Only in my dreams

Luna observed her sisters somber posture from afar. Her shoulders slouched and she didn’t hold her normal regal form. Her head sunk low and her coat didn’t hold it’s usual gleem. Something was tearing her up from the inside out and it was showing prominently.

She closed the distance between the two with a short, hastened flight. “What is of the matter, sister?”

Celestia returned Lunas stare. In the corner of her eyes, Luna could see tears forming, begging to be released. “I believe I have made a great mistake having you bring Jesse here.”

Recoiling from her sisters words, Luna couldn’t help but think back to the previous night where her sister had been nearly begging her to cast the spell. Now, with Celestia saying it was a mistake, she couldn’t help but let her blood boil. “Did I not do as you asked of me!” Luna demanded. “I fulfilled your request, what more do you want?”

Celestia shrunk back from her sisters sharp voice. “It isn’t that. It’s that Jesse is here now and we have no way to send him back.”

“Why would he want to return?” Luna asked, still irritated by her sisters previous statements.

“Nothing but his father's wrath awaits him there.”

Unable to look at her sister any longer, she turned away. “That was ten years ago in his world. I think in the time that I wasn’t watching over him, something happened in his life that would tie him to his world.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

Celestia placed her hoof over her mouth, not wanting to say what she believed. “How he treated that filly… the look in his eyes and… ” She hesitated, not wanting to continue.

“He didn’t act cruelly against her did he?” Luna pressed, trying to pry the information from her sister.

Celestia shook her head. “No. In fact, quite the opposite. I… I think Jesse is a father.”

oOo

Jesse waved the two mares off as they left his room. For the past several hours, the three of them had been talking about anything ranging from language arts and actually interesting types of artistic pieces like music.

Of course, he threw in a little about what he knew from his own world, informing the two mares of what kinds of music he was interested in, and what languages he was fluent in. Which, in this case, was just english. Not paying attention in highschool, he didn’t take anything away from his french class. Not that he had a problem with that.

Eventually, they had left those topics and went onto more general discussions about what it was like living in eachothers worlds. For the pony world, it was fairly basic, including basic needs but not much more. For Jesse, he couldn’t hold back telling them about what humans had done. Such as roads that lit up due to modern technology - The best description he could give was something called ‘Tron’ but neither mares understood-,  solar powered just about everything, and other things that he thought the ponies would be able to understand.

Neither of the two could stop asking questions in the end. They always had to ask how they did it, and how long it took. Mostly questions that he couldn’t answer due to his lack of knowledge in the field.

Eventually, Octavia was forced to leave, having to attend to her part in the festivities taking place down below. Of course, Fleur had to leave as well, wanting to be there for her friend while she played.

Inevitably, that led him to this moment of time, waving the two off while the guard impatiently glared at him.

“Sir” the guard said. “I must ask you to return to your room.”

Jesse looked down at the guard, jaw dropping at the sight. She was an average sized pony, only she had a strange look to her. Her wings, instead of being feathered, were much more akin to that of leather. Her fur was slightly shorter than that of an average pony and her eyes, instead of being wide and circular, came to slits instead, while also being an uncanny reddish- orange color. Over all, something that would come out of a two year olds nightmare.

Unable to contain his desire to question the pony he was staring at, he crouched down to her level, looking her in the eye as his look of astonishment changed into goofy smile. “What are you?”

The pony looked somewhat startled by his question, but didn’t hesitate to answer. “I am a bat pony.” Her voice blossomed with pride, the guard resting her hoof over her chest, “Royal Guard under Lunas hoof alone. I, as a bat pony- HEY!” She cried as Jesse stuck his hands under her forelegs, lifting her from the ground.

“PUT ME DOWN!” She yelled, struggling in his grip. “I AM A BAT PONY! BE TERRIFIED!”

Ignoring her, Jesse brought the mare up to his face. “You are the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.” The bat pony gave him a questioning look as she stopped struggling.

“I… I am?” She asked, the faint hint of a blush covering her cheeks. “Do you-”

“You’re terrifyingly adorable!”

The guard puffed out her chest at his insertion. “I AM NOT!”

He placed the guard back on the tile floor, letting her recover for her embarrassment. She just puffed her chest out as far as could, trying to repair her broken pride. Jesse chuckled to himself before returning to his room, satisfied with the event that had just transpired.

The guard pony placed herself back in her position. “Adorable my flanks.”

oOo

Celestia trotted through the halls of the castle, heading to the nursery to pick up Sunny Strings. There were a few… tests she wanted to run and Sunny would be a massive help in seeing if the truth.

If she was right about her assumptions, then there would most definitely be problems that would need to be addressed with utmost haste. Hopefully, she would be able to find a resolution quickly enough that Jesse wouldn’t hate her…

She hoped she was wrong. For the sake of her friendship with Jesse she hoped she was wrong.

If she was, she could continue on believing she had done the right thing bringing him here and continue living on, her conscious free of guilt. Nothing would change, other than a human under her wing that is. But if that wasn’t the case, she couldn’t imagine how terrible she would feel.

The sound of a few ponies greeting her snapped her from that train of thought.

“Welcome, Princess!”

One of the two had a light orange mane and a tannish coat. The other had a pink mane and blue coat. Both had cutie marks resembling their passion for caring for the young.

She nodded to them, “I have come to retrieve Sunny Strings.”

“Of course.” The tan one said as she went to fetch the filly, coming back moments later, the filly in tow.

Sunny wore a wide smile like always. Such a happy filly…

“The Princess!” The filly came up to her, hugging one of her forelegs. Celestia ran her other through the fillies mane before bending down to look at the filly eye to eye.

“I’m going to go talk with Jesse again.” She told her. “Do you want to come with me? I’m sure he would love to have you around.”

Sunny looked like she was going to explode in excitement.

“YES!” She screamed, voice cracking.

“Then lets go.”

Celestia led them through the corridors of the castle, Sunny bouncing around her hooves along the way. Such as energetic filly too…

Finally making it to the room, she took note of the guard. She was a bat pony in their standard armor, only difference is that this one looked rather displeased with her current situation.

The filly ran up to the guard. “What’s wrong?” She asked.

The guard looked down at the filly and crossed her forelegs. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why not?” The filly pleaded, giving the guard wide eyes of pure adorableness.

The guard was about the respond when she snapped to attention as Celestia walked up to the two. She saluted, only for Celestia to wave it off.

“At ease. I too am curious as to why you’re in despair.“The bat pony blushed for a moment, not wanted to reveal the secret. She rolled her eyes in her head, looking anywhere but to Celestia.

It wasn’t long, however, till the guard broke. “He called me terrifyingly adorable,” She huffed, “… He should have left of the adorable part off.” The guard pouted to herself, Celestia stifling a small giggle.

With the face the bat pony was wearing, she could see where Jesse came from. “I’ll have a word with him if it makes you feel any better.”

The guard bowed. “Thank you, Princess.”

Celestia nodded and walked inside, Sunny close behind. Jesse popped his head over the couch to see who had entered. His face lit up as he saw who it was.

Sunny rushed up to him, bringing a smile to Jesse’s face. “Hey Sunny, I didn’t think you would stop by.” She looked up at him with a smile plastered over her muzzle. “And Celestia… you disappeared earlier.” He gave her a questioning look. “What's with that?”

“I had to converse with my sister. I hope that didn’t cause too much of a problem.”

Jesse waved his hand at her. “Nah. I don’t think any of us noticed till Octavia brought it up.”

Celestia looked slightly disappointed. “Oh… Ok.”

“Ya,” Jesse started, “we talked for at least-” He mumbled off to look down at his leg. Apparently, in the time he had been talking with Celestia, Sunny Strings had made her way to join him on the couch and was now poking at the small white device on his lap.

“What’s this?” She asked.

Taking it in his hands, he poked at it for a few seconds before handing it to the filly. “This, is a phone. It lets me talk to other people when they're far away.”

“So it’s magic?” She asked with wide eyes… Adorable.

“In a sense.” He held the phone in front of the fillies face. Celestia had now come to look at what he was showing Sunny. “But I’m sure this thing can do a little bit more… Or maybe less.”

He taped the middle of the phone twice, making it light up once more. “I can watch movies on it, listen to music… play games if I want.” Jesse went back to tapping the screen, eventually bringing up a picture with a small circle with a triangle in the middle.

Sunny gasped as the screen came to life when he taped on the triangle. Sounds came from the phone along with what looked like a movie. “It has color! Celestia! It has color! And it looks so good!”

Celestia nodded and smiled at the filly, then looked at Jesse.

She grieved this moment.

“Jesse, May I ask you a few questions?”

“Of course.” He responded, placing his arms on the backrest of the couch.

Celestia cleared her throat, motioning toward the filly, telling him that she wanted to ask without Sunny around. He didn’t take the hint. “ ...Yes, anyways,”

She could feel the pressure rising in her chest. Honestly, she didn’t want to ask the question, but it was necessary. “Do you plan on having children of your own someday?”

Jesse looked down at the filly, who was now paying full attention to their conversation. He scratched her behind the ear, getting her to shut her eyes as she enjoyed the sensation. “One day, I do. But thats a long ways away. I have to graduate and get a good job first.”

Celestia was relieved to hear that he wasn’t a father as of yet, but still bit her lip. While she had only asked one question, he answered to two. “So I take it you want to go back?” She asked, fear in her heart.

“Well, ya.” He said happily.

Celestia hated how joyous he seemed with his situation because in just moments, she would have to be the one to kill that mood. She looked down at the floor, not wanting to disappoint him.

Jesse reached his hand up and put it on her head. “Don’t be like that, Celestia. You can just zap me back here anytime you want so long as I’m not busy.”

Celestia shook her head and stared at the ground with a look of despair. “Getting you here is not the problem, Jesse.” She had to force herself to continue on. “I… I...When I brought you here, I wasn’t planning on sending you back.” She paused, waiting for Jesse to catch up with her.

“There is no way to send you home.”