"AH! HOLY SH...THAT'S COLD!" I fiddled with the knobs that controlled the temperature and gingerly put my head back under the torrent of water. "Ahh...much better." I moved myself under the shower and used one of the many bottles of shampoo that Luna had to wash myself. I was feeling good and pretty damn happy - last night certainly helped with that.

I certainly wasn't expecting Luna to wear something like that. But because of that, the events that followed were most thoroughly enjoyed by both parties. Finishing up in the shower, I stepped out, dried myself and walked back into the bedroom where Luna was putting her regalia on.

"Beautiful as always honey." I said, winking, getting a giggle out of her. I put on my clothes from last night and sat back down on the bed, waiting for Luna to finish up. "What are you gonna do with your day?"

"As much as I'd like to spend it with you, I do have some duties to attend to. You are more than welcome to accompany me but it will be a monotonous five hours." she replied, groaning at the end.

I didn't need to think about that twice. "Yeah...probably not going to then. You don't mind do you?"

She leant over to me and gave me a light peck on the cheek. "Of course my dear. I'd rather you did something productive with your day." Her eyes suddenly widened and she reached into her drawer to pick out a scroll. "This arrived for you this morning." She levitated it to my hands but a dull pain caught me off guard. I clenched my forehead with my hand. "Are you alright?"

Rubbing my forehead, I regained my composure. "Yeah...yeah I'm fine. Probably a headache or something." I took the scroll and unrolled it.

Dear Owen

When you return to Ponyville today, there will be several packages in your home. These are from the girls who couldn't see you before you left yesterday.

Have a safe journey.

Twilight Sparkle

"Turns out I've got more presents at home." I looked at the discarded outfit from last night and then up to Luna. "Nothing could have been better than that." I said, chuckling softly.

Luna walked over and embraced me. "Have a pleasant journey back my love. Would you like to me ask for a chariot for you?"

"No need." I picked up the scroll that Celestia gave me yesterday. "Your sister gave me this as a present. A teleportation spell that only I can use. Takes me right back to my house."

"Not yet." I unrolled it and read it over. "Want to see it in action?" She nodded. "Alrighty then. I'll talk to you later, OK?" I looked over the words that needed to be spoken. Taking a deep breath, I read them out.

With a flash, I was outside my front door. For a teleportation spell, I didn't feel sick or light-headed for a change. Opening up my front door, I walked inside to see that Twilight was correct - five packages were placed on my sofa. Sitting myself down, I noticed that all the packages were colour co-ordinated. There was a white one, a pink one, a cream one, and orange one and a cyan one.

I picked up the white one first. The tag read "To Owen - have a marvellous birthday.". Opening up the package, inside lay a pair of shoes. But not just any shoes. A beautiful pair of smart black shoes. I remember giving them to her after she said she would 'fix them' for me. And fix them she did!

I then went to open the pink one. It was a large box, but quite light, which got me thinking what could be inside. I opened it to find...nothing, only a slip of paper. It read "Look in the fridge.". I did so and found a giant chocolate cake inside, topped with my name spelt out in pieces of frosting. I fought the urge to just wolf it down there.

The next package was a small, cream coloured one from Fluttershy. Opening it up, another small slip of paper was inside. It read "To Owen. I wasn't sure on what to get you but when you have the time, I would like to take you to the spa - Fluttershy." The smile on my face went wider as I read it. I always love to spend time with her.

The next one was orange - Applejack's present. Lifting it up, I felt the weight of it - it was quite heavy. And when I moved it, there was the unmistakeable sound of bottles clinking together. Opening it up, it turns out that sound was correct. There were three brown bottles, all full of liquid. I could only guess what was in these little beauties.

The last present was the cyan one - sure enough to be from Rainbow Dash. Opening it, I found a book inside. Surprising to say the least. A slip of paper was inserted between the book cover - it read "The new book is out! It's so awesome!".

Setting my gifts down, I changed into a fresh change of clothes and then decided to take a venture into the town. Reaching the market area, I spotted AJ at her stall. Walking up, I remembered what gift she gave me. "Hey AJ."

We both turned to the source of the noise and saw a white coated mare running through the market. The closer she got, the more me and AJ recognised her. "STOP!" I shouted to her.

I stared at her and then noticed how she really looked. Fighting back laughter, I asked her a simple question. "Err Pinkie? Why are you wearing a nappy and covered in flour?" AJ burst into laughter and I quickly followed suit.

"The Cakes! They're...they're too...I gotta go!" Pinkie ran off out of sight before me and AJ could stop laughing.

"Oh man..." I said, clutching my sides. "I wonder what's got her all worried like that?"

"If ah knew any better, I say it's to do with those new foals the Cakes had. They asked Pinkie to babysit for them!"

"Wait, what?" Even I was worried now. "They asked Pinkie to look after newborns? Are they mad?"

AJ narrowed her eyes at me. "Jus' what are implying? Pinkie can't take care of them?"

"Well...I don't know." I said, holding up my hands in defense. "It's just she's so hyper and I reckon with all of the noise she makes, those kids won't ever sleep."

"Hmm...I suppose you've got a point there. But they wouldn't have asked her if they didn't think she could do it."

"Suppose so." I noticed I was holding up other ponies from buying from AJ's stall. "I'll just leave you to it. Have a good day." I departed from the stall and continued my walk. I basically window-shopped for the next part of an hour, looking at all of the fresh produce and knick-knacks that the ponies were selling.

As it was nearly lunchtime, I thought I would treat myself by going to a nice cafe on the edge of town - they do amazing meals. I walked past the Quills and Sofa's store (I always spot it as the name is ridiculous), the smart restaurant and then the schoolhouse. Looking towards the school, I saw that the kids were outside playing. "Must be their lunchtime as well." I was about to depart before I noticed Cheerilee pacing nervously near the door to her classroom.

She swung her head in my direction. "Ah, you're perfect! Come inside a second." She ran inside and left the door open. Shrugging my shoulders, I decided to follow her order and walked inside the classroom to see her as frantic as before.

"I left a very important paper at home and I need it for this afternoon." she explained.

"Actually no. I would really appreciate it if you could mind the class for the next hour or two."

Surely she didn't say that. "Hold on...me...watch the class?" She nodded, gathering her saddlebags and heading for the door. "Wait, wait, wait! What am I supposed to do? I don't know the first thing about..." I pointed to her chalkboard and flipchart. "About any of this. I've never taught a thing in my life!"

"Oh I'm sure you'll be fine. Just talk to them and if they ask questions, try and and answer them to the best of your knowledge."

"But, but--" The door slammed shut and I was left alone. "How in the fuck did..." I sat on the desk and contemplated what just happened. In the matter of about two minutes, I went from happy walker to caretaker/teacher! Just what the hell was I supposed to talk about?

I turned to see that Scootaloo had opened the door. "Oh hey. I...don't know. Your teacher just asked me to cover for an hour or two."

"So you're out teacher now?!" she happily exclaimed. The door swung open even more to show the rest of the class wearing happy grins...all except for the two obvious ones.

"For about an hour...I suppose I am." They all cheered and returned to their seats. A deathly silence loomed as I was now expected to do something. "Erm..." I wiped the sweat of my forehead. "S-so...what was Cheerilee teaching you this morning? I might be able to continue it." A white coloured hoof was raised into the air. "Yes, you Miss...?"

"Mith Cheerilee wath teaching uth about hithtory." she replied with a full lisp.

"Right...any particular period?" I asked. They all raised their hooves but I came to a conclusion - I don't know much history and they probably know what I know. "You know what? Never mind about that. Let's err..." I scratched my head in thought. There had to be something that I could talk about. Something that would grab their attention. Something..."A-ha! I know exactly what to talk to you about. Or should I say show you. Give me about five minutes."

I walked out of the classroom and into the reception area. I approached the mare behind the counter. "Excuse me. Could you make sure that none of them leave this building whilst I go and get something? I'll be five minutes." The mare nodded and I used my scroll to teleport back to my home. I found the object that I required and made sure it had a full charge. I started running back towards the schoolhouse and got there in about seven minutes.

"Right!" I said, catching my breath and setting down the object on the desk. "I'd like you all to bring your desks closer to me." They all did so, pushing and pulling their desks. Soon enough, there were eight children huddled around the main desk. "I'm going to show you something from my world that I have always loved. This is what is called a cartoon." I opened up my laptop and clicked on a specific folder.

The classroom was howling with laughter after watching another episode of the animated antics. Most of them were red in the face at watching such a thing. The classroom door opened and Cheerilee walked back into the room.

"Right everyone. I think that's enough for now." I got a chorus of aww's from the children. "Now now, Miss Cheerilee is back now and it's time for me to go." I noticed they all looked a bit down so I decided to lift their spirits. "But I'll bring this back soon OK?" They all cheered as I walked out of the classroom. I put my laptop down and untangled all of the wires before picking it back up and heading out of the schoolhouse.

"Owen?" I turned back around to see the purple teacher. "Could I have a word with you?"

"Of course." I set my laptop down. "What word would you like? I personally like 'mystify'."

She laughed softly. "See, I love that humour. What I wanted to ask you is quite serious."

"My students have just told me what fun they had with you in the classroom. So I would like to ask you to keep that promsie of yours and do come back soon."

Cheerilee smiled. "Good. Because I would like to offer you a position at the school as my assistant."

"You heard me correctly. What with your knowledge and foreign devices, I'm sure that you would make a fine addition to our staff."

"The club, yes I know." I chuckled as she finished my sentence. "But I have seen how you look when you leave. I live near the club and don't lie to me - at the end of the night, you look much worse for wear, correct?"

I couldn't lie to her. "I suppose I do...but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it."

"And I'm sure you do. But your current job is only 3 nights a week. This position will be 5 days a week which means you will be earning many more bits and you will finish whilst it is still daytime."

"Well..." I brought my hand to my face as the idea of it swam in my mind. "I don't know...it sounds amazing and I can't thank you enough but..."

"You need some time to think." I nodded. "I understand. This position will always be open to you. But please, please consider this. Have a good day!" she finished, walking back to the schoolhouse.

I picked up my laptop and started the long walk back to my home. Did I want this job? Do I really enjoy my job at the club? Sure it was noisy and the hours were long and it was sometimes tedious but that's work! And I've worked with Vinyl for so long - I don't know how she'd take it if I asked to leave.

But on the other hand, Cheerilee was right. This was more hours and more pay. An easier job...I think. I loved spending time with the kids today and I do have lots of knowledge that I could teach them. That book that Twilight gave me would come in handy as well.

I eventually got home and plopped myself down on the sofa. Still thinking on what to do, I came to a conclusion - I needed some advice and there was only one pony who could give such advice to me. I tapped.

Good Things Come

by Sweet Tale

40. An Opportunity Arises