//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 The Real Date 
// Story: Beat of the Heart 
// by Short-tale 
//------------------------------//

The next day flew by in a dragony flash. There were tests, studying, strange looks from classmates, and all the while Luna wondered what this tense nervous feeling was. It couldn’t be the date with Garble. That oaf wasn’t the least bit attractive or decent. Yet her mind recalled the earnest words he said during his poetry session. They were like a butterfly hovering around a flower refusing to land. But they flapped in her mind nevertheless. 

She found him standing on the staircase outside of the school. He looked determined. It wasn’t the angry scowl she was used to but was more serious then she had ever seen him. 

“You ready, Princess,” he uttered with a harder tone than usual. It was both confident and impressive. He had been quite submissive most of their journey.

Garble grabbed her hand with no hesitation. They walked down a grungy looking street. It was a little uneasy. She noted the dragons there looked at them with a gleam of malice and distrust in their eyes. They looked filthy.

“Why are we here? Where are we going?” demanded the unnerved dragon as she passed another shady character.

“This is the true center of Craterlot,” Garble explained without looking back. “The words are here. And so are the rhythms.”

“I have plenty of words currently.” But she didn’t say them. 

“You’ll see,” assured the eager dragon. They moved to a vacant lot. The dragons were playing a game that Luna hadn’t seen before. It was quick and brutal. But the players seemed to enjoy it.

“This is where the heart of the city lives,” declared Garble, sitting on a bench near the game. “You can feel it. Close your eyes. Listen to the rhythms here. These are the real beats.”

Luna gave him a puzzled expression. What was he talking about? But his face was sincere and waiting for her to do as instructed. So she closed her eyes. The sounds of the game blotted out all the normal sounds of the city. Their foot-falls and thuds as they collided with one another. She couldn’t hear anything past it. If they would just stop. 

Then a line from one of Garble’s poems snuck into her head. Either memory or dragon Luna’s doing. It matched the strange disjointed rhythm of the game. She listened harder to the sounds. There was a broken meter to each of their movements. It was a natural pace. It was them. The rhythms were dragons being dragons.

“I think I understand,” Luna said finally. 

“You can hear, but can you speak yet?” asked Garble in this strange voice that he used for his performance. “The words come from the heart.”

“So it’s just allowing the rhythms of society to dictate the words you come up with at the time?”

“You make it sound simpler than it is,” the beret wearing dragon said with a shake of his head. “It’s not just random thoughts and meters. It’s following the deep questions that drive us. Finding those rhythms and letting the truth come out.”

“The truth? Which truth?”

“Your truth. Your feelings. Your life. You know the same questions as we all do. Then you use the beats of life to help answer them,” said this unknown-to-her dragon. Garble was completely different than she thought. He wasn’t just some goofy lout. He had a heart and passion. She just didn’t see it before. 

“Now the only way to know is to try,” he continued. “Close your eyes and feel the rhythm, the words. Allow your heart to open and your mouth to move.”

“I am uncertain of this technique,” Luna said with an air of hesitation. “It is not what I am used to.”

“That’s the point. There really isn’t a technique. There isn’t any right way. Just say what you’re feeling now.” The dragon shifted closer to waiting for the words to come.

The Princess felt the pressure to perform. She swallowed and began, “Nervous..frustrated..uncertain..but kind of excited at the same time.”

“Now just go deeper, find out why. And just speak your truth.”

“I am..”

“Whoa,” Garble said with his hands out. “‘I am’ will kill it. Try not to make it just telling me how you feel. It’s poetry. Hint at it. Let the listener take what they need from it.”

Luna looked at the dismissive dragon with flames and a steel tipped thagomizer in her eyes. She tried to remove herself from the situation and think like the poet instructed. 

“Hot. Jittery. Shaking with adrenaline. Tired of dragons. Tired of feeling. Emotions that cause questions. Questions that poke shadows. Is there love in there? Or is it a shadow? Is it my shadow? Is it another’s? Why does it follow me? This red shade. It’s smothering. It’s exciting. It’s scary. The shadow knows I can’t hide it for long.”

“I dig it,” Garble said as she paused for a long moment. He snapped his fingers together.

“What is the purpose of that?”

“What?”

“The snapping. Why do you do it?”

“It’s chill. It’s hip. Clapping is loud and forceful. Snapping still shows that you like it but it’s softer and less grating.” The dragon snapped again and the soft pops spoke their own reasoning. “So tell me what the poem was about.”

“I thought you said it was supposed to be hinted at. That the listener should draw their own conclusions.”

“Well I did. But I wondered what you felt about it. What were you trying to say?”

Luna looked at Garble with a look that was too sheepish and small for the Princess to wear. But she held it on nevertheless. “It is a reflection of ...this feeling that I have. I have not felt it in millennia. It is so strange and new for me to feel this way. Especially over a dragon.”

“And what feeling is that?” the dragon asked, inching closer. His face pleaded for knowledge. She couldn’t deny him that satisfaction.

“Love.”

“Love?”

She nodded. Why is she telling him? This can’t work. He’s a dragon, she's a princess. A pony princess. It had to be the other Luna. It had to be. But she was still feeling it anyway.

“For a dragon?”

She nodded again. This time was a little slower. 

“Uhh who?”

The princess lost her patience again and struck him on the snout. “You, you dolt!” Her nostrils flared and her cheeks burned. Why was this dragon so endearing? And stupid?

“Really? I didn’t think you would ever love some dragon like me,” Garble said. He looked down at the ground. His haughty air dissipated. “I’m more of a screw up. I’m too ‘dragonish’ here and too pony at home. I really don’t fit in either place.”

“You know who you remind me of… Spike. He feels he has the same problem. I often tell him that ponies are more accepting than he thinks. But he does not listen.”

“Spike? But he seems so comfortable around you guys.”

“You have more in common than you initially thought. It would appear.” 

“Well...I guess I could be nicer to him. For you of course not that I feel bad for him or anything,” the lying dragon sneered. 

“I would very much appreciate that.” She leaned into her companion and placed her head on his broader shoulders. 

“I think..I might love you too,” the dragon admitted with a sigh. “I’ve never had anyone treat me like you do. You seem to actually think of me before you do anything. I.. .I wish we didn’t have to go back. I wish you could just stay a dragon.”

“You know we can not. The spirit of our other selves dwells within us. They will not rest. To be honest I can not tell if these feelings are mine or hers.”

“We should definitely stay then,” argued Garble, his face still pleading. 

“Alas. It can not be. But we still have two days. There still much we could do,” assured Luna.

A large slam brought both their attention off each other. To Luna’s surprise it was not from the game. Another dragon had flown headlong into the middle of it. The dragons in the center back away from the cracked tarmac and crumpled form. Soon the grey mass shook itself off and looked around with eyes that pointed in two different directions. 

“No!” Luna shouted in recognition. “What are you doing here?!”

“Me?” a small yellow dragon asked. She wore a bright red ribbon on her crest. 

“No,” said the distraught dragon, shaking her head back and forth. “Her! Derpy!”

“Oh, hi,” Derpy said with a cheerful grin. “I thought I saw you two. Doc’s looking for you. He said it’s ready to go.”

“Now?!” cried Luna. “But he told us two days!”

“Oh, well I played with Pinkie today and he finished early, something about less distractions. So you can go home now!”

“But… But,” Garble stammered. There were tears in his eyes. “If we go back we won’t… damn it.”

The irate dragon stood up and kicked a garage cab over. He knew. He knew it would never work out. As did Luna. 

“Why? Why can’t we stay? Just two days at least,” cried the desperate dragon.

“Because we would never truly know,” Luna said in all honesty. “I don’t know if my feelings are genuine or not. It could be. But it could be the other me. Don’t you want to know for sure?”

Garble’s shoulders sank. The princess could see the truth winding through his mind. Illusion or truth? Which would he want? Could Luna proceed if she herself wasn’t certain? 

“Fine! We’ll go home,” shouted the dragon. “I don’t want to but I will for you, Princess.”

“You must do this to know the truth,” reminded Luna, she was so uncertain in all of this that she needed something she knew. “As must I.”

“I know...that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Garble turned and took off into the air. Luna followed. She could tell how upset he was by the way he flew. Had she learned so much about him in such a short time? Was that her? Was it dragon Luna? She had no idea. 

“Hi pony dragon!” cried their clumsy escort. Derpy sailed back and forth then did a loop de loop. “Why do guys look so sad? The Doc said you wanted to go home.”

“Well, it’s.. sad leaving new friends,” the pony dragon told the bane of her existence. 

“That is sad. I don’t have too many friends, just Doc.”

“That is unfortunate perhaps...I shall be your friend.” Luna said with a sigh. If she couldn’t escape this menace no matter which dimension she was in she could at least keep an eye on her. 

“Really?! Wow, that's nice, pony dragon. I love new friends!”

The excited Derpy happily sped up and flew in front of the couple. It wasn’t long before the strange cavern was in their view. Garble remained silent and sullen the entire way. Luna simply pondered her own feelings on the matter. 

“Hello displaced souls,” greeted Doctor Claw as they arrived. “It’s amazing what one can get done when there are so few..distractions.”

The dragons entered the soft lit blue cavern. There seemed to be even more gadgets and gizmos than before. The chambers were filled with the same mist that started their journey. 

“Wait!” cried Garble. He ran to Luna and grabbed hands in his. “Whatever happens just tell me the truth. I can take it. Don’t spare my feelings, ok?”

“I will not,” promised Luna. There was so much expectation in his face that she couldn’t bear the thought of any disappointment.

Garble nodded. Then he reached down to the smaller dragon and kissed her. She kissed him back and felt the flood of excitement cascade through her body. It left her dizzy. She wished it was a different pony. A different time. A different her. But it wasn’t. They pulled away and walked to their respective chambers to the oohs and ahs of a fascinated but dim dragon. 

“Oook, I didn’t expect that,” the Doc said, scratching his head. “Are all souls ready to go back to normal?”

Garble nodded and gave one last longing look at Luna. She nodded as well. Derpy nodded but didn’t understand why. 

“Turning on the aft gyrospigmometer!”

“Hey dragon pony,” called the entranced cross-eyes dragon. “Promise to be my friend when you get back.”

“I promise,” sighed the Princess.

“Yay!” cried Derpy, raising her hands. They struck a large lever behind her. 

“No Derpy! Not that leve-“ was the last thing Luna heard Doctor Claw say. Things went dark. The world spun and ripped apart and reformed. Luna felt ill. 

The room they left became a brighter, cleaner room. It almost looked like a mailroom? Luna shook her head to clear the distortion. As the vision cleared she found herself looking at a familiar grey face. Derpy. Again. 

“Another delivery problem,” Derpy shouted. A different Derpy behind her sighed. Luna’s mind nearly snapped as she found the entire room was filled with Derpys. There were Derpys behind desks, carrying mailbags, looking through papers. They all wore the same mailmare uniforms that her own Derpy wore.

“It seemed that Derpy 738 made an ‘error’,” said the grumpy Derpy behind the desk. “Send them to their dimension of origin.”

“Yes ma’am.” The first Derpy saluted and pulled a lever. “Have a nice day!” She said as the world spun again. It didn’t feel nearly as jarring as the last change. 

The world became a mist filled chamber again. Luna could feel her hooves, her wings, her horn on her head. It was the most glorious feeling. Her body was hers. She could feel the magic that normally swirled through her body settle into its regular rhythm. She was back. 

She turned and saw the huge crowd of ponies from before. She flicked her mane and stepped out of the chamber. She was about to address the crowd when Derpy jumped on her.

“You’re safe snuggle Princess,” the little pegasus cried. Luna could see the tears running down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hit that lever. I didn’t want ponies to think we...did those things. I never meant to send you away.”

Luna placed a calm hoof on the little mailpony. The odd anger she felt had disappeared . All that was left was the jubilation of being home and being herself again. Even a surprise attack from Derpy didn’t spoil her mood. “It is fine, little one. It all worked out. I didn't mean to be so angry with you. I have promised a friend that you and I would become good friends.”

“Does that mean I can sleep with you in your bed sometimes?” Derpy asked excitedly.

Luna leaned in right next to the pegasus’s ear. “Yes. But you must not tell any other ponies. They will want to sleep in my bed too.”

“Ooo, a secret slumber party, I like that,” Derpy said with a bat of one eyelid. 

A strained smile appeared on Luna’s face. What sort of slumber party was this mare thinking? She shook her head and hoped she wouldn’t find out soon. 

The crowd was asking a million questions and the princess answered as best she could. Garble wandered out of his chamber. He weakly stood off to the side while Smolder questioned him. He finally looked her way and the Princess’s heart still skipped a beat. Did she have true feelings for him? Was it just from the events of the last days? Did it matter?

If she did have feelings she couldn’t act on them anyway. She was a Princess and he was a teenage dragon. She decided that no matter what she truly felt it was best to let it go. Better a heartache now then further down the road.

Once the crowd dispersed the little dragon approached her. He didn’t want to ask but she could read it all over his face. His eyes pleaded with need and hope. She looked at him and sadly shook her head. His shoulders slumped and he looked at the ground. He walked away without any more words. 

Luna watched him as he left the festival. Spike and Smolder found him by the time he was nearly out of sight. Luna knew he was in good claws. She could bear the pain of loneliness like she always had. She wondered if the experience was meant to show her that there was still more to this world than dreams and duty. There was still love, even for her. Perhaps it was time to look for it.

“I’m going to spend every night in your bed, snuggle princess,” declared Derpy in the loudest whisper ever. 

Luna groaned. She wondered how long she could last with this pony. How long would she have to endure? But at least the little pegasus was happy. And the Princess liked making ponies happy.