//------------------------------// // Totally Not a Date // Story: My Best Friend's Kinda Hot... // by Such A Chlorbag //------------------------------// “Wow,” admired Starlight, looking around at Shetland’s atmospheric lighting, candlelit tables, and soft jazz being played by a live band in the corner. “Now this is fancy. A bit too much for my blood.” “Heh, me too,” Trixie chuckled. “But, I figure we could pretend to be fancier than we are every once in a while.” She winked at Starlight before approaching the mustachioed host at the front stand. “Good afternoon, madame,” he said, trying extra hard to be polite. “Welcome to Shetland’s! How may I be of service to you?” “Good afternoon,” Trixie said in return. “A reservation for two, under the name of The Great and Powerful Trrixie!” She lifted her arm to enunciate her point. He perused his list of reservations, a frown adorning his face. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t seem to have that particular name reserved. Could there have been a mistake?” Trixie rolled her eyes. “Trixie Lulamoon. Try that.” “Aha!” he exclaimed. “There you are! Right this way, miss.” He gestured for the two to follow him as he made his way to the seating area. Trixie cocked her head towards Starlight as she walked. “I told them to refer to me by my stage name upon arrival. I suppose some favors are just above certain ponies.” Starlight hid a chuckle with her hoof. “Sorry you’re not a household name yet. Guess you’ll have to write them a strongly worded letter of complaint now.” Trixie huffed. “You know, I just think I might!” “No, you won’t.” “No, I won’t,” Trixie replied. The two shared a giggle. “Here we are!” the host said, gesturing to a circular table at the side of the room. Like the rest of tables, it was adorned with a white table cloth and a small, lit candle, providing a nice, comfy atmosphere. Both Trixie and Starlight took seats opposite of one another. “Now,” continued the host, “I will be back shortly with your menus. But first, what can I get the mares to drink?” “Just water for me,” Trixie said, considering her bank account. “You know what? I’m feeling a little crazy tonight,” Starlight said, turning to the host. “I’ll have a lemonade!” She smirked as Trixie almost exploded in laughter. “Hmm, very good,” the host said with a smile before turning away from the two unicorns. Trixie, coming out of her laughing fit, simply gazed at Starlight and grinned. “What?” asked Starlight, proud of making her friend laugh. “Oh, nothing,” Trixie said. “I just never pegged you as being as funny as you are when we first met. I’d say you have a hidden talent there.” Starlight batted her hoof. “Oh, not even. But thanks. I do have a good one every now and then. On occasion. You know what they say…” Trixie waited a beat. “Um… what do they say?” Starlight shrugged. “I don’t know. I was trying to come up with another joke but couldn’t think of anything. See? Only on occasion.” Trixie rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but admire the mare sitting across from her. They’d been friends for months now, but Trixie was finding more and more about Starlight every day that continuously astonished her. Before long, a waiter came by and served them their drinks, and even later, their food. Both had gotten different mishmashes of pasta, sauce, and a side salad, and the two soon resigned to digging in with intermittent, idle chit chat. Before Trixie knew it, an hour had gone by and she was still deep in discussion with her best friend. She sighed contently. This was what being happy truly felt like. “And I told Fluttershy,” Starlight continued, finishing up a story, “’Panther? I hardly even know her!’” Trixie chuckled quietly to herself. “I don’t know much about the mare, but I imagine Fluttershy didn’t quite get the joke.” Starlight waved her hoof. “Oh, of course not. Flew right over her head. But that’s okay. One of Fluttershy’s more appealing traits is her innocence. I think that’s an important trait to keep for as long as she can.” “Right,” Trixie replied, fiddling with her silverware. “Celestia knows that none of us have any reason to be innocent by now. We’ve all been through too much.” Raising her glass, Starlight said, “I hear that.” She took a swig of lemonade. “You can only save Equestria so many times before you start feeling a little jaded about things. At least sometimes.” “Hmm. Or spend the better half of your life in a traveling caravan all alone.” Starlight frowned. “That’s true. I know, both of us have had a rough go at it for the past couple years,” she reached across the table and placed her hoof on Trixie’s. “But the way I see it, that book is closed now, and we’re just getting through the prelude of a new one. Things are just beginning for us.” “Prelude?” Trixie asked, trying to ignore the soft burning in her cheeks from Starlight’s hoof. “Uh… prologue?” Trixie squinted. “Um… the part at the beginning of a book that sets up the rest of the story.” “Ohh,” Trixie concluded. “Why didn’t you just say that? Trixie doesn’t read books.” “Yeah, I could’ve guessed,” chuckled Starlight. Trixie took a moment to look around the room, soaking in the atmosphere. The sultry jazz tones danced in her ears, the dim lighting cast shadows on the walls, and the intoxicating smell of well cooked food lulled her into a deep sense of comfort. Glancing over at Starlight, Trixie noticed how the hazy candle light played with the contours of her face, accentuating curves while otherwise illuminating the attractive features of the gorgeous mare. Er, uh, I mean, just the mare. Just the normal, okay looking, not out of the ordinary mare. Gosh, why do I keep thinking this? Am I still getting hung up on things? “What’s wrong?” Starlight asked, noticing Trixie’s discomfort. “Nothing,” Trixie insisted. “I was just thinking about something.” “Doesn’t look like nothing. Even in this dim light, I can see your face blushing up. Do I have something on my face?” “N-no. Trixie wasn’t even looking at your face! Why would she do that?” “Thanks,” deadpanned Starlight. “I didn’t mean it like that.” Trixie held out her hoof. “It’s just… sometimes I go off on tangents in my own head.” “Hmm,” Starlight pondered. “Is the food making you uncomfortable? I know that you can have digestive problems sometimes when you eat certain spices.” She grinned. “Do you need to take a trip to the bathroom real quick?” “NO I—” Trixie, stopped herself from shouting. “No, I do not need to go to the bathroom real quick.” Starlight chuckled. “I dunno, it seems like that one time we went to the burrito place and you got really—” “We do NOT talk about the burrito place!” Trixie admonished. “You sure? Because I specifically remember needing to open some windows in your wagon that night.” “Okay, okay, we’re done talking about this!” Trixie fumed. “Honestly, I don’t even understand how you can be okay discussing these things.” “I understand,” Starlight smiled. “It’s ‘cause we’re best friends. You can tell me anything, Trixie.” Oh, please, Celestia, don’t. Trixie’s heart began to pound, her mouth becoming more and more dry as the seconds passed by. She decided to come up with something else to talk about. Now was as good a time as any to speak from the heart. “Ahem, well,” Trixie began, “there is one thing I want to say, which I’ve already said multiple times, but I wanted to hammer it in once more, just so we can get it out of the way and never talk about it again.” “Um… okay,” Starlight replied with interest. Trixie rubbed the back of her scalp. Time to do what she came here for. “So… You know how sorry I was for drenching you in the pond today, and whatnot, but I want you to know that I’m also even more sorry that that wasn’t the first time I’ve messed stuff up. You’ve been teaching me for months now and have been my friend for a little longer than that. And don’t think I haven’t noticed how peeved you get when I’m around you, even if we’re having fun. So… um… I just want you to know that I’m working on it, and I hope to be the best mare I can be someday, even if it’s not right now.” Starlight blinked. “Wow. Uh… thanks, Trixie. I think you’re treating yourself a bit too hard there, but I appreciate the effort. Like I said before, we’ve both started over with our lives. Neither of us are perfect, and we’ve both got a lot to work on. So… I’m glad you’re working to be the best you that you can be, because I am too.” “Thank you,” Trixie began. “I just hope I can reach a point where I don’t disappoint you on a daily basis anymore.” “Woah, woah, woah!” interrupted Starlight. “What do you mean?” “What do you mean, ‘what do you mean?’” “Don’t do that to me.” Trixie shrugged. What did she think she meant? It should be obvious. “Um… Trixie just meant that we end almost every lesson with you being either mad or disappointed—usually both. And I don’t want that to happen anymore, so I’m just going to push myself harder from here on out.” Starlight looked befuddled. “Trixie… you think I’m disappointed in you?” Her heart stung every time she thought it. “Well… yeah. It seemed obvious.” Taking a moment to scout out Trixie’s face, Starlight seemed unable to come up with a response. Trixie’s heart sank. She felt another rant coming on. Which is why she felt surprised when Starlight took both of her hooves into her own. “Trixie, what was it that you said to me right before we got here?” “Um…” Trixie was confused. “’How was your day today?’” “No, Trix,” smiled Starlight, warmly. “You said I deserve all the love and kindness in the world. Right?” “Right.” “If you think that a day goes by where I don’t think that about you, then you’re crazier than I thought. And trust me, I think you’re pretty crazy.” “Really?” Her heart raised just a little. “Really. I admit, I have been frustrated in you before. Maybe even a little mad.” “A little?” snarked Trixie. “Okay, quite a lot. Like the flaming depth of Tartarus, a lot. But, in all of our time spent together, I have not spent one second of it being disappointed in you. Not. One.” “Starlight…” Oh no. The waterworks were coming. “And if you planned this all out to tell me this and say you’re sorry, then I hope you don’t feel like you wasted your money, because it’s not even remotely true. Do you realize how gosh darned proud of you I am? Every single day?” Yup, there it was. Tears were starting to form. And perhaps something else. “Trixie, you’ve gone from one of Ponyville’s most hated ponies to a savior of it. Multiple times. You keep saying you want to be a better mare than you used to be, but you are a better mare. Each day better than the last. I could’ve been best friends with any of the hundreds of ponies in this town, but I didn’t. I chose you. Because you had something in you that I saw—something that maybe nopony else could. You had the will to be better. Where anypony else could just sit back and say, ‘Well, that’s just how I am, so deal with it,’ you stood there proud and said, ‘No, I can be better. And I will be better.’ And that’s how I felt too.” She continued, “If I have ever given you the impression that I’m disappointed in you before, then Trixie, I am sorry. I’ve failed you as a best friend. Because while our personalities might butt heads every once and a while, there hasn’t been a single moment where I’ve regretted meeting you. I can’t imagine having a better pony as my lifetime best friend.” “Oh, Starlight!” Trixie called, bolting up from her seat and wrapping herself in her friend’s arms. Tears began to flow fully, held back like a dam for so long. All of her doubts, her worries, and her regrets from the past few months seemed to just slip away in an instant. And in their place? A warm, tender feeling. One that Trixie had not yet experienced before. Not caring that she was making a scene, albeit a relatively quiet one, Trixie let out all her emotions on Starlight’s shoulder, hugging the mare as tight as she could to match the feelings she had for her. From spending all her life having nobody to care about to having the best friend in the whole world, Trixie couldn’t help but feel emotionally overwhelmed. It was like seeing color for the first time; completely unreal, yet beautiful all the same. After a few minutes of silent embracing, Trixie stepped back from her hug, noticing that Starlight was wiping away tears as well. “Wooh,” Starlight chuckled, “it usually takes a lot to get to me. But that certainly did the job.” “Yeah,” Trixie sniffed, clearing her face, “me too. I’ve never done that in public before.” “Me neither,” replied Starlight. She sighed, satisfied that she wouldn’t cry anymore. “So, do you feel better now? Is everything all understood between us?” Trixie took note of the strange emotion in her chest. Maybe not everything. “Um, yeah… yeah, I feel a lot better. This wasn’t how I expected this night to go.” “Neither did I, but I’m glad it did.” Trixie looked up at Starlight, who gave her a breathtaking smile that tugged at her heartstrings even more. Beautiful. As if to put a cap on their moment, the waiter came by administering the check, which he rightly handed to Trixie. Trixie took a brief look at the total. Oof. Not wanting to make a face in front of him nor Starlight, Trixie begrudgingly lifted her clutch bag and pulled out the necessary bits she owed. Plus tip. “Well,” Starlight began, after the waiter had thanked them for their business and departed, “I’d say that’s a good end to your apology dinner, wouldn’t you?” Trixie nodded. “A very good end.” “Care to walk me home?” Starlight asked, with a flirtatious grin. Wow. My best friend’s kinda hot. “U-um, of course! After you!” The pair stood up and made their way towards the exit, thanking the staff on their way out. Trixie couldn’t help but notice the exciting feeling of butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. She still couldn’t quite put a pin in what her new feelings towards Starlight were. Admiration? That was certainly there now more than ever. Once outside, Starlight looked to the skies, now dark and filled with stars. “Wow, it’s such a nice night out tonight. It’s beautiful.” “It is,” Trixie responded, not breaking eye contact. Starlight looked back at her. “Everything okay?” Trixie blinked. “Yes.” She couldn’t take her eyes off of her. Maybe it was respect? Getting up close to Trixie’s side, Starlight said, “Come on, Trix. Let’s go home.” The two walked slowly, mostly in silence, weaving through the now mostly empty streets of Ponyville. Starlight occasionally brought up a nearby store she said she wanted the two to visit, or an idea for a book she wanted to read, but for the most part, they were content with just walking together and admiring the sights. Soon afterwards, the brilliant glow of Twilight’s castle came into view, a luminescent beacon that was illuminated even on the darkest of nights. “Well, here’s my stop,” Starlight said, breaking the silence. They made their way to the first step of the staircase before she turned around and faced Trixie. “You sure you’re okay? You’re being uncharacteristically quiet. Like… I think you broke a record for the longest you’ve not said something out loud to me.” “I—” “For the record, the previous record was, like thirty seconds, so you didn’t have to try all that hard.” “Thanks,” smirked Trixie. “I’m fine. Just an emotional night, I suppose. And really full from dinner.” “Yeah, no kidding,” Starlight replied, rubbing her belly. “Guess I’ll have to hit the castle gym tomorrow to work all this off.” “Let’s not stand here and pretend you’ve ever hit the castle gym.” “You know me too well, Trix,” Starlight said, placing her hoof on Trixie’s shoulder. “You sure everything’s good between us?” “Definitely!” Trixie replied, faster than she intended. “I’m glad we got everything sorted out.” “So am I,” admitted Starlight. “And, um, thanks again for doing all this for me tonight. It makes me feel really… special.” “You are special,” Trixie said, which she instantly regretted saying out loud. “Heh, you know what I mean.” Once again grinning mischievously, Starlight batted Trixie’s side with her tail. “And thanks for taking me on my first date. I really appreciate it.” “Y-heh-you’re welcome?” Trixie mumbled out, her words spilling into one another. That word. Date. In an instant, all of Trixie’s thoughts and emotions came into place, being fit together like a puzzle that she was too stupid to recognize. It had been coming to this moment for so long, Trixie wondered how she couldn’t realize it. As Starlight waved her goodbye and closed the castle doors behind her, Trixie came to the startling revelation that sent her to her doom. Oh no! I’m in love with my best friend!