Flash’s POV
“How ya holding up Flash?” Shining Armor asked.
Twilight, Spike and I made it to dinner with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.
“I’m doing fine. It’s like I’m on vacation, but without the ability to move and go wherever I want.” We laughed a little. Reading was nice, but it’s also nice to interact with other ponies.
“At least now you have Twilight to keep you company for a little while.” Princess Cadence said.
I looked over at Twilight and smiled seeing her blush a little hiding her face with a napkin. That’s never going get old I swear. “Yeah, I really do appreciate you coming all this way to check up on me.”
She smiled back at me, her face even redder… I honestly thought she’d burn me. Even so, she told me, “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
The moment was interrupted when we heard “Aww…” We turned to see Princess Cadence with her hooves together over her chest.
I chuckled. Just like my sisters.
After dinner, I excused myself and asked Spike to come with me.
“Hey, do you think you can help me with something?”
“That depends, what do you need?” He looked at me with his arms crossed and cocked his head.
“I want to have a picnic date with Twilight tomorrow and make it a surprise.”
“Oh, sure.” He chilled out and continued, “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to relay a message to Princess Cadence.” I couldn’t do it myself without Twilight noticing right now. I mean taking away Princess Cadence or sneaking off with her trailing behind me would be kind of weird. “Tell her, operation Picnic is a go. She’ll know what to do.”
“How long have you been planning this?” He looked at me confused.
“About a month actually.” I nodded. “You have a lot of time to think about what you want to do on dates when the object of your affection isn’t around.” That, and I thought I should let Princess Cadence help me, at least with some of our dates. I think it’ll quench her thirst of being involved and keep her from meddling so that I don’t have to deal with her surprises.
“All right then. When should I make myself scarce?”
“Actually, I need you to blindfold Twilight and lead her to the gardens with me. I’d do it myself but um…” I gestured to my bad leg.
“And then I make myself scarce?” He cocked his eye brow.
“I would prefer if you did.” I nodded. “Think you’ll be able to entertain yourself for a few hours?”
“I’m sure I can find something to do.”
“Thanks, Little Buddy.” I held out my hoof and he bumped it with his fist.
“Hey, no problem. Your my friends and I want to see you guys happy.”
I had to bring my hoof back down really quick to catch myself before I fell over.
The next day, I woke up to a knock. Twilight and Spike were back, and Spike offered to make some breakfast.
“How did you sleep?” Twilight asked.
“I’m sore actually.” I stretched out careful not to hurt my leg more than it should. “But I’ll be all right. How about you?”
“I slept fine. I finished another book last night.”
“What about? And will I be able to understand it?”
“It was the latest Daring Doo actually.”
“Oh yeah, I read the first book to Ruby.”
“Is she a fan?”
“Not as big as Rainbow Dash.”
We all had a small laugh.
For the next few hours, we hung out and every so often I’d look at the clock. I showed them a few of my albums and scrapbooks my mom made for me.
“She made me one every year. Even when I was a baby and I had no idea what they actually were.”
“Oh, you looked so cute.” Twilight cooed and pointed to picture of me in the lion costume my mom dressed me in for Nightmare Night. I blushed a little and smiled like an idiot. Looking at her and hearing her call me cute made me feel a little funny in my chest.
“That was my first nightmare night.” I nodded and thought of something. “Hang on…” I flipped through the pages to find a certain page. “Aha!” I pointed to this spot on a corner of page. It was wrinkled and a small piece was missing. “My mom gave me the book to try to get a picture and I chewed on it a little.”
They giggled a little.
“Did she get the picture?” Spike asked.
I shook my head no. “Nah, it was too blurry.”
I took a small glance at the clock as Twilight got a closer look at the page. It’s time.
“So,” I closed started to close the book. “I kind of want to go for a walk. I need to move around a bit.” I closed the book and set it down.
“Actually, a walk sounds good.” Spike chimed in.
“So, how about it Twilight?” I asked her.
She looked at us taken aback but smiled and shrugged. “Sure, that sounds nice. Just let us know when you’re getting tired, okay Flash.”
I smiled, “Of course.”
We left and I made sure that we took a roundabout way of getting to the gardens. I’ll admit it might have been a longer way than I wanted it to be. By the end of it, I was feeling a little weak.
But anyway, about 10 feet away from the entrance of the garden, I signaled to Spike and he hopped on top of Twilight.
“Spike-” He wrapped the blindfold around her eyes. “What are you doing?”
“It’s a surprise.” I told her. “Trust me.”
“Um, okay.” She looked a little uneasy so I placed my hoof on hers.
“Hey, we can take the blind fold off if you want to.” I told her. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.” I mean well but I want to make sure Twilight is all right.
“Oh no, it’s fine. I don’t mind the blindfold.”
“You sure?” I asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“All right.”
I nodded and Spike hopped off and took Twilight’s hoof.
When we made it to the spot, even I was awestruck. I knew Princess Cadence said she’d make sure our spot was the best in the garden but I did not expect everything in bloom… with roses the size of buck balls… I guess I never took a walk to this part at this time of year. Maybe I should go through daily from now on.
While I was taking it in, I didn’t notice that Spike had taken off Twilight’s blindfold and I was surprised by her gasp.
“Oh, it’s so beautiful.” I saw her move up to the light blue blanket with the picnic basket and looked around the garden.
“Oh surprise!” A little delayed, but better late than ever.
She looked back at me as I walked towards her. “Thank you Flash. Thanks Spike.”
“You’ll have to thank Princess Cadence too. She made sure we got the best spot in the garden.” I said.
“Well, now that my work here is done. I’ll leave you two kids alone.” Spike said.
“Thanks again Little Buddy.” I told him.
He gave us a thumbs up and said, “No problem. Have fun.” He started to turn to leave
“Later Bud.” I told him.
“Bye Spike.” Twilight said.
“I’ll see you guys later.” He responded and left.
When he was out of sight, I turned to Twilight. She looked back at me with a smile. “So… shall we see what’s in the basket?”
She nodded, “Yes.”
We sat down and I started to unpack the basket narrating as I went. A few sandwiches, a fruit salad, a cheese plate, cider and some cupcakes.
“This is actually a lot of food.” I commented.
“But it looks good.”
“I’d hope so, the royal chefs were responsible for this meal.”
She giggled and I laughed a little. I really missed this. I really missed Twilight. We spent our second date a lot like our first one. We kind of just talked and joked around. It was nice. Twilight’s nice. I just wish I wasn’t injured on our second date, but oh well. It’s my bad leg that got her here so I guess it’s not so bad.