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!

So... yeah, uploading this a bit soon from my normal schedule.

Hopefully some of you're happy cause of this

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