As rainbow Dash sauntered away from Gilda, the male stallion at the pegasus’ side, Gilda felt her chest tighten and her grip on the rose loose, the flower’s petals slipping and flowing to the floor at her feet…

Rejection…

There was something Gilda knew all too well…and yet every time it sliced a new divot into her heart, it still manged to catch her by surprise every time. Her talon came up and gripped her forearm, struggling not to shake as the tears began to roll down her feathered cheeks, she choked back a sob and looked away from the flower in her mouth, the engraved ring at it’s base shimmering and showing off all sixty-two hours of work she’d poured into creating it…

Sixty-two hours of failure….