Amber popped open the box. "New book day! Always so exciting." But inside was a small paperback with the words 'Would you?' printed on it. She blinked in confusion. "Would I what?" She puzzled over where to put the book.

"Would you go on a date." Amber looked up to see a blushing Misty on the other side of that box. "It was supposed to be romantic. Um, I wanted to ask if you'd like to go on a date with me. We haven't done anything since that movie."

Amber set the book aside. "I would love to." She pointed at the book. "But you have to tell me what kind of book this is. Otherwise, I have to read through it to figure out where it goes."

"Oh! It's a choose your adventure." Misty flipped the book open to show the inside. "Each page has you pick an option. You flip to the page of the choice you made. Until you win or lose."

Amber tapped the side of her head. "Oh! That's a good name for one of those." She nodded, satisfied. "I'll get that put away so some other pony can enjoy it." She leaned in, touching noses with Misty. "That was very cute. I appreciate the effort you put into that."

Misty giggled. "Well, I'll go get ready for our date. See you soon!"

Amber waved to the retreating Misty. "Bye bye! I'll see you later tonight!"

It was an hour later that Amber realized a problem. "Where are we going to have the date?" She tapped the side of her neck, thinking deeply. "We didn't talk about that part, did we?" She paced a little, trying to come up with answers. She turned to a librarian about to pass her. "Where should we go?!"

The librarian laughed, patting his boss pony on the shoulder. "You two'll be fine. Just go to her and let her pick. It was her idea, right?"

"Oh, yeah." Amber trotted to the front door of the library. "I'll go right over to her place, then, and let her decide. We'll figure it out!"

Amber went to the Crystal Brighthouse, shaking her mane free of the work frizzies on the way. "This'll be fun."

When she reached the door, the knocked on it with a smile. "Hello," she called to the lighthouse, unsure of which pony would answer.

What she especially did not expect was Comforting to be the one to open the door. "Are you sure you have the right place?"

Comforting snickered at her jest. "Hey, Amber. I was just saying hi. What are the odds?"

Amber shook her head with a smile. "The universe has its ways, doesn't it? Where's Misty? We're supposed to go out on a date."

"Oh! A date, huh?" Comforting clapped her hands together and fluttered her lashes. "At least your second, or is it? How many dates have you gone on at this point?"

Amber had to think a while. "Well, I mean... movies and smoothies... walks and..." She tapped the ground nervously.

"So a lot?" Comforting giggled at Amber. "I'm glad for both of you." She reached for Amber, mussing her mane gently. "You two make a cute pair."

"Who's at the door?" Sunny peeked from behind Comforting. "Oh, Amber! Hey! What are you doing here?"

Amber huffed. "I'm here for Misty. Are you having a party in here or something?"

"Comforting and I were just chatting while we did some chores." Sunny moved out from behind Comforting. "Misty! Amber's here."

A distant 'coming!' drifted through the brighthouse.

"She's coming." Sunny nodded, passing that on as if it wasn't fairly clear. "Have fun!" She darted off towards her earlier business.

A pony dropped in to take her place, Zipp landing with a folding of her wings. "I got a question."

Amber inclined her head. "Hey, Zipp. What's the question?"

"Okay, so." She thought a moment. "You and Misty are a thing." Zipp paced in place. "How does that work, exactly?"

"Sis!" Pipp bowled into Zipp. "You cannot just ask that! Seriously! Unless you think unicorns have funny courting rituals or something? Which I doubt. I bet they're going to go do something fun together. Right?" Pipp's expression was pleading, eager to hear what the two of them were going to do together.

Misty joined the gaggle at the door. "Oh, uh, hey Pipp, Zipp." She squeaked around them to get at Amber. "There you are!"

Pipp got right up in front of Misty with a gasp of delight. "Oh, you're so cute and shy! Okay, so, what are you two gonna do?"

Amber put a hoof around Misty. "Whatever she wants to do. This evening is all hers. She planned the whole thing out, right?"

Pipp oozed joy and hope at Misty. "Yeah! What's the plan, Misty? Come on. Spill. Please."

Misty laughed nervously. She tried to back away, but Amber had her in a fairly good hold. "I was, um, actually just thinking we'd go for a walk, and see what caught our attention."

Amber released Misty in surprise. "Oh? Huh. I did not see that coming, but I'm not against the idea. Maretime Bay has plenty to see. Are we going by the beach?"

Misty pointed into the heart of the city. "I was thinking we could try downtown. We so rarely head that way. It'll be fun!"

Amber gave a nod, smiling to her partner. "So let's go." She started off, beckoning to the other unicorn. "Let's see what's new in the world."

Misty set off with Amber at her side. "I'm glad you're alright with it. I was worried you'd be, you know, a little upset about such a, uh, loose plan. No offense, but you hit me as more of a properly planned pony."

Amber giggled softly at that. "I can understand. I guess I do tend to be like that, but I know you wouldn't have picked something boring. Besides." She leaned against Misty as they walked. "It can't be that boring if I'm with you."

Misty let out an aw at the thought. "That's really nice."

Comforting nodded at the receding forms of the two unicorns. "That's that." She turned to Zipp. "Have you really not met a mare and a mare that liked each other before?"

Zipp laughed nervously. "What? Of course I have! Like dozens of them.

Pipp rolled her eyes. "Name one."

Zipp looked shocked. "Just one?"

"Just one, yeah." Pipp gave her sister a challenging look. "Come on, it shouldn't even be hard."

Zipp shifted nervously. "Well, there was, um." She rubbed one leg with the other hoof. "Look, fine! I haven't. I just wanted to know more. I wasn't getting in the way."

Pipp threw up her hooves. "You can't ask two special someponies that just before they start their date, if nothing else. Either way, sis, it's really not that big of a deal."

Comforting nodded along with Pipp. "They do most of the same things any other ponies would do together. Talk, hug, sometimes some smooches." She kissed the air. "Just not too different."

Zipp scowled. "I wasn't asking because I thought it was gross or anything. They're two really great mares. I was just wondering." She looked around. "If you two are experts, fill me in. There has to be some differences, so what are they?"

Pipp considered. "Hm, I mean, I've been thinking. You know how a lot of mares and stallions like each other? Well, they get the same butterflies when it's just mares." She tapped her cheek. "If they want foals, they can't do that together, but they could adopt. There are foals that could use a loving family, and why not two mares?"

Comforting nodded along with that. "For most things, they're just two ponies. They'll do what two ponies do that are falling for each other. A lot of awkward questions and giggles, I imagine." She leaned in at Zipp, fluttering her lashes. "Why? You got a special somepony?"

Zipp shoved her away. "I don't have anypony. Not yet! I'm not leaving this conversation without learning anything, though."

Comforting chuckled. "Well, the only difference is the pony they love is another mare." She gestured over herself. "Toots went and fell for a spirit of chaos, but you haven't asked how that works. Mostly the same. We hug, we kiss, we plan fun things to do. Oh! We have a special thing. Dinner and breakfast. Two times I need to be there for. Speaking of that." She vanished, off to do dinner with her special somepony.

Pipp laughed at where Comforting had been. "Now I'm feeling left out." She glanced aside at Zipp. "Wanna be special someponies?"

"No! Sis, seriously." Zipp turned away with a snort. "You have a bajillion fans. You could take one of them."

"Ugh, no!" Pipp followd after Zipp. "That almost never works. They look up to me way too much. Can you even imagine what that'd look like?! Nuh-uh, just not the way I plan on going."

***

The downtown area was, despite being downtown, not particularly heavily trafficked. Ponies went by with bags on their backs, or pulling carts loaded with groceries, but it wasn't nearly the press of creatures one might have expected. Misty was a little ahead, pointing out the stores as they came across them. "Woah."

An import from the pegasi, the store they found next was a huge thing offering videogames of all varieties. The blinking, beeping, and other sound effects had Misty gaping a moment. "Wow. Just wow. Look at that thing!"

Amber was trying to focus on Misty, but the games kept catching her eye. "Hm, I'm not one to play a game much myself, but I imagine these would be a big draw." She went in next to Misty. "If we played one together, I bet that'd be fun."

Misty clapped her hooves. "Let's do that then." She drew Amber into the noisy interior of the store, looking around with wide eyes.

Amber followed along. "This isn't like any store I've been in before." She put her hooves to the sides of her head. "It's so loud. Wow. It's like a party in here." She avoided the loudest pockets, trailing after Misty. "You like this?"

Misty stopped suddenly, causing Amber to bump into her. "There." She pointed to one large monitor that showed two digital pony playing tennis against one another. "That looks fun."

Amber squinted at it, watching the ponies bat the ball back and forth. "It doesn't seem to take a lot of skill to figure out, but maybe a fair amount of practice to master." She coughed into a hoof. "But we could play that, for real." She pointed outside. "You want to try?"

"Really?" Misty blinked at Amber before bobbing her head. "Yes! Let's do that. After we're done in here." She pulled a game off the shelf, one much closer to the sports themselves. "This is more like what we'd be doing, right?"

Amber laughed nervously. "I don't think you can get much practice doing it for real by playing a game about it. Still, I won't be a spoilsport. If you want to challenge me with this, let's play."

They found a few other games they both enjoyed the look of, then purchased them and headed back to the Brighthouse.

Sunny perked up at the sound of the door. "Is that you, Hitch?"

Misty's head peeked into the front room. "Hi Sunny!"

"Hi Misty!" She gave a wave. "I thought you went out with Am—Oh, hello there." She saw Amber coming in, and that they were both holding things in bags. "What have you got there?"

Amber dropped her bag on the coffee table. "Games! We thought we'd play one together."

Sunny tilted her head. "You mean like a board game or...?"

Amber shook her head firmly. "Misty wandered past—"

"Video games!" Misty dug out the console and got to plugging it in with excited little giggles. "We can all try them."

Amber laughed a little at Misty's excitement. "Our walk hit this store selling a lot of these and Misty got a little star struck."

Sunny shook her head as she watched Misty assemble the gaming system. "Well, if you two were enjoying a night, I wouldn't want to get between you two."

Amber went to Misty, helping her set things up. Soon, the title of the game was up on the television, awaiting the start of the game. "Ta da." She waved at it. "We went through all that effort, may as well give it a spin."

"I've never tried anything like this before." Sunny got up and joined the others near the TV. "How does it work?" Amber handed her a controller, showing her how to use it with a quick demonstration of her own.

Not that Amber was an expert, but she knew which parts were for moving and which was for going. "Good luck!"

Misty pressed the start button and got things underway. "Here we are." She grinned at the other two ponies. The game started and their little digital ponies took off running around the screen.

"Wait. What? How are—" Sunny's pony went over a cliff and she got off to a bad start indeed. She made an irritable noise, but pressed a button to try again. "I got this." It took a few tries to get the hang of it, but she was learning with each failure.

Misty's pony took the lead. "This is pretty fun." She laughed as Sunny's pony missed another cliff. "It's nice being able to do things so casually."

"Yeah." Amber yanked her pony off track, getting herself stuck. With Sunny settled, she had joined for three pony fun. "But let's not get too sucked into this. A nice diversion."

Sunny nodded her agreement. "It is nice, having something to do when we're not busy. Do ponies do this often, the games, I mean?" She tried to go up a mountain, but ended up rolling back down to her starting position, making her sigh with exasperation. "This has a lot of tricks." She set down her controller. "Thank you for sharing it with me."

Misty was barely paying attention, moving her pony along with an intense expression. At least until she was smooched. She recoiled in surprise to find Amber was right there, moving right back into place for noserubs. "H-Hi?"

Amber giggled, kissing her partner's cheek. "Focus too hard on these and you'll miss out on the real world." She put a hoof on her chest. "You're a great mare, Misty. I love spending time with you, even if you want to play these silly games." She flicked her tongue out at Misty's nose. "But I'd rather take you out to a real mountain."

Author's Note

Sometimes people get a little sucked into games.

A thank you to my first Supporter: Zap Transfer👋🏽

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