Chapter 8

The rest of the dinner involved lots of talking and joke sharing and almost boiled down to a food fight between Dave, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash but Applejack stopped them before anything more than a few peas were thrown.

The sun started to move towards the horizon as Luna walked in and received a bowl of porridge covered with jam and syrup. “Good night everypony” She yawned “night Dave”

“Umm good night Luna” He figured it must be like saying good morning to her because she slept during most of the day. “How are you?”

“I’m fine just a bit of a bad sleep” She smelled her porridge and levitated a spoon into the centre and lifted a lump to her mouth

“That looks like a nice breakfast” Dave watched as she blew on the spoon

“It’s my favourite” She looked from her spoon to Dave “would you like to try some?”

“Um…Yes please, that is if you don’t mind” Luna shook her head and Dave looked for a spoon but couldn’t find one.

Luna noticed there were no spoons apart from hers. “Um Dave?” Dave looked at her as she levitated her spoon to his mouth and shoved the porridge into his mouth, some sticking to his top lip.

“Oh um thank you” Dave said as he felt her remove the spoon. It tasted delicious and the syrup and jam only helped intensify the flavour. “That’s amazing!” he said as he savoured his mouthful and licked his lips.

Luna smiled as she started to eat her breakfast. “Like I said, it‘s my favourite” she was having fun with Dave and she was going to have a chat with him in a few hours so she allowed herself to be a bit more playful with him. “Would you like some more?” as she raised the spoon up again

Dave held a hand out “no thank you” He swallowed the porridge that was in his mouth and it left a warm aftertaste “If I have any more there won’t be enough for you” he joked

Luna laughed as she returned to her food. “How was everything today sister?”

Celestia looked up and smiled at her sister. “It has been very busy, but I believe that I have done most of the work. You should not have too much to do tonight”

Luna glanced over at Dave who had started to continue with his small meal, the more time she had the more she could spend talking with Dave. “That’s good to hear” she replied to her sister before looking down at her breakfast again.

Dave yawned loudly “ah I’m full” he relaxed back in his chair and wiped his mouth with a cloth from the table. He looked at Luna before standing up, “I hope nopony minds me going to bed a bit early do they?” They all shook their heads as Dave headed for the door.

“I’m tired too, I’ll walk with you” Twilight quickly finished her mouthful of tea before sliding off her chair and walking over to him. “If that’s ok?”

“Yeah no problem” Dave opened the door and allowed her through first, he quickly held up the letter from Luna back to the writer while nopony else was looking before replacing it in his pocket. Luna gave a slight nod to him before resuming the conversations with the others.

Dave and Twilight both walked silently side by side as they headed up to the rooms. They both stopped as they reached Dave’s room and he opened the door. “Well goodnight Twilight” He smiled at her as he started to go in.

She stepped forwards towards the door. “Is it ok if I can come in for a bit… to talk” She tried avoiding looking at him as he walked away from the open door and sat on the edge of his bed. She walked in and softly closed the door behind her.

Dave lent forwards, resting his arms on his legs and placed both his hands together. “So what do you want to talk about?” He tried to make it sound friendly but he had a good guess on what she wanted to talk about.

“Well I was thinking about what you said in the library earlier” she walked nearer to him. “I realised that if you had to go home there would be nothing I could do” She walked forwards again. “But I want to know what you would do if you had the chance to go home”

Dave was a bit taken aback by the question. ‘I still don’t understand what she truly wants… or anypony here for that matter’ he began to ponder as Twilight walked between his legs as he opened his hands and looked up at him “well I am not sure to be honest” he said sadly. He wanted to go home but he loved being here, even with all the crazy stuff that had happened recently.

“Would you stay if I didn’t have feelings for you?” She asked that question with her heart in her mouth. If he didn’t want her loving him she would hide her feelings just to keep him nearby.

“Your feelings are yours and I can‘t control that” he looked at her

She stared at his face as she asked the question that burned her mind “Do you have feelings for me?” She had to know if it was the last thing she did.

Dave’s eyes flickered before retuning to hers “I’m sorry I can’t answer that” He looked sadly at her.

Twilight moved her hooves up to Dave’s legs and pressed her lips against his. “I didn’t hear a no” she whispered when she broke the kiss.

Dave felt his thoughts disappear as she resumed kissing him. Several minutes rolled by as they had moved properly onto the bed and Twilight was practically lying on top of him. ‘This feels right I know but… what about the others? How do I feel about them? Wait I feel for them all too? Crap this is getting out of hand, I mean I must not be thinking strait’ He reluctantly placed his hands on Twilight’s shoulders as he broke the atmosphere. She gazed down at him with her tongue still lightly hanging from her open mouth.

“Twilight I really don’t think we should do this” Dave said quietly to her

“Why not? Aren’t you enjoying this?” She looked at him puzzled as she allowed herself to properly rest on his chest.

“Well I… I am” he slowly confessed

“So what’s the problem?” she really wasn’t asking as she moved her head towards his again

“It’s just us, I mean do you really want to carry on like this?”

Twilight stopped and looked into his eyes “I want to… don’t you feel the same about me as I do for you?”

Dave bashed his head into the pillow he was resting on as she asked that question. He opened his eyes to meet hers. “I guess I kinda do” He quietly replied

Her heart rushed as she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. She broke it for a second to quickly say. “That will do for me”

Dave pulled away again. “But we can’t” He looked away in regret

She felt her heart smash as quickly as it was raised “why?” was all she could whisper as she felt the tears come again.

“Because I want you to be happy and you can’t be that with me” Dave felt her push herself closer to him, if that was possible.

“I am happy… I’m happy because I’m with you” Twilight let a teardrop land on Dave’s face

“No you’re not, if you were happy you wouldn’t be taking things this quickly” Dave wiped the tears from her eyes. “Especially not with something that isn’t your species” He emphasised the ‘species’ part to get the point through that he wasn’t a pony.

“I read that stallions liked these types of actions” Twilight pushed herself off Dave and sat facing away her voice began to tremble “but you’re not a stallion are you”

Dave sat next to her with an arm around her “No I’m not, as much as it pains me to agree with you” He saw more tears start to form. The voice in his head returned with a bang as he realised what he was considering ’NO don’t do it, you will only make things worse and screw everything up around you!’ he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Do you really want this?”

She turned to look at him. “More than anything” she said as she felt her throat begin to shake

“Ok then. As long as we take everything slowly” He said in a clear voice before opening his eyes to look at her.

“What do you mean?” She knew what they were talking about but she just needed some confirmation

“I can’t push you away so I’ll let you make your own mistakes” He warmly smiled at her “just keep everything to a snails pace”

Twilight let a large grin spread across her face as she embraced Dave in a massive hug. “Thank you” She whispered into his ear as he returned the gesture.

“Just leave it until we get to Ponyville ok?”

“Ok” she happily agreed. She then slowly released Dave and walked over to the door with a spring in her step “I’ll see you in the morning” She left the room allowing the door to shut slowly.

Once the door closed Dave slapped his hands to his face and fell back onto his bed. “What the hell did I just do?” he let his hands fall from his face and he was left staring at the white ceiling. ‘What you did was make a pony very happy’ his thoughts had a very different take on events. “Yeah what about Rarity and Applejack? They sure as hell won’t find this good”

‘Well talk to them, I’m sure they wont mind if you tell the truth’

“Yeah will Twilight appreciate the fact that I kissed her friends before her?”

‘What do you want to do?’

“I don’t know, you’re my mind. You should be telling me!” he realised he was starting to raise his voice arguing with himself so Dave walked into the bathroom and started to fill the sink with water. “How do I really feel about this?”

‘To be honest you don’t know which pony to spend time with as you know they all feel for you. Even if they did show it in a very forward manner.’

“And who do I feel for huh? Apparently I have a knack for making problems, so which ponies life am I gonna screw up?” he turned the tap off on the sink as it was almost full.

‘Haven’t you got to go see Luna?’ his mind asked avoiding the question

Dave chuckled “Just another way of saying, find out for you?” His mind stayed silent as he plunged his head into the cold water. Pulling his face out he dried himself with a nearby towel before staring at the mirror. “Now I’m just going nuts”

Dave emptied the sink and placed the towel back on the rack next to the bath, he walked back out into his bedroom and then out onto the balcony. “I can wait up there” He whispered to himself as he climbed up the balconies. As he got to Twilight’s balcony, something caught his eye.

Twilight was furiously scribbling into a small book, the expression of shock and joy both written across the unicorns face. She was muttering something to herself, Dave pushed his ear close to the glass door that separated him and Twilight to listen.

“I just can’t believe that he said yes” she quietly wrote into the dark green book. “I didn’t know he would even have the slightest interest in me” She smiled as she closed her diary and placed in a draw next to her bed.

Dave took his head away from the door and quickly ascended to Luna’s private garden, stopping as he grabbed the ledge, he peeked over to make sure nopony was there. When he was certain there wasn’t anypony around he pulled himself up and walked across to the tree.

Dave’s gaze was brought to the night sky. The moon was bright but was lightly hidden behind a coating of clouds, the stars which could be seen tried to be as bright as they could be. He sat down resting against the tree to appreciate Luna’s work.

“Do you still like it?” Luna asked as she walked over to Dave’s right and sat next to him

“Oh… Luna it’s you” Dave was startled by her sudden arrival yet again “You’re very sneaky you know that”

“When I’m not in public wearing my usual attire I can be more…” She pondered for the right word “subtle”

Dave noticed she wasn’t wearing her crown or shoes like the other times he had seen her “so I’ve noticed” He rearranged himself back into his comfortable position “So what do you want to talk about?”

“I’m not quite sure on that one detail… I assumed you would have wanted to ask questions” Luna looked over at the human which sat two feet away

“I guess I did, but I went to the library before lunch so I got everything I need to know while I was there” He looked from the moon to Luna “Do you have any questions?”

“Umm… Can you tell me what the nights are like on your world?” She didn’t know where to start so she decided to keep it similar to something she knew all about

“Well the moon is smaller and certainly isn’t brighter, there are less stars” he looked up at the moon “overall I prefer this one”

Luna blushed slightly, something she achieved so easily impressed him so much. “Well I thank you for the compliment. It is good to know somepony likes it”

“Not a problem… by the way” Dave pulled the letter she gave him earlier out of his pocket “what is this about?” he pointed at the small kiss at the bottom

“Oh that umm…” Luna blushed again “A spur of the moment, I’m not used to writing letters that don’t have something to do with royal duties. In fact that is the first letter I have written for personal reasons”

“Well thanks all the same” He placed the letter back into his pocket “So how have your duties been tonight?”

“They have been easy and have been finished quickly, I thank my sister for getting most of them out of the way” Luna looked at Dave to see him yawning “Are you tired?”

“Little bit I guess, but I am going stay here to talk as long as you’re here” He wiped a little bit of sleep from his eyes

“Thank you Dave” Luna shuffled closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder “Beyond the Elements of Harmony and my sister I don’t have any friends”

Dave felt a bit uncomfortable having a princess resting like this, especially after what he had just been through in his room “well you never can have too many friends”

“I appreciate you being here… most ponies are sleeping now so I don’t get to talk” She shut her eyes as she listened to Dave breathing

“Well um… anytime I guess” Dave was slightly distracted by the dark purple horn sitting in front of his right eye ‘don’t say. Are you horny? Now is not the time’

“You know I never really look at my moon” she snuggled closer to Dave “I never really needed to look because I could always feel it up there” she opened her eyes to look up at the moon which appeared from behind the clouds and bathed her and Dave in a light blue glow.

“I can’t imagine how that feels” Dave said as he felt Luna shift her gaze onto him and rest her chin on his shoulder, Luna’s horn sat amongst Dave’s hair.

“It isn’t some grand power that pulls at me, just a tingle at the back of my head” She stared at him as he looked up at the silver orb in the sky

“I’ll take your word for it” Dave continued to look at the sky to stop himself from looking at Luna who was only a couple of inches from his head ‘don’t look at her, the situation is weird enough. How do I keep getting into these anyway?’

Luna quickly glanced at her moon before returning to stare at Dave ‘if he thinks so highly of a large rock in the sky, I wonder…’ “Dave?” she gently whispered

“Yes Luna?”

“You know you said the moon was beautiful?”

“Yeah… what about it?” Dave had a slight nervousness in his voice

“Well I was wondering what you thought about me?”

Dave turned his head to her and found his mouth just and inch from hers “w-well I think that you’re…” he started nervously but as he saw the look in her eyes Dave felt all his emotions wash away, every emotion except one “I…” he could feel her breath enter his mouth, it carried the taste of the porridge from that evening across his tongue.

“Well?” she gently whispered

“I think you are the most amazing and talented pony I have ever met and the moon is but a drop compared to the ocean of beauty that you are”

Luna’s entire body flowed with pleasure as he talked and she couldn’t contain herself anymore “Dave… I don’t know what to say I-I…” she cut herself off as she pushed herself onto Dave, quickly stabbing her tongue into his mouth.

Dave responded to the intrusion by using his own tongue to push Luna’s to the roof of his mouth and caressing the bottom of her tongue slowly with the tip. Luna felt her body shake with joy as Dave pulled their mouths apart and started to kiss her neck. She squirmed as he gently bit her neck and felt a torrent of pleasure crash through her body.

Luna moved her mouth to Dave‘s ear and whispered softly with an undertone of regret “I’m sorry I can’t” She then pushed him using a small blast of magic which sent him rolling away from the tree.

As Dave sat up rubbing his head he realised what he had said and what he was just doing “oh crap I am so sorry Luna I don’t know what came over me I-I-I…” he was cut off when she walked over and gently kissed him on the cheek.

“It’s not you Dave it’s me” she started to cry “I just can’t go through this all again” she quickly turned and ran back into her room

Dave was left staring confused at where the princess had ran to and gently stroked his cheek ‘what the hell just happened? What did she mean by ‘can’t go through this all again’?’ he stood up and eventually started to return to his room using the balconies

Luna’s bedroom…

Luna threw herself onto her bed, forcing her face as far as she could into her pillow before letting out a loud wail of sadness into it. She laid there sobbing until her sister Celestia hurried in through the door to her room and shut it behind her.

“Luna I came as soon as I felt your pain” Her voice was tight with concern as she sat next to the bed with a hoof on her younger sister “Tell me what happened”

The dark purple alicorn sobbed as she moved from the pillow and grabbed her sister in a tight hug “I *sob* don’t want it to *sob* happen again” She let out another loud sob as Celestia returned the tight grasp

“Don’t worry sister” Celestia knew what she was sad about and began to have the same feelings conjure up in herself as well “I won’t let that happen to either of us ever again” she whispered lovingly into her sisters ear as a tear rolled down her face “I promise”

Dave’s bedroom…

Dave walked in through the balcony door and headed strait to the bathroom, as he looked into the mirror he saw a dark purple kiss mark on his right cheek. “What was that all about...” he quickly washed the mark away and looked down at the sink “And what have I done?”

Next morning…

Dave awoke to the sound of a knocking at the door, getting up and walking over to it he was half expecting to see Celestia standing outside, but instead was greeted by a very happy Twilight.

“Morning Dave you’re running late for breakfast” She looked up at him still ecstatic about last night

“Oh… thanks for waking me I’ll come down now” Dave stepped out, closing the door behind him and began following the purple unicorn downstairs “So how are things?”

“Everything is good, the others and I are all going into Canterlot again so I’m afraid you will be left alone again”

“What about Spike? Is he going too?” Dave reached the doors to the dining hall first and opened them for Twilight

“Yes he is, he wanted to go to his favourite doughnut shop” Twilight stepped through with Dave close behind. The table had a similar arrangement but neither of the princesses were there, a bowl of porridge sat in Dave’s spot.

“Where is Celestia or Luna?” Dave sat down and looked at the bowl of warm porridge ‘I hope I didn’t do anything wrong’

“Celestia showed up only to say she had some business to attend to and that we should have breakfast without her” Rarity said noticing a happy unicorn “You seem quite cheerful this morning Twilight”

“I had a good night sleep I guess” Twilight glanced at Dave before starting a conversation with Applejack

Dave stared down at his breakfast ‘Celestia is probably trying to find a way to send me away as quickly as possible for what happened with Luna... why did i have to ruin everything?!’

Spike finished eating an emerald and noticed Dave staring angrily at his bowl of porridge “Are you alright Dave?”

“I’m not hungry” Dave pushed the bowl away and got up “I’m going to the training area”

All the ponies and the dragon looked at each other with mixed expressions but Rainbow Dash spoke up “Hey do you mind if I come with you? I don’t really feel like walking round Canterlot, I would prefer to practice some of my moves”

“Do what you want” Dave grumbled as he walked out the door.

Dash turned to the others “Don’t worry I’ll find out what’s wrong” She then quickly flew after Dave quickly catching up and started to walk alongside him

They both walked down to the training area, there were a few guards around the place and the gang of five was sitting in their usual spot, over by the weights a silver disk about the width of a sink and a few inches thick was sat resting against the tree, it reminded Dave of a large silver coin.

Dave walked over to the disk and lifted it ‘definitely heavier’ he thought as he slowly began to lift it above his head. As he looked up at it there was some words written on the bottom and he read them out to Rainbow Dash “warning! Enchanted barge weight. Do not remove safety restraints” As he looked at Dash he shrugged his shoulders

“Anyway I’m going to be practicing some tricks” Dash said as she flew up into the air aid did some loops and rolls in the air. Dave continued to lift the weight slowly up so his arms were out strait and then slowly down so his arms were being pulled to the ground and continued to do this for a few minutes so his arm muscles we burning before taking a break. Dash saw him stop, so she flew down and landed next to him. “So what’s up?”

“Nothing… you?” He didn’t look at her but his face had a mixed look of concern and anger

“I’m good, and I know there is something wrong” She poked him but his expression didn’t change “I’m your friend, you can tell me anything”

Dave chuckled a little but his face remained the same “I don’t think I can tell anypony” he got up and picked up the silver disk again looking at his reflection on the flat surface

Dash walked over to him “why not? Is it bad?”

“Yeah something like that” Dave mumbled as he held the disk between his hands

“Well if it isn’t Mr Big-shot, are you having fun with your new toy?” Said one the unicorn from yesterday and the rest of the gang walked over behind him

“What do you want?” Dave said agitated “You have all been annoying me since I got here so you can all leave me alone”

Rainbow Dash hopped over between Dave and the gang “Yeah that’s right you have nothing on us!” She growled at the unicorn

“Oh yeah? Well I heard a rumour that you almost killed our special guest” The unicorn smiled at her as her ears drooped down “How does the guilt feel? I bet he hasn’t forgotten has he?”

“Hey you leave her alone!” Dave almost yelled and some of the other guards in the training area looked over

“No Dave its ok” She turned and started to walk back to the castle “I might go see if the others are back” her guilt returned even though she knew Dave forgave her even though she thought it could be unforgivable.

“I reckon we have a chance with her lads. Depressed mares always want company” the unicorn said out loud so she could hear and the gang all laughed. Dash stopped for a second before continuing her walk, normally she would have gone up to the unicorn and wiped the grin from his face but the guilt she felt made her drop her head.

Dave watched Rainbow Dash continue to walk away and glared angrily at the laughing gang, his teeth grinded against each other but finally whispered as they all turned to look at him “That is it… I’ve had enough of you”