Don't Stop Me Now
-Don't Stop Me Now-
“Tickets, please.”
For some reason, those words made Twilight cringe under a sense of dread. While she herself did have a ticket, Marty did not. He seemed very calm for having the conductor right next to him, and having no ticket to show his permission to board the train. If Marty was forced to leave the train, stranded in whatever town the train stopped in next, she would never be able to forgive herself for dragging him into that.
She felt a sense of deja vu at that, having had a similar reaction to her previous actions. Once again, she felt like she was the cause of some grief to him and almost felt foalish for it. She knew that if she had simply paid closer attention to the time, then Marty and Cherry would never have gotten into a situation like this. They had followed her onto the train, and now, they could easily be stranded miles from home because they had all overlooked the fact of an absence of tickets.
“Your tickets, Miss Sparkle? Sir?” All Aboard repeated, looking to them respectively as he spoke. All the while he kept that look about him that simply showed he would not tolerate foolishness.
“I- Uh … Right here …” Twilight said, trying to stall him for a few moments as she carefully pulled out her own ticket from her saddlebags. It was slightly wrinkled, the ticket that gave her pass both to Manehattan and back to Ponyville on the train. She slowly levitated it toward the conductor, allowing him to take it in a hoof and fiddle with his hole puncher.
She turned her gaze to Marty, who was patiently waiting with his ears pointed toward them. Twilight leaned in, whispering to him so that All Aboard wouldn’t hear as he carefully fiddled with her ticket. She took a moment to thank that he wasn’t in a hurry, she knew that he could easily have the ticket punched and ready to go, but seemed to have decided to take as much time as he liked.
“Marty,” she whispered to him, drawing his ears to her voice. “Do you have any bits? Maybe All Aboard has a few extra tickets he can sell you.” She tried, drawing a thoughtful look from him.
“Yeah, I do.” He said, tapping one of his hooves against his chin. “But depending on what they cost, I might only be able to afford one ticket. And I won’t leave Cherry alone in the train, as much as I trust you guys.” He said, quickly adding his compliment with a smirk aimed toward her.
“… At least you’re over that motion sickness …” She said, rolling her eyes as he smiled wider. It didn’t surprise her that he would buy a ticket for Cherry if he couldn’t afford a second one for himself, but she couldn’t let him wander around a strange city alone if he got kicked off.
“Here you go, Miss Sparkle.” All Aboard’s voice said again, Twilight’s ticket setting itself gently on the seat beside her. A weight dropped in her stomach as he turned to Marty, who was still smirking in their direction from his seat near the window. “And your ticket, mister?” He said, that same no nonsense look returning in an instant.
“Don’t got one, mister conductor.” Marty said enthusiastically, smiling toward All Aboard innocently.
All Aboard’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, he hadn’t expected such an open admittance to that. Twilight promptly placed her hoof over her face. How could he have just done that all the sudden? She had hoped that he would at least try and say something clever, maybe try and be nice to All Aboard, but that’s not what he apparently had planned.
“Do you realize the policy of the train system? I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.” All Aboard said, a hoof tapping on the floor of the train car. That no nonsense look returned in full force, the look of an angry stallion making Twilight cringe.
“I’m Sorry to say, sir, that that would be difficult at best for me.” Marty said, nodding toward the stallion and opening his eyes wide to show him his clouded spheres. “But if you have two extra tickets, I’d be happy to pay you for them.” He finished with a grin, blinking toward the train conductor.
All Aboard blanched, snorting in surprise as he realized Marty’s predicament. He obviously hadn’t noticed that Marty was blind, making walking on a rocking train car difficult. “W-well, I’m sorry, I don’t have any extra tickets to sell. Unfortunately, I also cannot allow you to ride free. You can stay here in your seat until we get to the next station, but you’ll have to get off there.” He said, the weight of his position forcing him to remain stoic in his decision.
“I see that there’s no convincing you then,” he said with sigh, his hoof moving up to scratch at his forelock. All Aboard nodded, thankful in the fact that Marty had complied as easily as he had. Twilight could, however, see a slightly guilty look on his features as he did. “However,” Marty interjected, cutting off All Aboard’s nod midway through. “I do have one … other thing. So nopony has to leave.” Marty said, turning to root through his saddlebags again.
The book balanced on the edge of his seat started to fall, prompting Twilight to grab onto it instinctively with her magic. She had dealt with precarious stacks of books before, so much so that it had become reflexive to grab onto books as they fell, almost instinctual. Both she and All Aboard watched as Marty rooted through his saddlebags, eventually lifting his hoof free of it.
Around his hoof, he had wrapped a worn, green lanyard. Hanging from it was a laminated card, barely the size of a playing card. He turned his hoof toward them, the card swinging around from the motion. All aboard leaned down to look at the card himself, squinting as he read whatever was printed on it.
All Aboard’s eyebrows suddenly made their best imitation of birds as they flew upwards to hide under his hat. “I suppose that means that you and your friend are in the clear, sorry for bothering you about it.” He said, standing up and moving away.
“What?” Twilight asked, moving to look at the card herself. Apparently Marty was faster than her however, as the card quickly made its way back into his bag. “What was that? How did you suddenly convince All Aboard to let you stay? He never just lets that sort of thing slide.” She said, remembering the time that Spike had been caught sneaking onto the train. To say the least, All Aboard had been displeased.
Marty carefully closed up his bags again, turning to her with a confused look. “I didn’t do anything.” Marty said with a grin, turning the look into a playful smile as soon as he was looking toward her. He was acting like nothing had happened at all.
Twilight groaned inwardly, rolling her eyes as she saw the game he had tried to start playing. She wasn’t going to be caught in that, having enough experience with strange wordplay and Pinkie Pie. “Fine, what was on the card then?” She asked, shaking her head. He’s playing games now, at least he wasn’t as worked up as she had been.
“Aah, that’s the right question.” He said, chuckling slightly. His chuckle died in his throat as he turned he placed a hoof back on his bag. “... It was a royal travel pass, lets the owner travel without purchase of a ticket.” He said, turning his hoof to the cushion where he had left his book.
“How did you manage to get one of those, even I don’t have access to most parts of the castle, let alone free travel expenses.” Twilight said, watching Marty search for his book with his hooves.
“I was sort of a … gift ...” He continued to mumble, something about a promise, but it quickly became unintelligible. “Twilight, have you seen my book? I was sure that I put it right here …” He said, patting the seat’s edge in front of him.
“Oh, I grabbed it when it started to fall.” Twilight said distantly, her thoughts kick started again. That sounded like he wasn’t really sure about what he said. She thought, noting how his statement had turned into something as more of a question. There was something that he was trying to avoid talking about. She pushed aside the thought however, deciding that Marty could have personal reasons for not approaching the subject.
In that moment she looked down at the book in her magic, noting its appearance. It had a worn and faded red fabric binding, slightly frayed along the edges and corners. She flipped the book over, revealing the title to her. “Advanced Magical Infusion and Enchantments,” Twilight read aloud, looking over the strangely textured front. Underneath the lettering, there was a pattern of raised dots. Braille. She thought idly, examining the pattern.
“That’s it!” He said, turning to her with a smile that quickly turned sheepish. “It’s … uh … sort of a pet project I’ve been working on, that’s all.” He said, jumping slightly as the train hit another bump.
“Oh, well maybe you and I could share notes sometime.” Twilight said, setting the book gently in his hooves. “I might be interested in seeing what sort of things you’ve been working on, it would be a welcome break from theoretical dimensional rift physics.” She said, watching him flip open the cover of the book and pause.
He seemed to be confused for a moment, blinking as she listed off her most recent study subject. Perhaps she had lost him.
“That … Uhm … I might not be able to follow a … mutually intellectual conversation on something quite that advanced. But that might be nice, yeah.” He chuckled, his hoof running along the edge of the pages until it found a stiff page marker. He hooked the tip of his hoof into the marked page, flipping it open to pair of pages that were covered in a neat pattern of the raised dots. “So is that why you were in Manehattan? New study material, that is.” Marty asked, resting a hoof on one of the pages and idly moving it across the raised patterns there.
“Yeah, but it looks like I’m going to have to put in a special order from the publisher. I couldn’t find anything on this theorem that I’ve been looking into.” Twilight said with a smile, glad Marty hadn’t cut off on a sour note. She already had enough anxiety when talking with Fluttershy, it seemed like anything could turn the tiny pegasus into a quivering ball if she wasn’t careful. “It has to do with some ancient carvings that were discovered a few years ago, some ponies are starting to examine them more closely and I found their opinions and observations on it fascinating, and strangely relative.” Twilight explained, already feeling the dull ache that always came with searching through catalogues. It was a little known fact that Twilight actually didn’t like reading those books, she found it tedious even for her.
“That’s too bad,” Marty remarked, tilting his head with a thoughtful frown. “I might have an old favor I could call in for you, if you like. She might be able to help you out.” Marty said with a smile, his hoof still gently searching about the page in a seemingly random pattern. It looked like he was searching for a specific spot on the page, and still managing to pay attention to their conversation.
“Could you?” She asked, smiling warmly. “That’s really generous of you, thanks.” She said, watching him smile and shake his head.
“Not a problem, I’m sure she’d be glad to get rid of my favor in exchange for a conversation with you, or something.” He said, waving off her compliments as he kept searching on his page. The train swayed slightly more than usual, making him tense up until the train had settled back into its place. “She hates having unpaid debts, so she’d only be happy to come see you if I asked her.” He finished, settling his hoof over a spot on his page and pausing it there.
“I can’t even tell you how great that would be. To quote a certain pegasus; ‘It would be so, totally awesome,’” she said with a giggle, Marty replied with his own reserved chuckle. “I feel like I’m taking advantage of you, though. What with all the music, and now you’re offering to call in a favor for me …” She said, watching Marty’s face flush with color.
“Heh heh, yeah. It’s no problem really.” He insisted sheepishly, seeming to find the book in his hooves suddenly much more interesting. His hoof stopped over a point on the page, apparently settling on the place he had been searching for.
A loud yawn interrupted them, drawing their attention to its source that had wandered to the seat of their bench. Cherry still had her mouth widely open, showing off her long fangs and the flat, enamel plates that constituted as teeth. Her eyes had scrunched closed, and only opened halfway as she tiredly walked past Twilight and to Marty. She tiredly clambered up onto the seat between Marty and the window, leaning against him with sleepy eyes.
“Tired, Cherry?” Marty asked, letting the exhausted changeling snuggle up against his arm. He must have recognised her yawn, otherwise Twilight couldn’t know how he would have recognised her. Cherry replied with a tired hum, eyes fluttering closed. “Careful, Cherry. Don’t poke me with your teeth.” He whispered to her, the smile on his face softening as she settled into place next to him. She flipped over onto her back, her little legs folded up against herself in the air as she used Marty as a pillow.
Twilight couldn’t stop the “Aww ...” as it left her lips, her smile growing warmer. She was reminded of that image of Cherry as Marty’s little sister. “You know, before I met you guys, I probably never would have been able to consider a changeling cute.” She said quietly to Marty, his ear flicking to her.
“Glad we could change your mind.” Marty replied just as quietly, both of them trying not to wake up the dozing Cherry. “Lately she’s been finding the strangest places to nap. Once we found her inside of a breakfast cabinet, sleeping like a rock.” He said, smiling as Twilight repressed a quiet laugh at that image.
They fell into silence after that, Marty’s hoof starting to move along the page from the place he had held, and Twilight taking the chance to look around the car. The sound of the train’s wheels could be heard throughout the car as it swayed down the tracks on the five hour ride back to Ponyville, otherwise breaking the relative silence of the car.
The dim light of the low heat lanterns that were placed down the aisle lit it well enough to see by, but not so much that a pony couldn’t ignore it and sleep during the ride. Not that she would be able to, she would just end up waking up with a start. The movement of the train almost always gave her a false sense of falling that would shock her awake, mitigating any sort of rest gained from the few minutes of sleep.
The seats were laid out before her, her own positioned near the rear of the train. There were four sets of seats on each side, two that pressed up against the front and rear walls, and four in the center that shared a backrest. Darkening windows matched up with each, one larger window next to the doubled up seat.
Rainbow had employed the entirety of one of the wall seats at the other end of the car as her bed, sleeping soundly through every rock, bump, and sway. Rarity and Fluttershy sat across and to the right of Twilight, chatting quietly with each other. Applejack sat to the right of Twilight’s seat, staring out the window and fiddling with her hat. It looked like she was well on the way to where Rainbow had already found herself. Pinkie was wandering around the car, mumbling something about a catapult that simply couldn’t be safe.
Her gaze eventually drifted past the train car, to the darkening sky behind the slightly reflective glass. At this point, the light was low enough outside that it was becoming difficult to see past the reflections on the glass that would have let her appreciate the landscape. But she could clearly see the waning light in the sky, now reaching its second stage.
This was her time.
She always felt like it was almost poetic, every part of her namesake. First, the sun would hide itself below the horizon, but its light would shine for so much longer, and still so bright. And as it set further, the stars would gently peak out from behind Celestia’s blanket of light, enough to start navigating by. And then the sky would truly become black, in the Astronomical Twilight.
She simply watched as the stars slowly revealed their mosaic of light in the darkness, basking in the near silence as she tried to avoid a startled awakening at the hooves of the train’s motions. The quiet of the car was at one of those levels where any small, or soft sound would simply have been lost. However, it was at that point that her ears perked up at the sound of a soft muttering, just to her left.
Her eyes turned toward the noise, her heavier than normal eyelids slowing her down. It was Marty, his hoof moving steadily along the page as he read. As he did, he appeared to be mouthing out the words, which at some point had drifted into a soft muttering. “... that can be forced to flow, at power, through a foci is limited by the thickness and makeup of the foci. Represented by the equation …” He muttered softly, the words drifting up and down in volume and cutting off certain parts of his aural concentration.
After a few more minutes, he replaced his marker and closed the book. It surprised her that he had only read such a small portion before finishing. He raised his hoof to scratch at his forelock again, a frustrated scowl decorating his face. As she watched, he repressed a yawn, lowering his hoof in search of his saddlebag. He pulled it off of his back after gently unbuckling it, sliding it around carefully so that he wouldn’t bump the dozing changeling.
As he pulled it away from himself, the bag opened up and dropped out the card from earlier. He didn’t seem to notice as he replaced his book in the bag, gently setting it down on the floor. His shifting made the card finally fall completely out of the bag, landing on the edge of the seat between them.
She picked it up in her magic, lifting it toward herself. She hesitated, Marty seemed to have been reluctant to even pull out the card, which would be why he had actually tried to buy another ticket. In fact, he had been very fast to change the subject, as small a subject as it had been. In that moment, her tired mind was subjected to another bout of its insatiable curiosity.
She glanced at Marty, a decision making its way into her mind as she couldn’t stop herself. She looked down at the card, a small note scrawled on the backside of it in a slanting hornwriting. ‘Happy Birthday, Junior! ~ Pops’ It said. This had been a present, to Marty from his father.
She paused again, a thought recurring to herself. She took another glance at Marty, seeing him trying his best to rest in the still gentle swaying of the car. He had seemed reluctant to mention his father when the subject had fallen there during their walk. Could Marty have had a bad experience with his father? A falling out, perhaps? It would justify his unwillingness to remind himself of a bad memory. Or maybe he didn’t want to think that he was still relying on his father? Shiny had told her how important it had become for him to stand on his own hooves, having to resort to using something his father had earned probably was the last thing he wanted to do.
With a split decision ... she returned it to his bag. She would hate herself for going any further, it would be too intrusive. She would feel like she was taking something from him, and she couldn’t imagine what he would think of her if she so thoughtlessly intruded on his privacy. Once again, she thought to herself, I would never be able to forgive myself for betraying a friend’s trust like that. She thought with a sigh, closing up his bags for him.
“I’m at that point where I’m too tired to concentrate, and-” The train hit a slight bump, causing Marty to pause as he flinched. “There’s that, so I can’t just go to sleep.” Marty finished quietly, turning toward her with a tired grin. His eyes were only mostly open, even though they didn’t make a difference, he still held them open like any other pony would.
“I know what you mean, I can never sleep on trains.” Twilight replied, throwing a knowing smirk toward him before she realized he couldn’t actually see it. “And I always end up reading until I fall asleep on the book.” She joked, drawing a small chuckle from Marty. “So, are you stuck on something?” She asked, remembering the all too familiar look of frustration that had donned his features before he had closed his book.
“Yeah …” He said reluctantly, stretching it out as he tried to stall his admittance. “I want to set up a complex system of signals that can be repeated, stopped, and edited. But I also want it to be as compact as possible. So the problem comes in with storing all the potential energy I need to run and maintain the signal, and that anything small enough simply burns up from the intensity of the magic. I need to find some sort of balance, or system that makes that possible.” He explained, a tired look dominating his features as he waited for her response.
“That’s interesting.” She replied, considering the idea. He hadn’t revealed the purpose of his project, but the premise seemed simple enough. An enchanted device that could remember a pattern of signals, and replay them on demand. “Maybe you could show it to me while you’re still in Ponyville and we can do some brainstorming. It sounds like a fun project. How long have you been working on it?”
She watched Marty take a deep breath, his eyes drifting closed. “Since before I went blind, that sorta put it on hold. But after I heard about you, I tried to start it up again.” He yawned, twitching as the train swayed again. “It was a really cool idea, especially at the time.” He was starting to sound very tired, his words becoming slightly slurred. “Can you imagine? A portable record player, but without the record …” He said, drooping slightly and jerking his head up again. He blinked rapidly as he fought the need to fall asleep, a losing battle.
“That does sound interesting.” Twilight whispered enthusiastically, the ideas that that presented slowed by her fatigue. “I’m not sure how you’re going to manage it, but I’m definitely interested now. How are you going to store the music? A variant on a stasis field spell, maybe?” She asked, turning to look at him. She stopped her questions when she realized that Marty wasn’t listening anymore, he had fallen asleep.
She clamped her lips shut, not wanting to disturb the scene before her. Marty had shifted, leaning his head against the glass of the window. His arm had moved around Cherry, pulling her close to his side in an embrace. His mouth had fallen open slightly, his breathing gentle and quiet as he snoozed.
She turned back to the window, seeing her reflection in the glass before she looked past it to the starry sky. “Good night, Marty.” She said quietly, fighting her own need for sleep.
Another three and a half hours to Ponyville.
---
Train wheels screeched along their tracks, the car’s sudden motion rousing the entire car. Twilight was shocked out of the trance-like half sleep she had found herself in during the remainder of the ride, though the feeling of rest was absent. Marty sat up quickly, as if somepony had just poked him with something sharp, shaking off his sleep and stirring Cherry’s own sleep.
Twilight heard Cherry mumble something in defiance of the noise that tried to wake her. Rarity and Fluttershy had never actually joined them in sleep, Fluttershy suffering from Twilight’s own predicament in train travel, and Rarity had decided to keep her company. Rainbow and Applejack both roused themselves with a snort, jumping up in their seat and mumbling various things about apples and weather, respectively. Pinkie was sitting next to a window facing the town, bouncing happily in her seat to the pattern of some unheard song.
“Mhmm …” Marty mumbled, blinking wearily as he tried to rouse himself. “Where are we?” He asked, the words floating somewhere between tired and still attempting to remain quiet.
“Ponyville station.” Twilight replied, starting to stand from her seat as the train slowed to a stop. “Do you want me to help you with your saddle bags?” She asked as Marty started to slide from his seat as well.
Cherry clung to his arm as he did, a frustrated groan of protest leaving her lips. He kept himself next to the seat, making sure not to drag Cherry off and onto the floor. “Sure,” Marty said tiredly, his own nap not doing much in the way of resting him either. Twilight lifted up his bags with her magic, placing them across his back for him. He reached down with his other hoof, and with intermittent tired fumbling, he buckled the straps of his bag together.
“Put Cherry on my back for me? I can carry her.” Marty said, shifting his arm in Cherry’s tired grip. Twilight wrapped Cherry in her magic, gently pulling her off of Marty’s arm. She made a quiet sound of protest before she was placed on Marty’s back, where she quickly wrapped her hole filled arms around his neck and buried her face in his silver-grey mane.
Twilight smiled at seeing that, once again seeing them as siblings in a way. “They should be letting ponies off of the train now, come on.” Twilight said, pulling one of his hooves and leading him into the aisle. He followed sleepily, a blush showing through his dark fur. She let him stand next to her as they walked toward the car door, where the conductor was setting up a step for them to leave the train on.
They reached the step and she carefully guided him down it, that same look of nervousness he had had at the stairs going down into the Trumpet returning to his features. It must have been a little disconcerting to him when he went down stairs, the idea of tripping and falling becoming much more prevalent when you can’t see the steps.
“Ah’ll take Fluttershy to ‘er cottage, Rarity.” Applejack said as they joined them on the dim platform, turning to talk to the two. “It’s right on tha way, an’ Ah don’ like lettin’ ‘er walk all that way by ‘erself in tha dark.” She said, walking up to stand next to the timid pegasus.
“Thank you, dear. I’ll be heading home then, I’m absolutely exhausted. Tah tah!” Rarity replied, taking her leave after that with the massive assembly of shopping bags floating beside her.
“Me too,” Rainbow said, hovering up and doing a stretch mid-air. “See you guys tomorrow.” She said, zipping off into the air in the direction of her cloud home.
“Ya’ll two behave, now. Ya hear?” Applejack said, winking at Twilight as she left with Fluttershy. Twilight rolled her eyes, waving to them as they turned down the road. Applejack wasn’t usually the one to make those types of jokes, so she must have been in a good mood, if tired as the rest of them.
“So, is there a hotel nearby?” Marty asked, drawing her attention back to him. “You can just drop us off there and we can find you some other time.” He said, turning his tired eyes toward her blankly.
“I’ve got a guest bed you can use.” The words left her mouth before she even realized what she had said, freezing her in place. Why did I say that?! Her mind screamed. There’s only the foldable bed, and there’s only room for it in … my room. Her face flushed hot as she realized what predicament she had walked herself into, and she couldn’t just play it off now that she had suggested it.
“Really? Okay, lead the way then.” Marty replied, unable to notice the distress plainly written on Twilight’s face.
She flinched at that, it was what she knew he would say, but all the same had wished he would have insisted on a hotel … not that there were any in Ponyville. Ponyville was still such a small town, that most ponies who came here were visiting relatives. So, there were no rooms for rent around the little town. A conclusion that some impulse had happily made for her, and then proceeded to offer what little space she had.
“Alright, let’s go.” She said, already wondering how this would play out. Not in a way that avoids awkwardness. A little voice teased in the back of her mind.
They set off at a lazy pace, the walk from the station to the library being a relatively short one. Marty walked close to her side, their careful pace set in lieu of his forgotten cane, most likely still in the green room in Manehattan. His cautious walk seemed forced however, their fatigue weighing on them.
If anything, the walk took five minutes. The trip would have been shorter if not for their careful pace, Twilight having to be vigilant in the darkness of the night. But they made it to the Golden Oaks Library without incident, at least until she opened the door.
Spike was waiting for her, a dim candle illuminating himself and Owlowiscious. They didn’t exactly looked pleased with her.
“Where have you been, Twilight?” Spike asked angrily as she entered, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently. “You said that you would get back before the sun went down and help me look for my topaz!”
“Shhh!” Marty hushed sharply, stopping Spike mid-rant as he entered with Cherry balanced on his back. “Don’t wake up Cherry, she’ll never go back to sleep if we do.” He whispered, moving in as the door closed behind him.
“Uh … Twilight?” Spike asked, the sight of the newcomer, with a changeling snoozing on his back, drawing only confusion from him.
Twilight decided that now would be a good time to set up that guest bed, motioning for Spike to follow her as she took the candle in her magic. “Just come help me set up the guest bed, Spike. You can wait down here with Owlowiscious, I won’t take too long. And then we all can get to bed.”
“Hoo?” The owl hooted, his head turning around to face her.
“Oh, right. You guys, this is Marty. And that’s Cherry. I met them in Manehattan, and they decided to come visit, is all.” She explained, introducing the rather sudden new houseguests quickly. “Marty, this is Spike. He’s my number one assistant, best there is, ever.” She said, allowing the little drake to preen himself in the complement. “And that’s Owlowiscious, our resident night owl.” The owl hooted again, punctuating his introduction with a ruffle of his feathers.
“Just wait here while Spike and I get your bed set up.” She said, whisking the grinning dragon up in her magic and heading up the stairs to her study and loft.
They heard the owl hoot again as they ascended the stairs, Marty’s confused response coming a moment later. “It’s Marty. I thought she just told you that?” They heard, the last of the conversation between the blind pony and the owl muffled as they reached the study.
“What’s going on, Twi? Why’s this Marty guy staying with us?” Spike asked once they had passed the threshold, his confused expression illuminated by her magic’s glow.’
Twilight huffed in exhaustion, she was too tired to deal with this. “First off, I’m really sorry for coming home so late. We ended up deciding to wait for the last train because Marty got us into this big concert show, and then I met Cherry and all the other changelings, and then we went to this little restaurant, and we lost track of time, and then we were rushing, and-” She stopped herself, realizing that she had become redundant. “Long story, short. We had to catch the train at the last minute, and Marty and Cherry got stuck on it with us. So, I offered to let them stay here … for a few nights.” She said, unsure as to when Marty planned to make his return trip.
“Okay, so you brought your new coltfriend home. I get it-”
“He’s not my coltfriend.” Twilight said, if a bit too quickly. She quickly dropped Spike back on the floor so that her horn’s light couldn’t reveal the heat on her cheeks. Is that really what it looks like? She thought, even though the idea wasn’t very unpleasant. After all, Marty was nice, and generous. And he was pretty cute- No! Stop that! He’s just a friend. She told herself. And I’m happy to help a friend. She concluded.
However, it seemed that she hadn’t convinced Spike. “Then why’d you bring him home? This isn’t gonna be anything like the Pinkie Sense incident, will it?” He asked, suddenly becoming suspicious.
“No, Spike. I promise. I put that behind me for good, okay.” She said, remembering just how bad she had gotten with that whole debacle. She sighed again, this time simply because she had to fight off the yawn that would have replaced it. “Let’s just get the other bed set up, we’re all really tired.” She said, moving over to one of the storage closets.
Thankfully, Spike seemed satisfied with that for the moment. They worked together, and quickly had a second bed set up for Marty and Cherry. Although, the construction was intermittent with a few curses and stubbed claws as they fumbled in the dim light of the library. Spike had suggested lighting a lamp, but she had decided against the trouble since they would be going to sleep as soon as they were finished.
She came back down to find a confused looking Marty staring blankly toward Owlowiscious. “Twilight? What’s up with this stallion, all he does is ask questions.” Marty said, continuing to aim his confused look at the owl.
Twilight huffed out a laugh, moving to Marty and leading him toward the stairs. “Owlowiscious is an owl.” She said flatly, watching realization dawn on his face.
“Oh. So when you said ‘night owl,’ you really meant that he was an owl. That’s kinda punny.” He said with a smile, feeling out the first step with his hoof. “You know, this place smells like paper and dust.” He said, slowly ascending the stairs with Twilight.
“Well, this is a library.” She said, rolling her eyes at his terrible pun. She led him around the first turn in the windy staircase, now was the only time she felt that the architect of the tree might have been a little silly in that design. “Golden Oaks Library, to be specific. I live here.” She said, starting up the last leg of the stairs’ length.
“Oh, yeah.” Marty said, his eyes opening slightly more from their fatigued droop. “I read about that, must’ve slipped my mind.” He said, punctuating his sentence with a yawn.
They reached the top of the stairs, Twilight noting that Marty’s anxiety with stairs didn’t seem to apply to ascending them. Maybe it was that open space in front of him that made him so anxious, like standing at the edge of a cliff with every step. “Just a few more stairs, and then we can all get some well needed rest.” She said, leading him through her study and to the staircase that wrapped around to her loft.
She cringed as she looked around her study, in the dark it looked like ground zero of some natural disaster. She really needed to clean this place, especially since she had company now. And with that last flight of stairs, they were finally there.
She guided Marty toward his bed, letting him steady his tired legs against it. She helped him remove the saddle bags from underneath the fast asleep changeling, setting them down next to the bed. They had to wrestle with the changeling for awhile in order to separate them enough so that they could actually get onto the bed.
But finally, Cherry was tucked into the covers, snoozing soundly. Twilight helped Marty carefully navigate under the covers as well, and as soon as he was settled Cherry pulled herself over to him and draped herself over him. They were both asleep almost as soon as they had gotten into the warm bed, an exciting, and long day, finally taking its toll.
Once they were settled, she followed their example. She clambered unsteadily into her own starry bed, wrapping herself comfortably in the covers and slowly drifting into sleep. Her eyes landed on her clock, it read eleven forty three in the evening. She could hear Spike’s less than gentle snoring, the dragon having gone to his own bed at the foot of hers as soon as they had finished with the guest bed.
Tomorrow would be interesting, to say the least.
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2734246 not sure if serious, or sarcasm ...
2734347 Absolutely not sarcasm at all, I was actually saying what was on my mind.
Holy hell just found this. Read ALL of it in one sitting. And no update for two weeks since last comment? Dam you be busy bro. Still amazing story though! :)
2809704 next chapter is almost done, stay tuned kiddies!