POV: Spike
It didn’t really come as a surprise, when they broke it to me. I mean, Markus and Twilight becoming special someponies? Totally saw that one coming! I mean look at the way they behaved back when they weren’t a couple just yet and Markus was just staying here! Every day at lunch, either Twilight or Markus would cook for us three and then we would all eat together. After lunch, Markus would then take the ‘Equestria Daily’ and look through it, while answering Twilight’s questions at the same time. Honestly, they looked like they were married already and I just missed it for some reason.
The thing that I hadn’t expected was that he would take both, Twilight and Rainbow, but I guess it doesn’t really come as a surprise either, considering Rainbow’s reaction when she was told that Markus wasn’t visiting that weekend…
Of course I was happy for Twilight! She looked really happy and it didn’t bother her at all that she had to share with Rainbow Dash. Markus managed to equally divide his time and effort between these two and everything worked out… for a while at least.
They had managed to become special someponies, yes, but somehow they didn’t progress any further. It felt like their relation was – what’s it called? – stagnating, I think. Like, they had reached a certain point, but they didn’t manage to go beyond that. Like they were forced into this state and didn’t know how to progress further.
Actually, it seemed like exactly that was the case. Like they didn’t know how to progress from there or even like they were actively acting against it. It all went to the point that Twilight actually started to suffer from it. Slightly at first, being way more agitated than normal, then it became a bit worse, as she lost her concentration during sorting multiple times, something that normally DIDN’T happen at all!
Then, one evening, the bubble finally popped. Markus and I were sitting in the Library that evening, looking into some magic tomes and reading comics respectively. The Library was completely silent, the only noise being the occasional rustle of a page being flipped. That is, until Twilight came back from visiting Applejack.
Her mane looked a little disheveled, but all in all, she looked pretty normal, I guess. She then went over to Markus, who immediately set the book down and stood up.
“Hey, Twilight.” He said, smiling over to her.
“Hey, Markus.” She answered, smiling back.
Twilight went over to him and got up to her hind legs, looking him in the eyes. Markus made a step forward towards her, leaning in and giving her… a hug…
After a while, they broke the embrace and Twilight set down on all fours again, her smile now tainted with an undertone of disappointment. She turned towards the stairs and as soon as she thought that Markus couldn’t see it anymore, her smile dropped into a slight frown.
“I-I’m going upstairs to read now…” She said, as she slowly moved towards and up the stairs.
I had seen displays vaguely like this before with these two, but never before had Twilight seemed so let down like this, likely having told herself that he just needed some time. Now that ‘some time’ had passed and he still wasn’t living up to her expectations, she began to grow doubtful. I couldn’t really blame her either. I mean, they had been together for almost three months by then and they still hadn’t done it!
“Duuuuuude!” I said to Markus as I heard the door upstairs click shut, “Why do you still hold back so much?”
Markus turned around to me and looked a bit confused. “What do you mean, ‘hold back’?”
My look went from slightly angry to questioning, “Are you serious? Haven’t you noticed that Twilight doesn’t really seem like herself lately?”
Markus put a hand to his chin and thought for a moment. “I thought that there might have been something between her and the others and I decided to keep out of it unless she asks me to intervene.”
I stood there, my left eye open, my right half closed and my jaw slacking, in a gesture of complete disbelief. “DUUUUUUDE, you’ve been special someponies for almost three months now and you haven’t kissed her ONCE!”
His eyes went wide for a moment, before he slowly began to nod to himself. “Y-Yeah, I suppose that is true, but… I’ve felt like it would still be too early for that…”
“What do you mean ‘too early’? Like I said, it has been three months!”
“Actually,” He said, holding an authoritative finger towards me, “It has technically been only one month, because I wasn’t here during the other two.”
“Still, one month is more than enough time to bring in a kiss or two! Heck, even I have kissed Rarity a few times and we aren’t even special someponies… yet.”
“Yeah, a few pecks on the cheek, great job Romeo.” He quipped.
“That’s more than you’ve done until now.” I countered.
“…fair enough.” He had to admit.
“So you really should finally kiss her!”
He started gnawing on his thumb and started pacing back and forth. “You know, that isn’t really that easy, I mean, she is a pony and I am a human…”
“Then why did you become special someponies in the first place?!”
He looked over to me in dismay “Why?! Because I love her, of course!”
“If you love her then you should really finally kiss her!” I demanded.
“Yeah, I know, but I… I…” Markus stammered, growing more uncertain by the second. “I’M SCARED, Okay?! There, now you know it! But I mean, really, what if I make a mistake? What if I bite her tongue or her lip? What if I taste bad or something? I don’t KNOW!”
I sat there a bit confused. Markus and scared were two things I definitely would never have connected to one another. “Okay, well, that’s unexpected, you being scared of something…”
“And that is exactly the Problem! I gave her the illusion that I am completely flawless, but I am not! I don’t even know how to kiss properly!” He whined.
“Aw, come on, that isn’t true! While you were gone, Twilight had constantly talked about how she even loves your flaws!” I lied.
“Oh yeah? Like what flaw?”
“… Ok, admittedly, that lie wasn’t really thought to the end, but still! If you want to give her a completely flawless image of yourself, wouldn’t that mean that you should kiss her because if not it could be seen as a flaw?”
“Well, yes, but I… I…” He stammered. I looked at him demandingly, hoping to give him a clear sign to what he should really do.
Just as he wanted to speak again, I heard the door upstairs open and Twilight coming down the stairs. She stopped for a moment, as she reached the floor, looking over to Markus. Markus stood up and went over to her, she reared up… and he did it again. Except this time, Twilight didn’t smile. She stood still before him and looked downward, before a single tear made its way down her muzzle and onto the floor.
“Twilight, what’s wrong?!” Markus immediately asked, kneeling down before her to bring himself to her eyelevel.
“’What’s wrong’?! We just talked about it you dumb piece of @§%&!” I thought to myself.
“Do you love me?” Twilight suddenly asked in a somewhat agitated and demanding voice.
Markus looked a bit startled at first, but answered after a while. “Of course I love you, Twilight.”
Twilight’s head shot up, her eyes flooding and her cheeks damp. “THEN WHY DON’T YOU SHOW IT TO ME?!” She cried, her voice filled with pain.
“Twilight, I… I don’t understand. I am showing you that I lov-“
“NO! At first I thought you just needed time, so I gave you time, but… but…” She began to sob bitterly, dampening her coat even more.
“Twilight, please, calm down…” He wanted to pull her in to embrace her, but Twilight swiped his hand away with a hoof.
“Maybe this was a mistake after all…” She said. “Maybe, we should just – hmpf!”
I saw that at this point this whole thing would only spiral further downward and that they were unable to stop it themselves and so I did what a number one assistant should do and gave Twilight a gentle shove in the right direction, namely towards Markus.
Their lips connected and they both went rigid, eyes wide in shock, although Twilight quickly relaxed, closing her eyes and pressing deeper into the kiss. Markus, meanwhile, didn’t manage as quickly, his eyes darting back and forth between me and Twilight, trying to process the situation. Then, after a while of this, I simply gave him a ‘thumbs up’ as soon as his eyes landed on me again. Seeing this, he rolled his eyes at me and smiled a bit, immediately relaxing himself. He returned the gesture, before closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around Twilight, pulling her closer. Twilight did the same, putting her front hooves around Markus’s neck and together, they shared probably the most passionate kiss I had ever seen. Well, not that I had seen all that many kisses by then anyways…
I stood behind Twilight, mentally patting my shoulder for a job well done. Then, I quietly went into the kitchen, grabbed myself some well-earned ice cream and went upstairs to read comics, leaving those two lovebirds alone for themselves.
After that evening, Twilight’s mood seemed to improve greatly and Markus finally managed to give Twilight the occasional kiss instead of just hugs. Luckily, they didn’t slurp each other whenever they had the chance. They stayed decent, greeting and saying goodbye to each other with a kiss and occasionally kissing in-between. Why do I know this? Because they always seemed to do it in front of me, maybe even ESPECIALLY when I was there and it was embarrassing as Tartarus!