Chapter 4: A Conflicted Interest

I slowly opened my eyes to the tip of the sun rising over the horizon, causing a large conflagration of colors to permeate the clouds. “Ahhh.” I sighed. I rolled over to the left, coming face to face with Twilight as she yawned and turned to me with half-lidded eyes.

“Good Morning Justin.” She said, yawning again. “How did you sleep?”

“I think this was the best sleep I’ve ever had in my entire life.” I said, shifting my legs into a more comfortable position. “And I know who might have caused that.” I gave her an eskimo kiss then backed away for a second.

“Oh you can’t tease me like that!” She said. As she thrusted her mouth onto mine. We engaged in a passionate kiss, like the kind shared by an intimate couple, just scratching the surface of their beginning relationship.

I broke the kiss by slowly breaking away and looking her in the eyes. “I love you Twilight Sparkle.” I said softly.

“Justin please, call me Twi.” She said, blushing, “And by the way. I love you more.” She then gave me a wink.

“Ah,” I said, “Shouldn’t we be getting you home by now? Spike might be worried about where you went last night with this strange man.”

“Oh, that’s right, I can take care of myself you know.” She said, “We should hurry back, he might be more worried if I’m not up or there.” Gathering up our picnic supplies from the previous night, we started on the road back to her treehouse. “Do you use big words just to impress me?” She said as we began our way back.

“How do you mean? Like whereabouts and other words that would be imperative to the conversation?” I said laughing, realizing what she meant.

“Like that!” She said laughing at my realization, “You just used a few big words in that sentence!”

“Nah, It’s just how I learned to speak,” I said to her, “It really began to help about a year ago in my world.” I said, starting to reminisce, “I wanted to impress people more so that I could get a better job and make more friends, and believe it or not, it kinda worked.”

“Well, I guess that might be a good addition to your mental state. Considering the predicament you are in currently. Well, here we are.” She said, sidestepping a bush to open the front door. “Spike! We’re home!”

“There you are Twilight!” He said, walking down the steps. “Where did you go?”

“We went out early in the morning to watch the sunrise and look at the constellations.” She said, “We also saw the Horsehead Nebula. It is really interesting how they call that the ‘birthplace of stars’.” She said, walking into the kitchen.

“You saw the Horsehead and you didn’t invite me?” Spike said, “I really wanted to see it, just as much as you.” He pouted.

“Spike, it will be visible for another few weeks before the sun obscures the view but we will be able to see it in the near future, maybe even tonight if you want.” She winked at me, I double winked back.

“Well, Justin and Spike, what do you want to do today? I’m not sure we have anything planned for today, but let me check the calendar.” Twilight said, sitting down at her desk. “Well, I do have a meeting tomorrow with Celestia and Luna. They also said that they would like to meet you, Justin.”

“So these rulers that I am going to meet,” I said nervously, “Are basically like immortal beings, and they have wings and a horn? So that makes them a… hm, Unisus?... No, Pegacorn?” I said, looking for the right word.

Twilight chuckled, “They are immortal, in the fact that they can live forever, and they know a lot but not everything. And the word you are looking for is Alicorn.” She said correcting me.

“Hm, I feel a little less nervous about meeting them.” I said, rubbing my temples, “So what time do we have to leave tomorrow in order to arrive with punctuality.” I said, exaggerating my word choice. Which made Twilight laugh, “I’ll be here all night folks.” I said, under my breath.

“The train to Canterlot takes about three hours and Celestia wants us there by noon so we should leave by about nine in the morning.” She said, pulling the train tickets out of a drawer. “Spike, would you like to come along or are you going to stay here? Princess Celestia sent three tickets so you are welcome to come if you want.”

“Wooohoo! Oh yeah I’ll definitely come with!” Spike said, jumping off the couch and running into the side room, “I’m gonna pack my bag!”

Twilight just chuckled and levitated a book off of the shelf, sitting down on her couch. “It’s always funny to see him get excited about the smallest things.”

“Well, this isn’t so small now is it?” I said, trying to plan out how the meeting might go. “You said you only visit with her every so often, but only when she needs you.”

Twilight gave me a quizzical look. “Well it’s not like that, we communicate every now and then but she is mainly busy with Day Court and a lot more work that has to be done for the kingdom to run smoothly. I may not be one of her top concerns because she trusts me to solve problems by myself.”

I hopped off the floor and sat next to the lavender unicorn, “I didn’t mean to insult your relationship with the Princesses,” I said giving her a kiss on the cheek, “I just didn’t understand the fullness of your relationship with her.”

I hear a bag drop behind me, “Uh Justin,” The dragon standing in the side room doorway, “Did you just kiss Twilight?”

Oh shit, not getting out of this one. “Yes I did. I have some strong connection with Twilight and we have gotten closer over the last week and I have decided that she would be my, uh, marefriend..?” I said fumbling with the last part.

Spike looked at me with a ‘what the hell’ look for about thirty seconds, although it could have been well over an hour. “I’m fine with it but aren’t you concerned about the you being a hum-a-whatever and her being a pony?” That remark earned a sigh from the lavender unicorn sitting beside me. “I’m just asking.”

“Spike, please. I don’t think he is that shallow in order to think that just because I don’t look like a human doesn’t mean he can’t love me for who I am on the inside.” She scolded him. “I couldn’t have asked for anyone so caring.” Twilight kissed me on the cheek and looked back at Spike. “I-” She was cut off by me.

“Look Spike, I know this is odd for you.” Gesturing to the both of us, then to Twilight and I. “It’s just I feel like Twilight and I are trying this out to see if it works and if it doesn’t,” I shrugged my shoulders, “then it won’t. It’s really just an experiment.” Twilight looked at me quizzically.

“I’m just an experiment to you?” The purple unicorn said, her eyes brimming with tears. “That’s it? The first in a line of marefriends for you, and I’m in the way of you getting another one?” A few tears streamed down her, hurt and angry expression.

“Twi, that’s not what I meant.” I said reaching out for her, only to have her shy away.

“Then what did you mean.” Twilight said turning to look at me, her face stained with anger and tear trails. “Because I am now very interested in how you are going to explain this.” She cocked her ears forward, pointed towards me.

I gulped, this didn’t look good. “What I was trying to say was, I have never had any girlfriends or marefriends before you Twilight. I just didn’t really have the social eptitude for it, or the looks.” I said needlessly flicking my thumbs around.

There was a long silence in which everyone waited for someone else to say something. A cry of forgiveness, a long lost memory being shared, a personal experience, or something. It pained me and, I’m just guessing here, Twilight and Spike as well. We just sat there in silence for what felt like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes.

“I’m sorry.” We both said at the same time, not realizing that the other was going to speak. “Go first, no you. No you!” We burst out laughing and I hugged Twilight and I gave her a kiss. “I apologize, my earlier comment was not well thought out and totally insensitive. Would you forgive me?” I said giving her my best puppy eyes.

She threw her head back and laughed, “Haha, yes I do forgive you Justin. If I were you, I wouldn’t let those kind of comments come out of your mouth during our meeting with the Princesses.” Checking the clock on the wall, she got up off the couch and began to collect her bags. “We should get going, the train should be there soon. C’mon Spike!”

As we walked out of her house and down the street to the train station, many of the normally open windows and doors were closed. I mind wandered and as I looked down a side street, what I saw was not what I had in mind. Multiple ponies were sprinting through the back door of a house, after they all had gotten in, I heard a loud clank and a screeching as a bolt secured the door. I looked around and saw multiple ponies look at me and shut their windows. Many were still running off the streets, still opening and shutting doors.

I simply rolled my eyes and turned to Twilight, “Did you ever introduce me to the townsfolk?” I said, apprehensively looking around me, my paranoia now in full effect. I started to imagine ponies waiting outside their doors ready to kill me if I got any closer to them. “Because I, for one, am pretty sure that you didn’t.”

She shrugged and kept walking, “Don’t worry about them, they’ll probably just get used to you after a bit of time. Just like they had to get used to the ‘Town Librarian’ after I moved in a few years ago.”

Arriving at the train station, she approached the ticket booth and the pony inside looked up and shrieked, diving beneath the desk.

“Go away!” She shouted, “Princess run there is a monster following you! It looks like it’s going to kill you!” Then silence, other than her labored breathing.

“Who do you mean? Oh…. Justin? He’s a friend of mine.” Twilight said, peering in the booth, “He’s not going to hurt anypony, we just need to get to Canterlot so we can see the Princesses.” Twilight said, huffing loudly and rolling her shoulders. “Would you please come out from under there?”

“As l-l-long as that thing promises not to attack or eat me.” She said, poking her head out from under the desk and looking at me expectantly. “Not a moment before then.”

“Justin, could you promise this darn pony that you aren’t going to do anything to harm her?” She said, rolling her eyes. “Just do it, the train is coming. I don’t want to be late.”

“I promise that I won’t attack you,” I stopped for a second. “What is your name miss?”

“I-it’s M-medal R-rose.” She said, slowly getting out from under the table, “Twilight said your name is Justin? What an odd name.”

You have no idea, I said under my breath. “Well have a good day, Medal.” I said.

The train arrived at the station, about a minute late. To anybody it would have seemed normal like “Hey, it happens.” But to Twilight, whew, you thought the whole world just fell apart. “Now I am going to be late for the first time in my entire time being a student.” She cried, pacing back and forth on the train. “They’re gonna send me back to magic kindergarten and all the little fillies and colts are gonna laugh at-”

“Twilight,” I cooed, “just chill out. You’re gonna give yourself an anxiety attack from all the worrying and fretting over one small thing. I’m sure they are not going to do anything bad to you, well not with me around.” I picked her up and plopped her on the train’s couch next to me and gave her a kiss. “All better?” I asked.

“Much better,” The lavender mare said, relaxing and leaning against the cushions. “Who knew that such a simple act can make one relax so easily.” Twilight questioned, “Maybe I should write a book titled, Your Human and You, By Twilight Sparkle, Human Expert.”

“Why would you need to write a book about something I can teach you about?” I questioned, “I have no problem writing books, but that would just be silly because I’m the only human here, hm?”

Twilight’s only answer was to snuggle against me and sigh contentedly. We began to drift off as the train chugged its way towards Canterlot, and my ever present fears were not calmed by my little Twilight sleeping with her head on my lap.

Author's Note

Wow holy crap that took a while. I decided to throw this in as a new years kinda thing ya know.

Sorry for the wait but I hope you enjoy this addition to the story.