My better life

Luna and I goofed off in the carnival for quite a while. Unfortunately for us, we were both too big to ride any of the rides effectively. So we ended up spending most of our time letting the game booths rob us blind. Not that we weren't winning, we just ended up having to pay to replace things we broke in almost every booth. I shattered the bottles in a game where you throw a baseball at some stacked bottles. Luna won a ring toss game and accidentally kicked a side of the booth in her excitement, knocking the whole thing down. We were basically a complete menace to society for a while.

I couldn't remember any time I'd ever had that much fun.

Eventually we gathered a small following of ponies that went with us to whatever booth we decided to terrorize next. They cheered us on as we inevitably destroyed whatever game we played, sharing in our happiness.

Luna stayed close to me almost the whole time, practically as if she were fused to my hip. I didn't mind it at all. She was warm and soft and nice to be around. To be honest, I was beginning to not want to go home to the craziness that was my life. Four crazy mares, a kid, two pets, too many friends to divide my time between fairly... Not that I didn't love all of those things, they just got a little stressful sometimes.

"Hey, look! A dart-throwing game!" Luna shouted excitedly, shaking me out of a small stupor I had been in. I smiled at her and jogged over to the game by her side. We ordered a few shots from the stunned booth runner and he slowly handed both of us five darts each as he regained his senses somewhat after the shock of seeing a princess and a celebrity show up at his booth.

"Ladies first, Luna." I offered with a wave towards the counter. There was a line marked into the counter that said 'No magic past this point'. Likely to indicate where a unicorn was required to release a dart from a levitation spell. Other than that, it was a standard dart game like from earth where you tried to pop balloons with a dart. Simple enough, it seemed. Luna stepped up to the counter with a small smile. I stepped a few feet away when she started lifting the darts to keep from being hurt by her magic. She obeyed the line well, and her aim wasn't bad, but all her darts bounced harmlessly off the balloons despite her best efforts.

"Awww!" she whined as her final dart fell to the ground uselessly. The booth runner had a relieved smile on his face. "I was soooo close! Did you see that Sharky?" Luna pointed at the board in disappointment. I grinned devilishly and nodded. I had been watching during Luna's turn to see what the trick was, and I had figured out how to win. The darts all tipped down at the last second, causing the tip of the dart to miss the balloons entirely. I examined one of my darts closely, and sure enough, there was a bit of extra metal welded to the base of the tip of the dart.

"Don't worry Luna, I'll get you a prize." I promised as I bent the tip of the dart up just enough to counter the drop caused by the added weight welded on to it. The booth runner began to look nervous.

"H-hey! You can't do that!" he shouted worriedly. I scoffed at him and pointed at the rule board.

"Then fucking stop me, if you wanna try. Show me the rule then." I challenged. There wasn't any rule about altering the darts, so the booth runner just frowned angrily. "Alright then, watch this!" I cheered eagerly as I threw my first dart right through the balloon it was aimed at... and the board it was attached to.

"H-hey!" the booth runner shouted as he gaped at the new hole in his stand. Luckily the booth was placed with its back facing a building, so the dart didn't have a chance to hit something else beyond the booth.

"Oh geez! Uhh... oops..." I muttered in embarrassment. A small blush formed on my cheeks as I raised the next dart. Luna was already laughing hysterically at me for breaking the stall in record time. "I'm very sorry about this" I threw my last few darts, popping a balloon and breaking the stall with every single one. The stall owner looked absolutely irate.

"What the buck! You're gonna have to--"

I held out a handful of gold bits before he could continue.

"... Ah, very well then... You still technically won the grand prize, I suppose. So which one do you want?" he pointed to a row of giant stuffed toys. I turned to Luna to ask which one she wanted, but she was literally rolling on the ground laughing at me. She already had a giant stuffed carrot from almost every booth we had been to, and one moon-shaped pillow thing. They didn't have a carrot at this one, so I decided to get her another moon pillow.

"I'll take the moon." I said as I pointed at the pillow. The stallion levitated it over to me carefully.

"Alright, here you go. Heh, must be pretty hard to maintain a marefriend like that, eh?" the stallion motioned towards Luna. "Tell you what, since I admire your bravery for courting a princess, I'll let you have two to give her."

I paused for a moment and stared at him. Then I slowly began to chuckle. "N-no sir, you've got it all wrong! Luna and I are just friends. I do really appreciate the offer though."

"Aww, really? An' here I was thinkin' you two made a kinda cute couple. You know, even if you're not the same as us."

"Well thanks, but I'm not quite crazy enough to try that. Besides, I've got other things to worry about."

"You should consider it, really. A normal pony wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell, but you're a hero. Plus, she really seems to like being with you." the stallion pointed at Luna, who was still having an epic giggle fit.

"How can you tell?" I asked sarcastically. "Just 'cuz she's laughing doesn't mean she likes me."

"Bro, I can't tell you how many couples I've seen come through our carnival, no matter where it is. Just trust me on this one, you guys act like a couple."

"Hmmm..." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Alright, I'll think about it." I lied. "I gotta get going to the next booth now. Thanks for telling me your thoughts." I quickly left him and walked over to Luna's side. She was still laughing to herself while rolling on the ground. I nudged her with my foot and she slowly began to recover. "It wasn't that funny Luna."

"I-I apologize, it was just.... the look on your face! Pfft!" Luna dissolved into another fit of laughter after her finishing her explanation. I waited patiently for her to regain her composure, and as soon as she stood back up I handed her the moon pillow wordlessly. "Oh! You did get me a prize!"

"Yeah. They didn't have any carrots, sorry."

Luna levitated the pillow away from me and placed it in some saddlebags we had purchased a little while back to hold all her prizes. I flinched and would have dropped the pillow had it not already been wrapped in Luna's aura. Luna dropped the spell on the pillow, allowing it to fall to the ground, as soon as she saw she was hurting me. "Oh, sorry!"

I rubbed the spot on my forehead where a small horn was forming. It had twitched out a bit more, but it hadn't split my skin yet. No blood, no foul as far as I was concerned. "It's alright Luna, I'm fine."

"I'd almost forgotten my magic hurts you... Tell me, how much does it hurt right now? I mean... we've been close for a little while."

"I'm fine." I lied. Truth be told, the only reason I was still capable of functioning normally was the fact that I had let Luna wander away from me a few times while we were in the carnival. Then I tried to copy somepony's aura close to me, funneling out a bit of Luna's magic for a bit until she found me again and we continued on our way.

Luna frowned at me, as if she knew I was lying to her about being alright. "Ok, if you say so." she looked away for a second, then bent down to pick up the pillow with her mouth. She placed it in her bags, then turned back to me. "Well it was sweet of you to win me another prize."

"Heh, not a problem. Anyway, it's getting late. Shouldn't we head to dinner?" I motioned towards the sun, which was beginning to hang low in the sky.

"Yes, I suppose we should. I almost wish we could've stayed here a bit longer though." she admitted wistfully.

"Heh, me too Luna. This was fun. We should hang out more often."

Luna nodded. "So, where should we go for dinner?"

"Wait, I was under the impression you had like... reserved a place, or maybe we'd be eating in the gardens like we did that... one... other time." I coughed awkwardly as I remembered the events of that night.

"Well, I had originally planned for us to have another picnic." Luna continued, completely unfazed by the memories of the other night. "That was only because I hadn't thought you'd be willing to go out in public. Now we can go anywhere we want though."

"Huh, makes sense. I've got no clue what sorts of food places you guys have around here though. I mean, I only know like... three in Ponyville, and I live there!"

"Well, let's start by picking a type of food. I prefer spicy foods myself--"

"Heh, a mare after my own heart." I joked with a grin. "I love spicy foods."

"Really? Most of visiting nobles, and even Celestia herself, aren't very fond of spicy things. So we don't usually keep too many fiery foods around, sadly."

"You're a princess though! Shouldn't you have whatever the heck you want to eat?" I asked with more than a little surprise.

"I hate to be a bother to the staff. So I just try not to request too much. Just because I have the ability doesn't mean I should abuse it, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I see where you're coming from with that. I hate asking for things too."

"Wow, that's so odd. I never thought we had so much in common."

"Yeah, me either." I admitted with a smile. "So, now that we've decided on spicy food, what places can we go to?

"Hmmm... I know of a fine little diner that serves the best southern griffin tribe cuisine."

"What in the name of all that is good is southern griffin tribe cuisine?"

Luna smiled cryptically and laughed a little. "You'll see soon enough." she started trotting off in the direction of the carnival's exit. I followed behind her curiously, not quite sure what to expect. She led me through the streets of Canterlot, where we once again picked up our small crowd of followers. Just like before, they maintained a healthy, respectful distance. Eventually Luna brought me to a tall building with slanted roof and walls made of windows.

"What's this place?" I stared at the strange building in awe. It was absolutely filled with not just ponies, but minotaurs, griffins, and even a few small dragons. "Why are there so many different races in there?"

Luna giggled at me again, her laugh kinda reminded me of wind chimes. I was enjoying my time with her more and more every second. "This is the capital of Equestria, silly. Every once in a while, we have visitors from other nations. It's to be expected. The restaurant even serves some meat-based dishes to cater to our carnivorous guests."

My mouth began watering a little at the prospect of eating some meat. "Oh... meat, huh?" I tried to sound disinterested, but my sentence sounded more longing than uncaring.

"Yes, not very savory, I agree." Luna continued, ignorant of my longing. "It must be done though, to show other nations we are courteous enough go out of our way to provide things for them. No matter how sickening the idea of butchering other creatures is..."

I coughed awkwardly a few times. "Uhhh... Luna..." I murmured as we reached the back of a very long waiting line. Luna neatly stepped around it and continued towards the door. After pausing for a few seconds, I followed her past the line. I looked at the mixed groups in the line, expecting to see angry or jealous glares. On the contrary though, they seemed in awe.

"Yes, Sharky?" Luna turned her head slightly so that she could see me with one eye without jeopardizing her ability to walk forward.

"Ummm..." I let my sentence hang awkwardly, unsure if I should tell her about my eating habits. Luckily, before I could look like too much of an idiot, we reached the front door. The ponies nearest to it cleared the way for us to enter.

"Thank you." Luna nodded at the ponies with a small smile. We continued walking until we reached a little desk with a beige colored mare behind it. The beige mare was staring intently at some sort of list, so Luna had to clear her throat to get the mare's attention. "Table for two please." Luna asked sweetly once she had the mare's focus. The mare didn't say a word, she just simply gawked at us for a bit before scrambling out from behind her tiny desk.

"O-of course!" she managed to squeak out. "Just one moment!" the mare darted into the building, but returned quickly. "We're having a table cleared fro you right away, Princess Luna and... H-hero."

"Thank you." Luna motioned for the mare to lead us to our table. The mare led us into the building and had us sit down at a nice table right at the corner of the building, so that we had windows on both sides. The mare placed a menu in front of both our seats.

"I hope this table is to your liking!" the mare started with a bit more strength in her voice than before. "A server will be by in a moment to take your drink orders."

"Thank you, this will do just fine." Luna assured her. The mare backed away from our table while bowing repeatedly. I blushed a little and rubbed the back of my head as I took my seat. Luna sat across from me and cleared her throat. "So, what was it you were trying to say earlier?"

"Oh uhhh..." I mumbled nervously. "It was nothing, nothing."

"Oh come now Sharky, you know you can tell me anything. I know it wasn't nothing."

"Bitch, what the fuck did I just say? I said it's nothing, Luna." I stated a bit more forcefully. Luna pouted at me.

"Awww, come on. Tell me? Pretty please?" she begged. I sighed and decided she was going to figure it out eventually anyway.

"I eat meat, Luna. And we ain't talkin' pussy. Just fresh, dripping slabs of freshly killed meat." I informed her quickly. Luna's eyes went wide.

"... Oh."

"Yeah." I opened my mouth and tapped one of my canines. "It's kinda what these are for."

Luna began to blush and just sat across from me with a blank stare for a bit. "... Oh."

"Yeah." I sat in my spot for a few awkward moments too. "It's not like I enjoy the idea of butchering other things, it's just how my body was built. I can't help what I am."

"What would you two like to drink today?" A waitress appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

"Mineral water for me, please." Luna spoke quickly and assuredly, like she hadn't just been sitting in a daze moments before.

"Uhhh... let's see." I opened my menu and scanned it for the drinks section. "Peach tea, please."

The mare quickly scribbled down the drink orders onto a pad of paper. "Alright, we'll have those out for you in just a moment."

"Thank you." I muttered. Luna cleared her throat a little to gain my attention after the waitress left.

"I'm uhh... I'm s-sorry for what I said..."

"No, it's alright Luna. I mean, I can't fault you for thinking like that. Besides, this is no big deal. It's just a dispute over dietary preference. 'Sides, you can't really complain about meat eaters. You were all set to take this guy's meat only a few days ago."

Luna suddenly began blushing even more. She looked around quickly at the surrounding tables. I looked too, to try and see what she was looking for. All the couples at tables around us were too distracted by each other to pay much attention to us. "Can you get that Steven thing to be silent? He says the most vulgar things..."

"Sorry, there's not much I can do to shut him up. Hey, it's the truth. Deal with it."

Luna slowly began to crack a smile. "Well, I suppose he is right... I really can't complain about it. I mean, I've been in the company of many foreigners that eat meat as well, so I won't let this bother me."

"Whew, thanks Luna."

"It's no trouble. I should really be thanking you for not being angry with me."

"Oh, I could never be mad at you for just having an opinion."

"Wait, I almost forgot! Didn't you say you had something you'd ask me at dinner? I've been dying to know what this big question is!"

"Oh..." I paused for a moment to think about the events of the day. I was pretty sure I knew what her answer would be, but I still had to ask. "Luna... How do you feel about me? Really?"

Luna tilted her head at me. "Well that's a silly question. You should know how I feel about you..." Luna's eyes went wide. "Oh no! Do you doubt my feelings? Have I done something?"

"No no, it's nothing like that. I just need to hear it. Please."

"Hmmm..." Luna closed her eyes and seemed to be thinking for a moment. Eventually, she opened her eyes and smiled softly at me. "I could say this in three simple words, but I think I'll give you the long answer."

"Alright." I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair, patiently awaiting her answer.

Luna took a deep breath before starting. "Sharky, in a way... you're like the best friend I'll ever have. I always have fun around you, ever since we first met. That wrestling match was the highlight of my month. You always make me feel good about myself, even when it means you have to help me fix something about myself. Like when you taught me to speak normally. You're there for me, even when most others would be scared away. Like when..." Luna quieted down and leaned in closer to me. "Like when I told you about the Nightmare. I want to have you with me for as long as possible, I want you to be around me forever.When we're not together, I often wonder what you're doing, and if you're thinking of me and--"

I placed a finger on Luna's lips and smiled at her so widely I thought my face might split in two. "I feel almost the exact same way Luna. That's exactly what I was wanting to hear."

"R-really? Oh, I'm so glad you feel the same!" Luna reached across the table and hugged my neck. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before retreating to her side. I didn't think much of it.

"Of course I do! I'm just so glad I can finally relax and tell Twilight she was wrong."

"Twilight? What were you trying to prove her wrong about?"

"Oh nothing, she just thought our relationship was a bit more... intimate than it is."

The waitress arrived silently and placed our drinks down in front of us. "Do you two know what you want to order?" she asked politely.

"Oh, I haven't even had a chance to look at the menu yet." I informed her. "Would you mind coming back in just a little bit?"

"Not a problem at all." the waitress left just as quietly as she had arrived. I turned back to Luna, who looked a little confused.

"Why would Twilight care about how intimate we are? This is my sister's pupil we're talking about, right? Not some other Twilight?"

"Yeah, she's the one. The one I live with. Who else would we be talking about?"

"Oh, I don't know. Just had to make sure. I uhhh... I didn't know you lived with another mare...." Luna was beginning to sound a little upset.

"Well yeah. I've lived with her for almost the entire time I've been here."

"You know, you could come live with me in the castle." Luna offered suddenly. I laughed a little.

"Yeah, good one Luna."

"No, I mean it. We have nice rooms, excellent staff, great security. You could be very happy there."

"Luna, A. Why would security matter to me in the slightest? B. Why in Equestria would I just up and leave Ponyville?"

"I don't know... It just seems a bit... improper for you to be living with her..."

I stopped to think about her words for a moment. It was true. It wasn't really right for Twilight and I to live together while we weren't married or even really committed as of yet. Even then, I didn't really want to leave Ponyville. Luna appeared to see the hesitance on my face and quickly spoke again before I could turn down the offer.

"Plus, it could be great for Unity! I mean... 'Tia and I are plenty capable of helping you keep his powers under control. Judging by the reports I've gotten on him, he can be quite a a bit of trouble."

"... You have reports written on my son? You fucking stalk us? Bail dude, bail now."

Luna rolled her eyes. "He's one of the most powerful and dangerous magic beings on this planet. Of course I have him watched."

I opened my mouth to reply, but just closed it again and shrugged. She was right, it made sense. "Alright Luna, you've got a deal. I'll come to live here for a bit in about three weeks, ok?"

Luna gave me a pouty expression. "Why three weeks?"

"I have some... unfinished business in Ponyville." I offered weakly, opting to not tell her about me dating four mares. I wasn't quite sure how she'd take it.

Luna didn't stop frowning, but she nodded. "Alright, I understand. At least you will be coming... I was so afraid you'd say no, there for a moment."

"Well... to be honest, I almost did I only agreed because Unity nearly killed me with giant worms this morning. I could really use some help keeping him under control, much as I hate to admit it."

"Oh... Well, all the same, this is a big step in our relationship. I'm glad you agreed to take it."

"I guess it is." I shrugged. "I don't really see it as a big decision though."

"Really? Even though it's so sudden?" Luna seemed so nervous about the whole ordeal, and I had no idea why. She was the one that suggested it.

"Yeah, it's fine with me. This could be really great. I mean, Canterlot's a big city. Who knows what kinds of stuff I could do here? The ponies I could meet... The stuff we could do together..." Luna raised a brow at this statement. "This could be a really fun time, while I'm staying."

Luna seemed to be contemplating all the things that could happen while I was in the staying. I decided to stop and think it over for a bit too. Luna began to blush and her mouth curled up into a sly grin. I suddenly began to think off all the chaos I could've just unleashed upon this innocent city by bringing Unity and Steven here.

"This most certainly will be great." Luna said.

"I'm not so sure about this, actually." I said at the exact same time.