//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Beginning of Autumn // by MagicTypingPony //------------------------------// Autumn trotted into the cafe, his eyes scanning the tables for his number. Spotting it by the window, Autumn started towards it, but stopped when he noticed it's current occupant. Maple sat at the table, resting her head on one of her hooves, staring out the window lazily. She had a bored expression on her face, and was absentmindedly tearing a napkin into small strips with her magic. Autumn's first instinct was to hide. There was a table next to him with a tablecloth that almost went to the floor. He could hide underneath it and wait until Maple left. But then his father would know that went against his orders. “Ummmm…H-Hello?” said Autumn going over to the table that Maple was sitting at. Her head turned towards with a slump towards the worried colt. “Oh…it’s you.” She sighed “I'd offer you a seat but apparently it's reserved for a very important pony I'm supposed to be meeting.” “Oh…well…it's just that my father told me to come to this cafe…a-and…sit at table eleven.” Autumn spoke slowly beginning to dread what might be happening. Maple raised her head so her hoof fell to the table. “You're not serious, are you?” “I-I wish I wasn't...” Autumn said under his breath. The chair across from Maple slid out for him. “Take a seat.” Maple said it more like an order than an offer. “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can go home.” Autumn sheepishly climbed up into his chair. Maple's pink eyes followed him, as if she assessing his sitting posture. The two of them sat there for a few minutes before Autumn attempted to break the ice. “So…how are yo-” The sound of shattering glass drew their attention to the other side of the cafe. One of the unicorn waiters had apparently been distracted by a mare, and lost his telekinetic grip on a tray of drinks he'd been holding. When Autumn and Maple eventually looked back to themselves, a vase filled with a bundle of roses had mysteriously appeared in the middle of the table. Maple's ears perked up in curiosity. She gave Autumn an accusing look, he gave her a confused one in return. Actually, upon further consideration, Autumn couldn't have put the roses on the table. Meaning somepony was probably watching them. Maple, slowly starting to realise what was going on and began to get angry. This definitely wasn't a chance meeting. She and Autumn had been set up. Her father was undoubtedly behind this, while part of her was glad that her father at least he had finally found the time to give her some attention but this… Maple's horn let off a small spark, and several of the roses in the middle of the table wilted and died. Autumn was still trying to pretend he was sitting at an empty table, silently cursing himself under his breath for not hiding under a tablecloth when he had the chance. Eventually, his wandering gaze fell on Maple. Her current expression was beyond frightening. Autumn coughed to get Maple's attention before speaking. “Well…I think I'll…err…go get us some drinks or something.” He tried to push his chair out from under the table, but Maple's horn quickly glowed and held it tightly in place. “You are not leaving me alone here.” Maple said in a half threatening and half pleading tone. Autumn saw what she did with the flowers, and was pretty worried what she might do the same to him if he left. Autumn nodded, silently agreeing not to leave her alone. An odd feeling washed over him, one of both fear and genuine concern, he concluded that the best idea right now, was to stay with Maple and hope for the best. -- On the other side of the cafe, a unicorn levitating a newspaper with eyeholes cut in it cursed in annoyance. Why was he assigned the job of hooking up a filly and a colt? His expertise was in stealth, not matchmaking. Nevertheless, he couldn't fail. Maple was certainly a tough filly to crack. But he had a few other tricks up his sleeve. Plan B was currently underway. He hoped that the little ponies wouldn't mind the slight alteration he made to their order. A unicorn waiter walked up to Autumn and Maple's table with a tray floating next to him. “One rose milkshake.” he announced, the pink beverage gently floating off the tray and onto the table. Two straws floated into the milkshake, one of them facing Autumn, the other Maple. “Um…Excuse me.” Autumn called out, his shyness robbing his voice of any volume. The stallion didn't hear him and continued walking through the cafe, clearly not hearing the pleads of the colt that was now trembling in fear from what the filly sitting across from him might do. Regrettably, Autumn looked back at Maple, seeing her in the middle of a silent outrage. She was gritting her teeth with anger and her eyes looking so fierce that even a pack of timber wolves would be backing off in fear. Her horn suddenly let off another spark, and the milkshake instantly froze in its cup. Maple then placed her hoof down on the table next to the milkshake and pushed sideways. The glass slide until it toppled off the table. It's collision with the ground hurt Autumn's ears and sent shards of glass and frozen rose milkshake sliding across the floor. “Woops.” said Maple, false innocence laced in her tone. “Please forgive me. I've been such a klutz today.” The unicorn on the other side of the cafe cursed again, more loudly this time, attracting some stares from nearby ponies. Why did Maple have to so negative? She was being so annoying. But she would not cause him failure. It was time for Plan C and Plan C was bound not to fail. Getting off his chair, the unicorn trotted over to the front counter and dropped some bits onto the counter, the pony on the other side scooped up the bits and starting counting them. While he was distracted, the unicorn looked back towards table eleven. As per normal, Maple and Autumn were trying their hardest to avoid eye contact with each other. This was the perfect opportunity. Channelling his magic, the unicorn concentrated as a small pink heart appeared at the tip of his horn. Seeing that the spell was working, the unicorn pumped more magic into the heart, causing it to inflate until it was slightly larger than the size of a bit. He lowered his head and took careful aim at Maple, before shooting the small heart right at her. The heart soared across the room, connecting with Maple flawlessly. The unicorn prayed silently, and was ecstatic to see his prayers being answered. Slowly, Maple was falling for the love spell, and started looking at Autumn with a mellowed look on her face. Autumn was yet to notice, as he had managed to distract himself with the tie that his mother insisted he’d wear. The unicorn turned back to the pony behind the counter just as he was handed his change. He then trotted towards the door with a slight spring of happiness in his step. When he made it out the door, he almost jumped for joy. He had correctly performed a love spell! On his very first try, no less. He had only managed to study love spells for a few minutes after he was assigned his mission. While there was the possibility that the spell could fail from his lack of experience and the fact that he knew nothing about love magic but from what he'd seen, Maple and Autumn seemed pretty close already. This final push should be all that they needed. Back in the cafe, Autumn was becoming increasingly worried about the looks he was getting from Maple. The filly went from giving hatful glares to a look of that could only be described as longing. “H-hey.” he said. “M-Maple…Are you feeling ok? Maple?” Maple's gaze remained transfixed on Autumn, staring at him was if he were a baby puppy…a very scared baby puppy. “Maple!” he said slightly louder while emanating a flash of light from his horn. Maple’s eyes blinked and shook her head violently. Whatever trance she was just in, she seemed to have snapped out of it. Maple looked up at Autumn, confused. What happened in the past minute? She had gone from wishing that cafe would burst into flames, to thinking that Autumn was the cutest colt she had ever laid eyes on. This was something she would never think about…or ever had thought about. Still, something wasn't right. The only thing that could have made her feel so infatuated over Autumn like that would be a love... Autumn felt himself shrink down into his chair as Maple's outraged expression returned with a vengeance. Her horn sparked for a third time, causing the vase holding the dead roses in the middle of the table to explode, sending shards of glass and water to flow across the table, some of the water dripping onto the floor. Other ponies in the cafe stared as Maple noisily pushed her chair out and jumped to the ground. “Thank you for a lovely evening…” she growled between her teeth at Autumn before storming out of the cafe. Autumn hastily reached into his saddlebags and threw a small bag of bits onto the table before jumping off his chair and running out after Maple. She was surprisingly fast for a filly her age. “M-Maple!” he cried out. “Wait up!” Maple rolled her eyes before turning back to the hopeless colt sharply, "Listen. That pony on the other side of the street has been following us ever since we entered the cafe." “Huh?” Autumn turned his head to look, but Maple grabbed him and forced him to look into her eyes while covering his mouth with her hoof. “Ok Autumn.” Maple whispered fiercely. “Unless you want to keep on living, you will never tell anypony about what I'm about to do in the next five seconds. Got it?” Autumn pulled Maple’s hoof away from his face, “O-Okay...” he agreed. “But are you about to...” Autumn was cut off as Maple suddenly closed her eyes pressed her lips to his. At that moment, time stood still for Autumn. Everything connecting him to reality faded into the back of his mind. He was having his first kiss…with Maple! This didn’t seem real, like he was in some bizarre dream world. This must mean she really liked him! Maple opened one of her eyes, and noticed their stalker pony on the other side of the road punching the air with one of his hooves, and then started to perform a little dance. After a few seconds, the unicorn pulled a camera out of his saddlebag and pointed at her and Autumn. Maple just felt like breaking off the kiss then and there, running over to the unicorn, and force feeding him his camera. But she'd have to bear with it. She and Autumn's relationship would have to look convincing if they were going to be left alone. The unicorn couldn't believe his luck. At first he was terrified as it looked like the love spell had failed when Maple ran out of the cafe. But it must have started working again at the last minute. Either way, his mission was a success. All he needed now was proof. He quickly levitated his camera out of his saddlebag and aimed it at the new couple. He took three shots of their kiss before running down street as fast as he could towards the Pure Magic Blood mansion. He would be getting quite the reward for this. Maple saw the pony running away. He was finally leaving them alone. As soon the unicorn was out of sight, Maple broke away from Autumn, panting for breath. Seems she hadn't been breathing during the moment. Autumn blinked a few times at the yellow filly, his eyes wide and baffled by the events that just took place. “It was the tension.” Maple insisted. “It wasn't the moment. It was the tension.” After a few minutes, she looked up at Autumn. The colt's face was glowing red through his fur. His eyes were the size of saucers. He opened his mouth to speak, but only stuttering came out. After a few attempts, Autumn finally managed to speak. “S-So then…T-That was…a thing…I guess.” “Remember.” hissed Maple, her face once again stern. “If you tell anypony about this, I will be forced to kill you. Don't think I'm not joking. I will seriously take your head off.” “Ok, ok. I promise. I won't tell. But...just...why did you...?” “The pony that was following behind was trying to get us together.” “Huh? Why?” “I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he's the one that supplied the roses, the milkshake, and the one that cast that love spell on me.” “He cast a love spell on you?” “Of course he did. Why else would I suddenly start giving you stupid lovey-dovey looks out of nowhere?” “I just thought maybe...” “You're stupid, you know that?” Maple said bluntly. “…so what now?” “Well now that the “date” is over, I'm going home. See you.” “Wait.” said Autumn. “Just give me one minute.” Autumn's horn glowed white and fired a ball of light into the air. When the ball had cleared a few buildings, it exploded like a white firework. After a few minutes a carriage pulled by four stallions rolled down the street and stopped next the colt. The carriage's side door opened and a mare with yellow eyes jumped out. “You called Autumn?” she said. “Yes. Thanks Vigil.” Autumn responded before turning to Maple. “I'm not riding in that.” Maple stated pointing a hoof to the inside of the carriage. “So you're just going to walk home?” “That's the plan.” “Ok then. Suit yourself.” said Autumn, his voice hinting a tone of smugness. With that, Autumn climbed into the carriage with Vigil, but left the door open, waiting patiently for the last passenger. After a few seconds, Maple let out a sigh of irritation and climbed into the carriage with him. Vigil closed the door behind her and rung a small bell on the wall, causing the carriage to jerk with movement as the stallions started pulling. An awkward silence descended on the carriage for a few minutes until Vigil decided to attempt to break the ice. “So…” she asked “How'd the date go?” “It went fine.” responded Maple quickly before Autumn could get a word off. “Did you have fun?” “Briefly…” Maple said, keeping up with her questions. “Did you enjoy each others company?” “It was bearable.” “Did anything interesting happen?” “NO!” “…I see.” Vigil smiled. The rest of the carriage ride continued in silence until Maple told the stallions that they had arrived at her house. Vigil opened the door, allowing Maple and Autumn to jump out. The two of then trotted up the front door. Maple pulled a key from her saddlebag and put it in the lock, opening the door. She walked into her house, planning on not even saying a goodbye, but then turned to face Autumn. “See you at school then…a-and…sorry…ummm…about today.” Autumn said trying not to anger her. “Don't apologize. It wasn't your fault.” Maple took a moment, looking away from the shy colt. “Besides,” she continued in a low voice that Autumn could barely hear. “What makes you think I didn't enjoy it?” “P-Pardon?” “Bye!” Maple quickly shut the door, preventing Autumn from saying another word. Maple quickly pressed her ear to the door, listening for Autumn's movements. He shifted slightly, before leaving wondering what the filly said. Outside, Autumn started towards his the carriage, completely lost in his thoughts. “Did she really just say...nah...no. There’s no way she'd say that. But if she did, then that would mean-” “Ready to go Autumn?” asked Vigil, interrupting his thoughts. “Huh?” Autumn responded absentmindedly. “Y-Yes, I'm ready. Let’s go back home.”