A Distant Star
Chapter Four: Knock Knock
Last Time Twilight had barely made it up the stairs to her room. She stumbled over to her bed and fell head first onto it, sprawling across it and falling asleep almost straight away...
She was in her room, and looked out of the window to see it was night. The stars were beautiful, brighter than she had ever seen them before. She ran to her telescope and looked through it, and saw something she had never seen. She called out "SPIKE! Come look at this!" She looked around, and she was in the observatory, by the large telescope, the room was in darkness, except for the light of the stars which only seemed to shine on her. The machinery was nothing but dark blobs in the darkness, ominous lumps of deeper shadow. Suddenly one moved out of the corner of her eye, moving slowly among the others, slowly weaving it's way towards her. Whatever it was, it scared her, filled her with a fear like never before. She tried to back up, but couldn't move, she was rooted to the spot, trapped. It got closer and closer, until all of a sudden, it was at the edge of the shadow. She still couldn't clearly make it out, it was a solid wall of shadow. She was terrified, but then it stepped into the light and became sharp and clear. It was Atom. Suddenly, all of her fear was gone. He slowly moved forwards towards her and she moved closer to him. They met in the middle, close, looking into each other eyes. She felt her heart flutter, and then he said in a soft gentle voice.
"Twilight... I love you." He leaned in and kissed her softly...
Twilight gently awoke, her lips still pouted, kissing against the fleeting remnants of her dream. As the feeling slowly dissolved she opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling where she had expected her new friend to have been. It took her a minute to figure out what had just happened, and then she blushed deeply, realizing what she had been dreaming about: Do I really feel that way about Atom... I have read about this kind of thing, but that was just fiction... It was just a dream... right? Right! I had a long night, and needed sleep! That's it! Still... why was it so dark to begin with... oh stop it Twilight, you are just scaring yourself! She thought, finally managing to fight down her run away thoughts. She always had a habit of over thinking things, and she agreed that this was exactly what was happening.
She slowly got up, her legs very stiff. She must have been sleeping for a long time, but when she looked out the window she was confused. It looked almost the same time she had gone to sleep... wait... no... it was earlier. Then she gasped in shock as she realized she must have slept for the full day! Which meant she hadn't gone back to see Atom again like she had promised... Spike walked in to find Twilight, finally awake, running around her room in panic... again... "Oh no! I slept through when I was meant to meet him! He was probably up all night waiting for me! NOW HE'LL HATE ME!" She screamed, panicking.
Spike just rolled his eyes and then hopped on her back
"Oh don't worry Twilight, I'm sure he'll understand, friends always do. You should know that after all the studying you have been doing." Spike said calmly, trying to soothe her. That determined look in her eyes that Spike had seen a hundred times, and that rarely ended well, flashed up now.
"You're right Spike! I'll go and apologize right away!" She announced as she galloped towards the door.
"BUT TWILIGHT!..." Spike said, then sighed as she bolted out the door ".. you haven't even brushed your mane yet..." He said in an exasperated tone
It was true, she hadn't brushed her hair, in fact the puffiness of her hair rivall\ed that of Pinkie Pie's glorious mane. Her sustained gallop was not helping the situation either, as sped through the forest the branches tugged and pulled at her hair leaving twigs and leaves scattered throughout it. She arrived at the observatory door and knocked, the door opened almost instantly.
"I WAS ONLY THERE FOR-! Oh, Twilight... sorry, I was expecting somepony else, come- er... what happened to your mane?" Atom attempted to explain, seeming a little unnerved. Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously, but then took on board the last part of what he had said and quickly looked up to see her mane was a mess of branches and hair, twisted together into a large puffed out cloud.
She squealed and tried frantically to hide it, an attempt that obviously wasn't going to succeed. Atom simply chuckled lightly.
"The bathroom is the second door on your right, you can sort it out in there. I'll be in the observatory room." He said with a small smile, moving to the side as Twilight dashed inside. Once in the bathroom she managed to pull all of the branches out of her mane with magic, the glow of her horn shining through the knots of her mane. Finally, she managed to find a comb in the cupboard and brush the knots out, much to her discomfort.
She finally walked out into the main room to see Dr Atom still working on the same machine as last timewhen, as always, the machine to her right boomed and sent another column of fire into the air, causing her to jump a little and then giggle slightly. She trotted towards Atom, who was waist deep into a machine. He was obviously trying to fix it, when there was a loud crash and he shot out, past Twilight, into the far wall, with a trail of smoke behind him. He stood up as if nothing had happened and smiled.
"So I see you fixed your hair then" he said, commenting on her hair while his was still alight, though it soon soldered down, leaving his mane a little blacked but overall not too damaged.
Twilight just stood there once again surprised by this odd unicorn.
"Er... yes, yes I fixed it." She said quickly regaining her composure and giving a smile.
"Ah, thats good, so what did you come for then Twilight? It's too light to use the telescope properly." He said looking up at the larger telescope that dominated the room and extended up through the roof. She blushed a little
"Well... actually.... I came to apologize for not turning up last night like I promised... I kinda just woke up..." She said, her blush growing. Atom looked back at her with a warm smile.
"Ah, don't worry about it, I was only half expecting you. I thought you would be a little tired to spend another night here." He said... completely lying; He had been up waiting for her to come all night, and had started to worry towards the end...
Twilight was glad that she hadn't upset him, though something was a little off about his response. She couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but she quickly disregarded it as her having just woken up so she just smiled warmly back. Atom opened his mouth to say something when there was a knock at the door which echoed through the room and a flash of terror crossed his face for a moment. "I-I'd better get that, er, you stay here, I'll be right back." he said nervously and quickly galloped towards the door leaving Twilight reasonably confused. Atom walked back in a moment later leading a rather uncomfortable looking, obviously unhappy being in such an untidy environment.
"Ah! Twilight my dear! Spike said I could find you here." Rarity said walking up to Twilight slowly, obviously trying to stay as far away from any of the machinery as possible.
"Oh, of course! You needed me to model today didn't you?" Twilight said with a little smile, trying to hide her nervousness. Rarity's eyes lit up "Yes! I thought maybe you'd forgotten. It's such a shame that Fluttershy was busy... she never did say what she was doing... oh well, it can't be helped. Anyway, there's no time to waste, we must be on our way!" She announced as her horn glowed lifting Twilight off her hooves. She galloped towards the door with Twilight hovering just behind her.
"BUT RARRRRIIIITTTTYYYYY!" Twilight cried out as she shot out the out the door. Atom simply chuckled and called out the door "Goodbye Twilight, I'll see you tonight." He said, watching down the corridor until the door at the far end closed. His smile quickly dropped and he sighed, and sat down. Wondering, and dreading, if he would be getting any more less than desirable 'Visitors' today...
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Okay okay, I know that was awful, but I am going to do better on this next one, I'm really sorry