The council of gryphons laughed, raising their glasses in a toast. Ridlar jostled Tanzil with a friendly shove, the Emperor’s long-time friend grinning as they drank.

Tanzil downed his spiced drink. While others were a bit tipsy, he avoided any sort of alcohol for that exact reason. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy some time with his friends.

Yet doubt tugged at the gryphon’s heart. They had met many times over the years, just like this. Picking out a restaurant, discussing business, and then just talking and joking for hours. Tanzil had fond memories of such times.

But something had changed, something recently. The Emperor wasn’t sure what, but there was an undercurrent of something. It had eaten at his heart and mind at a few of their prior, recent meetings. But such a feeling now wasn’t present in the slightest. It was quite the opposite, making tension bleed from Tanzil’s frame.

Ridlar was his oldest friend, the council-gryphon now drunkenly throwing some darts at a board. He looked over to Tanzil, waving for him to join with a grin.

Maybe it was the stress. The odd gut feeling was utterly gone. This felt familiar, just like the dozens of times before. The Emperor was just able to be a gryphon with his friends. They were laughing and joking together. It felt nice, peaceful in a way.

“Best of luck, by the way!” Ridlar crowed, handing Tanzil some darts. “I know she’s a pony, but she’s an Alicorn! She’d pluck you faster than an arrow shot if you stepped wrong! So don’t get too touchy!”

“Hey now, I’m not the one who did get plucked! You remember when we visited that manufacturing facility, Ridlar. How much of your rump got nearly skinned off?” Tanzil retaliated with a chuckle.

The group roared with laughter as Tanzil threw a few darts, the gryphon unable to keep a smile off his face.

Even if perhaps we’re slowly drifting apart over time, it’s nice to have friends.

Twilight shifted from hoof to hoof anxiously. Sure, they had already technically had a date, but this was different!

I hope I didn’t bring too many examples! Or too few!

The stack of papers in her saddlebags was the best bad poetry works the mare could find, and that was only a tenth of them!

The meadow they were in was fairly close to the diner they had previously met at. A dense forest thankfully provided a good bit of privacy, and that was in addition to the spells Twilight had set up. She couldn’t be too careful, after all.

Sure, it wasn’t a “secret” per se. It was just confined to the upper levels of the hierarchy. Tanzil had said the council knew, and so they’d have to make some sort of announcement before it got spread around. He couldn’t just lie about his whereabouts as easily as Twilight could.

Not that she did. Just…there was a bonus to being seen as an all-powerful Princess.

A teleportation spell made the knee-high grass sway in a magical breeze. It was a remarkably tidy spell, one far more skilled than any mage Twilight had seen. Tanzil wasn’t hiding his skill, it would seem.

Appearing with a snap of magic, the gryphon looked around. His features immediately brightened as the gryphon’s eyes found Twilight.

It made a warmth flutter in her chest.

“Hey, Tanzil. Decent day?” she asked, the mare sitting down at his side. Tanzil nodded, setting down a few large books.

“Indeed. I got to meet with the Council earlier, just relaxing as friends. It was…nice. They got drunk by barely midday, but that’s their prerogative. What about you?”

Twilight’s go-to answer was that of general truth. But she bit her lip.

Maybe I can be honest.

“I’ve been trying to not think about this date the entire day. Every time I do, I spin around in an anxious circle,” she admitted softly. “Even now I don’t know what to think! I haven’t done this in a long time. And never as a Princess or anything! N-not that I didn’t want to think about it! I just…” her voice drifted off, muzzle rumbling in frustration.

A spell drifted off of Tanzil, and Twilight saw some rather pronounced circles underneath the gryphon’s eyes.

“If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t sleep well either, if I’m being honest,” he said with a sheepish smile. “I’m not terribly adept at this either.”

“You seemed pretty confident when we met in the diner,” Twilight mused. The gryphon abruptly let out a snort.

“Well, sure! That was at least partially business. There was a slight schedule. But when we’re just here,” his wings drooped, and the Emperor radiated embarrassment as Tanzil wasn’t able to look at her. “I’m just happy to talk with you. Activity or not. I don’t know what to do with that.”

A sniffle made the gryphon’s ears perk up, Twilight blinking away a bit of dampness in her eyes.
“Well, for not knowing what to do, you’re doing pretty well so far,” the mare said with a gentle smile. “That’s one of the sweetest things someone has said to me in a long, long time.” She reached down, giving a set of talons a squeeze with her hoof.

“I find that hard to believe,” he admitted, the mare rolling her eyes.

“Why? Most creatures aren’t vulnerable around me. That goes double for any guys who might be interested in me, even more so when I hold a position of power.”

She glanced up at the flustered gryphon with a grin.
“I think your vulnerability is an adorable contrast to your confidence; because you certainly have some, whether you believe it or not.”

Tanzil’s claws tightened around her hoof slightly at that. The gryphon seemed to retreat into himself for a moment, but it passed quickly.

“Well, thank you, Twilight. I’ll trust your assessment rather than my own,” he said with a soft chuckle. “Now, on to the matter at hand…hoof…thing. I hope you brought your worst poems because I have quite the arsenal!”

The mare couldn’t resist a soft giggle, an array of books popping into the air with a puff of purple magic.

“I might have a few!”

Tanzil opened the first book with a smirk.
“Then let the battle of the awful poems begin!”

*One pile of poems later*

Tanzil had tears running down his cheeks, the beautiful mare at his side rolling in the grass with laughter. The first poems had been the opening salvo, and things had gone downhill rapidly.

Well, in a good way.

“Y-your eyes are like l-lasagna,” Tanzil wheezed, trying to read from the book in his claws between the laughter. “With layers and layers of sauce!”

“T-that-what?!”

“Y-your heart is l-like a rotten fruit. F-full of the remnants of l-life and…I can’t!” Tanzil gasped.

Twilight was laughing too hard to speak. All of the tension had bled out on reading the poetry that should have stayed confined to either history books or private journals rather than being published for all to see.

She was happy to admit gryphons wrote significantly worse poetry than ponies.

The gryphon at her side closed the book, shaking his head with another laugh. Seeing Tanzil able to be so lighthearted and free from stress made Twilight far happier than she’d have ever assumed. It was like seeing the gryphon underneath a heavy mask.

He was smart, funny, playful, and vulnerable. For some reason, that thought made the mare tear up.

“I think I’m willing to admit defeat, Tanzil,” the mare said, sitting up as he wiped away tears.

The gryphon knew he was staring, and he forced himself to look away. Seeing Twilight laughing was…

I just want to see her laugh more.

Garret had been right. This beautiful mare had given him a glimpse at what life was like with a friend, a companion. Something more.

She saw his look, of course. Twilight had a bit of a shy streak to her, and she glanced away with a bit of a blush.

“There is another part of this date I wanted to try if you’re willing,” Tanzil said softly, conjuring up a simple item from a holding crystal.

“Oh?”

The miniaturized record player was a new bit of technology; allowing the playback of recorded sounds from a crystal seamlessly.

Tanzil swallowed the lump in his throat. He wasn’t sure why he was nervous. This wasn’t new.

“May I have this dance, Twilight Sparkle?” he asked, bowing with a formal flare of a wing.

The mare immediately trotted forward, taking his outstretched claws. Bipedal dancing was an art as much as the actual steps were, but Twilight had practiced well enough.

It was a simple classical song; the same they had danced to previously. No surprises, not in terms of music it would seem.

With Twilight being a bit taller than the average unicorn, and Tanzil not being the largest of gryphons, it was a surprisingly close match-up in terms of height. He still looked down at her, of course. But not like a hippogriff or dragon.

His amber eyes were far softer and gentler than Twilight would have expected. There was usually an edge, a careful wall. As he led them through a few simple steps, those barriers were nonexistent.

The smile on Twilight’s face made emotion immediately swell within Tanzil’s breast. There was so much he wanted to tell her.

Someday.

“I never was a dancer,” Twilight said, clearly relaxing as her movements became more fluid. “That was always Rarity’s thing. I learned for formal functions of course. But it never was a big interest.”

She let go of his claws, pressing against the gryphon’s side in a more traditional pony step. He knew a few of them and was able to switch between the two styles easily enough.

“But I could get used to this. With you,” she added softly.

Her words made Tanzil’s heart soar- and yet it began to crack. There was a brief, almost physical pain in his chest before he caught himself.

Let me just enjoy this. Someone who cares.

The music softened, the song ending as a familiar hoof gripped his talons tightly.
“Tanzil?”

He looked over to Twilight, concern written across the mare’s face.

“Is this more stuff you can’t tell me?” she asked, ears drooping. “I get it, but I don’t have to like it.”

The gryphon’s heart nearly broke.
Don’t make me lie to you, Twilight. I care too much to do that.

“It’s…” he took a deep breath. “Yes. But not for long.” A set of talons pressed against his chest, the Emperor sighing. “If you hold something too close to your chest, it eventually begins to burn your heart. I’m starting to understand that.”

Twilight drew a surprised breath as Tanzil looked over to her. Her lips trembled at seeing the gryphon shrink. For the briefest moment, he looked terrified.

She knew that look. She had seen it in the mirror so many times. It was a look that said only one thing.

Will you still be my friend?

“Will you wait for me? Just a bit longer?”

The tight hug Twilight pulled him into made the gryphon gasp, the tension bleeding from his frame immediately.

“Of course, I will,” she whispered. “As far as first dates go, this was incredible. I haven’t laughed this much in a long, long time.” The mare gave him a tight squeeze, then pulled back to look up at him. “And knowing that you can be vulnerable and communicate is, well, that’s a pretty good thing in my book. We all have secrets. And it’d be a bit of a red flag if we got there on the first date.”

She then gave his chest a firm poke. “Besides. You’re not the only one who has troubles. You’re just more open about it with me. I…” the mare’s violet eyes widened as a rather surprising lump of emotion caught in her throat. “I really appreciate it. If you’re open about it, m-maybe I can try to be too. But that’s new for me,” she admitted, wings and shoulders slumping. “I can promise to try.”

“I’d say that’s a good way to go forward. Promising to try,” Tanzil mused. “Soooo does that mean I made the checklist for a second date?” he asked, a bit of cheekiness returning as the Emperor regained a bit of his composure.

“Oh, most definitely.”

There was a bit of awkward silence as they looked at each other, Tanzil finally shaking his head with a grin.

“This was a lot of fun, Twilight. Odd, but fun.”

“Ditto. But I wouldn’t call either of us normal. So, odd is good.”

Her magic snagged all of the neatly stacked books, the items vanishing into a portal as Tanzil did the same with a wave of his claws.

“Same time and place in maybe a week? Or less?” Twilight asked. “Preferably less?”

At seeing his shocked expression, the mare’s face turned a bright pink, bangs falling in front of her eyes as Twilight hung her head with a squeak. “If you want?”

It took every fraction of Tanzil’s self-control to not hug the Princess again. Flustered Twilight was adorable.

“Of course I want to. A week or less it is!” he said, trying not to speak too loudly, despite wanting to cheer. “Any theme or activity?”

“Hmmm. How about bringing a few copies of the oddest historical artifacts you have in museums? Nothing magical or special- just weird things,” Twilight’s hoof then traced the tamped-down grass in front of her. “We can compare those, and maybe dance again?”

He reached out and gently held the mare’s hoof with a smile; a final, affectionate touch before they charged up their teleportation spells.

“Sounds like a date.”

Author's Note