Author's Note

I've updated the elapsed time in the human world based on my latest calculations of the time shift between there and Equestria. Always want to be as accurate and plausible as I can.

The Blinding

Only the idle scratching of quill on parchment could be heard, as Aaron prepared his daily humanity report in his small study. His eyes were glued to the desk, as it was the only thing he could clearly see. The light of his desktop candle, combined with the moonlight coming in from the window, barely extended far enough to even navigate towards the door.

The study was small, some would call it cramped. Aaron didn’t mind, though. There was an odd comfort to be found in the silence of the night, and in having a door between him and Lieutenant Dash. His heart still ached as he wrote about his former home, but he had grown used to it. Nightmare Moon had been very pleased with the reports of human technology and set her scientists to work attempting to reverse engineer it. Sometimes, his assignment was nothing more than elaborating on a previous report when the scientists got stuck. Nights like that, such as tonight, were the ones he most enjoyed.

Suddenly, the candle blew out. Aaron glanced toward the dying ember, before blinking about to find a match to relight it. Then, a wind began to blow in the room. He looked to the window, but it was closed. Where could this be coming from? The wind grew stronger, forcing Aaron to shield his eyes with his arm. A crackling sound penetrated the darkness, as a circle of lightning began to form. The circle grew larger, light pouring in brighter than any he’d seen since his arrival. Aaron shut his eyes to prevent being blinded by the light as the fissure grew. The room glowed brighter and brighter.

A voice rang out, “Wow, Twilight, no wonder you beat me at math.”

Twilight? It couldn’t be. Slowly, Aaron cracked his eyes open, holding his hand up against the light. There, he saw a bespectacled figure standing before him. “Twilight Sparkle? Is it really you?”

“Aaron?” The figure asked. He nodded. Then the figure ran up and grabbed him in a big hug. “I’m sorry!” she wailed, “I’m so sorry!”

“We can do apologizes later,” the first voice called over her shoulder, “Like back on Earth perhaps?” She had her back to Twilight and Aaron, holding open Twilight’s locket to maintain the portal. Stepping backward to try and usher the two of them in, she tripped over a leg of the study’s chair, tumbling into them and sending all three crashing through the door and spilling into the castle corridor.

The blinding light ceased, as an orange-skinned girl with fire-colored hair struggled to her feet, “Oh no! The portal!” She then started feeling along the floor, stumbling in the darkness, “The locket, Twilight, where’s the locket?”

Aaron was nursing a bump on his head when he felt something poking into his back. Reaching onto the floor behind him, he found the locket, closed shut by the force of his fall. “Um, miss,” he spoke up.

“That’s it!” The fiery haired girl replied, “Give it here!” As Aaron, in a daze, handed it to her, a raspy voice echoed from around the corner.

“Hey, what’s going on over there!”

“Sunset, open the portal, quick!” Twilight said in a panic.

“Damn, we can’t now,” Sunset replied, “We can’t risk anypony from this timeline entering our world. Grab my hand, I’ll try a cloaking spell.”

Sunset took Twilight’s hand as she and Aaron got to their feet. She then closed her eyes and focused hard, channeling her will through the locket, to channel the magical energy contained therein. Sunset disappeared from sight, as did half of Twilight, with the part furthest away from Sunset translucent, but still clearly visible.

“It’s not working!” Aaron hissed to her.

“I know,” Sunset whispered back, “I’m trying!”

“You better not be trying anything funny,” called Lieutenant Dash. The raspy voice moving closer. No matter how hard Sunset Shimmer tried, however, her cloak just couldn’t fully envelop Twilight Sparkle.

“Oh no!” Twilight moaned. She shut her eyes, fresh tears falling down her face, as failure seemed imminent. Aaron’s mind raced; if only I had time to think! “It’s all my fault!” Twilight blubbered.

“‘And just who in Equestria is that?” Lieutenant Dash’s voice sounded, threateningly.

“Twilight!” Aaron hissed, “Be quiet! You’re not helping!”

In response, Twilight just put both hands up to her face, breaking any semblance of a cloaking spell on her, and wailed, “I’m sorry! I’m such an idiot!” as the guard approached the open door. Aaron froze; whatever he was going to do, he had to do it now.

Acting on instinct, he tackled Twilight into the wall and pressed his lips to hers as hard as he could to stop quiet the crying. Twilight’s eyes and mouth opened wide in shock, followed in the next instant by Aaron’s.

Lieutenant Dash then came to the open doorway, and quickly raised a wing to obstruct the sight of Aaron and a purple skinned female kissing, “Ew, gross!” Dash exclaimed, her eyes shut, “Biped love.”

Aaron didn’t dare look behind him. He instead pressed himself close to Twilight and, tried to listen for the Lieutenant's departing hoof steps. Twilight had since closed her eyes again, wrapped her arms around Aaron, and pulled him closer still, her sudden moaning making it really hard to hear.

After what seemed like an eternity, he felt a third hand on his shoulder. Somehow gathering his wits to realize that must be Sunset, Aaron chanced a look back at the doorway. Seeing it was clear, he then shoved Twilight away from him with all his might. However, as Twilight was already against the wall, this only sent him falling back out the door, trying to figure out if his face was more red or blue. Catching his breath, Aaron then shouted, “I cannot believe I just did that!”

“You and me both,” he heard Dash groan. She was shaking her head and shuddering, as if desperately trying to unsee what she had just seen, before rounding the corner and walking, thankfully, out of sight. Sunset, having already decloaked, then offered her hand to help Aaron up. He got to his feet and, quickly shut the door.

“Well,” Sunset started with a sly grin on her face, “That’s one way to avoid suspicion.”

Twilight, meanwhile, just slid down the wall and swooned, “I can’t believe you just did that either.”

Aaron’s eyes widened, “Oh my gosh, Twilight!” he stammered, “I am so sorry! I just didn’t know what to do, what with the guard and the crying and the...”

His rambling, however, was abruptly cut short by a purple finger to his lips, the face that finger belonged to wearing a wide smirk and lidded eyes, “No one's ever done that to me before.”

“Wait,” Sunset interjected, “Don’t tell me that was your first kiss.”

Aaron then pushed Twilight’s hand away to respond, “That doesn’t count! It was an emergency!”

“A love emergency?” Twilight hummed back.

Sunset snickered, “Oh my gosh, it was your first kiss too?”

“Shut up!” Aaron snapped back.

Sunset, however, just burst out laughing, “Oh this is too precious!”

“This isn’t funny, Sunset!” Aaron sneered.

“It is precious, isn’t it,” Twilight hummed as she stroked Aaron’s cheek, oblivious to quickly rising fury in his eyes.

Aaron snapped. He slapped Twilight’s arm away, pushing her aside, marched over to where Sunset was hunched over in laughter and, slapped her across the face. The laughing immediately stopped, “Hey!” Sunset protested, “What was that for?”

“To slap some sense into you,” Aaron bit back, “You want that guard to come back and get us all killed?” With that, the mood died, as Twilight and Sunset both looked to the floor, clearly embarrassed by what they’d just done. “Good,” Aaron snorted upon seeing this, “Now that I have your attention, would you kindly open your portal or whatever it is you used and get out of here?”

“Wait,” Twilight retorted, finally coming back to her senses, “We came to rescue you. We’re not leaving without you.”

“Oh, so I can face Cinch’s punishment for playing hooky the last two weeks? I should’ve known you hated me, just like you probably hate everyone else!”

“All week? Aaron, the Friendship Games were yesterday.”

“Whatever,” Aaron retorted, “Just make like a hockey player and get the puck outta here. We don’t have time to argue.”

“Actually,” Sunset grimaced, “Yes we do.”

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Aaron growled.

“It means that failed cloaking spell used up all the energy this thing had,” Sunset responded, “And we’re stranded here until we can recharge it.”

“What,” Twilight squeaked, “What about that portal Princess Twilight took to get to our world?”

“Assuming we could find it,” Sunset replied, “It would only take us to this timeline’s version of our world.” Sunset shuddered at the thought of what her life, and Canterlot High School, would be like without Princess Twilight, “And I really don’t think you’d like it there.”

“So, you mean I’m stuck with you two?” Aaron deadpanned.

“Yes, Aaron,” Sunset replied, “We have no way of getting back now, so you’re stuck with us.”

“Well,” Aaron relented, “I guess I could quarter Twilight,” the bespectacled girl looked up, hopeful, “Since the guard already knows about you and accepts a cover story.” he clarified, and Twilight’s face fell back down. “But you Sunset, you’re on your own. Lieutenant Dash doesn’t know you’re here, so you’ll have to stay out of sight.”

“Lieutenant Dash.” Sunset mused to herself as Aaron opened the door to leave, “Interesting.”