//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: October 22, Brightly Burning // Story: Yet Another Human In Equestria Story // by Bardic_Knowledge //------------------------------// Yet Another Human in Equestria Story By: Bardic Knowledge Chapter 23: October 22, Brightly Burning Knowing what I did of the Ponyvillian restaurants, the first thing I did after Trixie enthusiastically accepted my date request (I shouldn't have been surprised she could hug that hard) was ask Princess Celestia if she knew of a Canterlot restaurant that catered to griffins and ponies alike. The answer was not only “yes,” but she directly offered to get me and Trixie reservations. I almost asked her how she knew, but seeing Rarity's attempt to hide a grin, I could guess pretty well. An offer for a royal chariot ride (much faster than the train, it seems) was also accepted. Trixie had to work that night, and I used the time to write my report as liaison that I would send the next day. As the day in question nooned, we seemed rather... nervous around each other, until I said, “This is ridiculous, we've lived together for, what, four months now? We're already great friends, this is just... Okay, it is a big step, but still.” I can't say things went back to normal, but they at least weren't so tense. An hour before the chariot arrived to take us to Canterlot, Rarity stopped by and took Trixie with her, leaving behind a bag with my Gala suit in it. Apparently, we had a matchmaker on our hands/hooves. Appendages? No, that could easily be misconstrued. Regardless, I complied with the unspoken wish and changed into the fancy outfit, still somewhat revelling in the feeling of the cloth on my skin. The effect was likely part of Rarity's intention in not letting us wear the outfits except in certain circumstances. Trixie, wearing her own Gala outfit and some make-up, arrived back at the house with five minutes to spare, which she promptly used to wash off the make-up. She explained that the reason it took so long was Rarity's attempts to force the make-up on her. I chuckled and the chariot arrived directly on time, one of the guards pulling it handing me a note. It read: Dear Joe, You reservation at Equus International is all set. As an extra gift, I've also included tickets to the Canterlot Royal Theatre's 7:30 showing of “The Griffin King.” Your seats are in the Royal Box. I hope you enjoy! Princess Celestia “Looks like we've got dinner and show,” I commented, before handing Trixie the note. She looked it over and her eyes widened. I'm guessing it was because of the “Royal Box” comment. The chariot landed in the street just outside of a very elegant-looking building, a canopy above the door declaring it to be “Equus International.” Almost as soon as we entered the door, the maître d' recognized us (or at least me) and called a waiter to show us to an open table, menus already laid out. It was a fairly thick menu, sorted by country. I went immediately to the section of what looked like the Equestrian equivalent of Italy (typically known in fics as "Bitaly"), and decided on a list of my favourite foods: mozzarella sticks, broccoli chicken fettucini alfredo, and a hot blondie with ice cream (essentially, ice cream on a “blond brownie” on a hot plate. First had it at an Applebee's). Trixie ordered more pony-conventional fare: a salad (involving words I didn't recognize), something involving the words “veggie sausage,” and a sundae. It's not that I didn't pay attention so much as I didn't understand. “So, I don't really know the story behind your cutie mark,” I commented. “Well, I was inspired by my dad and stories about my granddad,” she said, sipping her wine (I made sure I had water instead). She smiled softly before continuing. “Dad always spoke so kindly of his dad. He was a great illusionist, though he used sleight of hoof rather than magic. One day, I found my way into his old magic tools and started trying to use them.” I could almost picture a filly Trixie trying to do the merging rings trick. She blushed. “I, uh, couldn't quite get it to work, but when I got mad about it, I had a magic surge and, with an oddly loud boom, they vanished.” Oddly loud boom? I thought. The Sonic Rainboom? “Turns out, I turned them invisible. When I explained it to dad, he showed me how to undo the invisibility and then pointed out that I had my cutie mark. Still took me a couple days after that to recreate the invisibility effect. I still practiced with the sleight of hoof magic, but I found my illusion magic was much more entertaining to most ponies.” “Huh. And the insult comedy?” “I had a heckler at one of my early shows, and when I showed him up, everypony applauded. It just spiralled out of control after that.” After another drink of wine she looked me in the eye and asked, “Tell me more about Earth.” I smiled wistfully. “Well, it's a large planet mostly covered in water, with a great deal of the landmasses covered in the six-point-something billion humans that live on it. But I think you meant something else.” I sighed. “It was home. I didn't spend much time outside my house, except to go to work or visit my friends or buy groceries, but I was pretty much content. Humans themselves, well, we're a balancing act, 'capable of amazing dreams and terrible nightmares,' I think one book put it. And I think Sir Terry Pratchett described the human race as 'where the rising monkey meets the falling angel' or something like that.” The appetizers arrived and we busied ourselves for a while with that instead. While I ate, dulled memories flickered through my mind, and it must have shown on my face, because Trixie said, “I'm sorry if I've made you home sick.” “Nah, I'm just being wistful. Earth was a good place to live for the most part, even if I had a hard time understanding my fellow humans. Someday I'll go back for a while, I'm sure of it, but... I don't think I'll stay if I can manage it. I'd bring back some technology to show off and use, but otherwise... I think I'd rather stay in Equestria.” Trixie blushed for some reason and we continued eating in comfortable silence. A while later, she spoke up again. “But, what about your friends on Earth?” I stopped, putting down the mozzarella stick in my hand. “...” I sighed. “I know Matt wouldn't mind visiting, at least. Not sure about Frank or my family. But, if I can figure out how to get back and forth, I can at least visit them myself.” I smirked. “Don't think I'd make the method available to everyone, though. Too many people at once would probably be a bad thing, no matter their good intentions.” We finished our appetizers just in time for the main course to arrive, which halted conversation for a while, but that was okay. I was still mulling over what Trixie had said about leaving my Earth friends behind. Was I really prepared to just leave them all behind? So far, I didn't have a choice, I was stuck here anyways. The rest of dinner was finished with just bits of small talk, mostly involving what I expected to happen in the near future, what my Nightmare Night costume was likely to be, stuff like that. After enjoying dessert and paying for the meal, Trixie and I returned to the royal chariot outside and we were off to the Canterlot Royal Theatre. “The Griffin King” was a mix of “Romeo and Juliet” and “The King and I” with a mix of both Stockholm and its opposite (I couldn't remember what it was called) and amazingly appropriate for our date, since it was an interspecies relationship between the titular Griffin King and an Earth Pony, named Soft Heart during a war of some kind. It had a bit of a downer ending when Soft Heart sacrificed herself for the King, but it was a very good story that apparently ended the war. No one said if it was a true story or not, but I decided to look it up when I got back to the library to make sure. We congratulated the actors on an excellent show afterwards, then left for Ponyville, getting back by ten that night. There wasn't much point to playing out the usual end-of-date stuff, like the offer to walk her to the door, considering we lived together. “I had a good time,” I said, after we waved the chariot pullers goodbye. “Maybe we could do this again sometime, though I don't think it needs to be quite so fancy next time.” “Yeah.”