//------------------------------// // Chapter Ten - Well... I Wouldn't Really Call It A Date // Story: Shades of Night // by Sketchy Changeling //------------------------------// Saturday morning. Moon had been acting strangely, as usual, and by strange, I mean that she calmed down a little following her initial excitement at our new… “relationship,” as she called it. Her attitude wasn’t as enthusiastic towards me as it was yesterday, and for the most part, she was back to how she was before all this romance stuff. With that said, I suppose that what was strange wasn’t her behavior in general, but rather her behavior compared to yesterday. Take earlier this morning, for example. As usual, I had woken up in the alicorn’s arms, my head rested against her soft chest. When I stirred, she began to wake up as well, and she looked down at me with a soft smile on her face. “Good morning, Noah,” she told me softly. She had given me her usual calm greeting rather than the excitable one that I had gotten yesterday, and she didn’t give me some ridiculous pet name, either. “Morning, Moon,” I answered as I got up from the bed, and I headed out of my room and into the kitchen with her following close behind. “What’s for breakfast today?” she asked. I shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t really feel like going all out today, so I’ll probably just toast some waffles and call it a day. You can make something for yourself, if you want.” “Waffles are just fine, Noah.” Moon’s calm answer threw me off a little. Why was she so subdued? She was practically bouncing off the walls yesterday, and now she was back to normal. I know I shouldn’t be complaining, but it really makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I toasted enough waffles for both me and Moon, and we took a seat on the couch as we ate. “Can I ask you something?” I asked the alicorn. “Of course,” she answered. “How come you’re so relaxed today when you were all excited yesterday? It’s been bugging me all morning.” “I suppose you would be a little rattled about it,” she chuckled with a blush on her face. “In retrospect, I was pretty hysterical.” “Pretty hysterical?” “Okay, I get it. I was really over-the-top yesterday, but could you blame me?” “I’m not following you.” The alicorn gazed at me and smiled. “Think of it this way: if you admitted your feelings to someone you liked and then found out that they felt the same way, wouldn’t you be excited about that?” I smiled back nervously. “I guess, but I-” “I know I might have made you nervous yesterday, but I’ve gotten it all out of my system now.” She got closer to me and wrapped me in a firm hug, looking down at me with loving eyes. “You don’t have to worry about anything anymore, Noah. Just like I promised, I’m going look out for you, and that goes double now that we’re a couple.” I had nothing to worry about, huh… I wondered if that was really true. What if the one thing I had to worry about was her? Maybe it was the way she was holding me, or maybe it was the way she was looking at me, but something about her didn’t seem right. Then again, did she ever seem right? My situation was getting very real, very fast, and with the pace that Moon was moving this "relationship" in, I wasn't sure if I could keep up. It didn’t help that the mare kept putting those words in my mouth, either… about me returning her feelings… Regardless, I would take this Moon over the excitable Moon any day. “So I’ve been thinking…” she said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Thinking about what?” I asked. “We should go out today. You know, like a date,” she smiled. I gulped when I heard that last word. A date? Already? We’ve been “together” for barely a day and she already wants to go on a date. In the last two relationships I had, I waited at least a week before the first date. “Well… what did you have in mind?” I asked. “I was thinking that we could just go into town, walk around a little, and then get some lunch together. Nothing fancy or anything,” Moon shrugged. “Okay… I think I can do that,” I thought. “At least she’s not aiming high for the first date. A walk through town and some lunch is doable.” “So what do you say, Noah? Are you up for it?” She looked down at me with a hopeful expression on her face, which disarmed me a little. I could tell how badly she wanted me to say yes. “Sure, I’m up for it,” I accepted. “Perfect!” Moon smiled. “It’ll be just you and me on a nice, relaxing day.” She then leaned onto me and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. “How does noon sound?” I shrugged again. “It sounds alright, I guess.” The next few hours went by with Moon and I getting ready to leave and me thinking about what was to come. “Okay, Moon isn’t being as overzealous as she was yesterday, so that’s good… but it’s clear that she still believes that we’re a couple,” I thought. “Thankfully her idea of a first date isn’t unrealistic. A leisurely walk through town and a nice bite to eat is actually a rather tame idea. If she’s this relaxed about our ‘relationship’ and yesterday was just her getting used to the excitement, then maybe this can work out. I guess it all depends on how I end up feeling about her.” Just then I felt a pair of arms wrap around me from behind. “Are you ready to go, beloved?” Moon asked as she rested her chin on my head. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered, ignoring that pet name as she transformed into Nightshade. As planned, we left the apartment at noon and caught a bus to town. When we got off, Nightshade calmly took in a breath of the fresh air. “Ahh! So, Noah, where to?” she asked. “Eh, it’s your call. Wherever you want to go,” I answered. “Okay then. In that case…” The mare grasped my hand and pulled me towards one of the concrete paths. “Why don’t we take a nice walk through the park, hm?” “Uh… fine by me,” I shrugged. I wondered why she chose to go to the park. Was there something there that she wanted me to see? I shook my head, deciding that I was thinking too much and was reading too far into it. She just wanted to go to the park; there was no grand scheme behind it. At least I hoped so. “Isn’t this nice and relaxing, Noah?” she asked me. “Just you, me, and the pleasant breeze.” I noticed her looking around the park, and then her eyes focused on the lake, where a few other couples were sitting. We sat by the edge of the large body of water, and she scooted closer to me once she got comfortable. “This view is nice,” she crooned. “It really is,” I agreed as I picked up a nearby pebble and tossed it, following the pebble with my eyes as it skipped across the water. “Y’know, I’ve never tried that. Skipping a rock, I mean,” Nightshade told me. “You make it look so easy, too.” “You wanna try?” The unicorn smirked. “Why not?” she said as she looked at the ground for a good rock to use. “It’s best to use a flat one,” I advised. “It helps it skip better.” “Note taken.” She found a rock that fit my description and threw it, trying to mimic the way I threw my rock. Unfortunately, she didn’t achieve the same result as I did. Nightshade blinked as the rock fell to the bottom of the lake with a loud, deep splash. “That didn’t work out the way I’d hoped… Let me try again.” She looked for another flat rock and when she found one, she took more time to prepare her toss, narrowing her eyes and winding her arm. She then tossed her stone, and this time, it skipped across the water, but it looked different from a normal skip. The stone looked like it was bouncing across the water rather than skipping and it looked really unnatural. I turned to look at Nightshade, and I saw that she was using her magic to keep the rock above water, and she had her eyes focused on the stone the whole time. I furrowed my brow and flicked the mare’s horn, making her let out a yelp of surprise. “Cheater,” I scoffed. “Alright, alright, you got me,” she sighed, throwing her hands up, and then she laughed it off as she leaned onto my side. I looked down at her and saw that she was looking off to her right. I looked in the same direction she was looking in; another couple was sitting by the lake’s edge. They were two humans, and the girl was holding the boy’s hand atop her leg, her head resting on his shoulder. I then felt a hand grasp mine. Looking down, I saw Nightshade holding my hand and moving it towards her leg. When my hand made contact with her jeans, she ran my hand down the smooth fabric and rested her head on my shoulder with a content sigh. “What is she doing?” I thought. “This isn’t uncomfortable for you is it?” the mare asked. “Eh, not really,” I answered. A somewhat disappointed look grew on Nightshade’s face, and I saw her look off in another direction. Following her line of sight, I saw that she was looking at another nearby couple. This couple was an earth pony stallion and a pegasus mare. The mare was comfortably seated between the stallion’s legs as he embraced her from behind. Nightshade’s gaze then shifted back to me, and she gave me a curious look. “Noah, you wouldn’t mind if I sat between your legs, would you?” It was then that I realized what she was doing. She was trying to imitate the other couples. She wanted to make this a lot like the usual date, and she was using the other couples as a reference. In an effort to keep her happy, I decided to grant her request. “Sure,” I told the mare. Her face instantly brightened up and she quickly took her position between my legs. As she was getting comfortable, though, her rump pushed against my groin and while I didn't have a mirror to see for sure, I knew that there was a fierce blush on my face. "Um, Nightshade?" "Hold on. I'm just... getting... comfortable..." she said as she looked at the other couple and tried to sit the same way the other mare was sitting. Finally, after practically grinding her ass against my privates in order to "get comfortable," she stopped moving and coiled her tail around my back. She then grabbed my wrists and pulled them around towards her front so that I was hugging her like the earth stallion near us was hugging his mare. As uncomfortable as I had initially felt, holding her like this actually felt really nice, and I decided to go along with it and give her what she wanted. Nightshade let out a content sigh and looked out at the lake. "You know, before coming to the human world and meeting you, romance was one of the last things on my mind," she told me. "As you may already know, my mind was preoccupied with... other things..." She let out a light chuckle. "It's funny how things work out, huh?" She was right. It was funny how things worked out, not just for her, but for me, too. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that one of my friends would turn out to be a formerly evil ex-princess in disguise. Not only that, but she ended up moving in with me and developing feelings for me merely a week after moving in. Since I found out about Nightshade's true identity as Nightmare Moon, things have moved so fast, and here I was, sitting here with my arms around a once evil mare that believes that we're in love. Then again, it's not like I really gave her any reason to think otherwise. It was my decision to indulge her and give her what she wanted in order to see if I felt the same way about her. One thing was certain: I cared for her more than I would a regular friend. Was it a romantic kind of feeling? I didn't know for sure, but I definitely felt that she was... special, for want of a better word to describe her. I guess I felt really close to her, literally and figuratively. "Yeah," I said, finally answering Nightshade's question. "I guess it is kinda funny how things work out." After several minutes of sitting there in my arms, the unicorn began to stir. “I’m starting to get a little hungry, Noah. Wanna go get something to eat?” I shrugged my shoulders. “Okay, then,” I said as we got up and walked towards the nearest diner. When we got back home, our stomachs were full and we were happy to be back. “That was quite the filling lunch, don’t you think, Noah?” Moon asked as she changed out of her disguise form. “It was pretty nice, I guess,” I answered as I sat on the couch and let out an exhausted sigh. “That was such a nice date, Noah. I can’t wait until our next one! We could probably go out to a nice restaurant, or to the movies, or-” “Maybe we should just relax for now and not think about dates for the time being,” I interrupted. The alicorn let out a disappointed sigh. “I guess,” she huffed. I couldn't help but laugh a little at her enthusiasm. As apprehensive as I originally was, this date turned out to be pretty nice. I actually had a lot of fun just hanging out with Moon. When she wasn't talking about how in love she was with me, she was a nice mare to spend time with, and I began to wonder if a romantic relationship with her would actually work out. Just then, my phone began to ring and I stood up as I answered it, walking into my room to take the call. “Hello? Yeah … I’m fine, thanks. And you? ... No, I’m good for now, but thanks for checking up on me … Yes, I will try to call you more often … Okay … I love you, too.” I hung up the phone and turned around, only to see a perturbed-looking alicorn giving me a deadly glare. “Who was that?” she asked with an accusatory tone, moving her face closer to mine. “Who were you talking to on the phone, telling them that you ‘love’ them?” “My mother!” I answered defensively as I backed away. “She was checking up on me, Moon.” She blinked. “Oh! Well I guess there was nothing to worry about, then!” Moon happily walked out of my room, leaving me looking out of the doorway with a confused look on my face. She became so easily suspicious of who I was talking to on the phone, and it scared me a little. It really made me wonder what she’d be like later on, with all this jealousy lingering about. I let out a long sigh. "Noah Ashburn, what have you gotten yourself into?"