit longer.

But I Pinkie Promise. the next one will be done by the start of next week :derpytongue2:

Still, this whole story isn't fully my work.

Many great people have been involved in the creation, so lets have them here shall we?

Glassed

You, my dear man, are one heck of a guy. The talks you and I have had...

I'm honoured you took a look, Glassed. Hope I've deemed my worth.

Also, sorry about those late day talks and I think many times you were too polite to ask me to shut up.

Mister Fluttershy

Although you were (almost always) late with your messages, they were funny to read and sometimes you even had good critique on certain aspects.

And hopefully you'll continue on doing it (not being late of course).

Silvarrn

*clap,clap,clap*

You deserve an applaude for your work in sorting out my early work and creating something coherent out of my word-soup. I really hope you'll be able to soon make a return to your work.

Here, Hydkore commands you to go and check out his work!

Meliron

Here, everybody, is a one damn fine editor. You've done really great job on fixing my stuff out in these latest chapters and otherwise for helping me to improve my writing skills. I swear, you need to sign up at the Proof reader group!

Oh, and if I see you try to fix this little interlude...

Stalin The Stallion

Huge thanks to you, my eastern comrade, for the amazing cover art you provided for this story and to ultimately design what the guys visually look like.

On note, here's actually an old concept art for the cover I found while dusting my image folder.

I think that pretty much covers out what I had in my head. If you have any other questions, hit them up in the comments and I'll answer to them, though I'm quite pessimistic :ajbemused:

One another subject concern is the first couple of chapters. As I mentioned earlier, their quality isn't anywhere near to what I nowadays write so I'm going to revise them a bit, just to make the text go more smoothly and not breaking the current OC characters mentalities a whole lot. I don't think it wouldn't take me too long, it's a rather more the grammar stuff, but I still would like to know what you people think, as I very much dislike the idea of tampering with stuff that's in the past, however it woud help out any possible new reader. Do note that this wouldn't require any back tracking, as I won't change anything relevant to the plot.

Now lastly, I intend to take a teenie-tiny break from writing The Bond, just to clear out my head.

...................

........................................................

................................................................................................................................. Pff, screw it.

I'll see you some time soon with the start of the second arc.

After all, I think most of you want to see the start for the friendship between the main guys and the mares, dont you?

But I'll leave you with a single warning...

Nothing thus far in this story has happened due to accident or sheer luck

.... Everything has a reason ....

-Hydkore-

Chapter 18 "Alto's Cool Day"

Chapter 18

Alto’s Cool Day

It was dark...

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

Yet still, it was dark...

But not for long.

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

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

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

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

In between those seven days, much has happened.

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

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

* * * * *

Morning routines.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

Man, Ditzy makes some damn fine food!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sorta like me and Mommy...

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

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

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

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

I mean...a man’s got his urges but...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who knew that flying was so fucking complicated?

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

“Yay!”

* * * * *

“Tick...Tick...Tick...Cling*

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

A friend...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And one minor fact, they all were mares.

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

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

Heh, not a chance.

Unless you’re like Ditzy, of course.

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

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

Despair.

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

Now to make my day....

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

“Rainbow, I’m here!” I shouted.

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

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

Ugh, why does it need to feel so good?

Seriously, not even jacking off fe-

…...Alto, you sick f-

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

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

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

And she looked at me with clear anger.

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

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

Maybe...

Okay, let’s give it a shot.

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

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

*Whump*

-as her two wings stiffened up to full length.

Yes!

Got my payba-

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

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

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

“You have pretty eyes...”

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

Oh goddammit!

Have to keep myself in line!

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

“What?! Cannot a man say-”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Alto, what’s wro-”

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

“OH SHIT, MY SWEET DINNER!”

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

I’m basically lusting to write :pinkiecrazy:

Chapter 19 "Nucleus's Studious Day

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.

Chapter 21 "Yet Another Ruined Day"

Chapter 21

Yet Another Ruined Day

Canterlot.

Many ponies, from ordinary folk to the talented Classical Era poets, had described her to others not bathed in her majestic glory. Although it's very rare for one to find anypony that has not seen those pure white walls of the millenium old city that circle her, protecting the homes of the vast pony population from any outside threat. Although many have tried, and some with minor success, none have been successful in an attempt to subdue the ivory city and the royal palace. Nonetheless peace was valued, and therefore wars were present only in history.

Being a capital, Canterlot held a significant position over other cities like Manehattan, Trottingham and Fillydelphia. Her age and wisdom guaranteed that her voice was the last to be heard on any dispute.

Wisdom was, exceptionally, one source for fame of the city known even in outside lands as the “Pearl of Knowledge”. Glamorous Canterlot Lyceum was the destination for the smartest individuals of ponykinds youth, many funded by Celestial stipendium programs. Even griffons and zebras had found their way to the musky lecture halls to be teached by best of the best.

But high education isn’t anything, if one doesn’t have proper materials or information.

And that’s where Royal Archives come in. Its mission was to provide any seeker with the answers either in advice or form of written word. Librarians of the place were highly honoured due to their ability to keep the place dusted up whilst somehow managing to file charges for anypony late with a book. The place wasn’t merely a huge library, it also stored vast amounts of artifacts from all periods of time and had been dubbed as the unofficial museum the city didn't have..

However it didn’t matter if the building was locked up and every entrance was guarded a guard squad. Mixture of both Solar and Nocturne guard units, working side by side.

By the front entrance, a hassle had already broken out as guards cleared up the yard. Even though the archives itself had been closed for the sixth day, the vast showcase gardens around it wasn’t. It was a popular hotspot for anyone to gather over and view the colorful plant life.

Luckily for the brigade, few civilians were present and they stayed at inaudibly muttering while leaving the place. It didn’t mean anything for the guards, as they then dropped down the red carpet and rolled it over, by the splashing fountain over to the now open oaken double doors. Then all of them formed on both sides of the carpet, on neat rows.

And they waited...

*Thump*

… until the large Royal Pegasi Chariot landed down on the yard.

“Attention!”

Everypony presented their arms, being unicorns armed with iron spears, and took a formal posture to form a honorary alley down the red carpet. All gazes were locked forward and no guard dared to move while their tall ruler passed by them.

Soon, the entrance to the Archives was re-locked.

And inside the main hall the white alicorn sighed in deep before venturing onwards inside the empty building. Full emphasis on empty, the only ponies present were the stationed guards at the alicorn clearly saw on her way down the well lit hallways. On sides were present many different glass exhibitions while windows opened up a view to the scientific greenhouse. It gave her a friendly reminder to visit her own private garden and plant that floret she had received from the Zebrican ambassador.

But Celestia quickly discarded her current thoughts as she came to her destination. It was an oval shaped hall with bookcases circling around, reaching over to the ceiling high above. There was, in fact, a movable platform powered by unicorn magic, mostly one of the librarians, that could be used to reach the top. Even if most of the visitors preferred to have the librarians bring the needed book or parchment brought to them. By the middle desks had been laid for ponies to read in peace and quiet.

However all but one desk remained and by it sat a dark blue alicorn.

“Sister,” Celestia greeted and stepped forward. “I see you’re still working.”

The younger alicorn didn’t answer and instead Celestia saw how her horn glowed in her teal magic. Then what looked like a mist left it in a form of cloud that trailed through the air over to one of the bookcases, engulfing it in the magical glow. A moment passed before the magic concentrated upon a single book that pulled out and soon pushed other book off the desk.

Just then Celestia noticed the piles of books over the floor “Well somepony has been working hard. But I don’t think the librarians would appreciate the mess you’ve caused.”

The other alicorn snorted “Why of course. What else did thee expect from us?” she briefly leered at her standing sister while the book laid open on the desk.

Celestia giggled and sat down next to her “Luna, you ought to learn some humour,” the younger alicorn rolled her eyes “A little bit of laughter helps to get through otherwise dull days. Take it from me, dear sister.”

“We highly doubt that. And what makes thou think we don’t know the art of humour?” to her dismay, Celestia widened her smile so Luna’s face dropped back to the book “Pray tell, was thou journey pleasant?”

Celestia kept smiling “As always. But if it’d be my choice, I would have stretched out my wings, but the Pegasi guard doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.” for a minute, the alicorn stayed quiet “The position of ruler does discard some forms of activities.”

“Mmh.”

The regal alicorn cocked her eye “Don’t say you agree with me Luna? If I’d need guess, you really love formal activities.”

For a moment Luna stopped the reading and shook her head “Don’t let our activities fool thou. Yes, we more than love these so-called ‘formal’ activities thou seem to very much despite. As or one, we like dancing, singing, midnight banquets...”

You have at least successfully charmed every youngster from all noble houses, Celestia thought behind her smile.

“...poem writing, painting, playing violin et cetera. These activities bring us much joy and peace, very much like the friendship reports thee occasionally receive and visits to the common folks. However;” then Luna’s gaze turned upwards and Celestia too looked. The whole ceiling was covered in a beautiful mosaic illustration resembling an astronomical map of Equestria’s night sky. It was very precise on scale and all known star formations were present.

“We like to put it on the tab of being the Princess of the Night, responsible for the nightly dance of the stars and the moon.”

Both alicorns continued to eye the top structure.

In the end, it was the oldest of them who broke it.

“I didn’t know you play violin.”

Now it was Luna’s turn to smile “And it came to our surprise thou love to play around in dirt.”

Common laughter filled the reading hall as both Princesses couldn’t holster themselves. But this didn’t last for long. As both of them calmed down, Luna turned her attention back on the open book.

Celestia sighed “So, have you found anything on either of subjects at matter?”

A page flipped by “Very mixed. Too much information deals with our demise and fall from grace. Most could be labelled as myths, speculations and ‘real’ history based on mouth to mouth traditions. Too shame, we merely found one manual scripture from Pre-Classical era that could be labeled useful and it was an unreadable showcase.”

Celestia closed her eyes “Its shame we cannot tell which are true or false... And the other subject?”

Luna leered at her “Only possible theory we can conjure is that they were, at some point in time, affected by dark magic. Possibly some old minion of... Hers that has been able to stay hidden since the Fall.”

“Questionable theory.” Celestia cut in.

“Yet very believable. It would explain the partial memory loss and the amount of energy present on that one day. Let us not forget that illusion conjuration doesn’t harm the surroundings and... thou knows how much She loves them. Its also supported by the notes from thee school’s magicians.”

The white alicorn nodded. Her best researchers on magic had been working nonstop in an attempt to make sense out of the strange magical activity. Even after a week of gruesome work, only one fact had been established:

The magic was purely dark.

“That’s... grave news indeed,” she said after some consideration of the idea something dangerous out there and after her little ponies. “Then, is there any information about this thing?”

Luna too nodded before pointing a hoof to a passage on the side “We moved texts deemed worthy for thou eyes there. We pray they’ll be useful.” she explained whilst returning to her book and Celestia stood up.

The way led past rows of shelves that followed the shape of the room, like the alicorn had noticed earlier. However what she had missed that the shelves continued further behind the front ones, leaving gaps for ponies to walk through. But as she saw, even the widest one she walked through proved to be a tight fit.

Not that I’m fat... I just like cake.

After she had passed three or four rows, the alicorn saw at the end a study desk and the literature piled on it.

The alicorn sighed and dropped her head.

But it doesn’t explain that odd... feeling.

I could swear upon my crown that there’s something mor-

Then Celestia noticed something.

The alicorn’s hooves stopped, but her eyes stayed locked on the stone floor and at the large folded scroll underneath her shadow. Her eyebrow cocked as she looked at her surroundings, and to see no other laying books neither scrolls laying around.

Luna must have been uncareful, the alicorn came to a conclusion. At the same time, her golden magic took ahold of the object and levitated it over to her before unfolding its purple tie.

Her eyes scrolled down the text.

Afterwards, some five minutes later, her mouth let out a screeching scream.

* * * * *

Back inside the library the baby dragon groaned as his back hit up against the fluffy pillow out of fatigue. For what had felt like an eternity, he had been conducting on his morning routines all around the household. It didn’t really differ much from his normal days, every morning he’d be the second to wake, yet still somehow first to touch the kitchen. And the laundry. And the mail. And last night's study books...

Nothing too out of normal there, Spike thought and rolled over in the velvet pillow, specially made for him by his secret love.No, it's because of him...

Wholesome of Spike’s routine had been utterly vanquished with the sudden addition of third resident. Suddenly his work size had been doubled and, what was worth Twilight refused to have him do any chores.

“That’s not what a good host does.” he mimicked Twilight’s reedy voice before snorting “Yeah, totally true to say by a mare taken care by a baby.”

Yet as he again rolled over his seat, he planted his head down on the purple fabric and let out muffled groan.

And worse, he has already wrapped a tiny, little hoof over my sweet Rarity. There’s no way I can outmatch his long horn.... that’s about it, a really long horn. Wonder what so appealing in them that has to be showcased in so many magazines... Maybe I could search for a spell that would give a really big and long horn, or ask Zecora if she’s got some sort of potion? Or wait, didn't Twi’ once mention a shrinking lotion?

Time passed by as he wondered his different possibilities to salvage his relationship. However, in the end, it fell down as the fatigue caught up to him. But he still couldn’t help but to smile victoriously and eye his little violet jar, with an image of a pony scratching itself. And at the mental image of the screaming silver unicorn jumping out of his bed in the upcoming night.

“Oh this is so great!” the snickering dragon exclaimed.

“Oh what is Spike?”

“Gah!” Spike screamed and instantly hid the powder jar only possible place, underneath himself, before turning over to look at the lavender unicorn, curiously eyeing the nervous dragon “Umm...No, nothin at all! It just..”

“Yes?” Twilight smiled.

“I was just...”Spike staggered to come up with an answer “Just... Oh yes, thinking how great it is that Nucleus and his friends are having their...”

“Picnic?” Twilight gently added and Spike nodded “I’m pretty sure they’re having the time of their lives eating those Apple sweets. Anyways, I’ll leave you up to nap, I still have to catch up some reading and cataloging new books.”

To this the dragon completely agreed upon and closed his eyes, feeling how exhausted he was.

But then, he felt an awful new feeling... around where the hard object was pressing against him.

*Knock, knock*

Twilight turned away from the sleeping dragon “Hmm, who could that be?” she wondered whilst walking over to the library door and opening it to reveal her yellow pegasus friend “Oh, good morning Fluttershy. Geez, aren’t you in town early today.”

The timid pegasus squealed “ Oh I am? I’m so sor-”

Twilight facehoofed, “Well don't’ just stand there. Come on in,” As both of the mares turned back to face the inside, the unicorn cleared her throat “Spike, could you kind-”

But her words slurred down to an incoherent mumbling.

Directly ahead of them, Spike was furiously dry humping the wooden steps railing and moaning loudly, his tongue hanging from side and waving in rhythm of the movement. Both of the mares turned red, yet continued to watch at the activity.

“Oh my...”

“SPIKE, WHAT THE HAY ARE YOU DOING?!”

* * * * *

“And that’s how I have spent my last days in Ponyville!” the dark blue pegasus wrapped up his talk and dropped on his back, in own words for ‘dramatic-effect’. But not on bare grass, but on a white-red checkered cloth. Quite a comfy feeling as the pegasus quickly noticed while he was stretching out his four hooves and giving a quick look up to the clear sky.

But beside him, the silver grey unicorn rubbed his face “My brains hurt...”

“What?” Alto Stratus shot back up to sit “Don’t tell me I hurt your little fancy pony brains with my past week’s activity?” he asked with a grin while gazing back at the piles of treats, laid open around the picnic cloth.

“I think you just did...” Nucleus whispered in pain before putting his glasses on “How, may I ask, could you be so stupid to think something like televisions in Equestria? And moreover, how come you never came to ask this stuff from me?”

The pegasus snorted “Just cause I saw few episodes of some girls show doesn’t instantly give me your nerd knowledge... No offence meant pal.”

“None taken,” the unicorn smiled and poured more cider from the jug “Although I do recall a certain someone cosplaying Sonic in a furry costume last Halloween.”

“A-anyways,” Alto quickly continued while Nucleus lazily shrugged and sipped the sweet liquid. “I honestly didn’t know this. And I didn’t really want to bother cause you've got your own shit to worry over. Is that magic stuff even coming out fine?”

The unicorn smirked and closed his eyes. Then Alto saw how his horn began to glow, in a bright teal like his pupils, and that same glow formed over his cider glass that floated over to his mouth.

“Sweet.” the pegasus whistled as Nucleus took a new sip “So anyways, you can just imagine me going shop to shop looking for a one and... form your own image.”

Nucleus did as told, and he couldn’t help but to see very desperate looking Alto zigzagging across the streets, from building to building and eyes growing wider with every visit.

Alto snorted at his friends grin “Yeah, yeah laugh all you want. But then, just as I had lost my hope and decided to head back over to the Creepy Ropes shope, I heard it.”

He then wrapped his hoof around Nucleus’s neck and waved a hoof up over to the sky.

“Button smashing...” he dramatically finished.

But it didn’t work on the unicorn, who rolled his eyes “And that’s how great Alto Stratus found the arcade machines of Ponyville and has spent all of his payment bits on them, beating highscore after another. Great job, my dear friend.” he retorted sarcastically.

“Ugh, loosen up your pants, mate. Of course I’ve put some money on the side. Do you honestly think I’m a total idiot?” Alto laughed before stuffing a huge piece of apple pie in his mouth.

“I stay from answering.”

“Spewf youf,” Alto muttered, bits of food flying all over, before he looked past the smiling unicorn and over to base of the tree, few feet away from where they had settled down for to eat. “Hey Maero, I seriously hope you ain’t sleeping there.”

Underneath the shadows of the young maple tree and leaning against the strong trunk, the maroon coated Earth pony didn’t respond. Besides him was laid a tray and a glass.

“Oh for fucks sake. Maero, wake up!”

But to his shock the huge pony’s head tilted and revealed his face “Mind keeping it down, somebody’s trying to sleep.”

“No we won’t,” Alto intentionally raised his tone and patted the spot next to him “Come on and join, was just about to talk about how shitty I’m doing with my flight training. And we still need to hear about your misadventures.”

But Maero shrugged “It’s been the same dull work on the two farms and delivering cargo around. Too bad for you, I haven’t done anything else,” he then pushed his straw hat deeper “Now, I seriously need to sl-”

Then something dropped directly on top of his head and rolled down on the side.

It was an acorn.

* * * * *

“So, wait, a book on animal diet?” Twilight said in a disbelief and her yellow friend nodded on other side of the table “But Fluttershy, you’re the most experienced animal caretaker I’ve ever met. How come you suddenly need a book on animal food?”

Her pegasus friend looked down at her tea cup, that Spike had served them couple of minutes earlier “Umm... well you see, there’s this new animal friend I’ve got. A squirrel. For the past days, he has refused to eat the food I’ve served for others. At first I thought it must have been adjustment, being in a new place, however it has gone on for a week so perhaps the problem lays with the food,” she then proceeded to look down “I mean... if its okay for you to look for-”

But Twilight giggled and stood up “Hang on, I think I recall seeing that sort of manual around. Just give me a minute.” the unicorn explained and left for backroom of the library, leaving Fluttershy alone by the table.

So Fluttershy waited by the table, and wondered about her new little friend.

And just how a strange animal he was. Not that it wouldn’t be odd, lots of animals she takes care of have tendency to act weird. However the squirrel had been a total black-hole for her; every morning as she opened the door, the poor thing would instantly dash out of the cottage and come back only by the late hours.

Maybe I should try to chat with it? Perhaps it just misses its home. I do recall how Angel used to-

But Fluttershy’s thoughts were cut short as she saw Twilight walk back to the main hall. She could see how two different books floated above the unicorn; one green covered and the other...

“Umm...Twilight?” Fluttershy whispered.

Twilight smiled as she stopped by the table and lowered the green one down on it “Oh yes, I found just what you’re looking for! This here list all possible little animals and their feeding habits and also where they’re met, so it should help you-”

“Twilight! Ups, I’m sorry...” Fluttershy squealed at her own sudden outburst and tried to hide behind her long mane.

“Hmm, what now?” the unicorn questioned, and so Fluttershy pointed her hoof behind her.

And the lavender unicorn turned.

Only to have her jaw drop.

Ahead of her and in mid-air, was that book. Nucleus’s book.

“In Celestia’s name.”Twilight muttered and gawked at same time at the sight. All she could see was the bok floating; there wasn’t anything visible holding it up. No magic aura. No nothing.

However the book didn’t stay put, more to her shock, and instead slowly moved throughout the air, closing towards the open window by the top.

As it flew out, Twilight shot out over to the front door and out to the library yard. Just in time to see the book exiting through the window before lowering back down to just a hoof length above her.

By the time Fluttershy too got out, she was met with...

“Fluttershy, gather rest of the girls!”

* * * * *

*Pant, pant*

“Holy shit, what the fuck man?!”

“Just run for Christ sake!”

* * * * *

“So, wait, why are we following this book?” asked the voice of Rainbow amongst the group of mares, all travelling along the road leading outside of Ponyville while at same time looking up upon at the laws of physics and magic breaking book.

Well except Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down with a smile on her face.

“Ah have to agree with Dash, just why are we all here?” Applejack too commented over to the lavender unicorn up ahead, just underneath the shadow of the book.

The question went unheard for her.

But not for Pinkie Pie.

“Well isn’t it obvious? That book there must some sort of super-duper-extra important book because Twilight can’t stop its movement with her magic, even if being the Element of Magic and ups, you all know that already, so anyways; she cannot stop it so duh, we have to follow it around aaaaaaaall over and over and over and over Ponyville until it decides to call quits, which is quite unlikely as we’ve been following it for, what, half hour already and it still goes on and on and on and on before the author of this silly story, who really ought to get ahold of his writing schedule, decides to shut me up for to tell that-”

The suddenly the book ahead dropped dead cold on ground and on top of the unicorn.

Yet she didn’t even flinch.

As she, amongst with her five friends saw something else.

* * * * *

“Gah!”

*Growl*

“Alex! You pieces of sh-”

“Alto!”

* * * * *

Everywhere they looked, all six of them saw the same mess. Smashed up food littered the ground, plates had been shattered apart, the cloth had been torn to shred and shot up the branches of the tree.

“Hold on... these look familiar.” Applejack commented as she examined the fabric with narrowed eyes “Sweet apples, this is our picnic blanket!”

“What?!” Twilight roared and galloped over to the orange mare “Are you absolutely sure?”

“Ah swear upon Apple family honor; this is our stuff all over here; this cloth, that basket over there, guess too those broken glasses too...” she paused for a moment, her horrified look dawning a realization as she looked upon rest of the girls.

“This... this is where Ah guided the fellows to,” the cowmare finally whispered and rest of them gave her a questioning look, so she quietly explained “Maero asked today for a good picnic spot, so Ah told him about this place. Peace and quiet, just close to town. Perfect place.”

“Well I think this now is more scrapped than perfect. I mean, just look over there. Somepony likes to waste some good food.” Pinkie Pie commented and pointed past Applejack. As everypony turned to look, they witnessed how bits of food formed what resembled very much a trail.

A trail leading inside a patch of woods close by.

* * * * *

“Ugh! Jesus...”

*Thump*

“Gah, hurts...”

*Growl*

“No, stay back!”

...Pathetic...

...Utterly pathetic...

“W-wha-”

...Please be quiet...

...And terribly sorry in advance...

* * * * *

I’ve been such a fool.

Celestia's eyes opened up, to see her younger sister looking down upon her, a shocked expression visible on her royal face.

“Sister! Art thou fine?!” she yelled from concern.

Laughter.

Luna looked upon with a shock how her older sister stood up.

The timid outburst didn’t end, instead became more powerful.

“Yes, yes I am,” Celestia smiled and lifted the open scroll up to air before folding it close “Now come, we must leave.”

* * * * *

Silence...

Nopony out of the group dared to utter a single word whilst passing the trees, crowding the area and laying shadows over the crumb trail. Leading the group was Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow, who all kept a firm look downwards.

“But ah don’t get it. Just what could have caused all this?” Applejack wondered under her breath, however it got picked up by the other two ponies.

“That I don’t know, however it must have obviously been something dangerous. At least based on  how wrecked that site was,” Twilight answered whilst looking up ahead “But the rather bigger question is why would they have escaped it? They are three grown stallions, I’d think any animal would rather avoid them than pick a fight.”

“Well,” Rainbow cut in and stretched her hooves with loud knacks “Whatever it is, it’s gonna get wrecked!”

“Ugh, how about you just check out what’s ahead, will you?” Applejack growled, and the cyan pegasus shot her a look before dashing over the bushes.

But over behind them, the three other mares stayed quiet. Rarity and Fluttershy as a pair, staying side to side to each other, whilst Pinkie Pie, at least according to her own words, ‘cleaned’ out after them.

Yet now the fashionista pony turned to look back, and shot a disgusted look at the pink pony “Ugh, Pinkie, do you need to do that?”

“What? But they do teach at the school not to litter the fragile nature, or at least something close to that. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to school, so I don’t really remember. I should probably also ask if they’ve decided to include cupcake making as a subject.” Pinkie Pie said while her tongue moved across her face, covered in frosting with straws of grass here and there.

Rarity groaned, both from Pinkie’s nonsensical words and at her goddess awful looks, making her wish she had her makeup kit.

“Umm... it is actually good. There are animals that shouldn’t eat anything sugary.” Fluttershy quietly whispered and hugged the book, that Twilight had entrusted to her, closer.

“See Rarity! But I do feel sorry for those poor little creatures! Not being able to eat sugar sounds bad, I can’tt even think it, which is odd because I’m doing it right now. Oh, and time for the plot to make-”

A scream rang out.

“Rainbow!” the five voices cried out and galloped forward.

Soon the group rushed past the bushes to see...

The cyan pegasus, now along with her five friends, stood at the edge of a little opening, in midst of an otherwise crammed up forest.

They couldn’t believe their eyes.

No... they didn’t want to believe their eyes.

Blood.

Blood everywhere.

Every possible corner, every possible spot of grass was tainted in the dark red liquid. Fresh without any doubt, although some had started to dry up under the sunlight from above.

Yet this was merely focused on the ground level.

Applejack and Rainbow both sat down.

“What in the hay...” Applejack muttered.

But what caught all of their attentions, was the purple, gooish substance that smeared all over. It surpassed even the blood, the goo dripping down from branches of the trees around the field and down the trunks. It smelt awful, to say the least, and gave the already sickening place an eerie feeling.

Rarity fainted, but was caught by the yellow pegasus, frozen from fear and her face had turned pale.

On the other hoof, Pinkie Pie gave a quick lick to the purple goo but instantly spit it out.

But Twilight Sparkle was already way ahead of them.

“Oh no...” she whispered as her eyes fell over to the centre.

Piled up and close to one another were the three stallions.

If the place left a bad taste, the three emotionless ponies had them nearly puke; all three had their coats smeared in mixture of goo and blood, disgusting onslaught of purple and red that got their nostrils itching. On the few cleans spots, black-purple bruises and bleeding cuts were present in common. They did vary on each, however it doesn’t really matter when dealing with mortal wounds.

In short, they looked more dead than alive.

As the unicorn mare carefully approached the three of them, she made a startling discovery.

It was Nucleus.

He had a Cutie Mark on himself.

* * * * *

It had taken them roughly ten minutes to reach the Ponyville hospital. Nucleus and Alto had been carried by Applejack along with Pinkie Pie, being the strongest out of the six, whilst Rarity’s and Twilight’s combined might was able to lift Maero up. At the same time, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had flown in advance to the hospital, and in fact by the time they had gotten to the road, a pegasus ambulance had caught up to them.

Now nearly half a hour had passed since the three stallions had been taken away by the medical staff. All doctors, the nurses had assured them, had been called up and were now doing their best to attend to them.

“Although,” the white mare with pink mare had staggered “They’re in very grave condition. They have lost very much blood. Too much, we need to make a blood transfer as soon as their conditions are stabilized.”

As soon as the nurse had finished her speech, another nurse appeared from the flip doors and said they needed her there.

And nopony had yet come back past those flip doors to inform them on the progress. So the mares were left with merely sitting on the waiting room, all alone and quiet side by side.

Yet out of them all, Applejack had it worst.

“Its all mah fault,” the orange pony muttered and clenched her hat with her front hooves “Ah should have never told them about that spot. Otherwise...”

Rarity besides her placed a hoof over her “Please, dear, don’t start that. How can you even say you’re responsible from this horrendous act?”

Fluttershy too placed her hoof over the sad mare “Please Applejack. Don’t let those kinds of thoughts come to you. I’m sure they too will agree that it wasn’t your fault.”

“If they will...” Applejack ominously said.

But on the opposite side, the cyan pegasus let out a snort “Of course they’ll survive AJ. And when they do, we’ll go to hunt those who did this and make them suffer double.”

“Yeah! I need to go and make some pies for the hunt!” but as the pink pony looked over, she got dull looks “Hih, sorry. Guess jokes aren’t meant to be said all the times.”

“Nah Pinkie,” Rainbow  took the party pony for a light bruise “If we need something, then that’s your jokes. But just don’t laugh the guys to death, okay?”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie giggled the sacred promise and the two punched their hooves together with a grin.

But one serious looking unicorn stood up from her seat “Girls, I need to go and inform Princess Celestia about this attack. If it’s possible, could you all-”

“I don’t think that will be necessary, my dear student.” a majestic voice boomed through the room and everypony turned to look at the regal white alicorn at the open door. But she wasn’t alone, close to her was her sister Luna and further behind them stood two guards, one from each of their respective Royal Guards units.

All six of the mares bowed to the two alicorns who walked in, whilst the two guards closed the door behind.

“Princess! But how-” Twilight began out but stopped as the white alicorn walked past her, and up to the flip doors.

“It was more luck than anything. We happened to be travelling to Ponyville but then we saw the commotion over here and...” the dark blue alicorn explained to the unicorn, who continued to eye the other alicorn by the door “Please, our sister.”

“Wait, you were on your way to Ponyville?” Twilight asked, and the Luna nodded “But why?”

“That is because we have made a very important discovery.”

All eyes turned to look back at Celestia, now facing the rest of the ponies, and all saw the scroll that floated by her horn.

“Luna;” the scroll flew over to the other alicorn “Would you kindly explain to them? I... I need a moment.”

She nodded as her own magic took the scroll, whilst Celestia sat down with her gaze averted downwards and everypony else too did the same. They watched as the alicorn pulled it open and opened her mouth.

“For sake of simplicity, I’ll translate this text to Modern Equenish” Luna quickly added before clearing her throat.

For too long, have we allowed our simplicity overtake our minds.

For too long, have we allowed vile thoughts ruin our image of each other.

For too long, have we allowed ourselves to be separated.

But now, as we stand here high a top on the great mountain, we are about to undertake a new step. One to mark the beginning of a new era. One to mark that we have left our past behind and undertook a change, to accept our differences.

Our goal is not, pray thee, to cause chaos or disorder.

Yet many dangers lurk throughout this beautiful land, ready to destroy anything sacred we all value, let it be the vast cloud fields, the nutritious lands or thou castle high atop on the mountains.

For none shall succeed.

As we all three tribes will stand together.

The proud Pegasi of the sky.

The diligent Earth Ponies of the ground.

The noble Unicorns of magic.

All united under a single belief.

That let there be not a single day from this day forward, where anypony would be seen underneath somepony else or high above from the rest. Instead, all ponies are born equal and serve the same noble cause of peace.

For us to survive, we need to learn how to live together.

As one race.

As one entity.

Everypony in the room had fell silent in progress of the speech, and stayed one too even as Luna paused.

A sniff.

All, expect Luna, gasped in shock as they saw how a single tear rolled down Celestia’s muzzle before dropping down on the hospital floor. Yet she was smiling, as her eyes let out a new one.

To further ratify our cause and our belief to it, a plan for the formation of a new council has been set up to see that we will not fall out of grace of this sacred promise.

This council shall represent all three tribes and shall guide us along with the Elements of Harmony.

And let this document, our sole legacy for future generations, to make our ideals come to life.

Signers

Sergeant Alto Stratus

Grand Pegasi Empire

Sir Maero

Earth Pony Union

Nucleus

Kingdom of Unicornia

Celestia and Luna

Elements of Harmony

“My dear friends, you have returned...” Celestia cried tears of joy.

A/N

Yeah, don’t really have anything to add. Left an awful cliffhanger and a lot explaining for the next chapter. And do keep an eye for that next update cause that’s when your chance to influence what will happen in future. :derpytongue2:

To also note, I’m currently going to finish an one-shot (about 60% finished) before even touching chapter 22, so I cannot promise you anything by this week... Miracles do tend to happen, however, as I’ve noticed.

Oh yeah, should probably go and finish Dawnguard now. Until next update :ajsmug:

PS: I'm in a need of pre-readers for that mentioned one-shot. Will be about 4k in size when finished. No need for editing skills, just an open mind and good eye for odd out-of-place lines. Either comment or PM me and I'll get back to you.

Chapter 22 "Bedside Manners"

Chapter 22

Bedside Manners

Compared to my friend’s phobia, something both Alex and Mike shared, the darkness didn’t scare me. I don’t know why, but it feels comforting to be in midst of never ending blackness. Peace, where no sounds but your own exist. Lonely, true, but I had always been that kind of a person to not be afraid of that.

But it didn’t make me feel good. Never has and never will.

Heh, not that it does really matter. In the end, we all will travel into the darkness alone.

If I could have grinned, I’d have done so as I recalled some of expressions people had given to me because of my ‘dark’ love.

Usually they’d ask about my dreams.

My answer had always been the same; I see none.

Yet here I was; in the zone of my mind.

The pain was gone.

My body was gone.

But my mind wasn't.

No, please don’t let it-

Then;

*Creek*

*Thump*

something heavy moved. Or rather opened, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned thus far, and that’s every creek marks a door opening, If it’s a high pitched, the door is a small and rather new.

This one was a low one.

Strange laws of physics... I must be learning from Pinkie Pie, I thought as I listened to same sound of door moving, followed by steps, Solid ones, not ones of clopping that hooves generated. Odd, they even echoed around when I listened to it closely enough..

Then they stopped and a low sigh rang out.

“Hmph, here again sleeping.” the new voice spoke out, and unmistakably female. But what I heard sounded not like anything I had ever heard before. It sounded rather raspy and loud, that gave it a powerful, commanding, feeling but nevertheless

But nevertheless very irritating.

Next I felt how I was poked with something pointed before feeling warm breath strike against my face. Followed by what sounded like a grimace.

“Come on Nucleus. Wake up!”

So my eyes opened. But not by my will. You could say I was a mere observer, unable to affect anything that was going to occur other than mind my own thoughts. Like my mind was disconnected from my joints. Yet I still could see and feel the soft piece of paper underneath my head. As my head rose, of course without my control, I got an image of some form of scroll, full of scriptures and passages, laying open on top of a purple carpet. Many silver stars, or that's what I believed them to be, shone on the dark surface. Nevertheless they all vanished away as my head tilted over to the left and...

A dark blue claw waved as the scaled being took a step back and covered it’s nostril “Jeesh, you smell like a rotten quartz!”

To be honest, it was really a shock to see a dark blue baby dragon standing on two legs and it’s arms crossed. And moreover, how similar resembles it bore to Spike in all bodily aspects but that the scales were deep blue except for the light blue stomach. Just as i started to wonder if all baby dragons looked the same, I was proven wrong. Even if it looked awfully similar to the purple drake, this one was had more slender aspects and, for example, the dark back spikes were... well, spiky looking. Narrowed and raggy, they formed something resembling a long hair down to tip of the short tail.

Lastly there was the eyelashes and that confirmed my assumption.

It was a female baby dragon.

“Sheesh, when was the last time you took a bath?!” she cried.

I felt how an yawn overtook me “Morning Sapphire, is it already a morning?” my mouth spoke on its own before a smile. A little bit creepy, if you ask me.

The dragon rolled her magenta eyes “You might want to know, that you missed the Change of Day,” she then reached down to pick up the open scroll and placed it over to the nearby desk. Otherwise as I got a decent look of the room, it looked as if a bedroom and a study had been combined into one. Kind of room Twilight would no doubt enjoy having.

But my smirk had vanished.

“Oh nononononono...” I mumbled and shot up to all fours, confirming I was still a pony, Then I ran over to the dragon Sapphire and, another surprise, threw her over to my back with a magic

The same colour of teal as with... mine.

Odd. Now that I think about it further, my tone also sounds familiar. Must be coincidence, or that I’m merely dreaming again. I swear, in this world you always have dreams when you sleep!

“Woah, hey watch it man. There’s only one me!” Sapphire retorted but I had already looked away to the end of the room.

Infact, just then I noticed I was wearing an outfit. An odd one; deep purple robe that had golden threads on edges of the smooth fabric up to to some form of neckband, that must’ve kept the thing together, and down to knees of my four hooves.

Hooves that suddenly shot off to a gallop, clops filling and echoing from the stone from up to bottom.

“Nucl-”

“Master will murder me!” my mouth howled in avail. The sensation of magic, something I faintly recalled to be some form of sense for the unicorns, filled my mind like pouring water as I saw the teal glow form over the wooden door. My speed stayed the same, even as the door stayed closed. But as I was about a hoof length away, it opened outwards with a weak squeal.

Past the stone frame and against the colour of green... wha-

“Ugh!” air escaped my lungs on the impact and I took few steps back from the sudden blow, rubbing my muzzle with a low whine. Something I’d be utterly ashamed of letting out... not that it mattered here. It wasn’t me speaking, after all.

No matter, as a loud laughter filled in and drowned my voices away. My silver hoof, as I saw, fell down and opened view of the now open door.

“So, the sleepy-head has finally awakened?” the unicorn by the door laughed out loud and the voice of cooing and bright hit my ears. But I still could pick a hint of sarcasm out of it. Just like in case of Sapphire, this voice too was strikingly female.

Yet still, her appearance caught my attention; moss green coat with shady spots over on the backside and on tip of each hoof. Falling over the lemon green eyes was a neatly cut light lavender mane, curving down to back like a cloak that left her neck in shadows. It was, and I know this sounds odd, but like if Rarity’s and Twilight’s mane styles would have been thrown in a blender. Navy blue streaks added in, both to the fancy mane and, strangely enough, on the bit shorter tail than I had seen on other mares.

I grimaced... for some unknown reason “Oh, morning to you too.” I spat out the words. Her laughter died down, ending in a tiny cough but the mare still kept smiling despite how coldly I had greeted her.

“If I was in your hooves, I’d drop that look.” She pointed out in a friendly tone and I sighed, my look turning away from her.

“Let me guess, Master wants to see me, doesn’t he?” I silently muttered.

Even though I didn’t see her, I could swear she was smiling “Yes, actually he was the one who sent me to wake you up but I should’ve guessed your assistant would get to you first,” I grimaced yet again before looking back to see her wink “However, there’s somepony else waiting for you to come. It actually includes you too, Sapphire.”

“Oh please let it be a jewel trader, oh please let it be a jewel trader...” the voice on my back mumbled over and over again.

Both of mine and the mare’s eyes simultaneously rolled “Don’t be offended, my dear friend, but may I remind that you eat gems daily.” I said in almost sarcastic tone, yet it felt more like a teasing.

“Pff, please,” I heard her snort and then felt how the little dragon lent herself on top of my head “Beautiful dragon, such as me, needs top quality gems to maintain her looks. Just think about it, Union and Empire visitors always have their eyes locked on me.” She explained in a tone that reminded me about a certain marshmallow fashionista.

“Or that might be because they’re used to seeing your kind, preferably, from a fixed distance.” I commented whilst looking up and to see the baby dragon spurr her tongue.

But a cough rang out and both of us almost simultaneously to stare at the green mare “So if you have finished your little chit-chat, we should really make our way to the throne room.

A knack hit against the back of my throat.

Throne room?

“The.. t-throne room?”

She looked at me for a while and then sighed in a defeat. Whomever I was replied with a smirk. I honestly didn’t find myself liking this guy, even if I was technically him. Well, okay, I can be sarcastic one in a while, but only if I knew the opposite end wouldn’t mind it.

Then the unicorn turned over and I saw her Cutie Mark.

It was strange. What I could grasp that it was a four leaf clover with some kind of aura surrounding it. Most likely magical kind, seeing that she was an unicorn and I faintly remembered reading that unicorn’s mark tells about their magical capabilities.

So... she’s lucky?

But before I got to further think about its meaning, she shook her head and slowly trotted outside of the room, disappearing around the corner and leaving me all alone. Or at least alone on a civil level, as I soon felt something hit the back of my head and I winced.

“Well come on, Nucleus. It has to be important.”

Thankfully my mouth stayed quiet except for a tiny breath and I followed after the mare. But as I neared the stony doorframe, I recalled something.

Something I maybe should have noted earlier.

Did she just call me Nucleus?

* * * * *

“Uhh...” the sore mouth let out a silent whisper, very raspy in tone. It was followed by a tongue that gave a quick lick on the dry lips before a groan, a lot louder one than the previous one, emerged.

“Mother of fuck...”

Alto Stratus was awake, and he wasn’t feeling the slightest fine. Even before he got to his eyes, he knew it was going to be something bad. For starters, he didn’t feel anything below his waist. Simple as that. Other than that, he felt like an absolute crap, unable to move none of limbs without feeling some form of pain. At least that’s how much he could gander from his condition on the first seconds he laid there.

As he tried to swear further, he finally felt just how dried up his throat was. The only thing that came out was a gargle and even that ended with Alto starting to fiercely, yet painfully, cough

“Please stay still.” he heard a gentle voice spoke out.

Wha-?, the pegasus though in a panic but then something touched his lips. Something cold and hard, but in a blink of eye his mouth was filled with a pure, clean water. The stallion eagerly drank it, but was only able to grab couple of gulps until he felt the glass leave his lips. It was also the first moment when he cracked open his eyes and got his first blurry visions of the surroundings. Or rather the large white thing over him, which he

Alto coughed again, although this time to clear his throat “Oh man... *cough* Hell it hurts... Hey, more water, please? ”

But he instead heard a faint laughter, but it sounded way too off to him. It was too... harmonic, that was word that popped up on Alto’s mind. Awkward, considering he usually thought of the total opposite. So he blinked and on each stroke his vision sharpened to see better the form.

A form that of a huge pony with massive wings and horn that put Nuc’s to shame. Those with a prestigious, nearly blinding, white coat and mane that waved colours of rainbow, although not like with the crazy cyan mare.

“How are you feeling, Alto Stratus?” Princess Celestia asked in her usual calm tone while placing the empty glass by the table, next to a water jug. The pegasus tried to raise his hoof, but it was no use. As he looked down at his lower body and he... well...

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!”

All of his four hooves were plastered up and therefore immobilized on the spot. And they weren’t alone; Alto saw how bandages also covered most of his body, and the parts that weren’t he saw bright red scars that looked ominous against his blue coat. However when he tried to get up, Celestia used her hood to push him back down.

“Hey, what are you-”

But the dark blue pegasus shut up when his eyes met with Celestia’s. There was just something in them that made him stop struggling and fall back on the bed. To make it worse, the alicorn shot to him a stern look that made him want to go sit on the corner and suffer from shame.

“I must ask you to stay down as the doctor requested. Your body is still in a terrible shape,” Celestia spoke to him but as soon as the stallion suffered from a new coughing strike, she smiled and used her golden magic to fill the glass “If anything, you should be thankful you’re even that well off.”

The pegasus snorted to her statement “Oh and I’m fine? Just look at me, I’ve must have broken every freaking bone in my body!” Alto retorted back and stared as Celestia levitated the drink to him.

Yet Celestia smiled as she watched him savour the precious fluid until she turned around, facing a door on the opposite wall to the bed. However Alto was too focused at his water to even notice her absence or even to give a better look at his surroundings.

That was prior to hearing a sound on his left.

Ugh, cannot a man have a drink in-

He turned to look over to its source, and his first reaction was to spit out his water.

Just a small gap away from him, laying on a separate metal bed like he, was an another pony in pretty much similar state as him; all bandaged up and such. On the other hand, this one had the head completely encased, there wasn’t even a string of mane visible, except for a small hole on front by the mouth and two sockets upper of them.

From which two blaring emerald eyes stared at him and Alto saw first glimpse of the maroon coat.

“...Maero?”

The large earth pony blinked and Alto let out a long drawn whistle.

“Damn man, you look horrible!”

Maero could only rolled his eyes.

However at the same moment, the white alicorn had made her way to the room door and even had opened it to reveal one of her personal pegasus guards. The pure white stallion, wearing a full set of golden armor, stood on a fixed stance in front of her and presented a piece of scrap paper. Celestia grabbed it with her magic and went on reading it through.

As she finished, she sighed “I see... sent message to Canterlot and have them bring somepony experienced with this subject. Code Yellow, take a royal chariot with you.”

She then paused and added “It’s absolutely vital that the doctor comes as fast as possible. Am I understood?” The guard nodded and closed the door. Celestia heard how then hasty clops started to fade away, so she smiled whilst using her magic to cause the note to disappear in a tiny flash.

Over at the beds, the two stallions had by now both turned back to look at her. Or at least Alto had, seeing that he was able to at least move his head around unlike Maero.

“Umm, so if we are here,” Alto started out as he watched Celestia slowly walk back at them “Then where’s Nuc’?”

Celestia stopped in front of them.

“There’s something you need to know about Sir Nucleus.”

The stallions with each other shared a common curious look.

* * * * *

Is it really true?

One of the many question that dominated the thoughts of Princess Luna. One of many, that moon goddess sought to get answers to when the chance would arise; let it be her dear sister with her memories one of them.

Them.

Just how much had changed due to them.

The alicorn tried to clear her head.

No, it doesn’t matter now, Luna reasoned with herself. A flawed attempt, but she did grasp a sense of peace. Something she very much needed on the spot. For what it was worth, even a minute of calmness on this otherwise wrecked day would-

“Are you alright, ma’am?” the alicorn returned back to reality and looked to her left. The speaker was a dark grey mare wearing with an indigo mane and violaceous armor of Luna’s personal bodyguard unit. the Twilight Guard. The pony was one of the many bad winged pegasi that served underneath her command.

Luna, whose emotions were hidden behind a serious face, shook her head “Yes, lietnantent, We are. But We thank thee for thy concern.” she lied to the guard before returning to look forward. To other side of the glass panel, that mirrored both hers and the guard’s images.

The mare saluted “Very well, ma’am. Just wanted to check on your wellbeing and to inform that Her Royal Highness Celestia has summoned the royal physician to treat on the patient,” the guard too looked through the panel “Does your highness have a word to say before the request is sent out?”

But the princess stayed quiet.

“Ma’am? Your response?”

The window opened a clear view inside a quite large room, filled with nothing else but a single bed alongside with some hospital equipment Luna didn’t recognize. Odd size was due to the room was actually an operating room, as the hospital staff had deemed it was too risky to try and move the critical patient.

The unicorn named Nucleus. The stallion laid on the clean bed , surrounded by machines that kept an eye on his condition and made it sure it wouldn’t get any worse. But even though of this, first look on the stallion would fool you; the stallion’s only visible wounds were minor cuts and slightly bleeding scars, yet it was visibly nothing too bad. Luna gave her respects for the hospital staff’s achievement, although the alicorn knew it was pretty much ineffective.

For Nucleus’s wounds were in his mind.

Should I really know who you three are, like my sister?

“Ma’am-”

The dark alicorn bore into a faint laughter.

“M-ma’am?” the guard staggered as she watched her commander try and stifle out the laughter.

Luna smiled “We have nothing to add. Thou art dismissed.” the lieutenant's saluted sharply and headed off to give the green light for the royal pegasus messenger. However she still heard the faint laughter of her commander’s for the whole way through until she made it out of the hallway.

* * * * *

“...You’ve gotta be kidding me, right?”

Celestia, now sitting on a chair she had teleported for her comfort, shook her head to Alto “I speak nothing but the solemn truth. Why would I do otherwise?”

“Oh, I don’t know, perhaps to get couple of free laughs?” the pegasus snorted abruptly “Why else would you tell me that one of my bestest friends is on some kind of dibbly.-wibbly, magical wabby coma?!”

“The proper term is Unicorn Slumber, my dear friend.” Celestia cut in but got a cold look back from the pegasus in question.

“Pff, it doesn’t matter. So then how about you refresh me on how he then got into it? Huh, can you say something on that?!”

The alicorn glanced over to the other bed in order to see whatever Maero was like, But the maroon earth pony seemed to be on his own world, his pair of green eyes locked on the ceiling and otherwise gave no indication but that of the raspy breathing.

“It’s an universal fact that unicorns produce raw magic inside their bodies, which they then can refine into what we call spells and other methods of conjuration,” for a given example, Celestia raised her hoof up and a dim ball of light lit up out of nowhere “Most of the times the spells unicorns use on daily basis only use a fraction of the magic reserves in their bodies.”

The ball of light then vanished, like it had never existed before.

“But if that supply of magic was to run out, it can have serious outcomes.” Her look was serious, as she focused at Alto “Bluntly put, your friend exceeded his already short limits and his body couldn’t handle it.”

The pegasus was a quiet for a moment, as he tried  to make sense out of the situation. There he was, suddenly back inside the hospital but on even crappier condition than last time and this time with the goddess ruler of the ponies explaining to him something he didn’t really give a crap about.

Well, except for one question;

“So... will he come out fine or...” he started out, but didn’t get to finish before Celestia nodded.

“Yes, he’ll come out of it eventually. Although the condition itself is very rare, thankfully the Unicorn Slumberis  well known and number of different treatments have been developed to hasten the recovery.” said the glamorous alicorn before giving a hopeful look at the closed door “Now, I think there’s some ponies who’d like to meet you.”

With that said, the door enveloped in her magical glow and the lock swiftly opened. Alto too turned to stare at the open doorway, while Maero was still locked at staring upwards, his face shield underneath the wrappings. But it was no more than a second, until-

*Boom*

“Wohoo, awesome job guys, really awesome that SEE, get it, it’s a joke? Anyways, where was I, uh, at explaining why were having a duperly sweet surprise party-ups, now I spoiled out the fun! Oh well, it’s not like you neither the readers will remember it because the writer’s a reeeeally lazy, little bit like Spike whenever he’s not--”

“Pinkie!” cried the united chorus of Twilight and Rainbow at their pink friend, resting on top of her trusty canon. She shot them a wide grin and laughter before quickly bucking the canon out of the room, just as Twilight bowed to her mentor alongside with her pegasus friend.

“I’m sorry, Princess. Rainbow and I tried to keep her calm but-”

The alicorn laughed as she swiped some of the confetti off her forehead “It doesn’t matter. Besides, dear Pinkie Pie does make a good point; this does indeed call for celebration.” Celestia nodded towards the smiling pink pony “But for now I beg you to not to do that again, for sake of everypony’s ears.”

“Yeah, I agree.” muttered Alto from under the colorful paper scraps “Now could someone get these things off me?!”

“Uhh, somepony woke on wrong side of the bed,” Pinkie Pie hopped by Alto’s bed and trashed the confetti off to a conventionally near bin, which Alto swore he had not seen a moment ago “Well, that’s if you could really move. How else would you end up on the wrong side if you’re not even able to lift a hoof. Silly me!”

The stallion rolled his eyes and turned to look at the other two mares, standing next to his bed “Uhh, so how come you three are here? Did... sorry, Celestia, call you here or what?”

“Well actually-” Twilight started out, but before she got further, Rainbow shot up between her and the bed.

“Alright, so who did this to you guys?”

“Uhhh,what?” Alto managed to mutter before the cyan pegasus was up on her back legs and started to punch the air.

“Just say who it was, and I’ll swear it he or she or whatever won’t even see me charging and giving them some sweet justice!” she performed a set of punching moves until flying back to the laying stallion, giving him a confident grin “I mean, not that it makes you less cooler or anything, even if you got your sorry flanks kicked by somepony.”

“...Look, I don’t know what you’ve smoked, but last time I checked my head-”

A pause.

“Alto, you all right? the cyan pegasus asked.

But Rainbow’s question went to deaf ears. The dark blue pegasus continued to stare forward, as his yellow eyes shrunk to a small dots. His coat started to get a bit pale around the cheeks and tiny bits of shivering were visible, as each of the ponies noticed.

“Hey, what is it?” Rainbow tried to talk with him while Celestia stood up from her stool, aware that something wasn’t right with the pegasus. And there definitely wasn’t, as it looked like all blood had run down from his face.

“Stand aside.” the alicorn ordered and the cyan pegasus flew away, her spot replaced by Celestia “Alto Stratus, it is vital that you answer truthfully. Do you understand me?”

“I-I... I d-don’t...” the shaken Alto tried to talk, but his mouth failed to follow, making him stutter uncontrollably. In following of this discovery, the alicorn leaned closer towards the stallion’s head.

“Alto Stratus; are you afraid?” Celestia whispered in his ear.

He winced, and it was more than enough for Celestia, who then proceeded to hug him “Shh, it’s alright,” as she pushed away, she let her long, white horn touch the dark blue forehead and it glew in ominous manner “Now sleep, my dear friend.”

And like on a cue, the pegasus fell asleep; his eyelids fell down and overall calmness over took over. Celestia withdrew away from him, and was met with clueless looks from her personal student and her friends.

“Princess-”

“I’m sorry Twilight, but it would be wise not to talk quite just yet,” Celestia then turned over, facing the second bed in the room and it’s everso quite resident. However as the alicorn noticed, his eyes were no longer locked onto the ceiling and instead gazed into hers. It was a look she couldn’t read, outside of the fact just how... markless it was. It was like the stallion didn’t even try to hide the fact he couldn’t have cared less for what was going on.

“Maero, am I wrong to think you too don’t remember how you obtained your wounds? Blink if you agree.”

A lazy blink. She took notice that the stallion’s reaction was far off from that of Alto’s.

Celestia closed her eyes “As I suspected... do you mind if I cast on you the same sleeping spell? It’ll grant you a goodnight’s sleep and you’ll be awake by tomorrow morning.”

Maero didn’t say anything, or rather let out any kind of voice, but neither didn’t object it. Therefore the alicorn touched him with her horn and the same kind of sparkles as earlier took over the earth pony’s rugged body.

After she was sure he was asleep, the princess turned to look back at Twilight and her two friends “Twilight, do you trust me?” without hesitation the lavender unicorn nodded “Then I must ask you and the other Elements not to speak about our discovery with neither Alto nor Maero.”

“Huh, how come?” asked Rainbow and Celestia let out a long sigh.

“I’ve got my reason, but Twilight, what do you know about illusion magic?”

The unicorn in question cocked her eyebrow “Umm, well it’s a type of magic that can create false images or otherwise, mind my term, screw up minds which it’s cast upon. It’s mostly harmless stuff, used by many stage actors and such to enchant their acts for couple of laughs, but for example if the caster isn't careful, well... damage can be dealt.”

“Good example would be your ‘Want it need it’ -spell.” replied Celestia and smiled as two dots of crimson appeared on her students face “But yes, that’s the core of illusion magic; affecting others minds.”

“Yeah, but what does it have to do with this?” Rainbow again spoke up but was met with a hiss of disapproval from her unicorn friend. Still, the white alicorn shook her head.

“It sadly looks likes both Alto and Maero, perhaps even Nucleus, have been affected by it; specifically the parts of their attacker.”

“Attacker?” Twilight said as she turned away from, somewhat frustrated, Rainbow “Princess, do you know something about this?”

“My dear student,” the alicorn paused for a moment “I’d like to answer, but I’ve only got a theory. Albeit a shaky one, but nevertheless the closest I’ve managed to form.”

“Then please tell us!” Twilight retorted, but instantly fell back “T-that is of course if you want to.” the ashamed unicorn muttered quietly to her mentor, who was looking over her shoulder, back at the two beds.

“It’s alright and I think you deserve to know about my ideas too” she couldn’t keep herself from smiling, as she saw and heard how Alto snored out very loud. “Do you three remember what my dear sister spoke to you about near week ago?” all three of them nodded, even though it went unnoticed by Celestia.

“Well, let’s just say there might have been some truth behind her words.” With that her head dropped and a wheeze escaped between her lips “It’s more than likely that we’ve got a minion of Nightmare Moon on loose.”

* * * * *

Just what is this place?

It’s was legitimately my sole thought, as mine body kept on trotting down the hallways. For once, everywhere I looked, I saw nothing but crude stone brick walls with an occasional coloured banners that at least offered some kind of change. Second, it was mostly... unfinished looking? Or that’s what I at least assumed when we passed by a group of earth ponies, combination of both mares and stallions with dirty aprons, who used their magic to carry with them masonry tools.

If I would have been able to rub my chin, I’d have done so.

Hmm... well, perhaps inside some kind of fortress? Then again I really haven’t seen any guards or so around, not to mention the decorations I’ve seen thus far. What about a manor? No, that doesn’t seem likely either, as I’ve been walking around for like an eternity and-

My thoughts were abruptly cut, as I felt a weight leave my back. My head turned to see that the dragon Sapphire was not standing besides me. She fondled her back spikes with her claw, like she was nervous about something.

“Hmm, what is it?” I asked whilst continuing my walking. I heard how the dragon too followed after me, her smaller legs needing to run to keep it up with me.

“I just... look Nuc’, I’ll be honest with you; I don’t like the sound of this. Like at all.”

“Then you’re not alone,” my eyes averted back to her “there’s definitely something odd going on. But for now, let’s just focus on the matter at hoof.”

“...Well, at least it looks like the work around the castle is finally finished. If anything, those earth ponies sure know how to craft stone and build with it.”

Castle? Now that actually does make sense. Okay, so I’m in a castle, but just in what castle?

As I looked away, I also... snorted? Like there was something in her words that got whomever I was disgusted or something close to that. It left me totally confused, which might have been a bad thing since I was a bit dazzled to find out I had stopped in front of closed doors.

And then they opened up.

What in the-

The room was... no, it was not a room. Calling it a room would be the worst understatement, as it was enough wide and tall to fit more than one normal single house. Maybe even the freaking town hall. Otherwise the place was nothing but spectacular, with pure white walls and large round mosaic windows that shed light of the morning sun inside, bathing the place in various bits of breathtaking colours. It was especially magnificent looking when I saw the long columns, on each side of the hall, that stretched up to the heights of the ceiling, hidden in shadows.

Simply beautiful, I had no other words for it.

A gentle laughter then rang out “Well, somepony’s certainly liking what he’s seeing.” the voice said in a pleasant manner.

My eyes focused on the far end of the room and there I saw, sitting on a what looked awfully like a sofa, a shallow white unicorn mare with a long golden locks, styled to fall down on a curly manner. Otherwise the pony was wearing a dark violet cloak, which covered downer parts of her body, that was kept together by a purple gem on the chest. On her head rested a large silver crown with same kind of violet gems encrusted in it.

She smiled in an eerie manner, as I approached her along with Sapphire “But oh, don’t feel ashamed of thee reaction. For many of spoken the same when they’ve entered in here, to new heart of our kingdom.” the mare explained as she threw her hooves in the air and rolled on the paddings “Oh how delightful it’ll be when everypony gets to see this!”

Hang on, a kingdom?

As I stopped in front of the mare, I was not surprised when I bowed to her in a stick manner along with my dragon companion “It’s good to know your Highness is pleased with the constructions thus far,” as I got back up, I saw that on her side stood none other than the dark green unicorn with a clover as cutie mark. But there was somepony else next to her; an unicorn stallion with a white coat and long grey mane along with same toned beard that touched marble beneath him. Around her neck hung some kind of medallion, but I really couldn’t make out anything else of it.

But it wasn’t what really caught my attention. No, it was the cloak and a tall fedora kind of hat he was was wearing. They both were stitched from deep blue fabric with stars and other astronomical symbols on it. Both of the clothings had multiple jingle bells attached on the edges.

For I recognized that outfit.

No... no way...

“Ah, master.” I bowed again to the older stallion, who raised his pale hoof to me.

“So you slept out again, didn’t you?” I felt how my ears fell down, however I saw him smiling “Now tell me, what have we talked about late night studying and missing out on your responsibilities as an unicorn?”

My throat felt brutally dry all of sudden and I gulped to clear it out “W-well... it was just that... I found this very interesting spell tome with transmutation theses and-

“No, no need to go further.” the older stallion said and I fell quiet as he sighed “Nucleus, for the last time, it’s not good that you keep on doing this. It’s good that you have an active mind and want to study, but when it starts to harm your daily life, no good comes forth. For sake of my rotten beard, if it wasn’t for Sapphire, you’d have starved to death inside your room!”

Sapphire giggled innocently, however stopped as I looked  down upon her.

But then the mare laying on the sofa yawned “Look, are you two done? I’m still to explain why I’ve summoned him here and I’m soon bound to taking my royal nap.”

“Wait,” I cocked my eyebrow and pointed my hoof at the white stallion “So it wasn’t you who summoned me? But why then-”

The stallion laughed “Oh, let’s just say I too was summoned here but for a totally different reason.” he turned to stare at the green mare next to him “It’s was dear Clover here who requested I attend this so called important meeting.”

…. what? Clover?

She too smiled, however in a manner that was more unsettling than easing. Like she knew something I-no, the whomever I was should have perhaps known. But the little thoughts I had were distributed when another loud yawn from the crowned pony sounded over

“Now that you’re done, I’d like to finally have my turn on talking.” She too smiled to me, but this was more likely due to her being happy about something else “I’m happy to inform that you, Nucleus, the nephew and apprentice of the royal mage Starswirl, have been chosen on an important royal mission.”

…. this is awkwardly redundant, but WHAT?!

However when I stared at her, I saw something else.

Fog.

Fog that slowly took over everything and everyone, enclosing everything on it’s smoky depths.

Blinding fog.

Everything ceased to exists.

A/N

It took me way too long to write this, didn’t it? Also my apologies for any grammar errors; my editor's current unavaible.

Chapter 1 "Pals"

Chapter 1

Pals

Taking a sip from my hot chocolate filled cup, I stared outside of the front window of the local hot-spot cafe. Outside the snow kept falling from the sky in a blizzard, covering the road with its cold white substances. Bored, I gazed around rest of the cafe to see if my friends have arrived and, of course, they hadn't yet arrived. Sighing deeply, I took another sip from the cup while at the same time checking over my smartphone.

There was a message from Mike:

on way with alex just wait

Letting myself have a grin, I answered them that I was sitting on our regular table and that would need to hurry up as my chocolate was getting cold along with my mood.

Looking again around the cafe, I noticed that there were only two people in here: me and the owner. I decided to order three hot chocolate to me and my friends, as they would need something to warm themselves with. While waiting for the order to be filled, I asked that was the wifi still on, so that I could go online. The owner said that the web has been down the whole day because of the weather. I frowned, but accepted the fact and paid for the chocolates. Sitting on the table, I thought about the past year and how it had turned up as I was on the second year of my sixth form. In the end, there were only two things that had made up the year:

Studying and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

It has been about six months since I started to watch the cartoon that was intended for pre-school girls.

It has been four months since I was into the show.

It has been two months, that I started to call myself "brony".

At first, I was ashamed of myself for even thinking about the show. But soon I grew to an understanding, that it was the show that kept me running during these dark months of depression when we would have only three hours of light per day. Besides it's not like I care even if Fox News claimed that it wasn’t normal to be a brony. To me, it felt awfully comforting.

The cafe door opened.

I didn't even need to look who was there. Soon my best friends Mike and Alex joined me on the table, happily accepting the chocolates that I had ordered for them.

I gazed upon my lifelong friends. We had experienced so much in these eight years, from the long days of the summer vacation to the snowy winter holidays when we would compare our gifts that Santa had left us. I grinned to my thinking, just when had I become emotional? Perhaps after I started to watch the...

I didn't get to finish thinking as leered at Mike, who started to talk about the party we planned to go

Mike stood up the most from our little gang. He wore an beat up leather jacket of his fathers with blue jeans that were also not in good condition. He also wore a woolen cap and you could see his trademark headphones sticking out from the sides. I swore that he wore them everywhere, even in bed and through the night. Also he is the only person that knew that I'm a brony and I was also surprised to find out that he also had watched the first couple of episodes from season one, but had quit after that. In person, he was the most social one of us with a zone of friends like no other, even though being overweight and shorter than most people. That's what I liked in him the most; he didn't care if someone laughed behind his back and instead he looked only into the future, not thinking about the past that much.

Alex also got into the discussion, talking about his studies and how he was unsure he could get some free time to come with us.

Alex was the thinnest and the most elegant of us, always wearing his trademark felt hat, you know, like the one Notch has. As an under shirt he wore a grey blazer with jeans that looked like top notch quality. As you might have guessed, Alex was the "charm" of the group with his always model like clothes. That seemed odd as he spent most of his time studying, playing Skyrim or planning our next tabletop rpg game session. You could say he was the "healer" of our group, keeping us together through hard times and making the best cupcakes to mend the wounds.

I was surprised to find that my pals were looking at me with worried expressions

"You okay dude? You haven't said a thing since we arrived." Mike said while leaning over the table.

"I'm okay, I was just thinking of the today’s party." I hastily answered and it seemed to be good enough, as Mike leaned back and relaxed, while taking a sip from the chocolate. But it seemed that Alex wasn't satisfied enough.

"You know that you think too much don't you?"

I sighed, as I yet again found myself confronted about my personality.

"How about you tell me what I look like to you and what I should change?" I replied to Alex without looking at him, while adjusting my glasses.

With a little chuckle, Alex leaned back and started talking.

"Well let’s see... You're a seventeen years old student that likes video games, is overweight, reads a lot, wears always the same black sweater and black jean.."

”I change them twice a week"

Alex gave me a stare before continuing "As I was saying, who always wears the same clothes, spends most of his time in internet and doing god knows what else."

A second ticked by as I leered up at him, digressing his little speech while both him and Mike were laughing at my express like on many occasions. In the end, I sighed and reached out to my pocket and took out my phone.

And as it fired up, I instantly swore as I saw that the clock was already over four.

Oh crap!

Not good...

"Look, I need to go to my apartment to change my clothes. So we're going to meet at the party?" I asked from my friends, who also stood up and started to put their jackets on. I stated to them, that it wasn't necessary for them to come with me, but they insisted and Mike said

”I don't need to change my clothes and so doesn't Alex. It's not like we haven't better things to do than wait for the night." Alex nodded in agreement and I didn't mind having a company. In a minute we were off to my apartment in a hour walk away from the cafe.

We walked down the street, chatting about all kinds of stuff from girls to simple, petty arguments about what was the best race in Skyrim, something I had started to digress as soon as I had finished up the game with my Argonian magician but it was still funny to listen... at least in short sessions.

I chuckled. Even though we were close to each other, we knew that one day this all would stop and we would grow up from his friendship even if it was this magical.

The three of us knew it, but we didn't bring up at any point, hoping that it would never happen.

I wish we wouldn't never separate, no matter what happens

By the time we got to the old part of the town, where the new road turned into a cobblestone one, the snow storm suddenly increased in ferocity as the tiny ice particles scratched up my bare skin, no matter how I tried to cover it up.

Strange...

The forecast had promised good weather by the evening.

Besides me, I heard a faint sneeze “Jesus, it’s blowing hard, haha; get it?”

Alex grunted at Mike’s poop joke and instead grabbed his hat so it wouldn’t fly away while also flipping the neck piece over his mouth. In the midst, he tried to give a look of concern, but it went partially unnoted as the snow now blurred my eyesight as my glasses got wet.

Then, I heard a voice.

I froze in the steps, along with Alex and Mike who perhaps had also heard the odd voice somewhere near us, but as we turned around, the snow had us completely cut out of from rest of the world.

The voice rang out once again, only now a lot more clear and a bit like a motor-

My eyes shut open as I now saw a pair of lights shine through the storm.

Pointed directly at us...

"GET OUT OF TH..."

The van hit us with its full force, making us fly to the sides of the road.

I don't know how long I was unconscious, but when I woke up, I was immediately struck with intense pain like none other I had ever experienced in my life, not even when my arm was broken.

I tried to breath but it was in vain, as I felt a jolt pass through me, leaving me completely paralyzed, unable to move even an inch not to mention even trying to get up

My eyesight was getting blurry as I had lost my glasses in the flow. To my fear, the corners of my eye started to get darker.

Then, to my surprise, I grinned.

So this was it...

I would die on this road as an seventeen years old whit my friends somewhere near me in same or worse condition.

I couldn't bring myself to crying like you would believe one would do in this situation.

I......just accepted the fact that I was going to die.

I had never in my life believed in an upper being following our lives, so I didn't believe in heaven either hell.

Now, I don't what to believe in...

My eyesight was nearly gone and I was losing badly against the pawns closing up on me.

In the end I just gave up, coming to the conclusion that fighting back was useless, and let myself have the sleep my body so demanded. Then again, I knew I would never wake up again.

Last breath left me...

The eyelids fell down...

Dark...

Chapter 6 "Crashing in"

Chapter 6

Crashing in

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS PICNIC ORGANIZERS!"

The tree fillies that compromised the Crusaders galloped furiously towards the popular spot in the field just outside of Ponyville, where many local ponies went to spend time on weekends and on special occasions. Today though they were the only ones around, as it was a normal week day; well not for them as they had a day free from Cheerilee's class, due to personal reasons. The fillies: Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, had decided that perhaps organizing a picnic would get them their Cutie Marks. It also helped that Apple Blooms big sister Applejack agreed on this and had helped them to come up with enough goods to fill the basket near a breaking point.

There was just a one catch..

"Oh what a beautiful day for studying." the violet-purple unicorn said while levitating her saddlepack off her back, which was filled with couple of books. The fillies simultaneously groaned in agony, as they had feared she would say that and ruin their plans for having fun by subduing them with studying

It wasn't like Twilight intented to be boring; she loved studying and cause her subject was friendship, she was more than eager to keep a watch over the three best friends when Applejack had asked to. Besides, she needed a day off from the normal daily routine. Spike had of course wanted to join in, but he still a lot of unfinished chores left, so Twilight had forbidden him from coming and mentioned that yesterday he had the whole afternoon free. Twilight felt little sad for having left her assistant behind, but knew she had to be strict when it came to being a mother figure for Spike.

As the Crusaders started to unfold the blanket and serve the many Apple family goods, they immediately started to talk about their usual stuff: planning the future attempts to get their Cutie Marks.

Twilight just giggled on some of the ideas the fillies came up with while at the same time reading one of her many books and tasting the many home baked goods the Apple family were so famous for. She could remember just before she and the Crusaders had left, Applejack had asked to Keep em out of trouble.

"Silly Applejack. What could possibly happen in such an gorgeous days?"

* * * * *

"Shit I'm so tireeeeed!" Mike said, stretching the last word to mark his agony.

"Don't forget the hunger." I responded to him, perhaps a little too cheerfully, as I could hear Mike groan in defeat and soon my stomach followed him, echoing its lack of food.

Still, I couldn't agree more with Mike. As we had now walked for another hour or so, both of us were tired nearly to the point of passing out. And it also didn't help that we both had to help Alex to walk, so our travelling speed was dramatically reduced, but luckily the fields were mostly clear and flat, so no extra energy had to be put on walking over hills. Still, neither me nor Mike blamed him for this, not after what he had to go through other night. I couldn't help but to recall what had happened then and I would have wanted to know what Alex's mind had been doing during then; but I respected his feelings, so I kept myself in line and didn't ask anything. In regards, Alex didn't blame me for causing his current condition.

By now, Alex had gotten so bad, that he struggled to keep himself aware of his surroundings. It wasn't the infection that caused this, but the deep hunger his body went through, as it desperately needed more energy than an already bitten apple could provide. His body craved for it and I felt little guilty I couldn't provide it...

Looking back at Mike, I could see that he was leaning on the other side of the tree. We had decided to take a break about ten minutes ago and both of us just wanted to relax before having to carry our big friend again. Turning to the other side, I could see that Alex was sleeping; I couldn't help but to smile at the sight, as he seemed so calm, even if he had some major pain while still trying to prove to us that he was fine.

"Shouldn't we continue?"

I snapped out of day dreaming and while I turned back, I could see that Mike stood infront of me, blocking the sun. Sighting, I stood up and we walked to Alex, gently shaking him to wake.

"Hey. Time to move." I said, trying to sound more calm than I was, as I knew that Alex was a really deep sleeper and he hated to wake up. Soon enough, his eyes started to blink rapidly and small groan erupted from him, soon followed by a silent swear. Without saying anything, me and Mike grabbed him from the sides, making him dart up and land between us. After some adjustment to our stance, we gave a small nod of approval to each other, while Alex just looked down to the ground.

"I'm sorry...." muttered Alex with a sorrow tone, clearly pointing out his agony over his need of help. Neither me nor Mike couldn't help but to chuckle to this obvious statement. It seemed to relax Alex a bit, but soon we got serious and I nodded towards Mike, as to indicate that he should talk. Luckily he got the hint, as he turned over to Alex, who by now had raised his chin up. Oddly, Mike was still grinning.

"Ahh drop that act! If you don't, I swear I'm gonna make you walk for the rest of the trip."

Alex's reaction was an immediately blushing and muttering something quietly, generating laughter from Mike who took the first step forward. I gave in and joined in the laughter, whilst taking the second step.

And were off...Yet again.

* * * * *

By the time Twilight had finished the first book she had brought with her, about an hour had passed and the basket nearly emptied of the the food. As she looked at the fillies, they were already starting to pack their stuff up; Apple Bloom was gathering the plates, Scootaloo was folding the blanket and Sweetie Belle was cleaning the area of trash. Twilight couldn't help but to smile as she watched the three best friends do their stuff. As Twilight stood up, she levitated her saddlepack to her and placed the book in one of the holds, while also putting the pack over her.

It was as she had predicted. Just a pleasant normal day without the normal ruckus she and her friends went through normally. It wasn't like she disliked it, but for once, she just wanted to have a normal and pleasant day...

"Umm, Twilight?" said Sweetie Belle somewhere behind her, sounding bit worried.

"Yes Sweetie Belle, what is..." Twilight never got to finish her sentence, as she saw what the fillies were looking at.

In the distance, there were three stallions coming towards them; A Pegasus, a unicorn and a Earth pony. This was a unsual sight for even Twilight, as this area was way off from the town and they came from direction where to her knowledge nothing else but a part of the Everfree forest laid. At first she thought that they must have heard the fillies and must have come to pay a visit. But soon all this vanished, when she saw that the Earth pony was being supported by the other two. The Pegasus must have seen her, as he raised his head to look at her direction.

"We need help! He's injured!" he shouted while stopping along with the unicorn, Twilight didn't give it any though, as she dropped her saddlepack to the ground before giving order to the fillies.

"Girls, go to the hospital and tell I'm coming with injured pony!" Twilight shouted before starting to gallop towards the stallions, who by now must have noticed her, as they had stopped on dead on their tracks. The girls didn't say anything as they started to gallop towards the only hospital in town.

As Twilight got closer to the group their support on the Earth pony began to buckle. At first she thought it must have been to assist in helping him, but soon the pegasus collapsed down to the ground. The unicorn tried to shout something towards her before dropping down to the ground, as he was now carrying the Earth pony by himself. Twilight increased her pace even more from this sight.

Twilight shortly arrived at the three stallions and to find the unicorn trying to wake his companions up. As Twilight approached him, he suddenly stopped before falling onto to his back.

Immediately Twilight's eyes enlarged in shock from what she saw and she tried to keep herself from not panicking. The unicorns horn she looked at was covered in a thick layer of blood. While Twilight didn't have any problem with blood, she wasn't just used to seeing it in such quantity and on another pony nevertheless. Gulping down to clear her throat a little, she immediately checked on the other two, only to find out that they both were only unconscious and that the Earth pony had a quite nasty wound upon him. It didn't help that their bodies were covered in dust and dirt, covering most of their body from head to hoof. Their manes and tails were also in such of horrible condition, that it would have made Rarity faint in shock.

This didn't matter for now, as Twilight levitated the Pegasus onto her back, and began lifting the other two in the air, and started to gallop towards Ponyville's hospital. She couldn't help but to give a look to them and ask the obvious question deep inside her mind.

Who are they and what happened to them?

* * * * *

The forest that was near the school was usually filled with screams of joy and laughter, as children used to play there during their free time. Currently, only me and the boy from the first day were there, panting heavily while laying down on the ground. Both of us were covered in bruises and other wounds, but we both were smiling. Soon, the wool hatted boy turned his head towards me.

"You fight good for being four-eyed." The kid said with a joy full tone, while turning upwards to a sitting position. I soon followed him and we found ourselves just sitting there quietly. Soon enough, the bigger kid raised his right hand over towards me.

"Oh by the way, I'm Mike."

* * * * *

Shit!

The first thing my mind came up with when my conciousness returned to me from was shit from two reasons.

One; I felt like it. My whole body was sore, I was still dirty and my head yet again felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer.

Two; Me and Mike had let Alex down. Even when we had tried to hurry up, our travelling speed just had been too slow for us to try and make it before either me or Mike would trip out. One could say hurrying up only caused us to faint, I couldn't think of something else we could have done...

Before I got to think more, I started to hear voices somewhere near me, speaking something about extra-monitoring and preparing next batch of treatment. This let me to believe that I was currently inside an hospital and that scrapped out the first obvious question. As for the second question, I had to open my eyes.

From what the little I could see, as I didn't have my glasses on, I was in room that had blue walls and a green ceiling, and that I was currently laying down on actually very comfy bed. As I tried to move upwards into a sitting position, a small groan got out of my mouth, as my muscles had obviously been in bad position. From what I could make from the blur that I saw, there were two figures, both of course being ponies and that one wore a white overcoat. They must have noticed me getting up as they stopped talking and the not overcoated pony rushed to my side, getting something from the side table near me. Soon enough, I was handed my glasses and I immediately putted them on.

"It seems the treatment worked quite well. Nurse Redheart here will get you something to eat soon and there's somepony here who wants to see you." the overcoat wearing stallion, a doctor I presumed, said while taking his leave. As I looked to my left, my eyes shot wide open.

It was Alex. He was laying there with a heartbeat monitor attached to him, generating an ominous beeping sound. I tried to get out of bed, but the nurse soon put me down, saying that I ought not to move until any possible side effects are gone. For some odd reason, I decided to check my right side and as I had predicted, I could see that Mike was laying on his own bed, snoring very heavily in his sleep. The nurse actually said that they had hoped he would have woken up first, as other patients on other rooms had started to complain. I couldn't help but to grin to this statement, but for once it had been better that Mike was a really heavy sleeper when he was really tired.

The door opened up and soon a violet-purple unicorn trotted into the room. The nurse excused herself and said that she would bring me and my companions food soon. I didn't answer to her, as my focus was on the unicorn that I could remember had been the one that had found us. Then it struck me who was infront of me...

"Umm... Is something wrong?" Twilight Sparkle said to me with her bright and clear voice. At this point, I was mentally in a state of shock and I thanked God that I was good at hiding facial expressions.

There, infront of me, stood my favorite pony from the My Little Pony show, Twilight Sparkle in the flesh. The brony side of me was jumping around, trying to break free from the governing DON'T ACT FOOLISH grip and ask all kinds of questions. Luckily, my super id part gave myself kick in the nuts that got me out of day dreaming.

"No, nothing is wrong. It's just that I'm thinking how to thank you." I responded to her with my normal tone and to my surprise, she blushed little before regaining her composure. Couldn't help but to grin, as she looked so cute when she blushed.

"No need to. One needs to help another when he or she is in trouble. By the way, my name is Twilight Sparkle" she said with her regular modesty. Before I got to say anything, the nurse Redhearth came back with foodcart holstering three plates of food. I remembered from the episode when Rainbow Dash was in the hospital that the food had been horrible, so I was surprised to find a big bowl of strawberry soup with some jelly and glass of juice served. Without giving it proper thought, I grabbed the bowl with both of my frontal hooves and drank the whole bowl in one go. I could hear Twilight chuckle a bit.

"The doctor said that you would be pretty hungry, so they got you some extra good food from town." the nurse said to me while starting to place one of the plates to side table next to Mike.

For once, I don't know what happened. As soon as Redheart placed the tray to the table, Mike immediately dropped the snoring and started to sniff the air. All three of us just stared at him, as he slowly raised upwards to same sitting position as I was. Suddenly, his eyes darted out open and he turned over towards the plate that rested on the table. If I would have watched this behind a screen, I would have laughed my lungs out but for now I resisted the idea.

Before me, nurse or Twilight got to say anything, Mike just planted his face in the bowl in very much the same way as I did and started to eat the food very eagerly. I couldn't help but to chuckle to this sight, before addressing nurse and Twilight.

"Could you give us a minute alone?" I addressed them, perhaps a little bit sternly as both of them didn't say anything and just got outside of the room in orderly fashion. As soon as the door closed behind them, I saw that Mike had stopped eating and gave me an amused look. I checked the wall clock and I found that it was already well past seven.

"Look Mike, things didn't go as planned. For now, let me do the talking if we're needed to do so" I said to him, still having the stern tone ringing. Mike just nodded to me and I turned towards the closed door.

"Were ready here!" I shouted and soon enough both nurse and Twilight came in, both smiling from something. Before I got to ask what, the nurse went over to Alex and strapped of the heart beat monitor. Twilight came between me and Mike, who by now had gone back to laying position, resting his frontal hooves behind the back of his head.

"The doctor just informed that you're free to check-out by tomorrow morning." Twilight said to us, making me sight in a relief. I couldn't help but to look over to Alex, who was still sleeping. Twilight must have noticed this, as she continued talking.

"You shouldn't worry too much for your big friend there. He had a pretty bad infection going on, but the wound was cleansed and is now covered up." she said, while also giving a little upwards look towards me. At first I didn't realize what she was doing, but soon the realization struck me.

She was looking at my horn, still covered in blood...

I knew I had to act fast!

"Look, it doesn't help to explain things right now, as were all tired and one of us isn't awake. We'll explain what happened to us tomorrow" I hastily said to her, making her look me into my eyes. She sighted and nodded to me, while taking her leave. The nurse Redheart also took her leave and turned off the lights from the room, leaving me and Mike in the darkness.

Neither one of us said anything, as I dropped down to the bed, making the bed squeak under me. After a minute or so, I could hear snoring coming from my right side. Even I decided to call it quits for a day.

Hopefully I'll not see any dreams...

* * * * *

As Twilight got outside of the room, she saw that the doctor from earlier was going through some papers, that seemed to be like some medical notes. The doctor's face bore an shocked look, that seemed to grow even bigger when more pages were flipped over

"This can't be..." he said in a gawking tone.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Twilight said to the doctor, who by now had raised his head to look towards the door where she had just come from. Immediately, he regained his normal composure, while turning his look back at Twilight.

"Miss Sparkle, did they tell you anything about themselves?" the doctor said, while starting to go through his notes again. Twilight just tilted her head and told what the unicorn had told her. When doctor heard this, he just sighted before turning towards the door.

"Did you happen to get a glimpse of their Cutie Marks?" he asked, taking Twilight off her hooves.

"In fact no I didn't. Why you ask this?" she asked curiously, as it seemed odd to ask something like...

"From what we've seen, none of them have a one; at least according to what these notes say."

*Thump*

Twilight just dropped down to the ground with her eyes widening up to even bigger when she had seen the unicorn's horn.

"H-how is that.... all of them must be way over...." she muttered in disbelief as her mind couldn't comprehend the idea and the truth. The doctor just shrugged his shoulders and turns to take his leave, leaving Twilight by herself. She just sat there, staring down to the floor, still trying to to grasp the idea of somepony not having Cutie Mark at adulthood.

Soon, she couldn't help but groan as she looked up the door where the stallions were now sleeping.

You three have some serious explaining to do tomorrow

A/U

Big shout-out for my pre-reader Silvarrn for being a big help even in rough times he has had.

Chapter 20 "Maero's Normal Day"

Chapter 20

Maero’s Normal Day

It was dark...

Everywhere in sight was dark, and if you tried to look at anything, 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 monotony 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  (bar a certain chestnut Earth Pony over in his lair) so did a certain pattern of events, all tied together, began 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.

Located just on the edge of Ponyville and over the vast orchards of apple trees lay Sweet Apple Acres, the titular provider of finest apples to the whole of Equestria and its neighboring lands since the early days of the town.

Close by them is also located the Carrot Family Farm, the titular provider of everything else besides apple products, and in fact their farm land is almost double in acreage.

But although one might guess wrong, these two families have been in steady relations for years, at least as long as neither one decided to compete in the market or bother the other.

But now these two estates are connected to one another, and that is through our lone maroon friend.

* * * * *

Although the sun had barely rose up from behind the mountain, the whole Apple family had already arrived in the kitchen to enjoy their morning meal of sweet apple products.

Everypony had their place over the beech table; the crimson red Big Mac sat on the end of the table and drank dark coffee whilst enjoying the latest edition of the Ponyville Times. On his left sat his little sister Applebloom, enjoying her oat cereals and glass of apple juice, and as he turned to look to his right, he saw his other sister Applejack finish off the apple jam toast. With a chuckle, the crimson red pony took a sip of his coffee and watched as Granny Smith joined the three of them to eat her porridge.

However the stallion then turned to look at the opposite end of the table.

Big Mac didn’t say anything as he folded his paper and stared down at Applejack.

“Will you go and git our guest for food?” He questioned, and watched as the orange pony rolled her eyes, but left the kitchen, grumbling a bit. Big Mac smiled as he returned to his breakfast.

In a flash she walked past the colorful living room and arrived at the start of the steps. As her hooves trotted their way up to the second floor; vast in space and also the floor where every bedroom of the house was located.

Applejack noticed that a specific one was open.

As she walked down the corridor, the mare didn’t need to even walk down to the guest room to confirm her assumption. Instead, her attention turned to the ajar bathroom door, from which a dim light shone to the hallway.

Applejack quietly approached the other door and as the distance grew shorter, she heard the sound of running water alongside with what sounded like splashing. Finally, she got to the door and carefully opened it up.

Her immediate reaction was confusion.

Over by the white sink stood the maroon brown stallion, his huge body leaning over it whilst the golden mane had drops of water dripping down to the tile floor. The massive Earth Pony continued to stare down at the running sink and, seemingly unaware of the mare’s presence, used his two front hooves to splash the water across himself, bathing in the cold liquid like in a shower.

Is he trying to wake himself up? Applejack wondered, however her line of thoughts stopped as the maroon pony turned off the water and quickly scooped up last of the water to the hanging towel.

But his otherwise swift movement came to a dead end as he turned over.

Maero looked rather surprised, something Applejack hadn’t seen, but in a blink of an eye his look changed to normal in her eyes.

Applejack nervously laughed “Ah... There’s food waiting downstairs.” she said and tried to not look at the stallion, who obviously wasn’t happy over her discovery.

Maero stopped only inches away from her before turning to stare down at her, something that Applejack found extremely unsettling. The emerald eyes didn’t blink as the stare off continued for a moment before coming to a stop as the maroon stallion lazily shrugged and walked past the mare.

Yet Applejack couldn’t help but to wonder what he had been doing here in the bathroom.

In the end, she also shrugged before closing the door and walking after him.

* * * * *

"What’s the matter, sweetie? Not hungry anymore, hmm?"

I leered to my right to see the green pony, oldest out of all, smile to me whilst offering me a basket of freshly baked bread. Not wanting to be rude, I said my thanks as I took the smallest one of them, however the old mare noticed this, huffed and exchanged the bread to a lot larger one.

"Ah shucks, you ought to eat properly colt. Just take an example of Big Mac; that colt eats like a proper workhorse." At the same time, the granny of this family passed her basket to the younger generation, specifically to the little filly next to her. Now my eyes wandered to the other end of the table, to where the only stallion besides me sat, secluded from the rest like me. He must have noticed my look, although it didn't seem to bother him.

Big Mac...

Now there's a mystery pony.

I recalled our first meeting and the odd look he gave to me as he literally rubbed his eyes out of disbelief whilst I stopped in front of him and offered my... hoof for a shake. As Applejack, the mare with the cowboy hat, explained my situation, the rest of the family, by that I mean that little yellow one and the old green one, had took same kinds of looks as the crimson red stallion.

"Like two berries," the old mare had commented and winked to me "Expect you've got maybe an inch on our Macintosh."

I snapped back to this reality as he stood up "Ah got to get to the fields," he said and briefly brushed his little sisters red mane, generating a giggle, before walking out of the room and soon I heard the front door bang.

Then again, one cannot make friends in mere days.

Even if I'd be looking for one.

Even the little filly jumped off from her seat, after finishing her glass of milk, and basically charged out of the room.

So now as I looked over, there were only two ponies left; the old granny and Applejack.

The orange mare shook her head, "Applebloom just never learns, does she?" she questioned and turned back to her food, same as I.

Now food...

It had took me awhile to understand the basics of pony cuisine, and it had been a pleasant experience to try my cooking skills. By far, it had been a surprise just how tasteful pony food could be; hay toast, oat fries and the many baked sweets, mainly apple related ones.

But there still was one kind of substance I refused to eat.

I cringed as I saw that there were flowers mixed with the flour.

Ugh, no thanks.

I thought as the bread fell down to the dish and stood up, losing my appetite for food. Just then, Applejack did the same as she pushed up and met me by the door.

A light chuckle rang out and both of us turned back to see the green mare grin.

"Well, off you two go," she said whilst beginning to gather the leftovers "Ah hate to see you love birds stay indoors on this beautiful day."

Applejack planted a hoof to her face and the old mare laughed again, this time as she watched us leave the kitchen. But it faded away by the time we got to the front door and there Applejack let out a relieved groan whilst I merely rolled my eyes.

"Ugh, Granny Smith can be just a little filly all she wants," she said whilst taking her hat from the crook and placing it on "Hopefully it doesn't bother you, Maero. She's just teasing me, not you."

"It's okay." I let out my first words for the day and was surprised to have my straw hat being handed over by the smiling cowpony.

"Glad to hear," Applejack laughed and proceeded to walk outside through the open door, most likely preparing for some apple harvesting she loved so much, or that's at least what I recall Tom, nowadays Nucleus, mentioning.

So I took deep breath and put my hat on, ready to meet my upcoming day.

At least the trip’s relaxing.

But then a sudden shiver rocked my body, out of the corner with no warning. Although it did only last for a short amount of time, and by the time it stopped, I’d already crossed the gates of Sweet Apple Acres.

Strange...

As if somebody mentioned me.

* * * * *

Past the low hill tops which are like cuts out of the surface and make up for the vast fields of emptiness which Ponyville’s surroundings consist of, lay the Carrot Family Farm. With its vast plowed fields, the estate stretches outwards to every possible direction anypony might lay their eyes on. In fact, it is the largest farm of bordering lands, just showing off how well even a small place like Ponyville can prosper, although the main reason has been titled to Sweet Apple Acres with their zap apple products.

But it wasn’t like the Carrot Clan cared over this minor fact.

At least that’s what Golden Harvest, current leader of the farm, had inside that green head of hers over what Pa’ had told her over and over again.

And Golden Harvest believed it as she continued to eye the fields from over the front porch, leaning onto the railing and holding a cup of coffee between her hooves. A smile was painted over her face, as she knew that over there, for miles and miles, lay the growing seeds of her hard effort.

Her whole life, in a sense.

The mare took a sip out of her mug and watched as the shadows danced in front of her. But she already knew that it’d only take a minute for the sun rise up from over those hill tops up there and lay the golden rays that allow her work to start.

But there still was one thing to do.

The coffee mug dropped down to the wooden railing as Golden Harvest turned round and walked back inside the farmhouse, build out of stone bricks that were piled up for couple of floors height before ending in a wooden pitched roof.

As the olive mare entered to the main hall that made up of all of the first floor, except for the bathroom and storage that lay under the stairs, her eyes turned towards the long table near to the other end of the room and where the kitchen area began.

It was empty.

Golden Harvest rolled her eyes and now headed directly of the stairs, however as she stepped on the first step...

“Oh,” the voice from the top rang “Guess I could try this out.”

Now the olive mare cocked her eyebrow and as her first hoof touched the second floor, substantially smaller than first floor however it cut out to five different rooms and to new steps leading to the third floor. But that wasn’t what she was focused on; at first Golden Harvest walked down the hallway, passing the different rooms until stopping by a certain orange coated door.

A couple of knocks rang out as the green hoof fell down to it “Carrot, are you awake? I heard some noises coming fr-”

“Nono,” her little sister cut in between and Golden Harvest swore she heard something ‘cling’ inside “ I’m awake, and just brushing my mane, so I’ll be down in a minute.”

Golden Harvest purchased a questioning expression, however she obliged and headed back.

But she did wonder, just how much of an effect did-

*Knock knock knock*

Her thoughts were interrupted, however, as she was halfway down the stairs whilst loud banging echoed over from downstairs.

“Come on in, the door’s open.” she shouted whilst coming to end of the steps.

And soon enough, the front door opposite to the steps opened up in slow fashion to reveal the maroon coated Earth Pony in all of his glory, as the first lights shone down and were overshadowed by the stallion’s massive frame.

And even Golden Harvest had to admit that he didn’t look half-bad as Maero stopped a few feet away ahead of her and she got a look of his fine toned muscles.

But he still cannot beat that certain pony...

She thought whilst looking back at the stallion’s eyes.

“Howdy! Great day isn’t it?” she smiled and got a regular nod as an answer from the short worded stallion, so she proceeded on with a nod towards the sofa.

“Tell you what, Carrot’s taking a bit of time, so why don’t we sit down for a minute?”

So both of them sat down on the lemon green sofa, side to side and Golden Harvest saw the stallion’s eyes wandering over the walls tilted with all sorts of photos with different ponies. She smiled and leant back onto the padding whilst keeping her own pair of eyes locked on him.

On that matter, it had bothered her for a while.

As Maero settled down, he turned to look at the olive mare “What’s up for today exactly? Or is it just the usual plowing of the field?” he quietly asked.

Golden Harvest swung a hoof “Sorta; today’s a special day actually,” she told, then pointed her hoof towards the side window “First off, yes, you’ll need to plow the east side fields so that they’ll be done by the start of the week and we can get last seed batch done before Fall begins.”

But she then turned her hoof at other window which opened a view up to the bright orange barn “But that won’t happen until later this afternoon as you’ve got another job to do.”

Maero looked fine with this, perhaps a bit staggered to say the most. It wasn’t like he despised work, this Golden Harvest knew perfectly well; if she’d ask, he’d perhaps even fully paint the barn. Twice.

“Sounds fine, but just what-”

But rest of his ‘long’ speech was halted as a pair of yellow hooves suddenly, out of the corner, fell over his eyes whilst leaving the stallion in the depths of darkness. Back on the outside world and next to the stallion, the olive mare lazily turned to look back and, even if sounding a bit odd, wasn’t that surprised to see her sister all make up dandy with her mane tied up to the back.

A giggle rang out while the yellow mare leaned closer to the maroon pony, specifically towards a perked up ear sticking out from the under the hat.

“Guess who?” Carrot Top sultrily whispered and the ear twitched as a respond.

On the side, Golden Harvest sighed and stood up “Okay Carrot, break it up now,” but she turned to see her little sister glare at her, so she added; “You don’t want to be late from the trip, don’t you?”

Now Golden Harvest watched as her enthusiastic little sister led a lot larger stallion by hoof outside foractual work; something the farm mare was more than pleasant to see for a change of her lazy sister’s attitude over.

So much in fact that Golden Harvest was ready to withstand any talk about Maero that Carrot Top would start out, and even the childish nature she overtly presented out nowadays; she even herself had admitted it was getting creepy that they hadn’t had a good fight in a while.

But still, the olive mare couldn’t help but to smile as she watched, from over the porch, as the pony pair trotted outside of the farm, walking side by side.

I might have done a bad thing...

Golden Harvest though as she grabbed her still warm coffee mug and turned back to eye the fields with the same still going on, even widening a bit.

But they do make a nice looking couple.

* * * * *

“Umm.... miss I-”

“NO! Now you listen to me! I decided whenever this will work out or not. Stallions like you should know your place.”

“B-but-”

“Just what did you think when you did THIS?!”

With that, Carrot Top slammed the piece of paper down to the counter and under the muzzle of the frightened shop clerk, now trying to hide behind his huge cash register from the wrath of the yellow mare. But she merely leaned over it and gave a cold glare to him.

“Talk...” she whispered and the stallion finally broke.

“OkayIadmitIhavesoldvegetablesnotcomingfromyourfarmjustpleasedon’thurtme!” With that said, the stallion then hid under the counter, but soon a shaky hoof took a hold of the contract and tore it to shreds in front of her eyes “Look, I swear that I’ll only use your products and not these other ones.”

“Oh, I know you will honor our contract,” A huff rang out as Carrot Top backed off away from the counter and turned her back towards it “Just consider this as a friendly reminder. If Golden Harvest would have been here, things would have turned out... perhaps better not to say.” she ended as she heard a whimper over her shoulder and opened up the door to the grocery store.

“We’ll deliver your goods in few days,” the mare smiled as she looked back to see the pony stare at her and winked to him “Have a nice day.”

But Carrot Top did let a sigh come out as the door banged close, just out of the fact how stupid that shop pony had been to try and fool anypony with those third-grade products straight out of some magically enchanted farm from somewhere out of Equestria, most likely imported from the zebra land, Zefrica. Really stupid, in fact, to even think that nopony wouldn’t notice the sudden change from sweet, succulent carrots to the almost double in size ones that tasted like pine cones made out of glass.

“So you’re finished?”

But then a joy overtook her, like a little filly stumbling upon candy shop, and the latter experience completely vanished as her thoughts turned, and eyes, turned at the source of the voice.

To her sweet pony.

“Yes, I am finished up,” the mare commented whilst looking at the sitting stallion, now moving to stand up.

“Some ponies just have the nerve... remind me to tell GH that we need to deliver a couple of bags here and to re-write the supply contract.”

However as he got up, she noticed his amused look and she knew instantly what he was thinking. So she scooped the distance with a single leap and pushed herself up close to him, rubbing her body against his while feeling warmness of him wash over herself.

“Well... you know; GH won’t be expecting us back for couple of hours,” she calmly explained before wrapping her hoof around his “Come on, I know this just perfect restaurant that-”

But then Carrot Top saw Maero’s look.

Those pure eyes, capable of drilling into deepest parts of her soul, pointed at hers like two freshly cut emerald jewels, flashing in all of their glory.

Yet... even though this:

Carrot Top loved it, to be watched by him.

“Now, don’t you dare say no before at least tasting Sweet Aroma’s stuff. Besides;” she proceeded to smooth his brown chin groove “I think you deserve a treat for your effort on our farm.”

So she gave him a quick nudge before leading him away and down to the streets of Ponyville, fantasizing over the upcoming day with Maero, even if he was acting all hard to get to too.

But it didn’t matter to her, because she had already achieved her goal before other mares and, oh boy, wasn’t she going to enjoy that to fullest.

My coltfriend; and nopony elses!

Especially Applejack!

------

To be honest, the place here Carrot Top took wasn’t half bad at all. It was situated on the corner of a lone boulevard, somewhere close to center of town, next to some glamorous shops with lots of ponies crammed up to, don’t know really why they’d be interested in sofas or flower vases, and to a plaza of sorts.

As me and Carrot stopped, I was greeted with a blue walled and round roofed structure that had glass windows rounding over itself and giving a look of happy ponies to passersby. It didn’t look too fancy, we had passed by what looked a lot like a French restaurant type, although without snobbish type of waiters around.

But I really didn’t get a much look of the inside, as me and Carrot Top were soon greeted by an apron wearing pony, excited to see new customers as she literally pushed us two over to a table on the front porch, which was merely a fenced out area with couple of tables packed close to the door.

Not a bad one.

But they do say that you shouldn’t judge the book by-

A cough rang out.

“Sir,” I looked up from my menu to see the apron pony smiling to me and levitating a notepad “What would you like to have besides your drink?”

“Umm,” I staggered and looked back to my menu of so called food, going through the sections in a fast pace.

“.... I’ll have... perhaps... wait...”

Then, a light laughter chimed and I leered over my paper to see Carrot Top laughing over on opposite side of the round table. After she calmed down, she proceeded to yank my menu away to the waiting waitress along with hers.

“Sweet Aroma, me and my coltfriend will have the same meals, isn’t that right Maero?” she asked before smiling to while the waitress looked at me for an answer.

I shrugged, and she then proceeded to scribble down more words before finally grabbing the menus and her notes with her orange magic.

“Thank you for the orders, and as you might know, couples get a ten percent discount so do consider re-visiting us here in Olive Garden .” Sweet Aroma said and finally left us alone, walking past the flip doors leading in the restaurant, under the umbrella laying its shadow over the table.

So I just lowered my head down onto the table surface.

Last night....

No, all nights.

My eyes closed.

Can I just have a minute nap?

Nothing more, nothing less...

But then I felt something warm fell over my head, swooping up and down from the tip of my blond... mane to base of neck..

And it, oddly, felt awfully good.

“Oh what’s the matter, is my stallion feeling a bit weary?” I heard Carrot’s feminine voice soothing over whilst her hoof moved over to my ear and began to systematically massage , nibbling all over it with (un)healthy strokes. But I did keep my eyes closed, only because what she did actually helped me out as I felt myself relax over. In fact, I even though that I heard Carrot say something but it was blurred out by my dizziness.

This changed though as I let out a whiff.

“You youngsters ought to be ashamed of yourselves!”

Now my eyes popped open, only to see an old mare with wrinkles all over herself and grey mane styled up to a ball above her head, looking out towards my direction with a demeaning look of anger as she pointed her hoof at me.

“Doing something like that in public is disgraceful and sickening.” the mare kept shouting and just then I noticed that a crowd had started to form around the premises, following out on her words as she now slammed the hoof down, meagerly raising no dust off from the dirt.

“Youngsters these days, don’t know anything about clarity of their actions; there’s little foals around here, you know, and I don’t want to have my grandfilly to-”

A loud huff cut out on the granny, much to her visible dismay, and I felt how the pressure over my head lifted away. But I didn’t even need to turn, as I watched how Carrot Top jumped out between me and the old mare, now backing away couple of feet away from her.

“And just what is wrong with me and my coltfriend spending a lovely morning together?” Carrot Top wickedly smiled and looked over rest of the crowd “At least even I know that there’s nothing wrong with helping your mate relax...”

On my end, this got my brain on high alert.

Mate?!

What the fu-

Every single pony in the crowd turned to look away with a blush of Carrot’s statement.

Well... if you discounted those couple ones that fainted upon hearing word ‘coltfriend’ leave Carrot’s snickering mouth.

But the granny rethrorespectibly snorted out “Young rascal like you ought to show respect for a somepony experienced like me.”

“Experienced?” Carrot smiled to the mare and slowly turned round at...

In not much of an amusement to me, Carrot Top gently walked over to me and used her hooves to raise my head up. As our eyes locked up, I could see the look over her expression.

With a single push, Carrot Top pushed our lips together, forming single object of passion.

That’s at least what I thought she was thinking about...

But for me:

Oh boy...

This thing ag-

However, the kiss didn’t end like it should have.

Instead, Carrot dropped her hooves down to my neck and pushed even forward, so much in fact I needed to grab my stool in order to stay up. Next thing I noticed in her sultry look was how her green eyes shone in an abnormal rate. Although this wasn’t anything new, it still managed to catch me off-guard, and of course in front of an ever growing audience enjoying the show.

But then my eyes shot open.

Our tongues had just met in the middle...

Oh...

Oh God...

Thankfully she stopped there and as our mouths separated with both of us catching our breaths.

Instantly the crowd around us burst in cheers and stomping hooves, echoing all over the nearby buildings while I saw that the old mare had disappeared.

Carrot Top giggled and leaned closer to me “See just how much they like to see us together.” she whispered and sat down next to me. She then proceeded to fully lean into me, something she had loved to do with me ever since that sunset by the base of the tree...

The whole crowd burst in long ‘dawws’, followed by yet another wave of passing out ponies, soon dragged away by the leaving crowd.

So I just sat there.

In this land of equine beings capable of sentient thoughts and based on toy series for little girls.

Except Tom, but he’s a nerd for liking this stuff.

Next to me sits a female, yellow pony with a bright orange mane and three carrots tattooed on her rump who just had given me a meager French kiss, perhaps first for both of us. I still could feel her breathing warming my neck whilst her head rested on my shoulder.

My first experiences on females...

And it’s a pony.

My thoughts:

Is this just my life I’m living here?

Why couldn’t I just go to Heaven?

A sigh took over me as the waitress arrived bringing out our food, bearing a smile along with her metal tray, two white plates with sandwiches served along with green drinks.

This is going to be a long dinner.

And ugh, a flower sandwich.

* * * * *

“Ungh, phh...”

I felt how the leather straps, from the collar around my neck, scratched against me as I pushed onwards, pulling the steel plough and leaving a straight plowed line behind. I had, at least according to Golden Harvest, improved a whole lot and she also praised just how well I managed to perform my job, although she did question this natural draft-pony talent.

To that, I had no clear answer and she had proceeded to joke about how perfect worker I looked, and Carrot Top nodded the same.

But it did feel good; to be able to perform something so well.

And to be honest, working on this farm wasn’t half as bad as I had first thought after the first day. This outside environment wasn’t anything close to ones back in... home.

I stopped for a moment to readjust the wooden yoke and take a look at my work whilst also wiping my burrow clean from sweat that had been formed from the hard labour.

Well hard and hard, not at all.

Guess having this kind of body does have its advantages

But damn, isn’t this land big!

In the past of these seven days, Carrot Top and Golden Harvest had given me a meticulous tour of their used land. But they still had left out over half of the land, not currently used for some unexplained reason, which now my eyes looked over. It was a bit saddening vision; barren brown land with occasional grass and hay fields it like patch spots on an used cloth.

And now my job was to try and cultivate little part of it, for someday called Running The Leaves that marks the start for winter and happens to be nearing in few months. In fact, this current sunny weather was all in start of the Fall, much to my surprise and shock.

As I turned back, now little bit fresh from my break and ready to start plowing, a shout rang out.

“Maero! Maero!” I turned over to direction of the voice and to see Golden Harvest wave over to me with her hoe. So I unplugged the straps off from the wood collar and headed over towards her, my boss pony.

The olive mare dropped the tool over her back as I stopped a foot away from her. “There you are, just wanted to inform that your day’s done. Just drop your stuff by the barn and ask for Carrot to give you your pay.”

I nodded “Okay.” then I turned to look back over to the steel plough “I’ll be leaving that there. Makes it easier to continue after weekend.” I explained, and Golden Harvest shrugged before walking away, likely to check on her saplings and cabbages, so I did too leave for the orange barn on the distance.

And wasn’t the barn big; it was so tall it could be seen even from over Ponyville’s edge areas and, for example, it was fully visible even from over the other farm, Sweet Apple Acres, whenever you’d look over to the hills. Applejack had claimed that once when she was a filly, her father had said that for longest while, it had been the tallest building in Ponyville since the establishment, however nowadays buildings like town hall stood at even higher.

And now I stopped by the base of this monstrosity, by the flip door leading in but not actually stepping in quite yet.

Instead I turned to take off my hat, leaving on a nail sticking out of the wall, and proceeded to pull the wooden collar off...

And just then I was presented with a bickering trouble.

Shit...

Why won’t you... come...off?!

No matter how I tried to, it simply refused to leave my neck. It’d only hit my muzzle whenever it got up and even when I tried different angles and approaches, it’d got stuck on the same spot of trouble. For minutes this went on until...

“Geez, stop with that ruckus, whoever pony that is! Here’s a simple mare trying to live her simple dream-”

In the following silence I turned over towards the now open barn door with Carrot’s head sticking out of, and proceeded to nod at my neck collar. “Care to help out? This thing seems to be stuck.” I muttered out loud.

She proceeded to give me a tired look, obviously due to the sudden awake from her nap, although enough soon her ‘normal’ look resurfaced, forming an unbreakable mask as she walked out over to me.

Carrot then smiled “Well, you could always leave that on. It honestly does look very good on you and it-” she let the end unfinished as Carrot now leaned over me, coming ever so close to my head.

“-does look very sexy on you...”

….

…......

…....?........!

I felt how the weight left me along with the yellow body, now backing off over to the barn and struggling to keep balance under the heavy object. I kept watching as Carrot Top simply dropped the thing down to the floor, next to what looked like a never-used workbench with rusty handy, or rather hoofy(?), tools.

“Hmm...” she then questioned and proceeded to look over the room “Now where did I leave those hardbits?”

Just then she leant over, leaving her back high up in air.

Then, whilst Carrot proceeded to search over the floor, her rump began to move up and-

A slap.

Just what I needed, for then I looked away from that sight and grabbed my hat.

Although, it didn’t really matter over if I’d had stared at the waving back as Carrot saw me leave and suddenly shot up and laughed, sounding a lot more nervous than usual.

“Oh here it is...” she continued to laugh and threw the bag over to me. While I placed my hat, along with the money bag now inside it, on, I saw that Carrot Top continued to eye me by the door.

“So, I guess I’ll see you after the weekend.” I said and turned over.

But before I got even couple steps away...

“Maero, wait!”

I stopped and looked back to see Carrot Top standing a few feet away from me and looking down to the ground, out of...

Shame?

No.... it’s gotta be something else. Carrot Top doesn’t feel shame.

She nervously dragged her hoof on the dirt before saying “Umm... So it was fun to be with you today. You know, at the cafe.”

“Oh,” I responded before shrugging “Guess it was okay, although the dessert was screwed up.”

“How come? At least I enjoyed the Rainbow Rose -icecream; mmmm... those rose petals sure do add flavor,” she responded, whilst I felt sick over the memory, and took a meager step at me. “But... that’s not what I wanted to ask...”

She stopped just under my muzzle, which was odd as I my head hung low, and stared up on me.

“Maero, do you like me?”

Now, this question should have caught me off-guard.

However, it didn’t dazzle me a one bit, perhaps due to my mind knowing in advance that she’d ask this from me at some point. But rather more near the start of her endorsement, not near a point like this.

“Cause...” she paused for a moment before shaking her head and weakly giggling “You must already know how I see us. My actions speak for themselves.”

You don’t say?

In a like a blitz, she took me for a hug.

However this wasn’t anything like we’d done before; no unnecessary rubbing or voices, just a plain hug. It was more of a simple, merely a hug two friends could share with one another without any awkward thoughts forming up.

As if any would form with a pony.

Her head rested on me, green eyes closed. “But I need to know, do you like me?”

Then, a struggle deep inside my head.

Just how messy is my life in these days?

My hoof fell over her head, snapping her awake and turn to look over to me.

To my surprise, a genuine smile formed on my face.

“I do like you, however I’d-”

But before I got to finish, she shut my mouth up with her hoof and leant ever so closer as our foreheads now touched each other.

“Then, I guess we're an official couple now, right?” Carrot Top warmly smiled.

“Oh dear...”

All of my thoughts stopped.

Our mouths were a mere inch apart, as both of us had stopped.

And now both of us turned slowly to look to the side, where now Tom, or rather the silver grey unicorn Nucleus,  was standing and gawking at us.

For what seemed like an eternity, nothing happened.

Then, finally, Carrot Top turned back over to me.

“I’ll take it as yes,” she whispered and pecked my cheek “So I’ll see you after the weekend, coltfriend.”

Carrot Top ended the embrace and walked away, giving Tom a look, although I didn’t see it as she had her back turned on me, before walking inside the barn with the door banging close behind her. At the same time, I saw how Tom approached me.

“Well look at you; playing all Casanova on the mares?” he said with a grin, like it was a big joke what he had seen.

Anger.

It filled me with its poison as I turned over and walked away.

But this didn't satisfy Tom, as I heard him sigh and walk after me, soon appearing on edge of my vision. “Anyways, how are you doing?”

Take a dandy fucking guess...

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

Well I had a lunch with a pony that has fallen in love with me and has now misunderstood me, now thinking we’re an official couple? Oh, and did I forget to mention that she French kissed me in front of a crowd before then after dinner force-feeding me awful ice-cream from her spoon, like to a little baby?

So yeah, fine day. How about you, my dear friend?

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

Like every fucking day in this wonderland for little girls...

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

I honestly didn’t know from where my anger towards Tom came out from, but as we stopped under by the gate for the Fields, I felt like punching my friend over to the guts.

But I knew better than that, and proceeded to look upon him for a bit, to see his ever so good poker face.

Which I thankfully knew to read.

“Friends, just friends.” I answered after having turned back, away from the unicorn

But Tom then once more spoke; “Look... 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.”

Should I? It’s not like anything is stopping me.

But then I noticed in the distance first of the long rows of apples.

And knowledge over it saddened a bit, as I slowly shook my head to him.

“Cannot do; gotta work to do.” I muttered and took first step forward, down on the dirt path leading away from the farm and trailing over to left side.

And honestly...

I’’m... not yet ready.

I saw how Tom opened his mouth, however he seemed to back off from it and instead turned to face the opposite direction, the one path leading back over to the pony town.

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

“I will.”

And we separated, both walking on our own separate paths; him back for the town for God-knows-what, or if he even does exist, whilst my hooves took me away my own path. By the time Tom disappeared out of view, so too I had walked into the small patch of woods in between the two farms, acting like as a natural border between the two estates although I recall Golden Harvest saying that at one spot the two farms fences do cross, however it’s by a really unused spot. It serves no purpose to neither of families.

Although it didn’t really matter a whole lot to me, as I simply gazed down to the sides.

The place was... simply put; naturally beautiful. To me, that was one thing I’d always appreciated over everything since I was a little kid.

Jesus, I even recall I had a pot plant when I was a kid.

I laughed over to my memory of how I used to get up every morning, ready to give some water for the seeds. But even as I got older, I’d still continue to take care of those few plants I had either gotten or bought, and although it was really a silly hobby Mike joked over with any chance, it still was enough to keep my mood up on otherwise dull environment.

And now these plants reminded me of home.

So I looked away.

In about ten minutes the forest came to an end as the trunks on sides formed an opening for the road to push through, out of the green patch. As I stopped by there, trying best to not to get blinded by the sudden light from the sky, I saw just how the road continued on.

But I still saw my destination in the distance; the dark red barn and the wooden farmhouse besides it.

So I continued on.

Front right, back left, front left, back right.

And stopped by the entrance, as I saw the two workers of Sweet Apple Acres chatting to one another but I didn’t really hear what they were talking about, due to low tone of the speech, and the fact Big Mac stopped in the instant our eyes crossed. Applejack too turned over and waved a hoof at me.

“Howdy Maero! Glad to see ye back,” she said, in her ever so eccentric sounding accent, while walking up to me. “Anyways,so you’re ready for work? Me and Mac we’re just... umm...”

“Talking. About farm work of certain somepony” the crimson stallion cut in between, as he passed by the two of us, giving a look at me, and carried couple of buckets along on his back.

Applejack nodded in agreement “Yeah, that’s right... Anywho, we ought to get back on working; there’s one tree that fell over the fence and it needs to be dragged away by you and me,” she explained before pointing back over to the front porch  “There’s som’ rope by the porch. Go and grab it, would you?”

I nodded and walked past her over towards the farmhouse, that now also acted as my current dwelling base. In sight, it looked like it was copied straight from some old western film, in comparison to Carrot Family one which is more of an English type manor.

But as I walked up there, I stopped as I saw how the rope suddenly dropped down about a feet away.

“Here colt,” I turned to look up to see the old green mare sitting on her rocking chair and knittin something obscure “This is what you’re after, ain’t you?”

“Yeah.” I answered and lifted it up, leaving it hanging around my neck like a tie before turning over to take my leave, however I then recalled something.

“Oh, is there something more ye need, colt?” the granny asked whilst her hooves continued to clap the metal sticks.

“In fact yes,” I started “You see, me and my friends are having our first day together tomorrow. We decided to go on a picnic and-”

“Atta, say no more.” she quickly said and laid her knitting equipment down next to the chair, which she had just wobbled up from. “Ah’ll have your basket ready by next eve'in' and you'd best prepare yerself, I think we’ve got some zap apple jam leftovers by the cellar. Or... did we already eat them...?"

"Granny Smith?"

"Wait, now I 'member. APPLEBLOOM, GET YOUR HINY OVER HERE! WE'VE GOT SOME BAKING TO DO AND MAH BACK ITCHES TO HIGH HEAVEN!”

Her voice continued to sound over, even as she entered inside and closed the door behind, as sounds of banging pots and pans echoed all over from the open kitchen window. As I turned to look back, I saw that Applejack was smiling to me and tipping her brown hat deeper on.

“Well whatcha waiting for? Let’s go get that tree so we can get to some sweet applebucking. Yeehaw!” Applejack cheered and galloped into the orchard, passing by Big Mac taking his stance under a tree before disappearing behind the vast rows of trees.

Guess I’ll hit the orchards for now....

I thought and followed after the enthusiastic cowpony.

* * * * *

It wasn’t a day anymore.

The blazing sun had already set down on the horizon, falling to a sleep behind the mountaintops to the west from Ponyville.

Now, the only thing left was the meager light of the crescent moon that tried to shone across the skies, supported the by millions of stars on the black canvas to every imaginable direction. Although of this, majority of land was set on immense dark and everything seemed dead.

In short, everypony was sleeping away, tucked deep to their beds and under the covers, embracing their dreams and hoping for yet another beautiful, productive day to have.

This was also in the case of Sweet Apple Acres, its residents slumbered inside their respective rooms from hard days work in the fields and crusading for your Cutie Mark with as little havoc humanely as possible.

And everypony was sleeping quiet;

Applejack with her friends on adventures.

Applebloom receiving her Cutie Mark.

Granny Smith reliving old times.

Big Macintosh... confidential.

So everything was being its normal, fine self without no worries.

A muffled groan came out from one of the rooms.

Well... Nopony mentioned what kind of dreams they’d have

A drop of sweat rolled down the maroon stallion’s neck.

Or nightmares...

* * * * *

Vast field.

From here

Right

Left

To every direction.

It’s empty.

Nobody is around.

I stand up.

On two legs.

The sudden realization strikes me, as I looked upon myself

Myself.

One body; two legs and hands along with clothes fit for me.

Just like me.

My original self.

Now I turned to look up around me, for more of the surroundings. I was on a field from the looks, green under my sneakers and blue above my fedora, with long, thin hays waving across back and forth under my vision. By the distance there laid woods and behind me was a tiny pond, with a rowing boat pulled over to the shore

I knew this place.

Then I noticed a lone three, over by top of a hill alone like it on otherwise flat surface.

That too, I knew too well.

And I took my first step towards it.

Then, out of nowhere, a figure ran past me like a bickering bolt of lightning and over towards the same tree like me. From first glance, I saw how it was a human, just like me, although a whole lot shorter than me and lighter in frame with pure white clothes and-

My eyes darted open.

“No...”

-pure platinum hair that waved over as the figure ran away.

And then I recognized it as a girl.

“H-hey! Wait!”

Instantly, I followed after her. But even as I ran at highest speed possible, she still was easily able to outrun me and soon she disappeared by the tree, out of sight. And by the time I got there, I was panting away like crazy and had to catch my breath.

“Oh, hi Big Bro!”

But the exhaustion vanished up, as my gaze fell over to base of the tree and at the young girl sitting by there, on a large root.

My legs gave upon me and I just fell over her

“Oh Rosie!”

I hugged her whilst kneeling there in front of her and I felt how she returned the embrace, her hands hitting against my sides.

Just as the tears of my happiness started to pour, Rosie turned to look up at me and laughed with her bright tone.

“Why are you crying big bro? You aren’t sad or anything are you?”

But it didn’t matter to me, as I continued to keep her close to me.

Suddenly she pushed herself off, somehow throwing me to my back, and ran away, screaming from laughter.

“Tag!”

So I stood back up, and was ready to go after her.

But then, I saw somebody else in the distance.

This figure was odd, clenched in what looked like an armor of sorts from tip to toe and it also stood up on two legs. However nothing close to a human being, the limbs were really thick and they all were same in length while its head perpetuated outwards, like its nose was an oversized potato.

But it wasn’t that which caught my attention.

It was what it held, that mattered.

A longsword.

And then the figure began running towards us.

Closing the distance in matter of ticking seconds.

I tried to run down the hill, however I stumbled and rolled down until hitting the rock bottom, all rugged up and winded out.

As I struggled to get up, I saw how Rosie was still jumping around without knowledge of the sword-wielder.

“ROSIE! RUN!”

She stopped and looked over at me with confusion before turning around.

Too late.

The sharp edge cut her by neck, spilling blood all over the ground as the veins kept on pumping the blood out from her.

A pool of blood formed underneath.

And soon the two halves of her fell over it, spreading the blood everywhere possible, and I saw how her head rolled away couple of feet.

An anguished cry left my mouth and I buried my face down to the grass, soaking it wet from my pouring tears.

“Oh God why?!”

But then I looked back.

I saw how the creature wiped its sword clean on the white clothes.

“You.... YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!”

I charged at the thing, that now turned to look over at me and proceeded to point the blade at my direction, it’s tip shining in the light like silver.

But it didn’t matter.

Anger.

As soon as I was about ten feet away from the armored monster, it suddenly threw its blade away before we made contact.

Better for me.

Rage.

As we rolled down to the ground, I began landing hits on the being. It’s armor didn't matter, as it crumbled away like glass on every impact and soon it resembled cheese, expect that blood soon dripped out from underneath the metal plates and chainmail combination suit.

By the time I gave a quick look over my hand work, I was honestly terrified.

From every possible place, there dropped out blood, and in most cases at vast amounts.

But the thing was still very much alive, as it’s rising chest showed off.

So I grabbed its helmet with both of my fists.

Revenge.

I pulled the helmet off.

And it dropped off from my grasp.

It was me.

...As the pony

Fear.

* * * * *

*Thump*

“Uhh!”

Instantly a surge of pain cut through me as my lungs emptied out of air. In the following minute, as I desperately tried to catch my breath in midst of hyperventilation, my eyes tried to establish my surroundings, soon forming the conclusion of that I had dropped down from my bed.

My hoof fell over my burrow only to feel the wetness of my sk...coat, red maroon coat, mainly all over my backside.

A grunt left me as I limberly stood up and headed out of my room, out to the narrow hallway and down it, thankfully not too far as the floor tended to creak under my weight until coming to a stop in front of the open white door.

Soon, I found myself leaning over the white porcelain sink whilst my hoof turned the valve on, allowing the cold water to fill it up.

As this happened, I stared down at my reflection.

No...

No it isn’t...

I felt my eyes moisten up, as even more water poured down.

Time passed by quite fast, as my lingering thoughts wandered over the barren wasteland called my head.

Then I felt horrible.

This isn’t me...

I don’t... know me.

The first tear dropped down on the pony’s mirror image.

A/N

Not gonna lie, I hated to write this chapter and I blame that on why this is so late from the schedule. There was just this lack of... motivation for me to grab myself over to the Google Document and type out perhaps my most darkest chapter ever, in my opinion even stronger than chapter three with... it.

*sigh*

Look, people, I don’t really think this needs to be addressed, however I’ve got to admit something.

I’m starting to burn myself out on The Bond.

Up to this point, my morale has been really high, but now...

Glad that’s over, now I shall focus on my other stuff for a needed change.

Carrot Top love face by *Eruvon.

Hoping the fellow will do the best pony soon.

And finally, woot for the longest chapter thus far (however not the longest I’ve ever typed out).