A Dubious Welcome

by Maonyman

CH14: Dinner

When was the last time someone had held him like this?

Anon hadn't been able to fly down to visit his parents last holiday season, but even the year before that he couldn't remember getting anything more than a quick farewell hug.

There had been that girl when he was a college freshman, but that was over a decade ago... Had it really been that long? He couldn't even remember her name anymore.

He was trying not to think about the puppy breathing its last breath in his arms or the unsettling way its still-warm body flopped limply as he set it down again. He tried not to hear the sound of the owner's sobbing in his head. He tried to forget the things they said in reflexive anger. He didn't want to remember all the other times the same thing had happened, either. But he remembered them all.

Anon felt his chest tighten and he struggled to control his breathing. Twilight's gentle breath was hot against his ear and it sent a shiver down his spine. He inhaled deeply in an attempt to steady himself and his head was filled with the faintly musty scent of her mane. It reminded him of a used book store he used to visit. The building had been so densely packed with shelves of old books that it muffled all sound and was dead silent even when it was full of people. It had always been a deeply calming place to him.

The pony shifted her weight slightly and began kneading the back of his neck without releasing her embrace. She was much stronger than he expected and the smooth edge of her rounded hoof felt amazing as it rolled across the base of his skull and down his spine.

When she moved to his shoulder, he let out an involuntary groan and sagged deeper into her warm hug. Her hips pressed into his thigh as she supported his weight without any apparent effort and continued to massage his upper back. He began to rub her withers to return the favor, but she flicked an ear at his face and puffed out a tiny snort, so he simply relaxed into her. The tension rapidly eased from his torso and her comforting aroma lulled his mind.

Yesterday he'd been woken up early by that emergency at the clinic, and last night he'd hardly slept thanks to those strange nightmares.

It was no surprise, then, that he began to doze off in her embrace.

* * *

"Wha-aaAAAA!"

Something struck the side of his head and Anon reeled back against the sofa, blinking in confusion at the startled mare on his lap.

"The fuck?"

"I could say the same!"

"W-What happened!?"

"I don't know!" Twilight exclaimed, "You were practically asleep, but then you just started screaming in my ear!" She huffed angrily, then hunched her shoulders and added in a more subdued tone, "I, uh, kinda panicked and smacked you in the face, so... sorry."

Anon rubbed his temples and took a deep breath before responding.

"No no, it's fine... Must have been another one of those damn night terrors--"

"Night terrors?" Twilight interrupted, abruptly becoming very serious, "What kind? How long have you had them?"

"Uh, well... I can never remember them, I just wake up feeling... I dunno, this sense of impending doom or something."

"But when did they start, Anon?"

Her intense expression made him hesitate.

"Uh... just last night?"

Twilight dropped her head in her hooves and let out a low groan, "Oh for Luna's sake..." When she looked up again, she almost looked like she was about to cry. "Anon, I'm so sorry."

"Huh? Why? What's wrong?"

She leaned a little closer and laid a hoof on his shoulder, her eyes glistening in the setting sunlight.

"When I... yesterday... well, the magic--" She took a deep breath, then tried again in a steadier voice, "Look, after you took those medical samples, do you remember when I woke up?"

"Well sure, I..." He trailed off with a frown as he realized he couldn't actually remember her doing so.

"You tried to sample my horn and..."

"The next thing I remember is freaking out and throwing you off me."

Twilight nodded somberly and explained, "When you touched the core of my horn, some of the raw stuff of magic poured into your body, overwhelming your mind with who knows what. You're lucky the pain woke me up so quickly because without a horn to focus and contain the energy, it could have fried your brain before long."

"So, what, the nightmares are some kinda magical brain damage?"

She shook her head, "I don't think so. I'm pretty sure the pain woke me up more or less immediately, so it was only in your body for a moment, not long enough to cause any real damage. Thing is, raw magic like that tends to give you... visions, especially when asleep. Nopony has ever been able to remember them after waking, but they always leave behind a horrible sort of existential dread."

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

"So no," she continued, "I doubt your brain is actually damaged... I think it means a little bit of the energy is still stuck in there, and that means, well," She grimaced and choked on the words, "That my spell... f-failed."

She bit her lip, then shook her head and hurried on before Anon could respond, "And that means I failed a spell so simple that it could hardly even be called a spell! I mean, the core of a unicorn's horn naturally absorbs magical energy all on its own, so I basically just had to touch you with my horn and relax and the power should flow right back into me, but apparently even that is too much for me right now!"

A note of hysteria entered her voice.

"I guess that means I really am just a useless broken pony with no magic and no f-friends who doesn't even deserve to be called p-princess anymore, n-nevermind--"

A startled little squeak escaped her as Anon hugged her to his chest and planted a gentle kiss on the top of her head. She looked up at him in surprise and he returned her gaze with a warm smile.

"From what I gather, if you hadn't done as well as you did, I'd already be long dead. So you saved my life even with your broken horn."

Her muzzle was starting to turn pink, "W-W-Well I..."

"Now I don't know much about magic, but I'll bet me waking up and throwing you back cut you off before you were quite done, yeah?"

She stared up at him with wide eyes, "Um, maybe, b-but--"

"So if you could almost do it with my dumb ass interrupting you, a broken horn, and a damn concussion to boot... well, I'd bet my left kidney you'll do just fine if you try again right now. Besides, you do have a friend." He tapped her snout with a fingertip and said, "Me."

Her muzzle snapped shut and her blush deepened as she averted her gaze. Anon felt something swell within him, but before he could think about it, Twilight looked up at him again with a smile.

"I... you're right. Thank you, Anon. I don't know what came over me."

He stroked his fingers through her mane and she shivered slightly at his touch.

"It's alright, I understand. You have a lot on your mind right now, but it'll be okay, you'll see."

"You really think I should try again?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll do great."

She puffed out her cheeks nervously, then nodded, "Alright, but... later. I need to rest my horn for a bit since I kinda sparked out again while making dinner," Then she gasped and said, "Oh my gosh, I forgot about dinner!"

Scrambling off his lap and onto her little stool, she wheeled toward the kitchen as fast as she could manage. Chuckling, Anon slowly got up and followed, hearing her cry, "Oh thank Celestia," as he approached. Once he rounded the corner, she looked up and said, "I think it's okay. The noodles might be a bit overcooked, but I lowered the heat before I went out there with you so it shouldn't be too bad."

On the stove were two pots, one with noodles and another with spaghetti sauce, but something about the smell caught him off guard. "Is this, uh... your own recipe?" He asked cautiously.

"Mmhmm! Well, kind of. I don't know exactly what's in that pre-mixed jar of sauce, but it smells like the kind of sauce my dam always used as the base for hibiscus pasta, so I think it'll work."

She gestured at the empty jar of spaghetti sauce, but Anon was distracted by the empty jar of hibiscus flowers beside it. He let out an incredulous laugh.

"Hibiscus flowers... in spaghetti?"

"Oh, so you don't... okay."

At her dejected tone, he turned back to see her forlorn expression and any trace of humor was instantly wiped from his face.

"When I saw the flowers, I just... It was my favorite as a filly, so..."

Feeling like a total jackass, Anon quickly knelt beside her stool and laid a hand on her neck.

"Hey, it's okay! I've just never heard of it before so it caught me off guard, that's all."

Her ears perked up a bit, "So... you don't mind?"

"If it was your favorite then I'm sure it'll taste great."

Considering how vastly different their palettes may be, he wasn't at all certain of that, but he'd be damned if he was gonna make her feel bad for making him dinner now. Hoping to reassure her, he piled plenty of pasta on a pair of plates, added some silverware, and gestured for her to follow him into the living room.

As she scooted along behind him, she asked, "Don't you have a dining room?"

Anon chuckled dryly as he thought about the long-disused lump of dust that was once his dining table and said, "I don't have guests very often so it's been ages since I touched any of that stuff. I doubt it's clean."

"Oh..."

"Yeah, I usually just eat on the couch or at my desk and watch a movie or something."

As they approached the couch, Anon saw the papers spread across the coffee table which he'd been too distracted to notice earlier and gave Twilight a questioning look once they were both seated.

"Sorry, they're just some notes I took while I was learning to read your language.

Anon nodded as he absentmindedly twirled his fork, still a bit hesitant to try the strange pasta.

"Ah, good idea. How far along have you gotten?"

"Well," she said with a shy flop of her ears, "I'm still pretty slow and make a lot of spelling mistakes, but I've been able to work out every word I tried after a moment, and I'm getting better at writing sentences."

"Hey, that's pretty good!" Anon said supportively, "How long have you been studying our language, then?"

"Um, well, I watched a lot of How It's Made first, so maybe... half the time you were gone?"

Anon froze with his fork halfway to his mouth.

"What, you mean just today?"

"Well, I had no way to learn anything yesterday."

Anon blinked in confusion, "Are you telling me you've never read or written any english before today?"

"Um... no? How could I have?"

"You didn't, I dunno, study us humans before you came here or something?"

"Huh? No, I didn't even know what humans were before yesterday." With a confused stare, she added, "I did say I came from another world, Anon."

He did remember her saying that but he hadn't really taken it seriously then. Now after all that he'd seen of her...

Anon slowly leaned back into the couch and simply stared at her as he suffered yet another major revelation about the strange creature he had befriended... and what that meant for the universe.

Twilight shifted uneasily and asked, "Um, are you okay?"

Instead of answering, Anon asked, "So by another world, you mean... a whole different planet?"

"Well, I don't know what a 'planet' is, but Equestria is a whole other place with different land, different creatures, different sun and moon--"

She cut off suddenly and leaned toward him, setting a hoof on his thigh.

"Anon, what's wrong? Please, you're starting to worry me."

"I'm f-fine, just..."

He rubbed his face with both hands and took a deep breath. After a moment of silence, he tried again.

"Look, when you told me 'another world,' after my initial assholery where I tried to grab your horn, I just assumed you meant it... metaphorically or something. Like, rural Japan feels like a different world, but it's still a place here on Earth. I figured you must come from some hidden land we never discovered because of magic or whatever, underground or in the sky or in the ocean or... something."

He expected her to smirk, roll her eyes, or maybe even get angry. Instead her expression was oddly tender and she leaned forward to lay a hoof on his arm.

"Does that mean you thought this world was the only one with life? In all existence?" At his nod, her gentle smile almost seemed to become pitying, "Oh Anon, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how cold and lonely that must have felt."

Her grin widened and she sat back, waving her hooves in a grandiose gesture, "But no, you are not alone. There are hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of worlds out there, all teeming with life, totally unique and full of strange sights nopony has ever even imagined."

A lifetime of habit made it hard to accept what she said, but he'd been forced to loosen up significantly over the past two days, and now, somehow, it was harder to refute her. He just wanted to trust her.

Distracted by the implications of this new information, he lifted his fork to his mouth mindlessly, as if on autopilot. The cranberry-like flavor of the hibiscus was so entirely different from what he expected of spaghetti sauce that it jolted him out of his reverie and he almost gagged at the unexpected flavor which, normally so pleasant in teas, now seemed more akin to the sickeningly sweet smell of rotting fruit.

When she saw his reaction, Twilight let out a deep sigh and said, "Oh... well, I understand. I suppose my pony tastes are just too different from yours."

"I-It just surprised me, that's all."

He immediately tried a second bite and, now that he knew what to expect, the flavor was simply unusual rather than sickening.

"No, it's okay Anon, you don't have to pretend for me. We are entirely different species after all, it's a wonder our tastes are even this similar."

She was putting on a brave face and her voice was strong and steady, but Anon could see the tip of her tail twitching with distress, so he swallowed and smiled reassuringly.

"I mean it Twilight, really. Look, have you ever had a sip of something you thought was one drink but was actually something completely different? Like, you were expecting milk but then you tasted orange juice and it freaks you out so bad it winds up tasting terrible?"

"Once or twice, sure, but--"

"My first bite was just like that. I was distracted thinking about what you'd just said and stuck some food in my mouth without thinking, so I was expecting normal human spaghetti."

"Oh," her ears perked up slightly, "So... how is it?"

He nodded in pleasant surprise, "Actually pretty good, now that I'm expecting it. The tangy flavor compliments the tomato sauce pretty well, and while it being this sweet is definitely strange to me, it does kind of work with the pasta."

Lowering her gaze shyly she murmured, "You're not just saying that to make me feel better? Promise?"

He nodded, "Cross my heart and hope to die."

The phrase seemed to startle her so he hastily added, "Sorry. Just a saying people use, I don't actually hope I'll die."

"Y-Yeah..."

After that, Twilight seemed to be lost in thought for a while, so he resumed eating in silence. Whether it was because he was getting used to it or simply because he really wanted to make Twilight feel better, the more he ate of the strange spaghetti, the better it seemed to taste. By the time he reached his last bite he was thoroughly enjoying the meal, and in fact, even decided to go get seconds. This seemed to genuinely surprise Twilight and she looked much more cheerful and relaxed when he returned with more. Anon guessed she had still suspected him of only pretending to enjoy it to spare her feelings.

When she finished her own plate, Anon took it from her and tucked it under his own mostly-empty one, then gestured at her notes still spread across the coffee table and said, "So, wanna show off what you've learned while I finish?"

"Oh! Sure, um..."

She grabbed the tablet awkwardly in her hooves and floated the little stylus over, scooted closer to sit right next to him so he could see the screen, then slowly typed out the words, "I am Twilight Sparkle, an alicorn Princess of Equestria."

After re-reading what she typed to make sure it was correct, she looked up at him with such an adorable little grin across her muzzle that Anon couldn't help but laugh and give her some scritches under her chin.

"Very impressive, miss Twilight Sparkle."

Her ears flopped down bashfully, "I can barely even write at a foal's pace."

"Hey, that's nothing to shake a stick at. It'd probably take me days to learn a new alphabet like that, even if it was my own language."

Twilight stifled a giggle and said, "Oh stop, it's not that impressive."

"Sure is!" Anon insisted, "And yesterday when you rattled off those body parts I named like it was nothing? You are crazy smart, Twilight. Smarter than most humans, I reckon."

Blushing furiously now, she turned back to the tablet and focused on practicing her typing some more while Anon ate the last few bites of his pasta, fighting to keep a self-satisfied smirk off his face. Once finished, he set the dishes on the coffee table then sat back and laid a hand across Twilight's withers.

"So anyway... about those night terrors?"

She looked blank for a second, then her face lit up, "Oh right! Yeah, my horn should be fine now, it's not like it's a difficult spell."

"Great, 'cause I'm exhausted and would love to get some real sleep tonight. What do you need me to do?"

"Oh, you don't have to do anything, you can just lean back and relax."

She looked down at her hoof and it glowed with her horn for a couple of seconds, then stopped. At his questioning glance she only muttered, "Um, just checking," and took a couple of deep breaths. Then she lurched forward, lifted a hindleg across his thighs, and sat down straddling his lap, laying her hooves on his shoulders for balance.

"Uh--"

"I know, don't worry," She reassured him with a smile, "I'm keeping my weight off my injured leg."

"That's not--"

She tapped his lips with the frog of her hoof and said, "Hush and let me concentrate, Anon. It's a simple spell but I still need to focus."

Anon reluctantly fell silent, trying to ignore the heat in his cheeks and ears, realizing he must be almost as pink as she was right now. He also had to try very hard not to think about the last time a girl had straddled his lap like this, or things might get really awkward between them.

Twilight closed her eyes and slowly leaned toward him, and he followed the movement of her horn until he felt its cool surface gently rest against his forehead. He lowered his gaze and watched her as her horn cast a faint illumination across her features. Her face was so close he could see each individual hair in the ultra-fine fur of her muzzle, which was only an inch or two from his face. It was so quiet that he could hear the faint whisper of her breath as it brushed across his lips. How he could hear that over the blood pounding like thunder in his ears, he had no idea.

Seconds later, he was distracted by the most unusual sort of releasing sensation. It was like a headache abruptly fading away even though there hadn't been any pain, or like taking the weight off a weary joint, except it was his brain instead of bone. In any case, it was intensely satisfying in a way he hadn't even realized he needed. He let out a little sigh and slumped forward under the powerful sense of relief.

His nose very gently touched the warm and fuzzy tip of her snout.

This contact seemed to electrify them both and instantly both man and unicorn were sitting bolt upright, eyes wide, bodies tense, mouths slightly agape, each staring at the other.

"S-Sorry I--"

"Well t-that's--"

"Good job, I guess--"

"I'll just scoot--

Twilight flopped onto the couch beside him and Anon abruptly stood, grabbing the dirty plates from the coffee table and walking them into the kitchen. The harsher and brighter light in there made his eyes burn and he suddenly became aware of the depth of his exhaustion. He had had at best six hours of sleep over the past two nights combined and it was catching up to him with a vengeance.

With an enormous yawn, he dumped the plates unceremoniously into the sink and shuffled back out to the living room where he found Twilight watching him from the couch.

"Right, well... thanks. Barely slept at all last night so I'm a go do that now. Y'know where your room is so--" He stopped mid-sentence and let out a deep and weary groan, "Ah shit, forgot to clean out the junk..."

Twilight grimaced and wiggled her nose distastefully, "Ugh... are you sure I can't just sleep in your bed again?"

Anon's lips twitched into an embarrassed grimace and her tone became pleading, "Oh, I'm sorry! I know it's kind of awkward but I just kept sneezing so much from all the dust last night... plus your bed is so much warmer, and it's an awfully large bed after all--"

"Okay fine!" Anon cried, weakly throwing up his hands, "Feel like I'm already half asleep just standing here, not gonna try an' argue with--"

Another yawn interrupted him and he simply turned around, waving his hand for her to follow.

He found himself digging through a drawer to find some pajama pants with no memory of having walked to the bedroom. Seemingly an instant later he was reaching out from under the covers to turn off the bedside lamp.

His last waking thought was that of a fluffy warmth enveloping his side.

Comments

[Poparakelis]

Ahhhh

And goddam people are lazy

[Ryebuck Coppercap]

I want to snuggle with Twilight, too ;-;