The most surprising of starts

Twilight, after returning to her room after her and her friends meeting with princess Celestia and princess Cadence, switched her current gown with her sleep ware and quickly went to bed. As soon as her head hit the pillow she fell asleep. She then transferred herself over to the dream world where she knew she could let all of her thoughts free. She knew that because the only pony with the power to see them was princess Luna, and she knew that princess Luna wouldn't pry too much into her private life.

In her dream world she let all of her thoughts free, and it was then, after she went about reviewing her thoughts, that she realized that she was still thinking about what she had promised to do with Flash that following morning. She had noticed the clock in her room just before she had went to bed showing 11:00 PM so she knew that she could sleep for at least a few hours before she had to wake up to get ready. She set a mental alarm clock to 3 AM so she would have a good bit of time to look around town for a good place for her and Flash to have a good chat with flash over some breakfast that would be of course her treat as an apology for bumping into him so many times even though she was a princess. After thinking about it for a few more minutes she then left it at that as her mind began to wander to more thoughts about Flash.

Twilight then began thinking to herself, 'He has a good looking mane and soft fur so he's alright in that area. He does look pretty handsome too. From the times I have bumped into him he seemed to be nice, but that could be just because I am a princess. Although it could also be because he might like me. Oh how lucky I might be if it turns out he does like me. I would probably die of happiness knowing that the stallion that I like likes me back.' She kept going on like this for a good hour and a half until she finally calmed herself and started to think about other things. Her slumber went on like that for the rest of the night, her thought only returning to Flash every 15 minutes or so.

Twilight woke up at 3 AM sharp because of the timer that she had set in her mind as she slept. After slowly getting out of bed she noticed that spike was asleep so she quietly got out of bed and walked over to her bathroom. She then spent the next 45 minutes getting ready for her day. After that she left her bathroom and walked over to her dresser and took out some clothes and put them on while she thought about what she had planned. She then realized that her breakfast with Flash could only last until around 6:30 because she had promised her friends that she would spend some time with them after breakfast. She sighed at the thought of only being able to spend an hour with him but she easily let that go considering that this was just an apology meal to him and that it probably was the most she would be able to get right now.

After finishing her morning routine she cast a glance towards her clock and realized that it was already 4:20 and that she only had about and hour left before she had to meet up with Flash. She then left her room and began walking towards the stairs that would lead down to the castle entrance. As soon as she reached the entrance she started heading towards where she knew there was a bookstore so that she could read up on some of the breakfast hot spots. She managed to reach it in about 5 minutes and walked inside. After greeting the pony began to ask, "Where, if you have any of course, could I find some books on some of the recent breakfast hot spot?" The mare behind the counter responded in a kind of soft but kind voice, probably nervous that a princess had entered her store, "O-oh umm .... you can f-find them j-just over there," she said cautiously pointing over at a certain section in the store, "and please if you n-need anything e-else feel free to ask." Twilight then thanked the kind more who then sighed in relief after Twilight turned around and started walking to the area that the mare had indicated. She went to that section and found some books about hot spots and quickly read them. Upon finishing reading her third book, she realized that they had all been very thorough and she decided that she would like to have a look around at the other books. So after she bought some of the books that she had not read yet along with the books that she had, she began to walk around the store slowly so that she could examine closely all of the books that the store had to offer. She continued doing so for a while while stopping occasionally to read a book or two.

Later she stopped for a moment to ponder the time. She had thought that maybe about half of an hour had passed but couldn't really bet her hoof on it so she decided to go close to the counter to look at the time on a clock that she had noticed earlier on the counter. When she got there she noticed that it was only a little before five so she could spend a little more time here before having to leave to meet up with Flash. She then went back to wandering about the store looking at all the books. About five minutes later she had arrived at a section filled with books on the history of the Empire. She then read a few of them and after seeing how thorough these were she marked in her memory that she would have to come back here later to read them all. She then grabbed a few and was about to walk towards the counter when she bumped into something soft and orange.

Flash woke up with a start as his alarm clock started going off, playing a song from his favorite band. He had set his clock to activate its alarm at 4 AM so that he would have an hour and a half to get ready for his meeting with Twilight. While he knew that this would just be like a casual get together, he just couldn't help but feel on top of the world at that moment because he knew that he was about to spend some time with the princess alone. That one thought pushed him to quickly get up, freshen himself up, and because the people of the Crystal Empire weren't really fond of the idea of public nudity, get changed into casual cloths. This all took him about 50 minutes so he knew that he would still have at least 20 to himself before he had to leave in order to meet up with Twilight on time. Because of that he started to exit his room of which resided in a moderate hotel which was only about a 10 minute trot from the castle which was where Twilight and her friends were staying while they were in the Crystal Empire.

As soon as he exited the building he started walking towards a bookstore that he knew was no more than a few minutes away so that he could get a book to read on his favorite subject history. Because he was originally from Canterlot he had already read most of their books on the subject of their history so while he was in the Crystal Empire he was determined to read at least a few books every now and then so he could learn more about the kingdom that he was serving in. It took him about 5 minutes to get there since it was in the area between his apartment and the castle.

As soon as he entered the building and after quickly saying hello to the worker, because this was his favorite bookstore and was a regular here, he made his way towards where he knew their history books were, but as he turned the corner he accidentally bumped into something soft that smelled like lavender and books which were actually two of his favorite scents. Because he loves history books so much he started to love the scent of them and the scent of lavender has always lightened his mood whenever he was feeling anxious, mad, or sad.

He quickly apologized as he picked himself up and then he offered his hoof out to the pony that he has bumped into. While doing that he finally got a look at the pony or rather princess he had bumped into. He saw that she was still dazed from the incident and was just looking at his hoof so he then said, "Need a hoof up?" To which she quickly replied with a thank you apparently not realizing who she had just bumped into. That was of course until he said, "We need to stop meeting like this, not that i'm complaining or anything its just a little awkward don't you think." It was then that she got a look at the stallion and realized that it was Flash. She then quickly dusted herself off and smiled nervously as she turned her head so as to hide the blush that was starting to form on her face.

Now it was time for questions and Flash had just one on his mind which he was quick to ask, "What are you doing here anyway, doesn't the castle have its own library?" To which Twilight was quick to respond to by nervously saying, "W-well yes, it does. But that doesn't matter because I wanted to go outside the castle and sight see a little which I did a little, before I found this place that is, and then I was looking around and buying a few books. See." She then showed him the books and said to him, "So I explained to you why I am here, but why are you here Flash." He then replied by saying, "Me, well I always buys books from this place." "Wait a minute you read books?!," she quickly said as soon as she had heard what he said. He then said, "Oh yes, I love to read books. I mainly read about history because it's my favorite subject, but I sometimes also read about other things. I was just about to buy a book to read at home while waiting for my shift today." "You have a shift today, but what about breakfast?," she replied in what Flash could tell was a deeply saddened voice so he quickly said, "Oh don't worry, I have the night shift today so I can spend all morning with you if you want to." She then gave him the biggest smile he had ever seen, but that was quickly hidden as she blushed and turned her head out of embarrassment. He noticed this and slightly started to blush himself.

After taking a deep breath and regaining her composure Twilight said, "Well since were both here why don't we just buy our stuff and then we can go for breakfast. OK?" Flash then added, "Well since I am almost sure I know at least a little more about this place that you, how about after we buy our books we stop by my place to drop them off on the way to a cafe that I thought we could go to?" Twilight's blush started coming back as she then said, "Well if it's ok with you then i'm sure we could because while I don't like knowing less then others, I always welcome it because that just means there is someone that can teach me on the subject so I can learn about it faster." "Yeah I guess you're right. I actually could probably teach you a bit about this place because while I was born and raised in Canterlot, I have spent the last two years stationed here so I guess I could pretty much tell you the entire layout of the area around the castle if you wanted to know," Flash said in a matter-of-fact tone which caused a giggle to erupt from the mare in front of him. He then blushed and they both agreed that they should leave soon. Flash grabbed a book that he was sure he hadn't read yet from the history shelf and together they made their way to the counter where they saw that the time was actually 5:30 already and they afforded themselves a slight giggle at that. They then payed for their books and they exited the shop and headed towards Flashes apartment.

They reached his apartment soon because it was so close by. He led her to his room where he unlocked his door and said, "After you my princess." She then giggled and replied courteously to his statement in what she thought was the most apt way to get him to laugh by, in her best attempt to copy Rarity's voice, saying, "Oh why thank you my dear guard, but unfortunately i'm not going to be swayed by your attempts at flirting because that would be quite uncouth." After walking in and turning around she saw that Flash was frozen still with a big red blush on his face and to Twilight she could only describe this as cute, but was also a measly bit sad at the fact that her attempts to get Flash to laugh went the wrong way. After going over what she had just said in her mind and realizing just how it must have sounded to him she blushed a shade that was as much if not more red than that of a tomato. After they regained their composure he had Twilight place her stuff down by his couch while he went to place his book beside his bookcase, which at this point in time already had five and a half shelves filled with the books he had already read, on a desk which only feature was one other book and a lamp. They then left his 'home' and after he locked the door made their way outside the complex and back onto the crystal streets. Then after Flash assured Twilight that this place wasn't fancy and also that his usual didn't cost much, and that if she couldn't pay for it all after buying all of those books that he would pay for some of it, they started walking down the road with Flash slightly in the lead with Twilight by his side towards where he said they would go to get breakfast. They both had a smile on their faces as they they trotted towards their next destination.