"Ooooh, how about the Ferris Wheel?" Yin pointed excitedly at the massive, glimmering wheel- before the sound of thrilled screaming caught her attention, and her finger pointed in that direction instead, her other hand tugging on her date's. "Or maybe the rollercoaster? I think that one's more your style, Yuck."

One hand stuffed in the pocket of his ratty studded jacket and the other firmly interlocked with Yin's, Yuck looked over at the rides with a raised eyebrow. His eyes lingered on the rollercoaster for a few seconds longer, but eventually all he did was shrug. "Yin, I told you, we can do whatever you want. I've never been to a carnival before anyways, so you should just pick."

"And I told you: you stop it with that!" Letting go of his hand (which immediately made him pout), Yin turned to glare at him with her hands on her hips. The long skirt of her creamy orange dress flared out as she turned on her heel with her cheeks puffed out; "That's the whole point of coming here! We're both supposed to have fun, and that means you get to choose what to do too!"

"But I'm already having fun."

"Just hanging out with me doesn't count!" But almost immediately, Yin's cheeks turned a deep cherry red as she puffed them out, arms crossed. "Even if...it's a really sweet thing to say…"

Yuck's grin was playfully wolfish as he watched his girlfriend get all flustered, but his eyes betrayed the softness behind them. While Yin pulled herself back together, he went back to taking in the sights of the carnival- the bright lights, the bustling of people, the smell of fried food and the sound of laughter and screaming through the chilly night air.

After hearing that the carnival was open for the summer - and that Yuck had never been to one - Yin had begged and begged and begged for him to go with her...and there was simply no way he could've ever said no to her like that, even if the invitation had come a little all too sudden for his taste.

It was louder than he expected, and he never felt comfortable when surrounded by people, but...it wasn't so bad.

And just the fact that Yin had brought him here on a date so he could experience it for the first time, with her...

Yuck cleared his throat loudly. "T-the Ferris Wheel looks kinda boring; it's too slow..." he mused, crossing his arms thoughtfully. "The rollercoaster definitely looks more fun, but there's a lot of people waiting in line…"

A sharp gasp next to him snapped him out of his thoughts. To his side, Yin had stiffened completely, eyes wide with her hands covering her mouth as she looked past him.

"What? What is it!?" Adrenaline immediately kicked in, the contentment from before all but forgotten; he turned around with fur puffing out and his paws already blazing with Magic and intent to maim. "Are we under attack!? Is it ninjas? Barbarians? Is Coop stalking you again!?"

"Yuck, LOOK!"

Look at what, though? Yuck's senses were on high alert, but try as he might he couldn't pick out anything out of the ordinary. What was she seeing that he couldn't!? His eyes scanned the droves of people walking by (some of them staring), at the queues formed for the rides, the booths set up for the food stands and the midway games-

Ah.

That explained it.

"That's...hm." Fur flattening back down and Magic sputtering out of existence, Yuck let himself relax as he rubbed the back of his head. "That's-that's a REALLY big Twonicorn plush."

A rush of air, and Yuck suddenly lost his balance- until Yin's cheek firmly pressed against his own stopped his trajectory. Her hand had his own arm trapped in a vice, the other one smooshing their heads together as she had him stare directly in her same direction towards the game booth.

"That light-up horn...that brushable mane with magic brush included…!" Her voice was so low and so intense (and so warm against his fur). "There's no mistaking it; that's a Limited Edition Princess Rainbowmane Jumbo Plush from the 200X Fall Lineup!"

Her hand on his arm let go, and both hands were now holding his face as she turned him to look at her instead. "Yuck, do you know what that means!?"

Even if he knew anything about Twonicorns (besides the basics from what she'd rambled to him in the past), Yuck couldn't answer; seeing those intense, passionate blue eyes so close to his own face had made a knot out of his throat. "Uh."

Her face lit up with a delighted (if not borderline wicked) grin, and Yuck felt his stomach do a backflip.

"It means I'm gonna win it."

And not waiting for an answer, Yin grabbed Yuck's wrist before making a run for it towards the booth, kicking up clouds of dirt in her wake. Yuck basically felt himself fly, his feet barely touching the ground- and had the wind knocked out of him the moment they hit the counter...literally.

But if Yin felt it too, she sure didn't show it. Both her hands slammed down on the counter so loudly, he swore she would've split the whole thing in half. "The Princess Rainbowmane Limited Edition. I NEED IT."

The guy in charge of the booth, the most bored-looking teenager Yuck had ever seen, didn't even bother looking up from his phone as he jabbed a thumb behind him so they could take a look at the sign at the back of the booth and the milk bottles set up in a pyramid beside him. "Five bucks, five shots. If you knock all the bottles, you win the big prize."

Another slam as Yin slammed a five dollar bill (Yuck definitely heard the wood creak that time), which the booth vendor grabbed without so much a glance. After stuffing the money away, he reached under the counter with one hand and placed five baseballs in a row for Yin to grab.

She snatched the first one so fast, Yuck only saw a blur. He saw her inspect the ball in her hand, test its weight by throwing it a couple of times in the air, and when she seemed satisfied she pulled back to throw it…

...until her eyes met his at the last second, and she hesitated.

"What's with that smile?"

Yuck blinked; was that what he was doing? He had pretty much zoned out this whole time, content with watching his girlfriend win her plush. But her question had suddenly snapped him back into focus, and she definitely felt a grin on his face.

That grin only got bigger. "Noooothing," he teased while propping an elbow on the counter for his chin to rest on; "just thinking about how pretty you look when you're all fired up like that."

That snapped her right out of her intense streak, her cheeks turning red again (which only made his grin grow even bigger), but with a shake of her head she was back in the game and with a confident grin of her own. "Then you've seen nothing yet. Watch THIS!"

Yin pulled her arm back as far as she could, and threw the ball.

It bounced against the bottles harmlessly and fell to the floor with a thud.

Yuck's grin immediately fell, and Yin's ears pressed flat against her head. "W-what?!"

"Four shots left."

Yin stood there with her mouth hanging, but quickly recovered. Scowling, she grabbed the second ball and this time tried spinning her arm first before throwing it. The ball whistled as it flew through the air...and bounced off the bottles like the first one without so much budging an inch.

"Three shots left."

Yuck clenched his teeth loudly, and he heard a dangerous growl come from Yin as she grabbed the third ball so tightly, he fully expected it to come apart between her fingers like clay. He watched her plant her feet firmly on the ground, her dress flowing ominously around her as she pulled back with her entire body and threw the ball so fast and strongly he lost sight of it until it joined the other balls on the floor.

"Two shots left."

"Oh, come ON!" Almost as if planned, Yin jumped on the counter at the same time Yuck did. "Those bottles are obviously glued to the table! The game's rigged!"

"Dude. It's a midway game, of course it's rigged. I'm just here to collect the money and hand out the prizes, okay?" The vendor cracked his neck, leaning farther into his chair as he kicked his feet over the counter, still not looking away from his phone. "No refunds, by the way."

Yuck's first thought was to tear the bottle pyramid clean off the table it was glued to and hit the guy with it repeatedly, but he knew he shouldn't...not with Yin next to him (but Foo, was it tempting). Instead, he got off the counter and helped Yin get down after him; like him, she was furious- but even worse, she was upset.

"I knew they were glued after the first shot, but I still thought I could force my way through this…"

"Yin, why bother when your thing's Magic?" With a quick glance at the bottles, he smiled at her again- this time, in a definitely sinister way. "Turn the ball into metal, or dissolve the glue off the bottles instead. It'll be a piece of cake!"

She stared at him and then at the bottles, almost as if she were actually considering it. Which is why he was genuinely surprised when she ended up shaking her head. "No...I can't do that. That's cheating."

"Wh-YIN. THEY'RE ALREADY CHEATING."

"Ugh, I know! But that doesn't mean I should bring myself down to that level!" She reached out to grab the fourth ball, holding it in both paws with a frown; "To win Twonicorn merchandise like that...I would never forgive myself!"

Okay, yeah, she's definitely taking this way too seriously.

And the biggest irony was: he cherished her more for it, just because of how passionate she was. Over pony toys of all things, but still.

"But I'm not gonna give up! Princess Rainbowmane Jumbo is depending on me, so I WILL win her!" Holding the ball over her head, Yin took several steps backwards, farther and farther away until she had backed up all the way back into the middle of the carnival grounds.

"So...swears...YIN!"

And then she broke into a full sprint, running back towards the booth at full speed before screeching to a halt right in front of the counter, throwing the ball with the force of a cannonball.

The bottle pyramid rattled.

Yin held her breath, and Yuck leaned closer over the counter...

...and then it stopped rattling, settling back into place like nothing happened.

"One shot left."

Yuck swore loudly, a fist slamming into the counter and actually sending splinters flying. He dreaded seeing Yin's reaction, but when he glanced her way he was even more dismayed to watch her rummage through her pockets. As her hand pulled out another five dollar bill, his own hand reached out to stop her. "Yin, don't tell me you're really gonna waste all your pocket money on this!?"

"But...but..." Yin's grip on the bill tightened, crumpling it between shaking fingers; "It's right there! What if I never get another chance like this…?"

Oh, the way her lip trembled- it twisted something inside Yuck's chest. Even if this Twonicorn stuff didn't mean much to him, it definitely meant something to her. Seeing her this upset...it enraged him.

"Let me take the last shot."

Yin looked up at him in surprise, but after no further reaction from her, Yuck took that as permission. Letting go of her hand, he reached out for the last baseball, letting it spin on the tip of his finger. Once he got in position, he looked over at the booth vendor, still scrolling through his phone- and then at Yin, who was eyeing the humongous plush hanging above them with the most forlorn puppy eyes he'd ever seen.

His fingers closed in on the ball in a vice, and then he threw it.

Yin nearly jumped out of her skin with a yelp, and even the booth vendor fell out of his chair as glass and wood flew everywhere. Where the glued glass bottles one stood, only tiny shards remained stuck to the table; the rest of them were scattered on the ground with the rest of the missed baseballs...all four of them.

The fifth was nowhere to be seen, having torn through the back of the booth. And through the next one...and through the next one...Yuck couldn't tell how many booths the ball had torn through, much less with the horrified heads of their vendors peeking through the holes getting in the way.

"Yuck...I can't believe it..."

Uh oh. Sighing, Yuck already had his hand raised in surrender as he turned around; "Okay, I admit it, I went a little overboard but in my defense-"

"You WON!" And then he nearly had the air knocked out of him, this time by the force of Yin's arms wrapped around him in a hug; "You did it! You knocked off all the bottles!"

"Forget the bottles! What about my booth!?" Both rabbits turned around to watch the vendor flounder around the hole at the back of the booth with both hands on his head; "Do you see this!? How am I going to explain this to my boss!?"

Maybe Yuck should've felt a little bit bad for him...but honestly he didn't. "That's your problem, dude; that's what you get for trying to scam us!"

Exasperated, the vendor turned around and pointed an accusing finger at them; "I told you, they only pay me to sit here and look after the booth! But you broke everything, so you'll be the ones to pay for-!"

A pink hand yanked on his arm, and Yuck took a step back as Yin dragged the much taller teenager down to her eye level.

"Listen." She hissed sharply, her eyes shrunken to icy pinpricks that glared right into the other's soul; "You said to knock all the bottles for the big prize. My date knocked all the bottles. Now give me my prize."

Pale and swallowing thickly, the vendor reached under the counter and brought out a stick with a hook, reaching over their heads and bringing down the massive Twonicorn plush with it. The moment he placed it in front of Yin with trembling hands, her murderous glare lit up like the suns after a hurricane.

"Yay!" Yin clapped happily, squeezing the stuffing out of the plush despite it being several sizes bigger than her. "Oh, Limited Edition Princess Rainbowmane Jumbo Plush from the 200X Fall Lineup, you're finally mine!"

Yuck looked between the booth vendor whimpering behind the counter, miserably trying to glue the glass shards together, and his girlfriend happily cuddling her oversized toy as she spun with her dress flaring out around her. And in that moment, a single thought resonated throughout his entire being.

I have never loved you more than I do now, at this exact moment.

Moments later, they were walking away from the midway games and heading back to the rides (before any of the vendors had a chance to call security on them). Their hands were linked back together, and Yuck had to admit he was impressed with the way Yin carried the humongous plush without letting so much as a single speck of dirt touch it. "What I wanna know is how you're gonna stuff that thing in your room without Yang throwing a fit."

"Oh, he'll definitely throw a fit." Yet she didn't seem to mind, the way she hummed and swung their interlocked hands back and forth; "But he's gonna have to suck it up because it's only fair for Princess Rainbowmane Jumbo to join her sisters in the seat of honor! And I keep my whole collection in my room, so."

"It's really that rare, huh?"

"Well, yeah, it's technically vintage merchandise at this point! It's not easy to get your hands on one of these anymore. But this one is extra special."

Was it now? Yuck took a glance at the plush, but he couldn't figure out anything particularly special about it. Then again, he had no idea how this plush was normally supposed to look like...or anything substantial about Twonicorns. Yin was the expert, not him. "How come?"

Yin paused, their hands no longer swinging as she stared at him, her head tilted to the side. But just about as he was about to ask what was up, she laughed- and his chest felt light.

"Because YOU got this one for me, silly!"

And the joy in her voice was so contagious, the lightness in his chest made its way up his throat and bubbled out of him as laughter, warming his cheeks like sunlight. And that seemed to brighten Yin's mood even more, leaning closer to rest her head on his shoulder.

"Now that we've got that...detour out of the way, it's still your turn to pick what to do next!" Still holding on to his hand, Yin gestured towards the rollercoaster they had been eyeing before. "And look! The line for the rollercoaster's a lot shorter now!"

And while part of Yuck, all in a soft and lovey-dovey mood thanks to his girlfriend, would've preferred to stay like this with her for the rest of the evening, he still wanted to seize his chance and try out the rollercoaster at least once...with her. "Sounds good to me. I think Her Highness over here is gonna have problems with the height limit, though."