Chapter 22

“Do you think it is better if I wait out here?”, Ruby said to me anxiously scratching herself.

We had just gotten back from looking at a couple of places around town, mostly shops and other small restaurants. I thought the only thing I really had to prepare my fear for was for later that night at the Daffodil Club with the crowds, but I was wrong. While some of the stores had only a small number of ponies in them, there were a lot of stores I had skipped over with Ruby because they were packed to the brim with ponies looking to shop for their things. The sad part of it was that most of them were the ones I was hoping to show Ruby. One of which was this store I remember passing a couple of times where they had a bunch of different clothes varying from scarves like Ruby’s to even some tuxedos.

Thankfully, with her eager attitude on things, Ruby enjoyed the tour I gave her. In some places, she even tried out free samples of some of the local food of New Saddle. She seemed to like the “Jumparice”. Jumparice is a fried rice concoction of spices and some pork. It is really delicious. So delicious that one time I had tried to make it in my house, but sadly that was not a very good idea considering I nearly burnt down the kitchen doing that.

Anyways, we spent our whole morning touring around the town, avoiding crowded stores of course. I had to make up some excuse of the stores not having enough room for us to look around comfortably. Kind of a bad excuse considering they had some ponies walking in the stores as I said it. Despite this, her and I had a good time. We were both feeling a little hungry considering we had both skipped breakfast going out to visit shops. I figured that it was about time for lunch and decided it was about time for us to go visit the one mare I had been telling Ruby all about for the past couple of months: Peach Cobbler.

While on the way to Peach’s house, I contemplated passing by the library to see if Amethyst was working there so I could introduce her to Ruby. However, I thought that the last thing Ruby would want to do after touring a town while also a little hungry was to go over to a library. I decided that another time I would take her to meet Amethyst. Although I hoped that she wouldn’t mind me taking her to meet someone I only ever really talked about once.

On the way to Peach’s house, I began to notice how Ruby was awkwardly scratching herself. She had told me that she was fine, but it was starting to concern me. I had no clue why all of a sudden she would be nervous about meeting the mare that I had talked so good about. It was something that bothered me right up to when we had arrived at the door of her house. I was going to knock when well…

“Velvet?”, Ruby told me anxiously trying to grab my attention.

“Oh sorry. I was deep in a train of thought, what’s wrong Ruby?”, I asked her.

“I was asking if it was better if I wait out here while you go and talk with Peach for a little bit before introducing me.”, She said now looking off to the side.

I was going to question why she wanted to stay outside while I talked with Peach, but then I thought about it if it were from my perspective. If I was with a pony I was friends with for not even a day and they wanted me to meet somepony they talked about, I would be a little nervous too. Not as nervous as Ruby, but still nervous. So instead of questioning it, I accepted it.

“Sure Ruby, it’s whatever you feel comfortable with.”, I said to Ruby giving her a comforting smile.

“Thank you Velvet. I’ll be fine out here for a moment or two. I’ll come in when I am ready. Just let me know.”, Ruby said with a soft smile.

Turning around I had knocked on the door of Peach’s home. I looked over at Ruby who was off to the side waiting for me to let her know when she could come out. Right as I gave her a reassuring smile to let her know she had nothing to worry about, the door to Peach’s house had opened. As I expected, Peach was there to answer the door, but from what I noticed, there was a stallion with a suit on with a folder filled with documents.

“Oh celestia Velvet! I am happy to see you, but I wish you let me know ahead of time that you would come around this time. You caught me at a busy time.”, Peach said looking back at the stallion in the suit,”You don’t mind continuing this another day?”

“Not at all, I was just about to meet a client in a couple of minutes. I figure we can finish this business later next week.”, The stallion said getting up and heading to the door to leave

The stallion walked right past me as diligent as possible. I don’t know why, but when he passed by me he gave me a really bad vibe. Like if that was a pony that was not as trustworthy as he said he was. Maybe I was wrong to assume that, but he still gave me bad vibes.

“Sorry about that Velvet, I was sorting through some business for the bakery. How are you today?”, Peach asked me.

“I’m fine, who was that stallion that just left?”, I asked Peach.

“Just a stallion who’s helping me with future business endeavors for the bakery. I trust him to make it all work out. Anyways, where is she?”, Peach asked me cocking her head off to the side.

“Oh yeah about that.”, I said to Peach looking off to give Ruby the signal to come out. She was nowhere to be seen. I began to panic thinking she had ran off in fear.

“Something wrong sugar?”, Peach asked me.

“Uh yeah, Ruby was just here a minute ago, I don’t know where she would-”, I said before turning around looking up.

Ruby had flown down from what I could assume was a flight to calm her nerves. For the first time, I noticed how truly beautiful she was in the sky with the sunlight. Her wings contrasted her gorgeous face and eyes. From the looks of her wing span, she gave off the appearance of a grand entrance. Her stance when she landed further proved my assumption.

“I’m sorry about that Ms. Cobbler. I was getting a little bit of air for myself before I met you. My name’s Ruby.”, She said putting her claw out for Peach to shake.

“You don’t have to call me ‘Ms. Cobbler’. Peach is just fine sugar.”, Peach said before grabbing Ruby’s claw and pulling her in for a hug before continuing,” Especially since you have been taking care of my little Velvet”.

“Oh my sun god shut up.”, I said to Peach embarrassed.

Thankfully I wasn’t the only one who was flustered by Peach. When she had pulled her in the hug, Ruby’s eyes widened as her cheeks flourished with blush. She had even gave me a look that said,”I didn’t ask for this”. But being the nice griffin she was, she took the hug like a champ, even pulling herself in to embrace the hug.

Peach had finally let go after almost ten seconds of hugging Ruby. Based on Ruby’s face, she was happy it was over.

“Well come on in! I don’t want to keep you all waiting outside.”, Peach said inviting us inside her home.

I looked over at Ruby who was grinning at herself for the entrance she pulled. From what I could see, this was quite the opposite of the nervous look she was giving me earlier. A look I was curious about. I stopped Ruby before going in to ask her what that was.

“What was that?”, I asked Ruby.

“What was what?”, She said tilting her head to the side.

“I thought you were nervous meeting her. You said yourself that you wanted me to talk to her first before introducing you to her.”, I explained.

“Oh. That wasn’t me being nervous about meeting her. I was nervous about introducing myself in the way I wanted to. I figured it would help give good impressions to Peach, especially since you’re her ‘little Velvet’”, Ruby said laughing at me.

“Oh shut up you!”, I said in an embarrassed tone.

Ruby just winked at me and laughed. The way she winked always made me smile. Yeah it was a wink of someone making fun of me, but it was something that I found a little bit of beauty in when she did. In all actuality, it was her smile that really made me happy to see. It was one good feeling to have when you hear somepony who was audibly happy, but it was a completely different feeling of joy when you could see them smile at you.

We both walked into Peach’s house to witness once again, the peaceful nature of her home. Ruby had given me a look that pretty much said,”you weren’t exaggerating the story at all when you told me about it”. Overall, she looked like she really liked Peach’s home. Although I feel she was content on going in Peach’s house because of the smell of something Peach had been cooking while the stallion was here.

Ruby and I sat down in the living room where there was a coffee table and one large sofa across from one old rocking chair, presumably for Peach. Peach had come out of her kitchen for a moment.

“While I’m fixing lunch, would you two like something to drink?”, Peach asked us.

“I think I’ll just do a glass of water please.”, I said to Peach.

“And what about you sugar?”, She said looking at Ruby.

Ruby looked over at me to give me a confused look as if she didn’t know how to respond. I gave her a nod to let her know she was alright.

“I’ll do the same as Velvet.”, She said to Peach.

When Peach walked back into the kitchen, Ruby had kind of tugged on my hoof to ask me something.

“She knows my name is ‘Ruby’ right?”, She asked me quietly.

“She knows. She calls everyone she likes ‘sugar’. So hey, looks like she likes you.”, I explained to Ruby.

“Well, looks like it’s quite the honor to be given the title ‘sugar’. Maybe tonight I can give you a title when-”, Ruby said before stopping to see Peach walk from the kitchen with three glasses of water.

I took two of the glasses of water with my magic and gave one to Ruby. Peach sat across from us in the old rocking chair as she sipped a little bit of her water.

“So Ruby, are you adjusting to the new town fairly well?”, Peach asked her.

She put down her glass and put a claw on my lower hoof.

“Oh very much so. If it weren’t for Velvet giving me a small tour of the town before coming here I would’ve been so lost.”, Ruby said closing her eyes with glee.

“Really? That’s good he was there then. How did you two meet?”, Peach said looking over at me.

“Well, it was some game I was playing and well, I-”, I said looking at Ruby smiling before continuing,”-I had walked in on her singing a beautiful song”.

Peach’s eyes widened when she looked at Ruby.

“You’re a singer then? Well looks like I need to make this meal a good one for a celebrity singer.”, Peach said to Ruby putting down her glass of water.

“Oh no I think you misunderstood. I’m not a professional singer, I was more a student at a music school who sang.”, Ruby reiterated to Peach.

“Still, I have tremendous respect for those who can really stretch vocal chords. Maybe someday you could come by and visit the bakery and be our entertainment for the stage that’s just sitting out there in the back.”, Peach said to Ruby.

A little while ago, Peach tried to bring in more customers by having the bakery open at night to have local musical performances while still selling the regular pastries she always sold. Only problem was there were no good bands to come by and perform. Well, there was one band called “Grounded”, but let’s just say that they were not exactly the best band to have perform at a bakery. Ever since then, the stage was put in storage in the back of the balkery and has never left since.

“Heh, I don’t know about that just yet.”, Ruby said stroking her left arm with her claw.

“It’ll take time. Speaking of time, looks like lunch should be ready in a little bit, hope you two like cucumber sandwiches.”, Peach said standing up to go to the kitchen.

It was like that for pretty much the rest of the afternoon. We all had cucumber sandwiches and afterwards had a little bit of tea that Peach had found at the store. When Peach brought out the tea, I saw excitement in Ruby’s eyes. Turns out that she really loves tea. The only problem was that she hadn’t had it in a very long time because of where she had lived. Out of the three of us, Ruby drank the most tea. It was almost like she was the tea addict out of all of us with how much she drank. In fact, she nearly drank all of the kettle that Peach had made.

Then of course we talked a lot about me working at the bakery for so long. Despite what many would call a boring job working in the back of the bakery, Ruby seemed to be very impressed with it. On the topics of jobs, Peach also gave Ruby a job opportunity at the bakery that would have her be taught how to bake different things. While Ruby was happy to get the opportunity, she had turned it down to see more opportunities because she was still a little new to the town.

After an afternoon of visiting with Peach, me and Ruby decided to head out for the day. Peach was happy with Ruby, which made me feel good that she didn’t feel that I had wasted a weekend not working. Ruby had also looked like she was happy talking to her. It looked like she had made a completely new friend, a friend that she could have a cup of tea with. Or maybe water, but most likely tea.

When we left her home, the sun was starting to go down for the day. For the first time today, Ruby was walking next to me with a wing around my back. Maybe it was because of the mood of the sun beginning to set. Maybe it was simply her holding onto me because she was drunk off of tea. But I think the more obvious reason was that I did exactly what I said and more for Ruby; I was able to not only show her around town, but I also made sure she was gonna enjoy the tour of New Saddle.

“Can I be completely honest with you Velvet?”, Ruby asked me.

“Sure?”, I asked nervously.

“When I had to go away from Manehatten, I was thinking that this was a mistake the whole ride there. I thought that I was just gonna be as lost as I was living alone up north; But after spending all this time with you I realized that I was far from making a mistake coming here. I was making the right choice the entire time; I made the choice to stay in a town with somepony that loves me.”, Ruby said looking at me with appreciative eyes.

I had no idea what to say to that. There was no words I could use to show how much that really. Before I could even do anything, Ruby looked back up at me.

“I love you.”, Ruby said now facing me.

My eyes widened with my blush from the feelings I was getting from her saying that. What were those feelings you might ask? Love. Love is a feeling that you know has happened when you meet a pony or griffin face to face that you know you truly care for. I don’t just mean as a friend kind of love, I mean as a partner who will stay by your side to the very end.

I knew that feeling was there right when she said that. The crazy thing about love is that sometimes it will make you do things you never would have thought you would do. My example, for no unexplainable reason other than out of love, after hearing her say that she loved me, I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Yeah I know, I was a risk taker when that happened. I looked back up at her slightly surprised look and instantly looked down ashamed in embarrassment.

“Hey.”, Ruby said putting her claw on my shoulder.

I looked up hesitantly, almost expecting a slap to the face.

“You missed.”, Ruby said with a compassionate smile before pulling me in for a kiss on her beak.

My blush went from pink to beet red within the span of three seconds. Not only was I kissing someone for the first time, but I was also kissing someone on the lips. Or well, beak in my case.

Not knowing what to do, I followed Ruby’s actions as I pressed against her beak kissing her. I slowly closed my eyes just as she had done before to really enjoy the moment. The kiss wasn’t long, but it felt like centuries had passed by in the moment. I felt our lip and beak separate from a very loving kiss.

“Ruby, I-”, I said to her before she shushed me.

“You don’t need to say it back. Based on how you kissed me earlier, it was more than enough to say you love me too.”, Ruby said tapping her forehead onto mine.

We shared that tender moment for a little bit as we watched the sun slowly set. I loved every moment of it. If I could ever go back in time to relive moments from the past, that moment would be the one I would go to.

“Oh shit!”, I said out loud realizing something.

“Hmm? Something wrong?”, Ruby said with some concern.

“I forgot the plan for tonight.”, I explained.

“Plan?”, She had asked.

“Well, I was gonna make it more of a surprise but….ah fuck it! I might as well say it. There is this club in town that is opened at this time. I figured since you really take music to liking that you would like to go and listen to some music while we are there. If you’re okay with that of course.”, I said nervously to Ruby.

She cocked an eyebrow at me.

“Do leaves fall off trees? Of course I’m okay with it. You know, for some odd reason our first dates seem to really involve music.”, Ruby said with excitement in her eyes.

“Really? I never noticed that.”, I said before taking her by her claw before walking her in the direction of the Daffodil Club.

From a glance, the Daffodil Club looks pretty empty on weekend nights. But as you get closer, you start to realize that on the inside it is packed with ponies based on the loud music coming from the inside. Thankfully, there was no line outside waiting to get in. The only pony that was out there was the bouncer who from the looks of it, didn’t really care if you came in. Maybe if you were drunk you would not be able to go in. I’m still not sure.

As we walked up to the door, the bouncer had stopped us at the door.

“Hold up. I need to check you two first.”, He said stepping in front of the door to eye us.

The both of us sat silently as this brolic stallion eyed both of us. He looked over me and saw that I was clean, but for some reason he took the longest to check on Ruby. A thing to note is that he was only checking our eyes, but for some reason he was looking down at Ruby’s claws.

“Is this one with you?”, The bouncer said with a intimidating tone.

“Y-Yes?”, I said nervously to him.

He then turned to face Ruby, who now stood back nervously.

“Let me make this clear to you, Griffon, you better not stir up any trouble in this club. You understand? I will have my eye on you the entire night.”, The Bouncer said with a ferocious tone.

All Ruby could really do was look over at me and nod nervously.

The bouncer looked back towards me.

“You better keep your friend in check, Or I won’t hesitate to kick both of you out. Understand?”, He asked me.

“Yes sir.”, I said firmly looking at Rby to know that I got her back.

The bouncer finally stepped aside and let us in, although he was watching Ruby like a hawk.

“Dick”, I said under my breath at the speciast bouncer.

“What was that all about? I never met the stallion and he acted like I clawed his mom in the face.”, Ruby asked me staying close to me.

“I don’t think I told you this about New Saddle, but there are some ponies who don’t think too kindly of griffons. Remember with the griffon I had to save from the colts?”, I asked Ruby.

“Oh.”, Ruby said.

“Yeah, but you can handle it right?”, I asked her.

“I can try. Although, I’m not sure how many ponies are like that in here.”, Ruby said nervously.

“I’ll tell you what, if something happens, you call out my name. I’ll be there as quick as I can, I promise.”, I said looking at her in front of the door blasting music.

“Ok, I trust you.”, She said smiling grabbing my hoof.

We both looked forward and pushed on the door to walk right in the club. As the door opened, I felt my face go from my white coat to pale (Somehow). What I had imagined the crowd would be like was completely beyond how big I thought the crowd would be. Imagine the amount of ponies that were in the crowd where I tried to pass through but ended up blacking out, and multiply it by a shit ton. It looked like a sea of ponies on the dance floor, but thankfully the bar wasn’t as packed, but that still doesn’t mean I was not scared of the smaller crowd.

Ruby must’ve taken a long glance at my face and noticed that I was feeling uneasy.

“Are you okay?”, Ruby asked me.

“Y-Y-Yeah, I’m fine.”, I said to her nervously swallowing.

I think she could tell I was clearly lying, but she went along with it anyway. We slowly but surely made our way over to the bar where we could hear the music more clearly. As we walked, what I had feared would be true, all the ponies were looking at us; more specifically Ruby. I figured that it was just stares of not seeing a griffin in the club before, but I still had some concerns.

We hat sat at a table near the bar. From the chair I sat, I saw the bouncer off on the balcony above the dance floor. He was watching the two of us like hawks as he had said.

“How even-”, I said to myself questioning how fast he was to go up there.

Regardless, I ignored the scary bouncer stallion and listened to the music playing with Ruby. Despite all the looks she was getting from the occasional pony, she seemed like she was having a good time. In between songs she and I talked for a little bit, only for the music to kick back in and interrupt us.

“I’m feeling a thirsty, do you want anything?”, I asked her heading for the bar.

“Uh, see if they have water. I don’t drink alcohol.”, Ruby said.

She gave off this look on her face that showed that she didn’t want me to get some drink from the bar. I couldn’t really blame her considering what her father was like and well, how that situation ended up happening. Knowing full well that I think she would think a little different of me if I got alcohol, I decided to see if I could get water as well. Although, I was really curious about what the “purple elixir” was to have Amethyst recommend me it.

The bartender gave me a look that could be best described as a look to somepony who is lost when I ordered two waters from a bar. When I brought them back, Ruby was happy that I had them, but she looked a little bit nervous.

“Something wrong Ruby?”, I asked her as i sipped my water nervously.

“There is, but I think you’ll laugh at me if I tell you.”, Ruby said sipping her water.

“You can tell me. I promise whatever you say I won’t laugh.”, I said giving her a smile putting a hoof on her shoulder.

“Alright but don’t look at me like that. You’ll make me laugh trying to say it.”, She said grinning with embarrassment.

We had a cute, playful stare. For the first time ever, I completely ignored a crowd. It was an amazing feeling, to finally take your fear and ignore it to focus on someone you care about. Finally, she got over her embarrassment and said it.

“Would you like to go out there and dance with me?”, Ruby said to me.

Then I snapped right back to reality and the crowd came back.

“W-What?”, I stammered nervously.

“You said you wouldn’t laugh!”, Ruby said with a pout.

“No no I’m not laughing. I want to make sure I heard you correctly. You said you wanted to go dance?”, I asked

“Yeah. Is that going to be okay. I was hoping for the next slow song for us to dance.”, Ruby said cocking her head to the side.

“S-Sure, it’s fine.”, I said nervously while slowly looking to the crowd before continuing,” Totally fine”.

“Okay. Shall we?”, She said holding out a claw.

I slowly took her claw as I nervously followed her to the dance floor. I felt that my heart was pounding my chest to get out of there. I felt a few drops of nervous sweat drip from my horn. I was heading into the place where my fear lies, and the only way out is right in the middle of it and to last a couple of minutes. That was the endgame.

Right as I stepped on the floor, the change of music hit and it was now the slow song. It was almost like the whole universe was against me for this very moment with the crowd of ponies now surrounding us to dance along.

Standing in front of me to face me, Ruby looked at my face to dance with my now nervous looking self. Though I felt like I was frozen, my body was still moving with Ruby. Looking around, I felt like I was trapped. All I could see were ponies, and nowhere else to go. Then what came next was the second scariest moment of my life.

All of a sudden the music became fuzzy sounding along with the sound of my breathing and everything seemed to look fuzzy. Everything except Ruby. She was the only one that seemed picture clear. The fuzzy audio then turned to ringing. Then all of a sudden, I felt weightless, like my bones in my body had completely turned to dust. Right before it happened, Ruby had said something, but I couldn’t hear her. All I could decipher from reading her lips before everything started fading to black was,”Velvet”. Finally, everything went to black as I felt myself fall. The last thing I felt was my face hitting the floor.

What felt like ages of me lying on the floor, I woke up to the muffled sound of ponies murmuring. My eyes were far from focused. What I could decipher was that I was looking at a bunch of pony’s hooves. I closed my eyes some more to try and focus more and more on what is happening. It wasn’t as easy considering there was a ringing noise in my head like I had gotten hit in the head with a brick.

My eyes finally were clear enough to see what I was staring at. It was as I suspecting, a bunch of pony’s hooves. But the only thing that confused me was why they were around in a circle around something. It was almost like a pit was forming and the only thing in the middle was…

“VELVET!”, I heard screaming at the top of their lungs.

It was Ruby, and she sounded like she was in deep trouble. With the strength I had left in me, I arose from my fallen state. Once I was fully awake, I rushed to the source of her cry for help. I couldn’t get past the crowd of ponies, but what I could see through them, truly terrified me.

She was being held by the bouncer and was getting constantly thrown down by him.

“You dirty griffins are all the same! Quick to violence like it’s a natural instinct. I’ll show you what we do to griffins who try to attack poor ponies.”, The bouncer said with an evil looking grin.

With the rage building up inside of me from seeing how he was treating my Ruby, I set my sights on getting to the middle of that circle. I pushed passed every single one of those ponies without hesitation just to try and stop this mistreatment. I had finally made it past and right before the bouncer pulled out a baton looking weapon, I stood in front of him.

“Stop!”, I yelled out to him as he stood there.

He let out a laugh.

“I cannot believe what I’m seeing. A stallion protecting a dirty griffin as if he is one of them. How cute.”, He said with arrogance as he stepped closer.

I looked back at Ruby to see if he had done any harm to her. What I saw made me gasp out loud. She was looking down before she gazed up at me for me to see three distinct scratches on her right eye.

“Oh my god.”, I said to myself upon seeing her like this.

“V-Velvet”, she said softly trying to stand up behind me.

Now I felt like I could have a reason to seriously hurt this bouncer, but well when you are the size I am and meet with somepony the size he is, it’s an uphill fight.

“You better stand aside, before I beat you as well”, the bouncer said before raising his baton.

“You. Are not. Gonna lay. A single. Fucking hoof on us!!”, I yelled out to him.

What happened next scared me because this has never happened to me before. I felt a beam of light emerge within me. Not just a metaphorical light, but also a physical one. A physical light that was moving up my horn.

With a loud noise, I felt my horn blast towards the bouncer with great force. The beam of light blasted him above the crowd and onto the DJ booth, smashing into the equipment.

Now it felt that all eyes were on me and Ruby. More specifically me because there was no denying what just happened: I just blasted the biggest stallion in the club by accident.

Thankfully, it wasn’t powerful enough to kill him. He got up dazed and dizzy from what had just happened.

“Ruby, we’ve got to run. Now!”, I said grabbing her claw.

Ruby held on tight as we ran past the crowd of ponies. By this point, the bouncer had his target locked onto us. He was running after us like we were public enemy number one in New Saddle.

I looked back to see that he was catching up to us.

“Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit! We’re not gonna make out in one piece.”, I said frantically as we ran out the door.

With now restored confidence, Ruby gave a determined look.

“Yes we are. Velvet, whatever you do, don’t look down.”, Ruby said letting go to run behind me.

“Wait, what are you-”, I asked frantically before feeling two claws grab onto my shoulders.

Then, I once again felt weightless. But this time, I was fully conscious about what was happening. I felt the pull of Ruby claws lifting me up off the ground. Being the stupid stallion I am, I looked down at my hooves floating above the ground.

“OH SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!!!”, I screamed out loud as I began flying with Ruby.

“I told you not to look down.”, She said flying away from the club.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a pegasus, to be able to fly around at a speed that I could never reach running. I even imagined that it would be a way for me to get over my fear of crowds, literally over the crowds. But after two minutes of me dangling from Ruby’s claws as she flew, I decided that maybe being on the ground was the best thing for me.

After me nearly having a heart attack and a new fear of heights, we finally landed right in front of my house with great speed. I nearly slid onto my front door step with how fast I landed. I stood back up to look at Ruby. This time, she looked down with gloom.

“Ruby I’m so sor-”, I tried saying before Ruby interrupted.

“Why didn’t you tell me before!?”, She demanded.

“I was gonna tell you but-”, I said before being interrupted again.

“But what?! You were scared of showing a little bit of honesty towards me that you didn’t want to be there? That you were not gonna be who you said you were in there.”, She said.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve told you that I wasn’t good with crowds.”, I said to her.

“You think this is about your fear of crowds?! I knew from the get-go that you couldn’t handle crowds! What I am pissed about is that you made a promise to me in there, and you didn’t deliver!”, She exclaimed angrily.

I was going to say something but I felt she was going to interrupt again.

“I came here to escape all the bullshit from where I lived. To escape my deadbeat dad and his constant abuse and violence. I wanted an escape from all of that and…”, Ruby said with her voice breaking down.

Tears began to stream down her face.

“...and feel like I could finally be with someone who could give me that escape from misery. I-I thought you w-would…”, Ruby said before fully breaking down into tears.

I didn’t say a word, nor did I make a noise. All I did was walk up to her and hold her tightly in my hooves.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I did this to you. I promise you now I won’t let anypony hurt you again. This time I mean it.”, I said pulling her close.

She sniffed a little bit to calm down.

“Do you really mean it? I don’t you to make a girl a promise, if you know you can’t keep it.”, Ruby said softly.

“I swear my life by it.”, I said to her pulling her in for a kiss.

Ruby had welcomed the kiss by wrapping her claw behind my neck. I finally broke away from the kiss to look her in the eyes, both her eyes.

“Let’s go inside. It’s gonna be okay. It’s over now.”

Author's Note

Not quite the best first date to have :v