> Dare To Date
>  by Scyphi
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Meeting Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When it came to dragons, personal hygiene wasn’t something most really stressed too much about, and Smolder was usually no exception to that, typically choosing to just stick with the basics. But tonight wasn’t like other nights, leaving Smolder perhaps a bit overeager to up her game for a change. And after spending several minutes fretting over her reflection in the dorm room’s mirror, making odd fixes, she still wasn’t sure it was enough.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled aloud, and glanced at the reflection of her hippogriff roommate seen on one side of the mirror. “You tell me, Sil—what more do I need to tweak?”

“I think you look great as-is,” Silverstream assured the dragoness from where she sat behind her on the bottom bunk bed.

“Are you sure?” Smolder asked as she skeptically looked at her reflection again. “Maybe I should apply a bit more scale polish…”

“Smolder, you apply any more polish to those scales and you’re going to start blinding creatures with the shine,” Silverstream quipped with a smirk. “And honestly? I don’t think Gallus is going to care that much. It’s not your scales he’s looking to see, after all, it’s the gal that’s in them!”

Smolder sighed and continued to fuss over her appearance anyway. “Sorry,” she admitted as she did this. “I guess my nerves are getting to me.”

“I don’t know why you’re so nervous about it though,” Silverstream remarked, watching her fret. “It’s not like this’ll be that different from all the hanging out you two have done before. Remember everything you told me you did during that three-day weekend?”

“I just…don’t want to mess this up,” Smolder said as she patted herself down one last time. “It’s important to me, y’know?”

“I get that,” Silverstream assured, rising and trotting over. She patted a friendly paw on her back. “However, I’ll remind you what you said when you told me about this.” She turned Smolder around so to face her. “You two aren’t looking to do a super serious date tonight, so don’t treat it like one.”

Smolder sighed, but she grinned thankfully. “And you’re right, of course,” she admitted. She rolled her eyes heavenward and started to pace though, still no less nervous. “It’s just…our first date! That’s still…big, right?”

Silverstream shrugged non-committedly. “Honestly, I’m still hung up on you two being a thing at all. Of course, I’m way happy for you two and all that, and I think you’ll make for a very cute couple. It’s just…yesterday you two were still only friends, and then I wake up this morning and find out you’re now starting a relationship…”

“And see, that’s what worries me most,” Smolder admitted while continuing to pace, rubbing her shoulders as if cold. “We literally decided to try being a couple just last night. And I still wanna try, absolutely, and I’m thrilled Gallus agreed to give it a shot…but should we really going on a date this soon? Are we going too fast?”

“I dunno, you tell me,” Silverstream said with an unhelpful shrug. “How do dragons usually date, anyway?”

Smolder snorted, amused by the question. “Dragons don’t really do dating, honestly. We just sort of skip over that and cut right to the chase, if you know what I mean.”

Innocent as ever, Silverstream casually shook her head. “No, not really.”

Smolder chuckled and decided to spare enlightening her. “That’s okay, I don’t think I really want to do this purely the dragon way anyway,” she said, letting her gaze wander wistfully into the distance. “I mean, Gallus isn’t a dragon, he ought to get some say in it too. So when he suggested we go on a date…I figured I ought to follow his lead.” She sighed once more and resumed rubbing at her shoulders. “It’s just…because I’m a dragon, I don’t really know anything about dating. I hadn’t even really heard of it until I started coming to the school, and even then, it’s all secondclaw basics.” She threw her claws out as she paced back and forth. “What if I mess something up because I didn’t know I’m supposed to do something or not?”

“Hey, it’s a first date, I think you’re allowed a little wiggle room on those sort of things,” Silverstream assured. “Besides, don’t forget, it’ll be Gallus’s first date with you too.” She nudged Smolder in the ribs with her elbow. “Betcha he’s fretting over all of these things too!”

Smolder snickered to herself, amused by that mental picture. “Yeah, probably,” she relented.

“Either way, don’t take it so seriously that you forget to have fun,” Silverstream went on to advise, “because date or not, that’s what you two are really looking to do.”

Smolder took another deep breath so to calm her nerves. “Right,” she confirmed, nodding. She then averted her gaze. “But it’s not just the date itself that’s got me worried. What if…what if someone else sees us?”

Silverstream shrugged. “So?”

“So? What if word gets out to everybody that we’re totally a thing now?”

Again, Silverstream shrugged. “And I repeat: so what? I know, Sandbar knows, our other friends know…why not everybody else? I mean, do you plan to keep this all secret forever anyway?”

“No, I guess not,” Smolder relented, fiddling with her claws. “I mean, they’re all going to have to find out eventually, and deep down I guess I know that. But then they’re going to be all…wink-wink nudge-nudge everybody-acting-all-gushy-mushy around us all the time, and…I don’t know if I want that special treatment.”

“I think I understand,” Silverstream said. “But, y’know, why do you care what others think about it? So long as you and Gallus are happy…well, that’s all that matters, right?”

Smolder smiled and took another deep, calming, breath. “Seriously, Sil, you’re like an expert or something on this.” She tilted her head at the hippogriff. “Remind me why you aren’t in a relationship yet yourself?”

“I dunno,” Silverstream innocently replied with a shrug to go with it.

Smolder laughed, but it was cut short when there was a sudden knock on their door. She whirled around to stare at it, realizing who it could be, and, suddenly tense and nervous again, looked back at Silverstream for guidance. The hippogriff just gently nodded her head at her, motioning for her to continue.

“Just remember,” she added as Smolder approached the door, “The most important thing you should do is be yourself.”

“Right,” Smolder took another deep inhale, held it for a second then let it out. “Let’s do this, then.”

There was another polite knock on the door, so Smolder answered it, swinging it open to reveal Gallus, with the griffon’s own roommate, Sandbar, standing off to one side in the hallway and acting like he wasn’t there. Like Smolder, Gallus had freshened himself up a little, having groomed his blue feathers and fur. But he was overall still keeping it casual, with the pair of pannier bags he carried on his back being the only other noteworthy change from his usual appearance. He, too, seemed somewhat nervous, but he quickly hid it now that Smolder was standing before him. “Hey,” he remarked casually, raising his eyebrows and dipping his beak for a quick nod in greeting.

“Heeeey, you’re here!” Smolder declared back, her tone a little forced. She glanced back into her dorm to look at a clock. “You’re…you’re actually a little early. I’d figured you were going to be late.”

Gallus snorted, amused. “There a problem with that?” he asked, a little smug.

Smolder made a “pfft” noise, waving the matter aside dismissively. “Rocks, no,” she said, making like she was indifferent. “That just means I can watch you mess up pouring me a drink or something all the sooner.”

“Oh, you think that, huh?” Gallus said, previous hesitations forgotten in favor of defending his pride. “Well, we’ll see who will be having the last laugh afterwards!”

Smolder took that as a challenge. “Oh ho, we’ll just have to see indeed, feather butt.”

“Looking forward to it then, scale butt.”

“Good!”

“Fine!”

They stared each other down for a second before breaking out laughing, the lapse back into their usual banter breaking the tension. Though they were quickly reminded they had an audience when Sandbar was heard suppressing an amused snort of his own, which drew Silverstream’s attention, now joining Smolder in the doorway.

“Sandbar?” the hippogriff asked, peeking around Smolder to eye the earth pony quietly standing to one side. “Why are you here?”

“Moral support,” Sandbar replied simply, giving the hippogriff a knowing grin.

Gallus shot him a look. “He just wanted to tag along and see us off, is all,” he stressed. He ran a confident set of talons through his feathery crest. “I totally got this on my own, though.”

Now Sandbar shot him a look. “That wasn’t the case just five minutes ago, when you were still freaking out about how the heck you were even going to do—”

Gallus gave him a forceful shove, making the earth pony stumble to one side and out of Smolder’s immediate view. “So!” Gallus then continued in a more normal tone, changing the subject, “Who’s up for some pizza?”

Smolder smirked but shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I could eat,” she admitted. She started to turn back into the room, eyes wandering as if searching for something. She started rubbing at her shoulders again. “Just, uh, just let me get…”

But she was cut short when Silverstream pushed her on out instead. “Nope, you’re absolutely ready to go right now!” she happily declared.

“I am?” Smolder asked uncertain, glancing back at her.

Silverstream nodded. “You are! No need to try and stall!”

Smolder harrumphed and shook the hippogriff’s talons off of her. “I am not trying to stall.”

“Mm-hmm,” Silverstream hummed, unconvinced, but pressed on regardless. “It’ll be great, you two, I’m sure!” She gave the dragon a wink that Smolder wasn’t sure how to interpret. But Sandbar, stepping back into view, understood and hid another snicker.

Gallus glanced suspiciously between the two roomies. “Don’t need any help from the peanut gallery, guys,” he reminded.

“Oh no, of course not,” Sandbar quickly agreed, “Totally staying out of it.”

Smolder also looked between their roomies and raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Yeah…whatever,” she said, deciding to dismiss it and turned to Gallus. “Shall we put some distance between us and them before they overstay their welcome even further?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Gallus said as the two turned and walked off.

“Bye guys!” Sandbar called after them as they vanished down the hall. “Remember to have fun!”

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Silverstream added.

“Now goodbye!”

“Toodles!”

The two continued waving at them for a second.

“Think this’ll go well for them?”

“Betcha five bits it goes so well that they have their first smooch.”

“You’re on.”
> 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.
> Moonlit Stroll
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After only a little haggling over the bill, they both left the pizza parlor with full bellies and ready to move on to their next activity of the night, for which Gallus looked expectantly at Smolder.

“Oh yeah, I guess we did agree I’d pick the next activity, didn’t we?” Smolder realized with a start.

“I mean, we were at the pizza place a little longer than expected,” Gallus reasoned as he gazed up at the night sky, the moon now clearly visible. “It’s late enough that we could just call it a night now if you want.”

“Nah, I still wanna think of something else we could do.” Smolder rubbed her chin, considering it for a second. “Hmm…”

“Well?” Gallus prompted after another second.

“I’m thinking,” Smolder assured, shooting him a look. She frowned at herself, frustrated. “But of course, now that I’m put on the spot, I can’t think of anything.”

“Yeah, isn’t that just always how it is?” Gallus quipped with a chuckle.

Smolder shrugged. “I’ll keep thinking about it, try and come up with something. If I can’t before we start arriving back at the school though, then we’ll call it a night anyway.”

“Sounds good,” Gallus remarked.

They walked through the quiet streets in silence for a about a block, once again finding themselves feeling awkward, self-aware, and unsure what to say.

Gallus suppressed a quiet belch. “So that free spaghetti was pretty good,” he remarked, giving his stomach a content pat.

“Yeah, about that,” Smolder began slowly.

Gallus glanced at her. “You still feeling uneasy about how word on us got out?” he asked.

Smolder nodded. “I mean, I don’t wanna, and I know I can’t stop it now, so there’s not much point stressing over it like this but…” she trailed off for a second then glanced at him. “Look, that spaghetti…was it weird that we only got it because others noticed we were on a date?”

Gallus mulled on it for a second. “I don’t know…I’m not sure it even matters, really,” he said, choosing not to read too much into it. “And we didn’t exactly deny it either…I mean, they were still offering free food, and food tastes better when it’s free, so…”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, the best way to sway you over is through your stomach,” Smolder quipped then shook her head. “It’s just…I’m still debating over whether or not I even want that kind of special attention. Like I said, I still wanna do the date and all that…but I also want it to…not be like everybody’s acting this is any great big thing they all need to fawn over.”

“Well, it’s true there’s a reason we had wanted to keep this quiet at all,” Gallus agreed with a nod. But upon thinking about it, he added, “Though now that you mention it…” He sighed. “…I get why you wouldn’t want everybody making a big deal out of this. It is, after all, a private matter, just between you and me, no matter what we do with it…not something for everybody else to butt in and steal peeks.”

“See, that’s what I’m getting at,” Smolder said, looking a little concerned. “The idea of this getting around the rest of the school…it makes me…” she paused, unsure how to describe how the not totally comfortable feeling bothered her. “Insecure,” she finally concluded. “It makes me feel insecure. And I can’t help but notice the trend, you know?”

“So…what?” Gallus made a reassuring smirk. “The universe is trying to say you’re not the one in control?” He chuckled when Smolder replied by averting her gaze, embarrassed. “Well, you just tell the universe to back off then, because it’s certainly not going to get the last word on the likes of us, right?”

“Oh absolutely,” Smolder quickly agreed with a laugh. “It’d be dumb of it to try anyway, as I’m sure it’d only end in tears.” She nudged him playfully before sighing. “It’s just…should we even try to fight it? Like you said, it’s all coming out anyway, so…why delay, right?” She rubbed at her shoulders as if cold again. “It’s just…I guess I wished we could’ve been the ones who decided it, not…other nosey ponies.”

“Yeah, but we don’t have to fight everybody along the way either,” Gallus added with a sheepish shrug. “I mean…we’re not that prideful…are we?”

“Well…I’m not.” Smolder shot Gallus a sly look.

Gallus rolled his eyes at her teasing jab. “You’re just jealous I make this look so good,” he said smugly, dusting off his front.

Smolder chuckled, the mood lightening a little. She thought about it for another moment. “I guess it’s just like what we were talking about before,” she reasoned slowly. “We’re still…adjusting to it all.” She hung her head. “I guess I just feel like we’re being pressured to step it up before we’re ready to.”

Gallus looked at her for a long moment. “Are we ready, Smolder?” he asked seriously.

Smolder fidgeted to herself for a long moment, unsure how to answer. “Well…I guess you are, at least,” she said. She gave him a warm grin. “Even when you made a fool of yourself pouring drinks—” Gallus rolled his eyes at that, “—you’ve been taking this all in stride.” She brushed up against his side affectionately. “So you’ve actually a pretty good date thus far.”

Gallus looked down at her warmly. “You’ve been a pretty good date yourself.”

Smolder smiled. “Thanks. Seriously, that helps me.”

They continued walking in silence for a moment.

“It’s certainly been an…interesting past week though, hasn’t it?” Gallus asked aloud as they walked.

Smolder snorted, amused. “Understatement of the moon right there,” she quipped.

Gallus shrugged. “It’s just, to think this all started because of some sleepwalking…” he gave Smolder teasing look.

Smolder frowned a bit, still a little embarrassed that she had done that. “I’m pretty sure that’s stopped now,” she mumbled while glancing away, sheepish. “You know why.”

Gallus put on a smug face. “I know, I know, my mere presence alone is inspiring you to overcome that.” Smolder rolled her eyes in good-humor while he continued. “It’s just…if somebody told me a week ago that’s what would kick off…all of this…honestly? I probably would’ve laughed.”

Smolder snickered. “I probably would’ve too,” she agreed. “But…here we are regardless.” she returned his earlier teasing look, raising a brow at him. “You complaining?”

“Seeing where it ended up?” Gallus replied, glancing over to where she walked beside him. He smirked. “Not a chance.”

Smolder grinned, moving a little closer so to better snuggle affectionately into his side. “Good,” she replied, pleased.

Gallus happily allowed her to do so, but his tone then softened a little, turning a bit more serious. “Honestly, I’m still just glad you’re willing to put up with me at all,” he continued, glancing at the dragoness, “I know I’ve said it before, but I sort of always figured that if you were gonna date anyone it’d be…well…”

“…someone of my own species?” Gallus nodded at her with a sigh, so Smolder nodded back. “Well, admittedly getting close with a non-dragon hadn’t been my plan. Heck, until a week ago, I never seriously thought you and I would be entering any relationships…or that I was even on the right track to finding one. Really I’d just sort of figured I’d end up with some hunk of a dragon someday…some guy who’d…treat me nice, I guess.”

Gallus mulled over what “treat me nice” might mean for a second. “How so?” he finally asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

“Just…you know…someone who cares enough to hang out and we could…you know…look out for each other.” She rolled her eyes, “Along with all of the other entailed benefits, but one step at a time here.” Thinking it over for a second, she let herself start to fall behind as she looked around at the darkened buildings of Ponyville and reluctantly sighed. “But then my prospects would’ve been practically nil so long as I stayed here, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess pretty few dragons are ever around here, aren’t there?” Gallus observed casually. “I mean, I guess there’s Spike, but…isn’t he like half your age or something?” He shrugged. “Besides, he’s got his eyes on others anyway, doesn’t he?”

This point weighed on Smolder more heavily than expected for a second, but then her gaze settled on Gallus again as she took him in. “…well, I’m still confident dating a non-dragon won’t be all that bad…”

She trailed off and didn’t speak further for a bit. Meanwhile, she continued to lag behind until Gallus noticed she how far she was now trailing behind him and glanced back at her. “Something wrong?” he asked.

Smolder, whose gaze had been focused on something else, blinked as if brought out of a daze. “Oh, no, just…thinking.”

So Gallus left her be, until a thought struck him and slyly asked, “Are you…checking me out?”

“No,” Smolder quickly replied. Too quickly.

Gallus merely raised a brow at her while she proceeded to try and look at anything that wasn’t him. She didn’t quite succeed.

Finally she scoffed at him in frustration, quickly catching up so they stood side-by-side again. “You were the one that got me thinking about it,” she argued in her defense.

Gallus just shrugged in concession. But after a moment, he couldn’t help but lean closer. “So, might as well ask…like what you see?”

Smolder shot him a brief glare for his impudence before letting her eyes do another pass over of him, assessing. She then averted her gaze, embarrassed again. “Well…you are pretty okay.”

“For a griffon,” Gallus repeated knowingly.

“I mean, you know there’s a good reason I hooked up with you at all, but…in all honesty, you’re still no dragon.”

“Fair.” Gallus went quiet for a moment. “I suppose I should answer the same question for you, though.”

“…I am a little curious.”

So Gallus’s eyes gave Smolder a once over too. The look in his eyes suggested he took it seriously, but after he was done, at first his only reply was to make a simple and curious hum.

“…well?” Smolder prompted after a moment.

“Well, I have to admit, I haven’t really seen all that many dragons in my lifetime,” Gallus began by stressing. “I mean, I’ve seen a good few since coming to the school now, but I’m sure that’s still a drop in the bucket by comparison.” His gaze wandered down to the ground, watching his talons kick at the cobblestones as they walked. “Still…of all the dragons I have seen…you’re easily the best-looking.”

Smolder stopped, surprised and flattered by this, while Gallus kept walking. A moment later, she was running to catch up to him again. “Wait, do you actually mean that, or are you just saying that to butter me up?”

Gallus smirked, keeping his gaze ahead. “I’ll never tell.”

Nevertheless, it gave enough for Smolder to think about that she stayed silent for another block or so of their walk.

“Anyway,” she finally said, changing the subject, “Thanks again for…earlier. Talking it out really helped. Still feel stupid for letting all that become a problem in the first place, but…”

Gallus glanced at her. “Do you still feel nervous?”

Smolder shrugged. “Maybe a little.” But then she made a big, devil-may-care grin. “But to heck with that—dealing that slag has just been the worst and it’s dragging us both down. This date’s been loads more fun when we both ditch it and just dive right in, so I’d much rather just go and have fun instead.”

Gallus smirked and gave her a caring slap on the back. “Then let’s go paint the town red, scale butt.”

Smolder returned it. “Just so long as we aren’t the ones that have to clean it up again afterwards!” she quipped.

“No promises!” Gallus smugly jested back. They kept walking for a moment longer before he realized something. “…Except we still haven’t decided if we’re doing anything else tonight yet, have we?”

Smolder snickered. “No, we haven’t.”

They laughed to themselves for a moment but decided they weren’t that bothered by it so they kept walking in the general direction of the school as before. It was a good distance away still, so it wasn’t really a quick walk, but Gallus and Smolder found they weren’t really in a hurry either and instead continued enjoying the company of each other.

“You know,” Smolder remarked aloud, making a smirk as she reflected back on their date on a whole, “except for the pizza, pretty much every part of this date didn’t go like we planned.”

Gallus winced a little to himself as he reflected back on the night and realized she was right. “Well…” he quipped, “…maybe we need to go back and get another pizza then.”

Smolder laughed. “Maybe another time,” she said and gave her belly a content pat, “Still too full of the last pizza anyway. And I don’t really mean anything about it. I just thought it an amusing detail, all things considered.”

Gallus chuckled a little but looked mildly embarrassed. “Yeah, says a lot about our track record for this, doesn’t it?”

But Smolder shrugged. “I wouldn’t sweat over it,” she said, giving him a reassuring nudge. “We still had fun, right? And that’s what matters more. So what if it wasn’t those perfect dates like in Sil’s cheesy romance novels? Honestly, I don’t think I’d want one of those over the top formal dates anyway.” She grinned warmly. “I’d rather make it our own thing. And we did!”

Heartened, Gallus grinned a little. “Yeah, I guess we did,” he said, and breathed a small sigh of relief. “Guess I managed to not mess it up after all then.”

“Oh no, you didn’t,” Smolder retorted and gave him a sly look. “We messed it up—together.” She then took his wing and gently wrapped it over her shoulders, hugging it tight. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way, feather butt.”

Gallus shook his head. “I guess I should’ve expected nothing about this would be conventional, dating you,” he replied, giving her a nudge back.

They snickered to themselves for a bit. Eventually Smolder released Gallus’s wing, letting him return it to its proper resting position. “That all said though, I suppose we don’t have to break all of the conventions…so…I don’t honestly know all that much about this dating thing, admittedly…but it’s still enough to know this: if it really has all gone well…does that mean that I have to kiss you goodnight or something at the end?”

Gallus laughed. “Joke would be on you then, because griffons don’t kiss.” He tapped the side of his beak with one talon. “No lips, see.”

“Is that so?” Smolder asked with a sly look. “Then you’re missing out. Do you know how long a dragon’s tongue is?”

Gallus, however, only gave her a confused look. “…no? What do tongues have to do with kissing?”

Smolder laughed, amazed. “Oh wow, I guess you griffons really aren’t kissers if you don’t know the answer to that already.” She pondered on the subject a second longer and became curious. “So what do griffons do instead?”

Gallus shot her a sly look of his own. “Aggressive nuzzling.”

Smolder snickered. “That does not seem like an adequate replacement for kissing.”

“Hey, don’t knock it until you try it,” Gallus said. “Maybe sometime I’ll have to show you.”

Smolder glanced his way. “Not before I show you a kiss.” She glanced ahead of them. “But let’s get back to the school first before we even go considering anything like that.”

“Deal.”

They kept walking through the quiet streets for a few more moments, their path taking them near the town park. Smolder eyed it for a moment, noting how it was bathed in moonlight. “You know, as sappy as this is going to sound…this is kind of a pretty night.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Gallus said, gazing up at the starry sky. He then snorted to himself, amused. “I suppose that makes us walking out in it a bit cliché, right? I mean, look how romantic it must be, right?”

Smolder snickered, but she eyed the town park again. “Actually, though?” she began suddenly, “Let’s embrace it.”

Gallus raised an eyebrow at her. “How do you mean?”

“Well, we don’t have to be back at the school right this moment, right? And I was supposed to come up with something else we could do tonight too, right?” She nudged him into changing direction so to head into the park. “So how about we take the scenic route and cut through the park on our way back? I mean, if we’re going to do the romantic walk…” she shrugged, raising her eyebrows knowingly, “…might as well go all in, right?”

Gallus allowed her to change their course but raised an eyebrow at her nonetheless. “I thought you said you didn’t want this to be a formal date though?”

“I changed my mind,” Smolder replied, “Dragon’s prerogative.”

Gallus gave her a look that was part amused, part suspicious. “You’re making that up.”

Smolder smirked. “Totally.”

They laughed and walked side by side into the park. Given the late hour, they seemed to have the whole place to themselves. It really was quite nice, with the silver glow of the moon making it all look quite pretty. This mixed with their slow and casual stroll across the hilly terrain allowed the romance of it to settle upon them, making their hearts beat faster as they sheepishly moved closer together—it just seemed like the natural thing to do at that point.

Ultimately becoming a bit self-conscious about it though, Gallus suddenly cleared his throat. “So seriously, why the romantic walk through the park anyway?” he asked. “I mean, I’m not complaining, but it just seems so…lovey-dovey.”

“So?” Smolder asked.

“Well, no offense, but you said dragons aren’t big on lovey-dovey.”

Smolder shrugged, brushing that off. “Yeah, but you’re also not a dragon, so I don’t want to force you to…take this purely how dragons would, and…and I kinda feel I ought to do the same back for you. I mean, it’s give and take in a relationship, right?”

Gallus shrugged. “I suppose,” he admitted, more interested in letting Smolder make her point without too much interruption. “I mean, I’m new to all this too, so…” He scratched the back of his head for a moment. “I guess I just feel the same way, like I don’t want to force you to take this the purely griffon way either.”

“Okay,” Smolder conceded slowly, “but…how do we do that?” She shrugged. “Heck, for that matter, now that we’ve gotten this far, just what exactly comes next? Does…life go on like before, just with more snuggling like this?” She sidled up next to him. “Or is there more to it than that?”

Gallus sighed wearily. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess just so long as we’re both happy with what we’re doing, that’ll do.”

“Well, I sure hope so,” Smolder quipped. “But then we probably don’t need to overthink this. That’s what I was doing back when I was all nervous as heck about others finding out about us, and that wasn’t getting us anywhere. It’s not like there needs to be this super long list of steps we have to go through in order to do this right.” She paused then quipped, “Not unless you’re Princess Twilight.”

Gallus made a solitary laugh at that. “True…but it still seems like the natural step, so…I just thought I’d…throw it out there, see what you thought about it.”

“Natural step, huh?” Smolder shook her head. “You know what then? Let’s just…do what feels natural. That’s basically what we did to get this far and that’s worked out pretty good, so…”

“You’re saying if it’s not broke, don’t fix it?”

“Basically, yeah.”

Gallus hummed to himself. “All right, I can work with that.” He gave her a wink. “Especially since it suggests I’ve managed to not break anything.”

Smolder returned it. “Ya darn right you haven’t.”

They kept walking in general silence for a few minutes, savoring the mood as they reached the crest of a particularly tall and rolling hill, tall enough that it overlooked a fair share of the park. Ahead of them hung the full and vibrant moon shining its light back down on them, casting a sort of mystical feel upon the scene, though neither Gallus nor Smolder chose to admit that aloud. It probably would’ve continued unspoiled if Gallus, grinning, decided to gently nudge Smolder with his elbow. Glancing back at him, Smolder nudged him back. Not to be outdone, Gallus nudged her again hard enough that Smolder stumbled slightly away from its force. So Smolder flat out gave Gallus a shove, causing him to stumble off the path and onto the grassy lawn surrounding it. Snickering to herself, Smolder kept walking, smug.

Until Gallus pounced her.

The impact knocking her clear off her feet and they tumbled to the grassy ground, rolling over each other more than once as they fought to pin the other, until about halfway down the hill, Gallus finally secured his hold on the dragoness, pinning her to the ground beneath him. Smolder tried to squirm free, but he quickly used his forelegs to pin down her arms and his hind to pin down her legs.

“Gotcha!” Gallus cheered, victorious as he peered smugly down at her.

“Oh, you say that now,” Smolder vowed as she peered back and continued struggling, flexing her dragon muscles against Gallus’s grip and trying to free at least one limb. Unfortunately, though she had strength on her side as a dragon, Gallus still had enough leverage in his position to keep holding her down, even if he couldn’t also hold her completely still. Nevertheless, Smolder didn’t relent. “But you can’t keep me here for long.”

“Oh, it wouldn’t matter by now,” Gallus assured, still smug. “If this had been a real hunt and you my prey, I’d already be gobbling you up by now.” And to demonstrate, he comically ran his head quickly up and down her upper body making like he was eating her flesh, moving his beak in a chewing motion. “Om nom nom nom nom nom!”

Despite herself, Smolder had to giggle at the silly display, but she didn’t let it distract her too much either. She still wasn’t finding much purchase against the griffon’s grip though—he’d clearly learned from past experience what was required to keep her pinned. So the only useful appendage she could move freely at the moment was her tail, and though she tried using it to whack Gallus off of her, swatting its spade-shaped tip against his rump, Gallus merely flinched and maintained his hold on her. “All right, all right, I get it,” Smolder finally assured him in defeat. “You’ve made your point. Now get off of me, you lunkhead.”

“Make me, scale butt,” Gallus sneered teasingly, leaning closer to her face. “Because the way I see it, I’ve got you at my mercy and I can keep you there for as long as I want.” He leaned even closer. “So what are you going to do about it?”

Well, there was really only one thing she could do. She pressed her face into Gallus’s fuzzy chest and blew a raspberry into it.

Gallus tensed immediately and tried to not react to it, but almost immediately a wheeze of air hissed out his beak and he was quickly laughing at the ticklish sensation as he tried to pull away. In so doing, he shifted his weight more to one side, giving Smolder the leverage needed to finally break her right limb free of his grasp and to wrap it around his neck, trying to tug him off of her. Gallus did indeed roll to the ground, but he kept his hold long enough that he pulled Smolder with and they once again tumbled down the side of the hill, play fighting the whole way down. At one point, Gallus managed to wrap a foreleg around her neck, holding her down long enough to playfully and harmlessly pound her belly with his hind paws before Smolder extricated herself by slapping him with her wing and they continued their roughhousing roll down the hill. Finally, upon reaching the bottom, they collapsed into a panting heap, giggling and laughing and more than a little wound-up now.

“Oh well, so much for that romantic walk,” Gallus remarked with an amused sigh.

“Eh, this was more fun anyway,” Smolder said, grinning as she let her head rest on Gallus’s shoulder, absentmindedly stroking his pale cream-colored belly. When she noticed Gallus letting out a pleased purr at the strokes though, she started rubbing with more energy. This pleased Gallus even more as he arched his back into it, one back leg twitching eagerly in time with the motions. Smolder snickered. “You’re basically just a big puppy dog, aren’t you?”

“Kitty cat,” Gallus corrected pointedly, thrusting a talon empathically into the air. “If you’re going to compare me to a dumb animal, at least do it right.”

Smolder rolled her eyes and kept rubbing. “So this is really a thing with you griffons?”

“What, don’t dragons have something similar?” Gallus asked, breaking out of his basking to peer at her questioningly.

Smolder thought on it for a moment. “Not that I know of…”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you have a favorite spot at least.”

“…you sure? Because I’m not so—” she trailed off abruptly as Gallus suddenly reached up and started scratched at a spot on the back of her neck right at the base of her purple crest. She at first tensed at the stroking, but quickly relaxed as she relished the enjoyable sensation. “Oooh, never mind,” she cooed as she melted on top of Gallus, draping over him like a scaly blanket.

She kept stroking Gallus though, moving her claws to his back now that she was in a better position to reach it. As before, Gallus didn’t really react and rewarded her by continuing to scratch the back of her neck. It felt nice, and Smolder eventually found her mind wandering, thinking about how the griffon’s soft, silky, blue fur and feathers felt nice and wondered briefly what it’d be like to be covered in both all the time. They remained like that for some minutes, losing track of the time as they lazily stroked and nuzzled each other…up until a patrolling police pony strolled up and peered disapprovingly down at them.

They peered back up at him for a beat. “Hey,” Gallus said idly, tilting his head to meet the officer’s gaze, “’sup?”

The cop raised an eyebrow at them. “Just checking to make sure there’s no trouble here,” he remarked flatly, unamused.

Smolder made a show of thinking about it. “Well…I don’t think there’s any trouble.” She glanced down at Gallus. “Gallus, are you trouble?”

“No,” Gallus replied, playing along. “Are you?”

“Nope!” Smolder replied, “and there’s not anybody else around that I can see.” They both looked back at the officer. “So…no trouble here, I think.”

The officer, to his credit, cracked a small smile at these antics. “Cute,” he admitted before getting back to business. “But I still need to stress that, despite the late hour, this is a public park accessible by all.”

“That would be why we’re here in the first place, officer,” Gallus quipped.

“I know. But that means anyone could be walking by here, so I still need to make sure neither of you are engaging in any lewd behavior that…”

Catching on abruptly, Gallus and Smolder scrambled to spring apart, jumping to their feet. “Oh, no, no, no, we weren’t…that wasn’t what we were doing!” Gallus fumbled to say.

“Oh yeah, we were just fooling around!” Smolder added before realizing how that sounded and backtracked. “I mean we were just goofing off—er—just being silly! Nothing…nothing like thaaaat!”

“Really!” Gallus reassured, starting to blush profusely. “We were just strolling through here because she thought it’d be romantic…which isn’t to say we were going to do anything, we were just on a date, and…” he winced and squeezed his eyes shut as he realized they were only digging themselves in deeper. “You know what? How about we just go now?”

“Might be a good idea,” the officer agreed with an amused smirk and tipped his hat at them. “Probably a bit late for you kids to be out now anyway. But have a good night regardless.”

“Yeah, night!” Gallus called back half-heartedly as he and Smolder started walking off as speedily as they could without breaking into a run.

They kept going in awkward silence for a few minutes before they finally looked back to make sure the officer wasn’t following them. He wasn’t—convinced they were in fact leaving, he had turned and leisurely walked off, continuing his late night patrol. They both breathed sighs of relief and kept going.

“That was embarrassing,” Smolder muttered as they scampered off through the remainder of the park, further away from the police pony. “Especially since he felt so obligated to make sure we weren’t doing anything…lewd.”

“I suppose given the circumstances though, I can see why he jumped to that conclusion,” Gallus reasoned, glancing back in the officer’s direction once more. “Back home, griffons would use that as an excuse precisely to go and do…well…something lewd.”

Smolder winced. “That must’ve made walking around treacherous some nights.”

“Oh, you don’t even want to hear about some of the things I had the misfortune of walking in on,” Gallus admitted, rubbing his face like that would wipe the memories from his mind.

“Well, if it helps, dragons aren’t exactly better,” Smolder said, sympathetic. “Back when we were young, there was a reason my mom wouldn’t let me or my brother out of the family cave at night. I’d thought it was just because it was dangerous out in the Dragon Lands at night, but after I molted and started going solo…let’s just say you quickly learned where not to be at such times…especially around mating season.” She shook her head to clear it of unwanted memories herself. “Still…it was embarrassing he thought we were even planning to do…you know…” She paused, tilting her head and making a puzzled expression. “Actually…” she glanced hesitantly in Gallus’s direction. “How…how would that even…you know…work between us? You know…assuming we were gonna try.”

Gallus, caught completely off-guard by the question, started to blush again. “Uh…”

“Because, anatomically speaking, it’s a little different for you griffons, right? You’re not like dragons where it’s all…you know…in just one…spot…to…you know…” unable to get the nerve to say it aloud, she instead attempted to mime it out with her claws.

Gallus only blushed more. “I, uh…” he cleared his throat awkwardly, “…you know, I haven’t really thought about it? Didn’t think I’d, uh…” he cleared his throat again, “…that we were…not gonna get there for…uh…” getting more flustered, he started waving a set of talons around clumsily, trying to recover. “…well, what I mean is…is…”

“No, no, I get it,” Smolder assured, waving it aside. She seemed a little abashed too. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make it embarrassing.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” Gallus unconvincingly claimed.

Smolder shot him a doubting, but amused, look. “You so totally are.”

Gallus’s blush didn’t fade, but he looked annoyed now, almost disappointed in himself. “Okay, so I am,” he relented. He stomped his feet angrily. “And I don’t know why…it’s not like I don’t already know how that all works or anything.” His gaze wandered to anything that wasn’t Smolder, as if unable to look her in the eye. “It’s just…”

“No, I get it,” Smolder assured him. “It’s one thing to know other creatures are doing it. But it’s quite another when it’s yourself you’re talking about.” She averted her gaze for a second. “If it helps…it’s awkward for me too. I hadn’t really thought about it either until literally just now myself…which I guess is sorta dumb seeing you and I are…well…it was gonna have to come up eventually, wasn’t it? I guess we both really should’ve seen it coming.”

Gallus was silent for a moment, his blush fading a little, then glanced her way. “We really weren’t prepared for any of this, were we?”

Smolder managed a small laugh at that. “No, not really,” she admitted casually. She sniggered to herself. “But then I guess it’s a good thing we haven’t been approaching this like how dragons normally do.”

Gallus frowned, uncertain. “…Why? How do dragons usually date?”

“Dragons don’t do dating, Gallus. We’re typically more interested getting right to the action, you know what I mean?” Smolder nudged Gallus slyly.

Gallus’s blush returned in full force. “Oh.”

“Yeah, and from what I’ve seen, full-swing dragon relationships are intense.”

Gallus only blushed further and averted his gaze, shifting awkwardly. “I-I think I’m going to need a cold shower after all of this,” he mumbled under his breath.

Unfortunately, Smolder overheard and leaned closer. “Maybe I’ll join you.”

That only made it all the more awkward for Gallus, now blushing bright red. “Um…” was all he could get out, looking awkward and hating himself for feeling so awkward about it.

So Smolder took mercy on him and patted him on the back with a laugh. “Nah, I’m just teasing you,” she assured.

Gallus’s blush didn’t fade though. “Oh,” he said again. He coughed into his talons awkwardly. “I mean, I was gonna say…we haven’t done any of that yet.”

“And I’m not in a rush to get there, honestly,” Smolder admitted casually, waving the matter aside with her claws. “Besides, I figure I’m still a little young for that myself. Got a few more years before I really need to start thinking about crossing that gorge.” She went silent for a second before giving Gallus an odd look. “Why? Are you saying you wanna…?”

“Ah, no, no—well, I’m not against it, obviously, just not right now because…what I mean to say is basically what you said.” Gallus coughed awkwardly again. “I, uh…I don’t think I’m ready to cross that bridge…or gorge…just yet either.”

“Oh,” Smolder said with an unperturbed shrug. “Okay then.”

They walked awkwardly in silence for a moment, needing that time before they could look each other in the eye again.

“If…I can be completely honest for a moment?” Gallus suddenly asked, sheepish.

Smolder actually looked surprised at that. “Gallus, you don’t even need to ask that,” she assured him.

Gallus took a deep breath, forcing himself to visibly relax. “Okay well…” he waved his talons around awkwardly again. “This whole…ah, getting fully intimate deal…it’s…not something I’d want to do just because at least. I know griffs back home who do that all the time, but I’ve also seen first claw how it didn’t end well for far too many of them. I…don’t want that to happening to us.” He sighed heavily. “But…I didn’t want to just come out and say it…didn’t want to seem like I was being a prude like Sandbar.”

“Nah,” Smolder assured him. “I’d say it’s pretty darn respectful of you to consider that for both of our sakes. Almost…gentlemany.”

Gallus perked up a bit at that and couldn’t help but puff out his chest with pride a little. “Well then…when you put it like that…”

They chuckled and kept on walking, heading out of the park now and starting on a loose path back for the school again.

Gallus then cleared his throat. “Just so long as you’re okay with that, I guess,” he added.

“Of course I am,” Smolder said, again surprised. “Why did you think I wouldn’t be?”

Gallus shrugged, uncertain. “I guess I just wasn’t sure what your expectations on that were,” he admitted. “At first I figured I’d just go with the flow and follow your lead and trust it all worked out, but…now that the subject’s come up…I just wanted to be sure you weren’t…you know…expecting it soon…and would be disappointed if I wasn’t.” He smirked and shot her look. “You were the one who’s been sneaking into my bed the past week, after all.”

Smolder groaned and rolled her eyes which spurred a chuckle out of Gallus. “That’s just for snuggling,” she stressed. “And besides, it doesn’t count if I’m sleepwalking.”

“Whatever you say, scale butt,” Gallus remarked back, smirk not fading. Smolder didn’t mind though—she was more pleased to see him relaxed again.

They kept walking. Because of the late hour, they basically had the streets of Ponyville completely to themselves, so Gallus and Smolder had few qualms about taking their time walking back to the school, nor did Smolder have any real issues about snuggling up into Gallus’s side as they went, savoring his soft, feathery, hide. He likewise embraced it, wrapping one blue wing over her shoulders. Smolder had to grin faintly as a mix of feelings, most of them good, filled her heart with this. Subconsciously though, she also felt it beat a bit faster at it all, making her pause for a moment as she thought of a point she still needed to address.

“Speaking of the sleepwalking,” she remarked to Gallus softly, meeting his gaze, “you know why I’m interested in you…but I don’t think you’ve ever explained just what it is you’re interested in me before.” As Gallus hummed at that and his gaze turned distant in thought, she added, “I mean, I don’t really doubt that you’re committed because…you’ve been great this whole date, you really have. I can tell you want to make this work too, maybe more than I do, even. It’s just…I guess I’d just like to know the specifics…if there are any.” Gallus still didn’t respond right away, brow lightly furrowed as he carefully considered how he wanted to respond. “If you’re really just humoring me because I showed interest first, that’s okay too.”

“It’s not that,” Gallus immediately assured, a hint of determination in his voice. He shuffled awkwardly. “It’s just…” he sighed, frustrated. “…I don’t really know how to say it.”

Smolder hummed to herself and thought back through the evening for anything that might sort it out for him. “Earlier this evening, then…” she abruptly spoke, her voice soft, “when we were assessing our looks and all of that…” she shuffled, feeling awkward about bringing up the subject again, but it had been bugging her a bit. “…you remember what you said about mine?”

“I do.” Gallus glanced casually at her. “What of it?”

Smolder kicked at a pebble before replying. “It’s just…did you really mean it? I mean, I know you haven’t met that many dragons, let alone dragonesses, but you’ve had to have seen one better looking than me, like…like…” her snout wrinkled as she sought a good example she knew Gallus had met, “…like Dragon Lord Ember. I mean, she’s gotta be more attractive than me, right?”

“You think?” Gallus asked innocently, like the thought hadn’t occurred to him. Smolder wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not. “What makes you think that?”

“Well…” Smolder held out her arms like the case was self-explanatory. “…you have looked at her, right? She’s gorgeous.” She glanced at him skeptically. “You do know who Ember is, right?”

“Sure I do. Tall and blue, lithe figure, leader of the dragons,” Gallus recapped simply. “So?”

“So…I guess I’m asking what do you think of her?”

Gallus frowned. “Well…she’s certainly okay…but…” he trailed off.

“…But?” Smolder prompted.

Gallus averted his gaze, looking abashed. “…You’ll laugh.”

“I won’t laugh.”

“Yes you will, I know you.”

“I promise I won’t laugh, Gallus.”

“…I’m gonna hold you to that, then.”

Smolder held out her arms, placating. “By all means.”

Gallus sighed then just admitted it. “Ember’s sort of…scary.”

True to her word, Smolder didn’t laugh. But she had to hold her breath and bite her lip hard for several seconds so to do it. “You think she’s scary,” she was finally able to say while keeping a straight face.

Gallus gave her an annoyed look, seeing how hard she had to work to keep her promise. “Well…she’s intimidating, at least.”

Smolder snorted. “You should see her father.”

“I’ll pass, thank you.” Gallus sighed again. “It’s just…last time Ember was up here for one of those school socials, I spoke with her briefly. She’s got a very…my way or the highway sort of attitude.”

Smolder shrugged. “A lot of dragons are like that.”

“You aren’t.”

Smolder stopped. Noticing, Gallus stopped as well and turned to face her. “Look, I get that this probably sounds…insulting…to a dragon like you. But you’re a lot more…approachable. Sure, you’ve still got those rough edges like any dragon would…kind of gives you this unrefined feel…but you get that you can’t always have it your way. And you’re cool with that. So you just try to make the best of it, makes you seem like you care, and it sort of encourages the rest of us to do the same.” Gallus shrugged. “It’s what makes you such a great friend…to all of us, not just me.” Smolder had to stop and process that for a long moment, so much so that Gallus felt obligated to add, “I’m sorry if me saying all that offended you any.”

Smolder averted her gaze, putting her fists on her hips. “There was a time where I would’ve punched you in the nose for even implying I had any namby-pambyness to me at all,” she admitted. “But…since coming here…I’ve learned that there’s a lot more to being a dragon than just being tough.” A little sheepish, she averted her gaze. “…I’m honestly glad you recognize that too, Gallus.”

Gallus tilted his head at her. “So…you’re okay with me saying all that, then?”

“Honestly?” Smolder made a small smile. “I’m flattered.”

“Oh…good,” Gallus started walking again. “You deserve it.” He blushed a little as his grin turned warmer. “And…I guess that’s all what I like about you too…since you asked and all.”

Smolder followed him and worked to match his stride again. “Thank you, then,” she said. She scratched the back of her head, a little embarrassed. “I…didn’t think I’d ever care about it that much, but…it’s good to hear things like that about myself.”

“Well, I mean every word, then,” Gallus stated confidently.

Smolder fell silent again after that, feeling very moved, but also left with a weird but pleasant feeling growing in her chest that she wasn’t sure how to respond to. Last night, committing to a relationship with Gallus seemed like the natural choice, and it still seemed so now—perhaps even more so now. But now the reality of it all really seemed to be sinking in, and with it all of the implications that came with such a relationship, making her realize just how truly big this step potentially was.

She saw this as a good thing, because it just made her all the more eager to commit to it with Gallus…especially after everything he had done to earn it. She was more convinced now than ever before that Gallus was someone she wanted to be in a relationship with. In fact, she really wanted to reward him for it in some way, to show just how much she appreciated all of this. The problem, then, was how, because she also didn’t want to rush things—this relationship was going to need to continue evolving at its own speed, that much was certain. That meant she felt like she needed to be careful which options she chose to pursue…but which ones?

Among dragons, it was pretty straightforward, so much so that Smolder knew most others would say she was holding back, as she and Gallus had already discussed. But she accepted that. Gallus wasn’t a dragon after all, so the purely draconic approach wasn’t going to apply. But then her problem was that she didn’t really know everything on how griffons approach their relationships and what they’d might expect of her, beyond a few details Gallus had conveyed in passing…not enough to make her confident of the whole picture, and it embarrassed her too much to just ask. She felt like she should be able to figure this out herself, which wasn’t that bad…she just didn’t know how.
> Good Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was as they started to arrive back at the school though, dimly lit now given the late hour but still no less impressive, that the solution suddenly struck her. And it was, ironically, the quite obvious and rather cliché option…but for once, cliché worked for her.

She was in the middle of hurriedly working out how she wanted to set it up when Gallus actually did it for her without knowing, bringing to a stop at the school’s front doors. “Welp, here we are,” he remarked as he turned to look at her. “School again, school again, jiggity-jig or whatever.”

Smolder chuckled and turned to face him, lit in the yellow glow of the school’s lights. “For real, though, Gallus,” she stated, “I’ve had a great time. I’m…really glad we got to do this. It’s been real fun…even if it hasn’t all gone as planned.”

Gallus beamed at that but he also humbly nudged Smolder. “Well…I can’t take all the credit. You helped make that happen too, so…back ‘atcha, because I also had a good time. And hopefully we can do it all again real soon.”

“Looking forward to it,” Smolder said before taking him by the shoulders. “But until then…there’s something I said I wanted to show you.”

And without further delay, she kissed him on the beak.

As kisses go, it wasn’t anything too elaborate, but as expected, that was mostly because Gallus’s beak wasn’t really built for a proper kiss, at least as she knew them. Smolder couldn’t even really get her tongue involved—his beak proved to be too impenetrable and Gallus, surprised as he was, didn’t really attempt to do anything to kiss back. Nevertheless, Smolder still gave it all she could, pressing her lips as hard as she could to where Gallus’s own lips would be, if he had them. And it must have been effective enough, because when she finally broke away, she saw Gallus’s ears had turned red again and his eyes grown wide.

“Wow,” he murmured, stunned. “That was a kiss?”

Smolder ducked her head a little sheepishly, but nodded with a grin, pleased by his reaction. “Basically.”

“Whoa,” Gallus breathed. He took a moment to contemplate it for a moment longer, running his tongue along the edge of his beak. He then met Smolder’s gaze again and now he took her by the shoulders. “Guess I should return the favor, then.”

He then proceeded to take his beak and nuzzle it along Smolder’s snout, alternating from side to side. He did so very gently, caressingly, in a clear show of affection so much so that, as alien as the loving motions seemed to be to her, there was still no doubt in her mind that this was the griffon version of kissing. She found herself relishing it and her heart beating faster than it had been when she kissed him. Finally, though, he pulled away leaving her feeling a bit stunned herself.

“Wow,” she remarked. She then nudged him on the chest. “Okay, I gotta admit…you made nuzzling seem awesome just then.”

Gallus beamed again at that, making Smolder giggle at the sight before pulling him in for one more hug which the griffon happily returned. Then as they broke apart again, Gallus pulled open the door to the school and held it open for her.

“Well, on that note,” he remarked as she stepped inside and he moved to follow her, “I think that’s as good a place as any to end this on.”

“Agreed,” Smolder said, who stretched, putting her claws on the small of her back and popping it, the heat of their shows of affection having suddenly drained the energy right out of her. “I don’t know about you, but I think I’m ready for bed now.”

“Are you actually going to stay in your bed this time?” Gallus asked teasingly as they walked towards their dorms, “or am I going to wake up in the morning to find you’ve snuck into it again in the middle of the night?”

“No promises,” Smolder replied back in the same tone and stuck her tongue out at him. “But I think, after everything we’ve done tonight, that won’t be a problem this time.”

“You sure?” Gallus asked. “We could always just preemptively stick you in my bed now and be done with it.”

Smolder shot him an amused but knowing look. “And here you spent all of this past week trying to get me to stop doing that.”

Gallus rubbed the back of his head as they arrived at their dorm hallway. “Well, what can I say?” he finally offered with a sheepish shrug. “For someone who never seemed too big on snuggling before…you’re pretty nice to snuggle with.”

Smolder snickered. “That’s sweet,” she said genuinely before turning sly. “Buuuut we better not do that. After that affectionate stuff we just did? Yeah, with the way I’m feeling right now, I’m not sure I can guarantee it stays to just snuggling, if you catch my drift.” She then waggled her eyebrows at him.

It actually took Gallus a second to catch on, but when he did, his face flushed bright red again. “Uh, yeah, maybe not a good idea tonight then,” he admitted with a nervous chuckle as they stopped outside his dorm. “After all we did agree to hold off on…that…for now.” He jerked his head towards the door. “Besides, Sandbar’s probably in there. I…wouldn’t really want the audience for that anyway.”

“Me neither,” Smolder agreed with an amused snort. “And don’t worry, feather butt, I won’t make you do anything like that until we both decide we’re ready. I think I owe you that much.” She leaned closer and poked a claw into his chest though. “But in the meantime, let’s do another one of these dates again real soon.” She rolled her eyes. “I know I spent most of it all worried about people seeing us and all that junk, but in the end? I had so much fun that I don’t think I care about that anymore.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thanks again for helping me through that, by the way.”

“You’re more than welcome,” Gallus replied back sincerely, ruffling a paw through her purple crest. “I’m just glad I could help.”

“Oh, you did, Gallus, you did,” Smolder assured, giving him a wink before turning and heading off for her own dorm. “Clearly, I made the right choice with you after all.” She stopped at her own door further up the hall before turning back and giving him a final wave for the evening. “Good night, feather butt!”

“Good night, scale butt!” Gallus called back with his own wave.

He watched her slip into her dorm and closed her door behind her before victoriously pumping his fist to himself, ecstatic that the date had gone as well as it had.

When he entered his own dorm though, he was surprised to see Sandbar was still up, sitting at his desk and reading a comic book. “Hey, you’re back!” he said when the griffon entered, dropping his pannier bags in the corner. “How did it go?”

“Good!” Gallus said as he back kicked the door closed again. Feeling light on his feet, he all but skipped his way over to his bunk bed. “Really, really, good, in fact! We’ve already agreed to go on another date!”

“Well, congrats to the both of you!” Sandbar said, giving the griffon a pleased grin. “Glad to hear it’s working out.”

Gallus plopped himself down on his mattress with a pleased sigh. “I’m sure you want to hear all about it now that I’m back though,” he remarked, shooting the pony a knowing look.

But Sandbar shook his head. “Only if you want to,” he said. He rolled his eyes to himself then added, “But I’m sure Silverstream’s probably swamping poor Smolder with a hundred and one questions about it right now as we speak.”

Gallus let out a snorting laugh. “Yeah, probably,” he agreed. He shrugged, though. “I think Smolder won’t mind so much, though. A lot happened that could use some sorting through, really.”

Sandbar raised an eyebrow at that. “Okay, I’ll bite,” he admitted before glancing back at his comic book. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well…most of it’s just the sort of affectionate stuff you’d expect on date. Heck, Smolder even kissed me good night, so…”

“Wait, she did?” Sandbar interrupted, head jerking up.

“Yeah,” Gallus said glancing his way then frowning. “Why, something wrong with that?”

“Oh, no, no!” Sandbar quickly assured. “Like I said, I’m happy for you both! I’m just…” he bit his lip and refocused his attention again on his comic book, “…surprised? Yeah, surprised.”

“Okay…” Gallus said slowly, confused, but decided to shrug it off, leaning back in his bed. He was only like that for a second though before a shrill, excited, shriek from several doors up from their dorm echoed through the walls and he bolted upright again. “The heck was that?”

“Nothing,” Sandbar quickly assured, having shoved his snout even closer into his comic book until his whole head was almost hidden from view. “Just…remind me to give Sil five bits in the morning.”
> (BONUS) Bowling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unlike most other locations in town that night, the bowling alley was actually quite busy at the moment. This was mostly because of a big bowling tournament happening to take place there that night, which occupied roughly half of the lanes available. Then the more usual range of nightly bowlers had taken up nearly all of the rest after that. But there was still one last lane available for Gallus and Smolder at the far end of the building, and they happily took it.

Finding good bowling balls for them to use was a bit tricky though, because due to how many bowlers there were tonight, they had fairly slim pickings of the scant few balls remaining. Smolder eventually found a good ball that fit her grip nicely, but Gallus, bearing a bigger paw than her, had a harder time. There were a few good balls to choose from, but the holes where a pony’s hoof would hook into to carry it all seemed to be too small for Gallus’s talons.

Most he couldn’t even wedge his paw into at all, at least not enough to safely carry (as demonstrated when he narrowly missed dropping one bowling ball on Smolder’s tail). Not even just sharing Smolder’s ball would work for him. Eventually he settled on the literal last ball he tried as “good enough,” on the grounds that his talons at least could slip inside. It was still an uncomfortably tight fit and he wasn’t terribly happy about it, but it was the best option he had so he committed to it.

“Right then,” Smolder said as they got ready to begin, “Who’s bowling first?”

“Does it really matter?” Gallus asked, knocking their two balls together where they sat in the ball return. “It’s not like either of us are going to get any more or less of an advantage by going first.”

“Well, we still gotta figure it out,” Smolder pointed out. She held out one paw, claws curled into a fist. “Here, we’ll rock paper scissors for it.”

“All right,” Gallus said, mirroring the motion before proceeding to bounce his fist in the palm of his other paw. “Rock, paper, scissors, GO!” They then splayed out their playing moves before them.

“Paper beats rock,” Smolder declared, slapping her spread palm over Gallus’s clenched fist.

Gallus frowned. “Best two out of three?”

Smolder rolled her eyes. “Fine.” They proceeded to do it again. “I thought you didn’t care who went first?”

“Less talk, more you losing,” Gallus instructed. “Rock, paper, scissors, GO!”

“Rock beats scissors. Though you said you wanted me to loose, feather butt?”

“Daaaaaarn—okay, one more time. Rock, paper, scissors, GO!”

“Draw.”

“All right, all right, rock, paper, scissors, SURPRISE ATTACK!”

Gallus tackled Smolder suddenly and they both tumbled to the floor and wrestled about for a moment.

Smolder still won though, succeeding in pining one of Gallus’s forelegs behind his back. “Gak, all right, uncle, uncle!” he crowed irately.

Smolder released him smugly. “Right then, glad we settled that,” she remarked while strolling casually over to the ball return.

“Yeah, yeah, hope you bowl a gutter ball,” Gallus bleated as he sat himself behind the scoring table. He hummed appreciatively though as Smolder bent over to scoop up her ball. “Though I’ll admit the view’s pretty good from over here.”

Smolder immediately straightened and shot him a look. Gallus merely raised his eyebrows at her, unrepentant. Rolling her eyes, she turned her attention back to the lane, gearing up to throw her ball. Once she was satisfied she had taken aim, she swung the ball forward and released, and she and Gallus watched it roll down the lane.

…and both started to lean to one side as it proceeded to veer somewhat off the intended path.

Still, it stayed out of the gutter the whole distance to the ten pins at the other end and knocked over seven of them, leaving two still standing on the far left and one still standing on the far right.

“Ooh, a split,” Gallus remarked, noting down her score. “Good luck getting a spare now.”

“Oh, we’ll see,” Smolder said as she waited for her ball to roll back into the ball return. “I like my chances.”

Indeed, her second bowl stayed on course better and slammed into the two pins on the far left, one of which bounced into the remaining one on the right, knocking it over too. Smolder turned around to give Gallus another look of smug victory.

Gallus frowned. “Lucky,” he relented as he jotted down the spare on Smolder’s frame.

“Well, you did wish me good luck,” Smolder reminded teasingly as she joined him at the scoring table. “I’d like to see you do any better.”

“All right,” Gallus said, accepting the challenge as he let her take his seat. He popped his knuckles confidently. “One strike coming right up.”

He scooped up his ball, frowned to himself as he remembered the tight fit but shrugged it off as he proceeded to position himself in front of the lane.

“Hey, you’re right, the view is good from back here,” Smolder suddenly quipped.

Gallus responded by giving his rump a brief waggle to Smolder’s cackling amusement before focusing on his bowl. Then, having taken aim, he started forward, swinging his ball forwards, and released.

…Or would have, if his talons hadn’t become wedged within the grip.

The heavy ball remaining stuck to his paw then, its momentum and weight instead flung Gallus unexpectedly forward, sending him stumbling into the lane itself before faceplanting and sliding a few feet down the smooth alley.

Smolder jumped up. “You all right?” she called, concerned.

“Yeah,” Gallus grunted as he worked to sit up, not an easy feat on the slippery lane floor. He held up the ball still stuck to his paw. “My talons are just stuck in the grip!” he proceeded to try and pull the ball off, only to realize how stuck it truly was. “Really stuck,” he added, shaking his foreleg up and down in hopes it’ll shake the bowling ball off and free his talons—it instead remained stuck right where it was.

“Hold on, I’ll come help!” Smolder said as she raced forward to catch up to him. After she noticed she was suddenly jogging in place though, she remembered the alley floor was just as smooth and slippery for her as it was for Gallus in time for her feet to slip out from under her and crash onto her back.

“Still waiting for that help,” Gallus remarked flatly as he sat and watched her pick herself up only to slip and fall again, this time onto her front. “No hurry.”

Eventually Smolder remembered that she had wings and wisely flew over to the stranded griffon instead. Hovering over him, she then grabbed the ball stuck to his paw and yanked. This, unfortunately, did nothing except inadvertently drag Gallus further down the lane. She found this was pretty easy to do, considering the slippery floor.

“Yeah, that’s pretty darn stuck all right,” she relented and flapped around to Gallus’s other side. “We better get you back up to the front desk. Hopefully they can help us pry the thing off of you.”

“Well, before we do that then,” Gallus remarked, motioning for her to wait a second. Turning to the pins still ahead of him, he managed to scamper the rest of the way down the alley so to swing his ball like a club at them, knocking most of them over. “Ha! Take that!”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re all very impressed, Gallus,” Smolder assured wearily before grabbing him by the bowling ball and flapped back towards the other end, sliding the griffon easily back up the lane.
> (BONUS) Dancing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well, we’ve still got some time to kill before we need to call it a night,” Gallus remarked as they walked through the quiet streets of Ponyville at night. He gave Smolder a friendly nudge. “I don’t suppose Silverstream gave you any suggestions for things we could do?”

“Not really," Smolder replied. "So might as well ask—did Sandbar?”

“Eh, one or two.”

“…and? Anything worth our consideration?”

Gallus mulled it over for a moment, a sly look starting to creep onto his face. “Well, there was one idea we could do…and it’s at a place I’m pretty sure you’ve never been to yet.”

Which was how, some minutes later, Smolder found herself being led into a local dance club filled with dancing ponies, flashing colored lights, and thumping music. Not a familiar sight for the dragoness, it was all rather overwhelming, not helped by the fact that she knew what Gallus was thinking by bringing her here.

“Dancing?” she asked numbly, Gallus doing the leading by pulling her along. He seemed rather excited now that they were here. At least one of them was. “Here? Really?”

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Gallus assured her with a grin. “C’mon, you’ll love it.”

Smolder hesitated, surveying the dance club. “But are… are we really okay to be here?” she hesitantly asked as Gallus eagerly pulled her along.

He shot her a look that was part amused and part surprised. “What, you think we’re not old enough?” he asked snidely.

“Well, for me, that depends on whether you’re going by dragon years or pony years,” Smolder replied, studying the crowd of dancers they had begun filtering through. “Seriously though, not to sound like Sandbar, but…we aren’t going to get in trouble for being here, are we? I don’t want to get in trouble for something without at least knowing what I’m getting in trouble for in advance.”

“Nah, I come here all the time and nobody’s stopped me yet,” Gallus assured with the wave of his talons. He gave her a wink. “How else did you think I knew about this place?”

Smolder frowned, taking in the rave dancing going on around her. “You? Here?”

“Sure!” Gallus confirmed and then laughed. He nudged her with one elbow as he led them towards the middle of the crowded dance floor. “Why does that surprise you so much? You think I wouldn’t be interested?”

“No, but…I don’t know…” Smolder argued weakly in her defense, still awkwardly looking around. “…I guess I’m just a little overwhelmed by it all.”

“Really? I figured you’d love this,” Gallus said semi-pointedly as they finally came to stop dead center of the floor. “That’s why I figured since we had the time tonight, I’d finally get you here too.”

“…right,” Smolder mumbled sheepishly. She didn’t seem too enthused about it.

Gallus nudged her again. “So c’mon!” he urged, starting to shuffle in place to the beat of the music. “Loosen up a little and let’s have some fun.”

But Smolder just stood there watching him, not moving. “Gallus,” she finally admitted dejectedly, averting her gaze. “I…I can’t dance.”

Gallus stopped, surprised. “What?”

“What, do I need to diagram that sentence out for you?” Smolder suddenly snapped at him. “I. Can’t. Dance!”

Gallus just kept staring at her blankly. “But…what about back at the Amity Ball? You were dancing then!”

“Yeah, to Yona’s yak dance, but that’s basically just stomping around as hard as you can!” Smolder argued back. She turned away as if ashamed. “Anybody could do that dance.”

“But it’s still a dance,” Gallus pointed out, giving her another sly nudge.

Smolder rolled her eyes, a little frustrated. “Fine, I just don’t know very much dancing,” she corrected and surveyed again the crowded dance floor. “Besides, there’s not enough room here to do Yona’s stomping dance thing.”

“Smolder, you’re overthinking this,” Gallus assured her, shimmying up to her in time with the beat. “It’s not how many dance moves you know, it’s how you express them.” He grabbed her arm encouragingly with one foreleg. “Don’t think about what moves you’re doing. Just…let the music’s energy take you by the core and do whatever motions that let you express that energy.”

Smolder gave him a befuddled look. “What the heck does that even mean? How would I even do that?”

Gallus winked at her. “Like so.”

He then pulled his foreleg abruptly away, rolling it as if a wave was flowing through it which he carried on into the next, before abruptly reversing it, letting the “wave” roll back to the original foreleg. Starting to step backwards across the dance floor, clearing a small space for himself, Gallus proceeded into a small and rhythmic sort of hop and skip dance, weaving both forelegs and hindlegs around and between each other as he walked in a set pattern. Then, abruptly rearing up, he shuffled his footpaws around in a brief dance move that rocked his whole body side to side before dropping down onto his front, using one forepaw to break the drop, then rolling onto his back and seamlessly transition into a new maneuver, putting his weight on his upper body while spinning his hindlegs in a circle around him, like they were the arms of a windmill.

By then he had caught the attention of the other dancers, stopping to cheer him on as he performed the impromptu breakdance routine, now transitioning into a backspin as Gallus tucked in his limbs and let his momentum spin his body rapidly on the smooth floor. They oohed and awed when he abruptly stopped the spin and launched himself into an one-armed handstand, holding his body balanced out at an angle. But that reaction was nothing to when Gallus, really getting caught up in it now, launched into a backflip only to throw out his wings and let himself glide backwards a short distance away from the flabbergasted Smolder, landing in a crouched pounce position and allowing his momentum to continue carrying him in a backslide a little further across the floor.

This move generated a loud and impressed gasp from the audience of onlookers, which consisted of nearly all of the dancers in their corner of the floor now, while Smolder just stared at Gallus in awe, having never known he was such a proficient dancer. But Gallus still wasn’t done as he dropped down onto his belly and proceeded to do a move that made him look like a wiggling worm, inching his way back towards Smolder. Once he was about halfway there, he planted his forelegs down hard and kicked his hindfeet up into the air and over his head, like a donkey trying to buck off an unwanted rider. Then dropping back down onto his belly, he threw himself up into a standing position with a quick handspring motion, then spun himself around and moonwalked the rest of the way back to Smolder, where he then leaned smugly on her side.

“Like that,” Gallus said as the onlookers applauded briefly for his routine before returning to their own dancing.

“Like that?” Smolder repeated, motioning to the dance floor Gallus had just preformed on incredulously.

Gallus made a modest cough. “Well…okay, not exactly like that,” he admitted. “Just…don’t think about it, simply go out there and do the first dance move you can think of and go from there.”

“…Is that what you did?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“Well…okay…” Not totally convinced, Smolder nonetheless followed his advice and, balling her claws into fists, started to wave her arms up and down in a scissor-like pattern to the pumping beat of the music. She started this pointing them in one direction, but after a moment, she then turned and pointed them to the other side. Literally the only dance “move” she could think of, she just kept it up with that.

After a moment of watching this, Gallus raised a brow. “That’s it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Smolder admitted, a little ashamed and embarrassed at how much her dance skills paled in comparison to Gallus’s.

But Gallus just shrugged. “All right then,” he said with a good natured shrug, “Everybody do the monkey!”

And then he started to copy Smolder’s moves, going in sync with her. Smolder smirked at his rolling with it and kept right on doing her little dance, starting to enjoy herself now.
> (BONUS) At The Theatre
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They ended up arriving at the theatre a bit early for the community play to start, as they were still setting up the stage for the performance, but as this wouldn’t take too much longer and the previous play had concluded, they were still permitted to enter and take their seats if they were willing to wait a few more minutes before the performance began. Having nothing else they could do to kill the time remaining though, Smolder and Gallus decided they might as well.

The theatre itself was no overly elaborate affair, not that either of them were experts on the subject, but it was a fairly sizeable room housing a moderately-sized, professional looking, stage and capable of seating easily over a hundred creatures. For this performance though it didn’t look like it would need to, as only a smattering of attendees had arrived as of yet. It was possible this was because they were still early, but it didn’t seem like there would really be that many more coming. The point was that Gallus and Smolder pretty much had their choice of seating as the rows of long bench seats promised to remain mostly empty.

“I guess that means we could sit in the front row if we want,” Smolder reasoned aloud as they idled in the aisle, considering their seating options.

“True,” Gallus agreed, rubbing the underside of his beak as he surveyed the still half-empty front row. “But most everybody else coming to this will probably think the same thing, so I imagine it’ll fill quickly.”

“Yeah, but so what?” Smolder replied with a shrug. “If we claim a seat now, then we’ll have beaten them to the punch.”

“Yes, and also have to rub elbows with them too,” Gallus added smartly, “because you can bet that’s the row that’s going to fill up the fastest and become the most crowded.”

“Ooh, that’s a good point,” Smolder relented, looking back at the front row as she reconsidered it. “Honestly, I’m not sure I wanna put up with that.”

“I figured you wouldn’t,” Gallus said with a nod, and instead led her towards a row more towards the middle of the theatre, which was staying fairly, but not totally, empty. “So I say we sit here. It’ll still give us a good view of the stage but also not leave us feeling crowded or as easily noticed.”

“Mmkay,” Smolder readily agreed and plopped down on the edge of the seat before scooting over so to make room for Gallus too. “I guess now we just need to wait for the show to start.”

They sat there on the bench idly for a few moments, looking around as a couple other ponies leisurely took their seats, in no hurry to do so as it was still some more minutes until the play was scheduled to start. Smolder started swinging her legs back and forth while Gallus tapped out a quiet rhythm on the bench seat with one of his talons.

Finally, Smolder let out a groan. “Ugh, this is boring, sitting around waiting for this thing to start,” she muttered. “It needs to hurry up and just start already. Waited long enough for it as it is already tonight.”

“Oh, I’m sure there’s something we can do to preoccupy ourselves until then,” Gallus assured.

“Oh yeah?” Smolder asked, folding her arms. “What do you suggest, then?”

Gallus glanced at her briefly but didn’t respond. When Smolder glanced back at him, he averted his gaze suddenly and shifted awkwardly. Taking that to mean that he didn’t actually have any ideas, she went back to gazing around, bored. But then she noticed him slowly and cautiously lift a foreleg with the clear intent to wrap it affectionately around her shoulders. Partway there, though, he seemed to chicken out as he paused for a moment, then, apparently reconsidering, reverently lowered it again. She wondered if he decided that was being too forward.

Regardless, Smolder had to grin at Gallus’s surprisingly gentlecreature-like behavior, but despite quickly glancing around at the other audience members filing into the theatre around them, aware any one of them could notice what they were doing, she ultimate decided she wasn’t going to let herself care about that. So to silently convey that she didn’t mind, she grabbed his foreleg and wrapped it around her shoulders for him anyway.

“You know, another advantage to us sitting further back like this is that we’re less likely to be noticed doing things like this during the show,” she reasoned softly, affectionately, as she snuggled into his soft and warm side.

Gallus gave her a surprised look for this unanticipated show of affection, but he didn’t resist and instead leaned into it. “You know, you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to,” he whispered back to her regardless. “I haven’t forgotten how you feel about public displays like this.”

Smolder sighed in agreement, but persisted anyway. “Yeah, but maybe what I need to do is to just dragon up and bear it,” she reasoned. “I’m a big gal, I really ought to be able to handle this. Besides, I think I already made it clear how much I hate how that bugs me anyway.”

Gallus opened his beak to retort immediately but again paused and reconsidered, choosing his words carefully. “Just so long as you’re okay with it,” he stressed. “I don’t want you thinking you have to be forced into it.”

Smolder, however, had to grin more at Gallus’s thoughtful concern for her wishes though, and rewarded him by snuggling even closer. Everypony else in the room suddenly seemed irrelevant and she found she preferred it that way. “See, this is what I like about you,” she murmured back. “You care about these sort of things.”

Gallus snorted. “I’ve seen plenty of griffons back home who didn’t, which made them such…” he trailed off, leaving the thought unfinished, but it was still clear he didn’t think of such griffons highly.

It surprised Smolder a little, not used to Gallus leveling such serious criticisms on other griffons. Normally, if he chose to make any sort of complaints, it was more petty and sarcastic, not with such clear, albeit repressed, emotion. She realized at that moment it was a point that Gallus privately felt strongly about. “Such what?” she prompted, not wanting him to hold back on her account.

Gallus sighed wearily, the tense coil of emotion building in him unraveling as quickly as it had appeared. “I’d rather spare you the details, honestly.”

Smolder made an amused laugh at that. “I’m not a namby-pamby pony, Gallus, I can handle it. So what were you going to call them?” When he still didn’t answer, she made a guess. “Jerks?”

Gallus winced faintly. “I was thinking of something a bit more vulgar,” he admitted, a little uncomfortable.

Smolder’s eyebrows slyly went up. “We talking something like, say, a reference to certain male anatomy?” she guessed next.

Gallus had to smirk a little at her frankness. “More like certain rear-end orifices.”

Smolder covered her mouth so to hide her wicked cackle at that. “I don’t doubt that they were, then,” she remarked.

“Oh, you have no idea,” Gallus replied knowingly. She again could tell the griffon was holding back some his true thoughts on the matter, but now she didn’t need him to elaborate to have an idea of what they were.

It did lead her to sigh a little heavily though. “I feel like I owe you then, making you put up with my…dumb slag.”

“You owe me no such thing,” Gallus immediately replied, and patted her reassuring on the shoulder with the paw he still had wrapped around her. “Just being here with me tonight is more than enough.”

Smolder couldn’t help but grin big at that, heart feeling warm. “Yeah.” She lovingly snuggled closer still. “I’m glad you’re being so understanding about this.”

“Hey, just trying to be a good boyfriend,” Gallus said, casually shrugging it off. He nudged her gently. “Besides, I could use some adjusting time too. It is still kinda weird seeing you so snuggly like this.”

“Eh, what can I say?” Smolder replied as she rubbed the side of her head against his blue plumage, “you’re soft, fluffy, and cozy. I sort of wish we’d started snuggling sooner.”

“And you’re comfortably warm,” Gallus added, letting his head lean on top of Smolder’s, dodging her purple crest and savoring the muted warmth the dragoness perpetually emitted. “Where were you when I needed you all those cold winters I spent in Griffonstone?”

Smolder chuckled. “In the Dragon Lands, where it’s actually warm year-round, as it should be,” she teased.

“Lucky,” Gallus snickered in the same teasing tone.

They remained like that for a few more minutes, snuggled close as they watched the other attendees slowly file into the theatre and pick out their seats. True to their predictions, the front of the theatre filled up fairly quickly, but it thinned out more towards the middle where they sat so that while it was certainly not empty, they were able to retain a fairly respectable amount of space between themselves and the next attendee sitting on their bench. Beyond that, other than that they were all ponies, there didn’t seem to be any real trend amongst them, though Gallus did point out a few who appeared to be mare and stallion couples out on dates like them, which helped them a little because then it made it feel less like they were the only ones.

Finally, as it grew time for the show to begin and the staff made final preparations to get the audience settled and raise the curtain, Smolder realized something. “You know, throughout all of this, I never did catch just what the heck they’re performing,” she remarked aloud. “Did you?”

“Uh, sort of,” Gallus admitted. “Judging from the title, though, it seemed like it ought to be at least somewhat exciting and interesting.”

“Really. What’s it called, then?”

“Some play called The Tempest. I think it deals with a wizard guy and a storm.”

“Ooh. Sounds modern.”



 

It wasn’t modern. Not in the slightest.

“What is’t?” a young actress on stage was in middle of speaking in heavy Ergothan Ponish, “A spirit? Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, it carries a brave form. But ‘tis a spirit.”

“No, wench,” an older, bearded, actor replied, “it eats, and sleeps, and hath such senses as we have, such. This gallant which thou see’st was in the wreck: and, but he’s something stained with grief—that’s beauty’s canker—thou mightst call him a goodly person: he hath lost his fellows and strays about to find ’em.”

“I might call him a thing divine,” the actress replied, “for nothing natural I ever saw so noble.”

“It goes on, I see,” the actor remarked, “as my soul prompts it.”

And go on it did as a third actor standing off to one side of the stage began to regale the audience with his current condition of being. The others in the audience seemed to be soaking it in well enough, but they were probably already familiar with plays such as this. Gallus and Smolder, however, sat with heads tilted and jaws slightly agape as they strained their brains trying to follow along with the dense and old lines of dialogue.

“You getting any of this?” Smolder whispered to Gallus finally.

“…kind of?” Gallus whispered back, clearly unsure.

“Well, you’re having better luck than I am then. You wanna try and fill me in on what the heck’s even happening?”

“Well…” Gallus pointed with one talon, “…I think that guy there is part of the ship’s crew that were in the shipwreck earlier, and…”

“Wait, when was there a shipwreck?”

“At the very start of the play. Remember when there was all that shouting from off-stage…?”

“That was supposed to be a shipwreck?”

“Shh!” one of the ponies sitting in the row in front of them turned and hushed them with a cross look.

Gallus and Smolder both went quiet again and tried to watch the three actors now all conversing with each other, attempting for a few more minutes to enjoy something from the play.

Smolder was still finding most of it sailing right over her head, though. “Why can’t they just talk like normal creatures?” she muttered under her breath. “It’d be so much easier…”

“Yeah, well, I’m starting to think this play is old enough that it was actually written like this to begin with,” Gallus replied back, keeping his voice low.

Smolder shook her head. “There was a time when ponies actually talked like that?”

“So I’m told.”

“How the heck did they ever understand each other back then?”

Gallus shrugged. “I guess when everybody talks like that, you just adapt or something.”

They were again shushed by other members of the audience so they went quiet once more for a few moments, but not for very long as Smolder still couldn’t wrap her head around the antiquated language of the performance.

“Rocks, can you imagine going about your day and talking like that?” she asked, motioning with one paw at the performers on stage.

Gallus took a moment to envision it and had to stifle a chuckle. “It would make some of the more mundane parts of the day seem silly,” he admitted. He paused for a second before leaning close and continued, taking on a formal accent as he attempted to imitate the dated manner of speaking. “Hark! I shall depart hence to that fine seller of goods so to obtain thine milk as thou hast asked of me!”

Smolder let of a sputtering raspberry as she attempted to withhold her laughter at this, drawing more annoyed looks from those sitting around them for the disruption, but smugly choosing to overlook this, Gallus pressed on anyway.

“Berate me not, witch, for I hath heard thine rebukes the time previous you spoke!” he continued on melodramatically, still keeping his voice low, but not trying as hard as he’d previously done. “I will get thine milk, so cease with thine tongue-lashing!”

Smolder had to clamp both paws over her mouth to keep from being heard laughing, but still her giggles were muffled but still clearly audible, with the both of them drawing more dirty looks from the audience around them, trying to watch the play. Despite knowing they were making a scene though, Gallus was enjoying Smolder’s amusement too much to stop.

“Pah!” he declared, getting caught up in the moment that he was starting to forget to keep his voice down, “Thou wilt watch where you are driving, thou loathsome carriage driver! Canst thou seeth that I am attempting to cross here? I must go forth presently to obtain milk for my witch of a wife!”

Smolder let out a half-suppressed wheeze for air as she bent over trying to keep her amusement inside, visibly shaking from the effort. She made a feeble attempt to wave off Gallus, trying to get him to stop before she lost control.

Gallus chose to go for the metaphorical kill instead. “You there! Where canst I findeth the privy? I needth to make water!”

A loud hoot of laughter finally escaped from Smolder, loud enough it was probably heard in most of the otherwise quiet theater. This earned them glares from all over the audience surrounding them and a harsh series of shushes to try and get them to shut up. Still shaking with laughter, Smolder gave Gallus a shove.

“Stop it, stop it,” she giggled as she tried to reel it in again, swatting him playfully a couple time so to drive the point in, “we’re making a scene and annoying everybody—you’ll get us in trouble if we keep it up!” Despite that ominous claim though, she couldn’t stop giggling.

Gallus chuckled himself, trying and failing to stay composed too. “Well, it’s not my fault this is more entertaining than the play itself,” he argued teasingly.

Another round of annoyed shushes rang out around them accompanied by someone nearby shouting “Well, if you don’t like it, you can just go!” earning him another series of shushes too.

Point thusly made, Smolder and Gallus managed to fall silent again for a few moments, turning their attention back onto the play, which had been continuing undeterred despite the disruptions in the audience. A fourth actor had now appeared on the scene, but their antics had caused Gallus and Smolder to miss who he was and why he was here now, making them even more lost than they had been before. It wasn’t long before the play was yet again failing to hold their interest.

“For the record,” Smolder whispered with a snicker, “that was more entertaining than whatever the heck this play is supposed to be doing.”

“Oh, and we hadn’t even gotten to the ridiculous attires they’re wearing,” Gallus replied back, motioning to the era-appropriate but somewhat melodramatic attires the play’s cast wore. “I mean, look at that one’s cape!”

“I know, right? Where did they even get enough material to make it? Those big thick drapes in me and Sil’s dorm probably aren’t even enough, and you’ve seen the size of those drapes, right?”

“Oh, I’m sure they eventually found the right set of drapes for the job,” Gallus quipped with a snort.

Smolder suppressed a renewed giggle. “Think they told whosever drapes they were that they were taking them first?” she asked.

Gallus pondered it for a second, rubbing at the chin of his beak, before smirking and suddenly his faux-Ergothan Ponish accent was back again. “Prithee—doth mother know you weareth her drapes?”

Their peals of laughter that followed once again disrupted the play for the other audience members, and this time in continued until a bright magical light suddenly shone down on them. Surprised, they stopped and turned to face the annoyed theater stallion that had arrived at their end of the row. He was casting the light on them with his unicorn horn and was glaring at them. So was most of the audience around them.

“Hey,” Gallus greeted the stallion with a chill nod, before smirking unrepentantly and added, “best be careful with that magic there, bud—you might disturb the audience.”

But apparently his sass wasn’t appreciated because only a couple of minutes later found them both getting dropped unceremoniously out on the street outside by said stallion’s magic.

“Oh, you think that’s funny?” Gallus rolled over to shout back at the stallion’s retreating behind as he vanished back inside the theatre. “Then the joke’s still on you, mister, because I want my money back...not that I paid any since this was a free show and all, but still!”

Laughing still, Smolder gave him a swat to silence him. “You tightwad,” she cackled before pushing herself upright. “Ah well, it’s not like we were enjoying that play anyway.” She stood up and stretched, popping her back. “So might as well call it quits on that while we’re ahead.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right,” Gallus relented with a chortle as he also rolled over and onto his feet. He shook some of the dirt from their forced ejection of his body. “Okay, so no go on the play, then. Where to next?”

Smolder glanced up at the moon now hanging high in the sky. “Eh, it’s getting late enough, we might as well call it quits while we’re ahead.” She made a small yawn. “Besides, I think I’m just about ready for bed anyway.”

Gallus rolled his eyes but didn’t quite suppress his sigh. “All right then,” he relented and jerked his head down the street, “Might as well start walking back for the school.”

Smolder quickly fell in step with him, grinning. “If it helps,” she assured him, catching on to his repressed disappointment, “we totally gotta do this all again another night here soon.”

This caused Gallus to perk up again. “All right, then,” he remarked, pleased. “I’ll be looking forward to that.”

Smolder patted him on the back as they walked off. “Me too, feather butt, me too.”
> (BONUS) Tea Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a long day of classes and deciding that they were feeling pretty thirsty and could use something to sate it, Gallus decided to lead Smolder over to where he knew a soda bar was set up. The mare staffing it was a coppery-colored unicorn with a pale blond mane, except for the tips which transitioned into an electric blue color. Smolder wondered if the blue was dyed instead of natural, but she never could be certain with pony manes.

Whatever the case, Gallus apparently knew her already. “Hey, Bittersweet,” he remarked as he took a vacant seat at the counter.

“Gallus!” the mare declared brightly, looking up from the soda she was finishing making before sliding it over to its awaiting patron, “Been a couple weeks since I’ve last seen you. Where’ve you been?”

“Oh, just been busy,” Gallus remarked with a roll of his eyes. “The usual stuff, mostly.”

“Well, you are still a school creature right now, so gotta pay attention to that every now then sometime, right?” Bittersweet strolled closer so to talk more but stopped when she noticed Smolder quietly taking a seat next to Gallus. “And you must be Smolder!” she declared.

Smolder blinked, surprised. “You know who I am?”

“Well, I know Gallus is buddies with a dragon, among others,” Bittersweet explained matter-of-factly. She made a sly smirk in Gallus’s direction, who sheepishly averted his gaze. “He has a lot to say about his friends, after all.”

“Huh,” Smolder said, glancing at Gallus before looking back at the unicorn. “All good things, I hope.”

“But of course!”

“Good! Then I don’t need to do anything to silence him.” Smolder shot Bittersweet a teasing wink.

She laughed in response before extending a hoof to the dragoness. “I’m Bittersweet Shimmer, by the way.”

“Hey,” Smolder responded back, accepting the hoof for a brief shake. She then frowned. “Name sounds familiar though, like something I’ve heard in class…Shimmer, Shimmer, Shimmer—you wouldn’t happen to be related to a Sunset Shimmer, would you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Bittersweet responded with a smirk before turning back to Gallus. “So, you finally got her to come here, eh?” She nodded her head towards Smolder.

“Well, it only seemed fair, seeing you’ve put up with me blabbing on about it,” Gallus replied nonchalantly.

“Bring any of your other friends here too?”

“Nope, it’s, uh, just us two.”

Bittersweet raised an eyebrow at them. “Oh is it now?” she asked as if intrigued. Smolder squirmed a little under her gaze, pretty sure Bittersweet had caught on as to why. But she didn’t ask further and instead changed the subject. “So anyway, I’m sure you didn’t come here to hear me chatter on.” She leaned back, ready to serve them. “What can I get you?” She glanced at Smolder again. “Especially you, seeing you’re new here. I’ve got sarsaparilla, seltzer water, orange soda, grape soda, cream soda, lemonade, frosted lemonade, fizzy lemonade, Tsar Bomba energy drink, Zap Apple Cola…”

“Actually, I think Smolder would be more interested in some nice calming tea, Bittersweet,” Gallus interrupted to suggest.

Smolder shot a surprised glance at Gallus then again at Bittersweet. “Wait, you serve tea too?” she asked before quickly adding, “And more than one kind? Because I’ve already been burned by that once before.”

“Sure do,” Bittersweet promised. “What kind do you want?”

Smolder hesitated for a moment, still doubtful. “Earl Grey,” she finally requested, “Hot.”

A mere few moments later, Bittersweet handed her a cup of hot Earl Grey tea. It was served in a plastic coffee mug rather than a proper tea cup, but Smolder was surprised to see it at all enough that she decided she didn’t care and proceeded to sup the surprisingly well-brewed drink, considering how speedily it was made.

Pleased that Smolder was satisfied, Bittersweet then turned to Gallus. “Do I need to get you one too?” she asked. “Perhaps that flavor of tea you yourself have been…”

“No,” Gallus replied quickly. “Just some Zap Apple Cola will do, Bittersweet.”

Bittersweet shrugged. “Suit yourself,” she said and proceeded to pull out a new cup to fill for him.

“Wait, Gallus has ordered tea here too?” Smolder interrupted, again surprised as Gallus hadn’t ever struck her as all that big on tea. “What kind?”

“Mint tea,” Bittersweet replied before Gallus could intervene, “Though obviously he doesn’t always order it.”

She went to fill the cup with the requested cola when Smolder suddenly motioned for her to stop. “Hey, how about you get him that mint tea instead,” she requested before quickly pulling out three bits and slid them over to Bittersweet. “My treat.”

Bittersweet examined the bits then glanced over at Gallus to see if he had any objections. But he voiced none and instead averted his gaze, looking sheepish but unable to bring himself to protest. So, since he didn’t, Bittersweet made the tea and slid him the mug. Gallus accepted it without protest, but instead of drinking it, he pensively stared into the broth inside.

With both of their drinks sorted though, Bittersweet rapped the countertop briefly. “Anyway, it’s been nice chatting, but there’s other patrons I gotta serve drinks to.” Giving them a wink, she turned further down the bar to mix other drinks.

Smolder, however, was looking at Gallus, who was still sheepishly avoiding eye contact. “So…mint tea, huh?” she asked finally, trying to coax an explanation out of him.

Gallus sighed and shrugged. “I decided to give it a shot here one time because it seemed interesting and I guess I was just in the mood to try.” He shrugged a second time, but he let a weak grin appear on his beak. “Clearly, it left a mark.”

“Soooo…you like mint tea, then?” she then prompted again, as it bothered her that she didn’t previously know this—she’d long made it a point to know the tea preferences for all of her friends, if they had one, since getting introduced to the drink herself.

“Well…it’s been growing on me lately,” Gallus admitted as he stared into his cup of tea without drinking it.

“Then how come you’ve never said so whenever I offer to make you some tea back at the school?” Smolder demanded.

“I didn’t want to make a big deal about it, because I knew you would too…and because I know you prefer the Earl Grey.” Gallus pointed to her cup. “So I figured I’d just save you the trouble and just have whatever you’re having.”

“Gallus,” Smolder protested, “I do prefer the Earl Grey, but I keep other tea mixes too specifically for this very reason! I have lemon tea for Silverstream, Darjeeling for Ocellus…”

“It’s not a big deal, Smolder,” Gallus said, waving it off with his talons.

Smolder watched him for a moment. “Well, it is to me.”

“And that’s why I hadn’t said anything, because I knew you’d make a big deal out of it,” Gallus retorted, but made a relenting sigh, rubbing at his brow. “Sorry, Smolder, I don’t mean to sound like a jerk about it,” he apologized. “It’s just…it’s like you and talking about our relationship in public. It’s just…awkward. Besides, you like the Earl Grey, so I figure I can let you have the pick because I know you like it.”

She turned to nurse her cup of Earl Grey. “I do like it,” she admitted. “And I appreciate you looking out for me like that. You’ve been doing a lot of that, in fact.” She looked back over at him. “But if we’re going to make you and me work, then it can’t always be you that’s doing all the giving. Let me return the favor and do some of the giving too, because I want to keep you satisfied like you’ve been doing for me. I mean, you are my boyfriend and all now.” She gazed into her dark brown brew. “Plus, it can be my way of returning the favor for getting me a cup of tea on one of these dates finally.” She took another appreciative sip and hummed appreciatively. “Seriously. The tea’s helped after all that…” she waved her paw vaguely, “…intense emotional stuff we've been dealing with.” 

Gallus shook his head in amusement, finally taking a long gulp from his own tea. He let out a content sigh afterwards and grinned. “All right, fair enough, I guess.” He draped a caring wing over Smolder. “And at least you know about it now,” he reasoned.

“You’re darn right I know now,” Smolder replied back, shooting him a smirk. “Next tea party, you are so getting mint tea, feather butt.”

Gallus rolled his eyes, but he smirked as he played along. “I suppose you’ll make me wear that top hat and monocle again too.”

Smolder smirked as she supped from her tea again. “I dunno, maybe we’ll shake things up and have you be the one to wear the dress for a change.”

Laughing, they then tapped their respective cups together and proceeded to polish off their drinks.