Dare To Date

by Scyphi

Dinner Date

Ponyville was fairly quiet given the time and the streets were emptying of pedestrians, leaving few others to cross paths with as they left the school grounds and proceeded towards their first destination for the evening. Being both winged creatures, they could’ve flown there, but Smolder suggested they walk instead, so to give themselves a better opportunity to talk. However, they spent the first few minutes of it awkwardly silent, unsure how to break it.

The silence allowed Smolder to consider other things though, watching Gallus out of the corner of her eye. It suddenly struck her how Gallus was strolling along on all fours, while she remained upright on two, realizing how significant that was. She knew there’d be a day where she’d have to walk on all fours too—all dragons did as they aged and eventually grew to their gigantic sizes. But that wouldn’t be until Smolder started hitting what would be the draconic middle age, and that was many decades away still. So until then, she and Gallus would likely always have this dissimilarity in gait, and now that she had focused on it, it reminded her just how very different they were as creatures.

She, of course, was already well aware of this, but now that she was looking at Gallus as a little more than just a friend, it struck her more heavily than before. She wondered if she was going to be forever more conscious about that now that they’d hooked up, a thought that gave her pause. But she couldn’t help but grin anyway. Despite being two completely different creatures, they had come together like this anyway, not just as good friends, but now also in a relationship, and seemed to think their odds of success were good enough to try.

If that wasn’t a testament of everything they had learned at the School of Friendship, she didn’t know what was.

She continued mulling all this over for a moment longer before Gallus, as if sensing her watching him, glanced over at her. “Enjoying the newest addition to your hoard?” he calmly quipped with a smirk, calling back to their conversation last night.

Smolder blushed, breaking eye contact. “More like…still getting used to the idea,” she admitted. “I mean, I’m still all for this but…now that I actually have it…you know…”

“Mm, I know what you mean,” Gallus stated, relievingly understanding. “Honestly, I was half expecting to wake up this morning and find it had all been a dream. Kinda glad it wasn’t.” He chuckled aloud. “It probably would’ve been cliché if it was anyway.”

Smolder managed a faint chuckle herself. “Guess so,” she admitted then added. “Plus, it also would’ve been weird.”

“Probably,” Gallus agreed. He fell silent for a moment. “So you’re tense.”

“Yeah, I know,” Smolder said apologetically, rubbing her claws down her face, frustrated at herself. “I’ve just been…thinking…about how we want this to work and all that junk.”

Gallus noticed she was rubbing at her shoulders as if chilled. He draped a wing over her shoulders. “Feeling cold?”

“No,” Smolder said, averting his gaze. “Just…second guessing myself. Part of me wants to make all this a big deal…but then I get hung up on whether or not I’m actually ready for that, and…I don’t know.” She sighed. “I guess this is still so intimidating to think about. Before, it had an unreal feel to it—made it easy to just…keep it casual and not worry about all this commitment junk. Now, though, I feel like I have to start taking this seriously.”

Gallus was silent for a moment. He started to remove his wing from her shoulders. “If you don’t want to do the date, Smolder…”

Smolder grabbed the tip of his wing and pulled it closer. “But I do,” she insisted. She laughed. “That’s actually the annoying part of it. I’m so overwhelmed by all the implications, yet I’m totally unwilling to let the opportunity go.” She maneuvered a little closer so that she bodily brushed against Gallus’s side. “Guess a lunk like you just means that much to me.”

Gallus smiled warmly at that and leaned into it, letting her snuggle up to him as they continued walking through the quiet and relatively empty streets—vacant enough for them to do so without fear of being noticed. Eventually, he wrapped his wing around Smolder again, giving her a squeeze. He let out a low whistle then took a deep breath. “This does still feel kinda surreal to think about,” he admitted. “Finches, it kinda raises the stakes on us making it work too.” He let his breath out in a slow whoosh. “I can see why you’re thinking so hard about it, Smolder.”

Smolder frowned at how heavy the topic was getting. “And to think, all we’ve really done thus far is snuggling like this,” she remarked casually, trying to keep the talk from getting too heavy. She jabbed a playful elbow in his ribs. “Just wait until we start getting into all the relationship stuff that comes after this.”

Gallus chuckled, but there was a nervous tone to it. “So…where do you suppose all this is gonna take us?” he asked after a moment.

Smolder hummed to herself for a second then shrugged. “I dunno.” She gave the griffon another nudge. “I guess we’ll just have to find out together.” She shared a caring grin with him for a moment and they lapsed into silence for another few moments. “So…” she finally ventured hesitantly, “…are you nervous?”

Gallus winced to himself. “…Are you?” he countered instead.

Smolder averted her eyes. “…I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.”

Gallus chuckled. “Deal.”

Smolder nodded to herself in agreement. “So how exactly are we planning to do this date thing, anyway?”

“Well, I figure we’ll start by going down to that pizza place like we already agreed, and then I guess we’ll just play it by ear from there.”

Smolder raised an eyebrow at him. “Doesn’t sound like you have this very planned out,” she noted.

“Hey, I have ideas,” Gallus said, returning the look. “But I figured you’d want some say in the matter too, so…”

“Right, right, I get it,” Smolder said, rolling her eyes. “So tell you what—since the pizza place was your idea, I’ll decide something we can do after that.”

“Fair enough,” Gallus said then smugly added, “It’ll give me more opportunities to prove myself.”

Smolder gazed at him for a second. “You really feel that strongly about it, huh?” she asked softly.

“It’s…a griffon thing,” Gallus admitted as his bravado softened a little. “Sorry, I don’t mean to get too carried away with it…”

“No, I get it, you don’t want to seem like you’re…you’re…” Smolder trailed off, unsure how she should say it.

So Gallus finished the statement for her. “…falling short?”

Smolder gave him an apologetic look. “That wasn’t what I meant.”

“I know, I know, I just…still feel obligated to prove otherwise,” Gallus assured, “Even if just for my own sake.”

Smolder didn’t know how to respond to that, so instead she tugged on the tip of his wing so to squeeze it tighter around her shoulders, her way of reassuring him. Gallus grinned faintly and didn’t object. They stayed like that for a few more minutes before she heard Gallus’s stomach rumble audibly. Heck, she was close enough to feel it rumble against her scales, a thought that made her blush.

Gallus blushed too, embarrassed. “So…” he began sheepishly, pulling back and reaching back to rub the back of his head. “…shall we go eat now?” He motioned ahead of them towards the pizza place, starting to come into view.

Smolder chuckled and followed as he led the way. “Yeah, let’s go eat.”

---

Ponyville’s sole pizza parlor was a fairly average one, considering. It was decent, but it seemed everybody could name one somewhere out of town that was better. Even Sandbar knew of a particular pizza parlor in Canterlot that he thought was considerably better than Ponyville’s. But it was also more expensive, which was ultimately what made Ponyville’s pizza parlor work—it could be better, but there was still no denying that the price was right.

Not that Gallus or Smolder really cared about that. Neither of them really even knew what pizza was until they came to Ponyville for school, which made this the place where they were first introduced to it. And they, along with their other friends, had since made frequent visits to it as a group. Most of the students at the School of Friendship frequented it too, making it almost as popular a spot to hang as Sugarcube Corner. So regardless of it being only an average pizza parlor, it did hold a sentimental spot in their hearts. The cost-effective pizza was also a plus.

This wasn’t a normal occasion though, Smolder knew. Usually she and Gallus were here with their other friends, but tonight, it was just them, alone—what if someone they knew noticed and put two with two? Were they prepared for that? Was she?

Caught up on it, Smolder found herself hesitating to enter the parlor, causing Gallus to stop in the doorway and look back at her. “Something wrong?”

Smolder winced to herself, but couldn’t help but grin thankfully for his concern. “It’s nothing, just…dumb stuff.”

“Can’t be that dumb if it’s got you this tense, scale butt.”

“It’s just…” Smolder averted her gaze, feeling a little ashamed. “…the two of us going in there…it’s so…you know…public?”

Gallus nodded again, suddenly understanding. “And you’re leery about others finding out about us just yet,” he said, seeing she would need reassuring on this point.

But Smolder continued before Gallus could say anything further. “Look, I just feel…uncomfortable about others finding out about us…I don’t know, I guess I’m worrying about what they might think.” She blushed a little. “Like I said, it’s dumb.” She then sighed. “I just want to be with you and still be normal too, y’know?”

Gallus thought that over for a moment. “I think I do,” he relented. “But look, we’ll just go in there and hang out like we’ve always done in the past, so it’d still seem like normal, just with…” he trailed off, hurriedly searching for a good term other than the one that first sprung to mind.

“…benefits?” Smolder finished for him anyway, giving him a sly smirk.

Gallus frowned. “I was trying to avoid saying it like that.”

“Which was exactly why I did it for you.”

Gallus rolled his eyes but then nudged her with his wing. “This is exactly the sort of thing I’m talking about though—it’ll just be me and you, hanging out and having fun, like what we’re doing right now, promise.” He shrugged. “Nobody would think another thing of it if they saw us doing that, right?”

Hesitant, Smolder relented. “I guess so…but what if someone does anyway?”

“So?” Gallus responded back with a shrug. “Why should we care, anyway?”

“Because…” Smolder trailed off before falling silent, remembering Silverstream had asked the same thing and realizing she still didn’t have a counter to it. “Well…rocks,” she muttered to herself.

Gallus smiled encouragingly and gave her a friendly nudge. “C’mon, I’m hungry,” he prompted.

Still hesitant, Smolder followed. But her fears appeared exaggerated, for when they finally stepped into the parlor, they found it only moderately busy, and those who could recognize them didn’t seem to pay them much if any attention. Those that did didn’t seem to react, probably because they were there often enough that it wasn’t so out of place to see them now, even without their other friends. Still, Smolder and Gallus took a booth as casually as they could, trying to not draw attention to themselves.

Eventually their waiter came along, a stallion a little older than them and had worked there long enough for most everybody to know him. His proper name was Caesar Salad, but because he was a bit short for an earth pony, he was better known by the nickname Little Caesar. He recognized Smolder and Gallus straightaway, but if he took any notice on how it was just them tonight, he made no comment about it. “Hey guys, what can I get you?”

Smolder and Gallus glanced at each other. Gallus, trying to be courteous, motioned to Smolder. “What kind of pizza do you want, Smolder?” he asked.

Smolder just shrugged however. “I dunno,” she admitted and forced a sheepish grin. “I…hadn’t really been thinking about it.”

“Tell you what then, lemme fetch you some menus,” Caesar suggested, walking off. He returned a moment later with two, which they accepted and proceeded to skim through.

After a moment, Smolder realized something. “You know, seeing our other friends aren’t here, we can order whatever kind of pizza we want for a change,” she remarked eagerly, “No having to compromise over some of their preferences. Because I like my friends, but I don’t necessarily like all of their topping choices.” A pause, then she couldn’t help but add, “By which I mean specifically Sandbar and his darn pineapple.”

Gallus snickered. “We could do that,” he reasoned. “But what would you rather have instead?” He started reading off some of the options derisively. “The tomato and onion? The spinach and artichoke? The grilled eggplant?” He lowered his menu. “Shall I continue?”

Smolder saw his point. Nearly all of the options on the menu were notably vegetarian, more with the pony diet in mind than that of a dragon or griffon. She sighed. “Look, no offense, Little Caesar,” she commented to their waiter. “It’s not that all of these options aren’t still tasty, because you know we’ve had some of these with the others before. But would it kill you to throw in something that’d interest us non-ponies too?”

Caesar could only shrug apologetically. “Sorry, it’s not my call to make,” he admitted. “I can only offer what’s there on the menu.”

Gallus hummed to himself. He had a sly look in his eye that suggested he had an idea.

“Hey Caesar, can you give us a moment to talk over some of our options?” he asked of their waiter.

“Sure, I need to go get another table their drinks anyway,” he said, pointing a hoof at the table in question. He started walking across the room. “Should only take me a moment, but if not, just wave me over when you’re ready to order!”

The moment he was out of hearing range, Smolder leaned closer. “All right, genius, what crazy idea have you gotten now?” she asked, giving him a knowing grin.

“You know me so well,” Gallus replied smugly before straightening confidently. “But not only is my idea a good one, I was thinking about it in advance.” He tapped his menu. “If we really aren’t sold on the toppings they’re offering us, then why don’t we just provide our own?”

Smolder frowned, not following. “How do you figure to do that, short of just making our own pizza?” Which was something they could’ve done too, she supposed, but knowing them, it probably wouldn’t have ended well.

“It’s simple. Let’s just order, say, a medium cheese pizza, as plain as they come,” he jabbed a talon at the option listed on his menu. “Then we just split it in half and you can put what toppings you want on your half and I can put what I want on mine.”

“Okay, but one problem,” Smolder replied. “Do we even have our own toppings?”

“Leave that to me,” Gallus promised. He didn’t elaborate further though, as Caesar, having finished with the other table, was already coming back to theirs.

So Smolder mulled it over for a moment as Caesar returned. “Can we at least order some mushrooms on it?” she asked. “It doesn’t seem like a true pizza without some mushrooms.”

“Only if I can have some olives too,” Gallus countered.

Smolder smirked. “Deal.”

“You two ready to order then?” Caesar asked, ready to jot it down.

“Yup, one medium pizza with extra cheese, mushrooms, and black olives, Little Caesar,” Gallus ordered, turning to their waiter. “We’ll take care of the rest ourselves.”

Caesar’s brow furrowed a little at that last comment, but he didn’t question them. “Okay, that’s one medium pizza, extra cheese, mushrooms, and olives. Anything to drink?”

Again, the two consulted their menus. “We could get some cola,” Gallus suggested.

“That stuff will rot your teeth,” Smolder warned, who, like most dragons, knew a toothless dragon was a vulnerable dragon and wasn’t eager to become one—especially after Spike had enlightened her on additional details of tooth care she hadn’t known back home.

Gallus was unfazed though. “I’ll start caring as soon as I have some teeth to rot,” he quipped back, knowingly tapping the side of his beak with one talon.

Smolder rolled her eyes and kept skimming the drinks section of her menu. “Hey, you serve hot beverages here too,” she noted in surprise. “I didn’t know that. Since when did you have hot beverages like…” she peered at the listed selections then suddenly perked up. “…like tea! You serve tea here?”

Caesar nodded. “Yes ma’am. Are you saying you’re interested in ordering some?”

“Heck yeah, I’ll have some!” Smolder replied with a grin, handing him her menu. “Earl Grey. Hot.”

“Oh, um,” Caesar remarked uncertainly as he accepted the menu. “I’m afraid we don’t serve Earl Grey specifically, only just one generic kind of tea.”

Smolder’s smile fell. “What sort of generic tea?”

“Uh, I think it’s just a simple instant tea…”

Smolder snatched her menu back. “Forget the tea then,” she grumbled, disappointed.

“How about we just order a pitcher of root beer then?” Gallus suggested in an attempt to placate. He motioned to Smolder. “You like root beer, right?”

Smolder sighed. “Yeah, I suppose the root beer will be fine,” she relented, before adding under her breath, “but you just had to get my hopes up for some Earl Grey…”

But the root beer was something Caesar could definitely get them, and after jotting it down onto their order, he went to go fetch it. He returned only a few short minutes later with a pitcher of the fizzy brown drink in tow. “Here you go,” he said as he placed it on the table. “I should be bringing your pizza to you in about another ten to fifteen minutes, tops.”

“Thanks Little Caesar,” Gallus called as he walked off again. “So,” he then remarked while they then settled to wait for their pizza, picking up the pitcher of soda, “Shall I pour you a drink, madam?”

Smolder glanced up from the napkin she’d started fiddling with. “Is this just because I suggested earlier that you’d mess it up if you tried?”

“Yes,” Gallus replied bluntly and without hesitation.

Smolder gave him a look, but shrugged all the same. “Fine, knock yourself out. I could use a good laugh anyway.”

“Ha-ha, you just watch.” Hefting the pitcher with far more pomp and grace than the contents really merited, he rose from his chair and leaned carefully across the table to reach Smolder’s glass. Tipping the pitcher slowly, he carefully poured the glass nearly full to the top without spilling a drop. He then leaned back, pointedly raising the pitcher up again to show he’d done it without incident as promised.

Smolder hummed and gave him a brief applause. “All right, I’ll admit it, I was wrong about that,” she relented.

Smug, Gallus set down the pitcher and moved to sit back down in his seat, only to miss it completely and crash to the floor instead. He shot Smolder a glare at her snorting laughter as he picked himself up and back into his chair.

“That never happened,” he groused to her, scooting closer to the table.

“Sure it didn’t,” Smolder smugly responded. While he then poured himself some soda, she glanced around briefly to make sure Caesar or any others of the pizzeria staff weren’t nearby and leaned closer. “So…about those toppings we’re apparently putting on our pizza ourselves…”

“Right, like I said, I was thinking about that before we left,” Gallus said, discreetly reaching down and into the pannier bags he had set down beside their table. “Wanted to put my own choice of toppings on the pizza for a change, right? So I brought along this.” He pulled out something long, rounded, and dark reddish, holding it up so Smolder could see while still keeping it out of view of any possible onlookers, in case this got them in trouble.

Smolder perked up at the sight of it, fairly confident of what it was. “Is that…?”

Gallus held up a talon to his beak, silently signaling to keep her voice down. “Yup,” he continued softly. “Griffonstone sausage.” He held the link of meat up by one end of its casing so she could see as much of it as circumstance allowed. It was as long as his paw, from the tip of his talons down to the top of his wrist. “Grandpa Gruff is many things, but since he thinks all I’m getting out here is only pony foods, he at least makes sure I’m eating right. He sends me a few of these every so often to make sure I don’t die of malnutrition or something because I’m not getting enough protein.”

“But the school serves us fish and eggs, and you get plenty of protein from both of those, right?”

“Yeah, but Gruff doesn’t need to know that.” He gave Smolder a wink, to which she snickered, catching on. “Anyway, I figured I could chop this puppy up and slip it onto the pizza while no one’s looking, give it some extra zing.”

It was a good idea, so much so that Smolder had to lick her lips a little thinking about it. Meat wasn’t mandatory in a dragon’s diet, but she certainly wouldn’t turn it down if offered. And while she had previously heard of things such as Gallus’s Griffonstone sausage, she’d never had any before—fish or other aquatic meats was the closest she had ever gotten, usually unseasoned, and she knew the griffons preferred more spice in their meats, at least if Gallus’s tastes were of any indication. “Still, would’ve been nice if I could’ve gotten something of my own to put on the pizza,” she added, giving him a pointed look, as she had a few of her own ideas on how to do that.

But Gallus smugly set the sausage down on the table where it would be out of immediate view. “Gotcha covered,” he promised and reached into his bags again, this time pulling out a small burlap sack that he then chucked onto the table between them.

Smolder picked the bag up and peeked inside. “Gemstones?” she asked in surprise, seeing the glassy glint of a small handful of little jewels just the right size for sprinkling on something like a pizza.

“Yeah, you know how Professor Rarity likes to sew gems and stuff into her dresses?” Gallus said as he watched her examine the gems. “I went to see if she had any leftovers she could spare.”

Smolder pulled out one, holding it up to the light. “These are all sapphires,” she noted aloud, still surprised. “I love sapphires.”

“Really?” Gallus asked casually as he sipped his drink. “I didn’t know that.”

But Smolder noticed that smug look he couldn’t quite successfully hide and knew better. However, other than shooting him a shrewd look of her own, she chose not to call him out on it. The gesture was quite appreciated after all.

It was a few minutes longer before their pizza came, so Gallus spent most of that time discreetly dicing up his sausage, Smolder watching him carefully do so with fascination—few dragons would’ve bothered to be so precise about it. For that matter, most dragons hardly do anything like cooking, at least in the sense of mixing a few smaller foods together to make an even tastier dish. Eventually though, Little Caesar returned with their ordered pizza, hot and ready from the oven, and set it on the center of their table to enjoy. It looked quite good, but the moment Caesar left again, they quickly set about sprinkling their additional ingredients overtop of it. Initially they kept their respective toppings on separate halves of the pizza without mixing them, but having some leftover, Gallus agreed to sprinkle sausage over both halves. Smolder offered to do the same with her sapphires until Gallus reminded he’d probably chip his beak trying to eat one so she just kept those leftovers for herself.

They then dug into the adjusted pizza with relish, enjoying it very much. As they ate, they talked and joked about stuff in general, mostly about their respective school lives and shared some gossip, as they often did normally. It was so casual and routine for them that they nearly forgot they were supposed to be on a date at all. And it had remained like that as they were finishing off the pizza, now down to a final slice that Smolder had already suggested she’d eat, seeing it was the last that had sapphires on it, once she finished the one already in her claws.

“But you’re welcome to have it if you want,” Smolder again offered to Gallus. “The sapphires aren’t going to kill you, and they’re small enough you could just swallow them whole.”

“Yeah, still gonna decline on that,” Gallus remarked with a smirk. “Never mind the swallowing, I don’t even wanna think about having to try and pass those things later on.”

Smolder wrinkled her snout at the undesired image that brought to mind, but she chuckled nonetheless. “Then just pick the sapphires off and give them to me—makes no difference to my belly in the end.”

Gallus went silent for a moment, studying the remaining slice, and it was clear he was considering it. “Maybe in a moment,” he relented finally before glancing around for their waiter. “In the meantime, I suppose we should ask for the bill, see what the damage to our coin purses will be.”

“You aren’t going to haggle over the price, are you?” Smolder asked wearily.

“It’s not haggling,” Gallus assured pointedly. “It’s just making sure it’s a fair price.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, first of all,” Smolder replied back, annoyed. “Second, it’s definitely haggling if you’re always trying to pay as little as you can get away with.” She rolled her eyes. “You can be such a tightwad sometimes.”

Gallus frowned. “I am not a tightwad…just careful with my bits, like all griffons.”

Smolder gave him weary look. “You remember when you got into that argument with Mrs. Cake over the price of one cupcake?”

Gallus scowled further. “In my defense, the price she was charging for the extra sprinkles was outrageous.”

“She was only charging you an extra quarter-bit!”

“I could’ve bought a gumball with that quarter-bit!”

“You hate gumballs! You’re always complaining about how they stick to the inside of your fat beak!”

“Beside the point!” Spying Caesar already heading in their direction, he waved him over. “Look, let’s just see what the bill is and then we can quibble over the price.”

“Hey guys!” Caesar greeted as he arrived, balancing a platter of food on one hoof. “Enjoyed the pizza? Looks like you’ve managed to eat nearly the whole…” he trailed off as he studied the last slice, noting the extra toppings visible atop of it. Gallus quickly snagged it with his talons as an attempt to hide this, but it was too late. “…those toppings weren’t on there when I brought the pizza to you.”

“Yeeeeaaaaah, about that,” Gallus said sheepishly, proceeding to pick the sapphires off the final slice while Smolder hurriedly stuffed the remainder of her own slice into her mouth, “Little Caesar, would it really be a problem if we added some of our own toppings to our pizza, if we brought them ourselves?”

Caesar hesitated, clearly uneasy. “I…don’t think my boss would be super pleased about it…” but he shrugged helplessly, “…but it’s not like I could really stop you at this point, I guess.”

“Oh good, because that’s what we did,” Gallus said as he proceeded to bite into the final slice, handing the sapphires he had picked off into Smolder’s palm, already out and waiting to receive them.

“…right,” Caesar said slowly, but then shook his head and proceeded to take the plate he was carrying off his platter. “Anyway, this is for you two.” He placed the plate of spaghetti and veggie balls before them. “A little extra something from off our pasta menu, as a courtesy from the guests at table seven.” He then winked at them. “For the happy couple.”

Smolder and Gallus exchanged surprised glances at this before taking in the plate of spaghetti put before them. “Uh, Caesar?” Smolder began to object, raising a claw to grab the pony’s attention, “As nice a gesture as that is, I don’t think we wanna…”

But she trailed off as she saw Gallus hurriedly motion for her to stop. “Free food!” he hissed at her eagerly.

“…turn…down such a nice offer!” Smolder quickly recovered. She and Gallus then beamed big forced grins at him.

Caesar beamed back at them and walked off, leaving them alone with their spaghetti. Smolder poked at it with a fork, still overcoming her surprise.

“Who buys someone a plate of spaghetti anyway?” she muttered aloud as she did this.

“Table seven, apparently,” Gallus said, quickly downing the last pizza slice before proceeding to glance around the parlor, acting casual. He paused looking at a specific table for a moment. “Uh-oh.” He quickly turned back, making like he hadn’t noticed anything. “Don’t look now, Smolder, but I think we’ve been spotted,” he said quietly.

Smolder looked anyway, twisting around in her seat to look at the table in question. Upon seeing the two fillies sitting there and happily waving back at her, she quickly wished she hadn’t, spinning back around to bury her face in her claws while blushing profusely. “Oh nooooooo…”

“Aren’t they two of your teammates on the cheer team?” Gallus asked next, patiently ignoring the two mares he could feel were still watching them.

Smolder made an embarrassed nod, her face flushed red. “Shimmy and Lighthoof,” she confirmed, muttering through gritted teeth. “This must be their idea of calling us out—when the heck did those two get here, anyway?”

“Must have been while we were eating the pizza and we didn’t notice,” Gallus said, taking a fork and stabbing it into the spaghetti, twirling idly it in the noodles. “And obviously they’ve noticed we’re here alone…”

“…and no doubt put two with two, I was afraid of this,” Smolder added in a hiss, leaning her head back with a groan. “The whole school’s going to know about this by tomorrow morning!”

“Yeah, and then everybody’s going to be prying for details about you and me.” Gallus sighed. He looked concernedly at Smolder as she started rubbing at her shoulders again, huddled in upon herself, face bright red in a mixture of embarrassment and now a growing anger. “Look, Smolder, if…if it’s going to be such a problem, we can always…”

“No, no!” Smolder hurriedly interrupted but only growing more rattled. “It’s just…you see…” she attempted to articulate, but the words jammed into one another in her mouth and she couldn’t get them out. Realizing she was on the verge of making a scene, she quickly licked her lips in a panic, trying to pierce the blockage. “Look…we’re just…it’s not…I mean it is…but…GAAAAAAH!”

Her temper abruptly bursting through and now beyond embarrassed, Smolder instinctively turned and fled before anyone could stop her, racing across the pizzeria towards one far corner. She was first heading for the bathrooms located there, but seeing the parlor’s janitorial closet was closer, she ended up heading for that instead, throwing the door open and rushing inside, slamming it again behind her. There, she sat in the most secluded and empty corner of the cramped closet where she could curl into a ball and be utterly mortified at herself in peace. She had only spent a couple minutes drowning in her emotions though before there was a soft knock on the door. Startled, she twisted her head around in time to see Gallus pushing it open again. They looked at each other for a moment.

“You know, the sign says ‘employees only,’ right?” he quipped after a moment, jabbing a thumb at the sign clearly displayed on the door.

Despite herself, Smolder let out an amused snort, breaking her gaze so to shake her head at his antics. Taking that as approval to enter, Gallus did, closing the door behind him again. She felt a gentle pair of talons rest on her shoulder as moved to sit down beside her.

“So,” he said gently and nodded at her. “Feeling better?”

Smolder bit her lip, feeling her face heat up again. “No,” she admitted then let her head thump onto her knees. “I’m sorry, Gallus.”

“Oh, what for?” Gallus replied, not looking convinced it was necessary.

“I just made a huge fool of myself, that’s what!” Smolder snapped back, throwing out her arms like the proof was laid out before them. “And it’s…” she turned her head away, face heating up even more. “…it’s just unfair to you, y’know? Here you are trying to be this great date and all, and…and I’m getting hung up over dumb stuff, ruining it all.” She began make a moan in the back of her throat before it slowly turned into a frustrated growl. “GrraaaaAAAH!” She suddenly pounded the shelves of cleaning supplies next to her with her fists, making the whole wooden structure rattle. “These dumb emotions! I…I can’t sort them out, and they’re just…making a mess of everything!”

“Yeah, emotions are like that,” Gallus mumbled, letting her vent.

“Well, I hate it!” Smolder snapped and rubbed at her shoulders, this having become a nervous tic of hers. “I hate that I can’t keep them in check or sort them out! It’s been like that through this whole date and it’s…it’s keeping me from…from…” she sighed, letting her head lean on the shelving. “I wish I could just…settle on what to do about it, but I can’t even do that! It’s this constant back and forth…on one side I want to just…hang my pride and run and hide from it all, and then on the other I want to dive right in to it, tackle you and make out with you so hard…”

Gallus had no response to that and instead only stared blankly into the distance, taken aback.

“…but I know there’s…consequences to that!” Smolder ranted on, throwing her arms out again. “And that’s all a bunch of slag anyway, because I was the one that started all of this in the first place!” Mellowing out, she curled up upon herself again. “I’m the one who wanted to do this.”

“Well, give me some of the credit too at least,” Gallus mumbled to himself. He had turned his head to gaze in the direction she had motioned, as if expecting to see something there, and was thinking it over for a brief moment. “What sort of consequences are you talking about anyway?” he then asked her simply.

Smolder glanced at him blankly then made the same motion with her arms again. “Well…you know…” she began. But when Gallus continued to gaze expectantly at her, she stumbled for a more exact response. “…it’s…it’s just… it’s not like you and me are going to be a secret anymore now, no thanks to certain ponies, so…” she trailed off with a sigh. “…look, it’s stupid and I know it, but there it is anyway.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Gallus reassured her and jabbed a thumb back the way he’d come. “If it helps, your cheer pals were worried they’d upset you and wanted to make sure you were all right.” He wiggled a little closer. “But I managed to shoo them off. I figured you wouldn’t want to deal with them right now.”

Smolder just groaned and wrapped her claws around her skull, still embarrassed. “…What’d you tell them anyway?”

“That it was our first date and we were still a bit tense about it. So…the truth, I guess.”

“Mmm.” Smolder winced faintly and rubbed at her shoulders again.

Gallus noticed and watched her for a moment. “You know, Smolder, I think the problem is that you just don’t like putting your emotions on display for everybody to see, at least not these emotions,” he reasoned suddenly. “Because you have no problem doing so when it’s just you and me, but get any onlookers in nearby and suddenly you’re a lot more…hesitant about it.”

“Well…yeah!” Smolder suddenly snapped, and started to work herself up again. “I’m a dragon, Gallus! I’m supposed to be this big, tough, frightening and unintimidated thing, not…going around being lovey-dovey and having long talks about my stupid feelings! You realize what that makes me look like, right?”

“Normal, Smolder,” Gallus replied simply, unfazed by her outburst. “It makes you look normal. Just like all the rest of us.” He tilted his head at her. “Is that really so bad?”

Smolder averted her gaze again, still rubbing her shoulders. “What if I don’t want to be normal like that?” She asked it in a very timid, uncertain, voice like she wasn’t certain of it herself.

Gallus licked his beak, looking uncomfortable as the implications weren’t lost on him. “What’s wrong with normal?” he finally asked after a long moment.

Smolder shrank in on herself, not having a good answer. “Don’t go answering my question with another question,” she grumbled instead.

“Okay, fine,” Gallus said, straightening and turning serious. He put a paw on her shoulder. “Smolder, seriously…are you having second thoughts about all of this?”

Smolder whipped her head around to stare at him, as if slapped. “No!” she declared, and suddenly grabbed Gallus’s paw in a death grip, afraid if she let go, it wouldn’t be coming back. “No, I want to make this work! I want us to work! Dang it, Gallus, I didn’t get up in the middle of the night and drag you into my closet in my sleep just for the fun of it! You know this! I need this to work! I’d be devastated if it doesn’t, and…and that’s the problem! I’m…I’m…” her volume suddenly shot down and she sank down against the side of the shelves, head drooping, before continuing in an uncharacteristically soft and quiet voice, “…I’m afraid. I’m afraid that…I’ll mess this all up when I really, really, don’t want to. I want to make this work. But I don’t know what to do so to…do that. And doing it out in public like this, with everyone watching, expecting…makes it even harder. So…unable to work it out…I’m…trying to hide from it, I guess…keep myself from getting too committed, in too deep, from getting the stakes raised too high…thinking that maybe if I do that, I’ll…spare myself the misery if things do go south.” She thumped her head on her knees again. “But even that’s…not…WORKING!” She beat her fists on her knees violently for a moment. “Grraagh—I HATE these emotions! They just need to…get lost!” She breathed a huge sigh, letting her body unwind while also trying to blink back tears.

But then Gallus gently wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a comforting hug. He didn’t say anything, but for the moment, his actions said everything that needed to be, and Smolder wrapped her arms around him to return it, pressing herself into his chest. “I’m sorry,” she finally murmured after a bit. “I’m being such a downer about all of this.”

“Don’t be,” Gallus assured. He sighed sheepishly. “To be honest, Smolder?” he admitted softly. “I’ve…I’ve been pretty nervous about epically messing this up all night too.”

“I know, I know…but you’re still not as bad about it as I am.”

“Actually…I guess I’m just good at hiding it, because…I really don’t feel like I am.”

Smolder stared at him for a long moment, slowly sitting up again. “…really?”

Gallus, to his credit, managed a small but humble grin back. “Really.”

“But…you haven’t acted like it all night.”

“Then you flatter me, Smolder.” He made an amused snort at himself. “The fact you’re so nervous about it only made me feel even worse—not that I’m blaming you for anything.” He quickly gave Smolder a placating motion. “It’s just…I knew one of us needed to keep a straight head on, so it felt like it was all on me to do it, and…well…I’ve really been feeling the pressure, so…”

He trailed off when Smolder responded by pulling him back into a warm hug. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like that,” she murmured into his side, pressing her face into his shoulder.

Gallus sighed and patted her on the back. “And I’m sorry I didn’t admit it sooner,” he admitted. “I probably should’ve, because then at least we could’ve been awkward first-time daters together.” That got a laugh out of Smolder, so, feeling heartened, he pressed on. “I mean, I knew you were pretty worked up about all of this too, but once we got the pizza, you seemed to settle into it a bit more, so I was…I was starting to think we were in the clear.” He shrugged helplessly. “I guess not.”

Smolder sighed herself, releasing Gallus and facing away from him, but leaving her body still leaning on his furred and feathered side. “I guess we’ve been too hard on ourselves this whole time,” she reasoned aloud, then rolled her eyes. “I should’ve listened to Silverstream when she said to not take this so seriously and just have fun.” She glanced at Gallus. “You’ve been having fun…right?”

Gallus glanced back, eyebrows raised. “Of course. Despite everything.”

Smolder grinned back. “Well, at least we’ve gotten that much right.” She took a deep and stress-unwinding breath, letting it out slowly. “Honestly…that’s probably the most important part to get right anyway.” She went quiet for a moment so to mull over her thoughts. Gallus remained quiet during this. She breathed another, softer sigh. “Still feel stupid for having these fears though,” she mumbled aloud again. She scrunched her snout up trying to put it into words. “It makes me feel so…so…”

“…vulnerable?” Gallus offered softly.

Smolder blushed and averted her gaze, embarrassed. “Dumb thing for a dragon to feel like, right?” she quipped half-heartedly.

Gallus snorted. “How do you think the big tough griffon feels about it?”

Smolder gazed at him for a moment, realizing he understood what she was feeling much better than she thought. She averted her gaze again and sighed once more for good measure. “It’s just, we’ve faced way scarier things than this before, right? I’ve definitely got a whole list racked up, at least—confronting a speciest EEA guy, taking on the challenges of a friendship tree and the pressure of living up to it, beating a psychotic little filly trying to conquer the school, then again with her baddie friends in a whole battle for Equestria, spent the better part of a day and a night in a Diamond Dog prison before turning around and helping end a near riot in their streets, got swallowed by an intelligent ball of slime, crash landed in another world made of fire and brimstone containing a real nasty baddie wanting revenge…”

“…nightmares about being alone…” Gallus added casually.

Smolder shot him a look. “I thought we agreed to never mention that incident?”

Gallus returned it. “I could say the same thing about that real nasty baddie incident.”

Smolder snorted. “Look, the point is that…we’ve been through a lot of scary stuff.”

“And still young!” Gallus quipped with a smirk.

Smolder rolled her eyes. “So it’s just…dumb…to be so scared of this, a simple date! Of expressing how much I care to be around you in front of others! Heck, this should be cake in comparison to all of that, but it’s not!” She sighed, exasperated, but gave Gallus a friendly nudge. “Knowing you’ve got the same problem helps, but…it still makes me feel guilty and…unappreciative. Because despite everything, you’ve been admirably supportive throughout all of this, so I wish I could just…throw away this fear, even if just for your sake.” She leaned her head back with an annoyed moan. “It’s a dumb fear anyway, and frankly I’m embarrassed for it.”

“Aw, don’t be,” Gallus said, waving it off. “I totally get it, scale butt.”

“Doesn’t change that I still feel like I ought to be,” Smolder persisted. “I’m supposed to be the tough dragon, after all.”

“Not all the time though…right?”

Smolder went quiet for a moment. “…it’s still going to nag at me anyway.” Yet she felt her nerves finally start to unwind fully—for the first time that whole evening—the more she talked about it. It made her smile. “But…all things considered…I’ve been having fun on this date too, feather butt…neurotic fears aside.”

Gallus let out a long whoosh of air from his beak. “I can’t tell you how much it relieves me to hear you say that,” he admitted. He chuckled to himself. “You know, when we first agreed to this date, I’d wanted to go all out and make it super fancy?”

“What and this wasn’t?”

“Finches, no!” Gallus shook his head to himself. “I still feel like I should be going all out for this, in fact. I mean, if I can successfully get you through a super-fancy date…” he trailed off.

“So…why didn’t you?” Smolder prompted after a moment.

“Well, we had already agreed to the pizza place first of all,” Gallus began, “and you’d indicated you wanted to keep it simple. Plus…there was a cost issue to consider…”

Smolder made a good-natured snicker at that. “Tightwad.”

“Am not.” But Gallus didn’t press the matter and continued on. “Above all, though…Sandbar talked me out of it.” Gallus averted his gaze but there was a soft grin on his face. “He said that, if we really cared for each other, then we shouldn’t even need a fancy date to prove it.” His grin grew a little. “And of course he was right.”

Smolder thought about that for a second longer. “He was,” she finally agreed. “And I’m glad because this has been fun.”

“Dumb fears aside?” Gallus added.

“Dumb fears aside,” Smolder confirmed with a nod. She took a deep breath then turned over so to face him, nearly bumping her snout into his beak in the process. Rocks, he’s close. “Look, thanks for putting up with me handling this anyway. I’m…hoping I just need a little more time to adjust to it all.”

“Well, no rush,” Gallus assured her. He chuckled. “I mean, we only decided to commit to this literally last night, so…”

“Yeah,” Smolder went quiet for a moment, leading her head on Gallus’s side again, “Still don’t regret it though.”

Gallus gave her a squeeze. “Me neither.”

They remained like that for a few moments longer. Gallus then awkwardly cleared his throat.

“So, uh, not to ruin the moment or anything,” he remarked, releasing her, “but Little Caesar’s probably wondering what happened to us, and seeing we haven’t paid for our meal yet…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Smolder said, getting up and stretching. She glanced around the little closet with a sigh. “I guess hiding in here forever isn’t going to change anything anyway.”

“If it helps,” Gallus said, getting up as well, “I’ll be right there beside you.”

Smolder gave him a thankful grin. “Yeah,” she agreed, patting him on the back, “that helps.”

They exited the closet again and stepped back into the main area of the parlor where their table awaited them. Everything was still where they had left it, right on down to the courtesy plate of spaghetti sat in the middle of it.

Smolder stared at it for a moment as they sat back down before turning to look again at her fellow cheer members at their own table. “Where did Shimmy and Lighthoof go?” she asked when she saw they were no longer there and started scanning the parlor for them.

Gallus looked up and scanned the restaurant as well. “I dunno,” he admitted. Not seeing them, he eventually shrugged. “Maybe they left while we were talking?”

“Maybe,” Smolder said slowly, uncertain, “but…they hadn’t actually finished their own meal yet, right? I mean, I guess we didn’t see when they came in exactly, but…they couldn’t have been here nearly as long as we have, so…”

Gallus shrugged, picking up his fork and resumed idly twirling in the spaghetti like earlier. “Maybe they left because of us,” he reasoned simply.

Smolder winced to herself. “I hope I didn’t make them feel, like, bad or anything. I don’t blame them for this…not really…”

“More likely they just decided they had intruded enough, I’d bet,” Gallus suggested. He glanced optimistically at the dragoness. “Hey, maybe this’ll make them want to keep it to themselves for now, seeing we’re…still working out the details and all that.”

But Smolder shook her head. “No, no…they both mean well, but Lighthoof and Shimmy are still the gossipy types. They’re inevitably not going to be able to resist blabbing to someone, and it’ll only take one to start it all off…” she sighed, rubbing her face with her claws as the very idea of it started to make her feel anxious again.

Gallus gave her a sympathizing look. “Sorry Smolder, I know you wanted to avoid this. But…you know it was going to come out eventually.”

“Yeah…yeah, I know,” Smolder relented, forcing herself to be calm. “Well, hindsight’s twenty-twenty, I guess,” she then mumbled with a snort.

“Yeah, it’s funny how many things you can see better with your butt instead of your head, right?” Gallus snarked.

Smolder gave him a look, but then grinned a little while trying to focus on the positives. “On the upside, though…I guess it’s still kinda flattering, thinking we might be the talk of the school.”

Gallus considered that prospect for a moment. “The School of Friendship’s newest power couple.” he shrugged. “Eh, I guess I could live with that.”

Smolder laughed. “Of course you could.” She sighed wearily. “I guess there’s not really anything we can do to stop it at this point anyway, right?”

Gallus nodded sympathetically. “Afraid not. I mean, I guess we could try and buy Shimmy and Lighthoof’s silence, but…”

“Yeah, no, that’s probably only going to cause more problems in the long run,” Smolder agreed, rubbing her face with one set of claws. “And it’ll be a lot of effort to try and delay it at this point, so…” she shook her head, taking in a deep and resolving breath. “You know what? Forget it. Let’s just not worry about it until at least tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

Smolder grinned, a little relieved. “Right then, time for a subject change.” They regarded the spaghetti placed between them. “So…I guess we’re eating this now?”

“Guess so,” Gallus said as he slurped off a noodle with his fork. He chuckled. “Heh, betcha they even tied some of the noodles together, in hopes we try to slurp up both ends of it at the same time, you know, like in those romance stories.”

Smolder laughed. “Yeah, that would seem like the thing to have happen at this point.”

Gallus looked at the pasta for a moment then smirked at Smolder. “Wanna try and find it?”

Smolder smirked back, seeing his intent. “Well, it would be a shame to let this spaghetti go to waste…”

They dug in, searching for such a noodle and making it a point to slurp up all the ones they ate. Ironically, they never found that magic noodle—every one they tried was unconnected with the one the other was slurping. The closest they even got was Smolder slurping up one noodle that had managed wrap around one of the veggie balls, yanking it out with enough force that it smacked her in the snout, to Gallus’s amusement. Eventually they reached the bottom of the plate having not found the desired noodle.

“Well, so much for that,” Gallus remarked, letting his fork drop onto the empty plate.

“You know, I’m actually kinda disappointed,” Smolder agreed, also putting down her fork and staring forlornly at the empty plate. “Dumb spaghetti…you weren’t doing your job!”

“Must’ve missed the memo,” Gallus quipped as he flagged down Caesar so to get their bill.

Author's Note:

The observant among you might notice I make reference to some of my other fics featuring the Young 6 in this chapter. Not required reading for this, of course, I just wanted to make reference to them, and figured there was no reason why I couldn't make them part of a shared universe at this point.

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

His proper name was Caesar Salad, but because he was a bit short for an earth pony, he was better known by the nickname Little Caesar.

I see what you did there nice one lol

And I do love the little caesars pizza

[Yoshifan30]

Gallus held up a talon to his beak, silently signaling to keep her voice down. “Yup,” he continued softly. “Griffonstone sausage.” He held the link of meat up by one end of its casing so she could see as much of it as circumstance allowed. It was as long as his paw, from the tip of his talons down to the top of his wrist. “Grandpa Gruff is many things, but since he thinks all I’m getting out here is only pony foods, he at least makes sure I’m eating right. He sends me a few of these every so often to make sure I don’t die of malnutrition or something because I’m not getting enough protein.”

To me I like pepperoni and cheese pizza yeah and the most planest dude ever lol

[Yoshifan30]

“Hey guys!” Caesar greeted as he arrived, balancing a platter of food on one hoof.

That is so impressive how ponies can do that lol

[Yoshifan30]

Smolder gazed at him for a moment, realizing he understood what she was feeling much better than she thought. She averted her gaze again and sighed once more for good measure. “It’s just, we’ve faced way scarier things than this before, right? I’ve definitely got a whole list racked up, at least—confronting a speciest EEA guy, taking on the challenges of a friendship tree and the pressure of living up to it, beating a psychotic little filly trying to conquer the school, then again with her baddie friends in a whole battle for Equestria, spent the better part of a day and a night in a Diamond Dog prison before turning around and helping end a near riot in their streets, got swallowed by an intelligent ball of slime, crash landed in another world made of fire and brimstone containing a real nasty baddie wanting revenge…”

Holy macro nice callback to the episode's and your previous stories And I remember all of them well except for one story that Talk about different roelm and n wanting revenge i need to read that lol

[Yoshifan30]

“Guess so,” Gallus said as he slurped off a noodle with his fork. He chuckled. “Heh, betcha they even tied some of the noodles together, in hopes we try to slurp up both ends of it at the same time, you know, like in those romance stories.”

Lol Lady and the tramp Spaghetti scene I love it

[Yoshifan30]

Ok wow so Smolder and gallus are going to the first date but unfortunately smolder felt more nervous about it even though things should be fine but it doesn't help she still feeling a little emotional so they made it to the piazza place things were pretty good but unfortunately the two cheerleaders which I'm sure they didn't mean to make things a little worse for smolder so she got really scared and ran to the closet to chill out but I'm glad that gallus talk to each other how they feel and everything so knowing that they're not alone but this was a nice chapter so cute too

[Kkat]

Sandbar immediately gains points for being pro pineapple on pizza.

[Scyphi]

10488378
Just make sure Smolder doesn't find out--she'll undoubtedly fight you over that.

[Connected12]

spent the better part of a day and a night in a Diamond Dog prison before turning around and helping end a near riot in their streets, got swallowed by an intelligent ball of slime, crash landed in another world made of fire and brimstone containing a real nasty baddie wanting revenge…

I'm surprised they didn't reference the OTHER time they were stuck with each other in a restaurant... in a freezer...

You know, that one time they flooded the whole place with cheese, and their headmare was trying to get Thorax to eat pepper.

Now that I think about it, the circumstances are pretty similar here.

[Yordna]

Gallus was unfazed though. “I’ll start caring as soon as I have some teeth to rot,” he quipped back, knowingly tapping the side of his beak with one talon.

derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/9/17/1834825.png

That aside, awww! This is so cuuuute! I love this ship so much. Two smartasses falling in love is just adorable.

[ThePinkiepie]

I love this story.