Face the Unexpected

Chapters

1. Face the Change
2. Face the Reality
3. Face the Ponies
4. Face the Royalty
5. Face the Chaos
6. Face the Timeskip
7. Face the Discovery
8. Face the Possibility
9. Face the Illness
10. Face the Spring
11. Face the Truth
12. Face the Friends
13. Face the Circumstances

1. Face the Change

It is said that destiny is just a predetermined path in the life of every living being. How they are born, how they grow, the decisions they make, with who they’ll share their lives, and of course, how they will die. And no matter what people want to think, they do not make their own destinies, they are destined to do what they do, even the decision to think otherwise. Everything has been already written and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Daniel Cero believes in this statement, and he’s ok with it. He just lives his life to see what’s going to happen next, how many people he will meet, if he will ever get married, who will be his future wife, and on and on. But he’s a lonely guy, not because he doesn’t enjoy others’ company, but because he’s not much of a talking guy, he enjoys the silence, and he likes to think that he only talks when it’s necessary, so he doesn’t waste words.

And because most people don’t enjoy silence as he does, Daniel grew without real friends, just the ephemeral relationship with random people. He was ok with it, as long as no one dared to insult or bully him, he was ok. He just lived his life to see what was going to happen; he was born with the ability of foreshadowing, so it was rare when something took him by surprise, and even so, he could expect something.

What he did not expect, however, was what happened in winter of his 20th birthday. He was walking home from his archery class, the wind was smooth and cold, just enough to make him realize he forgot his scarf. Daniel was lost in his mind, thinking on whatever crossed his eyes, the few birds gliding just above the trees in the nearest park, the children playing with a fake snowman in front of a restaurant, and the snowflakes that were starting to fill his sight field.

“Wait, snow?” He asked to himself. It was strange, not to say impossible. There never snowed in his town, not in the last 30 years, at least. He was hypnotized looking the snow slowly fall to the ground, more amused than surprised. Daniel had never seen snow ever before, just on TV or magazines. He was excited, and he was going to take a photo or video to remember it while he could, so he started to walk again and quickly go home for a camera.

But when he finally stopped watching the snow, and focused on the path, he realized he was no longer in a street. In fact, from what he could see, he wasn’t even in a town, he was in some kind of forest. “No, a farm.” He said out loud. Daniel’s father was a farmer, and he learned to recognize the pattern the trees had in a farm to allow the farmers to collect the fruit more easily. “How the heck I ended in a farm?” The trees were leafless and covered in snow, and the sky was starting to become orange and red, in was about to get dark, and Daniel had to search for a house before everything else so he wouldn’t die in the cold.

So he started to follow the path, it was easy to tell since he could see cart marks on it. Every second was colder, he expected the snow to fall more quickly and maybe become a small storm, but that never happened. The snow was as slow as before, slow and monotonous. It was luck, but Daniel wouldn’t trust his luck, so he quickened his pace until he could see a mill at the distance. If there was a mill, there had to be a farmhouse, Daniel concluded. Seeing that the snow apparently wasn’t going to become a storm made him less worried, but it was still getting darker and colder, so he started to trot.

And finally there it was, maybe a mile away he could spot the shape of a house, so he ran, the path wasn’t entirely covered with snow, so he had no trouble making his way to the salvation of a horrible frozen death.

When he was about to knock the door, he saw the silhouette of a small horse in the corner of his eye. He didn’t think about it, it was a farm after all. But then he felt pain in the back of his head, and everything faded to darkness.

~~~~~~~~

“Whaddya mean ya don’ know?” Daniel heard a female voice as if it was coming from another room, he felt his head spin around wildly and his vision starting to catch some colors again. He first saw the wooden ceiling. ‘Am I in the farmhouse?’ He let his muscles relax a little; at least he wasn’t going to die in the snow.

“Just that,” He heard a second voice, female again, this time closer than the first one. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. Why didn’t you call Fluttershy? She’s the animal expert.”

“Ah called her before ya, she said it looks like a monkey, but nothin’ else”

“Have you tried to wake it up? Maybe it can talk and tell us itself.” By this moment, Daniel was starting to feel that the two girls were talking about him. But he wasn’t sure, and he wouldn’t do anything to startle them, so he let out a small groan to make them know he was awake. “Hey, it’s waking up.”

Daniel heard the sound of hooves getting closer, he dismissed the thought, it must be a hallucination, and he still heard a small ring inside his head. “Uh… hey partner, ya feel ok?” Daniel always liked the southern accent, maybe because he grew up in a farm. It made him feel comfortable.

He slowly sat up and realized he was in some kind of couch, though it was horribly small, he wasn’t able to stretch his legs properly. “Yeah… I’m fine…” He said closing his eyes and grinding his teeth. The pain in the back of his head was getting worse.

“Ah’m sorry ‘bout that, Big Mac thought ya were some kind’a intruder.” So that was the reason why he fainted. Well, one mystery solved, he decided to find out how he ended there and how he could get back home. But when he opened his eyes once again and turned to face the lady who was talking to him, he almost fainted again.

In front of him was the smallest horse he had ever seen, or at least he thought it was a horse. It was orange with blonde mane, and the impossibly biggest eyes he had ever seen in an animal. He felt pity for the poor thing, it must have been born disfigured and its owners kept it for compassion.

“Minding tellin’ me yer name? Ah’m Applejack”

‘IT CAN TALK?!’ Daniel fought the instinct to hit the thing in the face and run for his life. It wasn’t possible, it had to be a dream, but the pain in his head told him it couldn’t possibly be a dream. A hallucination had to be the answer, maybe he was kidnapped and drugged, but then again, it wasn’t likely. Why would anyone want to kidnap him? He wasn’t rich and as far as he knew, he didn’t have any problem with someone who might want a vengeance.

‘Ok Daniel, keep it together.’ He closed his eyes and frowned. ‘This can be a dream, the effect of a drug or a well done prank. The first two options are unlikely, so this can only be a prank.’ He crossed his fingers in front of his face. ‘Ok, if I fake that I believe in this prank, whoever doing it is going to end it soon. Ok, it’s time to see if I’m a good actor.’

Daniel opened his eyes to the confused mare and gave it a smile. “Hi, my name is Daniel.” He made himself as comfortable as he could in the small couch. “Can you tell me where am I?”

The mini horse returned him the smile, a confident one. “Yer in Sweet Apple Acres. Ah’ve never seen anythin’ like ya… What are ya?” It seemed that the prank was going to last a while.

“I’m a human. Scientifically speaking, I’m a Homo Sapiens.” He said with a small amount of pride in his words. “And you?”

“We are ponies.” Daniel heard the second voice, and as he guessed, it was another tiny horse with the same big eyes. This one was purple and it had a horn on its face. ‘Seriously? How much money they spent just for this prank?’ “Scientifically speaking, we are Equus ferus caballus.” Now that was interesting, the purple mare looked like it was excited. “But my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Pleased to meet you, Miss Twilight” He had to fight the urge to facepalm. Even if it was a prank, he felt stupid for talking with well done machines. “Listen, I don’t know how I came here, I just want to get back home, can you help me?”

“Well, we’ve never seen anything like you before” Said the purple pony with a combination of disappointment and excitement in its face. Maybe that was the reason why its wings were spread at both sides as if it had a boner. ‘Wait, wings? I didn’t know unicorns had wings- Oh come on! If you’re going to prank me, at least make real mythological creatures!’ “But if I make a deep research, maybe I can find out where you come from.”

“Hey Twah? What if ‘tis another of Discord’s pranks?” Said the orange one looking at Daniel with anger in its eyes and adopting a defensive posture. ‘Great, now they want me to run and scream as a little girl so they can make fun on me. Well, that’s not gonna happen.’

“I don’t think so, AJ, Discord promised not to make living creatures anymore since the mud golem incident.” The so called Applejack gave her fellow pony a stern glare and then looked away. The winged unicorn then looked at Daniel with a smile. “Well, I’d like to cast a tracing spell on you, maybe that can tell me where you come from.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow and saw its horn glow, it was a nice effect, he had to admit. And then, he felt his body feel warmer than before, as if he suddenly was covered with a blanket. The feeling lasted a few seconds and then faded.

“I… I’m sorry…” Said Twilight with a sad face and looking at the floor. “The spell didn’t tell me anything… As if you just appeared here out of nowhere.”

“N’ whaddya mean with that?” Asked Applejack, she was now wearing a brown hat.

“Remember what Princess Celestia told us about alternate universes?” Applejack narrowed her eyes and frowned a little, then shook her head. “Starswirl the bearded had a theory where he said that there are more universes in existence, just like…” Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof, looking through the room. “Just like apples in a basket.

“Each apple is a universe, and inside of one of them, there’s a whole world full of life. But as you can see, even if the apples are touching each other, they don’t interact with each other, they’re just there.”

‘Well, if this orange pony doesn’t understand with that explanation, it will prove two myths at once.’ “But if he’s from another app-universe, how did he come here? N’ how will he return home?”

Twilight started to walk in circles with one of her wings rubbing her chin. “I don’t know… I’d have to study him…” She didn’t stop walking, in fact, she was moving a bit faster. “But right now it’s night, he must be tired and I have a meeting with Cadence tomorrow…” She stopped walking and looked at Applejack, who seemed to catch what Twilight was about to say. “If you don’t mind, AJ, he could stay here for the time being until I come back?”

AJ nodded, but before she could say something, Daniel suddenly stood up, startling the two ponies. “Ok, this prank went way too far.” He said looking at the ceiling, searching for hidden cameras. “This is not funny anymore! Stop this nonsense right now!”

“W-Who are you talking to?” Asked Twilight, which only made Daniel to look at her with anger. He started to walk at her with the obvious intention to hurt her. The human was tall, almost as tall as Discord, but with longer and thicker arms.

Twilight started to walk backwards, but that only made Daniel to walk faster. She decided to use her magic and levitate the human to stop him, it was a surprise that she was having troubles to use her magic on him, as if he was made of iron. He was way heavier than she expected.

“W-What is the meaning of this?” Asked Daniel more to himself than to Twilight. He was flying? No, he felt as if he was lying down in a boat in the shore of a river. Was this a dream after all? Was he hallucinating after all? He started to feel dizzy, and suddenly, he felt really tired, his eyes closed against his will, and he fell asleep.

Author's Note

This is my first fanfic in English, I hope the grammar mistakes aren't too obvious. And I hope you enjoy this story ^^

2. Face the Reality

Winter was Daniel’s favorite season just for one reason; It’s easier to keep warmth when it’s cold outside than to escape from the hell of weather in summer. Though it’s also harder to wake up, since the comfort of your bed in the morning is so strong you have to call every piece of will to leave it.

But this time, Daniel wasn’t going to leave his bed. His head still ached and he just had the most lucid and random dream he has ever had. The warm light of the morning through the window only made him feel more tired, and the repetitive sound of the clock in the wall, while for most people was annoying, for Daniel it had the same effect as a lullaby for a newborn.

He was about to fall asleep again when the sound of hooves came to his ears and was getting closer. “Oh you must be kidding me.” He let a small groan as realization came to his mind. “This is just a dream… Just a mother fucking dream…” But it wasn’t a dream, and deeper in his soul, he knew it as well.

The door opened carefully as Applejack entered the room. “Uh… Yer awake? It’s eight in th’ mornin’ already, yer gonna miss breakfast.” Well, that was a late hour for farmers to have breakfast, then again, that was a talking horse, and nothing stopped Daniel to think that the rest of the family, if there was any, were all small horses.

“Why I can’t wake up?” Daniel asked to himself, but it was loud enough for Applejack to hear it.

“Beg yer pardon?”

Daniel’s mind was a hurricane of thoughts. This dream was lucid, that meant he should be able to do anything he wanted, but he couldn’t make the pain in her head go away, for a start, and more importantly, he couldn’t make the stupid dream go away and wake up for once and for all. He slowly sat up in the bed, realizing that he wasn’t in his own room. That would be too easy, no, he was in a completely strange room with the smallest and weirdest horse standing near the door.

“Isn’t this a dream? Then why I can’t wake up?”

Applejack gave him a concern glare, and slowly walked to the side of the bed. “Listen here, partner.” She tentatively put a hoof on the bed, but didn’t dare to do more. “Ah ain’t sure what ya mean by that, but Ah reckon this ain’t a dream. Ah’m as real as you.” Applejack paused for a moment when Daniel turned to look at her. “Ah know what it feels like to be away from home, but ya don’ worry no more, Twilight’s gonna find the way to return you home.”

Daniel pondered his situation. He was apparently trapped in an endless dream, but that was just so unreal he couldn’t believe that. Was this really happening? Had he really crossed dimensions? But how? One moment he was walking home and the next one he was on this farm, in a world where apparently humans didn’t exist and the sapient creatures were these… ponies.

He sighed, more of tiredness than frustration. “Ok Miss Applejack, dream or not, I can’t go home right now.” He stood up and glanced at the door. “I accept your kindness and have breakfast, but you must let me repay you, though I don’t have any money, maybe with work.”

Applejack smiled at this. “Y’ know, it would be helpful an extra hoof.”

~~~~~~~~

The moment Daniel entered the kitchen, he regretted his decision. In front of him was another small horse, though bigger than Applejack and really sturdy. The red stallion –Daniel supposed it was a stallion... for some reason- only glared at him, not with anger, or happiness, or even curiosity. It had the most unreadable face Daniel has seen since his last poker game a month ago.

“C’mon Big Mac, let him take a sit.” Applejack was already dragging the stallion inside the kitchen so Daniel could pass and sit in one of the awkwardly well designed chairs. ‘They are ponies, why do they need backrest in the chairs?’

But even so, the chairs and the table were nearer to the floor, that had more sense. Daniel would try to make things have sense in this crazy world, for his health sake. “So...” He heard a small voice from the other side of the table, was that an even smaller horse? “Are ya some kind’a alien?”

“Applebloom!” Applejack scolded the young pony. “That’s not how we treat our guests!”

Daniel saw how the little thing tried to make itself even smaller, and for some reason, he thought it was really cute. “Oh, I don’t mind it, it-she’s just a kid, right?” He said to Applebloom, who was starting to smile, and that made him smile too. “Besides, if you think about it, I am indeed an alien, but a good one.”

“Well ain’t he just a sweetheart?” Another mare walked to the kitchen, this one was easy to tell it was old, green and with white mane. “Applejack, dear, why haven’t ya served him some breakfast?”

“Ah was ‘bout to do that, Granny” The orange mare walked to Daniel’s side and put the plate with his food in the table... with its mouth.

Aside from the disgusting sight, the food actually looked pretty good. Three eggs with toasts and strawberry jelly, milk, orange juice and some cookies. And everything was delicious, it didn’t surprise him, the food directly from a farm was always tastier than the food from the city. When everyone finished their food, they started a small conversation, namely, they were interrogating Daniel.

“So, yer name is Daniel Cero?” Applebloom asked with a big smile. “As in th’ number?”

“Yeah, a lot of people say it’s a weird name.” Daniel was finishing his orange juice.

“What is ‘peepall’?”

“It’s how we call to a lot of humans, one human is a person, more than that is people.”

“We say ponies, ‘cuz we’re ponies.”

With each minute it was easier for Daniel to get used to call them as if they were humans and not animals, it was hard, all his life he knew that animals and objects were meant to be called with “it”, and now here he was, talking with tiny horses as if they were people. At least it wouldn't be for a long time, once they discovered how to return him home, this madness would end.

~~~~~~~~

Daniel helped washing the dishes. It surprised him how everything looked normal, as if there really were humans in this world, and how these ponies were able to use everything with their obvious limitations.

Applejack asked him to help Big Mac move the hay from the barn to the corrals, and then feed the pigs. It was extremely illogical for Daniel how the cows were able to speak –though they seemed to be very stupid- but the pigs were, well, just normal pigs. The sheep could speak too, but even if they were as stupid as the cows, they were more pacific. And then, it seemed that any other animal was just as normal as they meant to be in his world.

And then, a quick thought came to Daniel’s mind. These ponies seemed to be herbivorous, he could understand why they needed cows, chickens and sheep –milk, eggs and wool-, but why they needed pigs? Did they use their skin for something? Did they secretly eat meat? He needed answers, so in a break he approached the red stallion.

“Hey Mister Macintosh.”

“Big Mac’s ok”

“Right, hey Big Mac, can I ask you something?” The stallion nodded. “Why do you need pigs? I mean, I don’t want to sound rude but... do you...”

“Eat meat? Nnope” Daniel let out a small sigh. “But griffons n’ minotaurs do”

“Wait, what? Griffons? Minotaurs? Oh dear heaven where am I?”

“Yer in Equestria, the land of ponykind” Applejack said coming from behind her brother and holding a basket with what seemed to be food in it. “But we share our land with non-ponies, as they share their lands with us.” It was amazing how she was able to talk while holding something in her mouth. She dropped the basket in the grass. “Ah didn’ ask, yer herbivorous or carnivorous?”

“I’m omnivorous.” Daniel wondered if they would know what that meant.

“Ah, so you eat meat and plants as griffons and minotaurs do, that’s good, ‘cuz Granny don’t like us to cook meat in th’ kitchen” She sat in the floor and grabbed a sandwich from her basket. “Take one, they’re th’ best daisy sandwiches in Ponyville.”

“Daisy? As in the flower?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I can’t eat flowers.”

“But ya said...”

“I can eat veggies, fruits and meat, but I can’t eat flowers, hay or grass.”

“Oh Ah see” Applejack didn’t look disappointed; she looked in fact curious about Daniel. “Well, lucky Ah brought celery with mayo sandwiches too” Daniel sighed in relief, if he was to stay in that world for any longer, at least he didn’t have to worry about not being able to eat some bacon.

~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day Daniel helped clean up the farmhouse, he discovered that they had a bathroom, the shape of the toilet was really odd, but it served its purpose. It was afternoon when he heard a knock in the door and Applejack went to open it.

“Hey Fluttershy, come in” Daniel heard another set of hooves enter the house and go to the living room where he was. “This is Daniel, he happens t’ be a hooman”

“Pleased to meet you Miss...” Daniel said bowing a little his head in respect, waiting for the name of the yellow pony.

“Oh my goodness! You can talk? Tell me, what are you thinking right now?” The pegasus was literally rubbing her muzzle with Daniel’s nose, which made him feel extremely uncomfortable. “Oh, I’m sorry, where are my manners?” She said thankfully sitting in the couch right next to Daniel, but not invading his personal space anymore. “My name is Fluttershy.”

“Hi, Miss Fluttershy,” Daniel said after a few seconds of being stunned. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh, you don’t need to be so formal, just call me Fluttershy” Her voice was soft, as if she wouldn’t be able to sound angry to save her life.

“Ok, Fluttershy. My name is Daniel Cero, I’m a human,” Daniel said that last word loud enough to make sure Applejack heard it and maybe she would pronounce it correctly. “I don’t belong to this world, but we are waiting for Miss Twilight- “

“That’d be Princess Twilight fer ya, sugarcube” Applejack interrupted with a smirk.

“Princess? There are royalty here?” He was more concerned by the fact that ponies could make a kingdom than the fact that the winged unicorn was part of that royalty.

“Well, yeah, didn’t Ah tell ya?” It was obvious that the orange farmer noticed how Daniel marked the word human, and that she wasn’t ok with that.

“Anyway,” Daniel waved a hand to the now irritated pony. “As I was saying, Fluttershy, we are waiting for Princess Twilight to find a way to get me back home”

Fluttershy looked down, as if she was... disappointed? “I see...” When she realized that the human was staring at her, she tried to hide behind her long mane with little effect.

“Hey Daniel, stop lookin’ at her that way, yer scaring her”

“Sorry” For a moment, when the yellow mare hid behind her mane, Daniel thought that she looked like a duck. “So, Applejack, when is the princess going to come back?” He decided not to push his luck and stop staring at the pegasus.

Applejack shrugged. “Knowin’ her, she might as well come back right this instant or until tomorrow mornin’”

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door, Applebloom opened it. “Hiya Twilight!” Daniel looked at Applejack, she smiled and he knew that the orange pony saw the winged unicorn coming through the window. When Twilight entered the living room, Daniel stood up, turned to her and with the most unreadable face he could make, he bowed at her.

“Her highness,” He said, not noticing that Twilight had a really funny face filled with surprise. “I apologize for my attempt of harming you last night, I was confused and thought you were making fun on me.” He looked at the princess’ eyes, who still couldn’t react. “But even if that doesn’t excuse my behavior, I beg for your mercy”

The room was silent, even Applejack had her jaw dropped. Several minutes passed as Twilight tried to pronounce a coherent sentence. She finally remembered her breathing exercises and with a motion of her front hoof, she sighed and looked directly at the human’s eyes.

“I forgive your inappropriate behavior” She said, trying not to choke with such a strange way to talk. “Though from this moment forth, you shall live with me in Golden Oak’s library, in your own room, of course, so I’ll be able to study you and collect data of you and your kind. And maybe we’ll be able to find a way to get you back to your home.”

Daniel smiled, satisfied.

3. Face the Ponies

The smell of food woke Daniel up, he could already taste the pancakes being made in the kitchen. ‘Wait a minute’. He abruptly opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. The room had a weird color between brown and pink, and two walls had been replaced with full bookshelves. “I’m going to kill the responsible of this nightmare”

Daniel stood up, walked to the door and opened it, and instantly he closed it and ran to the side of the bed where his bow and quiver were. He took one arrow and held it against his torso in a defensive pose. The door opened slowly and a big fat snake with legs came in, glaring at Daniel with concern.

“Don’t come any closer! I know how to use this!” Daniel felt his hands shiver, but paid no mind to them and only stared at the purple snake, watching its every movement.

“Woah dude, calm down” Of course, it can talk too. By this point it wouldn’t surprise him if donkeys could talk as well. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how you use an arrow”

“Shut up!” He wouldn’t ever admit it, but he had ofidiophobia. Snakes terrified him. “Go away! Shoo!” The reptile moved its green spines in irritation and narrowed its eyes. “I’ve killed things ten times your size just with an arrow! I’m not afraid of you!” But he was.

“Oh I’m sure you are.” It shrugged. “But I’m not going to harm you, dude. Twilight sent me to tell you that breakfast is served.” So it was the princess’ slave? “The name’s Spike, by the way.” The so called Spike turned around and left the room. Daniel could hear its claws going downstairs.

It took him a full five minutes to stop the shivering. “So that thing is the famous Spike?” Daniel remembered that last night Twilight told him that she had an assistant, and that he was in another mare’s house for a sleepover or something. But what she had failed to tell him was that the said assistant was the fattest snake he had ever seen.

He wouldn’t admit it, but he was scared. But he couldn’t just hide in that room forever, maybe he could sneak for the front door without them noticing him. So he put his vest on, took his bow and quiver and carefully opened the door. Slowly and as soundless as he could, Daniel went downstairs with his bow and an arrow prepared for self defense.

When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs, he could hear some voices coming from what he guessed was the kitchen. “But it’s true! He was as scared of me as a filly in the Everfree Forest!” Now that was rude.

“I’m not saying that you’re lying, Spike” That was the voice of the princess. “But maybe you just startled him, or he thought you were some kind of threat.”

“You didn’t see him, he was about to pee his clothes.”

“Say that again and I’m going to cross your heart!” Daniel was suddenly behind Spike with his bow ready to shoot. But suddenly the arrow started to glow with an unnatural color purple and made its way away from his grab. It took him a few seconds to realize that the winged unicorn had its horn shinning with the same glow.

“Daniel, I expect you to give me a really good excuse for threatening my number one assistant” By the time he could react, all the arrows that once had been in his quiver were now floating in thin air.

The human was speechless, he didn’t have a good reason. And now, without the only weapon he had in this world and being in front of the purple reptile, he felt helpless. One thing was magical talking horses -he was getting used to it-, or the possibility of being hunted by a hungry griffon –he could live with that-, and even the fact that he was in a strange new world away from everything he ever knew. But being in front of an obviously irritated snake with the ability to run and smart enough to talk, without any mean of defense, Daniel finally felt his heart in his throat.

He fell on the floor in a sitting position, all the color his skin had vanished, and on top of all, he wasn’t able to move. He was terrified. Cold sweat running through his body. He didn’t even try to hide that he was shivering and his breath was getting faster every second.

“Hey dude, are you all right?” Spike tried to short distance with Daniel, but he only gave one step and the human started to go backwards using his hands and feet as fast as he could until he hit a wall.

“STAY AWAY FROM ME!”

Twilight trotted to Spike’s side and told him to get back to the kitchen. Then she slowly approached to the human. “Daniel, calm down, Spike’s not going to hurt you.”

“You didn’t tell me your assistant was a fucking snake!”

“Dragon”

“What?”

Twilight tried to smile at him. “Spike is not a snake, he is a dragon... A baby dragon, for that matter”

Daniel looked at the kitchen, where Spike was watching him with a concern look in his eyes. He then looked at Twilight, who was trying to pull the most comprehensive face she could. He realized that in this position he was at eye level with Twilight, these damn horses sure were small.

He let out the breath he didn’t even know he was holding. Now that he thought on it, Spike didn’t look like a snake at all, he was more like a crocodile standing in two legs and with a round snout. Daniel suddenly felt stupid. It still didn’t make him feel comfortable, but knowing that Spike wasn’t a snake as he thought made him feel way better.

He slowly stood up. “S-So it’s not going to attack me?”

“He” Twilight corrected. “And no, he’s as friendly as the next pony, well, unless you make him angry” The princess suppressed a giggle. “Now, come and have breakfast”

Daniel nodded and followed the mare to the kitchen. He never stopped looking at Spike’s direction, who tried his best to not say anything. ‘He’s not a snake’ Daniel repeated to himself over and over again.

~~~~~~~~

“So, why do I need to meet your friends?” Daniel and Twilight were going to a place called Carrousel Boutique. He noticed how there was a lot of small horses of different colors everywhere, even a few donkeys here and there. All of them looking at him, some in awe, some with fear, and a particular green unicorn seemed to be having an orgasm.

“Because I don’t know how long will it take to figure out how to return you home” She said with a weird tone of excitement in her voice. “And I need to tell my friends why I’m not going to be able to hang out with them. Though Applejack and Fluttershy already know it.”

“Ok...” He scratched idly the back of his head. “So... I’d like to ask you something, but I don’t want to sound rude”

Twilight pondered this for a moment, and then smiled at him. “Please do ask me anything, since you came here the only one answering questions have been you.”

“Yeah, well...” He glanced at the ponies around him and then looked at Twilight again. “I noticed that you’re the only winged unicorn here...”

“Oh, that...” She cleared her throat. “That’s because I’m an alicorn, not a ‘winged unicorn’. And with me, there are only 4 alicorns that we know”

Daniel rubbed his chin with two fingers, Twilight found that interesting. “And I suppose that all of you are royalty, yes?” Twilight nodded. “The King, the Queen...”

“Oh no, no” The former winged unicorn, now alicorn, interrupted him. “There are no queens nor kings in Equestria, only princesses and princes.” She guided Daniel through the central square of Ponyville. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are the rulers of Equestria and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza –call her Cadence- is the ruler of the Crystal Empire with my brother.”

Daniel didn’t need to think more than a few seconds to notice something wrong. “You said that with you there are only 4 alicorns-“

“My brother is a unicorn”

“So what you say is that the only alicorns known in this world are all mares?”

“Well, yes.” Twilight never thought about it, but now it sounded odd.

“And you rule this town?” Twilight stopped and waved her hoof to let him know that they finally came to their destination.

If the buildings in Ponyville were really weird for Daniel, this one was the triangle among circles. Its shape reminded him to a military tent, but instead of having a square area, it was circular.

“No, I don’t” Twilight entered the building making a little bell ring.

“Good day, how may I- Twilight, darling!” A white unicorn ran with the intention to hug her friend, but stopped when she saw the weirdest thing in her life. It was tall, tall enough to make it duck a little in order to enter through the door. It had short brown hair and black eyes, almost as black as coal. And it was wearing a black suit and a brown vest.

And for some reason, the unicorn blushed.

“Hi Rarity, this is Daniel, he’s a human” Twilight seemed oblivious to her friend’s sudden red face. “Daniel, this is Rarity, bearer of the Element of Generosity and one of my best friends.”

“Pleased to meet you, Miss Rarity” He ignored the part of the element as he thought it wasn’t important.

“Hello, darling” The white mare turned around and started to walk to another room. “Please do come in and make yourself comfortable, I’m going to bring some tea” She said moving her tail from one side to another.

Was that mare... Nah...

Daniel nodded and sat in a nearby couch, he still needed to get used to the small size of everything. A few minutes later the white unicorn returned holding a plate with some cups of tea with her magic. The color of this pony’s magic was blue, Daniel wondered if each unicorn had a different color in their magic.

“What brings you today to my boutique, Twilight?” Rarity sat suspiciously to Daniel’s side.

Twilight sat in a small cushion in front of them. “Well, as you can see, Daniel here is a human, something that as far as I know doesn’t even exist in this world” She heard her friend mutter something that sounded like ‘so I noticed’ but didn’t think about it. “So he’s living in the library with me, because together we’re going to find a way to return him to his home”

“But where do you come from?” Rarity asked to the human, who was trying to be as far as possible of her.

“Well, we call our planet, Earth.”

Daniel expected them to wonder in silence for a few minutes, but then he only could see a purple screen known as Twilight Sparkle. “Earth? That’s how Chancellor Puddinghead wanted to name Equestria before, well, before somepony else named this land Equestria!

“You know what this mean? It means that we may have our first clue!” The alicorn was hovering in the air beaming, not letting the human or the unicorn to say a word. “Oh, once I tell Rainbow and Pinkie about this we’re going to read every single book about it!”

There was silence, and the princess felt a little embarrassed, so she landed in her cushion and cleared her throat. “Well, I don’t want to hold you back, but since Daniel is a guest in our world, I’d like to at least make something for him.” Rarity was already levitating a measuring tape. “Please stand up and let me take your measurements”

“Oh you don’t have to-“

“Yes I do. I simply cannot let you leave Equestria without something to let you remind us!”

Daniel sighed in defeat. He knew that the faster he accepted, the faster it would be over.

~~~~~~~~

Daniel and Twilight walked in silence through the streets. He had never experienced sexual harassment before, but ten minutes with that crazy unicorn made him think that that’s how it felt.

“Our next stop is Sugar Cube Corner” Twilight pointed to an even weirder building, it looked like a lot of pastries glued together with cream and liquid chocolate. “Pinkie Pie lives here. She can be... random at times”

The alicorn allowed Daniel to be the first to enter the building, he wondered how someone could live in such a weird house, but shrugged and opened the door. He was received with streamers and confetti directly at his face and a loud ‘SURPRISE’ that seemed to come from a crowd.

As soon as he opened his eyes to see what was going on, a pink pony was bouncing in front of him. “Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie! Well, actually it’s Pinkamena Diane Pie, but everypony calls me Pinkie Pie! I saw you last night walking with Twilight and I thought that I have never seen you before, in fact, I’ve never seen anything like you! But since you were walking with Twilight I thought that you must be from a very very far land, and that you were visiting Ponyville! And that means that you’re new in Ponyville! And if you’re new in Ponyville it means that you don’t know anypony, and that made me feel sad because that means that you don’t have friends here! Well maybe Twilight is your friend since you were walking with her last night, but I couldn’t be sure, so I decided to throw you a party! Because what says ‘You’re new here and we all want to be your friends’ than a welcome party?!”

Daniel was trying with all his will to not grab her and make her stop jumping. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Pinkie” The name was the only thing he could hear from the crazy mare that was still jumping. “And thank you for this party...” He turned to look at Twilight, who only shrugged, smiled and walked to a nearby couch.

“Oh you don’t have to thank me, silly! This is your party after all!” She pulled a cupcake from what Daniel thought it would be a table hidden behind the crazy pink pony. “Take this, make a wish, blow the candle and that wish will come true!”

He took the cupcake with a hand and quickly blew the candle, not even thinking in a wish, he only wanted to make that mare to go away. And as if on cue, Pinkie started to bounce to another part of the room to talk with other ponies.

Daniel narrowed his eyes and just went where Twilight was and sat to her side. “I thought we only were going to tell them our situation and head back to the library”

“That was the plan,” Twilight said after finishing the last of punch in her cup. “But Pinkie threw you a party. It would be rude of us to just leave, wouldn’t it?” He sighed and put his hands on his face. “Besides, now we don’t need to find Rainbow Dash, she’s already here.”

He knew that he had to look up, he could feel a smooth breeze that came every few seconds, as if someone was trying to annoy him with a paper fan. And so he did. In front of him was a light blue pegasus with rainbow mane. ‘I suppose the name came with the mane’.

“So this is the hueman Pinkie was talking about” The pegasus was trying to hide her surprise by rubbing her chin with a hoof.

“My name is Daniel, pleased to meet you, Miss Rainbow” He said trying not to sound too rude.

“Heh, just call me Rainbow, or Dash, or The amazing Rainbow Danger Dash” She said making a loop in the air and trying to inflate her chest in an attempt of show her pride on herself.

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Very well Miss Rainbow” He heard a small giggle coming from Twilight, but he ignored it. “Though it’s nice to meet you and all that, I’m not going to be here for a long time” He motioned to Twilight. “I’m living in the library for the time being until we find a way for me to return home” He was getting tired of that last sentence.

“You don’t know how to return to your home?” Daniel heard the voice of the pink pony. How did she get there without him noticing?

“Indeed, we don’t know how I came here either” He said starting to feel tired.

“That doesn’t mean you have to hit the books as Twilight does” Rainbow said still in mid air. Daniel wondered if she ever touched the ground. “Since you’re here, you should have some fun”

“Well, it’s not that easy, Rainbow” Twilight finally decided to join the conversation. “I need him here so I can study him”

“Why don’t you call Princess Celestia? She might know something ‘bout these humans”

“That’s... actually a good idea...” Twilight scolded herself for not thinking about that.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “If none of you ever heard about humans, why this Princess Celestia would?” He immediately regretted his question when three mares looked at him with unreadable faces. “What?”

“Well, let’s go back to the library” The alicorn stood up with an expression on her face fixed of enthusiasm and concern. “We’re going to send a letter to the Princess”

Twilight started to walk to the front door motioning him to follow her. "But you said it'd be rude to leave the party..." It wasn't that he wanted to fave fun surrounded by overcolored horses, it was that he had a bad feeling about this Princess Celestia.

4. Face the Royalty

Daniel watched amazed when Spike blew the letter with his green fire. And while the paper seemed to burn, it didn’t generate ashes, but instead it transformed into a grayish green mist that quickly left the library through the nearest window. The dragon then looked at him with an awkward smile. He still didn’t feel comfortable being in the same room as Spike, but watching Twilight speak to him and hug him somehow was a reassuring sight.

“Don’t worry Daniel” Twilight smiled at him. “Princess Celestia always answers really fast. In fact, her letter should be getting here...” She looked at Spike, who suddenly put a face as if he was going to throw up and almost instantly burped the same green fire from before, but this time, the magical flame compressed in the air and transformed into another letter. “Right now!” The alicorn used her magic to levitate the letter and open it in front of her. After a few seconds of quick reading, Twilight put the letter aside and looked at Daniel with a smirk. “Well, it seems that we’re going to Canterlot”

“Canterlot?” For some reason, that name sounded really familiar to Daniel.

“It’s the capital of Equestria” Twilight closed again the letter and put it in a carefully placed stack of letters near her desk. “There’s where Princess Celestia and Luna live.”

“Yaay I got to see the horse castle” Daniel deadpanned.

Twilight rolled her eyes while walking to another room. “You know, some ponies may feel offended if you keep calling us horses” She heard the human following her, but she still looked back to make sure he was listening. “And before you say it, no, we are not horses, we are ponies.”

“Well, in my world ponies are a lot bigger than you all” Twilight came to a sudden halt making Daniel trip and almost fall. “Hey be more careful!”

She turned to face him with the biggest ear to ear smile he had seen in the alicorn yet. “In your world are ponies?! Why you didn’t tell me that before?”

“Because they don’t talk” Twilight’s smile slowly faded and her expression turned to a confused one. “In my world only humans are able to talk, there are no magic whatsoever and pegasi and unicorns are just mythological creatures” He then looked at Spike who was coming from Twilight’s room with saddlebags and then turned again to meet the princess’ gaze. “Dragons, griffons, minotaurs and -I dare to guess- the rest of sapient creatures in this world are just myths or legends in my world.”

An awkward silence filled the room. Twilight didn’t know what to think, Daniel didn’t sound angry or sad, and she knew that he was just providing information, but for some reason she couldn’t help but feel a pinch of guilt. “Then how do you manage the weather?” Spike asked putting down the saddlebags.

“We don’t” Daniel answered quickly trying not to look at the dragon’s direction. “Mother nature is the most powerful force in my world. Unlike you magical ponies, we can’t change the clouds position or the temperature at will. And every single attempt to do it just leads to catastrophes” He took a deep breath, his gaze mixed with concern and fear. “In fact, mankind already changed a lot of mother nature’s original design that she’s taking revenge at us and making hurricanes and earthquakes that we just can’t face. Every day thousands of humans die because of her wrath, and even though we tried to make amends with her, she just won’t listen.” Daniel then put the most serious face he could and looked directly in Twilight’s eyes. “My world is being destroyed by that heartless bitch while I’m locked in this colorful world unable to help my brothers and sisters.”

Twilight was shocked and had her jaw dropped, Daniel didn’t notice immediately but she had tears forming in her eyes. “I-I...” She opened her mouth several times but couldn’t say any word. And then, the human started to laugh.

“Haha you should see the look in your face!” Daniel had his eyes closed and tears forming in his eyes while embracing his stomach. “Oh haha... oh... uh-oh.” He then noticed that the princess was frowning and grinding her teeth. “H-hey, it was a joke...” He then was interrupted by a stern glance from Twilight.

“Don’t ever joke with things like that again!” She levitated her saddlebags and put them on her back. Then she started to walk away through the stairs. “Come on, we need to take the train before it gets dark.”

Daniel moved his bow to allow him to move his arms more freely. “Hey I’m sorry” He said following the purple mare. “If it makes you feel better, Mother Nature does exist, but it’s just how we call the natural phenomena that we humans can barely predict, but never control.” But the alicorn princess didn’t slow her pace and kept looking forwards. Daniel wondered why he was feeling guilty, that was the softest joke he had ever made, he even was the kind of person that found funny to scare children in halloween with the most elaborated script to make them believe he turned into a monster.

And that was not only a magical talking pony, but a princess, a member of the royalty and for what he could see, also an erudite of her own world. Yet there she was, angrily sobbing like a little girl that was scolded for fighting with her big sibling. And there he was, feeling guilty for the first time in his life because of a harmless joke he made. “Hey at least-“

“How can you do that?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Twilight was still walking without making eye contact with him. “How can you joke with life? Saying that thousands of humans d-die everyday...” Daniel only stared at her. ‘So she’s not angry because of the joke itself?’ “I mean... ponies die everyday too, but we don’t joke about it.”

Daniel fell silent for a few seconds before answering. “I’m sorry, most humans –including me- like to make what we call ‘dark jokes’. I don’t know about anyone else, but I make them because it’s easier to face the reality that way, even if I have to joke with my own situations.” Finally Twilight looked up to him, her face showing that she still was angry, but also with curiosity in her eyes. “When my dad died I made a joke in his funeral about how at least my mom would be able to sleep well without him snoring every night” He chuckled a little. “Of course my mom grounded me for a month.”

They were finally at the train station waiting for the train’s arrival. “It’s not that I wasn’t sad, but joking about it made me feel better. It made me get over it so I could go on with my life. He wouldn’t have liked me to depress myself.” And there was silence again. The train arrived, they went to their seats and didn’t talk in all the way to Canterlot.

~~~~~~~~

It was a relief when the train finally stopped at Canterlot’s station, Daniel was getting tired of all the eyes upon him. He knew that he was a weird sight in that world, but these damn ponies sure didn’t know the first thing about subtlety.

“What’s up with the shiny costumes? Are they some kind of Spartan army or something?” Daniel was intrigued how almost all the ponies with golden armor looked like a clone of the next one. If it wasn’t for a few differences such as the color of the eyes, they could perfectly have been copy pasted one to side of the other.

“This is the royal guard” Twilight said walking to Daniel’s side. “But it’s strange, there are too many just in the train station”

Daniel shrugged, though he was impressed of how these ponies were so well trained that they didn’t even seem to look at him. “My best guess it’s because one of their princesses is back in town” He said watching how some pegasi with the same costumes were flying above them. “My second guess it’s because this Princess Cel-whatshername thinks I’m some kind of threat, and I don’t blame her”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn’t. She was more concerned by the fact that the human was taking this all nonchalantly than the princess may actually feel threatened. But then again, the princess herself asked her to take the human to the castle, maybe she was just being cautious.

Both human and pony entered the huge building and made their way to the throne room. Daniel was truly amazed, this castle was actually one of a fantasy. Its size was impressive, he felt as an ant in a big house. The doors of the throne room glowed with the characteristic sight of unicorn magic and slowly opened to the inside, obviously waiting for them to enter. The moment Twilight gave one step inside the room, there was a chorus of trumpets being played by equally uniformed ponies except for one who had a slightly different design in his armor. “Her highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle!” He said with a hoof pointing at the purple alicorn’s direction, who still hadn’t get used to that.

“Please leave us” A voice echoed through the room, the guards knew that it wasn’t a petition, it was an order, and they obeyed leaving the room as fast as they could without looking like they were escaping. Daniel found that display a bit entertaining. “Please come here” He knew that the voice was talking to him, and as the guards he knew that it was an order. So he started to walk forward along with Twilight. At first he thought that the throne was empty, but as he got nearer to it, he started to see something moving. And then, he finally saw her.

He thought that the ‘ruler of Equestria’ would be the same size of the other ponies, but the equine sitting in the throne was in fact bigger, maybe twice the height of Twilight. Her fur was white and her monstrous horn made her look a lot bigger than she really was. Her mane was flowing in the air, as a flag in a windy day. But what caught more his attention was the look in her eyes. That gaze. In all his years playing poker and watching professionals on the TV, he had never seen a more unreadable face than the princess’. Even if she was smiling, it was impossible for him to detect any feeling, as if she was a machine.

“So you are the human Princess Twilight told me in her letter” Daniel didn’t notice earlier for the echo, but her voice was really soft and warm, as the voice only a mother could make to her children. He nodded, but for some reason he knew that the white alicorn wasn’t trying to confirm it, she was just thinking out loud. ‘Odd’

“That’s right princess, he-“

“I literally popped into existence in this world out of nowhere” He said, trying to sound as polite as he could and at the same time not wanting to waste any more time. “We came here today seeking your advice with the hope that you might have a clue of how to return me home”

The solar princess smiled a little more to the human. “May I ask your name?”

“Oh yeah, my name is Daniel Cero, pleas- it’s an honor to meet you, her highness” He bowed at her. The first time he bowed to Twilight was to apologize, this time he just felt the need to do it. Maybe because the princess, even if she still wasn’t as big as the average pony in his world –not counting the horn, of course-, somehow inspired respect.

Celestia nodded and tried to look at Twilight and Daniel at the same time. “My pleasure” She said with a reassuring serenity. “Though I’m afraid I cannot help you. This is the first time I see something like you. And the circumstances of your situation are equally outside my knowledge”

“So what do you recommend us to do?” Twilight said preoccupied, this was the first time that her former mentor seemed to really have no idea of what was going on.

“I suppose he is staying with you at the library” Twilight nodded. “Then, the only way I see how he can return to his world is to run an extensive study. If we can figure out the magic that brought him here, we should be able to revert the pattern”

Daniel frowned. He was tired. He had been more than two days in that insane world not being able to eat meat or change his clothes, and he didn’t know which one made him angrier. “You know what?” He said and the two princesses looked at him almost as if they forgot that he was there. “Forget it, there’s no possible way anyone can discover why I’m here. I just happen to be here...” He turned around. “I... I must accept my crappy destiny”

Twilight wanted to put her hoof on his shoulder, but that required her to fly, and the movement of her wings only would make the whole thing worse. “Hey you can’t give up just like that. I... We will find a way to-“

“And what if we don’t?” He interrupted her and looked at her eyes. “I’ll be imprisoned in the library for the rest of my life believing that there’s still hope! Is that what you want?!” Twilight stepped backwards and glare at him with sadness, not even trying to hold her tears. “Well, I don’t want that... I have to accept it...” He turned around again and started to walk to the huge doors of the throne room. “Or it will drive me crazy”

“D-Daniel...” The purple princess tried to stop him, but Daniel was already running to the exit. She tried to go after him, but felt a hoof in her shoulder. It was Celestia who only shook her head. “B-But princess... He...”

“He needs to be alone for a while” Celestia said with a worried face. “But don’t worry, if he leaves the castle grounds a group of guards will follow him to make sure that he doesn’t hurt himself” Twilight looked down, tears flowing through her cheeks and uniting in her chin just to fall drop by drop.

~~~~~~~~

Somehow Daniel ended in some kind of balcony at the top of the castle. He could see the city below, the houses were a lot different from those in Ponyville, but they still had a weird shape. A gentle breeze made its way through his short hair and made him look up. It was getting dark, the sky had the red and yellow colors of the sunset and he could already see some stars.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Daniel almost jumped and looked at his back, there was another alicorn. This one was dark blue, and though she was smaller than Celestia, her mane flowed the same way but it was the color of the night sky and it actually looked like it had stars shimmering. “My sister loves to play with the colors of the dusk”

Daniel narrowed his eyes and turned to look at the sky again. “Princess Luna I suppose? What are you doing here?” He knew that he was tempting his luck by addressing that way to one ruler of the land he was in, but he wasn’t in the mood to bow to small horses anymore.

“The same thing you are doing” She walked to his side looking at the beautiful sight. “Enjoying the view” Daniel looked at her, and as Celestia, she had an unreadable face, but her smile seemed to be warmer and her gaze was melancholic. “It is of my knowledge that you are from another world,” She noticed that the human tensed his muscles, but didn’t look at him. “I can’t know what you’re going through, and I can’t help you solve your problem. But I want you to know that if you need anything, you can count on me”

“Why?” It was the first thing that came to his mind. “Aren’t you a ruler here? Don’t you have royal duties to perform? Why on earth would you want to waste your time with a stranger of this world?”

Luna then finally looked at him with a small smile. “Because not a long time ago I was also a stranger” She turned again to see the sky. “Even though I was born and grew up in this world, I spent a thousand years imprisoned in the moon” For a moment she held her breath and gently let it out. “When I finally came back, everything I once knew didn’t exist anymore. The land, the sky, even my sister –though not physically- changed. Some ponies are still afraid of me”

For the longest time Daniel stared at the princess. That was more information than he could process at the moment. He looked back at the sky, the colors of the sun already faded and the stars growing brighter every second. “Why me?” He asked more to himself than to the princess. “What did I do to deserve this punishment?”

“Don’t look at it as a punishment” Luna turned again to face the human who did the same thing. “If, and only if you can’t ever go back to your world, I suggest looking at the bright side”

“And that’d be...”

“Now you have a few friends in the royalty” She smiled at him slyly. “Though I don’t promise anything, you might be able to brag about it”

Daniel laughed. For the first time since he came to this world, he was actually smiling without forcing it. It didn’t last long though, and he soon was able to breathe normally. He saw that the princess was smiling as well, without restrictions. ‘Are all the ponies this friendly?’ “Thank you for this conversation princess, it really helped me”

She leaned her head a little. “Please, call me Luna”

5. Face the Chaos

For the third morning in a row, Daniel woke up in a completely new room. This one was twice the size of the other two rooms together, and it still had space for a bathroom. The walls were grayish white with a golden pattern in the corner with the ceiling. There were some ornaments hanging in the walls such as swords and shields, and the night table beside the bed had a sculpture of a horse. ‘At least something here does look like a horse’. The bed was really big with dark purple sheets with red and golden patterns.

He remembered how last night Princess Luna told him to use one of the royal rooms to have some sleep. He wondered if the blue alicorn was being really nice or if it was just that the castle only had royal rooms. And then he realized that he didn’t even see Twilight since his outburst in the throne room. He wasn’t going to apologize, he didn’t care if they were royalty. He had all the right to act that way since he now had to accept that he was stuck in a world filled with talking animals.

There was a knock in the door and Daniel slowly sat up in the edge of the bed. “Come in” He said trying to make the tiredness go away from his eyes with his hands. The door opened and a light blue mare with a maid outfit entered the room pulling a small metallic cart with food trays on it. The unicorn gave him an awkward smile, politely bowed at him and turned around. “Wait a minute” The maid froze in her place. “I didn’t order any food” He said exaggerating the confused tone in his voice to not scare her.

The maid turned to face him still with a small smile. “The princesses sent it” She said obviously trying to not make eye contact with him. If it was because she was told to do so or because she was scared, he never knew.

Daniel smiled at her and told her to leave. When she did so, he stretched his arm and pulled the cart to him so he would be able to eat the food sitting in the bed. He sighed, preparing himself for whatever kind of pony food that was hidden under the trays. But when he opened one of them, his face lit up at the sight. It wasn’t exactly the kind of royal food he expected, just a stack of pancakes with butter and maple syrup decorated with pink petals. But what caught his attention was the bacon at one side of the pancakes; perfectly cooked and well sized bacon.

He remembered that Big Mac had told him that ponies didn’t eat meat, but their allies such as griffons did. With a shivering hand he took one piece of bacon. It made sense, he was in the castle of the rulers of the pony land, if they were allied with carnivorous creatures, they had to have meat in their menu for royal visits. He carefully bit the bacon, and then he was in heaven.

Daniel enjoyed the food, it was all indescribably delicious. In another tray were some fried eggs with slices of ham and toasts. In the third tray was a cupcake with the colors of the rainbow, and it was amazingly perfect, sweet and creamy but not too much sugar so it didn’t pall.

Once the food finished, Daniel went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, it still amazed him that ponies had such things obviously made for creatures with hands. But he decided to not think much about it and just took one of the new toothbrushes. He wondered how he was going to pay for all that, but then shrugged. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do, not in this world at least, so he could just get a job or something and pay for the service.

He walked to a chair near the door where he placed his stuff and put his vest on. The clothes were starting to itch for the lack of cleaning. It was annoying, but he thought that if he could make some money, he would be able to buy some clothes. After all, he saw that the ponies in Canterlot liked to wear them, so it couldn’t be that hard for him to get custom suits. He then put his quiver and bow in his back and walked to the door.

Daniel was greeted by a gentle breeze when he walked out from the room, it came from a nearby window in the corridor. It was a really big window coming from the floor to the ceiling, though only a small part was open, big enough to ventilate the indoors. Daniel looked through it and saw the city below. “And now what I’m supposed to do?” He said muttering to himself. Even if Luna had been really nice, he couldn’t count that she would let him live in the castle, not after how he left the throne room. In his world, such attitude in front of a member of the royalty, or a politician for that matter, would cost him a few years in prison, or worse.

He sighed, maybe he could try to get a job and rent something small, but Canterlot seemed to be the kind of city where everything was really expensive. He groaned as every thought on how to have a decent life in that place seemed to be impossible. Even if he returned to Ponyville, he didn’t want to bother the Apple family. It was winter and it was obvious that they had enough food stored to allow him to stay with them without any problem, but it just didn’t feel right. In winter farm work was at its minimum, even more if the farm was completely covered in snow. He just wouldn’t be able to pay them for a room and food.

“Did you sleep well?” Daniel was suddenly taken back from his train of thoughts and he just couldn’t hide his surprise. He then turned around. Standing there with a warm smile was Twilight. She didn’t look upset as Daniel thought, she didn’t even look sad or angry. She was just smiling at him, as if nothing had happened. But after a full minute of silence, she looked down. “I’m sorry” ‘What?’ “I was so excited because I had the opportunity to study something that science didn’t even have the slightest record, that I forgot to even ask you if you are comfortable…”

“Twilight-“

She interrupted him with a motion of her hoof. “You’re right, if we never figure out how to return you to your world, you would be locked in the library for the rest of your life…” She then looked directly at his eyes. “So I want to propose you something.” The alicorn smiled again. “You can still live in the library if you don’t have anywhere else to go, but you are free to go wherever you want, whenever you want” She made a small pause to take a deep breath. “But know this, I will never stop the research, and someday I will find the answer of how you came here, and how you can go back to your world”

Silence again. Daniel’s jaw was slightly dropped, but he closed it when Twilight stopped talking. The breeze that came through the window made the alicorn’s mane move in waves, and somehow, for less than a second, Daniel thought that she looked beautiful. He then quickly leaned on his knees and hugged her. Twilight widened her eyes in surprise, but didn’t move. “Thank you” He whispered softly, and she lifted her foreleg to return the embrace resting her head on his shoulder.

~~~~~~~~

“So you’re not going to punish me?” The way back to the throne room has been silent, but it wasn’t awkward, it was actually reassuring. Now Daniel was once again in front of the majestic princess of the sun, who was looking at him with the warmest smile. “I mean, not that I’m giving you any ideas but-“

“Don’t worry, Daniel” Celestia’s voice was soft and tenderly. “It was a perfectly normal reaction, in fact, I expected a little more anger from you” She looked at her right where her sister was, sitting in a throne the same size as hers but with the colors of the night. Daniel couldn’t help but notice that it looked forced in the place, as if it wasn’t mean to be there. “And Princess Luna told me that she talked to you. She believes that you are not a bad person” It was obvious that she wasn’t familiar with that last word. “And I trust her.” Luna’s smile seemed to grow bigger. “So, I must ask, what are you going to do from now on?”

“Twilight says I can stay with her at the library” The human looked at the purple princess and quickly turned to Celestia again. “I will find a job and when I get enough money, maybe I’ll rent something in Ponyville. I…” He bit his lip for a second, trying to find the proper words. “I… I don’t know what else I’m going to do… I suppose that my only option is try to fit in…”

Celestia nodded and looked at Twilight. “Then I guess he is in good hooves” Twilight let out a nervous giggle, she really loved when her former teacher flattered her. Luna agreed with her sister. “Then I think you should be going back to Ponyville. But remember that if you have any question, you can always send me a letter and I will answer as soon as I can”

Daniel thanked to both princesses and soon found himself walking to the train station with Twilight at his side. It was midday, the sun was trying its best to warm the air, but the snow in the streets made it rather impossible. Daniel was never a chilly guy, but as the minutes passed it was getting colder. He shivered a little, it wasn’t too much, but Twilight noticed it anyway. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m just not used to this cold” He smiled at Twilight, who had a concerned expression in her face. “But don’t worry, the train has heating so I’ll be just fine” And it was true, but he wondered how long would he be able to endure the cold. If this world had the same rules as his, it was just going to get even colder at least in the next two months. And he didn’t want to prove his theory without proper winter clothes. So the first thing he was going to do was find a job and try to get the cheaper prices, at least a scarf and a pair of gloves would do the thing.

Fortunately, the station was just a few blocks away from the castle. The train was scheduled to arrive in fifteen minutes, so they sat in a bench, Daniel carefully placing his bow and quiver to his side. They waited for just a minute, but it seemed a lot more for him, since the cold was getting worse. He did his best to not show it, but it really wasn’t that hard to see that he was shivering. ‘So I pop here in a snowy night and I’m cool, but in a perfectly sunny day I’m freezing?’ He didn’t notice that Twilight sat up and walked away. ‘I’m really going to kill the responsible of this nightmare’ And suddenly he saw a familiar pink glow to his right, he didn’t even have to move because it got closer to his view. It was a plastic cup with a straw.

“It’s hot chocolate” Twilight sat down again in the bench. Almost unconsciously Daniel took it with both hands and the magical aura disappeared. “It’s not the best in Equestria, but it will help you nonetheless”

Daniel took a careful sip trying not to burn his mouth, it tasted terrible. “Thank you”

~~~~~~~~

The Friendship Express needed two hours to go from Ponyville to Canterlot, but only one and a half in the other direction due to the position of the capital in the mountain. Daniel tried to have his mind busy with the implications of the height of the city and the cold. That way it was easier to ignore all the stares at him in the train. So the time went really fast and they arrived to Ponyville. When they disembarked the train, they were greeted by five familiar mares and a dragon.

“So what’d the princess say?” Rainbow Dash was the first to talk, flapping her wings so she could stand in the air. It was amazing, Daniel grew knowing that only humming birds were able to do that. But then again, he still had to get used to the term ‘magical talking horses’

“She didn’t have a clue either” Twilight said with disappointment.

“Then why she made you go there? Couldn’t she just say that in a letter?”

“She wanted to meet him and make sure he isn’t a threat to Equestria” She looked at Daniel expecting him to frown at this, but he was just serious as always. “And as you can see, that’s not the case”

“N’ whatcha gonna do Twah?” Applejack’s accent made the human smile a little.

“Well, I’m still going to search for information” She paused and motioned a hoof to Daniel. “He will still be living in the library for the time being, but not so I can study him, but for him to have a place to stay”

Daniel cleared his throat. “And I’d like to know if you can help me” Every pony –and dragon- turned to him. “I need to get a job. I can’t just live out of Twilight’s money” The lack of physical activity was starting to make him shiver, but he did his best to not show it, so he started to lean his body slowly from one side to another. “Any idea of where I should look first?”

“I could always use an extra hoof-err hand at the boutique” Rarity said without even thinking too much. Spike narrowed his eyes and glared at the human, who still didn’t want to look at the dragon’s direction.

“Dun’ get me wrong but Ah dun’ see him makin’ fru fru dresses, Rares”

“I never said he would be making dresses, that’s my job” Rarity said putting a hoof in her chest in a sign of proud. “These days I’ve been getting more requests I just can’t say no to, and even with Spikey-wikey’s help there’s just too much work that needs to be done” She then looked directly at Daniel’s eyes. “Of course I can give you a generous compensation for your work”

Daniel was hoping that Applejack offered him a job, he was more used to that kind of work than with sewing stuff. But since the farmer only raised an eyebrow and none of the other ponies said anything else –which he found really weird-, he just smiled at the unicorn. “Sure, though I don’t have any experience with that sort of stuff, I learn really fast”

“Oh don’t you worry about that, darling” Rarity waved a hoof in the air. “I’m the one who does all the hard work. Now, I’d like not to waste any more time. Let’s go to the boutique and I’ll tell you everything you need to know” She turned around waiting for him to follow her. “You shall start tomorrow morning”

The human blinked twice, if only in earth was that easy to find a job. He said goodbye to the other ponies and followed Rarity to the boutique. Daniel looked to the ponies in the streets, there were less ponies watching at him, as if they didn’t even know he was there. Maybe because it was starting to snow again and the ponies were more concerned about their own lives at the moment. He was starting to shiver again, it was getting really annoying.

They finally got to the boutique and it was bliss for him. It was warm inside, not too much so he wouldn’t sweat, but just enough so he wouldn’t feel the cold of winter. “Hold on here, darling” She said and disappeared to another room. Daniel used this moment to look at his surroundings more consciously, since the last time he didn’t even want to pay attention. And he found the patterns in the walls rather interesting, not exactly his style since he liked more just flat colors, but it wasn’t unpleasant either.

Rarity came back just moments later levitating a big piece of fabric. It took him half a minute to realize that the thing was actually a coat. “I finished it just a few hours ago. Your body is really similar to a minotaur’s so it wasn’t really hard to make it” She said with an obvious tone of pride in her voice. “Though I mostly make dresses for ponies, so it may have some things that require a fixing hoof” She brought the coat closer to Daniel. “I need you to put it on”

Daniel took the coat, he didn’t realize that his jaw was dropped until he needed to move it. “I… I don’t know what to say… How much-“

“It’s a gift” Rarity interrupted. “You don’t need to give me any money for it.”

“Oh this is just the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Both human and unicorn turned their heads. Daniel just couldn’t grab the coat anymore. In front of him was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. It was an amalgam of different animals. Every part of it was just odd, its tail, its feet, its serpentine body, its arms, its wings, its horns, its yellow eyes with red irises, and of course, its impossibly enormous grin. “Discord? I thought you were taking care of Fluttershy’s animals” Rarity sounded annoyed by the presence of the unexpected guest.

“Little Angel bunny said he doesn’t want me to be his new daddy” Discord said with a non convincing sad tone in his voice. The amalgamation of animals made appear a stone heart in his paw and then the sculpture suddenly transformed into dust. “Woe is me! He broke my heart!”

Rarity had a deadpan expression. “Why don’t you go whimper to Fluttershy as you always do?” She groaned. “Don’t you see I’m busy?”

The draconequus suddenly appeared at Daniel’s side, making him jump in surprise. “Oh, but I do see it. You got a really good slave this time, darling!” He said smiling at a really stunned human.

“He’s not a slave, he’s my new employee. And I really would appreciate it if you just leave us alone”

Discord made his way at Rarity’s back, using her as she used her favorite divan, he even dared to put his paw in his head in a dramatic pose. “You are oh so harsh to me! What, pray tell, did I ever do to you to make you treat me like this?” He put a finger in her lips before she could even open her mouth. “No no, don’t answer that”

The whole display was just too much for Daniel. Talking horses was one thing, but that… That just didn’t make any sense. Not only because of how it looked, but something on Discord was really odd, as if he was emanating a different aura. Something sinister, but at the same time playful.

Discord noticed that the human was staring at him, so he appeared in from of Daniel, hovering without even flapping his wings. “Oh I’m sorry, where are my manners?” He extended his paw to the human. “The name’s Discord, Spirit of Chaos, Master of Disharmony and all that”

Daniel looked at Discord’s paw, then at his eyes, then at his paw again. “I’m Daniel” He said and shook the paw. “I’m a human”

“A human!” Discord extended his arms in the air, but then scratched his beard with his toes looking at Daniel with a thoughtful expression. “I never heard of that. Are you from a new breed of the minotaurs?” And for the longest time Daniel only stared at him. He finally shook his head.

“Come on now, Discord” Rarity said with suppressed anger in her voice. “Fluttershy must be looking for you. You don’t want to make her worry, now do you?”

Discord turned to Rarity with a goofy smile. “Oh I just wanted to meet our new friend!” He then slowly flexed his body to be eye level with the white unicorn and narrowed his eyes. “One day you won’t be able to use Fluttershy against me” He said in a whisper only Rarity could hear.

“When that day comes you won’t annoy me anymore” She replied with a sarcastic grin. “And maybe I will actually invite you to a tea party” The draconequus fell silent for a few seconds, then snapped his toes once again, and the dust from the stone heart along with himself disappeared in a flash of light.

“That’s an interesting... acquaintance of yours, Rarity” Daniel said after a few seconds of awkward silence.

She sighed of tiredness and looked up at the human with a warm smile. “Well, let’s finish your coat and then I’ll show you what you’re going to do, shall we?” It couldn’t be more obvious that Rarity didn’t want to talk about Discord, and Daniel wasn’t going to push the subject, he still needed the job. He took the coat from the floor and noticed that he was holding something with his hand, the same hand he used to greet Discord. He opened it and instantly closed it. “What is it, darling?” Rarity said noticing his sudden movement.

“Uhh nothing, nothing at all” He laughed nervously, which only made Rarity look at him with an eyebrow raised and a stern glare. He sighed in defeat. “It seems that Discord put this in my hand” He showed the unicorn what he was holding and her cheeks suddenly changed color to a bright red.

It was a condom.

6. Face the Timeskip

Every day that passed in Equestria, Daniel learned something new about this world. One would think that living in a library would make the knowledge come faster, but Daniel wasn’t the reading type of person. Sure he enjoyed a good book from time to time, but he preferred listening to others.

That’s why it took him two weeks to learn that a week in ponyland had seven days and their names were the same as in his world, but their months didn’t have names, they were just numbered to make a total of twelve. And if it wasn’t different enough, their calendar was made under the lunar cycle. But even if twelve cycles of the moon made a year, they didn’t say ‘two years ago’, they said ‘24 moons ago’. It was going to take a while for Daniel to get used to it.

Thankfully, since he had breakfast and dinner at the library and lunch at the boutique, Daniel was able to save money fast enough to buy a scarf and custom clothes such as gloves, pants, shirts and even underwear –though the last was really difficult to explain how he wanted it-. Everything from Rarity, of course, who would feel offended if Daniel tried to go somewhere else. Yes, that fateful day when he had to ask the white unicorn to make him some underpants, for the very first time in his life, feared for his sexual health. But nothing happened. Maybe it had been because of Rarity’s attitude that Daniel saw her as some kind of harasser, but at the end of the day, she was more professional than even Twilight herself. He was starting to think that the pony air was messing with his head.

Working at the boutique wasn’t bad at all. His job consisted in buy the fabric, accessories and tools for Rarity, keep the entrance clean, store the dresses, serve the customers, close the boutique at sunset and help Rarity directly at the making of a dress when she was running out of magic, which happened really often. At first Daniel had problems when Spike came to help too, but as days passed and sometimes the work was just too much, he finally got used to the little dragon. In fact, after a week they started to talk more and quickly found out that they were surrounded by females, so they had to stick together as the only males around. Or at least that’s what Spike said.

Life in Ponyville was relaxing, aside from the small catastrophe that seemed to be scheduled every week by a totally different monster or insane pony that never stood a chance to the Elements of Harmony –Daniel learned about them in the first Timberwolves rampage in the last hundred moons-, nothing really happened there. Sure he quickly learned to step aside when three singular little fillies were together, going by the name of Cutie Mark Crusaders, but lovingly called Cutie Mark Disasters by the town folk. But nothing happened there. Granted, from time to time he would be forced to help in the library’s repairs due to failed experiments or crashes from a singular rainbow pegasus. But nothing- Oh fuck it, every day in Ponyville was a new adventure. And Daniel was growing extremely stressed because of it.

It passed a month –or Moon, to be semantically correct- since he first appeared in Equestria. And with all his bad luck, it was the coldest part of the winter. Fortunately he had the coat Rarity gave him as a gift. It was black and long enough to reach under his knees, and it had an integrated belt to make it a little closer to the body if he was starting to feel cold. Daniel didn’t know the first thing about human fashion, let alone pony fashion, but the coat somehow reminded him to the one he wanted to buy when he was on Earth.

But not everything was a torture in this world. Daniel quickly came to learn that, at least in Ponyville, unicorns didn’t change the weather, that was the pegasi job. They called themselves the Weather Team, they happened to be the ones responsible for, well, the weather. And it was extremely ridiculous how perfectly scheduled they had it. It wasn’t just a ‘tomorrow will be sunny’, no, they had planned everything. From the position of every single cloud to the speed and force of the wind, calculating the temperature of the air and its moisture. They even had scheduled exactly at what time it was going to snow.

That alone wasn’t directly a good thing, but Daniel had a great idea. For three weeks, the only thing that kept him sane was his vest and archery equipment. Just looking at them was enough to remind him that he wasn’t entirely insane. But when he learned about the weather schedule, he asked Twilight if there was someplace where he could practice archery. She didn’t know, ponies weren’t able to do that kind of activity, even with magic it was really hard for them to use properly a bow, so they didn’t even bother to try. But then she remembered that they had stored some targets they used in Nightmare Night for their pumpkin launch activities.

Some arrangements with Mayor Mare later, they were able to move one of the targets to a small field located somewhere between the library and the boutique. It used to be a park, but one fateful day they discovered that there was an anthill of red ants, and foals didn’t want to play there anymore. They were going to just remove them, but Fluttershy insisted to let them live there, and nopony would ever say no to the local animal caretaker, not since her last outburst. So it was really easy to convince the Ponyville’s Mayor to let the human practice his favorite sport there. The only thing he had to do was cut the grass every weekend. And thanks to the weather report, Daniel would always know which days he would be able to use the field without wondering if it was going to snow.

And there he was, finally being able to use his personal archery field. Ants weren’t a problem, the anthill was at the far corner of the park. Daniel thought that it was ridiculous that ponies were afraid to use the field just for that, but he wasn’t going to argue about it.

He waited until Sunday. The day prior he cut the grass and placed the target a hundred yards from the spot where he built and marked a small shooting zone. And today, he was going to start practicing for the first time in a month. Some ponies seemed interested, since that kind of sport was only played by minotaurs, griffons and just a few ponies with cutie marks in archery. Among them were, of course, the Elements of Harmony, Spike and Mayor Mare, who was there just to see if Daniel was going to properly use the field as he promised, not that she didn’t trust Princess Twilight’s word, she was just doing her job.

Daniel felt a little nervous. When he practiced in Earth, the only person watching him was his teacher and sometimes the other people in the field. And now he was surrounded by at least fifty magical equines with enormous eyes. He sighed and tried to relax. Took an arrow from his quiver, tensed the bowstring with it leading it to his cheek. The lack of practice made a little difficult to keep the bow from moving. But he sighed once again, and when he finally felt relaxed enough, he released the arrow.

The few seconds the arrow was in the air the silence made its realm. Everypony looked at the target, not able to follow the ammunition with their eyes. And then, the arrow hit it. The target was made of three red circles and two white, being the smallest red circle the bull’s-eye. The arrow ended in the second red circle. ‘Well,’ Daniel thought. ‘not bad from a lack of practice of one month’.

And then the crowd cheered. Daniel felt better for this, even if he didn’t hit the center, the ponies seemed excited, and that was enough to make him relax. So he took another arrow and repeated, this time the arrow hit a little closer to the bull’s-eye.

Half an hour passed. Daniel had to walk to the target every five shots to retrieve his arrows. And eventually, ponies started to get bored and walk away to do their own daily chores. Spike said that he had to do some things at the library. Rainbow Dash was the first of the six mares to leave, she didn’t even bother in think of an excuse, she directly said that she was bored as hell and needed to nap in a cloud. Rarity remembered that she still had to finish minor details in one of her dresses. There still were chores at the farm that Applejack just couldn’t leave disregarded. And Fluttershy had to feed her animals.

By the time Daniel decided to take a small break, only Pinkie Pie and Twilight were still there. “Are you going to stop? But you were just fine just a couple of seconds ago!” The pink pony said.

“If I don’t rest my arm I will hurt it” Daniel said and sat in the bench where the two ponies were. He didn’t remember that there were benches, but he just shrugged. Living in Ponyville taught him that these damn ponies were able to set enormous parties where half the town attended in just one night, and in the next morning it looked like nothing happened. “Just fifteen minutes would do it”

“How much time will you be here?” Twilight asked with a friendly smile. Daniel couldn’t help but notice the way her eyes sparked with the sunlight coming from the side. How the dim light cast stylized shadows in the opposite side of her face. And how her mane waved with the soft breeze of a partially cloudy day.

He blinked, realizing that he had been silent for several seconds. “Well, the snow is scheduled in yet three more hours” He said resting his arms in his lap.

“Oh no!” Pinkie said almost shouting. “I just remembered that I promised Mister and Missus Cake to foalsit the twinsies in an hour! And I have to get ready for a super duper fun day with the sweetest foals and I have to get ready the flour for bad jokes emergencies and-“

“It’s ok Pinkie” Daniel interrupted. “I don’t want to be the reason why you missed your fun day” Pinkie looked at him with a hesitating smile. “Besides, I’m going to be here any other day as long as it doesn’t snow or rain”

Pinkie hugged and thanked him and turned into a pink blur that quickly disappeared. At first that sight didn’t surprise him. It was when other ponies told him that nopony else was able to move that way, that Daniel started to find the pink mare a little more interesting.

After a few seconds of silence, he finally spoke. “And you Twilight?” He asked, and the princess only looked at him with a confused gaze. Those purple eyes of hers looked like two amethysts softly shimmering with the tenuous sunlight. And the way her lavender fur danced gently with the wind making a whole choreography of faint shadows in her face was almost hypnotic. “What are you going to do?”

Twilight scratched idly her chin with one hoof. “Well... Today I don’t really have anything better to do” She looked at Daniel with a warm smile. How her lips were able to curve in such a gorgeous manner he didn’t know. “So I’m going to be here. The physics of this sport is something fascinating. I’ve never had the opportunity to study anything related to archery since it’s an almost unknown activity in Equestria” She then looked at one side. “That is, if you don’t mind, of course”

Daniel stood up and took his things with him. “I don’t mind it” He walked to the shooting line and stretched his arms a little.

Twilight watched him as he once again started his practice. She didn’t know why, but for some reason she found herself staring at him. His pose when he was holding the arrow, waiting for the right moment to shoot it. The expression in his eyes filled with concentration and the way he slightly narrowed them to improve his accuracy. That elegant manner in which he curved his hand after shooting the arrow, holding it in the air until the projectile hit the target. And the fact that he always held his breath until the arrow reached its objective, releasing it softly as a small smile but filled with satisfaction appeared in his face.

After an hour, Daniel’s stomach made a small growl. So he decided to take another break. “Are you tired?” Twilight asked with a small amount of concern in her voice. He looked at her and for a moment he only smiled. The alicorn couldn’t help but notice his black eyes and their small shine and how at dim light they seemed to be just a really big pupil. For a quick moment he licked his lips before opening his mouth to answer, he was clearly thirsty.

“Just a bit hungry” Daniel said looking away and searching with his eyes a particular building. “Do you want to come with me to eat something?” He asked once he found the restaurant.

“Sure”

Author's Note

Just in case you're wondering, this fanfic is canon until Season 3 finale. So the elements of harmony are still there.

This one was a short chapter, but sadly I couldn't stretch it more. I hope next chapters are longer and more enjoyable.

7. Face the Discovery

Ponyville was a city of contrasts, Daniel concluded.

They had electricity, but their lampposts still used oil and almost everypony preferred candles. Even the Rich family, one of the richest families in Equestria, used chandeliers to illuminate their enormous mansion. While printing press was an old invention and somehow they managed to make typewriters with a sophisticated array of keys easily manipulated with hooves due to two big circle keys above the letter keys and a small one for spaces, they still used quills and ink bottles for individual papers –and pencils for foals-.

Ever since the reappearance of the Crystal Empire, there has been a big progress in energetic crystals science. Using those crystals, ponies were able to power machines for longer and more efficient use. Yet in Sweet Apple Acres they still used tractors pulled literally only by horsepower. While there were modern electric devices such as portable videogames consoles, ponies never wondered how easy life would be with simple but helpful wristwatches.

And even if Twilight had her own scientific laboratory in the library’s basement, with all sort of sophisticated machines that Daniel didn’t even dare to ask what their purpose were, she still used a simple telescope for stargazing.

Though it wasn’t a problem for Daniel to get used to it, since he never was the kind of guy that couldn’t get out of his house without his cell phone. And his biological clock always made him wake up at six in the morning, and somehow he always knew what time of the day was. So he never really had the need for watches or alarm clocks. And he found it rather interesting, the use of quills. That was a hard thing to learn, being used to pens all his life.

Yes, life in Ponyville had been a whole adventure through these weeks. He still didn’t feel comfortable with being surrounded by over colored magical talking mini horses, but every day he got a little more used to them. Maybe because they all were really nice and friendly with him. Or maybe because they all were really hygienic. Daniel strongly believed that it was the second.

His first days in ponyland he truly feared that the streets would be filled with manure, or that, since they were horses, the smell in the air would be unbearable. But his fears were unfounded. Ponies had clean restrooms as humans to fulfill that necessity. And they were as clean too. For example, every time he was showering in the library’s painfully small bathroom, he could see all the hygienic products they had. The first time he laughed his lungs out when he saw the anti-fleas shampoo Twilight used.

That day, a week after he got his new archery field just for himself, he learned something… different. It was snowing since the early morning, and it was scheduled to stop until past afternoon, and the boutique was closed due to a trip Rarity had to make to Canterlot. So Daniel was idly lying near the small fireplace. At first he freaked out because fire inside a tree didn’t exactly seem as a good idea, but Twilight told him that it was magical fire, it didn’t even burn the lumber, it just provided light and warmth.

Daniel was resting on his back crossing a leg on the other for better comfort. He was reading the last of Daring Do’s adventure books. It wasn’t exactly the kind of genre he was interesting in, but Twilight suggested them, and soon he found himself enjoying the story, book after book. But when he was getting at the good part, an uncommon sound caught his attention.

At first he tried to ignore it, but the quick sound soon became faster, if not a little louder. It wasn’t really annoying, but it didn’t let him concentrate in his reading. So he closed the book and slowly stood up. The repetitive sound came in and out at irregular intervals of time. Curiosity at its best, Daniel soundlessly tried to follow the source of said sound. Initially it sounded as a scratch. The human had to suppress a giggle thinking that maybe Spike was scratching himself as a dog would do. But then he could hear something that seemed a quick and soft gasping between scratches.

Daniel finally located the source of said interesting set of sounds: Twilight’s bedroom. He froze in place. Was she doing what his mind was telling him she was doing? But her door was open. He wouldn’t care if a mare was scratching that kind of itch, he would just turn around and leave. But then again, the sounds were anything but the ones one would expect of that kind of act. He knew he was in a completely different world, but it wasn’t that hard to tell that whatever the princess was doing, it couldn’t be something that private.

He gulped and decided to investigate anyways. Twilight wasn’t the kind of careless pony that would leave her door open if she was having some fun with herself. With that in mind, Daniel dared to casually walk to her door and slowly poked his head to see the inside of the bedroom.

And then his heart stopped for a second.

Sitting in the middle of the room, Twilight had her face buried in one of her wings. At first it seemed that she wasn’t moving, but then she leaned her head, and Daniel could see that she was carefully biting one of her feathers. She was giving that one long feather quick and soft bites sticking out her tongue from time to time, thus spreading her saliva through it. And once in a while she needed to quickly breathe in without stopping the whole action.

She was preening her wings. Daniel remembered that Rainbow Dash told him something about it. Pegasi needed to keep their wings clean, but it wasn’t enough just taking a shower. They had this kind of ritual where they needed to extract every foreign object such as insects, dirt or twigs, things small enough that a normal cleaning wouldn’t help with. In fact, their saliva had the effect of waterproof the feathers and prevents them from damage. He knew the blue pegasus talked about it for ten minutes straight, but he stopped paying attention.

Twilight moved her head a little and started with another feather. At first he thought that she just picked a random one, but the alicorn turned her head away from the wing and spat a tiny twig just to move again to it. Daniel wondered if watching her doing a cleaning ritual was right. Granted her door was open, so it couldn’t be such a private thing to make him look like a stalker, but somehow he felt like he was doing a bad thing. And yet he just couldn’t stop watching her.

She looked just way too adorable. The way she lifted a foreleg in order to get more comfortable. How her eyes were so narrowed that they seemed to be closed. And that cute sight as she got below to work with the smaller feathers, making the wing hide her head underneath. Her tail waved and twirled in a sign that she was, in fact, enjoying the ritual.

Daniel didn’t know how much time he’d been there, just watching how an awfully gorgeous, tiny pony was doing the cutest thing he’d ever seen. It could be mere seconds, minutes or more, and certainly, he didn’t care. Twilight had changed the wing a while ago. Every time he saw a pony sitting, it was on their hind legs and he swears he saw one actually sitting in the butt. But right now, Twilight was using her flank for better comfort, crossing that leg beneath her body.

He was marveled with the sight, he couldn’t think of anything else. If just the act of preening made the alicorn look painfully beautiful, the foreleg she used to support her upper body was sliding in the wooden floor, so every once in a while she had to make a little and quick jump backwards with that leg to accommodate herself again.

And then, something in Daniel’s mind snapped. He realized that he wanted to hug her, but not with the same emotions he had when he did so his third day in Equestria. That time he was lost and angry, with nobody but with everybody at the same time. He had been confused beyond everything. He had been upset when he convinced himself that he wouldn’t ever be able to return to Earth.

But not this time. He was getting used to living there, just as if he moved to another country without a return ticket. He had been living in a hollowed tree used as a library, but to this moment he didn’t even think about it anymore. He couldn’t say he was happy, but he somehow enjoyed his job at the boutique, he enjoyed his own archery field, he enjoyed that ponies were so nice to him. And above all, he knew, deep down, that he enjoyed Twilight’s company more than anything else.

She was really smart, and she was always talking about a topic no one would ever understand, but Daniel always listened to her given that her voice was always enthusiastic and loud enough for everyone to hear, but not much so it never felt as if she was yelling. The weekly reorganization of the library’s books was an exhausting activity, but he would always be there helping. And then there she was, cutely sitting in her flank with one wing opened, her mane a little messy and her big and sparkly eyes laid upon him. Wait…

“Daniel? Did you hear me?” Twilight asked with concern in her voice. Her expression quickly passed from surprise to speculative.

He didn’t move, his jaw slightly dropped. “Uhh…” He wasn’t able to pronounce a logical word. He felt how many feelings were rushing to his brain at once: Surprise, guilt, joy, fear, and a too familiar sensation that children had when they were caught doing something bad. “I… uh…” By this moment, Twilight had folded her wings and was sitting normally on her hind legs. “Sorry” He finally said.

“It’s okay” Twilight said with a warm smile. “That happens to me a lot.” She lifted a hoof in the air. “I asked if you need something”

This was the most awkward moment in Daniel’s life since his mom caught him in a private session with little Daniel when he was 15. Why she wasn’t upset? He had been staring at her for minutes without saying a word while she preened her wings, and she didn’t seem concerned about it.

“Did I… interrupt something?” He asked watching at the small stack of dirt in the floor that once had been in the princess’ wings.

She blushed a little but her smile remained. “I was just preening my wings” She said and her flight limbs shook a little. “I’m still not completely used to it, but how could I be? Pegasi learn to self preen in a matter of years, and they have all their lives to get used to it. I have had wings just for six months” She let out a nervous giggle.

“But I thought that it was something private” He said without thinking. If only he had listened to Rainbow…

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Well, it’s not something you will see a pegasus do in the middle of the street” She waved her hoof trying to give her words less importance. “Preening requires to be done in a closed place to avoid other things being carried by the wind to keep sticking in our feathers” She then tilted her head a little and Daniel felt how his heart started to beat a little faster. “But it’s not something necessarily private”

Daniel sighed in relief and heard a funny giggle coming from Twilight. She looked at him with a friendly grin. When she noticed that the human was standing there she was surprised since she didn’t hear him coming. But right now she was feeling funny. The sight of Daniel with a faint blur of red in his face made her blush as well and she didn’t know why. Her heart was beating really fast, but she attributed it to the surprise of earlier.

And a quick thought crossed Twilight’s mind. In Ponyville dresses were used just in formal and very special occasions, in Canterlot, ponies liked to wear something at all times, but hardly full dresses. But Daniel always wore clothes. She could understand the coat and gloves because of the cold, but she had never seen him without at least a shirt, pants and socks. She asked him once about it, and he only told her something like ‘human kind requirements’. Twilight had decided not to ask about it, but her inner curiosity always made her wonder how he looked without clothes. It was always to satisfy the scientific part of her brain, but right now, she had to admit that there was another reason. She couldn’t tell what was it though.

And that made her blush a little more. Why was she thinking about that? They were talking about preening and she just started to wonder about his body? What was wrong with her? Why the sudden interest in something like that? Ponies were always naked, it wasn’t something taboo. But somehow, thinking on Daniel without clothes made her feel that something was wrong, and the fact that she couldn’t tell what was it only made her grow uncomfortable.

Several seconds passed in silence. They were only watching each other with awkward smiles. And finally, Daniel decided to speak first. “Well, I’ll let you finish your preening. I’m going to finish my reading” He said and when Twilight only nodded, he turned around and walked away.

He went straight to his room, locked the door and let himself fall on his bed. His mind a hurricane of thoughts, his heart beating faster and faster and his stomach humming. “What the fuck just happened?” He said in a whisper with his face painfully buried in his pillow. He closed his eyes and didn’t move, trying with all his will to relax a little. And after the longest five minutes in his life, he finally rolled over to face the ceiling.

For a moment he only stared at the wood, following with his gaze the irregular patterns in it as darker lines finished and crossed roads with others. He finally hid his face with both hands, breathing heavily as a cold breeze infiltrated through the window and made him shiver just a little.

Daniel snapped his hands on both sides of his body and forcefully sighed. “What is wrong with me?”

8. Face the Possibility

Being a princess of the most flourishing nation in the world wasn’t as hard as Twilight thought at first. Sure she had to attend to royal meetings with the rulers of other lands, and Princess Celestia sent her some economy and political books to help her get started. But her life in Ponyville didn’t change at all. Mayor Mare was still the mayor. The Rich and the Apples still had a prosperous business ever since the very foundation of the town. And ponies treated her as always, though they still respected her as the princess she is.

Twilight was happy with her life. She had a lot of time in her hooves and used it as she wanted. If she wasn’t reading, it was easy to find her in her laboratory doing an experiment or research. If she wasn’t writing a report in her latest discoveries, ponies knew that she might be stargazing. And if she wasn’t with Spike teaching him something, it wasn’t hard to guess that she most likely would be spending time with her friends.

And that day, one of her best friends, also called Rarity, asked her to come by the boutique to have tea and talk a little. Since the white unicorn was really well known in the fashion world, it was harder and harder to have a nice, relaxing afternoon with her. And Twilight Sparkle, bearer of the Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship wasn’t going to waste this opportunity.

She asked Spike to take care of the library while she was gone. She knew that her number one assistant pretty much was going to just lay on his bed and read some comics. But it wasn’t a problem. Ponies barely went to the library, and if that was the case, everything had been left perfectly organized so they wouldn’t have a single problem in finding what they wanted. It was a public library after all, and it took her friends almost two years to convince her that it wasn’t her duty to be there at all times if the world wasn’t facing a catastrophe.

Twilight trotted through the town, happily humming a tune that only she knew. It was almost the end of winter, and the sunny days, while still cold, were starting to be more constant. She was smiling for no reason in particular as other ponies passed by and greeted her, just to return to their own activities.

And then she saw the archery field. It was empty and she knew that the reason was that Daniel was working at the boutique. She smiled to herself. Oh how she wanted Winter Wrap Up to come faster. Daniel would be very happy to finally see Equestria at its best. Not that winter wasn’t beautiful, but in spring flowers bloomed and trees grew their leaves and birds sang and everything was colorful. She wondered what Daniel would be doing at Winter Wrap Up. Maybe he would help waking up the little animals, but there were snakes, and she knew snakes terrified him.

Lost in her train of thoughts, she barely realized that she was already in the boutique’s front door. The door opened and the small bell rang once and then again when the door closed behind her. Daniel was cleaning a showcase with a duster. “Hey Twilight, what’s up?” He asked with a welcoming smile. Twilight smiled in return, it intrigued her how his teeth looked like. Almost all of them were flat, but four of them were sharp. For a moment, she wondered if those teeth would hurt in a kiss.

She blinked, why she thought that? “Hi Daniel” A little of red was starting to appear in her cheeks, fortunately for her, her fur made it difficult to be seen. “Rarity asked me to come here today”

“And I’m most certainly glad that you’re punctual as ever, darling” Rarity said walking from another room. She closed distance with Twilight and hugged her, and the princess accepted it. After mere seconds, the white unicorn turned to face the human and lit her horn. “Daniel, be a dear and go to buy the things listed here” She placed a large piece of paper and a small bag filled with bits in front of Daniel. He took them, nodded and walked out the boutique.

Twilight sat in a small couch near the entrance, it was there for the customers, but it was really rare when somepony actually spent more than a few minutes in the boutique asking something. Normally, Rarity received requests via letters, and when they were done, a pony would stop by and take them, sometimes not even thanking her. And so said couch was only there for mere decoration. Though it was really comfy, Twilight admitted.

Rarity disappeared for a moment just to return a few seconds later with some tea. She carefully placed the silver plate in the small table in front of the couch and allowed herself to sit in a cushion at the other side. Using her magic, she served the tea first to Twilight and second to herself. “How are you, Twilight?” She asked in her most friendly tone before drinking just a bit of tea, not too much so it was easy and fast to swallow, but just enough to actually taste the drink.

“I’m fine, and you?” Twilight said with a big grin and allowing herself to drink some of her own tea.

“Fine” Rarity put her teacup on the table, her voice sounded a little too serious. Twilight dismissed the thought. “We don’t have much time since Daniel is really fast when he walks alone” Now that was unsettling. Twilight raised an eyebrow to her friend, who remained smiling. It was odd, really odd. “Yes” Rarity said before the alicorn could even open her mouth. “I need to talk with you about something I don’t want Daniel to hear”

“What is it, Rarity? You’re scaring me” And it was true. Everything felt wrong, Rarity’s voice was really serious, but her warm smile was still there. She wasn’t dramatically overreacting, she wasn’t happily bouncing as a little filly. She was just there, unmovable sitting with a sly look in her eyes.

Rarity leaned closer to her friend, carefully trying not to touch her cup with her forelegs. “I’m going to be honest with you, dear. Because if I learned something from our dearest friend Applejack, is that between friends there’s no space for lies” She said, her voice was emotionless. She slowly sat straight again and softly shut her eyes. “The first time I laid my eyes upon Daniel, I found him rather handsome”

Twilight could see Rarity’s cheeks turn to red. The white fur every mare envied wasn’t the best at hiding that sort of things. “I know what most ponies would say. That he’s from another world and it’s kind of weird of me to think that” She circled the edge of her teacup with one hoof, trying to find the best words for the moment. “Even if nowadays it’s normal for ponies to find their special somepony in a griffin, a minotaur, a caribou, and a long etcetera, every time something new happens, they just freak out. Funny, doesn’t it?” It wasn’t a real question, so Twilight didn’t answer.

“So I thought that I had a crush on him” She said with a weird smile, almost as if she was suppressing a giggle. “But working with him for two months now, made me realize that he is a wonderful friend. Sure he’s still very handsome, but I can only see him as a good, good friend”

Twilight was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Why was Rarity telling her all that? Her heart was beating faster. “I bet you are wondering now why I tell you all this” The unicorn said looking directly at Twilight’s eyes. There was a pause when Rarity had to slowly breathe in and focus her own thoughts. “It’s because I noticed something that I, and forgive me for this, thought would never ever see” Her smile grew wider. There was another pause, this time it was intentional as Rarity wanted her friend to process everything before she could continue. “You…” Rarity started, calling for Twilight’s attention. “You have a crush on Daniel, am I right?”

Silence.

For a moment, Twilight considered taking a sip of her tea and wildly spit it out. But she decided not to do so. She could feel her cheeks burning as her heart was beating faster than ever before. Her breathing was heavy and her eyes widened at their maximum capability. Her jaw was dropped and she could feel cold sweat running down her face.

Rarity watched patiently, waiting for her friend to gather the pieces of her blown mind. Twilight’s mouth moved, obviously trying to formulate words. She felt her lips dry while her brain was unable to process what Rarity just said. And after the longest time, she finally spoke. “I… He… He’s just my friend, Rarity” But the unicorn’s smile only grew a little more. “N-No, stop looking at me that way” She said with a frown and waved her hoof to her friend. “Stop it already!” But Rarity didn’t stop.

Twilight could easily feel her heart beating in her chest. She wondered why. Daniel was just her friend! Ever since he came to Equestria, he always helped in the library. He was really nice with her, and when Spike muttered something while doing his chores, Daniel only smiled and offered her to help. He was a nice guy. But she never saw him in that way, he was just her friend, darn it!

“I know…” Rarity said softly and Twilight had to look at her. “You really think you don’t have a crush on him.” She wasn’t teasing, she was actually trying her best to sound as sympathetic as she could. “But I’ve seen how you look at him. In fact, I think only Rainbow Dash and himself haven’t noticed yet”

Twilight looked away and tried to hide her face under her mane as Fluttershy, but hers was too short. “Twilight, look at me” And she did it. “Darling, it is not my intention to make you feel uncomfortable. But I’m afraid that if I don’t make you notice your own feelings, you won’t do it yourself” Rarity was really concerned for her friend. She knew that Twilight, as smart as she was, wouldn’t ever notice something that obvious on her own.

“B-but…” Twilight said as her mouth moved hesitant. “He’s my friend… And I-“

“And what does that have to do with it?” Rarity interrupted with a knowingly smile. “Is there any book saying that friends can’t fall in love with each other?”

“Well, no but…” She paused. Did she just say love? Twilight knew that Rarity was the kind of pony prone to dramatize everything, but this… This wasn’t like her. She wasn’t fainting in her favorite divan fantasizing with true love and praising her friend for finding hers. She was just sitting there, looking at her eyes and seriously talking about love.

Rarity tilted her head with a faint smile. “Twilight, what do you think of Daniel?”

That was an easy one. And Twilight was about to answer until she couldn’t find the words. What did she think of him? He was her friend, of course! But she already said that, so she had to give a different answer, right? She thought, and never before in her life it had been so hard to answer a question. So she had to gather her ideas.

He was handsome, Twilight thought. She didn’t have anything to compare him with, but somehow she could tell that he at least wasn’t ugly. His brown hair had been getting slightly longer because he said he didn’t trust a horse with scissors in its mouth. She had told him that there were unicorns barbers, but he still didn’t want to trust them, and she found that really cute. His eyes almost as black as coal were small, and the fact that he narrowed them a lot didn’t help. Then there was his smile. Every time he smiled at her, she would smile in return. There was a way in which his lips curved just in one side of his face that made him look so confident on himself. And how to forget those more than interesting teeth, which made her wonder if a kiss of him would hurt her own lips.

“I…” Twilight said, realizing what she was just thinking.

Rarity put a hoof on her mouth. “I think that you have a lot to think about” She said with a friendly smile. “I’m not going to force you to admit it, Twilight” Her horn glowed again and her teacup levitated in front of her and she took a small sip. “So, given that our time is over, you should head back to the library and thoroughly think about what we talked today”

Twilight was about to ask what did she mean about the time, when the front door opened and Daniel stepped inside carrying a mountain of fabric with both arms as some plastic bags hung in his arms. “Thanks heavens you ponies keep your doors open” He said walking to the showcase he had been cleaning earlier and almost let everything fall in it, barely moving the bags out of the fabric’s way.

He turned to face the ponies and noticed that Twilight’s fur was bright red in her face. He was about to ask what was going on when the alicorn ran through the door and away from the boutique. Had he done something wrong? The human looked at Rarity, she was calmly drinking her tea. She put her cup on the table once again and with a hoof told him to sit in the couch where Twilight had been just mere moments ago. “Daniel, I’d like to talk with you”

~~~~~~~~

Twilight was running and she didn’t know why. She just had the need to run, so she did it. She wasn’t going to any place in particular, yet she was going through Ponyville as she did have an objective. But the more she ran, the more she started to feel that it wasn’t enough. So she spread her wings as flew through the sky, she wanted to get lost in the clouds, so she did it.

She landed in a gray cumulus and her legs couldn’t hold her weight anymore, so she let her body fall in the comfy surface. She hid her face under her wings. Her mind had been spinning wildly, and didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. She needed to relax, and then she would think about what Rarity just told her. But her own emotions made her feel tired, and the heavenly feel the clouds had didn’t help. And soon, she found herself sleeping there.

~~~~~~~~

“No” Daniel said.

Rarity had been talking with him. She of course didn’t tell him about what she talked with Twilight, she didn’t tell him that she thought she had a crush on him. She only told him the way he looked at Twilight, and asked him if he had a crush on her.

She knew that Daniel was a subtle guy, but she never expected him to be so serious. He didn’t change his expression as Twilight did. He didn’t even need to think more than a couple of seconds. He only stared at her. “Daniel…” She said, trying to remain calm and comprehensive.

“I don’t have a crush on her” He deadpanned and the look in his eyes hardened. Rarity had to suppress a gasp of surprise. Twilight had been easy to read, she acted as a little filly trying to hide her new coltfriend from her parents. But Daniel was just looking back at her, with his eyes painfully unmoving from hers. He acted as if she just told him the worst joke ever.

“Daniel” She repeated. “I’m just trying to help you” Her voice was a little shivery as she didn’t know how to deal with this situation. She carefully put a hoof on the table. “I just want you to realize your own feelings”

Daniel suddenly stood up and for the first time in two months, Rarity remembered how tall he was. His face unreadable and his gaze unalterable. His hands were fists now. Rarity didn’t exactly know what that meant, but given the situation, it couldn’t be anything good. “Daniel-“

“Listen, Rarity” He said, and his words were a command for the unicorn to shut her mouth. “You ponies are really nice to me, and I even think of you as friends” He looked away, and his lips moved hesitant while he tried to find the best words. “But I will never think of any of you that way”

“Why not?” Rarity asked immediately, she didn’t even realize she talked until the human turned to her again.

“Because” He stated. And a few seconds of silence later, he walked away to the front door. “I’m going to take this day off” He said, took his coat from a nearby rack and got out of the boutique.

Rarity couldn’t say a word. She only wanted her friends to know their own feelings and maybe they could be together and she could see them happier than ever before. But Daniel acted in a completely different way than she expected. He didn’t widen his eyes, he didn’t trip on his words, and he didn’t even blush. For a moment, Rarity wondered if what she did had been a wrong move.

~~~~~~~~

At the end, Twilight couldn’t calm her mind. She had been on a cloud all day and that didn’t help her. It was getting dark, so she decided to head back to the library. She couldn’t have a crush on Daniel, that was ridiculous! But, why was it ridiculous? Twilight didn’t know. She glided and made a few wide loops until she finally reached the entrance of her home. She stepped inside and for a moment she froze in place. Daniel was sitting in a cushion with his back rested on the wall. One of his hands was behind his head preventing it to touch the wooden wall, and with his other hand he held the book he was reading. Twilight recognized the book, it was a math book.

“Hey Twilight” He said with his always warm smile, and Twilight felt her heart beating faster. She was starting to fear that at this rate she would have a heart attack. “What’s up?”

Twilight gave him an awkward smile as she felt her cheeks burn. “I… Uhm…” Why was it so hard to talk to him? “I’m kinda tired…” She finally said and started to walk to the stairs. “I’m going to get some sleep, see you tomorrow” She didn’t even wait for him to answer as she rushed to her room and locked herself in.

Daniel didn’t notice the weird actions of the princess as he had his own mind busy. Rarity said he had a crush on Twilight. And that was ridiculous! They were horses for Pete’s sake! Sure, he thought that the purple alicorn was really cute, but she was still a horse. It was just so ridiculous that the fact that he couldn’t just forget it made him angry. It had been a misunderstanding from Rarity, just a big and funny misunderstanding. Yet he couldn’t just forget it and move on. So when he returned to the library, he took the first book he found and started to read it.

“I hate math” He muttered.

9. Face the Illness

The next morning, Twilight woke up in the dark. Her eyes were closed and wouldn’t ever obey her to open in the slightest. Her blanket felt heavy, way heavier than she remembered. She knew she was sweating, and she needed to take out the blanket to let the air ventilate her body, but her legs wouldn’t respond to her demands. She felt weak, and no matter how much she tried, that weakness didn’t allow her to lift the blanket.

She sighed in defeat, and noticed that her breathe was heavy and hot, she could feel the warmth in her nose as she let out a slow pant. She could feel how her cheeks were painfully pressing against her skull and how every muscle sore for no reason. “Uh…” With another attempt, this time casting all the will within her being, she finally could open her eyes so slowly that it felt as if an eternity had passed. And she could feel a weird tiredness in them as her sclera burned in dried tears. It took her a full minute to adapt her sight to the dark room. Everything seemed to be normal, yet at the same time really far from her.

A knock in her door was enough to make her realize how awfully her head ached. She could hear an eternal echo inside her ears. “Breakfast’s served, Twilight!” Spike’s enthusiastic voice did nothing but ring in her skull, and she felt her brain pulsate with the same rhythm as her heart. She opened her mouth to reply, but couldn’t find her voice. Her lips and throat as dry as a desert. “Twilight?” Spike opened the door and Twilight swore that the opening noise had never been that loud.

She could hear the dragon’s small claws step on the floor as he got closer and every single nail on them making a little, almost invisible mark on the wood. “Are you alright?” This time, Twilight thanked the heavens, his voice was made in a whisper.

Twilight could feel Spike right in front of her. She wondered when she closed her eyes again, but she forced them to open and she could see her assistant with a concerned look in his eyes. “I’m… sick…” She finally said with a slow and tiring gasp between words, followed by a hot and even slower pant. “Water… Please…” She could feel how her own voice echoed inside her head even in whisper volume.

But Spike wasn’t there anymore. He might had gone the moment she said her first word in the day. He came back almost instantly holding ever so carefully a silver plate with a big crystal jar and a glass. He placed them on Twilight’s night table, and she couldn’t help but slowly lick her lips when she saw the little dragon fill the glass with some water. “Come on, roll on your back” Spike said and patiently waited for the alicorn to face the ceiling. When she did so, he carefully slid one claw under her head and as if he was manipulating porcelain, he slowly lifted it a little. With his other claw he put the edge of the glass on Twilight’s mouth and slowly inclined it, allowing her to take small but demanded sips of the elixir of life.

She quickly drank all the glass and Spike knew that it was enough for her, so he slowly let her head rest again in the pillow. Twilight muttered something to thank him, but it was too low that he barely heard her. He put the glass again on the plate and then faced to Twilight, whose chest slowly went up and down, and her breath was so heavy it could be heard from the other side of the room. “I’m going for a doctor” He said with a soft whisper just loud enough so Twilight could hear him, but not too much so it wouldn’t be painful for her. “If you need something, I’ll tell Daniel to keep an eye on you” And then he was gone.

Being sick was uncommon for Twilight. Her immune system was so effective that every virus died ipso facto when touched any of her cells. But when one passed through her defenses, may Celestia show mercy on her. Twilight’s mind was blank, unable to process any thought, for a single attempt to do so only increased the headache.

Days like that seemed to pass both slower and faster than any other day. Her notion of time was so damaged that five minutes could easily have been an hour for her, as five hours just a second. It was so frustrating being unable to do anything, to think anything. She was forced to lay on her bed, just staring at the ceiling and waiting for the next day to come, as she knew she would feel better.

“So, even the princesses can get sick” Daniel’s voice startled her. She didn’t hear him enter the room. But even if the tone in his voice tried to sound sarcastic, it was so soft and tender that somehow made her feel better. She only could turn her head and give him a faint smile. He was sitting in a small chair he most likely brought from the kitchen. Her mouth was always open to allow her to breathe since her panting was too hot for her nostrils. “Dear heavens, you got it really bad…” He said with genuine concern in his voice. He instinctively put the back of his hand on the princess’ forehead trying to measure her temperature. Her fur was soaked in sweat, but it still irradiated heat through his hand.

Daniel didn’t know much about pony health, but Spike had told him a few things before going to find a doctor. He felt a warm breeze touching his arm, it was Twilight’s breathing, and he realized that she was staring at him with tired eyes and a really small smile. He then noticed that he was frowning of concentration, so he quickly removed his hand. He took a handkerchief from a stack he brought and placed on the night table and cleaned his hand.

“So, Spike told me to talk to you and don’t let you sleep unless the doctor says otherwise” He said scratching idly his cheek with a finger. “Which is a little weird to me, humans need to sleep a lot in order to get better” He then looked down at her. If it wasn’t for the constant sound of her panting, he would have feared that she stopped moving at all. “But I suppose there has to be a good reason, right?”

Twilight moved her head a little, which Daniel interpreted as a nod. “Right…” He forcefully sighed. “This is going to be hard. I don’t mind talking all day, but without feedback I feel like an idiot” He took a moment to think of what he just said. “I’m not blaming you, of course, it’s just me, ok?” He shook his hands as if it would help his statement have more weight. He then moved one hand to the back of his head, scratching it a little. “I mean, I know that you’re sick, like, really sick. So it would be stupid from me to blame you for something that’s not your fault”

Daniel looked at Twilight’s eyes. She was just listening at him, calmly. For a moment, the only thing that could be heard in the room was her breathing. “You know” He said, trying his best to keep talking. “Spike rushed outside to get you a doctor, so he could only tell me the important” He folded his hands on his lap. “So when he comes back I will ask him why I have to keep you awake”

He seemed really concerned about it. And Twilight was trying to tell him that it wasn’t an important thing. That it all started when she was a filly. Every time she got sick, she always asked her big brother to stay with her and talk to her, just because it was how she could keep her mind busy without suffering headaches. And when Shining Armor went to live in Canterlot Castle’s headquarters, she asked Spike to do the same thing. And so the little dragon grew knowing that when she was sick, he would always be by her side talking to her.

But she couldn’t. She wasn’t exactly unable to talk, but she wouldn’t be able to say more than a word every four seconds, and even that would make her feel more tired. Besides, she didn’t want him to stop talking. His voice was calming, even if he wasn’t whispering anymore, the level of his voice was low enough to not be a problem. The tone of his voice wasn’t very deep, but it was manly nonetheless. And she liked it.

She liked how he was struggling to keep talking. She liked how his eyes were moving through the room, trying to find something, anything he could use as a topic. She liked how he was talking only stopping to take a quick breath, even if he wasn’t much of a talkative guy. She liked how he was doing all that for her, and just for her.

His sole presence in the room made her feel way better. She barely noticed the tiredness of her eyes and the weakness of her body. “And then, Jasper hit me with the damn chair. Can you believe it? Of course I wouldn’t just stand there while that son of a-“ Twilight kept listening to him, at this moment she wasn’t processing what he was saying. She was just enjoying his voice and his presence.

But as much as she liked to be like this, just she and he, it had to end. Her door opened as Spike walked inside. “Here she is, please try not to talk too loud” Behind the little dragon, a yellowish brown coated unicorn stallion with brown mane and wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope stepped inside. The doctor closed distance to Twilight and smiled at her.

“Good morning, Princess Twilight. If you don’t remember me, I’m Doctor Stable” He said, and even trying to follow Spike’s recommendations, his voice was still too loud. Twilight narrowed her eyes and grinded her teeth for the sudden wave of pain in her head. “S-Sorry…” The unicorn said in a very much lower volume.

~~~~~~~~

Doctor Stable checked on Twilight, it only took him a few minutes. “Well, she has a cold with fever” He finally said after using his stethoscope to hear the alicorn’s breathing with it. “It’s not a bad one though. She only needs rest and drink a lot of liquids. A few juicy fruits may help as well”

“That’s it?” Daniel asked with an obviously surprised tone. “No medicine?” The doctor shook his head a little hesitant. “You just told us the obvious. Why are you even here anyways?” Doctor Stable wasn’t used to this kind of reactions. His work at the hospital consisted in setting broken bones and make sure his patients had a full recovery. The only reason he accepted to come and see the princess was because he was the first doctor Spike saw, and he did have knowledge about common illnesses. “I don’t think you pretend to get paid for this, do you?” Daniel said standing up of the chair and looking down at the stallion. He was well aware of the effect his height had on ponies when he stared at them that way.

Doctor Stable stepped backwards with shivering hooves. He couldn’t hide the fact that the human did scare him. “Daniel…” Twilight’s voice was so low that her breathing was louder, but it was enough to make the human and the unicorn look at her. She was frowning, and Daniel didn’t need more to understand her.

He turned to face the doctor with a completely new expression in his face. While just moments ago he had been angry and seemed that he was going to kick the doctor in any moment, now he was just serious and his gaze was forced with professionalism. “Please forgive my outburst, Doctor” Daniel said and started to walk out of Twilight’s room. “You are just doing your job. Please do follow me so we can talk about the bill”

Hesitant, the unicorn followed him. And it seemed that the human really changed his attitude, for he kindly asked him how much money it was due to pay. And when Doctor Stable told him the amount, Daniel took the bits from his pocket and gave them to the unicorn and told him to leave.

By the moment Daniel returned to Twilight’s room, she was already asleep. Spike was standing at one side of the bed. “Last time she got sick was four years ago, we were still living in Canterlot” The dragon said with a sad look in his eyes. “She got pretty bad… She…” Spike was holding back the tears, sobbing. It was the first time Daniel saw him that way, and it was heartbreaking. Spike’s expression showed that he was truly terrified. “…The doctors had no idea why she was so sick like that… She…” Spike then looked at the human, his tears finally running down his cheeks. “She almost died...” He said with a whisper.

And in that moment, Daniel realized how mature Spike was. He didn’t freak out when he learned that Twilight was sick. He took his time to bring her some water before rushing to find a doctor for her, and even so, he found time enough to ask the human to keep an eye on her. The dragon was a baby, but he knew how to act under pressure. And Daniel had to admire him for that.

“But… Can’t unicorns just use their magic to heal her? I heard somewhere something about healing spells…” Daniel said, but Spike only shook his head.

“Healing spells only alleviate pain, they don’t cure a pony”

They were silent for a full minute. Spike had a claw on Twilight’s bed and his sobbing was just a bit louder than he pony’s breathing. Daniel then wondered what kind of relationship they had. Twilight always said that Spike was her number one assistant, and the dragon always seconded her. But right now, they seemed to be closer. As a little kid and his big sister.

Daniel walked to Spike and kneeled on the floor putting a hand on the dragon’s shoulder. “Hey, go get some rest yourself” He said in his most comprehensive tone. “I already changed the library’s sign to ‘closed’. Don’t worry, I’ll be here” Spike looked at him. At this distance, and thanks to the dragon’s big eyes, Daniel could see all the emotions that Spike had at the moment. But it was mostly fear. Fear that Twilight could get worse. Fear that he could lose her. Fear that she, the pony to who he looked at as a motherly figure, could die sooner than she should. “Don’t worry, Spike. If anything happens, you’ll be the first to know”

After a few seconds, Spike nodded. And giving a last glance in Twilight’s direction, he walked away. Spike shared room with Twilight, but right now he had to be somewhere else. He wouldn’t like the alicorn to wake up and see him crying. A few moments passed and Daniel sat again in the chair to the other side of the bed, watching the sleeping pony laying on it.

Twilight looked so… fragile, Daniel thought. Ponies had told him that she pretty much was the most powerful pony in Equestria, and only the other Princesses would be able to match her. Yet there she was, breathing heavily and forcefully, with her face red because of the fever. “You know, Twilight” He said with a warm smile. “You’re very lucky. Spike really loves you and cares for you” The alicorn smiled, as if she was able to hear him.

“I… love you… too…” She said with obvious difficulty, slowly rolling to one side, facing the human as her smile grew wider. “… Daniel…”

~~~~~~~~

Spike had been trying to reorganize the library to no avail. Nor it was due, nor did he know how Twilight would do it this time. But he just needed to keep his mind busy. Doctor Stable had said that she was ok. He said that she would get better. But he kept feeling a pressure in his chest. He just couldn’t stop feeling useless, hopeless and afraid of the future.

The breakfast long forgotten in the kitchen. Spike cleaned up and washed the dishes. He wasn’t hungry, or at least he didn’t know if he was. The gemstones that once had been shiny and tasty, now were mere colorful rocks in his claws. He could see a faint reflection of his face on the biggest jewel. His eyes had small bags and were a little red for the crying.

Spike sighed. He had to be strong for Twilight. He knew that the moment she woke up, she would need to eat something, and he had to be there to convince her that even if she wasn’t hungry, she needed to eat at least an apple. His own stomach growled a little, but he ignored it. The only thing in his mind was Twilight, and how she was so sick that was unable to leave her bed.

And a small flashback crossed his mind just for a second, but it was enough to make the dragon remember once again what happened four years ago. He remembered a lavender unicorn lying in a hospital bed connected to all sort of fancy machines. He remembered how the doctors were talking with mom and dad. He remembered the look in their eyes: Sadness, anger, despair. They had been shouting their throats off to the doctors, not caring that other ponies were looking at them, not caring that the doctors were as lost as them. They had been crying until their eyes dried and they had been yelling until their voices gave up.

He remembered Shinning Armor, sitting in a chair of the waiting room beside him. The unicorn had been staring at the void, with tears flowing through his face and barely able to breathe. And the last thing he could remember was the princess herself going to visit Twilight every day. Celestia was the wisest pony in all of Equestria, and she had lived worse experiences in all her long life. But even if she hid it well enough, Spike could see the look in her eyes that feared for the fate of her faithful student.

Spike shook his head. He had to be strong, for mom and dad, for Shining, for Celestia, and for Twilight above all. So he forced the gemstones into his mouth and slowly ate them. He didn’t want his stomach growling in front of Twilight. That only would worry her, and the last thing he wanted her to do, was to concern about anything else than her own recovery.

When he finally finished his own breakfast, he looked at the wall clock in the kitchen. It was noon already, but Spike’s emotions made him feel that it was late afternoon. He just sat in the chair looking at the table. Thinking on a thousand things, but on anything in particular at the same time. He sighed again. If he didn’t calm himself, he wouldn’t be able to see Twilight any time soon.

There was a knock on the front door, and it was enough to make him jump a little. Daniel had told him that he turned the sign to ‘closed’. He knew that nopony ever bothered when the library was closed. Unless… “Twilight? Are ya home, sugarcube?” It was Applejack. Of course, Spike thought, one of the few ponies that would know that something was wrong. He walked to the door and opened it.

“Hi AJ, what’s up?” He greeted, trying to hide all his concerns and pulling his most energetic voice. Applejack raised an eyebrow, she didn’t have to say a word when her inquisitive gaze was laid upon ponies –or dragons-. Spike sighed in defeat, but made his way out the library, making the farmer walk backwards for a few feet. “Twilight’s sick.” He said.

Applejack noticed the weird tone on Spike’s voice. “Is it bad?” She asked, and the dragon shook his head.

“No, it’s just a cold with fever” He answered, and noticed how he ended that phrase, the small gasp he did at the end. Applejack noticed it too, and Spike knew that he had to tell her everything. “That’s what the doctor said, but she can barely move” He leaned closer to Applejack. “Please don’t tell the others, or if you have to, tell them not to come here until she’s better” His eyes looked around as if he was trying to make sure nopony was hearing them. “She’s got a pretty bad headache”

Applejack nodded in understanding. “Ya don’t have t’ say no more, Spike” She said and gave him a faint smile. “Jus’ call us when she’s better ‘k?” Spike nodded and she walked away. It was good to know that Applejack was, at most times, the most mature of all the girls. She knew that Spike was really preoccupied for Twilight and decided not to bother him.

Spike entered the library once again, and decided that it was time to see how Twilight was doing. He first went to the kitchen and took the biggest, juiciest and shiniest apple he found and managed to soundlessly make his way to the room. He carefully opened and closed the door, and he noticed something unusual.

Daniel was still there, sitting comically in the rather small chair for his size. But he had a leg crossed on the other, and his arms rested on it with the elbows, so he could hold his head with both hands folded on each other and covering his mouth. His gaze seemed lost, telling Spike that the human was deeply thinking on something. Spike purposely made a little sound with his claw to draw Daniel’s attention without startling him.

“Oh, hey Spike” The human said, slowly standing up. “Good thing you’re here, I need to do… something” Daniel walked past Spike. “I believe she’s getting better, and she’d like to see you when she wakes up” And with that, Daniel made his way out of the room. Spike thought that it was really weird, but he was more concerned for Twilight that decided to ignore it and sit in the chair and wait for her to open her eyes.

~~~~~~~~

It was a sunny day, and everypony was happily doing their daily chores. Daniel saw them waving at him greeting, but he ignored them all and went straight to his archery field. He forgot his stuff in his bedroom, so he just stood there with both hands hidden in his coat’s pockets, looking at the target in the other side of the field.

He was trying with all his will to think on something, anything, but just one thing occupied his mind at the moment. Twilight had said that she loved him. But she was sleeping, so it was easy to think that maybe two dreams crossed and she just answered to them both at the same time, right? She could’ve been dreaming that somepony made her drink love poison and that’s why she said that, right? Right?!

Daniel sighed. But did it matter? Was he really wondering why she said something that most likely wasn’t true? Or was he just searching for a logical reason to say that she just said random words? He looked at the sky and saw a pegasus soaring through the sky. How funny it was that he got used to that! Magical talking ponies? If two months ago someone had told him that he would end in a world like this, he most likely would have laughed in their face.

But he wasn’t laughing. This world was real, and he was living there. He was getting used to it. He even considered some ponies as his friends. Rainbow Dash had a really big self esteem, but at the end her friends were more important than anything else. Applejack was a really nice pony, and her accent somehow made him feel comfortable. Fluttershy was a difficult pony to talk to, but as weeks passed he found a way to have good conversations with her. Pinkie Pie was the craziest mare in Equestria, or at least that’s how many ponies saw her. To Daniel, she was rather interesting. Rarity at first freaked him out, but she had been a really nice boss and a good pony to talk to. Even if he started with the wrong foot with Spike, now they were really good friends. And Twilight…

“Twilight…” He said in a whisper. Twilight had been really nice, supportive and comprehensive with him. She even gave him a place to sleep at night, food to eat, and really funny moments when one of her experiments blew up in her face and made her mane look all messy with black spots on it.

The day prior Rarity had told him that he had a crush on Twilight. But how could that even be possible? She was a… horse… “A horse?” No, they were ponies. Twilight was a pony, an alicorn for that matter. And she was really… cute? No, that word didn’t seem right. Adorable? Pretty? Smart? He sighed. He knew which adjective was more proper to define Twilight: Beautiful.

And that beautiful mare had said that she loved him. At this moment, he didn’t care if she just said it for stupid reasons, if she was hallucinating or if she was just telling a lie. Those words made him feel his heart speed up its pace. It didn’t matter why Twilight said that, it made him feel happy.

He looked back at the target again and let out a forced sigh. “What is wrong with me?”

10. Face the Spring

It took Twilight a week to fully recover from her sickness. The second day she was able to talk normally, and she could tell Daniel that it wasn’t really necessary that he talked all the time. But she still asked him to give her some conversation. His voice was so relaxing that she barely noticed how her muscles were sore when she had to stand up and walk to the bathroom. His presence was so reassuring that she felt the tiredness go away when he was at her side. And her eyes stopped hurting when she looked at his smile, at his eyes, at his hair, at everything about him.

Through these days, Twilight got a lot of time to think. Since said action didn’t hurt anymore, she could let her thoughts fill her mind. She realized that she got sick because she slept on a cloud all day in a cold day of winter, and she felt really guilty because she noticed how preoccupied Spike was. So she decided that when she got better, she would thank him with the biggest and most magical gemstones she would be able to find.

When her headache wasn’t a problem anymore, Spike allowed the other girls to visit her, but only one by one. Pinkie Pie was the first, she gave her a hug and a balloon with letters written on it that said ‘Get better soon’. Twilight had to giggle at that, but thanked her friend nonetheless. Applejack was next, she brought her the best apple she had, and Twilight was so happy that a little tear escaped from her eye. Rainbow Dash as always tried to hide her concern by talking about herself. Twilight was used to that, so she really thanked her, but forced her to give her a hug, at which Rainbow accepted pretty fast. Fluttershy gave her a lemon with honey tea, and told her about some medicinal plants that might help her. And at last, Rarity.

“I still can’t believe you got so sick, darling” Rarity said, she was sitting in a cushion to one side of Twilight’s bed. “The girls and I talked, and everypony agrees that we never thought that you of all ponies would, you know, get that bad”

“I may be an alicorn, but I’m still a pony” Twilight said with a big grin. “Most ponies think that I’m immortal and immune to everything and I don’t know what else” She waved playfully a hoof in the air. “But no, at the end I’m just a unicorn that grew wings” She giggled at her own words and Rarity joined her.

They laughed for half a minute, and for a moment they took their time to relax and just enjoy each other’s company. “I...” Twilight started, and Rarity looked at her with a faint smile. “I’ve been thinking… About what you said last week…” She was smiling and playing idly with her hooves as her cheeks started to turn reddish. Almost instantly Rarity knew what Twilight was about to say, and decided that it was better if her friend said it herself. “About Daniel…” Twilight knew that Rarity was well aware of what she was talking about, but she just needed to say it out loud. She slowly gasped for air and exhaled it to relax a little.

“I think… No. I know now that… I…” She wondered why it was so difficult to say it. Rarity already knew it. She knew it. But saying it out loud had a different effect than just thinking it. She knew it, and she had to do it. She needed to do it. “I have a…” Wait, did she really have just a crush on Daniel? That definition seemed too weak for what and how she felt. She knew it, her feelings were so much stronger than that.

She stopped a moment to think. How strong her feelings were for Daniel? Every time he smiled, it made her smile too. Every time he spoke, she felt really comfortable. Every time he looked at her, her heart would beat faster than ever before. And his sole presence made her feel safe, she didn’t know why though. He wasn’t able to do any kind of magic. She knew she could easily lift him with her magic at any time. But somehow his gaze, the way he looked at her, made her feel that she had nothing to worry about. He made her happy.

“I… I think that…” She looked at Rarity, her cheeks burning under her coat. “I think that I’m in love with him” There. She said it. And it felt really good to finally get it out of her chest. She was in love with Daniel. And say it only made her realize of how true was that. She leaned closer to her friend. “I love him, Rarity” Oh how great that felt! And every time she said it had even more emotion! “I love Daniel!” She said with the biggest grin she could make.

Rarity only smiled in return. “Now Twilight, you shouldn’t just shout it out. You don’t want him to find it out without a proper declaration, do you?” And with that, Twilight looked away trying to calm herself, but her smile remained. Rarity was having fun with the alicorn’s reaction. She truly acted as a little filly. But Rarity was concerned more for Daniel himself. She knew that he had something for Twilight, but he wouldn’t admit it. “When are you going to tell him?”

Twilight was playing with her hooves moving them in circles. “I don’t know… When should I?” She really didn’t know. It was the first time in her life that she felt like that, after all. She could feel her heart beating in her chest.

“Whenever you feel confident enough to say it, darling” Rarity said and stood up. “Well, I have to return to the boutique, tomorrow is Winter Wrap Up and I have to finish the teams’ vests for the new members” She hugged Twilight with a foreleg and walked away waving her a goodbye.

Twilight accommodated herself to get more comfortable in her pillow while resting her back in the headboard. With her sickness the whole week she almost forgot that winter was about to end. But she smiled. Luckily she would feel way better to organize the teams once again to welcome spring. Daniel would be so happy to finally be able to practice archery without his coat.

And then the thought snapped in her head. Of course, it was so obvious! She had to declare her love for Daniel at the very beginning of spring. It felt just right, almost poetic. In the time when tiny seeds grow to gorgeous flowers, their love would bloom as well. They would start with small steps, and their love would grow just bigger and wider in their hearts.

She chuckled. She really needed to stop reading those romance novels.

~~~~~~~~

The next day came faster than expected. She woke up and she felt with so much energy that she just had to jump down from her bed and open wide the curtains to see the beautiful shiny day outside. “Wait…” She shuddered as a feeling that something was wrong ran through her spine. She looked at the wall clock. “IT’S NOON ALREADY?!”

She felt her heart sink. How could she have overslept in such an important day? She rushed to the bathroom and quickly brushed her mane, which seemed to be messier than ever before. “Sweet Celestia what am I going to do?!” When she finally got her main so stay in its place, she took her vest and put it on while trotting downstairs.

“Ok, let me get this straight” Twilight heard Daniel, and for the echo, she could tell that he was in the kitchen. “You don’t only manipulate the weather at will, but you actually can just change seasons as it goes?”

“Yeah, pretty much” Spike said. There was a thud and Twilight could picture Daniel smashing the table with a hand in exasperation. She giggled at the thought and walked to the kitchen.

“Good morning!” She said beaming and walked to sit in a chair suspiciously nearby Daniel while singing a tone that only she knew.

“Hey, how’s it going sleepyhead?” Daniel said and for the first time Twilight noticed the green vest he was wearing. She couldn’t help but giggle a little inside her mind with the fact that she had been more focused on his head that she failed to noticed that he was using the plant team’s vest. And then she realized that she totally forgot about Winter Wrap Up. Daniel looked down to where Twilight was staring. “Oh you’re looking at this?” He put a hand on his chest with pride. “Yeah, I decided to help Applejack at the farm. But I thought this whole wrap-whatever thing was metaphorical”

“Oh no!” Twilight yelled and almost fell of her chair.

Daniel looked at her raising an eyebrow. “Relax, I’m going to be fine. It’s not that hard to find something an un-magical being can do”

“Not you!” She said and looked at Spike with a frown. “Why didn’t you wake me up?! Everypony must be wondering why I’m not organizing them! They will think I don’t care about it anymore because I’m a princess now and they will be mad at me! But I do care, Spike! I do care!”

Spike only looked at the alicorn with bored eyes. “Seriously, when are you going to learn to not jump to conclusions?” He took a gemstone from his plate and slowly ate it, making Twilight tap her hoof in the table. “Everypony knows you’ve been sick this whole week, so they all agreed to let you sleep so you can do your best today”

“Let me sleep?! We need to clean the winter today and they just let me sleep?!”

“Twilight” Daniel said with a tender voice, and all the anger and frustration she had suddenly disappeared. “Spike told me that it was late afternoon when you started to organize all the teams on your first Winter-something, and still you managed to make it in perfect time” He looked directly at the alicorn’s eyes and she blushed a little. “Everybody knows you were sick, and they decided to wait for you, because they believe that you will be able to organize them no matter what time of the day is”

Twilight sighed. It was true. In fact, last year they started so early and they were so efficient that spring had been welcomed by noon. Everypony was happy, yes, but it still had been out of due. She relaxed, and noticed that Spike gave her some fruit so she could have a quick breakfast. She took a pear and bit it. She needed to eat if she wanted to have energy for the day ahead.

~~~~~~~~

Twilight trotted through Ponyville with Spike in her back and Daniel at her side. She noticed how they all were already doing small things so they wouldn’t just lay lazily in the streets waiting for the princess, but actually trying their best to lighten her work a little. Everypony stopped whatever they were doing to greet the princess when she passed by, they all seemed really happy that Twilight was better. She only could smile at this, it made her really glad that ponies loved her that much.

When she reached the town hall, she could see that her friends were gathered there. Twilight smiled and almost ran to them. “Hello everypony!” She said and was greeted by her five friends as well. She hugged one and each of them as they told her how happy they were that she felt better. “Are you ready for Winter Wrap Up?!” She said with her most enthusiastic voice lifting a hoof in the air. And not only her friends, but everypony that heard her cheered.

~~~~~~~~

“So, I just kick the tree and the snow will fall?” Daniel said. It was just so silly that he had the ask Big Mac twice.

“Eeyup” Big Mac walked to a tree and turned around. He lifted his two hind legs holding all his weight in his forelegs, and with a strong kick, all the snow that once had been in the tree fell to a cart placed there.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I can’t do that” The red stallion looked at him with a disapproving glance and a frown. “All right, all right” Daniel sighed in defeat. He wouldn’t be able to do the same thing Macintosh did, but he surely could just kick the damn tree. Daniel faced a tree and looked at it with determination. He then raised his right leg and kicked with all his strength. He could feel how a chill ran through his spine and to his head while his thigh tensed and felt painfully heavy. Daniel fell on the ground sitting, and to his disappointment, he only could make fall a small amount of snow.

The human took his time to recover and slowly stood up. “See? I told you I can’t do this” He said while Big Mac looked at him with an unreadable face. Daniel wondered if he was silently laughing. “Isn’t there something else I can do?”

Big Mac put a hoof under his chin and then looked at Daniel. “Eeyup” He said and walked to a cart already full of snow. Waving a hoof he told the human to go with him. “How good are ya t’ pull carts?”

“Pull carts?” Daniel thought for a minute. “Well, that’s a really big amount of snow, but it shouldn’t be a problem at all” And suddenly he felt how Big Mac placed the wooden belt of the cart through his body and stopped to his hip. The stallion stopped for a second to think and started to adapt the cart so Daniel could place comfortably his hands on the belt. He saw how some ponies that were kicking trees watched him with curiosity.

By the time Big Mac finished adapting the cart, Daniel couldn’t help but notice how similar it looked to a man-pulled taxi. “Ok, here we go” He muttered to himself and started to walk. At first the cart didn’t seem to be moving, but Daniel didn’t give up and soon the wheels started to roll. And every foot he walked, the cart seemed less heavy until he was able to pull it without problems. He stopped and turned to Big Mac. “Hey, it works! Where do I have to carry this snow?”

“To th’ farmhouse” Mac replied with a satisfied smile. “Then ya come back fer more snow” And with that, Daniel started to walk through the path.

He couldn’t help but remember the first time he had been there. A lot of things had happened since he appeared in Equestria, and he had to admit that he was already used to living there. He had a place to stay at night, a very well paid job at the boutique, his own archery field, good friends he knew he could easily talk to and an almost peaceful life. Sure he every so often would have to deal with the amalgam of animals, also called Discord. Granted, he would have to step aside and let the local heroes take care of the weekly catastrophe. But at the end, life in Ponyville was really quiet.

He sighed and stared at his feet while walking. “I wonder how mom is doing…” He said in a whisper and looked again to the path. It has been nine weeks since he came to this magical world. Nine weeks since the last time he saw his only family. “I hope she’s all right…”

When he got to the farmhouse, he could see a few pegasi melting the snow in big containers. One of them told him that they had to store all that water for the upcoming rain season. Daniel shrugged and just placed the snow he had been carrying in the big mountain in front of the Apple’s house. And then, he walked again the path where Big Mac and the others were still kicking trees. He had more important things in his head to think of how crazy that statement was.

~~~~~~~~

Daniel had been carrying snow for a few hours now. His feet sore, and he was panting of tiredness, but somehow he was still able to go to the town hall when Big Mac told him that they finished their chores. He sat in a bench and saw how ponies started to gather around there. All of them having finished their own chores and helping other teams in whatever they could, and if they couldn’t, they just started to talk to each other.

“Uhmm Hi there” He heard a female voice to his right. He turned to face the mare that just sat beside him. She was a green unicorn with white and green pointy mane. But what caught his attention was that she was sitting the same way he was. Aha! He knew he saw a pony sitting like that somewhere! “The name’s Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings” She said waving a hoof in the air.

Daniel took her hoof and shook it a little. “Daniel Cero” He said and then put his hand back to his pocket. Winter might had been ending, but it was still cold.

“So uhm… I know you’ve been living here for a while now” She said moving idly her hind legs in the air and looking directly at Daniel’s eyes with a warm smile. “But I didn’t want to scare you. Ponies always seem to be scared of me” She let out a nervous giggle. “Well, except Bon Bon, she’s really nice” Lyra facehoofed. “Sorry, I always do that. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that you look really awesome”

“Uh… Thanks?”

“Yeah, you’re a… uh… how they said it-Human! You’re a human, right?” She asked with big eyes and an almost creepy wide smile. Daniel only nodded. “Cool I got it right!” She let out a sigh of relief. “So, I know this may be kinda creepy, but I’d like to be your friend”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. He was going to ask why she wanted that, but she interrupted him even before he could open his mouth. “I like all kind of uncommon things. That’s why ponies see me as some kind of crazy mare. Well, not Bon Bon, she’s really nice” The unicorn was smiling and looking at all the other ponies that were talking to each other. “So, since you came here I wanted to meet you because you’re the most uncommon thing I’ve ever seen… Uh no offense”

“None taken”

“Cool. So I wanted to meet you, but I thought that you might freak out with me as everypony always does. That’s why I waited until today, because by this moment you’d be already used to the craziness of Ponyville… Uh no offense!” She yelled at the ponies in front of her, but they just ignored her. And then she turned to face Daniel again. “So, the fact that you still didn’t freak out makes me think that you’re already used to it, right?”

Daniel smiled at her and nodded. This pony seemed the kind that likes to talk a lot, but not in super speed motion as Pinkie Pie. Lyra just talked in normal speed, and she didn’t seem to mind that the human wasn’t a talkative guy. That was good. Daniel liked people –or ponies, in this case- that talked a lot –in normal speed-, because then he was able to just say the needed words. “Yeah, I’d like to be your friend, Lyra”

“Awesome!” She said and jumped off the bench trotting to a yellow mare with blue and pink mane ended in swirls. “He said yes Bons!” Daniel had to giggle at that. That unicorn seemed to be the same age as the other girls, but she acted as a filly.

He sighed. This world was his home now, and he had wonderful friends in it, friends that he never thought he would have in Earth. Those ponies understood him, those ponies tolerated him. And no matter how different he was of them, they had been just curious at first, and then they treated him just as one more of them. No racism, no discrimination, no sexism. These damn ponies sure got a really good upbringing.

“Ok everypony! Come here!” Twilight’s voice came as enthusiastic as before and all the ponies and non-ponies gathered in a big crowd in front of the town hall where Twilight was behind a lectern and Mayor Mare at her side. “I just want to thank you for your kindness and support, I really appreciate it!” Twilight said beaming and the let the mayor take her place.

“You all did a really good job once again this year with the cleaning up of winter!” Mayor Mare’s voice was one full of pride. “And now, winter has officially ended!” The crowd cheered. “We welcome spring with open hooves once again! And for the third year in a row on its due day! All thanks to Princess Twilight Sparkle!” There was a big ovation that made the alicorn blush a little. “And now, let’s enjoy another year!”

The crowd quickly dispersed. Daniel was about to go straight to the library when he felt a little pull on his vest. He turned around and saw that Twilight was looking at the floor with her face red. “Hey Twilight, do you still feel flattered for what Mayor Mare said?” He asked, and Twilight only shook her head. This was odd, she was never the quite type of pony. “Are you all right?”

Twilight lifted her head to look at him, but her eyes were dancing through all her sight field. “I… I’d like to talk to you…” Her heart was beating so hard that she feared it would be heart through her throat. Daniel nodded with a completely confused expression in his face. “I, uhm… F-Follow me” She said noticing that there were still a lot of ponies, and she wanted to be alone with him. So she started to walk and he followed her.

Daniel thought that the princess behavior was really odd. Did he do something wrong? They were walking directly to the archery field. There were no other ponies. He started to fear that if she wanted to talk with him in private, it only could mean that she was going to yell at him. But what in the name of Earth did he do?

They kept walking until they got to the middle of the field. Twilight finally stopped and turned around to face him. She was really nervous and her face just couldn’t get redder. She sighed heavily trying to find the proper words. She had been so busy organizing the teams that she didn’t have time to think on this. But she decided that she was going to tell him how she felt today.

It was getting dark, so she didn’t have much time. “W-Well… I-I want to talk to you of s-something important” Twilight could feel how her breath was really hot. Her head was spinning and she felt her stomach hum a little. She slowly gasped for some air as her mouth shivered. “I-I’ve been thinking about it for a while now…” She had to look away, for Daniel’s gaze felt really heavy and his unreadable expression was a little unsettling. “Y-You know, I’ve never thought about something like this before… I… I always thought that it would never happen to me…” She gulped, what she was going to say next was the most important part.

“But it happened…” She said, and she felt her legs shiver in nervousness. “I… I fell… I…” It was really frustrating how hard it was to say it. All the courage she had built through the day had completely banished. She gulped again, her lips were dry. “I fell in love…” She finally said. It could have been enough with that, she though. But she knew that she had to finish her sentence. She looked back to meet Daniel’s eyes. He was still standing there with the exactly same expression. “I fell in love… w-with…” She breathed in and held it. “With you, Daniel”

And the world stopped.

For a moment, the only thing that could be heard was Twilight’s heavy breathing. A cold breeze met them both. Daniel’s eyes widened and shrunk so fast that Twilight didn’t notice. His gaze still upon her and for a moment she just couldn’t move. The silence was killing her. She was unable to read the human’s face. She needed him to say something, anything. And her heart sunk when he did so.

“I’m sorry”

Twilight had to sit down. His voice echoed inside her skull. She looked down at the grass and felt tears forming in her eyes. She couldn’t think of anything, she was unable to do so. The only thing in his mind was Daniel’s last words. “I’m sorry” He said again. “Just... Let me think about it” Twilight looked up to see him, but he was already walking away. And her eyes suddenly filled up with tears.

And for the longest time, Twilight cried.

Author's Note

Happy new year! It's the horse year!

What? It's already happened in China

11. Face the Truth

Rarity was making dresses designs. Every light in the boutique off but the one she needed in her working room. Her organized chaos a little less chaotic since she let her little sister clean it up from time to time in order to give her more ideas. The only sounds that could be heard were the clock in the wall and the scratch of pencil being pressed against paper.

Spring had been welcomed just one hour ago, and because of that, even if it was already dark outside, everypony was in the streets talking to each other and celebrating. But Rarity had to finish her designs. First because she loved her job, and second because it was what gave her the money she needed to live. There was the sound of small and harmonic bells coming from the wall clock. It was nine at the night.

She decided to take a small brake, ten minutes wouldn’t hurt. So she walked to the kitchen and made herself some coffee. She always said how the different tastes of coffee being prepared in different ways always fascinated her. In restaurants and meetings she would order latte, maybe cappuccino and if she felt brave enough, she’d drink a frappuccino. But she really loved the normal coffee. Hot, bitter and black coffee.

Once she had prepared her drink, Rarity sat in a chair of her kitchen and served herself a cup. She was going to take the first sip when a particular sound came to her ears. It was the bell in the front door of the boutique. She looked at a clock hung in the wall. It was just a few minutes past nine. She wondered who wanted to see her at this hour. Rarity stood up and walked out of the kitchen just to meet her favorite –and only- employee standing there.

“Hello Daniel, how-” And she noticed that the human’s expression was really serious. The same he had a week ago when she talked to him about Twilight. “Please close the door and come to the kitchen” She said and Daniel did as was told. Rarity didn’t need to ask him why he was there, she knew that he wanted to talk to her.

When Daniel sat down on the painfully small chair, Rarity served him some coffee, which he thanked her for and took a sip. He hated coffee in all its forms, but right now he didn’t even taste the drink. “Just talk whenever you’re ready, darling” Rarity said and Daniel realized that he had been frowning and staring to his cup. He sighed for several seconds.

“Twilight said she loves me” It was the first thing that came to his mind. He didn’t look up to Rarity, he was watching the small waves his coffee made at the tapping of his finger against the cup.

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “And what did you answer?” She knew already, his expression said everything. But she still needed to ask. She had to make him talk.

For a moment he only played with his thumbs moving them in circles. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, unsure of what to say. “I… I told her to let me think” He finally said folding his hands around his cup of coffee. His heart started to beat faster and he had to struggle to stop the shivering of his arms.

Rarity took a sip of her own drink. “And you came here because…” She said trying to sound as comprehensive as possible, for she didn’t want him to go away again. She was going to just listen and ask him the proper questions.

“I don’t know”

“You don’t know?” She asked. She was going to tell him that he came here for a reason, but then remembered that she was just going to ask questions. The one who had to say everything was Daniel. He only fell silent and Rarity let several seconds pass before her next words. “Daniel, what do you think of Twilight?”

He stopped moving his fingers. That was a hard question, he thought. Twilight was his friend. She was really smart, beautiful and very enthusiastic. Every time she smiled, it made him smile too. Every time she spoke, he could feel his muscles relax and his tiredness turn into energy. Her sole presence made him feel comfortable and all his worries disappear.

“She’s a good friend” He said. It technically wasn’t a lie. But he felt that that statement was wrong. He knew it. And he was going to correct himself, but the words wouldn’t ever reach his throat.

Rarity carefully placed her cup on the table and leaned a bit closer to Daniel. “Is she just a friend to you?” She asked. A few seconds passed and the human slowly nodded. Rarity bit her lip, it was going to be hard to make him tell her the truth. But she wasn’t going to give up, not for her friends, not now, not ever. “If that’s true, why did you tell her to let you think?” She asked, and for the first time that day, Daniel looked up and met her eyes. And she could see how confused he was. His mouth moved hesitant, not able to find the words to answer that.

She gave him a faint smile, but in her mind she was grinning from ear to ear. “If she’s just a friend to you, then why didn’t you tell her that at the moment?” She asked with genuine concern in her voice. Daniel only looked away and started to play again with his fingers, moving his thumbs through the edge of his cup. Rarity decided that that was the moment to end the questions. “Daniel, look at me” It wasn’t an order nor a command, it was a petition. And the human took his time, but his eyes met hers again. “Tell me what you really think of Twilight”

“I…” He opened his mouth and looked down to his restless hands.

“Daniel, look at me” She said, this time with little more force in her voice. He looked up again. Her eyes were inquisitive, her expression was mixed with seriousness and concern. “Is Twilight really just a friend to you?”

“… Yes…”

“What do you really think of her?”

“She’s my f-”

“Why did you come here, then?”

Daniel fell silent. Rarity knew that she was close to the truth, she just had to push a little more. But she had to be careful or everything would get out of control. “You came here to talk to me” She said. “You came here right after Twilight told you how she feels about you, yes?” Daniel unconsciously nodded. “Tell me what you really think of Twilight”

He looked away again, but this time Rarity didn’t tell him anything. She knew that he was thinking, trying to find the best words to answer her. But there was silence for several minutes. “Daniel” Rarity said and waited for him to look at her again. “Why you don’t want to admit your feelings for her?”

“Because…” He said, but the next words died in his throat. He realized that he just admitted that he indeed had feelings for Twilight, and that he was just giving excuses to not say it. Rarity’s smile grew a little wider, but it was one of understanding. He sighed in defeat. “Because it’s not natural”

And then Rarity’s smile disappeared and was replaced for a grin of confusion. “What isn’t natural?” She asked, and she sounded as if he just told her the most complicated riddle she had ever heard.

Daniel frowned a little. “Twilight’s a pony” He said as if his answer was really obvious.

And that only made Rarity raise an eyebrow. “Yes, so am I, and so every pony in Equestria” She said, that was something she didn’t expect. She didn’t know what to say at that. “What does that have to do with this?” She asked truly confused.

He groaned with frustration. “Humans are supposed to just love other humans” He said. He was trying not to offend her, but he couldn’t think on any other way to say it that didn’t sound offensive. And then he realized that he just admitted that he loved Twilight. He felt his face starting to turn a little red as his eyes widened a little. “I-I mean, if a human loves an animal, it’s just… unnatural”

“But we are not animals” Rarity said. She didn’t know if smile because he was finally showing his feelings, or if frown because the implications of his words. “Well, technically we all really are animals, even you” She pointed a hoof to the human. “But we are intelligent, sophisticated animals that built complex societies with law and order and know the difference between food and bathroom” She said and Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

Rarity sighed, finally understanding what Daniel was saying. “You feel unnatural to fall in love with somepony besides a human, right?” He nodded. “I see…” She slowly took another sip of her coffee. It was starting to get cold. “You know, in the times where Ponyville was founded, ponies used to think the same thing.

“They thought that they only could love other ponies, and as you say, they saw unnatural any other kind of relationship. But nowadays it’s easy to see couples of ponies with other species. Just a moon ago a pegasus married a buffalo.” She made a little pause. “What I’m trying to say is that love comes in many forms.”

He looked down again to see his cup, but Rarity used a hoof to lift his head from his chin. “Twilight fell in love with you because she doesn’t see it as something unnatural. She doesn’t see you as a human, she sees you as Daniel.” She looked directly into his eyes. “Try to see her not as a pony, but as Twilight”

Daniel moved his mouth trying to say something, but he just couldn’t. Rarity put down her hoof and took another sip of her coffee. A few seconds of silence later, she decided to speak again. “I’m not going to ask you again what you really think of Twilight” She said and gave him a warm smile. “Go and say it to her”

For a moment nothing happened, but then Daniel stood up and walked away, bowing thanks to her. Rarity could hear the double ring of the bell as the front door opened and closed. She took the last sip of coffee and placed the cup on the table. After a few seconds she smiled and trotted to her working room. What had to happen next was in their hooves and hands.

~~~~~~~~

Daniel ran as fast as he could through the streets. Ponies could only jump out of his way as he passed by, but none of them tried to ask what was going on, for he had that look in his eyes that told them not to bother him or they would share unkind words.

He finally reached the library. He had to stop at the front door and gasp for air. Even if it was spring already, some cold remained in the air, and that took away all his energy. When he finally felt that he recovered, he entered the library, and as always he had to duck due to his height. Spike was sitting on a cushion reading a comic.

“Is Twilight here?” Daniel asked, and he could feel how he still needed to breathe heavily.

“She’s in her bedroom” Spike said not looking at the human. “She said she wanted to be alone and not be bothered until tomorrow morning” The dragon sighed and tried to focus on his comic. “She even told me to sleep somewhere else, and told me that she would give me a really big gemstone for this. So I moved my bed to the kitchen”

“Thanks Spike” Daniel said and trotted upstairs. He knew what he had to do and he knew that he couldn’t wait to the next day. He finally reached Twilight’s room. The lights were off, and for a moment he thought that she was asleep. But then he could hear a sobbing from inside. She was crying. She had been crying since he left her.

With a shivering hand he knocked the door. There was a sudden silence that lasted for several seconds. “I told you I want to be alone, Spike!” She said, and Daniel could feel that she was struggling to not sound sad as she said that.

“It’s me” He said. There was another pause.

“What do you want?” Daniel noticed how she was about to cry again.

He sighed. “I want to talk with you”

Silence again. When she didn’t answer, he dared to open the door and step inside. The room was indeed dark. He walked to the bed, and for a moment he feared that she had teleported herself away from there. But a dim light coming through the window made its way to a hoof on a pillow covering the head of Twilight. He slowly walked to her side and sat on the edge of the bed.

“I’m sorry” He said and noticed how Twilight tensed under her blanket. “For making you wait for an answer this long, I mean” Daniel looked to his side. Twilight hadn’t moved at all.

“It’s only been forty minutes” She said and Daniel wondered how she knew that.

He folded his hands on his lap and looked to the front. “Seriously? I felt it as if four hours have passed”

Twilight groaned and finally decided to uncover her head and look at the human. Daniel turned to face her. Her mane was a little messy, her eyes were a little red for the crying, and she was frowning. He sighed. “I’m still not entirely sure of how I feel about you” He said and Twilight looked away, her frown disappeared and her expression starting to be one of sadness. “But I figured it out how to be sure at one hundred percent”

Twilight looked at him again. She didn’t know what to think anymore. Daniel only looked at her with a warm smile. She wanted to remain silent, but her inner curiosity was stronger. “How?” She asked.

“Sit up” He said with a tender voice. She slowly accommodated herself to sit on her bed, and she finally was at eye level with him. She didn’t remember the last time she could look at his eyes like that. He was so tall that even sitting he had to look down to talk to her. But right now they were at the same height. She realized that it was because he had curved his back.

He slowly reached her head with a hand and placed it on her cheek. She blushed but didn’t move. And she remembered that the last time he touched her was when he hugged her two moons ago. He leaned closer to her and her heart started to beat so strong that she could feel it in her chest. Daniel stopped mere inches from her face. “This should do it” He closed his eyes and with a fast movement, he kissed her.

Twilight’s lips were like nothing he had experienced before. They were flat but soft, and her fur against his skin tickled. But even so, his heart was beating so fast that he thought it would explode. For a moment they didn’t move, but slowly he began giving her small kisses without taking away his lips. At first Twilight was so shocked that Daniel felt as if he was kissing a plushie, but she soon started doing the same thing.

For several minutes they just kissed their lips. Daniel stroke Twilight’s face with his hand and he could feel her fur wet there where her tears once ran, so he used his thumb to dry them. Once he did so, he smoothly passed his hand through her mane and to the back of her neck, rubbing tenderly her fur with his fingers. It was an experience Twilight didn’t knew she could feel, those five fingers of his felt like heaven, and a chill ran through her spine, making her moan a little through the kisses.

Daniel felt how she opened her mouth a little, so he used his tongue to press against her lips until she let it in. She used her tongue to meet his and moved it inexpertly. He felt her tongue dancing with his own and had to suppress a giggle at her clumsy movements. But instead of reject her trying, he decided to teach her how to dance. And so slowly but decidedly, his tongue moved in circles against hers until she could follow his lead.

And for a moment that seemed as an eternity, they sat there just kissing each other. Twilight felt her mind spinning wildly and her heart in her throat. But when moments ago she had been crying for a broken heart, she now was crying of happiness. The first guy she ever saw in a romantic way was kissing and stroking her. And she couldn’t think of anything else, her mind only focused on Daniel and their moment together. But the paradise was not meant to last forever, and the human broke the kiss.

But even when their mouths had been separated, they still kept united by a thin line of saliva. Twilight opened her eyes just a little, and she could see him watching her with a warm smile. She smiled in return while softly gasping for the air she lost in the kiss and barely recovered.

“Wow” Daniel said. “You’re really happy, aren’t you?” For a moment she didn’t know what he was talking about, and then she felt his hand going down from her neck and until her wing. She blushed even more and was going to tell him that it wasn’t her fault, when he passed his hand and fingers softly through her feathers and gave her another kiss, this one was quick, but enough to make her forget about her wingboner.

“Are…” She said, the words felt heavy in her throat since the only thing she wanted was to jump in his arms, but she fought the urge to do so. “Are you a hundred percent now of how you feel?” She asked. She needed to know. That kiss had been perfect for her, but she needed to know if he felt the same way.

“Hmmm” He scratched his chin with a finger of his free hand. “I don’t know… I need to make another test” And before she could ask, he put his other hand on Twilight’s cheek while still playing with her wing with the other. She closed her eyes and waited for the kiss. But instead of her lips, it was her neck.

She gasped in surprise while he kissed her on her neck. He gave her soft kisses while stroking her cheek and playing with one of her wings. She had to bit her lips to prevent the moan she knew she was going to make. All her fur bristled when he started to massage her right in the base of her wings, and she was unable to keep her mouth shut, moaning in pleasure as he moved his head up and down through her neck.

As Daniel was kissing, he caught the smell of her mane and fur. It was a mix of vanilla and flowers. He couldn’t tell which one came from which part of her body, nor did he care. It was a really weird sensation to be kissing fur, at least with these kind of kisses. Even more when she started to make those noises. It only made him kiss her more passionately, and slowly he started to forget that he was kissing a pony, because he realized that he was kissing Twilight.

He felt how her wings twitched at his touch, so he kept massaging the base. Her fur was so soft that he wanted to keep stroking her forever. But as much as he enjoyed this, it had to end, and he knew that if he didn’t end it, Twilight wouldn’t do it either. So he stopped everything and leaned backwards so he would be able to look at her face without problems. She was so red that Daniel wondered if she had the ability to change her fur color.

Twilight was panting heavily, which he found really cute. “Are…” She had with her eyes so narrowed that seemed to be closed, but Daniel knew that she was looking at him. “Are you a… hundred percent sure now?” Daniel had to laugh, and he laughed so hard that he had to lie down on the bed as tears formed in his eyes. “W-What’s so funny?” Twilight asked with a frown, but the human kept laughing for a full minute.

When he finally calmed himself, he sat up on the bed with both legs crossed underneath his body and looked at Twilight with a big smile. “Yes Twilight, I’m completely sure of how I feel about you now” He said, and she opened her mouth to say something, but he quickly leaned closer to her and kissed her again. It confused him a little how fast he got used to her mouth, but he just shrugged at the thought. He didn’t care anymore.

And once again, he broke the kiss and looked at her directly in the eyes. “Twilight Sparkle” He said while rubbing her cheeks with both thumbs. “I love you. And I’d be so honored if you accept to be my special somepony” He had to suppress a giggle.

Twilight bounced to him and hugged his neck with both forelegs, resting her head in his shoulder. “Yes! I want to be your special somepony!” She said and if her forelegs weren’t enough, she also used her wings to hug him. Daniel embraced her in return. “I love you. I love you so much!” She was crying, but her tears were of happiness.

Daniel gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry for making you cry” He said and pulled her a little closer to himself.

“It’s not your fault” She said between sobs. “I told you how I feel out of nowhere. It’s normal that you freaked out”

“No, it is my fault” He sighed. “Do you think I just fell in love with you when you told me that?” Twilight then leaned backwards to look at him with a confused gaze. “I can’t say how long, because I don’t know myself… But I've loved you since way before today”

“Then why-”

“I didn’t want to admit it” He said looking away. “I thought it was unnatural for me to love a pony…”

“And what made you change your mind?”

He sighed again. “I went to see Rarity… I didn’t exactly know why, but I now realize that I subconsciously wanted someone to tell me that it’s perfectly natural… And that’s what she did” He then looked back at Twilight and playfully rubbed his nose with hers, which made her giggle a little. “And I thank her… Because now I can say how much I love you without worries” He gave her a quick kiss. “I love you”

And for the very first time, Twilight gave him a quick kiss as well. “I love you too, Daniel”

Author's Note

Welp, 11 chapters in 11 days, I'm happy with this.

So this is the end of the first part of the fic. I'm out of ideas, I think I used all my inspiration with this xD So, maybe the next chapter will come in a few days or so, I don't know. I just want to know if you're enjoying the story ^^

P.S. Please forgive all the mistakes. I'm working to improve myself ^^U

12. Face the Friends

A warm ray of light coming through the window was enough to wake Daniel up. He pressed his eyelids to dismiss the tiredness and slowly opened them, patiently waiting for the blur in his sight to disappear. And then he noticed something weird. The window was in the opposite side of the bed. For a moment he wondered if he slept upside down, and he was going to sit up when he felt that something moved a little on his chest.

He looked down, it was a purple hoof. His heart stopped for a second and suddenly began to beat really fast. Turning his head to his left he could see a sleeping Twilight with her nose pressing softly against his shoulder. He blinked and after several seconds, he smiled. He moved a little trying not to wake her up, and with his right hand he started to stroke her cheek.

Daniel then remembered that just last night Twilight confessed her love for him and after a talk with Rarity he had been able to admit his feelings for her. They had kissed each other. And after that they just hugged.

They must have fell asleep without noticing, Daniel concluded. After all, that had been a really active day with Winter Wrap Up and that kind of stuff. He even noticed that he still had his vest on, and he was soaked in sweat. It was really uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to move, not yet. Twilight looked so cute and he wanted to enjoy this sight as much as he could. But sadly that moment had to end, and making a little sound with her mouth, she woke up.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead” Daniel said in a cheerful and tender tune. Twilight abruptly opened her eyes and looked at the human, who only greeted her with a warm smile. “Did you sleep well?” He asked and the alicorn’s face turned to a bright red.

“Did… I… We…” Twilight couldn’t make her words have sense. Daniel had to giggle a little the surprised look in her eyes, and before she could even realize what was going on, he leaned closer and gave her a tender kiss in her forehead.

“Hush now” He said with a small grin in his face. “Yes, we did sleep together” Twilight’s wings twitched, but she struggled to keep them folded. “Yes, we only slept” He giggled a little more when the alicorn looked away a little embarrassed.

Daniel started to softly stroke her face, tenderly rubbing his thumb against her cheek. Twilight turned again to look at him with a faint smile. Her heart was beating fast, but her muscles were relaxed and she was normally breathing. This was definitively a moment she didn’t want to end. She pressed her muzzle against his chest, carefully trying not to stab him with her horn. She was so comfortable that she wanted to fall asleep again and forget everything about the world.

But paradise was not meant to last forever. Daniel moved away from her and sat up on the edge of the bed and stretched his arms. “Wow I haven’t slept this good in years” He said and awkwardly moved his head to one side to crack his neck. For a moment Twilight feared that he injured himself, but then he did the same to the other side, and with a second crack he sighed in relief.

“Do I have to get used to that sound?” Twilight asked and Daniel only could giggle at that. He then took his vest off and placed it on the bed at his side. “What are you doing?” She asked and Daniel noticed the nervousness of her voice.

He smiled to himself, knowing that she couldn’t see his face at the moment. “Exactly what you think I’m doing” He answered and slowly started to take off his shirt. The feeling of wet clothes against his body was something Daniel always found disgusting. He could hear how Twilight was muttering, probably something about him being naked. “Relax Twilight, I’m just taking off my shirt. I need to ventilate my torso or all this sweat will drive me crazy” And with that, he finally divested from his shirt.

Twilight could see how the dim light cast shadows through his muscles and how they danced on his back when he moved. It wasn’t exactly an uncommon sight for her since minotaurs seemed to have the same anatomy in the torso. But his furless skin and slim body somehow hypnotized her. And then he turned around to face her, but she kept staring at his body. Then again, she didn’t have anything to compare him with, but for some reason she found the shape of his muscles rather attractive. And then she saw them.

“Nipples” Was the only thing she could say.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “I’d never have guessed you had a fetish like that” He said with a smirk and enjoyed how Twilight turned red again.

“I-I don’t!” She said shaking her hooves in front of her. “It’s just that… Well, only females have nipples!”

He scratched his chin for a few seconds and looked back at Twilight. “Maybe in this world, but we humans have nipples regardless of our gender”

“But what’s their purpose? I don’t think you can lactate, can you?”

Daniel had to laugh. Twilight was certainly the kind of pony that wanted to know everything, and he had to admit that he really loved that curiosity of hers. When he finally could calm himself, he dried some tears with his thumb and looked at her. “No, I don’t lactate. They’re just there for decoration”

Twilight was about to argue that every part of the body in every living being had a purpose, but she was cut off when he leaned closer and kissed her. He passed his hand through her messy mane and to the back of her head. And after a few seconds, he leaned backwards to brake the kiss, but was surprised when she decided to keep their lips united.

He giggled a little and gave her what she wanted. And so their mouths opened and their tongues greeted each other to start a dance of love only they knew. Twilight used her hind legs to lift her body a little and hugged him by his neck, and she could feel the sweat of his body against her fur, but she didn’t care.

Both of them were enjoying the moment, and didn’t want it to end. But there was a knock at the door. “Breakfast’s served, Twilight!” Spike’s cheerful voice echoed through the room and made them stop the kiss.

Twilight awkwardly cleared her throat. “Coming!” Daniel yelled and Twilight only looked at him with widened eyes, and he only gave her a sly smile.

“Daniel? What are you doing there?”

There was a small pause while Daniel jumped off the bed and walked to the door to greet his draconic friend despite Twilight’s complaints. “Morning, Spike” He said and the dragon only looked at him with an eyebrow raised and a speculative gaze. “Did you sleep well?”

Spike nodded. “Did you sleep here?” He asked and looked past Daniel to where Twilight was brushing her mane and then laid his eyes upon the human again.

“Well, no. Do you know how difficult it would be for me to sleep standing on my feet?” He asked, and Spike only remained staring at him. He giggled a little. “I’m teasing Spike, of course I slept here” Daniel heard Twilight choke and cough as Spike only fell silent without changing his expression.

“Why?” Spike asked after a brief pause.

“Why not?” Daniel said comically while crouching to be a little closer to the dragon. “Isn’t that what couples do?”

Spike was about to answer when Twilight teleported between him and the human. “Spike, can you please go back downstairs? Daniel and I need to talk” And before the dragon could say anything, she closed the door, locked it and cast a sound proof barrier around her and Daniel. “What was that?” She said looking directly at the human’s eyes.

“What?” He raised both shoulders and held his hands in the air mimicking a surprised reaction. “The little guy asked some obvious questions and I answered them” He then raised an eyebrow. “Why? Is that a bad thing?”

“N-No! Of course not! It’s just… Well I-I think that…”

Daniel stared at her with a very forced serious expression in his face, as if trying not to laugh. But then he just smiled, kneeled to be eye level with Twilight and put a finger on her lips. “You’re really cute, Twilight Sparkle” He said, and for a moment the alicorn only blinked. “You want to hide me from the world as if I was some kind of naughty secret, don’t you?” Twilight blushed again and tried to reply but Daniel only pressed his finger a little harder against her lips. “Oh I’m not mad at you. I actually find it really adorable”

“Daniel”

“But we can’t keep the girls in the dark about us, you know. They would feel really sad, specially Rarity since she helped me realize and admit my love for you”

“Daniel”

“Besides, Spike already knows it. And I’ve noticed that he’s not exactly good at keeping secrets”

“Daniel!”

“Yes?”

Twilight sighed and rubbed the point of her nose with a hoof. “What’s gotten into you? You’re talking way too much. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s unlike you”

Daniel blinked twice and leaned a little backwards. “I’m sorry”

“No, no. Don’t be sorry” She said making a little jump to put her forelegs on his shoulders. “I’m the one who should apologize. All this is new to me and I don’t know how to act” She looked down thinking on the best words to say.

Daniel gently lifted her chin and looked at her eyes. “I can’t say I’m new with this kind of stuff, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt how I feel right now” He gave her a faint smile. “I think I got a little carried away and didn’t think of how you feel. And for that, I’m truly sorry” He playfully rubbed his nose with Twilight’s. “If you want to wait for the proper time to tell the girls, I’ll understand”

Twilight slowly shook her head. “No, I do want to tell them about us as soon as possible. I just need a few minutes to convince myself that I’m not dreaming”

“Very well then” Daniel said and gave her a gentle kiss. “Your wish is my command, princess” He said with a goofy smile and Twilight couldn’t help but giggle.

She leaned backwards to be on her four legs and dismissed the spell while Daniel stood up. She opened the door and Spike was still there with his arms crossed against his chest and an eyebrow raised. “So, a couple huh?”

Twilight sighed and smiled at her assistant. “Yes Spike, Daniel and I are a couple now”

“Does that mean he’s going to sleep with you from now on?”

She looked at Daniel, who only shrugged and walked outside the room to his own to get a clean shirt. Twilight looked at Spike and smiled. “We’ll talk about that later. For now let’s have breakfast, ok?”

Spike shrugged and started to walk away. “If that’s a yes, then I want his room” He said waving a claw in the air. “I don’t want to hear weird noises at night” Twilight blushed and was going to reply, but Spike was already gone.

~~~~~~~~

The sudden change of season was something Daniel was amazed at. One day everything was covered in snow and the air was really cold, and the next day it was warm and flowers were starting to bloom and the streets were really clean. He wondered how the change to other seasons would look like.

He was going to the boutique along with Twilight. They had decided to tell the girls about their relationship that same day, but the first one to who they had to tell first was Rarity. “Are you ok there?” Daniel asked after noticing that Twilight had a nervous look in her eyes.

“Ah, yes. It’s just…” She stopped walking and forcefully sighed. “I was thinking that when we tell Pinkie, she most likely will throw a party… And…”

Daniel nodded in understanding. “Don’t worry, I know how to make her not to throw a party without offending her” She smiled at him and started to walk again. It was weird, the human somehow knew how to treat Pinkie Pie without losing his head in the process.

They finally got to the boutique. The ringing sound of the small bell had become so familiar to Daniel that it was almost relaxing. “Good morning, how may I-Twilight! Daniel!” Rarity said and ran to them just to stop mere feet away. For a moment she only looked at one another as her smile grew wide and her chest lifted in pride. “Please take a sit while I get some tea” She said and started to walk to the kitchen.

Daniel sat on the couch, his height always made him need to cross his legs under his body in order to get comfortable. Twilight decided to sit right at his side. At first she wanted to remain still, but the human used an arm to lean her closer to him with a hug. She smiled and rested her body on his, sitting on her flank for better comfort.

Rarity came a few moments later with her well known silver plate carrying her silver teapot and some cups. She placed them on the little table in front of the couch and then sat on a cushion to the other side. After serving the tea she took a little sip from her cup. “So” She placed her teacup on the table. “I see you two are getting along”

Twilight giggled a little. “Thank you Rarity” She looked at Daniel who smiled at her and then again to Rarity. “Without you this would have been impossible” She sighed and pressed her body a little more against the human’s. “We just came here to say thanks”

“Nonsense, darling. It’s what friends are for” She gave a warm grin to Daniel before looking again to Twilight. “But I want to know how it happened”

“Well…” Twilight said with a big smile and starting to blush a little. “Yesterday after Winter Wrap Up I told him how I feel. He said to let him think and then he walked away. I thought he was going to reject me, so I went to the library and asked Spike to leave me alone” She made a little pause and then looked directly at Rarity’s eyes. “But a few minutes later he came to my room and kissed me. And then he told me that he loves me too”

Rarity raised an eyebrow and looked at Daniel with a sly smile. “Oh really? You sure did a thorough thinking on your way to the library”

Daniel shrugged. “I guess I did”

“Well, I’m really happy for you two” Rarity said and took a sip of her tea. “Did you tell the other girls yet?”

Twilight slowly shook her head. “We wanted to talk to you first since you’re the reason why we’re together now” Rarity let out a flattered giggle. And after that they just talked about other things. Daniel remained particularly silent, but never stopped hugging Twilight.

~~~~~~~~

“The next one is Pinkie Pie” Twilight said while trotting down the street.

“Did you make a list?” Daniel asked following her effortlessly.

“Of course not! It’s just that Sugar Cube Corner is the nearest place of the boutique!”

Daniel laughed a little. “I’m teasing you Twilight” The alicorn was going to reply but a pink blur tackled her to the ground. She blinked to recover her sight. “Pinkie Pie? What are you doing?”

“Twilight! Last night my Pinkie sense told me that something big, like, really big was going to happen! And I remembered that the last time my Pinkie sense told me something like that was when you finally accepted that I have a Pinkie sense! *Gasp* But then it stopped and I was really confused because I never got to know what was going to happen! *Gasp* But then I saw you walking and I remembered that last night my Pinkie sense told me that something happened! And if I remembered that the moment I saw you it means that you’re related to that! *Gasp* So, what happened?!”

“Pinkie, let me stand up and I’ll tell you” Twilight said and Pinkie moved bouncing and smiling expectantly. When the alicorn recovered her balance on her four legs, she looked to her friend with a smile. “I believe that the ‘big thing’ is that Daniel and I are a couple now”

“No way!” Pinkie yelled and looked at Daniel who only smiled and nodded. She then looked at Twilight and jumped to hug her. “That’s the best news ever! You know what this calls for? A PAR-”

“Pinkie” Daniel interrupted. “Come here for a moment” He said and stepped backwards at a good distance from Twilight. Pinkie followed him bouncing until he stopped and bent over to her. “I know you’re excited and all that, but could you please not throw a party this time?”

Pinkie stared at him for a few seconds. “Why not?”

“Listen, we don’t mind that everybody knows about us, but we don’t want a party for that” He said with a soft voice.

“But why not? Two of my bestest friends love each other so so so so so much that they are now a cute couple! And that needs to be celebrated with the biggest party Ponyville has ever had!”

Daniel only stared at her and then smiled. “Yes, we want to celebrate, but we want to do it our way, with a quiet reunion and just with our closest friends.” He said and stood up stretching his back. “And I want you to organize that normal, quiet and scheduled reunion where we can just talk and eat some pastries. What do you say?”

“Oki doki loki!” Pinkie said beaming.

“What are we celebrating?” Daniel almost jumped in surprise just to meet a cyan pegasus hovering lazily in the air.

“We’re celebrating that Daniel and Twilight are a couple and they love each other so much that they want a party! But a quiet party! I have to ask Fluttershy, she knows how to throw that kind of parties. See you Daniel!” And with that, Pinkie was nowhere to be seen.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow to the human and then looked at Twilight to the other side of the street. “Really?” She asked and looked at the human. “Since when?”

“Since yesterday” He answered with a proud smile.

Rainbow Dash gave him a sly smile as well. “Gotta say, I didn’t expect that. I mean, I never thought Twilight would ever know what is it like to feel attracted by somepony else”

Daniel chuckled a little. “You underestimate her. Actually, she’s the one who told me her feelings first” Dash looked at him with her eyes filled up with surprise. “You should learn from her, Dash. It’s time for you to admit your feelings for-”

“SHUT UP!” Rainbow said with her face completely red.

“What’s going on here?” Twilight said having crossed the road. “Where’s Pinkie Pie? Why Rainbow’s face is all red? Are you ok Rainbow Dash?”

“I’m fine! Stop questioning me!” Twilight raised an eyebrow. That nervousness only meant that the pegasus was hiding something, but before she could speak, Rainbow cleared her throat awkwardly. “Anyway, good to hear that you two are together and that stuff-Oh! Look at the time! Gotta go bye!” And with that, Rainbow disappeared in a multicolored blur.

Twilight looked at Daniel with an inquiring gaze and he only shrugged. “Pinkie is with Fluttershy to ask for her advice in quiet parties” The alicorn raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Don’t ask, let’s go with the others”

~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy’s cottage was next. Daniel couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the sight. Everything was surrounded by all kind of flowers. And all kind of animals were running everywhere. But what really caught his attention was a big brown bear playing bunnies and squirrels.

Twilight knocked the door while Daniel kept staring at the animals. “Oh hi Twilight” Fluttershy said after opening the front door and shyly pocking her head through it. “Pinkie told me the good news. Congratulations to both of you”

“Thanks Fluttershy” Twilight said looking at Daniel with almost angry eyes, but the human was distracted by Fluttershy’s critters. “So, we’d like to stay and talk with you, but we still want to tell AJ about us, and then we’ll go out on a date” Twilight giggled nervously a little at her last word.

“I understand. If you need anything else just call me and I’ll be there” Fluttershy said and slowly closed the door.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Fluttershy never closed her door at anypony’s face. But she ignored the thought, maybe the pegasus was busy. So with her magic she pulled Daniel from his shirt until he stopped watching the animals and started following her.

~~~~~~~~

Sweet Apple Acres’ trees had already grown leaves, and Daniel couldn’t think about anything more fascinating than that. He wondered how life on Earth would be like if trees could be able to recover all their leaves in just one day. The sight was amazing. While just the day prior everything was white due to the snow, right now green was the color of the farm, and it was an even more reassuring sight for him.

They got closer to the farmhouse. Applejack was carrying a stack of hay from the barn. “Hey Applejack” Twilight said as they got closer. Applejack placed the hay on the floor and waved a hoof in the air.

“’Sup Twah! Daniel! How’s it going?” She asked cheerfully.

Twilight went straight to hug her friend, and after a few seconds, she just looked directly at the farmer’s eyes. “Well, Daniel and I came here to tell you that we’re now a couple” She said with an enthusiastic voice.

“That’s great! But why ya made all th’ way from th’ library to here just t’ tell me that?”

“We didn’t want to call you all to the library just for that, but we didn’t want to wait any longer, that’s why Twilight decided to visit you all one by one so we don’t interfere on your chores” Daniel explained with a warm smile.

Applejack gave them a big smile of her own. “Well ain’t ya really sweet. An’ when all this happened?”

“Yesterday” Twilight answered and Daniel nodded.

“Well now, don’t ya wanna come in an’ eat somethin’? It’s almost lunch time” Applejack said, but Twilight slowly shook her head.

“We really appreciate it AJ, but we’re going to have a date” She still had to giggle a little at that last word. “And we still need to decide where we are going. But thanks for the offer, maybe another day”

Applejack nodded. “Ah don’t wanna slow ya more, ya can count with mah support and love as friend. Ah’ll tell Granny, Big Mac an’ AB ya said hi” She said and took the stack of hay again.

“Thank you, see you later” Daniel said and turned around to leave the farm with Twilight. When they finally got out of the farm, Twilight was humming a melody only she could hear, and Daniel was enjoying her voice all the way. He was really comfortable at her side.

He has had girlfriends before, three to be precise. But they never lasted more than one month. The girls he dated talked way too much, not that he didn’t like it, at least not until they wanted him to talk about the same nonsense. He was happy just listening to them, and he could understand that they wanted to talk about the things they liked. But he really hated when they just ignored him when he tried to talk about things he liked, so he ended his three relationships after a month.

But Twilight was really different. Sure she talked a lot about things she liked such as Starswirl the bearded, science and other stuff she read in books. But she was also a very good listener, and the very few times Daniel wanted to share something with her, she listened and talked about it. Maybe that was one of the reasons he fell in love with her, but it sure wasn’t the only one.

“So, where do you want to go?” Twilight asked and Daniel realized that they were at the library again. “I read that we should try to go to a restaurant”

Daniel crossed his arms and thought about it. “Well, on Sundays I always go to meatception, but-”

“Isn’t that the only restaurant in Ponyville that serves meat?”

“Yeah…” Daniel said. “But we obviously can’t go there, so-”

“Why not?”

Daniel blinked and then raised an eyebrow. “Because I’m not going to eat meat in front of you”

Twilight pondered that for a few moments and then sighed. “I believe that they also have fruit and veggies in their menu”

“B-But…”

“We’re dating now, right? I can’t just ignore the fact that you need to eat meat to survive” She gave him a warm smile. “And if I have to be honest, I’ve always been curious on how that kind of food is cooked” Daniel was about to argue but Twilight teleported them both to the entrance of the restaurant.

It was a small red building with a big sign right above the front door that said ‘Meatception. Best fresh flesh fer yer taste’. A green unicorn stallion with short brown mane was in front of the door with a welcoming smile. “You could tell me before you do that” Daniel deadpanned, but Twilight giggled an apology and trotted over the stallion.

“Hello sir” Twilight greeted.

“Princess Twilight!” The stallion bowed at her.

“Calm down, Silk Touch” Daniel said with a big smile. The stallion looked at him, then at Twilight and then at the human again, giving him a confused gaze. “Today I’ll need a table for two and your salads’ menu”

Silk raised an eyebrow to Daniel. “Sure thing, Daniel. Princess. This way.” And then he entered the restaurant.

Twilight couldn’t help but let out a gasp of surprise at the decorations. The walls were dark red with golden patterns and the light was provided by big and impressive golden chandeliers. And she could see some minotaurs in one table and some griffons in another. She didn’t even know there was so many in Ponyville. When they got to their table, Twilight had to jump to get on her chair. Daniel giggled at the sight. “These chairs are not meant for ponies, after all” He said, looking through the room. “But that doesn’t stop some to come here anyways”

Twilight froze and slowly turned her face to where Daniel was looking. In a table placed as far away from every window as possible was a group of five ponies, two mares and three stallions. Twilight narrowed her eyes to improve her sight, and she could see their food. “Are they…”

“Eating meat? Yes” Answered Silk Touch, giving the normal menu to Daniel and the salads’ one to Twilight, who held it in her own magic. “Ponies are not meant to eat it, but since it doesn’t have any negative consequence in our digestive system, some come here from time to time”

Daniel nodded and opened her menu. “I didn’t know it either, but seeing ponies here helped me get used to the company of griffons and minotaurs” He made a little pause and looked at Silk. “I want fried fish and orange juice”

Silk wrote that in a small notebook with a pencil and then looked at Twilight. “Uhmm, I’d like the carrot and broccoli salad and apple juice, please” The waiter wrote that and walked away. Twilight then looked at Daniel. “Ok I have two questions. First, why Silk Touch took our orders?”

“Because it’s his job. Sure he’s at the front door greeting new customers, but he’s a waiter too since this restaurant lacks of employees”

Twilight nodded. “Ok, and my second question is: Why did you order fish?”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Because I want fish”

“Don’t give me that” She gave him a stern look and he only sighed in defeat.

“Alright Twilight. I still don’t feel comfortable eating meat in front of you, so I ordered white meat”

“White meat?”

Daniel chuckled a little. “Yeah, it’s how we call the meat that doesn’t look so ‘bloody’” He said, but Twilight was still looking at him with a confused glare. “You’ll understand at its proper time”

Twilight was about to argue, but then Silk came with their food. Her salad had mostly carrots and broccoli, but it also had some spinach and celery. It looked delicious, and then she dared to look at Daniel’s food. It was indeed a fish with blackish spots all over it, a small lettuce, avocado and tomato salad at one side and potato puree at the other side.

It somehow looked tasty, Twilight had to admit. But she decided to focus on her own food. But it was easier said than done. Daniel carefully used a knife to cut the meat. While for some reason she expected blood to pour from the fish, nothing happened, it was just the meat and some little spines that the human had to pull out with his fingers. It was a weird thing to watch him eat animals. Sure she had watched Fluttershy’s bear eat fish from time to time, but she never paid attention to that. And know that she was fully aware of what she was seeing, she had to admit that it wasn’t that bad.

After they finished their food, they ordered some pastries and started to talk.

“I’m sorry” Twilight said moving idly a cherry through her plate with a fork.

Daniel blinked. “What?”

“I’m sorry” She repeated trying to not look at Daniel’s eyes. “I… I’ve been reading every single book I could find about the subject, but…” Tears started to form in her eyes. “I just can’t find… anything…”

Daniel reached her foreleg with his hand and gently wrapped her hoof with his fingers. “What are you talking about?”

Twilight was starting to sob. “I can’t… I can’t find anything…” She looked at his eyes when he started to softly rub his fingers through her hoof. “About your world, Daniel…” And then she started to cry.

“Hey, it’s ok” Daniel said with a tender voice and moved his hand from her hoof to her cheek. “It’s ok Twilight”

“How can you say that? It’s obviously not okay” She said letting his fingers move through her cheek. “I promised you I’ll find a way to make you able to return to your home… But…”

“Twilight, listen to me” Daniel said giving her a warm smile. “I’m not going to lie. Of course I’d like to get back to Earth…” He leaned closer to her carefully trying not to touch anything on the table, gave her a soft kiss. “But now I have a life here. I have a job at the boutique. I have my archery field. I have wonderful friends… And I have you, Twilight”

“D-Daniel…”

“I don’t care anymore of the reason why I came here, because you shouldn’t look at the teeth of a given horse” Twilight giggled a little. For a moment Daniel only stroke her cheek, looking her with a faint smile. “I love you and I want to be with you. So…” He moved his mouth a little hesitant. “So… Stop the research…”

Twilight widened her eyes in surprise. “What?”

“Stop the research” He repeated. “If in the future I have the opportunity to go back to Earth I’ll choose to remain in Equestria anyways” He tenderly rubbed his nose with hers. “Because I want to be with you, Twilight. I love you”

She then leaned closer and kissed him. “I love you too, Daniel”

13. Face the Circumstances

“Please remind me why I’m doing this” Daniel stood in the middle of the bedroom with both hands pressing against his body. Just a week after he started dating Twilight, they decided to sleep in the same room. So they gave Spike Daniel’s former bedroom.

Twilight placed the book she was holding with her magic on a table and smiled at Daniel. “Because you asked in the first place”

“You know I was joking”

“It doesn’t matter” Twilight said waving a hoof in front of her. “You made me think about it. And I just have to test it. I need to do it, or it will drive me crazy” She lit her horn and started to accumulate her magic.

Daniel looked at her with pleading eyes. “Have you ever done this before?” He asked putting a hand on his chest. “Not that I don’t trust you, but…”

She giggled a little. “I must admit that the first time it didn’t come quite well. But don’t worry, I’ve been practicing a lot. I know I can do it without problems this time.”

This, of course, didn’t help Daniel at all. He knew that Twilight was able to handle any spell she wanted, but the sole idea of being him the test subject unsettled him. He let out a nervous and forced giggle and gulped. He had to endure the consequences of his actions. What has been an innocent ask turned into a real and frightening situation. Twilight was about to turn him into a pony.

“How exactly does this spell work?” He asked trying to buy time to delay the inevitable.

Twilight smiled and put a hoof on her chest with pride. “It’s a metamorphosis spell. It will alter your anatomy to transform it into another biological structure.” The sparks of her horn were dancing wildly through the magical glow. Daniel was able to hear the faint humming of her magic vibrations. “But don’t worry, the spell wears off itself in six hours”

He blinked. “Wait, you can’t undo it?” Twilight shook her head. “I suddenly have the urge to run away” He said, but didn’t move. Part of his mind was yelling in fear, but the other half was really curious of how it would feel like to be a pony. He sighed and tried to relax his muscles. Twilight really wanted to see how he would look like as a pony. And he didn’t want to disappoint her. “Alright, just do it already and let’s finish with this”

Twilight smiled in relief for finally getting his consent. Her magic swirling around her horn at full charge. The spell was ready, her mind was focused. And with a simple but extremely planned small movement of her body, she cast the spell.

Daniel felt a warm surrounding his body. It was the same feeling as the time when Twilight levitated him three months ago. But the warmth passed through his skin and wrapped his muscles, veins, bones, organs, blood, and basically every single cell within his body. For a moment he feared that he was set in fire, but it didn’t hurt. A sudden flash made him instinctively close his eyes, and then he couldn’t open them.

He could feel how his body moved in odd ways. He felt how his bones changed shape, some of them disappearing and some appearing. His entrails moved and accommodated themselves in weird angles, some widened, some shrank, and as the bones, some faded and some formed. Something popped from the end of his back, his spine decided to grow some new vertebrae, and even if the fur came unnoticed, the sudden growth of hair from the new appendage just above his butt felt especially weird.

All the while, he could feel how his hands, feet, fingers and toes shrank, twisted, tightened and cracked. But even so, his head was what felt the weirdest. His head enlarged itself, as if someone was pulling from his nose. He felt his cheeks fall and become more flat as his eyes felt as if they were being pulled from the edges.

And finally, it was over.

He didn’t notice when he was forced to stand on four legs. He could hear an incessant whistle inside his ears. He realized that he finally was a pony.

He slowly opened his eyes and patiently waited for the world to come in sight. In front of him was Twilight looking upon him with both concern and curiosity. He had expected that his new pony eyes would make him see her more beautiful or something, but she was exactly the same purple alicorn, only bigger. No, he was the one who lost height.

“How do you feel?” Twilight’s harmonic voice caught the attention of his ears, which only moments ago were moving restless at different directions trying to catch every source of the sounds that seemed clearer.

He blinked. “Fine… I think so…” His mouth felt really odd when he spoke.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and walked closer to him. “That’s good to hear. I was afraid I’d mess up the spell again” Daniel was about to giggle, but something caught completely his attention. As the alicorn got closer, a smell invaded his olfactory receptors. It was something he didn’t even know existed. It was a sweet and intoxicant scent that made his heart beat faster and faster. He was unable to describe it, but he sure liked it, no, he loved it.

“Y-Yeah…” He felt his cheeks blush for some reason and his breath was hot and heavy. “How I look like?”

Twilight put a hoof on her chin. “Well, you still have your clothes on, so you look ridiculous” She said with a giggle. “Your fur is black, I didn’t expect that”

“Well, my body hair is black, so it’s not that weird, I guess” He said, and realization came to his mind. He suddenly looked to his back, almost falling for the change of balance. “Great…” He deadpanned. “My new tail ripped my clothes. Now I have to buy more”

Twilight suppressed a giggle and gave a step backwards. “You should take it off”

Daniel felt his stomach throb really hard. In his world that statement had a totally different goal, and he just couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous about it. But then again, he was a pony for the next six hours, and ponies were always naked. He sighed and tried to take his shirt off, but the lack of thumbs, or fingers whatsoever, was something that he knew he wasn’t going to get used to.

He looked at Twilight who was just smiling at his rather pathetic show. “Uh… I normally wouldn’t ask this to anyone, but would you kindly help me take off my clothes?”

Twilight gave him a warm smile. “Of course” She then used her magic to levitate him and in a matter of seconds he was already naked.

“I feel really weird” Daniel said right when she made him land in the floor. His brown tail twirled instinctively at the touch of a soft breeze. He started to walk a little. It took him just a few steps to get used to his new balance. “Well, it’s not that bad”

Twilight giggled a little, but it was enough to catch his attention again. He walked to her with a smile. As he got closer, her scent started to flood his senses again. It was such a gorgeous smell that he unconsciously slowed his pace and closed his eyes. “Are you ok?” Twilight asked. Daniel opened his eyes just to see that he came to a halt just mere inches from the alicorn.

He breathed heavily, and for the longest time he only stared at her mouth. He saw her lips move, but he couldn’t hear her voice. Daniel felt his heart beat hard against his chest as just one thought crossed his mind. But more than a thought, it was a demand. His body was demanding him to kiss her, it was the only thing he wanted to do, so he did it.

Her lips felt a little different, her fur didn’t tickle anymore, maybe it was because of his own. And somehow, their mouths now fit the other’s perfectly. It didn’t take long for them to make their tongues dance with each other. Everything was a better experience for Daniel.

He stopped the kiss, his mind demanding him other things that he was willing to comply. He didn’t let Twilight say anything, he just moved to her neck, giving her passionate kisses and burying his face in her mane. And the smell was even better than his human nose was able to notice. Her scent mixed with the smell of flowers and vanilla was just so intoxicating that made him kiss her with more and more passion.

And then he heard it. Twilight was moaning in pleasure. It was low, really low, but just enough to make him feel a warm sensation in his chest that extended through all his body. He opened his eyes a little, her mane covered his sight. The hairs hanging gracefully from her head and neck and dancing with the breezes his breath made was hypnotizing. He stopped kissing and decided to take a deep breath, trying to catch all the scent of her mane.

Daniel was in paradise. He wondered how he could leave all this time not knowing what he was missing. He opened again his eyes, he didn’t even cared that he kept closing them all the time, since every time he opened them, he would get another gorgeous visual gift. And this last time was the best one. He had leaned his head a little, and Twilight’s mane was no longer in his sight field. His heart stopped for just a second and then started to beat really fast. This time the first thing he saw was Twilight’s flank.

He had seen her flank lots of times before, for she was always naked. But this time, however, her back rear looked marvelous. It didn’t take him too long to know what he had to do. So he started to kiss her again, slowly moving down through her neck. He got to her wings that were unfolded and twitched at the touch of his mouth. He gave himself a smile, slowly putting a hoof in front of the other.

Every single inch he moved, Twilight’s scent grew stronger and died in his throat, just to be replaced by another big breath of her smell. And then, he finally got to his objective, and gave a strong and passionate kiss right in her cutie mark.

“Da… Daniel…” Twilight moaned. Daniel turned his head and his eyes met hers. Those big amethysts shimmered as the stars in the night sky. For a moment he couldn’t read her expression, but as the situation was finally processed by his brain, he finally knew what he was doing.

He let out a small, heavy and slow pant. His mind was a swirl of thoughts, every single of them was pure instinct trying to claim his actions. For a few seconds they didn’t say anything, only staring at the other’s eyes. Daniel moved hesitant his mouth, and after the longest time, he closed it and gave Twilight an inquisitive gaze. Twilight panted a few times and slowly but decidedly nodded.

That was all he needed. He walked behind her making a big circle, as if he tried to watch her from a better perspective. Twilight lifted her tail. It wasn’t a quick, hesitant movement, but a firm and obvious sign of what she wanted. And if it wasn’t enough, it started to wave from side to side, spreading her scent through the room. Daniel didn’t need more than mere seconds to understand.

He walked a little more and soon he found himself right behind her. Her tail still waving in a very, very provocative way. He smiled and put a hoof on her flank. It was really soft. For a moment he wondered how he was able to feel with his new hooves, but he dismissed the thought. His instincts had already taken all control of his body and his mind.

Daniel was about to make the little jump that would mean the point of no return, when Spike’s voice came as an echo from downstairs. “Twilight! I’m home!” He yelled, and the sound of the front door closing was enough to make Daniel jump backwards and almost fall. At the same time, Twilight snapped her wings against her body and walked nervously and erratic through the room.

Her face suddenly turned a bright red as realization slapped her. “C-Coming!” She yelled a little too loud. She watched at Daniel who was desperately trying to hide his boner with his shirt. Twilight blinked a few times before turning around and walked to the door. Fortunately for her, it was easier for mares to hide their arousal, even more if they had magic to suppress the obvious smell that got stronger in those situations.

She slowly walked downstairs, trying her best to calm herself with deep breathes. Her heart was beating so hard that she could feel it in her chest. She couldn’t understand how that happened. One moment she was having fun with the strange combination of Daniel’s black fur and brown mane and tail, and the other she was about to mate with him!

She sighed. For now she needed to talk with Spike and relax. She would have time to think about it later. “Hey Spike, can you help me with-” She interrupted herself as she saw a familiar unicorn standing right in the middle of the library. “BBBFF?”

The white stallion looked at her and gave her a big smile. “Twily!” He said and ran to his sister, giving her a welcoming hug, which she responded a little hesitant. “How’s my favorite little sister?”

“Fine but… What are you doing here?” She asked. In other circumstances she would have been bouncing from side to side. But right now it wasn’t just unexpected, but being honest, it was also a little unwanted.

Shining Armor looked at her with a sad smile. “What? A brother can’t visit his sister once in a while?”

Twilight was about to answer, but Spike interrupted her. “Yeah, you only want to meet Daniel”

“Thank you, Spike. You’re always so subtle” Shining answered rolling his eyes. Twilight didn’t know what to think. She had told him and Cadence about the human with a letter, only that she kind of purposely forgot to tell them that he was a human. The unicorn looked at Twilight with a smile. “So, where is he?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?” Shining gave a step backwards. “You came here just to meet Daniel?!”

Shining shrugged. “Yeah, as your brother I have to judge your coltfriend with extreme jealousy and unfounded prejudice” He said and looked at Spike, who only stared at him with an eyebrow raised, and then turned back at Twilight. “I’d have came earlier, but being the prince of the Crystal Empire is a bit more time consuming than I expected”

Twilight was about to give him an excuse so he wouldn’t see Daniel at least until the spell wore off, but the sound of hooves coming from the stairs froze her in place. “Hey Twilight, we really need to talk about what happ-” Daniel said with concern in his voice before he finally came to her side and saw the white stallion in front of her.

Shining and Daniel looked at each other for a moment that seemed as an eternity. “Let me guess, you are Daniel” Shining finally said. There were so many things in that pony that unsettled him that he didn’t know where to start. His color scheme was odd, to say something. Black fur and dark brown mane and tail and equally black eyes were the first things he could think of. Then his name, if he thought it was weird when he read the letter, now it was even weirder. And then the fact that this earth pony didn’t have a cutie mark.

“Yeah… And you are…?” Daniel asked with an eyebrow raised. For some reason the unicorn seemed familiar to him, but he wasn’t able to tell why.

Shining blinked and then cleared his throat. “Prince Shining Armor. Pleased to meet you”

Daniel felt his stomach shrink. Of all the days her brother could pay an unexpected visit, it had to be this one. “Well… I suppose you came here to visit Twilight, so I’m just going to be… somewhere else” He said, but before he could start walking upstairs, the sound of Shining clearing his throat stopped him.

“Actually I’m here to meet my sister’s coltfriend” Shining said. His voice was serene and his face unreadable. Daniel had a bad feeling about him.

“Well, today is not exactly a good day…” He said trying to get as far from Twilight as possible without them noticing. Shining raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I’d love to get to know you and all that, but I’d like to do it in my human form”

Twilight tensed her muscles, but Daniel didn’t notice. Shining looked at her and then at the black pony. “What do you mean with ‘human’?”

Daniel looked at Twilight, who was desperately trying to make herself invisible without magic. He was about to ask the obvious, but she looked at him with pleading eyes. Daniel knew what to do, so he smiled and turned to Shining. “Yeah, I’m a human. I can’t explain to you how I look like, you’d need to see me in my original form” He said and casually walked to drag the unicorn’s attention away from Twilight. “But it happens that today I asked Twilight to turn me into a pony. But the spell will wear off in yet 5 more hours, so…”

Shining nodded. “I understand” He sighed. “If I knew I’d have made space in my schedule. I’m supposed to return to the Crystal Empire in two hours” He looked up and stared at Daniel for several seconds. “I suppose we have to arrange a meeting so all the family can get to know you” Daniel nodded. Shining smiled and got closer to him. “But I still will do this”

The unicorn leaned his head really close to Daniel’s and looked directly at his black eyes. “If my sister chose you, I suppose that you are a great guy. But know this: I used to be a captain of the royal guard, and do you know what royal guards do?” Daniel gulped. His new form as pony made him a little smaller than Shining, and it was truly intimidating. “That’s right, guard royalty” Shining said almost immediately.

“Shining! That’s enough!”

Shining only smiled at Daniel and turned to face Twilight. “Well Twily, it was really nice to see you. But I think I’m heading back to the Empire” He hugged his sister and then looked at Daniel. “I’m looking forward to meet your, uh, human form” He said with a smile and then walked to front door.

For several seconds there was just silence. “Your brother is weird” Daniel said. Twilight sighed forcefully and let herself a smile. “I mean, it was a totally loss of time to come here just for a few minutes. I’d understand if he lived here in Ponyville, but…”

“Yes, I know” Twilight said and looked at Daniel, who was at the other side of the room. “I’m sorry”

Daniel smiled at her. “You don’t need to apologize. I’ve met people weirder in my world”

Twilight shook her head. “Not for that… For, you know, not telling them that you’re a human” She looked down.

For a moment Daniel wanted to run to her and hug her, but he decided not to do so. “Hey, I’m not going to question why you decided to hide my nature” She looked up to him. “I know that you have your reasons, though right now you can’t do it anymore”

She smiled and walked to the former human to kiss him, but he stepped backwards. “D-Don’t come closer, please” He said and she complied. Daniel looked through the room while his mouth moved hesitant. Spike had gone to his bedroom at some moment, which was good, for now. “Twilight… I’m going to ask you something… And I need you to answer honestly” Twilight blinked, she wanted to ask why he was acting like that, but she decided to only nod. Daniel sighed. “Are… Are you in heat?”

Twilight blushed as her eyes widened. “Wh-What kind of question is that?” She asked while her mouth moved hesitant. Daniel only looked at her with a serious gaze. And then she realized why he asked that, or at least, she thought on a few reasons. She closed her eyes and slowly breathed, trying to relax her body, and then she opened them again. “No, I’m not”

“Damn…” He sighed and rubbed the point of his nose with a hoof. He then looked back at Twilight. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me in the bedroom… I… I couldn’t control myself” Twilight nodded in understanding. “I thought that maybe it was because you were in heat, but if that’s not the case…” He gulped. “I don’t want to know what would happen then…”

She rubbed a foreleg with another, looking at the floor. “I don’t know what happened to me either… It’s the first time I feel like that…” She let out a forced sigh as the memories of just moments ago came to her mind. And for some reason, just that was making her feel the same way again.

Daniel noticed her scent increasing. “Twilight… I think we… We should be in different rooms until I turn back into a human…” He finally said. His mind was starting to blur again and his breath was heavy and hot. “We can’t deny the… tension between us… So…”

Twilight nodded once. “I agree… I… I’m going to the boutique, see you in 6 hours” And with that, she disappeared in a pink flash of light.

Daniel trotted upstairs and to the bedroom. He was going to wait there until the spell wore off, but the alicorn’s scent was everywhere, and he just couldn’t think straight. He argued with his own thoughts for several minutes, maybe an hour or two. It was a fierce battle between instinct and logic, a battle that seemed it would last forever, but at the end, they decided to sign a peace treaty.

And with that, Daniel knew what he needed to do. He decided to take a shower, and not even caring about the annoying feeling of wet fur against his skin, he started to alleviate the tensions generated through hours of arguments in his mind. He soon discovered that hooves were almost useless for that kind of action. Almost.