Princess Celestia sat opposite to the stallion at the small dinner table, watching as he nervously sipped his wine. She could tell that he was trying very hard to not appear nervous. But she'd seen this so many times before. The evening was not going at all like he had expected. Oh, sure, he was enthusiastic to be greeted in the castle foyer by Princess Celestia after receiving an invite to a Royal Dinner. But when it became clear that it would be just the two of them, and not a large gathering, his emotional walls went up.

She could see it in his face. The gears working behind his eyes. Every mannerism carefully planned as so to not offend. "Did I use the appropriate fork for the salad?" He'd wonder. "Is my wine glass on the correct side of my plate?" She would watch his eyes quickly dart to her table setting, and then checking his own for correctness, and adjusting accordingly. On a few similar occasions, she would intentionally miss-arrange her dining accouterments, just to mess with them. But not tonight. She'd even purposely taken the lower of the two seats so as to not tower over him with her height.

He kept an even pace with her as they dined. Making sure to eat neither faster nor slower than she. He took small bites and chewed quietly. Just as a polite colt should. Celestia wanted nothing more than to just shovel the whole bowl into her mouth and chew with her mouth open, loudly. It had been a long day and the paltry salad would not fill the ravenous craving she harbored.

"Did you enjoy your salad?" she asked. The stallion's head snapped to attention so quickly at the sound of her voice in the otherwise silent room, that she feared that he'd injured himself. If he had, he gave no indication.

"Oh yes, Your Highness! It was fantastic!" he said, with more enthusiasm than any salad called for. Especially not this one. It was small, and most of the ingredients in it were at the end of their season. Even the lettuce was limp and pale. She could have made a better dish herself, if given the chance.

"Please, call me Celestia," she said, taking her gold tiara and placing it on the corner of the table. With a hoof she brushed back her waving mane slowly. "Or just Tia even," she said with smirk accompanied by a seductive wink. He cut a quick glance toward the closed door as though he was expecting to be accosted by the royal guards for seeing her without her helm of office.

"I- uh, I don't think tha- that would be appropriate," he stammered.

"Oh, well, what's wrong with being a little-" she unclasped her gold, jeweled collar and let it slip from her shoulders, "... inappropriate-" Celestia pulled the ornate golden shoes from her hooves, setting them on the floor one by one with a metallic clink. "Every once in a while," -clink- "behind closed doors?" -click- It was strange, seeing her without her accessories. But somehow, with the tiny bits of gold removed, she seemed especially bare. Naked.

"Uh, um, I uh-" He felt a tug at his tie and she manipulated it with her magic.

"Come on. You can't tell me that you're actually comfortable in that suit," she said as she pulled the tie free and undid the first button. "There now. Relax!" She punctuated the statement with a smile.

"Princess-"

"Please, call me Tia." He stopped in mid sentence after she'd cut him off, unsure of how to proceed. "What? is it a crime to have dinner with one's princess?"

"I- I don't know. I'm not particularly well-versed on Equestrian law." He drank the rest of his wine with a deft speed that she hadn't expected from him. "I suppose that you would be the expert." Her frustration grew with each passing moment.

"I am. And it's not. So you don't need to be so nervous. I just wanted a casual dinner. So relax," she said, a bit more curt than she had intended. "Now then, tell me- and forgive me for being direct, but-" She shifted her chair closer, "are you... romantically involved?" She knew perfectly well that he was not.

"N- no." His new-found stutter became increasingly exacerbated.

"Would you like to be?" she asked.

"B- But Your Highness, I thought this was going to just be-"

"Dinner?" she finished his sentence and motioned to the table. He looked down at his plate. It was empty. The dinner part of her 'casual dinner' had concluded. "How about dessert?" She put her hoof on his lap. "Do you want it right here on the table? Or would you prefer to eat out-" She stood, flicking his nose with her tail, heavy with her scent, "on the balcony?"

"I- I ah- AURGH!" He turned away at the last second and retched onto the floor. Celestia sighed and gathered up her collar, crown and shoes, heading for the door.

"Guards!" she called out. The door opened and a royal guard walked in, passing her as she walked out.

"Princess! Your Highness!" The stallion called out. "I'm sorry! I was just nervous! Forgive me, please!"

"I would." Celestia said from the doorway without even turning around. "If only you had done the one thing I asked." Behind her, the guard gave a clipboard to the pony.

"Please sign this non-disclosure affidavit affirming that you will not discuss tonight's events with anypony," the guard said, passing the clipboard to him as the other offered a ready towel.

"I asked you to call me Tia." She walked out of the room. "And stop treating me like a princess!"