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Date One - A Trip to Sugarcube Corner1,042 words
Date Two - Hot Stuff1,045 words
Date Three - Lowering the Bar1,080 words
Date Four - A Flight to Remember1,072 words
Date Five - Striking It Rich1,188 words
Date Six - What The Duck?!1,358 words
Date Seven - The Will to Succeed1,068 words
Date Eight - The Deepest, Darkest Date1,182 words
Date Nine - Pet Peeves1,196 words
Date Ten - It's All Relative (Guest Chapter by Eakin)1,091 words
Date Eleven - The Scent of a Stallion1,130 words
Date Twelve - Just Hanging Around1,100 words
Date Thirteen - Lepidopterrifying1,154 words
Date Fourteen - A Royal Pain in the Aft1,238 words
Date Fifteen - Check, Please1,134 words
Date Sixteen - A Vision of Loveliness1,341 words
Date Seventeen - A Jarring Experience1,143 words
Date Eighteen - Roomhates1,144 words
Date Nineteen - An Affair to Forget (Guest Chapter by Jondor)1,240 words
Date Twenty - An Instrument of Destruction (20th Date Double Sized Extravaganza!)2,228 words
Date Twenty-One - The Captive Heart1,385 words
Date Twenty-Two - The Flavor of Defeat1,170 words
Date Twenty-Three - Rottomaton1,824 words
Date Twenty-Four - Cruisin' For A Bruisin'1,480 words
Date Twenty-Five - A Quiet Night In (Guest Chapter by BronyWriter)1,239 words
Date Twenty-Six - A Moussed Connection (Guest Chapter by Seether00)2,257 words
Date Twenty-Seven - Blue Belles and Green Mushrooms1,158 words
Date Twenty-Eight - Closed Encounters2,357 words
Date Twenty-Nine - Fan Fiction1,177 words
Date Thirty - Smother (Guest Chapter by Eakin)1,512 words
Date Thirty-One - Unreported (Guest Chapter by Eakin)2,282 words
Date Thirty-Two - Things Better Left Unsled1,309 words
Date Thirty-Three - Oh, Deer 1,602 words
Date Thirty-Four - Speed Dating (Guest Chapter by Metool Bard)1,694 words
Date Thirty-Five - Batmare Ends (Guest Chapter by BronyWriter)2,727 words
Date Thirty-Six - Come With Me If You Want To Love1,931 words
Date Thirty-Seven - Savings and Groan2,079 words
Date Thirty-Eight - Disenchanted1,208 words
Date Thirty-Nine - Terms of Ensnarement1,533 words
Date Forty - Lightening the Mood1,271 words
Date Forty-One - Adding to the Problem1,469 words
Date Forty-Two - The Cold Shoulder1,267 words
Date Forty-Three - Movie Scars1,443 words
Date Forty-Four - Love's Just Not In The Cards1,619 words
Date Forty-Five - The Right End of the Wrong Stick (Guest Chapter by InquisitorM)1,798 words
Date Forty-Six - Full of Hot Air1,291 words
Date Forty-Seven - A Secret Affair1,368 words
Date Forty-Eight - Halt, Criminal Scum (Guest Chapter by Georg)2,542 words
Date Forty-Nine - On The Ledge Of Disaster3,412 words
Date Fifty - Tact and Harness (Guest Chapter by Skywriter)2,512 words
Date Fifty-One - The Laws of Attraction2,131 words
Date Fifty-Two - Takes A Licking...1,331 words
Date Fifty-Three - Join the Horde!2,181 words
Date Fifty-Four - Love's The Best Policy2,163 words
Date Fifty-Five - Un-Appetizers2,794 words
Date Fifty-Six - Let's Talk About Sects1,672 words
Date Fifty-Seven - Rolling With The Punches2,477 words
Date Fifty-Eight - Deviating From The Program3,083 words
Date Fifty-Nine - You Can't Spell 'Now' without 'Ow'3,086 words

Date Fifteen - Check, Please

Parallax squinted as he tried to make out the contents of the alarmingly long checklist that the mare was poring over. Earlier that day, he’d been pleasantly surprised that she’d been willing to meet at such a late hour, but now the darkness was making reading somewhat difficult. Concentrating, he sent a spark of magical energy to the tip of his horn, illuminating the list for them both.

“Ah, that’s much better!” Cheerilee said, giving him a brief smile. “Thank you!” Licking the tip of her quill, she began mumbling again. “Bandages? Check. Iodine? Check. Three weeks iron rations? Check.”

Parallax scanned the document. Written in print too small for him to make out clearly, it seemed to contain hundreds of items, the first ten of which had marks next to them. He checked his watch, grimacing. Ten-thirty! he thought. We need to get moving!

“Small inflatable raft? Check. Insect repellent? Check.”

“Ah, I don’t want to seem pushy,” Parallax said quietly, adjusting his glasses to sit more squarely on his muzzle, “but the comet's viewing window is only about two hours.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Cheerilee said, beaming. “Honestly, I’m tickled pink that you wanted to bring me to the observatory, but I just need to make sure I have a few necessary items.” Burying her nose in the list again, she muttered a few more times, occasionally rummaging around in the large cart she’d pulled with her. “Bolt cutters? Check. Breath mints? Check. Flare gun?” Cheerilee gasped, throwing items left and right as she dug through the cart.

“Well, but—” Parallax began, checking his watch again.

“Did you happen to bring a flare gun with you?!” Cheerilee said, her head erupting suddenly from beneath the piles of supplies.

“Why would I bring a flare gun?” Parallax said, tilting his head to one side.

“Oh, that’s just great!” Cheerilee answered, pounding her hoof onto the side of the cart. “Now I’ve got to go all the way back home!” Pulling herself free, she leapt out of the cart. “Would you mind watching this for me?” she asked, dusting herself off. “It’ll take a lot longer if I have to pull it all the way.”

“Look, I apologize if I’m being rude or obtuse, but why in the world do you need a flare gun so desperately?” Parallax said. “Or, any of this, really?” he added, poking his head over the cart’s sidewall.

“Look, you just don’t know when you’re going to need a flare gun,” Cheerilee said. “Trust me on this one. It’s a necessity.”

“But we’re just going into the observatory,” Parallax said, dropping his eyes and twisting his hooves nervously around one another. He’d been trying to work up the courage to ask Ponyville’s attractive schoolteacher out for months, and events weren’t exactly going as planned. Worse, he couldn’t quite figure out what was happening and he was afraid that he was missing something obvious. “I-I can assure you that it’s perfectly safe in there.”

“Oh, that’s what you think!” Cheerilee said, advancing on him with wild-eyes. “Yeah, that’s how it starts out, but then the telescope somehow explodes, or the stallion ends up not having a telescope in there at all! Instead, the place is stuffed with marmots that he wants you to groom with him for whatever reason!” Cheerilee put her hooves to her face, pulling down the area under her bulging eyes. “Anything at all could happen once I go in there, and for once, I’m going to be ready!”

Parallax blinked, and still at a loss for a polite response, he blinked again. “But... you can’t even fire a flare gun in there,” he finally said, backing away a few steps as she let her skin snap back into place. “There’s not nearly enough room. Besides, nopony would see it except us.”

“Hmmm, maybe you’re right…” Cheerilee said, putting a hoof to her chin. “Okay, we’ll just skip that one.” Picking up her list again, she drew a line through ‘flare gun’ and moved on. “Galoshes? Check. Shovel? Check.”

What to do, what to do? he thought, biting his lip. Without a doubt, this was the biggest opportunity of his dating life. Or, at least, he’d thought it would be. Everypony at the observatory thought Cheerilee was the hottest mare outside of the completely unobtainable Rarity and Twilight Sparkle. They’d all entertained the fantasy of dating the librarian, but after they’d found out that she spent half of her time with royalty, they’d all gone out for several stiff shots and moved on. By all accounts, Cheerilee was pleasant, funny, and smart. It also didn’t hurt that she was gorgeous.

Parallax had nearly fainted trying to work up the nerve to approach her, and he’d been shocked when she’d enthusiastically agreed to meet him for a star-watching date. He’d spent the entire day floating on cloud nine, while his colleagues alternated between high-hoofing him and complaining in mock irritation about his luck. But now that she’d arrived, he’d found her to be… distracted. I-I think she might be unwell, he thought as she aggressively checked off another few boxes.

“Thermite? Check. Multi-tool? Check”

Parallax cleared his throat. “Are you feeling okay, because—” he asked.

“Look, don’t get patronizing with me!” Cheerilee snapped, shooting him an annoyed glance. “I know how this looks, but you don’t know what it’s like! If you did, you’d be the one here with a list!” She leapt back into the cart, digging until she found a nautical map. “I was lost at sea for two weeks!” she cried, waving the map above her head. “I had to live off of bits of floating kelp, and I’m not going through that again!” She locked eyes with him, daring him to utter another word of protest. “I’ve battled blood-thirsty ducks and climbed out of volcanoes! I’ve been dragged through cakes and manure! I’ve watched a butterfly gang stallion-nap somepony for who knows what reason! So, yes, you bet your buttons I’m going into this thing prepared!”

Parallax sweated, finally dropping his gaze. Pulling out a small cloth, he plucked his glasses from his nose and busied himself with cleaning them. As Cheerilee disappeared back into the carts, he quietly opened the observatory door and stepped inside, lifting and lowering each hoof slowly so as to attract as little attention as possible. I must have the worst dating luck in all of Equestria, he thought sadly as he locked the door behind him.

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