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// Chapter Eight 
// Story: A Strange But Familiar Place 
// by KP9457 
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Chapter Eight The First Date


The next day passed by normally with out too much excitement; got up, went to work, finished up work for the day, bought a salad for supper, listened to some records then went to bed. Friday I woke up and went to work, once I was at work Rarity began to work on every pony’s outfits for the Winter Spectacular Ball, at this point she had began to design hers and Pinkie Pies dresses. The time had passed to become about three thirty in the afternoon and the main door to the boutique flew open as three young fillies barged in. All three said hello to Rarity and me, before they all left the room except Apple Bloom who stopped abruptly and stared at my flank and asked “Hey Maverick how did you get your cutie mark?”
As Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo came back into the room I replied “Hmmm, I really don’t know Apple Bloom, I don’t remember that. Why do ask?” 

“We are trying to find our special talents but we can’t seem to find them.” Apple Bloom exclaimed in an extremely whiny voice.

I began to think of a completely random idea in which they could go do. After pondering for a few seconds I told them they should try geology. The three of them stopped and thought for a second and then jumped up exclaiming “WE’RE GOING TO BE GEOLOGISTS!” and just as quickly as they came in they shot out of the room.   
Rarity and I broke out laughing on how energetic they were to go look at rocks. In the midst of the laughter Rarity began to say “My, that’s very good dear, they shouldn’t be able to hurt themselves.”

“And who knows they might find Tom.” I replied laughing.

“When did I tell you about Tom?” Rarity asked.

“Oh you told me when we were at the fire over at Sweet Apple Acers.” I told her.

After a second or two Rarity spoke up again “Oh yes that’s it.”

I nodded in agreement and we went back to work having small talk between us throughout the rest of the day. Another hour and a half went by, Rarity walked up to me and gave me my weeks pay and told me to enjoy my date with Applejack, and I said I would and took the money and went home. When I got home I went to the bathroom immediately to have a hot shower and prepar for my date with AJ. I left the house and made my way over to Big Times, when I arrived I asked the hostess if she had seen Applejack, she told me no and then I asked for a table for two she nodded and proceeded to seat me. After waiting for a bit the hostess approached again but this time was leading Applejack. When I saw her I couldn’t believe my eyes, Applejack looked so beautiful I quickly became speechless, her long blonde hair shimmering in the light. Her gorgeous green eyes shining like two beautiful emeralds sparkling in the sunlight. “Howdy Maverick.”

After a second to catch my breath I responded to Applejack by saying “Hello Applejack, may I just say you are looking absolutely stunning.” 

“Why thank you Mave, you’re looking handsome tonight” Applejack told me.

“Thank you.” I responded. 

Applejack and I both began to look at the menus left on the table, as I began to scanned the different rows with all of the kinds of food most ponies eat. The more I looked I found something that didn’t make sense, it was meat more specifically pork back ribs served with perogies. The waitress came by to take our orders, I looked at the unicorn that was our waitress and ordered us a bottle of wine, and she nodded and asked if we need another minute. Applejack spoke up saying “I’m ready if you are Maverick.” I nodded back at her. “Alright then I will have the pork chops with mashed potatoes.” Applejack told the waitress.

I was shocked by Applejacks decision “And I will have the ribs and perogies.” The waitress agreed and levitated the menus and took them away. 

Once the waitress left I couldn’t help but ask Applejack “You eat meat?”

“Well yeah, not daily but every now and then I do enjoy having some.” She replied back to me.

“That is friggin Awesome! And that makes you just as awesome!” I exclaimed back 

Applejack broke out laughing and I joined in. We kept talking and Applejack told me something I was extremely glad to hear, “Maverick I have something important to tell you. Since I first met you I thought you were handsome and seemed like a very fun stallion, and I hoped you would ask me out.” 

All I could reply to her was “Since I first met you I was struck by your beauty and every time since then I was even more shocked by it; time after time. Also I couldn’t help but be attracted to you because of your remarkable personality.”
Applejack began to blush a bright red “Why thank ya Maverick, your awful sweet.”  

I said my thanks back and we continued to talk finding out more that we had in common everything in our taste in music to our ideal perfect date which is a sunset picnic with a walk in the moonlight. I found out that her favorite reading material is not Supernatural but instead a set of books that are about a caped stallion who fights crime called Batstallion or known on earth Batman. We talked for few more minutes until our food arrived; we each thanked the waitress and began to eat. All I can say about the meal is that it was incredible, I couldn’t believe it after about two weeks I was getting real food and it tasted great. The ribs were perfectly done and tender with Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, and the perogies beautifully done pan fried cheese perogies. I asked Applejack how she was enjoying the meal, “I couldn’t have asked for a better meal with a better stallion.” Applejack replied smiling back.

We finished up our meal and the waitress came by to grab our plates and asked us if we would like any desert, in which we both replied no were good. So the waitress gave us the bill and left us and Applejack and I kept talking and enjoying each other’s company. During us talking Applejack told me “This has got to be one of the best night I have had in a long time Maverick.”

I smiled at her saying “This is the best night I can remember.” 

Laughter broke out between us knowing that my memory was gone, or at least as she knew my memory was gone. Time kept passing for a bit when the waitress came over and asked “Um are you two going to be much longer? Because we are about to close.”

“Well what time is it? I asked the waitress.

“Twelve thirty.” The waitress told me.

Applejack began laughing and said “Alright well get going then.”

I paid the bill and Applejack and I headed out the door. When we got outside we saw that it was night and a full moon in the sky lighting up Ponyville. We kept walking and talking on our are way toward Sweet Apple Acres. We were walking and enjoying our time laughing and dancing in the streets, just having a great time with each other’s company. As we began to approach Sweet Apple Acres Applejack turned to me and said “Well this is it Maverick.”

I began to frown a bit “I don’t want this night to end.” I told her.

“I think Granny Smith would kill both of us if you came in.” She told me laughing.

I laughed as well then asked her “Do you want to go out again?”

“That would great Maverick how about next Friday?” She replied

“Alright. I can’t wait.” I smiled back to her 

We hugged and I gave her a kiss on the cheek, as I did that she began to blush and kissed me back.  We finished saying our goodbyes and I began to head home, I turned back towards Sweet Apple Acres, to make sure Applejack wasn’t there, I saw that she wasn’t. So I stood on my back hooves and started to do my happy dance, while thinking to myself “This is unreal!”