Rainbow and Thomas were walking through town towards their destination, Mercury city Sport Hall, where they will have their 1st step of date:

Basketball Match.

“Ashleigh I was actually wondering, do you have basketball in Equestria?”

“Of course we do, it’s pretty cool, why do you ask?”

“I just can’t picture ponies playing basketball.”

Rainbow stopped in her tracks and looked at Thomas tilting her head a little.

“What do you mean?”

“Well you kinda need fingers for that.”

Rainbow was now really confused looking at Thomas with cocked eyebrow, her expression was saying “Are you and idiot?”.

“Why would you need those *she pointed to his hands* to play basketball?”

Thomas was dumbfounded. He shrugged it off and started walking again, after some time he said.

“I’m starting to think that rules for this games are different in our worlds, whatever, here’s the hall.”

They stopped and looked at the City Hall, it was huge, Rainbow stood with her eyes wide and then whistled in amazement, she saw something of this size only when she was living in Cloudsdale as little filly.

“It does quite an impression I know, our city mayor used a lot of money to build that.” Thomas said with pride holding his hands crossed on his chest.

“I guess it’s kinda cool, but nothing very special.” Rainbow said trying her best to sound like she’s not amazed at all

“Well yeah, although it’s big there are hundreds of other halls like this one in the world, and many even bigger.”

Thomas looked at Rainbow who was now staring agape not being able to control it.

“You have to admit humans are amazing at some things right?”

Rainbow simply nodded, they walked forward to the entrance, they stopped before 2 signs.

‘Oh yea, I forgot, this place actually have 2 rooms, it seems we are going right, what’s happening on the left one though…’

Thomas looked at the sign indicating the left room and then he realized in shock, the Hayama Cup, tournament which was life-time opportunity for him and he rejected it for the sake of his feelings was taking place in this Sport Hall, at the same time as their basketball match.

‘Ok it’s official now, universe hates me.’

“Something’s wrong?” Rainbow asked, Thomas quickly shrugged his worries off, he didn’t want her to know what he did, but worrying about it won’t help at all.

“Noope, everything’s all right, come on I promised you big popcorn right?”

Rainbow smiled wildly and nodded in joy following Thomas inside, he was amazed how easy it is to distract her with free food.

And so they entered, after buying some cola and popcorn for Rainbow they found their places and sat down, Rainbow was eating her meal with haste sometimes stopping to drink her cola, Thomas also learned to never try to steal her food, even if it was just one small popcorn grain.

After some time Rainbow finally stopped eating for a second and with a mouth full of popcorn she asked.

“Whht af thgho bakters fho?”

Thomas looked at her with puzzled face waving his hand in air trying to ease the pain obtained by attempt of stealing her popcorn.

“Rainbow if you want to say something swallow first.”

So she did, after few moments of heavy breathing she asked again, this time clearly.

“What are those baskets for?”

He looked at her cocking his eyebrows and asking.

“What do you mean by “What are those baskets for?” this game is called “BASKETball” duhh.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and said.

“I know how it’s called thank you, I don’t know why do you have 2 baskets.”

“What? Actually that’s it, just explain me how do you play this game in your place.”

“It’s quite easy, there are two teams made out of 5 pegasi players each, there’s one ball and one basket in the middle, game starts with ball thrown by judge, when somepony holds the ball the opposing team have to take it away by tackling him while his team is trying to defend him.”

“It sounds more like rugby actually.” Thomas said

“Like what?”

“Never mind, well our basketball is a little bit different, you see…” Thomas was stopped by a voice of commentator announcing the beginning of the match.

“You know what, you’ll see by yourself.” They smiled to each other and leaned back in their seats enjoying the show.

Thomas was constantly looking at Rainbow to make sure she’s having fun, to his delight she seemed to be having time of her life, screaming along with crowd almost jumping on her seat, she actually started to root for one the teams after first quarter, yelling and occasionally swearing at the opposite team members.

After some time of worrying about Rainbow, Thomas decided to just have fun himself, he started cheering and shouting with her, other guys who were sitting around them also joined them, they were now standing up making a chain of people by putting their arms on each other shoulders jumping in place and cheering.

Second quarter ended, commentator announced a much longer break then anyone anticipated, saying that they have some “technical” problems the game will resume in 60 minutes.

Most people left the hall grunting, although Rainbow was quite angry about it, Thomas didn’t mind.

“Hey Ashleigh chill out, we can go eat something now, I’m kinda starving.” Thomas’s statement was followed by a growl from his stomach, confirming his words.

“That’s a good idea actually, I’m quite hungry.” Thomas couldn’t believe she was still saying that after eating this huge bag of popcorn all by herself.

They walked outside and wanted to head towards the restaurant, but suddenly they heard someone calling Thomas by his name.

“Thomas HEY Thomas, wait!”

They both turned around and saw 2 guys in karate suits running towards them, Thomas swallowed hard, he then said trying to sound as calm as possible

“Yo wassup.”

“We didn’t think we will see you there, Sensei said you have something very important and because of that you didn’t…” Just before he finished his sentence dooming Thomas in the process, he notice Rainbow and asked.

“Who’s this?”

“Ermm, Ashleigh, these are Luke and this is Adalbert, they are my older friends from Karate Club, and that’s Ashleigh, my *gulp* date.”

Rainbow waved sheepishly, blushing at Thomas calling her his date, while two karate boys looked at each other, slowly putting grins on their faces.

“Ohh so that’s why couldn’t partake in the tournament, don’t worry we won’t tell Sensei anything.” Then both of them winked and left the scene.

After few moments of silence Thomas breathed with relief, last time he was so nervous about someone ruining his date was back in middle-school when Alex’s father volunteered to give him and the girl he asked out a lift to the cinema.

He never forget conversation about methods of contraception.

“Soo, I think we should head to the restaurant before break time runs out.”

Rainbow nodded with stoic expression, clearly thinking about something.

After 5 minutes of silence walk they finally got the place, it was one of Thomas’s favorite places to eat, after entering they were greeted by waiter who showed them to their places and gave them menu.

“All right, what good things do they serve here?”

“Really now? This place is called “Pizza Hut” of course they are serving best burgers.” Thomas said sarcastically trying to tease her, which much to his surprise didn’t work, she simply nodded.

Soon after that waiter took their orders and for next few moments they were simply sitting in silence.

Thomas couldn’t take it for much longer and finally asked.

“Ashleigh what is it? Are you angry or something?”

Rainbow turned her muzzle away from him saying something too softly for him to hear.

“What are you saying?”

She turned back, with an angry expression and asked.

“This tournament you didn’t take part in because of something important, do you mind explaining?”

‘Ouch so she did got that.’

Thomas thought for a few moments about his possibilities, and finally he couldn’t think of anything else than telling the truth.

And so he told her, everything, a call from his sensei and his refuse to his offer, she was listening to him while holding perfect poker face.

“…and that’s what happened.”

Thomas said and hang his head slightly while still looking Rainbow directly in the eyes, after few moments of silence Rainbow finally broke it.

“Why did you do that for me? Wasn't it like a life-time opportunity for you?”

“Because I…” He stopped, he wanted to tell her right here right now but words didn’t want to leave his throat, he gulped and said.

“I can’t tell you yet it seems.”

Rainbow put on a sad expression and averted his gaze, awkward silence was accompanying them throughout rest of the meal.

They left restaurant and Rainbow suddenly started to walk away.

“Hey Ashleigh, Hall is this way.”

“I don’t feel like watching rest of the match now.” She said as she hang her head low and was starting to trot faster and faster.

Thomas was stunned, he didn’t think this date would turn out like this, Rainbow leaving him because he was too much of a coward to tell her, he didn’t want to end it like this.

He couldn’t let it end like this.

And he dashed in her direction, running with the full power of his legs, he was quite fast but Rainbow was faster, she suddenly disappeared behind the corner, he followed her, when he also turned he saw Rainbow finally standing still, he smiled trying to catch his breath then he suddenly noticed something else, surrounding Rainbow were 7 guys, 5 of them looked like middle-high school teenagers while two of them were definitely adults. Twilight’s spell was still working without a doubt, so in their eyes they just surrounding attractive girl with rainbow colored hair.

“Did you got lost little girl?” One of adults asked getting closer to her.

“L-Leave me alone.” She answered backing up a little only to by stopped by one of the teen ruffians who tapped her on her flank. She yelped realizing the situation she was in, she wanted to fly away but couldn’t, she was paralyzed by fear.

Why?

She normally shouldn’t be scared by a bunch of delinquents, she used to protect other mares from the likes of them back in Ponyville, so why was she scared so much now?

She didn’t understand, only 2 thoughts going through her mind, she was thinking about what will they do to her, and was regretting leaving Thomas behind being sure she lost him some time ago and right now he’s probably watching rest of the match alone.

‘Thomas I-I’m so sorry, please come back’

“Well Boys, let’s have some fun.” On his command one of the younger ones walked up to her from behind, she heard the unzipping sound, and closed her eyes awaiting the worst.

“Well bitch, prepare to be..”

Rainbow heard weird noise and then a loud thud behind her, she opened her eyes and looked back, behind her she saw Thomas with a little bit of blood on his fist and pure rage in his eyes, before him one of the guys was laying unconsciously with blood on his face.

“I’ll give you 5 seconds to run away.” He said, pure anger and rage in his eyes, adrenaline building up in his body empowering him.

“Ha, look we got a knight in shining armor here, little boy, I’ll give you second chance even though you crushed face of one of my guys, run away now, and we won’t kill you.” Said one of the adult ones, clearly leader or co-leader of the group.
After few seconds of silence Thomas looked him directly in the eyes and said.

“Time’s up.”

In a flash Thomas leaped towards him, shooting a powerful punch to his chin knocking him out instantly, Thomas fist got badly hurt in the process, but in his current state he couldn’t feel pain anyway, he turned towards one of the teenage members and before he could react to what’s happening Thomas kicked him directly in the head with a quick Mawashi-Geri.

He turned towards the other adult, this time his opponent had enough time to react, he tried to punch Thomas in the face, but a punch thrown randomly by some delinquent wasn’t enough to hit him, as he easily dodged it by ducking under it and pulled out a powerful upper-cut.

Now all that was left were 3 teenage guys, it wouldn’t be a problem at all dealing with them one after another, but they all rushed him at the same time.

He didn’t have time to think, but right now he didn’t have to, adrenaline was still in his body, making him move on instinct, leaping in he delivered a powerful elbow to the face of the middle teenager and quickly followed by a Mawashi-Geri to the face of the guy on the left.

He turned to the last guy determined to end the fight, what he didn’t except was a knife quickly approaching his face, he jumped away at last moment, he still got cut in the cheek very deep, he felt huge wave of pain coming from the wound, but he didn’t have time to be stunned by it, his opponent was also in the state of shock, although his reason for it wasn’t pain but the realization, that his whole group except for him just got beat up.

Taking advantage of the situation Thomas leaped in and knocked him out with an elbow to the chin.

He stood there with his guard up for a few more moments, until all the adrenaline left him, he finally felt all the exhaustion and pain that came after the fight, he didn’t have anymore strength in his legs so he collapsed, just before hitting the floor he got caught by Rainbow, he looked at her, she was almost crying.

“Hey Dashie, I’m all right really, I’m just a little exhausted I’ll be good as new in few minutes.”

Rainbow wiped her eyes and put a smile on her muzzle, a little forced one.

“You were so awesome, thank you, thank you so much.”

She gave him a warm hug, a treat that he returned with joy, she broke their embrace when she felt something dripping on her shoulder.

“Thomas, you are bleeding.”

Thomas smiled forcefully as to show her this wasn’t a problem, though he knew he had to stop bleeding with something.

‘I guess we will have to go to hospital, this shit is bleeding quite hard and I don’t usually walk around with a medical plaster,

Wait.’

Thomas inserted his hand into one of his pockets, after few seconds of looking he took out a bunch of plasters.

Rainbow looked at him with confusion and finally asked

“Why do you have those?”

“Well, right before we took our leave Brandy came up to me with Pinkie and they said I’ll need those, they said something about their senses but I wasn’t really listening to them at that point.”

After few moments of silence they both burst out laughing, Thomas quickly stopped because of the pain in his cheek, Rainbow took biggest plaster he had and started patching up his wound.

“This is going to leave a huge scar ya know.” Rainbow asked while finishing her job.

“I’ll wear it with honor, after all I got it from defending such amazing mare.”

“Hey I didn’t need that I would’ve beat them up by myself.”

“Yeah right, you should have seen how much your legs were shaking back then.” Thomas said while patching up wounds on his fists.

“Shut up.” Rainbow said while hitting him softly on the shoulder with her hoof, after Thomas finished he stood up slowly still not feeling too well and said.

“Hey if we will hurry we will still make it to the last quarter of the match.”

Rainbow’s ears perked up at his statement and they both took off towards the city hall.

They got there just in time for last quarter immediately being greeted by their cheering companions who started asking Thomas questions about his wounds, to which he always used same excuse.

“So you stumbled and fell on some small but sharp rocks?”

Thomas nodded.

They wanted to say something more but they were cut off by the commentator announcing the beginning of the last quarter.

Rainbow and Thomas enjoyed the last part of their date as much as they did in the beginning, Thomas was only disappointed that he wasn’t able to confess to her, but then finally after all this time fate smiled at him.

One of the guys behind him nudged both him and Rainbow and pointed towards the monitor, what he saw there shocked him.

There he was, on the huge screen along Rainbow, the whole crowd was shouting only two words.

“KISS CAM! KISS CAM! KISS CAM!”

Thomas gulped and looked at Rainbow, she seemed to understand the situation as she was blushing hard, he looked her in the eyes, and he realized that this was it, it was now or never.

“Hey Dashie.” Completely forgetting about her fake name he put his hand gently on her chin and lifter her muzzle towards him making her blush harder.

“You wanted to know why I refused the tournament offer or why I protected you back there in the alley?”

Rainbow nodded slightly still blushing as hell.

Thomas who was also blushing smile wildly and said.

“Because I love you.” After these words he quickly leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, he closed his eyes, Rainbow was still in a bit of shock at first, but she quickly relaxed, closed her eyes and returned the kiss.

Whole crowd started cheering on them, this incredible atmosphere as well as the kiss he shared with the girl he loved more than anything in this world, fuck it, in all worlds made his heartbeat rise drastically. He wasn’t alone at that, if someone would ask Rainbow how she felt at that moment, she wouldn’t be able to describe it with words, she loved him, she wanted to be with him, and right now her dream was coming true.

After few moments they broke their kiss, and looked at each other with half-opened eyes and smiles on their faces, rainbow then leaned in and nuzzled his neck resting her head on his chest afterwards.

After some congratulations from commentator the match continued, crowd was still cheering loudly, except two persons, Rainbow and Thomas were in their own world, she was laying on his chest, occasionally lifting her muzzle up to his to share a kiss of love and passion, and they did so until the end of the match, they left the Hall, this time they were holding hands/hoofs.

Smiling they walked towards Thomas’s house, Thomas didn’t know what future will bring but he knew one thing for sure.

He loved her.