"Evening you!" Rick called from the kitchen when he saw Twilight trot into the apartment. She got over to him and reared up so that they could hug and kiss.
"Mmmmmm, " she sighed as she lay her head on his shoulder, "missed you today."
"Missed you too babe. Dinner is going to be ready soon, so if you could get the table set up we'll get started once you're done."
Twilight fell back to the floor and trotted happily out to the other side of the kitchen island where she started to pull out the dishes and cutlery. "What are we having?" she asked as she busied herself.
"Sweetheart you know that's a secret until I actually plate everything. We will need bowls however as I'm trying something new tonight. If you can just pass them over?"
"Do we need wine glasses is what I'm asking, " she said as she pulled out the bowls and sent them over the counter so he could pick them up.
"What's dinner without wine? You should know better than that, " Rick teased back as he placed the soup bowls to the side.
"Of course except on those days you say we need to have beer or you have a headache so you just want water or how about when you've made lemonade or some kind of punch, " Twilight continued with a smile. There were times she understood the thing about teasing that Rick liked so much so she used it to her full advantage.
"None of that now. We're having wine and that's final, " Rick said with mock severity. The effect was ruined by the fact he was trying hard not to smile. He quickly finished up, ladled some of the soup into the bowls and brought them out.
The soup was a light brown colour and while there was a familiar aroma to it Twilight really couldn't place it. She stirred her spoon through the bowl hoping to see what was in it but all she found was the slightly thick broth and some potatoes. Bringing the spoon to her lips she tasted it carefully and thought it was good although a little odd. There was a bit of heat to it, but not enough to be overpowering but for the life of her couldn't figure out what it was. Needless to say she had to ask.
"When you get down to it it's PBJ soup, " Rick said with a smile.
"What's that?"
Her coltfriend chuckled a bit before saying, "it stands for 'peanut butter and jelly'. It's something that kids really like, I must have eaten PBJs for years when I was younger but it's not really something you eat when you get older unless you don't have much money or just can't cook. This is based off an African recipe for 'groundnut soup'. Groundnuts are what they call peanuts. The jelly in this case is a red pepper jelly which gives it the heat and a bit of sweetness and the potatoes are just there for body."
"Well it's very good. Much better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."
"I would think so. I mean what kind of person would I be if I just offered you that?" They continued to enjoy their soup and when it was done Rick cleared the bowls before bringing out the main course. It had the look of eggplant parmesan but smelled differently. As Rick was filling their glassed with some red wine Twilight took a bite of her dinner and was pleasantly surprised.
"This tastes like pizza!"
"Yeah, I had some mushrooms I needed to use. Then as I was looking for the cheese happened on some olives and just went with a pizza theme for it. Didn't know if it was going to work but I'm happy with the results, " Rick said after taking a bite of his own.
"I don't mind pizza but this is better, " Twilight said she dug into her food. They made conversation as they ate and Twilight spoke of her day in the library. It wasn't necessarily exciting but she just loved to talk about books and organizing so much that Rick was more than happy to listen to her.
Dinner was finished and both Twilight and Rick retired to the couch for the after dinner part of the evening which was watching a DVD. But before they could do so, Rick turned to Twilight and asked her as they sat on the couch, "hey babe, got a question for you."
"Hmm? What is it big guy?" she asked as he placed his arm around her and she snuggled in close to him.
"Well, some of my friends from work want to get together this Friday for a boys night. We're going out for bad food and a guys movie. I'm just wondering if you'd be okay with that?"
Twilight smiled and had to give him a kiss. She thought he was so sweet wanting to ask her permission to go out with his friends. "Of course you can go. You let me go out with my friends when I want to. It's only fair that I let you go do things with your friends too."
"Yeah I know but now that we're practically living together, I mean you sleep here every night, I didn't want you to feel... you know... like I was ignoring you or anything."
Twilight brought her face closer to her colt friend until they were practically touching. "You could never ignore me no matter how hard you tried." They kissed again, Twilight felt his hand immediately cup her face and start tickling her ear as he had a tendency to do. "See?" she said with a mischievous grin. "You can't ignore me."
"Okay, just wanted to make sure. So what do you feel like watching tonight?" Rick said as he went over to his DVD shelf.
"How about one of those 'guy' movies you're always talking about? You've never shown me one and I want to see what this other part of you is like, " she said teasingly.
"You don't want to see one of those. They're all explosions and car chases and really improbable situations. How about..., " Rick started as he scanned his shelf, "... The Red Violin? A tale of love, passion and music spanning centuries?"
"That doesn't sound like it has explosions and car chases. I want to see a guy's movie."
"Okay, then... oh! The Fifth Element, " Rick stated pulling the Luc Besson movie off the shelf. "It's got explosions, action sequences and Bruce Willis?"
"Is that a guys movie?" Twilight asked not too sure if he was still trying to distract her.
"Well.... some guys like it. I mean I like it although I'll admit it's a lot of style over actual substance but it's a good movie."
"Rick. I'm putting my hoof down. I want a guys movie like the one you're going to see with your friends!" Twilight said as firmly as she could.
Rick knew he was defeated so he pulled out a copy of "Iron Man" and hoped that she would like Robert Downey Jr. "This is the first one in the series, it's considered one of the best examples of it and Robert Downey Jr did a great job of it and it's considered one of the better comic book movies."
"Is this related to what you're seeing?"
"Yeah well, we're going to see Iron Man 3 so this is the first one they made." Rick stopped and had to ask, "are you sure you want to see this one? I don't know if you'll like it."
"I want to see it. Even if I can't go out on one of these boys nights with you at least I can share in this part of it, " she said with certainty.
Rick just shrugged and put the movie into the player. Two hours and a bit later Rick turned to her and asked what she thought of the movie. He liked it and felt that Robert Downey Jr had done a great job in portraying the alcoholic but sarcastic Tony Stark but then this was a role that was practically written for him.
"It was... interesting, " Twilight said diplomatically.
"Interesting bad? Interesting good? Interesting as a word to say you don't know what to say and don't want to feel bad about hurting a person's feelings?"
"Kinda good but a lot of the... last part of that...sorry, " Twlight replied a little sheepishly. She looked uncertainly at Rick who only smiled back warmly at her.
"Babe, this is why I didn't think you would want to see this movie. I like it, I think the main actor did a great job and while the sequel wasn't all that great I'm hoping the third one is better.
"I'm just glad you actually showed me some good movies before you showed me that."
"It was either that or Spiderman 2, " Rick said with a smirk.
"Do all these movies have a character who's name ends in 'man'? That's pretty strange if they do. That would be like in Equestria calling everypony 'somethingmare' or 'whateverstallion'." She kissed Rick quickly before saying, "you humans are just weird."
"You'll get no argument from me, " Rick said before yawning slightly. Looking at his watch he saw it was around 9:30. Turning to his fillyfriend he asked, "you had enough for tonight?"
She smiled saucily and said, "I've had enough of movies and of this couch but not enough of you."
"It's a good thing then that I'm also ready for bed. C'mon, let's get ready, " Rick said giving Twilight a slight slap on the rump as she stood up. As they walked to the washroom to brush their teeth and get ready to go to bed the strains of a Roy Orbisson song came to Rick's mind. Without thinking he started to hum the theme to "You Got It".
"What was that you were humming?" Twilight asked as they walked into the bedroom and got into bed.
"It's nothing important, just a song that's been stuck in my head for a while."
"Maybe it's some Equestrian magic rubbing off on you. We're always breaking into song there."
"The only Equestrian magic I'm concerned about is the one that brought you to me, " he kissed her, putting as much love and tenderness into that kiss that he could.
"Sounds good to me, " Twilight said after kissing him back. "Lights on or off?"
Rick just smiled wickedly and took her in his arms. "We can turn the light off when we go to sleep. Right now I want to see your face."
Twilight sighed happily as he slid into her. Apart from the poor choice of movie, tonight had been almost perfect and now there would be a perfect ending to it as well.