Equestria Girls: Life Goes On

by Blackbird2

It's A Date?!

Equestria Girls: Life Goes On

Chapter 4: It’s A Date?!

Blackbird and Aria sat in the reading corner of Barns & Royals, going over some ideas for their next collab video. Mostly fine tuning what jokes to keep and which movie clips to use. As they worked Blackbird cast a few side long glances at the snarky girl as he worked up the courage to ask her a question. He took a deep breath, calming breath before finally speaking up.

“So, speaking of movies, would you like to go see one tonight? You know at the theater. Like a good one? Or, heck, maybe even one of the new bad ones out right now,” he asked.

Aria raised an eyebrow at him.

“What, like, a date or something?” she scoffed, even if part of her wanted that to be true.

“I mean we don’t have to call it a date but if you do I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to that,” Blackbird replied with a playful smirk.

She paused. She was of two minds. One part of her did want to take him up on the offer but the other wasn’t sure how she would even handle that. Plus, she couldn’t help but recall the last person she talked to on this couch.

“What about Moonie?” she asked.

“Already talked it over with her and she’s cool with it. We’re polyamorous after all.”

“Poly-what now?” Aria asked with a tilt of her head.

“It means we can date other people while dating each other ‘cause we don’t believe in restricting love to just one person. Or two people in the case of a relationship,” he explained, darting his fingers back and forth in the air over an imagery whiteboard.

“Wow,” the lavender girl muttered as she leaned back on the store’s worn couch. “That sounds...complicated. And something I’m not sure I could deal with.”

“Fair enough,” he relented as he held his hands up. “It’s not for everyone. I hope we can still just go to the movies as friends though.”

“Yeah sure,” she said with a wave before her eyes narrowed in realization. “Wait. Did you just ‘We can still be friends’ me?!”

“Huh? Blackbird asked in confusion.

She turned her head to glare at him and leaned forward menacingly, any conflicting romantic thoughts she might have had overcome by anger at the perceived insult.

“‘We can still be friends’ is what people say when they’re trying to reject someone gently,” she said in hushed, almost venomous voice.

This time it was Blackbird’s turn to tilt his head in confusion.

“Yeah in badly written movies and TV shows,” he rationalized even as he slid backwards a bit. “In real life it just means we can be friends without it being romantic if one person doesn’t want that. Plus, you know, we are friends!”

“That might be,” she growled, her eyes almost glowing with anger, “but let me tell you something buster I don’t get rejected! I do the rejecting!”

Blackbird scratched the back of his neck nervously. “So are you...trying to reject me?”

“Of course not!” she shouted, drawing the attention of a few of the nearby patrons. “I like hanging out with you!”

“I like hanging out with you too,” he confirmed. “Which is why I thought it’d be cool to go to the movies tonight.”

“Yeah! As a date!”

“I’m not the one who said it was a date!” he cried out, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

“Oh so you are you saying you don’t want to go on a date with me now?!” Aria growled, grabbing onto his white vest.

“Of course not, I would love to!” Blackbird shouted, confusion and fear overtaking him now.

“Good! ‘Cause that’s exactly what we’re going to do!” the twin tailed girl informed him as her hand moved from his vest to his red tie to pull his face just inches from hers. “And you’re going to treat me to the movie, popcorn, a drink and maybe dinner afterwards and it will be a magical evening, got it?!”

“Y-yes ma’am,” he whimpered.

“Good,” she said with a smirk before she let him good and stood up. “I’ll text you which movie it is and what time later. See ya ‘Bird!”
With that, she took her surprisingly jaunty leave all while Blackbird sat on the couch and blinked several times in utter disbelief.

“What just happened?!” he asked as he threw his hands up in the air.

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

That evening, Blackbird and Aria found themselves walking down the crowded walkways of the Canterlot Mall. Aria let out an annoyed huff as she sidestepped yet another seemingly oblivious mall patron.

“Oh yeah, the mall, real romantic place for date,” she grumbled.

“Hey the theater here is the only one close to us that was showing the movie you wanted to see,” Blackbird explain. “Which is weird cause since it’s part of a popular franchise but I don’t know how these things work.”

“I was just expecting something better than the mall food court.”

“Well first of all I’m in between paychecks right now so I don’t have enough money for a fancy restaurant and secondly we’re in the food court, are we? We’re going to the sushi place further in the mall. I hear it’s supposed to be pretty good.”

“Better be to put up with all this,” Aria muttered again as she dodged another person. “Why is this place so busy anyway?”

“Cause it’s Saturday night,” he said flatly.

She merely rolled her eyes and continued to walk with him as they made their way to the sushi restaurant. When they reached the entrance though, she froze up in horrified surprise when she got a glimpse a familiar amber skinned girl tending the tables.

Sunset Shimmer! She thought in a panic. Oh I am not in the mood to deal with her!

“Hey, you know what? Maybe I was wrong. The food court is just fine. We should go there. Right now!” she hurriedly told Blackbird.

“But we’re right here?” he asked in confusion, motioning towards the door. “And I kinda want to try this sushi.”

“Ugh! Fine! Just...get to go and we’ll eat in the food court. That way we’ll be closer to the theater! So you go order now and I’ll go back there and save us a table!” she said before practically running off.

“Wait! What do you want?!” he called after her.

“Surprise me!”

Blackbird watched her retreating form then sighed and shook his head.

“Yep, this date is off to a real good start,” he grumbled with a sigh.

After getting his order to go, Blackbird made his way back to the food court where he found Aria in one of the corner tables looking like she was trying to avoid someone. He gave her a confused look but shook his head and decided just to let it go for now. At least she was still here!

“Not gonna lie, I half expected you to be gone by the time I got here,” he joked as he set a back and two drinks down on the table in front of her.

“Yeah, uh, sorry about that. There was just...someone I was avoiding in there,” Aria half explained as she took one of the cups and put a straw in it.

“Ah,” he remarked as he sat down and opened the bag. “So since I wasn’t sure what you’d like I just got the sampler platter. Little bit of everything, so I’m sure you’ll find something you like. Well hopefully at least.”

She watched as he pulled out a rectangular shaped plastic container with all sorts of colorful food on it. Most of it seemingly composed of rice, veggies and...other things. She tentatively reached out and picked up one of the pieces and gave it a quizzical sniff.

“So...what is sushi anyway?” she asked, examining the food her hand.

“Eh it’s different things. Rice, veggies, sometimes cream cheese and other sauces and such. But mostly it’s different kinds of fish. Usually raw,” he explained as he helped himself to the other pieces on the platter.

“Fish?!” Aria practically shrieked, staring at the piece of sushi in disgust.

“Do you...do you not like fish?” Blackbird asked, a bit of panic in his voice.

“It’s...not my favorite, no,” she replied as she put the piece back.

“I am very sorry for not asking you that beforehand!” he said hurriedly.

“It’s fine. Guess I should have mentioned it earlier.”

“Well...hold on...”

He then went about quickly rearranging some of the pieces on the platter so some pieces were facing her and others were facing him.

“Alright, there. Those are all the veggie pieces that have no fish on them,” he explained, pointing to the sushi pieces on her side.

Aria blinked and stared between the platter and Blackbird, taken off guard by this show of kindness.

“I...thanks,” she said before she took one of the pieces and popped it into her mouth. “Wow. That is good!”

“Told ya!” he beamed. “And now next time we know what to order for you.”

“Mmmhmm,” she nodded happily with a mouthful of sushi.

“So,” he paused to take a sip from his soda, “ what made you want to do...this?”

Aria paused and shifted a bit uncomfortably.

“I just...wanted to, okay?” she replied a little curtly.

“I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t because of the whole ‘let’s be friends’ thing,” he clarified.

“It’s not that! It’s just...I mean...” she stammered, conflicting emotions stopping her from speaking. “Look I don’t do things like...this very well so we can we just not talk about it and just enjoy the date?”

“Fair enough,” Blackbird conceded.

Once they were done with their meal, they headed towards the in mall theater where they were greeted cheerfully by the teal haired girl behind the ticket booth. Like Aria, she had her hair tied into twin tails though hers were tied low instead of high and were held in place with clips that looked like film reels rather than Aria’s stars. She also wore a rather...interesting hat atop her head that was obviously part of her uniform. She also wore a name tag over her vest that read “Juniper”.

“Hi, what can I help you?” she asked cheerfully.

“I’d like two tickets to The Summoning 3,” he told her.

“Ooh I hear that one’s supposed to be really good,” Juniper commented as she punched up the tickets.

“I love the first two! Super creepy! The way horror should be!”

“Honestly I wouldn’t know. I’m not much of a horror fan. But I can appreciate a good movie,” she explained. “That’ll be $22.00 by the way.”

“Ew. Ouch. That’s the real horror there,” Blackbird muttered as he pulled out his debit card and slid it under the glass. “Sorry I’m sure you hear that all the time.”

“Not all the time. Just most of it,” Juniper retorted with a slight smile. “I’m just glad you realized how stupid that sounds.”

“Hey we both work retail too so we get it,” he explained as he motioned between himself and Aria. “Plus sounding stupid is kinda what I do on a daily basis.”

“Can confirm,” Aria remarked.

Juniper giggled as she handed him back his card and their tickets. “You two are funny together.”

“Well if you like that we both have MyTube channels where we rip on bad movies. Blackbird Reviews and Blazing Reviews,” he explained as he took the card and tickets from her. “And yes she definitely has the better title.”

“Sounds like fun. I’ll try to remember to check them out whenever I can,” Juniper noted. “Enjoy the show!”

“Thanks,” Blackbird said before he and Aria walked into the theater proper.

“Okay, so, I get that you’re polyamorous or whatever but could you at least try not to flirt while we’re on a date?!” Aria scolded him.

“I wasn’t flirting!” Blackbird protested then paused and blinked. “Was I?”

“Certainly looked like it to me!”

“Well I didn’t mean too. I’m sorry.”

“I know and that’s the most annoying thing! You have this effortless charm about you! It’s frustrating!” Aria exclaimed.

“I’m...sorry?” he offered in confusion.

“Yeah that! Stop doing that!”

“I don’t...know how to not be myself.”

She sighed and took her ticket from him while they walked up to the concession stand.

“Just get us some popcorn,” she muttered.

“Right,” he returned then looked at he guy behind the counter. “I’d like a large popcorn and two medium sodas.”
“Alright,” the guy replied and punched in the order. “Anything else?”

“You want anything else?” Blackbird asked Aria.

She studied the snack options for a moment then shook her head.

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Then just that,” Blackbird confirmed.

“That’ll be $14.00 even,” the other boy replied.

“Yeesh again. See this is why I couldn’t take you to a fancy restaurant,” Blackbird told Aria as he handed over his card again.

“Well you better save up for next time,” she advised him.

“Then don’t surprise me next time!” he retorted.

At this point the thoroughly uncomfortable theater employee gave Blackbird back his card then set about getting their drinks while another employee behind him getting an almost comically large bucket of popcorn ready. In only a few seconds they were given their order with Aria taking her soda while Blackbird balanced his own cup and the popcorn container.

“You want to get some butter?” he offered.

“Yeah that’d be great but instead they have whatever that crap is,” Aria remarked, pointing to the stained “butter” dispenser a few steps away.

“That’s a ‘No’ then,” Blackbird retorted.

Aria rolled her eyes as they headed towards the specific theater featuring their showing of the movie. When they stepped inside they found the spacious theater completely empty.

“Ha! Perfect!” Blackbird cheered as he surveyed the seats. “Now we can find the best viewing seat.”

“‘Best viewing seat’?” Aria asked incredulously. “Is this why we had to come this early?!”

“Well...yeah,” he confessed as he inspected some of the rows of seats. “Ah! Here!”

He sat down in the center of a row that was just behind a railing. Aria paused and seemed to think over if she wanted to continue this date or not but quickly shrugged and sat in the seat next to him.

“You always do this when you go to the movies?” she asked as she took a handful of popcorn.

“Yes. Yes I do,” he admitted. “I have problems!”

“No kidding,” she said around the mouthful of popcorn.

“So why did you want do this again?” he teased.

She took a long sip from her soda before responding.

“Starting to wonder that myself,” she replied with a sly smile.

“Oh that went wrong so quickly!” Blackbird exclaimed, his voice a mix of playful and fearful.

Despite herself, Aria let out a small snicker before she lightly punched his arm.

“Man you’re easy to mess with,” she mused.

They continued to have a playful back and forth while the preshow played on the screen. They quieted down as more and more people started to file into the theater. Soon enough the movie itself started enthralled by it. Despite her usual tough tomboy persona, there were more than a few times that Aria jumped at some of the scares on screen and at least one reached over to grab Blackbird’s hand. Of course she was quick to jerk it away once she realized what she had done but even in the darkness he caught the slight smile on her face afterwards.

Once the movie was over, and they were sure there was nothing extra after the credits, they left the theater and made their way towards the mall once again.

“So how was it?” a voice called from behind them.

They turned to see Juniper still behind the ticket booth.

“Oh it was great!” Blackbird gushed. “I don’t know how they do it but this series keeps getting better and better!”

“Eh, it it was alright,” Aria shrugged. “Though there’s no way this is based on a ‘true story’.”

“Oh yeah they made a lot of stuff up but it’s still super good,” he told Juniper.

“Well maybe I’ll check it out sometime,” she replied.

“Cool. Hey check out our videos as well! Good stuff! Hope to hear from ya!” he waved as he and Aria walked away. “So where to now? Still a bit of time before the mall closes. We could hit up some shops.”

She was about to answer before froze when she spotted yet another familiar CHS face in the crowd. This time was Trixie. She wasn’t alone either as there was a girl next to her who...honestly looked a lot like her! Their hair definitely had the same colors to it but this girl wore hers straight and hidden under a star patterned beanie. She also wore a teal T-shirt under a black vest and ripped jeans. While there were a lot of stupid faces from CHS she didn’t remember, she definitely would have remembered someone who looked that much like her! Visual similarities aside, the other thing that stood out to Aria was that this girl seemed to be showing Trixie around the mall. Which was weird cause she knew Trixie lived her so she would know all about the mall. Plus, it looked like the wannabe magician was a bit unsteady on her feet. She was strangely transfixed by the whole thing and was only snapped out of it when she felt a light touch on her shoulder.

“Aria?” Blackbird asked in concern.

“Uh what?” she asked, shaking her head a bit.

“I asked where did you want to go?” he repeated then looked at her more closely. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah I’m fine,” she reassured him, giving one last glance at the pair. “Let’s, uh, let’s go...this way!”

With that she grabbed his wrist and led him in the opposite direction of Trixie and her friend. They walked down the much less crowded walkways now and soon came to a stopped in front of one of the many clothing stores in the mall. Though initially she stopped there just because she felt it was a good distance away from the girls she was trying to avoid, she did see something in the store that caught her eye. She walked over to one of the coat rakes and pulled out a gold colored, feathered jacket. She ran her hand through the soft down as she eyed it all over.

“You know, I wouldn’t think that was your style but I think that’d look good on you,” Blackbird said as he walked up to her.

“Yeah,” Aria agreed in an almost dreamy tone. One that quickly faded with a sigh. “But there’s no way I could afford it with my paycheck.”

“Come on, it can’t be that much,” he noted before he checked the price tag. “Eeeeeh! Yeeeaaahhh...can’t help you with that right now. Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” she sighed again and placed it back. “Maybe later.”

The browsed through a few of the other items in the store, Aria in particular taking a moment to admit a purple ascot, before being told they had to leave as the store was getting ready to close. Certain that the coast had to be cleared by now, Aria had no issue with stepped back into the mall but Blackbird lingered behind in the store. About a minute later he emerged with a small box in his hand right as the store employee pulled down the metal grating to lock up the store.

“Here,” he said, presenting Aria with the box.

“What’s this?” she asked even as she took the offered gift.
“Well I couldn’t afford the coat but I was just able to afford something else I noticed you had your eye on,” he explained.

She pulled the box apart and carefully laid inside on top of a black velvet cushion was the ascot she had been admiring. Her eyes darted back and forth between it and him.

“You...bought this for me? Just because?” she asked, as if the concept was alien to her.

“Well...yeah,” he replied with a nonchalant shrug.

After looking between him and the gift a few more times before she said the only thing she could think to say as a swell of emotions ran through her.

“Thank you.”

“Hey you’re welcome,” he smiled at her. “Now come on, we better get out of here before we get locked in the mall. Don’t want to deal with any killer robots, do we?”

She snorted at the reference then put the ascot back in the back before they made their way out of the mall and back to his car. After a short drive they were back in the city and parked outside her apartment building/place of work.

“Sooooo...you, uh, have a good time tonight?” he asked nervously.

“You know what? I did,” she said with a genuine smile. “Hell I might even want to do it again sometime.”

“Sounds like a plan to me! And if you let me know far enough in advance I can actually take you to a real restaurant!” he joked.

“Oh you’re definitely doing that!” she joked back.

They stood in an awkward silence for several seconds before Blackbird started to lean forward, his lips parting a bit.

“Nope!” Aria denied him, putting a finger to his lips. “We’re not there. Yet.”

“Yeah. Fair enough. That was stupid of me!” he admitted nervously. “So, um, just have a good night and we’ll talk more about our next collab later, right?”

“Yeah, that sounds better,” she nodded.

“Cool. Cool. Alright...night!” he waved before he moved rather quickly to his car.

She waved back as he drove off then walked to the side entrance of the building to walk straight up the stairs to her shared apartment. Thankfully it seemed Adagio and Sonata turned in early for the night so she wouldn’t have to deal with them. She carefully snuck across the floor to her dresser where she took her off her clothes and tossed them into a nearby hamper before changing into a pair of panties and a long T-shirt to sleep in. She stopped just before she got into the bed she had to share with Sonata and put the box with the ascot into the drawer in the night stand on her side of the bed. Eventually she would work it into the rotation of her outfits but for now she wanted to keep it a secret. After all it was the first genuine gift she had ever been given. Not one given to her through brainwashing, manipulation or even demand. Blackbird just bought it for her because he knew she wanted it. It was given to her out of kindness and love. And to her that made it the most important part of her entire wardrobe.

Once the box was secure she slipped into the bed and pulled the covers up to her neck. She stared at the ceiling as she reflected on the night’s events and a large, beaming smile spread across her face. For the first time in a long time, she actually felt good about the future.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note:

So this chapter is noteworthy in that the first scene is actually the very first thing I ever wrote between Blackbird and Aria! Yeah I jumped the gun a bit but it was a scene that played itself out in my head when I officially made her my waifu and demanded to be written! And it’s that scene that lead to this fic even existing! So of course I had to work it in here but modify it in a way that makes it work with the rest of the story. Hopefully I did that job well.

Speaking of waifus, did I set most of this chapter in Canterlot Mall so I could have an excuse to work in an appearance by my secondary EG waifu Juniper Montage? Yes. Yes I did. But as you can tell I worked in a few other cameos as well. ;)

So the way I have this story going in my mind, the next chapter will be the last one. And it’s going to be a pretty emotional one as well, so get ready for it! There might be an epilogue but I’m not sure right now. We’ll have to see how it goes!

Til next time!