Author's Note

Read Griffon Advice before reading this chapter.

Getting to know you

“So! Dustin, for this date. We are going to pretend that you and Dash have never met.” Rarity explained as she set the dining table for a lunch she herself had prepared. “I will act as a sort of moderator if you will. Thanks to Twilight, I have been given free reign to swat either of you if I even catch a hint of anything untoward.” She hummed happily to herself as she set down three glasses. “This is simply to gage how well you two do in a normal lunch date scenario. No offense to either of you, but I do not expect this to go well and we can end it at any time. Does this make sense Darling?”

“I...guess so,” Dustin admitted with a nod. “It’s nice to know that a whirlwind romance isn’t the norm. I think the only thing missing from ours was an actual whirlwind.” He settled himself in one chair and looked at Rarity. She seemed to be confident that she could control the situation. “Wait,” he mused. “Where’s Dash?” It was kind of important that she be here for the date.

“She’ll be here.” Rarity looked over at a clock on the walk. “She should be here soon in fact.” The was a soft, tentative knock from the front door. “Ah! There she is.” She said brightly, finishing up the table, poking a knife to make sure it was lined up with the other silver.

“Ah, I thought she was hidden upstairs or something,” the fox chuckled, getting up and going to the front door. Opening it revealed…

Okay, Dash should not look adorable when she was nervous. “Afternoon,” the fox greeted the prismatic mare, opening the door wider and standing to one side.

“H-” The mare’s voice cracked and she blushed. “Hi. I’m… Rainbow Dash. Y-you’re- You’re Dustin right?” She asked, taking a step in.

It was clear that she had prettied herself up a bit. Her mane and tail weren’t as messy. He coat was clean, smelled like fresh fallen rain actually. Dustin swore that she’d actually put on a little makeup, or at least a little eyeliner.

Oh, right. He was supposed to pretend they’d not met before. Dustin coughed a few times. “I am indeed,” he agreed. “I’ve heard a lot about you from some of the mares around town, but I wanted to reserve judgement for when we got to know one another properly.” He gestured to the lunch that Rarity had set up. “My landlord recommended we have a nice lunch date to talk and bond over.”

“Yeah. Pinkie Pie and Rarity set this up.” Rainbow smiled nervously as she stood in the doorway to the dining room. “It was really nice of them.”

“Come in, come in,” Dustin continued, sweeping past the mare and pulling out a chair for her. “Here,” he said. “We’ll sit opposite each other. It’ll make it easier to look into your beautiful eyes.”

Dash’s blushed grew in intensity as she trotted over and sat down. “Thank you… Thanks… Yeah...”

The Renamon smiled and walked over to his own seat, nodding at Dash. “So, while Rarity assembles our lunch, tell me a little about yourself,” the fox urged the mare.

Rarity made sure to keep a close eye on the two. Dustin was clearly quite the gentlestallion and Dash was clearly scared out of her mind. She finished up with the salad as Dash took a breath.

“Well, I’m a weather mare for Ponyville. It’s really not that exciting to be honest.” She said with a chuckle, brushing a loose strand of mane out of her eye. “I want to be a Wonderbolt someday.” She seemed to be searching for anything to mention. “Oh, and I guess I kinda helped save the world once?”

“Now that sounds like a nice story to hear during the meal,” the fox complimented her. “As for myself, I’m just the leader of the local Diamond Dog mine. Trying to get them all up to a similar living standard as the ponies is not an easy endeavor, but it’s my dream that other mines look to mine as a standard.” He shrugged a bit after that. “Other than that, I get trained every other day by a sadistic werewolf and I play Pokemon in my spare time.”

“Werewolf…” Dash’s brow furrowed. She was starting to get into the first meeting thing. “Wait. Geralt?”

“That’s the one,” Dustin nodded. “His idea of a fun way to break my concentration during, say, ten pull-ups, is to throw golf balls at me.”

Dash giggled at that. “Yeah… That sounds like him. The first time we met, he challenged me for the title of Head of the Ponyville Dojo. It… didn’t end well.” She visibly winced and rubbed her stomach with a hoof.

“From what I understand,” Dustin mused aloud, “he’s trying to train up someone to properly fight him. Or he just enjoys the idea of pushing me until I act like a Renamon.” The digimon shook his head. “In any case, he’s not here and we don’t have to talk about him.”

Dahs jumped a little. “Right! Right.” She nodded “So…” She chewed her lip, looking away, clearly trying to think of something. “Oh! So what’s the mine like?”

“Well it’s…” the fox hummed. “It works,” he admitted. “But it’s had a string of stupid bosses. The last one wanted cheap, fast gear made of iron. And said anyone using a crossbow was being a coward. And the dogs all sleep in one big pile and-” he cut himself off and waved a hand. “You get the idea,” he finished. “It’s a functioning mess, but still a mess. I want to give every dog their own place to sleep, basic combat training because you never know what will happen, proper steel gear, bows back, and a proper trading relationship with the ponies. Right now we’re operating on word of mouth, which is good advertising, but we could do with things like a road to the mine so others can find us.”

“That makes sense.” Dash nodded.

“Hello!” Rarity called out, making the pegasus jump. “Sorry to interrupt. I’m simply bringing the first course.” Rarity came trotting in levitating a large bowl of salad, a tray of various kinds of bread, and a small plate holding a stick of butter. She set the salad in the middle of the table and set the bread and butter on either side of the salad.

“Wow.” Dash’s eyes widened. “Think you made enough salad, Rarity?”

“I may have over prepared a tiny bit.” Rarity said with a small, embarrassed blush.

“I advise you to take what bread you want now,” the fox advised Dash. “I might eat it all otherwise.” He chuckled a bit afterwards. “Digimon body. It’s carb hungry and I’m a natural starchoholic.”

Dash giggled. “I’m sure you’re just exaggerating.” She reached out with her wings and took a few slices of white bread. She paused when she went to set them down. “Ummm Rarity? Which place does the bread go on?”

Rarity glanced over at the prismatic pegasus. “The smallest one dear.” She pointed a hoof at the small plate. “The medium plate is for salad, the large plate is for your entre, and the saucer is for post-lunch tea.”

Dash blinked owlishly. “Okay. And… What fork do I eat salad with?” She asked gesturing at the four different forks next to the plates as she set her chosen bread on the small plate.

“That one, darling.” Rarity pointed out the specified fork.

“Thank-”

“MMMM’NOM”

Dash and Rarity paused and looked over at the other end of the table. Dustin was virtually stuffing as much bread as he could into his maw.

“Wha?” he asked around a mouthful of starch. “Ish gud bread!”

“Dustin!” Rarity yelped with an affronted blush. “That is very rude!”

Dash on the other hoof, froze and blushed. Then her wings popped out straight. She instantly yelped and struggled to push her wings back down with her hooves. “Sorry! I’m so sorry!” Dash babbled. “Just pretend you didn’t see that!”

Rarity turned on the pegasus, for a moment she levitated a rolled up newspaper. Then she seemed to think a moment and lowered it. “It’s perfectly fine Rainbow, just try to keep yourself under control.”

Dash managed to lower her wings. “I’m trying....” She closed her eyes and took a breath. On opening them, she smiled. “Sorry. Umm where were we?”

Dustin had managed his mouthfuls of starch and was sitting back. “Mmm...good entree,” he complimented Rarity.

“That’s not the entree Dustin.” Rarity said deadpan. “Please tell me you didn’t stuff yourself with bread before you received your actual lunch?”

Dash stifled a giggle.

“Nah...I’m never full,” Dustin admitted with a roguish smirk. “But hey, I warned you not to put bread in front of me.”

“Mmmm you did say.” Rarity nodded. “I will be right back, you two behave yourselves.” With that she trotted back into the kitchen.

Meanwhile Dash had bitten her lip and puffed out her cheeks. Letting out a breath, she nibbled on some bread. “Could you pass the salad?”

“Ah, sure,” Dustin said, standing up to pick up the bowl and carry it over to the mare. “Here you are,” he said, putting it closer to her side of the table.

“Thanks.” She took the bowl with her wings and served herself some salad. She picked out her fork and ate some. “Not bad,” She nodded. “So....” She chewed her lip and seemed to be searching for something to talk about.

“Why don’t you tell me about that whole saving the world business?” Dustin prompted as he sat back in his own chair.

“Oh! Sure!” Dash brightened. “Ummmm… So has anybody told you about the Summer Sun Celebration?”

“I’ve heard of it a few times,” the fox admitted. “Longest day of the year, right? We had something similar, the summer solstice. Nothing fancy anymore, used to be a big deal when those more in tune with nature were a majority religion.”

“Well ours is similar only once a year Princess Celestia chooses a city or town to host it. Something special for said city or town. This year it was Ponyville. It was extra special because it was the thousandth year of the Celebration.” Dash paused. “Oh! I forgot something, we also celebrate it because a thousand years ago a… mmmm… Tyrant…” She said awkwardly. “Called Nightmare Moon caused Eternal Night. When Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon, she started the Summer Sun Celebration.”

“Huh. Well at least yours are based on things that actually happened,” Dustin noted as he leaned back in his chair. “So, summer celebration to mark the longest day of the year that was almost the start of an eternal nightmare. Sounds interesting. How does this lead to the saving the world?”

“Right! So! The evening before the Summer Sun Celebration everypony tends to stay up and party before the raising of the sun the next day.” Dash explained, while starting to eat in earnest as she talked. “Though the day before somepony gets sent out to check to make sure everything’s the way it should be. This Twilight Sparkle was sent to check on preparations. I got put in charge of the weather.” She blushed. “I admit, I kinda slacked off a bit. She called me out on it and I cleared the sky in ten seconds. Not that there were that many clouds to clear in the first place.” She shrugged. “Anyway a party was held in the evening at the Golden Oaks Library, which just so happened to be where Twilight was staying. She seemed really distracted by some book she’d read. Some prophecy of doom, which are kinda a dime a dozen to us ponies at this point.”

“...Remind me to invest in a book of prophecies at some point,” Dustin deadpanned. “How many ancient evils are lying around that you can take a prophecy of one not so seriously?”

“Good question!” She pointed a hoof at him. “I have no idea! That’s Twilight’s thing. Anyway-”

“Here’s Lu-unch!” Rarity sing-singed, interrupting the prismatic mare, as she trotted in levitating a big pot of spaghetti.

“Rarity!” Dash whined. “You interrupted my story!”

Dustin...was drooling. “Spaghetts?” he whimpered. “Oooh, what sort of sauce did you make for it?”

“Alfredo, hope you don’t mind.” Rarity said, setting the pot down on the table next to the salad. “Would you like me to serve you, or would you like to serve yourself?”

“You...had better serve Dash first,” the fox said after taking a moment to breathe. “I...probably won’t let there be leftovers. Again.”

“Of course darling.” Rarity rolled her eyes and heaped a generous portion onto Rainbow’s plate. “And I know you like to eat. How do you keep your figure?”

Dash blinked. “Not sure if that was passive aggressive or not.”

Rarity blinked, setting the pot down. “Oh, did I say that out loud?” She blushed. “Terribly sorry Rainbow.”

“It’s fine.” Rainbow shrugged.

Rarity trotted over to Dustin. “Should I just give you the pot?”

“It’d save you a plate,” the fox pointed out.

Rarity sighed, took away his plate and just set the pot down. “Let me know when you’re finished.” She started to trot away.

“Not going to tell us to behave ourselves?” Dash asked.

“You seem to be doing fine on your own so far.” Rarity said as she left.

Dash blinked. “Huh.” She looked at Dustin. “Where’d I leave off?”

“Party at the library, panicking Twilight,” Dustin supplied before he-

...Okay that might be why Rarity left. He’d just picked up the pot and was eating directly from it. His muzzle was going to be a mess of cheesy sauce when he put the pot down.

“Right.” Dash nodded, starting to chow down, herself. “Sho..” She swallowed, looking at Dustin eating directly out of the pot. “Twilight was apparently certain something bad was going to happen, but she didn’t tell anypony.” She took another mouthful, chewed, then swallowed. “So we stay up partying at what was supposed to be Twilight’s place. Somehow Spike, Twilight’s dragon assistant, ended up with a lampshade on his head. The whole party is kinda fuzzy. So, skipping that, we all headed to the town hall. That’s where Celestia was supposed to show up and raise the Sun right?” She nodded as Dustin wolfed down the pasta. “Everything’s been set up. Everything’s going fine. Then the curtain rolls back and… There’s Celestia.” Rainbow giggled at his slight deflation. “Had you going for a sec huh?” She smiled. “So, we think everything’s fine. Then it’s like somepony dropped ink in water. Celestia just kinda rolled away. Now who’s standing there but Nightmare Moon.”

That got the fox to pause and lift his head from the pot. Rarity would kill him if she saw what he’d done to his fur, there was sauce everywhere. “Nightmare Moon...replaced Celestia?” he said simply. “That sounds almost like a good plan, except for the whole ‘revealing yourself’ part.”

“Yeah… Oh, and you kinda got sauce…. Everywhere.” Dash gestured to all of him with her wings. “Are you going to be Northern Fox by the time you’re done eating?”

Dustin rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty sure the napkins by my plate are here for just this reason,” he explained. Though he did feel bad he’d probably be dirtying...all of them.

“Before I continue, want my napkins?” She asked.

“Not until I’m done eating, there’s still some noodles left in here,” the fox pointed out.

“So yeah, Nightmare Moon. She came in and monologued about Eternal Night or something. I honestly wasn’t paying much attention and wanted to deck her. Turns out she had some kind of shield up that tossed me back into a table. Anyway, Twilight said she knew who she was and that she’d stop her.” Dash explained, returning to her food for a moment. “So Twilight ran off and Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and I, all followed her.” She nodded.

“Lemme guess. Grand quest to save the day and bring back said daytime after the evil ruler got unsealed from their prison,” he quipped. “What magical sword did you have to pull out of a rock to banish her?”

“Oh, a sword would have been awesome!” Dash gasped. “But no, don’t beat me to the end here.” She pointed a hoof at him. “So, Twilight went back to the library of all places. She was searching for some book and I was suspicious. Why’d this mare know about this edgy black Alicorn? Naturally I accused her of being a spy.” Dash blushed at that. “But! Pinkie found the book Twilight was looking for before I did anything stupid. Turns out there was these things called the Elements of Harmony. And where were they located? In a castle. A castle in the middle of the Everfree Forest.”

“Point,” Dustin held up a finger. “The crazy, murder-you-if-you-look-at-me-wrong, forest?”

“Yep. That one. I mean it was treacherous enough without Nightmare Moon warping things to make it worse. Though thankfully Pinkie had been hiding a friend who decided to come out when all Tartarus broke loose.” Dash chuckled.

Dustin hummed as he slurped up one of the last noodles. “Would this friend be big, red, scaly, and as just a big of a trash can for carbs as I am?” he teased.

“Less trash can more dumpster.” Dash chuckled. “But yes, she’d been hiding Guilmon and having him occasionally help at Sugarcube Corner. He helped out a bit in the forest. He was fantastic morale support, especially when tagging with Pinkie. Though most of the obstacles seemed to be geared towards each of the girls.” She paused for a moment to drink some water then continued. “So from the library the five of us decided to go with her. Spike tagged along too, said he wanted to make sure his mom was okay in all of this. When we got nearer to the forest, that’s when Guilmon showed up.” She explained, pausing to eat a little more. “Now I’m not sure if this was intentional on Nightmare Moon’s part to make us give up, or if it was some kind of way of proving ourselves for some reason, but some of these tests seem kinda easy when I look back on it.” She shrugged. “Applejack told Twilight to let go when she was holding the unicorn on the edge of a cliff, just so we could catch her. Fluttershy had to stop Guilmon from fighting a Manticore that attacked us. Turns out it had a thorn in its paw. It was much calmer after Flutteshy pulled it out.” Dash took a breath and continued eating a bit.

“I think I’ve heard him talking about that manticore,” Dustin mused wistfully, putting the pot down on the floor as he started to clean his muzzle off. “Something about him visiting Fluttershy afterwards for massages or something.”

Dash swallowed again. “Yep. Guilmon does too on occasion. Apparently Pinkie been getting trained by her for… reasons… ANYWAY!” Dash coughed into a hoof. “So we continued on and suddenly it got super dark. Like yes it was night time, but it turned black. So our pair of unicorns lit their horns. Only, for us to find out that all the trees around us had warped into the horrifying things. Naturally Guilmon jumped in front while the rest of us kinda just panicked. Then Pinkie just lost it. Lost it as in she just burst out laughing. The rest of us we kinda stunned. She was making faces at the tree things, and giggling at them.” She giggled. “Then she started singing.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that singing seems to be a thing in ponyland,” Dustin pointed out. He’d mostly gotten the sauce off his muzzle...save for a tiny bit on the tip of his nose. “Seriously, was my singing so good it had to be recorded,” he griped.

“Oh, was it? Cool.” Dash shrugged, though there was a small blush on her cheeks. A small shiver ran down her spine as she continued. “So she starts singing. Which is just ridiculous to begin with. Then Guilmon started to sing. They turned it into a freaking duet and we just lost it. All of us were laughing and giggling, and suddenly the whole situation wasn’t all that scary anymore.” She giggled at the thought. “So after we got our breath back, and calmed down enough, we continued on. Only to be stopped by a river. A river that by all means should have been calm. Yet it wasn’t. Some massive serpent was having a tantrum. I honestly didn’t see the issue. Apparently some black smoke came by and sliced off half of his moustache, and that’s why he was losing it.”

“...You don’t diss another man’s moustache,” Dustin nodded once, sagely. “Granted, I don’t think facial hair is for me, and yet here I am covered in fuzz. Still, I wouldn’t deface another man’s face. It takes time and effort to grow things like that.”

Dash hummed. “Well I guess I can see your point.” She nodded. “On second thought, yeah, I see why he was devastated. So, yeah, Rarity had to tell me off for not really caring about his obvious issue. After that, she yanked out a scale, sliced off her tail, and attached it to the missing part of his moustache. Super nice of her, though it took forever for her tail to come back.” She chuckled softly. “After her doing that, the serpent thanked her by basically turning himself into a bridge so we could cross. As we did the castle was in full view! It was eerie, it had the massive full moon hanging over it.” She shuddered a bit. “So we follow the path and… the bridge was out.”

“...You came with two pegasi,” the fox pointed out. “Four cloud walking spells from Twilight and you’d have no need of a bridge.”

“Counterpoints.” Dash held up a hoof. “Fluttershy was already scared as it is without flying into fog that obscured the other side. Secondly, Twilight didn’t know that spell yet.” She lowered her hoof. “So, I ended up on flying through said fog, with Spike on my back to help out just in case. I flew down and grabbed the broken end of the bridge and flew over to the other side. Which wasn’t that bad compared to some of the other things we’d dealt with. Spike hopped off to keep an eye out. You know, dragon eyesight or whatever. When I went to attach the bridge, I heard a voice. Well voices plural.”

“Counter-counter point,” Dustin raised a finger. “You flew into a situation where it was likely designed for a flyer of your caliber, to pave the way for the rest, without a single mental reinforcement or illusion banishing charm cast on you, even when it was already clear that had happened with four of your other party members. That’s what we call in the business heroic stupid, and it’s a situation any half-competent villian would capatalize on. Your only saving grace was taking Spike.”

“Huh.” Dash blinked. “I guess you’re right. And don’t think I forgot your calling me stupid.” She pointed a hoof at him, giggling. “S-so anyway, Moonie kinda did. These three pegasi in black uniforms stepped out of the fog. They called themselves the Shadowbolts. They said I was the fastest flyer in Equestria. Which… I… maybe am?” She blushed then shook herself. “They said that I could join them as their new captain. The only thing I had to do was let go of the bridge I was holding. I pretty much said Tartarus No. When I did they got ticked and one of ‘em grabbed Spike. I think they were going to use him as a hostage, but the little guy can hold his own. He breathed out this burst of green fire and the Shadowbolts kinda disappeared. I think they were just illusions in the first place. Maybe just solid enough to grab things.”

“Now see, a competent villain wouldn’t have let you manage that,” Dustin noted out loud. “An illusion to distract and tempt, and a corporeal henchman to take you out so that the others couldn’t cross anyways if you said no. Plus it would’ve taken out Spike from breaking the image.”

“I guess that makes Moonie not very competent.” Dash chuckled. “So I help everypony across and we get in the castle. In the great hall is this big statue with five stone balls around it. Those were the elements. I think. They were at one point. Anyway we look at the stones as Twilight tries to figure out what to do. Then, suddenly, this blue-black smoke flies in, grabs Twilight, and shoots off further into the castle. We immediately chased after it. We managed to follow the noise to what I think was a throne room at some point. We found Twilight and Moonie, and the stones were broken on the ground. For a sec it felt like all was lost. Then Twilight starts looking at us and telling what we did in the forest and how that represents one of the elements. As she did, the pieces of stone glow and whirl around each one of us. Moonie states that we’re still missing the last Element. Then we all rise into the air surrounded by this bright glow and Twilight states the the last Element is Magic. Well Friendship.” She paused, her brow furrowing. “Apparently Friendship is Magic.” She shrugged. “So then these twin beams fly out of the glow and spiral towards Moonie. However Moonie just teleports saying that she’s not stupid to just stand there and take it. Then Guilmon appeared out of nowhere, freaking Minotaur-rushed her and shoulder-checked her back into the beams path. It hit and everything went white.”

“And thus the scary lizard of the Everfree was welcomed into the town when it was revealed that the Element of Surprise and bull-headedness was what you were missing to win,” Dustin added with a smirk.

Dash burst out laughing. “Ah ha! Yes! That’s amazing!” She descended to giggles. “It was pretty close to that though. We came to and dawn was breaking. We all had these fancy new necklaces with a gem in the shape of out Cutie Mark in them. Twilight, however, got a crown-thing. Not long after, Celestia showed up. She pointed out that in the spot where Moonie was, was a small blue alicorn. That was Princess Luna, Celestia’s long lost sister.”

“Aaah, reunions, parties, drinks all around to celebrate the return of the younger princess,” Dustin smiled. “Well at least it ended well, and you got a new friend out of the deal.”

“True, but not yet. So Celestia and Luna had their reunion, then something in Celestia’s bag lit up. She said that there was somewhere we needed to go.” She paused for a moment to scoop up the last of her pasta.”Sho, Celestia lead all of us through the castle. We went way down. I figured we got to where we needed to when I saw this massive tree of crystal that lit up the entire cavern it was in. In front of it were two large eggs. Celestia said that Lilly and Wizardmon had worn themselves out or something. So they turned back in to Digi-Eggs. I really didn’t get it.” She shrugged.

That got Dustin to pause. That could happen? He would have to be careful that he didn’t wear himself out. He had no plans to regress past Viximon, or whatever the fuck Guile called it.

“After all that, Celestia teleported us back to Ponyville and there was a super big party.” Dash chuckled. “And… The End? That’s pretty much the story. Though… Oh! Twilight decided to stay in Ponyville so she could learn more about the Magic of Friendship. Yeah, now that’s it. So, what do you think?”

“Well,” Dustin drawled. “It was a pretty incompetent villain for your first outing as a superhero, but I suppose everyone needs a training mission. I mean seriously, who decides to get rid of the sun? I get jealousy and envy, but I’m fairly sure the sun is crucial to life. So...kudos to you for taking out an omnicidal idiot.”

“I dunno.” Dash shrugged. “I mean, we could ask Princess Luna and Princess Celestia about it, but it’s probably personal.”

“So! Did you two have a nice lunch?” Rarity asked, trotting in, and once again making Rainbow jump. “It sounded li- Dustin! What did you do to yourself!?"

“I thought I did a pretty good job cleaning up,” the fox muttered. His fur might’ve been a little disorganized, but there was no sauce anywhere he could see. Indeed, the only remnant was that little spot on the tip of his nose.

“Dustin…” Dash said, sounding a little strained. “You’ve got a spot on your nose there.”

“Huh?” the Renamon crossed his eyes as he tried to look at it. “Where?”

“On… the tip… of your nose...” Rainbow said, breathing heavily.

“Aw crud, and I already used all my napkins,” Dustin muttered. “I’d wipe it off with my fingers but that would just smear it around...”

“Rarity…. Help me….” Dash looked piteously at the unicorn.

“Oh, honestly fine,” Rarity sighed, levitated a napkin up and wiped off his nose. “There now.” She smiled as Dash started to calm down. “Now, I think that this all went very well! No slip ups on either side as far as I could tell, well perhaps not counting that moment with the spot of sauce at the end.”

“Yeah.” Dash said with a smile, glancing between Dustin and Rarity. “It was actually really fun.” Then her face fell a bit, and she muttered softly. “This is what it should have been.”

Rarity appeared to not hear that. “So, this was a great start. Yet, it’s been agreed upon by a few ponies and digimon that you two shouldn’t be around each other unsupervised.”

“A little harsh… but, I get it.” Dash nodded.

“I mean, sure, if it’ll make you feel better,” Dustin agreed. “So, who’s going to be our escorts?”

“Hi!” Pinkie Pie bounced into the room and hugged Dash. Guilmon plodded in after her.

“Hey.” The lizard waved, plodding over to Dustin. “We were having tea with Rarity while you two had your lunch.”

“Surprise Dashie, we’re gonna be your guyses chaperones!” Pinkie said happily.

“Well I mean, I guess that’ll help,” Dustin chuckled. “So, you’re going to tamper down Dash, then?” It made sense. Guilmon was pretty strict.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Guilmon shrugged.

“Now you two have a bit of an assignment after this.” Rarity spoke up getting Dustin’s and Dash’s attention. “Without talking to each other, find out something about the other pony- er… person.”

“How?” Dash blinked.

“That’s for you two to figure out. Maybe use what you learned here to get you started.” Rarity smiled at her.

Dustin hummed. He had an idea. “Hey Ponk, let’s take a walk,” Dustin suggested. “I think you can help me with my assignment.”

Pinkie’s ear twitched. She looked at Guilmon, who shrugged and nodded. Then Pinkie bounced over to the fox. “Works for me!”

“I guess you’ll be mine then?” Rainbow asked the lizard as he plodded over to her.

“Yup.” Guilmon said with a chuckle.

“Wonderful.” Rarity smiled giddily. “I hope you two have fun learning something about each other.”