//------------------------------//
// Chapter 16: Embarrass 
// Story: What Separates 
// by Zurock 
//------------------------------//

	Despite the party ostensibly being "his" welcoming party, nobody seemed immediately interested in interacting with James.  Relieved with his freedom, he stood off to the side and merely observed everyone as they all began to drift into their own party activities.  Pinkie Pie noisily ate straight from the cake, slobbering and slurping up as much as she could without taking the time to even cut out individual pieces.  Spike and Rarity danced to the music; the elegant pony's lithe movements were in marked contrast to the steady but unorganized rocking of the dragon.  By the front door Fluttershy and Twilight were giddily chatting and giggling with each other, but the unicorn's attention wasn't all there.  Every now and again she'd carefully peek across the room, watchful.  At the activities table, Applejack was with Rainbow Dash.  The duo were ribbing each other with friendly challenges, eventually settling on hanging up a dart board.  All the while Rainbow Dash didn't make any effort to hide whom she was monitoring, regularly turning to look at James.
Thankfully, everything appeared to be undirected.  It didn't seem as if there was going to be a set schedule of activities to follow like one might find at an actual children's party, despite the juvenile appearance of this pony affair.  Relieved, James made his way to the snack table and poured himself some punch.  Pinkie Pie glanced up from her maddened feeding and gave him a smile, cream and frosting coating her snout and flecks of cakes dangling from her teeth.  He returned a stifled, clumsy laugh and took a sip of his drink.  Maybe it didn't have any alcohol in it but perhaps just having something he could hold in his hand and take nips at would be close enough in experience to help him relax and pass the time more easily.
In short order he caught sight of Applejack approaching him.  Rainbow Dash stayed behind by the now hung dart board, watching the orange pony while wearing a grumpy expression.  Hospitable and easygoing, Applejack wasn't the least bit worried about talking to James, testing him with some small talk to see if he was more receptive now that the festivities had begun.
"Hey there," she opened.  "I hope Twilight hasn't been saddling you up with too many of her stuffy ol' books."
"Just three," James answered, taking another sip of his drink.  "A couple of informational pieces and then a fantasy story.  They seem as good a starting point as any."
"Yeah, well, that's swell and all, but I stand by what I said before.  You gotta get your hooves dirty.  Get out and about!" she insisted.  "Did ya at least head out and take a gander around town yet?"
James shook his head.  "No, not particularly.  Went to the market and some stores, Twilight showed me some of the places you girls live and work...  That's about it."  He didn't blame Twilight for not giving him the complete guided tour of Ponyville.  Maybe there was plenty to see, but there were other, more important things that had to be done first.  And besides, he wasn't here to go sight-seeing anyway.
"Tarnation, is that all?" Applejack let out with disappointment.  She took a step closer and questioned him, "You haven't maybe gone and seen the town square?  Haven't followed the river 'round?  Or maybe moseyed through the park for a spell?"  All the rosy memories of her home town bubbled up as she reflected.  Ordinary places, even to a local, but extraordinary in sentimentality.  "You know, you could visit Creamy Scoops' for some ice cream.  There's the Hitchhock Theater, which is a might old, but it has a right proper amount of history to it.  The Galloping Gardens is worth a look, there's plenty a pretty thing there.  Oh, and the Damsire District, it has the dandiest li'l homes you ever did see!  You haven't gone to see none of that?"
"It's been three days," James complained.  "Most of which I've been busy being dragged around, or drawn into things."  But he quickly shrugged off any concern, telling Applejack, "There'll be plenty of time to see things later.  If anything, time is something I'm not remotely short of.  It's all I have right now, really."
She sized him up for a moment before deciding that he seemed pleasant enough to invite to the planned game of darts.  "It don't matter how much time you got if you're always gonna be sitting on your rump like that.  Say, lookin' to maybe play a round of darts with Rainbow and I?  The way she kept eyeballing you I figure she was hopin' for a third player."
"... Maybe later."  He cast a hand aside dismissively.  In another time, at another place, with his old friends and a few drinks, sure.  Even that one time at a lawn party with some neighbors to celebrate the dying days of a summer gone by.  But he couldn't see himself tossing darts here.
Resigned and again disappointed, Applejack muttered, "Suit yourself."  She had tried.  But once again she would rather leave well enough alone if he didn't care to be involved.  She backed off and returned to Rainbow Dash, grabbing a slew of darts off the activities table on the way.
James exhaled and then took another swig of his drink.  Hopefully he could find something on the snack table that went with the flavor of the punch.  He tried to inconspicuously move about and browse the selection.
The whole exchange between Applejack and James had been observed by Twilight, who grimaced at the ineffectiveness of the farm pony's gesture.
"Is something wrong?" Fluttershy asked the distracted unicorn.
"Oh.  No.  Nothing important.  Everything's fine," Twilight responded unsteadily.  "Hey, listen, Fluttershy... I'm going to go talk to James for a bit.  Uh... if that's alright with you?"
Fluttershy stared back at her friend, innocent but still addled, and said, "Oh.  Okay.  Sure.  Talk to you later then."  She hesitantly stepped back before turning and going to join the others who were dancing.
Twilight delayed for a minute before walking over to the man in slow steps.  He noticed her right away, set aside the snacks he was sampling, and prepared himself for another encounter.
"Hey," she greeted.  "How're you doing?"  Her voice twinged with mild uncertainty.
"I'm fine, thanks," James casually answered.
Stepping about her words oddly, Twilight rephrased herself, "Anything... bothering you?"
"No!  No..." he blurted out.  He had to look away and take another drink to get the time to refocus himself.  "It's nothing important.  Everything's fine.  Just... not much of a partier, I suppose."
"Ah.  Well, maybe if you give some things a try you'll enjoy yourself more," she carefully suggested.  "Instead of just sticking with the food and drinks.  Join some of the others."
"Maybe later," he echoed.
She would have thrown up her hooves in frustration if she wasn't so concerned.  Thinking back, Twilight recalled her own first Ponyville party experience and began to relate it to him, saying, "You know, when I first came to Ponyville from Canterlot, Pinkie Pie threw me a welcome party.  I didn't want it at the time... I secluded myself away in my bedroom.  I was sort of... preoccupied.  There were a few other things on my mind."  The serious look in her eyes clearly demonstrated to him just how severe her burdens of the time were to her.  "But, since then I've really come to love Pinkie's parties and I regret not being more involved in that first one she threw me."  Twilight wouldn't have traded her responsibilities directly for that party, but she regretted not giving it at least the chance it deserved.
Her story triggered something inside of him and he admitted, "I am... there are some other things on my mind, yeah."  However, he still stuck to his distant mood and told her, "But I'm fine with this party.  There's no trouble."
"So... would you like to participate in something?" Twilight asked hopefully.
"... Maybe later," James loosely resolved.
"Aww, come on!  There's plenty to do right now!" Pinkie Pie jovially hollered, charming her way into the conversation.  Her words didn't have a single down, desperate, or remotely depressed syllable.  There was a few stray napkins stuck to her face, however.  She vigorously waggled her head to shake them off.
James put a hand up in resistance, saying to the lively pony, "No thanks.  I don't-"
"Let's sing a song!  I know a great one for parties!  Okay, it goes like this!"  Pinkie Pie cleared her throat, almost more as an intentional effect than out of necessity.
"No, that's... quite alright.  I don't do much singing.  Thank you," James interrupted.
"Alrighty," she said, not even stopping for a beat in changing gears.  "Then let's play a game.  I know all sorts of good party games!  We can play 'Charades', or 'Truth or Dare'.  I brought the stuff for 'Pin the Tail on the Pony'.  Oh!  Or let's hang the piñata that I brought!"
She pointed to the colorful papier-mâché object laying amongst the other items on the activities table.  Shaped like a pony's head and bearing a big smile, it had a stylized and comically oversized nose.  Perhaps almost twice as big it should be were anatomical correctness a concern.  Lowering her voice down to a secret-revealing whisper, Pinkie Pie leaned in close to James and said, "I filled this one with only GREEN jelly beans."  Her sentence was punctuated with a tiny fit of sprightly giggles.
Twilight's knees shook nervously, fearful that maybe her vibrant friend was being too aggressive in her approach.  James was denying all the offers, but the worried unicorn thought that maybe it was only Pinkie Pie's overbearing excitement getting to him.  That crazy pony can take some getting used to and perhaps that was influencing his decisions.  Still, Twilight didn't want to completely shut down Pinkie Pie's enthusiasm because it did have it's own kind of infectious nature in the right circumstances.  All Twilight wanted was only to exercise some control over it and remove some of the pressure it was placing on James.  Putting on as stable a face as she could manage, Twilight jumped in, saying, "That does sound like fun, Pinkie.  Why don't we see if any other ponies want to participate and then WHOEVER wants to take a swing can?"
"Really... I don't feel like playing any games right now," the man said forcefully.  Withdrawing from the two ponies somewhat, he followed up with, "Thanks though.  Don't let me stop you from playing."  Quickly he drank down the last of his punch and set the cup down on the table.
"Well then," Pinkie Pie chirped, "the only thing left to do is dance!  Let's go!"  She slid around behind James, leveled her head, and charged into him, pushing him out onto the open floor.
"Wha... hey!"  He stumbled a little when the pink bulldozer came to a stop, and Pinkie Pie bounced back around him while rolling into a dance.  She hustled and shimmied about, bobbing along with the music.  Invitingly she shouted to him to get moving.
Still trying to draw away some of the pressure on James, Twilight followed them out and quietly moved into her own simple dance.  She hoped that with a small crowd now dancing he wouldn't feel so noticed and might be encouraged to join in.
It didn't seem to work though, as again James was dismissive and said to Pinkie Pie, "I don't want to dance, thanks."  He tried to exit and head back to the snack table but, relentless, the pink pony sprang around and got in front of him while still doing her brisk jig.
"Don't you know how to dance?" she asked him.  "It's not hard at all!  All you have to do is move however the music tells you to move.  Watch, see?"  She twirled and stomped, timing her movements to match the beat of the music.
Again James tried to wave her off and excuse himself.  He began to say to her, "No.  It's not that, I just don't want-"
"Okay, okay," Pinkie Pie interrupted him, "here's any easy one to try!  Anypony can do this one!"  Sucking in a huge breath, she stopped her wild motion and returned to a more neutral stance.  Then, leaning a little to the left and raising up her off side legs, she started to sing, "You put your right hooves in, you take your right hooves out, you put your righ-"
"No thanks," James curtly said.  Once again he moved to get around Pinkie Pie and leave the floor but she hopped into the way to block him.
"Hey, come on!  Why don't you want to dance?"  Despite the sound of her complaint, she nevertheless carried herself positively.  It was a call of encouragement, not the cry of a hurt hostess.  Every innocent blinking of her eyes just reinforced the pure nature of her question.  Here and now, not wanting to dance seemed to her to be the silliest thing in the world.
Starting up again with her shaking and swaying, Pinkie Pie instructed James, "Just cut loose!"  A lift of the hoof, a turn of the flank, a spin and slide across the floor... it was hard to tell if she was trying to lead by example or if she was absolutely lost in the moment and the music.
Almost disoriented now, James tried to explain to the capricious, pink pony, "I don't do much dancing."
"Awwww, really?" she replied.  If anything it sounded sympathetic, like she was sorry for him.  But she rebounded into blissful cheer instantly, saying, "That's alright, though!  You don't need to be a dancer to dance!  It's all about having fun!"  Pinkie Pie cocked her head in brief thought, her tongue jutting out of the side of her mouth.  "Is there any kind of dancing you have done?" she asked him.
Confused and almost unsure, James answered the question in a mumble, "I've done... some slow dancing...?"
"Oh, okay!  I guess we can do that instead.  I'll be your partner!"  In a flash, she positioned herself in front of him and considered her options.  There seemed to be one obvious way to proceed, so she reared up a bit and threw her front legs out at him.
Reflexively, he caught her forehooves, wobbling backwards slightly with the shifting weight.  But the surprise shook him back into his senses.  "No!" he cried in an annoyed tone and pushed her hooves away to the side.  Pinkie Pie wasn't expecting to be let go so suddenly and staggered in her landing, nearly toppling over.
At once, Rainbow Dash was in the air, blazing across the room.  She blasted right up in front of the man, fiercely planting her front hooves onto his chest to push him back a little and then shoved her face in close to his.  Angrily, she shouted, "HEY!  What's the big idea?!"
James recovered promptly and, feeling abruptly resistant and determined, stood his ground.  He firmly told his accuser, "I'm not going to dance."  The reality of the situation then caught up to him and he realized just what had transpired.  He turned to Pinkie Pie, who had gotten back up but now looked genuinely upset.  Trying to apologize, he dropped the defiant tone he had taken with Rainbow Dash in the heat of the moment and said, "Sorry.  I didn't mean to drop you like that.  I just..."
All at once he felt the pressure of being watched, realizing that the scene had drawn the eyes of the entire room.  Besides Rainbow Dash floating and watching with scorn in front of him, every other individual looked on, registering different, disturbed emotions at what they were seeing.  Somehow even the record player had come to a scratching stop, bathing the room in an aching silence.
The bellicose pegasus wasn't satisfied with James' response and drew back into a fighting pose, ready to get ugly.  Moving in, she said, "That's it, I oughta-"
"Rainbow Dash, please!"  Twilight jumped in the way of her combative friend.  "I-I'm sure this is j-just a... misunderstanding of some sort!  Let's-"
"I'm going to step out for a second," James solemnly interjected.  He hastily turned away and marched towards the front door, leaving the library.
"Hey!"  Rainbow Dash went to swoop after him but Twilight caught her and held her back.
"No, let him go.  Please, Rainbow," the unicorn pleaded.  Rainbow Dash tried to justify herself but Twilight was insistent.  "I'll go talk to him," she promised.
Sour and doubtful, the pegasus gave a long, hardened look at her friend but eventually relented.  "Alright," she said, snorting once to expel some of her excess aggression.  Rainbow Dash turned her attention to Pinkie Pie, making sure that her tumble hadn't hurt her.
Partially relieved from at least averting immediate disaster, Twilight rushed out the front door, following James.  Once outside, she saw that he was only a few paces out, standing with his arms folded across his chest and facing away from the library.  On hearing the sound of approaching clops he turned his head to peek over his shoulder.  Seeing it was only Twilight, he just went back to staring at the row of houses away from the library.
At last he said, slowly and quietly, "Sorry about that."
Twilight inhaled like she was about to speak, but no words would come out.  She was grasping for a place to start but she didn't think she understood what even really happened back there.  A lot of things these past few days didn't go the way she expected them to, but everything eventually turned out better than she had predicted... except this.  Somehow this had gotten very bad.  Lost for a real starting point she eventually chose to ask, "Is everything alright?"
"... I wasn't going to dance," James answered.  He shook his in a helpless way, as if he understood the worthlessness of the answer but simply didn't have anything else to offer.
Rattled at again being blocked, Twilight closed her eyes.  She had to handle this somehow.  Monitoring him was her duty.  She had to figure this out.  Nopony else was going to do it.  Opening up her eyes, she straightened her posture and stepped forward.
"I realize you're in an unusual position," she told him determinately, "but you have to understand that Pinkie Pie has put together this party for you.  She just wants you to relax and have a good time.  Her... eccentricity... is only her way being friendly and trying to put you at ease and get you involved."
"I... appreciate what everybody is trying to do," he responded, still keeping his back turned to her.  "But I'll have a good time by just sitting on the side.  I don't need to participate."
"Nopony's asking you to be the life of the party.  But I think that if you were to only take it easy and try something out, you'll find it could be more fun than you thought," Twilight emphasized.  While this was about him, it affected everypony.  It's not like Pinkie Pie wouldn't try to get him engaged again, even after what happened.  And the others would notice he wasn't participating sooner or later, dragging the whole affair down if he resists their offers as well.  Especially because the party was designated for him.
But still, James waved his hand off to the side and told her, "No thanks."
This was too much.  Twilight knew she had to resolve this whole situation somehow, but her job was becoming so difficult because he wasn't even remotely willing to try to do anything.  Agitated, Twilight stamped the ground and raised her voice.  "It's... it's not fair to Pinkie Pie!" she nearly shouted.  "That... that she put all this effort into getting the party together and you won't even TRY to give it a shot."
"Well, I didn't ask for it!" he suddenly said in a hostile tone.  His folded arms tightened and his hands squeezed into fists.  "I didn't fall through some magical portal to Wonderland so I could... so I could go and have parties!"  He threw his right arm up, hoping maybe that he could throw away his frustration like discarding a used tissue.
Twilight was stunned into silence and she took a few careful steps back.  Her ears drooped, her neck lowered, and looking at the ground she cursed herself wordlessly.  What an idiot she's been.  Stupid, stupid, stupid!  She had misjudged this situation so badly and didn't even realize it.  This wasn't AT ALL like her leaving Canterlot on assignment to spend time in Ponyville.  This isn't analogous to that first party that Pinkie Pie had thrown for her.  She had CHOSEN to go to Ponyville in order to fulfill her obligations to Princess Celestia.  The party was to welcome her to where she had chosen to go, even if she didn't want it because she was preoccupied with other responsibilities.  She had always had Canterlot to go back to, if she so desired.  James, however, had been TAKEN AWAY from everything and brought to Equestria, against any of his own desires.  There's nothing else out there for him and certainly nothing for him to go back to.  Most importantly then, there's nothing for him to be celebrating.  The spirit behind the party was well placed, but it was so out of tone for the position he's in that it was a horrible idea.  And she hadn't seen it!  How can she ask him to try and enjoy a "welcome" party when he had literally lost all that he had a few days ago?
"I'm... I'm sorry," Twilight said.  "This was a mistake.  We shouldn't have had this party."
The complete change in tone caught James' attention and he loosened up, very slightly tilting himself towards her.
Stammering, the flustered pony continued, "It's... uh... this is my fault for not... for misjudging..."  The right thing to say just wasn't coming easily.
Looking over his shoulder again, James asked her, "What do you mean?"
"I wasn't thinking about the real position you're in, or your needs, and I let this party go forward."  She shook her head dejectedly.  "Despite the reservations I had in my head, even."
Sighing, James faced the houses away from the library again.  Already regretting having gotten even a little belligerent with Twilight, his tone shifted.  Now somewhat guilty, he was trying to compensate for his prior behavior, and told her, "You're doing the best you can with the strange assignment you've be given."
"But that's not good enough," she asserted, picking herself up out of her gloomy demeanor.  "I was too preoccupied to notice... you know... that you've lost-"
"Forget it," James cut her off as soon as he recognized where she was going with her thought.  "That's my problem.  I'll deal with it."
His solitary resolution disturbed Twilight.  Things may or may not have been harsher than he had been letting on, but she didn't believe for a second that just ignoring it was the way to handle things on her end.  With the current situation already being as emotionally exhausting as it had been, she couldn't think of what she could say that he wouldn't just block again.
Her apology and mention of the subject had already unsettled him, though.  The noiseless, dead air began to get to him, provoking his thoughts.  If only to fill the void he told her, "Really, I should be taking the party for the distraction it is.  Like everything else.  Keep my mind off things..."
The perturbed unicorn didn't like the sound of that at all.  In that instant, she resolutely decided that there were more important things now than trying to force him into being more participatory in some party.  Twilight started to say to him, "While I don't want to discourage you from trying to enjoy the party or anything, or at least being more polite about it-"
"Polite?  Polite..."  The word oddly took James' attention away and he whispered it to himself.  It brought to mind Rarity's apology for her own perceived failure in that very area.
"Well... yes... I just mean, you know," Twilight awkwardly tried to explain herself, thoroughly confused by his momentary fixation with the word.  "It's... even if the party was a bad idea, it's kind of rude to Pinkie Pie to be so... discourteous?"  Maybe that wasn't the best word choice.  She watched his back for some kind of response but was again thrown for a loop when, after several seconds of stillness, he gave a weak laugh.
"Heh... that sounds like something my mom would say," James	mused.
Twilight didn't respond.  The swift diversion surprised her and got her thinking, but she continued to listen to him carefully.
Gazing over the housing in front of him, James started rambling, explaining his comment, in order to drown out the pained quietness.  "Growing up and everything... you know, when someone would visit our home, Mom would make me put on nicer clothing than usual.  Or if we were going out somewhere and it wasn't super casual, she'd dress me in really fancy stuff that she KNEW I hated wearing.  Ties and things like that."
As he babbled on, trudging through his memory and experience aimlessly, a kind of nostalgic fondness crept into him, welling up from the depths of his memories.  With a mild chuckle he continued, "I mean, I was just a kid and she was only trying to teach me how to behave.  Of course I was chafing under the rules so it was, 'Why?  Why Mom?'  And if guests were coming over she'd put out these bowls of candy, and I mean... they're NEVER out... we weren't allowed to just have candy like that usually, see?  But she'd put out the bowls for the guests and it'd be 'Why Mom?  Why do the visitors get candy?'  So she'd try to explain, 'They're our guests and we have to treat them nice.'  Or going out, 'We're guests at their place and we have to behave respectfully for them.'  She would tell me, 'You have to be considerate.  Mind your manners.  Go the extra mile to show them respect.'  Just trying to be a good mom was all she was doing...
"But, I mean, with a kid like me... always with the questions.  'But why do I have to act different?  Why can't I just be who I always am?  If they don't like it, tough!'  And she'd say, 'No,' and explain it all over again.  And what I remember most is how she'd always get me in the end.  Mom would eventually go, 'If you don't dress nice... if you're rude... if you misbehave in front of the guests...'"  James picked up his hand and mimicked his mother's playful, accusing finger wagging at him.  "'You'll embarrass me!'  That's what she'd say.  'You'll embarrass me if you do that!'  Heh.  She'd always get so silly and guilty about it.  'You don't want to embarrass your poor mother, do you?'
"I remember it so well that even later in my life, when I went off to live on my own... when she wasn't around to directly watch over me anymore... if I had to go somewhere nice or meet anyone who wasn't an immediate friend... I'd still hear her voice in my head.  'You'll embarrass me!' it would say.  So I'd put on nicer clothes than strictly required, clean my hair up more than usual... hell, I'd even put on a stupid tie."  He shook his head and licked his lips, laughing to himself again.  Telling Twilight all this was a dumb digression, but he almost couldn't help himself now.  Bringing up the memories, the reflections, and sharing them... sort of had the effect of making them briefly, fleetingly more real.
"You know, sometimes when I would talk to her and she knew I'd been somewhere or done something recently, then she'd even ask me, 'You didn't embarrass me, did you?'  I felt like, even though Mom wasn't always there physically anymore, she would somehow know if I didn't dress or act up to her expectations.  Like wherever she was her mother's instinct was always connected to me and would pick up on my failure, and she'd suddenly sit up and feel embarrassed."  James wiped a sleeve across his eyes and then dug some fingers between them and the bridge of his nose.  "God, she must be so embarrassed right now," he muttered to himself in realization.  In a way it was a nice thought.  Imagining that, somehow, somewhere out there, she could still feel him, even if she was feeling embarrassment.  It was a nicer thought than the what he knew the truth to be, anyway.
Twilight remembered seeing James for the first time, when he struggled with the other man.  And she remembered the shock of witnessing their fight to the death.  Her initial change of attitude into fascination when their first real dialogue began then came up in her mind.  The little tidbits of information that came out of further conversations, the tiny details revealed from the experience with Fluttershy's animals, the slow drawing back of the curtain hiding who a stranger is.  Her conception of him had bounced around a lot in the past few days... but maybe that wasn't really a result of miscalculations and poor guesses on her part.  Maybe the real problem was that at some point, if even briefly, she hadn't been consciously respecting how complex any individual can truly be.  That trying to pin them down with some simple description or small summarization was a disservice to the complicated pony that exists underneath the surface of anypony you meet.
Coming back from the trip through his memories, James said to her, "I'm sorry... I... just give me a few minutes to compose myself.  We'll head back inside and finish out this party, and I promise to improve my behavior and be better about the whole thing."
"I appreciate the gesture, but we should cancel this party.  It was a mistake," Twilight stated.  This had gone on long enough.  She WAS going to handle this situation, and part of that was not pretending that this was no big deal and then confronting her friends again with obscured truths or white lies.
"No!" he resisted.  He thought again about the apology Rarity had given to him only shortly before and borrowed her words.  "I... I failed to mind my manners and behave politely in company.  It's my fault.  Sorry.  I'm not going to ruin this for the rest of them, though."
"But we really shouldn't-"
"No.  No... Just... give me a minute here," James lightly demanded.  He took some steady, deliberate breaths while he stretched his neck.
She looked at cautiously, thinking over the situation carefully.  Slowly, she backed out and returned to the library door, stopping just in front of it to wait for him.
James continued to stretch his body and tried to clear his head.  What a mess he'd created.  Maybe he didn't want to be here, but these were still people... er, ponies that had pretty much rescued him from death, spared him after witnessing his involvement with what they regard as an utterly heinous act, and then even took him in and have done their best to take care of him given the circumstances.  Of all the times to show total disrespect and ingratitude it had to be at a social gathering like this.  He was going to dislike smiling through this party far more than clinging to the wall and enduring it, but that was part of Mom's lessons.  Sometimes to be respectful you've got to wear the tie.
Feeling ready, James checked his clothes, straightening them out before turning around.  He walked backed towards the door and joined Twilight.  "Okay.  I'm ready," he informed her.
Twilight pushed open the door and they stepped inside.  Nobody had restarted the music and it appeared that no party-like activity had even occurred at all since the two had stepped out.  Everyone was gathered in the center of the room, speaking to each other with different volumes and tones, depending on their level of nervousness, or intrigue, or fury.  The earlier scene had gotten them all honestly discussing with each other their thoughts, feelings, concerns, and ideas about the whole entire situation of the past few days.  When the two entered the library, the others all hushed midsentence and watched, a small crowd of ponies (and a little dragon) warily eying the entrants with no solid expectations for what was going to happen next.
Just as James was drawing one final breath before taking the plunge, Twilight cut in front of him and loudly addressed the room, "Everypony, listen up!  I have an important announcement to make!  I regret to inform you that this party is canceled."
There were some gasps and murmurs from the crowd as they exchanged befuddled looks amongst themselves.  James was just as bewildered and he leaned in close, whispering to the pony, "Twilight, what are you doing?"
Flipping around to face him, she had a closed smile that stretched with confidence.  "Don't worry," she told him, "I'm in charge, right?  Let me handle it.  Besides... I think I should take responsibility for this one."  The intrepid unicorn gave him an assuring wink.
James stared at Twilight for an extended moment, not knowing what to do.  Her smile didn't fade and her confidence didn't falter, so eventually he weakly said, "Alright.  You got it."  He took a step aside, grabbing a nearby stool, and sat down, letting Twilight stride forward to explain things to her friends.