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                       Learning Love                       
                        -by Vahkii-                        
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                         Chapter 1                         
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Chapter 1
It felt like it was just an average night at Horsia's. But for Vahkii, a fine and mature colt unicorn, that night changed everything around. He had no idea what he was about to get into. Just a lone stallion, with few friends, drinking by himself at the bar. The few friends he has are all mares, so he has no colt friends to bring to the bar. All his mare friends are already here, but are elsewhere with other ponies.
Being the most popular bar in Ponyville, he frequents Horsia's for partying and drinking. A small stage has his best mare, Vinyl Scratch, up playing music in front of a giant mass of ponies, all dancing and going crazy. They have been friends ever since Cherilee was their teacher back as young fillies in grade school, before either of them had made music, or even had their cutie marks. Both have lived in Ponyville a long while, and are now inseparable friends. They even style their mane the same way. A sit up bar is on the other side of the room, where the ponies order their drinks and make small talk. The rest of the bar is filled with tables where ponies can sit, and eat or converse and enjoy themselves with others. Doesn't matter whether you come with friends or not, you could come to meet strangers and make new friends. Not uncommon at all, it just depends on your plans.
Since he and Vinyl discovered their cutie marks together, they both are into music like noponies' business. Vahkii makes the songs for her, and she remixes and plays them for crowds around Ponyville as a local DJ. Vahkii's cutie mark is two clef notes mirrored to shape a heart, while Vinyl has her eigth note.
However, Vahkii had a different reason to be at Horsia's that night. Usually, the fact that he loves how good Vinyl can DJ is what brings him to there almost every night. Recently, the crush of his dreams has shown up at Horsia's with her friends. Vahkii can spot her over half the times he's been there the past week or two.
Rarity was sitting at a table with Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, all just talking to each other. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were there too, but they were too busy going into the crowd and buying more vodka. Vahkii has seen her everywhere else before, and now she's been going to his favorite bar. The only catch on his excitement, is that she's never noticed him, or even caught his glance. All he wants is to be noticed by Rarity, just once.
Obviously Vahkii is easily attracted to her physical qualities. And of course, that group of six friends is famous throughout all of equestria, so it's not too hard to ask what their personalities are like. And after asking around he fell into a complete "Love at first sight" emotional state. Both of them are into fashion, and have a love of cleanliness, classiness, detail, and having tons of attention on them at a time. He can only think to himself about how much he would love to call her his marefriend, and she probably doesn't even know his name or face.
So, recently, he has tried to find out more about what Rarity likes. Trying to find out all he can. He has to find something he can do to impress her. From the ponies he's asked, she likes chivalrous stallions; ones who like the spotlight, but can share it; gentlecolts that show class, cheesey things like that. If what they said is right, it shouldn't be too hard to capture her heart, should it?
His job is getting paid to help Vinyl mix new songs, remixes, and anything she can do while performing. Due to this, he happens to have a lot of money and a lot of spare time. Using his spare time, he came up with the ultimate plan to get Rarity's attention by the end of the night. Loving the feeling of the spotlight on himself, and hoping that Rarity does too, he can do really outgoing things without the least bit of stage-fright or nervousness. He's going to get on that tiny stage with Vinyl,  ...and start singing and dancing.
Only recently had he started to make songs for Vinyl with lyrics. Only reason being that they only use those songs for their records. The shows they do at bars use only their lyric-less songs. As Vahkii climbs up to meet his best friend, she turns her head, raising an eyebrow to silently say she's wondering what he's up to.
He just stands there and smiles, waiting for the song to end. Vinyl plays it through and fades out the end. The ponies in the crowd sigh in dissapointment, as they think she is ending the show early. As Vahkii tells her to play one of their other songs, the ponies regain their excitement from before, and increase it further knowing something new is about to happen.
Looking over at Rarity, just to check, he notices that she is, in fact, looking straight AT him, and their eyes meet for the first time. He smiles to her and starts blushing cherry red. She smiles back, giving an almost seductive look to her face.
"Why is she looking at me like that? What can that mean? She can't be trying to... no, that can't be right. But at least she's seen me now. That's a step higher than before, right? Plan seems to be going fine and I havn't even started yet."
The first lyrical song he ever made for Vinyl starts playing, and he starts dancing by himself on the stage, breaking his eye contact with Rarity,.. for now. Vinyl is next to him, getting into her rhythm. The crowd in front of him starts cheering, growing louder as he grabs for the microphone on Vinyl's mixtable.
He starts singing for them, not having to think for the lyrics. He wrote the song, and he took too much time detailing the words. The song was about his compassion for music, his yearn for romance, and the sophistication of going from a no one to somepony, no matter the time interval between them.
The meaning behind his lyrics is that he loves Rarity, but yet they don't even know each other. He loves music as well, so he wants to use that to help show his love for Rarity, and change that they don't know each other. and help him add some romance in his life. He doesn't care about how long it takes, he wants to prove he is Rarity's significant other, and learn what love is with her.
If you didn't know that Vahkii was in love, you wouldn't be able to tell unless you really tried to look for the hints. The song ended and the ponies went absolutely crazy. They were happy to come see Vinyl play every night, and retained their energy to party. But after that song, with Vahkii singing and dancing, they went through the roof.
He looked back again at Rarity. She was leaning on the table, resting her chin on both hooves, watching him with her top eyelids half closed, and half a smile started on her face. Twilight and Fluttershy investigated what she was looking at, and caught eyes with Vahkii as well. Fluttershy smiled and backed her face behind her bangs. Twilight smiled, then she winked and twitched her head towards Rarity, like she was trying to tell Vahkii something.
“What could that even mean? Is she trying to tell me to come talk? That Rarity likes me? I've never dealt with this before! What do I do?.. I'll just...close the show singing, and see what happens next, maybe? Should I?”
He looked over at Vinyl and nodded for her to play another. This one was his favorite. He wrote it as a secret love note to her. It was kind of childish, as he doesn't really have feelings for her. Just kind of a friendly-type thing, right? The words he sowed into that song were real, but now he realized they weren't right for him to give to Vinyl. But, rather, now to Rarity.
When the next verse was all about his love to the reciever of the lyrics, he looked straight into Rarity's eyes. At the moment, she wasn't looking. But as she heard what the lyrics were saying, she slowly turned her head to him, blushing as she turned. Their eyes met once again and hers got wider as she paid attention.
“Yes! She thinks the lyrics are directed at her! Wonderful! Now focus on the song Vahkii, you can do this!”
Twilight was nudging Rarity as Vahkii continued singing. After a minute or so she got up from their table and walked towards the crowd of ponies in front of the stage. She was kind of wobbly and her head was turned down and to the side. She was obviously nervous for what she was about to do.
She started pushing her way into the crowd, slowly but surely getting into the middle. Soon enough, the ponies moved over for her automatically. It almost seemed planned the way it happened. Rarity was now in the front row of the crowd with a small circle of room around her. Vahkii's second song ended and Vinyl faded it out.
This time she started up a lyric-less song she had Vahkii remix about a week before. Vahkii moved the microphone back onto the mix table, and motioned for Rarity to join him on the stage. She was already blushing, but after this notion her cheeks must have been on fire. Vahkii put his hooves off as if he were to pull her up against her will.
But she grabbed his hooves and climbed onto the tiny stage with him. It wasn't really meant for three people and a DJ table, but they had a little room left. As the beat built itself up, the ponies were smiling at them, but continued dancing. Vahkii looked over at Twilight, and she winked again. He looked back straight into Rarity's eyes. Their snouts were nearly touching, they had little room to move around. But he said, in a rather high volume due to being so close to the speakers,
“May I have this dance with you?”
And she replied with a simple nod, closing her eyes. When she re-opened them, he turned his body to face the crowd, as Rarity had been that time, and started dancing slowly. She started moving back, matching his dance. The song kept going for what felt like half an hour. He's been to enough of Vinyl's shows to know how long she drags songs out, and that caps at ten minutes. She likes to keep things fresh, moving, changing.
“I must be losing my sense of time, but feeling her coat against mine, and dancing just feels amazing. Is this euphoria? Could this be what love feels like? Whatever it is, I like it. Please Vinyl, just keep this going!”
And it did. They kept dancing, getting more and more into it as time went by. The crowd didn't seem to care, they kept it going too. Rubbing against each other was enough to excite Vahkii. He kept feeling as if he was blushing the entire time, but he didn't care. Rarity was only slightly pink now, more taken by dancing with him and being in front of all these ponies.
Rarity took a second and stopped dancing. Vahkii opened his eyes for the first time in a few minutes. He looked over and she had a slightly sad face on her. It was fake, but she was hinting at something again.
“I can never figure out what these hints mean. I hang around mares enough to see this thing but I've never been the victim. How do I go along with this?”
She then broke his train of thought as she pulled his hoof, like she wanted to climb off the stage. The music started fading. He panicked, looking over at Vinyl now. She had her glasses up, so her eyes were showing for once. She winked at him and nodded, telling Vahkii he should go with Rarity. He looked back over at her. She was on the dance floor again, reaching her hoof up onto the stage for him. He swung down, hoof attached to hers. They made their way out of the crowd. Then she pulled him past the tables, past the bar, and towards the door.
“Where is she taking me? What's going on? Am I prepared for this!?”
He ran up and opened the door for her, and followed her outside when she was through, and shut the door behind him.
“Where are you taking me?” Vahkii asked quietly, now away from the loud music.
“Well,” she responded “I just wanted to start with saying that you're a good singer, and you're fun to dance with. You wanna, maybe, leave this place and go have some fun?”
“What kind of fun is she talking about? Go where? What's happening? What do I say?”
“Umm...where did you have in mind? And what kind of fun?” Vahkii asked, having to take a few pauses and breaths before completing the two questions.
Rarity gave him that seductive look once again, and with a voice to match, asked him “Why don't we go to my place for the night? And I can show you the answer to that other question much easier than just telling you, you know.” And with that she ended with a wink, and turned towards the path to her Boutique.
“Umm, okay. I'll just follow you then?” Vahkii's voice cracked as he said it, slowly talking quieter with each sentence.
Rarity didn't say anything back this time, but started walking. Vahkii quickened his pace to stay right next to her, but still leaving half a hoof of space between them.
The streets of Ponyville were dark, and barely lit. At this time of night, nopony had any lights on, and all the stores were closed. It wasn't really that far of a walk to Rarity's place, but it was still a distance. Euphoria was still working on him, and he liked it. Vahkii was only half excited as they walked up towards her house. He didn't know what to really expect, how he should handle it, or if she was serious about what she said.
No lights were on, but Rarity still left the door open for Vahkii to follow her. He did, and shut the door quietly behind him. She didn't bother to light the place up at all, and she walked upstairs. Not knowing what else he could do, Vahkii silently followed her. Upstairs, she went down a hallway and into the second door on the right.
Inside, was a rather big, circular room, with little furniture. The main feature, was just how big her bed was. If you tried to have a competition for most ponies on one bed, you could get this bed to ten or twelve, with no overlapping ponies. It was just ridiculous, he tried to imagine one pony sleeping alone on this bed and he just couldn't.
“This is my room, and that was my shop downstairs. Make yourself at home, I'll be just a minute. You can lay down on the bed and get comfy if you wish. Just, don't move the sheets around too much please.” Rarity said, and then looked away from him and walked over to a mirror near her sidetable.
He had to nearly jump to get onto the bed without using his haunches. He walked over to the pillows and laid down sideways across them. He did, in fact, make himself very comfy. So comfy, he closed his eyes for a second, and opened them to Rarity laying across from him, mirrored together. Inbetween them was a bottle of wine, and two glasses. She used her magic to fill them, seeing that he was awake now, eyes opened.
“You do like wine, right?”
“Sure,” he replied “drinking fancy every now and then is very enjoyable.”
“Oh it is simply divine if you don't over do it. I'm sorry we didn't talk much before coming here, and I know we just met. That place was too loud for conversations, my ears are still ringing. That and my friends would have been all over me. But, I did enjoy going up there with you. How did you go up there and sing without getting kicked off?”
“Well...to reply to all of that in order. We don't need to talk if you don't want to, but I would like to get to know you a bit. I go there all the time so my ears are used to it. Your friends seemed all over you just by getting you to come up there with me. My best friend is Vinyl Scratch and I write most of her music, so I can do that whenever I want, I just hadn't done it before. We've never played a song with my lyrics at a small show like that.” Vahkii was talking pretty fast, trying to say something for each thing she had said, without losing his thoughts or forgetting.
“Well. If you mean that part, about not talking, we could umm, skip to that fun part I was talking about.”
“You seem quieter and more humble now. Is something wrong? Did I say something bad?”
“No, no honey you're fine. That burst of euphoria is gone. But the bit of it that stays with you for awhile, and this wine, is here at the moment. Plus, this place is quieter than the bar.”
After finishing her sentence, she lifted the wine and glasses over to that sidetable. Then she stood up for a second, just to walk over and lay across his side, facing the same way he was. She bent her head around and rested her snout on the side of his face. He could feel her breath on his cheek and neck. Her whole body was warm, pressing against his.
“Is there something you're trying to hint at, Rarity?”
Her head rose up off of him and she had a surprised look on her face. “Oh! My gosh! I was waiting for you to ask for my name, but you already know it! And I don't even know yours!”
“It's okay, my name is Vahkii. And I-”
“Vahkii, that's a unique name, I must say. But how do you know mine, if I may ask?”
“Well,” He was blushing again already, starting to wonder how he wasn't with a mare laying on top of his side. “I,.. I've kind of, had a crush on you,.. from a distance. And you finally noticed me tonight.”
“Oh, my! I'm so sorry, I didn't realize that! I must have been so caught up with either my friends or my busy schedule!” She put on that seductive face and voice a third time. “Is there, anyway this mare could make it up to you?”
“Well,.. umm,.. you're kind of,.. embarassing me,.. I've never been this close to anypony before. Not even Vinyl, and I'v-”
His sentence was ended short as his lips were covered by Rarity's own.
“I just met her, she didn't even know my name until just now. And she's...kissing me? What have I been missing this whole time?”
She turned him over onto his back, and she climbed onto his chest, not breaking the kiss just yet. He didn't know what emotions he was feeling right now. Warmth was running through his whole body, just to be met by Rarity's warmth, burning much hotter than his own. His heart beat faster every second, and he was tensing up everywhere. His head started to spin, and he fainted, right there on her bed , still kissing.
--
He woke up. He didn't want to open his eyes. He didn't know what happened. All he knew was that he was freezing, head to hoof. He felt a very cold breeze come from a window. But he was laying down in a familiar bed. Not the one he fainted in. He still had some of that feeling of tension in him, but he was shivering, so it kind of ruined it for him.
“How many times do I have to nudge you before you get up you lazy colt! Get out of bed, you're later than you said you'd be!”
“But that's...Vinyl's voice...”
He opened his eyes in shock. He was in his room, the window was open. Some snow had landed on the floor next to his bed. The tension and whatever euphoria he had was gone, and he lost himself in thought.
“Did I...just dream all of that? No...please...be real...that was too good to make it all have been fake..”
“Would you cut it out? I mean I don't care that you're late, it s'all good Vahkii, but could you at least recognize that I'm here? Or are you asleep with your eyes open again?”
“No, sorry Vinyl. I just had the most realistic dream...never had anything like it before. What time is it?”
“Only a little before noon. Like I said, s'all good. I just want to get this going for tonight. What was that dream you said?”
“Nothing, I'll tell you later. Just give me a minute to collect my thoughts. I'll meet you downstairs?”
“Okay. Good morning, by the way.”
“Yeah, good morning.”
“That can't have been fake. Rarity must have dragged me back onto my bed...right?...Please?...”
As he rolled over and fell off of his bed to wake himself up a bit, a parchment rolled off of him stomach.
“That was just a dream, Vahkii. But, I can make it real, if you do certain things correctly. Signed, Princess Luna.”
--

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                         Chapter 2                         
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Chapter 2
“That night was a week ago today, and every night I've repeated that exact same dream. But it doesn't just feel the same every time. It gets better. More excitement, more happiness when I wake up. I just want it to stop. I want something real, not a repeat of something fake every night. Why won't this dream leave me alone? Is Luna doing this? Why?..”
Vahkii heads downstairs, to see Vinyl asleep on a bed of pillows with a bunch of papers around her, some crumpled, some in a neat pile. He doesn't turn on any lights for her, as she must be tired after writing all night long when he went to bed early. But Vahkii is hungry, having just woke up, and heads into the kitchen to start up a breakfast. He feels a smile from thinking about Vinyl's reaction to him if she were to wake up with a breakfast in bed.
He starts cooking some pancakes, looking for something special to add. Rummaging through some cupboards, he finds a bottle of syrup that says it's from Sweet Apple Acres.
“I didn't know that Applejack made syrup. Don't they just have apple trees? Oh well, I do remember this. Vinyl gave it to me for my birthday after what was probably our longest laugh together, now that I think about it.”
–-
While he cooks the pancakes, Vahkii's mind drifts off again. He reminisces to a time about half a year ago when they were both eating pancakes one morning, and Vahkii was just eating like he just got off hibernation. Vinyl thought it was funny how many he ate, and told him that he was gonna gain a lot of weight if he didn't stop. Vahkii stood up on his hind hooves and puffed out his stomach, while making a ravenous face, mouth still full of pancakes.
Vinyl started to laugh uncontrollably for about a minute when Vahkii couldn't resist and joined in. He nearly choked a few times because he was still eating as he laughed,.. And then he did.
It took Vinyl a second to figure out that he was honestly choking, and then panicked. She didn't know what to do or how to help. She cant lift him, and her magic isn't strong enough for much more than her mix table. She started trying to do CPR like she's seen the nurse do countless times. She manages to get the pancakes unstuck from his throat, but he still can't breathe. She goes to use her snout and breathe into his as a last resort. Nothing.
But she keeps trying. After a couple times, he starts breathing, but it's very faint. She feels so relieved at this. Just to help, she keeps going for just another minute. He starts to breathe normally, and awakens from his shock.
He felt everything, it was like he was asleep during that time. He felt like that could have counted as his first kiss if he wanted to, but Vinyl would disagree. “Just something I could do to help save you” Then he realizes, she saved his life that day. He had never thought about what would happen if she didn't perform CPR. His mind is so focused on romance he only thought about how to count that as his first kiss.
–-
As he comes back into reality, he notices hes made an abundance of pancakes on accident. He was thinking and cooking and not counting how many he had made. He floats out a table, plates, and the pancakes with his magic. The clinking of the plates on the table woke up Vinyl, but it took her a few minutes to actually get up.
“You're actually making pancakes again after what happened?” Vinyl said scratching her eyes.
“Yeah, and I had something I guess I never said before.” Vahkii said looking straight at her with a serious face.
“Like what? That I should be sorry for making fun of your weight with pancakes? Haha..”
“No, something I never said. I never said thank you for saving my when I did choke.”
“Oh is that it? If I needed you to say that I would've made a point about it a long time ago. S'all good.”
“Okay, but now, I have something new to talk to you about. Ever since last week, I've been having the same dream every single night.”
“Okay, what's it about?”
“Well, I guess I can only label it as starting a love life for myself. And it's with Rarity. And after the first time I had that dream, I woke up and found this.”
He floated the note from Luna over to Vinyl.
“That's a lot to cover in three sentences. Why don't we eat, and you can have some time to take your mind off of this, and then we'll talk about it?”
“If that's what you want to do, then sure.”
They continue eating quietly, but they won't be able to finish every one of the pancakes. When they both appear done, Vahkii takes the plates and table back into the kitchen, and puts the pancakes in the fridge. When he comes back out into his living room, Vinyl had the crumpled up papers cleaned, and the neat ones were packed away, with a new stack of paper sitting next to her, and her mix table turned on.
“Where were we last night? I went to bed and you stayed up down here for a bit? I miss any work from the genius?” Vahkii was still only halfway through the door when he asked.
“Nah, I just went through what we did and got rid of the stupid ideas. What kind of song do you wanna make today?” Vinyl replied, still fixing the settings on her turntables.
“Well with the moods I've been in, a love song sounds like fun.” Vahkii said, starting an uneasy smile.
“If that's what you want, but then tomorrow we get to make my song. Kay?” Vinyl said
“Sounds good to me.”
“What kind of beat are you looking for? Slow, normal or fast?”
“Starting slow, but it will pick up after the first verse. And it needs a good drop.”
“So like that first song we made with a drop? I know you probly want a new beat and not the same at that song but that kind of style?”
“Yes! That would work perfect if it was like that!”
“I'll start mixing it if you can get your lyrics done.”
“Sounds good, sounds good.”
The lyrics easily flowed into Vahkii's head, like they were writing themselves onto the page. He made it specifically for Rarity, for when he was going to sing to her outside his dreams. He had made the lyrics, edited them, and finalized them very fast, Vinyl was still working on the drop for the song. He decided to day dream for a bit, as he can control these, unlike his night time dreams that stay the same. He didn't get too far into his thoughts when Vinyl was rocking him back and forth to get up.
“So Vahkii, you wanted to know what I think about your dream and this note? Well I think I can help you with what's going on, but if you already got this much figured out, that's all I got.”
“Hm.? Oh, yeah. I have no idea what's going on.”
“Well, Luna is the princess of the night, and she's about fast paced love, while Celestia is the princess of the day, and is about serious love.”
“Wait, wait, how do you even know that?” Vahkii interrupted, shaking his head wondering what she was even saying.
“You know I chill with Twilight a lot, right? Remember her fiasco with Luna? That's why she's with Cherilee right now. Well, during that time, I found out a lot about the two princesses. You can even write to her by thinking of her while holding the note at night.”
Vahkii's jaw dropped slightly in disbelief. “What!? How have I known none of this for so long? I feel so left out now.”
“I'm sorry man, I was kind of secretive about that while it was going on because Twilight asked me to be.”
“Oh, well you've never lied to me before and you're not laughing saying that you're kidding yet, so you really sound like all of that is serious.”
“Of course it is. I wouldn't lie to you, especially on something so serious. I'm tryna help you.”
“But next point, I think your dreams are giving some kind of mind signals to Luna, or she's reading your dreams or something, you'd just have to ask how she knows. But anyway, she said she's showing you what you could have if you do some stuff right. That's the part I don't know about. Again, if you asked her or wrote to her, she'd probably be happy to tell you. That's all I got.”
“And that is a lot to think about all at once.” Vahkii lowered his head a little. “But thanks, all of it helps.”
“Do you wanna grab a small snack for lunch? I have to go practice the songs we made last night and this one we just made for later.”
“Yeah, where'd you have in mind?”
“We get discounts at Horsia's now. And we never actually eat there, just drink really. You wanna try their menu?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Vinyl packed up her stuff and then both of them left Vahkii's house. On the way to Horsia's they stopped at Vinyl's house to drop her stuff off, then continued to the bar. He wasn't too hungry because of all the pancakes he ate, but he still ate a small sandwich. His mind was all over putting his new song into that dream he kept having. After they finished eating, Vinyl went home to practice, and Vahkii went home alone, not sure what to do.
He laid down on his bed, just thinking. Thinking about the song, Rarity, his dreams,.. Luna...
“Vinyl said I can,.. write to her. And my dreams are somehow telling her that I want romance. That must be some real powerful magic. I mean she is an alicorn, and a princess, I shouldn't expect less. But what will I have to do correctly? And how long until one of these things happens? Or did one already today? No, nothing romantic happened,.. right? It was just Vinyl.”
Lost in his thoughts, that just keep going in circles, he eventually falls asleep. It was only mid-evening when he fell asleep. But when he woke up it was dusk. He didn't have to open his eyes to know the light from outside had faded.
But somepony else was here in his room. He was scared to open his eyes, his bed cushion was sunk in a bit to his side as if some big pony was there. He occasionally heard the sound of a page turning in a book. Just hearing a book turning calms him, as it narrows down who could be there.
When he does open his eye to peek, he sees the dark blue alicorn, Princess Luna herself, in his bed. Shocked and a little frightened, he screamed a little and jumped back, falling off of the bed again.
Luna finished reading what she was and closed the book, and now looked over at Vahkii, raising an eyebrow. “Well, I had come here to answer your questions. But if you are scared of me, I can,. Leave.?”
“No, no please don't, umm, Luna? I mean, princess!” Vahkii let out in a panicked voice, bowing his head slightly towards her.
“Please Vahkii, I am royalty but this is a visit from me to you. You don't need to be so formal, and it's just us two here. You may call me by just Luna.”
“Umm, okay. Luna.?”
“Yes, onto what I'm here for. I must go raise the moon soon, so I'll make my instructions quick and simple for you. That dream I keep giving you at night is what can happen soon in the future, and everything that you felt in that dream is a real feeling, with real emotions behind them. But as for my note, on what you must do correctly, that is the difficult task. I am sorry for being so vague in that note, I had little time to write it. But what you must do, is simple. You must do the right thing. I know that you have asked around a lot about what Rarity wants in her significant other. There's nothing wrong with that, but don't act too far into what she wants, and still be yourself. Twilight tried to change, and be different because of me, and she ended up unhappy.”
“So all you want me to do is be myself? And that dream will come true?” Vahkii said.
“As simple as it sounds, the task itself may be challenging. If you mess up too many times, you will be likely to lose Rarity's interest in you. However, the farther you succeed, the more tolerance you'll gain, even you should know that. It happens on a friend level every day.”
“Yeah, I understand, thank you. But should I try to do what happened in the dream? Or just make her a friend? The dream seems fast paced but I don't want to chicken out of going at the right speed.”
“If it is a relationship you seek, then you will have to find that pace on your own. I agree you should make her your friend first, and then discuss further matters with her personally. If all you want is a good time, go as fast as she'll let you.”
“A, good time?”
“Yes, just a night to have that kind of fun. But a relationship you would slowly build, and then do that frequently. I'm sorry that this is all I can help you with for tonight, I must go raise the moon. But I will come back, and you can write to me whenever you wish, however I sleep during the day mind you. Just take what I say seriously, and try your best. You have to experience it to learn, all I can provide is advice on how to get the best experience you can. I am here to help you, so please do not shun my words, even if they seem to do more bad than good at times. With that, I must be off. Have a good night Vahkii.”
“Yeah,.. good night,. Luna.”
Luna walked into a shadow in his room, and disappeared there. He was alone again. The sun was nearly set completely, and now she would be raising the moon for the night.
“I didn't really have plans tonight, right? I wasn't going anywhere, with anyone. I should just go to bed early to be up tomorrow for Vinyl. Yeah, I'll just do that...”
But as if on cue, there was a knock at his door. Vahkii went downstairs and opened his door, to see Vinyl waiting outside.
“S'up Vahkii, you wanna chill? I got my practice done and I'm free for the whole night.”
“Well, I was just gonna go to bed. Maybe not tonight?”
He opened the door the rest of the way, and saw there was another pony standing next to Vinyl. Rarity is standing there. Vahkii's jaw started to drop when he just blurted out “Sure, where are we hangin'?”
“We could go wherever you and Rarity both wanna go. I'm good with going anywhere.”
“Well,” Rarity starts talking “I have been going to Horsia's recently. That is one of the only, acceptable, bars in Ponyville.”
“I'm not DJ-ing tonight, so we could go for some food and drinks.”
“Yeah!” Vahkii started, and paused for a second. “We could do that, just the three of us?”
“Well Vahkii, I have been friends with Vinyl here for quite some time now. She says you're the mastermind behind most of her music. I kind of wanted to meet you.” Rarity says, then turning her head so that she looks up at him through the top corners of her eyes.
“No I understand that sounds wonderful! When are we going?” Vahkii said, now getting excited.
“We can go now, and if I need to I can leave the two of you to yourselves.” Vinyl winked at Vahkii.
“Okay, Luna said to be myself, but I can still be what she likes to a certain limit. So, be chivalrous and elegant, but keep it cool. Sounds good to me.”
–-
The three were at Horsia's as if they normally would, except there was no music. Just a restaurant with a bar tonight. Rarity seemed slightly uncomfortable already. Vahkii had made a point to grab every door for her and Vinyl on the way here, and pushed piles of snow out of their path, even though they could have easily walked around. She just hopes he's being real, which hardly anypony ever does for her. They all fake their personality to try to impress her. But she can see right through that now. Vahkii, is different though, he seems nice, and she hopes he really is.
The night passes by and they just converse about a few different things. Rarity starts to get Vahkii talking about his music and how he helps Vinyl. Vinyl does talk every now and then, she leaves most of it to Vahkii. Then, he turns the conversation around on Rarity, asking what she does.
Rarity starts off and explains her fashion career, and that she's busy all the time. But she does, in a shy voice, add that she would love to spend time as friends when she's free. Sorry that Vahkii has so much free time and she Rarity, she wraps up the conversation asking if tomorrow night Vahkii is free.
“Of course. I'll probably be here with Vinyl, as she has a show. However, if you want to come, you'd be welcome to join me. Unless, you had another idea?”
“It's whatever you want. I'm very interested in your music, and I'd love to hear you sing. Your casual talking voice is intriguing by itself.” Rarity finished the last sentence by giving him an enticing look. Not the seductive one from his dreams, but close.
“Yeah” started Vinyl, talking for the first time in a bit now. “I think you guys could meet here and follow where the night takes you. But the bars closing soon, and I'm gonna head home. See you guys later!”
“No it's okay. We should all go and just meet up tomorrow night. I have, some plans I procrastinated to come here with you. I'll go too now.”
Vahkii, now sort of disappointed they couldn’t keep talking, “Okay, we'll do that.”
The three got up and moved towards the exit door. Vahkii ran up once again to grab the door but Rarity stopped him.
“You know, we are not incapable of opening a door for ourselves.”
“Well, of course. I jus-”
“If you are doing these chivalrous things to try to be nice to me or impress me instead of out of chivalry it will get me annoyed at you more than anything. You seem like a different person when trying to be nice like this. The way you talk contradicts how you seem when being “chivalrous” for me.”
Vinyl walks up to Vahkii and whispers in his ear, “I'll wait outside for you.”
He keeps looking at Rarity, not knowing what to say. “I'm sorry. I just really want you to like me, but I'm only being half of myself. I'm just trying to be nice and still be myself.”
“You are nice when you're yourself. But now you seem like a third person.” Rarity lowers her head and looks up at him with raised eyebrows.
“No, this is the real me, like when we were talking. Don't worry, I'll just keep it this way, it's easier and more natural.”
“Okay, well just so you know you're not the first to try to be like that. Most ponies just don't understand. I do like chivalrous colts, but when you make yourself fake from it, I can''t do anything but dislike it. None have succeeded to become my coltfriend my being fake.”
“When did I say I wanted a relationship, Rarity? Now you're assuming. You wouldn't be too far off though. Next time we chill, it'll be like this.”
“Did I really just say that? Not too far off...how cheesy...”
“Well, if you wanted to make tomorrow night a date, Vahkii, we could try that out.” Rarity smiled and nodded as she finished saying that.
“Okay, it's a deal. And I wouldn't want to keep you from that work you said you had. I'll meet you here tomorrow evening?”
“Sure thing! And if you want to grab a door next time, don't pose while you do it. That's really what gave it away.” And with that she walked out laughing and went down the road towards her house.
Vahkii walked outside into the cold night. It was dark, and no lights were on, like normal. Vinyl came up to him and said he did fine with how he handled that, but he needs to work on some stuff so that is doesn't happen again. She invites him to stay at her house tonight to talk about that. He agrees and they head off towards her house.
As they go inside, Octavia is sitting at the kitchen table, drinking her coffee. It was early morning and they haven't gone to bed yet. They need to be waking up in a few hours.
“Well you guys stayed out quite late. Is, he, staying.. here?” Octavia asked Vinyl, raising one eyebrow.
“Yep” she replied. “We'll be asleep in a few minutes anyway. I have a pillow bed he can use.”
And he followed her upstairs. He's known Octavia for awhile, but they've never really gotten to know each other. Just room mates with Vinyl. Up in Vinyl's room, she throws about ten pillows into a pile on the floor, and climbs up on her bed.
“You can arrange them however you're comfy. Now, we really need to sleep so I'll keep this short. You were over-chivalrous, obviously. You're never like that. You have manners, you use them, but don't go overboard like that. Mares hate it, just being straight up with you. However you did handle her accusation perfectly, and she seemed impressed as she walked away, with a smile on her face, and her eyes closed like an excited little school filly.”
“Wow, really? That's funny. She can be too cute sometimes. I did realize what I was doing, only I realized it after it happened.”
“That's not uncommon. Having a crush on somepony can have that effect. You just wanted to make her happy, which is perfectly fine. But you do have to watch so that you don't accidentally ruin it. So, I give you a 'B' on your first time hanging out. Since I was there, it wasn't really a date. That's tomorrow, just you two, by yourselves. Now let's sleep so we can write our song tomorrow and have you awake for your date.”
“You've never lectured me before, haha. But yes, I am really tired now. Good night, Vinyl.”
“Yup, just tryna help you. Night.”
–-