//------------------------------// // Back In The Sun // Story: The Bat and the Teacher // by Ximer //------------------------------// Wraith stalked the outskirts of Ponyville, quietly observing the city his sister now called home. He never imagined that his own blood would willingly choose this type of life, especially knowing what her father was capable of. What he had nearly done to him. That memory alone was enough motivation for him to try and correct whatever course Vesper might have set herself upon. “Knowing my father, he probably already has eyes on this stallion she has her heart set on…I simply need to come up with an idea, and find the other threstals in Ponyville.” Wraith said to himself as he thought aloud. There wasn’t much he could do tonight, as the train ride had taken most of the night, and his goal was to remain as low key as possible, which would be hard enough given the population difference. Wraith was determined to make his sister see the moonlight, by force if he had to. A confrontation he didn't look forward to, especially against his own kin. Perhaps a much simpler solution was what he needed? As he walked his face lit up as an idea came to him, and the gears began to turn as to how he could set things as they were once more, but would need to find some place to stay low first. Then once his plan was ironed out, Vesper would come crawling back to the darkness. -------- As dawn's morning rays danced through the window I groaned and shielded my eyes in protest, not quite ready to wake up yet. Even if Celestia was letting everypony know it was time to get up, I wanted no part of it at the moment. Unfortunately, it wasn't up to me as a set of hooves clacking against kitchen linoleum drug me further from the recesses of sleep. Annoying as the sound might have been, I knew it was Cheerilee going about with her morning routine. Now the question was, where was Vesper amidst all these new adjustments? "Rise and shine!" Vesper chirped out enthusiastically as she jumped and landed on me. "Why?" Ben asked in return. "The sun's up, duh." Vesper said, sitting on me. "Just because the sun is up, doesn't mean the rest of us have to be awake yet." Cheerilee commented as she walked past us with a cup of coffee. Ever since Vesper had gotten her new eyesight, shift? Honestly I couldn't think of a good term for it, but ever since the change had occurred in the bat pony, she was super active in the morning. Neither one was still about the idea of moving in together, but they had reconciled, for the most part. Though I heard the squabble like street cats from time to time. Perhaps that's where I needed to focus today. No lesson, no running around, I was the one who proposed this middle ground, now I needed to find a way to maintain it. I owed the two mares that much. "So what was today's agenda looking like?" I asked. Cheerilee sipped quietly on her coffee, thinking for a moment, as if trying to recall everything that needed to be done. "Well, there's the usual lesson. Other than that there isn't much today that comes to mind." "What if we did something today then?" Vesper offered. "I was thinking the same thing actually...get out and see a bit more of Ponyville?" I shrugged. Cheerilee took another long sip of her coffee as if to ponder the offer. She was the more mature of the two mares, this also meant she was the more cunning of the two, and her feelings about Vesper weren't the warmest, but if this was going to work I was going to have to find a way to make the square peg fit in the round hole. "I guess it couldn't hurt. It'd be interesting to see how good those eyes of Vespers work in the daylight," Cherrilee said. Benjamin gave the mare a skeptical look at her response. It couldn't be this easy, there was something else going on in her mind. Cheerilee was too smart to just give in. "No conditions, no prerequisites?" Ben asked. "Can't I agree to an outing?" Cheerilee asked in return. "You two are normally at teach others throats." Ben replied. "Well, it's clear you want this to work so I'm putting an honest hoof forward." Cheerilee said. "Hah, like the time you replaced my mouthwash with lemon extract?" Vesper asked causing the earth pony to grow a bit red in the face. "I only did that because you broke into my stash of lemon cookies after I told you to stay out of them!" Cheerilee huffed. "And here we go." Benjamin sighed as the two mare devolved into bickering. Their voices seemed to blur together as they got madder and madder. The noise grated on his nerves something terrible, Finally, Ben snapped and picked up both mares, scooping them each up by their barrel under an arm and holding them against him. The sudden height change and shift in balance was enough to silence both of them. "That's enough out of both of you!" Ben shouted making both mares recoil slightly. "I don't care who ate what last week, or who replaced what the next day, what I want is for both of you to stop fighting...right now." "But-" Cheerilee started. "No buts, now you said you wanted this to be an honest effort, then make it one." Ben said. "How then?" Vesper asked, almost so quietly that she wasn't heard. Benjamin thought for a moment before lowering the two mares. He had certainly gotten their attention, now he had to strike while the iron was still hot. That's when an idea came to him, it was so simple he was surprised he hadn't thought of it before. "How about this, since we're all in agreement on what we want to do, let's make a picnic out of it. Each of us will have to make something to bring to it." Ben said. Both mares seemed to ponder on his offer, Vesper nodded in agreement quickly, and Cheerilee soon gave a nod of approval as well. Benjamin knew getting them to see eye to eye would never be easy, but he'd to start some where. "That means no sabotaging each other either." Ben added, causing both of their shoulders to sink. Feeling confident that the ground rules were in place, Benjamin went upstairs to get ready in peace, leaving the two mares alone together. When he was gone they glared at each other hotly, each wanting nothing to do with the other, and silently cursing their fates for having drawn the other mare into their life. "So-" Vesper started. "My house, my kitchen first." Cheerilee said. "I hope the teacher isn't so quick to forget what he said~" Vesper taunted in a sing song like voice. Cheerilee gritted her teeth briefly while her back was turned to the bat pony. "Of course I hadn't, I just felt I had that right before we started fighting over it." "Okay teach," Vesper chuckled. "Lets be honest, if I really, really wanted to, I could fight you for it, I was going to let you have it. Just don't take forever is what I was getting at...but if you want a fight-" "Go ahead and take a swing then." Cheerilee challenged, catching Vesper off guard. "What?" Vesper asked wide eyed. "Swing, if you think it will do you any good." Cheerilee repeated. Wordlessly, Vesper took a swing at the earth pony, and was stunned when she simply leaned back and wrapped both hooves around her still extended foreleg. Cheerilee then proceeded to twist lightly, until Vesper was against the couch. her wings extending out of instinct. "You screech, you fly, you do anything else and I twist again." Cheerilee said putting pressure on Vesper's foreleg. "Okay,okay you win!" Vesper exclaimed. Cheerilee relinquished her hold on the bat pony, taking a few steps back from her as the two continued to stare each other down. Vesper's expression was caught somewhere between disbelieve, and burning rage. If she really wanted to she could just screech, but the that would ruin everything with Benjamin. "You're no guard pony, so how?" Vesper asked. Cheerilee simply smiled and walked into the kitchen. She knew that would bug the bat pony more than anything, but it truly was none of Vesper's business. Cheerilee had simply learned how to take care of herself, and others if need be. With Vesper quiet and out of her mane for a bit, Cheerilee tried to think of something that she and Benjamin would enjoy. While Vesper would be with them, he had never said anything about her...but if she was a betting mare, she could practically hear the scolding he might receive from him if she did short change the bat pony. Deep down she just couldn't forget what happened to her. Every time she tried, it just made the pain worse. Eventually Vesper or Benjamin one would have too much of her being so against this and then, where would that leave her? She pondered all of this as she prepared something. ------- Vesper wanted nothing more than to storm into the kitchen and show the earth pony who was boss...but what after that? Benjamin wouldn't approve of that. The real kicker was the teacher might actually do something about her sudden intrusion. With a heavy sigh Vesper sat on the couch, resting her head on her hooves dejectedly, until a loud pop filled the air, followed by a groan from the kitchen. Slowly, Vesper peeked around the corner, just to make sure the earth mare hadn't done anything...rash. Instead, what she found was a comical scene of an earth pony trying to scrape dough off the ceiling. "How'd that get up there?" Vesper asked, doing her best to contain her laughter. "It just did." Cheerilee huffed. "Go on, get your laughs in." "I could," Vesper chuckled. "Or, I could do this." The bat pony proceeded to walk towards the wall, and kept walking up it, as if it were no problem for her. She kept going until she was upside down on the ceiling and simply peeled the defective dough off, letting it fall in the sink. Her task done, Vesper released her hold on the ceiling and glided down landing near the kitchen entrance and was about to leave when Cheerilee spoke up, gaining her attention. "Umm...thank you." Cheerilee said quietly. "Teach, whatever you think I am, I'm not," Vesper shrugged, using the nickname she knew annoyed her. Eventually, it was Benjamin's turn to try and make something, but unfortunately while his intentions were good this was a case of his mouth getting him in way over his head. He didn't know how to cook, anything. He looked nervously at the two boxes the mares had prepared and now he felt trapped. "There's no shame in just getting something on the way there." Cheerilee offered, the logical choice. "But then it won't mean as much." Vesper spoke up, hitting on the more emotional spectrum of his thinking. "C'mon guys, let me think a moment..." Ben mumbled. This was going no where fast, he really wished he knew how to make something, but he couldn't think of anything. Anything he tried to draw on was just blank and void. His memory frustrated him, especially at moments like this. Cheerilee bit her bottom lip, not wanting to speak up for Vesper, but she cared about Benjamin more, and knew that this meant something to him. "What...what if we helped." she spoke up. "Sorry, I think my bad ear caught that," Benjamin said in disbelief. "You heard me right." Cheerilee sighed. "Now, what's something from your world?" "Yeah, about that...I have no idea how to make any of that stuff." Ben confessed. "None what so ever?" Vesper asked, to which she received a head shake in response. "Well, I guess that can be where start, with both of you," Cheerilee said pulling out a few bowls. "No stallion of mine is going to be helpless when it comes to the kitchen." Vesper snickered slightly until Cheerilee sat a bowl in front of her as well. "And you can learn a little bit about our culture, hmm?" Cheerilee asked rhetorically. --- Vesper looked up at the sky as the afternoon clouds passed her by; back resting on a soft patch of grass. Benjamin sat beside her, with Cheerilee on the opposite side of him. What an odd bunch they made together, but maybe some day she could get over her ingrained jealousy of the earth pony. It was simply part of her nature, a part that was hard to deny. Their lunch had been an interesting one, even though it consisted mostly of the two mares trying to impress upon Benjamin which culture's cuisine was better. He seemed to like both well enough, even if his was borrowed from Cheerilee. While making it hadn't taken that long the earth pony had insisted on keeping a clean house, causing their departure to be delayed. Benjamin's poor cooking skills didn't help either. Vesper still felt a bit sensitive when others would give her the occasional odd look, obviously not used to seeing a bat pony like her around, especially one with her eyes. Still, as long as she could be close to Ben, it didn't matter too much. She settled against his side with a happy sigh, a dopey smile forming on her muzzle as she felt Ben's hand work slowly along her back and neck, soothing her. "See this wasn't so bad was it?" Benjamin asked. "I guess not." Cheerilee replied, before she was brought in close thanks to a strong arm from the human, making Vesper chuckle. The sudden motion made the mare blush slightly, until Ben started petting her as well. Even though her coat was already a nice shade of pink, it was easy to tell her cheeks were flushed from their stallion's actions. "What am I going to do with you two?" Ben asked aloud. "I have a few ideas." Vesper keed her bat like laughter. "Nothing like that, honestly with the way you two have been at each other today I'm amazed neither one of you took a swing at the other." Benjamin remarked, snapping both mares out of their bliss like states of being, casting each other knowing glances. "So, what did you have in mind for us next?" Cheerilee asked. "Well, I was thinking we could stress test Vesper's new found love of the light, and see how long she can really go for." Benjamin replied. "I mean sunset is in just a few hours after all." "So glad you specified what you meant." Cheerilee sighed. "You know I don't bite, right?" Vesper flashed Cheerilee a smug expression. "Unless you ask of course." "I'll let you know if my sexual fantasies ever take a turn towards the vampiric." Cheerilee rolled her eyes. "Maybe I'm going about this this the wrong way..." Benjamin thought aloud. "I mean, the only reason you two haven't killed each other is me." "So what else have you got up your sleeve then? You're trying to override generations of built in competitive behavior...some of it...we just can't help." Cheerilee shrugged. "I get that, to a certain point...but then I see what Vesper was willing to do." Ben said. Vesper beamed from the praise, but a part of her was still hurting. She had given up her beautiful moon just to be with Ben, her stallion, only to find that she had to share his heart, something that she didn't think was fair. The worst part was that Cheerilee wasn't a typical pony that took the hint when to leave, and they had something special as well. "Ah, there we are," Ben commented, pulling Vesper from her thoughts. The bat pony looked up at the sky and saw the sun starting to set over the horizon. Her vision no longer adjusting like it once did. Vesper smiled brightly as she watched the beautiful hues of colors form over the clouds as if a master water color artist had graced the sky with their talents. "So, any regrets?" Ben asked. "A few," Vesper replied. "But trust me, the price was more than worth it." --- The evening sun's rays had triggered Wraith into action. Having slept most of the day off, he didn't feel like he would find much, but he needed to try and make some progress, anything would be better than nothing, which is what he had so far. Thankfully, most of the town ponies were beginning to head home, making his job easier. Wraith was aware of Vesper's occupation, but wanted to avoid gaining the castle's attention as much as possible. While it eliminated the most likely spot she was staying at, it also removed a large area he had to monitor. That left the outer rim of town which he took to exploring for any sign of his misguided sister. Just when was about to begin losing hope, Wraith saw them, or rather, her. There, beside a strange large creature and earth pony, was his sibling, of her scent there could mistaking it, but her eyes lacked the glow a full vibrancy of a normal bat pony. It was as if something had drained the life from them, only...they weren't dead, empty eyes either. "By the moon's light...Vesper...what have you done?" Wraith asked before glaring hatefully at the large creature.