A Bad Day to Fish

by FlashKenshin77

4 - Meeting Royalty

The morning slipped into early afternoon before either awoke to the smell of something cooking. They groggily staggered to their feet and Martin wandered in first as Mike struggled to find and put on his glasses. Martin sat in one of the chairs as Mike almost fell out of his as they stared at the small cook, which looked like a small purple and green dragon.
"Mornin'… um Michael, we still sleeping?"
"…I don’t think so; I feel awake."
"You’re not sleeping." The dragon said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh… okay." Martin stretched and noticed the knife that the dragon was using looked oddly familiar. He turned back at the coffee table and saw his knife missing. "Where's my knife?!" He said, panicked.
"This thing? I found it on the table and it's really good for cutting up vegetables." The dragon answered, holding up the missing weapon.
Martin sighed in relief. "Jesus… you had me scared there for a second." He looked at the baby dragon.
"Sorry?" The dragon said, looking down guiltily as he handed over the knife. "Here you go and I sharpened it too."
Martin smiled at the small dragon. "Don’t worry, as long as I know it's in good hands or claws with ya, you can use it whenever I don’t need it. And thank you." He said, handing the knife back.
The dragon smiled and went back to cutting up tomatoes and preparing what looked like a salad.
Martin tapped his chin. "Ok Michael, wasn’t there something special today?"
"Hmm…" Mike thought. "Oh yeah, the princess is supposed to stop by and talk to us… What's her name; Princess Cestail or Celest or something like that?"
"Princess Celestia." The dragon said over his shoulder.
"Didn’t Twilight say we were supposed to shower?" Martin asked.
"Yes…I think so anyway…"
"How the fuck am I supposed to do that with my arm?" Martin asked, frowning.
Mike chuckled at his over dramatization. "No idea, but I'm sure you'll find a way." Mike suddenly grinned. "Or maybe AJ would help if you asked her nicely." He quickly held a hand to his mouth, trying not to laugh.
Martin glared at him. "Mate, I swear if you ever bring that topic up again I will make sure Arkay will to deal with you." He snapped, his face flushed.
Mike started laughing. "Don’t worry, he has my number already, he kept saying hi yesterday."
He glared at Mike again. "I'm sure Mara has something planned for you and Fluttershy." He said with a huge grin.
The shoe was on the other foot as Mike's face instantly turned bright red. "I-I have n-n-no idea what you're talking about…"
His grin got even bigger. "In your eyes, Dibella the goddess of beauty has created her personally, am I right? And Kynareth blessed her with love for animals."
Mike was silent, his voice stuck in his throat as his face was brighter than a ripe tomato, and all he could do was glare.
The dragon stared at the two in utter confusion and was about to say something when Twilight walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. She saw them glaring at each other, Martin with a huge grin and Mike's face bright red and the look of pure hate. "…Am I interrupting something Spike?" She asked, just as confused.
"I don’t think so; Martin was saying something about some God called Arkay, Dibella, and Kyn-Kinoreth or Kindereth, then they were saying something about AJ and Fluttershy… they lost me after that… I don’t know."
She looked at them. "Ok boys, are you ready to meet Princess Celestia?"
"About that… how am I supposed to shower with my bandages?" Martin asked.
"Just use your magic silly."
They stared at her. "Umm… Twilight, humans are non-magical creatures… "
She stared at him, and then looked at Mike. "No magic?" She asked, her voice small. He nodded. She seemed stunned. "It's not that hard, just use your left hand."
Martin gave her a deadpan expression. "But I have to wash both my arms and the bandages are in the way. The doctor explicitly said I mustn't remove before the first week had passed."
"Then wash around the bandages?" She said. "I'm not sure just go take a shower, we have to leave soon."
Martin looked around the room. "Ok… nothing else I can do but I have to eat first. Michael, why don’t you go first; I'll need a little longer for sure."
Mike got up. "Sure… where is it?"
"Down the hall to the left." Spike said.
"Then I'll be back." He said as he disappeared down the hall.
"Ok… so what's for breakfast?" Martin asked, looking at Spike, who had handed him a plate and fork.
"Toast and scrambled eggs. Twilight told me that you don’t eat hay or flowers so I thought I'd make something special." He said with a small smile. "I made some for when Michael gets back too."
"Thanks pal." Martin said, staring at the food on the plate. The aroma almost made him dive head first into the plate but he grabbed the fork and started eating some of the scrambled eggs.
"No sweat." He said.
Suddenly there was a loud thud down the hall. "Why do I have to be so damn tall?!" Mike yelled from the shower, rubbing the top of his head.
Martin swallowed his food, almost coughing. "Ever heard of ducking; might help in the shower designed for creatures smaller than you.” He yelled.
"Thanks Sherlock, never would've figured that!" Mike yelled back.
Martin started to laugh. "Oh Michael… never gets boring with you around." He took a few more bites. "Damn Spike, this is really good."
Spike blushed. "Thanks… I prefer that to hay pancakes and daisy sandwiches." He said as he set the other plate down for Michael as he wandered back from the shower.
Martin glanced up and stood up, pushing away from the table. "Guess it's my turn." He walked into the shower and stared at it. "Damn… the shower is tiny!" He laughed.
"See?" Mike yelled back before he started to eat. "Wow… this is great." He said as he started to eat a little faster.
They could hear the water hitting the wall in the shower. "AHH! You asshole turned the water all the way to the coldest temperature!" Martin yelled, getting hit with the freezing water.
Mike choked as he laughed. "That's for laughing at me."
Martin quickly messed with the setting to much warmer water. "Much better…"
Mike chuckled as he scooped the last of his egg on the fork. "So Twilight, when is Princess Celestia supposed to get here?"
Twilight looked at the clock that hung above the kitchen door. "In about three hours, you two slept pretty long."
"Yeah… yesterday was a long day… and slightly painful." He chuckled.
Twilight smiled. "I heard you got along well with Fluttershy?" She asked.
His cheeks turned red. "Sorta… we talked for a little bit…"
"That's nice, I'm glad she found a new friend." She smiled at him and didn’t notice his cheeks. Spike on the other hand, noticed and grinned at him.
Mike chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah… she's really nice…"
Martin came out of the bathroom, the towel wrapped around his neck. "Aww… that was nice."
"Feel better?"
"Yep… and I'll remember that." He said, glaring at Mike.
Mike stuck his tongue out. "So what is the plan besides Celestia?" He asked Twilight.
She thought for a moment. "Figure out how exactly it was possible for you two to get here."
Mike rested his head on in his hands. "I was wondering that myself." He said.
"We might be able to send you two back." She said, a hoof on her chin.
Martin and Mike made brief eye contact before Mike pushed himself away from the table. "Martin, can I talk to you privately?" Martin nodded and they walked over to the guest bedroom. "So… do you want to go back?" Mike asked him.
"I'm going to be honest with ya… I want to stay. I think it was hard not to notice, but I think AJ is great… ya know what I mean. It's weird… I'm not sure what is going on but I like her." He said, a hint of concern in his voice.
"Yeah… I know what you mean. It's odd… but I get along with Fluttershy better than I got along with most humans… and we get along way more than I should… I think…" He paused scratching his forehead. "What do we tell the Princess? Ask to stay?"
Martin looked at the floor. "I-I don’t know… what else can we do?"
"What will it hurt to ask?" Mike suggested.
Martin shrugged. "Come on; let's go back to Twilight and Spike."
They walked back into the kitchen; Twilight was drinking tea and Spike was making himself a ruby pie. "So what was that about?" Spike asked, not really paying attention.
"It's nothing Spike, don’t worry." Martin forced a smile.
"Yeah." Mike agreed, giving the dragon a small smile.
"Ok…" Spike said, rubbing claws together as he waited for his pie.
Twilight down her tea and looked at them. "So… I hope you're both ready."
Martin shrugged. "I'm ready as I'll ever be."
"Same here." Mike added, quietly.
Martin glanced at his human companion. "How are we gonna pass the two hours we got left?"
"No idea…" Mike shrugged.
Twilight cleared her throat. "You could always read… you do know this is a library…" She said, pointing a hoof at the bookshelves.
"Oh yeah…" Mike said as he walked around the shelves. "So many possibilities…"
Martin walked over to one of the bookshelves and scanned the titles before he grabbed one on Equestrian history. "Guess I can read a little bout this land while I'm here…" He walked over to the couch and sat down, the book in his left hand.
Mike on the other hand, grabbed a random book and sat down in the chair. "Hmm…"
Martin glanced at the book Mike grabbed and raised an eyebrow. "Michael… that’s a biology book about pairing in case you didn’t know…"
He stared at Martin. "Really? Thanks, I couldn’t read the title." He rolled his eyes. "But still not the worst thing I've read, I've read the Twilight series."
Twilight glanced at him. "What?"
Mike shook his head. "It's a terrible book series from home… I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy…"
"Gave both the books and the movies a try, I hated them both… Douche level over 9000…"
Mike chuckled. "Yeah… I've seen them all and it was terrible…"
There was silence in the library as time passed, they read their books and Twilight kept pacing around in a straight line, getting more nervous as time went on. Spike came out of the kitchen and saw Twilight.
"Twilight, it'll be ok." He said, rolling his eyes.
Martin looked up from his book. "What's wrong now?"
"She's always panics when Princess Celestia comes here… always thinking that’s she's gonna have to leave." Spike said, waiting for the timer to go off on his pie.
Martin looked at Twilight. "Why would you think that?"
"Because I haven't sent any Friendship reports lately and she said that she wanted to continue my studies sometime at the castle… then my brother is…" She rambled on, on par with Pinkie.
Martin rolled his eyes. "Oh Jesus, I think I alerted the horde…"
Mike set the book down and walked up to her before bending down and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It'll be alright Twilight, I'm sure she won't just suddenly take you away, she doesn’t sound like that type of… pony."
"And from what I read, she'd never do that… she seems far too kind."
Mike nodded his head in agreement.
She sighed but was still nervous.
"Just take a few deep breaths and try and relax… I'm not sure how we'd explain to Princess Celestia why her student is passed out in our arms…"
"I guess…" She tried to calm herself down but she still seemed panicked.
Martin glanced at the clock next to the kitchen. "We still have a half hour left… what do you want to do Michael?"
Mike blushed while he cleared his throat. "Hehe… well… I wouldn’t mind going to see if Fluttershy needs help feeding her animals again… but there's not enough time… you?"
Martin glanced at him. "Nah… I'm afraid there isn't really enough time to go anywhere." He said, scratching the back of his head with his left hand.
Mike sighed and sat back down on the chair, starting to read again.
Twilight walked to the door. "I better go tell Rainbow to get the others…" She opened the door with her magic; a cold breeze blew in her face and circled the library.
Mike shivered. "You said winter was soon?" He asked right before she left.
She nodded as she looked at him. "Yes, it'll snow soon, the weather pegasi have it already prepared."
Mike gave her a small smile. "That'll be cool… I've never seen snow before but it's gonna get really cold…"
Martin sighed. "Let's hope it won't be like in Germany… the snow looks nice at first but it gets dirty and muddy, it turns into some weird mess but it does look nice at first."
"Yeah… it'll be nice." Mike said with a small chuckle.
Twilight nodded and left the library, leaving them alone with Spike.
Martin got up and put the book back before plopping back onto the couch. "I'm pretty bored…"
Mike stretched. "We still have twenty minutes, what would you like to do?"
He scratched his right arm. "Phew… not sure… we could uh… go to the Sugarcube Corner… it's this sweet shop barely five minutes away, AJ told me about it on our way back to the farm. "
"Sounds nummy… I'm down if you wanna go?" Mike looked at him.
Martin walked towards the door. "I want to have a look… but neither of us have any money…"
Mike slapped his forehead. "Oh yeah… I'm sure they don’t take dollars or Euros…"
Martin's eyes widened as he remembered something and pulled out his cell phone from his back pocket. "I totally forgot about this…" he said as he turned it on. "Battery's still at one hundred percent."
"Oh yeah!" Mike reached excitedly into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, it was all scratched and a bit dented. He turned it on. "Huh… full life too… I wonder if these work…"
Martin smiled at the screen. "Mate… we could play some games…"
"Indeed… thank god I installed Solitaire." He muttered as he clicked the app and started playing.
Martin tapped his screen a few times. "I think I'm going to play some… I don’t even know… I have too much crap on my phone."
Mike laughed. "I never really installed apps on my phone, mostly on my iPod…" His eyes widened as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPod. "…Huh… full battery… how did I miss these?"
Martin frowned, annoyed. "Damn… if only I had my jacket now…"
"Yeah… well, we weren't expecting inter-dimensional travel or I would've brought mine too…"
"That not it, I often go out in the woods and mountain and I have a ton of useful stuff in that jacket."
"Oh… well… that probably would be useful…" He chuckled.
"A lighter, a torch, a pocket flare gun with six flares, a pocket knife and a revolver… all things that could be useful…"
"Well no use in wishing for something that isn't here, I'm just glad we didn’t shatter every bone in our bodies on impact."
"Yeah… oh well, it's not like it'll come falling out of the sky, right?" He asked, chuckling.
Mike shrugged. "Who knows? Weirder stuff has happened…"
Martin's smile disappeared. "I jinxed it, didn’t I?"
"Most likely."
"I'm not sure the Princess would be too pleased with me having a revolver."
"Or a pocket flare gun… hell, I'm not even sure what she'll say about the knife…"
"No one will take that away from me so easily…"
Mike raised an eyebrow. "Even if she would throw you in jail, if they have a jail, for just having it?"
"Well… if she can give me something less dangerous and basically the same… they can have it." He shrugged.
"Ah…" Mike said.
"We'll see."
"That we will."
“What's the time?" Martin sighed. "We got another thirteen minutes."
"You still wanna head over to that Sugar whatcha ma call it place?"
"Sure, why not." He paused and looked at Spike. "We'll be at Sugarcube Corner, ok?"
Spike looked away from his ruby pie that he was about to eat. "Ok."
"Lead the way." Mike said to Martin.
They left the library and wandered around the town, Martin trying to remember the directions. It was pretty busy, ponies running around the street to vendors. All the ponies stared at them, as the ponies themselves tried to avoid going anywhere near the humans.
"Ever feel like a circus act and everyone was watching you?" Mike whispered, looking around at the staring ponies.
"I know what you mean…" Martin said, feeling slightly awkward. "Hey there it is!" He said, pointing to it.
Mike stared at the building. If it wasn’t for Martin telling him, he could've sworn it was a giant cupcake with a cherry on top. He was still tempted to take a bite of it. "Is that… is that a giant cupcake?"
Martin looked at him with an emotionless face. "Yeah, why?"
Mike looked between Martin and the building before shrugging. "No reason."
"Mikey! Marty!!" Pinkie came galloping towards us, barely stopping inches away from them. She hopped up and down on the spot.
"Uh… hi Pinkie?" Mike said, watching her hop up and down.
"It's so nice that you’re here, I was wondering when you were, I'm feeling great today but I feel great everyday cause I have friends everywhere!" She said, not pausing once to breath. She smiled at them and tilted her head.
Martin gaped at her, his mouth and eyes wide open. "Umm… Pinkie? Have you sniffed crack or something; you seem a little um… active."
"No silly willy, I'm just excited because two of my new best friends came to visit me at my work!" She said with a huge smile.
Mike just laughed at her antics and soon Pinkie was giggling along.
"Sure…. But yeah, we came to visit."
"Oh that’s super duper nice of you!" She giggled and hopped to the counter. "Well what would you like to have? We have any treat that you can imagine; doughnuts, cupcakes, cake, cookie, apple fritters, muffins… well I can't even list them all!"
"Well… um… we just came for a look, that’s all. Neither of us has any money." Martin said, eyeing the various treats.
"Don’t worry; the first treat is always on the house!" She said happily.
"Oh… that’s nice, thank you Pinkie." He smiled at her and looked at the different muffins. "I'd like a chocolate muffin please." She reached behind the glass and grabbed the nearest one before hoofing it to him.
"Thanks Pinkie." He said as he bit into the muffin.
"No problemo." She said with a smile before turning to look at Mike. "What about you?"
Mike paused and looked at the selection again. "I'll take the same thing he had."
She smiled at him and grabbed another muffin and hoofed it to him. "There you go Mikey."
"Thanks Pinkie, it looks delicious." He said as he took a bite. She looks at them with big eyes, waiting for their response. He paused. "Best… muffin… ever." He said as he quickly finished it.
"Thank you!!" She said, pulling him into a crushing hug.
"Oh god… Pinkie… ribs still healing…" He struggled to say.
"Sorry…" She said as she giggled, letting him go.
He wheezed. "Thanks." He coughed and looked at Martin. "What do you think?"
Martin looked at Pinkie. "Just as good as my mum's and she won several trophies for hers."
Pinkie smiled and pulled him into a hug too. "Oh thank you! I worked super duper extra hard on making those muffins; everypony loves muffins!"
"Ouch… arm… still severely wounded." He managed to say.
She giggled. "Whoopsies, sorry I forgot you two were injured." She quickly let go and gasped. "I just realized I haven't thrown you a Welcome to Ponyville/Equestria party for either of you." She quickly sped into the other room.
Martin looked at his friend. "Oh boy… not sure what to expect…"
Mike sighed. "Who knows…" He scratched the back of his neck. "So what do we do now?"
"We can only wait…"
"Yeah…" Mike glanced at the clock. "Should be an interesting afternoon…"
"Yeah, wonder the princess is like… seems to be really nice but I just read that in a book." Martin muttered, looking worried.
"From everything that Twilight said, she shouldn’t be that bad."
"I wonder how she'll react to seeing us." He got lost in his thoughts, imagining the scenario.
Mike took off his glasses and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I have no idea…"
Martin shook his head and looked in the direction Pinkie had disappeared in. "What's taking her so long?" He said, slightly annoyed they had to wait.
"Well, she is setting up a party, it'll take a while." Mike said as he put his glasses back on.
Martin sighed. "Do we really have to wait till she has set up the party before we can leave?"
Before Mike could respond, the door flew opened and Dash appeared; she looked slightly tired, sweat running down her forehead.
Mike looked at her. "Hey…" He said, waving to her.
She breathed heavily. "Where's Pinkie?" She asked, looking around.
"She ran out of here when she realized she had to set up a party." Mike mumbled, pointing to the door.
She looked at the door you pointed at and quickly flew inside. "Oh hey Dashie." Pinkie said as moments later, Dash flew out of the room, carrying Pinkie on her back. They left the store, leaving the humans alone.
"Wasn’t Rainbow supposed to get the others before the princess arrived?" Martin thought out loud.
Mike rubbed his head in thought. "I think so… huh, maybe the princess is here?" Mike responded.
"Well we better get goin' then, better safe than sorry, aye?" Martin asked.
"Aye." Mike agreed, walking over to the door and opening it.
Martin quickly walked past him, taking the classic Superman pose. "Onwards!" He yelled.
Mike shook his head before shutting the door and had to briskly walk to catch up. On the way back, they noticed small crowds of ponies gathering towards the library. They could easily see over the ponies.
"What's going on here?" Martin asked as he lowered his arms and looked around. He saw Twilight and the others in front of the library; Twilight looked worried.
"I'm not sure…" Mike hesitantly made his way through the sea of ponies, with Martin right behind him. "What's wrong?" He whispered as he walked up to Twilight.
She jumped slightly and sighed in relief once she saw it was him. "The princess will be here any moment now… I was worried you wouldn’t come..." She looked at the sky, searching for something.
Martin appeared next to him. "Heyho, I'm here as well."
"Sorry, we had to get something to eat… we hadn't really eaten a lot since what, three days ago or so?" Mike asked Martin.
Before Martin could remind his friend of the breakfast Spike made for them, the crowd cheered as a golden chariot landed safely between them and the humans. The chariot was pulled by several male pegasi wearing bright golden armor. A tall, regal white pony stepped out of the chariot; she had wings and a horn and was as tall as the humans. Her ethereal mane and tail were the colors of the pastel rainbow. Her bright magenta eyes were full of warmth and happiness as she looked at the gathered ponies. Her flank held the picture of the sun, surprisingly. All the ponies quickly bowed to her once she finished looked at them.
Martin looked around awkwardly as Mike quickly poked him before bowed. "Yeah… I would bow, but my arm kinda is in the way…"
The pony made her way towards them as Mike chuckled. She looked at them, her gaze resting on Martin. "You must be one of these humans Twilight has mentioned in her letters?" She looked at Mike for a few seconds before looking down at our clothes. "Hmm… strange, I seem to recall our myths say that men were covered in metal armor …"
"Well… humans don’t usually wear armor like that anymore. Hundreds of years of ago it was very common but new inventions made the old steel and iron armor useless." Martin explained.
"Oh?" She asked, intrigued.
"Yeah… so… Princess Celestia… maybe we should all head inside the library, it's a little crowded out here." Martin said, motioning at the crowd.
She laughed. "Well, would it be better to answer my questions and then have to answer them as other ponies ask them as well, or get it all taken care of with one round of 'Q and A'?"
He stared at her blankly for a few seconds. "Just do what you think is right… you’re the leader of this land, not me."
"I think it'd be easier on you two; Twilight answered most of my immediate questions anyway." He nodded. "A real basic question I must ask, for the safety of my ponies… Do you mean us harm in any way? Are you an early recon for a later invasion?"
Wow… talk about being direct. "Oh dear lord… no, no we don’t mean any harm. Neither of us own weapons- aw shit…" He said, as he remembered his knife. He slowly felt for and he pressed his lips together.
She noticed his abrupt change and seemed to glare at him as the guards around her stiffened up and casually grasped their weapons.
"What he means to say is neither of us have any intention of harming any… pony. He does have a small knife that we were using to let fish go… if we caught them…" Mike quickly jumped in, his face red.
One of the guards moved closer to Martin. "May I see the knife?" He asked, glaring at him.
Martin slowly pulled it out of his pocket and rested it in the guards hoof as he tried to open it. "Umm… may I show you?" Martin offered. The guard glared again and narrowed his eyes.
The guard hoofed it back. "Just don’t point it at the Princess."
A little smile appeared on Martin's face. "I'm afraid it'll point everywhere." Before the guard could respond, he flicked the knife a few times, making the blade swing around his hand and the sun reflected off the blade.
The townsponies screamed in terror and backed away from them as the guards pulled their spears out and pointed them at the humans. Dash and AJ took point behind them as Fluttershy hid behind her mane and shook in fear.
Mike face palmed. "Here we go…"
Celestia stared at Martin, her face expressionless as he just seemed to notice the commotion he made. "What?" He casually held the knife in his hand.
"Why do you have a weapon if you say you're peaceful?" The guard asked.
Martin looked down and raised an eyebrow. "Just because I own a knife doesn’t mean I intend to harm anyone with it; a knife is a very useful tool to have."
"But you are prepared to harm somepony if it came down to it?" He continued.
Celestia interfered, gently resting a hoof on the guard's back. "Our world isn't as safe as we assume it to be, especially in the Everfree Forest. He is also, to use the term bluntly, an alien in our society… maybe in his, wearing a knife is common." She glanced at Mike to confirm it, who shook his head yes.
"I-I used to wear a k-knife, till I broke it." He hesitantly said, stuttering.
Celestia looked at Martin. "I will allow you to wear that but you must promise me that you will only use it for self defense, never attack."
"But your Highness-" The guard started, till she interrupted him.
"Furthermore, if one of my guards sees you 'waving' it around, we will lock you up and confiscate it. Is that acceptable?" She asked, not blinking as she stared into his eyes.
Martin nodded. "Yeah but you don’t have to worry, I only use it when I'm forced too… or as a tool."
She nodded before looking at her guard. "For any form of acquaintances, one must give the other the benefit of the doubt. That is how we learn to trust each other."
Martin flicked the knife again and the blade disappeared. Mike sighed in relief as Celestia turned to look at him. "You’re an awfully quiet individual."
He shrugged. "I-I'm not a big talker… I let him since we usually agree." He said, pointing to Martin.
She nodded. "Twilight has relayed to me what you had told her and now I believe we should talk in private."
"Umm… ok…" Mike said as Twilight opened the door and they all entered.
Before she left, Celestia addressed the gathered ponies. "All is well my little ponies; it seems these new visitors are not here to harm us so I ask that you treat them with respect. They are the first and last of their kind…" She said before disappearing into the library.
They walked into the lobby of the library. "Twilight said you came here through a portal, is that correct?" She asked calmly.
"Yeah…" Mike whispered. "One minute we were fishing, and then this creature calling itself Discord appeared, then we fell into the forest."
She sighed. "Just as I thought… there is a rift in the space between our dimensions. This happens very rarely but when it does, certain creatures are capable of leaving their dimension and visiting another. I noticed it but Discord had already traveled there." She paused. "This rift only exists for a certain amount of time before it closes forever; it's the only way for you two to go back home." She looked at each of the humans. "I give you a choice; either I send you home or you'll stay here forever but staying here requires a sacrifice from both of you. Think about what I said unless you want to go now, the rift will close in a month. I shall return the day before it does so."
Mike and Martin looked at each other before Mike turned to look at her. "What is it that we have to give up?"
She smiled sadly. "I'm afraid I can't tell you, it might influence your decision."
Mike sighed. "Didn’t think so but it was worth a shot." He looked at Martin. "Do you wanna leave now or stay for the month?"
"I'd rather think for a little while, you?"
"I'll stay for now and see what happens…" Mike turned to look at the Princess. "We’d like to stay here for the month, we need time to think."
She nodded. "Are there any questions either of you have?"
Mike shrugged. "I got nothing."
"Same here." Martin agreed, shaking his head.
She nodded. "Just remember, if either of you have any questions, you can always ask Twilight; if you decide to leave early, have her send me a letter and I'll come back as soon as I can." She headed towards the door. "If there's nothing else, then I will see you in twenty nine days."
Martin waved his good arm. "Bye…"
"See you in a month." Mike said as she shut the door behind her, the library becoming awkwardly quiet afterwards.