“And so,” Dreamcatcher said, trying to keep from laughing long enough to get the rest of the story out, “and so we’ve got all these fireworks, but we’ve used all the matches trying to get the fire going, so we’re talking about running back into town to find something to light them with and Chillwind just says, ‘Buck it,’ and dumps the whole box onto the fire and then just bolts!”
“Oh Celestia,” Snowy laughed, covering her mouth with a hoof to keep any food from spilling out before she swallowed and said, “no warning at all?”
“Nope, so Moxi looks at me and I swear you could have thrown a Frisbee in her mouth it was hanging so wide. She and I run for it and we just barely made it over the lip of the dune Chillwind had run to before the box explodes!” He ran a hoof through his shaggy black mane, “One of the damned things nearly caught me in the head. Thought my mane would never grow back right. Meanwhile Chillwind is just sitting in the ditch laughing her flank off, don’t think I’ve ever seen Moxi more steamed.”
“Sounds like you two have had a lot of adventures,” Snowy said, smiling at the colt as he chuckled wistfully at his memories.
“We’ve had our fair share,” he said smiling in the direction of the pegasus mare before a small frown crawled onto his face, “of course, most of those were back in the old days, she’s never been quite the same since Chillwind passed…”
“She never talks about that,” Snowy said, casting a glance at Moxi, who was smiling and laughing with Voltage, “but neither do you, what happened exactly?”
“Well you can understand why Moxi never talks about it,” he sighed, “as for me… Chillwind was a friend… a good one. She didn’t deserve the hand fate dealt her, but nopony ever does. I try not to think about it most days.”
Snowdrift reached out and placed her hoof over Dreamcatcher’s, the colt smiled up at her, wiping all traces of sorrow off his face, “Anyway, I’m pretty full up, wanna head to the dance hall for a couple of drinks before this night really kicks off?”
Taken aback by his abrupt shift in mood, Snowy blinked at him with a faint blush creeping across her cheeks before giving him a smile and a quick nod.
“They’re leaving,” Moxi muttered hurriedly to Volty.
“Where are they going?” Volty asked, turning to watch the pair leave.
“Yeah,” Moxi rolled her eyes, “because I was listening in on their conversation.”
Volty stared at Moxi through narrowed eyes for a moment before turning back to see the pair leaving through the door to the garden path, “Well, they’re either going to the garden or the dance hall, should we follow them?”
“That’d look too suspicious,” Moxi said, not taking her eyes from Volty as she watched them leave, “if anything, we should wait a bit and then take the long way around so they don’t see us following them.”
“Poo,” Volty said with a pout, “what if we miss something?”
“At the rate those two are moving?” Moxi shook her head and standing up from the table “We’re not going to miss anything. Come on, regardless of what those two are up to, I could use a drink.”
“I can’t believe you wore that thing,” Joyful Wings groaned, rubbing her muzzle with one hoof as her husband set about stretching in his suit of black on hot pink, accented with a white spotted, lime green tie.
“You’re just jealous because I look fabulous,” Glasgow retorted, cupping Joy’s jaw in his hoof.
She opened her mouth to retort but was cut off by the sudden arrival of a wintergreen pegasus with a vibrant red mane. “Is he following me?” Tria said, peeking out from behind Joy.
“Is who following you, Tria?” Joy growled not taking angry eyes off her husband.
“Despair,” she replied, sighing with relief as no teddy bear wobbled from the dance hall door, “I pawned him off on Clair and them, I can’t believe he followed me to prom!”
“You can’t?” Glasgow asked incredulously, arching an eyebrow at the mare and ignoring the daggers Joy continued to stare at him, “Honestly, I’d say it sounds exactly like the sort of thing the little sod would do.”
“Yeah, I can believe it,” she sighed, “I don’t know why I said that.”
“Ah well,” Glasgow threw his hooves in the air before grabbing Joy’s and tugging her off in the direction Tria had come, “come, milady, let us, as they say, shake our groove thangs!”
Joy tried valiantly to keep the smile off her face as Glasgow dragged her into the dance hall, failing spectacularly as Tria watched them vanish through the door.
“Those two are adorable,” she muttered to herself before turning to face the hallway behind her. The pegasus mare took one look at the hallway she was in and felt a lead weight drop into her stomach. “Oh shit!” she shouted, “I left through the wrong door!”
Grimlock walked out into the dance hall, True Blue and Kimono in tow. “Tria ran off in this direction,” he said, peering around the semi-darkened room, “hopefully they haven’t gotten too far ahead of us.”
Blue trotted off into the crowd of ponies, leaving Grimlock standing beside the door alone as Kimono shrugged and followed her husband out into the room. “No, that’s fine,” Grimlock muttered sarcastically, “don’t wait for me or anything. It’s not like we could look together or anything like that.”
“Oh, hey Grimlock,” he turned to see Glasgow approaching him, dragging Joyful Wings behind him, “we were just about to hit the dance floor. I was going to tell you something, but for the life of me, I can’t seem to remember what it was. Well, if it’s important I’ll probably remember it later. See you on the dance floor.”
“Wait, it was—” Joy started but was cut off by Glasgow dragging her into the crowd of ponies on the dance floor. Grimlock sighed and trotted off around the dance floor perimeter, peering in through gaps in the ponies thereabouts to look for Tria.
“This,” he groaned, “is gonna be a long night…”