Saturday, September 12, 2015

2015
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Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Your relationships with others may progress significantly today.

Early Morning

Today, Twilight and I are going out on our first official date.

After I shower, I put on the nicest jeans I have, then put on the shirt Rarity gave me on my birthday. A little splash of cologne and I'm good to go.

It's a little after ten when I meet Twilight in the lounge. She's wearing a dark purple knee-length dress with a black belt, black stockings, and purple flats. She has on just a touch of makeup and small amethyst earrings.

Wow.

"Wow."

Twilight blushes and plays with her hair. "How do I look?" she asks.

"You look...incredible," I say.

She looks down demurely. "I know we're not...doing anything fancy or anything, but I wanted...I wanted to look nice."

Mission accomplished. Just...wow.

Rarity pops into the room. "Pic-tuuuuuures!" she exclaims, holding up a camera.

"Gah! Rarity!" Twilight yelps.

Rarity smiles. "I promised Pinkie Pie I'd document this momentous occasion," she says. Then, with a giggle, she adds, "And...I'd do it even if Pinkie hadn't asked."

Twilight rolls her eyes. "Fine," she says in a mock suffering tone. She takes hold of my arm and smiles. Rarity takes a few pictures of us.

"Well, don't let me keep you two. I'm sure you have quite the fun and romantic day planned!" With a cheery wave, Rarity disappears back upstairs.

I turn to Twilight. "Well...shall we go?"

Daytime

We'll have to take a train to the cineplex, which is on the other side of Canterlot. As we walk to the train station, Twilight asks, "So...how are your classes and things going?"

"Okay, I guess," I say. "After that little stunt at lunch on Tuesday, people aren't bothering me as much."

"Me either," Twilight says. She looks down. "I do still hear them snickering at me, though."

I frown. "Don't let it bother you, okay? People who don't know you and say stuff like that and treat you like that...they're not worth it."

"I try," Twilight says.

Damn. This is not the best way to start the date. "So hey...there's this real weirdo in Music Club."

"Oh?"

"Her name's Trixie."

Twilight raises an eyebrow. "You mean the 'Great And Powerful' Trixie?"

"Yeah. What's up with that?"

"I have no idea." Twilight giggles. "All I know is she's always been full of herself. So how's tennis going?"

"I'm getting the hang of it."

"Is Pinkie cute in her tennis outfit?" Twilight asks. I know she's baiting me.

"Of course she is," I say. "I don't think there's anything Pinkie wouldn't be cute in." I smirk at her. "I thought we'd already established that every single girl in the dorm is cute."

Twilight rolls her eyes. "Yeah, alright."

Speaking of cute... "I think I've got a little project on my hands, though."

"A project?"

I nod. "The team manager. Do you know a sophomore named Coco Pommel?"

Twilight shakes her head.

"Well...she's very shy and doesn't have much self-confidence. And...the team captain is kind of bullying her. The poor thing is practically her slave."

"That's not right," Twilight says.

I nod. "Thing is...I was talking to Coco the other day, and when nobody else was around, I saw her make an amazing serve. I don't think she should be on the sidelines."

"So...you're going to try to help her out? Maybe get her on the team?"

"It's worth a try," I say. "I mean, Suri's graduating, so she won't be around to bully Coco next year. Maybe with my help, she can be on the team."

Twilight smiles. "I think that's sweet. Good luck."

We make it to the station less than two minutes before the train arrives. Once we're aboard, I ask, "So, how are your classes going?"

"Just fine," Twilight says. "I think Mr. Waddles needs to retire though. When I get bored during a lesson, that's not a good sign."

"Mr. Waddles?"

"You don't have him for history?"

I shake my head. "I have Mr. Turner for history."

Twilight lets out a laugh. "Mr. Turner? You mean the guy who thinks he's a conquistador?"

"Yeah, he's my homeroom teacher. You didn't know?"

Twilight shakes her head, giggling. "Ouch. How...what kind of a teacher is he?"

"He's actually a fun teacher," I say. "I mean, the helmet thing is weird, but his lessons are interesting and easy to follow."

Twilight's brow crinkles. "Hmm. Maybe I can ask Principal Celestia if I can get a schedule change..."

"So," I ask, "are you living in the dorm because your brother and Cadance are there?"

"That's part of why," Twilight says. "I mean, I've been in the dorm since freshman year, and Cadance and Shining Armor just got married in June, but they've been together since they were in high school." She wrings her hands. "They didn't want to get married until they'd both finished college and found jobs, and then they needed a little time for some other stuff to settle down..."

"So what about your parents?" I ask.

"They travel a lot," Twilight says. "Dad's a travel photographer, and Mom's an editor. She mostly handles A.K. Yearling's books right now."

"Your mom is the editor of Daring Do?" I ask.

Twilight nods. "Yeah. The thing is, Mom can work from anywhere, but Dad's job takes him all over the place, so...they travel together."

"I know how that goes," I mutter. Twilight puts a hand on my arm and gives it a gentle squeeze.

A little bit later, we reach our stop, and walk the three blocks from the station to the cineplex. Once we have our tickets and our overpriced popcorn and sodas, we find seats near the sweet spot in the theater.

Cashiers turns out to be a profanity-heavy "docu-comedy" about two jerks working in a convenience store, and basically amounts to two hours of dick jokes, pop culture references, and cutaways to two retarded drug dealers hanging out on a wall.

As we leave the theater, I remark, "Well that sucked as a date movie."

"Yeah," Twilight agrees. "I mean, some of it was kind of funny, and I got that the theme of the movie was about maturity and accepting responsibility for your life, but...most of that was just random cursing and being vulgar. And I didn't really like either of the protagonists."

"Me either," I agree. "Those two idiots outside the store though...a whole movie about just them might actually be funny. If I was like, really really drunk."

Twilight giggles. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm ready to eat lunch."

I pull out my phone and search for a map of restaurants in our vicinity. "There's a Neighponese place that's open for lunch, and it's only two blocks from here."

"That sounds great," Twilight says.

We walk to the Neighponese restaurant, where we're quickly seated. Twilight frowns at the menu. "I...don't really know much about Neighponese food," she admits.

I look over the menu. "Half of this isn't Neighponese food anyway," I say.

"Will you...will you order for me?" Twilight asks sheepishly.

I smile. "Sure." This shouldn't be too hard. I've watched Twilight eat. She will eat pretty much anything.

After we order, we make small talk while waiting for our food. "So...what are your plans?" I ask. "For life, I mean. After school."

"I...don't really know," Twilight says. "Honestly? All I've ever really thought about was studying and reading. I don't...really have any career goals." She blushes.

"Well, you could always work in a bookstore. Or a library."

"That might be nice. It's not really a career, but..." She looks up at me. "What about you?"

I shrug. "Pretty much the same. I figure I might try to put a band together while I'm in college. Maybe sooner than that. Playing the guitar is all I'm really good at."

"Well...we've both got plenty of time to worry about that," Twilight says.

"Yeah."

We talk about other, inconsequential things until the food arrives. The food isn't bad exactly, but it's hardly what I'd call great. I pull out my phone and give the place a three-star review on Burp.

"What're you doing?" Twilight asks. I show her. Her brow furrows. "It's not that bad..."

"It's not that good either," I say. "I've had a lot better back in Seaddle."

"Well, I like it," Twilight says.

"Eh, the pork fried noodles are pretty good."

After we finish lunch, we get ice cream. In my opinion, the ice cream is better than the meal was.

"So...is there anything else you want to do?" I ask. "Anything at all."

Twilight shakes her head. "I can't think of anything." She checks the time on her phone. "Besides, we should be heading back now."

Crap, it's that late already...? "Yeah, you're right."

She smiles and touches my arm. "I enjoyed spending time alone with you today," she says. "I'd like to do this again."

"Really?" She nods. My heart skips a beat. "I-I'm glad."

Neither of us says much on the way back to the dorm. The silence is comfortable, not awkward. At the entrance, Twilight leans up and kisses me on the cheek, then heads up to her room to change clothes.

I can feel the blood rushing to my cheeks as I go upstairs to change and get in a little guitar practice before dinner.

Evening

It's Rarity's turn to make dinner tonight. The meal is surprisingly good. I didn't figure Rarity as being domestically inclined.

As we all sit down to eat, Pinkie looks from me to Twilight with a broad grin. "So," she asks in a sing-song voice, "how was the da~ate?"

"We had a good time," Twilight says, blushing faintly.

"What'd y'all do?" Applejack asks.

"We went to a movie neither of us really liked, we ate at a place I didn't care for much, and we had ice cream. And we talked a lot," I say.

"That hardly sounds like much of a first date," Rarity says, frowning.

"We had fun together, that's the important thing. ...isn't it?" Twilight says.

"Of course it is!" Pinkie agrees happily. "So, did you ki~iss?"

Twilight's blush deepens. "N-not yet..."

After dinner, I sit in the lounge with Twilight and watch a much better movie than the one we watched on our date. One by one, the others disappear; Rainbow seems content to stay in the lounge with us, but Pinkie reappears long enough to drag her upstairs. Twilight and I are sitting together on the couch; she leans into me and puts her head on my shoulder.

"I've decided...we can be boyfriend-girlfriend," she says sleepily.

I end up spending the night on the couch because Twilight has fallen asleep on me.