Alfred looked slightly worriedly at the clock that hung over Ponyville City Hall. It was around four o'clock in this world, which meant that his human self had been asleep for quite some time. He hoped that something hadn't happened to him...though he remembered being safe inside Arthur's house, so hopefully nothing would get to him. Besides, though he felt strange admitting it to himself, he was happy in this world. With Iggy.
"So, Alfred, what are we going to do tonight? If you haven't woken up by that time, I mean..." Arthur said awkwardly.
"Psh, I dunno. What do you think?" Alfred replied.
Arthur gave an indifferent shrug. "I believe we need to get food, though...I can't remember the last time I ate..."
Alfred puffed thoughtfully. "Yeah, I haven't had a hamburger in days! A person just can't live like that, y'know? I wonder if they have a McDonalds anywhere..."
Arthur wanted to argue that he didn't want to eat such trashy 'food', but he decided to spare his boyfriend. "Very well, Alfred..."
Alfred then reached out and grabbed the nearest passing pony, a brown coated earth pony with blue eyes and an hourglass cutie mark. The pony gave a surprised jerk, then turned to Alfred, his eyes wide.
"Hey you," Alfred asked, "Do you know anywhere I could find some nice fast food?"
The pony stuttered. "Uh, excuse me, but I really have no idea..."
Arthur flinched with shock at the sound of the pony's voice, a British accent, quite similar to his. "Oh, that's fine. Pardon my friend." Arthur said, suddenly stepping into the conversation.
The other pony gave Arthur a strange but intrigued look. He then turned to Alfred. "Say, by any chance have you fellows seen a grey pegasus pony flying anywhere? Yellow mane? Crossed eyes?"
Alfred and Arthur both shook their heads. Arthur felt as if this pony was somehow very familiar...
"Oh...well, okay..." the pony said, walking away.
Alfred snorted. "Huh, that pony sounded just like you! A distant relative, perhaps?"
"He did seem awfully familiar..."
"Look! A coffee shop!" Alfred said, gesturing towards a quaint building towards the side of the road. "We could eat there!"
Arthur smiled slightly, realizing how famished he really was. "Yeah, that'd be nice."
They walked into the small shop, a bell dinging as they walked in. They were immediately hit by the sickly sweet smell of fresh cakes and pastries as well as rich, dark coffee. Arthur loved the smell. It reminded him of home, of days spent in peaceful contentment.
"Hello, how may I help you?" The mare at the counter said with a soft voice. The mare's coat was a forest green, her mane white.
"Oh, we want some food and coffee and stuff, bro."
The mare gave him a strange look. "Like what, sir...?"
Alfred looked at the menu that hung above her head. "I want six chocolate doughnuts, three blueberry scones, and two large cups of black coffee."
"That will be six bits."
"Six bits...?" Alfred said questioningly. "Is that, like, money...?"
"Here's six bits." Arthur said suddenly, pulling a handful of gold coins out from seemingly nowhere.
Alfred gave Arthur a questioning look, but took the coins from him and handed it to the cashier. At the same time, an orange coated unicorn stallion walked out a door behind her, levitating a bag with his horn. He handed the stuffed paper sack to the cashier.
"Here you are." she said, handing it to Alfred.
"Thanks, bro!" Alfred said, taking the bag in his mouth and skipping off with it. Arthur followed him out the door, wondering exactly where Alfred was leading him.
"Hey, where'd you get that money?" Alfred asked.
"Oh, Twilight gave me it just in case."
"Arthur! Arthur!" Came a familiar voice.
Both Alfred and Arthur stopped in their tracks outside the cafe's door as Twilight Sparkle came rushing toward them.
"What is it, Twilight?" Arthur asked as she stopped in front of them, a wild grin on her face.
"I found a way through." she said, barely containing her excitement. "You have to come with me."
"Can we at least eat first...?" Alfred whined. Twilight shot him an annoyed glance.
"Yes, as soon as we get there. But then I have to show both of you something."
"Come in. " Twilight said, leading the two into the house. Alfred immediately sat on the wooden floor and scarfed down the six doughnuts, swallowing the coffee in one gulp. Arthur did the same, but much slower and more like a sir. Twilight watched them impatiently, tapping a hoof. When both Arthur and Alfred were done, they approached Twilight.
"Okay, what did you want to show us, Ms. Sparkle?" Arthur asked, using a nearby napkin to wipe his mouth.
"Come with me, both of you!" She said, bouncing. She hopped down to a corner of the room, heading down a dark staircase.
Following the purple pony lead them to a strange basement, filled with machinery. The hum and buzz of electronics echoed throughout, bouncing off the stone walls. Both Arthur and Alfred gasped as their eyes looked into the middle of the room.
Standing there was what looked like a portal, pure white beams of light floating in a circle within midair. A slight, high pitched whining noise seemed to emanate from it, seeping into their ears. The light from it was brilliant in it's brightness. Attached to it was several wires leading to a pair of computers, as well as a dashboard.
"Dude...that's totally awesome..." Alfred mumbled as they approached it.
"It's a dimension portal. You can use it to get back home." She said proudly.
"Bloody hell...how'd you construct it?" Arthur asked, not believing what he was seeing.
"It's actually quite simple. I used a spell, with a little help from Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. These things have been built before, you know. You have to get a permit from Celestia to do it, which I already had"
"What does Fluttershy know about dimension portals...?" Alfred asked.
"Lots of things, actually. She knew even a little more about it than Pinkie. I asked her how she knew those things, and she said she read it from a book she found in my library."
Alfred grunted. "Strange..."
Arthur put his hoof down on the ground with some force, getting Twilight and Alfred's attention. "I have a question as well."
"What is it?" Twilight asked.
"Why did you do this for us?"
Twilight was clearly surprised by the question.
"Well...because I wanted to learn something from it. Science, you know."
"Is that all?"
"Heh...well, also because Pinkie wanted you guys to be happy back in your own universes...and because I told Celestia what was going on, and she agreed that it was important for the balance of the universe that you get back..."
"So you really believe that Alfred and I are from a different universe?"
"Yes, though I would normally never believe such ridiculousness."
"Why do you believe us?"
Twilight shrugged shyly, putting a hoof behind her head. "Heh, this isn't the first time something like this has happened, you know..."
Both Arthur and Alfred looked shocked. "What do you mean...?" Alfred asked incredulously.
"I mean...it's not the first time this has happened. There has been lots of evidence that ponies like you have come through here from other universes. No one knows why it happens...it just does."
Arthur thought back to the British-sounding pony that they had met earlier.
"So...you only now figured out how to make a portal...?" Arthur asked.
"No, portals have been made, just not by me. They're very dangerous rifts in time and space." Twilight replied.
There was an awkward silence as all three ponies processed the information they had just received. Eventually, Alfred took a step forward, his face seemingly determined.
"Well, if this will take us back and make Arthur wake up from the coma, then let's go." Alfred said.
Twilight looked confused. "Coma? What do you mean by coma?"
"You know, coma? How came here after he fell into a coma?"
"Coma..." Twilight said, as if the words were unfamiliar to her.
"Yeah..."
"Well, anyways, you can go through the portal anytime you wish." she said awkwardly, blushing slightly.
"No..." Alfred said, "I don't want to."
"What do you mean...?"
Alfred backed away from the portal, pushing Arthur back with him. "I don't want to go, not yet. Not while everything is perfect. Also, we still have to say goodbye to everyone...we can't just go..."
"Look, I don't want to see you go, but...you'll have to, eventually. You can't stay here forever."
"I know, but...just give Arthur and I one more night. Just one. And I promise, tomorrow morning, we'll go." Alfred said.
"O-okay..." Twilight said.
"We're going to go to Fluttershy's, okay?" Alfred said to both Arthur and Twilight. They nodded. As Arthur followed Alfred out, he looked back at Twilight, who was watching them go up the stairs.
"Thank you, Ms. Twilight." Arthur said, leaning his head down. Twilight nodded, smiling sadly.
"You're going?" Pinkie whined. "NO!"
As tears began to pour down the pink pony's face, Alfred attempted to disguise his annoyed sigh. He loved Pinkie, but she certainty did overreact sometimes...
Arthur then hugged Pinkie awkwardly in an attempt to make her feel better, putting his hooves gently around her shoulders. She hugged him back tightly, almost strangling him.
"Now now, Pinkie...don't scare 'em off for real..." Applejack said. Pinkie let go of Arthur, sniffing.
"Well, my darlings, though we haven't known eachother for long, we're all terribly sad to see you go." Rarity said. "I bid you both a fond farewell."
"Eeyup..." Applejack said, tipping her stetson.
"Yes, thank you all, but it's about time we need to go..." Alfred said apprehensively.
"Y-yeah...bye..." Pinkie mumbled.
"Goodbye, darlings." Rarity said, first kissing Alfred on the cheek then kissing Arthur. Arthur remained stoic, but Alfred flushed bright red. "We'll miss you. Right, Rainbow Dash?" she said, nudging Rainbow slightly with her hoof.
"Oh. Yeah. Right." Rainbow said, almost absentmindedly.
"Well, bye..." Alfred said as he and Arthur walked away from the four ponies, towards Fluttershy's cottage.
"Oh...hello, Alfred..." Fluttershy said.
"Hello, Fluttershy. I need to talk to you."
Fluttershy ducked her head. "O-okay..."
Arthur and Alfred walked inside the cottage, surprised at the lack of noise and creatures running around. "What happened to all the animals?" Alfred asked.
"Oh, they're all out in the yard and forest. I needed some alone time, that's all."
"Oh...do you want us to leave?"
"No, no, it's fine..." she said.
"Oh..."" Alfred said, "Well, I needed to thank you for letting me stay, though I barely did, because Arthur and I are leaving tomorrow."
"Oh, did Twilight get the portal to work? That's good..." she said.
"Yeah, tomorrow morning..."
"Well, there's no need to thank me...it's fine, really...us ponies will miss you..."
"We'll miss you too, Fluttershy. Arthur and I are going to go to bed now."
Fluttershy looked behind Alfred at Arthur, and blushed. "Oh...u-uh...um..."
Both Alfred and Arthur immediately sensed what Fluttershy had assumed, and they too blushed.
"N-no, not like that, just...nevermind. Bye."
"Bye." Fluttershy said with her typical shy smile, which made Alfred's heart feel somehow warmer.
"Well, who's the grown up now, hm?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
"You seem so...mature all the sudden. It's quite surprising."
Alfred waved a hoof. "Psh. I'm not mature at all, you know that. But something about having you here and having the ponies here just changes me..."
Arthur smiled. Gently, he crawled into the small bed. "This bed's pretty small, Alfred...I don't think both of us will fit..."
Alfred gave a mischievous smile as he crawled into the bed alongside Arthur. "We'll just gave to get closer to eachother, then."
Arthur chuckled gently as he felt Alfred's warmth surround him. Feathered wings were draped over his side as dark brown hooves held him close. There was a slight flicking noise, and the lights were off.
"We're going to make it through this, okay? We'll go through the portal, and hopefully you'll wake up from the coma. And I'll wake up this morning, in my human self." Alfred said.
"But I thought we could go through the portal together...?"
"It depends if I fall back asleep or not."
"Okay..."
"Don't worry, it'll be fine."
"You know, Alfred..."
"Hm?"
"What's going to happen when we are humans again?"
"It'll be the same as here."
"Are you sure? You're not going to leave me, are you?"
"I would never do that, love." Alfred said, resting his snout in Arthur's mane.
Arthur sighed. It was so strange, thinking that the prideful, boasting America was now seemingly mature, but maybe that was just when he was around him. Maybe not. But the most confusing part was what Arthur had become. He's the bloody United Kingdom, one of the great nations of the world, now a pony and lying in a bed cuddled up with the one he once thought as a sort of enemy. It was so stupid and mushy. But now that he thought about it, he had always loved America. Even during the Revolution, when Alfred left him. He remembered taking care of Alfred as a child. How sweet he was back then, how much he loved England...But those days were over. That fact used to bother Arthur, but it didn't anymore. Because Arthur had now found happiness. And based on what he had seen, Alfred had found happiness as well. It was perfect. All Arthur wanted to do was give himself up to Alfred completely, and never lose him again, like he did so many years ago...
Arthur sighed, then snuggled closer into Alfred's legs.
"I love you." Alfred said suddenly. Arthur felt his heart quicken.
"I love you, too."
And as Arthur fell asleep, he wondered one last time what happened to Flying Mint Bunny and his other magical friends.