The Past and the Present

I nervously step onto the porch and raise my hoof to knock when the door opens.

I am a little surprised that the door opened before I could knock, but I just guess that this ‘Aurora’ Pinkie Pie mentioned, was simply a magician. I hear a voice, soft and sweet, call out “Hello? Who’s There?” and I see a pristine white pegasus mare with dark blue hair, and clear, topaz eyes in the doorway,

“umm...,” I am dumbstruck by her appearance, I recover quickly though and ask, “Miss Aurora I presume?”

She looks a little flustered by that question, and responds with, “Yes, that’s me. What’s this about?”

I let my eyes gaze lazily about while I try to come up with a good reason for showing up, eventually I sigh defeatedly before deciding that it is too cold to be having this discussion outside, “Yes, about that, may I come in?”

She looks at me unsurely for a second, as if trying to figure out the best way to reject me, before replying, “Sure, it’s getting cold out, so I don’t blame you.” Now that I think about it, spending a cold night in my tent sounds like a terrible idea. well that could have gone worse. She holds the door open for me, shutting and locking it behind me, before leading me down the hallway and into what appears to be the living room. As I walk down the hallway, I automatically tense and search for hostiles, I eventually mentally berate myself for this, and step into the living room behind her. I notice that her mark is a starry rainbow, my gaze lingers on her flank for a moment, before she stops moving, and asks, “So, what is this about? you never actually answered my question.”

Shehas pretty flanks, I think from nowhere, feeling heat suffuse my cheeks, “I have no real idea, I was walking home after visiting a friend, and she jumps me, shoves me in this direction, and tells me to go to Aurora’s house, she even gives me an address. I am too scared of her to ignore her, so here I am.” am I really that long winded? I hope not.

 “I don’t know how much help I can be if you need anything, so make yourself at home, stay as long as your like, “ Aurora responds. Maybe she understands that mare better than I do. I begin trying to figure out why Pinkie would send me here, I don’t come up with anything, so I try harder, still nothing comes up, eventually I am broken from my thoughts by a question, “What’s wrong?” I stop moving, realizing I was pacing, again, and turn to face Aurora, “Nothing is wrong, I just pace out of habit,” I quickly think up a lie to convince her, “I had to pace a dirt floor once, and I never got out of the habit,” I try not to sigh in relief when she seems to buy it. Her crystalline, blue eyes stare into my own, and she shudders slightly, before asking, “What is your name?”

I am enthralled by her beautiful eyes, and answer, “MIdnight… MIdnight Muse.”

“Midnight… I like that name, you have amazing eyes.” Yes a compliment, initiate hoofpump.

I continue to stare into the clear depth of her eyes, replying, “As do you Miss Aurora.”

Aurora looks away after a moment, blushing, before shaking her head and asking, “Can I get you something to drink?”

I continue pacing, and ask for a water.

“You know you can sit on my couch, right? Your pacing is starting to worry me,” she walks towards the kitchen, and begins getting a couple glasses of water. I walk over to the couch and lay down on it, I find that it is cotton filled, a most curious thing for a pegasus to have in her house, whatever.

I think I can have some fun with this, “If you insist, Miss Aurora.” I sigh, sounding disgruntled.

I can’t see her from here, but I am sure she is flustered, I try hard not to chuckle and succeed, “I do, thank you,” She sounds very controlled, not as happy as she did earlier, SUCCESS! I think to myself, and have to wipe the grin off my face a second later when she walks back into the room, carrying a couple glasses of water, she sets one in front of me and says “Here,” She keeps the other, sitting down next to me.

I accept the water and drink it sparingly, not wanting to fluster her too much and get kicked out, “Thank you, Miss Aurora,”

“It’s okay, you can just call me Aurora.” she requests.

“As you wish, Miss Aurora.” The flustered has been doubled, Huzzah!

“Stop it!, Aurora is fine, really.” she insists, tossing a playful punch at me, my jumpy nerves don’t let it connect though, and I instead duck the punch, and push my head back up over her leg, pulling her off balance, I am about to hit her with a lightning quick strike to the nerves in the back of her leg, when I register what I am doing, and release her, feeling very embarrassed at what I almost did.

“Excuse my behavior, Aurora, I was not expecting that, and surprises don’t end well for me.” That could not have gone worse.

She surprises me by blaming herself, “No, I shouldn’t have done that, we don’t know each other all that well. I am sorry, it was my fault.”

I stare at her in disbelief, “It’s not your fault, you attempted to mess with me, your intent playful, and I almost hurt you because of it. I am sorry for my actions, and I hope you can forgive me.”

"I can forgive you, because you did nothing wrong. I'm to blame, and there's no way you can convince me otherwise." she sounds insistent enough that I am not going to argue, even if she is wrong.

“You have a self-blame problem,” I state, matter-of-factly. “And it was my fault, you are an innocent pony, and I am a mass-murderer with only the argument of justice to lighten my burdens, the weight of another mistake would be unnoticed among the many others I have made. You have never had to deal with the turmoil that comes from killing hundreds of your own, even if they intended to take thousands.” By the end of my pity-party/speech/thing, Aurora is curled up on the far side of the couch, sobbing quietly,  “You know, you have shown me more kindness than most ponies would, if it’s any consolation, ponies tend to avoid me, either from my armaments, my eyes, or my gaze, whichever they see first, they never take the time to say hello, never try and understand how one being could have so much presence, never even try to barter when I go to market. Well, I think I should take me leave now, I don’t want to trouble you further.”

She keeps crying, but says "N-no... Stay..."

I am surprised by this, most ponies try to make me leave their presences, “Really? After all I have done? After I reduced you to a dribbling mess you want me to stay? Thank you.”

"Yes. Because you remind me of my brother." She seems to have difficulty with the last word, so I decide not to press that.

“Be happy that there are few things you remind me less of than my own brother,” I state solemnly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

“You have a soul.” I don’t say anything for a minute, remembering all the dark things he has done, ponies killed, towns slaughtered, Mares raped, tortured, and killed all in the name of his self-righteous ‘cleansing’ of the world. Aurora didn’t need to know about that. I continue, “We aren’t here to talk about the dark depths of our pasts, are we?” She shakes her head a little and stares at the floor. “Well then, why are we just sitting here then? We aren’t even talking. Why don’t we make a list of things to talk about, and we can just cross items off the list until we have on- no, that’s a bad idea, and it would take forever. Well, let’s try thinking of things we can talk about, not past, or family…” I trail off, giving Aurora a moment to voice any suggestions she might have. She doesn’t do anything, but her tears slow considerably and she looks back at me, waiting for me to continue, “When was the last time you ate something? I have time, bits, and an appetite, so why don’t we go get something to eat?”

She looks happier now, and surprised, “Are you… Are you asking me out?” Now she looks excited, and curious.

I smile, happy that I was able to cheer her up, “If that is what you want to consider it as, go ahead.” I wink, informing her of her answer, and idly comb my mane with a brush from my bags.

“Yes,” She whispers, smiling happily now, almost beaming.

“Well then, let’s not dillydally,” I return Aurora’s smile and lead her down the hallway and out of the house.

Once we step outside Aurora steps beside me and leans against my left side, “I just hope it doesn’t storm too bad… “

Let’s see how good my acting is. I mock indignance, tap my horn with my left hoof, causing it to fizzle with green fire, and ask, “I hope you aren’t implying that I am so improficient with my magic as to be unable to keep us warm and dry.”

She tenses and looks at me with worry, “I-I never meant anything like that!” Maybe a little too good.

“I was just messing with you, I am not offended, Besides most unicorns probably couldn’t keep themselves warm, much less two warm and dry,” I stiffen a little at unicorn, trying hard to hide my disdain at the word, which I am pegged with so often.

She seems to notice, despite my best efforts, “W-what’s wrong?” She looks like she still thinks she insulted me.

“Nothing of concern, just some bad karma, but it has passed.” I forcibly relax, and stare into the distance, remembering just how much of a bitch karma was. She looks away, obviously not satisfied with my answer, before suddenly turning and kissing me on the cheek, blushing lightly. I smile, she is such a nice mare, and give her a surprise of my own by draping a previously hidden, bug-like wing over her back and pulling her closer against my side.

Aurora doesn’t seem too surprised by this, she must have seen my fangs and promptly figured that I might have unusual anatomy, or something along those lines, “There’s so much about you that I’ll never know, isn’t there?” She asks, causing me to flush slightly with embarrassment.

“I was expecting a different reaction, my kind are usually ill treated, confused with another, less civilized species,” I clear my throat before continuing, “And yes, there probably is, but trust me when I say there is a lot about me you don’t want to know.” I smile, hoping to look like Celestia does when she lectures me on collateral damage and the danger I pose to Equestria. I teleport to her other side, ignoring the decent sized drop in my reserves, and drape my other wing over Aurora.

She climbs onto my back as soon as I teleport, and states, “I’m tired of walking.”

“Isn’t it a little early to be mounting?” I deadpan with practiced ease.

“No, It’s too early for you to be mounting me, not the other way around,” She replies, in her own deadpan, while adjusting herself on my back

I shrug a little, careful not to knock Aurora off, and decide to mess around a little, “As you wish Milady,” I pose dramatically, and charge, continuing down the path, “FOR NARNIA!” I shout as a battle cry, laughing hard as I race down the path for a few more feet, before spreading my wings and flying towards Cloudsdayle, no particular restaurant in mind.