The two days leading up to my date with Princess Celestia consisted of me working at the cafe where we met Sonic at. They were more than happy to have me working there, as ponies were, apparently, interested in seeing what I was doing, so I brought in more customers as a result.

I don't know if the place was always that busy, but I'll take French Press' word for it.

French Press was the manager of the cafe in question. With the whole "she's a pony" thing aside, she was a very attractive mare, with cream-like fur and her auburn mane tied back into... a ponytail. She was happy, laid back and rather nice whenever I saw her around. However, she could also be very stern when she needed to be, as a snooty noble found out the hard way on my second day of working there.

"What's that thing doing here?" the rancid voice could be heard yelling as he stamped his hoof onto the floor, clearly showing his contempt towards me.

I was about to answer with a quip of my own, but fortunately French Press wasn't having any of his behaviour.

"He's NOT a thing, you idiot. He's a rather nice man who's just working here for us."

"The only idiot here is you," he replied harshly looking away with a veneer of superiority. "For hiring that thing to work here."

My mind suddenly put together his attitude and something in the papers. "Hold on a minute. You're that columnist for the Canterlot Chronicle that slandered us as 'sentient primates' and said that we 'belong in a zoo'."

He laughed. "Indeed I did, but I only speak the truth."

"Clearly not, if you seem to be basing your argument of what your boss thinks of us."

"And what's wrong with that? You shouldn't be working here, ape. You should be in the dungeons where you belong. I'm not ordering from here until you're gone."

"GOOD!" French Press' voice cut across loudly, startling the stallion.

Seeing he was silent, French Press continued. "I'm not tolerating your rampant xenophobia and racism anywhere near my cafe. I don't know why you would even find it remotely acceptable to behave in such a manner towards other beings that are a different species to you."

"Well I-"

"I don't care if you find it acceptable in your house. It's my cafe and it's NOT acceptable here. I can see your hateful behaviour towards him and I'm not serving ponies like you who think you can make comments like that and think you own everything. GET OUT OF MY CAFE AND DON'T COME BACK!"

Wow, she does have a hot temper, I thought.

A stare off ensued between the stallion and French Press, all of the ponies inside the cafe watching in shock. Eventually, after what must have been fifteen solid seconds, French Press used her horn to LEVITATE him out of the cafe. She spoke again after she had slammed the door shut.

"Anyone that agrees with him can get their flank out of my cafe."

Everybody gets back to drinking their lattes or cups of tea, albeit some looking nervous in case they say something that might get them kicked out.

French Press smiled and turned back to me. "Okay, you. Show's over. Let's get back to work."

I laughed. "Yes, ma'am."

So much better than the boss of my job on Earth.

Anyway, apparently she was quite hot-tempered when stuff like that happens in her cafe. But that aside, she was really down-to-earth with her employees, you could talk to her like a friend.

So, with my nerves with my date with Celestia beginning to get to me, I decided to ask her about dating in Equestria to see if there's anything I needed to be careful of.

You know, some things may be acceptable on Earth that aren't here...

"Hi there, Jack. How are you doing?" French Press asked.

"I'm fine here," I replied.

"If you need anything, just ask."

"I'll keep that in mind," I replied.

French Press smiled, and turned around to walk back to wherever she had gone before. It was then that I realised that now was probably a good time to get some answers. So, as a result, I called out again.

"Actually, French Press..."

French Press turned on the spot to face me again. "Yeah?"

"There is..." I began nervously, not quite entirely sure of how to word my question. "One thing... Can I ask a question?"

"That depends," she replied, smirking as she trotted back towards me. "What type of question?"

"Well, uh... I'm going on a date with somepony. Is there anything I should avoid doing?"

"Oh, you're going on a date? With who?"

I paused and breathed out. "Princess Celestia."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

I found my voice and spoke normally. "Princess Celestia."

"PRINCESS CELESTIA?!"

I meekly nodded my head as I sat down on a chair, to show I wasn't joking. "She offered me a place to stay in the castle near to her chambers, and she asked me two days ago if I wanted to go on a date with her tomorrow..."

French Press blinked in surprise and stood silent for a few seconds, seeming to take in what I said. She stepped out of her stunned state and put a hoof on my shoulder.

"Well, I'm guessing she likes you for who you are, so if you're going on a date with her, and all of the usual etiquette aside... just be yourself, and I'm sure you'll be fine."

I'll admit, I wasn't entirely sure about what French Press was saying to me, but from the sound of it, it was probably the best option I had. I looked back up to her, and I remember smiling a little at her advice. "Thanks, French Press."

"No problem. Now, where are you going to go?"

"We're going to this restaurant that specialises in seafood called The Daily Catch."

French Press' eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "I've heard of that place. It's getting a lot of good reviews, but it's quite... posh, so I'd wear something rather smart."

I pondered this for a few seconds. "I could wear the suit I wore for the Gala..."

"Excellent, you'll be good for this date then. Now, come on... these customers aren't wanting to serve themselves."

I laughed to myself. "Yes, ma'am."

Like I said, she was a manager, but she acted more like a friend to her employees than others.

One of my bosses on Earth could have taken notes before he was fired.

Anyway, as I left work and headed back to the castle, French Press wished me luck for my date. I thanked her and kept walking to prepare myself at the castle. After the brief five minute walk to the castle, I walked straight back to my room and stripped myself of any clothes once I had closed my room's door.

An hour afterwards, I was still fussing over what I was wearing would be somewhat acceptable and that I had enough cologne on. I knew that Celestia was just down the hall, so I tried to keep it down, but I was still fussing over whether I was in an acceptable state for going on a date with a Princess.

Eventually, I decided I was ready, so I looked to the clock and saw it was just after quarter past six. Seeing that I had arranged to meet her at the restaurant for half past six, I decided I was late enough already and rushed briskly walked out of the castle. It took me a couple of minutes, but I was on my way to the restaurant, with the pressure already beginning to get to me.

When I did arrive at the street, I looked at my watch to make sure I wasn't late. Thankfully, I was a couple of minutes early, so I slowed down and took in what the city was like during the evening. There was... a glow, if you will, to the city. It was beautiful to see from the castle, but here, I was closer to the city and I could feel the slightly warm temperature that matched the atmosphere.

Some ponies I walked past had a glance at me, confused as to what I was doing in formal attire, but most went back to their eating or talking they were doing previously. The ones who were still staring at me, however, didn't bother me one bit; for I had arrived at the restaurant.

French Press certainly wasn't kidding when she said the place was fancy. The sign was illuminated with multicoloured letters, all flowing as if they were neon lights like in Las Vegas. The place was absolutely standing out from all the other cafes and restaurants that were on the same street, but the lights weren't bright to the point of 'cover your eyes'.

Taking several deep breaths, I opened the door to find a lively group of ponies having their dinners and talking to each other. After my breathing returned to being somewhat normal, I walked over to the mare who was standing at the reception.

"Good evening, sir. What can I do for you?" the mare asked in a posh accent that was somehow not annoying.

"Uhh, hello there," I began, looking around to see if there was any sign of Celestia. "I believe a reservation was made here under Princess Celestia?"

The mare just looked stunned at me.

"Excuse me, are you okay?" I asked.

The mare shook her head. "Yes, I'm fine, and I apologise. The Princess is on the second floor, at table number 4."

"Thank you," I replied, walking to the steps.

"No problem, sir. Have a good evening."

I walked past the numerous tables, gaining quite a few stares from the nobles dining at the restaurant. I saw Fancy Pants there with Fleur Dis Lee, but they did not notice me walking across the floor, as they were too busy enjoying themselves.

When I did get to the stairs, I saw two royal guards standing at the base of the stairs. They soon noticed me and the one on the left began talking. "Mister Luss, Her Majesty is waiting for you up the stairs."

"Thank you," I replied as the guard on the right moved the rope that was being used to prevent entry as such. I then thought about something as I hit the first step.

Do they number the floors like they do in the UK, or the US?

Just to make sure, I turned around. "Oh, by the way, which way is it from there?"

The guard on the right pointed up the stairs. "Just walk up and take the second left. Why?"

"Just checking," I replied, before walking up the stairs, the nerves eating me away with each step I took. Standing outside the door, I sighed to try and calm my nerves, before slowly pushing the door open.

As I imagined, the second floor was empty bar Celestia, who was sitting at table four, a table for two that sat at a window which was essentially a view of the entire city, and to a lesser extent, some of Equestria. In fact, you could even make out Ponyville from where she sat. The thing that most surprised me about her, however, was her attire for the event.

Or more specifically, her lack of one.

My awe must have been apparent to her, as she giggled. "Hello there, Jack. I must thank you for coming on this wonderful evening."

I laughed to myself, albeit somewhat uneasily, as I walked over to the table. "Hello, Celestia. I hope I haven't kept you waiting too long."

"Oh, don't worry about that," she sighed happily as I sat down. "You're still here, and that's what matters to me. Besides, you're on time..."

At this last statement, her eyes became slightly downcast and she looked down towards the table. Not bearing to see her upset, I spoke up.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She looked back up to me with a small smile on her face. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She sighed. "From personal experience, bottling it up doesn't help... Yes, I would."

"Alright, I'm listening."

Celestia took a deep breath. "When I was younger, centuries younger, I met a stallion in Canterlot who I thought I would want to be with. He was young, fairly attractive, and seemed to be very sincere and kind. So, after meeting each other a few times, I initiated a relationship with him.

"We did everything together: we had dates in Canterlot, Manehattan and Vanhoover, we talked about everything. I even... lost my virginity to him one day.

"I later found out that he was just using me as a token to boost his reputation and money, and that he was having an affair with another mare. When I found out, I was quite upset, and tried to discuss it with him. He didn't want to talk to me after that... so I stripped him of his nobility and sold off his businesses. I suppose that is the reason I have put off dating for a long time..."

Celestia looked up to me, and looking into her eyes, I could see the emotions that were trapped behind those magenta ayes of hers. There were signs of age, tiredness, stress and pain... so much emotional pain was trapped in there, it was almost screaming to be let out.

"That's... disgraceful," I began, not sure of what to make of her confession... I felt some emotions varying from pity, and sadness to some form of anger, disgusted at how someone could be used like that for their own gain.

Her eyes are beautiful...

"Thank you, Jack."

I felt like I had been put on the spotlight at Stalag Luft III. "Wh-what?"

"You said my eyes were beautiful," Celestia replied with a giggle.

I could almost feel myself going red in the face. "I- I did?"

Celestia began to laugh as she realised I hadn't intentionally said that, and by that, I meant she actually laughed, not the reserved giggle that she would normally do in public. To avoid the embarrassment, I picked up the menu and had a look through it. Surprisingly, there was a wide selection of fish available, whether it be cod, haddock, salmon, tuna or something else.

I wouldn't be surprised if the chef's a griffon or something.

I looked up to Celestia. "What are you having?"

"I think I'll have... the prawn pilau," she replied, taking a sip of red wine from the glass she had in front of her. "What about yourself?"

I thought about that for a few seconds. "I'll be having the salmon."

Almost as if on queue, a waiter walked over to the table and bowed. "Are you ready to order?"

"Yes, I think we are," Celestia replied.

"What would you like, Your Majesty?"

"Can I have the prawn pilau, please?"

The stallion wrote this down on his notebook. "I'll see to it at once. What about yourself, Mr Luss?"

"Uhh, can I have the salmon, please?"

"Of course. Any drinks for yourself?"

"What forms of white wine do you have?"

"We have Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Muscat..."

"A glass of Pinot Grigio for me, please."

He wrote this down and looked back up to both of us. "Alright. Excuse me, Your Highness."

With that, he turned on the spot and left the room, leaving just me and Celestia.

"It is certainly a wonderful evening," Celestia said after a few seconds of silence, looking out of the window and over the city. "I'll lower the sun fully later."

I did the same. "It certainly is."

After about another twenty-five minutes of discussion, we had discussed a variety of topics besides from politics, which, to quote Celestia herself: 'should be avoided as much as possible'. We had discussions about my interests, her interests whenever she had free time (cake was mentioned to be a favourite of hers), and various different memories we had from our pasts.

"...so me and Brodie went aff after that, and we wrapped his car in cling film during the lunch break..." I continued my story on my revenge prank against my Maths teacher who falsely accused me of leaning graffiti on his blackboard, and gave me a detention as a result. "We wrapped his entire car with cling film... and it was one of those old Jaguar XJ series cars from the seventies, so it made him look like a tool.

"But that wasn't even the worst part of that. The worst thing for him was that we ended tucking the end of it behind another part of cling film itself, so unless he could clearly make it out, he wasn't getting back into his car any time soon. He tried to find out who was responsible, but nobody came forward. So he ended up having to unwrap the entire car himself. Everybody in our class lined up at the end of the day to laugh at him as he drove away."

Celestia started laughing like she had done earlier. "That reminds me of a similar prank Luna pulled on myself a couple of years after she returned. At Cadence and Shining Armour's wedding, there was a massive wedding cake there for everypony that attended to enjoy. There was also a big chocolate cake that wasn't quite as large as the wedding cake itself, but still quite large. When nopony else was around, I tried to cut myself a slice, but..."

"It was fake, wasn't it?"

Celestia giggled. "Indeed. I wasn't amused, but Luna was laughing for quite some time."

"I don't think I've ever seen her that happy since her return..." she finished with her eyes becoming downcast, as did her ears, which drooped down lower than Black Monday.

I put what I hoped was a comforting arm on her shoulder. "That must be horrible, having to banish your own sister to save your subjects..."

"You have no idea..."

"I kind of do."

Celestia looked up at me. "You do?"

In that moment, I panicked and removed my hand, as I realised I had said this out loud unintentionally.

I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

"How?"

I looked away at that moment, really uncomfortable over what I had done, knowing full and well that if Nathan found out, I was D O N E fucked. "I'd rather not talk about it right now."

"Are you sure, Jack?" she replied, taking her turn in putting her hoof on my shoulder. "It's probably for the best if you don't bottle up your emotions."

"I'm okay, Celly. I'll probably end up telling you anyway, but not now. The wounds haven't quite healed yet."

Celestia smiled. "If that's what makes you feel comfortable, I'll leave it there. On another note..."

As Celestia finished this, she smirked, making me somewhat nervous.

"What?"

"You called me Celly."

I became panicky again. "I did?"

"Yes, but don't worry yourself about it. I have no problem with it; it's nice to have someone saying a name like that instead of being the 'Princess of Equestria' all of the time."

At that point, our orders came through. An unicorn pony, a mare this time, came through holding our meals in magic. She started with Celestia's food. "One prawn pilau as requested for the Princess-"

"Thank you," Celestia replied as her prawn dish was set down, which looked amazing to eat, but unfortunately for me, I don't like prawns.

"-and salmon for a Mister Luss."

"Thank you," I replied as said salmon was set down.

"Is there anything else I can get either of you?"

Celestia looked to me. "Do you need anything, Jack?"

"No, thanks."

Turning back to the waitress, she replied. "No, we are fine, thank you."

"As you wish, Your Highness," the waitress replied with a bow, before turning and leaving us again.

Then, there was that silence again. That silence that wasn't awkward or bad in any way, but still felt off, somehow. This however, was broken a few seconds later by Celly.

"I'm starving!"

And with that, she started to eat her dish in the most un-princess-y behaviour you could possibly think of.

And yes, I know that's not a word. Shut up.

But I wasn't concerned or surprised at the time... mainly because I didn't care.

You know why?

"So am I!" I blurted suddenly, and proceeded to do the exact same thing.

If any guards were watching, they were probably in for a shock.

Once we had finished eating, we got up and out of the restaurant and went outside. Celestia shocked me by saying that she'd pay instead of me, but she refuted all of my offers to pay instead. I wasn't sure why she was doing this, but I still went with it regardless.

Outside, we were laughing about us eating in the most undignified way possible.

"I'd never have thought that someone in your position would behave in such a manner!" I laughed.

Celestia kept laughing for a while as well. Once she had calmed down, she spoke again. "I haven't had that much fun in years! I have to thank you, Jack. I've needed someone like you in my life for a long while now, someone who I can be a normal pony with, outside of family."

"It's not a problem, Princess," I replied honestly. "It's not like I'm going anywhere anyway."

Her expression then became somewhat sultry as her eyelids closed half-way. "You know, Jack, there's been something I've been wanting to say to you..."

I raised my eyebrows at her behaviour. "Which is...?"

"..."

"What is it?" I repeated.

At this moment, Celestia didn't reply. Instead, she leaned her head forward to mine and planted her lips on mine. At first, I was shocked, but soon enough I find myself placing my hand on her cheek and following suit.

Shortly after, we pulled away from each other, ignoring the gasps around us. I spoke first. "That was-"

*FLASH*

Guess who happened to ruin the moment?

Turning round, we saw the culprits in the form of paparazzi photographers.

Oh, boy.

"HE KISSED THE PRINCESS!" one of the paps shouted.

The flashes of photographs being taken was beginning to drive us blind. Through gritted teeth, I managed to speak to Celestia.

"What now?"

"Get on my back," she whispered back.

"What?"

"Just do it!"

I hastily followed, surprised she could support my body weight.

"Are you comfortable?" she hastily asked.

"Yep," I replied, unsure of what she was trying to do.

To my amazement, she just sprung up into the air and started to fly away from the crowd of paps, and back towards the castle. I looked back, and took a good view over Canterlot from the air.

So this is what it could be like if humans had wings.

Eventually we landed again, and I more or less fell off of Celestia's back, causing her to turn towards me with a concerned expression I have only seen once from my father when I was younger.

"Jack!"

Celestia used her left hoof to help me back onto my feet. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, don't worry yourself about me."

"Are you sure?"

"It wasn't that great of a fall."

"Okay, if you say so," Celestia replied with a giggle. "Thank you for joining me. Whilst it has been an absolute pleasure having you for company, I must be going now to lower the sun completely. I must thank you again for joining me."

"It's no problem, Celly," I replied, feeling my cheeks redden as I said the nickname.

"Goodbye for now, Jack."

To my absolute shock, she went and pecked me on the cheek quickly. A small blush was visible on her cheeks, but for the most part she just giggled at my open mouth, before turning around and leaving.

That was the only thing I could think about when I lay in my bed that night, as I tried to ponder the outcomes of a possible relationship.

Let's hope this doesn't end up like the last one.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the late update. I had planned to get it out last week but other things got in the way, and I'm currently starting work on a second story. I also had a bit of writer's block for this chapter.