Ponies did not have bar billiards, at least none that Jack could find in Canterlot. They did, however, have darts.
Eggs was very, very good at darts. Jack was not. She was so good that Jack was more impressed than outraged that he was being consistently beaten by someone who didn’t even have hands. He made up for own lack of skill with his enthusiasm. They played until Jack’s enthusiasm led to light structural damage, at which point they left, Jack apologising the whole way out.
“Hope that wasn’t load-bearing, whatever that was…” He fretted, glancing back.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Eggs assured him, giving him a pat.
“There you are!”
Jack froze, as did Eggs.
Coming straight for them was Twilight, and never had purple looked quite so annoyed.
“I’ve been looking all over for you!” She said, glowering at Jack.
“You were? Whoops, I must have lost track of time. You have fun with your friends?”
“Don’t try and change the - oh, hello Eggs, didn’t see you there.”
Eggs had done what apparently came quite naturally to her in Jack’s presence and half-hidden behind his legs, peeking out just to see if things were settling down.
“Hello,” she said.
“Yeah sorry, things took an unexpectedly friendly turn and I was just catching up with Eggs. Did you know she sells pretzels now? And lives indoors? And has bookshelves?”
“My life is rich and exciting,” Eggs said, emerging further from around Jack.
“She jokes, but her life actually seems quite nice, and for this I am happy.”
Twilight glanced between the two of them, scanning for signs of shenanigans. She saw none, or at least none that jumped out at her. Jack could tell he was being scrutinised.
“You thought I was getting up to mischief, didn’t you?” He asked her, hands on hips.
“No!” She said, affronted, but then she folded: “Well, maybe.”
“That’s alright, I would be worried too. But no, just a chat, coffee, pretzels. All very pleasant. I take it it’s time we were heading back?” Jack asked.
“You can stay longer, if you want? I don’t want to interrupt you guys,” said Twilight. Jacks looked down to Eggs.
“Nah it’s fine. I’ve already probably thrown poor Egg’s evening into upheaval and wasted enough of her time,” he said.
“I actually had fun,” Eggs interjected.
“See how kindly she humours me!” Jack said with overstated pride.
“No, really.”
“You’re so good at darts, Eggs!”
This was kind of a non sequitur but it had been on Jack’s mind and so it just slipped out. That neither Twilight or Eggs felt the need to point out how this did not relate to anything went some way in demonstrating what a solid grasp on him both of them had developed.
“I’d never played it before today,” said Eggs.
“You’re fucking with me,” he said. Eggs shook her head. “Well now I feel worse, but I’m also impressed. I have mixed feelings.”
“You can go if you need to. You can always come back, right? For a day or something?” Eggs said. Jack raised his eyebrows.
“If you’d be down for that, if I wouldn’t be bothering you,” he said.
“Sure. Just tell me first, yeah? Everytime we meet it seems to be by accident. Or in a cell.”
“Well that’s your birthday surprise idea ruined, now I have to come up with something else. But for real though, uh, yeah. That could be fun. Alright. I’ll see how that works out.”
“I look forward to it. For real,” said Eggs, grinning. Jack gave her his best fingerguns in appreciation for her having purloined his words and this brought the conversation to a natural conclusion. Twilight and Jack waved eggs off and off they went.
They took a later train than Twilight had initially planned and so the return journey was - perhaps appropriately - undertaken at twilight. It was very picturesque.
On the way back Twilight kept dozing off, keeling over in her seat and snapping awake when she overbalanced. Jack watched this happen once or twice before he could take it no longer and waved to get her attention and then patted his lap.
“Come on,” he said.
Jack fully expected her to politely decline but instead she wordlessly hopped off her seat and hopped right back up onto his lap, smiling sleepily before settling down against him and promptly falling asleep. Jack had not seen that one coming and spent the rest of the journey doing his best not to move a muscle, lest he disturb her.
Once they got back he carried her to the castle. Unlike the other day when he’d worried about her waking up in his arms, this time he just didn’t care. She didn’t wake up anyway, and got tucked up snug in her bed with no issues whatsoever.
Unless you count having to go past a silently smirking Starlight an issue. Jack just held up a hand so he didn’t have to look at her on the way to his own room.
Life settled down after that, it must be said. Jack continued to make himself useful, not out of any particular sense of obligation but rather just because he liked having something to do - indeed, he had to bat aside offers of payment or other remuneration.
On balance, Jack to admit he rather preferred wearing clothes and pottering around doing odd jobs in a nice pastoral setting with pleasant company to running around like a mountain man and punching the wildlife.
Not that that hadn’t been fun. It had been a lot of fun. But you couldn’t do that sort of thing forever. It got a little samey after a while. And sleeping in a bed was fantastic, even if it was three or four beds shoved together.
That, and now that he was apparently indestructible the risk had kind of washed out of the whole thing. Getting shredded by Timberwolves had been an exhilarating experience, but the other day he’d been helping raise a barn and it had fallen on him and it hadn’t even knocked him down.
The quiet life was a lot more enjoyable, really.
And it was on returning from one of these quiet days that Jack came sauntering in on Twilight again in another sub-library study room, bent over a desk and working feverishly. He approached.
From the looks of things she’d clearly been at it a while. Work covered the desk and some of the floor near her, too. There were more sketches of him, he saw, covering what he had looked like upon arrival and up until what he looked like now. Some bits were crossed off and others had hastily scribbled notes pointing here and there, the meaning of which was unclear.
Though, even without being able to read any of it, Jack could tell that Twilight must have not been especially happy when writing any of it down. The writing had a hurried, harried aspect to it that suggested someone in a state of some agitation.
He swallowed, then cleared his throat. Twilight jumped.
“Looks like you’re having fun,” he said.
“Heh, haha! Yeah, lots of fun. Just - you know - some stuff, just doing some stuff,” Twilight said, hurriedly trying to gather up all her notes and shoving them out of sight. Jack gave her the time and space to do this, hands behind his back and rocking on his heels. Twilight ended up sitting on a bulging satchel, precariously balancing but playing it off like it was nothing.
“Done?”
“Hehe, what are you talking about Jack, what notes?” She asked, grinning nervously and then having to reach down to poke in a clutch of sketches that had started escaping the satchel.
“Flawlessly executed. Uh, can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“There was actually a plan, right? From the other day? It kind of just happened and that’s great and all, but I kind of expected there to be more fiddly bits.”
Given that the whole thing had basically just boiled down to him bumbling around, kind of apologising to maybe two people, punching some rocks, eating one rock, wearing an awesome suit and then losing at darts. Great fun, yeah, but not something Jack could see Twilight having drawn up to work quite like that.
“There was a plan. But then you just sort of started doing your own thing and it seemed to be working better so I, uh, well, I figured it’d be better you just kept doing that,” Twilight said, shrugging. Shrugging nearly unbalanced her and her wings snapped out just in time for Jack to already have caught her on instinct.
Jack felt a little bad about trampling over he plan. Sure it had all been for his benefit anyway and it had all worked out, but he’d still managed to scupper the hard work Twilight had put into the thing.
“Ah I see. Still, it’s the thought that counts. I appreciate the effort you put in.”
He considered adding ‘I appreciate you’ - in an implied general sense, nothing weird or anything - but the words couldn’t quite get out so he just swallowed them back down again.
“It’s no effort,” Twilight said, quietly, wings tucking back in and leaving it as Jack’s hand being the main thing keeping her from toppling over.
“I appreciate it anyway. And you. And uh, hey, there was one other thing.”
Jack knelt down to better get onto Twilight’s level. This did not work as well as it once did, and she still had to tilt her head up. Only a little though, because of that satchel she was perched on, but it was still there.
“There was one person I haven’t around to apologising to yet, you know. She kind of slipped through the cracks somehow. Don’t know how,” he said.
“Who? I don’t - oh, right, me. You’re talking about me, aren’t you?”
“No pulling the wool over your eyes, Twilight.”
She smiled, blushed maybe a tiny bit, and had to look away.
“You don’t have to apologise to me, Jack.”
“Apparently I didn’t need to apologise to anyone! But I did and it was the right thing to do, and it’s especially the right thing with you. Really, if I’d been serious I should have started with you. Because, uh, well, you’re the most important, to me.”
This hung for a second until Jack cleared his throat.
“Which is to say, uh, you’re the most important to me because you’re kind of, well, my constant. You’re always there for me, for whatever reason. Always got time for me, always thinking well of me. I don’t know why, doubt I ever will, but you are and you do and - well - I don’t think I’ve ever really laid out how much that means to me. You were pretty much the first thing I ran into when I got here, and you’ve just been…there...ever since. This constant. Kept me going. Keeps me going.”
Twilight was going pinker by the word, and Jack faltered when he realised he didn’t actually know what point he was trying to make. Or at least, didn’t know how to actually communicate the point he was feeling.
“I’m not sure where I’m heading with this, Twilight. Just, sorry if I ever disappoint or frustrate you. I wouldn’t do it on purpose. It’s lovely here and everyone’s lovely here but if you weren’t here I, uh, well I’m not sure I’d cope. So thank you for not giving up on me and I hope I never do anything that might make you.”
Jack still had no real idea what point he was actually trying to make, and what’s more Twilight looked like she was tearing up, so he was brought to a halt and distinctly worried that this was somehow his fault.
“You got something your eye or something Twi-”
And she lunged, wrapping around his neck - for it was the only part of him she could really wrap around anymore, or at least the only part of him she could that was in reach - and letting out some sort of strange, strangled half-sobbing noise.
“Oh Jack!” She wailed, but gave no further details as to why she might have said this. Jack, surprised, very, very gently patted her on the back.
“There there,” he said.
Still Twilight gave no elaboration, but Jack didn’t really mind. She was soft and warm and very important, and so Jack just enjoyed the hug.
“There there,” he repeated, and Twilight just sniffled.
“Uh…” came a voice from behind - that happened a lot in Jack’s experience, he noticed; it was enough to make a man paranoid - and Jack and Twilight broke instantly, whirling to see Spike stood behind them, his chef’s hat crooked, a spoon held in one tiny claw.
“Dinner is pretty much done if you guys aren’t….busy…?” He ventured.
“Oh, oh! Thank you Spike, we’ll be right there,” Twilight said brightly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hoof.
“Right, right…” Spike said, sparing the pair a last, odd look before departing the scene.
“You alright there, Twilight?” Jack asked and for a moment or two she just kept staring at the space Spike had just been occupying before snapping to the moment and switching her eyes to Jack.
“Hmm? I’m fine, I’m fine. Just...thinking. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of you. It, I mean. I’ll take care of it. Anyway! You heard Spike! Dinnertime! You are hungry, right?”
“Sure,” Jack lied, letting her hop down off the chair and following her out of the room.
Things would probably work out.