Twilight has been spending her entire morning preparing her kitchen for this afternoon. What is this afternoon? Why, Twilight invited Fluttershy over for some tea of course! Albeit with a little bit of an impromptu surprise in the mix. A surprise she has the utmost confidence will work. She happily hums away to herself as she pulls out a tray of cookies from the oven, setting them on the counter to cool. Her ears perk up at a knock coming from the front door.
"I'll be there in a minute!" Twilight calls out, pulling out some dishes and sets the table.
The visitor knocks yet again and Twilight finally starts to make her way to the door.
She encases the knob in her magic, twisting to unlatch the door and it opens. "Glad you could make it, Justin!" Twilight sounds a little too excited to see him.
"Uh, hey, Twi." Justin responds as he slinks into the library. "Are you sure this'll work and not result in Fluttershy running out the door?"
"I've made sure of it." Twilight shoots back at him s she trots back to the kitchen.
Justin sighs as he follows the librarian princess into the kitchen, the smell of freshly baked cookies infesting his nostrils. "Damn, been busy here I see."
"Mhm!" Twilight adjusts some of the dishes laid out on her table. "Gotta make sure everything's just right."
"Why's it only set for two if you want me to be here?" Justin asks, his hand reaching for a cookie.
Twilight turns to him in the nick of time and swiftly swats his hand away from the treats with a hoof. "You're not supposed to be here, at least, that's what I told Fluttershy."
"Oh, you deceitful little mare you." Justin teases with a smirk as his hand reels back to his body.
"Tease me all you want AFTER Fluttershy's visit." Twilight softly hisses at him with her own smirk. "Now go hide somewhere."
Before she knows it, Justin disappears into a puff of smoke. Twilight blinks her eyes a couple of times while looking around to see where he was. Noticing nothing really out of ordinary and shrugging as she turns her attention back to the table. There it is, near the edge, was a lone book. A book she never seen before. Twilight just shakes her head at him and shrugs.
"Clever. I guess it'll do." Twilight comments after leaning in close to the cover.
"I thought so too, nothing out of ordinary at Twilight's when she has a book near her!" Justin's voice is distant, but is coming out of the book. "Are you taking this down?"
"Yup." Twilight quickly writes this down in her notes and teleports the pad and quill away after she's done. "I had no idea you could do that."
"Honestly, me neither." Justin comments in turn. "Chaos magic is becoming rather handy."
Twilight opens her mouth to respond to him but something else caught her eye. Her eyes dart towards the window. Nothing. She could've sworn she saw something peeking in. Justin gets her to sit down and open his cover, revealing his face made up of words. This little tidbit amused Twilight as they talked about what is supposed to be the plan to confront Fluttershy.
Without thinking about it, Twilight removes the whistling tea pot using her magic and places it on the saucer in the middle of the table. She gets out of her seat, keeping the book open to hear her friend better. Twilight starts setting the table for the impending tea time as the hour grows near. She has those little sandwiches set out along with some tea biscuits, and the cookies she made. Twilight stands back to admire the set up and apparently so does the human.
"Very nice." Justin comments, how he can see anything it beyond her at this point.
"Everything should be within hooves reach." Twilight happily states. "So she can he-"
Twilight gets interrupted by a second knock to the door today. She's about to trot off to the door but remembers the face in the book will spook the timid mare and turns around. The face is gone from the pages, the words in the familiar script and format as one of her normal books. Smooth as he is proving to be at this point. The knocking comes again, causing Twilight to look towards the door and make her way there.
Same as before, she opens the door with a bit of her magic and smiles at her timid friend. "Hey, Fluttershy! Sorry I didn't come right away, got caught up in a bit of light reading."
"Oh it's quite alright, must be a good book if it has you distracted." The yellow mare gives her friend a small smile. "What was it it about?"
"Distracted is right." Twilight mutters under her breath and steps aside to let her friend in. "Oh, you know, Equestrian History."
Fluttershy nods at the answer and heads right for the kitchen. "Learn anything new?"
"Not really." Twilight replies as she follows suit. "Never hurts to brush up though!"
Half-Truths and nothing more.~
Twilight stops for a moment and her eyes go wide. Did she just hear Justin inside her head? Fluttershy calls her name and shakes her from her daze. With a sheepish grin, she enters the kitchen while apologizing.
"Are you feeling okay, Twilight? We can always do this another day. If that's okay with you." Fluttershy shifts in her chosen seat, the one across from the open book as she averts her gaze to the floor.
Awe, look at her, she's so precious.
"What? No! No." Twilight shakes her head as she takes up the seat across from the yellow mare. "I'm feeling fine, just... remembered something is all." She slams the book shut, causing Fluttershy to jump at the random act.
OW! Not so rough! You'll ruin the pages!
Will you please be quiet!
Fluttershy still keeps her gaze glued to the floor while Twilight just gives her an apologetic smile. The lavender mare pours her friend some of the fresh tea before filling her own cup. The human that somehow wormed his way inside her head seems to be quiet for the time being. Slowly, but surely, Fluttershy starts to warm back up again, giving the librarian a small and appreciative smile as she thanks her for the tea. Twilight even goes as far as to levitate a cookie towards her friend.
Eventually the two start to chat, some of it being idle chatter. They talked about Fluttershy's animals, some of what is on Twilight's reading list (the nearby book definitely not counting), and generally how they both are recovering after the whole nightmare thing some time ago. Fluttershy relents a little and reveals that she hasn't been in the best of mindsets. Then again, Twilight hasn't fully recovered herself.
"Twilight." The shy mare calling her name draws her from her thoughts at the moment. "I don't think you ever told us what you were dreaming of during that time."
"It's... uh... It's not important. Really." Twilight replies as a yellow hoof reaches across the table to touch her own.
You should tell her, she's your friend and deserves to know. She deeply care about you, y'know.
Begrudgingly, he was right. Fluttershy does care about her and wants her to be okay. Twilight lets out a defeated sigh, looking into the eyes of one of her closest friends. "You're right. I never told anypony. I didn't want to tell anypony else."
Fluttershy nods at the lavender mare with mild interest, retreating her hoof back to her side. "Whenever you're ready, Twilight."
Twilight gives her a small sort of smile. "To be as forward as possible, my nightmare was me. In the terms of a certain resident human, beating the snot out of every single one of my friends. For an entire week the same dream."
"Oh my, that sounds terrible." Is all Fluttershy could say. "How did you manage?"
"I almost didn't, if I'm being honest." Twilight replies, idly taking a sip of tea before continuing. "At least I wasn't until Princess Luna and Justin came along to help."
"Mh." Fluttershy hums, nodding her head again. "I remember, just wish I wasn't scared enough to properly thank him."
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" Twilight leans in a bit.
So Fluttershy tells her what happened during that week. Of the differing places that were familiar. Of the relentless hunt of the animalistic human that chased her. Of the terrible things that did happen a couple of nights were she was caught. She has an overwhelming fear now of Justin, one she doesn't quite comprehend how to get over, but she's also scared that those horrendous events will come true if she goes anywhere near the human.
Twilight is... surprised to say the least. Not at Fluttershy opening up like that but just hearing all she went through during that week of nightmares. Leaving the alicorn to wonder if the others experienced the same treatment while that went on. Justin decides that he has heard enough to finally bring himself in.
Twi, do it.
"Uhm, I'll be back in a bit. I'm gonna go put this book away." Twilight says as she takes up the tome in her magic.
Fluttershy nods in understanding. "Oh, no worries. Take your time."
Twilight smiles, slips out of the kitchen and around the corner. In a blink of a dim light, the book transforms back into the human. Gazing up at him, she can see the sort of determination now. He nods for her to go back to Fluttershy and so she does so. Fluttershy has a warm smile on her face as her friend returns and sits across from her. Twilight puts on a sheepish smile.
"Well, Fluttershy, you may get the chance to thank him." The librarian tells her.
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy tilts her head while asking.
The Justin appears in the doorway, leaning down a bit to enter the room so he doesn't hit his head off the frame. "Hey, Fluttershy."
The yellow mare freezes up in her overwhelming fear, her eyes wide as she stares him down.
"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." The human says as he cautiously approaches the table, keeping his hands in line of sight. Once her reaches the table, he kneels at Fluttershy's side.
Fluttershy refuses to move, no, she can't move. Magic is holding her in place, making her anxiety just that much worse. She's trying to convince herself that this is for the best.
"Fluttershy, I need you to listen to me. Okay?" Justin requests, getting a meek head nod in response. "Good, because... I'd never be able to bring myself to hurt any of you girls. I don't want to. If I ever do hurt you though, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing I have."
Twilight slowly releases the magical hold on the yellow mare and Fluttershy is staring at the human. Her fear is gone now, being replaced with something else. She leans in a bit closer to Justin with that look.
"Promise?" She nearly whispers.
"Pinkie Promise" He replies, going through the motions, and knowing full well he'd have to answer for them if broken.
Fluttershy does a little squee and tightly engulfs the man in an embrace. Twilight sits there with a smile of relief and so does Justin. He looks over to Twilight and gives her a wink before letting the yellow pegasus pull away. The human gets up and is about ready to leave until a certain Princess of Friendship tugs on his shirt with her magic.
"Why don't you join us? We'd appreciate the company."
Later on, Justin lays sprawled out on a cloud he conjured up in the middle of the library with Twilight laying across his stomach. Fluttershy has gone home long ago, leaving the two to their devices, or in this case, Princess Snuggling. Something that doesn't happen often, but after today and a few days prior, it was much needed. The alicorn would murmur a little as his fingers work their way through her mane all the way down to her wings. She wouldn't admit any of this to any other ponies, though she can't hide it from the human that holds her.
"So.." Twilight manages to muster between her content murmurs. "How'd you do it?"
"Do what?" Justin asks innocently, still working his fingers around her with diligence.
"You know." Twilight can't think straight with his fingers doing their thing. "The mind thing."
"Oh! You mean the telepathic link?" Justin asks, getting a lazy nod from the mare in turn. "Dunno. Something told me to do it after turning into a book." His fingers hi a particularly fantastic spot on her that earns a pleased squeak. "Works both ways though."
"Do you.." Another pleased squeak comes from her lips as he finds another spot. "Do you think you could keep it open?"
Sure thing, Twi.
Twilight couldn't help to smile at his response and the two continue on with their evening.