I got bored.

Cranium sat down at the lunch table, which as usual,was completely empty except for him.The stallon liked things much better this way. He was not disturbed by other morons while he was studying, which was fine with him. He poked at his unrecognizable potato salad, and pushed it away. the unicorn pulled out a book, and began to read. This time it was another one about Starswirl. The book had come with a documentary, which he fully intended to watch later.

Suddenly he felt a hard pat on the back,which felt more like a painful slap, and the stallion let out a yelp of surprise as he dropped his book. Scowling, he turned around, and glared at who dared bother him.

" Hey dweeb! Whatcha reading?" the brawny pony sneered, snatching the book from the floor.

Cranium rolled his eyes in response. He hated this pony. The unicorn was typically pushed around by him at least every day at lunch. The other pony, called Brad, was surprisingly creative with his ways to torture him, which regularly included shoving in lockers, throwing the inedible egg salad at him, the like. Of course, he never showed any emotion at all. He was far too superior to be offended by hia ridiculous attempts to make him cringe.

" I would tell you, but it appears you are far too much of an imbecile to understand the material," the unicorn pointed out, levitating the book back to him with his magic. Brad gave him a scowl, and narrowed his eyes.

" Are you calling me dumb, Dweeb?" the tough bully growled. For a moment, Cranium hesitated. He didn't want things to get ugly, he merely desired for this moron to leave him alone, but he had far enough of his little tricks.

" Yes, I suppose I am," he said cooly, then stared as the bully raised his hoof in the air. That may have been slightly unneeded, Cranium told himself nervously.

Bubblegum giggled at the two ponies arguing before returning to her lunch, she took her usual seat at the back of the lunch hall napping on her pillow which she always brought whilst listening to all the other ponies around her and consolodating on past events. She was trying to figure out why she was always tired during the day and hyperactive at night, she watched the two ponies who were arguing earlier, observing them.

She listened carefully to the conversations and tried to figure out what was happening, from where she was sitting it looked like one of the smart ponies was being bullied solely for reading, she took a book out her bright green and red saddle bag hoping the smart pony would notice her & help with her sleeping predicament.

Very quickly, the unicorn gave a gasp. " Is that Saphire Shores?" Cranium said exitedly, attempting to distract Brad.

" Where?" Brad shouted, and with that, the unicorn quickly sat in the nearest seat, by a mare with a bright red and green bag. He hated sitting with others, but it was better than being beaten to a pulp.

He sighed, and and looked at his book, which was now horribly bent and strangely sweaty from the bully's grip. Just wonderful. He sighed, and continued to absentmindedly poke his salad.

Bubblegum remained quiet and continued reading her book, she had never really talked to anyone before so didn't know where to start she sighed loudly which seemee to have caught the unicorns attention.

She hit her book down on the table really loudly "BAM!" The book made a loud sound as it hit the table, the entire hall went quiet, she shouted from the back "hehe sorry there was a spider" she giggled to herself before using this newly found opportunity to speak to the unicorn.

"Oh i'm so sorry i didn't mean to scare you" she said "i'm just having trouble staying awake in the day time" she continued "i keep seeing things too like that spider" and "yesterday i swear the teacher was floating....i don't even know sometimes, anyways heyyy can you help?" "Oh i forgot to say but my name is bubblegum nice to meet you"she exclaimed gesturing her hoof across the table, looking deeply into the unicorns beautiful blue eyes.

( I sowwy for short posty!)

Cranium raised an eyebrow, then snorted. " Well,Bubblegum. Why should I help you, exactly?" he said coldly.

This batpony's troubles was absolutely none of his concern, and he could honestly care less. Unless... She is a batpony...and batponies have wings... and night vision... Hmm. Perhaps she could be of use to him, but he would wait to propose his conditions.

(Short posts are fine ^^)

Bubblegum turned her head sideways staring into Cranium's eyes.
She thought for a moment before replying "Well maybe i could tell you some secrets, buuuutt you need to help ok?" "I guess i don't know why you should help, hmm ok secrets are cool and all but how about i get that other pony to stop bullying you?" She smiled at the unicorn across the table.

Cranium looked at the mare, and gave a long sigh.

" Secrets have absolutely nothing to do with it," he said, annoyed. For a moment, his face had a deep, thoguhtful expression.

" However, I do have... issues with that certain stallion. He likes to... never mind. The point is, he constantly sneaks up behind me, and I can never see him, as it's always dark," the unicorn said, slightly awkwardly. The unicorn had carefully left out the part where Brad happily dangled him by his labcoat on the nearest tall object. Better save his dignity if possible.

The student hesitated, then gave another sigh. " You have a deal," he said, somewhat grudgingly.

"The reason why i sit here is because everyone is scared of me, so i was kind of startled when you came and sat next to me without being scared and thinking that i'm some kind of mutated freak haha" Bubblegum explained to cranium.
"Ok here goes nothing she said" "I Hope i don't get in trouble bubble thought to herself" she slowly staggered over to the much larger stallion and sat behind him, all his friends that were near him all pointed to her with a harsh look of terror on their faces, she stared at them for a moment then shouted "Rawr!" His friends all ran away which caused the stallion to turn around.

"Yo brad Wassup!" bubblegum exclaimed, "Soooooo" she continued "i heard you were annoying my friend Cranium?" "DUDE!" She shouted "Stop staring at my wings" Brad was shaking.....he pointed to her wings. W...ww whh..what are...y..yo...you he said shaking.
Bubblegum sighed before replying "Seriously why do you even care? And why will you not answer my question? Brad sat there shiverinng and pointing to the batpony that was infront of him.
Bubblegum thought to herself for a moment "What the Buck is this guys problem?" She screamed as loud as she could "BRAD! Snap out of it" The stallian took his attention away from bubblegum and stared at her hooves hoping that would be a better alternative than staring at her wings.
He stuttered "Well it's i..i..he....was.." Bubblegum groaned "Look i don't care what he did but if you bully him again then i'm going to tell someone ok? The pony just stood there violently shaking.
"Seriously?" Bubblegum said before leaving him alone, she walked back to the table and sat beside Cranium, she smiled at him then said "there you go sweetie, he shouldn't bother you again and if he does then you need to tell someone, even if you don't want to tell a teacher or an adult you can always tell me and i can deal with it again, but if it gets out of hand then we need to tell someone who can really help.

Cranium stared at the mare with his jaw held wide open for a moment, then blinked, seemingly getting over how easy it was for her to merely shoo them away.

" I'm afraid it doesn't work like that," said Cranium, somewhat defensively. He sighed.

" Now, tell me about your little... sleep issue," the unicorn said, levitating his food into the nearest trash can. There were probably a number of easy rememdies for her... if she wasn't a batpony. he would have to think it through.

Bubblegum suddenly got shy.

"Well..erm..i..urm..it's just that..." she trailed off staring at the table with a blank expression on her face, she sat there quietly not saying a word.

(Sorry for short posty)

( Nah, it's fine.)

Cranium raised an eyebrow. " Hmm. Well, I can't help you if you continue to stammer that way," he said, annoyed.

How was he supposed to fullfill his part of the baragain if he didn't know the neccessary backround information? For a moment, he wondered why she was so quiet all of a sudden. Perhaps he had intruded into personal affairs. No matter, perhaps she would tell him.

Bubblegum shook her head vigourously,"sorry i get flashbacks alot, especially lately" she continued "A long time ago i used to live somewhere much darker and very different from the place that i live now, unfortunately in that place i had only 1 purpose and it wasn't worth living through i thought about it for a very long time before i ran away & even now i get nightmares about it, even though it was a long time ago"

Yeah the sleeping thing, alot of people always automatically think that because i'm a batpony that i'm nocturnal which to be honest isn't necessarily true. It reminds me of the place that i was born..." bubblegum went quiet agaun before staring into cranium's eyes. She put her head down on the table. "I'm so sorry" she said started to get cry to herself.

"I'm so sorry..." The batpony said, then started to sob.

Cranium blinked. He had absolutely no idea what to do. What was he supposed to do? He would muhc prefer it if she didn't cry like that. Others were giving him strange looks. So he remained silent as the mare cried heavily with her head on the table. Rather stiffly, he pulled out a tissue from his labcoat pocket, and shoved it in her hooves.

" Don't be," he said awkwardly, then looked around the cafeteria. This wasn't at all going as he had hoped. Other ponies were really giving him angry looks, as if he had made her cry. Clearing his throat, he scooted slightly farther from the pony. He was a scientist, not a therapist!

Bubblegum moved over to cranium again "Hey! Where you going? You still need to help me remember"

(1 line >.< I suk lol)

Cranium stared at her sudden mood change, then slowly nodded. She's crazier than I thought. Still, a deal's a deal. " Of... course," he said, still amazed.

" Well, if this place is so awful, why haven't you tried not thinking about it?" Cranium said warirly, then gave a sigh. Of course she had thought of that. But, it was pretty easy. Simply don't think about it, and perhaps she would stop her habits.

Bubblegum sighed, laying her head on the table again before looking into craniums eyes again, she glanced outside it was chucking it down with rain, she thought for a moment then looked at the clock on the bright yellow walls that the ponies were surrounded by.
"well the problem is that i can't stop thinking about it"
she continued "i mean it's where i was born, i just can't stop thinking what my real parents would be doing, are they even still alive?"

"When i was just a little filly everyone told me that i should have gone to the hospital to see the doctor. Bubblegum giggled "They always said that i would get a lollipop and that i could get help"
Bubble had always hated doctors, even when she was born she kicked the doctor in the face, but being newborn at the time she didn't know what she was doing. "I know this is a little embarrasing but...well i'm kindof a teeny tiny little bit scared of doctors" She looked around the room quickly hoping that no one else had heard her.

Cranium raised an eyebrow. He particularly was intrigued by doctors, and their works, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. In fact, he was a little stumped with this bat pony. He found he could solve a number of difficult issues- scientific ones, ones he could easily decipher and quickly research. This is going to be harder than I thought. And he was quite surprised this pony was pouring out her soul to him. He certainly would never do this.

" Well....." he said awkwardly. He didn't quite know what to say. Clearly she has no parents at the moment. He had his mother, but it was quite apparent she only adored him for his intellect. Of course, he could not blame her. As for his father, he left long ago, unable to stand his mother's craving for a high spot in society.

Oh, he didn't have time for this! He needed to research, calculate, know everything about her head to toe, and lunch would be over soon.

" Well, tell me more," he simply finished.

This is going to end up taking a really long time to solve this problem bubble thought to herself. Bubblegum was usually very shy at school because she didn't really know anyone so she was quite surprised to find herself talking to another pony for once instead of just sitting at the back of the lunch hall.

She continued to tell Cranium more about her problems that she had been having lately. "I'm really not sure what it is that's causing me to have trouble sleeping really" she said "I Have had it ever since i was a filly as i already said earlier and i really don't think that stress is the main reason for it, It could be because i have a really bad immune system or the fact that i'm depressed alot"
Bubblegum thought to herself for a moment, she was constantly depressed and she could never figure out why. "I Think the reason that i'm depressed and therefore having trouvle sleeping is because i barely know anyone, it sucks really because everytime i try and talk to someone they always run away or just completely ignore me." "Come to think of it i don't really have any friends here other than my foster mom"

I Guess i just need to make some friends she thought to herself. "Well maybe i just need some friends" She said before laying her head back down on the table.

Cranium's face brightened. " Yes, precisely! Good distractions that would give you pleasure would be perfect!" he said, almost excitedly. He was rather happy he had made this discovery, and rather proud of himself too.

" Not just friends- you can have those disgusting sweet things everypony eats, and play games..." his voice trailed off, and he frowned deeply as he looked at the clock.

" We really do not have much time. If you like, we can meet somewhere so I can fulfill my part of the baragain," he said, his eyes still focused on the clock.

Bubblegum thought for a moment knowing that the end of lunch was drawing near, she smiled "Sure! But we need to go to class first, maybe after class you could come to my place" She said passing over a note with the adress to her home.

"I Kind of live in a cake shop so sorry if you don't like it, if you don't and it's really distracting then you can just say and then we can go to the library or something or even your house if you wan't but i don't know if that's ok with you"

Cranium gave a sigh. He prefered a library, or some place quiet. His house was out of the question, the last thing he needed was his over affectionate mother smothering him, gushing over him, and making embarassing comments, thus provoking humiliation. The cake shop would have to do.

" Very well. I will need your adress, and I will be there at precisely five sharp," the unicorn said briskly. The sooner this bargain was fullfilled, the better. He didn't enjoy mingling with other ponies, though the prospect of studying this individual did seem a bit exciting.

Bubblegum giggled "Or we could go to narnia" she looked cranium in the eyes and started laughing. "Don't worry i'm joking" she said passing over a slightly torn pink sticky note with her address written in a bright glow in the dark ink.
"Sorry about the bright green ink, it's the only stuff i had"
She liked this new pony, he seemed really smart and he wasn't a complete jerk like alot of the other ponies in the school. bubble stared at the roof for a moment before shouting "hey wait, i need to ask you something" chasing after the unicorn.

Cranium stared at the neon ink on the note, then began to walk away, as he put it neatly in his lab coat pocket. He broke into something of a speedwalk, he didn't want to be late for his next class.

"Hey wait, I need to ask you something!" the batpony called after him. He turned around, his face turning annoyed.

" What?" he snapped. " I need to get to class," he added, with a little less venom in his voice. It seemed to be hard to be mad at this odd pony for very long.

She stepped back as the unicorn shouted at her"I...i know i'm sorry i was just wanting to ask a question" she giggled "i have class too you know...right anyways i er...just wanted to ask" why did you not ignore me and how come your not scared of me like everypony else?"

Cranium sighed. " If you don't punch me, shove me into a locker, steal my lunch money, jeer at me, hang me by my labcoat in very uncomfortable places, or "accidently" ruin my important scientific studies, then I'm not scared of you," he said.

" Besides, I have a bargain to fullfill anyway," the unicorn added. he didn't like oweing other ponies, though he always felt obliged to fullfill them. And he did feel slightly grateful for the batpony, after all, she did get rid of that idiot for him.