//------------------------------//
// The First Date 
// Story: Magic Memories 
// by Kirbster 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight Velvet stood in the kitchen, rolling out dough with her hooves. She had always loved to cook, but recent events have left her without the time or satisfaction. Now with both of her children out of her hooves for the moment, she could easily find the time to create delightful meals for her and her husband. Along the counters of her kitchen were marinara sauce, assorted cheeses, and the dough that she was currently rolling. She had planned to make pizza, a certain guilty pleasure of hers. Her daughter had made her painfully aware of its lack of healthiness, but she enjoyed it all the same.

Night Light sat in the study, reading up on various topics, as he usually enjoyed doing on his days off. Though recently Twilight Sparkle would be the one who would be doing the sitting in the study. Night Light hated to interrupt her rigorous study sessions, so he had normally let her be. With her gone, he could indulge in the peace and quiet on his own. In the dead silence, his stomach growled and knocked him from his perusal. A light chuckle made its way out as he stood from the chair. He thought now would be a good as a time as any to check on what the plan for dinner was.

So, he embarked on the not-so-perilous journey to the kitchen. Along the way, his nose caught the familiar aroma of marinara sauce, something he was quite fond of. With a faint smile creeping across his lips, he continued his way to the kitchen.

With the new beating of hooves against the kitchen floor, Twilight Velvet was made aware of her husband's presence. She greeted him with a fond "Hello there," turning briefly before returning to her work. After a few awkward moments of responselessness, Twilight Velvet looked back. Night Light's attention was held by something Twilight Velvet wasn't able to discern. After a few brief moments of pondering the brigand of his thoughts, she tapped her hoof on the floor, creating a sharp clicking noise against the tile. Small bits of flour left her hoof and made a new home on the floor. The mare sighed lightly as this realization came, and made her way off to retrieve something with which to clean the flour. Night Light was immediately thrown from his comatose state and shook his head with a certain ferocity.

"Sorry, I guess I was daydreaming," the stallion remarked, putting a hoof gingerly to the tip of his snout.

"I know," Twilight Velvet half-shouted as she peered through her closet of cleaning supplies, retrieving the necessary materials to rid the floor of flour. "You do it quite a bit," she remarked as she made her way back, "I always thought it was kind of cute."

With a new tint of blush gracing Night Light's face, he began "Well, I was just thinking of our first date. The pizza, and all."

"I know," Twilight Velvet started, internally congratulating herself for her success, "I thought after our little trip down memory lane yesterday, it would be refreshing to go back to where it all started."

Night Light chuckled lightly, preparing himself for yet another fit of reminiscing.

A young stallion, decorated in the most endearing clothes he could manage, a yellow sweater, delicately tapped the door of the house that he stood before. "You can do this," he said to himself, clearing his throat and shaking himself of his worries. When the door opened, he hesitated for what, to him, felt like much too long before saying "Hello," which was the only word he was able to say before a cheery mare grasped him by the sweater and pulled him into the household.

"You must be Night Light," she began, a smile of impressive size gracing her face. 

"Y-yes, and I'm-" Night Light started, reaching his hoof out for a reason unbeknownst to him.

"Oh, I know," the mare interjected, bouncing in the direction of the staircase that sat in the corner of the room. After she arrived, she hollered "Twi, your date's here!" in a rather sing-song manner.

Night Light's face immediately turned the brightest shade of pink it could manage as the word "date" was muttered. A feeling of giddiness was swiftly replaced by a feeling of excitement, which was then with even more deft quickness replaced by a feeling of nervousness. The cycle continued itself until the feelings all intermixed, which caused an internal experience unfamiliar to Night Light. Accompanying all of these feelings was a growing nauseousness.

The steady clicking of hooves was the only sound that Night Light was able to hear through the piercing ringing in his ears. Click after click, they became louder, until the young mare he was waited for had graced him with her presence. He stared at her for many long moments, taking in every ounce of beauty he could. He felt briefly deafened, and everything else in the room seemed to melt away. The only thing he could see was the young mare that stood at the edge of the stairs.

"You looked absolutely exquisite that night," Night Light remarked.

"You didn't look too shabby yourself," Twilight Velvet replied.

"While I'll take the compliment, I have to say, I didn't deserve such a beautiful dress."

"When your father's a dressmaker, and you inform him of your first date, that kind of thing happens."

Night Light's intense focus was broken unceremoniously as the excited mare next to him bounced once more and thought aloud "Oh, this is great! My baby's first date!"

Twilight Velvet's face shone a bright red as she reeled backward, as if the words pained her in some way. During the many moments of awkward silence that followed, Night Light's body gradually tensed up until he found it nearly impossible to move a single muscle. Breaking the silence, Twilight Velvet muttered "Mom...", reeling back even farther.

The mare swung her hoof across her mouth, and winked almost painfully unsubtly as she did so. Twilight Velvet took this as an invitation to step down from the stairs. Night Light said as many encouraging things as he could muster to himself, internally, before he attempted to reach his hoof out to the young mare that stood before him. Failing to do so, he sheepishly smiled, his legs on the verge of giving way as they wobbled furiously. The young mare returned the smile with equal warmth and sheepishness.

The two lovebirds stared intently into each others eyes, almost drowning in the mutual feelings of young love. The mare stared at the two silently, eagerly awaiting some type of first move. When it was made clear to the mare that neither pony was going to be taking any type of action in a timely manner, she shoved them both to the door and said "You two have fun now!" 

Both Night Light and Twilight Velvet were violently thrown from their nearly lifeless state as the door slammed behind them. They exchanged yet another sheepish smile and began to make their way to their original destination.

"So," Night Light began, quickly recoiling after his voice left his body, cracking. His cheeks burned a bright pink as he continued, "uh, your mother's a wonderful mare." The bright pink that his cheeks now proudly shone intensified into a deep red after he realized how strange of statement this was to break the ice.

"Uh, yeah," Twilight Velvet stammered, feeling somewhat taken aback by the statement.

"My mother was ridiculous," Twilight Velvet said, chuckling faintly.

Night Light returned the chuckle, noting "She was, I just couldn't find anything else to say."

For many long moments, Night Light continued to stare at the young mare he was accompanying. The fact that they were actually going on a date felt almost surreal to him. His mind raced and his heart almost exploded with joy every time the thought came to his head.

After a bit of an uneventful trot, they arrived at their destination. Night Light, having his manners jolt into his mind at the sight of a door, rushed to the entrance at blinding speeds and held it open for the young mare. An awkward, yet polite, grin shone in thanks from the young mare in question. The young stallion briefly congratulated himself before following his date into the facility.

Pony Pete's was a recently established Italian cuisine restaurant. A quaint little place, decorated in a tad of an old-fashioned Italian manner, despite the apparent casualness the name set forth. Due to Night Light's innate liking of the antique, he greatly enjoyed the aesthetics. Twilight Velvet found it intriguing and a nice change of pace, but didn't take any higher level of fondness to it.

A mare at the hostess table greeted the two with expected warmth, doing the trivial process of welcoming, introducing the place, and showing the couple to their table, ending it all with the traditional "Your waiter will be with you in just a minute."

Night Light and Twilight Velvet shared, once again, a sheepish smile. One would think that this kind of gesture had far lost its meaning and become tedious, but the smiles continued to be genuine. Night Light, attempting his best to be the best gentlecolt he could be, readied a chair for his date, walking around the table to his own afterward. Twilight Velvet stared blankly at the set out, empty chair, before she realized that it was readied for her. She said the usual "Thank you" and took the seat as gracefully as she could manage.

Both ponies stared at the menu and peeked above it sporadically and briefly, as if to keep some kind of check on the continuing presence of their date. Twilight Velvet was the first to decide on her meal, setting her menu down silently as she made a mental note of the name of the dish, and the fact that she wished to exclude the mushrooms. She could go for some nice Fettuccine Alfredo, but she was never a fan of how dressed certain establishments like to make it. Night Light thoroughly analyzed the names and descriptions of each delicacy, but found none that stuck out. He was beginning to grow impatient as he felt, what he thought was, the impatient glare of the young mare that accompanied him.

In actuality, it was the confused stare of the waiter stallion that had been standing at the edge of the table for some time now. The introduction and prod for drinks flying right past him in his strangely intense perusal of the menu. The waiter repeated the "So, what would you like to drink?" a second time, not able to hide the negatively connotated confusion in his tone.

"Oh, uhm-" Night Light began, understandably embarrassed, "I'll just take some water." He made note of the name tag, which read "Silver Platter" as the stallion jotted the request down and made his sway off.

"So," Twilight Velvet said, trying to make some, any type of small talk to break the awkward air, "lovely decor, yes?"

Night Light, who was once again furiously scanning the menu, responded with "Very. I've always been keen on the old-fashioned."

Twilight Velvet nodded, not realizing that Night Light wasn't exactly able to see that gesture with his face plastered to the menu in his hooves. Feeling slightly defeated, she began to toy with the cutlery that sat in front of her.

At that moment, Twilight Velvet had finished mounting the pizza with the items traditionally used. Placing the circular dough on the tool necessary to easily slide it into the oven. She slammed the oven door and went back to reminiscing.

Just then, Night Light found it. Pony Pete's Personal Pan Pizza. This place had been known for it's delicious pizzas, getting quite a name in the short time it had been around. Night Light couldn't resist to pick the dish, but didn't want to seem barbaric or average in his choice of Italian cuisine. An internal argument followed, and Night Light laid the menu down, briefly appearing pensive.

Twilight Velvet noticed this, and voiced concern, "Something wrong?" still toying with her silverware.

"Oh, no," Night Light replied, breaking the simple response into two fragments.

Shortly after, the waiter stallion reappeared, holding a platter with two glasses of water, placing them down with exceptional care on each side of the table. Upon completion, he whipped out his small notepad and asked "Have you decided?"

Twilight Velvet gestured to the young stallion sitting across from her, feeling as if she owed him some act of kindness due to his gentlecoltly actions throughout the night. Night Light paused a brief moment, before blurting out "A Pony Pete's Personal Pan Pizza, extra cheese." He looked back to Twilight Velvet, to see if he could notice any form of judgement distorting her face.

The oven made a familiar dinging noise. Twilight Velvet removed the pizza from the oven and laid it out to cool.

In fact, what graced her face was relief, as she had been pondering ordering the same dish. She was worried about keeping up some type of facade of daintiness, and thought that ordering a pizza of her own would ruin such a thing. After an equally long pause, she requested the same.

The waiter scrawled the orders and made his way off.

The couple then spoke of their fears regarding ordering the pizza and laughed at how silly each of them were being. At the tail-end of their conversation, their meals had arrived. Their small talk continued through the meal, discussing many subjects. They got to know one another, first and foremost.

"What I'd really like to do is teach," Night Light remarked at one point, feeling a certain amount of pride with that goal, noting that it was his special talent. He always felt deep joy in seeing the bright looks on the faces of the recently enlightened. He likened his name and cutie mark to the fact that he provides a light in the darkness. Or, in other words, he provides knowledge where it is otherwise lacking. Twilight Velvet made him aware of her admiration for the goal and talent, and went on to discuss hers.

"I write," Twilight Velvet simply stated, "mostly poetry and short stories." She went on to say that she couldn't really find any type of relation between her name and her talent, but noted that the stars on her flank could symbolize the wonder a great reading experience could bring a pony. Night Light thought aloud as to how he felt that was a great talent, and how he had a certain soft spot for poetry.

Their conversations went on, and each of them could proudly say, that their first dates, were great successes.

Twilight Velvet set the pizza in the center of the dinner table, each of the ponies taking a seat of their own. They exchanged a fond glance and went on to recreate the topics they discussed that very night.