FIRST DATE
by GeodesicDragon
Commissioned by Silvarrn
The streets of Ponyville lay quiet, a thin blanket of snow heralding the impending arrival of winter to the peaceful town. A solitary pony – a pegasus mare – slowly made her way along the frozen streets, listening to the snow crunching gently beneath her hooves. A scarf was draped around her neck, offering some protection from the biting cold, and the glow of the moon cast its soothing light across the area. The mare smiled to herself as she walked, her destination soon coming into sight.
"The things I let my dear friends talk me into," she said to herself, changing her voice as though mimicking somepony. "'Come on, Silvia, you really need a stallion — so we set you up on a blind date!'" She chuckled. "Right, I'm here now — so where is this 'grey unicorn stallion with a brown mane and a cube for a cutie mark?'"
Silvia walked into the restaurant and looked around at the other diners. "I can see Pencil Sharpener with Century, Doctor Haywick with Fluttershy, Sweet Tale with... Princess Luna?" She blinked a couple of times before shaking her head. "Whatever, who else is here? Java and Eiro having a girlie night out... but no stallion." She sighed. "Stood up, again. I'm going to have some words with those friends of mine about t—"
"'A pale yellow pegasus mare with a two-tone blue mane and a tornado as a cutie mark,'" a voice said from behind her. "You must be Silvia." She turned to face the owner of the voice. "I'm Cubic, and I must say that you're not what I was expecting."
Silvia narrowed her eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded. "Just what are you trying to—"
"I didn't mean any offence," Cubic interrupted again. "It's just... you're an actual mare, and not a stallion like I got the last time my friends set me up with somepony."
Silvia laughed, mental images of two stallions looking nervously at each other over a dinner table flashing through her mind. "Well, I can understand your surprise," she replied. "No offence taken. Now, why don't we get a table and get to know each other a bit better?"
Cubic nodded and walked inside the restaurant. The two were ushered to their seats by an Earth pony waiter, whereupon they made themselves comfortable and ordered their drinks. The waiter was back within moments, and left them perusing their menus.
"So..." Cubic began, taking a sip of his cider. "I'm guessing from your cutie mark that you're on the Weather Team?"
Silvia nodded, taking a swig from her own drink. "Yeah, but it's nothing special," she replied. "My job literally consists of making sure the wind in town is not too strong, or not too weak. It's dull and repetitive, but... I kinda lack the motivation to find a new job." She sighed wistfully. "When I was a filly, I often dreamed of being a Wonderbolt — like every pegasus ever." Cubic gave her a sympathetic smile. "But, yeah, that's pretty much all I do for a day job... now what about you? I'm guessing your job has something to do with cubes? What, are you a builder or something?"
Cubic's eyes lit up. "Cubes are more of a hobby than my career," he said. "I just find them fascinating. Did you know that cubes are the only regular hexahedrons? The cube is also a square parallelepiped, an equilateral cuboid and a right rhombohedron. It is a regular square prism in three orientations, and a trigonal trapezohedron in four orientations. Also, they are..." He trailed off as he noticed the confused look etched across Silvia's face, as well as the snickers of the other diners. "Sorry." He muttered. "I tend to get a bit... overexcited... when cubes are brought up. As such, it's made me a bit of an outcast amongst other ponies — they think I'm weird."
Silvia's expression softened. "I'm sorry to hear that, Cubic," she replied, patting his hoof comfortingly. "And, if it's any consolation, I don't think you're weird — just... misunderstood." She smiled.
Cubic grinned, as the waiter came back to take their orders. Once he returned to the kitchen, Cubic leaned back in his chair. "Something tells me our respective group of friends did the right thing in setting this up for us, Silvia," he said. "But the night is still young, and I've still got much more to learn about you."
"Likewise, Cubic," Silvia nodded. "Likewise." She sniffed the air and licked her lips. "Hey, I think our food is coming."
The two looked across the restaurant, spotting their waiter approaching with a tray across his back. As he neared the two ponies, he failed to spot two foals running towards him.
"You're it!" one foal called out. "You can't catch me!"
"No fair!" the other foal yelled. "You cheated!"
The lead foal giggled, turning his head so he can look where he was going. Too late, he noticed the stallion towering over him. Too late, he tried to stop. The two collided, sending the tray – and its contents – all over Silvia and Cubic's table. They shouted, a mix of pain and anger, as they were coated in hot sauce.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Cubic snarled. "Do you have any idea how long a mane this length takes to wash?!" The two foals ran off back to their parents, while another waiter tossed Cubic and Silvia a towel before attending to his colleague. "Fantastic, I'm gonna be scrubbing this stuff out of my mane for days now."
"How do you think I feel?" Silvia grumbled, dabbing at splotches of sauce on her body. "At least you've only got your mane to worry about — I'm the one who is going to be walking around looking like they've been in some kind of accident."
"Coming here was a bad idea," Cubic said. "Maybe we should go somewhere more suited to adults? I know a good bar..."
"Lead the way," Silvia replied immediately, dumping the towel on the table. "Celestia knows I'll need a stiff one after that."
With that, she got up from the table and hastily walked out of the restaurant — ignoring the snicker which escaped Cubic's lips.
The two of them walked in silence, observing the townsponies making use of what little snow there was. Snowponies were being built, snow angels were being made, and an epic snowball war was in progress in town square — a fact made more obvious by Cubic leaping dramatically in front of Silvia to save her from a slushy fate.
Brushing snow off his coat, Cubic held open the door to Berry's Brewery and waited patiently for Silvia to enter and take her place at the bar. He sat next to her and tapped the wooden surface once, attracting the attention of the mare behind the counter.
"Hey, Cubic," she said. "You want your usual?"
"Hey, Berry," he replied, bumping hooves with her. "Yeah, I'll have my usual – a hard cider – and Silvia, my date, will have—"
Berry stifled a snicker as she looked at Silvia. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute," she interrupted, looking at Silvia. "You're on a date... with him?" Silvia nodded warily. "Oh, you poor mare, did you lose a bet or something?"
Silvia narrowed her eyes. "I am on a date with him," she snapped. "And I'll have you know I didn't lose anything. Our friends set this up, and neither of us had a say in it. So keep your opinions to—"
She was cut off by Berry cackling. "Sweet Celestia, Cubic, this one is a keeper for sure!" she leaned over the counter and patted Silvia on the head. "I was only joking, doll, don't get your feathers in a twist. Cubic is one of my regulars — hell, he comes in here so often, he might as well have a key!" She leaned back. "He doesn't get that many dates, so I might as well have a little fun."
"Oh..." Silvia looked to see that Cubic was grinning at her. "I'll... I'll just have a gin and tonic, thanks." Berry winked at her and poured the drinks, passing them over. "Thank you. Come on, Cubic, let's go sit down and continue our conversation from the restaurant."
"Sounds good to me," Cubic replied, looking around the establishment. "And don't worry about Berry. She was only having a laugh, and didn't mean any offence — to you, anyway, because she enjoys torturing me any chance she gets." They both chuckled and sat at a booth in the corner of the room. "So... what were we talking about?" He scrunched his face up in thought. "Ah, I remember — I had just finished boring you half to death with my knowledge of cubes. So now you can get your own back, and bore me half to death with your knowledge of wind!"
Silvia groaned. "If it's all right with you, I'd rather talk about something else. Seriously, my job is boring as all Tartarus. All I do is check the settings on the wind machine to make sure they're just right for what the forecast calls for. If they're too low, I change them. If they're too high... I change them. It's all very dull, completely uninteresting, and not worth my time explaining in any greater details." She sighed. "Trust me, Cubic, you probably would die of boredom if I was to 'go all Twilight Sparkle' on you."
"Well..." Cubic coughed. "I think that would put a bit of a dampener on the evening, wouldn't you agree?" He chuckled. "Though I have to say that we can't exactly sit in awkward silence all evening, so we have to talk about something."
A sly grin spread across Silvia's lips. "I've got a better idea," she said, a slight hint of malevolence clear to Cubic's ears. "We could play a little game instead."
Cubic looked at her blankly. "What... what game did you have in mind?" he asked hesitantly. "Does it involve anything weird?"
Silvia picked up her gin and tonic. "Well, if you think drinking is weird, then yeah," she took a drink and set the glass down. "It involves something weird."
"Okay," Cubic shrugged. "Colour me intrigued. What game is it?"
"It's called 'I Never,'" Silvia replied. "Basically, we take it in turns to say 'I never did such and such a thing' — but if the other pony did do that thing, they have to take a drink. The winner is the one who can go the longest without passing out."
"You're on!" Cubic grinned. "Give me your best shot."
Silvia tapped her chin with a forehoof, then smiled. "I never spent five minutes talking wildly about cubes," she said. Cubic rolled his eyes and took a drink of his cider, earning a giggle from the mare. "I knew that would work."
"My turn," Cubic shot back. "I never... spent a day complaining about how much I hate my job."
"You clever pony," Silvia said, finishing the rest of her drink. "I had a feeling you'd get me back for that — just not so quickly." She paused in thought for a moment. "I never danced the hokey-cokey on a table while wearing a lampshade on my head."
The two of them stared at each other across the table for a moment before Cubic spoke up. "I guess neither of us has done that," he offered. "Uh, how about... I never wished that Pinkie Pie wasn't so damn hyper all the time."
There was a pause before both of them took a swig of their drink.
"Good one, Cubic," Silvia tittered. "I guess it's my turn again. How about... I never met a princess." To her surprise, Cubic took a drink, prompting Silvia to look at him in disbelief. "You can't be serious." She said. "Only really important ponies get to meet the Princesses — and, no offence, you don't look all that important."
Cubic crossed his forelegs in annoyance and stared at her with a defiant expression on his face. "In that case then," he said. "I'll take you over there right now and let her explain that I'm telling you the honest-to-goodness truth."
Silvia smiled wryly and raised an eyebrow. "All right then," she replied. "Let's go on an adventure."
***
After settling their bill with Berry, the two ponies left the warmth of the bar. Cubic led the way through the darkening streets of Ponyville, the cold air making their breath come out as mist. A matter of minutes passed before Cubic finally stopped walking.
"Right, we're here," he said smugly. "It's not that late, so I'm fairly certain that Princess Twilight will be more than happy to—"
Silvia waved her forelegs. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," she interrupted. "You mean to say that it was Twilight you met?"
Cubic nodded. "Last week," he said. "When I came here to— hey, what in Tartarus happened to the library?!"
He looked in shocked awe at the still-smouldering crater just a few feet in front of him, charred pieces of paper littering the area. Silvia rolled her eyes and facehoofed.
"It happened yesterday!" she groaned. "Don't you remember Tirek paying us a visit?" Cubic looked at her blankly. "Wow, really? What were you doing that made you miss the whole thing?"
Cubic scuffed a forehoof along the ground. "I was..." he let out a small sigh. "I was doing things involving cubes and got a little engrossed. When that happens, I tend to zone out and completely ignore everything around me." He paused for a moment before he gasped and smacked his forehead. "Damn it all, I've still got that book checked out..."
Silvia could only stifle a giggle as Cubic began scribbling in the dirt, panicking about how much he owed in late fees.
***
The sky turning a majestic shade of red heralded the arrival of sunset, and the impending rise of night across Equestria. Silvia and Cubic were standing on the formers doorstep, both of them looking happy to be in the company of the other.
"I, er, I really enjoyed myself tonight," Cubic said. "You're a really fun pony to hang out with, Silvia, and I would be honoured if we could do this again sometime."
Silvia nodded, a faint tinge of pink spreading across her cheeks. "Ponies may think you're weird, Cubic, but that's only because they haven't taken the time to get to know you properly," she replied. "But I did, and I would love to meet up with you again."
Cubic hopped on the spot and grinned. "Then it's settled," he said. "I'll come by tomorrow and we can get some lunch. Sound good?"
"Lunch sounds great," Silvia replied. "I'll see you tomorrow, Cubic."
"See you tomorrow, Silvia," Cubic responded.
The two of them stood in silence for a moment before Silvia leaned forwards and planted a gentle kiss on Cubic's cheek. He held a hoof to the area in awe as she giggled one more time, then went into her house and closed the door behind her.
Cubic stood motionless for a while, but eventually composed himself and began walking down the street towards his own home. He stopped at a crossroads, looked around to make sure he wasn't being watched — then he leapt into the air.
Nopony saw him pump his forehoof.
But everypony heard him as he shouted out in glee.
Author's Note
My first ever (completed) commission, which was well-received by the person who asked for it.
I am aware that a fic with the title 'First Date' already exists. I couldn't think of a better title for this one, all right? 
