Tuesday, May 24, 2016 / After School
Today's Horoscope (Virgo): A dog without a scent to follow does nothing but lick its own anus.

After school, I head to the library to study with Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack for an hour. Rainbow and Applejack especially need help...

We carefully avoid mentioning anything related to Zodiac while we study.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016 / Evening

Everybody's doing their own thing for dinner tonight. We stopped on the way back from the library to pick up some take-out.

While I'm eating dinner, I get a video call from Mom.

"Hi hon," she says. "How's it going?"

"Hey Mom," I say. "Sorry I didn't call this weekend. We had a busy couple of days here."

"Oh? You had that big school dance Saturday, right?"

I nod. "Yeah, and Apple Bloom's birthday party on Sunday."

Mom smiles. "Well, that is a busy weekend."

"Yeah." I pause to swallow a huge bite of hamburger. "Sorry to eat and chat."

Mom laughs. "That's alright."

Dad walks in behind her. "Hello, Son!"

"Hi Dad."

"So, school's almost done for the year, right?"

I nod again. "Three more weeks including this one." I grimace. "Should've been two and a half, but we lost some bad weather days."

"So you must be busy studying for exams right now," Mom says.

"Yeah."

"Well, listen," Mom says, "we've been talking it over, and we've decided—if it's okay with you—to come down the week of Father's Day."

"That'd be great," I say. "I think Twilight's parents might be coming down too. They'd love to meet you."

"Perfect!" Mom smiles. "Well, we'll let you get back to studying now. We just wanted to touch base."

"I'm sorry I didn't call this weekend," I say. "I really meant to, I just got so busy..."

Mom looks away. "Yeah..." She laughs weakly. "Well, after all the years we've pretty much done the same to you, we...can't really complain, can we?"

Well, this is awkward.

"Anyway, be sure to call us when you can! Study hard!"

I nod. "I will. Talk to you later."

"We love you, Son," Dad says.

"I love you too," I say.

They hang up. I finish eating dinner, go to the bathroom to wash my hands, then take my laptop down to the lounge.

The others are spread out around the lounge, snacking and studying. I join them for a little while. Around seven, we're all feeling the strain of overstudying, even Twilight. We decide to take a break to play video games for a while.

While we're relaxing, I tell Twilight about my parents' plans to come down.

"Sounds good," she says. "I'll mention it to Mom and Dad. I'm sure they'll be coming down around then." She smirks. "Mom's definitely going to be throwing Cadance a baby shower."

Before any of us know it, it's past eleven...

I say goodnight to the others and head up to my room.

Author's Notes:

Social Link Status:

0. FOOL (Zodiac Investigation Team): MAX!
I. MAGICIAN (Twilight Sparkle): MAX!
II. PRIESTESS (Fluttershy): rank 6
III. EMPRESS (Rarity): rank 7
IV. EMPEROR (Coach Shining Armor): MAX!
V. HIEROPHANT (Vice-Principal Luna): MAX!
VI. LOVERS (Nurse Cadance): MAX!
VII. CHARIOT (Rainbow Dash): MAX!
VIII. JUSTICE (Principal Celestia): MAX!
IX. HERMIT (Coco Pommel): MAX!
X. FORTUNE (Apple Bloom): rank 7
XI. STRENGTH (Applejack): rank 7
XII. HANGED MAN (Octavia Melody): MAX!
XIII. DEATH (Sonata Dusk): rank 9
XIV. TEMPERANCE (Sweetie Belle): rank 7
XV. DEVIL (Juan the Janitor): MAX!
XVI. TOWER (Chrysalis): MAX!
XVII. STAR (Pinkie Pie): MAX!
XVIII. MOON (Trixie Lulamoon): MAX!
XIX. SUN (Vinyl Scratch): MAX!
XX. JUDGEMENT (Friendship): rank 3
XXI. THE WORLD (Family): rank 5 (Rank UP!)

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The LTE version of this chapter contains alternate content.