“So, Po,” Diamond Tiara asks as she trots along the path to the recently repurposed and tritely named Cider Barn. Silver Spoon flanks on one side, back unladen, while Pomarbo is on the other. Two sets of book-stuffed saddlebags encumber him, one on top of the other, a dark blue tiara embroidered on the outer set. “Did you enjoy class today?”

“Ah guess,” Pomarbo answers noncommittally. He stares off at the apple trees lining the path, yet doesn’t seem to be focusing on them. Most are full of new blooms, evidence of recent harvesting. In fact, most of the trees are in bloom, rather than laden with apples waiting for (to be somewhat blunt) a buyer, as is the case most years.

Diamond Tiara cranks up her already bright smile, wishing her sister would look more than, at best, neutral to be there. Silver Spoon normally follows her cues, but she hasn’t with Pomarbo and it’s quite frustrating; her cutie mark doesn’t care for it, either. “It sure was nice of Miss Cheerilee to let you sit in class!”

“Eeyup,” comes the distracted reply.

“You should properly thank her next time.” Diamond Tiara nods, though it feels like she’s nodding to herself. “She likes apples. It’s not everypony she’ll let observe what happens a few grades ahead.”

“Next time?” Silver Spoon mutters off to the side.

Diamond Tiara watches to make sure Pomarbo’s focus is off somewhere else, then flicks her head to glare at Silver Spoon. It doesn’t have much of an effect; she’ll need to work on that more. She turns back to Pomarbo, reasserting her casual smile.

“Eeyup,” Pomarbo says, then sighs. “Ah don’t get it,” he admits with a downcast look at the ground.

Diamond Tiara sighs internally, not letting her smile fade. “It’s okay,” she reassures, taking the opportunity to briefly nuzzle at the side of his neck. It’s hard to do with them moving and him being shorter than she is, but she makes it work. He seems to appreciate it, which is good, but she can’t keep it up while they are trotting. “Which part?”

“So, Ah got the part about my-toe-kon-dree-ah.” His brown muzzle scrunches up, shifting around the black dots of oil staining his hair; she’ll need to see about washing them out somehow. After all, it wouldn’t do for her reputation to be as sullied as his coat. “An’ how they make energy usable by the cell.”

Diamond Tiara doubts he got it, because it took her three hours of studying the textbook to understand the process well enough that she wouldn’t look like a foal in class, but she lets that slide. Stallions got uptight if you called them out, especially if they thought they were in the right. Better to come at it from an oblique angle if it’s important to convey.

“But,” Pomarbo continues, “where do they get the energy from?”

“Sugars and fats the cell ingested, or ate,” Diamond Tiara explains, recalling the discussion in class. “It’s not like it comes from nothing.” She ends with a little half-laugh, trying not to make fun of his lack of understanding.

“No, no, before that.” His face scrunches up again in a manner she needs to learn to find adorable. “Where do those sugars and fats come from?”

“Griffons get them from little ponies who ask too many questions,” Silver Spoon gripes.

Pomarbo’s green eyes do their best to match Big Mac’s cutie mark in size. “Bu-but Ah asked all the questions!”

“Yes,” Silver Spoon icily agrees. “Yes, you did.”

“My dam always says that if you have a question,” Diamond Tiara encourages, doing her best to assuage Pomarbo’s fears without further antagonizing Silver Spoon, “that means that the others also have that question but are too afraid to ask. I thought you were very brave to raise your hoof so many times.” Pomarbo grins, though it takes some time before his pupils return to their normal size. “And while my sister is technically right about carnivores, most creatures and animals get their food from plants.”

Silver Spoon’s comment must not have rattled him too badly as Pomarbo says, “But plants have mitochondria, too.”

“True.” Diamond Tiara finds herself getting exasperated from the constant questions. Maybe asking him to tag along wasn’t the best idea; most foals would have been too intimidated by the older fillies to stand out like a sore hoof. “Plants use photosynthesis, a different process that lets them convert sunlight into sugars. They use chloroplasts for that, and their mitochondria to make the energy usable for them. We learned that last year.”

“Oh.” Pomarbo puzzles this out as they keep trotting along. “Where does the sun get its energy?”

“Nuclear?” Diamond Tiara doesn’t like not knowing the full answer. “That’s what Princess Celestia says.”

Pomarbo frowns at the uncertainty in her voice. “But ya can burn plants, an’ that makes light.”

“Right,” Diamond Tiara says with a firm nod. “It also makes heat.” She cocks her head to the side. “Doesn’t the Cider Squeezy do that?”

Pomarbo shakes his head with a confidence she finds mildly disturbing; she wouldn’t expect a colt his age to know about thaumics, much less an earth pony. “Ah mean, it burns ‘em, the bad apples, that’s where the smoke comes from. But it’s pullin’ whatever thaums they got before it does. Hay, that’s why we gotta keep rechargin’ the batteries, we don’t have enough bad apples.” He smiles, somewhere between a smirk and a grin. “Maybe that ain’t such a bad thing.”

“Ee-nope,” Diamond Tiara replies in her best imitation of Big Mac, which draws a chuckle from Pombaro and a roll of the eyes from Silver Spoon.

They arrive at the Cider Barn. It looks much like their other two-story barns with a high purple roof, bright and bold reds patterning the walls, and white accents on the sliding door (barely) large enough for the Squeezy to fit through. Only a single window has been cut out, high up in the loft, through which a magenta eye can often be seen watching for incoming ponies. Two carts overflowing with baskets of apples wait outside, one of sweet Red Delicious and one of the tarter McIntosh. The door to the barn is already opened, drawing a few curious glances among the three before they cautiously head inside.

Barrels fill the second story of the dimly lit barn, stacked and shoved into every last corner to give them enough space on the ground floor to move around. The Cider Squeezy stands in one corner, tall and imposing even chained to the ground with the wheels and anything else not required removed. To their surprise they find not one but four ponies waiting for them.

“Hey, Pomarbo!” Rainbow Dash greets them with a hearty wave from the rafters, mane disheveled. She takes a great big yawn before swooping down to hover above them, not unlike a hungry griffon with an eager look in her eyes. “Please please please tell me you’re ready to make more cider!”

“Ah’ve got quotas to keep,” Pomarbo fires back, bluntness abated by a fond wave of his own. He shucks the saddlebags off in a corner. “An’ Ah ain’t crackin’ a full barrel jus’ ‘cause we can’t fill two mugs with what’s left over!”

Diamond Tiara finds it hilarious - and a bit of a turn-on - to see the pint-sized colt, who could fit inside one of the novelty cider mugs Doug got Rainbow Dash last Hearth’s Warming, stand up to the full-grown mare. Some colts rule the kitchen, but this one sure has a grip on the barn! At least, this barn in particular.

Rainbow Dash peers outside, performing a few mental calculations Diamond Tiara suspects won’t add up. “So if a few baskets just happen to go missing…”

“Then Ah’ll stuff you in there an’ we’ll see if’n it thinks you’re a Zap Apple.” Rainbow Dash just smirks at the threat, all of them glad Pomarbo swiftly got over his initial experience with the machine. He turns to the other ponies, zipping past Cozy Glow to momentarily rest on the other colt before lighting up. “Applebaum! You’re back!”

“Couldn’t go without showin’ this’n a taste of fresh cider!” Applebaum prods the pony next to her; only then does he wave. “This is Totem, he lives where Ah’m stayin’ in Canterlot.”

“Cool! Ah’m Pomarbo, but you can call me Po.” Pomarbo motions to the two young mares next to him. “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Diamond Tiara greets, adding in a casual nod and friendly smile. Silver Spoon goes so far as to curtsy, drawing the colt’s attention. She can’t help but notice how Applebaum tenses up, fixing her sister with a short-lived glare. How defensive is she about her relationship with Totem?

“Oh, golly!” Cozy Glow presses her hooves against her cheeks, beaming all the brighter. “It sure is nice to meet new ponies!”

“Come on, come on,” Rainbow Dash urges as Cozy Glow huffs at the interruption, motioning the Apple colt toward the Cider Squeezy with her hooves; she’d been reprimanded about using her wings and stirring up the sawdust that doesn’t quite cover the large black spot in the middle of the barn.

Pomarbo rolls his eyes. “Alright, daylight’s burnin’.”

Much to Rainbow Dash’s delight Pomarbo heads over to the recharging station, pulling out the topped-off batteries and leaving the rest to Diamond Tiara. Applebaum, Totem, and Silver Spoon watch from the sidelines as their operation starts up, as it does most days, with Rainbow Dash bringing in the first basket of McIntosh apples, ostensible so she can say she ‘helped’ and isn’t just the ‘adult’ in the room (since Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would technically qualify). The apples roll down a chute they had built together, past a gap too small for a pony to fit through, to the bolted-down suction tube. Pomarbo goes through the checklist Twilight helped him make for starting up the Cider Squeezy, which mostly consists of making sure everything is topped off, the gauges are all in the green, and nothing is likely to explode. To be fair, that only happened once, but they all give the no-longer-magically-enhanced horn a wide berth.

Once started the process continues until they run out of apples, power, or when somepony hits the big red emergency stop button. Diamond Tiara helps Pomarbo roll barrels from the second floor down the ramp, load them up, then remove and stack the full barrels (they disabled the launcher for lack of space and because it used up a lot of power). Either could do it by themselves, if they had to, but with Cozy Glow bringing in baskets? She gets more time to spend with him, even if it’s too loud to have an easy conversation.

Barrels stack up and soon litter the entire ground floor. With a shuddering gasp and clank-clank--clank---clank the Cider Squeezy comes to a stop, two sweet barrels more than their quota of twelve sweet and twelve hard, split between Red Delicious and McIntosh. It has taken them a little more than an hour, enough time that Diamond Tiara’s stomach protests, at least wanting to get a snack. She holds in her complaint as Pomarbo lets out a great sigh; the Apples always have room at the table, Applejack especially happy to see her joining them.

“Well,” the colt gripes as he stomps over to the Cider Squeezy. With a loud huff he disconnects the batteries, then makes sure the furnace is off and cooling. Diamond Tiara can’t really fault his displeasure; the two carts are completely empty, and if they had gone just a few minutes longer then the machine would have cleaned itself out. Instead he has to slide over a stepladder and open the door, wincing as a blast of hot air rushes past. He pokes his head in, Rainbow Dash waiting just behind with her tongue tightly held between her teeth.

“Good news,” Pomarbo says after a few seconds inspecting the glass dome half-full of brown, bubbly liquid. “Ah think that cider’ll still be good, once it cools.”

“Yesss,” Rainbow Dash whispers to herself, pumping a hoof for good measure. She flies to the exit end, replacing the barrel with one of her oversized mugs. “Ready!”

Pomarbo clambers inside, ignoring the *hiss* of his hooves against the hot metal, to flick open a small release valve. Cider pours out, almost topping off Rainbow’s mug. She takes a sip, yelps as it scalds her tongue, then begrudgingly portions it into six smaller glasses, leaving half remaining.

“So, Cozy,” Pomarbo says as he arduously scrubs; it’s easier to clean out the gunk while it’s still hot, before the apples get a chance to cool and stick to everything. It’s much easier to hear now that the only sounds are contented sips from their warm glasses. “How was school?”

“Professor Chrysalis sure uses a lot of examples involving lying to teach us about Honesty,” Cozy Glow answers. She frowns as she swirls her cider around. “Headmare Twilight doesn’t like it, she keeps waving this big book around, but Professor Chrysalis doesn’t really care. And Professor Fluttershy shows how much Kindness helps those around us, but it’s kind of boring ever since Headmare Twilight took away her animals.”

“But that’s all her examples,” Pomarbo says. He pokes his head out to look at Cozy Glow, confused. “Anything else?”

“Oh!” Cozy Glow’s expression brightens as she flies down and ruffles through her pink saddlebags. “I got a letter back from Tirek! He thinks he can help with our problem!”

Next Chapter: Ch. 124 - Energy From Within, Part Three Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 27 Minutes