The Mayor Of Canterlot

Washing the dishes, the mayor keeps working on cleaning his fairly simple suburban house, as if he was on autopilot. Everything was black and white and there was instrumental music playing as though he was stuck inside on some corny 80's family sitcom. He was wearing his usual formal suit but he had rolled up his sleeves and for some reason he was smoking a black pipe.

As he was vacuuming the carpet in the lobby he stumbled over a baseball bat and groaned in irritation. Looking up at the start of the stairs to the second floor "Canterlot!" he calls as canned laughter was heard behind him

"Yes daddy?" A brown unicorn colt with a white dot on the left side of his head pokes his head out as an invisible audience cheers for his arrival only to flinch and look back when Mark raises both the bat and his eye "What did I tell you about leaving your toys on the floor?"

"Sorry dad." Recoiling a little, Canterlot walks down the stairs, he was wearing a simple black shirt and white short pants as well as tennies. In his left hand he had a crumpled piece of paper.

Once he was on the bottom Mark tapped his foot for an explanation as the kid kept looking down "Well?"

"When I heard that mommy was coming earlier I wanted to surprise her with a drawing and rush to my room once I came in." He shows him a crude drawing half way down of him, the colt and a tall alicorn with her face covered in scribbles. "I'm sorry."

Softening his gaze Mark kneels in front of the colt. The audience replies to all the actions "Oh champ, I understand that you must be excited, but that is not an excuse to throw common manners out the window." He pats his shoulder as Canterlot glares at him.

"What about you? Didn't you say you had a meeting to prepare?" He tilted his head before looking around. "You have been cleaning the house even though it was already clean to begin with just to impress her."

That catches him off guard and he pretends to cough "Well, you see…your mom works so hard and I thought maybe she would like this little surprise when she comes back."

"Whatever." He looked down in disappointment. "It's pointless anyway, once she comes all she is gonna talk about is how well Equestria is doing in college." Canterlot pouted, crossing his arms.

"Hey, hey, look at me champ." Mark gently guided his face to see him "Your mother loves you both. She simply gets distracted easily and your sister, well she has a tendency to seek attention."

"It's not fair! When is it going to be my turn?" Canterlot demanded stomping the floor.

Distressed, Mark stood up and extended his hand "Tell you what, why don't we both impress your mom by making her favorite dish? That sure would make her extra happy and then we can talk about her spending more time with you."

That brightened his day "We are making a triple layer chocolate cake with sprinkles?! …oh and hot sauce as a topping!?"

Mark can't help but laugh and shake his head as he lifts him up "Canterlot, you inherited your mom's sweet tooth."

They were about to enter the kitchen when the door opened and a white light prevented Mark from seeing who exactly entered. "Mom!"

Canterlot, out of nowhere, sprouted wings from his back and flew to meet the mare as Mark was still trying to adjust his eyes until he felt a hand cupping his face "Hi honey." As she brought him to look up she surprised him with a small kiss on the lips and then smirks "I'm home." Mark's eyes widen in surprise and horror when in front of him was an amalgamation of Celestia, Luna and Twilight roll up into one mare with Celestia fur, Luna mane and tail and Twilight wings as her horn was all 3 of their colors as well, similar to her eyes.

Waking up Mark could only blink constantly at what was by far the most bizarre lucid dream he ever had before sitting up in bed.

The fuck did I just dream about?

The mayor kept poundering to himself, looking at the floor where the now dry spot where the potion was and hidden under the bed was a feather whose color was obscure by the shadow. Intrigued Mark was about to stand up and figure out once and for all what mare pay him a visit until he heard a door opening and from it a pegasus nurse walks looking at a clipboard and then getting slightly startled when she saw Mark wide awake and looking at her "Oh Mr. Mayor, good morning"

She offers a friendly smile as she approaches him, "You startled me a little just now, didn't know you were such an early bird." She jokes while approaching him "How are you feeling?"

"Better than ever ma’am." Mark replies honestly, aware how he indeed felt great, better than ever even. The pain is completely gone, and while still numb, his injuries seem to be improving by the second. "And sorry for scaring you, I'm so used to waking up at dawn for work that sometimes I don't even need an alarm clock." He pulled the sheet off of him "In fact, I feel so great, and today is such a lovely day. I think I'm ready to go back to the office."

"Whoa, there!" The nurse immediately rushed to his side in alarm and put her hands on his shoulder pushing him back to bed. "Sir, you were assaulted just yesterday, there were internal injuries, we had to operate and cast very complex healing spells on your stomach." She start to list on a very stern voice

"You did?" Mark blinks, surprised at how he was worse off than he originally thought as she nods.

"What you are feeling is most likely the painkillers and adrenaline boost spell right now. Trust me, it's best if you rest and wait here until we tell you, you are free to go."

Once laying back on bed the nurse put the sheets on top of him once more. "Plus believe me, the last thing you want is to step out of the hospital." She points at a nearby window covered by its curtains "It's a circus out there. A mob of reporters is waiting at the entrance with an itchy finger ready to press their camera and capture the next front page for their respective newspaper."

"Of course they are." Mark let go a sigh of frustration "Press, am I right? Those guys can be relentless."

"They sure are, but none of them will step a hoof inside, you can trust in us sir."

"Understood." He nods and stirs on his bed a little to get more comfortable "Then in that case what is on the agenda? Maybe I could at the very least fill out some paperwork."

The nurse gave him a deadpan "Nice try, you know what doctor Gerald instructed, one whole day in observation and rest, we will take your vitals at noon to see how are you doing but until then you are forbidden to work on anything. Only if the doctor gives his blessing, then you can leave." She passed him a book "In the meantime here, have some reading material to pass the time. Sorry we ran out of Daring Doo copies so this would be the next best thing."

"The Book of Friendship?" Mark read the title out loud before raising an eyebrow at the nurse.

"What? It is a great read. More than a lesson, it is kind of an adventure story about a humble unicorn filly that one day caught the attention of Princess Celestia and under her guidance eventually became a royal herself."

"Well, that is not exactly how I would describe it," The princess in question comments as she walks inside startling the nurse who quickly bow to her "but I'm glad you enjoyed it nonetheless."

"Y-Your highness." She continues to keep her head low as Twilight dismisses her and approaches Mark. The human tries to keep his composure the best he can, but flashes of his dream plus last night activities and the one before that, are making things pretty uncomfortable on his part.

"Sorry to come unannounced. When I heard what happened to you I wanted to rush here right away, but my hands were tied with a lot of pressing matters that needed my attention." She apologizes with her ears pressing against her skull and she looks at him pitifully.

Her words help him relax and keep his mind out of the gutter.

"There is nothing to apologize for, your highness, what happened to me has nothing to do with…" He began but Twilight stop him by raising her hand

"Please Mark. I appreciate the show of respect, but despite it having been a while and our jobs forcing us to keep things professional, I still like to think of you as an old friend I once nursed back to health when I was still getting used to this piece of metal." She looks up and taps her tiara with one finger. "We are in private now, you can drop the title."

He looks at her in surprise before smiling and chuckling a little, shaking his head. "Sorry, Twilight. I suppose I'm still getting used to how much you have grown since I left the town in search of adventure."

Her blushing face and averted gaze, makes him remember what Spectra told him and subsequently causes him to blush "I-I don't mean like getting fat!" He quickly added, raising his hands in fake surrender "I mean more like tall, you grew a lot taller since the last time I saw you!" He clarify and her eyes wide.

"Oh? O-Oh! Y-yeah, I get it." Twilight decides to play along and chuckles nervously as she scratches her cheek and looks away from him. For a couple of minutes the tension became palpable as both of them seemed to know something the other might or might not know and weren't sure how or even if they should talk about it.

"So…" pretending to cough Mark managed to recover first "Even when I didn't stay too long in Ponyville, you still see me as a friend?" He forces himself to look her in the eyes as he tries to change the subject.

"We all do." Twilight sits at the side of his bed, "Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and especially Rainbow Dash. We all see you as a good friend, we still do." She looked slightly hurt. "You didn't?"

"What? No! I mean yeah! I mean! He sighs and tries to calm himself, "Twilight I would forever be in your debt for everything you did for me. The day I suddenly appeared in Equestria, I was downright terrified."

He look down in reminiscent "Alone in a strange world of fantasy, cold, scared, hungry, disoriented...and with the pain of a broken arm" Mark sigh and close his eyes "Frankly I don't know what would have happen if Rainbow and Pinkie haven't found me that day"

He looks up and opens his eyes at her "I was a complete stranger, a never before creature standing in front of you. It was sheer luck we had the same language. I still find it hard to believe how fast you all decided to help me. For a moment there I thought my life would be spent on the run, as a weird monster outcast, or some type of lab experiment."

Twilight smiled and grabbed one of his hands. "We would have never done that, different or not, you needed help, sure we were cautious at first but once we saw you didn't mean any harm of course we all eager to become really good friends with you at that very moment."

"Kind of fast, don’t you think? We have only met for two days by then." He raised an eyebrow and she couldn't help but laugh at the memory and roll her eyes

"Oh Mark, one of these days I need to tell you the story on my very first day in Ponyville." She gets sad once more and stares down "Maybe I would have told you sooner if you had only stayed a little bit longer."

"Twilight please don't bring this again. I told you how much I hate the idea of being a parasite and well...I still needed to process a lot of things. There were a lot of emotions going through my head and I simply..."

He sigh and look at the window were some birds were passing by "...I always wanted to explore the world and learn all I can from it." He smiled and looked back at the hand she was still holding , rubbing her cutie mark with his thumb "I lost my home, my family, the friends I had before. To a degree I even lost my identity as a human being, I just needed to grab on to something, a proof that I didn’t lose all I knew. I just couldn’t let go of my dream. It…it was the last thing I had left."

"I-I'm not trying to guilt trip you or anything!" Twilight adds in alarm "I fully understand by Celestia sake I know, ok don’t know exactly how that feels but I know what is like to be yanked away from everything you knew. You were never a prisoner, if you really wanted to explore the world then I was more than happy, heck I really enjoy the letters you send from time to time, while they last. '' She gave him a side glance as he chuckled nervously and looked away.

"You just repelled an invasion and started to build a school for friendship. I really didn't think it was the time. And frankly part of me though you had already forgotten about me by then. For pit sake Twilight, yes it was something incredible but you were the princess of Friendship with thousands of friends all over the world, take away my looks and I become just another drop on the bucket."

"Is that part of the human mentality you told me once? How on Earth establishes a deep friendship that can take time to fully form? " She asks with neutrality.

"...Yeah unfortunately, mostly it is a matter of trust. You can’t give it away blindly either, those things take time…and consider everything I I don't exactly know when but at some point I thought that my letters might have come across as obnoxious, I wasn’t ready to open up to others yet and when I left began to think you would see me more like 'that guy we help that time.'"

His eyes widened in horror when he heard her sniff "So you had so little faith in our friendship after all."

"Twilight please, try to understand."

"Oh I think I understand." She stood up "I understand you thought so little about all of us that decided to ignore us rather than face your fears." She turns around around and head to the door

"Twilight stop! Let me explain."

"I think you explain enough, good day Mr. Mayor."

"I really meant it when I promised you I would return to Ponyville after I was done visiting Canterlot!" He finally yells in an attempt for her to stop which result yet she remain looking forward as she stay on the frame

"Then why didn't you keep that promise?" She ask in a barely audible whisper

"Because if I had, I would have never been able to see any of you on the face ever again."

It was Twilight's turn to look at him surprised as she cleaned some tears and looked back at him while Mark lifted the book. "I never once forgot all that you taught me, to be kind, to make others smile, to see the worth of friendship and how it must be treasure and practice with honesty and loyalty. I might have feared you forgot me, but I sure never forget about you and all of your teachings." He look at her with determination as she stay quiet

"My plan was to ask for your help. I achieved my dream, I saw the world, I learned so many things and made so many friends along the way. That I felt ready to go back hom...to go back to the place where everything started. Try and see if you remember and..."

He shrugs and chuckles "...I don't know what next frankly, maybe ask for a job as the janitor at your school? I really didn't know where to go from there. I only knew that I was fully intended to meet you again and if in the end you truly forgot about me or were just too busy then I would just go find a house of my own and start working at something. At least until I come up with a new plan" He smile calmly as she slowly approach the bed once more "...but then"

"What happened?" Twilight asks more than a little intrigued at this point. "Mark, what made you decide to stay here in Canterlot and run for mayor?"

"I can't tell, I promise Drusy..."

"It's ok Mark." Drusilla step into the room with her arm cross looking at the princess with sorrow "You can tell her, all things considered I believe it only fair that your friend knows"

"Are you really ok with me telling her about Druid?" He asks in worry as Drusila nods and stands next to him

"I have already grieved, you don't need to worry about me."

Twilight keeps taking glances between the two, too scared to insist on asking for the story. Luckily she didn't have to wait long, as with a shared nod, both human and Thestral turned to look at her.

"Twilight please don't think less of Canterlot or the Princess for what I'm about to tell you, there was no way she knew what was happening under her city or who was ruling it." Mark start and Drusilla continues

"A vile snake looking only after filling his pockets and a class S discriminating asshole, with a silver tongue" The Thestral didn't make no attempt whatsoever to hide the venom and rage toward said pony.

"The previous mayor of Canterlot basically, a pony that exemplifies the shallow image of high class Canterlot used to project, one that I have the misfortune of meeting very well, and for the sake of the values that you taught me. Someone I simply couldn't stand getting away with tramping over my friends any second longer"

Mark clench his fist in anger "Get comfortable Twilight, because this isn't exactly a short or happy story" He warns her as she takes a seat and brace herself for the tale.