The next morning, I was awake before Celestia. Which was how things usually went. She slept in a lot. She did wake up before I left, though. A small smile accompanied her as she moved about the house, eating everything that was edible.

"What are you doing?" she asked me. She caught me glancing out the window.

"Nothin'."

"Is something wrong?"

"What? No."

"Alright. Did you bring me back here?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry I fell asleep. I was just... And... after that conversation we had..." She chuckled nervously. "You did it again."

"Hmm?" I looked to her.

"You're looking out the window. Is someone out there?"

She walked to me and crawled over me to take a look herself.

"Celestia, what are you doing?"

She looked at me, then smiled. "Sorry." She got off of me. "Are you usually this paranoid?"

I shrugged. "Not really."

"Something spook you? Did you have a bad dream?"

"I dunno. I thought a car was following me last night, but I doubt it was anything special."

"Oh..." She lost her playful expression. "That doesn't sound good."

"I guess it doesn't, no."

"I almost would've liked it more if you hadn't said anything."

"Yeah, sorry. Whatever. Don't worry about it."

"That's not the kind of thing I like to ignore. Both as a Princess and as a woman. Could I be in danger?" She was asking me this, but she barely looked worried at all. I think she already knew the answer to her own question and was just playing with me again.

"I seriously doubt it." I said, trying to downplay the situation, "I mean, that being said, I doubt I can convince you, either.

"Perhaps not. Are you sure?"

"About what?"

"That it's safe."

"Oh. Yep."

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Well, how do you know that it's safe here?"

"I dunno, it just is."

"Well, what if it isn't?"

"Then I guess it isn't."

"You don't seem very confident in your answers."

"I... do not know what to say to you here."

"And you have to go to work, too. You're just going to leave little ol' me here all alone after telling me that?"

She is very much the opposite of little. "Do you... want to come with or something?"

"Come with? To your workplace?"

"Yeah, that."

"Aren't you busy?"

"It's a restaurant, you're allowed to hang out. You can bring the laptop, if you're interested."

She smiled. "Alright. That sounds fun. What... kind of restaurant is it?"

"Oh, you know. One that... specializes in selling meat."

She frowned at me for a brief moment before smiling again. "Oh well. It's fine."

"You sure?"

She nodded. "It's fine."

"Alright, then. Put some socks on."

I continued getting ready to go. Celestia prepared to leave as well. A lot of her preparation revolved around her hair, considering that it was a mess right now. She sure has a lot of hair, though. Bet she'd look good with a ponytail... Who am I kidding, she'd look good with any hairstyle.

She approached me again before we left. "Hey look, about last night..." she said to me, "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."

"I'm always uncomfortable around you."

"Really? It doesn't show. Is it because of how I look? You said I was..." She briefly looked away. "Beautiful."

"That's part of the reason. But... you're still a Princess, even if you're here. And I keep thinking you're looking down on me and my lifestyle."

"Oh... I'm sorry. Although, to be honest, I'm not that much of a fan of your lifestyle. But in Equestria, it was worse than this. Most days, I was sitting on my throne and looking over papers. Ruling a country is hard work."

"I can imagine."

"I don't mean to look down on you. When I got here, I accepted the fact that I have no power anymore. I'm just a normal woman."

"Not to me."

She let out a sigh. "You made advances towards me and... what I said... It was rude."

"It wasn't rude, Princess."

She sighed. "I thought that being a pony would at least, in some way, defer me from thinking like that, but I don't think I have the slightest issue with it."

"You mean... with me?"

She gave me an embarrassed smile. "Just something that I noticed."

Congratulations, you made things uncomfortable again, Celestia. "You wanna keep talking about it, or do ya wanna take off?"

"I'd like to go before I say anything stupid. Stupider."

"Alrighty then."

I put the laptop into a backpack, along with a lunch for Celestia. She took it from me before I could put it on.

I locked the basement door as we left, but kept my house unlocked, as well as my car. If they wanted to steal something, good luck. The most they're gonna find is... I don't know, actually.

The two of us walked to my workplace. It was just a few blocks away. I rarely ever drove there.

"So... You don't think that I'm normal?" she asked me as we walked.

"Well, no. You're still a Princess... and you still look beautiful."

"So you don't mind my being a pony?"

"Oh, like that would stop me in the first place."

"What?"

"Ah, nothing."

She was silent for a small while, then said, "Every day seems like the same thing for you... Don't you wish things were different?"

"Nah. I like it this way. Nothing to surprise me. Actually... I don't really like it. I've just gotten used to it."

"I have almost no power in my life, ironically. If I don't do something, or do it wrong, problems begin to stack up."

"If I don't do something, I get fired."

"They don't fire Princesses."

I chuckled. "Yeah... I just can't imagine that you'd do something wrong, though. Like, there's no way you'd mess up so bad that anyone would hate you."

"You... would be surprised. You don't live as long as I have without making mistakes."

"I guess..."

When we arrived, she was very hesitant to go inside.

"What's wrong?"

"It's... the smell..." Her nose wrinkled. She held a hand over her mouth. "It's terrible. How can you stand this all day?"

"I'm used to it."

"It's disgusting. What exactly is it?"

"A combination of cooked meat and sweat from the un-air-conditioned kitchen."

"More meat..."

"I wouldn't try eating the burgers here. They taste awful. The fries are pretty good, though."

"I think I'll avoid the food as a whole." She didn't move from where she stood.

"You want me to walk you back home?"

"I'm already here, aren't I?"

"I guess."

"I'll come in later."

"Alright, then." I walked inside.

A few minutes later, she followed me, then sat at a table with an obvious look of disgust on her face.

The night-shifters, who worked just before my shift, stared at her.

"Uh..."

"Who is that?"

"One of my friends." I told them, "She's tagging along with me for a while."

"Holy crap, dude."

Others started joining us. I was always early, so it was a little while until they all got here.

The new guys didn't really question me about her, other than asking how long she's been here.

"Hey Phil, that kinda looks like your laptop." said my friend, Timmy.

I shrugged. "Kinda."

"Wait, is it?"

"Could be."

"It is? Well, then... what's she doing with it?"

"Oh, you know."

"No, I... don't... What?"

I repeated what I said earlier to the other workers, brushing it off as if it were normal. It wasn't, but I wanted to think it was.

He didn't buy it, and quickly accused her of being a prostitute, to which I replied, "How dare thee accuse me of purchasing something with money?"

"So who is she?"

"That Canadian guy I keep in my basement."

"She... kinda looks familiar."

"Yeah, that'll happen."

"Wait, wait, wait... Are you dating a cosplayer?"

"Date? Girls are icky."

"Cause she looks kinda like Celestia."

"Yeah, that happens."

"No it... doesn't really. You only see that kinda stuff at... like... Bronycon." He was also the only other brony on my shift. Honestly, I didn't care if my friends were bronies. It's just simply a wider range of things I can spam them with if they are.

"Or somewhere somehow related to the show in general." I responded.

"I guess... Or... You could just pay a hooker to do that."

"Why is everyone so inclined to think that?"

"It's been a long time since I've seen you with a woman..."

"I'm allowed to have friends outside of you freaks. She's staying at my place if you wanna meet her outside of this dump."

"Yeah, alright. I guess."

He didn't seem to like my answer, but since he was my friend, I didn't have to care what he thought.

I looked at Celestia. She wasn't paying much attention to anything at the moment. She looked up from the compute she was looking at and saw me. She smiled briefly, then returned her view to the computer. Cute...

I was standing at the register. At the time, I could've been slacking off and still get paid, but I was usually good at getting my work done.

My phone rang while I was working. Not really supposed to have phones right now, but whatever. I didn't have anything to do at the moment, so I checked it. My neighbor. Weird. He doesn't usually call me.

I stepped into the break room and answered with, "Phil here, what's up?"

"Hey, there are some guys at your house."

"Yo, what? What are you talking about?"

"A car parked in front of your house and a few guys got out. One of them came over and said that he was a detective." He didn't sound very worried, but he didn't sound perfectly calm, either.

"Whaaat... Well, what did you say?"

"I didn't really have anything to tell him. He was looking for a woman. I think he meant your new girlfriend."

"Well, did you tell him about her?"

"Of course I did, I'm not gonna lie to the police."

"Fair enough."

"Who is she, anyways?"

"I dunno. Anything else?"

"Yeah, the two other guys started poking around your house. One of them opened up your door while the detective was talking to me and they both went in."

"They're inside? Wait, that's illegal, isn't it?"

"The detective sure didn't seem to like it. What have you been doing the past couple of days?"

"I... Uh... Go... Go over there and talk to them. Tell them I'll be there in like ten minutes."

"Sure?"

I wasn't sure at all, but I felt like it was good idea. "Yeah. I guess. Go on."

"Alright, man. Be careful."

"Yeah. Thanks. And tell me what they say."

"Yep, alright."

I hung up. "Gotta be fucking... kidding me..." I groaned to myself.

"What's up?" asked my friend.

I sighed. "You're in charge, Tim. Tell the boss-man that I had some important stuff to deal with."

"What? You're leaving?"

"Yeah."

"Something wrong?"

"I don't know. I'll... find out."

"Oh, well... ok."

I groaned again, displeased that I now had to leave.

I went over to Celestia. "Hey, I'm taking off for a few minutes. Be back soon."

"What?" she asked, "What do you mean?"

"I forgot something at home. You just stay here."

"I... Oh. Alright."

"Yep, be back soon." I hope...

I jogged there and stopped down the block. I saw the car my neighbor mentioned. As I got closer, I spotted my neighbor looking out his window at me. He waved.

Heard something as I stood on my doorstep. Talking. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but... I recognized one of the voices

I sighed, then opened the door. The two men inside turned to me.

One had blonde hair, the other blue. Both of them were notably cut and admittedly better looking than I was. A lot better. Their hair stood out like neon lights.

There was a third man here somewhere, right?

Their hair was so different. It was... almost as if... they were...

"Hello." I calmly started a conversation, having no other real options.

"Are you the one that lives here?" asked the blonde one.

"That's right. Is there... any particular reason you're in my house?"

"That woman you were with. Where is she?" The blonde one ignored my question and asked his own. He was serious.

"She's... somewhere." I replied, on edge, "Why do you want to know?"

"It's our job to know." answered the blue haired one.

They took a step towards me. I'm a little intimidated here, to be honest. Not often that happens, either.

"Your job?"

The blue haired one nodded. "We're her royal guards. Right now, it's our duty to find and protect her."

What? My brain paused as it processed what he had just said.

"Where is she?" he asked sternly.

I tried hard to put together what I heard and it took a long time before I finally said, "Wait, you're from Equestria?"

They looked to each other and nodded. "You know about Equestria?"

"Uh... Yeah, I... Yeah." Guards... Wait... Guard, blue hair, that voice... "You're Shining Armor aren't you?"

"How do you know my name?" he asked.

I heard footsteps coming from the kitchen. Another man walked out from it. He was shorter and wasn't like these two. He was normal. He was even wearing a tie.

He looked at me, then at the guards.

"Are you the detective I heard about?" I asked him.

"That's right." The man reached into his back pocket and presented something to me. All I saw was the badge in his hand. I reached my hand out and he allowed me to take it. It looked legit to me. I gave it back.

"My name is Norman Jayden. I'm here with these two men to find a woman by the name of Celestia."

"You're looking for Celestia? I... Yeah, no problem. No problem. She's at that McDonalds a few blocks that way." If I wasn't so scared of the two large men in my house, I would not be this willing to assist him. I try my best to help the law whenever I can, but when it directly affects me, I get bothered.

"Are you lying to us?" asked the blonde guard.

"Soulfire." stated Shining Armor, telling him to calm down.

"No, I'm not lying. If you don't believe me, just drive there. You." I pointed to the detective. "I know you don't have a warrant for this. You're taking us there."

"We're the ones to blame for that." said Shining Armor, "We walked in while he was speaking to your neighbor."

"I had no choice but to follow them inside." said Norman, "I told you not to leave the car."

"We're sorry, sir." said Shining.

I sighed. "I don't even care, to be honest. Just take us there."

"So you walk to work?" asked Norman.

"Yes, I walk. All of you, out of my house. Now."

The four of us piled into Detective Jaden's car. It was a lot smaller than I wanted it to be. I took the passenger seat in the front. The two guards sat in the back.

"We apologize for entering your house." said Shining.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it." I said to him. I sighed. "I did not need this today." I mumbled to myself.

As he drove, the main thought in my head was how these two got here. This was weird, but if they could take Celestia back home, it'd be a load off my mind. I don't like being responsible, even though I did this to myself.

I figured out that they kept information about Equestria from the detective. He was trying to question the three of us, but I was the only one that told him anything, and even then, I only gave information about myself.

The guards didn't speak to me on our way there and I didn't say anything to them. It was a little awkward.

Ponies are coming to this world. Are any more gonna show up? Maybe. Where would that leave me...

I didn't care anymore. Let the crazies come. Whatever. My kidneys probably weren't worth that much anyways.

We finally arrived. Celestia stared right at us as we got out of the car, then stood up to get a better look. Through the window, I could see her eyes widen. She walked out, leaving my laptop unattended.

"Princess!" the two of them excitedly said.

They both dropped to one knee, kneeling to their Princess. She lowered herself to them. "Stand up, would you?"

They both stood back up. Celestia took another look at them, then wrapped her arms around their shoulders, hugging them.

"We're not home anymore." I heard her say quietly, "You don't have to bow to me. Come with me, we have a lot to discuss."

"Actually Celestia..." I started.

The guards both glared at me.

"Yes?" she asked calmly, ignoring her protectors' hostility.

"I really need you to talk to this guy." I pointed at the detective, who was waiting patiently.

A confused look briefly clouded her face. "What happened? How did you... meet each other?"

"Just... talk to him." I said, "All three of you. I don't wanna... deal with these guys again."

"Excuse me, but I still have some questions for you, Phil." he said to me.

"Look, I'm sorry, but I would not like to speak to you right now. Good day to you, sir. Come by my house again, I'm filing a harassment report."

I was saying some big words right now. I was pretty sure he had the authorization to bring me in for 24 hours for questioning at little to no legal risk to himself if he wanted. At least that's how it was done on Law and Order and that show seemed to be pretty spot on.

He seemed to accept my words for what they were.

I just wanted to go back home and go back to bed. I've had enough of this. I went inside and say at my laptop. I sighed.

My mind was racing. I probably couldn't take much more of this. It felt like there was a bottleneck on my thoughts. Only so much could be handled at once and it was a slow process. I had a headache.

Quite a bit of time passed. My headache went away as soon as it started. The detective left a while ago. Nobody had bothered me. Or, at least, I didn't notice anybody. I finally lifted my head. I saw Celestia and her guards. They were looking at me. Everyone was looking at me, even the employees. I was the center of attention. I didn't like it.

I looked to the counter. The business aspect of the restaurant seemed like it was going well. I just told them that I was going home and personally called up my boss to tell him I wasn't feeling well. My friend offered to come by after his shift ended, but I told him that today wasn't the best day for that.

I was more stressed out more than I should have been.

The four of us walked back to my home. Me, Celestia, and her guards. Sounded like a clopfic I would write.

About halfway there, we started talking. I learned about what happened between the police and the guards.

They arrived similar to Celestia, with no real destination other than in the general area. It was two days after she had arrived. They had been sent to retrieve her by Discord.

The police were called on the guards and they managed to file a missing person report, or case, or whatever it was called, on their Princess. Even without knowing what she looked like, they based their search on their own appearances. The hair was a dead giveaway. That Norman guy accompanied them as they began to search the town. They saw us up on that hill and it turns out that they were the ones that followed me. I guessed that they just ran my license plates through a computer.

"So how exactly did you get here?" I asked them.

"About a week ago, I think it was, Princess Celestia disappeared from Equestria. After a tireless search, Discord said that he had found her, but that she was here. So we were sent here to get her."

"Through the Crystal Mirror?" I asked.

"That's right. Discord said he had done something to it, but wouldn't elaborate. We had no choice but to trust him. We just ended up here when we stepped through."

"That's... interesting." I looked at the second guard, "Oh yeah. What, uh... what is your name?"

"My name is Soulfire Dawn." he replied.

"I suppose we haven't properly been introduced, either. My name is Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Equestrian Guard."

I smiled. "My name is Phil. Not a very exciting name, huh? Nice to meet ya both. So... Did you... have a plan on how you were going to get home?"

"Of course. Discord was going to retrieve us after we had gotten to the Princess."

"Really? Well... when's that gonna happen?"

"It shouldn't be long. Just a day or two."

I shrugged. "Well, the sooner the better."

"Aw, is that so?" asked Celestia, a playful tone in her voice.

"Well, you wanna go home, don't you?"

She smiled. "I suppose." She paused, then frowned. "You trusted Discord in all this... Do you think he just wanted to get rid of you?"

"Your Highness?"

"Who knows... He's a strange one."

"Neither of you thought of that?" I asked.

"There's no need to say it twice." said Celestia, "You don't need to concern yourself with what goes on in our world. There's nothing we can change now."

"Hey, I like to feel involved. Don't ruin this for me."

"Don't take that tone with our Princess, human." growled Soulfire.

"Calm down. You're a human, too." Celestia stated, "I don't mind it if he takes such a tone, as long as it's kept reasonable. We've become close since I arrived here. This human is my friend."

"Y-yeah... Thanks, Princess." I said, a little surprised, "Alright... So, what exactly are you two going to do now?"

Celestia spoke first. "We're going to be here for at least one month. That's what we know. At least, that is what we assume." She stopped for a few moments. "They need a place to stay."

"A place to stay?" I looked at her in disbelief. This was difficult for me. Too much happening too quickly. "Where did you two stay before this?"

"Nowhere." said Shining, "There wasn't anywhere for us to go."

I swore under my breath. This was definitely doable, but... "Guys, this isn't a joke. Why are you doing this to me?"

"We don't have anything against you. In fact, we're grateful that you've been so kind to our Princess." said Shining.

"Six days. Or seven... Or eight." I said, "That's how long it took for you to get here. Is anyone else going to come here?"

"Any more would disrupt the delicate balance between our worlds. Even Discord knows that." Celestia stated, growing serious.

"Yeah, speaking of Discord, do you think he could've sent you here, Princess?"

"I don't know if he has enough power to do that. If he does, I suppose that it's possible. If that's the case, then Equestria may be in danger. Still, it's none of your concern. You don't live in Equestria."

"Equestria's fine." I said, "C'mon, when was the last time something happened that someone like your sister or Twilight Sparkle and her friends couldn't have solved? All we... All you know is that Discord may or may not have had something to do with you being here, Princess. And apparently, he does have that kind of power considering he sent these guys after you."

"Actually, he said that was a special occasion." said Soulfire.

"He may have lied." said Celestia, "I still don't believe that he's trying to take over Equestria again. He's been rather tame, all things considered. It does seem a little farfetched. If we need an explanation though, I would accept it."

I sighed. "Whatever. So now there's three of you..."

"We're sorry for any trouble we may have caused for you." said Shining, "We can pay you back for whatever happens."

I just stared at the three of them. My head was still swirling around. I felt a little dizzy, but that would pass.

"It's not about being paid back for this. I... Look... I'm just a simple guy. I never asked for this kind of thing. I would've been perfectly happy had you not even come here in the first place, Princess."

"Well, I know you've enjoyed my company. But... I understand."

I couldn't tell them no. I couldn't turn down someone like this. I wasn't that kind of person... Or... was I? I didn't know. I had never been presented with this kind of situation and things just kept getting more and more difficult.

They had no idea what they were doing to me. I was a lonely person... I would've loved their company. I was the only one here who knew this world and Celestia... at least seemed to trust me. I didn't want this, but I wasn't able to say no. If the situation were different, if I didn't know them, it would've been fine to say no. They might even have expected it. But these guys weren't even humans. Besides, saying yes had its own benefits. I'd probably score some points with Celestia.

Why am I even weighing this out? It isn't a choice, I have no choice. There's nothing I can do.

Looks like I have two new roommates.