//------------------------------// // Moonrise // Story: Misperceptions // by Arbiter Balemead //------------------------------// Lunch was well and good, but both wanted this day to keep going. As Gilda had suggested, it was now Twilight's turn to show her something. This raised a question for Twilight: what could she show Gilda that Gilda couldn't do herself? Gilda insisted that she didn't need to show her anything special, just to come up with something, but Twilight refused to equate flying with a simple dinner or stroll through the park. No, she needed to return the favor with something special... But what could she do? Gilda wouldn't enjoy meeting the Princess, and she probably has no interest in ninety-seven point eight-three-six-two percent of the books in the library. No wait... make that ninety seven point eight-three-six-four percent... Twilight wracked her brain for ideas- anything at all- that she could do. She thought of who she had for friends that could help: A fashionista? No. A party animal? Maybe, but that wouldn't be very good date material. A farmer? Not really... An animal caretaker? Nope. A daredevil who already knows Gilda? Yeah, but then Twilight wouldn't really be involved. The captain of the guard? No real application here. The princess ruler of the land? Well, that'd be taking it a bit far. The princess of the night. N- wait... Light Bulb! Twilight asked Rainbow to distract Gilda for the rest of the day so she could get everything set up. It was mainly a matter of getting Luna's attention through letters, then simply explaining the situation, which came off as embarrassing until the princess stated she saw nothing wrong here. After that, she simply explained her request, then said please a lot. It worked. Luna even agreed to ask her sister to set up a shorter sunset to make room for the display. She stated in a letter ten minutes later that it had been an easy endeavor. The next step was setting up the clouds. She got Fluttershy to take Rainbow's job, then asked Rainbow to set them up for her. The weather team captain had no issues with the matter, and thus it became a simple task for both her and her team to set up a perfect pattern. They had done this with sunsets before, but this was new, so it took them about thirty minutes to set them up just right. Once that was done, Twilight asked Applejack if there was a good spot on her farm that she could use tonight. Luckily, the farmer had a good spot in mind that could see the spectacle with little difficulty. She decided to go for a two-in-one date, so she asked Pinkie to prepare something tasty for them. After all that, Twilight looked up from her planning to realize everything was ready and she had only half an hour left before Luna's spectacle. She went over to the park where -and she was curious about how this was done- Fluttershy was occupying Gilda's time. She arrived to find Fluttershy quietly playing with some rabbits and squirrels while Gilda was napping against a tree. Twilight couldn't say she was surprised. She walked over and softly nudged Gilda's stomach with the tip of her hoof. She woke up, slightly annoyed by the itchiness of the tree against her back, but she didn't complain since Twilight's face was the first thing she saw. She couldn't stop herself from mentally noting, for the umpteenth time, that those eyes were startlingly cute. "I'm up, I'm up." She said as she rolled away from the tree and stood up to start stretching. "Got... whatever it is ready?" "Yep." Twilight answered, glancing at the lowering sun. Gilda followed her eyes, then gave a grin. "Ooh, is this one of those 'short-lived, but still special' things?" She asked. Twilight glanced at her blankly. "Yeah... you could say that." A few minutes later they were seated on a hill with a perfect view of the horizon opposite the sun. Gilda was confused for a moment before she noticed the odd formation of the clouds. She decided that there was something special happening with the sky, but it wasn't the sunset... so that left- As she came to a conclusion, a silver light began to appear over the horizon. As the light began to spread across the sky, a glowing white sliver appeared over the horizon. This sliver slowly grew and waxed as it rose over the line of the world, becoming a full-on moonrise as they watched. It's light reflected off of the clouds, forming a brilliant spectacle of silver, white, grey, blue, and black that paired perfectly with the stars and their constellations. Wait a minute... Gilda squinted at an oddly shaped set of stars that she'd never seen before. Was it-? No it couldn't be... It is! It was a detailed constellation of a griffin. One with a suspiciously similar build to her own, as well as a yellow star place perfectly where the griffins eyes should be. Most ponies and griffins were aware that amber eyes, like Gilda's, were rare amongst an already scarce species. There really was only one reason that a constellation would have a yellow star for an eye. She felt an intense heat in her cheeks as she leaned down and whispered to the pony next to her, "I'm pretty sure that I've never seen that one before." as she pointed at the constellation in question. "That could be because I requested that Luna make it..." Twilight replied, sounding as though it weren't a big deal. "You called in a favor with the Princess of the Night for me?" Twilight looked at her, slightly worried. "Too much?" She asked nervously. This made Gilda pause for thought. She actually hadn't been thinking of that; she'd been thinking of how flattered she was that this mare she'd been with for two days was willing to call in a favor from a princess for her. "Maybe, but I don't care. I'm just flattered." Gilda answered. She wrapped one massive wing around Twilight and pulled her closer for a loving embrace. "Thanks." The sat in silence as Twilight opened up a picnic basket that Pinkie had prepared, and they began to peacefully eat away the treats she'd readied for them. After all the sugary treats had been devoured, Twilight scooted over and laid against Gilda, quietly resting her head against the wide-eyed griffins chest. In response, Gilda wrapped an arm around her gently, then a wing as well as a cool breeze blew in. "Hey, Gilda?" Twilight asked, looking up with tired-out eyes. "Yes?" "Do you think this will last?" The librarian asked, using a hoof to gesture to the display of affection between them. Gilda thought about the question for a moment, then nuzzled her cheek against Twilight's. "I think so."