//------------------------------// // Morning // Story: The Date // by 314 //------------------------------// Bright sunlight cut through my sleepy haze. I groaned and rolled over, closing my eyes tighter against the glare. It was futile, of course, but even a few more minutes of sleep would've been nice. I would never be a morning person. Sleep is too marvelous a thing to wake up from. A pity when I didn’t get enough of it. “Stupid Rainbow, you know night-sleeping on a cloud is a bad idea,” I groaned, giving up my struggle against the light. I tried to shift a bit more into the cloud, but my brain finally realized that the cloud was warm and dry as opposed to the lukewarm and slightly damp sensation I’d expected from a common cumulus. It sorta felt like my front side was snuggled up with a radiator all the way to my rear hooves while my back half was exposed to the cool morning air. I wasn’t curled up in a ball either, the way I normally slept; instead, I was lying on my left side. I cracked open an eyelid, only to immediately shut it again as I stared into the full force of the rising sun. I was hesitant to roll away from the cloud as I didn’t really feel like flying just yet, but my dilemma was solved for me. I felt a soft tail swish over my eyes as the cloud I was laying on shifted slightly. “Good morning Rainbow!” Was that Twilight? Why was Twilight there? She even sounded way too chipper for this time of the morning. It was before noon and therefore too early to be awake without the aid of caffeine. I knew she was a morning person being Celestia’s student and all, but the sun was barely above the horizon! “Twilight,” I began, “Why are you on my cloud?” I tried to open one of my eyes again, this time met with a much darker scene than the one that I had previously seen. The sunlight filtered through the individual hairs and eventually made it to my eye, but in much less brightness. It sorta turned sunrise into sunset. “Oh, I am? Sorry.” I felt her shift again and the warm feeling against my back half vanished. Her voice halted for a moment before she spoke again. “That was you using a sexual euphemism, right?” Euphe-what? “Twilight, it’s too early to use big words like that.” I was finally getting feeling through my back telling me that I was lying on a firm, but soft and padded, surface. And I supposed that that meant the radiator I was cuddling with was Twilight. Why was I cuddling with her and why was she hot? “Can you lift your tail now please?” “Sure,” came the voice. I tilted my head to the side so as to not catch the full glare of the sun now that I knew what to expect. In my sideways vision, I could make out the tops of houses beyond the balcony of what seemed to be the Golden Oaks Observatory. Why was I at Twilight’s house? Why did I have so many unanswered questions? Oh wait, yeah, it was morning and I shouldn’t be awake for another few hours. I sighed and turned my head back the other way to come nose to nose with Twilight. Her mane was quite messed up, but she had a rather pleasant smile on her face. And her eyes were way too wide and awake for this hour. Honestly, she looked kinda cute in the morning light. I lifted my head up and glanced at the sun, keeping it in the edge of my vision, to try and figure out what time it was. As I suspected, it was just peeking over the horizon. It was past sunrise officially, as I could see the whole thing, but earlier than I was usually awake. About 6:30 then. I groaned and dropped my head back to the padded surface of the platform. Go back to freaking sleep Twilight! But I wouldn’t manage it right now; there were questions that needed to be answered. “Twilight, why am I practically laying on you at the top of your house?” I asked it softer, not needing to talk much more than a whisper. Glancing over at her, she seemed confused for a moment before answering. “We fell asleep together after we, uh…” her voice trailed off as her gaze flicked downward. I followed her eyes, but still wasn’t sure what she was implying. Her tail flicked back and forth absentmindedly, but that was all I could see down where she looked. “What’d we do yesterday Twilight? My brain does not want to work in the morning.” She gave me a look that basically said ‘are you serious?’ and I knew that I probably said the wrong thing. “We had sex you dolt.” “Oh, okay.” Wait, what? Sex? My eyes widened as the memories from last night came flooding back in. The blind date party with Pinkie, picking Twilight, spying on Rarity and Applejack, the kiss… my thoughts trailed off as I remembered the first time I kissed Twilight, realizing that she loved me and my feelings for her in return. And then what came after. Oh wow, how did I forget that? Stupid brain. At least it explains why my legs feel a bit sore. And that weird smell in the air, Actually, that explains a lot of things. Like that delicious taste in my mouth. “Finally remember?” Her sarcasm was not lost on me, though I put it aside for the time being. “Yeah. I have no idea how I forgot about hanging out with such an awesome mare like you.” I leaned forward and gave her a peck on the cheek, an affectionate kiss as opposed to our ones that stemmed from passion. “I think last night fried my mind.” As I suspected, there was no way she could have any anger at me. She blushed and smiled, returning the small kiss. “You can be oblivious sometimes.” I gave her the same look she used on me earlier. “You are so not one to talk.” She giggled, a laugh that warmed my heart. “So do you want to get up now?” I considered it for a moment, then snuggled up closer to Twilight. “Nah, I think coffee can wait a little while longer when I have a mare like you curled up next to me.” We lapsed into a passive silence, enjoying the company of each other. Now that I was mostly awake, I was able to take another look around the Observatory. The table that Twilight had so lovingly set up was still untouched, magic still glowing. The food was probably still warm, but dried out from the night. My gaze traveled to the blanket we were resting on. I would have recognized the stars and moons anywhere. Twilight had teleported up the comforter off her bed. I shifted my leg, feeling a significant wet spot. I chuckled to myself. It would definitely need washing before she could use it again. Well, probably. The sun slowly, but steadily, rose, guided by Princess Celestia in her far off city. Speaking of which… “Do you think we should send a letter to the Princess about us?” She gave a start, awaking from the light doze she had fallen into. “Maybe later. She’s busy having breakfast right now.” Ah yes, the almighty important princess breakfast. I bopped her nose with a hoof, causing her to go cross-eyed for a moment. “I wouldn’t mind breakfast myself. Or, more specifically, coffee. I’ll fall asleep soon if I don’t get it.” I thought for a moment, then a somewhat gleeful smile appeared on my face. “Not that last night left a bad taste in my mouth or anything.” Her only response was to roll her eyes and shove me playfully, causing me to rock gently. Didn’t she know who she was messing with? I shoved her back, a tiny bit harder. She raised an eyebrow, but I countered with a bigger grin. She shoved me back and we fought back and forth, shoves growing in strength each time. When I finally managed to roll her over and away from my side (so long little radiator), she lit up her horn. I felt one of my hind hooves become enveloped in magic as she levitated me up upside down. My mane fell past my face, in slightly worse condition than Twilight’s. I unfolded my wings and flapped them, but her magic was strong enough to fight off my half-hearted attempts. “Having fun there Twi?” I hung lazily by a hoof, front legs almost touching the comforter spread over the balcony. Now I know how Spike feels when she gets excited. Poor guy. She chuckled and got to her hooves, horn still glowing. “Oh, the possibilities. Should I have you ‘show off’ in order to get down?” Oh how the bookworm learns. “I think that’s more my style. Besides,” I reached out with my hooves and hooked her in closer, expertly pressing a pleasure point near her wing joints. She let out a gasp as her magic faltered, dropping me to the ground. I was used to headfirst tumbles, so I executed a half-flip and landed on my hooves. “I can beat you any day of the week.” Her only response was to give me an amused look. “You know, once I get that information out of you, you won’t have as much to fight back with.” I grinned, knowing that there was a lot of things about pegasi she probably hadn’t figured out yet. We weren’t ones for writing stuff down after all. Paper that didn’t fall through the clouds was rather expensive and groundponies had better things to do than get brained with books. “And how do you plan on getting that information out of me?” Come on Twi, time to see if last night taught you anything more than a few slightly lewd jokes. She walked past me heading towards the narrow staircase down, her coat brushing my flank. “I have my ways.” She flicked her tail to the side for half a second, barely enough time to see anything. But of course, my eyes were drawn anyways. “You wanted coffee, right?” You tease. But coffee wins this time. I grinned, stretching my wings and taking to the sky. “Oh yeah. I’ll meet you downstairs if you choose to just go the boring way.” She rose to my challenge as I expected, halting and snapping out her wings as well. “Oh you’re on!” I was already in the sky and thus had the advantage. I looped out of the balcony, leaving Twilight to throw herself into the air after me. I fell and swooped around the base of the library, watching it pass in a blur as I glided and used my momentum to keep me spinning around the tree. I looked up and saw the alicorn trying to track me with her eyes. If she tried that for much longer, she’d almost certainly get dizzy. Just as she was ready to dive, I hooked out a hoof and swung myself into her home through the window she always kept open for me. It was dark inside, so I flew over and hid on top of a bookshelf behind a stack of books, a crack allowing me to spy on her. Twilight followed me in a moment later, but looked around in confusion. She seemed unsure of what to do for a moment, but then smiled. Pausing to switch on the mana-lights dotted around the room, she walked into the kitchen, horn glowing as she went. I watched for a moment, suspecting what she was doing but not sure if she would really follow through on it. Sure enough, she walked out a moment later with two mugs of fresh, amazing caffeine. She simply sat down and sipped hers quietly while waiting on me to show. The smell wafted around the room, the heady aroma quickly melting away any resolve I had left. Defeated, I flew out from my hiding place and over to Twilight. “It seems I win this game. Coffee?” I graciously accepted the steaming beverage. It was black, no cream or sweetener to help the flavor. They just messed it up anyways. I drank it in a few quick gulps, the hot drink warming me up from the inside. Twilight sipped hers more slowly as she trotted around the library now that I was no longer hiding, tidying up here and there. It really impressed me how she was able to managed twelve things at once with no problem. Just another quality that made the mare I loved complete. As she reached the writing desk, Twilight stopped. “Didn’t you say you wanted to write a letter to the Princess? About us?” “About that,” I started. I immediately saw Twilight’s ever present smile falter. I held up my hooves to stop her from thinking anything bad, knowing that I had said the wrong thing. “Nononononono, I’m totally cool with the whole us thing. But isn’t this what couples who hook up like we did do? Talk it all out ya know?” “Like we did?” She started to wonder, then a knowing expression came across her face along with a rather cute blush. “Ah, like that. What is there to talk about?” I scratched the back of my mane with a hoof, the other still holding my near-empty mug. “Well, like what do you want out of the relationship? Any regrets about last night? I think that’s mostly what they talked about. I’m not too good with all this mushy romance stuff.” “They? Reading Rarity’s romance novels again?” “Fluttershy’s, actually.” I blushed for a moment, my face matching hers, but quickly regained my composure. “But that doesn’t answer my question.” She set her coffee mug down. I absent-mindedly took a note that it was half-full still, but made sure my attention was on the mare in front of me. “What do I want out of the relationship? That’s easy.” I settled down to watch her come closer, curious as to what she'd say. “I want you, Rainbow Dash. You’re the only pony I’ve ever really loved. It’s a learning experience, but you give me this feeling I’ve only ever shared with my family and the Princess. I want you to be happy and I want me to be happy. And while last night might have moved a little quickly, I wouldn’t change it for a thing.” “Nothing? Not even a self-inking quill? Or a book that had every book?” She actually considered it for a second before shaking her head. She nuzzled me, an action I found to be absolutely adorable. “Nope, not even a self-inking quill or all the books in the world.” “Well dang, I guess I was that good.” What? Pinkie always likes to crack jokes to loosen the mood. She facehoofed, but she couldn’t stay mad at me for any longer than a moment. “Way to ruin the moment Dash.” I blushed, giving her a cheeky smile. “Now, what about your answers to those questions?” I thought about it for quite some time before answering. What did I want? I didn’t even know where to begin. Not because I wanted so much, but because I already had everything I wanted. My mind flashed back to the question I had posed to myself yesterday before I kissed the mare standing before me. Then, I wanted Twilight to kiss me and I wanted to kiss her. But now the question was more, possibly the most important question of my life. Did I want Twilight Sparkle to be my marefriend for as long as I could hold onto her? The answer was the same as yesterday. My body, heart, and mind were all in agreement and they wanted to shout it to the world. “I want you Twilight. Nothing more, nothing less. I just want 100% you.” Her face broke out in a big smile and I took the very open opportunity to plant a kiss upon her lips. It didn’t go any further than that like last night did, but it carried with it even more weight. It was a kiss of pure love and not one iota of hatred, lust, or disharmony could make its way in. We broke the kiss and looked at each other, our bodies reflected in each other’s eyes. “Pinkie is going to be happy her date party worked out.” I smacked a hoof against my forehead. How could I have forgotten about that! We totally missed the afterparty. Twilight probably knew what I was thinking, as she laid a hoof on my shoulder in an immensely comforting manner. “I think Pinkie is going to be fine with us missing the afterparty. We kind of had our own afterparty after all.” I smiled, a thought popping into my head. “Do you think she’ll have some leftover cupcakes?” Twilight laughed, a good, honest laugh that caused my heart to soar to higher heights than I had ever flown. “Never change Dash, never change.” Dear Princess Celestia, The heart is a curious thing I’ve found. It cares little for who it decides to fall for, even if who it falls for may always seem to be out of reach. Research can give you many things, but it can’t give you love. True love is only experienced when a pony or other creature is willing to do anything for the one that they love. And I think that after last night, I have experienced a tiny bit of that magic of true love. And it was unlike anything else in this whole wide world. Come on Twi, do you have to sound that sappy? I mean come on! It’s love! Love isn’t that complex. You love a pony or you don’t. Yeah, it’s powerful, but that’s just how it is. You don’t have to go research it like it’s a science project or something. I’m just gonna stick with saying love rules. You ever loved somepony Princess? Cause it’s the greatest thing in the world. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle (and her new marefriend Rainbow Dash!)