Twilight and I sat on the train to Canterlot. We were going to do something I had wanted to put off for as long as I could, but Twilight wouldn’t let me get out of it.
I looked out the window to see Canterlot Castle in the distance. I looked back and started tapping my heel on the floor of the train. I also started tapping my finger against the cover of the book I was reading, getting Twilight’s attention.
Twilight looked at me with a concerned expression. “Nervous?”
“Well...yeah,” I responded.
Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. “There’s no reason to be. My family’s gonna love you!”
That’s right. Twilight and I were on our way to Canterlot, so we could meet her family, specifically her parents. I had already met her brother, Shining Armor, and her sister-in-law, Cadance, but I had never seen her parents.
“That’s what all girlfriends say before their parents tear their boyfriends to shreds,” I muttered.
“Okay, even if they don’t approve of you, that doesn’t matter. I’m a grown mare, and an alicorn at that, and I can make my own decisions, including who I want to love,” Twilight said, resting her hoof on my hand.
“But you see, where I come from, all girls are little girls to their parents. And those parents usually have a special attitude they like to express to the one who’s...romancing their little girl, especially if they share a bed,” I countered.
Twilight gawked. “Jake, please, we haven’t done anything like that! Or at least, not yet.”
“I know, but that probably won’t matter. Besides, it’s less the fact that we’re in a serious, romantic relationship that I think they’ll disagree about, and more the fact that I’m not a pony,” I explained.
Twilight actually chuckled. “Jake, what does species have to do with this?”
“To me, nothing. But to them, more than you may think,” I told her.
Twilight suddenly wrapped her hooves and wings around me. “Jake, I don’t care whether or not they approve of our relationship. I love you, I always will love you, and an argument with my family will never change that.” She exaggerated her point by giving me a peck on the cheek.
I felt my face melt into a smile and wrapped my arms around her. “How did I ever manage to get a marefriend as amazing as you?”
“By just being you.”
We now stood at the door to her old home, before she went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns...or whatever it was called.
We simply stood there, not moving. The only sounds we could really hear were our heavy breaths.
Suddenly, Twilight shook her head, breaking out of her trance. “We’re here. We should do this.”
I looked down at her and nodded. “Tell me why we’re doing this without Starlight?”
“Because rock crushes scissors,” she said nonchalantly as she knocked on the door.
A few moments later, the door opened, revealing a unicorn mare with a similar appearance to Twilight, but a grey coat and striped mane.
Twilight and the mare joined in a hug. “It’s great to see you, mom.”
“Oh you too, Twilight. You really need to visit more often,” the mare responded.
I simply stood there, completely silent, as the mares finished their hug. Once they did, Twilight looked at me with a blush. “Sorry, Jake. Where are my manners? This is my mother, Twilight Velvet.”
I blinked a few times to shake off my own trance. “N-Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
“Why, you must be Twilight’s ‘boyfriend’. It’s nice to meet you as well,” Twilight Velvet responded.
We awkwardly shook hands and hooves as a unicorn stallion joined us at the door. He had a simple, blue coat. He wrapped a hoof around Twilight and chuckled. “About time you came ‘round to see us, honey.”
Twilight blushed. “Dad, not in front of Jake.”
The stallion let go of Twilight and faced me. “So, you’re Twilight’s ‘boyfriend’? The name’s Nightlight, pleasure to meet you.”
“Y-You too, sir.”
Nightlight looked back at Twilight. “Come on in. Cadance and Shining Armor are already here.”
“Alright, tell them we’ll be right there,” Twilight said. Once her parents stepped inside, she looked at me again. “See, I told you that you had nothing to worry about.”
I bashfully rubbed the back of my neck. “L-Let’s just see how it goes.”
Twilight turned to the door and motioned for me to follow. I stepped inside, and the front room was more or less what I was expecting. There were a simple couch, a fireplace, and a few cute pictures of a filly Twilight Sparkle and colt Shining Armor.
“In here, Jake,” Twilight called from what I was assuming was the kitchen. I moved toward where her voice came from, and sure enough, it was in fact the kitchen. In the kitchen, there was a table with Twilight Sparkle, Twilight Velvet (wow, that’s confusing), Nightlight, Shining Armor, who I had met once before, his wife Cadance, who I had also met, and a filly...alicorn?
“It’s nice to see you again, Jake,” Cadance greeted.
“Um, y-you too, princess,” I responded.
“Oh please, call me ‘Cadance’,” she giggled.
“By the way, this here’s Flurry Heart,” Twilight said, referring to the filly. I looked at the filly, who gave a cute snort.
“Why don’t you take a seat, dear? Lunch is nearly ready,” Twilight Velvet offered.
I looked at Twilight and saw an empty seat between her and Shining Armor. I quickly took my seat, and noticed I was directly across from Nightlight.
“Jake, nice to see you again,” Shining Armor said to me, offering his hoof.
“Shining Armor, you too,” I said, shaking his hoof.
Twilight Velvet levitated lunch onto the table. There were a few sandwiches, some fruit, and what I’m pretty sure was pasta of some sort.
“Do I need to get anything for Flurry?” Velvet asked Cadance.
“Oh no, I brought some of her food along with me,” Cadance answered, levitating out a jar of what I assume is baby -er, filly food.
Lunch was eaten in moderate silence, save for a few questions from Twilight’s parents concerning how we met. Safe to say it was going a lot better than I thought it would.
After lunch was finished, we all moved into the living room to play a few games. First up was charades. Twilight and I didn’t do too well, but we just laughed it off. Surprisingly, Twilight’s family wasn’t really grilling me about taking care of their daughter/sister like I thought they would. After a while, Flurry Heart fell asleep, so we decided to quiet down and just have a nice little discussion.
“Why, Jake, I must say, you and Twilight make a rather cute couple,” Cadance said matter-of-factly.
Twilight’s parents and brother looked at Cadance with confusion. I suddenly became a little worried.
“Couple? What are you talking about, Cadance?” Shining asked.
Twilight and I made eye contact and came to a silent agreement.
“Sweetie, what does Cadance mean by ‘couple’?” asked Nightlight.
“I said in my letter that I was bringing my boyfriend,” Twilight answered.
“What does that have to do with being a couple?” asked Velvet in a slightly irate tone.
“W-What exactly d-do you think b-boyfriend means?” I stammered.
“We assumed it was a friend who was also a human. What does it really mean?” Nightlight said, becoming slightly angry.
“I-It...um, it m-means,” I stuttered.
Before I could try to continue, Twilight rested her hoof on my hand. I looked at her, and she was looking back at me with a determined expression. I tilted my head as if to ask, “Are you sure?”
She nodded, as if saying, “I’m positive.”
“What. Does. It. Mean?” asked Nightlight through gritted teeth.
Twilight stood up and faced her parents. “Mom, Dad, Shining, Cadance was right. Jake and I are a couple, and we love each other.”
“What? Twilight Sparkle, are you trying to tell us that you’re in love with this...thing?” Velvet asked.
“Yes, mom, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Twilight responded.
Nightlight glared at me. “How could you, precious? We thought we raised you better than that.”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked.
“We raised you to marry a pony, not some other random creature,” Velvet replied angrily.
I looked over at Shining. Surprisingly, he wasn’t mad. Instead, he was standing in front of Cadance with a worried look on his face. Cadance was holding Flurry close as if to protect her from something.
“What does race have to do with this? Jake and I have been friends for years!” Twilight said, raising her voice.
“Being friends is one thing, being in a relationship is a whole other. Twilight, you don’t actually think you two can have a decent future, do you? Others will look down on you because of this. And besides, you can’t reproduce with him, and we want grandchildren!” Velvet yelled.
“And we certainly don’t want this thing putting its dirty...things on you,” Nightlight added.
“Jake is nothing but a true gentleman, something that isn’t exactly common in stallions nowadays. And besides, you already have a grandchild. My niece, who’s trying to sleep!” Twilight shouted.
I looked worriedly between Twilight and her parents. This is exactly what I was afraid would happen.
“Twilight, honey, we only want what’s best for you, and that can’t possibly be him,” Velvet pleaded.
“Wha-How can you possibly know what’s best for me?! I’m a grown mare, a princess even!” Twilight yelled, seemingly on the verge of tears.
“Speaking of which, how would Princess Celestia take it if she knew about this?” asked Nightlight.
“She does! And she took it just fine! I came here today, hoping you two would do the same! But clearly, I was wrong, and coming here was a mistake,” Twilight said, storming out of the room.
“Twilight Sparkle, you had better not come back here with this man,” warned Nightlight.
Twilight turned around to face her father. “Then I won’t be coming back for a while. I don’t care what you think. I love Jake, and you don’t get a say in that. I just can’t believe my own parents would treat someone I love so much so horribly.” Overwhelmed by emotions, Twilight ran out of her parents’ house in tears.
“I-I should probably go after her,” I managed to stammer out before leaving.
It took me a while, almost the whole day even, to do it, but I eventually found Twilight at the train station, bawling her eyes out.
I knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder.
She looked at me with tear-filled eyes. “T-The last train to Ponyville already left. I-I’m so sorry, Jake. You were right.”
I wrapped Twilight in my arms. “You have nothing to apologize for. Thank you for standing up for me. That couldn’t have been easy.”
“O-Out of everypony in Equestria, they were the last ponies I thought would look down on you,” Twilight admitted.
“I’m so sorry about what happened. What do you say we just get a hotel room somewhere?” I offered.
Twilight gave me a small smile. “I-I think I’d like that. S-Sorry for leaving you with...them.”
“It’s fine. Let’s just go find a place to stay for the night.”
A few hours later, Twilight and I sat on the edge of a bed. There were a lot of hotels that were willing to take us in, due to Twilight being a princess, but Twilight insisted we stay in a hotel close to the train station and far away from her parents’ home.
“How you doing?” I asked, wrapping my arm around her.
She leaned into my side. “Better. I still can’t believe my own parents said all of those horrible things about you.”
I slowly stroked up and down her back and planted a kiss on her head. “I know you’re mad at them, but they do still love you. Maybe...you should try to clear the air with them before we leave.”
Twilight shook her head in my embrace. “It wouldn’t do any good. They’re not gonna listen to me unless, for some reason, we break up.”
“Twilight, I don’t like the things they said either, but they’re still your parents. It’s okay to be upset with them for now, but you shouldn’t stay mad at them for too long,” I told her.
“How? They clearly don’t approve of our relationship, and you heard my dad. He said I wouldn’t be welcome as long as we’re together,” Twilight countered.
I cupped Twilight’s cheeks in my hands and looked into her eyes. “Listen, no matter what happens, they will always love you, and there is nothing that can change that, no matter how many fights you guys have. Take it from a guy who lost both of his parents. My advice to you is...cherish your parents while you still have them.”
Before Twilight could respond, there was a knock at the hotel room door. Twilight walked over to answer it.
“Hey, sis. Can we talk for a minute?” asked Shining Armor.
“Not if you’re just gonna act like Mom and Dad and put Jake down for being a human,” Twilight responded with a glare.
“I promise I won’t,” Shining said,
“Let him in,” I told Twilight.
She stepped aside as her brother made his way into the room. “I feel I should start by saying...I have no problem with your relationship, even though you aren’t a pony.”
Twilight was shocked. “Really?!”
“Yeah, hehe. To be honest, I didn’t know how slow dragons grew when you hatched Spike, so I thought you two would be a-“ Shining started.
“Nope, no, uh-uh, no way. I do not think of Spike that way,” Twilight cut off.
Shining chuckled. “Yeah, I know. But, like I said, I have no problems with you not being a pony,” Shining told me.
“T-Thank you,” I said.
“However, I do have doubts about you. Twilight is my little sister, after all, and I don’t want to see her get hurt,” Shining added.
“What are you saying?” Twilight asked, rubbing her face with her hoof.
“All I ask is that...I want to know that Jake is right for you,” Shining answered.
“A-Alright. Here, I’ll show you,” Twilight said. She then walked over to the light switch and turned off the lights. Then she took a seat next to me on the bed. “Watch this.”
Twilight’s horn lit up, and a screen appeared in between us and Shining Armor. On the screen, Twilight and I were in Golden Oaks Library. This was before Twilight ascended to an alicorn, so she didn’t have any wings. She was writing things on a notepad while I was talking and folding papers into miniature paper airplanes. She then looked up at me with sympathy.
This was when Twilight and I first met, and I was telling her about my parents.
The screen switched to another time where I was comforting Twilight after moving out of the library. She had been crying, but I was having none of it. I gave her hugs, ear scratches, and other things.
As I watched the memories play through, I looked at Twilight. She was smiling, and tears were starting to well up in her eyes. I smiled as well, and held her hoof with my hand.
The screen went to a time where I was the one with tears in my eyes. I remembered the day clearly, the 20th anniversary of my parents’ death. Twilight was the one to comfort me as I cried. We weren’t a couple at the time, but her hugs were still more than enough to cheer me up.
The memories moved by a bit faster after Twilight got her wings. We read together, ran together, cleaned the library together, hung out together. During all of this, I looked at my marefriend, thinking only one thing.
How did I never see it before?
After a minute, the screen faded, and Twilight turned the lights on.
Shining Armor was nodding to himself with a smile. “Well, it seems I have nothing to worry about. You make my sister happy, and that’s all I came here to find out.” He suddenly became very serious. “But if you ever do anything to hurt her, we will have a problem.”
“You have my word. I would never do anything to hurt her,” I assured.
“Alright then. I’ll see you around,” he said. With that, he left Twilight and me alone.
I sat back down next to Twilight and simply smiled, saying nothing.
Twilight giggled. “What’s wrong?”
I kept smiling, slightly shaking my head. “Nothing. That long, huh?”
Twilight gave me a little shove. “What are you talking about?”
“You had a crush on me for that long,” I explained.
Twilight suddenly blushed fiercely. “Umm, y-yeah. I-I wanted to say something, b-but I didn’t want to ruin-“
I cut her off by pressing my lips to hers. She melted into me, and that marked our longest and most passionate kiss to date.
I looked into her sparkling, beautiful eyes once again. “I’m so sorry it took me so long to notice you.”
A lone tear rolled down her cheek, and she even gave a cute giggle. “I told you, it’s fine. It...you were worth the wait.”
We kissed again and laced down on the bed. I thought we were about to start an extra cuddle session, but Twilight kept kissing me, instead of snuggling against my side, which she usually did.
I opened my mouth to say something, but she suddenly slipped her tongue into my mouth. My eyes went wide with shock, and my breath hitched. It was so long and...surprisingly soft and sweet.
After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, and quickly backed off. “A-Are you alright?”
I was breathing heavily. “Y-Yeah, you just usually aren’t so...active during our cuddle sessions.”
She blushed furiously again. “O-Oh, sorry, we can just go back to what we usually do then.”
“Hold on, I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” I countered.
Twilight’s blush somehow got even bigger. “Well, then...I-I was kind of hoping instead of our usual cuddle session, we could try a...make-out session.”
“Sorry, what was that?” I smirked.
“I thought we could try a-“
That was all the invitation I needed. I tackled her onto her back and kissed her furiously. I didn’t have a whole lot of experience kissing, or at least, making out, so I just did what she did before. I pushed my tongue into her mouth, but she pushed back with her own. As our tongues fought for control, Twilight used her wings to caress the sides of my body. I had to fight the urge to laugh because they were soft. I stroked her sides with my hands as well, and she suddenly hummed into my mouth. To make a long story short, we made out until we fell asleep.
The next morning, we were walking with determination back to Twilight’s parents’ house. Or at least, I was walking with determination. Twilight was behind me, trying to think of something to get me to stop.
“Are you sure you want to do this? They’re not gonna change their minds,” Twilight pleaded.
“I know. I just need to say this,” I said, keeping on my journey. No one makes my marefriend cry without answering to me, not even her parents.
We finally got to the front door of her parents’ house, and I knocked on the door furiously.
After a moment, Twilight Velvet opened the door. “What are you doing here?” she growled.
“I love your daughter,” I said.
“I don’t care-“ she started.
“I’m not finished! I love your daughter, and she loves me, and there’s nothing you can say about it. You don’t have to like me, but I don’t really care. You’re not gonna find any creature in this world that loves Twilight more than I do. I don’t know if marriage is in our future or not, but either way, I ask that you get over yourself and make up with your daughter. If not...well, I can guarantee you’re gonna regret it. That’s all I have to say. Have a good day.”
With that, I stormed off toward the train station with Twilight.