***POV Jordan***

Torment was all that I was experiencing for the moment. Ruthlessly locked in darkness while trying to run towards the light of a narrow tunnel.

I ran as fast as my small legs would let me.

All while wisps and voices around me repeated messages of doubt, confusion and fear.

“Never accepted...”

I continued to run towards the end.

“Always alone...”

For some reason I had the feeling that the tunnel was expanding in length and that I wasn’t really getting anywhere.

“YOU WILL NEVER BE ACCEPTED!” Screamed a voice in the far distance. The scream was followed with a loud thundering noise.A massive boulder exactly the width of the hall was rolling after me. It was like Indiana Jones except that there was no escape from the boulder.

I tried to step up my pace but I wasn’t getting any closer to the exit.

The faster I ran, the more speed the boulder had.

The harder I breathed, the faster the thing rolled at me.

Even if my heartbeat went up, the boulder came closer.

It would only be a short time till the boulder squashed me. With no direct escape, I just stopped and let the thing hit me. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact.

With a heavy breath I sat up on the pillow. I was sweating like I had just ran a marathon. My heart pounding in my chest. I checked the time, it was only 1 AM. That was one heck of a nightmare. I haven’t had nightmares like that in years. Usually my dreams were pretty tame, just my imagination running wild with whatever game I played that day or week.

But nightmares like this only appeared between age five and twelve for me. After that I never had them again. I know that it may not seem like it is that scary, but for a small child it is pretty horrifying. Also I only had when I was really sick or really nervous. Right now, I can already guess the reason for it.

Was I really that worked up about this situation? Yea, pretty much. I mean when you really think about it, I will never see my friends again. Never make it up with my dad. Never say goodbye to the rest of my family I still had. Right now I was completely alone. I will probably never see another human being again.

But these ponies remind me so much of the people I used to know. Twilight Velvet acts just like my own mother. Sweet, kind and caring. Night Light like my best friend’s dad. Shining just like my nephew. But I couldn’t compare Twilight Sparkle directly to anyone I knew.

With all these distracting thoughts, I didn’t notice that I was crying from the nightmare. I cleaned my tears and I tried laying down again to get back to sleep.

My idle thoughts wandered again to the comparison between Velvet and my own mother. Just remembering all the good moments I had with my mom brought tears to my eyes again. All the times she helped me with an issue (homework or something else). The times when we went to an amusement park. Just baking some deserts together.But her medical condition was pretty severe. She had a chronic muscle disease that stopped her from working at the farm I was raised at. So she started a daycare for school children.

My dad didn’t like that, so he decided to divorce her. My mom never saw the decision coming. One day everything was fine, the next arguments broke out. At one point they nearly killed each other. After a grueling five year divorce, she couldn’t take it anymore and she took her own life. Pretty stupid reason but she was broken. And broken people do stupid things.

That was 3 years ago. In that time I decided to at least make her proud.I finished my education with my own funding, got into a job I loved doing and was busy looking for a girl, but that was still pretty hopeless. Now I think I could totally forget that.

With these sad thoughts still lingering in my mind, sleep overtook me once again. But not before a warm embrace ensured that the doubts and sad memory’s left my head. And I could sleep peacefully for the remainder of this night.

***POV Twilight***

I woke up in the middle of the night. I was really thirsty so I decided to get a glass of water. I started thinking about yesterday again. It was such a crazy day. It started with me doing something that most ponies would consider dumb, I tried to summon a friend. I got a magic surge from just trying the spell. I was lucky nothing had happened. Then we found Jordan next to the pond in the park, the public part of the Canterlot royal gardens. When I think about it now, our first interaction was pretty funny. But understandable when you consider that neither parties had seen one another before.

Then the quite sad story of Jordan. It really sounded like he had found his calling in life but was ripped away from it.It was strange. Even though he is more than three times my age, when you see his emotions he is like a seven year old colt or filly. Just like me.But it probably comes from the fact that he is in a seven year old body. I really hope he is going to be alright.

He made me a bit excited because of the new things we can teach each other and the promises he made. But right now I was really nervous for the entry exam. What if I wasn’t good enough? Maybe Jordan can help me study. But he probably has his own issues to take care of.

I put the empty glass in the sink and went back upstairs.When I got to my bed I noticed that Jordan’s pillow was rather damp. Has he been crying? It seemed like he really was not going to have a comfortable night. It didn’t help that his pillow was completely soaked from the tears.

I decided that I could at least comfort him in the only way I knew. I picked him up and snuggled him close to me next to Mr. Smarty Pants. You could notice the relief on this face the moment I did that. He even hugged me closer and buried his face in my chest fur. It felt funny but good.

“Sleep well,” I whispered to him.

And soon I found myself asleep with the smaller human in my hooves.

*****Time Skip: next morning, POV Twilight Velvet*****

It was 7 o’clock, time to start our morning routine again. While I was setting the table for breakfast, I thought back and noticed that Jordan only took a few different items to eat for dinner last evening. Did he simply not like the other things? Where they not healthy for him? I’ll ask him when I wake him up with Shining and Twilight.

“Good morning dear,” My husband said. He probably just got done cleaning himself up for his day at work.

“If you want the bathroom is all yours,”

“Sure thing. Can you finish the table? I’ll wake the kids up after I’m done,” I answered.

After a few minutes, I got done showering and cleaning myself up. I went to Shining’s room first, since Twilight always takes the most time in the bathroom and I wanted to give Jordan a few more minutes of rest. I hope he had a comfortable night.

I knocked on Shining’s room to see if he was already awake. No response, typical. Just like his father, Shining is not really a morning pony.I went inside and gently woke him up.

“Shining wake up. It’s time for breakfast.” That certainly had his attention as his ears twitched back and forth.

“Good morning mom,” he yawned, “Are Twilight and Jordan already up?”

“No not yet. I was going to wake them after you showered.”

“That’s not like Twilight to still be asleep at this time. Maybe for the better, you know how twilight is when it comes to time in the bathroom,” he snickered.

“And you are about to miss breakfast if you don’t hurry up. You know how your father is in the morning,” I responded. Sometimes they acted so much alike. At those words he went a bit pale and hurried himself to the bathroom.

I went to check up on Twilight and Jordan. Usually Twilight is already wide awake and studying. Sometimes she really overdoes it so that her health might be a bit of a concern.

I knocked on the door of her room. No response. That was strange. I opened her door to see her still sleeping, but the pillow provided for Jordan was empty. I went a bit closer and saw one of the most precious scenes of the past week.

Both Jordan and Twilight were cuddling each other like they were either very good friends or like you would cuddle a teddy bear. Probably more like a teddy bear. It made me almost sad to know that I had to wake them both up.

I decided to at least make the moment last a bit longer and call my husband upstairs. He just had to see this. When he had seen the position they were both sleeping in, it instantly put a smile on his face.

“It nearly breaks my heart to know that I have to wake them up,” I said.

“Yeah, I see what you mean. But Twilight still has to work a bit for the exam and we still have some questions for Jordan. We never asked for what his kind eats,” Night reasoned.

“Yeah, I was thinking about the same thing. Well, let’s wake them up,” I responded.

***POV Jordan***

I was softly lulled out of my sleep by whispers. Yet for now, they were still inaudible. The soft fur combined with the comforting warmth made it difficult to escape the grasp of sleep. I can also hear a soft thumping sound that nearly sent me back asleep.

“I... ...ime ... Brea...ast.” The voices were persistent. And kept pulling me softly out the land of sleep.

“Twil..., It’s ti... To wake up.” I could almost hear them.

I opened my eyes to see just one overwhelming color. Purple. I didn’t remember that there was anything purple at home. I turned around to see two ponies who were very familiar to me. Night Light and Twilight Velvet. So yesterday wasn’t just a bad dream. This was reality. That meant that the purple thing was...

I looked back to see that I was cuddled up against Twilight Sparkle and that she was cuddling me. That explained at least a few things. Did she pick me up after I had my nightmare? Questions for later.

“Good morning,” I murmured quite sadly.

They seemed to pick up on my mood. “Did you sleep alright dear?” asked Velvet with a big smile on her face.

“Yea. It didn’t start so well. But I guess Twilight decided to give me some comfort?” I half asked.

With all my moving around, Twilight started to wake up.

“Good morning,” she yawned.

“Now that you two are awake. You can clean up and join us for breakfast,” Night Light said. That was an idea that my stomach agreed on with a bit of rumbling.

Little Twilight decided that she was going to use the bathroom first after Shining was done. With Twilight in the bathroom, Night Light decided to approach me while I was waiting.

“So, how come you two were sleeping like that?” he softly asked. I think he wanted to make it seem like he wasn’t accusing me.

“I had a really bad nightmare. It was about all the doubts I had which kept me restless throughout the first bit of the night. Then I guess Twilight must have noticed it and decided to give me a bit of comfort. I can at least say that it helped,” I explained.

“Oh. Must have been a pretty rough nightmare,” He inquired.

“Yea, I was in a pitch black tunnel with wisps and voices around me that confirmed my doubts. A bit later came a boulder down the hallway that I couldn’t dodge or outrun. When it nearly hit me, I woke up.” I decided to give him a short summary of the dream.

“Were you able to sleep peacefully after the nightmare ended?” he asked.

“Yeah pretty much.”

“If you need to talk to anyone, know that we are here for you. Okay?” After I nodded he went back downstairs.

**TIME SKIP**

After Twilight and me used the bathroom, we joined the rest downstairs for breakfast.

“So Jordan. We forgot to ask what humans eat yesterday. Would you mind telling us? Because we saw you just kind of cherry picking at dinner yesterday,” This question came from Velvet the moment I sat down on one of the chairs.

“Well, humans are omnivores if you are wondering,” I answered.

“Oh my. That means you eat both meat and plants, right?” Velvet said a bit surprised. I noticed this and eased their doubts about that. Obviously ponies are herbivores. But I noticed that they are not strictly so. They also consume dairy products and sometimes eggs.

“It means that I can eat both meat and plants, yes, “I answered, “But I was raised as a vegetarian. In fact, it is not mandatory to eat meat for us. There are enough suitable replacement for everything, like beans and peanuts. I’m fine with most fruits, vegetables and bread. I also like some dairy products and eggs from time to time. The only thing I need to watch out for is salt and sugar. A human body only needs a small amount to be healthy. And plants like flowers and hay are indigestible for humans so I can’t eat that.”

“Oh, It is a bit surprising. Apes and monkeys are strictly vegetarian,” commented Night Light.

And with that we started breakfast. “So, what are the plans for today?” I asked

“I got to go to work,” Night Light said.

“I got to go to school,” followed Shining.

“I’m home. I took the week off so that Twilight could study at home, instead of with a foal sitter,” Velvet finished.

“Yea, I heard some of you mention some sort of entry exam. What do you actually have to do for it Twilight? And so Twilight started her explanation.

“The exam is divided into 2 parts. An intellectual part and a magical part. For the intellectual part I have to make a presentation of something that I want to study further. And for the magical part, I have to perform an intermediate spell.”

“What kind of spells can you cast now?” I asked. I was really interested in this magic. The word magic for humans is used for something that science can’t immediately explain. So as a man (Boy now I guess) of science, I was intrigued with the way they would define magic.

“Right now I am at novice level,” She said quite sadly. “And at this rate, I’ll never get admitted to the school.”

It seemed like she was really worked up about it.Maybe I can help you study for the exam? That is of course if you would want that.”

“Really?!?” she nearly screamed.

“Yeah, why not?” Never in my life would I regret those words more than I did then.

Author's Note

Chapter 4 done. It is a bit longer that expected.
I hope you guys like it so far. If you have any comments or criticism for how I write this story, please tell me. I would love to hear your opinions.
If you have any suggestions for what you want to see in future chapters. I would love to hear them as well.
FYI, Either two or three chapters from now is going to be the chapter that Twilight is going to get her cutie mark.
Have a good day.