Date with the Delivery Mare

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?"