I looked at Twilight, trying to contain my panic,
"And why didn't you tell me this?"
She smiled sheepishly,
"I was going to, the letters only got sent yesterday."
I ran my hands through my hair, "Oh, this is not good at all."
She trotted over to me, "Ryan, why are you so worried?"
I looked at her, "Twilight, think about his perspective. He's your big brother, it's his job to protect you with his life, and he finds out you're with the town's new freakshow? He is going to eat me."
She looked at me critically, "I think you might be overreacting a little bit, Ryan."
I shook my head, "Twilight, have you ever had a boy- er, a coltfriend before?"
She blushed slightly, "Um, no, you're the first."
I nodded, "So you don't know how bad it can be. I had a little sister, I know exactly what his thought process is right now. And he's the Captain of the Royal Guard, to boot."
She looked back up to me, "Didn't you just say you're probably the strongest thing in Equestria right now?"
"Yeah, but I don't have any counters to magic apart from just tanking the damage. And you should never underestimate an older brother who's feeling protective of his little sister. If he catches the interview while he's here, my chances only get worse."
She got up and draped her legs over my shoulders, giving me a quick kiss, "I promise I'll keep him from getting too mean, Ryan."
I took a deep breath and met her eyes, making myself calm down, "Alright."
She smiled sweetly and returned to her chair, "We're meeting him at the train station at 2:13 tomorrow."
I browsed through some of the books, "Okay."
I picked out a novel, some sort of fantasy-noir title called The Bresdon Files. Chicago PI that's also a wizard. It was surprisingly good, and so Twilight and I read by the fire for several hours before going to bed.
I glanced at the clock mounted on the station wall, 2:10. Twilight insisted we get there 20 minutes early, so we had been spending the last few minutes talking about what we'd do, maybe see a show, all go out and have dinner, the usual things you do when family visits. The train that rolled in looked like something straight out of the 1800's, save for the Barbie-esque color scheme. Shining Armor wasn't difficult to spot, there were less than a dozen ponies getting off, and he was the tallest by far. He was followed by a mare I didn't recognize, bright pink coat, multi-colored, flowing hair. I caught Twilight doing a double-take before running and hugging her brother,
"Shining!"
He smiled and hugged her back,
"Twily!"
She quickly shifted her attention to the mare, "Cadance, what are you doing here?"
I started walking over as Cadance did some kind of quick song and dance with Twilight, "Are you kidding, Twilight? How could I miss meeting your first coltfriend?"
I noticed a band around hers and Shining's hooves. I cocked an eyebrow at them, curiosity getting the better of me, "You're married?"
Cadance looked over at me, "And you must be-..." She paused mid-sentence, staring at me in confusion before looking back at Twilight, "Um, Twilight, who's this?"
Twilight looked at Shining, "You didn't tell her?"
He shrugged at her, "She was talking so much about meeting him, I didn't get a chance to."
Twilight looked back at Cadance, "Well, Cadance, this is Ryan...my coltfriend."
Cadance kept staring at me, confused, "Well, what is he?"
I responded before Twilight could answer, "Is no one informed when a new species arrives in Equestria?"
Shining glared at me, "Only the Princesses and myself are specifically made aware of cases such as yourself for the first month."
"The fuck kinda foreign policy is that?"
I looked at Cadance, "Anyway, I'm a human, I'm not really from around here."
She started to look more curious than confused, "Where are you from?"
"Well, I'm not sure if it's just a different planet from this or in an entirely different dimension, but I'm from a planet called Earth."
She looked back at Twilight, "You're dating an alien?"
She nodded, smiling sheepishly still. poof
"It'll get more confusing, just wait."
poof
I put my head in my hand and let out an defeated groan. Both Shining and Cadance were looking at me, "What was that?"
I stuck my hands in my pockets, "One of the many reasons I'm a bit weirder than your average human. Listen, not to sound rude, but how about we discuss this back at the Library?"
"Uh, yeah, sure, that sounds good."
We all got seated in the main room, Twilight got an extra pair of chairs for Shining and Cadance. They asked all the usual questions, I gave the usual answers, so on and so forth. Then we got to the bits where I could practically hear how thin the ice I was on was, with Shining watching me like a hawk. Once they had adjusted to the strangeness of my being here, Cadance smiled at both of us,
"So, how long have you two been together?"
I stayed perfectly still, not wanting to give an inch to Shining,
"8 days as of today."
"Really? Only 8 days?"
I shrugged, "I've only been here for a little over 3 weeks, so the timetables are kinda compressed at the moment."
She nodded understandingly, her smile not faltering, "So, who said it first?"
Twilight and I looked at each other, then back to Cadance, "Well, actually, neither of us really said anything, per se, when feelings were made clear."
She looked at me, curious, "What do you mean?"
Maintain posture, straight back, shoulders squared, "Well, it happened at the Grand Galloping Gala. Twi and I were talking out on a balcony, then out of nowhere she gets up and kisses me."
Her smile widened a bit more than would seem normal, "Ooh. What happened then?"
Don't look him in the eye, look at her, "Well, if I'm to be honest, things weren't so clear-cut then. I told her I wasn't sure if I was ready for a relationship, what with had been happening the last two weeks of my life. We spent the rest of the night just as friends and went home. I snuck out the next morning, went into the middle of nowhere to think, and decided that I was ready."
I could still feel his gaze burning a hole into me. Cadance looked at Twilight, "So, Twily, how long did it take you to know?"
She blushed slightly and looked down, "Um, a day or two..."
"And what about you, Ryan?"
I shrugged helplessly, "Frankly, I was so busy with starting to have a life here that the thought of romance didn't really occur to me until the Gala."
She raised her eyebrows, getting more and more enthralled in the whole story, "But you knew when it happened?"
"Well, yeah, after the initial unsurety, I was, and still am, pretty positive."
She looked at Shining, "Oh, aren't they so sweet?"
Shining nodded severely, "Mhmm."
Cadance clapped her hooves together and got up, "How about I go make us some tea?"
Twilight smiled and got up as well, "I'll show you where I keep the teabags."
I froze as I realized that I was being left alone with Shining Armor. He watched me silently, waiting to hear the kettle go on. When it did, he leaned across to me,
"I'm only going to tell you this once: You'd better not be doing this just to buck my little sister, because I will have you shipped off to the deepest, darkest hole in the kingdom."
snap
I was used to the usual intimidation tactics by older brothers. Hell, I used plenty of them in my time, but it was an unspoken rule that that was over the line. I slowly turned my head to meet his eyes, my voice coming out hard and cold as iron,
"One, sex is currently a physical impossibility for me, due to several problems that I do not wish to discuss. Two, I live with her, screwing her and being done wouldn't be a very good idea when this place is my only home at the moment. Three, and most importantly, I have way too much respect for her to ever considering doing something like that. You get that through your skull, soldier boy, or I'll open up that head and force the idea in myself, got it?"
He kept up that same, unwavering glare, "If I find out that you hurt her in any way, so help me, Celestia..."
The last shreds of my fear of him melted away, replaced by indignant anger, "What reason have I given you to think that? Where I'm from, it's not unheard of for soldiers to beat their wives, do you see me accusing you of anything? I've faced death twice and spat in its eye twice. I've read up on wildlife and some of the villains that have been around recently, they are nothing compared to what I faced back home. I personally guarantee you that anything that tries to hurt her or get between us, you and the Princesses included, will be destroyed by me without a shred of hesitation."
Twilight and Cadance came back out with a tray,
"Tea's ready."
They stopped in their tracks when they looked at Shining and myself. Twilight spoke first,
"Ryan, is everything okay?"
They were looking at my left hand, which I then noticed had shifted to claws. I shifted it back and sat back up straight, calming myself down, "Yes, everything's fine, Twi, thank you."
There was a brief moment where no one moved or spoke. Twilight and Cadance were just staring at us, Shining was looking at me without a word. Finally, it was broken by Shining giving me a microscopic nod, "We're clear, then." His posture relaxed, he dropped the glared, and smiled at Cadance, jumping to a playful tone, "Well, come on, don't make us beg for our tea."
I passed. Oh, sweet jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, I passed. I relaxed back into my chair, thanking every god I could think of for letting that gamble work. Without missing a beat, Cadance set the tray down and poured each of us a cup, Twilight coming over right after her. I had to politely refuse the offer of tea, however, "I can't drink."
Cadance raised an eyebrow at me, "Tea?"
"Anything that has water in it. Doesn't settle with me too well."
We sat in silence as they drank their tea. Cadance looked at me when she finished, "I didn't ask, what do you do, Ryan? For a job?"
I straightened up, "I work at a club in town, I'm one of the DJ's."
She perked up slightly, "That's Club PON-3, right?"
I nodded, "Yeah, why?"
She looked at Shining, "Maybe that could be one of the things we do while we're here, Shiny."
He nodded thoughtfully, "I'd be alright with going. What about you, Twily?"
She shook her head, "No, you three can go. I'm not really big on clubs."
I looked at her, "Aw, come on, Twi, it's Tuesday, there won't be that many ponies there. And hey, I've been spending a lot of my time here seeing you work your magic, you can come see me work mine."
She looked torn, "I don't know..."
I nudged her, "And I know you can party, I saw you at the Gala."
She smiled at me, "Okay, for you."
I got up, "I'll call Vinyl, see if I can't grab a spot tonight."