Thursday; one day until the dance
The force of the Party Planning Committee was in full swing. It was the day before the dance and the committee was working their tails off to get everything ready for the big event. Students were moving and setting up party supplies all through the gymnasium, and luckily for them, Coach Iron Will’s gym class moved their class to their fitness center. Luckily for the members of the committee, it took a while to set up everything for the dance, so they all got permission to skip the last period of the day in order to finish setting up. At the moment, Swift was helping to set up some tables in the gym.
“Alright, that’s one table down. However many we have left to go!” Swift said to himself triumphantly. The excitement of the dance’s approach certainly wasn’t lost on the young man, as he’d been gleefully doing tasks all around the gym in order to prepare for everything. The dance was only a single day away, and in that one day Swift would either experience a pleasant surprise of getting asked out, or the usual disappointment of sitting home and spending his night marathoning anime on his computer.
“I know my odds aren’t high to begin with.” Swift thought as glanced behind him to catch a glimpse of Pinkie Pie hopping around the room with a clip board. “But….I hope I have at least some chance with Pinkie.” he thought with a smile as he went back to going to get another table. It was fair to say that Swift’s hopes were bumped up ever since his little “date” with Pinkie Pie the day before, even though they did nothing more than discuss school, their friends, and the long and proud history of the doughnut courtesy of Pinkie. That small amount of time with Pinkie was like a blessing for Swift, as if fate is finally going to give him his chance with her. As far as he knew, she still didn’t have a date for the dance. This could very well be his time.
Continuing onwards, Swift came upon the storage room connected to the gym that contained the tables. He grabbed a rather large table as he began dragging it across the floor. He managed to drag the large table into the gym until he bumped into somebody behind him.
“Whoops, sorry the-” Swift continued as he looked behind himself to see that he had bumped into Twilight, who before being bumped into looked as though she was helping to hang streamers. “Oh hey Twi! Heh, I gotta stop bumping into you.”
“Hey Swift...heh, yeah you kind of do that a lot.” Twilight chuckled. “Do you need help with that? It seems kind of tough dragging that big thing along.”
“Eh, I can handle it.” Swift said with a shrug. “But if you want to help, I wouldn’t have any problems with it.” he said to Twilight, and with that she gave a simple reply of ‘sure’ before grabbing the opposite end of the table and hoisting it up with a grunt.
“Oh yeah, I saw that video you were talking about the other day Twilight.” Swift said as the two students walked to the other side of the gym.
“Uum...what video?” Twilight asked.
“That thing with the Japanese hornets. That stuff is insane! It only takes thirty japanese hornets to kill up to 3,000 bees! I mean jeezus, those hornets are bad mofos, I wouldn’t want to run into them in a back alley.” Swift said in a joking tone.
“O-Oh, right. That video. Yeah it is really crazy isn’t it? Really bad stuff.” Twilight agreed as she remembered what Swift was talking about.
“Mmhmm, nature’s messed up.” Swift said as they reached the opposite end of the gym and set the table down. “Well thanks Twi, that little bit of work is done.” he said as he surveyed the entire gym area. “Man, this is all coming together really well, don’t you think? We’ll so be able to finish setting this up by tomorrow.”
Twilight nodded. “Yeah, it shouldn’t take too much longer for us to set this up. All the big work is done now that Vinyl got her systems all setup and Atomic Adam got the lighting ready.”
“Mmhmm.” Swift nodded. “So, are you going to the dance with anybody?”
Twilight nervously looked away from Swift. “Umm...no, not yet...I’m kind of waiting for the right time to ask him.”
“Oh, well I’d probably do it soon if I were you. It’s the day before the dance! It’d definitely be best if you asked him today at some point.” Swift said matter-of-factly.
“I know...I guess I’m just nervous about asking him. He’s closer to me then nearly every other guy in the school, but yet when it comes to stuff like asking him about the dance, I feel like he’s still far away.” Twilight explained.
“Well that’s understandable, I mean you haven’t really asked anyone out before right?” Swift asked to which Twilight replied with a nod of the head. “Well don’t worry about it too much Twilight. The worst thing he can say is no, and if he doesn’t have a date yet I don’t see any reason why he’d refuse a great girl like you.”
“Yeah, hopefully I can work up the nerve to ask him...he’s a great guy you know? Smart, friendly, optimistic, maybe just a tiny bit of a doof, just a really nice guy.” Twilight said in a manner as if she wanted Swift to catch onto something.
“Sounds like it! I’d love to meet him sometime.” Swift chirped. “Well anyways Twilight, I’m going to go see if Mr. Sandwich needs me to do anything else.”
Twilight’s face briefly reflected a look of ‘seriously?’ before she spoke again. “Well alright Swift, I’ll talk to you later I guess.”
“Wow, Applejack was right.” Twilight thought to herself. “He really is as dense as a block of wood! Why exactly do I like him again?” she silently wondered to herself as Swift began to walk away.
“Oh, Twilight?” Swift said as he turned back to face her. “Don’t worry about asking your guy too much. The worst thing he can say is no, and if he doesn’t have a date yet I don’t see any reason why he’d refuse a great girl like you," he said with a warm smile on his face before turning back to go towards Mr.Sandwich. As he walked away Twilight cracked a smile as she began twirling her hair with her finger.
“Oh yeah...that’s why.”
__________________________________________________________________________
‘Alrighty, where is Mr. Sandwich?’ Swift thought to himself as he scanned the gym for the club supervisor. He looked around a few times with no luck at all, he asked a few of the students and they didn’t seem to know where Mr. Sandwich was either.
“Where the heck could he be?” Swift wondered as he walked past a ladder at the side of the gymnasium, seemingly unaware of the sound of someone sliding down said ladder.
“Heya Swifty!” a perky voice said to him from behind. Swift glanced behind himself to see that Pinkie Pie was a few steps up the ladder behind him, holding the banner the two painted a few days ago. “What’cha dooooooin’?”
“Oh hey Pinkie. Nothing much, I’m just looking for Mr. Sandwich to see if there's anything else that needs to be done for the dance. You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you?” Swift asked.
Pinkie nodded. “Yuppers! Mr. Sandwich just left because he needed to get his leighderhosen back from one of the german teachers! Those are like, one of his best pairs of party pants and he needs them for a polka party he’s going to this weekend! I mean, you can’t go to a polka party without your polka party pants! That’d just be weird.”
“O…..kay then…” Swift said while trying to actively push the image of Cheese Sandwich in leighderhosen out of his head forever. “Hey umm...would you happen to know of anything else that needs to be done? I mean, considering you’re the president of the committee and everything.” Swift questioned to which Pinkie put her hand to her chin.
“Hmmm…...what to do, what to do…..” Pinkie muttered to herself as she scratched her chin with her fingers. After a few seconds, Pinkie’s eyes lit up as she snapped her fingers. “Ooh! I know! I think they’re still bringing sound system stuff down from the AV department upstairs. Maybe see if they still need help bringing stuff in?” she suggested to Swift.
“AV stuff. Alright, I’ll go do that. Thanks Pinkie!” Swift said as he walked off towards some students that were leaving to get the equipment. He and a few other students from the committee went into the department and grabbed large boxes of equipment and the like and started to bring them back into the gymnasium quickly. As Swift was carrying a large box through the gym and up to the stage where the equipment was being set up, he glanced back towards Pinkie, who was currently standing up on the top of the incredibly tall ladder trying to attach the banner for the dance to the rafters. It appeared as though she was struggling somewhat with the task, as she was standing on the very top step of the ladder on the tips of her toes. Swift bit his lip nervously.
“Uhh...that doesn’t look safe at all. Even for someone like Pinkie Pie.” Swift thought to himself “Maybe I should go ask her if she needs help.”
But at the end of that thought, Swift noticed something that made his heart jump in surprise. As Pinkie managed to tie the banner to a beam up by the ceiling, her foot was incredibly close to the edge of the ladder. Swift put the box of AV gear down as he started to nervously walk forward. As he was slowly walking, Pinkie spoke up.
“Haha! There! I got it-up….ooh….” Pinkie said nervously as she herself noticed that she was on the edge of the ladder too and began to sway. Swift’s heart lept up in fear as he saw this happening.
“PINKIE!” Swift called out as he jumped off the stage and started running towards the party planning president. Other students looked at Swift and then up at Pinie to see that she was swaying rapidly, flailing her arms to try stabilizing herself.
“Oh-Oh-oh...oh no….oo-ope-ah-ah-AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!” Pinkie cried out as her body leaned forward off of the ladder as she began to fall. Many of the students were frozen in surprise as they couldn’t do anything but watch the young girl fall towards the ground, flailing her arms all the way down. Swift however ran towards Pinkie with full speed as he got close to the ladder.
“Come on come on come on, faster Swift! Faster!” he internally screamed at himself as he moved towards Pinkie. The young man started to outstretch his arms as he neared the ladder, ready to catch Pinkie. Unfortunately for him however, he made a mistake in only keeping his eyes focused at Pinkie; and not where he happened to be running. As he was ready to catch her, Swift suddenly felt his feet stop as his upper body lurched forward.
“What the!?” Swift said as he himself started to fall. The young man tried catching himself, but wasn’t quick enough as he fell face first onto the gym floor. He looked back by his feet to see that he had tripped on a stray cord used for the lights the students were putting up. In an instant, Swift looked back up in horror at Pinkie, who was still falling and nearing the floor. “OH NO!” he yelled out in horror as he tried picking himself up off of the ground as fast as he could.
“W-woah! Got ya!” a male voice suddenly said from right in front of Swift. He looked forward to see that someone had managed to catch Pinkie. It was a young, average looking man. He had nut brown hair, darkish yellow skin. He was wearing a plain orange t-shirt and jeans. The new young man was currently cradling Pinkie as the young woman had her arms wrapped around his neck. Pinkie had her eyes closed, but after a few seconds gingerly opened one after the other and looked up at her rescuer, who looked at her with a smile. “Hey Pinkie...are you ok?” he asked in a concerned tone.
“Umm...yeah, I think so.” Pinkie answered as she looked back down to the ground to see her feet were dangling a few inches above it. She looked back up at the young man and gasped. “Caramel! You saved me!”
“Heh, oh it was nothing, I just did what anyone else would do-oh!” Caramel was cut off as Pinkie wrapped him in a tight embrace, the sight of which made Swift’s chest tinge with a moment of envy.
“Yeah, but you saved me! That was awesome! I need to think of a way to really thank you!” Pinkie explained excitedly. “Hm….gasp! I know! Caramel! Do you want to go to girl’s choice with me!?” she asked excitedly.
“What!?” Swift mentally yelled as he couldn't help but watch what was occurring in front of him.
“Girl’s choice? With you?” Caramel asked nervously as he blushed a tad. “Yeah, yeah, I’d love to go to the dance with you Pinkie!” he answered happily.
NO!!
“Yippie!!” Pinkie exclaimed as she hugged Caramel tightly once more, sending another knife of strife into Swift’s chest. The young man mentally facepalmed as let a quiet grunt slip through his teeth. His hopes had been dashed right in front of him; Pinkie was going to the dance...but not with him.
_____________________________________________________________________
It was currently right after school, all preparation for the dance was now complete, and all that was needed to be done was to wait for the dance. At the moment in a hallway in Canterlot High, the six friends who called themselves the Humane six were huddled amongst one another, eagerly chatting with one another.
“I still can’t believe it! I have a date with BIG MACINTOSH! This is incredible!!” Fluttershy said excitedly, barely able to contain herself as she was nearly bouncing up and down off of the ground.
“Heh, ah still can’t believe i asked him out. Good job Fluttershy! Ah’m sure you’ll have a great time with mah brother!” Applejack assured her with a pat on the back.
“I got a date with Caramel!” Pinkie chimed in. “He saved me from going splat on the ground! Plus he’s a super nice guy, he’s in like all my classes! We’re going to have uber lots of fun!!”
“Wonderful, simply wonderful! I’m glad you girls found dates to the dance! I can’t wait to see you all there.” Rarity added with a nod.
“Yeah, it’s going to be awesome!” Rainbow Dash said confidently. “Hey wait a minute...I don’t think I heard if all of us had a date. AJ, did you ask somebody?” she asked to which Applejack looked at her and rolled her eyes.
“Eeyup, ah got a date to the dance.” Applejack said in a dull tone. “But ah ain’t too happy ‘bout it.”
“Who is it?” Rainbow asked.
“You’ll see at the dance. Ah don’t feel like talkin’ ‘bout him now.” the cowgirl said with a sigh.
“I guess we will.” Rainbow said with a smirk as she glanced at Twilight, the one girl who was staying out of the conversation. “So Twi! How’d it work out with Swift? Did it go well?”
Twilight shifted around nervously. “Umm….well….I uhh…..it didn’t go….poorly.” she answered in a Fluttershy-esque manner.
Rainbow furrowed her brow. “That means you didn’t ask him...did you?”
Twilight sighed. “No...I didn’t ask him…..”
Rainbow groaned. “Twilight, didn’t I teach you anything about asking a guy out? You just gotta straight up gun it. Did you at least try asking him out?”
“Yeah, I did...well….sort of.” Twilight admitted sheepishly. “I made some clear hints as to whom I was nervous about going to the dance with, but sadly he didn’t seem to catch on….” she continued to explain, which caused Applejack to facepalm.
“Ugh….Twilight. Swift ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to hints.” Applejack deadpanned.
“I know...I know….” Twilight sighed. “I guess it’s just I was too nervous to try asking him out directly. I’ve never really done anything like that, you know? Maybe I’m just not cut out for this whole ‘asking a guy out’ thing.”
“Don’t speak like that darling! You’ll get it! You just need to try, try again!” Rarity said in an attempt to brighten her friend’s spirits.
“Oh yes! I’m sure you can ask him out Twilight! I mean, I thought I’d never go to this dance, but I’m going with Big Mac! I never thought that would actually happen!” Fluttershy chimed in. “I mean, if I can do it, I’m more than sure you can too!”
Twilight shook her head. “I-I don’t know girls….school has already let out….he’s probably gone home….I’d hate to spring that up on him……”
“Come on Twi!” Pinkie exclaimed suddenly. “You got this girl! Go on! Do it! Do it! Do it!” she repeated a few times by herself before each of Twilight’s friends were joining in. The lavender skinned girl rolled her eyes as she looked away.
“Girls…” Twilight whined half embarrassed, half nervous.
“You’re just nervous Twi, it’s time for plan B!” Rainbow said as she moved over to Twilight’s side.
“Eeyup, let’s do it!” Applejack agreed as she went to Twilight’s other side.
“Applejack, Rainbow, what are you? H-Hey! What are you doing!?” Twilight asked as both the cowgirl and athlete grabbed her by the arms and held her up so her feet dangled over the floor.
“Do ya know where Swift’s locker is Rainbow?” Applejack asked the athlete.
“Yeah, totally! It’s right by the main foyer! Let’s go!” Rainbow exclaimed as both her and Applejack ran down the hallway with Twilight in tow.
_____________________________________________________________________
Swift let out a sigh as he stuffed whatever school supplies he needed into his backpack for the next day. Expectedly, the young man was seemingly devoid of any sort of pep or positive emotion after what happened just about half an hour beforehand. He cursed his own bad luck.
“Dangit...that stupid freaking power cord, I could’ve gotten to Pinkie first if it weren’t for that thing.” Swift bitterly recalled out loud. If he hadn’t been so unlucky (or if he had been a tad more aware of his surroundings) he could’ve definitely saved Pinkie from falling instead of Caramel. He could’ve been her hero, and date to the dance probably.
But unfortunately for him, he wouldn’t know, as things didn’t go down that way. Swift thought that it was still good that Pinkie wasn’t injured by the fall, but that didn’t stop it from stinging when she asked Caramel out right in front of him. He knew he only had a sliver of hope to begin with, but any amount of hope being dashed still felt bad. Now with the dance happening tomorrow, he realized that he probably wouldn’t be able to go now. And after all that hard work he took to help set it up.
“Oh well.” Swift thought to himself. “I guess it’ll just be my usual Friday night ritual of playing video games and binge watching anime.”
And with that, Swift closed the door to his locker and slung his backpack over his shoulder. As he started to walk away from it, he heard the sound of people running at him from behind, stopping a few steps away.
“Hey! Justice!” a familiar snarky voice called out to him. Swift sighed.
“Yeah? What is it Rainbow Da-woah!” Swift blurted out as he turned around quickly enough to see Twilight being pushed into him. He reacted quickly, as he caught her before she could fall. “Umm...Twilight, are you ok?
“Yeah Swift….” Twilight said as she glared daggers back at her two friends. “I’m fine.”
Swift looked behind Twilight to see Rainbow and Applejack standing a few feet away. Rainbow Dash waggled her eyebrows at him as she was smirking while Applejack was just giving him a grin. Momentarily confused, Swift noticed that Twilight spoke up again.
“U-Umm...hey Swift?”
“What’s up Twilight?” Swift asked curiously.
“Well...uh…..y-you see...I umm…...I was thinking...well I know it’s the day before and all...but...I’ve really wanted to ask you……”
“Yeah?”
Twilight looked down at the floor before taking a deep breath before looking up into Swift’s eyes. “Swift….will you….will you go to Girl’s Choice with me?” Twilight asked in an extremely sheepish manor. Just as fast as she looked into Swift’s eyes she looked back down to the ground, averting her gaze from the young man staring at her wide eyed in surprise. Swift didn’t speak for a few seconds as he was trying to figure out what just happened. HE was the guy she was worried about asking? Who would’ve thought? He continued to look at the lavender skinned girl in shock as Rainbow spoke up.
“Well Swift? You gonna YOLO and say yes or what?” she asked, which earned an elbow to her side courtesy of Applejack. “OW!”
“Don’t pay her no mind.” Applejack told Swift as she glared back at Rainbow. Swift looked back down at Twilight to see that she was still awaiting his answer.
“Uhh Y-Yeah, sure, why not?” Swift answered. Twilight’s head jerked up as she looked into his eyes again.
“R-Really?” she asked in shock, to which Swift replied with a nod. At that moment, Twilight gained a wide grin across her face as she quickly hugged Swift. “Oh thank you Swift! Thank you, thank you thank you!” she repeated with excitement. The excitement lasted for a few seconds before Twilight detached herself from Swift.
“Yeah, no problem Twilight, I’m sure we’ll have a great time.” Swift said as he took out his cell phone. Twilight took out hers as well as the two exchanged numbers as well as decided on a time for when Swift would pick Twilight up for the dance. Once all that was settled, Twilight thanked Swift once again before running back to Applejack and Rainbow Dash as giddy as a schoolgirl, leaving Swift to stand in the middle of the hallway surprised.
“Well that happened quickly….” Swift said to himself as he started to walk out of the school. “Well...I guess I’m going to the dance anyways. Just wait until I tell Thunderlane and-”
Swift stopped dead in his tracks.
“Uh Oh…..”