//------------------------------// // I Have a New Job or Two. // Story: Source Code // by Nugget27 //------------------------------// So, I got a new job. In case you were wondering, because of this new job, I had to leave Hayburger in order to pursue my new job as a magical tutor. Now, I am no magical teacher, but from what I’ve had to learn can basically be applied to every unicorn foal ever. Get them to figure out how to use their horn, usually from some form of mental or emotional stimulation, and then snowball from there. It was a pretty straightforward thing. Cheerilee hired me as her tutor, but asked me for my first few days to come during school hours to see if I could also act as an assistant teacher during mondays and fridays every week. If I could, then hey, I have two jobs and get paid a little extra for being a tutor and an assistant teacher, or sometimes a sub-in for Cheerilee if I’m good enough at teaching. Granted, that’s assuming I’m even good at being a tutor, or able to teach magic. Luckily, I’ve made a video game tutorial a few times, and it’s pretty easy to make a guidebook to anything in a game. I like to bolster being able to make guide videos to my small audience of two people back when I was human. So it wasn’t hard to actually just guide ponies through the process. For the first lesson, I would actually be meeting Cheerilee at the schoolhouse where she was going to monitor how I was doing things, with Twilight there only to make sure I was teaching legitimate stuff at first. No, Twilight wouldn’t be teaching any foals, she’s not the biggest fan of those. “How do I look?” I asked Celestia. She and Luna decided to take the opportunity to watch me get ready for the day. I was wearing my trench coat, leaving it unbuttoned because I thought it looked cooler. Under that I wore a white t-shirt, because ponies need t-shirts for some reason, and a black necktie. As it turned out, ponies don’t wear pants ever, and often prefer to leave their hind legs free, or under a dress or cape(for various reasons including being able to use the bathroom better). So that was as far as I went in terms of clothing because of that. It wasn’t necessary, but it felt more professional to show up clothed rather than in my birthday suit, even though nopony would mind. “You look handsome as usual,” Celestia looked me up and down. “I will wait until tomorrow night to get you out of your outfit. I hope you understand the implementation of wearing clothes, Source.” “What?” “My sister refrained from telling you this, as per usual,” Luna shook her head. “Wearing clothes for ponies is usually more provocative than wearing nothing at all. Some ponies dream of what Tia, or me, look like without any regalia. More are dreaming of me making kitten noises after you embarrassed me in public-” she whacked me over the back of the head with a wing. “I’ve still not hit you over the head enough to show my displeasure of you doing that, by the way.” “Oh, c’mon. I know you loved it because I basically publicly admitted to adoring you. That gotcha a few less fearful gazes and a few more friendlier faces.” “...That it did. I can’t say it worked incredibly well, but thou didst help a little by doing that.” “Ponies need to remember that you and Celly are ponies too, y’all can be adorable when you need to be. Not just two regal figures of perfection. I can tell Celly’s getting sick of it.” “It… has its low points, and its high points,” Celestia admitted. “However, yes, wearing clothes is rather… attractive. It makes me ponder on what is underneath them, even if I have seen what is under them before. Ponies will think you are possibly more handsome. Given that you’ve gotten much more muscular recently, covering them makes me beyond excited to get those clothes off of you and admire your new figure.” Huh. We both chuckled. “I assume if you were a normal pony, seeing me without my regalia would be less interesting than seeing me with it.” “You look better without the necklace or horseshoes. You’re stunning as is, Celly.” “What about me, hmm Source?” Luna asked with a sly smile. “Lulu, I know legally we can share consorts-” “But you are quite frankly adorable, and because of how you’ve been treating me…” I paused. “Yeah, you’re pretty Luna. I can’t deny that. You’re beautiful too, but you’re like a sister to me. You are adorable, very adorable.” “Well, it would be weird to hear my surrogate brother say I am attractive,” Luna nuzzled me. “You are handsome, though. Our relationship is rather odd, with us switching the role of ‘older sibling’ so often. But as your older sister as of speaking, I am proud of how well you clean up, Source. I wish I could’ve been the mare that found you first at times, but I am perfectly happy with being your adopted sister.” She whacked me over the head with her wing. “I’m still mad at you for embarrassing me in public in front of hundreds of ponies.” “How could I not? Once the oldest sibling, always the oldest sibling. You sneeze like a kitten by the way. At least I didn’t say that in public?” “We are Princesses, Source. We do not sneeze like kittens,” Luna said sternly. The glint in her eyes told me to not take her seriously. “If I had an audio recording device, I would record you both sneezing and replay it right now. You both sneeze like kittens and it’s so fucking cute.” Both sisters gave me puppy eyes and head tilts. “Are we cute?” They asked simultaneously. It was very cute, and my heart was starting to burn. “Pwease come back tomorrow in the afternoon so we can get our share of stallion snuggies?” They said every word together at the same time. It was cute, and oddly horrifying. One, it was weird as to how they were doing that, two, it was cute, three, it was horrifying because I couldn’t argue against it. When Luna and Celestia were giving the in-sync heald tilts, puppy eyes, and pouty lips… Yeah, you aren’t going to be able to fight against it, you will do what they say… their eyes are getting bigger and more watery. “Fuck you both for being adorable. How the hell are you two even doing that? I know siblings share brain cells sometimes, but that is scarily in sync.”  My only answer was two head tilts before I eventually had to go to Ponyville. I used DragonFire the moment I stepped out of the castle. Something I’ve noticed is that as long as I am conscious and have magic reserved, I can use DragonFire for as long as I want as long as I moderate my speed, and as long as I’ve got magic. Luckily, because it’s Python based, I don’t worry about my magic reserves too much when it comes to using DragonFire. It’s still weird, because a teleport with Python will still give me a hornache if I teleport more than thirty meters with it. However, DragonFire used teleport as a part of it, along with two more somewhat complex spells(despite them being Python based, some spells can only be simplified so much). Basically, this all boils down to… If I have the magic, I can easily, easily travel to Manehattan. I don’t think I do, but I managed to make it to Ponyville pretty quickly(like ten to fifteen minutes. It’s a two hour train ride at the longest). I know my magic tutoring was only for afterschool, but Cheerilee wanted to introduce me to the class. I’m going to assume that I’ll be meeting her at the schoolhouse? I know it was somewhere on the way to Sweet Apple Acres, so I flew around that area until I saw a large, red house with a little playground outside of it. I came crashing down at the entrance, making sure I stayed far away enough from the last of the foals walking into the building. I could see a bunch of little snouts pressed against the window, some with wide eyes, others pointing and jumping like excitable children seeing something cool. Cheerilee wasn’t standing outside of the building like I thought she would, or by the entrance. In fact, when I walked in, after getting the last of the foals inside the building, she wasn’t there at all. I shrugged and walked over to the desk. “Alright,” I said, straightening my tie and looking over the papers… How old were these kids? This looks like stuff I’d see in the third grade. Basic multiplication and division, some usual, third grade level literature along with a book the class was all reading, along with a worksheet that seemed all too familiar; a worksheet to go along with the book. ‘Tis a shame, usually the books read in class were always pretty good, but most of the kids in said class really only focused on the book to get a good grade. I hummed and skipped over the history section; ain’t no shot in balls I could ever teach that right now. Not with my abhorrent lack of knowledge in that department. I stepped away from the desk and walked to the front, sitting on my haunches and taking a deep breath. “So, can anypony tell me where Ms. Cheer-” “Are you the special guest that Ms. Cheerilee is bringing in today?” One of the foals asked. He was a yellow little coat with a brown mane. “I think I am? I know your teacher wanted me to come in today, but I was expecting to meet her here. Any clue where she is?” “Ms. Cheerilee was going to stop by the library to get you, since you apparently know the librarian living there. Is the purple pony living in the library weird? You’re apparently dating her.” “...I came from Canterlot about ten minutes ago. Flew in on DragonFire.” “How’d you do that?” Sweetie belle squeaked.  “Yeah! We all saw you do it during the competition thingy that a bunch of unicorns were hosting. “It looked almost as cool as Rainbow Dash flying-” “Oh shut up you blank flanks. He has better things to do than to answer silly questions from you losers,” a little brat said with a crown sitting upon her head. She’s a magenta, little filly with a pale, violet looking mane with a… I think that’s a white streak going through it. I would call it gray, but getting the wrong colors of a mare’s mane is a sin, according to Rarity. Upon her head, again, was a little crown that didn’t look like it was actually real. It looked a little fake and a little cheapo. “So, Mr. Source Code,” she turned to me with big, bright eyes that did not match the tone of voice that she had just had with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. “Yes?” I raised an eyebrow. I guess this turned into a little question and answer post, but I don’t particularly mind that. “My Dad was reading the news article made about you. He says you’re dating the Princess,” Tiara’s eyes got even bigger. “Is that true?” “Yeah, I am dating the Princess and sometimes cook us both a nice meal. We kissed in public and every now and then. The way she sparkles when raising the Sun…” I chuckled. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world… Why do you ask?” “Could you… introduce us to her?” Tiara asked.  “...I think Celly’s having breakfast right now. It’s one of the few times in the day she gets to relax. I care about her deeply, and while I would love to snuggle up into her side while answering a bunch of questions, her work is only a little more important than mine. Y’know, I come up with ways to make spell casting easier, and she has a whole kingdom to run. Only a little bit more important.” Most of the foals, except Apple Bloom and her friends who were used to my sarcasm, looked shocked. “I’m joking. Celestia’s job is so damn hard, and sometimes I try to help out, and can’t even comprehend whatever legal stuff she has to deal with. “But my point still stands. I know Celestis can easily bend her schedule for me, but I don’t want her to. I don’t want to get her buried in paperwork because I wanted to snatch her away from her work to show off to a bunch of foals. It stresses her out a fair amount, which is fun because I get to massage and groom her, but also sucks because I can see how much it’s eating at her.” “You just don’t wanna show that you’re actually dating the Princess-” A phoenix managed to open a window, and I immediately knew who it was after it landed on the ground and hopped on over to me with a scroll in one of its talons. “Ah, Philomena! Celly asked you to deliver a letter for some reason?” The bird nodded, and hopped around after handing the scroll to read along, even if I don’t think she can read. I never really mentioned Philomena, but that’s because I don’t know how to describe her. She’s a beautiful phoenix. While we were reading it, I had wrapped a hoof around her, and started rubbing under her wing. Philomena was more than appreciative of me trying to pet her, and cooed a little. Most of the class was frozen; I think they all heard about the time that Fluttershy kidnapped the Princess’s pet that she thought was sick. They were probably even more shocked to see the random dude that is me, petting her. “Wanna hangout with me for the day?” I asked, rereading the message to make sure I wasn’t wrong. Philomena chirped and nuzzled me with her beak. She then hopped on my back and I chuckled. “So uh, I was supposed to meet your teacher at the train station.  Twilight too.” I laughed. “Ah fuck, I shoulda told Twilight that I would be showing up with DragonFire because I thought it’d look cool!”  Philomena proceeded to let out a very human-sounding laugh while I sat on my butt, holding my hoof to my forehead. “Ah, I am so darn stupid,” I chuckled before reaching up and scratching Philomena’s beak, how was I doing it without fingers? I dunno, but apparently it’s what I was doing when I raised my hoof to the phoenix’s beak. “Hey girl,” I said. “Can you go get Twilight and Ms. Cheerilee at the train station? Somebody's gotta make sure these foals behave, and I think they’ll listen to me a bit more-'' I paused. “Nevermind, you technically have a higher place of authority than I do because you look cuter.” Philomena raised her head at the praise, before taking off out the window she came in from. Moments later, I’m sitting at Cheerilee’s desk, watching her teach while Philomena rested her head on my shoulder while the two of us were sitting mildly bored through a lecture. Occasionally I chimed in on an easier way to do a problem, which made Cheerilee give me a nod of approval. Luckily, the bird resting on my shoulder kept me mildly occupied, and helped me not look bored. The only foals actually answering anything were Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, since the rest of the foals were still staring wide eyed at me. I teleported a packet of sunflower seeds to me, and started sharing the bag between me and Phili, my personal nickname for Philomena… then she swiped the bag, took five seeds and gave me a cute little, smug grin. She knew just how sweet and adorable she looked and that I couldn’t get mad at her for doing what she just did. She was mostly just teasing; she only took five seeds after all, so I couldn’t get mad at anyways. I planted a kiss on the bird’s forehead, and she recoiled while looking shocked. “What?” I whispered. “Didn’t expect me to be affectionate every now and then? You’re just as much my pet as you are Celly’s, even if she’s known you for a few thousand years longer than I have.” Philomena chirped quietly, and I swear I noticed a small blush, probably because I just embarrassed her by doing what I just did in public, before she buried her face into my neck and started chirping what Celestia called ‘Philomena swearing’.  “Is there something you and Philomena would like to share with the class, Mr. Source?” Cheerilee asked. “Oh, shoot. I didn’t mean to whisper that loud, Ms. Cheerilee. It’s not everyday that I get to hangout with this lovely little lady, when I do, it’s usually a treat-” “Think nothing of it, I do ask that you two keep down a little more. I do appreciate your occasional tips and tricks for reading comprehension and mathematics, so your presence still isn’t unwelcome, and you still have your after class tutoring with my unicorn students. Just… keep the chirping and spoiling of Princess Celestia’s pet to a minimum?”  “Can do, Cheerilee. I can’t guarantee you won’t hear a chirp every now and then. Phili’s a little chatty because I just embarrassed her.” Cheerilee giggled at that. “That will be alright, it’s not too loud.” I soon found Philomena perched on top of my head, watching the rest of the classroom after I started actually paying attention during history, and even took my own notes in a notebook I borrowed from Twilight, who showed up shortly after stepping outside to take a few deep breaths. It turned out that Philomena and Twilight have little history beyond the one time she helped kidnap the phoenix, but the bird was quick to forgive, since Philomena took a lot after her mama bird, AKA Celestia.  Philomena pretends to bucking die for a prank. Yeah, Twilight and Fluttershy were both a little traumatized by that at first. Luckily, nopony was actually hurt, and Philomena was reprimanded for giving poor ol’ Flutters and Twily a heart attack, and the two actually got along pretty quickly after that. Their shared love for Celly made for some quick bonding, even if the phoenix liked me more and chose to remain closer to me. Mostly because I knew where to scratch her, and because she looked sitting in my messy mane more. Only because she was taught the importance of a mare’s mane, so she didn’t want to ruin Twilight’s mane. “And that is the Equinian-Griffonian War!” So after school was let out, only a handful of foals, a whole five of them stuck around after class. All of them were unicorns. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom really only stuck around because they were going to hang out with Sweetie Belle after her tutoring. There was a foal named Dinky, who was apparently the daughter of a pegasus named Muffins ‘Derpy’ Doo, or the main mailmare of Ponyville. There were Snips and Snails, who looked ready to walk out immediately. There was nothing behind their eyes, but I could be wrong. Then there was another unicorn named Button, who happened to be who Sweetie Belle was probably crushing on. Cheerilee and Twilight sat in the back of the room and watched me getting ready to teach. “Aight kiddos, step away from the desks, I’m gonna rearrange them so we can all sit while facing each other. It works best if we all learn how to use magic if we’re closer together.” Everypony did as such, and I immediately got to work. Twilight raised an eyebrow at my use of Levitation, probably because she didn’t expect me to be able to move so many objects so easily, while working through a magical textbook I was making for beginners. It was what I made during my own experiences of learning how to use magic. After the desks were arranged, I even coaxed Apple Bloom and Scootaloo over so they wouldn’t be bored. “Just don’t distract Sweetie Belle too much, alright? Today will mostly be an introduction and what I’ll expect every time I show up.” Both of them nodded, and started watching intently. “Okay, who here is able to actually use their horns? Don’t feel bad if you don’t raise your hoof-” Everypony but Sweetie Belle and Dinky did. “Alright, I’ll be working with you two personally after I get over this whole curriculum thing. Or whatever it’s called; I’m not a trained professional. Anyways, every week, I will teach ya’ll a spell or the basics of a magical system, throughout the week, I want you guys to practice what I teach you on monday on your own. On Friday I’ll check where everypony is and help anypony falling behind. I will do my best to make sure nopony falls behind. “However, if I notice anypony not picking up on anything I teach them, not because they’re stupid or don’t know how, but because they actively ignore anything I teach them, I won’t help ya. It’ll pain me to do it since I don’t like giving up on anypony, but I can’t help anypony who can’t help themselves. Sweetie Belle, I believe I can get your First Spark the easiest, so come with me. Dinky Doo,” the little light gray, almost violet, unicorn looked up at me. “If I can’t get to you this week, I will be in town tomorrow. I’ll want you to get your mother to take me to Twilight’s library, and we’ll go from there, aight?” She nodded, looking hopeful. “Everypony else…” My eyes instantly landed on Button. “Why do you look sad?” “...I can’t use magic either,” he almost whispered. “It’s embarrassing! There are foals half-” “Being a late bloomer isn’t anything to be embarrassed by. I only learnt how to use magic very recently, because back where I came from, unicorns were hardly a thing. My parents couldn’t teach me because they were earth ponies and I had no way of learning. Celestia took me under her wing after learning of the new perspective I could put in on magic, and here I am. I’m damn near twenty years old, Button, and I didn’t know how to use magic until about half a year ago.” “...What?! But you-” “I worked hard. You don’t get anywhere in life by being sad and doing nothing to improve your situation. I know this is going to suck, hearing it from an adult, but if you want something, it ain’t gonna be given to you. You gotta work hard and hope you get lucky; I got super, super lucky that I got to be in the position that I’m in, Button. Just don’t give up, hold your head high, and keep going. I’ll try and stick around on wednesday and help you out if I can’t get to you either. Does that sound good?” I walked around the table, laid down and actually laid Button on the side of my stomach. “Well?” “That… would be nice. Can you help me become as good as I can be at magic?” “I will do my damned best. If none of you can’t teleport by the end of the year, then I will say I failed as a teacher. Luckily Python is designed to be easy and helpful for those with less magic, so… You should be able to even do DragonFire…” Button's excited look made me smile. he looked a little confused too, but I could guess why. “Remember how I flew in?” “I COULD DO THAT!?” Button exclaimed.  “HELL YEA YOU CAN!” I said, just as excited. “And you will be able to.” “I CAN’T WAIT-”  “Hold it, Button,” I pointed at his horn. “Your horn’s lit,” I said with a larger smile growing on my face. “You got your first spark.” “I… What?” He looked up and saw his horn was lit. “OH!” it went out, and he quickly figured out how to consistently light it.  “That, Button, is the hardest step. Maybe your cutie mark is going to involve magic?” “I hope it does…” Button immediately hopped up on his hindlegs and hugged me. “Thank you, Mr. Code.” “Hey, don’t go thanking me, you just proved one of my theories for getting that first spark,” I chuckled, and couldn’t not hug him. He is so god damn excitable and adorable, and I was struggling… Why did I have him snuggled up into my side like he was my kid? I just met him. Maybe this is the joy that comes from teaching? Probably. Maybe it’s this stupid new body of mine making my fatherly instincts shine through. “Ha, he just now got his magic in such a dorky way-” “Snails, shut the fuck up. If you shit on somepony else’s achievement and that’s all you know how to do, I want you to get the fuck out-” “It’s not even impressive-” Now Button just looked angry. I was too. “Snips,” I said sternly. “Quit being a dipshit.” “But-” “Snips, Snails, get the fuck out. I ain’t helping you two dipshits. We’re here to lift each other up. Cheerilee, excuse my language, but I don’t tolerate shit like-” I glared and Snips and Snails, who had the brains to back away. “The sorta shit that leaves these two’s mouths. Now you two, do you want to actually learn-” “Why are we even learning from you if you didn’t win any of those competitions-” “Why are you two still even here? I said get out. I ain’t teaching you two. When you two quit being gobshites, I’ll consider taking you back. Alright?” “Fine! This is a waste of time anyway.” Snips and Snails said at the same time before leaving. “Trixie is better at magic than you are anyways!” WIth that, the two colts left. Good, fuck those kids.  “Alright, I guess our little turorage session dropped to three unicorns. Sweetie Belle, can you come with me so I can help you get that first ignition?” After convincing Sweetie Belle how much being able to use magic would help with getting her cutie mark, she got pretty damn excited, and actually was actually able to use levitate by the end of the hour. Cheerilee didn’t initially approve of how I told Snips and Snails to fuck off, but understood why and was fine with it after saying I would take them back if their behavior improved. The problem was Dinky, since I couldn’t immediately figure out what she was passionate about… Until I learnt something important. “I want Mommy to be proud of me…” She whispered, staring at her horn that simply won’t light. “Do you want to perform magic tricks to help Mrs. Doo unwind after work?” “Yeah.” “Do you want to be able to do it by being able to turn your hooves into talons?” “Yeah…” “I bet she would be really happy if you showed her some magic tricks.” Dinky Do started looking more excited. “Whatever spells you want me to teach you, I will. You’ll have a whole arsenal of spells to make your mother happy…” “Can you teach me how to do that levitation thingy as good as you?” “If that’s what you want, I will teach you how.” A small smile formed on her face and her horn lit. She gasped. “OH SWEET CELESTIA YOU DID IT!” She started jumping up and down and tackled my face. I laughed and allowed Dinky to work her excitement out. This was how it was across all three foals; they were all super happy to be able to finally use magic. Granted, they can’t do anything yet, but they’ll learn overtime, As soon as I realized we were progressing a lot sooner than I had expected, I started teaching them the Runes of Python and gave them some handy dandy little flash cards I had made that had all the Runes of Python and how to do them. “No, you did it, Dinky. I just helped ya get there. Ain’t no shame in needing a bit of help every now and then, eh?” Dinky shook her head, before quickly figuring out how to light her horn constantly on her own. Then small handbooks on how to work their way through an equation. “I want you kiddos to read through them and try to do every Rune. On Friday I want to see if you all can do every Rune. If not, I’ll teach y’all a trick to make Runes a lot easier, and if you can? I’ll still teach you the tricks. This is all for Python, so the Runes require as little muscle control as possible. Anypony able to cast a basic light spell will be treated, by me, to some ice cream as a treat. After that, we’ll begin on Rune casting speed.” Aside from Snips and Snails being little gobshites, I would say that most of the tutoring went well, Cheerilee paid me for my work, and thanked me for coming. Philomena had perched herself on my back as we started walking back through town. “Hey, Mr. Code,” Button said, trotting up behind me. “Can… you walk me home? It’s a little dark and-” “Ey, no skin off my nose. C’mon, lead the way. I'll be close by. Between me and Phili here, you’ll get home safely.” Button trotted up beside me, just a little bit ahead of me so we could follow him. A few minutes in, Philomena was hopping along, chirping away a storm while Button was seemingly having an argument with her from atop of my back. The conversation was clearly one sided, Phili was just having fun with Button, and Button clearly got along with the phoenix. We eventually walked up on… a large building. It was kinda fancy looking, so I assumed that Button may be pretty well off. “You can drop me off here, this is my home,” Button whispered. “Alright. If you need me to walk you home after our tutoring sessions and your parents aren’t… available, lemme know. I’m not about to let my students walk home alone in the dark.” “You let Sweetie Belle and her friends walk home alone.” “AJ actually met them at the gate after we left. They usually just have free reign in the town because of how weird some of their adventures to get a cutie mark is.” I hummed. Before laying on my stomach so that Button could slide off. “Well kiddo, I’ll see you and the rest of our little circle Friday morning? I’m still supposed to shadow Cheerilee and figure out how I can help out with teaching in some capacity for the second job she’s giving me. Keep working on those Runes, read a bit of that Light spell,” I reached under my trench coat and pulled out a textbook for Python. “And, if you feel like it, hand a gander at this. It’ll help you out a lot; I made a spell system, obviously, and I made the textbook so just about anypony with a horn can pick it up.” “...But-” “Don’t say you won’t be able to do it-” “I wasn’t. Why are you helping me out so much?” “It’s my job,” I said. “And because I can see how damn passionate you are about learning how to do magic. If I can keep that passion going and teach you how to do magic, then hey! I made an impact in somepony’s life. At least I can make a difference somewhere, when I couldn’t do it back home.” Button paused, staring at the book. He looked it over before nodding to, presumably, himself, before stashing away in his saddlebags and started walking again. “Want me to walk you to the door?” I asked, noticing the big sign. “No! I can handle it. It’s only a few meters.” “Alright,” I stood up. “Hey kiddo,” Button turned back to me. “Have a good night.” After Button walked in the door, I started walking too. I was going to be staying at Twilight's for a reason. I was told to come back tomorrow, which was basically Celly’s ‘me and Lulu are going to have some sisterly bonding time and snuggle up together overnight’ thing. I wish I could be there to see the adorable scene of Luna snuggled up under Celestia’s chin, while being pressed into her older sister’s side with a wing, but if they only want the two of them to be there for their snuggle time, so be it. I think Twilight might use me as a pillow tonight, I dunno. I think that she was. I trotted into the library a few hours after I had dropped Button off(I just wanted to take a walk), and came faced with a problem. Six mares, Twilight and her friends, who else? Anyways they were all wearing pajamas, though Rainbow seemed a little peeved about having to wear something that made her look ‘too cute and cuddly’. I just sat in the entrance and slowly turned to Spike. “Am I going to get drugged, murdered and dumped out back? And if yes, can they reschedule my murder for a year or two?” “No, they wanted to have a sleepover with you. It was Pinkie’s idea," Spike said as he walked up. We bro-fisted/clawed. Darn, so much for me dying. I reached in my trench coat again and pulled out a comic book and handed it over to Spike. “Here you go, my dude.” “...Dude, that’s a limited edition copy of Power Ponies… This is ten years old!” “Hit with every enchant possible to keep it in pristine condition,” I whispered. “It’s sort of… a thank you. Thanks to you helping me with DragonFire gave me the groundwork for Python and gave me proof that it does do what it should. In a way, you helped turn my life around. This is the least I can do. Thanks to Celly, I found where one of these bad boys was to thank you with.” “I…” Spike hopped up and hugged me, and I couldn’t help but laugh like an idiot. We both did, before inevitably the mares in the room snagged me, while Spike went to go put a cover on the limited edition, first ever copy of Power Ponies that was apparently only released in one city. Or something. I don’t keep up with comics, and especially not Power Ponies, but Celestia told me it was apparently a very, very rare copy that I had purchased.  “So…” I said, now knowing I was at the mercy of the Bearers. “Why’d y’all want a sleepover.” Rarity started. “We…We wanted to spend some time with you. The last time we all spent some time together, it was during the Summer Sun Celebration, where…” “Y’all almost let me get killed a few times?” “We… also wanted to apologize for that,” Twilight laughed a little nervously. “Why do you treat us nicely after that?” “I just do. I’ve been trying not to hold grudges. If I did, I wouldn’t get along with Luna and I wouldn’t have made a friend outta Trixie. I’ve… held a grudge with my sister once, never, ever got it sorted out. I uh…” I chuckled. “Man, that actually sucks.” I paused before taking a deep breath. “Anywho, I learnt to not hold grudges to the proverbial grave. Y’all genuinely aren’t bad ponies, so I’m going to make an effort to be your friend, and we’ll pretend like what happened in the Everfree never happened; I was never there.”  “You weren’t there?!” Pinkie asked. I chuckled at that. “But then who was the stallion we were traveling with? I was hoping to get his number!” “Uh, he fell in a hole. Then he became really ugly. So ugly that everyone around him died. Then he died because he fell on his face and never went to the hospital.” I wasn’t going to ask her how she knew about the ‘get his number’ bit. It’s Pinkie, don’t acknowledge half the things she says, because she doesn’t either. “Oh. When’s the funeral?” Pinkie asked.  “Sometime in the near future. Relatively soon.” We both giggled at that. A few hours later, I got dragged into a pile of mares, until Philomena managed to drag me out of it and literally use me as a bird bed. It was a pretty fun way to spend the night in Ponyville. I woke up covered in feathers, because Philomena is a feather-dispensing little lady, and demands all the snuggles… I couldn’t move until twelve in the afternoon; Philomena literally wouldn’t let me get up. No, she didn’t make me stay still until twelve, no, she looked cute while she was sleeping and I would’ve felt bad if I woke her up before she wanted to wake up. I got to hug Phili for a few hours, so that’s always a plus at least. I think I may end up spending the week with Phili if she wants that… Though I think Luna may want to spend the week with me too. It has been a solid minute since the two of us were doing our weird ‘I’m the older sibling now, nerd’ relationship. So… Yeah, I’m gonna find Luna… after being used as a snuggle toy by her and Celly because they wanted their stallion snuggies. Wait, why did all of Twilight’s friends want stallion snuggies? I can’t remember. I just know that Rarity looked a little disappointed when I was pulled out of the pony pile they had formed around me before going to sleep. She was resting her head on my flank, after all.  I’m gonna try and get her to come with me to the next tutoring session on Friday. I know that she would love to spend some time with a bunch of cute foals and possibly help teach them.