Chapter Seven: Arrival at the Palace (A Magician's Tricks)

“I must say that was quite a day for you then. All the shopping and dealing with the denizens of Ponyville.” Celestia said, sipping tea from one of her ceramic cups. “Well I do hope you have had a good time. Although I must say you need to be getting back, Twilight must be fretting over her coltfriend being gone for so long.” A teasing smile leaped onto her lips.

I blushed but still sat in my seat entertained by the white alicorn sitting in front of me. “I thank you for your hospitality Princess Celestia. It has been most gracious, although I haven’t seen your sister around. Does she sleep during the day?” I said, looking around all the while. I saw the navy blue alicorn walk out from a door and stare blearily at the table. First looking at me then at Celestia, then me, then Celestia again.

“How didst thou get Justin to sleep with thee?” Luna asked, slowly approaching the table, and sitting down in the chair next to me. “We would like a turn if thy would allow it, sister.”

I blushed so hard and put my head in my hands, trying to seem as small as possible. “I didn’t sleep with Celestia and I won’t be sleeping with you either. I just got transported here by accident, nothing more, nothing less.” I looked at the confused Luna, wondering what I should do. “I will, however, give you a hug. If that is sufficient for you.” I walked over to give her a hug and she lunged for me, her lips pressing against mine.

The main hall door slammed open, revealing an extremely disheveled Twilight and and the other five. A look of shock was plastered onto Twilight’s face, as was betrayal and jealousy. All adding up to a shitstorm that reminded anyone of the term, ‘if looks could kill.’ Of course, I didn’t notice. I was still making out with Luna, in fact, I hadn’t even heard the door open. She finally broke the kiss, a small strand of saliva connecting our mouths as we pulled away from each other.

I noticed something moving on the edge of my vision and I turned around to see Twilight with tears streaming down her face, staining her pristine lavender colored fur. Her mane and coat was in disarray, probably from the hangover and looking for me. At first I couldn’t understand why she was crying then it hit me. “Oh Twilight, you thought… No it’s not like that Twi. I didn’t mean for tha-”

“THEN YOU BETTER START EXPLAINING OR SO HELP ME, I WILL THROW YOU THROUGH THESE WALLS AND OUT OF THE PALACE.” The force of her voice, or the Royal Canterlot Voice as I later learned it is called, was enough to knock me backwards and smash me against one of the walls in the palace.

“Twilight,” Celestia said, stepping between Twilight and I, “I think that is enough. You need to solve this problem quietly and as friends.” It sounded more like an order than an option.

Twilight only flared her horn and moved Celestia behind her and slowly began to approach me. “No, I will solve this problem the way I always have. Not that you would ever feel betrayed by one you loved.”

Confusion slowly crept it’s way onto Celestia’s face as she suddenly realized what was going on between us. “I still think you are blowing this out of proportion. You can solve this among friends. Can’t we? After all my sister is tired and was not fully aware of her actions.” Everyone looked towards the table and we saw her face down in a slice of cake covered in butter.

“Well Twilight,” I said carefully getting up off the floor, “I suppose we can go back to Ponyville now, I apologize for the situation that I just put you through.” I walked over to her and she backed up a little, resisting my touch. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Do you still love me?” She said, a few tears still staining her her cheeks. I nodded and she threw herself into my arms. “I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry.” I only hugged her harder, which she responded with a passionate kiss.

Imagine it like this, you have lost your significant other and have this deep pit of sorrow that you don’t think you would ever be able to get out of and you just sit there in despair. Then that person comes to you one day, out of the blue. So unexpected that you can’t help but not believe that the person, or pony in my circumstance, is standing there. I kinda felt that this was how Twilight felt, at least a little. Besides being jealous. And a little of nagging and overbearing. But hey, I can right all wrongs can’t I? No, no I’m not god but I can try my best. “Hey, let's get going. I may be mistaken but, today was, and still is, supposed to be our date night. So let’s go have some fun out on the town.”

We all grouped together and began to walk out of the palace when I noticed a movement off to the side of the hallway. I turned my head to face a still disheveled Luna walking down the hall towards me, occasionally winking at me and flipping her mane. Me being extremely oblivious to what these things meant, except the winking, just turned my head forward and kept walking. I then heard a quiet noise that sounded like “pshhhhh” come from where Luna had been standing a few seconds earlier. As we exited the castle, we began to go to the train station where then we would get back home. I didn’t like the idea of teleportation as my first bout with it had left me nauseous and I did not want to relive that at all. Also it might be taxing on how many people, er ponies, Twilight could transfer before she became too exhausted. So I just decided to keep walking towards the train station.

“Are we still… you know.” Twilight said, nervously nudging my side. “Together? It’s okay if you don’t want to be together, I did kinda blow it back there.”

I picked up the lavender alicorn and faced her towards me. “Oh please. I couldn’t think of a single thing that would make me leave you. Well I could think of a few, but I have a feeling those are pretty far off. And many of them require me dying.”

Her ears perked up around the time I was talking about dying and she gave me a weird look. “On an unrelated side note, how long do humans normally live? Just you know, for science.” The weird look was still on her face as she asked the question, then I finally realized what the look meant.

“Oh you think I’m gonna die soon?” I threw back my head and laughed, startling the other five behind me, making them flinch. “Oh no, you are stuck with me for a good sixty to seventy years sparklebutt. We humans are a very resilient species.”

Her face lit up. “There! You are doing it again! Using the big words when normal ones would suffice!” She snuggled in closer to me, “That’s why I love you Justin. I just don’t think I could bear to see you with somepony else.”

“I could believe that isn’t going to happen for a really long time.” I said. “Well we have arrived your majesty. Shall I get your carriage?”

Twilight only blushed and hopped out of my arms, landing nimbly on the ground. She walked up to the counter and got our tickets. Then we proceeded to make somewhat awkward conversation with the rest of the group. They didn’t really seem to mind much that Twilight and I were dating, but they also didn’t really want to get involved either. Of course I had a plan for tonight. I had asked Applejack to lend me some bits in exchange for working on her farm, not that I enjoy hard labor but hey. I had even made reservations and, without telling her, snuck the thing on the calendar. She hadn’t even realized it until the day after I did, and she still thought it was hers. Man that was too funny and cute when I told her I was taking her on a date.

We all got on the train and settled in on the seats. Since they were made for ponies, I laid down and let Twilight sit on my chest. Not really caring about the myriad of whispers that were going around. Comments like “What is that thing” and “What is it doing?” Were far too common for me to actually care. Once the train ride had started, they began to die down as the other ponies went on with their business. I started to scratch behind Twilight’s ear, making it flick back and forth every now and then.

Rainbow Dash, seeing that Twilight enjoyed my ear massage, quietly got off her seat and hopped up next to me. Twilight’s ears moved to where the sound was coming from and I heard a small growl, come from her. As if she was challenging her to a fight. Rainbow Dash ignored this and snuggled up to me, nudging my hand, if asking for an ear scratch. I placed my hand on her head and began to scratch her ears. She made a slight squeaking sound, causing her and I to blush and Twilight give me an angry eye. But it didn’t last for long because I stopped scratching her ears and she whined at me to keep going.

“Darling,” Rarity said to me, a magazine in front of her face. “What are you doing to them to make them make those noises? Hopefully nothing naughty.” I blushed and closed my eyes. She only chuckled lightly.

I beckoned with a finger to her to come over here. “I’ll show you if you want. It’s something that I learned that some animals enjoy very much. And I’d be glad to show you, sit here.” I gestured to a part of the bench that was not occupied by the sleepy ponies on my chest and near my head.

She sat down and I moved my hand off the ears of a now sleeping Twilight who, on an unrelated note, looked so cute while she slept. I put my hand in the middle of her head, slowly rubbing in small circles and began to scratch between her ears. “Oh my. That is simply divine, where did you learn this?”

“A good magician never reveals his tricks.” I said, scratching a little harder on one ear. “Of course you can’t really do this because you don’t have fingers.” Rarity’s head leaned closer to where my fingers were exerting the most pressure.

“Justin?” A small voice came from near the floor just to my right, “Eeep!” I looked at her and gave a little smile. She smiled back blushing, “Would you mind scratching my ears? I mean if you want to…”

The butterscotch colored pegasus made another squeak as I picked her up, setting her next to Twilight. My hand moved from the now sleeping cyan pegasus, who was snoring ever so slightly, to Fluttershy’s ears and I began to rub very softly.

“O-o-oh my.” Fluttershy said, “That feels very nice. It’s almost if I could fall asleep right now.” A yawn escaped from her mouth and she laid her head down on the bench.

“It feels simply amazing.” Rarity said, “You could make so many bits even if you charged an hourly rate. It’s that relaxing.” Fluttershy smiled in agreement.

Suddenly I saw something pink on the edge of my vision and I moved my head around and saw Pinkie Pie coming out from behind one of the pillows that was near to me. “Yes?” I said, still puzzled at how the pink mare was able to appear to come out of a pillow. “Let me guess? An ear scratch?” She nodded, and then I smiled. Taking my hand out of the pink maned pegasus now laying on my chest. I went to lay my head back down but instead of a pillow, I was laying on Pinkie’s stomach and her head was facing me.

I began to scratch her ear, and she let out what sounded like a sigh. “Wow Justin that feels really good! I might have to treat you to something else when we get back to Ponyville today.”

“I’m sure you might. But remember,” I moved my mouth closer to her ear, “I’m going on a date with Twilight tonight. Don’t tell anyon-, I mean anypony.”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye!” Which I assumed was the Pinkie Promise. Somehow she had gotten a cupcake and smashed it into her eye, getting some icing in my hair.

Suddenly I felt myself slide a little backwards and the train brakes screech slightly. “Well time to go everyone. It’s not even like noon and I feel tired. I should have taken a nap.”

Everypony took a while to get up but the conductor was a nice pony and he let us take our time. Once we had gotten out we all walked our respective ways. Twilight turned towards me and said, “Hopefully you didn’t forget about tonight did you?”

Author's Note

Wow, this is the most I've typed in a long time.

I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will be updating about once every week, I hope. If writer's block allows me too.