Ivory trotted through town happily as head towards the castle. It's been two more weeks since she met Chris and he was quickly becoming her best friend. She had always had trouble finding good friends, at school she had ponies that she would call 'friends', but they were really just a little more then acquaintances.

She never really hung out with them outside of school, just ponies to talk to and make the day a little less grueling on her. But with Chris, he was cool, he was different, and she loved MarioKart too much to give that up, something her other friends could never even dream of giving her.

Her parents weren't too thrilled with her when she said that she had made friends with the human, and was regularly visiting him a few times a week. But all that changed when she told them that he helped her with her homework. The look on their faces when she showed them her completed work was priceless.

As long as she was getting her homework done and was happy, they didn't seem to mind to much about it, knowing that they were in the castle with the princess and guards made them sleep easier at night as well.

Ivory strolled up to the front of the castle as she noticed a chariot parked just outside the doors.

"Uh oh, that might not be good... Maybe it's some important ruler coming to visit Twilight? Hopefully that's all it is." Ivory thought to herself as she approached the front doors.

"Maybe I can sneak passed and get to Chris without running in to anyone. Anyone? Damnit Chris with your human speak"

She opened the front doors and looked into the main hall, a few guards but that was normal. She made her way inside and shut the door behind her, waving to the guards posted in the hall as they gave her a nod as they usually did. Twilight said she was alright to enter the castle unannounced to see Chris, it would be a hassle to have to answer the door every time she just wanted to talk to Chris and not her.

She kept going and rounded the corner to the stairs, made her way up and turned the corner to the hall with Chris's room, she was running a little faster then she should have been to get to his room quickly, before she is met with ass, a large white ass. Celesta's ass to be exact.

Slamming into her flanks, she knocked herself onto the ground. Staring up from the ground she watched Celestia tower over her with her size as she turns around.

"Apologize before she vaporizes you!"

"P-Princess C-Celestia I'm so very sorry! I wasn't w-watching where I was g-going and I..." She was struggling to make words as she picked herself off the floor.

She was surprised as the Princess just smiled softly as her and waved her off with a hoof.

"It is alright my little pony, we all make mistakes sometimes. You are forgiven. Are you Ivory Sky? Friend of Chris's?"

Ivory nods a little confused.

"I see." Celestia's face grows from the soft smile to a stern one. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Chris has locked himself in his room and hasn't talked to anyone all morning."

"What...? Why? Did something happen?" Ivory was now very concerned.

"I'm afraid so, Twilight and I have been searching for a solution to returning Chris to his home planet. We have both come to the same conclusion that it would be extremely risky and dangerous to attempt. He could easily be killed by the teleportation, or we could send him to the wrong planet by accident. It's almost impossible to pinpoint a rogue planet out of an entirely different universe then our own even with all of the princesses powers combined. Chris has not taken the information lightly."

"Oh..." Ivory looks at the ground and process's all that. Being told you can't go home must be very hard to deal with.

"Maybe you can get through to him."

Ivory looks back up at Celestia.

"Me? Why me? isn't the door locked?"

"I can easily open the door, but didn't want to force the issue with knowing what kind of state Chris is in. Twilight and I have both attempted to talk to him, we even tried to get Spike. But you seem rather close to him, he has mentioned you a few times in his letters to me. Please, I don't want him like this."

"He's talked to Celestia about me?" That made her feel some kind of way inside, a weird feeling in her chest she's never felt before.

"I'll try, I've never really seen him sad like this before, and I don't want him to just lock himself away and sulk..."

"Thank you, let me open the door for you, and I'll go talk to Twilight about future plans."

Ivory nods as Celestia's horn glows, a soft aura on the door as she watched the lock turn. She bows to ivory as she bows back before she makes her way down the hall.

Ivory sighs softly to herself as she turns the knob to the door and let's herself in. it was dark, the blinds pulled over the windows and lights were off. She fiddled around with the wall until she found the light switch and flicked it on.

"Please... just go away... I don't want to talk to anyone right now." She hears from the lump on the bed.

He was turned away from the door and had his blanket over him.

"Chris..." She softly shut the door behind her as she made her way closer to him.

He shuffled over as he turned his head to look at her. His hair wasn't kept, his eyes lightly red.

"Ivy...?"

She nods as she hops up onto the bed. Chris moves the blanket off him as he moves to his back and sits up.

"W-what are you doing here? You said you weren't coming today because of school..." She heard the sadness in his voice as he spoke to her.

"I finished my work early so I could come hang out with you... The Princess told me what she told you, Chris... I'm so sorry..."

He gives a heavy sigh as he turn to look away from her.

"It's not your fault, no need to be sorry. I'm not blaming anyone, they tried their best..."

She looked to his turned away face, a pain in her chest forming from him being like this. She never wanted him to be like this again. she cared for him, knowing how hard this must be.

She get closer to him as she wrapped her hooves and wings around him for a hug, pushing her face into his chest as she embraced him. He slowly wrapped his arms around her as well, placing his head on top of hers and pressing his face into her mane, closing his eyes.

She held him, and he held her. they stayed like this for a few minutes, Chris softly rubbing his hand over her back. He smelled... not great, probably hadn't taken a shower yet, but she couldn't blame him.

They slowly let each other go to stare at each other with light smiles.

"How about you go take a shower and some breakfast. Then we can play some Kart? Keep your mind off things?" She suggested.

He gives her a small nod with a larger smile.

"Yeah... that sounds good. You're gonna learn how to drift today."

Author's Note

Relationship building woo. Cute chapter, had fun writing it. We are finally getting to the fun stuff.