//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: Settling In 
// by A Wild Magikarp 
//------------------------------//

	"... So you see, my mother and father had those recessive genes. It hadn't been seen in either of their families for generations, but it was always there. All it took was a little luck I guess, and boom, earth pony in a pegasus-unicorn family. Double recessive, fairly uncommon, and no one else in my family has them, so that makes me the only earth pony. Make sense?"

Once again, as had occurred many times in the duration of his explanation of genetics and his traits, or lack thereof, Sky was met with varying degrees of comprehension. Apple Bloom, who was apparently the quick study of the group, nodded her head vigorously with a grin. "Yup, makes sense! Applejack talks bout' how we breed trees the same way to get different heights and apples n' stuff out of em! Course, we wont be able to see most of the differences with them till they grow nice n' tall, but that takes a while."

Nyx and Scootaloo nodded their heads slowly, showing that they at least partially understood what he had said. Sky was a little bit surprised at the latter's reaction. Not that he was calling her incompetent by any means, she seemed just as bright as any of the others. She simply didn't strike Sky as the type to care much about all this 'egghead' stuff, let alone pay any attention to it.

Sweetie Belle, while not looking outright befuddled, certainly had a look on her face that spoke of how hard she was thinking about what he had said. She looked down at the ground, mumbling lightly to herself as she tried to make sense of what she had heard.

"Wait," Said Nyx. "If it's recessive to be an earth pony though, why are there so many earth ponies in Ponyville? Wouldn't that be really rare?" Nyx asked.

Sky put a hoof to his chin, thinking on the question for a moment. "If I had to guess, it's most likely due to the gene pool that birthed the town. What I know of Ponyville is that it was founded by farmers, on land given to them by Celestia, correct?"

The four fillies looked to each other, in hopes that one of them may know the answer to that question. None seemed to, which surprised Sky just a bit. Surely their town's history would be a part of their education, right?

"W-well, if that's correct, then they were most likely earth ponies, as it is most commonly an earth pony profession. As they all had recessive genes to BE earth ponies, there was no chance of them producing unicorn or pegasus foals unless they married one. As the town grew, the majority who came were most likely other farmers or craftsponies, also a earth pony trade. And while it is not uncommon for different ponies races to get married, there is at times a noticeable difference in the ratio of inter-racial marriages in small towns built on tradition and the like. This likely led to a larger number of earth ponies in town, which once it was established as such, perpetuated its own existence!"

Sky hardly noticed how worked up he was getting over his explanation until he heard a loud cough off to his side. He looked over to see Scootaloo with a hoof over her mouth, and the others looking at him with quirked eyebrows. Despite how much older he was than them, Sky couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed at his outburst.

"Ehehehe... Sorry about that, I tend to get carried away sometimes. Anyways... Did that make sense at all?"

There where nods of affirmative all around the group, from all except Sweetie Belle, who looked thoroughly perplexed now. She was staring ahead as the walked in the direction of Sky's new house, her muzzle scrunched up and eyes squinting, showing how much effort she was putting in. Sky even believed he could see the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth in a way that reminded him greatly of Sunny after they had taking part in a similar discussion. He was about to ask her if she needed help understanding when she spoke up.

"Hold on... but Mr and Ms.Cake are earth ponies! And Mr.Cake told my sister and her friends about how their great-great-great-whatever's were pegasi and unicorns! If these earth pony gene things need two too work, and they're both recessive, how does that happen?"

"Doesn't help that we don't know where foals really come from anyways... That stork story Miss Cheerilee keeps giving me smells awfully fishy..." Scootaloo mumbled.

The fillies observed as a fully grown stallion apparently tripped over himself, before he stopped momentarily and began to give a loud series of hacks and coughs.

"You ok Mister Sky?" Scootaloo asked the older pony.

"I-I'm fine Scootaloo, thank you. I was just surprised is all. W-Why don't we move on to a different topic now, hmm?"

This left the unicorn of the group feeling very off-put. "What? So you're not going to explain it anymore?" She asked, almost demanded.

Sky looked at her for a second, contemplating whether or not to say anything else. "Mmmaybe you should save that question for your sister... When you're a little older that is."

Sweetie looked to the ground now, with a dejected look. "Grown ups are always saying stuff like that. And Rarity never tells me anything..."

Sky felt he could sympathize with the filly. He remembered his days of  being that young, and having so many questions left unanswered by his elders. Of course, being the curious bookworm he was, and with a library within walking distance of his house, those questions never did stay unanswered for long. It was shocking just how many books best kept on the higher shelves the librarians had left on the bottom-most ones simply for the sake of their shelving systems. Of course, the majority of Canterlot's population could perform magic, so its not like it would have helped anyways...

He shook his head, realizing that he had let his mind wander, and that the fillies where probably expecting an answer to Sweetie's saddened state. "Yes well... We do have our reasons. Sometimes there's just some things that adults won't be ready to talk with you about. It just takes a little patience."

Nyx shrugged. "That's ok I guess."

'Good, at least I won't have to worry about HER pestering... whoever is taking care of her right now. I'll have to asked about that la-'

"Besides, if Twilight doesn't feel like talking about something, she must have a good reason. At least, I think she would. She always says that 'knowledge is power', so if she doesn't want me knowing something, it must be for a good reason, right?"

If he had been drinking, Sky would have performed a spit-take of epic proportions at that moment. Instead, his body opted to trip once more, this time nearly falling over in shock. After steadying his hoofs, he turned to the alicorn next to him.

"You're LIVING with Twilight Sparkle?!" He practically shouted.

Nyx jumped at his sudden and violent reaction, while her friends looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

"Um, ya, wasn't that kinda obvious?" Scootaloo asked.

"Figured the whole 'pony Princess Celestia trusts completely' part of Nyx's sentence would sort of give it away..." added Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom threw in her two bits as well. "She does call her 'her faithful student' quite ah lot. Can't think of anypony she could really trust more. Well, cept' maybe her sister that is. And besides, Twilight was the first pony Nyx met! It only makes sense that she would stay with her!"

Sky couldn't really argue with any of the logic they had thrown at him. Everything they had said made sense, he just had never really bothered to think about it. Of course, prior to today, his idea of Nightmare Moon's punishment was her locked away in a dungeon somewhere, her powers drained and in chains... Who knew the truth was so much cheerier than the alternative. Still, Nightmare Moon, or Nyx rather, one of the greatest threats to Equestria at one time, living with one of the elements of harmony, who also happened to be one of the most advanced scientific minds of their time. It was mind boggling to say the least.

"And... how does that work out. Considering your... past involvements. *Ehem*."

Nyx's ears drooped, and Sky felt like slapping himself. "It's good. Sometimes its hard to forget what we... what I did..." She remained silent for a moment, then brightened up a bit. "B-but not Twilight! She doesn't even think about it most days. She says that everypony makes mistakes, and that mine were just a little bigger than usual. She says that she can't hold it over my head like she couldn't hold it over Spike when he sneezed on her astronomical Astrem... no, Astronomers Astrono... no wait..."

"Astronomical Astronomers Almanac To All Things Astronomy?" Sky asked with a grin.

Nyx blinked. "Um, ya... How did you know that?"

"I know the author. Even have a signed copy of my own!" He said with a small amount of pride, before turning back to flip open his saddlebag and retrieve the massive book from it. Turning back he showed it to the girls. "Shee?" he asked, book still in his mouth. He laid it on the ground gently, before flipping over to the back side of the front cover to show the artistic calligraphy that was the author's signature.

"Wow." Said Scootaloo, with a deadpan look on her face. "That's... Really, REALLY nerdy. Like, one of the geekiest things I have ever seen. You brought that with you on the train ride here?"

The other fillies couldn't help but giggle at the older pony's expense. Once again, despite the age difference, Sky felt himself blush in embarrassment. He had forgotten he wasn't surrounded by fellow scientists who would appreciate the dedication it took to lug around such a heavy book all day. That sort of thing wasn't exactly normal outside of his normal group.

'Celestia help me, it's like being back in school again!'

He quickly packed away the book, briefly jostling the sleeping cat on his back, who meowed her protest. Taking a moment to stroke her in apology, Sky returned face forward and continued the walk forwards, the others following suit.

"Y-yes, well, I like to keep my reference material close at hoof. I may want to keep this one with me if I plan on doing any work before the rest of my things arrive. Not to mention all the stuff left behind on the train..."

"Oh ya!" Exclaimed Apple Bloom. "You're one of them astromoners yourself ain't you, sent by the princesses right? That's what the big dome thingy on your new house is ain't it? A telescope?"

Sky quirked an eyebrow. "It's 'astronomer' Apple Bloom, and I'm sorry, but... ON? What do you mean by that?"

"Wait, weren't we talking about you and Twilight?" Scootaloo whispered to Nyx, who only shrugged her similar confusion.

"I mean on it, like I said. Like-" Apple Bloom looked ahead and smiled, before pointing ahead with her hoof. "Like that! See?"

Sky did look, and what he saw nearly took his breath away.

Ahead of the small band of fillies and their charge, stood a large, two story building. Made up largely of offset citadel brick, it sat at the top of a hill, overlooking an open field. Surrounding it where obvious signs of the work that had been done recently, piles of dirt like large molehills and trenches in the ground where construction had left its mark. Rather unprofessional of the team that had worked on the building, but for the moment Sky couldn't find it in himself to care. 

Behind the hill, the treetops could be seen looming in the background, marking the edges of the Everfree forest. Collectively the landscape surrounding his new home was quite beautiful and peaceful looking. But the part that left Sky speechless was the second floor of his new home. 

Rather than following the format of the first floor, the second floor was comprised of one massive geodesic dome shining in the sunlight. With the slit door closed, the size of the actual telescope was left to imagination. But as it was, the size of the door left the size of the telescope behind it up to very little debate indeed. It was quite possibly the same size as the observatory back in Canterlot, and if not, it was very easily a close second. All in all, it was a masterpiece in the eyes of its current beholder. 

And it was all his.

Apple Bloom took time to watch Sky and her fellow crusaders, gauging their reactions. She had seen the observatory enough time that it wasn't so very interesting to her, but she knew that her friends had not seen it since it was completed, and Sky had never even seen it at all.

"It's not very... homey looking. Looks more like one of those offices in Canterlot than a house." Sweetie said.

"Ya, and it's so big! How is one pony going to use all that space?" Agreed Scootaloo.

Nyx nodded. "It could definitely do with some personality."

Apple Bloom, always a pony to respect a good build job, felt a bit insulted by her friends' disregarded of the observatories functionality. She had personally talked to many of the ponies coming and going from the work site on her way back from school, and new just how much effort had gone into making this building. Also, this was to be Sky's new home, and she knew that the last thing she would want is for somepony to be making fun of her new house. "Hm. Well ah like it! It's supposed to be a workplace too, right? S'like saying that the barn's ugly because we didn't paint it fancy. It's not supposed to be, so it ain't fair to judge it like that!"

Scootaloo bristled a bit at this statement. "I'm not calling it ugly! I didn't even say anything about how it looked! I'm just saying, how much space is he going to need? He's just one pony for crying out loud!"

"Maybe he plans on having lots of company over! Or maybe he uses it all in his work? I don't know, what do scientists do at work anyways? Do you just, you know, look at the stars and stuff?" Sweetie Belle asked, trying to be the mediator between her two bickering friends.

Sky realized that he had been asked a question, and shook his head briefly to clear away his sense of awe. "Hm? Um, ya, ya sure, um... Sorry, I was a little distracted, what was that?"

"She asked how you work. Now that I think about it, I'm kind of curious to. You don't just spend the nighttime staring through a telescope every day do you?" Nyx asked.

The stallion shook his head. "Oh no, my job is a lot more than that. There are actually a lot of other things that an astronomer does with there time. We go to conferences, analyze data, we teach classes... I spent a lot of my time in Canterlot in the observatory, but we had a lot of ponies on staff, and honestly, I think a friend of mine may have pulled a few strings to keep it that way. I never did like big crowds, and I've never really been anywhere outside of Canterlot..."

"Wait-wait-wait, you teach classes? So you're a teacher like Miss Cheerilee? That's so cool! So you teach ponies about space and the stars and stuff? What's that like, being up in front of a classroom, with everypony listening to you?" Sweetie Belle asked with big eyes. The others heard their teacher mentioned and turned their attention to Sky to see what he had to say on the subject.

"Oh, I wouldn't really know. I only ever gave a lecture once, and it was on thermodynamics, nothing to do with space. Like I said, I don't really like crowds, and the class I taught was a little bit bigger than the one you four are probably in. There were I think a hundred ponies that day? A hundred-thirty? I don't quite recall," He responded before returning his eyes to the new building he would be residing in, a longing look finding its way into his eyes.

Nyx recognized the older pony's impatience, and looked around to her friends, who didn't appear to catch onto his eagerness to get inside, nor any closer to running out of questions for him. Of course she had questions of her own, but they could always wait till later. With a silent sigh, she decided it was time to start reeling in her fellows and leave the stallion be... for now at least.

"Hey girls," she said quickly to interrupt Scootaloo as she opened her mouth to speak. "We got Mister Sky to his house, and it's getting pretty late. What do you say we go back to the clubhouse and work on one of our next plans to get you your cutie marks before your sisters come and get you?"

Never one to turn down a chance at their marks, the other three brightened and nodded their agreement. Questions could wait for later, cutie marks where a priority. Nyx grinned. 'Works every time,' she thought to herself.

Sweetie Belle took on the role as team speaker for the moment, turning to Sky. "Alright! Back to the clubhouse for brainstorming! Thanks for talking with us Mister Sky, but we should really hurry up! Cutie marks don't earn themselves you know! Hey, maybe we could come over and try our hooves at getting our astronomer cutie marks sometime, if that's alright with you?" she asked, to which the other two mark-less fillies responded in kind.

"Ya!"

"Sure!"

Sky had to think about that for a second. Of course he loved to share his passion with other ponies, especially the younger ones. But now that he had a brand new facility to work with, he wasn't to sure on the rules. Non-employees weren't allowed in his wing back in Canterlot without special permission. What applied here, where his home and workplace were one in the same? He supposed as long as they stayed off the second floor it would be alright, but then they wouldn't be able to look through the telescope, which is what they probably wanted to do in the first place. He had left his own personal telescope back in Canterlot for Sunny, as he wasn't afraid of her breaking it after the lessons he had given her, and had been expecting to have access to a much higher quality one here. He was about to tell them sorry, when he looked down to Sweetie, the one who was currently in the lead of the group, and found just how hopelessly doomed his cause was.

Staring back at him where three of the biggest pairs of eyes he had ever seen in his entire life. The three blank flanks of the team where looking at him with the most hopeful, soul-crushing gaze they could muster, in an attempt to retrieve a positive response from the pony they currently had their hooks in. A small part of Sky recognized this tactic as one of his own sisters. Sunny oftentimes made attempts like this to get what she wanted. He had grown used to them over time, and even managed to build up a resistance. But now, the cuteness of the scene had been doubled, if not tripled with the sheer quantity of eyes staring back at him. He felt himself freeze up.

'Don't do it you fool! It's your first day, you can't promise anything so soon, especially when it breaks protocol like this! You must resist!

'Trying... trying... Faust above, are they hypnotizing me?!'

Nyx was sitting behind her friends with her head in her hooves. She had seen this many times before, and knew exactly where it led. The disaster earlier today could have been averted if Mr. Bolts at the hardware store had been able to resist, but such a simple task was not as easy as it sounded. Granted, there wasn't much trouble they could get into staring though a telescope, right?... Right?

... Nyx very suddenly felt even worse for the poor stallion on the receiving end of the stare-down that was going on.

'You have so much to do! So much to live for! Don't throw it away like this!' Sky's logical side screamed. He was almost sweating at this point.

'I... I-I... I can't do it.' the rest of him resigned. With a stretched thin smile, Sky nodded. "Sure, I could set something up."

Nyx rolled her eyes. The others cheered. Sky's logical side died a little inside.

"YAY! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ASTRONOMERS!"

And with that, the three little hypnotists galloped down the road to the farm, in high spirits. Nyx stood up and moved to follow, before turning back to Sky with an apologetic look.

"Sorry. They do that a lot. Don't feel bad if you have to tell them no, I wouldn't blame you if you did. See you around Mister Sky!" She said before taking off after her companions.

"O-ok, goodbye! Thanks for leading me here!" He called halfheartedly before turning back to his new abode.

'Ya, like I could do that. Jeeze, and I thought MY girls were bad. Melody and Sunny have NOTHING on those three.'

With a groan, Sky made his way towards his home. Here for a day, and he had already promised to let a group of fillies into his observatory. And they were also the ones who knocked him out cold earlier in the day. He could feel his anxiety rising the more he thought about it.

As he got closer to the house though, his trepidation gave way to excitement, as he thought to himself about what the inside may look like. Was it cold and formal like the outside appearance? He hoped not. Perhaps it was bright and cheerful! Again, not his first choice, he perfered warm, earthy colors, but he could see it in his minds-eye.

At this point in time, the sun was starting to make its decent, and the sky had bloomed into a beautiful orange and purple. Sky took a moment to appreciate the view, before he realized what it meant, and that he had a lot to do before getting to bed.

Approaching the door, Sky turned around and looked at the sleeping cat on his back. Selene was still asleep, a miracle for all the noise and physical disturbances that she had undergone today. Honestly, he was surprised she wasn't a little bundle of nerves. Well, at the very least, it was finally over. Softly picking her up in his mouth by the scruff of the neck, he picked up the sleeping cat much like a mother would to its young. Selene gave a quite mew at this, being jostled from her deep sleep. Sky set her down next to him, where she briefly stretched and yawned, before laying down again in a vain attempt to continue her power-nap.

Sky chuckled as he set down his saddlebag and began to fish around in it for the key to the observatory, given to him back in the city. "Sorry girl, but we're here," He said quietly as he pulled the small silver piece of metal out and began to put it into the lock. But to his utmost surprise, the doorknob turned without it.

'Huh, curious.' He thought to himself. 'It seems that the construction crew was a bit careless closing up shop.'

Thinking nothing more of it, he shrugged before putting the key back in his bag, and opening the door. He took a few steps inside the dark interior, not bothering to pick up Selene, as she would most likely follow him in, before stopping and contemplating where the light-switch might be located.

That soon became the least of his worries. With a near inaudible click, the entire room lit up, and Sky realized that he was surrounded on all sides by ponies. Ponies of all colors and types filled the room, each of them wearing a large, face splitting grin.

And he didn't recognize a single one of them.

"SURPRISE!"

"GWAAA!"

*Thump!*