Reticence

Warming Up

"Ta-da!" Minuette leapt forward, twirling her hoof into the air to present to the group their restaurant for the evening.

Marble followed the blue hoof to see her next panic attack. Not the restaurant, no. It was actually quite nice looking, with its deep purple paint job and golden drawings, brightly colored window frames and even the elephant crest above the door was pretty. It really gave the whole thing a pleasant New Felhi feel.

No, what made this restaurant a potential Marble-slayer was the crowd.

Sweet Celestia above, the crowd. The restaurant looked like it was about to burst, with ponies even pouring out into the street from the sheer lack of space. Their impatient chatter dominated over the sounds of Canterlot's nighttime, and their constant shuffling gave the whole body of the crowd a restless feeling.

And they would have to eat here? As in, spend an entire meal surrounded by all the ponies?

Sure, the cafe Marble had met Minuette at had been crowded, but this one was on a whole other level. It didn't even look like they would be able to get in.

Her heart racing, Marble's eyes darted around, trying to find somewhere for her to pass out should it come to that.

Limestone wasn't nearly as perturbed as she was though. Her sister simply glanced up at the name scrawled on the top of the building. "The Tasty Treat... hmph."

"You get the joke now, huh?" Lemon nudged Limestone's side, an eager grin on her face.

Limestone responded with narrowed eyes and a grunt. "Yeah."

Lemon stopped her prodding, hoof lowering and smile dropping. "Uh... g-good." They dropped into silence for a moment, allowing Marble the chance to start hyperventilating.

And then Minuette's hoof found hers again.

This didn't exactly stop her pounding heart, but when Marble blushed, looking from their entangled hooves up to Minuette's sparkly eyes, she did feel a little better.

"Too much, too soon?" Minuette asked, referring to the throng of ponies in front of them.

Marble swallowed, unsure of what to say. If Minuette knew this was a problem, this would be the end of their date, right? So... lie?

One look back into those wonderful eyes and Marble's legs quivered. Lying was no good.

But she didn't want the date to end...

"I-I... uhm..." Marble chewed the inside of her cheek.

Minuette squeezed her hoof. "We don't have to go here if you don't want to, Marble."

And risk ruining what might be their only date? "N-No." She swallowed, her voice less shaky. "I don't mind eating here." Crowd or no, Marble figured if she just kept focusing on Minuette then none of it would matter.

"Well, that's nice and all, but I don't see exactly how we're going to eat here. The place is packed," Limestone said.

Minuette grinned. "Worry not, I came prepared." Gesturing for them all to follow her, Minuette pushed through the crowd with stealthy weaving and hastily thrown out apologies.

Limestone was the first to follow, even if she didn't quite follow Minuette's example. Marble watched as her older sister cut through the crowd with her trademark grunt-glare combo. It didn't make her all that comfortable for so many ponies to be so rudely displaced, but it did leave a nice path for her and Lemon Hearts to walk down.

"Heh... so far, so good, huh?" Lemon said. Though her words were confident, her tone was... less so. Marble could tell that Lemon had had expectations for tonight-probably along the lines of wow-ing Limestone speechless with her appearance alone-and so far it hadn't been going her way, leaving only a crippling fear of screwing everything up.