//------------------------------//
// Resolution 
// Story: The Princess and the Human 
// by Ausbrony 
//------------------------------//

Twilight walked side-by-side with her BBBFF, wondering just how mad her mother was going to be. After the Nightmare Moon incident, her mother tried to ground her for a month for throwing herself in danger like that.

“I am never going to see the sky again after this,” Twilight muttered. Shining chuckled and ruffled her mane with magic.

“Probably, want me to vouch for you like always?”

“That would be great,” Twilight sighed. Shining often used to cover for her when she accidentally blew something up or would stay up late reading and sleep in the next morning. Twilight had a feeling that her mother always knew the truth regardless though. Cadence once told Twilight that Velvet was really Princess Celestia in disguise as a practical joke. Imagine the look on Celestia’s face the next day when Twilight called her ‘Mommy’.

Once they reached the Sparkle household, Night Light and Twilight Velvet were already waiting outside, the latter running up to her daughter and pulled her into a tight hug as she wept.

“You’re alright, thank goodness you’re alright,” the Unicorn mare sobbed into the small Alicorn’s mane.

“Yeah,” Twilight whispered back, tears falling down her face as well. “I’m alright Mom.”

There was a silent exchange between the two mares as Shining and Night hung back. Velvet eventually pulled away, her brow creased as her expression turned dour.

“And what in the hay were you thinking!? Playing around with teleport magic like that!”

“Well I-”

“What would have happened if your calculations were off?” Velvet continued to rant. “You could have wound up in the sun for Celestia’s sake!”

“That really wouldn’t have-”

“Do you have any idea how worried your father and I have been? How worried all of us were?”

“I’m sorry-” Twilight’s frustration was increasing, Shining took a tentative step back.

“Honestly,” Velvet huffed. “Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra, Discord again! It’s like you like throwing yourself in danger!”

“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!” Twilight exploded, shocking her mother into a stunned silence. “And do you have any idea what my life has been like these last few months? I drifted apart from my friends, you and Dad were always busy with work or social events. Shining and Cadence live a billion miles away-”

“It’s actually about fifteen hundred kilometers…” Shining went to correct his sister, until her glare told him that he’d be taking a permanent vacation to the Underworld should he continue.

“Shutting up now,” Shining hung his head.

“All I had left were my studies,” Twilight continued, her anger much more subdued now. “I thought there was nothing I could do to change my life… so I thought I could try and change everypony else’s…”

“Wait,” Velvet spoke quietly. She had been studying twilight’s project, along with her sister, Star Sparkle, to see if they could help bring twilight back. “Those gates you want to invent… you made them so-”

“So my friends and family could visit anytime they wanted,” Twilight’s voice was almost inaudible. “Because I wanted to be selfish…”

Twilight let out a surprised squeak when Velvet hugged her. “Oh my poor filly, I never thought you were so lonely. I never wanted you to feel like that, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, like I said to my friends earlier, I shouldn’t have lost myself in my studies and tried harder to keep in contact. It’s not fair to place the blame on everyone but myself.”

Twilight Velvet smiled and hugged her daughter again. “Well, you’re safe and that’s what matters. Now why don’t you and your brother come inside for tea? Your aunt is here.”

“Aunt Star!?” Twilight beamed, she hadn’t seen her in ages. “Well, what about you Shiny?”

“I am under strict orders to accompany you everywhere Twi-Twi,” Shining Armor responded. “Cadence’s orders.”

Twilight giggled and the family headed inside, Twilight spared a thought to her human friend, wondering how he was doing…

 

*~* 



Kai was not having fun. Princess Candy has been asking him nonstop about his supposed relationship with Twilight, while her friends had barraged him with questions about Earth.

Rainbow Dash had challenged him to a hand-wrestling (hoof-wrestling?), either way, he’d lost to a creature half his size and had thrice the ego. It had been half an hour and the mare was still bragging that she’d beat an alien in a contest.

Fluttershy hadn’t said a word until Kai had brought up the topic of Earth animals, and choosing to leave out any topics regarding ponies and horses. But the demure mare was now practically bouncing with joy, wanting to know anything and everything about Earth fauna and flora. In fact, the quietest ones had been Celestia and Luna, both of whom had left earlier to attend to some royal duties or something.

After some lunch, Flash Step had cut her sleep short to show Kai around the castle.

“You sure about this?” Kai asked the mare. “I don’t want you to be exhausted for your shift tonight.”

“I got the night off actually,” Flash smiled. “So it’s alright, we had to shuffle a few shifts around, but I have Day Duty tomorrow and then back to Night Duty by the weeks end.”

“Well, if you’re sure then okay then. Show me the ways of your pony world!” Kai smiled with dramatic flair.

“Well, the inside of the castle anyway,” Flash giggled. “At least it’s a really big castle.”

They first visited the hall where Kai arrived, Flash explaining that the room was once used for ancient prayer. It had been hundreds of years since Celestia and Luna were worshipped as deities, Celestia having grown tired of ponies grovelling to her and being afraid of divine retribution if they angered her.

“Really?” Kai tilted his head. “Celestia seems pretty nice to me.”

“Yeah, I’ve never known Princess Celestia to get really angry at somepony or something,” Flash responded. “But I don’t really know what it was like hundreds of years ago though. Rumour has it that the Princesses have powerful weapons and armour, which they would wear in times of war. The theories on what that armour actually look like though vary quite a bit.” Flash giggled as she recalled her own personal ideas. “Some say it’s full-plate armour made of enchanted star-metal, while some state that it’s skimpy Amarezon armour~”

“And what do you think?” Kai chuckled, noting the slight pink on the mare’s cheeks. This was also the first time he’d seen her without armour. He wondered in Celestia had cloned all her guards, or if it some weird Nurse Joy thing where they were all siblings that looked identical.

Turns out that Guard armour is enchanted. Without it, Flash Step looked like a totally different pony. She had a charcoal grey coat and her mane and tail were snow white. Her Cutie Mark was a pair of clouds that looked like they were being blown in the wind. Apparently, not only is she an Earth Pony born to Unicorn parents, she also had a Cutie Mark that looked more in place on a Pegasus.

“Well, what I think is irrelevant and I reserve my right to silence,” Flash huffed, but the increasing glow on her cheeks told Kai all he needed to know.

They continued to walk all over the castle, as Kai saw the kitchens, the Royal Vault, (Though he wasn’t allowed inside), as well as the gardens and once Court had ended, he got to see the throne room.

“These stained-glass windows are really nice,” he said in a hushed tone. He didn’t really know why he was talking quietly, maybe it was the church-like vibe he was getting from the room?

“Almost every major event is recorded with a window here,” Flash explained. “While we have official records in the Archives and whatnot, it’s nice to have a visual reminder I suppose.”

“Humans do a lot of things like this too,” Kai said. “We have churches, buildings of prayer and worship that have beautiful stained glass windows like this, and that’s just one medium.”

“Your Earth sounds really fascinating,” Flash said, and recalled other things he had told her during their walk. “But also a little scary.”

“You have magic, dragons and eldritch abominations… this is hardly a candy-coated world Steppy.”

Flash Step paused and looked at him, “W-what did you call me?”

“Huh?” Kai realised that he’d just given his friend a nickname. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

Flash Step shook her head. “It’s alright, I kinda like it… nopony has ever given me a nickname before… at least not a kind one.”

No! Kai had discovered that sad ponies were absolutely heartcrushing. The topic of parents had come up in an earlier conversation with Twilight’s friends and Kai had mentioned that he didn’t have any. Fluttershy got very sad and Kai was introduced to death by diabeetus. He had no idea that something so cute could possibly exist.

“Hey, don’t worry. We’re friends right?” Kai stopped as he realised that saying that didn’t feel as weird as he thought. Here he was, standing in a castle, in another world ruled by mythical creatures. And he was giving them nicknames and calling them friends.

“My life is so weird,” Kai mused.

“My best friend is an alien,” Flash giggled. “My life is weirder.”

The throne room door suddenly burst open, shattering the sense of serenity as a pompous-looking Unicorn strode in, his aura was just teeming with arrogance.

“Auntie?” he called out. “Are you still in… here…?” he laid eyes on Kai and his mouth just hung open.

“W-what are you!?” he exclaimed as he backed away slowly. Kai was about to respond when Flash stepped forward, a predatory grin on her face.

“Don’t you know?” she smirked. “He was brought here by Discord, and do you want to know something really special Bluey?”

“W-w-w-what?” ‘Bluey’ stammered. Kai just folded his arms and looked at the stallion. Just what was Flash Step up to?

The mare stepped closer to the noble, “He eats Unicorn brains… sucks ‘em straight out through their horns!”

The stallion let out a girlish whinny as the colour drained from his already pale face. His eyes went as wide as dinner plates as he bolted from the room as fast as his hooves could carry him. Once he left, Kai put his hands on his hips and gave Flash an incredulous look.

“Okay Steppy, what the hell was that about?”

Flash Step tried to keep her composure, and she did… for about three seconds. Then she dropped to the floor as she rolled around, laughing her ass off.

Kai wasn’t amused. “Care to explain why you made me look like a monster.”

“Hahhaha, Ohhh~ That was the greatest thing ever!” she laughed madly. “Did you see the look on his face! I thought’s the cleaners would have extra workkaaahahaha!”

“Fecking hilarious,” Kai replied. “Explain Flash Step, now!”

“Hhaahhoohh you’re serious?” Her jovial mood was promptly killed. “Oh, that probably wasn’t as funny for you. I’m sorry, I just really wanted to get my idiot brother back for all the crap I have to deal with.”

“Your brother?” Kai looked at the door that slowly creaked closed. “That was your brother?”

“Yeah,” Flash Step wiped a tear from her eye. “His name is Prince Blueblood, and he’s more of a half-brother really. Different fathers.”

“Ah, and I guess you and him don’t get along very well then?”

“Actually," Flash corrected him. "We get along great, but he’s been winning our pranking war for weeks now. It feels good to get him back for once!”

“Unbelievable,” Kai muttered. “At least warn me next time.”

“Okay~” Flash laughed. They both turned as the throne room doors opened once more as Twilight walked in this time.

“Um, can I ask why I saw Blueblood running through the halls screaming about zombies or something?”

Kai and Flash looked at each other, before bursting out laughing.

Twilight just blinked and shook her head. “Everypony in this castle is crazy…”



*~*

 

Now that Twilight had rejoined him, she wanted to show him something special. Kai had a few things he could say to that, but it had been a long day and the thought of laughing like he was earlier sounded exhausting. After walking for a few minutes of walking and playing ‘Let’s shove the human in a bush every time a pony walks past’, Kai, Twi and Flash arrived at Twilight’s lab.

“Well,” Kai pulled some twigs and leaves from his hair. “As fun as that was.” His voice was so icy it could have made the Frozen North look like the Sahara. “Was there a point to all this?”

Twilight nodded and she opened the door, which was blocked by red tape and a ‘Stay Out’ sign written in pink crayon. No prizes for guessing who put those up.

“Yeah, I wanted to show you this,” The door creaked open and they were greeted by a dark room. Kai had a horrible flashback to when he was in Twilight’s mind… and her more ‘questionable’ personalities.

“As my friend,” Kai said to Flash Step. “I reserve the right to use you as a meat shield.”

“Feeling the love there Kai,” Step muttered. She felt a sense of unsettling dread as well… rumours about the mad scientist Princess had floated around the castle, and the fact that she disappeared didn’t help to quash them.

“One,” Twilight stated as she switched on the lights. “You both suck. And two, I want to show Kai the experiment that led me to his living room.”

“You said it was a teleport spell gone wrong, right?” Kai asked as Twilight strode over to the left wall and moved a painting, revealing a small hole in the wall.

“That’s right, and this… well it looks like nopony found it yet, which is good.” She paused and looked at Flash Step, “Miss Flash?”

“Just Flash will be fine Your Majesty,” Flash Step bowed.

“Then you shall call me Twilight. Can I ask something of you?”

Flash Step tilted her head after she rose. “Yes?”

“What I am about to show you is top secret, at least for now. I need you to promise that what you see in here, you will not tell another living, or undead soul.”

She really wanted to know what Princess Twilight threw the undead thing in there, but decided it was safer to not know.

“Uh, I promise?”

“Pinkie Promise?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I have no idea what that is, but yeah, I Pinkie Promise.” Flash Step suddenly had the strangest sensation that she was being watched.

Twilight nodded and placed her horn in the hole. Several magical lines traced their way out of the hole, creating symbols along the wall. The room gave a mild rumble as the wall separated, revealing a hidden chamber.

“Do… do I want to know why this room has the same magical locks as the Royal Vault?” Flash Step asked.

“I saw them once, when the Princess showed me where she had kept the Elements of Harmony… I liked the idea and created my own.” Twilight stated as a matter-of-factly. Flash Step just stood with her mouth open. The Vault had the most powerful magical locks in the world, and Princess Twilight re-created it… just because she could!?

Once the door opened, Twilight beamed widely as she unveiled what was inside. A large ring-shaped gate made from gleaming crystal.

“Twilight?” Kai started to say. He knew exactly what that looked like.

“It’s not quite finished,” the purple Alicorn explained. “What I want is to have one in every major city. Imagine, being able to go from city to city in an instant, no matter what species you are.” 

She sighed as she ran a hoof along the rings surface. “The problem is that I can’t figure out how I should link multiple gates together… My trip to Earth proved that the teleportation aspect is possible, and I could link two gates together no problem… But getting a gate to link to more than one?”

Kai looked at it. It sure as hell looked like one, but would it work? Couldn’t hurt to ask right? “So what you want, is to be able to have one gate able to open up to multiple gates, rather than just one right?”

Twilight’s eyes sparkled, Kai was actually interested in her experiments? “That’s right, but what are you-”

“What about using an address?”

Twilight stopped and stared at him. “Um, Kai? I love that you want to help, but this is a magical gateway using wormholes, not a letter box.”

“Assign a different address to each gate, then create something to be able to ‘dial in’ those addresses, like a second ring or something. You have these runes here that you use for the connection right?” He pointed to a series of runes etched into the crystal ring. “So give each gate their own unique sequence and create some kind of interface to type in the sequence you want. Like the keyboard for my computer, or the buttons on a telephone.”

Twilight snorted, like that would actually… work? Her eyes went wide as she raced from the room, papers flying about in a maelstrom of levitation magic. She muttered incoherently as she went over notes, made calculations and plotted theories.

After a few moments a loud shout, she raced back to the human, rearing up and placing her hooves on his shoulders. She stared him in the eyes as a frown creased her brow.

“Okay, I know for a fact that you have no idea how magic works. Tell me just how in the hay, that that is actually a plausible concept!” She had her own thoughts, “Do humans have this technology already?”

“Not, technically,” Kai said and Twilight blinked.

“This… this is another weird coincidence between our worlds isn’t it?” she deadpanned.

“Something like that, I saw it on a TV show once, and your device is eerily similar…”

“Unbelievable,” Twilight sighed, lowering herself back down to the floor. “I have researched and been stonewalled by this for months… and my answer comes from a world with no magic whatsoever… all because you saw it in a piece of fiction…”

“Sometimes you gotta think outside the box,” Kai chuckled, “Or look into one in this case.”

“’Look into one’?” Twilight didn’t get it… oh? “Oooh, cause a TV is shaped like a box!” A knock came from the front door as Twilight hastily closed up her secret room. A moment later, an Earth Pony in a maid outfit entered. Flash recognised her as Princess Celestia’s personal hoofmaiden.

“I am here to inform Princess Twilight Sparkle and Lord Kai that dinner is being served very soon. Will you be joining us?”

Twilight nodded, “Yes, I think the three of us shall. Thank you Sunny!”

The mare nodded and retreated from the room, leaving Flash to gape again.

“Three!?” Flash shook her head. “I can’t dine with royalty! I’m just a guard!”

“Nonsense,” Twilight smiled. “You’re Kai’s friend, and I’d very much like it if you’d be my friend too. So please?”

“Yeah, c’mon Steppy,” Kai agreed. “You’ll soon realise how ‘Un-Princessey’ these Alicorns are when they eat in front of friends.”

“Kai!” Twilight exclaimed, blushing and punched his arm lightly with a hoof. The human still laughed though and the three friends headed off to the Royal dining hall together.

 

*~*


 
Dinner had been wonderful and Twilight had enjoyed spending more time with her friends. Turns out that Rarity and Pinkie hadn’t been the only ones to find romance, Rainbow had also found somepony… but didn’t really say much else beyond that. Apparently she was too cool to talk about feelings and there was no way mere words could describe how awesome her special somepony was.

Discord had also popped around. Literally. He was wearing a tuxedo made of bubble wrap, which Pinkie found to be endlessly amusing.

Cadence was also talking to Twilight about something, which had caused the younger Alicorn’s face to portray a variety of expressions. Most of which had Kai a little concerned about what the ‘Princess of Love’ was telling her.

Oh, and nearly choking to death was on the menu apparently. Kai had failed to mention that hay and flowers were not generally on a humans menu. The chefs felt pretty bad about it, but Kai waved it off, he still remembered Twilight’s facial expression when he devoured a plate of bacon. He’d gotten a salad that was absolutely delicious, royalty really had it good here.

“So we must discuss it,” Celestia said. “On how we should get you home Mr. Kai.”

Oh. Right. There was that small issue wasn’t there? Twilight paused from her talk with Cadence and interrupted.

“A-actually, Princess Celestia, I may have an answer for that. But it could take a couple of days… maybe more.”

“Does it have anything to do with what you were working one before your, ‘vacation’?” Celestia asked, God, her face and tone of voice gave nothing away. Kai was pretty sure if you looked up ‘Poker face’ in a dictionary, Celestia’s face would have been there. The regal Alicorn turned back to Kai.

“So do you want to trust Twilight to assist in this endeavour?”

Kai frowned, “I crossed worlds to save my friend when I heard she was in trouble. What the hell makes you think I wouldn't trust her with this?"

Celestia smiled, and nodded her head. “I apologise for my poor choice in words then. It seems that Twilight has made a steadfast friend in you Mr. Kai.”

“Damn right,” Kai nodded, a small blush gracing his cheeks. “And don’t you forget it.”

The rest of dinner went a lot more smoothly after that, and Flash Step still couldn’t believe that she was at dinner with four Princesses, a Prince and five of the most famous ponies in Equestria. Not to mention her alien best friend.

“My life is so weird,” she said.

“And my best friend is an alien, my life is weirder.” Kai said back, placing a hand on her withers. “Who’d have thought that I’d be making friends with a bunch of magical, talking ponies.”

“And is that a bad thing?” Rainbow huffed.

“Strangely… No,” Kai admitted. “I really happy to have met some great friends like yourselves.” 

The human yelped as he found himself in the centre of a massive group hug all of a sudden. And while it was nice and all, he noticed that the mare right next to him was Twilight, and that his heart was pounding a mile a minute…

 

*~*


 
After dinner, Kai had gone back to his room to shower after Pinkie tried to start a food fight, luckily Rarity had put a stop to that, but not before some mashed potatoes were lobbed at Kai.

The shower, oh, now that was a thing of beauty. One, the shower cubicle was large enough to fit about six of seven humans easily. Two, the showerhead was a large tile in the roof, which had perfect water flow. There was a tile seat that ran along the left side of the shower, and held an assortment of shampoos and shower gels.

Truly a shower fit for a king.

King Kai, the human snorted in amusement at that.

After emerging, he was greeted with something that gave him quite a surprise. Twilight was standing in his room, looking nervous as hell to boot.

Kai sat on the bed as Twilight took a seat next to him. He chuckled as she turned around once before settling down, folding her forehooves like a cat.

“What?” she asked, not getting the joke, but that just made Kai laugh again.

“It’s nothing, so… what’s up?” It was kinda late and he hadn’t been expecting a visitor.

“Ah! Well, umm…” Twilight flushed red and suddenly looked away. “It’s well… It’s something that’s been on my mind recently. And Cadence thought I should talk to you about it.”

‘Cadence’ Kai swore internally. That pretty, pink Princess pony had asked him almost non-stop since he arrived about his relationship with Twilight. Just what did she tell Twilight?

“Go on,” he said calmly. Well, only one way to find out huh?

Twilight blushed harder and nodded. “Well um, it’s about… well, it’s about that…”

‘Well this could take a while,’ Kai sighed as he placed a hand on her back, causing the mare to let out a surprised squeak. “Just tell me already, dork.”

“Y-yeah,” Twilight stammered. By Celestia this was harder than she thought. She took a deep breath and placed a hoof on her chest, before exhaling and sweeping her hoof outwards, just like Cadence had shown her earlier.

“Better?” Kai asked with a light chuckle.

“Better,” Twilight giggled. “It’s… about that night you kissed me. I-I want to know…” Well, now her heart was racing again. C’mon Sparkle, just spit it out already! “I want to know… what that meant.”

“O-oh?” Kai choked, now it was his turn to be all flustered. “W-what that meant huh?”

Twilight nodded.

“Well, I ah… I don’t really know for certain why I did that,” Kai said honestly. “As for what it meant, well… I don’t really know that either. At the time, I wasn’t really thinking about it.”

“I see,” Twilight replied. To say she felt disappointed would be a massive understatement. But why did she feel like that? Was she hoping that there would be something more to it? That perhaps he felt something towards her.

“Twilight?” Kai went to touch her, but the mare flinched and hopped off of the bed.

“I’m sorry to have disturbed you so late Kai,” Twilight said with a forced smile. “It was something silly that got stuck in my mind.” Her forced laugh was even harder to bear.

Kai nodded, and then got off the bed and knelt down to her height. “Can I say something else?”

“What?” Twilight replied, confused as to why he had such an odd look on his face.

“Well, I’ve been thinking lately and maybe, just maybe, I’ve been mistaken, about a great many things. But I don’t want to make the same mistake again.” He leaned in closer and Twilight could feel her heart pound in her ears. What was he doing!?

“That kiss, I don’t know what it meant. But this one?” he pressed his lips gently against hers, his eyes closed as Twilight was too stunned to move. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but something told Kai that it felt right, maybe because when he tried to pull away, Twilight moved forward, leaning into the kiss. A few more blissful seconds passed before the pair separated, leaving them quite breathless.

“Well,” Kai panted.

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, touching her lips.

“I kissed a pony,” Kai simply stated.

“And I kissed an alien… and I really, really liked it,” Twilight giggled. “Um, did you?”

Kai tapped his chin, as a salacious smirk crossed his face. He reached out and grabbed the alicorn, pulled her close to him as she giggled with nervous excitement. “I don’t really know yet… but I do believe that further experimentation is in order.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up, “Oh, we should set a baseline to work off and a flow chart-” she was silenced as Kai kissed her again, holding her close his chest as he ran his other hand through her soft mane. She let out a happy moan as he deepened the kiss, and Twilight parted her lips, allowing his tongue to gently caress hers. She ran her tongue along his teeth, feeling a rush of slight fear and excitement as she felt his sharp canines. All too soon, they parted again, both feeling an exhilarating rush. Twilight sighed as she placed her head against his chest, hearing Kai’s steady heartbeat.

“So where do we go from here?” she asked softly. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“To be honest, I haven’t either,” Kai admitted. “But right now? Well… we’ll go as fast or as slow as you like.”

Twilight huddled against him, his hands caressing her mane and shoulders. “Ooh~” Twilight moaned as he found that spot between her wings and rubbed it gently. “You keep that up and we’ll probably move very, very fast.”

“I don’t know if we should take that step just yet,” Kai said, easing up… but only slightly. “But that bed is super comfy and I wouldn’t be adverse to doing more of what we just did.”

Twilight pulled back and gave a half-lidded stare at her new coltfriend. “Mr. Kai! Are you suggesting, to a Princess of Equestria! That we spend the night, in that comfy-looking bed, making out?”

Kai returned the gaze and licked his lips. “Hm, yeah. I guess I am-” he barely finished that sentence before Twilight pounced on him, switching off the lights with a quick flash from her horn…