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Scaramouche Fandango Crew
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 Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:46 pm
 Moth-drops had spent a good part of her day at the salon, getting her hooves polished and her mane scrubbed and coiffed for tonight's big date. She and Valiant were going to an extremely fancy Italian restaurant, and she wanted to look the part! She could hardly wait to see the stallion again; he was such a wonderful person, and so genuine and sweet and caring- just thinking about him got her all bubbly and worked up inside. She spent forever getting ready- everything had to be just so, right down to her perfume and jewelry. Tonight's dress was cream and long; it set off her dark fur quite nicely and worked out so well with her hair. One of the nicest thing about preparing to go out was that sheer indulgence in femininity; it was fun being a girl sometimes! She hummed to herself as she fastened the clasp of a string of pearls around her neck and spritzed herself with rosewater. A tiny enameled moth brooch that matched her cutie mark finished off her ensemble, winking out from the collar of the dress. As she was checking herself over for any misplaced strands of hair, there was a knock at the door. She couldn't keep the grin from stretching her cheeks; there was only one phony it could be. She trotted quickly to the front door, opening it as quickly as she could without actually kicking it open. "Valiant!" she cooed, smiling up at him and, quickly and impulsively, giving him a fluttery peck on the cheek. "I've been so excited to see you again!"
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:48 pm
Their first date had been positively dreamy. The right restaurant, the perfect night, all the fireflies in the air and company so wonderful, so charming that Valiant honestly couldn't remember what he had ordered or if he had even eaten at all. It felt far too silly to say out loud, even for him, but he thought about it every moment since he bid her good-night. And what a lovely good night it had been.
The whole memory was so perfect that Valiant didn't even have the willpower to be nervous upon asking Moth-Drops out on a second date.
Which was why the stallion was yet again outside Moth's home, dressed in his full gleaming regalia, crown and all. After all, they weren't going to a little sweet hidden-away restaurant this time, but one of the best Phony Land had to offer. Lady Faire had been very ruthless with him over his etiquette and dress for this date, and Valiant was sure it would be even better than the first. Except for when he went to knock on Moth's door, he realized he had left a muddy hoofprint- the ground was a little muddy from recent rains.
Oh well. That can't possibly be foreshadowing or foreboding in the least.
And then there she was- an absolute vision in her lovely dress and beautiful hair and very honestly, Valiant went a little weak at the knees seeing her. He was entirely okay with being weak at the knees each time he saw Moth if it meant he could keep being around her, a rather dizzying revelation for someone who took so much pride in being Strong and Capable and Dependable. It was a small miracle he didn't fall over at the peck on his cheek.
"I- yes, myself as well. Wow. You look- wow. Dazzling." Valiant's tongue felt very thick and ineloquent at the moment. Moth was turning his brain to mush and he was okay with it.
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Scaramouche Fandango Crew
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:49 pm
"Thanks!" Was she flushing? Oh, absolutely. Her ears were warm and her stomach was flipping. Her knight in shining armor was a prince in shining armor. On most stallions, a crown would look silly. On Valiant, though, it looked natural. "You look absolutely regal yourself." How had she gotten so lucky to find such a prince, both in the literal and figurative-slash-metaphorical sense. "Let's head out then, shall we?"
In the interest of time and energy, Moth had arranged for a cab to pick them up. It was a quick ride to the restaurant; while flying might have been equally as quick, it was awfully hard to fly in a dress, and that's before thinking of what the wind would do to her mane. They had a reservation, of course, and were seated quite quickly. The place really was as fancy as she'd heard- white tablecloths all the way down to the floor, candles and cut glass instead of big overhead lights; despite the size of the place, every table seemed intimate and private. This wasn't a spaghetti-and-meatballs joint, that was for sure. There were even little crystal cruets of olive oil on the table for the bread. How fancy!
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:52 pm
Very smart thing of Moth-Drops to arrange a cab- Valiant had simply flown and walked up to Moth's house after reaching her street. Which was honestly a bit of a mistake, because it wasn't until they were seated in the restaurant, at the hurried whispers between a few of the staff, that he realized there had been some mud tracked into the restaurant. Valiant had cleaned his hooves before entering the cab- but oh. His hair. A quick look down beside him confirmed that yes, the ends of his flowing golden locks were muddy.
Valiant couldn't hide a blush half as well as Moth could, cheeks lighting pink, "Excuse me..." he whispered to Moth as his horn lit up, magic whisking what he could of the half-dried mud off of his hair. He magicked the mud to the middle underneath their table. And then quickly scrubbed at the ground with a napkin near their table so the trail ended a few feet away from them instead of right at them and oh-
"Erm- may I assist you?" The waiter did Not Look Impressed. With capitols. Valiant corrected his posture and tried to not look so guilty, magically releasing the formerly pristine white napkin over the very end of the mud trail.
"There was mud. Appetizers?" Valiant was truly a master of subtlety.
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Scaramouche Fandango Crew
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:58 pm
Moth hadn't even noticed that Valiant's luxurious locks had gotten muddied, but she found herself silently and irrationally enraged at the earth for its impudence. As the waiter rolled his eyes and began going through the list of appetizers, Moth found herself nodding vigorously at the mention of caprese salad. "Maybe a plate of the caprese and an order of the bruschetta, if that's ok?" she said, talking to the waiter but looking at Valiant to see if he wanted anything else. She noticed a smaller menu in the middle of the table- that might be specials, and she wanted to follow along, so she reached out for it. Unfortunately, the little pitcher of oil decided it wanted to reach out, too, and fell to the floor. Mercifully, it didn't break, but now there was a small oil slick on the other side of the table. The pegasus shrank in embarrassment. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" she squeaked at the waiter. "It's nothing, ma'am," he said, teeth clenched as he motioned frantically to a busboy to come clean it up. "Now then, you'd said bruschetta and the caprese- will that be all for the two of you?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:59 pm
"Yes, thank you." Valiant replied quickly, more to get the waiter to leave than not wanting anything else. He was pretty hungry, mounting nerves around morning keeping him from eating lunch, but Moth-Drops just looked so miserable- he had to do something. And thankfully, the waiter left in a flourish of disdain, busboy trailing after him having promptly cleaned their table off.
"It will be okay, Moth." The alicorn offered softly once they were alone again, giving her a small smile, "At least you didn't tail mud in!" His voice brightened, trying to cheer her by pointing out his own little moment of sloven behavior. Anything to get a smile back on her face. He'd go roll around in the mud, cape and all, if it would make her laugh.
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Scaramouche Fandango Crew
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:59 pm
"Oh, they can hardly blame you for that- that's the weather!" she said, nervously watching the waiter's retreating back. "Instead, I'm causing natural disasters inside the building! But at last…" She watched as other waiters carried plates and bottles to various tables. "Well, at least it wasn't, oh, a bottle of wine or something! Something expensive and hard to get out of fabric!" As the appetizers arrived, she found herself more at ease; a little balsamic-drenched tomato would always make her feel better.
The waiter narrowed his eyes at the pair he'd mentally chalked up as Trouble. "Have you decided on your entrees yet?"
Moth nodded. "The, um. Chicken cacciatore, please." That would be tasty, she hoped!
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Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:00 am
"The same, thank you." Valiant was very, very glad for not being a picky eater. He could live with whatever it was that Moth was having- it certainly sounded tasty, but he had never heard of it. And he certainly wasn't going to ask what it was, that waiter was eyeing them up like they were a pair of bulls in a china shop. Valiant was very, very glad that Lady Faire was not around to witness this.
"A little spilled oil is hardly a natural disaster. Even if it was wine, I am very sure they have some competent cleaning staff on hand to handle just that sort of thing." He replied in what he hoped was a very soothing manner- though not paying nearly enough attention to where he was flinging his magic. He had just finished speaking when the bruschetta he had just begun to lift lurched forward just enough to knock into the ice water that had been set out from them, tipping the glass and causing it to flood, cubes and all, down onto Moth.
Across the room their waiter sharply turned towards them, eyes narrowed. Either he heard Valiant's very unmanly squeak as he watched what he had done, or he just had a sixth-sense for troublemakers.
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Scaramouche Fandango Crew
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Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:01 am
"Eek!" Moth squealed involuntarily- she couldn't help it, the water was cold! Hurriedly she dabbed at with her napkin; that, too, was drenched, so she quickly gave up and used the edge of the tablecloth, jarring the table and knocking over the little bottle of balsamic vinegar that had been served with the caprese, staining the tablecloth's surface a deep brown. Moth wanted to dive under the table or bolt from the restaurant. She was making a complete fool of herself!
The waiter saw what was happening and debated quietly absconding with the ninety-year-old bottle of wine the sommelier had just uncorked for a different table. Why did they have to order something with red sauce? Sighing, he trotted over with a fresh stack of napkins to help mop up the sopping sops.
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Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:03 am
Valiant was absolutely stumbling over himself to help- out of his chair beside Moth and snatching away half of the waiter's stack of napkins as he approached to dab carefully at Moth.
"I'm so, so sorry-" It was about the fortieth time he had repeated how sorry he was, too nervous to use magic to try and dry her dress- he would no doubt set her on fire or something else absolutely awful. It was best just to blot at the water, carelessly throwing the wet napkins into a pile beside him in his great effort to be helpful.
"Here- take my cape, I am so sorry." He carefully unlatched the red cape, slowly moving it over to drape over Moth's shoulders and wrap around her. Hopefully it would help warm her back up soon and then Valiant could stop feeling so awful.
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Scaramouche Fandango Crew
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Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:04 am
Pulling the cape around her shoulders, Moth couldn't help but notice that it was warm and comforting and smelled really, really nice, much like Valiant himself. She wasn't going to be in a hurry to give this back. "Oh, no, it's ok! It's fine, it really is- it was just an accident! I was just surprised by it at first- look, it's drying right up!" The dress, fortunately, wasn't a dry-clean only affair or anything like that. It would be fine, too. Satisfied that she was now only slightly damp, Moth scooted back in, her carefully-pinned hairdo slowly coming undone. Wisps of white hair stuck out from the pile of mane, but she didn't notice that the chaos had done anything to it.
The waiter groaned as he trotted back to and from the kitchen, carrying two plates of saucy chicken. Normally he'd say something like "Mangia!" or "Dinner is served," but instead he just said "Careful- the plates and sauce are very hot." And our tablecloth is soiled enough...
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Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:04 am
Well at least the travesty that Valiant had done to Moth and her dress was enough to take his mind completely off the waiter and what he might think of them. He gave a very distracted "thank you" to him as their food was set down, still hovering around Moth and eyeing her like he wasn't sure he had done enough yet and still trying to think of what he could do to help her. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the restaurant, Valiant couldn't think of anything and very reluctantly returned to his chair. A little trail of napkins followed him, pulled along by his dragging hair.
Valiant wasn't even paying attention to what he was eating. Which is not unlike their first date, though this time around it wasn't because of his enraptured attention to their conversation, but of the pestering worry that he had ruined everything forever and after Moth got home she would write him a very nice but ultimately sad letter that she was going to move to Albania and become a nun and therefore could never speak to him again.
He had also made the very dubious decision to forgo magical eating, as he no longer could trust himself, and ate as other phonies did- ducking his head down to the plate.
"Are you sure you are all right? I could always ask for another tablecloth. To use as a blanket." Valiant offered hopefully, lifting his head up to reveal his dashing new saucy mustache-and-goatee combo. The red did not go with his hair at all.
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Scaramouche Fandango Crew
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Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:04 am
"I really am; this cape is incredibly warm and soft," she said. "But thank you for the of-" She was going to complete her sentence, but as he looked up at her, she had to giggle. There, across his perfect face, was a perfect mustache of tomato sauce. As much of a comedy of errors as this night had been so far, she had to giggle at the absurdity of the situation. "Um- I don't mean to be, er, mean," she said, fighting back laughter. "But you've picked up a little facial decoration there." She looked around on their table, but it seemed like they were out of napkins and their waiter was nowhere in sight. "Hang on," she said, an amusing impulse seizing her. She dipped her own face to her plate, haphazardly enough to splash sauce on her own upper lip. "There, now at least we match."
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Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:05 am
Valiant's eyes drifted down as she pointed out his new facial decor, rather surprised to find his face covered in sauce. And even more surprised was he when Moth- his lovely, petite, demure little Moth-Drops dropped her impeccable face right down into the sauce and thoroughly getting it all over her muzzle. He stared. And then the corner of his mouth ticked up, the trickling snow before the avalanche that was his raucous laugh. A laugh that thoroughly shattered the dim-lit atmosphere of their five-star restaurant, heads turning all around to see who was being so noisy.
"Well don't we make quite the pair?" His laughter died down, mirthful eyes catching the waiter across the room looking like he was prepared to commit acts of murder using cutlery.
"My dear, I think tonight is not a night for very fancy restaurants. Let's eat before the waiter's head pops clean off his shoulders and make a run for it, hm?" Valiant asked with a rather cheeky grin. There was no point in trying to be suave now, all hope was lost from the first mudprint on Moth's door.
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Scaramouche Fandango Crew
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Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:06 am
"Amen to that," she said, cracking up along with him. She was so glad he found her little joke funny instead of just awkward- but this restaurant might have been cursed from the start. Not the date, though- despite everything, she was having a ball. It was so nice to see that they could both laugh at themselves; life was too short to be serious all the time. "I'm pretty sure no jury in the world would convict our waiter if he snapped, so let's finish up, disappear into the bathrooms to clean off- and then perhaps get ice cream for dessert on the way home?"
The waiter didn't even have to look to see who was making the noise, but he did anyways, his eyes drawn to the couple who'd ruined everything. How did he get here? What bad decision led him here? Sure, his cutie mark might have been a smiling serving tray, and yes, his name might have been Party of Three- but why here, why now, why them? At least they were eating quickly. Soon they'd be out of his life forever… right?
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