Second Try

	She pulled the dress on over her curves and looked in the mirror.  Disapproval showed upon her face as she twisted and turned, but in no angle was she happy in the dress.  She took it off and looked down.
	“I just want to look beautiful.”  Lyra sighed as she plunked herself down on the edge of her bed.  Her door knocked.
	“Lyra?”  The door creaked open slowly as a head popped into the room.  “Lyra?  You're still here?  What about your date?”  Bon Bon chirped.
	“I can't decide what to wear!  I want him to think I'm pretty.”  Lyra bemoaned as she frantically dug through her clothes.
	“Just be yourself, you know, all that cliché stuff.”  Bon Bon said rather robotically as she rolled her eyes.  “Besides, you are pretty and stuff.”
	“Not as pretty as mares like Rarity, or . . . or . . . other ones I don't know the names of.”  Lyra's voice shrank as she finished her sentence.
	“Oh stop.  You will be fine.  What's his name again?”
	Lyra was looking down, slouched over on the edge of her bed.  “Comet.  His name is, Comet Skies.”
	Bon Bon rubbed her chin, “That name seems very familiar, wasn't that the name of...”
	“No it was not.”  Lyra answered.
	“What happened to him?”
	“It's complicated, Bon Bon.  I don't wanna talk about it right now.”  Lyra got up quickly ran a brush through her hair a few times.  “I'm going to go meet Comet Skies at the park.  We're going to stargaze or something like that.  If I don't come back by midnight, assume he is a sicko who probably had his way with me and took my things.”  Lyra sighed and she trudged out the door.  Bon Bon didn't respond and just watched her friend walk out with a defeated attitude.
	Lyra walked down the sidewalk as a brisk, fall breeze, cut through the evening air.  She came to the park entrance and saw seated in the distance at a lit park bench, a shadowy figure.  Lyra paused a moment, sniffed her breath, gained some confidence, and spruced up.  She wished she had brought a scarf as it was pretty chilly tonight.  This also marked her first date with somepony after an interesting turn of events with her previous squeeze.  She wasn't sure she wanted to go through the ups and downs or a relationship again, but this stallion seemed pretty nice.  He had bright blue eyes and a royal blue coat, with a slightly messy, but well kept icy white mane.  He was an earth pony that seemed to have no special ability other then just being himself.
	Lyra took a deep breath and walked towards the light.
	“Hello there,” she said.
	The figure turned around.  “Hi.”  Then got up.  “You look beautiful in the moonlight.”
	Comet Skies paused, “Well I guess it is actually the lamp light above us right now, so you look beautiful in the lamp light.”  He gave a klutzy little bow and held out a hoof to Lyra.  She smirked and put her hoof on his.
	“You look lovely tonight.  I'm so happy you decided to meet me tonight.”
	“Naw,” Lyra blushed, “I didn't wear any nice dress or anything.”  She looked down, her pupils looking down at her hooves.
	“You don't need a dress to be beautiful!  You know that.”  Comet Skies chuckled.  He came wearing a scarf, and his hair more combed then usual.  He smelled of a fresh spring valley stream with a hint of pristine mountain alpine.
	“Aww, thanks.”  Lyra spun her hoof in a circle on the ground.
	“Here take this, you must be cold.”  Comet Skies wrapped his scarf around Lyra's neck.
	“Thanks,” she said looking at him.
	“Well lets go take a seat over there on that hill by the stream.  There are no lights there and we can better see the stars.”  Comet Skies pointed to a perfect little spot.  Lyra agreed and the two trotted to their destination.
	Some time had passed and Lyra enjoyed watching, Comet Skies, be so involved in his lesson about the cosmos.  She could tell there was a spark in his eyes, the way he whisked his tail around when he pointed out stars in the heavens above.
	“And that, my dear, is the different between a star and a sun.”  Comet Skies sat back down beside, Lyra as she clapped in approval.
	“It is so impressive how you know so much about the sky and space.”  Lyra shivered, and Skies wrapped a hoof around her.  Lyra cuddled in closer to the warmth of his body.  She liked the feeling of being cared for and loved.  Sadly that feeling was cut short when a twinge shot through her sinuses, a feeling she knew all too well.  A feeling that caused a lot of issues in the past, a past she was trying to forget.  Lyra turned away slightly as she rubbed her nose.  One hoof wasn't cutting it, she she went all in and used both hooves to rub her irritated nose.  The feeling wasn't going away.
	“I've talked a lot tonight, what about your interests, Lyra?”  Comet Skies stopped as he watched Lyra rub her nose.  “You okay?”
	Lyra didn't want to sneeze, but she knew it was coming.  She didn't want Comet Skies to be obsessed with sneezes, or think she is gross or anything.  She didn't want any of it.  She was numb.  She just wanted the companionship of Comet Skies beside her, to make her feel beautiful, make her feel needed, loved.
	Lyra's nostrils flared as her head rose up, her chest puffed out, and hoof raised up under her twitching nose.
	“Hyyeeeessshhoooooooooh!” The sneeze fired out of Lyra into her arm as she shot forward.  She didn't turn to the side, but sneezed right in front of her.  A second sneeze followed.
	“Heesshheeewww!”  This one, there was no arm to sneeze into as a fine mist blasted into the dark night sky in front of her.  The urge to sneeze dissipated and Lyra looked at Comet Skies.  He just smiled at her then said, “You done?  Those were pretty good sneezes I could tell, bless you.”
	Lyra squinted her eyes at him, “What do you mean by that?”
	Comet Skies look around as he stuttered, “I-I-I was just saying that looked like a pleasureful sneeze for you.”  Comet Skies was clearly taken by surprise with her question.  Maybe he was secretly turned on by sneezes too?  Lyra had to find out.
	“Oh!  Well, thats weird.  So sneezes make you feel good?”  Lyra asked in a rather snarky tone.
	“Uhhh . . . . I guess?”  Comet Skies shrugged.  “I've never really thought about it.”
	“Oh right, never ever, huh?  You have any secret files hidden on your computer at home?”
	“What?”  Comet Skies pupils shrunk.
	“Oh, so you do?”
	“Well, I mean . . . don't . . . uhm.”
	“Just as I thought.  Would you say you have some sort of . . . interesting obsession about things?”
	“Wait, what?  What is going on, Lyra?”
	“Don't play dumb with me, Sparky!”
	“My name is, Comet Skies.”
	“Oh!  I think I feel a sneeze coming on,”  Lyra stated in a horrifically bad acting voice.
“Huh-Huh-Choo!”  Lyra pretended to sneeze then opened one eye to look at Comet Skies.  He was looking at her with a baffled expression.
	Lyra pretended again, “Huh-Huh-Huh-Achooo!”  She made the sneeze more animated and used her hooves to catch it.  Again she opened an eye to see Comet Skies scratching his head.
	“Are you okay, Lyra?”  He asked.
	“I know all about her fascination!”  Lyra said accusingly as she gave him the stink eye.
	“My fascination of astronomy?”  Comet Skies said nervously.
	“Well that too, but your other fascination.  The one that isn't as readily visibly to the untrained eye!”  Lyra came within inches of Comet Skies face, with one enlarged eye fixated on him.
	Comet Skies gulped, “What do you mean?”
	“I know!”
	“My fascination for geography?  My collection of plastic forks?  My love for the smell of freshly burnt rubber?”  Comet Skies stumbled back as he moved further and further from the rather crazed, Lyra.
	“Your sneezing fetish!”  Lyra yelled, pointing directly at him.
	“My what?”
	“Your sneezing fetish!”  Lyra yelled the same as the first time.
	“Come again?”
	“Your sneezing fetish?”  Lyra said questionably.
	“You pulling my leg?”
	Lyra didn't know how to respond, but within a few seconds, her brain started moving again.  “Yes!  I was totally pulling your leg!  I was yanking your tail!”  Lyra began to fake laugh.  Comet Skies began to nervously laugh with Lyra.
	* * *
	“Bon Bon, I'm home.”  Lyra entered the room.
	“How'd it go?” Bon Bon looked up from her newspaper she was reading in the lamp light.
	“Well I accused him of something he apparently wasn't into.”
	“Well, thats normal.”  Bon Bon smiled.
	“I'm such an idiot!”  Lyra bonked her head on the door.
	“I didn't even have to say it this time.”  Bon Bon quipped.
	Lyra continued to bonked her head on the door until  she realized she was still wearing the scarf, Comet Skies had lend to her.
	“I have to give this scarf back to, Skies.”
	“Does he want to see you again?”
	“Surprisingly yes.  He said he liked my quirkiness.”
	“So you are accepting that as a compliment now?”  Bon Bon raised and eyebrow.
	“Yes I am, yes I am.”  Lyra smiled.
	Meanwhile on the other side of town, Comet Skies opened the door to his apartment.  He walked in, then reached for his scarf to put it on the hanger when he realized it was not around his neck.
	“Lyra must still have it,” He mumbled to himself.  A cat hopped up on his armchair as he sat down and rubbed it's head.
	“I totally thought she figured me out, Nibbles.  I thought I was already done for.”
	He rubbed the cats chin, reclined back and closed his eyes.