Frost stepped into the diner and sighed happily. She loved this place. It was an odd little thing, run by a Neighponese Pegasus and her Zebrican lover. The two worked together the make the most amazing food, mixing both their cultural cuisines with the local flavor to make dishes Frost had never tasted elsewhere and doubted she ever would.
It was also one of the few places not run by a thestral she could reliably indulge in some of the odder aspects of her diet, but she thought she’d stick to some of the more normal dishes for the time being. No reason to freak her date out.
She’d arrived a few minutes early, wanting to settle in and order some appetizes to nibble when he arrived. Seem’s she wasn’t the only one with that idea. To her surprise, she spied Reed already seated, staring at the tabletop as if it held the secrets of the universe. She opened her mouth to speak to him, and it stayed open as she became aware of….It.
It was huge. It was hideous. It was violently orange. It seemed to glint malevolently, as if cursed—wait, no, it was just dusted with glitter.
It was the bowtie Reed had around his neck.
It was so astonishingly ugly she was amazed it existed. It seemed like Celestia should have destroyed it on general principle. It represented almost everything the solar alicorn wasn’t. Like a relic of some forgotten age of chaos, a reminder of a time long ago, when order was a thing that happened to other planets and mad gods turns clouds into sugary confections.
-|-
“Discord? Discord, are you ready? We really should be going soon. I mean, um. If that’s alright with you? It’s just that, um, the play starts soon, and I was…was hoping to get some popcorn…”
“I’m sorry dearest Fluttershy!” The mad mishmash of monstrous mayhem snapped into being alongside what appeared to be a high-school locker, plucking various articles of clothing from it and tossing them over his shoulder. Each promptly turned into a winged spider that settled on Fluttershy, starting to turn her mane and tail into intricate non-euclidean braids. “I wanted to dress nicely for our night out, but I simply cannot find my favorite bow-tie! Ahh, celery.” He pulled a piece of it out and bit a chunk off before twisting the crisp vegetable like a pretzel and sticking it to his neck. “This will just have to do for now. Let us make haste! The Sounds of Mayhem call!” He snapped his fingers and floated out of a window, Fluttershy following after carefully placing the winged spiders back into Discords locker.
-|-
Frost shook her head and slid into the seat opposite the stallion. She’d seen worse outfits before. She couldn’t think of any off the top of her head, but…she had. She was pretty sure at any rate.
He…did not seem to notice her arrival at first, seemingly fascinated by the tabletop. She waved a hoof and—wait, nope. Cleared her throat? Nope. One of his hind legs was jittering against the ground, making the table vibrate slightly. She poked the tip of his horn with her hoof—that got his attention!
His gaze snapped up, and Frost got to see quite possibly the fakest smile she’d seen since the last time Blueblood had tried to chat up a mare.
“H-hi! I, uh, I hope I’m not late.” He said quietly. “How…uh, how was your day?”
She flashed him a grin. “Not bad. Got a good run in this morning. Saved a stallion from a burning balloon. The usual. How was yours?” she said, a little tease in her tone.
He blinked and looked back down at the table. His leg was jiggling worse now. “O-h, right. Dumb question, I g-guess.” He stammered, his voice even softer.
Their server showed up, grinning at Frost, and distracting her from Reeds reaction. “Heya bat-butt. Wow, a whole three days without seeing you. You’re usual?”
Frost smirked at the snarky Pegasus and stuck her tongue out. In a mature fashion. “Yeah, sure. Extra bell peppers this time around, hold the special ingredient.” She might enjoy seeing the looks on some ponies faces at times, but not on a date.
The pegasus turned to Reed, who looked moderately terrified. “Heya sugar. Need a menu and a minute?”
For a split second, Reed looked odd, as if reading off some internal notebook. He glanced at Frost shyly, asking, “Since you s-seem to come here often, a-any recommendations?”
She thought for a moment. “They make a pretty nice flower stir-fry, if you want to try something a bit different.” She offered.
He nodded and gave the earth pony a tight smile. “I’ll have that. Um. And some ice water?”
She gave him a broad smile and nodded, trotting off.
“S-so. Um, how—“ he caught himself, and she couldn’t help but smile as his cheeks darkened. “Um. I uh…” he stammered, trying to find a topic. The thestral decided to jump in and save the day.
“Heh. Hearing your boss today reminded me a bit of bootcamp.” She said.
He didn’t look up, though an ear perked. “O-oh?”
“Yeaaaah. Hardass sargent had it out for one of my squadmates. Nice gal, but not the brightest star in the sky, huh?” She chuckled. “One time, she got a good reaming, when she-“
Frost paused mid-word and looked at Reed. Really looked at him, using the analytical body-language skills the guard were taught. Useful when trying to ascertain whether the pony raving about the Solar Tyrant and how her regime must be brought down was a harmless nutter, or the kind of nutter that had a knife hidden under their wing.
It didn’t take long, really. A cursory scan. Despite his eyes being wide enough to swim in, his pupils were practically pinpricks. And that’s when he was daring to look at her face. His seeming fascination with the tabletop was more than simple shyness, it was more like he was afraid of meeting her eyes.
Scratch that, he was afraid, period. There was a slight tremor that spread through him more than once, a little symptom that he was suppressing the urge to simply start shaking. Probably part of what was causing that slight stammer. Now that she was looking, she could see the nervous sweat rolling down the side of his neck—hells, she wouldn’t be surprised to see him worked into a lather just sitting there.
The stallion was freaking terrified. She’d seen ponies in interrogation less worked up.
Ok. Now, the question: Why? Why was he so scared? Her? He hadn’t reacted this way first meeting her, so he wasn’t scared of thestrals in and of themselves. Because he’d found out she was ex-guard? Nope, he knew that before she’d asked him out, and he’d seemed ok with it. Reticent, but she could chalk that up to normal shyness. But…the date itself? It was the only factor that had changed.
Ok. So, for some reason, being on a date had him worked up like this. Solution: remove the offending element. Carefully was better than not in this case.
“—actually, never mind. Dumb story.” She hummed, glancing up at the zebra behind the counter. Catching her eye, she jerked her head to the door and smiled apologetically. The zebra rolled her eyes and nodded. “Anyway…” Trailed off thoughtfully, studying him more openly than she had before. She didn’t let it linger too long—no reason to make him squirm.
She smiled and said, softly, “Hey, Reed? You don’t look like you’re having much fun.”
His head jerked back upright and he looked oddly horrified. She cut him off before he could start babbling apologies. “No worries, it’s kinda stressful, I get it. Wanna go take a walk towards the Rim? No date, just hanging out. Friendly like.” She suggested.
He looked frozen for a moment before nodding slowly. “I uh..um. I—yeah. S-sure.” He followed as she slid out of her seat, pausing as they walked past the counter. “er—what about our o-order?”
“Don’t worry about it, they can put it on my tab. I come here a lot.” She said cheerfully, bumping the door open with her shoulder and holding it with a hind-hoof as she adjusted her goggles.
They set off, silent for the moment. The main roads thinned into the walking paths popular around the Rim—if you needed to get somewhere fast enough to warrant a taxi or a carriage, you took a straight road, you didn’t follow the curve. Another of the parks that festooned the Rim came into view, and soon enough they were among the carefully sculpted trees and flowerbeds, stepping over tiny streams, and enjoying the sight of the sun heading towards the horizon. The sky was painted in brilliant reds and golds, purples shot through.
Even through her goggles dimmed everything to a level that didn’t sear her retina’s, she could still appreciate it.
Glancing to the side, it seemed the walk had done her not-a-date a bit of good as well. His breathing was way more normal, and he didn’t look like he was about to bolt at any moment. He was staring up at the scintillating sky and heaved a sigh.
“…M’sorry.” He mumbled, looking down again.
“Hmm? For what?” She sat down beside him, his own flanks following suit soon after. “The date?” She nudged his shoulder with her own until he looked at her. “Hey, I’ve had worse. Really, that’s not even in the top ten worst dates I’ve had.” She paused. “Bottom ten? I dunno. Point is, it was awkward, and you looked like you were close to a panic attack. Big deal. No pony got thrown through a wall, there was no property damage, no fires, and at no point did I consider dumping a pitcher of cheap beer on your head.”
That got a look and a choked back laugh from the stallion, to her grin. “You’re co-workers told me you were shy. Guess I didn’t take them seriously enough.” She said with a shrug.
He rubbed the back of his head, combing his hoof through his mane. “Still, I mean…you saved me, then asked me out, and—“
She held up a hoof again. “Ah! Uh-uh. None of that.” She shrugged. “Shit happens dude. That’s all there is to it. It’s not like you pulled a Blueblood.”
He cracked a smile at that. “I suppose.” Even the librarians, sequestered in their not-so-little corner of the Palace, knew some of those stories.
She looked him over again for a moment. “…Hey, you don’t have to answer, but…why does being on a date freak you out so badly?”
He glanced up, looking thoughtful for a moment. “I…honestly don’t really know. I just start to think of everything that could go wrong. Everything I could do wrong. It doesn’t help that I…er. I don’t date much. Or…at all, really, so I don’t have any experience with it. I tried to research it, but there was so much conflicting data…” he sighed.
She blinked, staring at him. “…Research?” she said questioningly. How did you research dating? Like…stalk a bunch of mares with their stallions? Watch a herd with a telescope?
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s my special talent.” He grinned. “If I have a few hours to do proper research, and I’m give the proper information, I can do almost anything! Just need some time to read and experiment a bit.”
She opened her mouth, and managed to NOT say something about experimentation that likely would’ve made the shy librarian’s head explode. “That sounds…useful. Kinda interesting.”
He chuckled. “Not for everyone. But I like it. Learn a lot of neat stuff. And I have a pretty nice set of spells I can use, even if I’m not the strongest caster around.”
Frost nodded, glancing back out at the horizon. Still a few hours until the sun was completely gone, but…Celestia had broken out the paint a bit early it seemed.
“…I should probably be getting home.” Reed said quietly. “I...sorry, again.” He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “See you around?” he said with a shrug. She grinned and held up a hoof. He smiled and gently knocked his own against it.
“See you around. Maybe another time.” She said. He gave her a small smile and trotted off.