Avalon

Derpy slapped all her hooves down on the counter, head wiggling uncontrollably. She let out a torrent of deep laughs. She tried to speak, but she couldn't, still almost giggling herself silly. "Fluttershy... is... not..." She snorted, smacking my shoulder. "Not my wife... oh, geez, Cimmanon."

"I see," I whispered.

"You are simply priceless," Derpy muttered, and she yanked a hoof in the air for another spot of red wine. "I'm starting to really, really like you."

"Oh, alright," I said. I had a painful ten seconds of silence while my mind frantically tried to get back into gear. "Well, life back in Ponyville was... difficult." I turned a little solemn. She could tell as well, and she put on a very sweet expression. "My parents tried their best, and they were very loving, caring. Still, though, I had the worst time learning everything. I was so painfully, deeply introverted."

"Oh, dear." Around us, the band's music picked up.

"Everypony thought I would be a special needs type of pony for life, unable to understand directions for anything and unable to go across public places with devestating panic attacks."

"You don't have to say any more," Derpy said, and she had a reflective, distant kind of look around her face. Her ears perked up. "My cousin has always been just like that. Hard to talk, hard to hear, hard to remember things, always doing repetitive behaviors, paralyzed with fear socially, and picked on mercilessly to boot. Only, he got loaded up with medication and shelved into a 'special care center'." Derpy bit her lip at those last three words, feeling like punching somepony.

"When I finally did make it at Canterlot, educationally, I excelled," I said. The music went into some kind of ripping, samba-like beat behind us, and we found ourselves bobbing along by instinct. "Long story short, I became a 'whiz-colt' or so they say. I graduated things early. I got myself into economic and business related stuides."

"What happened?" She put her head against her hooves, looking pretty facinated. "Why aren't you in some office building somewhere, a big boss with a lot of peons? Why aren't you making millions of bits?" She eyed my cutie mark, an image of shipping boxes loaded with books with electronic cables around them.

"Long story short, I happened." I swung around, moving from Derpy's gaze and just staring straight up at the ceiling. I always did that to keep the pain down as I reflected. "Business is networking. And networking is about being social. And being social is like arsenic in my wine." I took a sip. "And, as a 'disgraced' business partner, I found myself gone from Spice and Co. Thank goodness I found myself some niche work at the Equestrian Enterprise Institute. The EEI, one of the oldest think tanks in town-- low pay, but at least we deal in abstract ideas and concepts rather than social things where you stand around besides water-coolers, always being judged."

"Wait a moment. 'Disgraced'?" She repeated.

"Most ponies there think I... cheated," I said, gritting my teeth. "Saying that I crunched the numbers in the wrong way in order to falsify my reports." I finished my glass, downing a huge load of wine in a split-second. "Truth is, well..." I took a deep breath. "I made a mistake." I mushed my hooves against my head. "Just. A. Mistake."

"Why didn't you just correct the mistake? Or why didn't they just understand and forgive you?"

"Introvert, remember?" I snapped at her. I shouldn't have. My face apologized immediately. I had to have been too loaded to control myself very well, and neither was her. I saw her moves getting rather tipsy.

"Sorry..."

"No, I'm sorry." I put my hoof atop hers. She held it tightly. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry in life about a lot of things, a lot of mistakes I've made." Our front hooves eveloped each others. "It's like... in that old office, I never stood out well to anypony. I had no ally. I had no real, true friends. I just had loads of acquaintances, and I always knew that I was nothing more than a potted plant-- just a prop that's part of the scenery." I sniffed. "I got in trouble... because I couldn't ask for help. I was just physically inable to do it. I got ill. I got in trouble, and I had noone to support me."

"That's so sad." She stood up. My heart sank as our hooves lost their touch.

"No, seriously." I waved my hooves over my face, trying to come to my bearings. You did it! You blew it! You had the girl of your dreams, and you dumped on her like a therapist or something... you idiot! I coughed, wishing just for once that my subconsciousness mind would stop insulting me and stop putting me down for once. "I'm sorry that I've just rattling on and on to you." I felt like hitting myself.

The music around us suddenly grabbed us like a giant's hooves smacking down around our shoulders. We both eyed the stage. "Now the party's over. I'm so tired," Fab crooned. The crowd seemed to lose it. He's playing the Avalon's song. He's playing 'our song'. The club's own special song. This has to be a sign or something.

Derpy stood right in front of me. She didn't quite seem to know what to say, her face idly looking around the bar and her hooves behind her head. Any second before the music came on, she would have gone "well, nice talking to you" and left for the hotel. But then it played! This has to be the moment! I have to go for it!

"Then, I see you coming," Fab sang, wiggling his flanks for the girls with hooves beating against the stage, "Out of nowhere..." I have to do something! Derpy glanced at the exit, and I hopped down out of my seat.

"Derpy?" I found myself panting all of a sudden, sweat beading down along the sides of my head.

"Yes?" she asked. Her voice seemed to almost squeak, softness and tenderness pouring into my ears. She had her mane flicking against her eyes, making her even more beautiful than I could have imagined.

"Much communication in a motion..." Fab crooned.

"Shall we dance?" I asked, holding out a hoof.

Derpy glanced down at my hoof and up at my face again. She took a little breath. I felt as if the entire world had come to an end. Finally, she put her hoof down, clasping my closely.

"Y-yes," she replied, nervousness flashing over her face.

I felt like rocketing a hundred feet straight up, through the roof and into the night sky. I moved a little closer to Derpy, and my hips started to do a little swaying. She giggled, and she did the same. We both eyed the dance floor about halfway in between the bar and the stage. We walked together, a happy skip in both our steps.

We stepped onto the golden-edged dance floor, and we felt warm, soothing yellow light coming up from underneath us. I gazed into her eyes. I couldn't bear to see an ounce of hurt or pain in those eyes. I wanted to wake up next to those eyes forever.

We hear the tender croon of Fab's voice, and we swayed to the right. Our hooves just naturally brought our bodies even closer togther. We made a short twist here, a slight dip there, and a gentle turn, before long finding ourselves about cheek to cheek. Her hooves, rubbing along my body, shot little bursts of joy along my sides. I felt her mane sweeping across my body. All of the sensations came together so strong, and I almost wanted to cry.

Derpy, for her part, had the most content look on her face. I could barely understand it. Her cheeks looked so adorable, and her lips looked so full. She leaned her head over against my neck, and we continued our gentle dance. I knew that we had hundreds of ponies around us. I didn't care. Normally, I would go into a full on anixety attack at this amount of social pressure. But I didn't. I hardly had a care in the world. I had Derpy, and that seemed like all anypony could ever want.

The song wound down, the band taking it's sweet time with the smooth, cool instrumentals. Derpy curled her head over and gazed at my face. I gazed back. The sweet throbbing of the bass felt like a tweaking of our hearts.

"You really like my eyes, don't you?" she asked.

"I love your eyes."

"Funny, all of the colts that I've been with have never wanted to look at my eyes." She made a happy sigh. "They'd peek at my flank. Admire my wings. Complment my voice. But not my eyes. Then, there's you. You're so different."

"Am I?" I held her even closer, feeling more like a hug than a dance grip.

"You lock on my eyes and never let go."

"Why wouldn't I want to look at your beautiful eyes forever?"

"Beautiful eyes?" She smirked, still not quite believing me.

The music died, and ponies drifed away from the floor. We kept on standing at the edge, bottom hooves lined up along the gold intentations in the floor. The lights seemed to shine upon right Derpy. I could hardly picture even Princess Celestia looking so nice.

"Never forget," I said, lining up face to face, "That you have beautiful eyes." Our voices had lowered to a whisper.

And we kissed.

To Be Continued