I picked up the Sunday newspaper and started skimming through it after a run, quick shower, and putting Burning Time on. “Missing Manehattan foal found, mysterious arsons continue, new fever medicine developed, experimental cookie plant goes wrong, ah, here we go. King Gaston is dead, replaced by one of his elite guards, now King Ironbeak. The late King Gaston died from. . . A single stab to the heart?” After trying to figure out how that could have been the case with what I’d heard from Garrison, I read on.

According to various reports, compiled by Spring Dew of the Canterlot Times, the late King Gaston, after his trip to the Carne Den, was very upset that he didn’t get a number of things, along with some other events that occured that went against his will, including the Carne Den’s owner, Yang Xiao Long, giving, food, water, and rest to his elite guards.

The late King Gaston, in his rage a couple days after returning, started beating his secretary hen. After a few hits, the secretary fought back, grabbing a spear and landing it right in his heart. Numerous bruises and cuts were seen on the hen at the funeral processions. King Ironbeak has publicly nominated her to be his secretary, during which he vowed that he would treat not only her, but all of the castle staff better than the late King Gaston.

King Ironbeak made a number of other vows as well to the attending crowd at the Griffonstone Castle, including the following:

Ceasing all meat smoker seizesDrastic cuts to taxesReevaluation of spendingGetting rid of prohibitive and pointless laws and regulationsIncreased transparency in public affairsReopening the castle library to the general public

King Ironbeak also announced that, after making sure everything is in order in the Griffon Empire, he will start making diplomatic trips to meet with other nations’ leaders. In that announcement, he also asked that any eager diplomatic visits to him be held off until he is ready for them. This request, clarified by King Ironbeak, does not stop anyone, even diplomats and leaders, from simply visiting the nation as it hopefully heals.

I stopped reading the article and set the paper down, a smile forming on my face for multiple reasons. Aside from the change in leadership to someone more promising, it also meant that the cost of my meat imports could go down.

One thing I hadn’t fully sorted out in the days since Ironbeak got promoted were my feelings for Garrison. I’d gotten to the point where I could ignore the stray thoughts while I was working, but that meant my nonwork time was even more filled with them. I’d come to admit to myself that he was indeed handsome in my eyes, and that it would be nice to wake up with a griffon blanket everyday. I even had a brief moment of pride when I tried to figure out who could say they could wake up with a griffon everyday before realizing that would be a majority of griffons that could say that, along with a few from the other sapient species on the planet.

Luna’s counseling in my dreams helped me start to accept the feelings, though I wasn’t ready to embrace them. At the same time, I was also feeling eager to accept and embrace both the feelings and Garrison, leaving a big conflict in my mind between both sides.

A knock from the front door caught my attention, pulling me from my thoughts. As I made my way out of the office, the knocking came again. “Coming!” I got to the door and opened it before anymore knocking could be done. “Garrison?” The griffon was unarmored, revealing his unruly feathers and white fur with dark grey swirls.

“Hello, Yang. I. . . Sweet Celestia, you look beautiful in that dress.” He trailed off for a bit before snapping back to reality. “Ah, I came here to give you something.” He reached to the side of the doorway and produced a bouquet of roses, predominantly bright yellow with some purple mixed in. “For you.”

I accepted the bouquet. “Oh, uh, thanks.” Inside, my mind was racing. “WHAT DO I DO NOW?” I took a sniff of the roses. “They’re nice.”

“Thank you,” Garrison cordially replied. “I also have this.” He reached to the other side of the doorway and produced a heart shaped box, tied up with a ribbon. “Only the best, for you.”

I shifted the bouquet around and accepted the box, from the Canterlot Chocolatier’s Shop. “Wow. I’m not sure what to say.” I really had no clue what to do.

For a few moments, we just stood there. Garrison broke the silence. “If it’s not too much of a problem, may I come in?”

I felt my heart begin to beat harder. “Sure. Do you want anything to eat?”

“Maybe in a bit,” Garrison said as he walked in, closing the door behind him. “I have something I need to tell you first.” He rushed over to a table for two, set the chairs down, and held one for me.

After setting the chocolates and flowers on the table, I sat down and he pushed my chair in like a gentleman. “So, what’s up?”

Garrison sat down and took a breath before speaking. “First, I need to confess: my name isn’t Garrison. My full and real name is Shamrock Blackbeak, and I am a descendant of the legendary sky pirate, Captain Blackbeak. One day, I want to become a sky pirate as great as him, hunting down treasure wherever it may lie.” I thought back on the history books I’d read, but nothing about a griffon named Blackbeak came to mind. The closest I was coming up with was the human pirate Captain Blackbeard.

I snapped myself out from staring into his eyes to take my turn with an introduction. “I’m Yang Xiao Long, as you know, and, um, I have a restaurant. We’re at it right now. It’s a very profitable place, especially as nobody else in Ponyville or most of Equestria is serving meat.” Shamrock nodded as I finished my introduction. “You’ve probably heard of my exploits and victories, but I prefer the Carne Den over all that.” I saw something glint in the light around Shamrock’s neck and focused on it. “What’s that?”

“This?” Shamrock held up the silver necklace, which looked like a diagonal square with a line going through the topmost corner. “I found it during an eight year voyage with my grandfather at the first place we stopped, and it’s been right here with me ever since.”

“He sounds like a great griffon.”

Shamrock’s face dropped at that. “Yeah, he was. But two years after that voyage, he died. I can still remember the last thing he said to me: ‘Shamrock, the greatest treasure I ever found wasn’t gold or some artifact or trinket, but our voyage together. Wealth is fleeting, but experiences, those can’t be forgotten or lost.’ An hour later, he died. When I was at his gravestone for the first time, I fell down and cried in front of it for over an hour.” I reached across the table and put my hands over his talons as he finished the story. “After that, I set my sights on the greatest treasure I knew of: King Gaston’s treasury. For three years, I served under him as Garrison, and I quickly became the head of his elite guards. I got close to it, but never actually snagged any of his treasury.”

“And now that it’s Ironbeak’s?”

“I don’t want to take it anymore, now that it’s his.” He picked his head back up and looked at me, gently putting a talon over my hands. “There’s a greater golden treasure right here with me.” I blinked at his two-liner and sat back up, reclaiming my hands. I was starting to like him even more as we were talking, bringing a smile to my face and greater confusion and panic to an area in the back of my mind that was about as big as three grains of sand.

I decided to play with the words a bit. “Yeah, I do treasure my hair quite a bit. Woe betide anyone who damages it.”

“You like your hair that much?”

“No, it’s more that I get angry at anyone or anything that damages it. It’s an involuntary reaction that I don’t like, even though it’s saved me before.” I decided to change topics, looking around a bit before settling on the chocolate and flowers. I opened the chocolate box and saw a spread of chocolates inside, along with a piece of paper showing what each one had in it. Some were plain, others has wafers, cream, fruit, peanut butter, or jelly inside. I picked up a plain disk and popped it into my mouth. Immediately, my face started to screw up in disgust.

“Is something wrong?” Shamrock asked, clearly concerned.

“No, no,” I said around the melting chocolate before using a bit of extra heat to quickly melt it before forcing it down. “I just don’t like dark chocolate, that’s all.”

Shamrock looked at the box in confusion. “But I heard dark chocolate was supposed to be romantic. Were they wrong?”

“If it’s any consolation, the gesture is sweet. Personally, I prefer milk chocolate, which actually is sweet.” Silence reigned for a bit. “So, um, if you want to get me a milk chocolate one. . . This is getting awkward for me.”

“Why don’t we both go there?” Shamrock suggested.

“Yeeeah, but I don’t want to go to Canterlot and back just for chocolate.” I suddenly remembered a gift certificate I had that was sitting in my room, gathering dust. “Why not make a day of it? Maybe next Sunday? We could try a place up there called Grill 32. It is a rather fancy place, though.”

“And then we could go get dessert as well.”

I nodded at the idea. “Yeah, yeah that sounds nice. It’s a date, then?”

“It’s a date.” Shamrock and I both had big grins on our faces, and we also took it as his cue that the meeting had come to a close.

After seeing him out, reaffirming the date, and waving farewell, I turned back and was on the way to the table when I suddenly fell off Cloud Nine, realizing what had happened. “Did I just set myself up on a date with him?!” Panic briefly overcame me and I started pacing the area in front of the bar. After a few rounds, I managed to get myself under some degree of control. “Okay, it’s not the end of the world, just a date with Shamrock, who is and isn’t Garrison, and nothing else. I mean, I guess I could call it off. . .” my eyes settled on the flowers and box of dark chocolates. “But that would be mean, and I can’t do that to him. He’s a nice guy, after all. And that certificate is gathering dust anyways.”

I went upstairs and found the nearly forgotten gift certificate, which had actually managed to accumulate a thin layer of dust in the drawer it was in. The certificate spoke of how fancy Grill 32 was, if not by the gold leafing, elegant lettering, and minty scent (likely magically placed), then by the small text at the bottom saying that it was a fancy place, and that they reserved the right to turn anyone away at the entrance depending on their state of dress.

I went to the wardrobe and looked through the dresses available to me. The first one to catch my eye was Victory, a very formal dress, and the choice was clear right there. After closing the window and curtains, I took Burning Time off and put Victory on. To my delight, Victory fit just as perfectly as when I first wore it.

Just as I was taking Victory off, the thought of putting on makeup crossed my mind. The only problems I saw were that I had no idea how to apply any kind of makeup, and that I didn’t have any.

After switching back to some regular clothes, I realized just what I was thinking about and paused, laying down on the bed to help sort things out in my mind. “Makeup? A fancy dress? A date with a guy? What am I thinking?

“It’s love. I’ve got to admit it.

“It’s not normal. It’s not the way I was born.

“What about my life is normal now? I’m Yang Xiao Long, owner of a popular barbecue restaurant in a land of herbivores. I’ve punched out a giant centaur, picked up musical abilities, pulled a motorcycle out of an alien robot, destroyed an ancient Equestrian robot, been targeted by snobby nobles, got pyrokinetic abilities, and that’s ignoring Pinkie Pie and Discord. Compared to all that, falling in love with a male griffon is tame.

“Past me is important though.

“Yes, but evolution happens. Things change. Like me becoming Yang. The past is important, but I can’t just cling to it in the face of all these changes.

“. . .

“One date. I’ll see what happens. If it doesn’t work out, that’s fine.”

Shamrock Blackbeak, free of his presents and full of joy, walked through the Ponyville market square with a spring in his step, happily humming to himself. “I have a date with Ya~ng, I have a date with Ya~ng. . .” He came to a stop in front of the very flower stall he had purchased the flowers he gave Yang only an hour earlier when he came to a critical realization. “Holy plop, I have a date with Yang!”

“Hello, Mr. Blackbeak,” Roseluck asked him. “Did she like the flowers?”

“Huh?” Shamrock shook his head as he cleared his thoughts a bit. “Yeah, she did.”

“And?”

“I have an official date with her next week.”

“Whoo! Look at you go, Mr. Lovebird. Good luck!”

“Yeah, thanks.” Shamrock continued on, his next destination in sight and a list of questions forming for the mare that worked and lived there.

Author's Notes:

There was no coup in the Griffon Empire. It legitimately happened as the paper reported. As for why his elite guards weren't there, well, feel free to come up with your own reasons.

And yes, Yang did manage to set herself up, or so she thinks. Whether or not she actually did, I'm not sure. I'm still new to romance writing.