March 14th, 993 Domina Solaria

Fluttershy grins as she looks over tonight’s dinner, her belly rumbling. She started with one of her usual salads, bits and pieces of everything in her garden gathered up by a cohort of squirrels. They do tend to add in an abundance of acorns and other nuts, but she heard Doug likes those. It makes a colorful assortment of lettuce, dandelion buds, and the last of the white snowdrops.

A series of knocks at her door gets her ears to perk up, calling out, “Come in!” Fluttershy grins as Doug opens the door, her wing placing her salad on the small end table between her green loveseat and couch. She takes a spot on the loveseat, wondering if Doug will squeeze next to her or take the less intimate couch, and hoping for the former.

“Hey, Fluttershy!” Doug greets as he stoops to enter Fluttershy’s cottage, even though he would have cleared it by a hoof or so. He pulls his backpack off, walking across her combination living room and kitchen to set it next to the table. “You want to eat right away, huh?”

“Oh, um, if you don’t mind,” Fluttershy says bashfully. She hadn’t thought that he might want to do something first! “I’m sorry. It’s, just, I’ve been out and about all day, and I’m famished.”

“Hey, it works for me,” Doug says, plopping down on the comfy couch. His respite is quite brief, almost immediately sitting back up to root through his backpack. He pulls out two jugs of apple juice, an apologetic smile to Fluttershy at the cheapskate addition to their dinner. “Sorry it ain’t much, but bits on the farm are pretty tight right now.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Fluttershy reassures, motioning to her salad. “I’m pretty frugal myself.”

“Glad to hear it.” Doug pulls out a box of sorts, opening it to reveal long rows of baked apple fritters. “Never cared much for spending money on fancy dinners or eating out, so the home cooked meal is great for me.”

Fluttershy smiles and nods. “Then what do you and Rarity do?”

Doug frowns, pausing grabbing the last dish while a hand strokes his chin.

The pegasus immediately regrets her question, clapping her hooves across her muzzle. Her words come out quick and slightly garbled. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to imply that you might not be able to give her what you want! I’m sure she understands!”

Doug chuckles to himself. “It’s okay. The two nights I’ve spent there so far have been Sugarcube takeout, actually, and she apologized profusely at the lack of palatial provisions.” He shakes his head at the unnecessariness. “Have you seen what we’re doing with the place?”

“No,” Fluttershy says, head dropping slightly. “But, um, I don’t go into town very much.”

“We’re converting her top floor from storage and a workroom to a master bedroom, bathroom, and foal’s room.” Doug rubs at his shoulder, wincing at the soreness. “Getting her bed up there was not easy, but we made it.”

Doug grabs a pair of chopsticks from the backpack, offering the fritters to Fluttershy. She gladly accepts two of the six, then pushes her salad at Doug. He grimaces, quickly hiding it, but it still hurts the pegasus’ feelings that she doesn’t know him well enough to know what he eats. It’s not quite enough to get her to flee upstairs, but she does glance in that direction.

“It’s okay,” Doug says as he reaches towards the pegasus, his hand gently caressing her ear.

Fluttershy perks up at the contact, a shy smile as she takes her salad back. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly, her head wanting to pull away, yet she finds the contact too pleasant. “I’ll try to have, um, something you like next time.”

She’s surprised by his sharp intake of breath. “Fluttershy,” Doug calmly states, a hint of a joke in his voice, “if you don’t stop apologizing we’ll never get anywhere on our date.”

“Oh, um, I’m…” Fluttershy gulps as the hand at her ear tightens down. She can’t help but chuckle at herself. “But I am sorry.” She bashfully turns to look at him. “I wanted this to be perfect, but I’m not a very good host.”

“Sure you are,” Doug counters, and Fluttershy finds herself elated at the rebuke. “Not every get together has to be as energetic as one of Pinkie Pie’s parties. Honestly, I’m glad to get away from the hustle and bustle of the farm, if you can believe it.”

“I see,” Fluttershy says, a part of her wanting to jump off the loveseat and join him. Or, better yet, get him off the couch and join her! “I just don’t have, um, a lot of experience entertaining ponies. But if there’s anything I can get for you, please, let me know.” She ends with a soft, wide smile, her heart pounding.

Doug was initially annoyed at her self doubt, but can’t help but meet her smile at the end. “I will.” He picks up his apple juice, taking a long drink as he lays back on the couch. The back is a little low for his liking, and he’s tempted to lay down lengthwise. “Do you like apple juice, or have anything else to drink? It gets a little, well, bland drinking it all the time at the farm.”

“I have tea!” Fluttershy offers excitedly, hopping up. “Would you like to try some green tea?”

“Sure!” Doug says, taking the opportunity to lean back even more.

Fluttershy swiftly trots to her stove, setting a kettle and water to boil. She covertly watches as Doug shifts around even more. She’s surprised at herself; interacting with Doug comes more naturally than when she’s found herself in these situations with a stallion, not that any progressed to the second date. Too many were just interested in her for her flanks, and it especially didn’t help matters when they were up front about their lack of interest in foals. At least, foals with her. With Doug, though, it’s more like she’s talking to one of her animals, and he hasn’t pressured her to move to the bedroom once!

She frowns; waiting for the water to boil gives her a convenient excuse for the long delay. But, does Doug wait for the mare to make the first move? Apparently that was the case with Applejack. And Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, for that matter. Would he expect her to initiate anything?

She finds her legs shaking at the prospect. By the time the tea is ready she still hasn’t recovered, and the tea sloshes around in her two teacups.

Doug gets up from his supine position on the couch to grab one. He winces at the heat, even with the long loop of a handle made for a hoof to somehow grab. He tries not to think too much on that. He lays back down, blowing on the surface and watching the steam flow away.

It comes as a bit of a surprise when Fluttershy sets her tea down on the table and hops next to him. He pulls his legs away automatically, just to make space, but that only makes the downcast expression on her face worse. “Fluttershy?” he tries, trying to read her expression.

She sniffles, hiding behind her mane. “I-I understand,” she says softly, halfway to hopping back off. She chides herself for how forward she was; of course she moved too fast! “You don’t want to do anything, you’re just seeing me to make Rainbow happy, and-”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Doug says, setting his tea on the floor before he sits up. He brushes away her mane, staring into Fluttershy’s light blue eyes. “Where did that come from?”

“You didn’t want to be next to me,” Fluttershy says, her free wing prodding his legs. “You pulled away.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Doug quickly says, tugging her closer and nearly spilling her tea as her wing shifts. “I didn’t expect it, is all.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy says, turning away slightly. “I just thought that, because you love touching ponies, and touch them to show your love, that you didn’t want to touch me, and that meant you didn’t love me.”

“That’s…” Doug says, his cheek pulling to the side of his face as he follows along, “very astute of you.”

Fluttershy smiles weakly at that, turning back to Doug. “Does that, um, mean that you want to touch me? And, um… want me to… touch… you?”

She shies down almost immediately, her face almost matching her mane as she blushes.

“Let’s start slow,” Doug says with a chuckle, rubbing into that pink mane. He pulls her across him as he lays back, ending up with her laying across his legs with her forelegs on the couch next to his chest.

She smiles at the position; it isn’t terribly provocative, and she’s in a great position for his hand to rub at her chest or barrel.

Doug continues, “Though, i have no idea what ‘slow’ means. For humans it’d be a matter of years of dating.”

“Years?” Fluttershy says, askance. Her eyes widen at the prospect. “But, how does it take so long?”

“I…” Doug starts, frowning to himself and unsure of where to begin. “I guess it’s because you have so many options, and there isn’t a huge rush, so you want to find the person who works best for you. And it can take a long time to learn all about someone, to see if you’re compatible. It’s also because you’re going through a lot of changes when you start dating, with puberty and all. Kind of a double whammy of trying to figure out what you want from a partner, while at the same time figuring out what the other person has to offer, and what you have to offer them.”

Fluttershy nods along, though she can’t completely wipe the frown from her muzzle. She’s happy to let Doug carry the conversation; she doesn’t want to be one of those mares who dominates everything, and it’s nice to hear about his side of things.

“And, I suppose,” Doug concedes after a brief pause, “there’s a bit of… well, manipulation that goes on. People want to put forward the best face they can, even if that face doesn’t quite line up with who they are. So sometimes the long courtship period is to weed out those bad actors.” He snorts derisively. “Assuming everyone isn’t doing the same thing.”

“That’s not as much of a problem here,” Fluttershy says, feeling called to defend her fellow ponies. “Why would you want to lie about yourself to your mate? It’s somepony you want to spend your life with, right?”

“Well, you might just want to date someone to have sex with them.” Doug sighs at the admission. “Or because you want to get someone as high status as possible, and the relationship matters less than the luxuries. What you do together is beaten out by what they can afford to buy you.”

Fluttershy nods along. She doesn’t have much experience with ponies like that, but has heard stories of ones from Manehattan or Canterlot that are like that. “It’s pretty obvious what ponies like to do.” She pats her cutie mark, smiling at the thought of working with animals. Then she glances at his blank flank, a slight frown forming. “I suppose I can see it being harder if it isn’t as obvious what you get joy from doing.”

“Yeah,” Doug concedes, his hand idly playing with Fluttershy’s soft coat. The thought of doing her comes to mind, but he quickly pushes it aside. “You’re pretty lucky like that.”

“I love all my animal friends,” Fluttershy says with a smile, glancing out the window to spot a few reconnoitering their date. She can’t help but laugh, a light titter that pulls at Doug’s heart. “Did you love your animals?”

“I did,” Doug says. “They were a lot of fun. The cats especially, when they were in a playful mood. We had an object called a laser pointer.” He looks at Fluttershy, gauging her reaction

She cocks her head slightly, looking at him curiously.

“Basically, a pen sized object that shone a concentrated beam of light.” Doug waggles his finger around, pointing at various things. “And the cats, they would see this light and they would chase it! You could get them to spin around and around! Or, the best one, they would pounce on it, but then it would be on their paw! So they’d swipe at that!”

Fluttershy giggles at the mental image, taking a sip of her tea. She lays her head down against Doug’s belly, content to listen to him regale her with tales of his pets and their antics.

Next Chapter: Ch. 82 - Brinerot Whalers Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 43 Minutes