Chapter 8 - "Can't Fight These Feelings"
Confeatheracy of Dunces
Chapter 8 - "Can't Fight These Feelings"
The next day was rather subdued in tone, the feeling of awkwardness still permeating the atmosphere around Ponyville Elementary and its immediate airspace. For the most part, Dusty and Silver ended up spending most of the time in the schoolhouse reading, as unless either Cheerilee or Rainbow found themselves hurtling to the ground uncontrollably and in need of a doctor, it was mostly just the two winged ponies doing aerial maneuvers above the building.
For the teacher-turned-therapist and the student, things weren’t much better, either. Cheerilee, true to form, had been waiting with a soft, warm smile that morning when Rainbow showed up for what was quickly becoming a routine interaction. However, she didn’t make much small talk outside of simply instructing Rainbow on what to do, and not just because of the echoes of an angry filly from the previous day.
“Ok, Cheerilee, spot me!” called out Dash as she zoomed past. It had taken a lot of dedication and hard work, but after only two weeks, she was able to go from being as flightless as a chicken to almost reaching her maximum critical speed, the only thing holding her back being her difficulty controlling the finesse of her wing twitches to stabilize herself upon approaching transonic speeds. Unfortunately, Cheerilee couldn’t do anything to help with the problem, as Rainbow simply was naturally able to accelerate faster than nearly all pegasi of the same age and physical state. And nopony could do Rainbow’s ultimate signature move, the Sonic Rainboom, much less hit the necessary transonic speed to break the visible light spectrum from a ground launch in ten seconds flat like she could. At peak condition, of course.
So, instead, the alternative plan was to work on Rainbow’s basic repertoire of aerial maneuvers that in theory would prove good exercise to those same minor motor functions she needed to work on. Right now, Rainbow was working on re-mastering the outside loop, something she was having notable difficulty with since unlike a regular inside loop, her stomach was on the inside of the imaginary circle and her vision pointed at the ground when entering the loop.
“Watch your entry!” cautioned Cheerilee. True enough, Rainbow immediately seemed to bleed speed rapidly as she tried to dip her wings against the naturally generated lift from their shape. Luckily, this was only a momentary concern as the pegasus quickly regained control and proceeded to make an otherwise perfect outside loop, even if her exit into level flight looked extremely unsteady. “Alright, Rainbow, you did it!”
“Y-yeah!” called back the shaky acrobat, “though I kinda wish I didn’t!” Uneasily, Rainbow flew over next to Cheerilee with an expression that resembled the local town postmare.
“Odd, I wouldn’t think you would have this kind of reaction to pulling that many Gs. I guess we better go get my brother.”
“I’ll say, because either I’m totally loopy or Luna just brought out the stars several hours early to declare war on Celestia again - and I know her well enough to know it’s not the latter.”
Carefully, Cheerilee guided Rainbow back to the ground. It wouldn’t look good for anypony if the nearly-ready weatherpony suddenly did an accelerated nosedive into the ground and ended up getting flight amnesia all over again. Not like I need that concern on my plate right now, Cheerilee internally noted, thankful that she was able to get RD safely to the ground.
“Cheeri, why does your student have crossed eyes?” asked Silver, who by pure intuition had sensed he was needed and was already going through the door when the two winged ponies landed nearby. “Or have you replaced Rainbow with a changeling trying to impersonate her and the local mailmare simultaneously?”
“Heh, I wish I had Derpy’s brains,” Rainbow snarked in return, still proving unsteady even when all four hooves were landbound. “Right now mine feels like mush.”
“She was doing an outside loop,” explained Cheerilee, “had a little trouble in the entry, so I think she might have pulled too many Gs too fast.”
“I doubt that,” answered Silver as he trotted over to examine Rainbow. “I’ve read what little documentation there is on that Sonic Rainboom maneuver, quite frankly if she suddenly lost the endurance between then and now to the point she’s getting dizzy from normal Gs, she’d be dead the second she actually started a Rainboom.”
“What?!” exclaimed Rainbow, horrified at the prospect.
“Easy, Rainbow,” calmed the doctor. “I’m just saying that’s what this would have to be if you’re dizzy from too many Gs. Which like I said I doubt because the only damage that happened to you was significant memory loss from cranial impact and magical electrocution to the part of your brain that handles flight motor impulses. Your physical state and endurance are unchanged, meaning it can’t be a fault with those unless you haven’t been eating properly – which I also doubt since you’re in excellent shape…”
“Are you hitting on me, Doctor?” asked Dash with a leering grin.
“Only if I wanted to commit suicide-by-angry-wife” fired back Silver without missing a beat. “Fortunately for you, I still have vested interest in staying alive so that’s not happening. What is happening, though, is I suspect a mixture of fatigue from pulling a physically demanding stunt like an outside loop after a few hours of similarly straining exercise and the blood rushing to your head.” He then turned to Cheerilee. “As it stands, I recommend you call it a day for therapy flying. You look like you need a break yourself, sis.”
“Yeah,” sighed Cheerilee, realizing she was also more tired than she had initially thought. Of course, worrying about Big Mac having nearly committed suicide-by-having-her-father-interrogate-him-on-the-spot probably had a lot to do with it.
The previous evening;
“Isn’t this the same stallion whose little sister and her accomplices tried to drug at the same time they drugged you into marrying each other – without even letting your mother and I know about it?”
“I already told you, Dad,” explained Cheerilee with a tone somewhere between exasperated, flustered, and embarrassed all at the same time, “that was an isolated incident where my offhanded mention to my three most, uh, ‘focused’ students that I didn’t have a special somepony was interpreted to be a problem I needed help solving and…got out of hoof, admittedly, when I figured out what they were doing but stupidly asked Big Mac to play along and…well, Princess Twilight’s said she won’t lend books with dangerous potion recipes to fillies anymore.”
Stronghold seemed unmoved. “So this is the same stallion you nearly married in a pit in front of Rarity’s house?”
“No…I mean, yes, but the pit actually was part of how the Crusaders stopped us from being blind to all but each other, something to do with the love poison’s effects breaking off if the affected ponies don’t make eye contact with each other for an hour and so the pit was for Big Mac to fall into so when I came out of Rarity’s house with the wedding veil, I wouldn’t see him until that hour had passed.”
Worryingly, Stronghold narrowed his eyes even further. “I thought you said you destroyed the entire front of Rarity’s house, not simply left it, and didn’t this stallion,” a steel gray foreleg raised up to gesture at the red monolith of a pony still in the doorway, “somehow end up moving Berry Punch’s house halfway across town by dragging it with a rope at the same time?”
“Ah still don’t know how Apple Bloom managed to get me tied to that mare’s house,” interjected Big Mac, “but if it’s all the same Ah helped push that cottage back and Berry didn’t seem to mind after Ah apologized and explained the whole thing.”
“You also gave her a free keg of apple cider,” added Cheerilee, a small smile coming to her muzzle. “And fixed Rarity’s house before I even got the chance to offer fixing it myself.”
“Well, Ah had ‘ta. ‘Lest mah sister and her friends decided to try making that up and while Ah know Bloomie actually is eventually gonna realize she’s one gifted craftspony, if she’s tryin’ to fix somethin’ with her friends in tow…well, Ah’d say they woulda made Rarity’s house look like it got attacked by a Cerberus or somethin’ if ya’ll know what Ah mean.” Suddenly, Cheerilee noticed a gleam of something in Big Mac’s eyes, as if he realized something, but she decided not to push it. Calming her father down before he for whatever reason vetoed Cheerilee’s one shot at actually having a love life was more important.
Amazingly, Stronghold did seem to calm down slightly after seeing how his daughter was immediately comfortable with the large stallion – who looked like he could take on several guardponies at once and win purely from his well-toned, massive body. Certainly no question that if things do work out and they really do have a spark between them, he thought, I couldn’t ask for better assurance that he would protect my little filly as much as I could. Taking a deep breath, Stronghold decided to let his concerns over how much the previous “drugging” incident might be at work drop. “Alright, er, ‘Big Mac’ is it?”
“Eeyup,” replied Big Mac. Strong hold noted the stallion said it as if it was something he said often, like a catch phrase.
“Where exactly are you going to be taking Cheerilee-“
“DAD!” she exclaimed, mortified. “I’m over thirty and I live on my own, so why are you acting like this is taking place back more than a decade ago?”
Her father grinned. “Let your old man play hardball now that he’s got the chance, especially if it means sizing up my potential future son-in-law.”
Big Mac was thankful that his deep red coat probably hid the blush on his face right now, much more than Cheerilee’s mulberry coat only muted hers as her face largely turned crimson. To say she looked adorable – more than usual, really – was an understatement. “Ah, uh…Ah was hopin’ it wouldn’t be too much to ask her to join me next Saturday at, er, eight, at the Epicurea…Epicure…um…” Now he was certain his blush could be seen, he couldn’t even remember how to pronounce the name of the stupid restaurant.
But mercifully, salvation quickly came. “The Epicurean Cavalier?” asked Cheerilee, her eyes lighting up. “As in, the place with the big brass door and the giant crystal chandelier and is the highest profile restaurant in town?”
“Eeyup.”
Stronghold had intended to draw this out a bit longer just to play around, as concerns over this suitor’s inability to pronounce the very name of the restaurant he wanted to take his daughter to did not initially leave a good impression. However, when Cheerilee seemed to understand exactly what Big Mac was saying, almost as if his slight mistake only made him more endearing to her somehow, the father knew he’d lost the fight. “Not like an adult like you needs it, Cheerilee,” he began, “but you can-“ He never got the chance to finish as she launched into him with a big bear hug, but he wasn’t done with Big Mac. After prying his loving daughter off his body, he turned to face the apple farmer. “But as for you, Big Mac, if anything happens to her such that I need to get involved, so help me Celestia I will break-“
“-Scootaloo.”
“Wha!?” exclaimed Cheerilee, wondering why her father was threatening to break the orange filly in half if something went wrong during her and Big Mac’s date. He certainly hadn’t said anything about that last night.
“Oh, good, you’re back with the living,” dryly commented Silver, who somehow had gotten a bottle of water since the last time Cheerilee remembered seeing him. He then offered it to her. “Seriously, I’m betting that was last night’s little episode with Big Mac getting to your head because you haven’t had enough to drink.”
“Thanks,” she replied, removing the cap with her teeth, then as if second nature brought one of her wings forward to hold the cap while she held up the bottle to her mouth and consumed half of its contents in one go.
“Big Mac?” asked Rainbow, her interest piqued. “Oh, so he did ask you out on a date, didn’t he?” The sudden glare from Cheerilee made Rainbow realize she’d been a little too on the money, and so now needed to save face. “Ok, truth be told? It’s no secret with the weather ponies that you and he totally have a thing for each other, given how often you two try to pretend bumping into each other on a schedule so precise it’s like clockwork. There’s actually a fully detailed chart of your regular interactions back at the weather team office I had somepony make simply to stop everypony else from reporting the same thing over and over like it was new.”
“You’ve had the entire weather team spying on us?!” cried out Cheerilee, aghast at the violation of privacy.
“Hey, you and Big Mac are in public so everypony can see it, and we weatherponies can’t exactly help getting a bird’s eye view of everypony’s activity when we’re doing our job moving clouds and stuff. Besides, they’ve held true to my request that they not go around spreading unfounded rumors – a number of them needed to be reminded of everypony’s favorite editor ‘Gabby Gums’ proving how that is a very dangerous thing in this town - but since you are obviously going to go out with him, I can give full disclosure about the little betting pool that inevitably popped up about the question if you and he were finally going to become an item.”
“What side did you bet on?” Silver smugly asked, already knowing the answer.
“Silver!” Cheerilee wasn’t sure if she wasn’t going to implode from embarrassment at how everypony seemed interested in her love life all over again.
“Easy, Cheerilee, if you must know I actually put my bits for you two really becoming each other’s special somepony.”
“Well, uh, thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess?” Cheerilee just sighed, not wanting to talk about it anymore but to do so, she needed to give Rainbow what she wanted. “Look, since you’re going to keep pestering me if I don’t just tell you this, he’s taking me to dinner tomorrow at eight, to the Epicurean Horse. Yes, the one with the chandelier.”
“The Prench place Rarity likes so much?” Rainbow seemed oddly skeptical. “Huh, that’s expensive isn’t it? I have to wonder how…ooooooohhhhhhhhhh…” The speedster’s grin took on an impossibly wide width across her muzzle. “Well, that explains…actually, you’ll find out in time. Don’t worry, I’m certain it’s going to be an absolute blast for you if my suspicions are right, but no point in spoiling what he might be leaving in reserve.”
“Yeah, great, just…what was that about Scootaloo, earlier?”
Dash blinked, her brain decidedly not being as fast as her flying speed. “Scoot? Oh! Yeah, you must have caught the end of what I was telling your brother. See, I was actually hoping if we could take the weekend off from this therapy thing, since tomorrow is going to be a Wonderbolts Derby up in Canterlot that, as a Reservist, I get free admission to. Since Scoot really seems torn up about not spending any time with me, I was gonna take her as well since I do feel part of yesterday was my fault by not keeping her on the same page with me about this therapy stuff. So, tomorrow I’d be giving her what she wants and yeah, I’m going to give her the in-depth talk about her misbehavior from yesterday. Her parents probably already read her the riot act but she needs to know she can still rely on me as a big sister figure, too, y’know?”
Cheerilee nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’m going to work myself into all kinds of fits early tomorrow over my date with Big Mac anyway, so…having one less thing to worry about would be beneficial.”
“Aw, c’mon,” chuckled Rainbow. “He’s taking you to dinner and you two already have gone through the embarrassment following the Crusaders trying to play Matchmaker Rarity a bit too hard, what possibly could happen that’s worse than being caught in a wedding dress at the bottom of a mattress-lined pit?”
That evening, behind the Epicurean Cavalier, one annoyed staffer found himself in the unenviable position of taking out the garbage.
“The management has a half-dozen busboys and several waiters,” grumbled Demeanor, “and yet they have the maitre d' take out the smelly refuse? The heck do they even pay the busboys if all they do is run around collecting stuff from the tables and nothing else?” He absent mindedly wondered if this wasn’t somehow a minor punishment from on high, his boss having discovered the “special” reservation with the half-billion “special requests” made by one Lady Rarity for two ponies who were decidedly the kind of local blue-collar residents that the rich pricks didn’t like seeing as dining companions in the same location. Either it was that or the fact it was that and nothing could be done about it because Rarity had social connections actual nobles and duchesses would kill to have, and not just the ones involving palling around with royalty either.
“I’m guessing they don’t pay you enough?” suddenly came a sultry, feminine voice, her hoofsteps echoing slightly in the alleyway behind the fashionable restaurant.
“What’s it to you?” snapped back PD as he hefted the bags of trash into the dumpster, not in the mood to keep up appearances. Plus, he figured if there was some mare trying to talk to him in a stereotypical alley way’s privacy, she wouldn’t be the kind who actually frequented the place.
“Well, a little birdie told me that you’ve got some…problematic, shall we say, customers due for dinner tomorrow, and that right now your hooves are somewhat tied on the matter.” As PD turned to face the source of the voice, he was surprised to see a mustard yellow mare with a blue-and-orange manestyle that looked vaguely like something the upper class usually preferred. But there was something in the mare’s gray eyes that told him she was here on some business she wanted to keep on down low. “Fortunately for you, however, I might be able to provide a way out.”
“Look, lady,” he began, “I don’t know what you think you know, but unless-“
“Rarity’s made a reservation for a big red farmpony and another mare who you have not seen,” interrupted the mare. Evidently she did not wish to waste time. “Now, I’m not one to pay attention to the kind of normal clientele that usually is served here, but I have a good feeling that the stallion alone is somepony you’d rather not be in your fine establishment. No?”
PD rolled his eyes. “Look, let’s cut the whole ‘dancing around the subject’ thing. You have some stake in this date night Rarity set up being utterly ruined for some reason and I’m guessing you’re going to bribe me to be the one to ruin it.”
The mare nodded. “Fair enough, yes, that’s why I’m here. I’m also aware that Rarity already has tried to bribe you to ensure that the night goes off without a hitch, but tell me, did she make a down payment?” Before PD could respond, the mare produced a nice little sack of bits out of thin air and held it out to him. “A thousand bits, no strings attached, with another thousand if the night goes south like we both want it to. Deal?”
PD eyed the pouch carefully. A thousand bits was a lot, and doubling it could really make a nice little nest egg on the side. Sure, he’d get Rarity angry, but by this point he didn’t see himself keeping a job at this snob stand of a restaurant the way he got treated, so when Pinkie inevitably would come to destroy it with one of her most insane parties, he himself would be long gone.
He took the pouch, his mind already working on how to set up the night for maximum disaster. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do, miss…”
“Trouble,” was all the mare replied, giving him what was clearly a false name. “Also, before you start doing any heavy lifting, take this.” She then pulled out a small manila envelope – sealed – and gave it to PD. “That’s all the basic info about the two diners, including the mare of mystery, but still should be enough for you to work your magic.”
PD nodded. “Thanks. I guess I’ll be seeing you soon, then?”
“Let’s hope so, for your sake,” she replied before turning and walking off.
The next morning, Cheerilee was struck with the horrible realization that could derail everything. That realization was, simply, that she didn’t have one dress to wear.
“Oh, c’mon, c’mon!” she whined as she tore through her closet trying to find something that would look half decent and she could quickly modify to accommodate her wings, seeing as how the only time she’d ever actually worn clothes was with the intentions of hiding her wings, and that had been months ago, so the only clothing she had on hoof was for non-winged ponies. She also realized she had a lot of clothes, not just her Winter Wrap-Up vest and foreleg accessory, but a bunch of other clothes she couldn’t even remember having actually acquired. The only alternative possible was that they were all gifts from family and friends over the years, though why she would have kept getting clothing that she never had need of wearing only confused her more. After all, she wasn’t some simple filly’s toy whose intended play pattern was to have realistic, brushable mane and tail hairs and be dressed up like a fashion model over and over, even if her implausibly large wardrobe suggested otherwise.
Eventually, she gave up when the last thing she found remaining in the closet – everything else having been thrown to the opposite side of the bedroom – was a dress of sorts…except it was the dress she’d worn to her senior prom and even if she could still fit in it, the neckline was cut alarmingly low that revealed almost all of the entire forward portion of her barrel. Back in the neighties, that had been the cutting edge of social style. Now? Slut.
“Why do I even still own that?!” she exclaimed, making sure that it was deftly hidden from view as she’d sooner have it be publicly known her house had enough alcohol hidden in total to be eligible for an alcohol sales licence then for anybody to think she ever even considered owning something that daring. Then again, Cheerilee mentally admitted, I also didn’t think I’d really end up being a teacher.
However, the problem remained that she still didn’t have a dress for the evening. As much as I hate to admit it, I might need to borrow one of mom’s dresses. As weird as it is to use my own mom’s dress to go on a date, at least hers are already pre-fabricated with wing holes.
But right as the dress-deprived mare opened her front door to leave, she instead found Fluttershy of all ponies standing in front of it, hoof raised as if about to knock. “Oh, uh, good morning!” said the flustered visitor, who had spent most of her available willpower to not jump back a few hundred yards when the door opened right as she merely thought of knocking.
“Hello, Fluttershy, did you need me for something?” Cheerilee noted that the other pony seemed to have something on her back, the absence of a saddlebag to hold it leaving some questions about what it was.
“Well, no, I don’t, but Rarity said you had ordered this the other day and since I was heading into town if I could deliver it for her.” Carefully, as if she was trying to move the most delicate thing ever created, she gave Cheerilee the thing on her back. It was a semi-glossy box, silver all over but on the top was a logo; a bright purple spiral that in the middle sat a pair of blue eyes with fancifully styled eyebrows.
“Ordered? But, but I didn’t….” sputtered Cheerilee. Even if she’d known about that night’s date with Big Mac a year in advance, she never would have ordered something from the best seamstress in town. When it came to luxuries she could afford on her annual salary as a teacher, high-end designer clothes were simply out of the question. “There must be some mistake, I…I can’t take-“
“Oh! She said you also might have forgotten you ordered it,” interrupted Fluttershy, as if reciting a scripted line, “so she included the receipt inside.”
“If I forgot I ordered a dress from Carousel Boutique, I doubt I have much longer as a teacher,” nervously chuckled Cheerilee as she beckoned Fluttershy inside, as it would be rude to just dismiss the mare by closing the door in her face. Putting the box on her dining room/kitchenette table, Cheerilee gingerly removed the top. The playful part of her mind compared it to a scene from a Daring Do novel, where the heroine was opening the Ark of the Covneighant.
But unlike the novel, the box did not contain the crystallized skull of an alien pony race with freakishly large heads. Rather, inside was exactly what one would expect from a dressmaker; a dress. But to call this article of clothing a “dress” was about as accurate as Celestia saying “my wings are so pretty” for this was a Rarity-crafted dress. As it was removed from the tissue wrapping, the one-piece garment seemed to unfold by order of its own will, each newly-revealed stitch making it all the more beautiful.
Once fully removed, Cheerilee had a hard time looking away from the masterpiece in her hooves. Its jet-black fabric sparkled in the light by some kind of enchantment or just the nature of the fabric itself, with the small sleeves ending in gentle, folded curves as did the bottom opening. The neckline was in a “V” shape but did not cut down anywhere remotely as far as Cheerilee’s unmentionable dress of shame did, only far enough that wearing the dress would not conceal any jewelry also being worn, which was good as the dazzled pony knew she had a simple ruby necklace that would match this outfit perfectly. Completing the solution to her dress problems were the two openings on the garment’s back, obviously for her wings.
“It’s…it’s perfect,” was all Cheerilee could say. But while she was not one to look a gift from a horse in the mouth, the timing was almost too perfect. Looking down, Cheerilee realized that she’d been so preoccupied with admiring Rarity’s hoofwork that the receipt had fallen to the floor. Carefully folding the dress back into the box, Cheerilee then reached down to pick up the slip of paper, finding it inscribed with nothing but a simple message:
The only payment I’ll accept for this is that you use it to impress somepony special in the near future, consider it on the house otherwise.
~R
Immediately, Cheerilee recalled Rainbow’s odd answers as to what she had realized the day before. “Of course - Rarity’s trying to play matchmaker as if she’s Princess Cadence,” said the unnaturally winged pony. “At least this time there won’t be any love poison involved…I hope.” But when she looked up, she discovered another detail she’d initially overlooked; there was a butter yellow feather caught inside the dress, near the trimming on one of the wing holes. The teacher turned to ask Fluttershy, but the pegasus already blushed furiously in knowing the question as she’d noticed it at the same time.
“Yeah…Rarity couldn’t get your measurements, so, uh, she used me as a stand-in to try it out. That…that’s not a problem, is it?”
Cheerilee laughed. “Well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to get Big Mac for yourself.”
Fluttershy blushed harder, “Wha? No, I wouldn’t, I couldn’t! Not after that one time when he lost his voice and-“
“-Cheerilee thought Fluttershy’s deeper voice was your voice and, admittedly, did a very good faux swoon faint right in front of the stage!” Rarity paused to catch her breath before continuing, “I do wonder what her reaction was later when Fluttershy accidentally revealed herself to the crowd, given where we all are now.”
“Ah can’t say Ah know, either,” replied Big Mac, “but Ah doubt Ah’ll be askin’ her anytime soon. Normally, Ah don’t take pride in foolin’ ponies like that and, really, this whole fancy date night kind of-OW!”
“Sorry, sorry!” apologized Rarity, “I’m not used to working on clothes that require as much wool fabric as your ensemble has proven to need, it’s not easy to put needles through suffice to say. Though if it had to happen to anypony, you’re the best candidate with your years of hard labor hardened skin, no?”
“Don’t mean Ah don’t feel no pain like a regular pony does.”
“True.”
Big Mac took a deep breath to try and calm himself. It wasn’t like him to get butterflies in his stomach. And while he stood in the middle of Rarity’s workshop, playing the dual role of part fitting dummy, part mildly annoyed pincushion, and for all the world’s cares looked absolutely out of place, that wasn’t what was worrying him.
No, as childish as it was, it was nerves, pure and simple. Truth be told he’d never had an interest in pursuing a relationship, he’d had to put such ideas for his future away after the death of his parents and assume the role of the big stallion on the farm…because he was the only stallion on the farm. He had to be the unbreakable support holding up the farm and, more importantly, his grandmother and younger sisters. He’d sacrificed most of his time to personally making sure the farm’s daily workloads got done and that there was enough profit to put food on the table that wasn’t apples and apples alone. All in all, his life was actually kind of dull, but it was the routine he was used to.
And that might have been why he was so anxious for a change this day. He was a farmer, born and bred, and often relied on as few words as possible to convey his thoughts. She…well, she was a pony who was everything he wasn’t and yet somehow didn’t mind his awkwardness when it came to his comparatively small knowledgebase of words. Made even smaller, really, as he never, ever wanted to use that embarrassing “shmoopy-doo” baby talk he repeated like a broken record the last time he and Cheerilee were on a “date” of any sort.
“Big Mac?” asked Rarity, snapping him out of his mental trance. He glanced over to the seamstress, and for all the hammy, over-the-top, impossibly fantastic romantic nonsense that had fueled her brain that got him into this, her look of genuine concern at that moment reaffirmed in his mind that she was only doing these extremely generous things out of a desire to help two ponies hit it off properly. “I know that this whole thing is somewhat overbearing, my...theatrics and enthusiasm most likely not helping in the slightest, but please remember that in the end, all I’m doing is set dressing on the stage for you to impress Cheerilee.”
“And paying for the most expensive dinner for two in town?”
Rarity nickered. “Oh, as if I was going to go to all this trouble to help young love blossom between the second and third most workaholic ponies in this town only to let them waste it all by trying to light the fire of passion in Beet O’ Brady’s.”
Big Mac raised an eyebrow. “You say that like you have some experience with such a date.”
“Don’t even get me started, though at the same time it was back during high school and I’d yet to taste the finer parts of upper class society as being more to my personal liking, so I had to learn the pitfalls of love searching at some point. Seriously, though, I’d be hard pressed to believe that for any romance starting that would lead to my hoof in marriage, it would involve my beau having our first dinner date be in that questionable chain of restaurants.
“But that’s getting off point. What matters now is that you, Big Mac, have the confidence to be you around her. That’s what she likes, what she has to like about you after all this time, since while I’m not one to spread rumor around I did overhear a pegasus from the weather teams telling another about a betting pool over if and when you and Cheerilee would finally become an item. As much as I disapprove of Rainbow letting such a thing exist at all, the fact other ponies know that there’s a connection you two share should make it clear there is chemistry going on.” Then as if flipping a switch, Rarity slid right back into her usual mannerisms. “Besides, if nothing else, I am buying you a free dinner. After all, I’m at least that generous enough to spare you the indignity of eating one of those ghastly ‘Double O’Burgers’ later today.”
Oddly, with Big Mac’s confidence going up with Rarity’s version of a pep talk having just occurred, he also couldn’t help but wonder what a Double O’Burger even tasted like. To his knowledge, nopony he knew had ever eaten there.
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The CheeriMac here is just so adorable! Somehow I'm hoping the sabotage plans backfire to make the date better for them, like in The Lion King 1 1/2.
It's great seeing your Rarity do things like give the advice to be themselves, too. There are reasons she's 2nd best pony in my mind.
5740380 I know it's been several years since you wrote this comment, but I have to reply and agree.
Or it will be