I peer out of Twilight's door as the rain pounds the bark of her treehouse.
Twilight asks, "Do you want to stay here tonight, Pinkie?"
My answer is made for me as thunder roars in the distance.
"Sure! This is going to be so much fun!"
"Oh, I'm so excited! What should we do, read a book? I've been reading a lot of romance lately."
Twilight doesn't wait for my reply. Instead she starts getting books down from the shelves, showing them to me faster than I can read the titles. But I notice a book with an old-timey castle on the front of it, and I get inspired and build the castle out of the books Twilight is showing me.
Eventually she turns around and notices the castle, causing her mouth to hang open in shock. "Woah… I didn't think I grabbed that many books…"
I lower the drawbridge, which is made of books. "It's okay, come on in!"
She comes inside and I give her a hug.
She returns the hug. "Nice job on the castle."
"Thanks, but how about instead of reading a story, we make our own! You've got so many books here, we can make anything we want out of them."
"Hmm. What story should we tell, though?"
"It could be anything. What story do you want to tell?"
Twilight's ears fold back, and she looks down at the floor for a second before looking back up at me. "Could we go on a date? Like a fake one… I've never been on a real date."
"Absolutely! That sounds fun."
Twilight hugs me tightly. "Thanks."
"You're welcome."
After the hug, Twilight asks, "What do we do first on our date?"
As I think about how dates work, something immediately comes to mind. "Let's go on a romantic walk on the beach."
"How do we do that with just a pile of books?"
"We can use books with different colors… and our imagination."
"Oh, okay."
"Can you find some books we can use for sand?"
"Sure," Twilight says before exiting the castle.
I follow her and wait for the books to be funneled my way.
As the books comes my way, I pile them up around the castle, forming a circle around it, with the books stacked higher near the castle.
Twilight gives me the last book and turns to me. "Wow, that's a surprisingly good beach."
"Thank you. Do you wanna make the ocean?"
"I can try."
Twilight levitates down a lot of blue books before staring at the beach I had made.
Eventually she starts placing the ocean. She blankets the entire floor with the books, leaving a small ring around the beach book free for us to walk in.
She looks at me and asks, "How did I do?"
"You did amazing!"
Twilight blushes and asks, "You ready for our romantic walk on the beach?"
I nod, and we come together and slowly trot side by side on the path.
Twilight asks, "What makes a walk like this romantic?"
"I think it's all about being together with another pony. Maybe we're supposed to talk about our interests and hobbies."
"Well, I really like learning new things. I love reading and studying. I love my friends and I like you, a lot."
I nuzzle Twilight as we walk. "I like you too. I love throwing parties and making my friends smile!"
Twilight blushes as we trot in silence.
She's really cute when she's blushing.
I try not to think about that and continue on. After all, this isn't a real date.
As we walk along the thin path, we occasionally bump and rub against each other. Each touch sends tingles through my mind.
This must be a really good fake date if its making me feel like this.
Twilight stops us and we turn towards the ocean.
She says, "The waves are really beautiful, like you." Twilight levitates more blue books in front of us and uses them to make waves in the ocean of books.
I blush as I stare at the extremely cute wave simulation, then I hold her hoof.
After the moment is over Twilight puts the waves back, and we continue our slow walk.
I wonder what else we can talk about, and think of a good question. "Twilight, why did you want to go on a date me?"
"I love your personality, you always make me smile and laugh. You think of things I never would have. You're also the prettiest mare I've ever seen. Your presence never fails to brighten my mood."
"Aww, thank you!" I say before pulling Twilight into a tight hug.
She hugs back and after the hug, I give my own answer.
"I wanted to go on date with you because I love your personality too. You're so curious and knowledgeable. You ask why to my why not. You're also super-duper pretty. You make me smile just by being nearby."
Twilight blushed, saying, "Thank you."
We finish another lap of the castle and stop at the gate.
Twilight looks at me and asks, "What do we do now?"
I think for a moment before my stomach grumbles. "Let's have a romantic candle-lit dinner. What do you think?"
"That sounds good. What should we eat?"
"How about this - I make the food, and you make the setting."
"You really think I can do that?"
"Those waves were pretty creative. You got this. "
"Okay, let's do it!"
With that I leave her to it while I head to the kitchen thinking of what to make.
Looking through her cupboards I find exactly what I am looking for: spaghetti. What romantic dinner is complete without spaghetti?
I begin to make the pasta as I think about the date.
The date has gone really well.
I'm glad I could help Twilight out.
Her first date should be something special.
I wonder if there is somepony specific she has a crush on.
If this weren't a fake date, I'd say it was me.
But, if she liked me, why would it be a fake date?
At least we're both having fun.
I focus on making the food and hum to myself until the pasta and sauce are finished.
I prepare a single big plate of spaghetti and carry it into the other room.
Twilight is standing next to our dining arrangement, a fancy looking table and chairs made of books. Candles sat lit on the corners of the table.
"This looks amazing!" I say before setting the food down in the center of the table.
"Thank you," Twilight says with a hint of a blush on her face.
We sit down and stare at each other for a moment.
Twilight says, "The food looks delicious."
"Thanks."
As I continue to stare, a blush starts to form on my face. I start eating to hide it.
Twilight starts eating as well, levitating the end of a noodle before slurping it up.
I munch down on the food rather quickly as I am starving.
We make quick work on the food, but as it dries up, I start to slurp a particularly long noodle. I follow it, and it leads me right to Twilight. Before I knew it our lips met and we stared into each other's eyes.
After the accidental kiss, I apologize. "I'm sorry, Twilight."
Twilight blushes. "Oh, it's alright. I liked it…"
I blush and finish the rest of the food.
Twilight levitates some napkins and cleans both our faces.
"Thank you."
We sit in silence again and stare at each other.
Twilight breaks the silence eventually. "What should we do next?"
"Why don't you pick the next thing, since I picked the first two."
Twilight thinks for a moment, before suggesting, "How about I make a little show for us to watch?"
"That sounds fun!" I say with a smile.
"Come with me." Twilight gets up and leads me into the castle of books.
We sit down inside before Twilight asks, "How do you close the gate?"
I point at a specific book and say, "Pull that."
Twilight does, and the gate raises up.
Twilight scoots close to me and wraps a hoof around me, holding me tight. I lean into her embrace and hold her hoof to my chest.
She strategically pulls rectangle of books out of the wall of the castle in front of us, then levitates a purple book into the frame. "This is a story about a lonely book."
She levitates five more books into frame, each a different color: pink, blue, white, yellow, and orange.
"The book had friends, sure, but her loneliness was from a lack of romantic companionship."
Twilight levitates all but the pink book away.
"But, one day, she started feeling different around one of her book friends."
She brings the two books really close.
"She had a crush on her friend, but didn't know what to do or how to express her feelings."
She spins the pink book in her magic.
"Luckily for her, her pink book friend had to stay the night, so they could do something together."
She spins the purple book now.
"She asked if they could go on a fake date. She thought if she could go through the motions of a date, maybe by the end she would have the courage to ask her friend out."
She puts the books together and moves them in a circle around the frame.
"So, they went on a romantic walk at the beach."
Twilight moves the books to the center and makes them bump into each other.
"They had a romantic dinner and accidentally kiss."
She puts the books together in the corner and adds a third book on the other side.
"They watched a play put on by the purple book."
She moves the books to the center and places them down.
"And then…"
I ask, "What happens next?"
Twilight squeezes me tighter. "Well, that depends."
"On what?"
"Pinkie, can we change the past? Can we make this date real? Will you go out with me?"
I can't think of what to say as I remember the events of the date. Everything replays in my head with a new intention. A blush overtakes my face as the realization hits.
I have a crush on Twilight.
I don't do anything, I simply turn to Twilight and kiss her gently.
"Does that answer your question?"
Twilight returns the kiss.
I wrap my hooves around her and hold her tight.
Her face blushes in full and we break the kiss.
Twilight just says, "Thank you!"
"Thank you for asking for the date, and for having the courage to ask me out."
We smile at each other before we hug tightly.
After the hug I ask, "So, did the books have a happy ending?"
"I don't know how their story ends, but I can say it has a good beginning," Twilight says before giving me a kiss on the cheek.
I nuzzle her chest, "I agree, they had an amazing start."
We both giggle and hold each other tight.
