"Why is it always us doing the cleaning?" One of the guards asked as he picked up another piece of debris. He raised his head and looked around the remains of what used to be the main hall of Canterlot Castle. "When I joined the royal guard I didn't know I'm singing up for the role of janitor."

His fellow guard moved a whole bunch of rubble with his magic and placed it into the wheelbarrow. "I know man, but trust me it could've been a lot worse," he said with a sigh, "this will take a whole night to clean up." He commented

"I can hardly imagine something more boring than taking care of this mess." He said with a spat.

"Perhaps, but at least that monster Riddick is overlooking the evacuation to the royal gardens." He said with a grin.

"True that, man that guy has no soul." Earth pony guard said and clenched his teeth as he struggled with an exceptionally big boulder. "That looks like a head of Princess Luna." He commented as he finally managed to lift the remains of huge statue up.

"I mean if he was here we wouldn't even be able to talk and—" Unicorn guard suddenly froze as he noticed with a corner of his eye a death glare of his said captain. He immediately snapped into saluting position and went completely pale, his fellow guard while confused at first quickly followed suit.

Two unlucky stallions stood there patiently as Riddick walked past by them with nothing more but a single grunt of disapproval. Once he was far enough they loosened up, unicorn guard sighed and said. "Well, we're fucked."

Every guest of the Gala was moved into the royal gardens, where Celestia and Luna were currently in the middle of an apologising speech, well it was mostly Princess of the sun talking as Princess Luna was almost clueless about the event that had transpired in the main hall, while Celestia was fully aware and utterly amused by the outcome.

However not everypony made it to the royal gardens, Dashing Star and Moonlily both decided that it's time to leave as their hangout was getting more and more crowded. In the midst of small chaos nopony even noticed two ponies leaving castle grounds and heading for the city.

With each step Star could feel his hooves shivering with excitement, or was it nervousness? He wasn't sure, but it didn't matter, he knew that it was just a simple date, something ponies do on regular basis, but he felt like tonight was special somehow, he just didn't know why or how.

Moonlily smiled as she once again noticed Star shyness, she chuckled a bit and nudged him with her hoof, "Got any ideas where we can go?"

Star shook his head and nodded vigorously, "Perhaps a club or something like that?"

"Well, I'm not a big fan of loud music that can make me deaf."

Star chuckled nervously and looked around trying to think of a place to go, suddenly his brain stopped as he spotted a pair of ponies he knew very well trotting right in front of them.

He felt the heat rising in his cheeks but it wasn't an embarrassment, he watched them for a couple of seconds, took a deep breath to calm himself and shouted, "Hey! Adamant, Twinkle, wait a moment!"

Just an hour ago halls in the castle were filled to the brim with ponies, waiters and guards making haste to their respective duties, guests of Gala minding their own business. But now these halls were empty, except for two ponies standing in front of a window, watching Luna's moon illuminate the city of Canterlot.

"So, Vinyl." Void started, "I guess we have to talk about this."

"Yeah, I know." She said and took off her glasses with her magic. "But I don't want to."

Void sighed, "Me neither but," he stopped for a second and glanced over to Vinyl who was tossing her glasses around in her hooves. "We can't just, not talk and leave it be."

"I guess we really can't." She said with her voice audibly cracking. "How do we start."

Void shook his head, "I don't know, let's just try to—" He grunted and leant onto the wall. "I don't know."

Both of them just stood there silently, they both tried to hide away and run from this conversation but they knew it will have to happen eventually. Even so it was hard, harder than either of them expected it to be.

"I'll start." Vinyl said finally breaking the silence.

Void nodded and went back to standing on all fours.

"Back then, at the club," Vinyl took a few breaths to calm herself, "when you and me, when we, when I—"

"I know." Void said.

Vinyl nodded and continued. "You were the first stallion that didn't simply want to fuck me," Vinyl visibly cringed a little, "but instead hoped for something more, well that's what I thought back then, I didn't know you were drugged and, you know, we knew each other for quite some time and you said all these things that you don't remember." She said with a small chuckle.

Moment of silence fell upon them as Void simply stood in the same spot, waiting patiently for her to continue, and eventually she did.

"And it happened, then I came to your place, shouted at you and we went on a date, and you know what, It wasn't super cool, or incredible, but it might have been one of best days of my life." She could feel her eyes water slightly, she quickly wiped them off with her hooves. "A-And then, I don't know, you put me in a position where I hoped we could be an item but also I knew that this wasn't going to happen." She sobbed, "I was a mess for a while you know, I couldn't even feel the music, I couldn't feel the beat. I lost myself"

Void stood firmly, his stoic expression didn't show any signs of change, however, he could already feel small drops of water building up in his eyes, he bit his bottom lip in attempt to overshadow the pain that he was starting to feel inside. A pain of guilt.

"But thanks to Tavi I stood up and found myself again." She said and placed herself on all fours on the floor, she looked at him and said, "And here we stand together, and I want to ask you, what are we? Do we even exist for you?" She stepped closer to him. "Or is there no we and only me and you?"

Void closed his eyes and moved his muzzle a bit farther away from Vinyl, he couldn't stand it, the way she looked at him. Her eyes that he expected to be full of anger, were actually full of sadness, he wanted to believe she's simply angry at him, but the truth is she wasn't angry. She was sad, insecure, vulnerable. A complete contradiction of her usually cheerful and strong persona.

Void believed that it was his fault that his friend changed like that, and he hated himself for it, he could feel single tears running down his cheeks as he tried to think of an answer. He had tonnes of them, 'We can start over—', 'We should just stay friends—', but none of them were honest, he knew there's only one way this can be done, no shortcuts and no lies, all in.

He opened his eyes which immediately met Vinyl's red, covered in tears eyes, he took a deep breath and said. "When it all started I, I was drugged, I had no idea what transpired that night, I don't remember what I told you, but I know what I thought about you."

Vinyl's ears perked up, "Strong, independent, maybe even a tad manly." He said and chuckled a couple times, "But also pretty, cute, funny, great to hang out with, be it as a friend or something more." He smiled. "I don't know what I told you back then, but I can tell you that I grew interested in you. I thought that maybe this could work, we would make a good couple." He walked over to the window. "But I bottled these thoughts and put them away because I was scared."

"Scared of what?" Vinyl asked even though she knew, but she wanted to hear it from him.

He becomes silent for a few moments, the only things audible were the weak noises coming from royal gardens and Void's loud breathing. He sighed and shook his head, "I'm afraid of falling in love, obviously, I mean who wouldn't?" He looked back at Vinyl,
"Love is a complicated thing, it is both logical and illogical, it gives happiness and sadness. You see I'm afraid to make that bet."

Vinyl walked over to him and nuzzled his cheek lightly, he could feel wetness on her fur, clearly from her tears.

"Perhaps we should?" Vinyl asked.

Void didn't say anything, he lowered his head and nuzzled her.

"Maybe this is what we need, to take that bet?"

"But I—"

"I know, do you know why are we even talking right now? Because we have more in common than you think." She moved slightly away from him and wiped her tears with her hoof. "I too am scared of taking that bet, I feel that if we'll lose then it's all over for me, but you know what, if on the winning end there's a happy future, a future with us, then I'm willing to take that bet."

She moved away from him and looked him right in the eye. "What about you?"