Raven Inkwell was nervous.
She never thought she'd get this far.
That is, She never thought she'd get a date with Prince Blueblood.
Let alone in the exclusive top floor of a five-star restaurant.
"Here are your orders," A Waiter said in a Prench accent as he placed several plates of food on the table, and a bottle of wine so expensive Raven thought it could have paid for her entire school tuition.
"Should you need staff, just ring this bell," The Waiter placed a small bell on the corner of the table.
"Thank you very much," Blueblood told the waiter and Raven nodded her head.
Seeing his job was done, the Waiter left the duo and returned to the Elevator.
"So..." Raven started, "This is it, huh?" She nudged her glasses upwards, "The date," She smiled awkwardly, almost embarrassed from even being inside the restaurant.
If any pony asked her younger self where she would see herself twenty years in the future, Young Raven would never have guessed working in Canterlot Castle, or on a Date with Prince Blueblood Platinum.
Now to be fair, nobody knew who Blueblood was at the time, but you get the gist.
The point is, Raven was excited.
"So I wanted to-/-I need to tell you something," Both Raven and Blueblood said at the same time.
Raven Giggled at the coincidence, stopping herself from twirling a strand of her hair like a teenage schoolgirl.
"You go first," Raven told the prince, who shook his head at her.
"No no, You go first, I'm sure whatever you have to say is much more important than what I have," He told her.
"Okay," Raven paused for a moment, thinking over how she wanted to say what she wanted.
"I, I wanted to thank you," Raven finally decided to say, her eyes looking down at her bowl of Prench Soup, staring at her reflection on the lacquered wood of the expensive table.
If she were to look at the Prince, Raven would have seen his face harden.
"I wanted to thank you for agreeing to..." Raven took a deep breath, "This. All of this,"
Her smile highlighted her makeup, she gently took her spoon and took a spoonful of soup from the bowl, blowing on it to cool it.
"For going on a date with me," She took a sip from the spoon, the tasteful aroma of the broth wafting into her nostril as the creamy soup flowed into her.
"For helping get the Gala in order," Raven took another sip of the soup.
"And even for simply going out with me on Nightmare Night," Her smile turned soft as she looked away from her soup and to the glass ceiling of the restaurant, and at the snow magically melting away from the see-through roof.
Revealing a clear sky of stars and snow.
"I know you're doing this as a way to repay me, I'm not stupid," Raven chuckled as she watched a reflection of herself on the glass ceiling, looking down at her from the roof, "But just accepting it was... nice."
Raven chuckled to herself before she looked back to the Prince.
"What I'm trying to say is... Thank you. Thank you for entertaining me, even if it was with a pity date." The words leaving Raven did not match the sheer joy she felt at having a childish little Filly's dream come true.
"I am a Piece of shit."
Raven paused, her smile frozen as she looked at Blueblood.
"I have been inadvertently playing with your emotions, agreeing to go out with you on Nightmare Night was foolish of me, Especially as I am repeating right now exactly what happened that night,"
Raven frowned at the Prince, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to understand what was going on.
"I have no romantic interest in you, and I should not have agreed to this date, it was stupid of me to do so." The prince didn't look away, his ice-blue eyes staring directly into Raven's own before he scoffed and looked away, the wine bottle opening magically and pouring into his glass.
Blueblood looked at his wineglass before he poured even more wine into it, almost overflowing the glass before he stopped.
Raven watched with a mixture of emotions she couldn't easily format as the Prince lowered his head to the side, so his eyes would be level with the wine glass.
Nodding his head at something Raven couldn't tell, he straightened back up and levitated the open Wine Bottle to his mouth before he grabbed it with a hoof as his horn stopped glowing.
Raven watched in fascination as Prince Blueblood emptied half a wine bottle in only a few seconds.
And once he was done, he let go of the bottle and calmly placed it on the table, his eyes looking at his own reflection on the snow-melting roof.
"I'm not drunk enough to do this," He whispered to himself, his eyes moving from his own reflection to that of Raven's reflection.
"I'm a piece of shit, I don't know any other way of saying this, I'm not good with emotional situations, never have been and probably never will be, So while there may be a much easier way of saying what I'm trying to say, I don't know it." He said, the back of his head resting on the back of his chair as he looked up.
"So I'm going to do what I always do when I don't know what I'm doing and just be blunt about it." He said before taking a deep breath.
"I am in a long-range relationship with what I would call a long-term romantic interest," Blueblood said, his eyes briefly moving to the wine bottle before they turned back to Raven's reflection.
"I am telling you this so you'd at least understand where I'm coming from," Blueblood's horn glowed as the bottle of wine levitated back into his hooves.
Raven took the overflown wine glass and dragged it towards her, spilling parts of it on the table along the way.
"So that you don't get your hopes up from this," Blueblood said with a frown as he took another drink of the wine.
Raven downed the wine glass.
"If you still want to continue," Blueblood paused as he took a deep sigh, his hoof moving to hold his head as he agonized over a better way to phrase his words, before shaking his head and continuing.
"It can only be casual, I'm telling you this because-"
"-You are my friend."
Raven slammed the empty wine glass back onto the table before abruptly standing up and walking away, Leaving the rest of her food untouched.
Blueblood merely looked at her reflection on the ceiling march away from him as he sighed tiredly.
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"I'm a piece of shit," I thought to myself as I watched the Elevator go down.
"Dammit past me, Why did you have to do this," I stretched my limbs as I stood up from the chair.
"None of this would have happened if you simply spent a night trick-or-treating with Luna," I took out my wallet and placed a tip on the table before starting to walk to the elevator.
"But nooo~ You just had to push forward with the Caninia Deal, and for what? You didn't even have a boat," I kicked my feet as the elevator slowly descended.
"And now look what ya' did, You stupid idiot," A smile spread on my face as the Elevator reached the bottom.
I ignored the looks I was getting as I left the restaurant and got on a chariot.
"I'm a Piece of shit, no doubt," I chuckled to myself as I drove back to Canterlot, "But I'm a freedom-loving piece of shit, so It's time to own up to my actions,"
"Did you say something back there?" The Driver asked through the window separating us.
"Shut up and keep driving," I told him.
The Driver rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue, but did so regardless, The two Earth-Stallions carrying the chariot continued to move as they did their job.
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Knocking on the door of a room in the castle, Prince Blueblood waited for a response from the Pony inside, a bubble of soundproof magic covering him and a bottle of cheap boxed wine.
The Door opened slightly to reveal Raven Inkwell peaking out at him, the makeup she wore previously was washed away by streaks of dried tears on her cheeks.
"May I come in?" Blueblood asked as he raised the bottle of cheap fermented grape juice.
Raven stared at him through the crack she made in the door before taking a step back and opening it for him to enter.
Inside the room, The two ponies sat across each other on the carpet on the floor.
"I wanted to at least apologize somewhat," Blueblood told Raven as he popped open the bottle of wine, "So do you want the first drink?"
Raven stared blankly at the bottle of wine before looking around for a bit.
"There aren't any glasses,"
"This is cheap trash," Blueblood let out a quiet laugh, "It doesn't deserve a glass, Just drink from the mouth," He paused and thought it over for a moment, "Unless of course, you aren't comfortable with it, That's totally fine and I-" Raven cut him off by grabbing the bottle and placing it to her lips.
An almost pained look crossed her face as a sour liquid flowed down her throat, almost causing her to spit it out.
"Why are you-" cough cough "-Doing this?" Raven asked once she stopped drinking from the bottle, passing it back to the prince.
"Because while I might be a Piece of Shit, I still consider you my friend, and don't want you to feel bad," He told her as he placed the wine to his own lips.
"Wow, this really is trash." He coughed into his hoof as he passed the bottle back to Raven.
"Friend?" Raven asked as she took another drink from the wine, "I never had much friends," She passed it back.
"Me neither," Blueblood told her as he took a drink from the bottle, "It's hard to make friends when you're like me,"
"I don't blame you," Raven took the bottle back before drinking more, "I'm actually thankful you told me," She smiled easily as she stopped drinking from the bottle, but still held it in her hooves, watching the small amount of remaining wine at the bottom of the bottle.
"So... You can't do romance?" Raven felt fuzzy as she looked at her reflection in the bottle. There were a lot of reflections this evening...
"No romance, no." Blueblood shook his head as he watched the bottle of Wine if Raven's lap.
"But you said something about casual relationships back then..." Raven pointed out as she raised the bottle closer to her mouth.
"I mean, yeah. It's less of a real relationship and more of a Friends with Benefits thing, allowing me to fuck until I and her are permanent, so-" Raven heard enough.
She poured whatever was left of the cheap bottle of sour wine into her mouth and threw herself onto Blueblood, her lips meeting with his as she opened his mouth, the wine passing between the two as her tongue burst into his mouth. Cheap wine poured down the front of the two ponies' white coats.
After a few seconds, Raven let go of him.
"You said I'm your friend," Raven smiled with a red face as she bit her lip, untying her brown hair loose from the bun she usually kept it in before shoving her leg onto Blueblood's chest, pushing him down to his back as she stood above him, licking her lips as she looked down at him.
"So now show me the benefits,"
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"Now Blueblood won't find us," Princess Luna smiled as she crawled over the top of a roof, a small pile of snow piling on top of her as she looked through her binoculars at the restaurant's top floor.
And saw that it was empty.
"They already returned to the Castle, you know that, right?" Celestia told her casually, the snow melting around her and keeping her clean.
Luna slowly turned her head to look at her Sister, "You could have told us!" Luna shouted as she threw the binoculars away.
Only the binoculars were wrapped around her neck, so she threw herself slightly forward as the goggles pulled back and smashed into her chest.
"Ow..." Luna grunted on the snowy roof.
"That's what you get for spying," Celestia told her as she grabbed her sister in a magic hold and flew back to Canterlot.