The Sun and Stars: Lightning Round

by JKinsley

Bad Date - Knight of Cerebus - Feb. 2, 2015

By Knight of Cerebus

Twilight softly stared into her drink, blushing. Celestia was very pointedly and very politely smiling at a piece of wallpaper about two feet to the left of Twilight’s head. One of them cleared their throat. Restaurant patrons buzzed a mixture of work stories, small talk and snatches of conversation about horse shoe polish and the need for limousine carriages. Somepony coughed somewhere. The silence between the two mares was at last broken by what had served as the probable source of it to begin with: One Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, smiling an over-wide smile and glancing between the pair of them expectantly.

“So what do you two think is the biggest moment when either of you have had to trust one another?” Cadance’s voice had a sing-song cheer to it that suggested that Twilight and Celestia had lost a bet with her. Which they had, but that was besides the point.

“I gave Twilight my magic. That was difficult.” Celestia said with all the enthusiasm of a deflating balloon.

“I guess it was the time I--y’know, Cadance, I don’t think it’s fair to withhold crucial information on the stakes for a bet. Stakes, like, say, that when you said we’d be dating mystery ponies of your choosing if we lost you meant we’d be dating each other.”

“You never asked after the terms and conditions.” Cadance said in a sing-song voice.

“Only because you wouldn’t have told us who you were planning to set us up with anyway.” Twilight blew a raspberry. Cadance stuck out her tongue, then rolled her eyes.

“You still haven’t answered the question.”

“Fine!” Twilight threw her hooves up. She settled down into her chair with her arms folded, then looked down for a moment longer. “Freeing Discord, for sure. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever yelled at Celestia before or since, so that’s gotta count for something.”

“Hehe. The only time you yell around Auntie is when somepony is failing to heap sufficient amounts of praise on her.” The slightest trickle of red entered Celestia’s cheeks, and Twilight’s face lit on fire. Cadance’s smile turned utterly diabolical. “Of course, the feeling is mutual. I’ll never forget the look on that poor guard’s face when you snapped at him.” Cadance looked over at Celestia with a devious smile. “‘Twilight Sparkle is a gift to the ponies of this kingdom, whether or not she understands the meaning of certain subtleties of common conversation.” Cadance straightened herself to stand in an elegant poise. “Remember that well, my little pony.”

Twilight snickered a little at this, her the bones of her back at last going slack where before they had been tensed and hunched. “I...I didn’t know you stood up for me like that.” Twilight scratched the back of her head.

“You spend more than enough time championing me, dear.” Celestia smiled a quiet smile. “It seems only right that I return the favour.”

Cadance cooed, and what could have been a tender moment immediately fell flat. The two ponies sighed, then looked back at their menus.

Cadance opened her mouth again. “It’s not like this is the worst bet you’ve ever lost, Auntie. Maybe I should tell her about the time you had to shave your belly for--”

“You know, Twilight my dear, if there’s one good thing about losing a bet on how well our countries did in the Equestria Games, it’s that it gives us an excuse for some long-overdue private time.”

Twilight sighed. “Hardly. We’re gonna be explaining to the newspapers that we aren’t actually dating for months. We’ll have to make a press release, and there will be questions at conferences--”

Celestia gave a wry grin of her own. “And we’ll be gossip at all the dinner parties, and Luna will tease us--”

“--So will Shining--”

“And we won’t hear the end of it from our mutual friend,” Celestia cast a glance to the chair beside her own, “until the end of the month at least.”

The two sighed in unison. Twilight perked up. “But you’re right, we are getting some time together at last. Time to talk about books, time to talk about magic, time to talk about friendship and history and the courts and chess and teas and--”

“--The embarrassing memories I have of the both of you!” Cadance injected. “After all, no date is ever complete without an embarassing story.” She winked. “I think the best one to break the ice would be--”

“Hold up.”Twilight held her hoof aloft to denote her need for a pause. She and Celestia shared a look, speaking volumes with a simple glance alone in the way that only two oldest of friends, lovers or family can. Then, at last, Twilight spoke up with an evil smile of her own. “You know, Tia, it seems like despite our best intentions to live up to the bet, we’re not having a very good date. I’m thinking as to why that might be…”

“You’ve both been standing in silence the whole time! It’s only now that you’re--”

“I agree, Twilight. Having a spectator does seem to be problematic to the spirit of the bet. I hardly imagine the Royal Honeymoon would have been quite so ‘idyllic and dreamy’ if one of us had been spectating the entire time.”

“You won’t hear me disagree. So I was thinking of showing off a little trick Rainbow showed me for getting out of just this kind of situation. After all, our publicity after this is already gonna be a nightmare.”

“Our ship has sailed, you might say.” Celestia grinned the grin of somebody indulging in a private joke.

“You aren’t thinking of outflying me, are you? Twilight, I love you, but we both know you’ve barely learned how to keep in the air. And you haven’t flown anywhere yourself since last year, Auntie. Besides, you both lost fair and square and I demand a--”

“FOOD FIGHT!” Twilight threw a plate long into the sky and ducked for cover. Celestia’s eyes widened, then settled on Cadance with a look filled with the infamous diabolical wit that she so rarely got to excercise. Cadance’s own meal upended itself upon the pink princess’ multicoloured mane, and Celestia disappeared under the table.

“What just--You can’t ju--” Cadance was cut off by a plate of spaghetti hitting her face, then another plate of steak, and then at last by a very stern looking waitress glaring down her nose at her.

By the time Cadance had squarely pinned the blame on her companions and decided to lift up the table cloth for proof, Twilight and Celestia were already enjoying a quiet moment overlooking a waterfall on Canterlot’s mountainside. Celestia leaned her head against Twilight’s at exactly the same moment that a hoof was laid on Cadance’s shoulder.

“Now, then, let’s try that again.” Twilight sighed. “I mean, I’ve been trying to tell you--but Cadance kept getting in the way, and we were in public, and I--I’d like to. I never thought we’d lose, and when we did I got all nervous and annoyed and then, well, it turned out to be you. And it made me, I dunno, excited. I wanted to--” Celestia put a hoof on Twilight’s mouth. She looked down at it, then let it drop with a tender smile.

“I have something to say to that, but we’ve been cut off too much tonight. Go on.”

“I wanted to, Celestia. To go out with you, I mean.” Twilight smiled a quiet smile. “I mean, after all, I love--” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “--you.”

Celestia’s thought sputtered at the whisper, and she wrapped her wing around Twilight. “I bet you, my dear, that we don’t need any trust exercises or mortifying family stories to know that that feeling is mutual.”

Comments

[Fuzzyfurvert]

D'awwww... Supershipper Cadance is a fave of mine. And that was just cute.

[ArguingPizza]

This was chocolate-covered marshmallow sweet, and funny to boot

[Kage no Brony]

5641220

Cute? That was horrifying.

Dang it Cadence, leave 'em be!