//------------------------------// // Home away from Home // Story: Poles Apart // by InsaneJustin //------------------------------// Life was exceptionally tough for the Apples and Rainbow for the 1st few years. Seeing as babies and young foals have a hard time learning what’s dangerous and what isn’t, and when a bump or fall can cause more then just a bruise for one foal in particular. They were frequent visitors to the Ponyville hospital for breaks and fractures alike. They knew all of the doctors on a first name basis and it wasn’t uncommon to see Daring Star in a cast of some kind. One of the nurses took it upon herself to visit the Apple home to do routine check ups, Free of charge. It was the Black mare with a fire orange mane, they saw her quite a lot actually. She was always involved whenever it had something to do with Daring Star. Rainbow Dash and her had become somewhat of friends because of all contact they were having with each other. As Daring got older he began to realize what he could and couldn’t do. And one of the major things he couldn’t do, was play the same way his sister could. Several times he had tried to catch up to her during games of tag but would run out of breath and have to stop or simply collapse on the floor as he gasped for air. Star Rider seemed to be the perfect foal. A strong body, strong wings, powerful hooves, the only thing missing was a horn. She was the perfect combination of Big Mac and Rainbow Dash. A total athletic prodigy. When compared to her stick figure of a bother, you would never guess they came from the same parents, let alone the same birth. Daring began to break less bones after he learned how to read from a certain Princess of Magic. Well, break less often anyway. The way his bones broke became more elaborate when he would try to mimic things he was reading about. He got into the Daring Doo book series after his mother, Rainbow, suggested he reads them. She did after all already own the 1st 50 some books in the series. The main difference between Daring Star and Star Rider, was that Daring appeared to be smarter than his sister, but that might of been because he could practically do nothing but sit and read, or go outside and get hurt. He learned to read way before he even got into school and when school started, was top of his class. Because of his position he became the main target of bullying. Griffins had become the top bullies in schools. Being physically stronger then ponies and predator’s by nature, becoming a bully became an easy outlet for many of the younger griffins. It had started with verbal abuse and the petty theft of things. Daring had ignored them for the most part as what they took was usually easy to find in a nearby trash can or some bush. It wasn’t until one of them got a little antsy and pushed Daring down to the floor did the bullies and every other child in the school realize how incredibly fragile his body really was... “Gahh!” Daring laid in a heap on the floor of the school yard and his scream brought the attention of the other nearby ponies and griffins, including his older sister. Star saw him gasping for breath in obvious pain. “What happened...?!” Star Rider looked at her brother on the floor with 3 male hatchling griffins looking incredible guilty and scared about what to do. “What did you do to him?!” the 2 griffins looked to the one in the middle with accusing stares and he just sputtered his answer. “I-I-I, just pushed him is all, I-I-I swear I didn’t hit em’! I didn’t even push him that hard!” Star became visibly upset at what he had said and quickly ran up in front of the griffin using her wings to make her even faster. “You Moron!” She hit him directly on the beak with her front right hoof and sent him flying back a few feet. After she blew some steam from her nose in anger, she promptly turned around and went to see how her brother was doing. “How are you little brother?” Daring just panted on the floor not moving and breathing short sharp breathes. “I think I have some fractured ribs again, it hurts to breath, but I...” Daring let out a small cough and a grunt of pain. “...I can’t get up, it hurts so much...” He closed his eyes to blink away the oncoming tears. “Did you beat him up sis?” Star smiled at her brother “Of course I did. You stay put, I’m gonna go get Ms. Cheerilee.” Star stood up straight and looked over to her friends. “Honey, Stocking, can you keep my brother company?” “Of course!” The other two fillies nodded their heads and they approached Daring who just continued to lay on the floor. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ News spreads quickly in the small town of Ponyville. As soon as Rainbow Dash heard the news of Daring getting injured at school, she abandoned her post of clearing up the clouds in the sky and ended up sonic rain booming on her way to the hospital. Big Mac had a similar experience, he had been pulling an apple cart from the market when he heard about it. The fact it had turned over and caused a large mess didn’t slow him down any on his way, and he ended up dragging along several other carts that were in his way to the Ponyville hospital as well. When Big Mac arrived it looked like a train wreck in front of the hospital, except with carts and market place stalls. It was the 1st time he was injured outside the home without one of them around. So Big Mac and Rainbow Dash wanted to know if he was ok, and what had happened. The nurses told them where he was knowing exactly who they were and they entered the room. Ms. Cheerilee and Star Rider were in the room with several other fillies and colts along with some griffins. “What happened?” Rainbow finally spoke, directing her words at Ms. Cheerilee and Daring. “Its, nothing mom. It won’t happen again...” Rainbow Dash wasn’t buying it at all, she looked at Ms. Cheerilee and gave her a hard stare. Rainbow needed to know if she needed to smack a foal, or a hatchling. “Well Ms. Dash, it would seem one of my young griffin students pushed your colt in an act of aggression, and well... the Doctor said Daring has 9 broken ribs right now, 6 on his right and 3 on his left side.” Rainbow flew into a rage and looked at the 3 hatchlings in the room with her right now. “Was it one of you?!” Big Mac moved forward and held Rainbow to keep her from flying off the handle at any children. “Dashie, Honey Pie, calm down!” Star Rider jumped in front of her mom flaring out her wings blocking her view from the hatchling’s in the room who were beginning to cower in fear. “Mom! These are my friends! They would never hurt Daring! It was those bullies Mikuo and his friends! And don’t worry, I already beat them up...” Rainbow Dash just yelled back “Did you break their ribs too?! 9 each?!” Everyone was shocked at what she had just said. Obviously her anger was blinding her judgement. She finally calmed down when Daring yelled “Mom Stop!” He closed an eye in pain and coughed lightly again. Rainbow immediately calmed down and went over to his side to comfort him. “Are you ok my little egghead?” Rainbow nuzzled against Daring’s face, and she moved a hoof through his mane. “Yeah mom, its not like this is the 1st time I’ve broken a few ribs...” “Yeah but those were...!” “Mom! I already said it won’t happen again. I’m sure...” Rainbow just continued to nuzzle him “Well if you say so...” Big Mac just nodded his head at Rainbow and his son Daring, he looked down to Star who smiled up at her dad. He looked over to Ms. Cheerilee “Ah assume everything has been taken a care of on your end?” Ms Cheerilee nodded her head “Yes, their parents were informed and school was let out early today.” Big Mac nodded his head again and looked over to Daring. “They say when ya can go home?” “In a few days, the doc said he wanted to make sure nothing else was amiss.” Big Mac nodded his head again “Anything Ah, can get ya from home then?” Daring looked up in thought for a moment. “Nothing from home, but you think you can go see Ms. Sparkle and see if she has the newest volume of Daring Doo?” Big Mac smiled “Eeyup.” He trotted out the door leaving Rainbow who just continued to nuzzle Daring, not caring who was around to see. Some of the fillies were beginning to giggle. “Ok mom, that’s enough, I’m going to be fine you know.” “Well, if you say so... I have to get back to work, I’ll be back as soon as I’m done.” Daring nodded his head. “Of course mom.” Daring just relaxed back into the bed as he looked up at the ceiling. The rest of the students besides his sister left the room. After it was just him and her alone in the room, Daring decided to ask a question. “Hey Star, what’s it like?” “What’s what like Little bro?” “What its like to run? Or fly, or even just fall and be able to get up again unhurt?” “Well I... I never really thought of it, but...” Daring stopped her “So you don’t think about it? Well that’s normal I suppose. I’m gonna take a nap, you don’t need to stay here.” Star Rider was left feeling a little uneasy but decided to leave anyway, Daring seemed to have jumped back into a depressed mood again. Not uncommon as he usually did after he got hurt from something everyone else could easily walk away from. “I’ll be by to see you later too, ok?” “Yeah alright, see you later...” As she left and the door closed Daring tried to flip over so his face would be in the pillow, but the pain in his ribs kept him from moving too much. After a moment his well known nurse came into the room. “Back again Daring? I must say, there are other ways to come see me that don’t involve you getting hurt.” The Nurse just smiled at him as she closed the door behind her. “Oh Ha-ha Nurse Joy... Why do they call you Joy anyway? My mom said its not even your real name.” “I’ll show you why when you’re a bit older Daring, for now, just let me have a look at you.” Nurse Joy approached the bed and looked down at him with that same smile. “What do you mean show me? And why do I have to be older?” She chuckled as she moved the blanket back. “Mmm, because of reasons... fractured ribs again?” Daring sighed “Yeah, I got pushed over by the school bully.” “Oh? He finally acted against you? He got beat up I hope?” “Sis said she did beat him up, and mom wanted to beat them up as well.” Nurse Joy chuckled “I hope so, who would want to harm such a cute pink colt?” Daring scoffed “I’m not pink, I’m light red.” Nurse Joy chuckled again “Of course you are, now hold still for a moment and keep breathing.” Joy laid her head down gently on Darings chest and listened to him breath for a bit. After a while she started to rub a hoof through his mane without lifting her head. “Umm... what are...” She lifted her head up quickly “Just checking your breathing pattern is all! Everything sounds good, by the way.” “Is that how earth ponies like us check for things like a punctured lung? You check for the sounds of water in my breathing or something?” Joy looked around for a moment “Yeah, lets go with that...” the door opened and in walked Big Mac. “Heya Nurse Joyce, checking up on my boy again Ah see.” Joy nodded her head "Aha! So that's your real name." Nurse Joy chuckled at Darings outburst. “Yup, he should be able to go home soon. Everything looks to be in order.” “Good ta hear.” Mac approached the bed and dropped a satchel on the desk next to it. “Somehow Twilight was able ta get the next 2 in the series, they aren’t set ta release for a few months, but she pulled some strings just for you apparently.” Daring’s eyes lit up in excitement “For real dad!? I’ll have to thank her myself when I get out!” Mac chuckled along with Nurse Joy. “Well if that’s everything, I gotta go help clean up the mess I made in front of the hospital now...” “Thanks dad! I’ll see you later!” “See ya in a bit kiddo.” Mac nodded at Joy as he left the room. Daring reached over and brought the satchel up onto the bed with him and dumped the 2 books out along with an unexpected 3rd one. “Hm? What’s this book?” Daring flipped it around in his hooves and read the title “Mechanics: A complete guide to Fictitious Robotic Automation’s.” He flipped it around a couple times and opened it up looking through a few pages. “Nurse Joy, do you know what any of these symbols mean?” Daring held the book over so she could see and she just made a confused look and shrugged “Can’t say that I have, Maybe you should ask your teacher next time you see her.” Daring just nodded his head and he flipped through a couple more pages before putting it down and picking up a Daring Doo book. “Did you need anything else Joy? Or will I be able to start reading now?” She just nodded her head. “Go ahead and start reading Daring. I’ll be back with something to eat.” Daring just nodded his head as he opened the book and began reading. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As Rainbow flew back to her weather team after abandoning them, she sighed to herself. “Come on Rainbow, you can’t just loose your cool like that... I yelled at hatchlings for Celestia sake...”As Rainbow continued to fly she continued to scold herself for exploding like that. After reaching the other side of ponyville she meet up with everypony else as they were finishing up. “Hey guys, I’m back!” “Oh hey Ms. Dash, just in time to help us finish I see. So how’s your colt doing?” “He’ll live. Just some fractured ribs, again.” “Again? What happened this time? He fall off a slide or trip?” Rainbow sighed as she gritted her teeth “No, some hatchling pushed him, the fall broke 9 of his ribs. Nine!” The other ponies could feel the heat of her anger from her last word. “He’s never broken that many from him falling over or even when he fell out of the wagon on that hay ride! What the heck was that Skag lick of a hatchling thinking?!” The ponies raised their eyebrows at that insult “What’s a Skag lick?” “I-I don’t know, I heard an old friend use it once when he was mad at a griffin.” “Oohh, probably some exotic slang! But, so your colts going to be ok right? I hope that hatchling got what was coming to him.” “The teacher, Ms. Cheerilee, said she informed their parents and my little filly beat up those bullies after it happened, so she said. I guess they will get what’s coming to them.” All the ponies gossiped with Rainbow Dash for a bit longer, and asked if she knew anymore exotic slang from this old friend of hers. And just like that, Rainbow had introduced the ponies to the magical world of slang and curse words. “So wait, this word fuck, it sounds like buck. Its about as versatile as the word buck anyway...” “Oh indeed, motherbucker never really seemed like that right thing to say when angry, this word, fuck, sounds so much better. Fuck, Motherfucker.” the mares giggled “Oh, it feels like my lips tingle when I say it. Fuckity fucking fucker.” The ponies continued to string together curse words as they had finished working for the day. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As night took hold and Daring went to sleep, a dark shadow loomed over his room. A shadow that would visit him once a month unknown to him. As Daring left off into dream world he found himself inside a blue room. He wasn’t sure, but he felt like he’s been inside this room before. “Welcome... Daring Star was it?” He turned around to see a large bipedal figure. Its face was hidden under a hood, the only thing being visible were its eyes, that glowed with a deep blue color. “H-How do you know my name?” The Big shadowy figure sighed “Must we go through this everytime I come to collect what is owed? I swear it’s the same thing every month.” He turned into a shadowy mist and appeared next to Daring. “Ohh, big scary shadow thing who are you?” he flipped back over to the side he was on before and with a mocking tone of voice continued to speak “My name is Umbra, the demi god of shadows and suffering. OooOo I’m here to collect, blah blah blah.” He turned into a shadow mist again and appeared next to Daring. “You’re going to have to start remembering our conversations together someday you know. Anyway, hold still for a second...” “What are you...” Umbra reached a pale icy blue hand into Daring’s skull and he let loose a yelp as a chill was sent down his spine causing him to shudder. A moment later Umbra’s icy pale blue hand retracted holding a decently sized orb that pulsed with a grey light. Umbra released a content sigh and he pushed it to his lips and a thin mist flowed into his mouth. “Mmm, Such a delicate flavor this month, it tastes like, the suffering of loneliness and depression.” he brought the orb up to his lips again and some more fine grey mist flowed into his mouth. “With just a hint of physical pain... I’m guessing you stayed inside mostly this month reading again, hmm?” “Well its not like I can do anything else...” “Oh really? You probably don’t remember, but as I told you before, you may break easy, but you won’t die easy.” Umbra gave Daring a wicked smile and laughed. Daring awoke in a dark room covered in sweat, the sudden act of sitting up put him in pain from his ribs. He looked around the room and saw his mom and dad asleep in the room in chairs with a blanket on them. He sighed and brought the desk lamp onto his bed and began to read some more under his bed sheets. He couldn’t quite remember what his nightmarish dream was about, but he certainly didn’t want to go back to sleep anytime soon. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Its only been a day, A single day and he finished reading both of the Daring Doo books. He knew he was a fast reader, but he didn’t realize he would plow through both books before he was let out of the hospital, He would need more reading material. The only book he had left was that Sci-Fi book about robots and automations. He had read through it briefly but all of its concepts and symbols made no sense to him. It was about how structures made of metal and other delicate parts could be made to work with some primitive power sources like steam or lighting power. How anyone harvested the power of a thunder bolt was beyond him. Why didn’t they just use magical gems? He would have to sit around bored until Daddy Mac or Mama Dash came to visit him during their lunch break. Then he could have one of them bring him some more books, or at least a reference guide of some kind so he could figure out this book he somehow came into possession of. The technical aspects he couldn’t understand at all, but the illustrations of what they would look like had him intrigued, sure they were works of fiction based off many different authors, but each one seemed to have their own ideas of how it would work. He could understand their basic ideas, such as mechanical prosthetic limbs or cool gadgets and even robotic ponies that clean the house while you were away. While he was thinking about all of the crazy things that book had, Nurse Joy opened the door to bring in lunch followed by Big Mac. “Hey dad and Joy!” Big Mac merely nodded his head as he walked up to the bed side. He noticed all of the Daring Doo books on the opposite desk. “Did ya finish those 2 books already?” Daring nodded “Yeah, I had a bad dream and couldn’t sleep so I ended up finishing the second one last night, Daring Doo needs to have longer adventures.” “Or maybe ya should sleep instead of read all night.” Daring just tilted his head down as he laid back against the pillow. “Well either way, you think you could take these books back to the library for me? And this 3rd one, I would like some reference guides so I could understand it better.” Big Mac raised an eyebrow “3rd un?” He looked at the book as Daring held it up for him to see. “I was wondering where that went.” “You borrowed it dad?” “Eeyup, I thought it had some cool pictures in it. Wanted to look through it, What did you think of it?” “It did have some cool pictures in it! I just couldn’t understand any of the technical stuff, even though they are all based off works of fiction, they give rather detailed information about how it would be made and how it would work.” Big Mac just raised an eyebrow at his enthusiasm, and nodded his head as he thought it was just some cool picture book. “So then... Ya liked it a lot huh?” Daring nodded his head “Yeah, I’m sure if you just ask Ms. Sparkle for some books that would make this one more understandable, she or Spike should be able to figure out what I need.” “Well uh, alright then, How are you doing anyway?” “I’m alright, a little sleepy, but I’ll live... I can’t help but feel like I’m forgetting something though...” Daring thought for a moment and shrugged. “Oh well I’m sure its no big deal.” “Perhaps its lunch you’re forgetting? I just brought it with me you know. Now eat up, this stuff is special made just for you.” Nurse Joy trotted over and swung a mini table ( those bed in breakfast things) over the bed and placed the tray on it. “Now eat up, You’re the only one that gets special meals around here you know? Feel lucky.” “I’d feel lucky if they actually tasted better then the regular meals...” “Hush you and eat. Mac, mind if I speak with you outside for a moment?” “Well uh, sure” Mac followed Nurse Joy out of the room as Daring began to eat. When they got outside she closed the door behind him. “How are you and Rainbow doing? I’m sure with all the medical bills things are getting a little difficult.” Big Mac released a sigh. “Thing’s ain’t easy that’s for sure, but its manageable. Dashie sold her cloud house and it helped for awhile, but now that moneys running out and her second job isn’t giving as much as we would like. I’ve been looking for a second job, but for the most part, I’ll only be able to work when it isn’t harvesting season.” Joy nodded her head. “Well, I’ll see what I can do on my end here. Maybe there’s some kind of frequent visitor discount? I mean, this place is basically your second home, with your being here so often.” Bic Mac chuckled lightly at the comment “Thank you kindly Nurse Joy, not only do you visit us every week at the house to check up on him, but now your helping us with the money situation. We can’t thank you enough.” Big Mac nodded his head at her and trotted back into the room. Daring was slowly eating his food because it tasted so bad. “I’m gonna head on over to that library and see about gettin ya some of those reference books you mentioned.” Daring just made a gag sound as he tried to eat some more of the green goo on his plate. “Alright, Thanks dad. Are you and mom gonna sleep here again?” “I could, but yer mom has to get up early for another assignment so she’s going to bed early. She’ll come to see you, but she won’t stay today.” Daring sighed “Alright...” Big Mac took up the satchel of books and slung the strap over his neck and walked out after nodding goodby. Nurse Joy went over to Daring and pecked him on the cheek. “You finish eating up your food, I’m going to go have a talk with the doctors.” Daring just looked at Nurse Joy strangely as she sauntered out of the room. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bic Mac had just arrived at the towns Library. He briefly wondered why the Princess of Magic would be running a library is such a small town. He quickly banished the thought and went inside, it was a public library of course, so knocking would be silly. That was until he saw Spike covered in that magic green armor, using a green blade to slash at pillows he had drawn faces on. “For Lady Rarity!” Spike charged at the pillow army and slashed a few open throwing feathers everywhere. “Does Princess Twilight know you're destroying perfectly good pillows Spike?” Spike jumped at Big Macs voice and his summoned green armor and weapon vanished in a puff of green smoke. “Don’t you know how to knock?! Jeez... I thought you might of been somepony else...” “This here's a public Library, why would Ah need ta knock?” “Yeah I guess, so what did you need anyway?” “Well I came to return these 2 books, and my boy said something about a reference guide for this here book.” Spike raised an eyebrow “Reference books for a book? For kinda book is this book?” Big Mac handed over the word and knowledge containment device in question and Spike looked at it for a moment. “Oh this stuff, Sci-fi huh? I’m more into the medieval type things myself.” Spike took the 2 Daring Doo books and put them aside. “Now if I remember right...” Spike moved a ladder around and climbed up grabbing a few books from a top shelf. He repeated the process a few times until he had about 6 different ones. “Alright these 3 here should make everything inside the 1st one perfectly clear, but, I’m not sure how he’s going to be able to understand these. They contain a lot of mathematics and complex formulas and made up materials. So I suggest reading through these 3 1st, then move on. He’ll be a master of all the Sci-Fi Robotic knowledge when he’s done with these 7 books.” Big Mac nodded his head. “Thanks Spike, this should more than enough to keep him busy while he’s stuck in the hospital, again.” “What happened this time? He was doing fine all month!” “Just some hatchling got full of himself and pushed Daring. He broke some ribs from the fall.” Spike sighed and clenched his fist. “Griffins, Why are so many of them so mean? It’s gotta be because of their predator nature right? Twilight said bullies would be a common thing in pony schools if griffins were allowed to join.” Spike looked around the library at the mess he had made. “What room is he in? I haven’t seen him in about a month or so.” Big Mac smiled “He’s in room 206 in the west ward. Ah think ya should clean up this mess before you go ta see him though...” “I know I know, jeez, I’m not a baby anymore.” As Big Mac left Spike began to clean up the pillow massacre he had created. As Mac closed the door behind him he saw Spike exhale some green mist that took the shape of a broom and dust pan. Big Mac chuckled to himself. “Heh, that little dragons getting pretty good at that magic of his.” As Big Mac traveled back toward the Hospital he was greeted by many ponies. Many of them had questions as to why he was so panicked yesterday and destroyed the market place. After a brief explanation of why, they gave their condolence and hoped he was ok. The ponies of ponyville were always kind. As for the griffins, many of them just complained and told him to have more self control. Others and usually the female griffins would sympathize with him, saying they would of reacted the same way if one of their hatchlings were in trouble or injured. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After Rainbow had finished working for the day and gossiped with the other mares she figured it was time to go, and wanted to go back to the hospital to see her colt before she had to get some sleep for her next assignment. The Wonderbolts were doing a show and they needed her as a fill in. She had to leave at 4 in the morning in order to get their on time and help set everything up. She never knew the Wonderbolts had so much prep work involved when doing their shows. She bid them all good bye before she flew down to the hospital. When she arrived she opened the door to see a bunch of ponies including Star Rider, a dragon and some hatchlings. She expected the room to be empty when she arrived. She saw a bunch of them playing board games and the like on the floor. She also saw streamers hanging from the ceiling, that’s when she knew exactly why the room looked so full. Pinkie threw some kind of party in his room at some point. Rainbow walked up to Daring and greeted him. “Hey squirt, it looks like Pinkie came by and threw a party for you.” “Yeah, she does this all the time though, I’ve had so many get better soon parties. Of course they are all fun, but... I don’t know mom.” Rainbow nodded and looked at the banner hanging in the room. ‘To My Favorite Light Red Colt’ “You really don’t like being called pink do you?” “Cause I’m not pink! Even Pinkie Pie, the Master of pink, says I’m light red. So it must be true.” Rainbow giggled as she gently ruffled his mane “Alright, is Pinkie still here?” Pinkie Pie popped out from under the bed. “Here I am!” Rainbow jumped a bit at the surprise and the children in the room giggled. “Pinkie! What were you doing under the bed?” “I don’t know. I was just there. Oh-oh! Speaking of presents, I got one for you Daring Star!” “We never said anything about presents?” “You didn’t?” Pinkie shrugged “Oh well, open it up!” Everyone looked at each and shrugged as well, then they gathered around to see what Pinkie had given Daring as a present. Daring slowly opened the gift, tearing the paper with care. When Daring striped away the 1st piece of paper he saw the word Model with a picture of some metallic creature on the front. Curious, he began to strip away even more of the paper until he could see what it was in its entirety. “Wha- Pinkie, How did you know I recently got into Sci-Fi robotics? And where did you get this?” “I got it from Canterlot silly, from the hobbyist shop. And I figured it out after I saw all those books Big Mac brought in today.” Everyone just looked at Pinkie, trying to figure out how she was able to get to Canterlot, buy the present, throw the party and then have it wrapped up. All of this done in the span of about 2 hours. Let alone figure out what all of those books were about just from the titles alone. “Thanks, Pinkie, I’ll make it when I get outta here.” Pinkie gave him a huge smiled and lightly hugged him. “I’m glad you like it. Now if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I have a frog to talk to about a certain gator. He’s been hiding in a certain ponies tub and I need to know why.” As everyone just looked at Pinkie, she hopped out of the room. “Well, besides Pinkie being random, when did you get into Sci-fi books Daring?” “Just today actually...” Daring looked at the model in his hooves, it was a little metallic pony “... Dad brought me a bunch of books that Spike picked out for the subject. I was gonna start reading through them more once this party was over.” Rainbow walked over to the pile of books on a nearby desk. “Are these it?” She picked one of them up and flipped through the pages. “Yeah those are the ones.” “Oh Celestia, Did that fool of a stallion even look at the books he was getting for you?” She brought the book over and showed Daring the page she was looking at. “What the heck is this? I don’t even know what this could possibly be.” Daring looked at it for a moment. “Oh, that looks like what this book describes...” Daring pulled another book out from under his pillow and opened it to another page. “...see mom? This 1st book describes what all of those symbols mean. See this one here? It’s the symbol for lighting power, and that’s an amplifier, there’s the capacitor and...” Rainbow looked back and forth at what Daring was talking about and what see was seeing. She could see the smile on his face as he described to her in full detail about what everything meant. She really had no idea what any of those things were or what they were supposed to do. But the smile on his face was all she needed to see. She closed to book before he could continue to tell her about stuff she couldn’t grasp. “Alright I get it Daring, You’re an egghead.” She went up and nuzzled his cheek “But you’re my egghead.” As some of the fillies giggled Spike decided to speak up “You’re a bit of an egghead too Rainbow Dash, don’t forget that.” Rainbow just glared at Spike before laughing “Yeah, So he probably gets it from me then.” Big Mac walked into the room hearing the last part of it. “Ah don’t know Dashie, he seems ta be a lot smarter then you. He probably gets it from me.” “Wha- You? You’re not even an egghead!” “Ah’ll have you know, Dashie my Honey pie, that I am actually quite educated for a farm pony.” Rainbow scoffed as she blushed a little from the pet name “Prove it!” Big Mac raised an eyebrow. “Well alright then. How many Apple trees can be placed within a single acre of land?” “I don’t know that stuff, I figured you just plant them until you run out of room.” Big Mac chuckled to himself “Simple my dear, an apple tree needs 14 to 18 feet of space between each other for optimal growing conditions. We, the apple family use the distance of 14 feet to ensure maximum space usage and still be within the safe limits for the trees. Now an Acre of land is 43,560 square feet.” Big Mac took a deep breath as Rainbow just got a funny look on her face as she tried to follow all the numbers. Every other pony in the room, besides Star Rider and Daring Star, just marveled at Big Mac saying so many words at once. “With the square footage of an Acre being 43,560 feet, it means that each row is going ta be 208 feet 9 inches long going in all directions with the spacing between each row being 14 feet along with the spacing between each tree also being 14 feet. Now, just so you know Ah'm rounding because we can’t very well plant part of a tree. But we end up with 15 trees per row. Because a loss of 2 inches in proper spacing won’t harm the trees none. Now, at 15 trees in each row and at 15 rows we end up with 225 trees per acre.” Rainbow just looked at him completely lost “You are an egghead, doing all of that math in your head like that.” “Its part of the business.” Mac just gave a smile that let everyone know he was completely confident in what he had just said. Rainbow looked over to Daring in hopes of him being as lost as she was. “Did you understand any of that fancy farm mathematics Daring?” “Well, like dad said, he had to round because its impossible to plant part of a tree. Going purely on the 14 foot ratio with the left over of 9 inches he would of only been able to plant 196 trees with that odd left over space of 9 inches, but by making the spacing 13 feet 10 inches, your able to fit an extra tree in each row, and even get an extra row.” “But, how did you do all of that? “ “Well, I just converted the feet into inches and then converted it back to feet after the problem was solved to see if that would of worked. I’m sure there’s some kind of algorithm to do that, but I haven’t exactly gone to a fancy school yet...” Big Mac looked at Daring with an eyebrow raised. “Wait, ya did all-a that fancy mathematics in yer head Daring?” “Well, yeah? Can’t everyone?” Rainbow shook her head along with many of the others in the room, even his sister. Big Mac just smiled. “So ya did get something from me after all. Besides your good looks of course.” Rainbow smacked Mac in the back of the head while everyone else giggled.