Date with the Delivery Mare

Chapters

Chance encounter gone wrong (right?)
I choose you! Stressing for no reason!
The Date, DUH DUHN DUNNNNN
(The same thing, just shorter.)
And here's the first felony
(I don't have a compellingly overly-dramatic title for this one)
Reflections

Chance encounter gone wrong (right?)

It was a normal day, as normal as delivering packages to an alien species could have been.

Brisk adjusted her Amazon branded hat with her magic. The thing was constantly wobbling around her horn as she drove, and while wearing it inside the van wasn't necessary, constantly taking it off and then putting it back on for the sun as soon as she stepped out of the van was far more annoying than occasionally readjusting it to sit back on her dark purple mane. The steering wheel turned, brining the two right side wheels onto the gravel of the sideroad shoulder.

The gas pedal came up without a glow to keep it down, and as soon as the van came to a stop, the turquois aura pressed down on the park button sticking out on the stick from the steering wheel. It didn't take long, the newer vans were all electric, meaning that releasing the gas pedal was the same as hitting the breaks; it wouldn't've rolled away even if she hadn't parked it.

The work was easy, and generally monotonous from start to finish. Despite constantly being under the attention of mostly well meaning humans, the job was oddly lonely. Ten hour shifts were nothing new, but ten hour shifts with nothing but her and a van would have grated on her if it wasn't so new. Dogs were the only real annoying thing, the vast majority didn't know what to make of her, which was admittedly nothing to complain about. It was the angry ones that made her heart race when she heard a bark from around the corner of a house. Nice dog or no, she wouldn't be hanging around if one came running, apparently dogs here couldn't be reasoned with.

That being said, normal day. Her head was elsewhere, tuned out into the workflow. At the moment, that meant being focused entirely on the wild order of the package locations. She used to think that you were meant to count up, but apparently the humans in charge of organizing this little operation believed that numbers had no order, and should only vaguely be related when attached in any sort of pattern. She was glad for the many screens that told her what package she was grabbing, the address, whether it was in a box or an envelope, the works. Though whether or not the info was accurate was also a toss up, so she grumbled as she stepped into the confines of the back of the van.

He muzzle stuck down into a bag full of packages to get a good look as her magic sifted through them. In short order, the package was retrieved and she stepped backwards into the cabin to retrieve the company phone from its stand. The workflow was easy, if a little convoluted. She used the magic surrounding the phone to work the touch screen.

'parked' followed by 'scan package' and then the beep of the package being scanned. Normally that would just lead to the 'go deliver the package now' screen, but instead popped up with a warning that the stop in question required a password.

Her lips pursed, but she prepared a smile and stepped out of the van onto the gravel. It was a moody evening, and the air was filled with moisture that had yet to properly fall from the sky. The short road was down another back road just outside a city center, the fact that it was gravel was subconsciously odd to her, but she wasn't truly paying attention. The house itself was small, condensed to her eyes, but it was filled on the outside with detail and life. Clearly old, and clearly loved. That, or someone who just happened to have a lot of random stuff lying around, an eye for exterior design, and a whole lotta time on their hooves decided to go to town.

Hands.

Whatever.

She trotted up the driveway, passing by a oddly new looking red Buick model. That was a good sign, it meant the customer was actually probably home, instead of the last few password stops she'd done where the customer hadn't even realized it was the option they had selected.

Without deliberation, she stepped right up to the side door, choosing to bang her hoof on the exterior screen door since they tended to be louder.

It was a normal day, as normal as being 'busy worked' to death by a co-op job could have been.

Emanuel's head sat evenly in his left hand as his right maneuvered a mouse around on the base of a laptop sitting in front of him on top of the bed he sat upon. He was slouched forwards, half asleep as the green and white of Microsoft Excel shifted with number and words his glazed eyes didn't truly see. He clicked a few times, and nothing changed.

Working for this company paid a decent amount of money, but it was the most boring nonsense he'd ever seen. If he tried, and he'd honestly considered it, just for the challenge, he never would have been able to come up with something more pointless.

Just counting, resending a document, counting again, and then repeat until he fall asleep or died from the blood desperately trying to escape the torture happening in his eyes, screens will do that. Still, that kind of day was average for him, nothing new, and he bore the brunt of pointlessly staring at the screen for hours a day since the company had basically put him on 'work from home' duty, since he didn't own a car.

Turns out, despite having taxi friends, and being willing to walk into work every day didn't matter to the belt loop, button down people in charge. He chuckled lightly to himself, remembering the poor desk attendant who prayed after seeing him walk into the office after the short hike there through the snow. The screen laid totally forgotten now.

His life wasn't exactly perfect, but hey, nobody's was right? At least he was making some of that sweet, sweet cash moh-neigh. That's more than a lot of people could say.

His head suddenly slid from his left hand as there was a knock at the door. His brain, desperate to do literally anything else, dove into the context of the social contract everybody unconsciously signed when they were born. Three knocks, hard ones in quick succession. That meant that whoever was at the door wasn't going to leave, business or someone who was supposed to be here.

That meant he had to get up, thank God.

He carefully rolled himself to the side, and around his laptop, doing his best impression of a combat roll by flipping off the low bed onto his feet. There was some silly satisfaction in landing evenly, but he was quick to banish the thought as he made his way out of the tiny room, into the hallway, out into the kitchen, and towards the side door.

The side door was pretty much the front door, yes it was on 'the side' but the side was the front so...

Ignoring that, Emanuel was the kind of guy totally uninterested with his safety, so despite there being windows and a peephole, there was zero hesitation before he spun the lock and threw the door open. The tiny reminder that popped into the back of his head that he was in a slightly seedier place in Michigan raised his hackles just enough for him to be prepared for what was on the other side.

A smile, a dark toned, cartoon sized horse, with massive expressive eyes and a mane that must have been the envy of every sub-sixteen teenage girl everywhere. It stepped forwards the moment the door was open and raised a hoof in a way that was definitely impossible.

"Hel-"

"Jesus fuck!" The interaction was cut short as the man's fight or flight instincts kicked in. Two hands went flapping in the direction of the door, it didn't matter which one hit, but the door slam closed in the next instant. He stood there, awkwardly wide eyed staring at the closed door with his heart in his mouth.

"What the fuck was that." He asked aloud, mostly to get try and get the spontaneous anxiety out of his mouth. Was there literally just an alien outside? "Oh shit." His body went cold, "Oh no, I've lost it. I've gone completely insane." In his opinion, there wasn't really a thing called 'completely insane' only versions of social dissidence. Though, reality warping auditory and visual hallucinations were about as close as he figured you could get to proper insanity.

There was another, softer knock on the screen door. It was slower, and very intentional. One could display an amount of information through all forms of communication, and that knock said: 'please open the door, I'm just as confused as you are.'

Emanuel, instead, checked the peep hole. Behind the safety of the door, though it struck out at him that it might not really be that safe, he got a good look. The visual only confirmed what he saw. There was a small horse, a pony, if his memory served correct on general horse terms, with bluish grey fur and a mop of blue and purple mane tied back into a ponytail sitting at the door. She had vibrant turquois eyes, and a horn glowing the same colour. That's where he really got confused, the additional floating Amazon package, and the hat she was wearing answered a few questions, but not... the most obvious one.

"Okay." He mumbled to himself, trying and failing to grasp what was going on. "Okay. Yup. Pony." He did a quick reality check, striking a pose and trying to make the microwave explode with his mind. That didn't work, so he pinched himself and when that didn't work, he tried to come up with twelve random numbers in rapid sequence. That never really yielded any useful information, which was supposedly a good thing.

The bad news was that he was supposedly awake, and there was someone at the door. Even if he was hallucinating, there may still be a person behind that visage, and they were probably as confused as he was due to his sudden lack of sanity. He had a bad habit of just accepting fluctuating reality when he should probably be asking more questions.

So he tentatively reached for the door, holding his breath as he twisted the nob and pulled it open again.

As the door opened, the tiny horse in question stepped away from the door, still smiling a customer service smile that Emanuel didn't think reached her eyes. She had a horse face, so it was pretty hard to tell. "Hi, I'm here to deliver a package?"

The voice was so clear, it made him blink in confusion; it was definitely not a human voice, and not one he could have possibly heard through his mind warping his perceptions. Being asleep meant that he could fool his own reason, but that was out of the window. Human minds were distinctly incapable of spontaneously producing unique experiences, which led him to one particular thought that left him staring out into space.

This was real. She was real.

"Excuse me?" She said, taking a tentative step forwards and leaning down into his line of sight. "I need a password, for this particular delivery. You don't look like an-" She floated the package towards her face, something that made Emanuel's eyes widen with barely controlled 'lack of understanding' "Jamie Sawyer? Is she home?"

Emanuel blinked a few times, and got his words out from under his confusion. "Uh..." It wasn't perfect.

She smirked, and there was a kind of half humored sarcasm that drifted into her alien voice, "What's wrong? Never seen a pony before?" She had an accent, her 'o's came out more like 'uh's that were stretched out just a little to thin to be recognizable.

"No?" He questioned aloud, still trying to grapple with what was happening. His mind had once again presented the fact that there may simply just be an alien outside, but that didn't explain... anything.

"Wel-" Her response was cut off as she scrunched her muzzle. "Wait. Really?"

"Uh-huh." He said, dumbly.

"Oh." The package floated away from her vision as a less sarcastic, non-customer service smile adorned her features, "I understand the door slam now." Can horses even giggle? She did, it was cute, if a little terrifying.

He blinked a few more times, "Sorry about that..."

A hoof lifted from the ground and bent impossibly again as she waved off the apology. "It's no biggie, I get it. It's the first time somebody's responded to me like that though. Ponies have been all over the news for years now, haven't they?"

This is... actually happening, holy shit. He thought, desperately trying to wrestle himself back under reasonable control. "I... try to stay away form the news, and social media, that stuff hurts my head." Moderate success, he didn't stutter, that was an accomplishment for the current circumstance.

"You must have been really under a rock then." She joked, though there was something else in her eyes, interest? Curiosity? How could an entirely different life form have that recognizable spark of curiosity?

Emanuel threw caution to the wind and drew upon his repertoire of social interaction skills, "More like a boulder." He joked, and then, "She's not home, but I can call her, you said you needed a password?"

She nodded, bouncing her ponytail, "Yup, it just means it's an expensive package. I'm not allowed to leave it without it." As she was speaking, her eyes locked onto the phone he pulled out from his khaki pants. More like a brick, it flipped open with a bit of dexterity, and he pressed a few buttons. He wasn't sure if she could hear the ringing, but her ears flicked towards him just after he dialed. Her eyes were still locked onto the phone as she spoke again, "What kind of phone is that?"

"It's a flip phone, never seen one before?" He asked back, mentally ignoring the process of rationalizing the situation.

"No I-" She was cut off by Emanuel heavily tilting his head into the phone, playing it up so she could tell for certain the woman on the other side had just answered. The older woman's voice came from the low quality speaker.

"Hey, Jamie. You got a delivery, Amazon... delivery... person... is at the door, they say they need a password to drop it off."

If the pony was offended by his lack of accurate identifier, she didn't show it, she just took a tiny step forward and said, "It'll be in an email, the one associated with the account she made the order with."

Emanuel repeated the details back through the phone, "She says the password is in an email, the same one you used to order the package." There was a couple of 'hmm's' of deliberation as the woman on the other end of the line worked out what was going on. Luckily it didn't take her long, and the silence ended as the woman said the number over the phone.

"Ready?" Emanuel asked, trying to read the body language as the pony nodded and a flat-screen phone floated up off her back. "4-5-2-3-9-9" As he spoke, he watched as the phone moved slightly in the air after each number, like someone was poking the floating thing. Once he was done, the orange bar at the bottom stopped being greyed out, and the pony floated it over to her face.

"That's it, thanks." She did a few more things on the phone, and levitated the package over to the ground near edge of the open side of the screen door.

Emanuel realized that he should have probably opened the screen door. He doubted that vampire rules applied here, in addition to the fact that if a physics defying pony wanted to get inside, the plastic and metal probably wouldn't've stopped them. She looked up as he opened the door all the way and stepped outside, letting the door swing closed softly onto his shoulder.

She gave him a look as he tried to think of something to say, "Is that all?" He eventually settled on.

"Uh-huh." She raised an eyebrow, "You've really never heard of ponies before?"

"I have..." He said, trailing off, "An unreasonable amount of questions, and feel like I may be going insane."

His non sequitur seemingly caught her off guard, but a mischievous smile graced her features as the phone slipped into a pocket on her high-vis blue vest, and a marker and a piece of paper came floating into vision. "I'll tell you what." She said, scribbling away on the paper, "I know this nice restaurant near Holly, here's my number." She levitated the paper up to him. Emanuel stowed away his panic and grabbed the thing normally, hoping to not offend her. Who knows? What if refusing to take something from a pony's telekinesis was like, illegal? Or something? His internal dialogue was interrupted as she continued, "I've got a shift to finish, but... join me tomorrow for dinner? I can tell you all about myself then." She smiled, waiting for his response.

He dumbly said, "Yeah, sure."

"Great! Text me, and I'll give you the details." Then she walked off. It was only then did Emanuel realize that she wasn't wearing clothes aside from the vest, and averted his gaze to the slip of paper with a particularly strange, not phone looking string of numbers on it.

His brain caught up to what had just happened as she clambered into a long, sleek looking electric van at the edge of the drive way. She didn't close the sliding door, so they met eyes and she smiled and waved as the van drove off.

"Did..." He trailed off. Staring at where the van just was. "Did she just ask me out?"

The moist summer air did not provide a convenient answer, so he did a comedic looking heel turn and stepped inside, forgetting about the woman on the phone, and the package that was outside on the ground. He power walked back to the guest room and sat on the floor against the bed, pulling his laptop down and opening Google.

"Welp." A quick search was pretty much all it took. There was a wide, eye catching banner with 'ponies' and pictures of them sitting on top of the search results page. It was a dot gov website, something federal. It depicted visitors from another dimension, the ponies in question, and outlined a series of details, had an excerpt from their supposed leader, someone named Princess Twilight Sparkle, and a bunch of other almanac'd details about their world and culture.

The entire thing was just over a year old. Apparently the question had been answered, humans were not alone, the multiverse was indeed a thing, and he just totally missed it.

It took getting asked out to dinner by an interdimensional traveler to catch up to the rest of the world.

"God I am thick." He mumbled looking through a couple of digital photo's of their homeworld. Painted hills, coloured skies, it was cinematic as all get out; the castle built into the side of a mountain was pretty cool, but magic was his main focus. Like he'd always suspected, magic was real. Ponies had apparently mastered it, alongside some of the other magical races of their world, and used it to travel here.

Basically, in exchange for trade, technology, cultural mixing, and the permission to found a permanent colony on earth; ponies were providing experts on magic, raw valuable materials that were plentiful on their world, and a whole bunch of food.

Instant transportation meant that infrastructure no longer mattered, and the ponies were all to happy to donate food to the starving peoples around the world. Group of refugees trapped in a warzone? The ponies just opened a gate directly from their world to there, and evacuated all of the innocents. It was the crux of their PR, solving problems with magic that human's couldn't. International borders be damned, who was going to stop the magic winged unicorn that could apparently move their star with her mind. Pegasi were reversing climate change, earth ponies were fertilizing the lands, unicorns were promising all sorts of innovations to their world.

That, and he could think of a massive lists of horrendously powerful individuals and groups alike that would love to technologicasize magic. If humans could figure that out, they'd be masters of their world. It took them less than a couple thousand years to basically shit through their planet's safety nets, with magic, he could see humans making colony ships within his lifetime.

Of the few topics, the one that pertained to his situation the most was the 'pony integration initiative.' Ponies from Equestria, preselected, would come to Earth and just... live earth lives, to see if it was possible. On paper? Possible. This project seeked to prove it in reality.

The mare's face was on the photo gallery of ponies that were apparently living on earth. She worked at Amazon, if he hadn't imagined that. Her name wasn't listed, nor her residence, which was good. Privacy and all that. Despite it, the federal site was masterfully made, and surprisingly open, with none of the 'we can't divulge that information at this time' crap that people in charge usually loved to spout.

"What... Is my life right now." He chuckled, a confused smile coming to his face as he leaned away from the computer. "I mean, sure! Why not, let's..." He pulled open his phone, "Let's do this now." A quick couple of keystrokes and he had pulled open a new text tab with her number in it.

'Hey, this is that guy from your password delivery. I didn't give my name, or get yours. I'm Emanuel.'

He eventually settled on after several iterations of typing. He didn't want to still seem confused as hell, so he went with something simple. There was no immediate response, and Emanuel sure as hell wasn't going to go back to work after something as eye opening as that. So he just... took a breath, and waited. Sometimes it was okay to just let time pass through.

I choose you! Stressing for no reason!

Brisk Travel got home late to her little apartment, just west of the city limits of Pontiac.

Being that far from civilization was completely her style. The insanely packed urbanized areas that were prevalent in the human world were not her cup of tea. So her handlers had secured a single bedroom, single bathroom half of a townhouse out in the sticks after she'd complained about the city life, and the things that came with it.

That being said, the quiet let her take deep sigh of comfort as she entered through the front door and tossed her bag onto the kitchen island in what she figured was the most like how a human would have done it. Immediately, she flipped out her fold out tablet, the one issued and designed by the United Nations for pony use. It had a circular digital keyboard designed for hooves, with an additional setting for unicorns with the magical dexterity to use a normal keyboard, hers was set to the latter option.

She'd been thinking about her spontaneous invitation to dinner since she'd done it. Only a few additional conversations throughout the day, and the process of driving back to the station occupied her mind for long enough to forget. She had gotten a text from an unrecognized number a few minutes after, and had desperately tried to ignore it. Everything she'd read said that humans didn't usually respond instantly to text messages, despite the instant nature of the communication technology; weird to her, but she wanted to seem confident in herself.

She still wasn't sure if she was clear enough when she gave him the invitation. She wanted the aloofness that came with presenting the premise quickly, but didn't want it to be so confusing that he thought it was just dinner. Yes, she had invited him out on a date. Maybe not the best idea, but she couldn't go back on it now.

She looked down at the tablet, only now just realizing that she'd zoned out.

'Hey, this is that guy from your password delivery. I didn't give my name, or get yours. I'm Emanuel.'

Her immediate response was to throw up her own name, but she hesitated. She needed to deliberate for a moment if she was going to get this right on the first try. Brisk had never even asked out a pony. So she began to pace, muttering to herself as she crossed the room, and then back again.

"I will eventually want to give my name."

"Gotta actually find a nice restaurant."

"Do that first."

"And then maybe? No."

She stubbed her hoof on a chair leg. "Ack! Buck! Ow!" She sent it a stink eye and levitated it out of her way, taking a few more laps to get herself back into the zone.

"Emanuel, that's a nice human name. No last name though, does he think it's not important?"

"He lived with someone else."

"He lived with a woman."

"It didn't seem like they were together, stop worrying."

"I'll have to make it clear it's a date, I don't want him asking me halfway through."

Her pacing continued for minutes as she 'haw'd' over every detail she could extrapolate from the encounter, and her outside, yet intricate knowledge of human culture, as she tried to devise how to respond. His message gave her limited options, he very indirectly asked for her name, so if she didn't give it, then it'd seem like she was ignoring him. She was doing anything but, so she devised a simple, if cunning plan.

She typed out what she had thought up on the drive home, copied it and then cleared the text box again.

'Hey, I get off work at eight tomorrow, I know that's kinda late, that won't be a problem for dinner will it?'

She pursed her lips, contemplating whether or not she should leave 'eight' typed out as the word, or if she should remove it and just put the number. Eventually, she decided to leave it as is, and quickly sent the message; then sent the one she had saved to the device to make them come together, without time for him to separate them. Just in case he responded immediately.

'and my name's Brisk Travel. Emanuel's a cute name, what do you think of mine?'

Then she waited. It was a perfect pair, in her eyes, the name came second to skew what she was potentially focusing on, there was a little lightly flirtatious compliment, and a pair of questions. Depending on which he answered first, it would give her an important idea of what he was focusing on.

She didn't have to wait long, though if someone was watching, they would have gotten to experience her staring at the screen for over a minute like it owed her a frankly unreasonable sum of bits.

'Thanks, they have you working weekends? Sorry about that. Eight works fine for me, and if I can be totally honest, I have no idea what's up or down with pony names, I like yours though.'

Brisk narrowed her eyes despite the smile coming to her face. This was fun, challenging even. The man had flipped the script, answering in scattershot formation. He clearly responded to her compliment first, then expressed sympathy for her working hours, answered her first question, then her second; with an admittedly more thought out answer than she expected, yet there was still plenty hiding under the response.

He also typed with verbal grammar, an important note. That and there wasn't any spelling or grammar errors she could see, a good sign, or what humans called a 'green flag'.

She typed out another question with her magic. She had yet to even take off her vest.

'I have an idea for somewhere to go, but do you have any preferences?'

The icon showed that he was typing a second after she sent the message.

'I like trying new things, where do you have in mind?'

"Crud. Now I do have to find somewhere to eat." She muttered. She had to do it fast, too, the text conversation had picked up, if she spent forever trying to figure out where to go, it would be clear she'd only just then came up with it. Remembering where she said it was, she typed in the requirements into the tablet's specialized search engine. Plenty of locations for fashion forwards romantic dining establishments appeared, and she picked the one closest to where she guessed was the midpoint between her and him, copied the name, and hit send.

'Ciao Italian Bistro, in Fenton.'

'OoOoh, going fancy then. Should I bring a suit?'

She didn't have a good reference for whether or not it really was a fancy place, the 'OoOoh' was an indicator of sarcasm, or he was impressed. She gave her best guess at a good response, and hit send.

'Nah, no need. I know I won't be bringing a dress.'

'You should try a suit sometime, the colors would match up really well, I bet.'

The unrelated statement threw her through a loop, but he followed it up before she could come up with a way to respond to that.

'It's just about a twenty minute drive for me, you want me to get there at say... eight thirty? Fourty?'

Ignoring his comment, wondering if he was saying something about her...

Crap, what if he thought she was a stallion? It's not like he'd know for sure. She felt like she had a pretty feminine voice... She tried to recall how she spoke to him when she was at his house, but ended up dismissing the spontaneous worry since he didn't seem confused about her comment on not bringing a dress.

'Fourty is perfect for me. See you tomorrow?'

That was when she remembered that he'd identified her to the woman on the phone as a 'she' and breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't already completely messed this up.

'Yes, though, I have a... bunch of questions to ask you.'

'Ask me at dinner ;)'

Was that too much aloofness?

'Hah, fair enough, so long as you don't mind staying out late.'

'I don't, I can always get the day after off from work.'

'Being from another planet let's you pull some strings? Or is that just the normal work flow?'

He was asking questions despite her attempt to end the conversation.

Not that... She was opposed to that, but her vest was starting to itch, reminding her that she had yet to do anything aside from put her bag down since getting home. She was a little peckish, and needed to use the bathroom. She didn't want to just put the conversation on hold while they had such good momentum, so she resigned herself for the moment and sat down on the carpeted side of the front room.

All of the furniture in here was pony sized, a gift from her handlers, though the ceilings were still way too high. A pegasus may have loved a room like this, plenty of space to fly around.

'Being from another *dimension*, but no, I can just ask someone to cover my shift.'

'Noted, dimension. I'll hold the rest of my questions for dinner.'

She smiled and was about to put the tablet down until she saw the icon signaling him typing again.

'Just one more though, if you'll let me?'

She giggled and flexed her magic.

'I'm not the question police, shoot.'

She hoped that was the right string of slang. She payed very close attention in her American culture classes, especially to the vernacular sections. Despite the slang generally being pretty weird, it was also pretty fun.

'To be clear, for my sake,'
'Is this a date?'

She half muttered a curse. Despite being a fair question, it put her in an odd spot. She could respond with the truth, but she didn't want to move the tone away from casual; equally, she could respond ambiguously to keep him wondering, though, certain ambiguous statements could be admissions in it of themselves...

She came to a solution, a texting apotheosis. Yes, without saying yes. It didn't take long to type in her answer.

'You tell me <3'

Silence from the other end of the line. There wasn't any self consciousness from her gamble, but she was anxious enough to see how he responded. Enough that she continued to ignore her body asking her to take care of herself.

'I promise not to fumble over myself again, lol, it's a date.'

She smiled to herself, nodding slowly.

Mission success.

She quickly discarded the tablet and rushed into the bathroom.

Emanuel had no clue what he was doing, how any of that conversation worked. He was still half sure he had imagined the whole thing until he remembered to go get the package from the door, and received a response from Brisk Travel. The complexity. He wasn't sure, he couldn't tell. Agonizing over the tiniest details was something that usually only happened in his head. It seemed like her responses were reflecting that, but he really didn't want to assume because that had ended poorly before and -

He was going on a date with a pony from another dimension. Something he found out was a thing today, in probably the most jarring way it could have been done.

"I... really need to start paying attention to current events." He mumbled to himself, laying on the bed in the spare room. It was just long enough to fit him even if he stretched out all the way. Though, if he reached his hands up, there was a wall. The room itself was cluttered, but in an organized way. The old woman that owned the home was an adventurous one, taking frequent trips to Alaska and bringing back plenty of mementos. The room was filled with memories and stories, not furniture and random knickknacks. Something Emanuel appreciated.

He picked up his phone again and checked the screen. No new messages. That marked the natural end to the conversation, and unfortunately marked the start of the series of questions he was holding off asking himself.

Like what the hell he was supposed to do.

"Do I even..." Of course, going on a date with a horse wasn't likely going to make him a smash hit with his admittedly small circle of friends from the college he used to go to; though, it may be the opposite. It's not like he was against it, she seemed like a nice mare, it's just...

Well...

She's a mare.

Totally different culture, literal alien mind. How was he even supposed to approach personally connecting with her?

"Well... Maybe not a literal alien mind. Is it... fantastical alternate dimension rules?" He figured that she could have a spectacularly similar mindset to your standard run of the mill human. She's not from a different world, supposedly just Earth with magic. Of course, that could still mean anything. The federal website detailed an eerily similar culture and society to theirs, just with far less technology, and a surprisingly egalitarian society. Kind like if Capitalisms and Communism finally stopped bitching at each other, tied the knot, and had a child that really enjoyed monarchal representative oligarchies.

Equestrian's apparently tended to be kinder than the average human. Their civilization numbered in the millions, rather than billions.

"Focus." He brought his mind back around the mare that had asked him out to a vaguely fancy restaurant.

On a date.

Hands went to his face as he groaned. He'd never had a moderately successful date with a human. There was a slew of trauma there that he'd mostly gotten over, but the tl:dr was that he was either A: consistently unlucky, or B: just that bad, at the whole process of 'conventional dates'. He honestly preferred treating it as a way to get to know people, asking friends out on dates was essentially the same thing as hanging out. Except the majority of human society was super weirded out by that, and way more interested in making the entire thing way more complicated than it needed to be.

"I guess I can't really talk. I'm the one overthinking this right now." He huffed, clearing his head and looking to the side at his laptop. The time on it read four fifty nine. His laptop clock was four hours behind for some reason, he never changed it, just got used to it instead.

He wasn't unsure of himself, quite the contrary. He was very certain he could present a honest and friendly version of himself without issue. It was the trepidation that came with the utter failure that course of action tended to yield that brought up the butterflies from his stomach. People who got to know him tended not to like him. He was complex, despite him feeling marginally embarrassed to admit it do to the millions of screaming children in the world who used the same argument to justify screaming for no reason. He was also a fuckin' nerd, all the way up to the top. Dungeons and Dragons, video games, tabletop card games, you name it.

He was just a guy being a dude, and now he was going on a date with a pony.

He waved a hand in the air, gesturing to himself for no other reason than because he could. "You know what? I bet there are people who would literally end the life of another person for a chance like this."

The future of what could come of the situation bore down on him like fire, and he elected to simply ignore what success would mean, in leu of simply believing that he wouldn't succeed. Then it wouldn't be his problem anymore.

"I'm just gonna..." He waved his hand again, "Accept that this is a crazy interesting opportunity. Go on a date with a mare, and then... have it as a story I can tell for the rest of my life."

His arm flopped down onto the bed next to him.

"Just gotta not totally fuck it up."

The Date, DUH DUHN DUNNNNN

He arrived ten minutes early out of habit. Take half the travel time for traffic and then add that on top. Expect twenty minutes to take thirty minutes, two hour drive to take three hours. Drive fast, and then you can't go wrong. At least, it never did him wrong.

It was quite late. Summer was coming later and later into the year, so the normally chilly September night was actually a nice mixture of windy and warm from moisture. It was so nice, that he actually stepped out of the red Buick Jamie let him borrow for this and out into the evening air. Night air.

Whatever, it was nice out. He was going to enjoy it, focus on it. Not stress about the situation, anything other than thatt. Good things come from people who are relaxed, though he figured he might just need to get past the initial hump of greeting her and getting a seat before the anxiety decided that he wasn't in mortal danger. Dealing with constant stress led to the wonderful skill of being able to ignore half of it in order to function normally.

"Damn... Brains and their weird insistencies." He mumbled, flipping out his phone. Eight thirty two, no new texts. He slipped it back into his pocket. Khaki's again, but he brought out a very nice shade of purple polo. It may have looked like he was going to church, but it was a comfortable business casual look. That, and she probably wouldn't know what church is.

Or she'd really know what church is, and it'd be super awkward.

"Ugh." He gestured to himself, "Just chill! Okay? Why are you being so freaked out by this anyways?"

His subconscious did not respond, although that would have been nice. The intentional expression of frustration did quiet his nerves though. He took a deep breath and centered himself as he leaned back to prop himself up on the car to look up at the clouds.

Brisk ended up taking a hat, a beanie. She felt like it made her look a little more distinguished when she had her mane down. That, and it helped keep back the long section of dark blue mane that constantly wanted to be in the forefront of her vision and tickle her nose.

She pushed said hair out of the way as she leaned forwards in the driver's seat of her nondescript black vehicle. Government produced, very inexplicable. She pulled into a parking lot marked by her tablet, attached to the custom built fitting for it in the dash of the vehicle. She had the windows rolled down, giving her a clear view of the area, the restaurant, and the man she was here to meet, cloud watching outside of his car.

At least she thought he was cloud watching.

She jerked the wheel to the side, having almost driven into the curb while looking at him instead of the road. It's a good thing she wasn't going very fast. She went through the basics of parking and turning the car off before she let her mind start chugging away.

"Okay Brisk." She looked at herself in the rear view mirror. "You got this. Just go out there, be normal. He's never seen a pony before you. You made a good first impression. Just go in there, have a nice one off date." She took a deep breath and looked towards the door. "You got this. Yeah, practice. This'll be good practice." She used her magic to adjust her mane under her beanie. She opened it and stepped out; her tablet coming out of the dash and following behind her in her turquoise glow.

"Yeah, I got this."

Hooves on blacktop road concrete made a very audible noise, despite her softer horseshoes, the man still spotted her as she was getting out of the car. She wasn't sure if it was because of the noise, or if he was just spatially aware, or if he was just paying attention to the only other car moving around in the lot.

He waved. She waved back, and they both began their approach. There was a slight twinge of 'should I just walk towards the restaurant?' but she was already walking towards him, and turning now would just be weird. She was trying to not be weird. Committed, she began the perilous journey of about thirteen total steps before the man started off the greeting, much to her relief.

"Hey! Brisk right?" He shouted a little, they were right next to a city center, despite it being completely dark, and in a small city, the background noise was still prevalent. It was a reasonable volume for his distance, she concluded.

"That's me!" She threw back, as they crossed the last few steps. "Funny seeing you here."

"I like your beanie." He said, raising his own hand to his dirty brown hair. Dirty as in, colour wise, she mentally reprimanded herself for calling his hair dirty in her head, then tuned back into reality after realizing she was talking to herself in her head.

"Thanks!" She said more on reflex than as an actual response. "I like your purple." She said, taking on a stiffer stance, "It suits you." Confidence Brisk, humans love confidence.

He smiled and gestured to the restaurant with an open hand, "Shall we?"

"Yes, we shall." She tried not to show the deep breath she took as she started walking. Thank goodness she hadn't flopped that, now it was smooth sailing until the door.

Step one complete, and nothing even caught fire yet. He internally joked, relieved that the greeting didn't flop. That was the hardest part, from here it was smooth sailing probably. She took the lead, and he made sure to walk just to her right, a little bit behind her; from there he got a look at a weird looking folded tablet. As they walked, he thought about getting the door for her, do a proper gentlemanly deed. However, as he suspected, as soon as they were within range, the door was surrounded with a glow the same colour as her eyes, and it opened itself.

There wasn't a chamber to pass through to keep the air in, it was a smaller building than he initially expected. All soft tinted blues and black to give it a sort of refined colour scheme, with a bar, and walls that separated the back section made completely out of massive wine racks.

Brisk didn't waste any time, walking inside. There were a few odd looks from the passerbys but he ignored them, focused entirely on the wide eyed look the hostess was giving them from the stand, she had long blonde hair, and was wearing the server's normal black from top to bottom. The woman standing next to the supposed hostess caught the visage of the pony entering the establishment just as the front door closed behind them.

"Oh my gosh! You're one of the ponies! From the news!"

Wow, really original comment there... He thought to himself, looking to Brisk to see how to proceed. She smiled and approached, he watched her roll her shoulders as she stepped forwards, like she was bracing.

"That I am. Can we get a booth for two?" She gestured with her hoof, not wasting any time conversating.

She was ignored, and Emanuel's smile went sideways. The hostess positioned the phone resting in her hand and snapped a photo before either of them could say anything. That was a massive no-no in his eyes; just snapping a picture of a person without asking. He was about to say something, but Brisk posed, tilting her muzzle up and smiling into the camera. His hackles lowered. If she wasn't going to say anything, he'd leave the moment to resolve itself... Unless it escalated. Unless, he should probably try not to let this stress feed into this particular moment.

"Go get Sarah." The hostess said to her partner in crime, who ran off after receiving the instruction. "We're so glad to have you!" She said, turning back to the mare, ignoring him. Which was fair, honestly.

"Thank you, I-"

The hostess interrupted her again. "You've just got to tell me-" She said in that way over excited teenagers say it, "how have you been enjoying Earth? What's Equestria like?"

Emanuel's smile loped further into being a frown. He understood the sensationalism, but this hostess was seemingly around his age. She was old enough to know how to act like a professional, throwing that out the window the moment you see a celebrity... He watched Brisk's tail flick slightly, he wasn't certain what it meant, but his intuition spoke of rising irritation. Does she like the attention? Or not? I know I wouldn't?. "Both have been really nice. I'm actually here enjoying a night out right no-"

The woman clasped her hands over her mouth in a faux gasp, and then clapped rapidly with her finger tips, "A date?! With him? Oh that's sooo cute!"

Emanuel stepped forwards, about to intervene, but Brisk beat him to the punch.

"Do you serve ponies here?" She asked rhetorically, with a heavier tone.

The woman look offended for a second, before smiling, "Of course we do."

"I'd like to be sat at booth for two. Please."

The woman gave her a flabbergasted look, having seemingly forgotten that she worked here. It took her a second to form her seemingly fleeting thoughts into a response. "Oh!" She waved a hand, "Sorry, I'm not the hostess. Sarah's coming though."

You could seat us yourself... it's not complicated. He tried to stop his brow from furrowing. As annoying as it was, it was a good conversation starter for as soon as they sat down. He wasn't going to look a gift-

Okay, scratching that expression. He wouldn't say no to a good thing, so long as it didn't escalate further.

"So what's he like?" She said down to Brisk.

She scrunched face, confused at why the question was directed at her, in addition to being generally confused by the flaming idiot. She looked up towards him, and all he could do was shrug and chuckle as they made eye contact for the sake of sharing similar confusions. To his amusement, Brisk remained silent. Further to his amusement, the woman at the hostess stand didn't seem to understand the silent conversation, or why her question was left unanswered.

Before she could open her mouth again, Sarah, supposedly, arrived. She was an older looking, older than the server standing at the hostess stand at least. She was wearing a more complex ensemble, a cardigan, a floral dress, the works. Soft colours, white accents and a modern well made head of straight short brown hair. She approached the pair, her eyes lingering on Brisk as she approached.

She clasped her hands together as she approached. "Hello you two, welcome to Ciao, did I hear right, and you'd like a booth?" She asked, maintaining eye contact as she expertly grabbed a pair of menus from behind the hostess stand.

"Yes. Please and thank you." Emanuel said, his tone trying to remain neutral.

"One preferably away from the windows?" Brisk added on hopefully.

Sarah gave a soft smile, specifically not looking over at the server. "Of course, follow right behind me please." Then she was off, and so were they.

As far as that went, it seemed as though Brisk had a decent attitude about the night; Emanuel was trying to get a read on her, but it was a little difficult sussing out the totally different body language. She responded to all of the human social cues littered throughout the short, yet uncomfortable, one sided conversation. Luckily, Sarah actually cared about keeping her job. She led them through to behind the massive glass walls filled with wine bottles and to a corner table, the only booth in the room.

"Here you are." She brought them up to the table and set down the menus. She stepped back, and waited for them to sit. Emanuel watched with a slightly amused smirk as Brisk jumped up onto the booth like a cat. He stepped in and sat down, in that order. Not like some of those weirdos that sit down before swinging in their legs and then scooting around.

He was weird. He wasn't insane.

You know... probably. He was on a date with a horse from another dimension. Pony. Whatever.

Sarah opened her mouth, and Emanuel worked out the question before she said it, though he still waited. "Can I get you two drinks to start off with?"

He finished positioning himself in the booth "Yes, water with no ice?" She nodded, and so did he. Then he looked at Brisk, who took the attention as her que to answer.

"Lemonade?"

"Of course. I'll have those out for you two in a moment."

As Sarah walked away, Emanuel remembered what he was doing here, and began conjuring up words from his mind to say with his mouth.

That was the hope at least.

Brisk, removed the need. Her ears drooped slightly, "Sorry about that." She perked up immediately though, shifting her weight oddly. "Being a traveler from another world has its downsides."

Emanuel felt he had a decent response for that, "Don't apologize to me, I dunno what that girl was thinking." Now was where the hard work would really begin.

She shrugged, and then shimmied in place again. That's when Emanuel noticed how tight the table was. Brisk was way shorter, but her barrel was wider than his torso. It meant that she was forced to sit up straight with front hooves on the table. He reached down and pulled it towards him, enough for her to put her front hooves down on the seat. "Thanks, and usually people are well meaning. Not... rude."

He smiled, grabbing one of the menus. "That's good to hear, most of the people I meet don't fit that description. That being said, is it safe for you to be out and about? I haven't brushed up on my kung' fu' lately." This is going well... so far.

She gave half of a breathy chuckle, like a snort, but with the mouth. "Yeah, my handlers are always shadowing me, even when I'm working."

Emanuel was, of course, smart enough to put two and two together, but he still asked. "Handlers?"

Before he even spoke, she had turned to the side. "Here, look." Her horn lit, and Emanuel mentally highlighted the next topic of conversation. She floated out her tablet, unfolded it, and placed it on the table, it was still glowing with magic. The screen moved and swiped around as the turquoise colour glowed in certain places, until it came to a stop on a loading circle that turned into a video image of outside the restaurant. "This is Jack, he's outside, watching the front door." She spun it around and he got a good look. A good look at an overview of the street from an elevated position, probably from the second floor of the building across the street.

The screen flicked again to another video image of Sarah seating the person wearing a body camera. They were sitting down at a table near the window, at the front of the restaurant. "That's Amy." Brisk clarified.

Good to know. "Good to know." He clasped his fingers together, "So."

She slid the tablet down off the table with her telekinesis. "So?" She smiled, leaning forwards and waiting for him to go on. "What's your first question?"

"I'm gonna start with magic."

Her smile turned to a smirk. "You're gonna have to be more specific than that."

He gestured vaguely, not really meaning anything by the motion. "So I can't just say, 'tell me everything?' and hope for the best?"

She giggled, and Emanuel was very glad that she enjoyed his sarcasm. "No, I'm not a magus."

"Okay well..." He trailed off. He was deeply curious about everything magic. What nerd wouldn't be? But that answer probably meant that she wouldn't appreciate being grilled on the topic, so he dialed back his burning curiosity and went for something simpler. "The... floating things, is that telekinesis?"

She shook her head, using her horn to lift up both of their menus and swirling them around a few times. "The normal one most Unicorns learn is a simple levitation charm, barely even a spell. The one I use is a bit more adaptive, I can lift more weight and manipulate more objects at once. I learned it in grade school. Makes sense when you have hooves instead of fingers."

"As a personal finger haver, I've got to say that I'm jealous." He joked, and she smiled, "What about other spells? The website said that there was a pony that could move the sun. Is that real?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded enthusiastically, it was clear she'd gotten that question before. "I can't do anything like that, Princess Twilight is an Alicorn, they're way stronger than normal Unicorns. I only know a few other spells, most of the standard suite when it comes to it. Light spells, directed energy spells, heating magic, nothing special."

"Do you know how it works?"

"Magic?" She asked back.

"I know that's close to just saying, 'tell me everything' but yeah."

"Well it's..." She trailed off while twirling a hoof, "It's like a muscle, but if it was your brain. Thought that you can consciously pressure into shapes that make things happen in the real world."

Emanuel was beginning to seriously appreciate how articulate Brisk Travel was.

"So it's a fluid-thought-form energy?" He asked, dragging up random terminology, hoping that the simpler words would still make sense.

She returned to a neutral but thoughtful expression. "That's how I direct it. The magic comes from inside, but I think that's a pretty good way to describe it, yeah."

She seemed less interested in this avenue of conversation now. So he switched gears. His mind was working overtime to plan ahead what he was going to say before he said it, working to make sure he didn't just stab the conversation to death by accident. If Brisk wasn't directly in front of him, he could have easily mistaken her for a human, besides the non-human voice.

"You drive with magic right?" He asked, hoping she'd snatch onto the segway.

"Yup! Cars are actually really cool. That's why I started working at Amazon."

Perfect. "Is it any good? I hear some... things about working there."

Her ears drooped down again, "Actually... I don't think I can comment on local private businesses." Then she perked up again, "I like it though, it's boring, but it gives me time to think; and like I said, the cars are cool."

"You're an enthusiast?" He shifted over, lifting his leg up and bracing his foot against the table leg. "You're in the right place for that, Michigan is filled with car people."

Her eyes sparkled, "Yes. Cars are crazy! They're complex, and they revolutionized human infrastructure so much that it's basically a part of your culture!"

The desire to ask her exactly how she could drive with magic, died away as she started rambling. He brushed away his curiosity, resigning it to the backburner for the rest of the night. There was an technical alien sitting in front of him, he wasn't going to run out of questions soon, and it seemed like she wasn't about to run out of things to say either. That and he skipped over the admittance in his own mind that the way she said that, the way her eyes sparkled when she did, was hilariously cute. He'd be lying if he said that her... looks... weren't having an affect on him. Like a well groomed cat, Brisk was cute. She just was.

"And the production lines? I read a little bit about Ford, and the first couple of car companies, the evolution of hand to precision engineering is fascinating."

"I'm impressed. You sound like you know more about cars than I do."

"Hehe," She tossed her mane, "You know, I probably do; but now it's my turn." She leaned forwards a little bit more, "Tell me about yourself." Came out more as an instruction than a question.

Okay, gotta be careful here. Good chance to practice not making a fool of yourself. What he was actually doing was twisting the truth. His past was wack, and borderline unbelievable, not to mention, it painted him in an odd light. A person like him didn't tend to have the past he did. Not that he liked basically lying, but it was better to present his life in a particular way. That's what he thought at least, trial and error led to that conclusion. By and large, he wasn't certain of what he was supposed to do, only of what didn't work.

So he 'hmm'd' for a second. "Geez, where to start. Do you want the full spcheel? or just the cliff notes?"

"Hit me with the cliff notes, you don't have write an essay for me." Brisk was using a lot of human specific language. Emanuel figured that it probably would have been hard to tell for an outside observer, 'hit me' and 'write an essay' were normal phrases, but it was the way she said them. The tone hinted towards her 'referencing' something she'd read. Her grasp of human language seemed like it could have eclipsed his.

"Well..." He prepped a breath, and arranged the normal series of things he said when people asked him that question. "I was born in Texas, I think. Lived most of my early life there, and moved out as soon as possible. Moved to Connecticut after making the money to do so, got some work experience under my belt helped out a bunch of people-" a breath "-moved to Michigan for college, helped out a bunch of people, quit college, got another job, and then I learned the multiverse is real." He ended with a sarcastic lilt.

She had an immediate response, and something in her eyes when she asked, "When did you leave home?"

Crap. He tried to play it off like it was normal by not really answering her question. "I think I was... nine? ish? When I finally started getting out of that house and working. My mother wasn't a great person."

"I didn't think people could work at that age." She said, raising an eyebrow. Emanuel let out a mental breath, glad that his redirection worked.

"The Texas I grew up in was seedy as hell." He leaned back, gesturing out with a hand with no particular meaning. "There were plenty of places for a kid to work. I had a pretty good head on my shoulders at the time, so after a year or so of being underpaid, under the table, the guys eventually threatened the boss with legal action. I ended up with a proper pay, though it was still under the table."

Her eyebrow remained raised, "Isn't that like... Really illegal?"

"Statue of Limitations."

She made a cute looking scrunchy thinking face, "The guys? Do you mean the other workers?"

"Yeah." Emanuel smiled, remembering them. They got into all sorts of trouble; they were basically a street racing gang that worked in a coffee bean distribution warehouse. Good men, the lot of them, they just had rough starts in their lives and couldn't break out of the curve. "I was a kid, you know? But I worked just as hard as any of them, put in my hours, and they respected me for it. They wouldn't let me get underpaid."

Her smile grew as he talked, ending with her leaning forwards, propping her head on her hoof and giving him an interested, if vaguely sensual look. "What other interesting tidbits do you have hidden away in there?"

"Heh, I can't give away all my secrets." The conversation was flowing like water now. All he had to do was not stop, though, redirecting it from her digging into his past was a secondary priority. "Though, can I just say, I'm surprised you recognize linguistics like you do. Honestly, most people I know- 'they ain't even no talk very good'."

That time, she did actually snort, reversing her posture and waving a hoof non-committedly, "We all go through a three month long course on human culture before we're clear for the program." She smiled, a look of satisfaction accompanying her accomplishment, "It was a breeze for me, of course; though I put in the extra effort to really learn everything." She made a weird gesture, patting the fluff on her chest, "I don't even need the translation charm. I know English, front to back."

He wouldn't deny that, he was genuinely enjoying her conversation. He could say that about exactly one person, and she was sitting right in front of him. He kept his hands on the menu, waiting for a good moment to actually look through it. "Out of curiosity, do humans go through the other direction?"

She shrugged, but her smile was starting to seem less polite, and more genuine, after he took notice, he realized the same was true for him. "I honestly don't know. Everything not directly important to us was very 'hush hush' and 'need to know'."

"That's the UN for you, but ignore me, you're meant to be asking the questions."

She smiled and lifted her muzzle, "I could take it or leave it." The snark was evident, and the expression was surprisingly human. She continued after he gave a half chuckle herself, "What about your family? And I don't mean to pry but, you know." She tilted her nose down shortly in a gesture Emanuel somehow understood.

"Don't worry about it. It's been a while. They're just hollow people, for the most part. My parents particularly weren't parent material." He let his expression drop to meet the words, "They divorced after they had me, and basically gave up raising me after that. I was really only ever a trophy child or a thing to make them feel like their lives had meaning."

Brisk, looked at him differently. Really looked at him. It was such a short moment that he assumed he imagined it, her face morphed back to a more serious smile, for the topic at hand. "I'm sorry." Was all she said.

"I'm really not upset at all." He shrugged, "Like I said, it's been a long time, twelve years since I've seen either of them, or anyone else in my blood related family tree."

Brisk's expression returned back to an 'oh good, I didn't make a mistake' and her eyes turned to look at something behind him. It was Sarah, apparently having to do the waitresses job too since they couldn't be trusted. She set down two glasses of the required contents in front of each of them, deposited a pair of plastic straws, and asked, "Do you two need some more time to order?"

"Yes please." Brisk said.

"Yeah." Emanuel said after.

Sarah nodded and walked off.

"Twelve years? How old are you?" She asked, scooting the glass of lemonade towards herself with her magic.

Emanuel internally cringed. While he wasn't opposed to talking about his past or his family, this was usually where people began to assume he was a liar. "I'm just about to be twenty six." The implication, of course, was that he left home at fourteen, work would always make sense. Plenty of people had jobs when they were kids, working at churches or at the family business. Striking out all on your own at fourteen was out of the ordinary. Everyone he'd ever told that to, besides people in similar situations, tended to simply not believe him.

Brisk's face didn't betray any surprise or confusion, she just leaned forwards and up on her front hooves and grabbed the end of the bendy straw in her mouth. As far as things she'd done so far, that was by far the cutest. The level of lemonade decreased steadily before she leaned back and he braced for the next question.

"Did she kick you out?" She asked, inquisitiveness filling her voice, rather than sympathy.

"I came and went while I worked in the warehouse. Made some money, struck out on my own as soon as I could." He explained quickly. She's acting too okay with all of that. Emanuel wasn't opposed, of course, but maybe he could do some digging of his own. "Why do you ask?"

"Well..." She turned down and looked at her butt. He didn't, he was trying to be conscious of her lack of clothes. Ponies had fur, and they didn't care past that, but that didn't mean he was going to ignore common courtesy and stare at her ass. "That's actually around the same time I left home. That's how I got my cutie mark."

She'd said it slowly. It was clear there were weighted emotions there. He had to be careful, she brought it up because he opened up first, she thought he would understand. Now that she said that, her strange looks made a lot of sense. He was venturing into territory she seemed hesitant to let him into.

Much like how he was hesitant... careful to bring up the answer to what she asked.

He went with what he hoped was a safe question. "Is it okay if I ask about your cutie mark? I dunno if that's a social taboo or something."

She looked at him, and raised her tail-end higher over the table so he could see. Guess if she cares so little...It should be fine. He moved his gaze to the different coloured hairs on her flanks. It was a picture of a straw house. Literally, straw, but in the shape of a crayon drawing of a house. The single window looked oddly like a magnifying glass and the top was covered in a stepped roof. The main focus of the picture, created by the horizon line woven into her fur, was an open door with hoofprints leading away.

Very on the nose.

"I actually don't know what my special talent is." She said, with equal parts annoyance and frustration, with a twinge of sadness. "I got it when I left home... It just never really felt like home, you know?"

"Yeah. I know." He said, before tapping the menu on the table. "Think we should actually eat tonight?"

She smirked, "Nah, I'm enjoying your conversation too much. Let them wonder when we're going to actually order anything. Payback for that scene at the door."

"Devious." He set the menu down. "I'm in."

Emanuel reached a point, after saying that. As a thought rose to the back of his head and pushed itself out to the front. I actually really like her. He didn't like going on about himself, tending to prefer action over words; that being said, he would openly mention his high skill with reading people. Getting a feel for personalities. Brisk was... great. She liked his jokes, and the future of where exactly this was going bore down on him again. He had absolutely no thoughts for it, he hadn't even conceived where to take this, but he wanted to.

What he really wanted to do was get out of his own head. "What were we talking about?" He said, tuning back in with an accidentally serious tone.

"Home."

"Yeah." He added with a mirthless chuckle, "Moving on then?" He shot her a wry grin, and she smiled back in affirmation. "What's Equestria like? I know the crazy waitress already asked, but I'm really curious."

"Eh" She waved a hoof. "It's a nice place, nicer ponies. I could do without all of the world ending magical monsters though. Humans seem to have a lot more... mundane? issues?" She tried.

Emanuel smiled, reaching over, only to realize that there wasn't any silverware on the table yet. "You mean self-inflicted."

"Well..." She nodded, using her magic to fix her beanie in place, "Yeah."

"Don't worry about offending me. I'm aware human history is scuffed." He nodded his head to the side, "And current human events, I won't lie."

She laughed, "You don't have to tell me that, I mean, slavery? Really?"

He frowned, narrowing his eyes, "It's unfortunately still a thing. Though everyone I know, both mean and nice, would do a helluva a lot to fix that with a couple of bullets. Even old racist folk don't tend to stand for slavery."

Brisk mulled over the comment silently.

"Humans are capable in equal parts of good and evil, and tend to do both at the same time. I'm sure you've heard someone say that before." He said, hoping to bring the conversation back away from the dark topic.

"I haven't actually. Where's it from?" She tilted her head.

He shrugged, "If it's a reference to something. I wouldn't know."

Then the conversation died.

Like really hard.

Emanuel found himself lacking the words to ask any more questions.

Brisk seemingly also didn't have anything else to say.

They stared at each other for a bit, before she hit the emergency eject button and lifted her menu up with her magic. "I am actually pretty hungry."

He gave her subtle thanks for the verbal rescue, and added on a little laugh at the end. "Good call. I can't believe I ran out of things to say." He tried to relive some of the tension in the back of his mind.

"It's alright. I was right there with you." She smiled, it was hard to see from behind her menu, but he could see it, just barely. "Now we can talk about food." She tossed the menu down onto the table, "Because I just realized I have no idea what any of this is." She leaned over, her mane drooping down to obscure her features. "What the buck is... 'Chare'-'cut'-'ery' board?" She looked up to him for answers.

"'shar'-'coot'-'ery' board." He vocalized, "It's like... a tray full of cheese and fruit and meats and things. Random objects that kinda go well together, but don't fill a meal." He was trying to explain it to himself, and moderately failing. "It's like a snack tray."

"How much of it is meat?" She asked, looking down at the menu again.

Now, he wasn't sure, exactly, how ponies felt about the human omnivoric tendencies, but she didn't seem grossed out when she asked, it sounded more conversational than anything.

"Probably about half? It doesn't say..." He tried to gauge her response. She was still looking at the menu, "How helpful."

"Uh-huh." She said, zoned out, then she snapped her head back up, "I mean- er"

It seemed to him that after the conversation died, she lost a bit of her momentum. Exactly the same as he did, that trip over her own words implied she was stressed too. A part of his mind - the empathetic part - questioned what exactly was happening in her head.

He waved a hand after she cut herself off. "I'm more curious about your stance on meat?"

"Oh. Uhm." She leaned back, sitting normally again, for a pony. "I guess I don't mind. I can't eat it though."

Emanuel relaxed slightly, "That's a relief, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Someone with an irritation for it probably wouldn't have jumped dimensions to begin with."

"True, remember, we ponies live in a world with emotionivores, pure carnivores and lithovores." She inclined her head, "Meat isn't new to us, even though some ponies think it's icky. I know fish is a fine dining dish in certain parts of Equestria."

"Ever had any?"

She shook her head, "Nah, I can't stand the smell."

"Well I'll avoid any meats then."

He meant it as a mostly innocuous comment, but her ears drooped, though her face remained with the same neutral expression. "You don't have to."

He made sure to take a confident stance on the topic, he didn't want her to feel like he was... what? What did he want? I don't know what I'm talking about. "Please, there's plenty of things on here that I like. Humans don't have to eat meat. There's plenty other protein sources."

"Do you know what you're getting then?" She said, sounding a little hopeful.

Emanuel had worked it out. Brisk was extremely expressive. Only he was just now realizing that most of that expression came from the ears. With everything either of them said, they flexed or drooped or wobbled in certain directions to match the orientation of her eyebrows.

"I haven't decided yet. Though I know I'm skipping the pasta dishes."

"Why's that?" She asked, and he watched as her ears turned ever so slightly more in his direction, and stiffened the same distance. He guessed at inquisitive, curious, and elected to continue watching her ears when getting a sense for her mood.

Answering her question without missing a beat, he said, "Novelty restaurants, 'italian' or 'mexican' or what-have-you always have a massive list of their particular brand of regional food." He reached over and pointed at the pasta section of the menu. "They always have to do that. What you're looking for is the non-regional stuff. The things that stay on the list even if they don't fit the theme are usually really good."

"Huh." She looked down at the menu, and her ears went straight, their 'thinking' pose. "That makes way too much sense. I never thought of that though." She started looking over the menu, before eventually giving up. "Yeah, still can't read any of this." She monotoned.

After staring down at the menu for a second like it owed her an apology, she looked up at him and batted her eyelashes, "Order for me?"

The record player in his mind jumped for a split second.

As willing as he was to take up the mantle. Nothing really fit the description. "Honestly. This menu is really limited. It's basically all the pasta dishes, and then meat. We can ask if they'll just bring out a larger version of one of the appetizers. Do you like pizza and eggplant?"

She nodded.

"Well there we go. While we wait, I feel like this is an important question." He paused to let her prepare, common courtesy and all that. This was, in his opinion, the first thing he was going to say that actually mattered to him. The crux of connection, and some other needlessly poetic comment he couldn't think of immediately because he wasn't quite clever enough.

"Why'd you ask me out?"

(The same thing, just shorter.)

Horseapples!

The first thing Brisk did was put on a smile, that was step one, step two was to actually come up with a good answer. It's not like she didn't have an answer; it was that saying: 'I was bored, and it was funny how freaked out you were, so I did something spontaneous that I thought was even funnier.' Probably wasn't a nice thing to say.

That, and...

Well...

Emanuel was nice.

The remnant idea that this was a good practice date for when she eventually wanted to find companionship on Earth, if they ever let her stay permanently, was fading. He liked her sarcasm, and he was actually listening to the words she was saying. It also didn't hurt that he knew what leaving home at an early age was like, the way he said 'I know' and then moved on? It spoke to her and made her heart flutter with barely contained excitement that she'd randomly managed to find someone that understood her.

He'd shortly described his own life, and despite her digging, he didn't dig back. She wasn't sure how to feel about that, she left home too, but it didn't seem the same. She'd left because everything always just felt wrong. Her family didn't feel like her family, as soon as she had the split second, she packed a bag and left. Ponies tended to not believe that story, most were family oriented, or simply couldn't comprehend the idea of not having a support structure so early on in a young life. No, I wish he asked... She would have wanted to explain it to him, it seemed like he would have understood.

Brisk wouldn't brag, but she'd still say she was an excellent judge of character, and while normally talking about her own life was usually met with confusion or discomfort; Emanuel liked her, she liked him.

Uhhhhhhggg, what am I doing!? Pay attention silly filly!

"Well uh-" She started saying, hoping her brain would handle the rest of the sentence, "I... You didn't know what I was." Yup, that works. Brisk wasn't a personal fan of twisting the truth, but it worked, and she'd be embarrassed to say she was good at it because of practice. "I haven't met a human yet that didn't already have something thought up for me."

"So I was a blank slate, at least when it comes to you?"

She her smile became easier, glad that he had accepted that reason. "Yeah." Throwing a single affirmation out wouldn't cut it. She didn't just want the conversation to die there, so she kept talking. "Everytime I meet someone, they've always got this predetermined understanding of ponies from front to back. They think we're super peaceful, naïve, or cheery."

Emanuel's hands moved, gesturing forwards in a sideways open palm. Brisk was beginning to learn, at least for him that most of his body language came from his hands. "The only thing that I gleaned from my 'bout of research, that seems accurate, is that ponies tend to be more trusting." He folded them up again.

It was actually starting to get pretty annoying. Brisk had spent nearly half the year familiarizing herself with human expression, and the first guy she goes on a date with has total control over his facial expressions. She learned enough to know that he was giving measured smiles, but his eyes told the biggest story. He was a thinker, just like her. There was intelligence there that didn't match the relaxed posture, or his soft, if vaguely scraggly, face.

As cliché as it was, almost straight out of a romance novel, this was going incredibly well. Brisk had that rising feeling, despite the obnoxious amount of thought required to make such a claim, and evidence she lacked in full...

Emanuel seemed... compatible.

Functionally, Brisk could see herself with him. In a literal sense, she was with him right now. She needed a lot more details though; like what he wanted out of life, what he wanted out of a romantic partner. She needed to know who he was in different settings, and when he wasn't focusing on presenting a good version of himself. What she really needed was to not try and fit years of familiarity into what was likely to be an hour long time frame. She needed to chill the hell out, trying to speed run puzzlifying a relationship she didn't have yet.

Hit the breaks for a second Brisk. She mentally prodded herself, One step at a time, maybe stop talking to yourself first.

Drawing herself back into reality, "I suppose that's true enough." She nodded, "Do you find me extra trusting?"

"In comparison to humans? Absolutely." He gave an massive exaggerated nod and then chuckled, "I've gotten called all sorts of names for being so direct in public before. Humanity's trust in the everyday passerby is in the friggen hole. People don't just ask each other out in the streets anymore."

Being so direct? What's that mean? She thought to herself as he finished. Best to ask sideways, "What kind of names? Surely being direct is something to trust rather than not right?"

"You'd think that." He joked and lifted a hand to count off on his fingers, "Creep, pedophile, rapist, all the grossest dregs of society."

She scrunched her muzzle and disregarded her attempt to get an answer without asking, "What? Why? Just for asking people out?"

He rolled his eyes, and did the rotating thing he did with his hand when he was trying to piece together something to say. Eventually he settled on, "I think it's more because they didn't know me. So, obviously I must be a murderer or a stalker."

Brisk gave off a measured snort, aware but uncaring at their rising volume. "Hilarious. Did they forget the whole point of going on a date is getting to know the person in question?"

Emanuel gave off the most emotional physical response she'd seen, and so suddenly too. He gestured out with his hands, his long arms filling up most of the table, his eyes lit up and he laughed. "Thank you! That's what I'm saying!" Once he got his laughter under control, he continued, "It's all 'the game' or 'mindless shenanigans' now. People think-" he cut himself off, "No, that's not right, the problem is that people don't think."

"Ponies too, seems like mindlessness is a multi-dimensional affliction." She said, putting a bit more force than necessary into the complex articulation.

"More like a curse. Honestly." He quieted down, his chuckles dying down along too.

Brisk laughed along to cover up mentally pushing away her rising attraction, and the awkwardness that was starting to try and take hold of her conversational instinct. She really did not want to mess this up.

After the moment passed, Brisk leaned forwards again, "So what'do'ya do for work?"

He waved his hand and she saw the way the other gripped the edge of the menu. "Nothing special. I'm honestly in the wind right now, when it comes to work. I got a decent paying desk jockey job 'cause of some college friends; but I hate it. I'll be looking for the door as soon as I can find something else."

"Sorry about that, what would you be looking for?"

He responded immediately, letting go of the menu and smiling as he relaxed. "Something that keeps me on my feet. I like actually working-" He let his hand drop in a 'yas girl' pose, "-crazy I know-" before waving it back and setting it down, "Office jobs drive me crazy, I've honestly thought of doing dishwashing again."

She leaned forwards a little bit more. "Ever thought about Amazon?"

He lifted an eyebrow. "Does right now count?"

Dunno what you're looking for here Brisk. Brisk tilted her nose up, just a little, to match his inquisitive brow. "Well that depends on what you're thinking."

A hand rose to his chin, and he looked off to the side. "I suppose it does." He said sagely, still staring off and to the side.

Oh-ha ha. Emanuel was becoming increasingly silly. Not that Brisk minded, quite the opposite; that particular brand of being funny was as equally funny as it was entertaining. His eye snapped over to hers to confirm that he was ignoring the question on purpose, shifting, as it was her own turn to raise her eyebrow. She failed to hold off a breathy chuckle, and decided to roll her eyes.

The pair of actions brought a smile to the man's face, and he continued. "Honestly? No. Though it sounds like it's right up my alley." He shifted back into his normal sitting position, and Brisk almost missed the subtle prompting to explain more about the job.

"Well, it's boring." She monotoned, "I can't lie about that. Almost all of the jobs on the assembly line aren't very challenging, the workflow is basic, and it's long hours."

"Sounds like a job that requires music." He responded, clipped, and then took a quick inhale and waved his hand. "But! We're not here to talk about work are we?"

She tried to send him a kind smile, "Only if you want too." Brisk didn't care, either way. This was going well, she'd not royally messed this up yet, he didn't suck, and everything was going well. The rising emotion that told her so made her feel like they could talk about anything. Get a hold of yourself mare. Focus. She kept up the warm smile, mostly on accident, and who could blame her? Success, even belated, felt very good. "Why? Got something else to ask?"

His waved hand continued to wave, "This may be a bit of an awkward question, but I didn't want to google it just in case that side of the internet had already gone crazy."

Oh?

The hands clasped together, flat, and he pointed them at her while blocking her line of sight to his face. "Biology?" He asked with an inflection. "Alien species and-well, only technically alien. Does-" He pointedly cleared his throat. An expression Brisk defined as 'shut me up now if this is an awkward question.' "How different are we? Biologically speaking? You have a heart, I take it? I can see you breathing-" More hand waving, "Just a... general question."

This was good opportunity to join him in being silly, and to get back at him for dodging her question at first earlier. "Ponies are mammals." She answered, clearly and succinctly. Then she: bounced her mane, tilted her head to the side, just a little, and smiled.

Emanuel visually waited for her to continue, when all he got was an 'I'm totally innocent' he snorted, and Brisk watched the stress slide away from his posture. "I see." Was all he said as he leaned back. "I take it the lack of explanation implies that it's less complicated than I think?"

"Yup!" She chirped.

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes, "You could have just said that." He sent her a half smile, half fake frown in mock annoyance.

Her response was to wave a hoof and then awkwardly set it down on the table after, she let her head fall into the limb, cupping her muzzle and leaning into it. "Oh come on-" This is the wrong pose for this "Where's the fun in that?" Came out a little more softly than intended, though, it was clear by Emanuel's chuckling that he knew it was mostly a joke.

Brisk didn't believe in being serious. There was a time and a place, of course, like there was a time and a place for everything. She may take it a bit far sometimes, but hey, laughter was a tenant of her society's moral social contract. Humans tended to be all over the place when it came to perspective. Not one person thought the same thing about the same thing, so not only was it a breath of fresh air for the man sitting across from her taking the same kind of approach to what would have been a stressful situation...

Had she struck gold?

Was mainly the question she was asking herself. While she was mostly focused on making sure not to accidentally say what she was thinking about, and instead, say something relevant to the current back and forth; it was just the way he was responding that was only serving to give her more butterflies.

It was a bit premature to be thinking all of that, though, and Brisk didn't like to boast this but... As a young mare, even in Equestria, it's practically a survival skill to be a good judge of character. That being said, Brisk was an excellent judge of character, and the feel she was getting from the man was all positive, in all the right wa- you're staring.

Brisk blinked, and heat rose to her cheeks as she pulled herself out of her thoughts and into the sudo-staring contest she'd started. He was staring right back at her with a warm smile that only served to make her blush a little bit more when she realized that she was still leaning forwards into her hoof like a teenager straight out of a chick flick. There was, again, a sort of inquisitive depth practically filling his eyes that she nearly got sucked into, before leaning back, fixing her pose, and readjusting her beanie out of nervousness.

He just stared, slowly his smile morphed into interest mixed with curiosity to match his eyes. The good news was that his expression seemed like the first unmeasured one she'd seen thus far, giving her a hint at what was really going on in his head. The bad news was that she had no idea what it meant.

"Sorry" She said, attempting to apologize for staring.

"Got lost in thought?" He asked in a way that sounded less like a question, and more like he was guessing at something he already knew.

She added in a little inflection to a, "Yeah." Despite the embarrassment, he didn't seem to mind, in fact, her little fumble seemed to have totally changed his disposition.

The moment was interrupted by Sarah returning. "Hey, do either of you need drink refills? Are you ready to order?"

Brisk's gaze lingered on his for a moment, as they both slowly turned away from each other to look at Sarah at the same time. He spoke first, since he knew what they were getting, Brisk pulled up her glass of lemonade again and took a long draw from the straw to help settle herself down.

"The uh-" Emanuel started, taping the menu with his spare hand, "Eggplant pizza, do you think they could make it bigger?"

The woman looked from him to Brisk with and her face showed her putting together the context with the request. "I can't say for sure, but it shouldn't be too much of an issue."

"And I'll-" Brisk watched him look down at the menu again, and she watched his right hand grip the edge of the table. "I'll just go simple then, eggplant parmesan?"

Sarah nodded, smiled, "I'll go put those in for you two."

Brisk offered, "Thank you."

Emanuel did the same. "Thank you very much."

Brisk met his eyes again as Sarah walked off. "So..." She trailed, "What do you do for fun?"

He made a face like he bit into a lemon. Then let out a light chuckle. "Oh dear, this'll be a weird on. The short answer? Nothing. No hobbies, no passions, what I do have is people."

That was quite an answer, sounds rehearsed. Despite immediately feeling the need to comment, Brisk remained silent.

He broke eye contact, and flipped one of the menu's over. "Most people don't tend to notice the depth that interaction goes down, call it..." He made a wincing face, "My area of study? I guess?" He shook his head, "Point is, I've never found anything more important than people, so that's what I do for fun."

"People?" Brisk raised an eyebrow.

"I get involved. Sometimes, unwelcome, but I try to help people, or just have fun." He gestured with his hands again, ridgedly closing them together as he spoke, "I got from place to place, do some stuff, meet some people, live my life. Nothing special, but it's what I do."

Brisk thought a lot about that. First and foremost, it was an answer.

"I think that's pretty special."

Silence, followed by his first genuine expression. It looked like trepidation mixed with enthusiasm, if that made any sense. He opened his mouth, then closed it, then seemingly cut off his own thought. "Okay- This might be really rude to ask but-" His entire disposition changed.

Uh-oh

"Why did you leave Equestria?" He said, almost half an accusation. His eyebrow went up, and it was clear the question was more complicated than he initially intended, evident by the fact that he continued. "And I don't mean 'come to earth' I mean, 'leave Equestria.' You... if there was a wall here, you could fool me that you were human, easily. You know the slang better than I do, and the way you talk about living here... I just get the feeling that you want to stay."

Brisk frowned, and her mind tried to work at figuring out how to respond to that.

"What are you running from?" He asked, "You didn't just come here for foreign exchange. It's obvious. No-one just... perfectly learns an alien language if they're only on a short stint to another universe."

She didn't. He was right, but... how the... how am I supposed to respond to that? She didn't notice, of course, that he wasn't... mad or anything like it, but she still felt the anxiety of being put on the spot. "I've never... had somebody size me up like that before." She nervously tacked on a chuckle at the end. "I... uh-"

Brisk was suddenly pulled from her projections of the future by a mild bout of panic as she figured she'd accidently hit a roadbump in what was a date going well. Something fundamentally her fault. Ponies didn't like baggage, which was part of the reason she struggled to hold onto friends for very long. It seemed that humans were similar.

"Sorry." He stood up, and stepped out of the booth.

Wait! "Wait!"

He turned and held out his hand. Much to her suprise.

"This is dumb. Neither of us think conventional dating makes any sense. Right?" His hand moved a little bit closer

Brisk was stunned by the sudden heel turn, her mind sending her a simple warning, I think we're missing something here, Brisky

"A fancy restaurant?" He laughed once, "Let's stop pretending this, or either of us are normal, and get the heck outta here."

Brisk's mind churned, and she stared at his hand.

The fuck are you doing you drama hungry-insane-half a scoop of peanut butter for brains-nincompoop!

As of thus far, Brisk had hit every green flag in his head besides one. It was his fault too, neither of them were being themselves, he could see the version of her sitting underneath the veneer of respectable politeness that comes with the territory of doing what they were currently doing, as he had presented the same façade.

Emanuel had an idea of what he was doing. Dates were not a complex science and he had a bit of experience under his belt too. The whole thing was going alright, until the part of his mind that had been shoved down into the corner of 'don't look in here'; the part that demanded real companionship took the wheel and jerked the metaphorical car into a sideroad with no signage.

In the split second where his mind made the slightest assumption that they might be the same, his everything just went: 'fuck it, we ball'

Which lead to him doing what he was currently doing. Holding his hand out, offering to help her out of the booth, with the intent to leave, and do whatever the hell happened next. His nerves were, of course, not excited about this development.

Brisk had apparently not been following his hastily made short speech, and was blankly staring at his hands with wide eyes, with her ears perked all the way up to face him. She'd been doing that for five seconds, a time which was shortly about to double itself as he stood there, awkwardly in front of the table, praying to any lord in any heaven that he hadn't just majorly committed 'un-alive' on the current social setting.

Brisk looked up from his hand, and he saw realization dance across her eyes.

Emanuel pulled his wallet out, and threw a pair of twenties on the table with one hand. He probably shouldn't have felt as impressed with himself as he did, but hey, it's the little things right?

She watched the money as it fell to the table, then looked back at Emanuel, then down at his hand again.

A beat passed.

"Okay." And a navy blue furred hoof found itself in his grip. She was soft and warm, and the contact, at least to the average touch starved adult male, was electric. He gave a light tug, moving mostly on muscle memory, not fully believing that that had actually worked. She moved, stepped out of the booth, and he helped her keep balance. They started walking to the door.

Holy shit, that worked. Holy shit-oh my gosh.

The implications of success said a lot about her, and him.

One of the waitresses gave them a confused look as they left.

It was dark enough now for there to be a wind chill but Brisk didn't seem to mind.

Emanuel broke the silence. "Do you like loud music and greasy food, and don't mind someone else driving?"

Brisk silently nodded, a wide smile on her face.

She liked that. She's in. I'm in. Holy shit, I'm on a real date with a pony in the current year. I'm actually planning on being myself, the hell is going on?

Emanuel laughed, letting some of the anxiety bleed itself out through what he hoped sounded like natural laugher. "Well let's not waste any time." He let go of her hoof and started jogging, "It's damn cold out here!"

"What? No it-hey! Wait up!" Brisk followed after him, he sped up as she caught up, and they both laughed when Emanuel threw himself over the hood. "What are you doing!?" Brisk giggled as the little red car beeped, Emanuel hit the unlock button on the keyfab.

"I have literally no idea!" He answered in complete honesty; but it was time to have fun, it was time to be on a date, now was not the time to ask questions of himself, or her. Emanuel was the kind of guy to have completely zero pacience when it came to making friends, real friends, or otherwise have relationships. If there was even a little hint of compatibility and reciprocation, he was all in, right from the start.

They both stared at each other through their respective glass windows before giggling like goons and pilling into the car.

And here's the first felony

Brisk debated putting on her seatbelt. It wasn't exactly a pony friendly car, but it didn't matter. Emanuel turned the key and she found herself smiling as the engine rumbled to life. It wasn't like the electric vans she drove at work, or her boring government car. This one had character, emotion when it groaned back into the car equivalent of consciousness. Emanuel put his hand on the stick shift and then looked around, less than a second spent looking at the mirrors before he glanced back at Brisk and their eyes met.

Something they seemed to keep on doing.

A silent struggle took place. Across his face, as it seemingly appeared to strike him that there was a pony in his car, meanwhile, Brisk was suddenly hit by the fact that she'd just gotten into his car. She wanted to say something, anything, but the moment swiftly slipped away from her.

"So. Uh, seatbelt?" He ventured. His eyes darting to the apparatus for a split second and then settling back on her. His spare hand, the one not on the stick shift, went to his pocket.

She lit up the buckle with her aura, tugging it loosely out of its fitting. "Won't really fit." She smiled, "Drive safe?"

"Willdo." Then he pulled out the flip phone from earlier. A moment passed as he finagled with it, and Brisk kept herself from sticking her muzzle into his personal space to see what he was doing. Supposedly, humans don't like that.

It beeped, and then loudly said "Turn lef-" before He cut it off.

"Nope. Shush." He said to the phone, the volume now silenced. "You wanna play navigator?"

Brisk tilted her head and flopped her ears to the side as he held his phone over to her. Not that she knew what he meant, but she scooped it up out of his hand with her magic. He made a weird face when her aura brushed against him, but didn't say anything. Then Brisk saw the map on the tiny screens, and the directions. ooooh, navia- I get it.

He turned back to he mirrors, skipping looking out of the rearview, and put the car in reverse. He drove smoothly, pushing the car between reverse and drive in one fluid motion that led Brisk wondering when exactly the transition happened. He pulled out of the parking lot. Brisk remembered that she was supposed to be telling him where to go. Luckily, he seemed to have remembered where to turn out, she looked down at the tiny screen and managed her balance as the car rocked her a little.

It was a low car and she could see out the window. Brisk found her voice as she worked the screen. It wasn't nearly as sensitive to her magic as her pad was, calling up over the rumble she asked, "So where are we going?"

"A drive in place called sonic. Anyways-" His hand reached up from the stick shift and poked a dial on the mess of features on the dashboard. Something lit up and Brisk was flashbanged by the sound of a guitar riff and the almost raspy voice of a male vocalist. Brisk hadn't touched human music, not in anything other than passing. Though, she'd liked what she heard, majoritively the energy behind it.

She'd stayed away from music in general because there was so much of it. In so many patterns, humans use music for everything too, they listen to it when they're down, when they're happy, to feel either when they weren't, to pass the time, to energize themselves, to find inspiration. Everything, and there was so much of it, and all of it at the tip of her hooves whenever she wanted to look it up on the internet. She never knew where to start, and never made the time to sit down and do the subject justice, now she was getting another blast from the culture.

Rock. Probably, something new, as far as she could tell. "Oh-" The phone rumbled, "Turn right at the light!"

He flipped on a blinker, bopping his head with the beat and mouthing the words. Again, Brisk noticed how smooth he was driving. She'd quickly gotten used to something her working buddies had referred to as 'driver dissonance' where she was hyper aware of how someone else was driving a car she was in. All the little shifts and bumps drew her attention, comfortably filling up her senses. She kept looking out at the moving lights, the other cars, all the people that were going by.

It was funny, in a way, she'd met more people on the road than she'd met in person. All sorts had all kinds of different ways of expressing who they were on the road, both the good and he bad. Some people stopped a little extra longer than necessary to let someone go past. Some people would drive in front of you really fast, not to get where they were going faster, just so that they could be in front of you.

After she gave the next instruction, the song came to an end with one long vibrating guitar cord. Brisk leaned herself all the way over as he took a greenlit right turn and the map showed a straight line for a few minutes. She pulled the armrest down with her magic and propped herself up on it and looked at him, hoping it was enough of a prompt, since she couldn't think of anything to say.

"Acceleracers." Was his response, after he caught her staring. "The song, that is, it's an OST I stole off the internet."

"Stole?"

"Le-ga-lly." Was his response. "It's only stealing if you get caught, and it's free to listen to. Pretty sure it's not proper piracy unless I sell it? But hell if I know, I wouldn't care anyways." He waved his hand and then moved the shift back down as they coasted.

"What's it about?"

"The song?"

"Mhm."

"Well, its from a movie series that I never stopped liking. Something from a little bit of a golden era of television in twenty eight to twelve. The song itself is- okay this is gonna be a bit silly. So- context." He gestured out with his hand in a line. "Acceleracers, movies about cars, racing, etc. About as cut and dry as you can get with a premise, there's this character named Vert Wheeler."

Brisk snorted. "I've heard of on the nose."

"Points for originality." He pointed at the stereo, "That's his theme. Pretty much, the story is a bit more complicated, but it's the technical vibe."

Brisk settled. Holding her hooves around the armrest and electing to keep asking questions. He talked when she asked, and asking was easy, just pick a thing she didn't know and ask. She didn't have to think past that, hoping at the very least that he didn't spot her shutting her brain off, since she was listening, it was just easier this way.

"What's it about? Besides racing."

He smiled, "Well... Really only that. And also alien gods, who like racing. Alien robots, who are built to race. Alternate dimensions, built for racing." He chuckled at his own tiny play at misdirection. "Cars, a bunch of world building, characters, mostly. The whole series is split between the characters doing things, and then the racing."

She smiled and put on her best subtle sarcasm tone. "Sounds like it's about racing."

He shot right back with the same. "Uhuh-and where am I going next Ms. Navigator?"

"It's a straight shot, on the left."

"Ooo~ Turning through traffic. My favorite." He tapped the wheel, "Before I blast you with music again, you- okay, probably incoming strange question, but we're on the subject. You like cars?" He asked, half rhetorically.

"Yes." She chirped, to let him continue.

"How do you feel about racing? If there's any yay or nay? Or more of a, 'haven't had the time'?"

Brisk thought for a second. "I dunno. Sounds interesting, but- yeah. I guess I wouldn't know."

He just nodded his head and poked the dial again. This time, electrical noises, a rapid beat, something that reminded Brisk of a different cultural musical style. Which was yet another thing about music Brisk never found time to sift through. Not only was music vastly nuanced in meaning and style an- well, pretty much everything. Different regions had their entire own version of direction when it came to making music in general.

Regardless, Brisk found her body subtly responding to the snazzy beat. It was unlike anything she would have ever heard in Equestria; Emanuel was certainly enjoying it, she kept hearing his voice, quietly peaking through the audio as he sang some of the words; Brisk wondered if he was as nervous as she was. Wondered if he wasn't singing he whole thing- and she could tell he knew all he words, he was mouthing them, only singing a few.

Brisk was unsure. She didn't know.

That was... what he offered his hand for.

Her mind focused back on that moment. He seized her up, called her out for what was going on at the table, called them both out, and then offered something different. This was that. The... difference. Brisk tried not to think about it, she closed her eyes and bounced her head to the music. Her attempted mental peace was interrupted as Emanuel shouted "WEEE!" and dove the car to the left through traffic.

Brisk caught her breath as the g-forces tried to pull her away from the armrest. Hear heartbeat shot up as her brain reminded her that she was sitting inside of what a few ponies had dubbed, 'deathmobile.' The fact that it was so exciting, and the fact that she wished it hadn't stopped when it was over notwithstanding to her concern.

She looked up at him, he didn't seem to notice her internal quandaries about safety, though, they were safe. No longer in the road, pulling into a parking lot with a building sitting inside it. Over it? She hadn't seen a fancy building outside before. The big, flashy, angular signs listed the name of the place, exactly as Emanuel had said.

Brisk took a second look. "Isn't it kinda small?"

"Hmm?" He asked back, still focusing on the 'parking' part of driving.

The building itself had a few tables around it, unattended due to the weather, and lack of any kind of shielding from the elements. It looked... smaller than her town house, this is meant to be a restaurant? Brisk was stuck to staring for an answer from Emanuel. "You ever been to a drive in?"

The car didn't jerk as it stopped, at least Brisk didn't feel it stop. Emanuel was a good driver.

"No? What's... it looks like a gas station." Brisk hefted herself over the armrest and looked for herself. Right next to the window on Emanuel's side was a menu. It held the same extravagance that humans usually applied while marketing something and almost immediately got visually swallowed by the presentations. It was just far away enough for her to have to squint through the imperceptibly dirty window along with the words being just tiny enough to be a struggle to read.

Emanuel pressed a single finger into the glass, "See the big red button and the speaker?"

Brisk's mind connected the dots, "Ooh! It's like a drive through that you park at." She nodded to herself in satisfaction. "I get it now, what do they have?"

"You a smoothie girl?" He asked, eyeing her up a little oddly while leaning away ever so slightly.

Brisk lost her smile, only realizing she was smiling when she tried to reign herself in. She had leaned all the way over, her head was hovering over his lap. So she backed up with a nervous chuckle. "I like sugary things, so long as it's not... like... fruity? Humans have really weird interpretations of fruit flavors." Contain yourself, just a little bit Brisk. Don't be weird.

It wasn't like Brisk struggled with personal space. She wasn't that kind of excitable. She could see the boundaries, she just got focused on other things, or would get distracted. Call it a lack of spatial awareness. If she wasn't focusing on physical space, it may as well have not been relevant.

"We do?"

Brisk blinked, having forgotten what he was responding to. "Oh- uhm. Yeah, like, what even is watermelon flavored gum?"

Emanuel leaned his head back in realization. "Ah, well, people tend to name things rudimentarily. Then following that, they adjust the flavor for selling value, and then keep the name the same." He made a half dismissive half 'so-so' gesture with his hand. "Over the years, the name starts to be associated with the flavor everyone tastes when they buy the thing, so stuff like 'watermelon' and 'banana' are just so far removed from the actual taste that it does really need a different name."

Emanuel finished his tiny rant by rolling down the window near the menu. As soon as it was all the way down, he reached out of the car and pressed the button. His other hand gestured for her to wait a moment and the hand that pressed the button came down to rest where the window was hidden. There was a crackle, and a voice came out from the speaker, all cheery, but still somehow sounding vaguely half asleep.

"Hello! Welcome to Sonic! What can I get for you?"

Emanuel's whole posture changed, he straightened up, his voice got lighter to as he leaned a little closer to the window. "Hello-! Hello~ can I get a pair of mozzi sticks and a pair of smoothies, one peanut, one crème?"

Brisk's mind spontaneously turned against her, wondering if she had gained an allergy to peanuts sometime between the last time she had peanuts and now. Brisk took a deep breath as the voice in the menu talked. She chuckled slightly to herself as she eyed up her beanie in the rearview mirror. Get a hold of yourself Brisk. You're not going to spontaneously develop an allergy. Shaking your head and rolling your eyes at yourself while talking to yourself in your own head was probably some kind of sign of something.

Should be fine though.

Brisk was brought back to the moment as Emanuel turned to face her. "So-" Then... then he stopped.

Eyes met. Both of them stared for a split second.

Brisk tried the usual, "So?" Not that she had anything to add.

Emanuel blushed. She could see it well enough through the exotic lighting from the drive in.

"Soooo~ I'm a numpty who forgot how the flappy bits in my mouth to make words." He laughed at himself. Brisk did him the favor of chuckling too, not that it wasn't funny. She was only stressing about the exact same problem while trying to viscerally turn the gears in her own head trying to find a response.

"Regarding my chronic foot-in-mouth diseases, do you mind if we... lose all the- I mean, I kinda already did it." He shrugged, trying to emphasize most of his meaning through body language. Now that Brisk had been studying how he moved, the action stood out as unnatural. He was nervous. "Shouting 'weee' while turning through traffic isn't super-respectable."

"I thought it was kinda cute." Brisk offered.

"I saw you clutch the armrest like you were about to go out the window." He shot back.

Brisk felt heat rising to her face; not that he'd be able to tell through her fur. She had done that, despite it not affecting her opinion of his silliness. She liked silly. "You were driving so smoothly, it just surprised me." She argued unnecessarily.

"You ever drift in one of those vans before?"

Brisk let out a curt and disbelieving laugh. "If I even tried that, the whole system would shut down. I can't even change lanes without it screaming at me, drifting?" Brisk raised an eyebrow. Her inflection was accidental, her real question directed at the look on the mans face.

She didn't have to wait. He let off a tiny little smirk. "Ever wanted to?"

Brisk felt that little spark of challenge he was letting off and matched it with her own blinking stare and sarcasm to boot. "Are you offering." She batted her eyelashes to seal the deal.

"Damn right I'm offering." He bounced his fist twice on the window sill. "Any excuse, I say. But-" He waved his hand, "Let's just- goodness. I'm-" A head shake, "Okay, I'm sorry. Let me level with you. You're not bothered by- like, any of this?"

She knew what he was really asking, of course. She'd asked herself the same question while staring at his hand.

"Yes." Was her simple answer.

He blinked.

"Uh, I mean no." Brisk clarified, "I'm not bothered. I... We... Clicked." She tapped her hooves together as she said it.

They had, tentatively, at least. Brisk was here, so was he. They were both doing this thing together, and that would have to be enough for the screaming in Brisk's head, for now.

"Yes." Emanuel copied.

They shared a laugh. A door opened on the building, and a redshirted woman on rollerblades carted her way out of the building with a tray towards their car. An idea struck Brisk, something of which had crossed her mind while she was thinking about how much Emanuel gestured with his hands.

Touch-barriers. Human's had them, in fact, from her cultural training, it was made very clear that you do not touch a person without at least warning them first. Permission was a standard in most places, and it was very easy to get in trouble or make someone angry by not asking first. Ponies were touchier than humans were, not Brisk specifically, but she understood the lesson and had taken it to heart.

She hadn't touched Emanuel yet, and she had an idea to see if that was okay while skipping over the embarrassment of trying to word 'am I allowed to touch you' despite the fact that, had she considered it, the question was a perfectly reasonable and adult thing to ask.

Instead, she stood up in her seat, and said, "Watch this." Then climbed onto Emanuel's lap.

Seconds after the act, she felt her brain remind her: 'excuse me, what the buck did you ju-' before she promptly shoved that back into the dark, as she was thoroughly committed by that point, and stuck her head out of the window.

"Hello!" She yelled with a massive smile.

The woman looked up from the receipt, made eye contact with the pastel alien unicorn in a car, promptly screamed and did what humans do when prompted by Some Unknown Weird And Or Dangerous Thing That Surprised Me. Brisk caught the food and the drinks in her aura and dragged her head and the food back inside the car while trying not to chuckle. Not that she was deeply amused, but Emanuel certainly was. It was already hard enough balancing on just his thighs, but with him carefully holding back laughter, she nearly fell over as she backed into the passenger seat again.

"Brisk." He said between holding his laughter back, trying to sound displeased. "That was mean."

Brisk felt the big 'ol smile on her face and went with the flow. "But it was hilarious."

He snorted, "It was exactly what I did. You gonna ask her out too?"

She pretended to ponder, tapping a hoof to her chin as she set the food down is Emanuel's lap. The place she had been previously... He didn't seem to mind. "Hmmm." She went, struggling to think of what to do next, until a little tidbit slammed into her mind, "Oh wait! We forgot to pay!" She looked back out the windshield, but the woman was long gone.

"Nope." Emanuel bounced his fist on the door again, "There's a card slot right on the menu, I paid while you were thinkin'"

The window began to roll itself up, and Emanuel checked his mirrors again. Now that it had been permeating the car, Brisk could smell the oil and the cheese. Mozzi sticks must mean mozzarella. As his hand reached for the shift, Brisk noticed how he'd never turned the engine off. The car had spent that time rumbling away right in front of them as they did what they did. He pulled out of the parking spot and hefted up the drinks one at a time into the cupholders, then put his seatbelt on.

Brisk remained silent, going back to her spot on the armrest as he turned out of the lot and onto the five line road that ran through the town. Until he handed her a cup full of what she had suspected were fried sticks of mozzarella. She took it in her magic, and Emanuel did that thing again where he wiggled his hand in response to touching her aura. She took a whiff to gauge the heat, and finding that it was cool enough to nom, she obliged her grumbly tummy.

Some level of nirvana was achieved there. Her brain could register the amount of 'probably unhealthy' but her taste buds just didn't care. How they got mozzarella sticks to be juicy was something she couldn't fundamentally grasp, but she made the associated noise of delight that came with eating something especially tasty. Human junk food is the best. Some ponies were weirded out or disgusted by the standard human dietary options. Brisk was not one of those ponies.

"Glad you like it." He said, hiding his mirth at her enjoyment.

Brisk waved a hoof. "Hush for a moment." And she ate another one. Crunchy and juicy, the perfect mozzarella stick experience. Emanuel continued to chuckle, and then he pulled into the onramp for the interstate. Between the third stick, Brisk asked, "Where are we going?" Which sounded more like, "wrrrwe guin?"

"You said you wanted drifting, didn't you?" He smiled, turning the smirk her way. It dropped in an instant, looking at her current sitting position. "Actually, can you fit that seatbelt over yourself?"

Brisk chose an answer via putting it on. Sitting upright like the seatbelt required was revealing, not to mention uncomfortable. Emanuel had been really good about that though, so it didn't feel strange. She just put her weight back and steadied her heart for the fact that he was pulling up on fifty miles per hour and had just said drift. As if the two were connected.

He went faster. Going into the lane as it merged in with the highway, he pushed the radio button again. Like before, a guitar started playing, something with a stronger reverberation. Brisk repositioned herself as he tiny car vibrated with energy. She glanced over at the speedometer, which read seventy and climbing. The engine only got louder as Emanuel called out, "And lucky for us! Clear road!" He leaned forwards over the steering wheel.

Emanuel knew this feeling.

That feeling of forwards.

More than just the car cresting on eighty miles per hour. More than the tune that was about to start blasting, one he knew by heart. It was more than the rumble in the engine, the tightness in his hands. All of that was exhilarating, but it was nothing to putting on a performance.

Brisk was still here. She looked a little spooked by the speed they were getting up to, but that smile and the way her ears were swiveling around were a telltale sign of that thrilling excitement he was feeling too. The sign said seventy, but that just isn't fast enough for me.

Emanuel raised his voice over the musical intro to the song as the car bordered on one hundred. "Hey RUNNER!?"

The car came up near a curve as the music paused in preparation for the intro, and he slammed down all of his stress and emotion into his voice as he whispered, "Run, Faster." As the song really started, and Emanuel let his voice loose in the chords he knew by heart, he switched gears and turned the car too hard into the turn, carefully starting a one hundred mile an hour drift down the interstate.

He saw Brisk press herself backwards into the seat as the wheel's 'directions' became more of 'suggestions', the g-forces pressed against them shortly as the curve evened out, and so did the car. It jerked once as the wheels caught and the car straightened out. The speedometer read one zero nine. Brisk made some kind of noise, and Emanuel pressed his foot down onto the accelerator harder.

Then he rolled the windows down. Raising his voice higher for the vocals of the song as they shot down the interstate.

"WOOO!" Brisk screamed over the radio and the wind in her face. Her horn was lit, desperately holding onto her beanie.

Another curve came up, and Emanuel focused on a tighter line, shifting gears later into the curve. The drift cut in harder, the g-force immediately pulling Brisk into the door as the nose of the car went 'right angle' with the curve of the road. The front wheel kissed the edge of the far left lane, and Emanuel let the drift cancel itself out, swinging the wheel just a little bit as it tried to drift in the other direction from the momentum of the wheels catching, still singing all the while.

The lights of the city in the distance, Emanuel came up with a short idea, as their fun would be ruined the moment they found any traffic. With the wind in his face, and a song in his lungs, there really was only one way to push it. "Hey Brisk!"

Brisk turned to face him, smiling wide, loving every minute of the wind in her mane.

Emanuel's voice caught for a moment, as his brain reminded him that he was looking at a pony. There was a silent grapple for reasonability. She was not human. Obviously. But she also wasn't an animal. He settled on being attracted to the way her... mane blew around in the wind, the sparkle of excitement in her eyes. Yeah. That's okay. She can think, that's what matters. Course, the mental influences from the society he was born into disagreed, but that didn't matter either.

"What?!" She shouted back.

"Wanna see something really crazy?!"

She made a face, something bordering on disbelief. Emanuel took note of how her ears moved. "Crazier than that?!"

Emanuel nodded as the song reached a lull, the guitar chonking away in an echo as the chorus was whispered.

Brisk took a look out the window, at how fast everything was going past, looked back to him, and nodded rapidly.

Emanuel matched her massive smile and switched the car into low gear. They rolled down a hill, and he slowed down as he tried to catch an opening in the highway through the dark. He found it eventually, slowing down enough that he could actually hear the song over the wind. Still objectively fast, just not speeding anymore.

As the song picked up again, Emanuel pumped the breaks and switched gears. "Hold on!"

Through a series of practiced moves, Emanuel set he car into a sliding spin curving inwards towards the outside. Brisk screamed a rollercoaster scream as the car spun once, and Emanuel wrenched himself forwards and slammed into the gas and spun the wheel and switched the gear as the car pulled sideways in front of the highway juncture. The already slowing car caught the new momentum as the spin turned into a drift with the car now facing the opposite direction, there was a kick that wrenched everything in the car into the air as the back wheels skid into the grass around the gravel of the juncture, and the car spun through the guardrails and onto the other side of the highway.

Emanuel slammed the gas and the gear as the drift straightened out. "WOOO!" He shouted, slamming his hands onto the steering wheel. There was nothing like racing. Every maneuver felt like it's own world. There was nothing outside of it but reality; the endorphins and joy he got from executing that maneuver like he had before brought him up higher than any drug ever could have.

Brisk had enjoyed it too, her scream having turned into a laugh like his. The exhilaration and the wind and the music drifting and wedging themselves into the moment they were sharing as two wackjobs who totally almost died. Emanuel caught his breath as both of their laughter petered out. Unwrenching his hands from the wheel and de-tensifying his body. He put the car in the far right lane and went back up to a reasonable highway speed while waiting for an exit.

"So what did you think?" He called over while rolling up the windows.

Brisk looked like she'd just robbed a candy store. "Where did you learn how to drive like that!?"

"Racing gang?" He asked back, "Didn't I tell you that?"

"No?" Was her excited answer, not that she cared.

Emanuel had remembered thinking about his old home. He didn't remember telling her about his old family though. He may have just made an oopsie. "Woops." He shrugged. No use doing anything other than carrying on. "Well, I grew up around a racing gang. Remember those 'guys' I mentioned?"

Another gamble. Brisk was good about it though, he had to believe that. This whole thing hinged on it, after all.

Brisk's ears pivoted, and she tapped her hoof a few times. "Oooooooooooh!" She stretched it out like it was some massive epiphany. "That's why 'you may know more about cars than me' sounded like such a massive compliment!" She said with an adorable smile.

"It was," He started, "but keep in mind, I just know how to drive 'em. I'm not- I couldn't pull an engine, or anything fancy." Which was unfortunately the truth. Emanuel knew what most of the components looked like, and where not to put his hands when the engine was running, but that was about it.

"You're being modest." Brisk batted her eyelashes again, and Emanuel fought down another flush. Wondering when his subconscious had gotten so nervous around mares. "That was... I think, by definition. Fancy."

"Thanks." Emanuel turned off the highway up an unmarked hill. Tracking what looked like a sideroad to one of those emergency truck-stop pits. The thing ended hilariously quickly, and he slowed the car to a stop at the top of the hill.

Far enough away from the express way to be quiet. Far enough for them to be alone.

He wondered how she'd take that. He knew how he would have. He couldn't tell if that's what he wanted her to think.

To put it simply. He had stopped thinking when he got out of that booth. This was all haphazard 'yes anding' to his own actions. So he parked the car and undid the sunroof. The motors whirring back to life after being disturbed from their slumber to open up the top of the car to the sky. Of which was currently cloud free.

He offered Brisk a smoothie. Which she took in her aura with a silent smile while brushing back her mane away from her face with a hoof. Apparently she did get the romantic vibes, if her expression was anything to go by. He staggered verbally. Wondering what he should say in this circumstance.

Emanuel liked to think of himself as prepared. A thinker. All those imaginary circumstances conjured up in his head from parts of the past as he criticized what he should have done and what he would do in the future tended to lead to more realistic moments that he could pretend he had prepared for. Though, for this, he could be honest. How the hell was I supposed to be prepared for a date with an alien horse going so well that I don't want it to end.

She didn't bother with the smoothie. Choosing to meet his eyes for the moment. Eventually her lips parted, filling the quickly chilling air with her voice. Whether it was the voice or the air that sent a tingle up his spin, he was slightly unsure. "We both... not sure what to say?"

"Yeah." He settled on honesty. No need to twist the truth for someone who knew already.

Moments weren't lost as they passed through. He went for part two. "Want to just enjoy the silence for a little while?"

She broke eye contact first, taking the bashful approach to switching her gaze to the sky. She stared by chuckling, "I think I need a little quiet after almost becoming a road smear." and her voice turned softer as she stared upwards.

Emanuel eventually broke his own gaze from the mare in the seat next to him and stared at the sky as well.

(I don't have a compellingly overly-dramatic title for this one)

The silence was enough to wake up his mind. The exhilaration and nervousness had bled away into the sunroof. He had pulled a few of the mozzarella sticks to snack on while he watched the invisible clouds in the night sky obscure the stars. The few stars left to see. So he wondered.

As far as dates went, this was shaping up to be his best ever. How he was supposed to... functionally respond to the person he was out with being a mare had finally realized itself as a question he'd need to find an answer for. This isn't a one off date. I don't want it to be. So he wondered.

Obviously there'd be the fundamentals involved. He had her phone number, but would he get sucked into government nonsense? He was sure that his name had already been traced and his genetics sequenced the moment Brisk started texting him. She was here on lease from a program that had world leaders looking over it. Would his name show up in a footnote? How was he supposed to prepare for that?

For her?

The thought struck out similarly to his sideways thoughts about 'people as pets'. A lot of people tended to act... poorly, when given a comfortable situation. Everyone had needs, and Emanuel had no clue what attention a mare may need, or dieting for that matter. Obviously the simple solution would be to just ask, he didn't want to break the silence. He also needed more time to think. What you really need is to stop trying to plan every second of the future.

So he wondered.

Trying to let his thoughts drift without giving himself a headache. There were specifics, and a mental list would be a good start. Enjoying the moment went out the window, regardless of his awareness of it. He was interrupted by Brisk standing up, crawling over the space between the seats and turning to face him from her spot on his lap. She rested her front hooves on his chest and then sat back against the steering wheel. The position looked uncomfortable, but upon checking a second time, Emanuel confirmed that what he'd just seen happen did, in fact, just happen.

Emanuel blinked in confusion.

Brisk did the same.

"Uhhhh. Brisk?" Emanuel ventured.

She made an embarrassed noise not unlike a mouse squeaking in peril.

"What are you doing?" Emanuel questioned mostly on autopilot. His mind was focused elsewhere. She was lighter than he expected, warm and soft. The hooves on his chest were the same, he kept his own hands down and to the sides, completely uncertain. Pulled out of his internal quandaries by what was essentially a flashbang of physical contact, Emanuel's train of thought smashed into the end of the track and sprawled itself over the landscape in a fireball of broken thoughts.

"I-I-I-" Brisk stuttered, before shutting her eyes. Her ears folded down in Emanuel's best guess of a mix of equine stress and embarrassment. "I don't know!" She shouted in exasperation. There was a hollow laugh that followed the admission, one aimed at herself. "I have no idea what I'm doing!"

She opened her eyes again and looked around. "What is going on?! Where- wha- Where are we?" She made eye contact with Emanuel again, "Who are you?! What am I doing?"

Brisk had mistakenly opened her mouth and said what she was thinking. Ponies tended to not like her observations, despite how accurate they may be. To address the realism of the situation usually led to social ruin, and she had thrown the dice. Emanuel stared blankly at her for a moment. His face narrowed into something bordering on angry confusion, before he snorted.

Then he laughed.

Brisk shrunk into herself. He laughed hard enough for her to feel reverberating up his legs, and when she tried to move, a hand rose up to her shoulder to keep her in place. "I'm sorry-" another laughing fit, "Goodness. Well at least we know we're on the same page!"

Same-

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh at you." He quieted his laughing down to a chuckle. "It's just so easy to laugh at myself, and that was the most relatable thing I've ever heard." He made some facial expression Brisk didn't understand and then mimed out, "Who are we? Where are we? What are we doing here? and what's going on?"

He looked back to her, and softly said, "I have just as much of a clue as you do."

Brisk stared blankly this time.

Her mind settled on the fact that... She hadn't done something right per say. Climbing onto- Ohmygosh, Brisk, you were told not to touch people without asking and- It didn't matter. Both of them had settled on it being something alright. Emanuel didn't seem to mind it, not really. It just surprised him, it surprised her. She'd worked up the courage to do something, and something she did.

He was kinda comfortable, more comfortable than the chair; not that she was willing to move.

It didn't seem like he wanted her to. She didn't want to either.

"Here." Emanuel looked to the side, his hand went down and fiddled with the chair release. There was a quiet clicking of the catch moving and he pushed the chair down. All the way down. The change meant that Brisk was closer to laying on him than sitting. Needless to say, her attempt at showing interest had gone a little further than she intended and- Oh I hope he can't tell how red my face is.

"Better?" He asked, the ghost of his amusement still present in his tone.

Brisk, very aware of how her last attempt at doing something went, chose to simply nod to avoid complicating her response; despite wanting to. She leaned down, rested her head down on her hooves and stared into the stars. He stared back into her eyes too, of course. Both of them were aware of how uncomfortable strained eye contact was, but neither could resist. Comfortably wedged between a pretty comfy seat and a cozy, cuddly mare. Brisk internally argued that she was keeping the cold off of him, but she also had fur, so he could get a pass this one time.

They stared.

Brisk wondered what was going on in his head. Except... Not really. She could see it. They were both staring at each other, wondering what the other was thinking. Wondering what to do next. Neither of them were willing to push another inch because they didn't know what to do next. Brisk had jostled the situation away from stagnating by just forcing herself to do something, and now they were stuck again. Staring. Wondering. Thinking about themselves and each other. Cuddled under the stars, in the dark.

Emanuel blinked.

Brisk smiled at him.

He smiled back.

Gosh. Brisk giggled, "We're... ridiculous."

"Yeah, I'm-" He shook his head, "I'm just about in that mindset of being totally psychotic."

"What do we do next?" She asked, knowing what his answer was gonna be.

He raised a brow, "You're asking me?"

Brisk pushed into him a little. A gentle jostle. "Yes. I'm asking you. I just embarrassed myself climbing on top of you. Your turn."

Emanuel blinked once, and comprehension passed over his features. "Ah, that's fair. Well. Er- Permission to hug?"

Brisk giggled again, ironic how he was gonna ask her that. Probably habit, or he was trying to make it clear that he was only offering a hug. Regardless, Brisk nodded in her amusement, signaling his arms to raise up to her sides and brush into her fur. They ran up and around her shoulders until they met just behind the base of her neck, he grasped both of his hands together and gave her a tiny squeeze. The whole process was electrifying. Brisk was a lonely mare, and- get a hold of yourself. Behave.

Brisk's calmed response was an approving hum.

"This is usually the point in the conversation where we ask random questions, find all those little things." He commented, leading into, "Right?"

"Mmmm-youfirst." Brisk mumbled and pulled herself in closer, still staring. He didn't seem to mind. It was starting to feel less awkward. Nothing probably felt awkward while being held, Brisk wasn't sure, she'd never tried a swath of things while being held, she usually wasn't held in general. New experience, one that she liked a lot. It was probably only because of him.

"Well... Do youuuuuu~" He dragged out, still missing half of the thoughts, "Floss your teeth?"

Brisk gave him her best head tilt without compromising the snuggle. "I can lift things with my mind. Of course I floss. Do you?"

"Manipulators made of flesh." He shot back, half shrugging while he squeezed her again.

"I rate them." Brisk answered.

She had to ask him a question now too. How to bounce off of flossing though? Something informal, almost silly to ask another person, but still in line with some subtle conversation they were having between the lines. They had both decided they already knew each other. The important parts, the parts that made them compatible. Brisk had decided to... All in. She was going to see where this went. At this point, she was committed.

Brisk settled on what was on her mind at dinner. "Have you ever dated somebody else?"

"Not a very exciting story there." He manually winced. "I've been on two formal dates in my lifetime, both technical successes, though the persons in question didn't last."

"Say no more." Brisk interrupted. "You go."

"Hmmm." He pretended to think. Brisk could tell he'd already come up with his next question. He hadn't responded with the same look of nervous, adaptive confusion like he had before. He never got the chance to say anything though, as both Emanuel and Brisk nearly threw themselves out of the sunroof as somebody tapped on the glass on the passenger side window.

"Jesus fuc-" and "Bucking Tarta-" respectively.

After they settled, and Brisk steadied her heart, she tapped Emanuel's chest and said, "It's just jack. Roll down the window."

Emanuel did so.

Jack poked his scraggly brown face into the car with a very unamused looking brow.

Oopsies

Brisk sat up, and folded her ears down. "I take it... the... maneuvering-"

"You realize how many laws you just broke right?"

Emanuel helpfully chimed in with, "Uhhh." Still flabbergasted/shell-shocked by the federal agent that had simply appeared and accused him of breaking the law. Not that the accusation was incorrect. They probably lost Brisk in the chaos of him spinning around in circles and then essentially creating his own overpass.

Brisk turned on her serious tone, aware of how much trouble she may actually be in; and that she'd just dragged Emanuel into it too. Similarly, she was aware of the current situation Jack was looking at. He had arrived to see her laying on top of the man, but at least he was aware enough to know she was safe, and not... like... shoot the tires out or something equally scary. "It wasn't his fault-"

Emanuel raised a hand like he was in school, "It definitely was-"

"Both of you shush." Jack grumbled, and he did that things humans do where they grab their nose in their fingers. "Listen. Guy, I dunno who you are but-" he gestured at Brisk, "She seems to like you, and that's basically half our job. Nobody but us saw you, and if I can be honest, those were some pretty sick moves."

Emanuel smiled. "Tha-"

Brisk gave him a look.

"-t's a description of the events I'm in right now." He saved the comment, nodding chalantly. "Yup."

"Don't. Do that again." Jack said, "Brisk, you know how Amy worries, and that she's far more trigger happy than I am." He removed the pinchy fingers from his nose, "Amy was about to call in an airship and wake up half of Michigan's police force for a manhunt."

Emanuel nodded.

"I had to convince her not to shoot you through your back window when we found you both parked up here."

Emanuel nodded a little slower.

"Don't do that again. Clear?"

"Crystal." Emanuel chirped.

Brisk felt the need to say something, despite not being the target of the tongue lashing. "Thank you for checking on me, and for not shooting my date."

He pulled his head out of the window, and Brisk caught the tail end of him sarcastically mumbling, "Yeup. Big 'ol teddy bear Jack, at your service."

Both of them watched him walk away before settling back on each other again.

"I'm so sorry about that. I totally forgot they were shadowing me."

Emanuel smiled with his teeth, "I have that effect on mares." He joked.

Brisk bapped him on the chest, and then flopped back down into a lying position. "Don't be weird." She joked back.

"Can't help myself." He said, "Where were we?"

"Yes." Brisk mumbled, covering her face with her hooves. "Let's swiftly move past the part where I almost got you shot because I forgot who I was and that I never warned my handlers that we were leaving or that you were driving me."

"Bah-" He waved a hand, a hand that should have been back over her shoulders by now, in her opinion. "I would've been fine, Jack actually seemed really chill. Let's just move on."

"Lets."

Emanuel's hands went over her back again. This time they didn't fold into each other like before. He left his hands sprawled open over into her fur. It felt so strange to have all those digits all spread out, parting her fur all at once. Strange but good, obviously. She took a few more deep breaths as Emanuel held his question back for her to settle.

"Seeing as that you've asked about my previouses, and I've asked about your mouth-" wait- "I'm... Gonna ask it outright, because I want a clear answer, do you find me attractive?"

Did he ask if I floss because he wants to kiss me? Was that what that was about? Is he- he asked you a question. One thing at a time. Brisk kept the warmth at bay for a moment long enough for her to respond with a quiet and quick, "Yes."

Emanuel blinked, silently surprised. "Excuse- lemme ask a second one. Species barrier, it doesn't bother you?"

"Does it bother you?" She asked back. Worried.

He pursed his lips and considered. It didn't take him long. "A day ago, I would have unilaterally answered that question with yes. I don't feel bothered right now though..."

Brisk pressed a little deeper into the snuggle, and brought her nose a little closer to his face. "How do you feel right now?"

"Warm." He said, instantly. Almost before she was done asking. "I feel warm. I'm a little too hyper focused to be happy, but this is great. I hope I'm- my antsyness isn't bothering you. I feel like I keep twitching."

"It doesn't." Then she added on, "And I don't feel anything. Just you."

Emanuel fell silent.

Brisk capitalized on the silence by lowering her eyelids, "Do you find me attractive?"

Emanuel stared for a moment longer before answering, "That's too many questions in one go there missy." He smirked with the joke, but one hand ran down her side once, and then back up again. Enough of an answer for her, was it odd? The human equivalent of being pet, but what was he gonna do? I'm horse shaped. It's not that weird. That, and it felt nice. Not great. There was this spot on her back he could rub if he wanted, but she wasn't about to say that. She was too busy pretending to be aggravated at him half-dodging her question.

She sent him an exaggerated frown and pulled her nose back away from him. The moment having passed with his joke.

"I wanna know; how I should pet you?"

Brisk raised an eyebrow, "First, don't call it 'petting.' I'm not an animal."

Emanuel immediately went tone neutral. Verbally backpedaling away from what the thought was a mistake. "Noted. You seemed to like it. I wanted to ask to be sure."

Brisk had an opportunity here. "You don't have to be so guarded about touching me, or looking at me, or anything. I'm not going to freak out." He opened his mouth, Brisk interrupted, "Just- I'll tell you when to stop. How 'bout that?"

A blink.

Brisk settled again, leaning down into him, hoping that was enough of a prompt.

He needed to be okay with touching her. She wasn't sure what kind of trauma he had with touching, because there was something clearly deeper at work than him just being respectful. She needed him to be okay with touch. The longer this went on, the more Brisk decided that she wanted this to work. Actually work. You were chanting 'one off practice date' less than two hours ago Brisk.

Emanuel's hands shifted from open to clawed. He scratched up her sides, and Brisk's eyes fluttered on their own. He was apparently not just rubbing her sides, but had been tracing out where her muscles were in her back. Information he used to trace his nails up the musculature where her sides met her spine, and then back up to her neck and- Oh how things change. Brisk hummed in approval. She'd figured that out herself. Saying no was only a little more important than saying yes at the right time, though one of them was distinctly more fun.

His fingers traced down her shoulders and across where her neck met her chest, she pressed into his hands and then he scratched up her neck, where her head comfortably fell to rest in his hands. He gave her one more parting scritch on the cheek and then ran his hands back down the opposite side of her neck, electrifying her spine as he followed it back down to her sides. She let out another, louder, hum as he crossed over that spot she could never reach, and when he circled back again, he focused a little harder to dig his fingers into where she had prompted him to.

Elysium, if she had to put it to words. Something special about the man himself, only doubled by the fact that he could figure his way around her with barely a glance and a stroke. He was no expert, but hands in general largely made up for it. The treatment was doing wonders for her focus. Her stress was long gone now, any social anxiety having been quietly snuffed out due to her vulnerable position, and the constant reinforcing benefit she was receiving for doing so.

Emanuel was deeply glad for Brisk doing most of the work leading up to this moment; he may have pulled her out of that booth, but the rest was basically all her. He was so far outside of his comfort zone that it was starting to be a physical strain to not twitch his eyes or bounce his knee or something. Stop stressing yourself out and you'll be fine. Dummy. Brisk was helping, of course, there was nothing like a big, fuzzy body to ease the nerves. Not to mention the looks she kept sending him. All the contact and the romance, the conversation and the stress were mixing together in the boiling pot of his mind. It was its own kind of hell.

One he didn't feel like leaving.

Brisk was certainly enjoying it.

The good news is that he could stop all his nervous ticks by moving his hands. Focusing on defining the angles of her, the shape. Trying not to focus too hard, lest he pop a blood vessel. It was dark, and he could pretty much only go by feel, and she'd basically told him too, despite him struggling wi- She told you she'd tell you when to stop. He steadied his breathing.

Ah. That's what that feeling is. I'm scared.

Scared of intimacy.

Scared of going too far.

Not going far enough.

Messing it up. Getting hurt. Hurting someone else.

Scared.

Emanuel steadied his breathing a little more forcefully while he focused on following Brisk's subtle instructions. Her eyes kept fluttering every time he did a long scratch, moving to a new area, and there was this spot on her back she kept humming to whenever he rubbed or scratched. Focus. And he wouldn't be scared if he could just be an observer. Work. It's not intimacy if he's doing it from the outside. He won't be vulnerable if he doesn't engage. Nobody can get hurt if he-

Emanuel stopped. He tried to pull the tight frown off his face, and failed. It melted on its own as Brisk nuzzled into his chest, her eyes droopily expressing her gratitude, even though he had stopped.

She told you to push a boundary. Like she had. Not- calm down. Emanuel tried to calm down. Calm down. As obvious to most who tried to calm a panicking person by simply telling them to 'calm down', Emanuel's attempt didn't work. Though he kept the mantra, chanting to himself to stay calm as Brisk's ears perked and her eyes opened all he way.

Seemingly having realized his internal state and also probably noticing the external shaking, though Emanuel was trying to ignore that part, Brisk softly, carefully asked, "Are you okay?"

Emanuel swallowed his pride. Being a man didn't mean 'being empathetic', it meant not ignoring your emotions like he was trying to do. "No. Sorta." Emanuel wrapped his hands around her again to steady himself. The pressure helped him stop shaking, and she pressed into him more, carefully maneuvering her horn so as not to poke him, she pressed her muzzle under his chin in an attempt to comfort him. The affection renewed half the problem. The anxiety and warmth splicing together into the same energetic mix.

Brisk sat up. "Too much?"

Emanuel didn't let himself think about the answer, he just snap fired off the truth. "Yes."

Brisk stayed where she was, though she made the effort to try and take some more weight off of him. He put his hands on his chest with her hooves, not touching, just there to mimic what she had down. Not leaving, but backing off. A moment passed where the situation changing let Emanuel bleed his anxiety.

"I'm sorry." Brisk mumbled.

"Don't be." Emanuel responded, probably a little more curtly than he intended. He was frustrated with himself, and hoped that his tone was clear that he was upset with him and not her. "I wanted that, I just..." Embarrassment. "Couldn't handle it."

Apparently he wasn't over it.

That burned hotter than any fumbling or rambling words. His own internal accusations of what he'd done wrong and what he was supposed to do next to 'fix' what he'd just mussed up already trying to assail him. Brisk backing off was really helping. More than it should have. He definitely shouldn't have tried to force himself to- despite how much she seemed to like it. Liked. Not seemed. She liked that up until she realized it was freaking you out. He looked up at her.

She smiled a soft smile, and adjusted her mane, so it wasn't in her face.

Steady.

He grabbed her hooves, and gently directed her back down. She followed silently, and gently laid her head down on his chest again.

Steady.

Emanuel took a deep breath, and Brisk smiled wider. She angled her head down, pressed her ear against his chest so she could listen. So Emanuel took another deep breath. Her opposite ear flicked once, and she closed her eyes again.

... Steady...

Emanuel calmed himself, steadily. With the knowledge that the moment was frozen like this, and Brisk was letting him lead. An evil thought crossed his mind, that she was just an animal and he was a man and that he shouldn't be panicking like that. One of those thoughts designed by his subconscious to check to make sure he still found what it just presented abrasive and disgusting. He banished the thought and went back to holding Brisk's hooves. He'd drawn them into her chest when she'd laid down, and her hooves just naturally curled inwards.

He set his voice into a whisper, not willing to disturb the gently settling peace. "Who asked last? I can't remember."

Brisk didn't alter her position at all. She kept her eyes closed, held onto his hands, kept her ear pressed down into his chest. She whispered back, "We'll just count that question as yours and I'll go next."

Wha- oh dang it.

"Got me." He joked. A fake smile came to his face.

She giggled, then settled again. She was so carefree. Emanuel was already wondering when the anxiety was going to strike again, while carefully trying not to disturb the moment of peace he had clawed his way into. His smile naturally turned real as he heard her voice. "Where do you buy clothes?"

Emanuel usually bought clothes when he saw something worth buying. Same as anyone, he assumed. Trying to spot a decent mix between cost and quality at a glance whenever he happened to be in a store. He wasn't a massive fan of shopping for clothes in general.

"Around." He whispered. "Nowhere in particular. Just when I can find something good I like." Another peaceful moment passed, after his words had finished being said, finished being heard, and had started the process of being recontextualized in the mind.

Brisk hummed in approval. Both to verify she understood his answer, and to prompt him to ask his own question.

"Where do you buy your clothes?" Emanuel asked back. He'd wanted to know since he'd complimented her beanie. He knew ponies wore clothes sometimes. Whether or not Brisk had anything other than accessories was up in the air, but he asked. No point thinking about it. As he was about to find out.

"The same." She mumbled. "If I see something I like for a price that's fair. It's mine."

Then Brisk asked him another mundane question. He told her the truth. With no twisting. Even when it made him feel weird to confront how he strangely didn't fit into society. She was literally a horse. If anyone was going to understand his societal-dysmorphia, it would be her. Then he asked a question back, and... the same thing happened. From another angle.

Mirrors.

Funny how they're everywhere. In everything. But you'll never notice them until they reflect you.

Brisk was like him. Successfully trying to fit into a society she didn't understand.

They talked into the night.

About the sky.

About food preference.

Hoof care.

Cars. That part of the back and forth went on for a while.

Eventually, half way into him explaining how microwaves worked, Brisk began to snore.

He stared at her. Somehow... So far away from his own thoughts, engulfed in this moment with her. She'd fallen asleep with a smile on her face, and Emanuel elected to do the same. Resting his hands over her back, Emanuel leaned back and took a glance at the sky before realizing he ought to close the sunroof before passing out.

After a bit of careful maneuvering to not wake the sleeping fuzz ball, he leaned all the way back, adjusted his shoulders, and closed his eyes too.

Reflections

Brisk didn't bother opening her eyes. She could tell by feel, and mostly by memory. She had fallen asleep, his fault, he was comfy. She was comfy. She felt safe. At peace. Brisk felt at home. Usually when she woke up, it was a list. Figure out what to do first, methods, usually there was work. She didn't to waste her time on earth, so she prioritized. Maybe she was a little neurotic about it, but that wasn't the point.

The compulsion to keep moving was quiet.

Brisk didn't feel the need to get up. She laid there, under his arms. He'd fallen asleep holding her, she wasn't sure when. She remembered him talking about microwaves. It was a long night. She'd woken up due to the sun coming up over the horizon. Morning light bounced around the car, she wasn't certain how he'd stayed asleep, since the sun was basically pointing into his face. She got to tell her Earth side pony friends that she'd slept with a human now though. That would be amusing when she got around to it.

Emanuel was pretty. Sleeping in the sunlight, she just looked over him; his features, while he wasn't actively managing them, had a sense to it. His face sagged around the edges where the ghost of a smile had slowly disappeared off his face as he slept. His eyes were pressed closed, it almost looked like he was awake, or in pain. The subtle signs of stress appearing on his face the more Brisk looked at him.

She also didn't necessarily help... Last night. She'd been a bit too forward, confused his trepidation for anxiety rather than what it actually was. Brisk still wasn't sure what exactly happened, but she backed off and he was okay and she should probably just talk with him when he woke up, rather than stressing over it without anything to do about it at the moment. Brisk took a deep breath and snuggled closer. She put her head back down and closed her eyes again. She could bask in the sun for a little bit longer.

Her mane would need to be fixed. It had the tendency to puff out for no reason.

Brisk was chugging away on the inside. She was just thinking about him, rather than her day. She'd found something else to focus on, and was deeply debating waking him up so she could talk to him. With him. Maybe at him, if he wanted. Those few hours of just talking back and forth were everything she'd every wanted in a relationship. Call it the snap response of an overtly lonely mare who had found something close enough to companionship that...

She looked over him again.

I'm going to cling to you and never let you go. Brisk felt his heartbeat. She'd probably have to work on reigning herself, rather than defaulting to excitable filly with a schoolyard crush. Mature, real, domestic connection. Real connection. She'd found genuine connection. It was baffling. She wanted it. It felt great to want something, to be okay with wanting something she actually liked.

He wasn't nice, just like she wasn't nice. They just were and-

How can you ramble in your head. Brisk hit the metaphorical breaks. Slowing her mind down from trying to piece together every tiny little emotional and contextual nuance of the past seven or so hours. She was going to enjoy this moment damnit! She had nailed a date with a person from another dimension. It ended with snuggles and long conversations into the night.

Functionally, and arguably, Brisk was The Best.

She held off chuckling to herself. Mostly because she was talking to herself and it made her seem a little crazy. Which was the wild part. She liked that. She liked being a little crazy. Emanuel liked her crazy. Maybe being crazy was the answer the whole time, and maybe she should stop calling herself crazy. Probably no good for me. Goodness she hoped he'd wake up soon.

Along side that wish came reality. Emanuel stirred gently. His face changed, and he visibly got younger as he adjusted to being awake. She was going to greet him, but watching him go from being asleep to awake, back to how he looked when she met him shook her slightly. They'd deeply connected over their inability to connect with others, and she just got flashbanged by the fact that she didn't know him, or why he felt the need to hide his face from her. It was a stark reminder that relationships take work. Not spontaneous meetings with compatible extraterrestrials, despite how helpful that was to moving things along.

Emanuel's eyes blinked open, and he cut his stretching out as he realized there was a mare laying on him. Looking at him for something she wanted to say. She wanted to make him feel like she did, extend the comfort, so to speak. Then the memories of his very short cut panic fit reminded her that he'd need time. It was a good reason to go slow, to let someone else lead. That was another first. Opening up, exhilarating. Slowing it down, grappling with the nuances as she stared at him.

"Hey."

Brisk smiled. "Hey."

Emanuel inhaled, moving Brisk up slightly as his chest extended. He blinked wearily, and continued his stretch. "So I take it... Date successful?"

Brisk let her chuckles out. The tension slipping out. "Yes."

"Locked down a second?" He ventured.

"Yes." She answered, meaning it.

He raised a sarcastic brow. "Sticking to singulars then?"

Brisk giggled, naturally, immediately enjoying his company. His sarcasm, wit. It was jus a few words Brisk. Goodness filly, calm down. She kept the giggling. "Yes." She settled on, having not focused enough on her words to come up with anything other than continuing the joke. Worth it, in her opinion.

"Ooohboy- what am I gonna do with you." He looked her over, "And your mess of a mane. Jeez, did I do that?"

Brisk levitated her beanie up and off her head. Shaking up her poofy self. "No, it just gets like this when I sleep. Every. Single. Morning." She grumbled, "I don't suppose you have a-" Brisk's rhetorical request was interrupted by Emanuel extending his shoulder sideways into the backseat and sticking his hand into the passenger seat pocket, he pulled out a wet-brush, leaned back over, and silently handed it to her. "Thanks... You just have a brush?"

"I keep a spare of essential toiletries in whatever car I'm driving around. Jamie is fine with it." He clarified, reminding Brisk that this wasn't technically his car. "There's a comb in there too, mouthwash."

Brisk telekinetically raised the brush to her mane and started working at it. Emanuel had handed it to her. She was sure he knew she might want him to brush her. He'd done more the night before. She trusted that he'd thought about it, that he'd wanted to simply let her do it herself. Another reminder to slow down. Relationships were fundamentally easy to irrevocably and permanently screw up. She didn't want to do that. She brushed her mane herself. He watched her though, filing how she did it for later. "What's next?" She asked, pressing her head against the weight of the brush and the tangles.

"Breakfast?"

Brisk snrked, "I said second date, I didn't mean right now."

He smiled and booped her on the nose. "I didn't hear a no."

"'Cause I didn't say no. Silly. Where'd we go?"

He shrugged. As well as he could from a laying position, with his arms over her. He had yet to move them, only repositioning when he reached over for the brush, and as she moved around to talk. "Dunno yet. I was just gonna drive until I found something."

Brisk internally reeled from the reality of the comment. Something she'd only thought in part a long time ago. Run away, until you find something worth staying for.

"That sounds nice."

And it was.