I woke up a few minutes later with nothing but a headache and a happy feeling at the same time.

Is that what you’re supposed to feel after your first kiss? It’s a nice feeling. I like it. Shame it can only happen once in your lifetime. Or in your several lifetimes, in my case.

My eyes opened up slowly as I held my head. The first thing I saw was Shieldheart’s face above me giving me an anxious look. I went red and remained completely still. He backed away a little when he saw the reaction I’d just had. Maybe he knew that the spell had worn off by now.

I knew it had worn off already myself because I wasn’t getting as lost in his eyes as before and I didn’t want to hold him forever and ever in a warm embrace of love and snuggles.

“Uh… morning, Karen,” he said after the awkward silence. His cheeks went a little red. “You… remember just now, right?”

“Um…” I whispered, going even redder. That single moment in time had been repeating over and over again in my mind since it happened, so yeah. “Kinda…”

“Can we both agree that it was mutually consensual and that Princess Cadence was at fault for making you do that anyway?”

“Bet you did something while you were asleep,” said Voice.

I willed him with all my strength to shut the f*&% up but saying that out loud with only Shieldheart in front of me would just look like a cruel rejection.

“Uh… did I… do anything else?” I squeaked. Yes, squeaked. “I mean… besides...” Internal squeal. “Kissing you.”

“You rolled on top of him and started moaning like a zom–“ Pinkie Pie was cut off by a kick in the leg from Twilight. “Uh, I mean nothing else, Karen!”

Shieldheart put a hoof over his face to hide his reddening cheeks and I just laid there silently, staring right up past him for a moment. After a moment of unbearably awkward silence, I jumped up to my feet and lunged towards the edge of the balcony.

“OKAY BYE EVERYONE I’M GONNA JUST GO NOW BYE!!” I yelled as I did so.

I actually got off the balcony before I was grabbed by a magical aura and three pony princesses. They pulled me back and dropped me back on the balcony.

“Look, I know it was a horrifying experience, but did you really have to try jumping off a building because of it?” Shieldheart joked. Neither he nor I laughed, but Pinkie Pie giggled a little.

“It wasn’t… t-that bad…” I whispered, not even looking at him. God, being embarrassed this badly sucks. “Uh… you… were okay with… me doing that… right?”

He cleared his throat and looked right up at the sky. “Uh… I know that you were unconscious and you didn’t have control over yourself and…” Cadence nudged him in the side. “Ahem, yeah. I was okay with it. It was just… uh… a strange experience.”

I squeaked a little again.

“And what do you have to say for yourself, Cadence?” Luna asked sternly, looking over at Cadence.

“I’d just like to say you’re welcome for a wonderful match with a lovely pony, Karen,” Cadence said to me with a warm smile on her face. “And the same to you, Shieldheart.”

“What my wife meant to say is that she’s sorry for putting that spell on you,” said Shining Armour, putting a hoof over his wife’s giggling mouth. “She made an error of judgement and cast the spell on you at the wrong time.”

“Honey!” Cadence whined, pushing Shining Armour’s hoof away. “It was a cute little thing they had going! It was the perfect time for it!”

Squeak.

“Are you alright, Karen?” asked Twilight. “You’ve gone surprisingly pale after being surprisingly red for so long.”

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeak.

“If it’s any consolation, at least you didn’t get too frisky with him,” said Voice. “Or did you? You might have while you were unconscious.”

I fainted again.

F?*& you, voice inside my head.

-=-=-=-=-

When I woke up for the second time after fainting again in the same five or so minutes, I saw that I was alone with (ohmygodpleasenothiswasjustgoingtobesoawkward) Shieldheart.

In Cadence’s room, no less.

With me in the bed and him sitting on it beside me too.

I looked down at myself and saw that, no, I hadn’t died, so I was still clothed.

“Um…” I said in such a high pitched voice I swear I could’ve gone beyond the hearing range of mortal ears.

“I think we should talk about some things, Karen,” he said, putting a hoof on my shoulder gently. If I was standing up, I would’ve gone weak at the knees. “Would you like to talk with me, or one of the others?”

God, I was so squeaky today!

“Right,” he said slowly, leaning down to lie beside me. He sighed. “There’s no other way to put this, Karen. I like you. I think it goes without saying that you like me too.”

“Uh…”

“Come on, don’t try to deny it,” he said with a weak smirk. “You can say it here where the others can’t hear it.”

“I… I guess I… kinda… like you…”

“Only kinda?” He chuckled and rocked my shoulder gently. “Come on, be honest.”

I took a deep breath before getting what I wanted to say out. “OkayIlikeyoualotmorethankindapleasedon’ttelltheothersIsaidthatplease.”

If that makes any sense.

He smiled and closed his eyes before letting out a small snort of amusement. “I thought so,” he said quietly. “Now then, there’s the question of…” He was quiet as he thought of the right way to put it. “Us.”

“Y-yeah,” I stammered, pulling the sheet up over my face a little. “Us.”

It made me feel warm inside just saying that. Shut up I was a lovesick little girl for crying out loud.

“I don’t think we should go into a relationship just yet.”

I felt my heart shatter into a billion pieces when he said that.

“W-what?” I said, sitting up a little straighter.

“There’s too much happening right now for either of us to be able to enter a serious, happy relationship. I think we should wait until we get this all sorted out first.”

I felt my jaw moving up and down as if I was trying to speak but words weren’t working right.

“Uh, Karen?”

I let out some gibberish before I finally plucked up the courage to do what I was thinking.

I lunged towards him, pulled him up to my face and kissed him again.

That was the adrenaline, not actual people thoughts.

I felt him nearly fall backwards and protest a little, but soon he put a hoof round me and squeezed me close.

“Don’t rush the man, Karen,” said Voice. “He was probably just going to suggest you wait until after all this.”

I must’ve been as shocked at what I’d just done as Shieldheart was, because next thing I knew, I’d fainted again.

For the third f$*%ing time in one day.

-=-=-=-=-

My eyes opened up again and I was right up close to Shieldheart’s face for some reason.

“Wow, that was quick,” he said, pushing me up off of him. “You woke up a lot faster than the last few times. Do you mind, uh… helping me out a bit please?”

I was off him so fast I fell off the other side of the bed. As I held the back of my head in pain, I saw him rush onto my side of the bed to see if I was alright.

“Okay, I didn’t mean could you get off the bed,” he muttered, reaching down to help me back up. He pulled me off of the floor and back up onto the bed. “Okay, let’s try this again.”

“Uh-huh,” I squealed, nodding a little frantically. I was panicking, okay? I’d just woken up flattening ~~my boyf~~ someone that I really liked and it was kinda awkward.

“I can tell you’re a bit uneasy about this. Would I be right in saying that?”

“Mmhm,” I squeaked. I must be related to a mouse or something.

“Then I’ll say what I think needs saying quickly.” He sighed. “Karen, I like you and you like me, but we can’t be in a serious relationship right now. There’s too much going on for it to work.”

“B-but… w-we could…” I stammered. I don’t know why I still wanted this to happen as much as I did when I was absolutely terrified about it.

“I’ve got a better idea,” said Shieldheart, holding a hoof up to stop me. “You know yesterday when I said that we’d start again a second time?”

I nodded lightly, glancing away from him again.

“Let’s call it a date.”

Squeaky squeak.

“When you’ve saved the world from complete annihilation, you and me are going out for dinner somewhere. I’ll make it my treat, seeing as you… well, I don’t think you’ve got any money with you.”

Oh yeah. I still hadn’t gone after my people stuff since I’d died yesterday.

…

HOLY WOW I HAVEN’T BEEN WEARING SHOES SINCE YESTERDAY GOOD JOB ON KEEPING EQUESTRIA SMOOTH AND SAFE TO WALK BAREFOOT ON EVERYONE!!!

“N-no… I don’t…” I said slowly, looking down shamefully. “B-but… I bet I could get some!”

“No no, it’ll be on me,” he replied with a little chuckle. “You’re new to this world, so you could do with a welcome treat.”

“S-save the world. Go on a date. Okay.” It felt like some great weight on my chest had been lifted when I thought about that. “Um… so… I’ll be going h-home a little later then.”

“If you want. I’m sure Princess Twilight’s magic will come back when the world is saved so you’ll be able to go home any time you want.”

“Right.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to last that long?” he asked with a chuckle. “I mean, without doing something silly like trying to jump out of a moving train.”

I wouldn’t say that… but I didn’t say that out loud.

“I’ll just take that as a yes,” he said slowly. He motioned his head at the door. “Shall we go back to the others so they know we’re still ali- oh, that was a silly thing to say, wasn’t it?”

“Um…” I didn’t really know what else to say to that so I just slid off the bed and hurried over to the door. “Y-yeah. We probably should.”

Hey guys! Guess what! You should know already because I kinda just told you! I’m going out with Shieldy after all this! Something else to look forward to!

I’m still a nervous wreck around him though, so yeah.

When I opened the door out, the first thing I noticed was that the others were waiting outside. The second thing I noticed was that Pinkie Pie and Cadence looked like they had just hurried back to join them again after doing something sneaky. The third thing I noticed was that they all looked like they knew something and weren’t going to tell me.

“What did you do?” I asked, kind of already guessing what it was.

“Absolutely nothing, Karen!” Cadence stated innocently. It actually sounded too innocent. She even had an innocent/guilty smile on her face too. “Why would you think that we did anything besides stand here and talk amongst ourselves!”

“You did something else,” said Shieldheart from right beside me, coming to the same conclusion as I did. “I can tell. What did you do?”

“That doesn’t matter right now!” Pinkie yelled as Twilight face-hooved. “I figured out what that doozy was!”

“They were listening to what you were saying through the door,” said Luna bluntly. That got a great look of disapproval from Cadence and Pinkie Pie. “We told them not to, but they insisted it was important.”

“Aw, Luna!” Cadence whined. “Way to be a killjoy!”

“So you two heard…?” Shieldheart didn’t need to finish his question before Cadence and Pinkie Pie nodded guiltily. “Well… okay then. As long as you didn’t tell any-”

“And they repeated as much as they could out loud,” Luna added. “We all know about what’s going to happen between you two later.”

“Oh, for…” Shieldheart muttered, slamming a hoof to his forehead. “I spoke to her in private to avoid exactly that!”

“We’re sorry but we just had to!” Pinkie yelled. “Cadence wanted to make sure everything was going okay with you two and I had a hunch about what that doozy was!”

“Then please enlighten us, Miss Pie,” said Shieldheart coldly. I could feel the cold glare he was giving her without even looking at him.

“That doozy was actually you two deciding to go out on a date!”

I didn’t see that coming.

“Are you gonna pass out again, Karen?” asked Rainbow. “Because you look like you’re gonna pass out again.”

“I’m f-fine,” I said, clearly the contrary.

“I don’t think you are actually,” said Shieldheart, stepping in front of me to examine me better. “You’ve gone pale again. Here.” He grabbed my shoulders and lowered me to the ground slowly. “If you’re going to faint, at least you won’t hit your head again.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly.

Yeah. It happened again.

Why the heck can I manage to overcome my fear of being burnt alive in the most painful way possible, but when it comes to other people knowing about a single date I’ll be going on with one guy, I just lose it?

Author's Note

I promise I'll try harder with the next chapter. I can't promise anything though ~~so please don't hurt me~~
Also would I have to add the romance tag for this? Because no more romance is going to happen (that much) but there is this part that's kinda... borderline romance.