Twilight snorted awake and jolted slightly as she felt an embrace tighten around her from behind. She calmed instantly as she recognized the blue foreleg latching and tugging her closer to him. Smiling, she sighed and remembered last night, and how it had started in the evening and she made sure it lasted until well after bedtime. It was the best game of hide and seek she’d played in years.
She made a lot of noise and motion rolling over to look into his face, but he was too exhausted to wake up. She smiled and used her magic to brush his forelocks from his face so she could see him slumber, then leaned it to kiss him, lightly on the snout. Charging a spell she teleported to the side of her bed and stretched, wincing a little at the soreness she felt from what she’d been through. “Never hiding in an air vent again,” she whispered with a smile.
She chuckled quietly as she thought it was a soreness she couldn’t, and didn’t want to, fix. A reminder of her first whole night of playing in a while, and the one that she needed more than she knew. It was better than a videogame, by far. She teleported down a level and went to the bathroom, laughing at her disheveled look in the mirror. Her mane was entirely frizzed. Her tail had tangles. Her coat was matted and flat or fluffy in random spots, and one of her ears was stuck to the top of her head.
She showered and groomed herself, getting ready to preen her wings she rolled her eyes as she noticed they weren’t there. She went back to her bed and stood,, watching him sleep and taking note of the smile, still plastered on his muzzle, before she yawned, quietly. Getting back into bed, she closed her eyes, she fell back asleep.
Twilight woke when Shining got up and quickly trotted to the stairs and descended them. She smiled as she watched him leave and couldn’t help but stare at his dock as he left. “What a butt,” she whispered as his tail disappeared down the stairs.
She rolled to her hooves again and climbed from the bed, making the bed after she got out, and then went downstairs to wait for him to come out of the bathroom. Her ears slumped as she heard the shower turn on, it was going to be a longer wait. She went to the first floor and to a couch against the wall, laid on it, then picked up a random tablet she’d left there long ago. Turning it on she looked through the list of books and rolled her eyes. She’d read nearly every book in the Canterlot archives by this point.
She’d linked into the system and downloaded millions of human books, but most didn’t seem interesting, except ones that were fictional, to them, about magic and monsters. The Harry Potter series was a nice read, as were the collective futuristic idea’s of Isaac Asimov and how they paralleled with the human present, even though they were written a hundred years before humans split the atom or traveled into space. Ideas seen as outlandish, at the time, were now part of human society.
She listened and sat up straighter as she heard the bathroom door open and the soft clopping of hooves on the bathroom tiles before going silent on the padded floor and he, surely, went to the grooming station. Being an earth pony, he might appreciate a little help, she thought and turned to prance up the stairs and watched him for a few seconds as he held a brush in his teeth and began with his tail.
“Need some help?” She offered.
He left the brush in his tail since it was nearly stuck and looked up to her. “Would you mind? I’ve got tangles, snarls, I think a knot or two… Just, I’m a mess,” he smiled to her, “after all that playing, I feel like a foal again.”
“I had so much fun with you, can we do it again? I need a little time to recover, parts of me are sore that I didn’t know could be, but I’d love to again tonight, and to sleep with you again. It was nice to not sleep alone.
He smiled as he listened to her and watched as she used her magic to brush his tail, and yelped as he tugged a snarl free. “Oh, don’t be a big baby,” she scolded him jokingly as he sniffled.
“I’m not, it just hurts, you’re rough.”
“Uh-huh, want me to show you ‘rough’?” Twilight asked as she tugged through another snarl and then the brush went smoothly through the rest of his tail. She nodded at her first task done and took the short-hair brush and forced him to his belly, then beginning with his neck, brushed him as gently as a mother would her newborn foal.
“Fooled you, you thought I was gonna hurt you? I’d never hurt you, you’re my friend, right?” She asked as he untensed under her brush and relaxed.
“Well, I’m your friend, that’s for sure, but I was worried you were going to be a rough groomer, and that’d make it awkward to ask for help in the future.”
“Oh, I’ve been doing this for centuries,” Twilight dismissed him.
“Heh, you look great for your age, then.” Twilight slowed her brush strokes and stuttered.
“Uh, I mean it feels like it’s been that like long. I’ve taken care of a lot of foals and other ponies,” she minimized her experience.
“Ah, so you spent time as a foalsitter? That’s pretty neat, and it’s good you’re good with kids because with a century something could happen,” he joked. The brush clattered to the floor and he looked back to her, to see her getting up and trotting away. “Twilight?” he asked getting up and following her, “is everything alright?”
She stopped and hung her head. “A little. I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss Equestria. Why’d I decide to come on this trip? What horrible change in the fabric of the universe would have made me wake up… us, I mean.”
“Twilight Glimmer, look at me,” Shining asked softly, placing a hoof to her side. Twilight turned and looked back to him, her eyes brimming with tears. “Look, it’s not the worst thing to spend the rest of our lives on the ship. It’s got everything we need to live, not just survive, and we have each other… not to mention that there’s a good chance, at this rate, that others will wake up, too. So, look on the bright side.”
He smiled warmly to Twilight and noticed her ears perk up a little. “Yeah,” she sniffled, “I guess I’m over thinking it, right?”
“Oh, sweet Celestia, no! You’re almost under thinking it! You’re right to be upset,” he poked a hoof to the carpeted floor, “we’re going to die, possible alone, and one of us will outlive the other, regardless of what we do, short of dying at the same time in an accident or, Pastures forbid, suicide,” both their features sagged the longer he talked, “but there’s no getting back to sleep and there’s no way for both of us, even if there was, because I’ve seen human movies like this,” he snorted, “where one must be sacrificed to save the other. I’ve done research, it seems to be a multiversal constant! There’s always a sacrifice, it seems, in every major decision in history.
“The battle with Discord? They had to eventually give up use of the elements. Battle with Nightmare Moon? Lost a princess… I could go on, but humans have their share, too. It’s almost a joke by death herself, to see what will be lost for the greater good!”
Twilight placed her hooves on his shoulders and looked him intently in the eyes, noticing he had a wild look about him. “Shining! Snap out of it, now you’re overthinking! Just, breathe. That’s it, take a deep breath in… and out, again. Feel better? Okay, you were going full Princess mode,” Twilight giggled to herself.
“Princess mode? Like a Twilight Sparkle freak out? The ones that are known across the worlds?” he sighed, “I never thought I’d be that neurotic in front of a beautiful mare.”
“Awe, than- wait, neurotic?”
…
Shining swung the sledge hammer as hard as he could to the door and grunted as it made contact. The reverberations sent shockwaves through his body and a pain into his forelimbs that made him drop the oversized hammer with a clank to the floor, the command door still undamaged. He looked around at the tools and selected a laser, picked it up, and began firing it at the door…
...
Twilight hid in a store on the concourse behind a display, holding her breath as she heard his hoofsteps falling. Closer and closer he came, then passed. She felt giddy as she’d finally found a hiding spot he couldn’t find her in… until she heard a tapping on the window behind her and her ears pinned back. She turned around to see a smug smiling blue stallion waving at her and pointing at her horn.
Twilight let her gaze rise and she slumped to see a bow on the tip of her horn. She reached up with her left hoof and knocked it away and glared at the stallion who was turning to enter the shop. “Twilight, you almost lost me, but this time you really didn’t notice the frilly ball gowns with bows?
“Seriously, if you hadn’t walked through them, I wouldn’t have been able to find you.” He helped her to her hooves and she bumped her shoulder into his.
“Well, next time I’ll be more mindful of the accessories.”
“Wanna play another game?”
“Nah, I’m tired of hiding and seeking… I kinda just wanna lay under a tree and read a book,” she snorted a sarcastic laugh, “in about a hundred years I’ll be a tree!”
“That’s, not how it works,” he chuckled nervously, “but I remember lying under trees back home. We had this willow, a big one, that let just the right amount of sunlight through its leaves and branches during midday, that I’d fall asleep if I was alone. Heh, the same goes for most trees, though. Plant me under one, while I’m alive,” he clarified, “and I’ll sleep like a cat.
“If I had a wish, it’d be to have a few trees here and there, instead of all this metal. I mean, it’s not possible, of course, because the ship isn’t designed for it in the least and we haven’t the resources, right?” Twilight shrugged, actually not knowing. “And to feel a breeze blowing across my face…
“The memories of home, am I right? I guess we left it all behind for a world we’ll never see, but, I hope that it’s a lot like home for the others,” he stopped as he felt a light breeze across his face. He turned to see Twilight, eyes closed and focused, blowing gently at him. He smiled and sniffed, her breath smelled like breakfast, and he really liked breakfast.
“So, Twilight,” he said after a couple seconds, “what’d you do under trees back home?”
“Well, I just used to read under them… I was a bit, studious.”
Shining began to lead her out of the shop as the lights flickered off, then on again. They shrugged it off. “I gathered that, what with your tablets of books that I’ve seen lying around the place. You’ve read them dry, as it were, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, it’s a good hour to read a good book. There’s not much to reading once you’ve learned to speed read, and then I move on to the next book. Again and again. I’ve read everything that can be read, I sometimes feel,” she said as the entered the concourse and looked up to the skylight.
“Twilight, do you ever just read, to read?”
“Not like I used to. Hey, do you know what day it almost is?”
He looked to her and admired her gaze into the heavens. “Hearths Warming? Summer Sun Festival? Winter Wrap Up?”
She looked at him seriously, then cracked a smile. “Hearts and hooves day! Would you be my special somepony?” she asked levitating a plastic flower from inside her mane and moving it to him.
“My lady, I would be honored,” he took it in his teeth and bit down on it, then made a face that made Twilight laugh. “I, thought it was real…” he said nervously as she pulled him into a hug. A hug that melted his anxiety away, and he began to laugh, too.
…
Twilight sat with Shining in one of the few restaurants on the concourse with candles lit on their table. A real meal placed before them by robotic chefs that had been dormant for too long steamed and filled the air with its sweetly roasted red pepper scent, mixed with a half dozen other flavors that tickled Twilight’s tongue with its almost foreign appeal.
“Are you enjoying your meal, Twilight?”
She wiped her lips daintily on a napkin and smiled with some green stuck between her incisors. “Oh, yes, very much, thank you.” She turned to her soup and looked into the depths of clear blue and dipped her spoon into it, took it out with a fine level of soup, raised it to her lips and slurped it quietly. Then she sighed at the long lost flavor.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” he said lifting his wine glass and taking a sip, “I don’t think I could have made it as long as you. You’re a stronger mare than any I’ve known, and I’ve come across quite a few with personal issues that weren’t nearly as fun as you. Not that I’m saying you have personal issues!”
“It’s okay, I understand. I’m glad you’re here with me too. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh? Well, anything you have to tell me, I’m here for you.”
Twilight sighed and opened her mouth to speak, just as five robots entered the room singing happy birthday, with a cake presented to Shining.
“Oh my! I didn’t know it was my birthday, thank you so much, Twilight Glimmer!” he grinned as the cake was placed before him and the robots finished their song and waited. He looked at the dozen candles and over them to Twilight, who was smiling awkwardly, then blew the candles out as the robots played the sound of cheering and hooves stomping in approval. Six seconds later they went silent and turned to depart.
“Oh, thank you so much, Twilight. I’m so glad I met you, this’ the best birthday I’ve had in years,” he grinned as he took a knife in his fetlock and began to cut the cake, “and now I know that you’re great at surprises! What’s next? A birthday present?” he grinned as he cut a piece out and slid it onto his plate.
Twilight got off her seat and walked over to him. “What’re you doing?” he asked curiously with a smile. His eyes widened as Twilight kissed him softly on the lips.
“Happy birthday, Shining.”
He smiled widely and licked his lips and slid his plate to her. “Wanna share the first piece?”
...
Twilight was alone in her shipping crate in the bowels of the ship tinkering with metals and tools, when she stopped and looked up to the ceiling and a smile crossed her muzzle as a thought crossed her mind. She got up and got the manifest and began scrolling through the lists until she found what she wanted.
Going to the car, she drove for a while and stopped by a stack of bins. Opening the third from the bottom she smiled as she looked at a spool of gold wire. “To be used for construction and wiring only, by order of-” she stopped herself and rolled her eyes at her own orders. She took one spool out of the dozens and drove back to her crate.
Spending a few hours, she smithed a matching set of wreaths from the gold with leaves and a daisy that could have been real, only coated in gold. She made sure to size them correctly and giggled like a filly with a crush when she set them side by side. Then her eyes widened in realization, that she did have a crush on him.
Twilight left her container and closed it, not locking it, and drove to the elevators. Walking in she noted the doors had another problem closing and she waited patiently for it to fix itself before she went to the concourse.
“Hey, Minnie! I wanted to tell you something… Oh, hey, Shining Smile,” she slowed her gallop in at the laughing stallion.
“So, Minnie was just telling me about the month you went bald?” Twilight sucked in air sharply and blushed deeply as she looked at the robot.
“I believe it was two months,” Minnie corrected to Twilight’s horror. “But, she eventually got the shaving down and her body is quite the thing to behold when clean shaven from horn to tail,” Minnie said as she filled a fruit smoothie for Shining.
“You see, uh, I… There was, ah, uhm…” Twilight fumbled for words as Shining listened, ears erect and pointed to her.
“You just did some experimenting, it’s totally fine. I bet if I was given the opportunity I’d shave, too.”
Twilight gulped and took a couple steps closer. “Y-you would?”
“Meh, i’unno,” he shrugged as he took a sip of his drink, “but I might. But only alone, or with a pony I’d trust to keep the secret,” he winked to Minnie, “present company excluded.”
Twilight felt a bit hurt at that statement. “Oh, I totally understand. I wouldn’t have done it if I knew I was going to be seen. I have a reputation to uphold,” she stood taller and slightly regally, by habit. “A mare shouldn’t defile her image, ever.”
“Indeed, Your Highness,” Shining quipped and mock bowed. “What’s with the royalty act? You’re not from Canterlot, are you?”
“Psh, no,” Twilight relaxed, “I’m from Ponyville, remember?”
“Yeah,” he licked his lips clear of smoothie and looked to Minnie, “I can’t forget. The Palace of Friendship’s there, Twilight’s home… The Princess Twilight Sparkle, that is,” he tapped her barstool, “so, should I go and let you ladies have a chat?”
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Twilight said climbing into her chair and tapping the counter, pointing to his drink. “I’ll have what he had,” she said as she leaned toward him and tapped his nose. “You’re it, go hide, I’ll be along shortly.”
He grinned and drank as much of his smoothie as he could before getting off his seat, leaving the bar and looking left then right, and finally choosing right, leaving her sight.
“So, how did he take the news?” Minnie asked.
“I haven’t told him yet, but I will. Very soon, it’s almost Hearts and Hooves day and I’m going to ask him to be my special somepony, for real. He’ll be upset, but I know he’ll understand. That’s all I wanted to say, I guess, but now I wanna smoothie!”
“Twilight, you should tell him. A lie is broadly defines, but a secret is more direct in its meaning, and they overlap so easily.”
Twilight sat in silence as Minnie made her smoothie and added a shot of liquor before passing it to the pony. “So, this’ what he drank?” she asked taking a sip and letting a grin slowly form. “It’s really good. What’s it called?”
“He said it’s called ‘a shot of therapy’.”
“Huh, wouldn’t it be funny if he was a therapist? Like, he was diagnosing me all this time?” she slurped her drink happily as Minnie twitched slightly, unnoticed to Twilight.
“Indeed, Twilight. That would be quite the development.”
…
Twilight walked into the arboretum and took a sniff, smiling to herself and wishing she could open one of the sealed containers and take a taste of a daisy. Each sealed with a timelock spell to keep the contents fresh and ready for implantation on the new world. She went to a container and opened it, taking in the scent, then taking the contents in her magic.
Walking to the room door she looked through the window that kept it sealed and teleported through it to the other side and then looked back at the room. A solid wall of polished steel reflected her and she smiled. The perfect place to hide a room the size of her suite full of magically stasis held plants and trees was a great idea and she was glad she’d discovered the floor plans for the section and noticed the missing area.
Taking her item she went to her suite and knocked loudly on the door with a hoof. Waiting she tapped the floor several times until the door opened to show her blue stallion friend wearing a suit jacket and dress shirt under it with a tie. “How do I look?” he asked smiling awkwardly, “I don’t wear clothes often.”
“You look dashing,” she replied and her horn glowed, revealing a scarlet dress that was covered in various types of gems and sparkled in the light. His eyes widened at the sight of the mare before him, and the box that was between her front hooves. “How do I look?”
“Umina… Hah, uh, w-wow,” he finally whispered, taking in her appearance.
“Thanks, I went to one of Rarities shops and bought this dress, for you. Oh, and I got you this,” she lifted the box in her magic and held it to him. Being an earth pony, Shining sat and grabbed the box, opening it and looking inside.
“Oh my,” he said, taking the largest rose he’d ever seen from the box and letting the box fall to the floor, “it’s so big.”
“It’s been modified genetically with human science, like most of the vegetation we’ll be planting, and I want you to have this one. The first of its kind to be smelled by ponykind… If you’re hungry,” she looked at it, then him.”
“No, this’ too special. My first special somepony gave me a flower,” he said taking it and placing it on his head, “how’s it look?”
Twilight giggled. “Silly, but it works. Let’s go get something to drink before our date,” she said turning and waiting as he left the room. She closed the door and began walking with him down the wooden hall, then turned onto the sterile hallway to the elevator.
“So, what’s the plan? I’ve got the permission to get the meal.”
“And I thought the mare always paid for the first date,” she said moving closer to him as they walked. The lights flickered again as they walked, but they ignored it as a normal happening.
“They do, when they’re not Bronze level,” he joked and bumped his flank to hers.
“Well, you’ll see what I’ve got in store at the bar, then we’ll take it from there.”
He grinned widely. “I can’t wait.”
…
Entering the bar they took their seats and Minnie placed a rectangular box in front of them. “Your gift, sir, from Twilight.”
“Oh boy! Can I open it?”
“Not yet, I’ve gotta go to the fillies room, I’ll be right back.”
“Miss, should I simply tell him what’s in the box?” Minnie winked.
“There’re no secrets between us, Minnie, he knows everything already because he’s so smart.”
Twilight dismissed herself as Minnie stared into space, calculating.
*
Twilight stood in the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She was happy, beautiful, and with a stallion she was falling in love with. Real love, not just a quick fling because she was in heat. Oh, she’d be there soon enough, too. That’s why Hearts and Hooves day was always in early spring, so mares could find a mate at the right time. And she’d found the one she wanted for the rest of her life, even if she had to turn him into an Alicorn to do it, she’d be with him forever.
*
“Ah, I remember a few years ago when Her Highness first told me she met you.”
Shining stopped sipping his shake and licked the foam from his lips, staring at the robot. “What?”
“She found you sleeping in your pod and spent years debating whether or not to wake you, I’m glad she did; she’s so much happier now. Happier than I’ve ever seen her.”
Twilight returned from the bathroom and stopped at the look Shining gave her. Utter shock and revulsion. “Shining?”
“It, was you? You woke me up?” he asked, trembling and leaning back from Twilight as the mare looked at Minnie, who was smiling contently.
“...Yes.”
“And, Your Highness? You’re, not just a royal assistant, or something, are you?” he looked at her in fearful awe.
Twilight’s horn glowed and her size increased, her horn grew longer, and her wings forced themselves from her dress; her change ruining it. “I, was going to tell you, Shining, I just-”
He held a hoof up to her as she scooted from his seat and backed away. “No,” he started, “I… I knew you had issues and I was helping you with them. As as therapist, it’s my job, but this? This?!” he blinked as his eyes began to brim with tears and he kept backing away. “You’re not just a damaged mare, you’re full blown mean, and petty, and you stole my life from me!” he shouted.
Twilight’s ears pinned back and she opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came as he shook his head and turned to leave the bar.
“Twilight, I don’t think he took that as well as you thought.”
She felt her heart break and let out a sob as she realized she was alone again.