Dance
Rainbow sighed. She fidgeted awkwardly, glancing around the room. “Twi…”
The alicorn rolled her eyes, sat on the floor and casually stretching her legs. “Yes, Rainbow?” She asked sweetly, head down as she held her stretch.
“Do we have to?” Rainbow’s wings twitched, and the urge to fly was taking up more and more of her thoughts. Unfortunately, the small gymnasium she found herself in was not exactly pegasus-friendly.
“Well, that depends.” Twilight stood up, rolling her neck. “Do you want to make a fool of yourself at the Gala?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “No, but-”
“And do you want me to look bad at a highly public event?”
“Of course I don’t, but-”
Twilight prodded her chest. “And do you still want to take me to the Gala as your date?”
“Twiiiiiii~” Rainbow whined. “You know I want to go to the Gala as your date. But.. this?” She made a vague gesture to their surroundings. “Dance lessons?” Her tone was low, as though just saying the words might negatively impact her public stature. Which, as far as she was concerned, it would.
Huffing, Twilight turned away and resumed stretching. “Well, Rainbow Dash, the way I see it you have three options; either you take these lessons with me so we can both actually dance in public without every last magazine and tabloid making fun of us, you don’t take the lesson with me and embarrass me publicly, or you don’t take the lesson and we don’t go to the Gala together. So, choose.”
Rainbow shifted her weight from hoof to hoof, eyeing the door through which their instructor was due to arrive any second now. “Can’t I like, skip the lesson and just go to the Gala with you without, y’know, dancing?”
“And are you going to be okay standing there as multiple nobles ask me to dance?” Twilight raised her brow slightly as Rainbow pouted, scuffing a hoof along the floor. “Because unless we’re dancing, somepony is going to want to dance with Equestria’s newest princess, and Celestia has requested I attempt to make a good impression on the nobility, so I’ll be inclined to accept a few of them.”
“You could just say no,” Rainbow grumbled lowly. She sighed again, shaking her head slowly. “Fine. Fine! Fine.” She stomped her hoof and puffed her chest out. “Ain’t no slimy noble dancing with my mare. We dance!”
Twilight stifled a giggle with a hoof. “Your mare?”
The pegasus wilted slightly. “Not… oh, you know what I meant!” Twilight just laughed, the sound echoing around the empty gym until the door swung open with a loud creak and seemed to ring in Rainbow’s ears.
“Hello, hello!” A slightly shorter unicorn mare called as she hurried up to them. Her coat was a pale wait tinted every-so-slightly pink, and her medium-length mane was striped in multiple shades of red that matched her burgeoning saddlebags. “You Highness, Miss Dash,” she greeted, bowing low. “My name is Pepper Step-” she showed her cutie mark of two chili peppers “-and I will be your instructor for today.”
“Just Twilight is fine,” Twilight insisted with a warm smile. “We really appreciate this- don’t we Dash?” She gave a pointed look to the other mare, who shrugged noncommittally. The pegasus yelped when she felt the distinct tingle of magic pinch her flank.
“Y-yeah, thanks and stuff…” she shot a glare at Twilight, who just shrugged innocently.
Pepper looked between them a moment before brushing it off. “Well, ladies, I’m glad you chose me to teach you the basics of ballroom dancing. And, hopefully by the end of this week, you’ll be glad you chose me as well!” She giggled to herself, lighting her horn and taking off her stuffed saddlebags.
“Wait, week!?” Rainbow glared at her marefriend. “You said-”
“It’s either this or I dance with every noble at the Gala,” Twilight deadpanned, her tone making it clear her chips were on the table and she was fully willing to pay up.
Rainbow groaned. “So not cool, Twi.”
“And neither is you stepping on my hooves all night. Now, Miss Step, you were saying?”
The other mare, apparently oblivious to the other ponies in the room, glanced over her shoulder. “Pepper, please.” She stepped aside and revealed a small gramophone had been set up, a record already loaded. “Now, before we begin, I’d like to get a baseline from you two. So-” with a flick of her hoof the gramophone whirred to life, and after a moment of static a gentle melodie began drifting through the air. “Show me what you got.”
Twilight nodded and stood on her hind legs, giving a pointed look at Rainbow until she did the same. They came together in what could best be described as an amatuer artist’s attempt at drawing a closed dancing position, and made it all of three steps before Twilight’s hoof found its way under Dash’s. The pair came tumbling to the ground with startled yelps out of each of them. Twilight landed atop the pegasus, giving her a flat look. “Dash-”
“Yeah, okay; I get it.” She blushed and looked away. “We really need lessons.”
Pepper Step’s eye twitched. “I have a week to fix… that?”
“That’s it!” Pepper encouraged enthusiastically, following two mares as they twereled steadily around the room. “You’re golden! Now, Rainbow, spin!”
Rainbow nodded at her partner, and Twilight grind as the pegasus lifted her hoof above their heads. Twilight followed the motion with her body and spun around. Rainbow caught her and they were once again face to face. Twilight couldn’t help but to lean forward and plant a kiss on the tip of Rainbow’s nose. The pegasus’s muzzle wrinkled, and Twilight laughed.
“Knock it off, Twi,” Rainbow growled playfully.
Twilight feigned a frightened gasp. “Or what?”
“This.” Rainbow darted forward and, instead of returning the small peck, opened her mouth and sloppily licked Twilight’s nose. The alicorn squealed and pulled away, but Rainbow’s hooves held them close.
“Rainbow!”
Rainbow Dash chuckled as the music slowed and stopped. “I told ya to stop,” she teased as they released each other and fell back into all four hooves, a victorious grin across her muzzle.
“Of course you realize this means war, right?” Twilight asked, a mischievous smile of her own on her lips.
“Bring it, Sparkle Butt.”
Twilight scoffed. “Please. We both know who’s butt ‘sparkles’ when I-”
“Ahem…” Pepper aggressively cleared her throat, her back turned on the couple as she packed away her gramophone.
Twilight blushed. Rainbow laughed. “C’mon, Twi; I’m starving. We good to go, Pepper?”
“Of course!” Pepper threw her bags onto her back, trotting over to them. “Honestly, when I first met you two I was worried I might not have you in dancing shape before the Gala, but you’re both fast learners. Took to it like a fish to water. If you ever want to learn more, don’t hesitate to contact me. We’ll have a final exam of sorts tomorrow, but honestly you two are doing great.”
“Were we really that bad?” Twilight asked, wincing at the flat look Pepper gave her.
Rainbow wrapped her hoof around the alicorn’s shoulders. “Twi, you danced about as well as a dead fish.”
“You weren’t much better,” Pepper noted, a sly smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “If I were to describe your ability the first day I think I’d say it was akin to that of a inchworm; you spent most of the fay flat on the floor.”
It was Rainbow’s turn to blush, and Twilight didn’t hesitate to laugh at her marefriend. “Anyway, let’s go get something to eat before we head back to the castle; I have some paper work I’d really like to put off a little longer.”
The pegasus gasped. “You? Procrastinating? Who are you and what have you done with Twilight?”
“Har-har.” Th alicorn bumped their flank together. “I’m only putting it off because if I don’t you’ll be at me all day to entertain you.”
“What can I say? A mare this awesome needs to be occupied.”
Twilight’s gaze narrowed. “Oh, I’ll ‘occupy’ you all right. When we get home-”
Pepper Step coughed. Loudly.
“Let’s go.” Twilight kept her head down as she rushed out of the gym, the tips of her ears turning beat-red. A laughing pegasus followed.