As the chariot kept drifting along through the air currents, Twilight and Forest could make out Ponyville in their view. Since it was in the middle of the afternoon, many ponies were wandering around the streets, tending to their own business. School was almost over, and there would be fillies and colts walking around the streets soon enough.
Despite how beautiful the day turned out with a partly cloudy day, Forest felt tense in his seat. It was not his fault he felt this way, that much he knew. He was looking forward to this date, given it was exactly what she needed to do for him. So that left one other possibility on the table.
He turned to his right to see Twilight acting more nervous than she did when they were flying to the Crystal Empire. She hung her front hooves around her shoulders, as if she caught the cold. She seemed to be deep in thought, and she didn't have the courage to look at him.
"Are you still nervous about the date, Twilight?" he asked.
"Of course I am!" she snapped out of nowhere. But she realized what she did and stopped. "I'm sorry that I'm acting like this, but this is the first date I've ever had. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing when we land. And I don't want to ruin anything about it, but I don't know where to begin!"
She breathed heavily, doing anything she could to calm down.
Nevermind, he thought. She was much more nervous than she was at the Empire.
"Take it easy," he said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "This is my first date too. I've never done this before."
"Really? Somepony like you?"
"Yes, it's true. When it comes down to it, I never had many reasons to pursue dating, and I let my ambitions get in the way. But I'm curious to see where this might go."
She relaxed her front hooves, but her muscles were still tense to the touch. "That makes things better, but I don't know how we should do this..."
Quick, Sombra! You have to come up with something soon! She's too unsure of herself to think straight.
"Well, what would you be comfortable with?"
Twilight paused to think about it. She didn't speak for some time.
By then, Ponyville was only five minutes away from their location. Forest might have been good with his sense of patience, but he didn't have much time to work with anymore.
Then the alicorn's eyes lit up with an idea. "It's a really nice day outside, and we have a park in Ponyville we could walk around."
"Sounds perfect to me. You sure you want to go through with this?"
Twilight nodded. Her heart was beating fast, but this was something she wanted in the end.
"Take us straight to Ponyville Park, if you don't mind."
Upon her command, the Guards changed the course of their flight, from Twilight's house to Ponyville park. The currents changed appropriately, sending more of the gusts of wind right into their faces.
Even though they were a few minutes away from touching down, Forest could make out their destination from his seat. And it appeared to be a nice and peaceful location for their walk together.
It was a good sized park, but not too big either. There were a few walking trails cutting through the grass and some benches to rest on. At the center of it was a water fountain that all the trails originated from.
While he thought about what they would discuss down there, he noted that Twilight was still clad in her royal attire.
"I've noticed you don't like to bring much attention to yourself," he brought up.
"Not unless it's something really important. What's the matter?"
"Well, you're a princess and all, and you had a very public coronation..."
"Oh, I see. You're worried that we'll have a walk and I'll be busy talking to ponies wishing to honor me. That's no problem at all."
She used her levitation spell to take off her crown, and she put it behind her seat in the cart. Then she held out her hooves and removed her sandals in the same manner, neatly arranging them in a row around the crown.
"How is that going to help you?" he puzzled.
"It's the crown that gets the most attention, believe it or not. They don't even notice I'm an alicorn when they look at me, but a golden crown? That's when they know I'm royalty without even knowing who I am. How do I look without the crown?"
Forest stopped before he could say something. He had never looked at Twilight's features in that way before, so he took a moment to examine her.
Much to his surprise, he was taken aback at her beauty. Her mane's many colors were alluring to the eye, moving around in the wind currents. Her purple coat was very appealing to him, and he looked at her cutie mark for the first time. It must have been very symbolic to her magical talents, given what he knew of her, and he felt himself impressed with her looks.
"I think you look beautiful," he said honestly.
Twilight shied away, covering her face with a hoof. "Really? I don't think I'm all that pretty..."
"But you are. Believe me."
The chariot drew ever closer to Ponyville, until they could see the buildings as clear as day. Twilight sat close to Forest Mist as the wheels of the chariot touched solid ground, right on the nearest street to the park.
The winds were calm here, and they could hear a pin drop on the ground. Since school was not out yet, there was nopony in the park save for a few marathon runners on the running trails.
Deep down, Twilight's heart was pounding. She was very optimistic about how this date would go, but it was her first date too. What was she supposed to do? Were they supposed to kiss at the end? How many questions is too many questions? Was she thinking too hard about the many ways this date could go wrong?
Her fears grew to be so bad, her front hooves were shaking from the pressure. She felt sick even though she was healthy as she could be, but she wondered if she should go home.
And he knew she was afraid too. He had to do something to calm her down, or this would never work.
In another case of quick thinking, he wrapped one of his front hooves around her waist. She turned to him in surprise, and caught him giving her a comforting smiling.
"It will be OK," he comforted. "We'll take it slow from here. Would that suit you?"
She exhaled slowly and carefully. "I'm sorry...I just got carried away for a while. I'm sure it will be fine."
That worked? That actually worked? Thank goodness...and it's all going according to plan...
The Guards undid the reigns on their back, and rested the chariot near the entrance to the park. Vanguard came to Twilight's side of the vehicle and opened the door for her.
She jumped down to the ground and turned around to see Forest do the same. With that out of the way, she addressed the guards.
"Stay around here for now. We'll be back here when we're ready to leave."
And so the two of them walked side by side to the park's entrance, neither one seeming to point out how awkward this date could be, with two anti-social bookworms going out together.
The trail they picked led up to the fountain, where there were several benches surrounding it. But it would be some distance away, and they would have to walk for minutes to get there.
While they went on their way, Twilight raced through all the questions she could ask. There was so much she wanted to know about him, but she didn't know what would make for a good first question.
And like before, Forest knew she was nervous. She didn't say anything for the first few minutes, and he thought about saying something to help her out. And then she finally opened her mouth.
"I realized that I actually don't know a lot about you," she brought up. "So how was your foalhood like?"
"So you don't know much about me. That is true..."
His voice trailed off, and he knew he was in trouble. His mind raced to create the answer he would need to satisfy her curiosity.
"If you can believe it, my parents were nobles," he started. "They were high in society from where they came."
"So they're from Canterlot?"
Canterlot didn't exist before my exile, so what do I say?
"No, it was another city that was abandoned nearly fifteen years ago. Long story there, involves dragons and invasions. But they held a little bit of power in their day, serving the princess in her court. Since this was my upbringing, I lived a luxurious lifestyle from my parents' wealth, and it was an easy life for me.
"But they desired for me to follow in their hoofsteps as a noble. And that's not what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted something much different."
To take Celestia's throne myself. That's where my desires went.
"So I'm assuming you wanted to live in the forests, given it's your special talent, right?"
"Right," he lied with a straight face. "There is nothing like being in a forest, allowing nature to surround you in your place. You feel small, but significant at the same time. And it's impressive to see how planting a few seeds can make a big difference when you give it time."
"I understand what you mean. I didn't think friendship would mean so much to me just a few years ago, but now that I know what it's like to have it, I don't want to lose it anytime soon."
They carried on for a little while longer, but they grew a little tired from walking as long as they did. So they sat down at the first bench they found. They could see the fountain not that far away, but it would still take some time to get there.
The afternoon went on, and some fillies and colts ran around the park, while the alicorn and unicorn watched them go by. True to what Twilight had said, nopony recognized her as Princess Twilight Sparkle without her crown and sandals.
Forest spied one particular colt, a unicorn that was no older than eight years old. He ran around the grass with a ton of energy in his steps, and he ran around with his sister in an intense game of tag.
It was strange for him to see a colt like that, and a thought began to seep into his head for later...
"So what else do you want to know about me?" he asked Twilight, who was laying rather tight to him.
"There's one other thing I want to know about you. What do you know about books? You seemed to show an interest in them whenever Cadence asked you about it."
He smiled. Finally, a topic where he would not have to lie at all about how he felt about something.
"There are few things I enjoy more than reading a good book," he began. "I can enjoy all kinds of literature, from magical technique to history lessons to fictional work. It's always impressive to see how much knowledge Starswirl had in his brain. It would have been an honor to work with him."
"That's what I keep saying!" Twilight responded, her eyes full of life. "I've read his book about the teleportation spell three times in a row one weekend. It was so interesting and I couldn't wait to learn more about it when I was a filly!"
"Ah, that classic. How long did it take before you were any good at that spell?"
"Well...long story too. I could do it three months after I tried to learn it for the first time, but my mane would always catch on fire after I was finished. I probably spent two years practicing it before I mastered it for good."
"That's half of a year faster than me. Then again, it's clear that your special talent was always magic. Anypony can see that."
Twilight looked down at her flank, staring at the cutie mark in particular. "So you noticed," she laughed. "It's always a great moment to earn your cutie mark. But I'm sure you're good at magic too."
"But I'll likely never match you in your magical skill. Speaking of which, what is your favorite Starswirl book?"
"That's a tough question. How is anypony supposed to answer that?"
"OK, one you really enjoyed."
"I hate to say it, because I just got it. But that book about dark magic is really good. I haven't seen anything like it before, and it's one of his richest works ever."
Hmm...this gives me an idea, he thought.
"How about you show me one of the spells you learned from it?"
Twilight gulped. "Um...I'm not sure if it's a good idea..."
"Why do you think so?"
"It didn't go over so well the last time I did it..."
OK, no intervention this time. She needs to be able to trust the power of dark magic for this to work.
"Don't worry. I will be here in case something goes wrong . Here, try to aim for that tree over there."
He pointed at a tree on the other side of the trail. It was one of those trees that died during the last winter season, and somepony would cut it down anyways.
"OK..." she said, clearly nervous about trying the spell again.
She hopped off the bench and aimed her horn towards the rotting tree. Forest scooted up from his spot to get a better angle of what was about to happen.
Twilight's horn glowed a dark black hue, something that was highly unusual to her. Her eyes began to develop trails of purple mist while she prepared the spell.
He smiled, since it was the first time in centuries he had seen anypony emit purple mist from their eyes. Oh, how he was looking forward to this...
Then a sphere started to form on the tip of her horn. Her face was covered in sweat, as the spell was always difficult to prepare for release. But she had to do it, to prove that she was willing to improve on such a difficult field of magic.
And then she released the spell. Her vision turned to white for a few seconds, unable to see anything. Her ears were plugged up as well.
When she came to seeing and hearing again, she found herself sitting on the ground. She turned to her right and saw Forest with his jaw dropped. What could have caused him to react like that? Then she finally got a good look at the tree.
The tree trunk had a huge hole in the middle of it. There was still enough wood to support it, but a bunch of material had shattered everywhere in her wake.
"So that is the power of dark magic," he commented, feigning a shocked expression.
"OK...I'm never doing that in a public place again. Target ranges only," she noted, as she tried to get back on her hooves.
But she stumbled on her way up. She felt down flat on her flank, and Forest came to her aid. He held onto her for support, and she slowly regained the strength to stand upright.
"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to do that," she apologized.
"I don't blame you for it," he comforted again. "You didn't know. Let's just keep going to the fountain. Does that sound good to you?"
She nodded. The sooner she forgot about this, the better.
They went on to the fountain, all while Twilight was shaken up from that incident. She could barely walk in a straight line, let alone go on to a walking trail. She seemed more frightened to Forest than she had in a while, and that was saying something given how the day went.
"Stop for a moment," he commanded.
"Wait...I'm sorry..."
But when they did stop, she felt Forest nuzzling around her neck with his snout. He did it very gently, careful not to scare her through his actions. She didn't react at first, but after a while, it felt good to have him comfort her like this.
"Please, don't be scared around me. I'm not going to judge you for that," he whispered.
He kept at it, nuzzling around the top of her head surrounding the horn. She muttered something under her breath, but he could not hear her.
"What did you say? I didn't hear you."
"I said, thank you. I needed that."
He pulled away and smiled back at her. It worked after all.
"Feeling better?"
"I think so..."
So they went ahead to the fountain, and Twilight was much more relaxed the rest of the way there.
All the while, Forest was aware that she was taking a liking to him. Everything he did was working, which was exactly what he wanted to happen.
If anything, he enjoyed how easy it was to get to her. She enjoyed his company, and he knew exactly what she needed at the right moment.
And he knew something was up, when they were so close to each other that their tails were touching.
They arrived at the fountain soon after, with all four benches surrounding it empty for anypony to sit in. They picked the western bench and spent a few minutes just watching the water, falling from the top of the fountain to the bottom.
The fountain was almost therapeutic in how it soothed the both of them. Twilight seemed a lot looser and not so uptight, and Forest was more content with himself. He could hear her breathe, and they were slow, controlled breaths.
"So what do you plan to do with yourself?" he asked.
She propped her head up. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you're a princess now. You can do anything you want with Ponyville, and you have duties to serve. Surely you must have something on your plate."
"I do, actually. This next Tuesday, I'm supposed to be going to Canterlot with Mayor Mare to hold a meeting with Celestia. We're going to discuss what should happen to Ponyville, now that they have a princess living there."
He almost gasped to hear something like this. "You mean, inside the castle in Canterlot?"
"That's the place."
Another golden opportunity, falling into his lap like this? It was so perfect that he couldn't fathom how he could pass it up. Twilight. In Canterlot.
Already, his brain was working overtime to take advantage of this. It was exactly what he needed, and perfect for the next to last part of his plan.
Then he felt a hoof poking him on the side. A certain purple one.
"Are you OK? You've been quiet since I mentioned I was going to Canterlot Castle."
"Oh, it's nothing," he said, snapping out of it. "I don't want Ponyville to change too much is all."
"I understand. I don't want it to change into the next Canterlot either. It's really nice as it is."
But his mind was preoccupied with what would happen in the real Canterlot. He would have to be careful there, but he was getting good at planning his moves and executing them carefully.
"I think I might move here one day."
Twilight turned back to him, having been lost in her thoughts for a while. "Wait, what?"
"It's a wonderful town, and there's forests in every direction for me to tend to. What's not to love?"
"You...you're wanting to move here because of me, aren't you..."
"I would love it, if you don't mind."
Twilight blushed again. He was getting to her in many, many ways.
"I...I think I would like that."
The water kept flowing through the fountain's banks, as the mare and stallion shared another quiet moment together. They didn't speak to each other, but they didn't need to.
That was when Twilight knew he was something special, when they could just be quiet and share a comfortable silence. At least, that's what she thought.
When the quiet moment was over, the evening was approaching fast. The sun was setting, the moon was becoming more visible, and they would have otherwise been hungry. Yet they weren't.
At that moment, Forest had arranged for something to happen once they left. the next part of his plan set into motion. Everything Twilight did that afternoon suggested she was ready for it.
"Hey Twilight, you notice how you fly around in a chariot all the time?" he mentioned.
"Yes, I noticed that a long time ago," she said, with a little bit of rare sarcasm in her voice.
"Do you think you would want to ride around in the Wispy Woods in a carriage ride, with that chariot?"
Twilight gasped. That was...yes, that's what he meant by a carriage ride. Oh, how Rarity would kill for this chance...
"I would love to do something like that."
"Then we should turn back to the carriage. It is getting late."
So they turned around and went back the same way they came. An older group of ponies ran around the park now, and it turned out that Forest and Twilight were not the only ones out here on a date. More than a few couples came out for a picnic date out on the grass.
Twilight watched them on her way back to the carriage, thinking about her own date. She was still unsure how well it was going, but she was enjoying herself in the end...
...until they passed the same rotten tree that Twilight used for target practice. The tree tipped over and crashed away from the trail, thankfully not landing on anypony. Still, a crowd of ponies congregated around it, wondering what could have caused such a massive hole inside its trunk.
Forest and Twilight agreed silently that they should run past the scene, and dashed through the trail until they found themselves at the entrance again.
At that point, the Guards were busy discussing personal matters in private. They were waiting by the carriage, mumbling and asking what was taking them so long, when they stopped to see that the couple was back.
"It will be nighttime soon, Your Majesty," said Vanguard. "What would you have us do now?"
"If you don't mind, could you take us for a ride through the Wispy Woods for a while? I would really appreciate it."
First Strike and Vanguard looked at each other in confusion. When was the last time Celestia asked them to do something like this?
"Are you sure?" First Strike asked. "That sounds highly unusual to me."
Twilight shot them a brief glare. "There's nothing wrong with it. It's a date, after all."
In the end, she didn't really tell them this was a date until that moment. And the Guards seemed all the more puzzled, but then again they voiced no problems with her going out on a date. It wasn't their place to correct her after all.
So First Strike opened the door for them again, and they climbed aboard the carriage. The Guards prompted the binds of the ride on their backsides, and went off for the Wispy Woods once more.
The way to that place was one long dirt road, still going for a while outside of Ponyville. Sweet Apple Acres laid out to their right, the last sign of pony civilization for a while.
While they were waiting to arrive at their destination, Twilight drew herself closer to Forest, and put her bare hoof on his. He didn't stop her, and only seemed more relaxed because of it. And in a way, he was. He went out with his goals that day, and he succeeded at reaching them.
All the while, Twilight's head would have otherwise been full of questions at that point. Was she going too fast with this? Should they go out again?
Yet her mind was clear, because she really didn't care anymore. She was sharing a quiet moment with Forest, and that's all she wanted.
Then the carriage arrived right at the Wispy Woods, a place that she would never forget. The trees curved their branches around the dirt path, blocking the sky save for a few faint rays of sunlight. Leaves covered the dirt in green, creating a surreal experience.
"This is where we first met, isn't it?" Twilight asked. "I remember how I was worried what would happen that night. First Strike and Vanguard were with me, just in case it was a trap."
She leaned her head on his shoulder, seemingly dazed but content. Their bodies were touching each other, and Twilight was only a few inches from snuggling Forest.
What she couldn't see was how Forest smiled as well. Yet he seemed more alert than she was.
"I still feel like I should apologize for the way it was arranged," he mentioned. "You had every reason to be suspicious. I won't do something like that ever again."
"But I'm glad I took that chance," she whispered. "Even if this doesn't work out, we could always be good friends."
Forest responded by pressing the bottom of his head on hers. He could tell she was still a bit nervous, given that her cheeks were a bit red.
He needed to make her feel like she could trust him. And he was aware she was starting to.
"Thank you, Forest Mist, for a wonderful day..."
But something caught his ear. It was a faint noise, but he would recognize it as the sound of a stream any day of the week.
The time had come at last.
"Guards, stop the cart."
"Wait, what's wrong?" Twilight asked. His sudden action startled her, and she moved her head back to see what was going on.
"Why should we stop the ride?" Vanguard inquired.
"There's something I need to show her here," Forest explained.
"Even if there is, we'll only stop if Princess Twilight gives the order," First Strike responded.
"No, stop the car," said Twilight.
"But...as you wish."
The chariot's wheels slowed down as the Guard stopped trotting them forward. It came to a complete stop in the middle of the forest, with leaves and trees surrounding them everywhere but in front and behind them.
"Now, what is it that you need to show me, Forest?" Twilight asked.
"I want to show you something. But I'll have to take you out of the carriage to do it. It's a surprise I'm sure you'll enjoy."
Twilight was confused by his words. They were sharing a nice romantic moment, and now she had no idea what was going to happen. Even then, though, there was nothing that suggested Forest had bad intentions for her.
"Fine. I'll come out. But this better be good."
"I assure you it will be," he said, with just a slight edge in his shot. "You will never see it coming."