Time After Time

“I'm sorry Twilight,” Matthias lamented after taking a step back to survey the jumbled mess of magenta magic and silver script filling in the space above his bed. “I really wish there was a gentler way for me to phrase this...”

“A gentler way of phrasing what exactly?” Twilight asked once she had finished licking her lips and fingers clean of any remaining cream and caramel leftover from the generous portion of cake Matthias had gifted her earlier.

“A gentler way of phrasing how this is all still complete and utter bullshit!” He huffed out in frustration as he broadly gestured to the multitude of notes and branches sprouting off of the crisscrossing timeline he and Twilight had cobbled together. Each divergence highlighting one of her and her friends’ various escapades she claimed had involved time traveling in some way, shape, or form.

“But… but I just spent the better part of twenty minutes demonstrating how time travel is not only mathematically sound but metaphysically feasible!” Twilight defended emphatically as she used her magic to whisk away their dirty dishes and silverware before turning her attention back towards the clutter of notes and diagrams surrounding the arrow representing hers and Matthias's central continuity. “You just need to have a sufficient enough power source and a metaphysically substantial anchor to tether you to your point of origin!”

They'd been going at it like this for nearly an hour already. Having blown through roughly three-quarters of The Time Machine with little to no distraction or interruption on their end. Save for the occasional question from Twilight. Clarification from Matthias concerning the specific aspects of Terran history and culture she had gotten hung up on. And some intermittent giggling fits from whenever they would try and steal a kiss or nuzzle from the one who was reading at the time.

But somewhere between the Time Traveller’s initial run-in with the Morlocks and his first, disastrous venture into their tunnels. Twilight had let it slip that a certain bearded unicorn had not only succeeded in breaching the temporal veil but that she and her former nemesis turned student turned friend turned Guidance Counselor had implemented such spells on many an occasion.

To which Matthias had promptly called bullshit.

Explaining to her that while both schools of Relativity back home had predicted that time would gradually begin to dilate when exposed to increasingly higher degrees of gravity or when reaching velocities near or at the speed of light. They had also theorized that the amount of energy needed to initiate a jump even a microsecond back into the past would require a measure of power in excess of the sum total available in the universe at any given time.

To which Twilight handily demonstrated how the laws of physics were still her bitch by regressing herself in age to a filly.

And no, it wasn’t some simple illusion or cheap glamour either.

As the latter, he would have been able to see through, while the former would have burst apart when he went to pick her up.

However, the sheer shock and bewilderment at seeing his friend somehow lose sixty percent of her body mass, all the while becoming sixty percent more adorable in the process. Was lost in a surge of happy, bittersweet nostalgia as she started wiggling and giggling in his arms like one of his students from the Early Learners Program he used to work at prior to him landing a county position. Who would always want him to carry them on his shoulders or toss them into the air whenever they’d earned a break or were in the Leisure Area with him.

Hell, she even let loose the same maniacal, “we're gonna get Mr. Martin,” cackle as they did when she shifted back from filly to mare and toppled down on top of him. Pulling Matthias out of his sentimental stroll through a life long since passed as she began peppering his face with lightning fast licks and kisses. Slowly but surely painting his cheeks redder and redder with each pass of her lips and drag of her tongue across his burning skin.

Though what little ground she’d succeeded in taking from him was swiftly lost when Matthias managed to catch the tip of a fluffy purple ear between his teeth and started nibbling vigorously. Forcing Twilight to start squeaking and squirming atop him as she fought to stand strong amidst the jolts of silvery pleasure running riot through the nerves tying her ears to her brain. But once she felt Matthias slip a hand beneath her shirt and start strumming his fingers across her ribs, she knew she had to bail lest he completely turn the tables on her.

However, in her desperate attempt to try and fling herself off of Matthias, once more making sure to give his wrapped right hand a wide berth. Twilight had forgotten to factor in both the earth pony strength her ascension had granted her, and just how… vindictive Matthias could be as he latched his arms and legs around her to try and block her escape.

Resulting in her unintentionally rolling the larger human over and onto her in her mad dash to try and get away from him. Drawing even more heated blushes from the pair as they suddenly realized both how they were now positioned, and every implication said positioning entailed. Blushes that only deepened when they both smiled warmly at one another and planted another playful peck on each other’s lips. The kiss working wonders to settle them both down and burn up whatever mischief and impishness they might’ve still had planned for the other as they let the blooms of heat swelling up in their stomachs diffuse throughout their chests and into their cheeks.

And after promising to have a more in-depth discussion with Twilight on the malleable qualities of space-time at a time when an anachronistic moon goddess wasn’t minutes away from busting his door down. And after promising to give Twilight no less than three more kisses so that she’d let him go, the pair had set about dissecting each of Twilight’s alleged instances of time hopping. Hoping he could find some way to square this seemingly inherent contradiction in the clockwork of the cosmos without making it feel as though all the money he'd spent signing up and prepping for his Praxis II in Physics wasn't wasted.

But he couldn’t even make it past her second example.

“And that’s the part I get, Twi!” Matthias said as he sat back down, hoping to placate the mare looking ready to pin him to the bed again and start running through chain after chain of arcane equations and formulae. Using the tip of his quill to pull over the simple though no less intricate webwork of silver streaks and purple outlines they had compiled to try and better explain himself to Twilight. “But you’ve presented me with two mutually exclusive models of linear causality here!?

“How so?” she asked as the fur around her neck began to unbristle, and the fire in her eyes died down to their usual inquisitive sparkle.

“Well… look, here,” Matthias instructed to the nerdy little princess as he drew her attention towards a stick figure doodle of a gruff looking Twilight wearing an eye-patch. “Here, you claim that a future version of yourself came to warn you about some impending disaster threatening Equestria, but in actuality she… you… were trying to warn… yourself about not fretting over a problem that wasn’t going to happen, right?”

“R-Right,” Twilight affirmed with an embarrassed little stammer at having to admit to, and recall, one of her more… elaborate neurotic episodes.

“So… What that implies is a fixed timeline whereby the actions of the traveler in the past have already become part of that localized history,” Matthias explained to Twilight, but the confused tilt to her head and the eager look in her eyes all but begged him to keep going. “Meaning, that no matter what actions or words your future self might have taken or imparted with you. They wouldn’t have done anything to change her present since those actions and words would ultimately put you, her past self, on the path that would eventually lead you towards the present she had hoped to change.”

“Oh! I get it,” Twilight exclaimed excitedly as realization suddenly dawned on her, “if my future self hadn’t shown up looking like she’d been to Tartarus and back, babbling about magic quilled by Starswirl himself, then I wouldn’t have assumed that she… or I had jumped back to warn… me about an upcoming disaster. Then I wouldn’t have worried myself into a rut planning for a disaster that wasn’t going to happen. So no extensive disaster proofing to unintentionally be prepared for a surprise Cerberus attack or other ball-related emergencies. No need to monitor everything or do nothing which would result in an eyepatch emergency or singed mane. And definitely no head injuries at Madame Pinkie’s or sneaking through a public section of the Canterlot Library in easily tearable stealth suits.”

"I have so many questions, and I’m not sure I want any of them answered," Matthias thought as he tried to suss out what exactly constituted a ball and/or eyepatch emergency, or what she could have possibly meant by “monitor everything.” But as prone to tangents as Twilight was, he chose, rather, to stick to his initial hang up and point out the gaping hole he had found within her current model of causality.

“But if it really is the case that this plane operates under a fixed chronology,” Matthias put to her as he circled the busiest looking section of the timeline he and Twilight had assembled. A veritable forest of progressively stranger and more intimidating looking doodles and caricatures branching out from a central portrait showcasing a stick figure facsimile of Twilight as she locked horns with another lavender coated mare. “Then why did Starlight succeed in altering your present when all her efforts should have led to the exact same circumstances by which she would have wanted to travel into the past for?”

Twilight suddenly looked as if she’d just been told the Canterlot Kitchens would be serving nothing but quesadillas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for the next month.

“Th-That's right!” Twilight almost shrieked as she started plucking the diverging continuities off of the timeline and set them into orbit around her head. “If… if our past was truly set in stone as The Next Tuesday incident would suggest. Then mine and Starlight's actions in the past should have led to Rainbow pulling off her sonic rainboom rather than hinder it. So why then, did our interference splinter the time stream into a series of progressively worse and worse versions Equestria? Unless… maybe the Tree-?”

“Nope, nuh uh, and all of my no!” Matthias interrupted before Twilight could go full Deepak Chopra on him. “Magic may explain the mechanism by which you traveled through time, but causality is the naturally occurring phenomenology of cause and effect within our local spacetime.”

“Hee hee But Maaaay,” Twilight tauntingly teased at Matthias’s mounting frustration, “you need to remember that our magic is neither a separate component to the natural order nor is it supernatural in the sense that you and most ponies are familiar with. Yes, while the Aetherium technically exists outside of the material and astral planes, and even far beyond the Outer Spirit Wilds. It’s from this endless sea of aether that the base substrate for each plane, dimense, and simulacra, is derived. Which would also include everything material, or immaterial, which would then manifest within those specific pockets of reality.”

“So… what you’re suggesting is... is that something as fundamental as linear causality is derived from, and freely manipulated by magic?!” Matthias asked after having the complete and utter gob smacked out of him.

“Derived from? Yes. Freely manipulated? Not exactly,” Twilight tried to clarify, sensing that she may have thrown him into the metaphysical deep end a bit too quickly. “It’s… It’s like what you taught me the night we first met! Remember? About the universe balancing itself out?”

“Yeah… and I also seem to recall giving you a low-grade tasing in the process,” Matthias merrily remembered, the happy memory of Twilight getting lit up by a dozen little lightning bolts balancing him back from the brink in time to duck away from the purple princess as she attempted to nip at his ear again. The sharp *click* of her teeth snapping together ringing just loudly enough for Fight and Flight to take heed.

“Yes indeed, well… The Magic of Harmony is one of the most primal and powerful of those base magics accessible to us in the material plane,” Twilight further detailed as she started crawling across the bed on all fours. Not unlike a lioness circling its prey as she sought to find a better angle from which she could pay back Matthias for his snub. “And will often times manifests itself in whatever manner is needed to best help restore and maintain the bonds held between ponies and other sapient species.”

“Are you seriously expecting me to believe that the universe truly gives a flying fuck about two ponies or whatever not getting along?” Matthias asked incredulously and with a subtle spritz of spite as he began to counter circle Twilight. Hoping to fend off any further attacks from the mare while trying his best to ignore Sean Carroll crying in his ear.

“Why wouldn’t it?” Twilight queried as she leaned forward threateningly, looking ready to pounce as she lifted her rear into the air and began shaking her tail in a blatant display of, ‘Imma getcha!’

“After all, when clouds build up too much charge or take in too much water, a storm is needed in order to divvy that power and moisture back between the sky and ground. And when fall rolls around and the days begin to grow short, aren't the accumulated nutrients and minerals taken in by the trees returned to the earth through rot and by winter? So is it really such a stretch to believe that the same base Harmony upon which both us and our current plane are built, would also call upon us to help restore the Balance between ponies who've let their fear and pride, or their anger and sorrow, drive a wedge between them and those who would bring out the best in them?”

Once more Matthias was tempted to call bullshit.

To try and snap Twilight back to reality before she entrenched herself too deep into her metaphysical woo woo.

But then the stick figure doodle of Discord floating past her nose threw a pie at the clownishly dressed Celestia and Luna he was chasing. His face warped and cracked with maniacal laughter as the sisters desperately tried to keep ahead of him.

And Matthias froze in sheer terror.

Panic mounting like the first surge of shoppers at his local Best Buy during a Black Friday doorbuster as he recalled how magic in Equestria wasn't just based on calculating mana flow or taking background aether into account.

No, there was an all too important component Matthias had forgotten to factor into his rebuttal. A tenant of the mystic arts which served as both the lynchpin to all known schools and philosophies of Equestrian metaphysics. As well as the biggest source of confusion and headaches in his continued studies into the arcane:

Feelings

You see, magic in the land of peppy, happy pony people wasn't some nebulous or ill-defined concept whose vagaries left room for authors to get themselves out of any corner they may have written themselves into.

No, it might as well have been a fucking field of science.

With everything from the number of jewels needed to bypass the natural resistance inherent in an enchanting component, to the conversion rates required to transmute organic matter into inorganic and vice versa having been calc'd and doc’d to the point where primary school unicorns could recite them as if they were the Newton Laws.

But for reasons seemingly designed just to make the physicist in him cry, within all the materials and procedures sections of every peer-reviewed experiment and paper on the arcane he'd perused since taking residency in Equestria. There would always be some annotation or bracket within the text to demark the unicorn's frame of mind or emotional state while casting the spell. Ranging from something as vague and nondescript as butterflies in the stomach to something as detailed and specific as, “thinking about shoving my hoof so far up my boss’ plot that the water on my knee would quench her thirst!”

Which made little to no sense to Matthias. Seeing as a person's… or pony’s, as was the case, emotions were both subjective and as quick to change as a politician's priorities after winning their seat.

Granted, having been on some manner of swim team or another since the tender age of five, he knew full well how a person's mental state could impact their performance. Either by fretting themselves into failure or by working themselves up into a frenzy so they might utterly crush the competition. But the scenarios and circumstances needed to elicit such states were biased towards the individual, and were, well… personal. And what would easily embolden or inspire one person could just as quickly leave another hyperventilating and curled up in a ball on the floor.

And yes, while Twilight had done her best to explain to Matthias how feelings served as more of a bolster and reinforcer to spells rather than a power source. And that the emotions expressed by the ponies in the studies were more of a general guideline for anypony who wished to recreate the same experiment or spell effect. It still wasn't enough to silence Matthias’s blaring bullshit detector. Even after he had seen Twilight literally start glowing after damn near every compliment he had ever given her, or how she could barely muster the strength to pick up a pencil with her magic the night she had to break it to Matthias that there was no known way to send him home.

However, it wasn't necessarily the cryptic, oftentimes dubious role that pony feelings played in their magic which was causing Matthias to pale, making him look all the part of a sun-bleached peppermint stick in the process. But rather, it was what Twilight had mentioned about the underlying Magic of Harmony seeking to restore balance between ponies who seemed to be experiencing a serious strain in their relationships, whether they be platonic or otherwise.

As while he hadn't quite cottoned on to how ponies had been able to quantify happy thoughts or the Monday Blues, he was intimately familiar with systems seeking equilibrium within each other. And no matter how much it may have made the inside of his skull itch, he was gradually becoming just as intimate and familiar with the theories behind pony magic as well.

Including how said magic could be stained with a sort of metaphysical charge whenever ponies experienced bouts of extreme emotion, either by choice or by happy accident. That charge usually aligning with whatever feelings the caster had been suffering through at the time, and could more often than not lead to physical changes within the caster or their immediate environment.

Like the time Celestia had started shedding ink-black tears after a meeting with a particularly uppity delegate on the economic council who had spent almost half an hour listing off the expenses the crown had been wasting on Matthias’s recovery while he had been in the room with them.

Or that one weekend where Twilight’s hair had caught fire like some sort of winged Rapidash when her first few attempts at getting his phone working had failed spectacularly.

And he’d never forget the night Luna had nearly regressed back into Mini after somepony had stormed into her court accusing her of either dereliction of her duties or deliberately giving her son nightmares.

So, if he were to shift his perspective a bit, and look at the inherent magic found within these ponies as being subject to the same naturally occurring laws of balance and equilibrium just as say… thermal convection or chemical bonding were bound to, rather than something intrinsically tied to the ponies and the other magically inclined species. Then the idea of a universe actively seeking to keep its denizens living and working together in harmony, rather than constantly fighting or at each other’s throats, suddenly began sounding less and less like anthro-centric gobbledegook, and more and more like something worth studying and building a predictive model off of.

But then again, if what Twilight was suggesting was true, and this universe had a vested interest in keeping everypony, and body, in sync with one another. Then this begged several simple though no less terrifying questions which were making Matthias spiral all over again.

Alright, where was all this fucking cosmic love and understanding when I had twenty goddam Diamond Dogs beating me within an inch of my life for months on end?! He thought as his hamster held on for dear life, the inertia he had built up to work through and process these problems through the lens of this new data having knocked the poor little muscovite off his feet and pinned him to the roof of his wheel. Does my magical resistance even shield me from something basal as Harmony and Balance or do they not give two shits about me since I don't have any of their magic running through me?! Or… Or could it be that it was actively trying to expunge me since I'm not native to this re- Oh shit!!!

Fortunately, before Matthias could work himself too far into an existential crisis over the possible implications of a semi-sentient universe having a hate-on for him, he felt ninety-pounds of purple pony princess barrel into his back and knock him prone to the bed. The bookish mare having taken the time he had spent working himself into a tizzy to slink her way around and behind him before glomping the ever-loving shit out of him. Her slender arms and downy wings wrapping and weaving their way around him in such a way as to keep his elbows pinned to his side.

“Tw-Twilight!?” Matthias stammered out as he started struggling within her grasp. Only to have every muscle from the nape of his neck down to his toes lock up and freeze when he felt the mare's toned legs snake around his own, and her firm breasts push into his back. “What… what are you-”

“Confess,” was the only explanation Matthias got from his adorkable little inquisitor before she pressed her muzzle against the back of his jaw and started suckling on his earlobe. Her flat teeth grinding gently into the tender bundle of nerves while her warm wet tongue worked to coax even more of the pendulous flesh into her mouth.

“And... *grunt* and what exactly am… *rggh* am I admitting too?” he questioned shakily through the bolts of pure, electric bliss stabbing into his brain with each errant burst of breath and each stroke of warm velvet that brushed across his skin. All the while doing his best to pretend that the hardening points poking into his back through Twilight's pajama top weren't exactly what he thought they were.

“You know exactly what I want to hear, now say it,” Twilight demanded after releasing her hold on the delicate little bud. Though his reprieve was short-lived as she started tracing her tongue up and down the rim of his ear before blowing along the trail of dampened skin she had left behind. Causing Matthias to shake and shudder beneath her like an old 1950’s motel massager mattress.

“W-W-W-When Tar- *grunt* Tartarus freezes over!” he stammered out stubbornly, attempting to sound both defiant and in control of the situation as Twilight continued to lap at his ear like it was a cone full of her favorite ice cream.

But whatever opposition he hoped to mount quickly had its teeth cracked against the curb when he felt the princess’ laughter reverberating throughout her chest and into his back. While the subsequent path of kisses and licks she slathered across the scruff of his neck and up to his unmolested ear delivered the final stomp.

“Hee Hee Works for me,” she whispered huskily while leaning down to plant another sloppy kiss at the corner of his lips. Unintentionally molding more of her modest mounds against him in the process and leaving no doubt as to what those points digging into him were. “After all, I’ve got about five months worth of furship to catch up on, and almost twenty more minutes to play with you before Luna gets you all to herself.”

P-P-P-Purpledorksays *grunt* sayswhatnow?”

“What now. Now, talk!” Twilight ordered before resuming her tender tonguing of his neck and ear. Making sure to douse the slickened skin with cold breath each time his blush began to burn too hot.

“It *grunt* It ain't h-h-h-happening!” came Matthias’s strained rebuke. However, the constant barrage of teeth and tongue and breath and bust was slowly but surely hammering away at what scarce resolve he had left like a series of sensual little drone strikes.

“*sigh* Oh well, I guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way then,” Twilight bemoaned matter of factly. Though the throaty chuckles she breathed into his ear afterward somehow got him shivering and shaking even more than the fruits of all her previous affections combined.

“H-How is this not already the- EEP!!!” was all Matthias could squeak out before he felt Twilight slip the tips of her wings up and under his shirt. The cloud spun vanes coaxing all manner of labored grunt and needy whine from the human as he felt one set of flight feathers begin teasing at his nipple while the others went to mapping the valleys of scarred skin running from his chest down to his hip.

“Feel like talking now?” Twilight questioned teasingly before burying her muzzle back into the crook of his neck. Sending wave after wave of gooseflesh marching across his skin with each drag and swirl of her silken tongue across the tensing muscle.

“Not *grunt* not r-r-r-really,” Matthias answered unconvincingly as his Left and Right brains devolved into a domestic dispute worthy of an episode of Cops. With one half wanting nothing more than to just tell Twilight what she wanted to hear before Luna could walk in and initiate the obvious misunderstanding portion of the modern rom-com. While the other wanted to hold out just a little bit longer to see how far Twilight was willing to take this, their friendship be damned.

“Heh Heh Well, if that's the way you want to play it then,” she suggested playfully with a shrug that he felt more than saw. And by felt he meant she squished even more of her plush chest into his back for a moment.

“Fair warning though, Luna’s going to be none too keen when she finds another mare’s scent clinging to her stallion, and I’m not too sure you’re gonna like the lengths she’s going to go through to ensure every mare with a working set of nostrils knows who you belong to. Un- *gulp* Unless of course, y-y-y-you’re into that kind of play, then by all means, k-keep resisting and I’ll be happy to oblige you,” she stuttered out in what he thought was an attempt to sound sultry.

But between her nervous stammer and the searing blush he could feel mingling with his own, she was coming off as more of an adorable try hard rather than a domineering mistress, and by Dagon was that doing it for him. His composure once more beginning to crack as he tried to figure out who this purple minx was and where she had hidden his neurotic little bookworm.

“S-So, just *rggh* just so that we’re on the same page here, can I assume that -dammit Twilight- that I’m her stallion in this scenario?” He questioned tremulously after willing a bit of blood back northward, hoping he could get at least one straight answer out of the mare currently doing her best to try and snake the whole of her tongue into his ear.

However, all he got in response from the purple dork was an irritated snort and an annoyed growl that sent an honest to Galactus shiver sprinting down his spine. Though it was even money on whether that shiver was from the aura of pure, unfettered frustration radiating off of Twilight, or the sudden absence of the fleecy fur and feathers he’d been swaddled in for the better part of three minutes. Seeing as Twilight had finally loosened the knot of arms and legs she’d been using to keep him bear-hugged beneath her and picked herself off of him. Much to Matthias’s immediate relief and sorrow.

However, he was given hardly any time to appreciate his limbs’ newly restored liberty or lament the loss of Twilight’s gentle weight pressed against him as he once again found himself thrown onto his back and straddled by a pair of plump, yet firm thighs. His shivers freezing solid as the Princess of Friendship hoisted him up by the collar of his t-shirt and shoved her muzzle right into his face, her fiery amethyst eyes threatening to melt the unmarred half of his face with the sheer, bone charring intensity of their stare.

“Alright, buster, let’s make one thing perfectly clear here,” she declared sternly while pressing her snout into his nose, her lips so close to brushing against his that he could practically taste the apples and spice staining her breath. “Yes, while the bibliophile in me finds it endearing beyond compare seeing the clueless colt trope playing out so paint by numbers. And as utterly satisfying as it is getting to finally feel you trembling between my legs. I swear to sweet Celestia on high that if the next words out of your cute little mouth are not either:

A). Why yes, Ms. Sparkle, it was in fact magic that temporarily reconstituted the temporal modus of the realm.

-Or-

B). Ohmigosh, you’re so brilliant and insightful-and cute-that I should give you at least five more kisses.

“I am going to work those hairless lips of yours so raw that Luna’s gonna be tasting me on your tongue ‘til well after her formal courting period is finished,” she promised heatedly. Emphasizing her point with an overly exaggerated slurp of her tongue and a suggestive roll of her hips into his chest which left little to no doubt in Matthias's mind as to how far Twilight was willing to take this. As well as briefly expose a damp spot on his shirt beneath where she’d been sitting to the open air. A damp spot he prayed to sweet dreaming Cthulhu beneath the sea was simply sweat from having had a warm, furry body plastered against him for so long.

And yet somehow, someway amidst the rush of boiling blood surging between his ears and cheeks, and the tightening in his stomach, and pants, from the possible source of that wet patch on his PJs, he could still feel it. That sense of swelling hope and excitement welling up and filling his chest like dough rising in an oven as the finer points of Twilight’s threat continued to ring louder and louder in his ears:

“Luna’s courting me!”

“Luna’s actually fucking courting me!” Matthias thought as he fought like a cornered fox to keep the dopey grin threatening to yank his lips up and over his ears at bay. The complete and utter joy he felt at hearing Twilight all but reaffirm his waning suspicions only matched by the sense of sheer, unbridled relief at knowing that he was neither misconstruing the Lunar Diarch’s actions nor that she was merely messing with his head.

Those far-off hopes he had of being with the Lunar Diarch having fallen further and further to the wayside as he and Twilight continued to pick apart Wells’ vision of a future shaped by the classism of his time. With each little kiss and nuzzle they managed to pilfer from one another during their impromptu game of popcorn convincing him more and more that the kisses Luna had stolen from him in the garden had been nothing more than a simple display of platonic affection distorted by his culture's views on romantic advances.

And yes, while it would have been as easy as simply turning to Twilight and asking her flat out, “Excuse me, Twily, the fuck are you and Luna up to?” To finally get some clarity as to what the Second Princess of Equestria had planned for him once she and Starry had finished scrutinizing every pass and flyby her soldiers had carried out while looking for Sea Star. Her prior comments about Luna having not kept to some manner of schedule or how she would be ever so delighted to have the talk with Matthias having not gone unnoticed by him.

He refused to monopolize the little time he had set aside for Twilight to go full book horse on his library with questions about the Princess of the Night that Luna would probably answer for herself within the next twenty to thirty minutes. As well, given how neglected he had unintentionally been making Twilight feel with his apparent lack of kisses and cuddles over the past few months. He wanted to dedicate as much of his thoughts and energy to the mare in front of him, or on top of him if one were to quibble, rather than one who may or may not be on top of him within the hour.

And differences in cultures be damned, it was still awkward as all hell for Matthias to ask a girl who had been spooning with him and kissing him for the better part of an hour if another girl they were close to was crushing on him.

But just as Matthias’s Right Brain began hoisting up the banners and prepping the fireworks in celebration for him finally finding somebody willing to give his maniacal ass a chance. Twilight’s promise for what she had in store for his mouth should he refrain from telling her what she wanted to hear slammed into his Left Brain.

Her choice of words, her body language, and the mere fact that with each subtle shift of her hips he could feel another set of lips kissing his chest through her pajama bottoms more than enough to get his hormone-addled hamster off his ass and running wind sprints. That poor, underpaid little bolshevik hoofing it so hard and fast to not only try and incorporate this latest bombshell into his current working model but square it with Twilight’s rather… aggressive behavior this evening that he was rattling the rivets loose in his wheel. Her actions clearly not lining up with any notion Matthias had of a friend supporting another friend’s attempt at wooing somebody.

Add to it all the traits and similarities he seemed to share with the supposed stallion Twilight had been hoping to court and the hungry look she was currently giving him. And Matthias found himself once again questioning both Twilight’s motives and where her loyalties lie, albeit with all the calm and composure of a mother on a cocktail of Redbull and Adderall running through JC Penney looking for her missing child:

“Why is she kissing me when she knows Luna’s trying to court me isn't she after a stallion is stallion pony colloquial for Male regardless of species she said formal courting so does that mean she can do whatever she wants until me and Luna are official I smell grape why do I smell grape is she in heat why isn’t she wearing a bra or underwear does she not wear them to bed did she plan this she's happy Luna’s courting me I'm happy Luna’ courting me why am I letting her do this to me do I want her to stop no why Luna wants me I want Luna does Twilight want me do I want Twilight y-”

“S-S-S-So, what’s it gonna bucking b-b-be then?” Twilight demanded desperately with a whimper so dripping with tension and frustration that it almost came off as a snarl. “Are you gonna mare the buck up and finally say, ‘it's magic bitch?’ Or, and I'm kind of hoping it's this one, are you just gonna keep playing hard to get with me until Luna comes crashing in and she gets to see me making it farther with you than she has in the past five months?”

“F-Fine,” Matthias finally relented shakily, not willing to risk a potential relationship with Luna over what may or may not be teasing on Twilight’s part. However, he couldn’t help but notice the briefest flash of disappointment dusting her face before it shifted back to the smug smile she’d been sporting throughout her impromptu interrogation. “This gentle fucking of the Law of Non-Contradiction was because of magic…”

“There now, that wasn’t so-”

“... bitch.”

Though that smug smile shattered like a pane of plate glass with a baseball thrown through it when he gave her the exact answer she wanted. A deadpan worthy of Maud’s stony muzzle quickly taking its place.

“*Snort* Hee Hee Hee!”

But she couldn’t stay miffed at him for too long, having laid out the criteria by which Matthias could get her off of him quite clearly and cleanly. Unable to help but laugh and giggle to herself at how he had been able to both play her and give her exactly what she wanted at the same time… almost.

“You're just lucky you're cute,” Twilight finally confessed before leaning down and molding her mouth against his for the umpteenth time this evening. Those giggles she had been fighting to keep reigned in pouring into Matthias’s mouth as she felt the heat of his blush burning against her tongue as it sought to slip past his lips.

“Afterall, it’s not just any stallion who can get away with calling his mare a bitch and get kissed for it in return,” she whispered huskily into his ear after dragging her tongue up and across his cheek after her third attempt at gaining entry into his mouth was barred.

“A-A-A-And you're just *pant* just lucky that this tree of yours chose a multiversal model of causality when repurposing the flow of your timeline as opposed to a dynamic model,” Matthias stammered out indignantly as he pushed Twilight off of him and sat back up. Hoping he could distract the violet vixen with a bit of terran academia and bring his Purple Smart back to the forefront as he used the bandage wrapped around his right hand to wipe away the healthy helping of pony spit she had left on his face. “Otherwise yours and Starlight’s little coming to Cthulhu moment would’ve been a lot less TV-Y7 and much more like the editorially mandated ending of The Dark Tower.”

“Obvious human references you may or may not explain aside, what’s so bad about a dynamic timeline?” Twilight questioned, the heat in her eyes dying down as her curiosity was suddenly piqued by the new model of temporal mechanics being presented to her. “Wouldn't change and variability generally be more preferable to rigid inflexibility in regards to somepony’s prospects for the future?”

“Not if you've unknowingly gotten yourself caught in a perpetual loop after monkeying around in the past.”

“But doesn’t dynamism entail, by a systems definition, constant change and progression? So, how can such a fixed loop exist within a model defined by its adaptability and versatility?”

“Well...Picture, if you will, Starlight Glimmer, but not the Starlight Glimmer you know and love today,” Matthias instructed as he pulled out his best Rod Serling and began quilling another timeline into the sky. Adding a stick figure portrait of a shiny happy looking Starlight and setting it to traverse the little silver tightrope once he was finished.

“You see, this is a Starlight who has yet to see the light. One who has let the anguish of losing her then best and only friend push her towards a dogma of equality whereby she will no longer have to lament the loss of somepony close to her because of their special talents.” He continued to elaborate while surrounding the sterling mare with little ponies adorned with equal signs above their heads.

“But the peace and security she has built through those tenets is challenged and threatened by a certain purple alicorn whose ideologies are all but diametrically opposed to hers,” he added before squiggling in another stick figure unicorn with wings surrounded by quick and dirty approximations of her friends’ Cutie Marks. “Whose deeds and creeds are born out by the relationships and wisdom gained from those ponies closest to her, and actively embraces what makes ponies special and seeks to bring out the best in them. Including those ponies, Starlight had swayed down a path that would forsake their talents and individuality.

“So, in an attempt at getting back at this alicorn, hoping to take from her that same sense of security and comfort that she had stolen from her. She travels back into the past to the pivotal moment which would ultimately set this mare, who had struck so straight and surely at the core of her identity, down the path of Friendship and Harmony and ensures that it never comes to pass. Preventing the chain of events that would eventually lead to her meeting her friends from ever transpiring.” Matthias further detailed, doing his best to capture the explosive brilliance of a sonic rainboom with only silver starlight before crossing it out to denote its erasure from the timeline. “Have I left anything out?”

“What?! Oh, no, that pretty much covers everything from her initial trauma leading up to our confrontation in the castle, go on,” Twilight encouraged. Biting her tongue over how it was really the efforts of her former student’s followers who had subverted Starlight in Our Town in favor of letting the teacher turned administrative aid get to his point.

“Fantastic, so, as you recall, in a fixed timeline Starlight's efforts would have invariably led to the rainboom Rainbow Dash pulled off seeing as that was the event which would inevitably lead her to travel back in time.” Matthias continued to exposit while pulling over the pictures of Twilight's future self and the one with the Princess of Friendship butting heads with the ne’er-do-well time traveler and setting them between them. “However, in a multiversal model of causality, each choice and consequence, in essence, creates a brand new continuity. Meaning that even if the traveler does manage to alter events as he or she had planned, their original timeline would remain unaffected while they suddenly found themselves in a continuity influenced by their interference.”

“Huh… sounds like in either case no matter what the traveler attempts to alter in the past, their present will remain unaffected.” Twilight interjected, having noticed a pattern within the models of linear causality they'd been discussing. “Seeing as in one, the effects of their hinderance will already be incorporated into their own chain of causality. While in the other, a new timeline, one propagated by the actions of the traveler, will be created but leave their original continuity untouched.”

“Very good! Now, given the commonalities shared between fixed and multiversal models of causality, in what manner do you suppose the dynamic variant differs?”

“Oh! Well… if I were to give it my best-educated guess,” Twilight pondered briefly as she suddenly found herself under her professor’s watchful eye, “would it be that in a dynamic model the present of the traveler can actually be changed?”

“Ding-Ding-Ding, we have a winner,” Matthias applauded, giving her a stage bow that pulled another blush out of the princess.

“But… but didn’t you mention that some form of perpetual loop was a plausible threat within a dynamic framework?” Twilight questioned after the heat in her cheeks died down a bit, “Wouldn’t such a concept run contrary to the fluid nature of the model?”

“So you'd think, but it's this malleable nature inherent in the dynamic models of causality which make it the most dangerous to meddle around in,” Matthias attempted to convey with a deathly seriousness. His sudden shift in tone enough to send a shudder running down her spine and into the bed. “Since the traveler’s present is no longer immune to the effects of their monkeying about in the past, then any action they take runs the risk of creating a paradox within their personal history.”

“M- *gulp* Meaning what exactly?

“Meaning that if Starlight had succeeded in her efforts to alter your past, then the initial reason for her wanting to travel back in time would never have come to be,” Matthias demonstrated by brushing away the rainboom with the feathered end of his quill. Causing the timeline, he had been illustrating throughout his explanation to splinter and unravel. Leaving the caricature of Starlight with no ground to stand on before dropping like a stone, her little stick arms and legs flailing wildly for some reason as she fell. But before the starlit mare could meet her grizzly end at the hands of comforter and gravity alike, the little doodle seemed to simply fade away on her own just when she was about to crash into the sheets.

However, neither human nor mare were given much time to mourn the loss of the reformed villain's facsimile before the replay button was seemingly hit. Restoring the timeline, Matthias had just erased and returning the starlight Starlight back to the start to begin her walk again.

“What… What just happened?!”

“Don’t look at me,” Matthias pleaded before bringing his quill up and giving it a curious quirk of his eyebrow. “I swear, it’s like every month after the full moon this thing gets like five or six more features thrown into it or something!”

“Oh, that's probably just the result of Luna's strengthening feelings for you interacting with the spell matrics she wove into her primary during its recharge period,” Twilight clarified nonchalantly with a dismissive wave of her hand. Her focus resting solely on the starlit rendition of her friend as she disrupted the boom, fell, faded away, and restarted her trot down the line for a fourth time. “I was talking about what’s happening to little Scribble Starlight here!”

“Oh, that! Well, with the initial reason for her needing to travel back in time having been removed from her personal history,” Matthias continued to clarify while absentmindedly running his thumb along the navy blue veins of the flight feather Luna had given him so long ago. The slightest hints of pink burning across his right cheek, “Then this Starlight, whose very raison d'etre is both figuratively and literally built upon changing the past, cannot exist because the event she wished to change never happened.”

“So... sort of like what Starlight had hoped would happen to my friendship with the girls after interfering with Rainbow Dash’s race?”

“Exactly, by averting the chain of events by which you and your friends would gain your Cutie Marks and put you on your prospective paths, she not only succeeded in preventing you all from ever meeting, thus stopping you and your friends from prying into the affairs of her and her cult. She wound up erasing her very motivation for time traveling in the first place, hence the paradox.”

“But why does she keep looping?” She pleaded almost desperately, her tail and wings twitching and flicking in increasing intensity that didn’t seem to match the academic tone of the discussion. “Why doesn’t the paradox resolve itself through a rebound or her jump just failing?”

“Because, barring any magical countermeasures you might have written into your spells, time and causality would play out from the point of attempted intercession as though nothing had ever happened. Once more leading to the same set of circumstances which would make Starlight want to traipse through time and change your present in the first place. And when she ‘succeeds’ once again,” Matthias stressed while throwing air quotes around succeeds. Letting out a surprised, though no less irritated, huff when the motion caused his quill to spill its starlight into the quotes he was attempting to emphasize, “she’ll inevitably remove herself and her influence from the timeline and, second verse same as the first, the cycle begins anew. Perpetuating the loop within a localized…”

As Matthias continued with his impromptu lecture on the inherent risks involved with time travel, he couldn't help but notice Twilight beginning to deflate. As if each point he'd bring up would stab her in the heart with Soft Machine’s rapier. Causing her ears to splay flat against her skull and her head fall into her chest while her wings wilted and fell to the bed beneath her.

“Hey, Twilight, what going on?” He asked as he scooted back over to her, hesitating for a moment before wrapping an arm over her shoulder, not sure how she’d react given how… ardent she’d been acting throughout both their discourse and the evening in general. Breathing a relieved sigh when all she did was lean into his embrace and rest her head against his shoulder. “By now we’d be trying to develop a method to determine what the base model of causality was for the realm. So why don’t you tell me what’s gotten your panties in a bunch?”

“I’m… I’m not wearing any.”

“Heheh, I figured that out about five minutes ago,” Matthias divulged through his chuckles, his laughter threatening to come out in full as he felt Twilight’s blush skyrocket into the triple digits and begin to shake against him.

But these were in no way happy or excited shakes.

The strained mewl forcing its way past her lips and the way her knuckles blanched as her fingers tightened around the navy-blue comforter they were sitting on more than enough to tell Matthias that whatever it was eating at Twilight was reasonably serious.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” he assured her while nuzzling his cheek into her ear and scalp in an attempt to settle her down. “Let he who hath never refused bedtime unless he had his stuffed dalmatian cast the first stone when it comes to all things prepping for bed.”

“Pfft, You heheh You had a Smarty Pants too?”

“If by Smarty Pants you mean a plush pal to help make the nights seem less dark and lonely then yes, yes I did,” Matthias admitted readily albeit somewhat ashamedly. Though the way Twilight seemed to brighten back up made the embarrassment more than worth it.

“Well… don’t just leave a mare hanging, what was her name and how long did your dame let you keep her? Did you take her on walks? Read with her? Would you try and wheedle more treats out of your dame claiming one was for your plush puppy? Did you- *oomph*!?”

“First of all, his name is Patch,” Matthias corrected playfully with a boop to her snoot that cut off any further questions. Happy that he had managed to diffuse this Code Sparkle before the hyperventilating and tears could start, but he didn’t want whatever it was that had cast a shadow over her to get too far away. “And in order, he was my best friend and bed buddy up until the night I got dropped into Equestria and we did everything together growing up. Including but not limited too, chasing after seagulls at the beach, hiding under our bed with a flashlight after my mom kissed us goodnight so we could read a little more Tolkien, splitting many of my grandma’s famous peppermint cookies between the two of us. And, in general, just being the best snugglemutt you could ever ask for, next to my dad’s bagel of course.”

“Pfft Bagel… Snugglemutt?”

“The former, a basset hound beagle mix,” he clarified before picking up his phone and scrolling to a screen free of apps so she could clearly see the background. “The latter, any dog, whether they be living or made of cotton, whose preferred position while sleeping is the little spoon.”

Twilight tried her best to maintain that air of regal equanimity both Luna and Cadence had been attempting to teach her for whenever she was called upon to represent the crown. To uphold the dignity ponies expected of her and her station.

But between the mental image of somepony as big as Matthias going to bed with a stuffed animal and the ridiculousness of his terran terminology. Any sense of self control she might have had left found itself thrown out the door quicker than Jazzy Jeff at the annual Banks Family Christmas Party.

Causing Twilight to cackle and snort like some sort of dorky little supervillain after having wrapped up her declaration of ill intent to her arch-nemesis. The mare barely able to keep herself upright as she barked peel after peel of near maniacal laughter into Matthias’s chest.

Fortunately, she had her human friend there to keep her from crumpling in on herself. As well as muffle her giggles against his shirt lest she alert the nearby night guards stationed outside his quarters that there was a mare going full Sam Neill at the end of In the Mouth of Madness in their charge's chambers.

Though it was becoming a bit of a struggle for Matthias to keep the jittery little pony princess contained, given the way her breath and body was tickling at him with each joyous shiver. Not to mention hidden beneath her plush, purple frame was enough corded muscle to knot his spine into a bowtie with all the effort it would take for Matthias to tie his shoe. So it was taking every ounce of self-control and muscle he’d gained from both dog and Starry alike to ensure the Princess of Friendship didn’t completely lose her shit.

Thankfully, however, before he could lose his grip on the mare in his arms and join in on her giggling, Twilight began to pull herself together. Peels becoming brays becoming chuckles becoming titters until the only sound escaping from her was her owned strained breathing and the occasional ruffle of her feathers.

“How- heheh, how are you so good at that May?” Twilight managed to ask between her waning giggles. Gracing him with another diabetes inducing smile which would no doubt leave him with one less limb sometime in the near future.

“So good at what, per se?”

“Prying my head from my flanks whenever a problem seems too big. And all without needing a crowbar and three quarts of butter to boot.”

“Heh, After twenty-nine years of overthinking things and fretting over nothing, I've learned that a bit of vapid nonsense goes a long ways towards unclenching one's sphincter.” Matthias elaborated, squeezing a few more chuckles of Twilight as she tightened her grip on him. “After all, it’s kind of hard to see the big picture or put a problem into perspective when you're too busy examining what you had for lunch the day before in real time.”

“Oh wow, that *snort* that one is definitely a keeper,” she managed to chortle out through tapered laughs while snagging a notebook and quill in her magic. The inked feather quickly moving to preserve the human's wisdom for the colts and fillies of future generations. “Heck, once your probation period is up maybe we could dedicate an entire chapter of The Friendship Journal Volume 2 to-”

“However,” Matthias interrupted causing Twilight to pause. His marred visage suddenly turning cold and serious, “I've also learned that any relief or respite gained from such distractions are but a temporary stopgap at best. And that if you really want the problem to go away, it's best to be upfront and open about. Or so a certain purple princess tells me that is.”

Once more Twilight seemed to find the wrinkles and contours covering his bedspread endlessly fascinating, given the way her muzzle tried to nuzzle itself between her breasts. But whereas before she looked ready to buckle beneath whatever it was that was troubling her. Now there seemed to be just a hint more purple coloring her cheeks, and just the slightest quiver struggling at the corner of her lips.

“Come onnnn,” he encouraged gently while rubbing a hand along her shoulder, pulling an honest to god purr from the mare for his efforts. “If a grown ass man can admit to needing a stuffed animal to help him sleep at night, surely a pony princess is capable of telling her friend what's got her looking like me come Monday morning.”

The giggles that slipped past Twilight's lips were as tiny as they were nervous, but they still carried enough warmth and mirth to melt away at some of the returning tension permeating the air around them. But for a good solid minute, it appeared as though that airy laughter would be her sole response. Seeing as the only sounds Twilight seemed willing to let slip past her were her tempered breaths and the soft rustle of her silken pajamas brushing against the comforter beneath them as she fidgeted in place.

Matthias was tempted reach out to her again. To offer her that show of physical support that ponies seemed to seek out naturally.

And yet, he hesitated nonetheless. His hand caught midway between him and her shoulder.

Unsure as to how she would respond to what he was ninety-nine percent sure was a purely platonic display during a moment of obvious emotional distress for her. As well as not wanting to push her to admitting to, or revealing something that she wasn’t one-hundred percent comfortable with confiding with him.

“Al-alright,” she agreed shakily after one last drawn out in and exhale, “but… *gulp* but on one condition.”

“Name it,” Matthias declared resolutely, his hand moving to reclaim its place on her shoulder. The purple pony practically melting into his touch as she fell back against him.

“... utt for a bit?”

“What was that?”

“...our snugglemutt for a bit?”

“Hold on a sec,” Matthias suggested before bringing his ear down to the tip of her muzzle, making sure to drag his cheek down the length of her fuzzy face the entire time. Wanting to reward the poor mare for opening up to him as well as throw her a bone before her courage fled her completely, “There. Now, what would my brave little pony have of me?”

“Could… could I be your snugglemutt for a bit? At least… At least until Luna gets here?”

“Будь ты проклят, ты империалистический конь!!!” screamed the poor black and brown ball of fuzz as he held onto the rungs of his wheel for dear life. His squeaky little voice taking on an almost doppler-like effect as the abstract metaphor around him began to blur like some sort of flaming zoetrope.

“Come… come again?” he finally managed to ask after the surge of blood threatening to light the tip of his ears up like wicks began to drain from his head. Looking the shaking mare in the eye to make sure there was no way he could misinterpret what it was she was asking of him.

“Can… Can I snuggle with you while we talk about this? And… And could you hold me like I was your Patch while we do so?” Twilight pleaded with waning hope. Though she still tried her best to hold her head up and keep her eyes trained on his.

“I… I think we can manage that,” he conceded with a nervous smile, one that pulled just as skittish a grin from Twilight. “Though it might have been easier to just ask for a snuggle rather than put yourself on the same level of a dog, stuffed or otherwise.”

“Hee hee Yeah… but now you’re just as flustered as I am,” she teased, chuckling at the way his pale pink skin turned nearly as rosy as the scars on his left cheek before suddenly turning downcast. “And… And you might never want to talk to me again after this. So… So I’d at least like to have this to hold onto if things go South from here.”

Matthias couldn’t help but let out an audible *gulp* at the sudden seriousness in Twilight’s demeanor. Offering up a quick prayer to whatever mad horse god was running this show that this was just another instance of making mountains out of molehills on her part. But other than his eyes and throat bugging for a bit he let no other sign of fear or worry mar his visage. Not wanting to give Twilight any further cause for concern as he gave an affirming nod:

“Alright, how do you want to do this?” he asked, letting Twilight take the lead so as to offer the flighty mare more control over a situation she was clearly still uncomfortable about.

“Ooh! Hold on a sec,” she asked before lighting up her horn and quickly yanking a spiral notebook, one strangely covered in purple sequins and hearts, out from beneath a stack of parchment and papers they had piled onto his desk to make room for cake. The swift motion threatening to pull apart the delicate equilibrium keeping the various towers of books and notepads aloft like his sister on the tenth round of a drunken Jenga session.

“Let’s see… well, typically we'd first have to get under the covers,” she read off matter of factly before her words seemingly caught up with her. Her blush burning darker than her pajama top as she started fiddling with her fingers.

“Is Heheh Is it sad that I’m perfectly okay with you having a checklist for cuddling?” Matthias confessed both good-heartedly and with a rosy blush of his own before picking up Twilight’s tiny typewriter and setting it on the floor beneath his desk. Piling the stack of papers it had spit out throughout their readthrough of The Time Machine next to it.

“May… Please,” Twilight practically begged as she turned down the quilt and comforter covering his bed before taking a seat on its edge. Her hooves idly swinging back and forth as she pulled the azure sheets up and over her head so that only a purple snout was poking through. “I… I know I can be a lot to deal with. And… And am lucky I’ve met so many wonderful ponies, and humans, who’ve been willing to be put up with me for so long. But I… But I’ve wanted this for so long, and I just… I just want this to be perfect. So could… could you just bear with me for a little longer before I lose you for good?”

Any other cute quip or teasing tangent Matthias might have had up his sleeve quickly went the way of Yoshikage Kira after his double date with Star Platinum and that ambulance. Her earnest plea and genuine dread once again fucktupling the depth of the pit hollowing out his stomach, but at the same time making him all the more eager to try and comfort this neurotic little mare who had been there for him through rock bottom and beyond.

So, not wanting to waste any more time Twilight could have used to either misconstrue his silence or fret herself further into a rut about whatever it was that was bothering her. Matthias made his way back to his bed and plopped down next to her, sliding the makeshift shawl off her head and bringing her into a gentle hug.

“M-May?! What… What are you- EEP!” was all she could squeak out in surprise before she felt him rest his head against hers and press his lips behind her ear. That squeak breaking down into a series of breathy grunts and moans as he began laying a trail of kisses down her neck and up her cheek, ending at the corner of her lips.

“Now look here you giant, purple nerd. When are you gonna get it through that thick egg head of yours that you're just as stuck with me as I am with you?” Matthias lambasted the panicking princess, using the hand he had draped across her shoulders to cup her cheek and hold her in place while the other went to prod at her muzzle. “I mean seriously, the mere fact that you’re still willing to talk to me after you, Starry, and Due Date talked me down from the top shelf of the Ley Lines and other Natural Arcanas section of the Royal Archive during the whole DD Debacle has definitely garnered you near Suk levels of loyalty on my part.”

“Sook?”

“Practitioners of a medical philosophy from one of my favorite Sci-Fi series. Recognized for their unconditional fidelity and inability to betray the welfare of their patients (save for extreme circumstances). And yes, I have all those books on my phone as well if you want to read them,” he offered to Twilight after slipping his booping finger down and pressing it to her lips, shushing her before she had the chance to even ask. “So, how about we all take a nice, deep breath, and then you can tell me what’s next on your list, okay?”

Now, whether it was by some odd play of the light as it danced through her welling tears, or her reeling feelings beginning to run amok with her magic, Matthias couldn’t tell. But the sheer intensity of the glow shimmering in Twilight’s eyes threatened to leave his pale white ass with a tan as she gently removed his finger from her muzzle before leaning forward and pressing her quivering lips to his again.

Tearing another muffled gasp from Matthias not just from the suddenness and inherent intimacy that came with the gesture, but by just how intrinsically… genuine this kiss felt as opposed to all the others.

Which wasn’t to imply that every other kiss the pair had managed to steal from one another over the course of the very early morning were lacking in any manner of sincerity or anything. Yes, while they had been for the most part playful and teasing, and each had gotten quite the kick out of how their blushes had dyed each other’s cheeks varying shades of pink and purple respectively. Matthias could still feel the pure and honest affection Twilight was desperately trying to convey to him exploding behind every subtle shift of her lips as they molded against his.

However, whereas all her previously pilfered pecks had ended with her backing off so she could try, and ultimately fail, at curtailing both her girlish giggling and florid flushing. There was neither backpedaling nor hesitation with this current liplock. Only bursts of searing breath that threatened to leave blisters on Matthias’s lips and a happy, needy mewl spilling into his mouth.

One he couldn’t help but return and reciprocate in full as he tilted his head to both give her better access and him a better angle to press into her. All thoughts of any possible repercussions or consequences having been launched out the window with the hamster as he stopped holding back the affection and appreciation he’d been wanting to show this purple dork ever since she crashed through his mirror not two hours ago.

Finally kissing her back in earnest and without hesitation in the hopes of letting her know just how important she was to him, and just how special she made him feel. Going so far as to start poking and prodding at her lips with his tongue just as she had done so with him earlier, earning himself a squeaky moan and pleasured shudder from the purple nerd as she granted him entry into her mouth. Their slick tongues gliding past one another in a chaste, albeit sloppy, waltz. Not unlike two middle schoolers at a Fall Formal trying their best to maintain a rhythm amidst their own inexperience and out of control hormones.

With Twilight’s longer, broader tongue being constantly outmaneuvered by Matthias’s shorter, thicker muscle as it ducked and dodged her best efforts to try and take the lead. Each miss giving the suddenly emboldened human an opportunity to tickle and tease at the inside of her mouth with reckless abandon.

At least, until the purple princess remembered a little trick she had read about in a magazine article recommended by Cadence, and borrowed from Rarity, that had left her a blushing, stammering mess for about a week after she had read it. Feinting Matthias with an overly aggressive swipe at his tongue which he handily dodged before beating a hasty retreat back into her muzzle.

However, in his eagerness to both punish the mare for her brazen efforts and indulge some more in the feel of her velvety tongue slipping and sliding past his own, he followed her too far back into her maw where she promptly activated her trap card. Her teeth latching onto his tongue with all the gentleness of a mother holding her child’s hand while they crossed the street so she could:

1). Keep Matthias from running off and accidentally hurting himself in his excitement

And

2). Pay him back for being so goddam patient and understanding with her

A satisfied smirk stretching across her muzzle as his surprised squeak melted into a throaty moan when he felt Twilight begin suckling on the tip of his tongue like a baby with its binki. His brief bout of panic at feeling his tongue trapped between her teeth forgotten the moment he felt Twilight’s soft muscle coil its way around his own like a scarf on a cold winter’s day. Trusting that Twilight would do him no harm as he gladly handed sovereignty of his mouth over to her, allowing himself to lose himself for a bit in her taste and texture.

And yes, while whatever reasoning his hamster and left brain could muster was screaming for him to stop. That this was in no way how just friends were supposed to show their affection for one another. And how not even fifteen minutes ago he’d been willing to commit to Luna.

There was no way to deny how simply… right this felt.

That this was what was needed for the two of them right this second.

With Matthias needing to assure Twilight that she was just as important and vital a pony to him as Luna and Celestia were. And Twilight needing to remind Matthias that he wasn’t alone, that he was loved, and that she would always be there for him.

And if what Twilight was saying about Luna courting him and having her eye on him was true, and not some elaborate prank on their part. Then he was definitely going to have a chat with the Lunar Diarch about what he and Twilight had discussed and done this evening. Not just to come clean with her about willingly committing acts with Twilight which he felt went beyond what was appropriate for friends. But to discuss how they could possibly address these issues of inadequacy the princesses were apparently feeling so that their friendships could survive this paradigm shift in their collective relationship.

However, until such a time as Luna was willing to speak for and come clean herself, Matthias was going to focus all his efforts on apologizing to Twilight for making her seem the lesser of her fellow princess. No matter how loud his logical half screamed at him to think of Luna and how she might react to this.

Fortunately, however, or unfortunately depending on which half of his brain you happened to be asking at the time, just before Matthias could get too lost indulging in the fuzzy lips and the slick velvet massaging his tongue, Twilight finally surrendered her hold over his mouth and pulled herself away. Her breathing ragged and choppy from both her excitement and an apparent lack of oxygen. Sending wave after wave of hot, spicy breath breaking against his face in longer, more controlled bursts.

“Thank you,” she said as fresh tears began pouring down her cheek again. Tears Matthias made sure to nuzzle and kiss away as soon as they formed, catching them before they’d even fallen halfway down her face.

“What can I say? I owed you one,” he admitted with a smirk and a blush. One which only deepened when she threw her arms around him and pulled him into a fierce hug. Her damp cheek wetting the crosshatch of scar tissue he had received from his little baptism by fire when he first arrived in the Deeps.

“More like fifty,” she chided playfully before starting to trace her tongue along the tracks of jagged flesh left on the left half of his face. Her relaxed sighs sending shivers running down his spine whenever it broke across the skin she'd slickened.

“Heheh We can hash out the finer details for proper reconciliation after you finish telling me what's been bothering you. Sound fair?” he compromised after cupping her muzzle before she could get to work on his ears again. Unsure if the mare was simply stalling for time or had actually forgotten the circumstances that had led them to swapping spit like a pair of coeds behind the bleachers of a football game. His gentle reminder causing Twilight to tense up for a second and her ears to fall flat. Though she nonetheless nodded her consent after another minute or two spent resting her muzzle in his hands.

“Al- *gulp* Alright, c-c-could you… could you lay me down, please?” She finally managed to ask Matthias after planting a kiss in the palm of his hand and giving him a pleading, puppy dog pout worthy of Lois the Wonder Bagel. Her timid plea a far cry from the emboldened mare who not ten minutes ago had seemed ready and willing to challenge the Lunar Diarch over the claim she allegedly had over Matthias.

Offering Twilight a reassuring grin, he snaked his arms around her back and under her legs before hoisting her up bridal style once again. Her returning dread snuffed out by the shock and surprise of having taken flight by a means not her own. But before she had any chance to ask him just what in the unholy Tartarus he was up to, he stood up and spun her around towards the bed. Her arms wrapping around his neck to try and maintain some semblance of stability on her part as he bent down to lay her down as requested. Her grip on him only tightening as he made to let her go and stand back up.

“Uh… Twilight?”

“N-Next you *gulp* Next you have to lay down with me,” she explained tremulously as her eyes turned to study the pillow he had propped her against. Her blush dying her coat nearly as dark as her mane as he smiled down at her.

Causing Matthias to chuckle lightly at the mare beneath him as she slowly changed from an amethyst to a sapphire. Finding it amusing how she could still think snuggling with him such a nerve-racking proposition after they’d been sucking on each other’s tongues for the better part of five minutes. Giving her a nod and another quick kiss on the tip of her muzzle before laying down and resting himself beside her. The covers beginning to sparkle and shine in a veil of her magic before they fell over top of them.

“Alright, now whmmph!?” he tried to ask, only to have Twilight cut him off in the most pleasant way possible. Mashing her mouth against his desperately to try and bolster what little courage she had left.

“Just *pant* *pant* Just hold me, please?” she begged with that same patented pony pout Luna or Celestia would hit him with whenever they were trying to get his ass to bed. Answering her with a nod and a kiss of his of his own that quelled the little shivers beginning to rack her tiny frame.

Tears once more threatened to spill from those amethyst eyes of hers as she rolled to her side and took her place as the little spoon. Fidgeting against him for a second or two as she tried to mold as much of her back against his torso as possible. Her wings lifting up and out of the way, so he had room to wrap his arms over and around her. His hands falling across her belly where he began tracing all manner of senseless nonsense across her taut tummy. Pulling another string of dorky little snorts from the tiny princess as he continued to paint ticklish streaks through the thin purple coat covering her plush pony paunch.

Those giggles catching in her throat when she felt Matthias bury his face in her mane and start planting kisses up and down her neck. Her wings flexing and pressing against him as she unconsciously leaned her head back to expose more of her neck for him to pamper. Soft coos and squeaks pouring past her lips like a summer rain as Matthias went to work on the exposed skin and coat with his cheek and tongue.

“Thank you,” she whispered sleepily as she felt the tension and dread tearing through her soul be stripped away with each gentle stroke and caress of his hands and lips. The soft heat diffusing off his hairless skin threatening to lull her off into Luna’s domain as it began seeping into her coat.

“Don’t thank me yet, you still need to come clean with me,” Matthias warned the sleepy princess before she could get too comfortable, easing up on his kisses and nuzzles a bit but still maintaining an even pace with his hands. The soft reminder of her previous promise causing Twilight’s muscles to tense beneath his fingers and a quiet whimper to slip past her lips as she tried to press more of herself against him.

For several agonizing seconds the only sounds that could be heard filling the dimly lit chamber were the soft sobs of the princess as she tried to pull herself together and the occasional shuddered breath she’d release whenever Matthias fingers would dance too close to the rim of her belly button. But just as Matthias was about to press her again, and maybe offer her another kiss or an ear nibble to try and better put her ease, he felt Twilight’s back press more into his chest as she took one last bracing breath before beginning to explain herself:

“W-W-W-Well, after our initial attempts at returning you home bore us no fruit. I began kicking around the idea that if I could simply study the initial conditions prior to your arrival to the Equestrian materia, then maybe I could use that data to reverse engineer the circumstances that brought you here and send you back to your plane.”

“And you were thinking about using time travel in order to do so,” Matthias surmised before planting a kiss behind the ear he’d been nuzzling. Wanting to both thank Twilight for finally opening up to him and distract himself from the rotting carcass of a hope he had long since thought dead beginning to stir in its grave.

“Y-Yes,” Twilight affirmed with a squeaky little stammer, though whether that little lilt was from her returning apprehensions or from the kisses Matthias had begun laying along the rim of her ear, was anyone’s guess, “but… but like I mentioned earlier, ponies have been debating the moral and ethical ramifications of taking asynchronous actions within the natural chain of causality since long before it made the leap from simple thought experiment to arcane probability. Arguing everything from the legal precedent of using divination to determine when and where to sell corporate capital to the ethics of altering a trauma victim’s past so as to allow them the happy life Harmony had intended for them. I mean, sweet Celestia above, there was once a debate that got so heated between Open Forum and Greater Good over the metaphysical risks of simply being temporally displaced that it took the mason’s guild six months just to clear away the-”

“So is that why you chose Wells to get your hooves wet?” Matthias cut in, hoping to catch her before she wandered too far down that particular rabbit trail. Trying his best to ignore how close to home her latter example had hit by focusing all his attention on the little pony heart beating against his chest and not on the dogs barking for his attention. “To see how humans have approached those types of metaphysical quandaries?”

“Mhmm I… I had hoped to catch a glimpse of your tribe’s perspective on chronal metaethics but Aychjee seemed more interested in sussing out how the Eloi and Morlock’s respective cultures had diverged from his own. Seriously, for a story called The Time Machine there was hardly any mention of temporal mechanics and not one bit of ethical discourse.”

“Yeah, sorry to disappoint you on those fronts, but the closest we’ve gotten to manipulating the flow time back on Terra is putting ultra precision clocks in airships going at differing speeds. So instead, us creative types will often use it as a plot device in order to explore the unchecked consequences of whatever social stigma was buzzworthy at the time. So, in Wells’ case, it was a hyperbolic take on the classism of his era whereby those of the aristocracy and working classes each… devolved, for lack of a better word, into two unique species as a result of the artificially imposed environments their society had constructed for them.”

“May, there’s no such thing as a species devolving, it’s simply-”

“A population inheriting traits and features that we from our current evolutionary and aesthetic framework would find unappealing or disadvantageous, I know. But The Time Machine was written within thirty years of our species stumbling upon the theory of evolution, so they hadn’t quite hashed out the finer details and nomenclature yet. Plus, and you gotta admit, ‘devolve’ rolls off the tongue a bit easier than a proper definition that hasn’t been given a proper scientific denotation yet.”

“Rgggh Make up your mind May, are you a physicist or a biologist?”

“Neither, I’m only qualified to teach the former. And the latter is just basic biology we learn in middle school.”

“M-M-M-Middle school!? But… But… Ponies with corresponding talents don’t even touch that subject matter until at least halfway through their third year of vocational training!” Twilight balked in disbelief, her ears springing up and slapping Matthias across the face with all the force of an irate bar patron on the receiving end of a poor pick up line. Though they just as quickly fell flat against her skull before a dejected sigh racked its way through her, and by extension Matthias’s, frame, “Seriously, it must feel like you’re living in a world full of children most days, huh May?”

“Says the pony who spanks every known law of physics and biology I've ever learned over her knee like an unruly toddler on a daily basis,” he assured the pouting pony with a quick nibble of her ear and a couple fast rakes of his fingers along her ribs. The ticklish jolts coursing through her stomach and chest quickly burying any further self deprecation she might have had for herself and her kind. “Then again, it’s kinda hard not to think of you all as kids seeing as most of you can barely reach my nose on your tippy hooves.”

“I-I'll have you know that even prior to my ascension I was well within the expected height parameters for mares of my age-group,” she shot back with a fire as she threw her head over her shoulder in an attempt to melt what was left of his face with her glare. A glare which burned down to cinders when he captured her lips again.

“I'll have to take your word for it squirt,” he joked after releasing his hold on her mouth. Waiting for the mare in his arms once again relax into his embrace before steering her back on course:

“Alright, so you’ve been thinking about using time travel to look into how I got here. But you ponies have been arguing yourselves into a rut over the moral and ethical ramifications of time travel for as long as the concept has existed, and you thought my people’s perspective on the matter would provide you with some means of working around some of these metaphysical hangups. We on the same page so far?”

“Uh-huh,” she affirmed nervously as she began dragging the length of her leg up and down Matthias’s calf. Reclaiming a bit of her confidence when she felt the breath breaking across her neck hitch and the cheek nuzzling her ear heat up dramatically. Though her cheeks couldn’t help but flare up as well when she felt the leg she’d been stroking slip away from her before entwining with her own. The large, alien stallion now effectively hugging her with his entire body.

“Good, now, in spite of finding fuck all in regards to what it was you were looking for, you were still holding yourself with all the poise and composure of Celestia at a House Address up until I started running my gob off about the different prospective models of linear causality this plane could follow,” Matthias pointed out. His strong arms and legs preventing the now panicking princess from curling in on herself, “And my explanation of the dynamic paradigm had you wilting like Black Sabbath in the sun.”

“Black who?”

“Missing the point Twi,” he warned the lavender alicorn gently. Having reached his limit for the number of tangents he was willing to let her run down and not wanting to leave this issue unresolved before he had his talk with Luna. “What was it about the dynamic model that made you so upset?”

“...asn’t the model.”

“What was that?” Matthias asked as he nuzzled his cheek down closer to her lips.

“It… It wasn’t the model.”

“Then what was it?”

Once again Twilight went scarily quiet, her labored breathing the only answer she seemed willing to give Matthias, the silence only broken by the occasional tear that fell onto the bedding beneath them.

“E-Ever since the idea of using time travel as a viable means to study the phenomenology behind whatever it was that dropped you into the Deeps popped into my mind. I… I’ve been racking my brain over how to make the leap without potentially splintering the timeline like I had done with Starlight before befriending her,” she finally managed to bring herself to say. Her words slow and strained as if she were fighting to keep them from escaping her mouth.

“But… But between the complexities of the spell matrices and the sheer amount of jewels needed to cast the spell. The endless debates preventing any practical study on the subject from progressing. And Celestia pulling just about all the available research and theory on the matter and deeming it an Eclipse Class threat after the incident with Starlight and the Scroll of Temporal Transference. I… I wasn’t able to discern a methodology for traveling into the past which would allow me to observe the conditions without directly interacting within the continuity, so I wound up having to shelve that idea.”

“And let me guess, you seeing a book my people had written on a subject you’d been trying to find a workaround for, for Cthulhu knows how long got your hopes back up,” Matthias offered up in an attempt to alleviate some of the burden from Twilight’s confession. Giving the worried little princess a reassuring hug and another tickle across her belly in a show of support, “Only, rather than getting the answer you were hoping to find, you instead got a primer on the benefits of a socialist state and the musings of a disgruntled sci-fi fan on his distaste for the trope in general. And are now feeling all that guilt and disappointment you went through when you couldn’t help me out the first time, right?”

Now, if Matthias hadn’t been pressed close enough to feel the little alicorn’s heart thundering through her back and into his chest. He’d almost be convinced that he was cuddling with a corpse, given how stiff and rigid Twilight had become as he laid out his best guess as to what was weighing down upon the poor pony’s spirit. Her labored breaths and wilting wings falling across his arms and legs like a blanket of wet snow all the confirmation he needed to tell him he was at least somewhere in the ballpark of pretty damn close:

Sometimes I like being m-

“It… It wasn't because I couldn't find a way to help you!” Twilight corrected sharply, cutting off Matthias halfway through his internal victory lap as her shaking suddenly returned with enough force to nearly buck him off of her. “It was- *sniff*- It was because I was happy I couldn't find a way to help you!”

In an instant, Twilight felt the callused hands sketching tender trails through the thin coat covering her belly jerk to a halt. His deceptively strong digits digging into the bit of pudge she had put on from one too many late nights holed up in her library with nothing but a stack of mental junk food and a couple dozen glazed donuts to keep her company. While the steady breaths that had been gently combing through her mane like her mother's brush suddenly seized like an overworked train engine.

But even scarier than that deathly stillness now locking his, and by extension, her, arms and legs in place. The sudden loss of her limb’s liberty as well as having a potentially enraged predator looming over her prodding briefly at her flight reflex for a moment was the Winter Waste like chill soaking up the warmth they’d been basking in for the past few minutes. The human’s pale white skin seemingly draining the heat from her fur wherever bare flesh met coat.

Twilight couldn’t bring herself to look Matthias in the eye, unable to bear the look of absolute disgust and utter disappointment he was surely stabbing her with. Bracing herself for when the shock of her confession would inevitably wear off and he’d start laying into her with either his tongue or fists, perfectly willing to accept whatever punishment he deemed worthy for such a betrayal. However, Twilight was both relieved and terrified when all she felt was Matthias’s chest expand before releasing a long, steady breath, and spoke one single word to her in a tone scarily even and devoid of any feeling:

“Explain.”

Though that brief bout of relief she felt at him being so level headed in the face of her selfishness was swallowed up in its entirety by her dread and shame. As she realized she now had to go in depth as to how she had abused his friendship and trust. And though the mere thought of having to come clean about how she had let him down so spectacularly made her feel as though somepony had ripped her horn off and was currently stabbing it behind her ear, she owed it to Matthias to tell him the honest to Celestia truth about how she had betrayed him:

“Do you *sniff* Do you remember the night we first met? How… How we spent the entire evening swapping chemistry and customs up in my old loft back at the library?” she asked somberly. Fighting through tears and a runny nose to try and make it clear where she was coming from. Thankful that he was at least giving her a chance to explain herself before he rightfully punted her traitorous cunt to the curb. “And how I swore I would do just about any and everything to try and help you?”

Once more Matthias kept as still and as silent as the grave, offering Twilight neither a playful quip nor a comforting caress to try and make this ordeal more bearable for her. The morose mare desperately longing to feel his fingers trailing across her belly or his soft lips playing with her ears again. Though he at least offered her a terse nod that she felt tugging at her mane slightly to let her know he had heard her. The choppy motion and the drawn-out breaths falling across her cheek killing the silly notion that the shock of her betrayal had somehow killed her human friend.

“W-W-W-Well, as you *sniff* as you’d rightly guessed that night, I… I’d been damn near tearing my mane out trying to find something… anything that could possibly earn me your friendship. To show you that I wanted to help you no matter the cost after what you did for the girls and Zephyr. I mean, what sane mare wouldn't want to help a neglected stallion, let alone one who had suffered through so much just to keep his herd safe.”

“My herd?” Matthias questioned in that same flat monotone from before, the sudden shattering of his silence and his terseness causing Twilight to flinch a bit.

“I-I-I-It wasn't anything codified or legally binding!” Twilight quickly cleared up, her drooping tail wrapping its way back around his leg almost possessively. “But… But between making sure Dinky and the girls were fed and protected, supporting Marble and Maud in their labors, and taking care of Zephyr when his wing was crushed, you met and fulfilled just about every criteria expected of a proper alpha. It was… It was one of the main reasons why me and Luna felt we could trust and open up to you.

“But then we got to talking or… rather, I got to talking while you wrote mostly,” she explained while correcting herself. The ice forming around her heart thawing some when she felt him cough up a couple quiet chuckles. “And I… And I got to find out just how *sniff* just how wonderful a stallion you are!”

Twilight tried to take another steadying breath, hoping to keep her guilt-stained ramblings at least close to something resembling coherent. But it seemed as if each attempt she made at stemming the flow of pent up guilt and shame fermenting in her chest would cause the black tide to push back harder and harder. Her words beginning to flow unbidden with her tears as layer after layer of remorse and regret was cleaved from her heart like ice off the hull of an arctic freighter. Replaced by a sense of warmth and relief she felt she had no right to feel after hurting Matthias as she did:

“I got *sniff* I got to find out just how kind you are, h-h-h-how accepting you are of others. How patient you can be when Luna and I are in one of our funks, and… and… and just how… how... strong you can be.”

“But… but I'm no-”

“YES. YOU. ARE!!!” Twilight nearly screamed, her guilt and fear temporarily forgotten as she laced her fingers with the hands still wrapped around her abdomen. Wanting to kill this silly notion Matthias had of himself before he started down that blackened path again that always ended with him blaming himself for what had happened to him in the Deeps.

“You lost everything! Had your friends and family taken from you! Half your face and body melted off! And were subjected to every manner of horror and degradation imaginable in that Luna forsaken pit! But when you stumbled upon a poor helpless filly trapped beneath a section of collapsed tunnel, what did you do? Did you leave her to her fate? Brush it off figuring her friends would dig her out? No, you offered to bear the weight of that entire damn mountain so the others could pull her out, even after Maud tried to punch your head damn near off your shoulders for your troubles.”

The chuckles that slipped past Matthias's lips were soft, not unlike the gentle beating of a butterfly’s wings as it took to the sky for the first time. The warm laughter melting the frigid stillness that had settled over her friend as she felt his hands squeeze around hers in return and pull her back into his chest. The feel of his damp cheek brushing against hers again threatening to get her bawling as well.

“A-A-A-And the more this brave, strong stallion opened up to me, the more I found myself wanting to stay with him with each passing visit. Not just because I hadn't gotten his collar off yet or had failed to find a way to send him home, but because I wanted to hear just one more story from his homeland that his mother would read to him at night while growing up. To play just one more round of that Scrabble game with him as we argued the legitimacy of using terran and Equestrian colloquialisms. And to listen to just one more song with him even though it looked and felt like each note he heard was going to bring him to tears.”

Once again Twilight found herself fighting back her sobs as she felt Matthias begin planting kiss after kiss along her neck and ear. Her breath catching as his arms tightened around her and crushed her against him. Unable to process why he would want to comfort her after betraying him so. But if Matthias was willing to offer her some comfort in the face of her slight, who was she to argue. Doubly so if he'd want nothing to do with her after all this, so she might as well enjoy it while he was still willing to even look at her.

“In *sniff* In fact, the more time I spent with you, the more I realized how scared I was of having to say goodbye to you one day. How every time we'd fail to discern the methodology by which you traversed the Aetherium in hopes of finding your point of origin in the void, there'd be some ugly little part of me that would be relieved that our efforts had gotten us no closer to sending you home! Happy that I’d get to spend another week showing you around Canterlot and teaching you our ways rather than gathering the spell components to build the transdimensional bridge that would send you home! So when my first attempts at utilizing achronal movement to try and discern how you arrived in Equestria failed, I was just as relieved as I was disappointed because that meant I didn’t have to lose you yet! Th-Th-Th-That’s why when I saw you had a book about time travel in your library, and you were willing to share your tribe’s varying perspectives on linear causality with me, the scientist in me started squealing in delight while that bucking bitch part of me that doesn't want you to leave started to panic! Then when The Time Machine turned out to be nothing more than speculative fiction, and you pointed out how the causal modus of our materia wasn't a guarantee I was relieved that I didn't get the answers I wanted and didn't have to send you away and never see you again!”

Twilight was puffing and panting as if she'd just sprinted the full Ponyville circuit for the Running of the Leaves. Her head going light and her face numbing from forcing all her breath towards wrapping up her confession. But beneath the pins and needles buzzing below the thin skin covering her lips and cheek, there was a giddy lightness bubbling up in her chest like a second grader’s baking soda volcano. Sending bolts of sheer joy and near rapture arcing through her veins like a runaway freight train as she felt that millstone finally cut from her neck.

“Oh, sweet fucking Christ Twilight.”

Though she was quickly pulled out of her reverie by the sudden loss of a hand from around her belly and a familiar, frustrated groan coming from her big spoon. The nostalgic noise nearly snapping her wings to attention, if not for the arm still pressing her back into his chest, as it was a far cry from the string of insults and condemnations she’d been expecting from him. Nor did she expect him to all but collapse against her in some odd blend of a glomp and a sigh as the tension locking his limbs around her tiny, purple frame seemingly melted away.

“M-May… What's *gulp* What's wro-”

“Please don't ever fucking scare me like that again you damn daft dork,” he scolded the panicking princess before furiously nuzzling his cheek along her neck and muzzle. Her skin heating up dramatically from both the friction of his bare skin rubbing against her coat and the sudden return of her blush.

“W-W-W-Wait heheh you’re not heheh you’re not mad?” she asked incredulously between the giggles he was pulling out of her with each ticklish brush of his cheek through the velvet thin fur covering her face. Fighting back a breathy moan when she felt his sharpened teeth begin to part the downy follicles wrapped around her neck and scrape across her skin.

“And what exactly am I supposed to be mad about?” he asked teasingly before blowing along the paths of parted fur he'd trailed up and down Twilight’s neck. Setting the mare molded against his chest to squirming and panting like a puppy getting scratched beneath its collar. Laughing beneath his breath as he felt one of the legs he’d entwined with his own try to break away and start kicking.

“B-B-B-But I was happy I couldn’t send you home!” she shot back aghast, not willing to let herself off the hook for slighting her friend. Though she was finding it ever so difficult to stay upset between the kisses he was trailing across her muzzle and the feel of his hands rubbing up and down her tummy. “I… I failed to get you back to your friends and family and all I could think was, ‘Oh, thank Celestia he doesn’t have to go yet!’ How… How are you even still willing to look at me, let alone touch me?”

“Did you flub any of the results you found in order to keep me here?” Matthias asked succinctly, laughing as the bristling fur around her neck tickled at his nose.

“Of course not! What kind of scientist do you think I-”

“So, you followed the data you collected to its logical conclusion and determined the specific methodologies you were testing would fail in sending me home, right?”

“R-Right, but that’s still no excuse for-”

“And when one path didn’t give you the results you were hoping for, did you simply quit and say it was impossible for me to get home or did you look into some other means of possibly sending me home?

“The… The latter but-”

“Then I don't see what the problem is,” Matthias assured her before parting her mane with his nose and grazing his teeth across the nape of her neck. Any further depreciating words she might have had for herself dying with the shudder running up and down her spine as she felt Matthias drag his tongue from the crook of her neck up and across her cheek and to her ear where he began chewing on the tip like it was the center of a grape Blow Pop.

“And besides, you spent so much time fussing and fretting over how much I’d hate you, you didn’t even stop to consider that I’d be just as happy as you were that you failed.”

Matthias was shocked when the pony in his arms simply burst apart in a cloud of sparkling amethyst dust, his arms collapsing around empty air where the Princess of Friendship had previously been laying. Though he was barely given a chance to make either a Nightcrawler reference or pull out his best Meeseeks impersonation before Twilight BAMFed back on top of him. Rolling him onto his back in the process so she could straddle him for a third time this night turned early morning, her eyes scrolling up and down his face like he was a tome of forgotten lore.

“But… But don’t you want to go home?” Twilight nearly screamed in near total befuddlement, though the rhythmic twitch of her wings and the soft swish of her tail brushing against his legs betrayed a joy and excitement she was still unsure she should be feeling. “Don’t *gulp* Don’t you want to see your friends and family again?”

Twilight saw all manner of nostalgia and longing war across what was left of his face before he wrenched his eyes shut and took in a couple long, shaky breaths which he slowly released before meeting her gaze with a soft green glow burning behind his eyes.

“I do… Oh, sweet dreaming Cthulhu beneath the sea I do. I mean, I set up a whole weekend trip to Emerald City Comic Con for my friend Will’s birthday that I’m gonna have to reschedule at least a year in advance if he’s gonna make it for his 30th. And Jamie still needs my help compiling those pilgrimage narratives for that Israel in the Medieval Mindset course he wanted to set up at his university. Not to mention I need to let my mom and dad know I’m alright and at least eating well, and I need to spoil baby Zoe or Zach at least once to earn my Best Uncle Ever Badge.

“But *sigh* But when you go through something like this,” he explained while broadly gesturing to the left half of his body with a tired slump of his shoulders, “You quickly learn to make peace with certain thoughts and ideas that are only gonna give you unwarranted hopes and make the nights harder to bare.

“Besides, even if you were somehow able to magically pull a portal back to Richmond out of your purple plot, and yes I’m using ‘magically’ as pejorative in this case,” he said while booping Twilight upside the snoot, her scrunching muzzle morphing her sagging frown into a bemused grin as she tried to chomp at the offending finger. A chomp he handily dodged by sliding his hand along her muzzle and cupping her cheek, his thumb beginning to draw slow circles through her plush coat, “I have friends and responsibilities here in Canterlot I can’t just walk out on.

“Afterall, somebody’s gotta be here to keep Celestia from trying to reinstitute the cake tax and play referee for her and Luna’s little prank wars.

“And as far as our dear Lunar Diarch has come in regards to integrating, she still needs somebody who can talk with her in ye olde Equestrian without correcting her every other word lest she stops talking in general.

“And I’m sorry, but seeing as you’re more prone to explosions than Wile E. Coyote at a fireworks factory, I can’t in good conscience leave you unsupervised with anything short of a foal’s first chemistry kit unless I’m there to help put out the fires.

‘Plus there’s nopony in any of the Lunar Companies with balls big enough to tell Starry she’s had enough at the S&S and I’m the only one she’s willing to let carry her stab-happy ass back to her quarters, so that’s effectively one half of the Equestrian diarchy that needs me here in order to function properly.

“And there’s just no way I can leave a misanthrope like Sketch roaming the streets of Canterlot doing… whatever it is he does for the Watch. Seeing as you ponies, for the most part, have some manner of civility he seems immune to, and I shudder to think of the trouble he could get himself into that’ll leave May Weather and Jackie… stallion...less, as you ponies put it.

“So, unless you can find a way to send me home that guarantees me a way to come back after I’ve said my goodbyes and settled my accounts, then I’d rather just stay here and- mmmphff!?”

Twilight refused to let Matthias talk any more, suddenly finding herself possessed by an uncontrollable need to fit as much of her muzzle into his mouth as was physically possible. Her hands weaving through his rusty red hair to help hold him in place so she could get to work mapping every inch of his mouth with her tongue. His initial shock at her act of seemingly random affection melting beneath each desperate grind of her hips against his abdomen and the occasional pitter-patter of a tear falling on his face.

Though that shock soon found its second wind when he felt Twilight break her hold on his mouth and trail her soaked cheek across his face. Her wet fur and hot breath burning briefly against his skin before she picked herself off his chest and sat down in his lap and began to gyrate her hips.

“Tw-Twilight!?” Matthias tried to cry out between shallow pants and hitched breaths as he felt the lips hidden behind Twilight’s pajama bottoms kiss and tease at the erection he’d been fighting to keep hidden from the tiny princess throughout each of their little cuddle sessions. Each subtle shift and wiggle of her hips against his lap coaxing more and more of his little soldier out of his fox hole until she had him firmly wedged between her nether lips. His pleasured gasps and shocked cries silenced by the return of her fuzzy lips and velvety tongue as she used his tongue and mouth to muffle her own needy moans.

“I’m sorry,” she finally managed to sob out after her need for oxygen began to supersede her need to taste what had for dinner yesterday. Their breaths hitching and shuddering amidst the surges of white-hot pleasure stabbing into their cores as she shifted more of her weight down on his groin. Her puffy lower lips picking up the slack for the ones up top as she began soaking his hardening length in a warm dampness that he could tell from just the heat and smell alone wasn’t sweat. “I… I know me and Luna could never replace what you’ve lost or make what you went through go away. And I… And I know she wanted to take the lead when it came to your courting, but I… I have to do something to show you that we’re worth your trust and confidence.”

Matthias was huffing and puffing harder than the time he swam that thousand-meter butterfly to spite his coach for putting him in a distance event. Barely able to make out what the jittery mare was saying between the desperate breaths he was taking to replace the air Twilight had sucked out of his lungs and the head between his legs robbing his brain of much-needed blood.

His mind blanking as a million terrified and useless thoughts suddenly found themselves shunted off to the wayside in order for Matthias to focus his attention wholly on feeling the searing wet softness grinding up and down his hardening length. On listening to the rhythmic squelching of sopping fabric as their hips ran against each other. On taking in the scent of sugary grape she was spilling all over his crotch. On tasting the lingering flavors of cinnamon and cream she had shared with him while kissing him.

But when he witnessed Twilight try and shuck her top off only for it to get tangled in her rigid wings, offering Matthias a halfway decent underboob shot to compliment the down shirt he’d been blessed with earlier. He knew he had to wind her down before either of them crossed a line she or he obviously wasn’t ready to cross yet.

A chill panic crawling its way up Matthias’s spine and settling over both his heart and erection as he suddenly realized both how close he and Twilight had come to utterly shattering Luna’s heart and trust, and that he was definitely the stallion she was pining after. Her words and actions finally beginning to make sense in light of this latest realization. Clearing away most of, if not all of, his doubts and concerns as to why this normally by-the-book and rational mare was suddenly acting like a less rape happy version of Dame Edelweiss.

Though to give the Germanian delegate’s wife some credit, she had been four days into her heat cycle at the time, and her husband had mentioned how he would be sending her something exotic he had picked up while visiting Canterlot’s red light district to help quench the fire in her loins. So between her raging hormones punting her in the cunt, the ambassador’s promise of sweet, blessed relief coming her way soon, and having a then much more overcooked and underfed ape burst her door down like lumberjack Will Ferrell from Step Brothers, he could at least understand where she was coming from. Though he was grateful that he had Starry there to both clear up the misunderstanding as well as show him a way to get to his then new room that would give the Germanian Consulate a wide berth.

However, whereas the white and yellow mare had been hoping to lure him to her bed by simply handcuffing him to the banister and tearing off his clothes like a five-year-old ripping the wrapping off her Christmas presents. Twilight, though seemingly just as desperate, had been focusing on sating him instead.

With each needy kiss and soft brush of her hips against his own, seeming to beg Matthias to let her give him more. To let her show him with her body just how much he had come to mean to her over these past seven months. And with each wordless plea she made begging him to let her give herself to him in full, there came this overwhelming sense of trust and fulfillment that simply made the loss and loneliness staining his soul disappear as if it were some kind of magic trick.

Although, the sensual little spell she'd been trying to weave was broken somewhat by the frustrated string of grunts and muffled curses she’d spit out each time she'd fail to rip her top off her chest. The offending garment having gotten caught at the base of her outstretched wings in such a way as to prevent Twilight from even sliding her arms out of their sleeves. The mare’s frustration mounting in time with her pleasure as each failed attempt at freeing herself from the top half of her evening wear would cause the silken fabric to brush and rub against the thousands of hypersensitive nerve endings she and her fellow birb ponies would use to detect subtle shifts in air currents and thermals while flying and making the weather.

Her eyes finally wrenching shut as pleasure tore into her core from both behind and below, unable to hold herself up any longer as a particularly rough roll of her hips and twitch of her wings all but knocked the wind out of her. Her arms falling uselessly to her side as she fell back into his chest, burying her muzzle into his shirt to try and muffle her screams as a fresh flood of arousal soaked through her pants and spilled onto his waist. The spasming lips hugging at the tent in his trousers threatening to send Matthias over the edge as well.

However, his relief would have to come at a later time as he felt the pleasured scream she’d been shouting into his chest devolve into one of sheer, unadulterated heartache. Her first raising shakily into the air before weakly slamming over and over again into sheets beneath them.

“Tw-Twi?!” Matthias managed to shudder out amidst his mounting panic and peaking pleasure as he worked himself out from under her. The subtle shifting of their hips against one another drawing a few more pleasure shudders from the pair as he sat them both back up. “What happened? Well… I know what happened, but are you alright?!”

“N-No,” she managed to choke out in a mix of a sob and cough, her face so blue with embarrassment she looked to be suffocating. “I *sniff* I finally get the chance to show you I'm worthy of herding with you and I go and buck it up beyond all recognition!”

Again with this me being in a herd bit? Matthias pondered as he started petting Twilight's mane while she continued to bawl into his chest. Herding being a blanket statement for ponies in committed relationships either formally or informally. So again, he had to question why Twilight was coming on to him so strong if she knew that Luna was trying to herd with him as well. But given how distraught she’d seemingly become after committing another unforgivable slight against him, he chose instead to try and calm her rather than point the finger, hoping he could finally get some answers as to what the blue and purple princesses were up to.

“Now now, let's not get our non-existent panties in a bunch,” he joked while rocking the mare back and forth a bit, trying his best to ignore his engorged member screaming at him for some relief. Threatening him with a case of blue balls so severe he'd wish he were passing another kidney stone if it didn't get some attention soon. “How about you tell me what horrible sin you think you've committed to label yourself an abject failure and I can explain how you've once again misplaced your horn up your purple plot?”

“No!” Twilight shouted out in sheer frustration as she pushed herself out of his grasp, her hands tangling in her mane as she shook her head vehemently. “No no no, there’s no way you can be this bucking forgiving! There's just no bucking way you can be okay with me bucking up the bucking Maerh Beot!”

“The whosawhatsit?” Matthias asked, unsure as to what in the actual fuck she was getting at. Having maybe heard something that sounded like, “mare,” but other than that he was completely in the dark.

“The Maerh Beot? The Matris Rit? Come on May, it’s the first coupling a mare shares with her stallion after he’s forsworn his dame’s herd to join hers.” She barked out indignantly, his confusion and ignorance seeming to insult the princess. “Everypony bucking knows that!”

“Yeeahhh, I know it’s kinda hard to tell in this light, but I’m sorta not a pony,” Matthias clarified, her constant use of pony-centric pronouns, regardless of species, having become a favorite target of his in their weekly bouts of verbal jousting.

“Not the bucking time, May! You know what I… what I… bucking… meant,” she slowly trailed off, her frustration and incredulity having shattered against his naivete, leaving only concern and confusion in its wake. Her eyes scanning his alien countenance to try and find any manner of deception or willful ignorance on his part.

“May,” she finally managed to ask after finding no hints of duplicity on his end. Taking another deep breath to try and figure out where this miscommunication on her end had transpired. “When I was kissing you earlier, what exactly did you feel?”

“You mean other than fuzzy lips and a hot tongue?”

“May!”

“Alright, alright, don’t ask a literal question and get mad at a literal answer,” Matthias teased before taking a long, deep breath of his own. Hoping he could marshal his thoughts into an answer she was worthy of and not sound like he was talking out his ass.

“Well... at first I was shocked and even a bit scared, if I’m being perfectly honest with you. Because that gesture has some very intimate implications from where I’m from that I wasn’t sure you were aware of since I still hadn’t cottoned on to how you felt about me,” Matthias explained. Recalling how that first kiss they shared, to him at least, had seemingly come right the fuck out of nowhere.

Twilight reeled some at his answer, her face the very picture of somebody contemplating whether or not they had been unknowingly committing sexual assault. Her eyes going wide as her hands shot up to mouth to try and muffle the shocked gasp as she realized what she’d done. Though her bugging eyes and that gasp just as quickly melted into a needy moan as Matthias reached over to remove her hands from her muzzle and replace them with his lips.

“But there was just no denying how simply… right, that and every other kiss we shared afterward felt,” he clarified after breaking his hold on her lips. Offering her one last lap of his tongue along the tip of her muzzle just as she had done for him while first settling him down earlier. “That after everything you’ve done for me since second one of our friendship, and after making you feel so neglected, there was just no other way I could think of to thank you and show you how much you’ve come to mean to me. So I figured, human notions of intimacy be damned, if a kiss was how you ponies showed affection to your closest friends, who was I to judge. Heck, for a while there, you even had me questioning whether or not Luna was really attempting to make a move on me.”

“W-Why would you even think that?” Twilight asked in a tone that wasn’t necessarily doubtful or skeptical, but rather befuddled as if there was something fundamentally wrong in the logic he had used to reach his conclusion.

“Because where I’m from if you're trying to hook your friend up with somebody you know they're crushing hard on, you don't go taking the one their pining after to bed. It’s like… It's like if I knew you were looking to purchase the last known copy of a limited edition of Daring Do and the Chariot of Helios and I agreed to help you find it. But then I turned around and bought it instead.”

“But why wouldn't you just sha… Oh! Oh, buck me sideways,” Twilight groaned as she facepalmed hard enough to knock her flat on her back. Letting out an annoyed and frustrated groan as the missing piece of the puzzle finally seemed to click. “Your race is monogamist, aren't they?”

“If by monogamist you mean monogamous, and if by monogamous you mean we tend to commit to only one partner then yes. But what does that have to do wi-”

“Rggggh dammit Luna, this is why we stick to a bucking schedule!” she managed to groan out in an odd blend of frustration, defeat, and affirmation. Her hand sliding down from her forehead to the bridge of her muzzle to try and massage away the sudden pressure building behind her eyes.

“And what schedule would that be?” Matthias asked, eager to have something finally make sense this evening. Only for Twilight to hold her silence, all her effort apparently needing to go towards diffusing the migraine welling up on the inside her skull. Deciding to throw her a bone by plopping his hand atop her head and gently combing his fingers through her mane. Drawing a relieved sigh and coo from the mare that seemed to settle her down and help order her thoughts.

“We… We've been interested in courting you for about five months now,” Twilight finally admitted, the sudden confession causing Matthias's fingers to jerk and get tangled in her hair. Forcing another strangled whine out of Twilight.

“Oh shit!, Sorry Twi did I hu-”

“Mmmmmmmm don't be,” Twilight purred out sensually, cutting off Matthias's apology as a pleasured shudder worked its way down her body. Her remaining tension unraveling as if he’d just tugged on the end of a particularly stubborn knot. The tension permeating the room suddenly taking a much more heated air.

“Oh… uh, alright then,” Matthias weakly conceded before readjusting his fingers so his petting wouldn't accidentally scalp her. Chuckling a bit in spite of his nervousness and disbelief as he felt the back of Twilight's head follow his hand. Nuzzling into his open palm so she could feel his fingers brushing through her mane again. “S-So, both of you really like me that way then?”

“Mhmm,” Twilight admitted with a low hum and a nod. Goosebumps breaking across her skin as she felt his nails parting through the thin coat hidden beneath her mane. “I… I realized I was falling for you about six and a half months ago. And Luna, heh Luna's been wanting to take you to her bed since before she and Celestia even introduced you to me.”

“But… but she hardly even knew me at the time!” Matthias all but screamed, not buying any of this love at first sight, lovers from a past life meeting again, red string of fate bullshit. “I... I was just some monster her sister had taken pity on after the raid in the Deeps went FUBAR that would talk wi... err write with her when the sun went down. How is that in any way, shape, or form enough to garner that kind of affection from a person as goddam wonderful as her? I mean, even if you were to grant me the whole exotic piece of alien tail cliche you were spouting earlier. That tail was still covered in third-degree burns and had been ridden enough times by the time we'd met that had she'd shown up maybe thirty seconds sooner she might've been the lucky pony to peel my pasty white ass off the side of the mountain. So what could've possibly possessed her to want to- Mmmmph?”

Twilight wouldn't let him belittle himself any further. Pulling herself up quickly so she could catch his lips and dispel this foolish notion of his that he was somehow unworthy of their affections. Silencing any further disparaging remarks he might have had for himself by figuratively and literally gagging him with her tongue.

“That's why I *pant* That's why I needed to put a *pant* put a schedule to together.” Twilight clarified after pulling her tongue back into her mouth. Her cheeks turning a shade of sapphire in her excitement and embarrassment. “Equestrian rites and rituals governing courtship have changed dramatically over the millennia she’s been locked away. So, a large portion of her reintroduction seminars have been me bringing her up to speed on what is now socially unacceptable in regards to courting a mare or stallion. Otherwise, we run the risk of her breaking some poor mare’s heart over what she believed to be simply a one night stand or have her own heart shattered by a stallion she thought was seriously courting her.

“And even though it went against every gentlemarely instinct we had in us, we also knew that we had to give you time and space to come to terms with what had happened to you, and not make it feel like we were pressuring you into a relationship or taking advantage of you when you were at your most vulnerable. And there was still the possibility of us finding you a way home, or you not viewing us or ponies in general as subjects of romantic interest.

“So as much as it pained her, and eventually me when I finally came to terms with how I felt about you. We decided we should wait at least a year before approaching you about formally forming a herd. That way, Luna wouldn’t have to fear her efforts being misconstrued. I could have ample time to find you a way home and start teaching you about life here in Equestria. And that hopefully, by the time one of us approached you to broach the subject, you'd consider our offer without feeling like we were either abusing our stations or dynamic to force you into a relationship you didn’t want.”

Matthias was three parts impressed, elated, and utterly baffled as he listened to Twilight lay out her rationale behind hers and Luna’s behavior. Impressed not only by the sheer amount of thought and detail she had dedicated towards his and Luna’s feelings while constructing this schedule of hers but by the fact that she had managed to keep a mare as impulsive and childish as Luna to hold to it… for the most part. Elated to know that the feelings these mares had for him were genuine and that they were doing everything in their power to take his feelings into account in their attempts at courting him. And completely and utterly baffled because he still hadn’t gotten any rational justification from Twilight as to why she would be going so far as third base with him if she was supporting Luna in her attempts to woo him.

“But because Luna couldn’t keep her bucking skirt up,” Twilight continued to explain, giving him no chance to ask for any clarification as she stood back up, grabbing her bag and walking over to his desk before lighting up her horn. Her magic trying and seemingly failing to flow into his vanity, “We *rggh* We both started making passes at you without being fully aware of what your feelings for us were or how—come on—or how your kind engages in courtship and wound up hurting you!”

“Uhhh Twi, what are you-?”

“I need to get back to the castle and grab all the appropriate reference materials I’d set aside for you in the event you were receptive to our advances. *sniff* *sniff* As well as another pair of pants,” Twilight managed to explain amidst her strained grunts and embarrassment. Her face turning a deeper shade of purple beneath the physical strain of her efforts and the swirling arcane fires burning atop of her head.

“I didn’t *rggh* I didn’t count on us needing them for at least another seven months, so I left them behind, and I think it’s high time we all had a palaver on our culture’s respective views on courtship, and why the buck isn’t this working?!” She barked out while slamming her fist down on his desk. Her magic sputtering out as the spell rebounded back onto her.

“You’re not *yawn* You’re not using the… the right gem.”

“What was that May?” Twilight asked, her indignation quickly quelled by the tired lilt in his voice. Replaced by a panic as she saw Matthias start to sway and fall forward.

“Oh no!” she yelped out before running over to catch him. His larger from crashing over her like a warm, weighted blanket, silently thanking the Harmony that her earth pony strength was enough to keep him from going ass over teakettle as she slung his arm over her shoulders. “What’s wrong May? What happened?”

“Thaumaturgy… take something on the *yawn* on the small scale and...and give it enough juice to affect things on a large scale?” Matthias slurred sleepily, needing to let Twilight know why she couldn’t activate the gem on his end in spite of the world suddenly turning pear shaped. “My gem’s the large scale so it’s not gonna *yawn* gonna work the same.”

It took Twilight a second to both translate what Matthias was saying and recognize what was happening to him. The former realization making her want to facepalm as it was obvious a thaumaturgical link was a one way street given the symbolic metaphysics involved in establishing a connection between objects. While the latter one simply made her want to kick herself as it was plain as day to anypony with a working set of eyes what was wrong with the poor guy:

Matthias was just simply worn the fuck out.

The human’s typical shift with Celestia started at 8:00 AM and ended anywhere between 5:00 and sundown where he’d then run over to help Luna and her court for some seven to eight hours, depending on whether Luna was in desperate need of a cuddle or not. However, from what she’d gathered from him over the course of the evening, today hadn’t exactly been a typical work day for him. Having suffered through at least seven and a half of his episodes between now and tucking Celestia in and having been molested by the three mares he thought he could depend on and trust no matter what without any of them even knowing it, it was a wonder he was still conscious let alone solving metaphysical inquiries.

“Hee Hee getting a little sleepy there May?” Twilight teased as she felt him nuzzle his cheek into hers as if she were a giant purple throw-pillow. His body heat mingling with her blush in such a way as to threaten to lull her off to sleep as well, given how long they’d been talking and that it was pushing sunrise outside.

“No, I ate the Jake Jake no mi and am trying to get you to wear me so I can become the next princess of Equestria,” Matthias snarked tiredly as he tried to throw more of himself onto her. Blowing a raspberry at the base of her neck where her mane faded into her coat.

“Heheh Ooo-Heheh-Oooookay, when the human starts mysteriously speaking neighponese that’s as sure a sign as any that we both need to get some sleep. Do you Heheh Do you want me boil your sopor spores?” she offered, internally prepping herself for the inevitable brawl that always broke out when trying to cart Matthias off to bed, but was shocked when the only resistance he offered was the friction of his cheek brushing against hers as she felt him shake his head:

“N-No,” he answered almost immediately. Trying to sound both confident in his decision and firm in his resolve, but there was just no hiding the nervousness lacing his words or the small shiver rattling his bones when Twilight was close enough to feel his heart beating in his chest. “I… I promised Luna I would try it her way tonight. And I… And I need to trust that she knows what she’s talking about and will be here for me.”

Twilight’s eyes went misty at hearing Matthias putting so much faith in their friend in spite of his mounting terror and dread. Rewarding his confidence with another kiss and low moan that filled Matthias’s mouth and chest with a gentle warmth that made the larger human simply melt against her. The whole of his weight now falling fully onto her.

“Hee Hee Wow, Luna keeps telling me I’ve been getting better, but I didn’t know I could actually make a stallion pass out with just a kiss.”

“And how exactly is Luna judging your lip work?” Matthias asked trying to quirk his eyebrow up at her, but given how his head had fallen into the crook of her neck and how by this point he couldn’t tell if his eyes were even open, the most he could hope for was that she could feel it brushing through her coat.

“Well, if I’m correct in what she has planned for you, then you’ll be getting quite the hands on demonstration if and when she manages to pull her navy blue bottom away from Starry.”

“Rgggh Considering this is the first time in four months she and Starry have had to do something besides babysit me,” Matthias groaned into her clavicle, his hot breath brushing through her fur sending ticklish shivers running down her spine. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they were cross referencing what each individual squad member was carrying on their person at the time of the search with their deployment rates to try and justify their Featherweight Initiative to the Economic Council.”

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at Matthias’s near perfect summation of how their friend’s youthful zeal could be directed towards the betterment of her court and its ponies. Her own natural enthusiasm fueled by the shame of a thousand winters banished on the moon driving the mare to try and make up for all that lost time and prove to her subjects that her court and light were not the lesser to her sister’s. Pushing Luna to research and enact programs as broad-spanning and all-encompassing as switching the Night Guard’s primary initiative to stealth and tactical ops rather than be a copy paste of her sister’s soldiers. To more pony-centric and specific programs such as providing her guards with individualized meal plans to cater to their particular strand of bat pony.

However, beneath Matthias’s good natured teat twisting of their friend and Lunar Diarch, she could feel a welling frustration and nervousness running through the muscles in his chest and abdomen. Her kiss and Luna’s assurances apparently not enough to make the prospect of sleeping without the aid of her and Zecora’s remedy any more appealing.

“Hey, it’s okay,” she assured him before leaning down and brushing her cheek through his hair. “She’ll be here soon and you’ll be fine.”

“...ay with me?”

“What was that May?”

“Can you… Can you stay with me?” Matthias asked nervously, his words careful and quiet. Though whether it was out of fear of her rejection or his fading consciousness, Twilight couldn’t quite tell. “At least… At least until Luna gets here?”

Twilight was torn in more directions than when she thought she would only be able to bring one of her friends to her first Grand Galloping. Wanting with every fiber of her being to be here for her friend at this critical juncture for both his recovery and their mutual relationship. But with her planned path back to her castle having been barred by both her negligence and oversights, she had no quick way of making it back to Ponyville and the School of Friendship and would have to catch the earliest train leaving Canterlot if she wanted to make it to work on time.

“I’ll… I’ll stay as long as I can,” Twilight promised while stroking gently through his muddy red mane. “But tomorrow’s a school day, and the first train to Ponyville leaves in less than an hour. Not to mention I’m in desperate need of a change of pants so I’ve got swing by Luna’s room to pick up a spare and maybe take a quick shower. *Sniff* *Sniff* No, I definitely need to take a quick shower and then I got get a message to Starlight to let her know I might be *gulp* t-t-tardy but Spike’s still asleep I don’t want to wake him up at this hour so-Mmmph!?”

Apparently, Matthias had heard all he needed to hear in order for him to clock out confidently. Mashing his lips against her muzzle in such a way as to catch her further reason she might have had on the tip of his tongue.

“Thank you,” Matthias whispered dreamily before collapsing fully onto the bed beneath them with a cushioned crash. Sprawling out on his back like the Mochi-Man after his ten hour brawl with the Straw Hat Kid.

Giving her friend an amused smile and a tired shake of her head, she gingerly pulled the rest of his relatively lanky body up onto the bed. Making sure to be as gentle as possible with him as she propped his head against the pillow with biggest indent in it before drawing the covers up and over his shoulders. A nostalgic warmth spreading throughout her chest as she saw him start to fidget and squirm a bit beneath the sheets before finally falling still. Wondering for a second if this was what her BBBFF or Celestia felt like whenever they stumbled upon her muzzle down in an arcane treatsie or passed out beneath a pile of parchment and quills.

After taking a moment to simply soak in the rare sight of her human not bouncing around or running his mouth a mile a minute, she ever so gently maneuvered herself underneath the covers and slid herself against him. Pressing her chest into his back and weaving her arms around him in a soft hug just as Matthias had done for her when he was the big spoon.

Once she was sure she was properly settled and confident that she hadn't accidentally rousted him from his slumber, as brief as it was, Twilight flicked her horn back to life. Projecting the arcane energies out and across his bedchamber and into the common area where it began snuffing out candles and turning the keys on lamps. Leaving only the pale white glow of Luna’s light and their gentle breaths falling past their lips to fill the room once she had made sure the door to his balcony was secured, and she cut off her magic.

The warms bursts of breath breaking against his neck and the soft weight wrapped around him slowly chipping away at whatever apprehensions he may have still had about falling asleep sans spores as he willingly let his consciousness fade away.

*...m sorr...*

At least until he heard Twilight’s garbled voice blaring through his head again followed by a burst of sheer, unfiltered heartbreak stabbing into his chest. The foreign thoughts and feelings invading his soul coupled with the familiar waves of crackling heat breaking across his skin, pulling Matthias from the fringes of the Dream Plains and back to near lucidity.

*I really le… u dow… ould’ve talk… out this soo…*

However, whereas previously her words had sounded like they were being broadcasted over a walkie-talkie whose other end was calling from a half mile outside its band range. Now it was if they were coming through an overclocked bandwidth connection. The sheer intensity and depth of feeling her words carried seemingly drowning them out before they could fully reach him.

*Why coul… rave like Luna? Was a schedul so buc… portant or was I ju… red you… ouldn’t feel for me wha… eel for Luna?*

Matthias could feel tears welling up in his eyes, but between the empathy link tying their hearts together and his dissonance at bearing the thoughts and emotions of two people at once, he couldn’t tell if they were his or Twilight’s. But try as he might to lift his hand up to wipe at his face or signal to Twilight to stop, the sheer weight of her despair crashing down on him and the utter exhaustion he felt in mind, body, and soul from this day, he might as well have been trying to swim up a hill.

*...otta be the lat… Aftera… re I am forcing my fe… on you ag… ead of asking like we pr...eems like this… eally is the only way I… how much I love you*

Matthias’ heart skipped a beat at her unintended confession as pure, honest affection for him flooded into every nook and cranny of his being. Her words and feelings pushing away at every bleak thought or foolish dread that had ever stained his soul until it felt as if no matter what horrors life had in store him. No matter how cruel or unjust the world around him could be. As long as he could hold onto just one brilliant mote of this light burning his soul and never let it go, he could navigate whatever cruelty or injustice the fates had planned for him unscathed.

But just as quickly as this wave of pure love and light had crashed into him, he felt it pull back like some cruel tide meant only to smash the sand castle you’d spent an hour sculpting. Leaving him with nothing but a hollow chill and loneliness that threatened to pull tears that were wholly his own from him. His fear and anguish mounting as he felt the warm fur and feathers plastered against him begin to pull away from him. His exhaustion and disorientation from her spell leaving him unable to even call out to her, let alone try and grab her.

“Heh, And even after being so open with me I still can’t feel you with my magic. It’s *sniff* It’s no wonder you chose Luna over me.”

What?! No, I… I didn’t choose her! He felt himself scream inside his skull as panic began to set in. Hoping through odd play of the aether that she was still bound to him in some way so she might hear him as his consciousness began to fade.

“But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to let her know how I bucked up. Heh Can’t have her thinking she hurt you because I was a lousy friend when she gives you her beot.”

You’re… You’re not a… a lousy friend! He thought as loud as he could. Desperately trying to will his fingers towards his quill to see if it could convey what he was feeling to her as the room began to spin.

“I’m just… I’m just happy that Luna’s gonna finally get a chance to herd with you. Though I’ve gotta admit, it’s sad to think that I won’t get another chance to touch you like this again. I guess… I guess I should be grateful you even offered me a chance to try and herd with you. Heheh And here I was really looking forward to that dance at the Masquerade.”

I’ll give you a chance! Just… Wait, why can’t we dance?! Are you… No, Twi Don’t go!

“Thank you, May,” he heard Twilight whisper sweetly before bending over and planting what felt like one last kiss on his cheek. Her lips trembling as they pressed against him for far longer than one would consider chaste.

“Just… just promise me you’ll make Luna happy, okay?” She practically begged before walking away, off to retrieve her change of clothes before heading back to Ponyville. Stopping by the door leading to the common area before looking back at him with a sad smile. “Sweet dreams May.”

Twi, no! Please… I’m not… Don’t leave me… I didn’t mean to hurt you... I’m…

But all he got in response were Twilight’s muffled hoofsteps as she walked out the door. The sound of her hardened hooves sinking into the plush white carpet fading with each step she took away from him the only hint remaining of her ever being in his life were the echoes of his chamber door gently slamming shut.

...Sorry.

Author's Notes:

Lois the Wonder Bagel was sad she couldn't share her toy with everypony so she brought you a new chapter instead.

Once again, a huge shout out to Bookish Cipher for going over my incoherent ramblings with a fine toothed comb.

Also, this is my first attempt at clop of any kind, so I apologize in advance for any facial cramping brought about by excessive cringing.

And as always, tell me what you liked, disliked, or what you think I could do to make things flow better.

Thanks again for taking the time to read what I've got and I hope you enjoy