//------------------------------// // The Arrangement // Story: A Beautiful Night // by bakersong //------------------------------// "Are you sure you want to take it to this level?" He asked for the twentieth time, still a little shocked. "Yes, i am absolutely sure i want to move on to this level of our relationship. As my sister said we not only have a strong emotional bond now, we already taken this relationship to a more physical level as well." She replied smiling at him. Two weeks ago they had been caught by her sister after the Gala locked in a passionate kiss. Though her sister had known what the kiss was, she thought it was time for them to move in together. At first she said she would move in with him, to try to make him happy that he didn't have to leave his position of guarding the cave. But when she said that she was sure he told her that he would move into the palace, she didn't really have to ask why. For she knew that he only said he would be the one to move so that she would not be in danger of the cave. The agreement that they had was that once a week he would come back to his house for one night, and she would be with him. But during the rest of the week he would be living at the palace, though the question of why he had to go to the cave at least once a week still popped back into her mind. She thought it was to renew some kind of protection spell that he had put up. Her sister had made the arrangements for him to get his own room, which was a room right next to hers. Which they were both grateful for, and even before either of them could ask her sister told them that they couldn't share a room until they got married. Though apparently they could still have sleep over's in each other's rooms, which they took advantage of often, though they did not share the bed. He had told her it was because he did agree with her sister a little, that they should hold off on at least sleeping in the same bed. She could understand that, but knowing that there was now only a wall in between them made her bed feel lonely, and when he stayed in her room on the couch it made it feel even more so. Though she did enjoy waking up to him looking at her smiling and telling her how adorable she was when she was asleep, of course every time she heard that it made her blush. She had tried to bring up the creature and the cave, but either he changed the subject or she couldn't bring herself to ask. That was because he seemed to know what she was going to ask and gave her such a sad stare that she switch the question at last minute. Even though it had only been two weeks since then, it still felt like he had only just moved in. "Well i do have to say that I've certainly have gotten better sleep since i moved, but especially when i spend the night with you." He said giving her a smile, and then slightly chuckling at her for blushing a little. "You know i had horrible nightmares, ones i prefer not to talk about." A shiver went through his body. "But after we started to hang out, and then dated, the nightmares slowly went away. Then the last one i had was just right before the Gala..." Fear came into his eyes for a moment, but she still saw it. "What i'm trying to say is you've token them away, just by being near you knowing that your there makes these nightmares go away." She gave him a quick kiss that surprised him a little, but he gave a little smile and gave her a kiss back. They decided to hang out at there normal spot, though they knew they didn't have to do this anymore. But they felt like they had a lot more privacy here, so they could talk a lot more freely. "You know you need to stop being such a romancer, other wise i might not be able to control myself." She let out a small laugh as she could tell that she managed to embarrass him. "Though now that i think about it, you are a little over two hundred years old. So how did such a romancer like you go so long without having a marefriend?" Teasing him a little. "Oh, it's not like i haven't gotten offers. In matter of fact just yesterday i just got an offer from a cute mare." He said, though she could not tell if he was joking. "What, who? Once i get my hooves on them..." She was interrupted by him busting out laughing. "Your even cute when your jealous of an imaginary pony." He said in between laughs. "Oh you like messing with me then? Then i might not want to spend the one night we share a bed together then." She said, tonight was the night where he would have to come back to his house. Though his house was nice, he still had only one bed in it, though neither one of them complained when they cuddled up next to each other. "Alright then, if that's the way you want it. But i was planning to cook your favorite tonight." He said in a familiar tone. "You were going to make your famous sunflower fruit soup? That's not fair you know i can't resist that." She said in a little bit of a whining voice. "Well if you don't spend the night then i'm not going to make it, ever again." He said giving her a smile of victory. "Alright, you win i'll stay with you tonight." She said then nuzzling him a little. "Score is now one me, zero for you." He had said in a teasing tone. "But if you wake before me, you can't look at me while i'm sleeping." His victory smile faded away. "B-but i,you are just so cute and peaceful when your sleeping. I can't help but to watch you sleep a little." He was whimpering a little. "Nope,that won't work. If you watch me sleep then i will not even give you a small peck on the cheek for the next week." She looked him straight into the eyes. "Alright, fine you win." He said in defeat. "Now about tonight's dinner, i want something romantic. I want something different than our normal picnics, do you think you could do that for me, and maybe i won't mind you watching me while i sleep for a little bit." She said. "Yeah, i think i already have a good idea of what to do." He instantly perked back up. Later that day, he told her to meet him at his restaurant. Which she has been meaning to check out, though she wondered why he hadn't started his own by now. He was not short of money. She knew this because he refused to let her pay for the dates they went on, and a lot of those dates had been very expensive even for regular standards. It was a nice little building in the more outskirts of what now has been called the restaurant distract. The sign read that it was called The Night. This brought a smile to her face, she knew that they were open during the day as well but to have it named after what they were known for, she felt joy because of it. Though why he wanted to meet him here during the day, as he works the night shift, still confused her. She knew it had to do with what she had said, but she still didn't have any idea what to expect. "Ahh, the special guess has arrived!" She was greeted by a waiter. "Special guest? I mean i know i'm a princess but you don't have to disturb anypony." She said, though she knew that she was suppose to be here. "Non sense, for the princess of the night is always welcome no matter what time it is. Now if you follow me, we have the couple's booth set up. You are here on a date aren't you? That's what Song said." The waiter asked. "Yeah, i guess i am. By the way where is Song?" She looked around not being able to see him. "Oh he's just in the kitchen preparing some food for the two of you, now like i said if you would please follow me to the couple's booth." The waiter said waving her on and then started to walk, she followed. As she followed the waiter she took the time to look at the decorations. The ceiling looked just like the night sky, the stars even looked like real ones. The tables were all set up with a candle in the middle, they must use enchanted ones because they didn't seem to be melting. She was very impress with the details though, the stars were perfectly aligned just like she had them, they even had a moon. "Here we are Miss. Luna. This is the most romantic spot in the entire restaurant. Both your food and your man will be out shortly." The waiter said with a wink. The booth was secluded from the other part of the restaurant, and if she wasn't impressed before then she was at a complete lost for words. The stars and the moon looked so real that she thought they were her real ones. There was some music playing, though looking around at the other tables she knew that the booth must have been enchanted with music. "So you like what you see and hear so far?" The question snapped her out of her trance, and she looked to see Song standing there with two large bowl's and a bottle of their wine balanced on his back. "It's all so beautiful. The stars and moon look so real, and this booth being enchanted with romantic music. Wow, i think i should come here more often." She said still in awe, making him laugh. "Well if you help me out here i can tell you how we do all of this." He said bringing her attention back to the plates, which she blushed a little for not thinking about it. "Sorry, i'm still admiring the beauty of this place. Why isn't it doing better?" She asked using her magic to levitate the plates and wine to the table. "And why didn't you just use your magic to do this?" "Well to answer your first question, it's because we are open twenty-four seven. The answer to your second question is because i wanted to get your attention." He answered with a smile, and sat down. "Oh..." She looked at the table. "Now, let me explain about the decor here. The reason why the stars and moon look real is because there being projected directly from my memories. Before you ask, no i'm not the one casting it. That would be the manager here, when i told him that i had a photographic memory he wanted to used that to give this place life. It's a nice spell, the more you can remember the better the projection. And as for this booth, well it is the couple's booth." He looked at her, and in the artificial memory moonlight he seemed to glow even more with happiness. "You know the moonlight really does complement you. Even if it is from a memory." She said, and once again he blushed. They both seemed to blush a lot more when in the presence of each other, they still couldn't understand why. They both already admitted to how they felt about each other, they even took their relationship to the next level's. "As it does with you my princess." He said with love in his eyes, she didn't know why but her already immense love for him started to grow. "Well you two do really make a cute couple, but you might want to stop staring into each other's eyes like that and eat your food before i have to call the janitor." The waiter said, surprising them both. "You didn't turn that spell on did you?" Song asked looking at the waiter. "I have no idea what you mean?" The waiter tried to play innocent. "I'm just here to keep you two from making a mess." With that the waiter laughed and walked away. "What spell?" She asked. "Well, like i said this is the couples booth. During the late night hours, anypony who ask about this booth gets a surprise spell. The spell is a simple lust spell, it's not that powerful but if any kind of love is shared the spell will increase the effects, and well i was thinking about how nice it would be to give you a kiss." He said blushing even more. "Huh, that's what i was thinking. But lets eat." She said trying to clear her head by changing the subject. "Just to let you know, i requested a normal booth. Dam that Wait's." He said. but she could guess that Wait's was the waiter. They ate and drank some of the wine, and then as they were making small talk a familiar song came on. It was the slow song that they danced to at the Gala, and they looked at each other and smiled. Remembering the night that had made them a lot closer than either of them had expected. "My i have this dance?" He asked. "But there isn't enough room." She replied, and in response his horn glowed with a blue aura and the table, plates, silver ware, and everything else disappeared and suddenly the booth grew in size. They could here the song still, but she didn't ask how. She could guess that it was another spell that was on the couple's booth. But she didn't care, all she now wanted to do was dance. And so they did, for what seemed like hours had passed. "Okay, mares and gentle colts we have a very special couple in the building tonight." This broke the mood and they snapped back to reality, the table and everything on it reappeared. "What is he doing now?" She heard Song say under his breath. "Now some of you may be thinking who this couple is? Well i'm sure you've all heard about Princess Luna's new colt-friend right?" They heard a couple of agreements from the small crowd that had gathered. "Her and her new lover are in this building right now. In matter of fact her lover is actually the night time head chef here, and if they would come up to the stage and let them introduce themselves." "We might still have enough time to get out of here, through the back door." But before they could even get up a spot light went on them. "And were do you two love birds think your going." Wait's said. "Don't be rude, these nice pony folk just wanna say hi to one of the most talked about couple's in all of Equestria. So come on up." "Your gonna pay for this." Song said to Waits when he passed him on the stage. "So you two, rumor has it that you've been together for what seven months now?" Waits asked. "Yeah that's about right." She answered. "Nice, now what most ponies would like to ask is did you two enjoy your night on the cloud? Because it sure sounded like it." This got a bunch of hoops and hollers. Both of them were shocked into silence. "I-i-i don't know what your talking about." Song said, Celestia knowing was one thing but if the whole of Canterlot had heard them then that was bad. "Of course you probably don't. But let me tell you that the Canterlot royal voice is not exactly something anypony can ignore, you all know what i mean right?" This once again brought more cheering from the audience. They looked at each other, Luna was a lot more embarrassed than he was. "And from what i hear you two even took it to the next level by moving in with each other, is that right? Now does this mean that you two will eventually tie the knot?" "I think it's about time we take our leave before somepony get's hurt." Song had said, pulling Luna in and started to walk toward the exit. "Oh come on, i was only mes..." He was cut off by a threatening stare from Song. Once outside he turned to look at her. "Hey are you okay?" He asked with concern, and as she looked at him she had tears in her eyes. So he embarrassed her in a hug. "It's alright, i'm sure he was just trying to embarrass us. But i'm gonna kill him later for making you cry." They walked to his house, it was now past mid-night. He hadn't planned for them to stay that long, but with them dancing he lost track of time and then there was his friend who had a death wish. This day was suppose to be perfect, he would show her how beautiful the restaurant was, they would eat together a little bit differently, and because of the whole couple's booth thing he got to dance with her again. Everything was fine, but Waits took things to far and made his princess cry. He knew that even though they now had each other and some other friends she was still feeling out of place. When his friend started to say that he had to restrain himself from throwing a punch, he was bringing back her old emotions of feeling lonely. Which he really hated to see anypony cry, but when it comes down to the one he loves he can't stand it. When they finally got to his house he carried her to bed, tucked her in and gave her a goodnight kiss. She slowly cried herself to sleep, with some help from him singing the lullaby that she grew so used to hearing now. As he looked at her sleeping face now relaxed it was even more beautiful than he could remember, especially with the moon light bouncing off of her face. He took a tissue and carefully wiped the tears that were left off of her. "Have sweet dreams my princess." He said giving her a small peck on the forehead, she gave him a dreamy smile. He walked toward the cave, only Celestia knew why he had to come back once a week and he proffered to keep it that way. To tell Luna would only put her in danger as he knew she would only hasten her attempts of freeing him, he knew this because Celestia had told him that she was studying all she could about the caves. There was no way he could tell her, but at the same time she already knew why, as they already told her. The creature had to feed off his magic at least once a week or else the deal was over, and the creature would kill him and try to take a new host to feed off of. "No pony else will suffer as i suffer, if i had enough power i would have finished this long ago. I know i could tell them what i know, but that would put to many ponies in danger, including Luna. I'm just so sorry to you, but i really can't tell anypony about how to defeat the creature. It's to dangerous even with a whole army behind me it still wouldn't be enough. That and that thing will only make packs with them and start to feast off of them." He said to himself. "Still trying to figure out how to defeat me? Sssuch a ssshame your marefriend can't join usss. I bet her magic tasste delicioussss." A hissing voice came from the dark. "I'm glad to sssee that your taking our arrangement ssso ssserioussly. Now be a good ssservant and let me feed." "You leave Luna out of this." He replied. "Oh, and ruin what we have?" The voice began to laugh. "If ssshe comesss here ssshe will be mine, and there will be nothing you can do about it." The voice said, then a dark beam shot out of the darkness of the cave and hit him. He felt his magic, his energy drain and once it was over he could barely stand. "All right my pet, that will do for now." As he walked away he could hear the voice laugh at him, as he was having trouble walking. It had taken a little more than usual and the last thing he thought was a curse on the voice before blacking out.