Major Problems

By Asmaria Moon

Chapter 10

Magic Dance

Trixie and Twilight had claimed a spot on the dance floor right near Dash and Fluttershy, who alternated between using their wings to keep their balance on two hooves and hovering in the air a couple hooves above the dance floor. Trixie lost herself in the music, dancing with Twilight, her forehooves flowing through the air as if gliding through water. Suddenly, Trixie got an idea. A warm blue glow of magic emanated from under her hat, and a similar aura formed around her hooves, trailing them as they moved through the air, and leaving a ghostly blue trail which left ripples in its wake. Twilight's eyes went wide as she saw Trixie's spell. She thought she had read about a spell similar to it, and cast the one she was thinking of, her hooves now leaving a magenta-colored trail through the air.

"How did you get your spell to ripple like that?" Twilight asked, noticing that the spell she had cast wasn't leaving the ripples in the air that Trixie's spell did.

"Silly Twilight. Illusion magic is Trixie's area of expertise. It would be embarrassing if she couldn't even cast a simple optical illusion spell." Trixie said, smirking.

"If that is what you wish, Trixie supposes she can comply." Trixie said, still dancing. "Remember that the secret behind most illusion magic is imagination, with only a few thoughts to bring the illusion out of your mind and into the space around you. Close your eyes and imagine the air in front of you is the surface of a lake. Don't imagine the water inside the lake, below the surface, just imagine the surface itself. Imagine the way the surface ripples as you draw your hooves across it. Now think these words to yourself: 'Fantasies are made visible.'" Twilight did as she was told, and when she opened her eyes, her hooves were leaving long ripple trails behind them as they moved through the air. "Excellent work, Twilight. Trixie thinks that you'd be a natural at illusion magic." Trixie said.

Suddenly, there was a loud thump to Trixie's right as one of the brutish ponies Trixie had spotted earlier threw himself into Dash, knocking her out of the air. "Oh, hey, look, it's Rainbow Crash!" the pony exclaimed as Dash hit the floor. He was a pegasus with dark brown fur and a grey mane and tail, with a set of weights as his cutie mark. Dash sighed as she recognized the voice.

"Oh, come on, not you again." she said, just loud enough for Trixie to hear over the music.

"Hey, who's your fillyfooler friend, Rainbow Crash?" the pegasus colt asked, floating over to Fluttershy. "Well, if it isn't Clutzershy! So you're a fillyfooler now, too?" he asked. Fluttershy shrank away from him, retreating behind her pink mane.

Trixie growled under her breath. "Trixie would appreciate it if you stopped using that horribly offensive word. She doesn't know who you are, but you seem to be bullying her friends, and she kindly asks you to stop." she said, closing the distance between the colt and herself.

"What the buck is this?" the colt yelled as he looked Trixie over, then looked to her dancing partner Twilight. "Since when did this place become a breeding ground for bucking fillyfoolers?" The music suddenly stopped, and the entire club's attention was drawn to DJ Pon3, who had lifted the needle from the record she was playing. She leaned over her deck to reach her microphone, and glared at the pegasus colt over her glasses.

"Sir, if you have some sort of a problem with mares liking mares, then I suggest that you remove yourself from my club immediately. If you don't, I can't be held responsible for what happens." DJ Pon3 said, levitating a barrage of records from her stacks around her, all aimed directly toward the colt, who seemed to realize just how much trouble he was really in, and flew for the door as fast as his wings would carry him. "Buckhead." DJ Pon3 said as she watched him leave, floating her records back to their stacks.. "Sorry for the interruption, everypony. Let's get back to the bucking beat!" she screamed into the microphone, starting the record again and dropping the needle on it, resuming the music where it left off.

Trixie and Twilight had been dancing most of the night, and Twilight had been learning a lot more dance moves from Trixie and from observing others around her. The song they were dancing to came to an end, and DJ Pon3 leaned over her deck to speak into her mic again. "Sorry, everypony, but that's the end of my set. Next up, we have DJ Oct3, a sort of apprentice of mine. She's still learning the ropes, so go easy on her, okay?" DJ Pon3 said, taking off her headphones as a grey earth pony mare with a darker grey mane and tail and a treble clef cutie mark stepped behind the deck. She wore a white collar with a pink bowtie around her neck.

DJ Pon3 stepped out from behind the deck to give her apprentice some space, and walked off of the stage into the crowd. DJ Oct3 slipped the headphones DJ Pon3 had left behind over her ears and grabbed a record case in her mouth, flipping it so that the record inside flew into the air, but before it could come back down, the apprentice DJ caught it so that the label landed on her right hoof, then she flipped it over and dropped it onto the turntable, taking another record out and putting it on the other turntable in the same way. She put both needles into position, fiddled with the mixer between the two turntables a bit, then slammed a forehoof down on each play button and started the music, mixing the two pieces of the track seamlessly.

The crowd of dancing ponies seemed to part in front of DJ Pon3 as she made her way through it. She stopped in front of Trixie's group of friends. "Sorry if that buckhead from earlier was bothering you. I just wanted to let you ladies know that I don't allow that kind of hatred in my club, and I hope that incident doesn't stop you from wanting to come back here." she said.

"It's quite all right, DJ Pon3. He was obviously the exception to the rule, and we've been enjoying ourselves since. The Great and Powerful Trixie likes it here, and will definitely come back sometime." Trixie said.

"And The Great and Powerful Trixie would like you to call her Trixie." Trixie said, shaking Vinyl's hoof. "And this is her marefriend, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash." she said, pointing to each of her friends as she named them.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! You are so bucking awesome!" Dash said as she floated over to Vinyl, letting out a fanfillyish squeal.

"Heh... Yeah, I am pretty cool, aren't I?" Vinyl asked, a wide smile on her face.

"Definitely." Dash said. "And I'm not just talking about your DJing. The way you told that guy off was amazing! He's been on my case since I was a filly, and I've never gotten him to back down like that. Believe me, I've tried." she said.

"Well, I've learned that, when it comes to dealing with morons like that guy, it helps to have a set of these babies." Vinyl said, lifting up her glasses and revealing her eyes. Trixie let out a small gasp. She never knew that irises could be a deep ruby red color like Vinyl's were. "It also helps if you have lots of dangerous objects to throw." Vinyl said, smiling.

The club suddenly fell silent, and everypony looked up at DJ Oct3, who seemed lost in her own world and hadn't noticed that the track had ended. "Yo! Octy!" Vinyl screamed up at her, which seemed to snap her out of her trance. "Octy" looked down at Vinyl, who made a circular motion with her right hoof, as if to say, "Start the next song already!" She then looked at the rest of the crowd, who stared up at her in anticipation.

DJ Oct3 leaned over the deck to get to the mic, and muttered, "S-sorry, everypony." She lifted the two records off the turntables and slid them back into their cases, then took two more out and put them on the turntables with the same flair she'd used before. She slid the mixer to the left, prepped the needles and mashed play on the left turntable, and music once again filled the club.

"She does that sometimes." Vinyl said, a smile forming on her face. "Especially when she's playing remixes of classical. I gotta admit, it's kind of cute." she said. "So are you girls just gonna stand there all night, or do you wanna dance?" she asked, smiling wider. Dash answered her question by grabbing Fluttershy and pulling her into the air, spinning her around as the familiar Habanera aria started to play. Trixie grabbed Twilight's hoof, and they began to dance together as well. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" Vinyl said, smiling, though not joining in on the dancing.

Trixie noticed this, and asked, "Is something wrong, Vinyl?" as she danced with Twilight.

"DJ Oct3. It's always either me or her running the deck, so we never get a chance to dance together." Vinyl said, and Trixie could hear the sadness in her voice.

"Forgive Trixie if she is wrong, but... is Octavia your marefriend?" Trixie asked.

"Yeah. We've been together for months, and still haven't gotten to dance with each other in our own club. How lame is that?" Vinyl said.

"That is a tragedy if Trixie has ever seen one. Why do you not ask her to put on a long piece that doesn't require mixing, so that you have time to dance together and she can still be back onstage to prepare the next track?" Trixie asked.

"You know what? That's a great idea. Yo, Octy!" Vinyl called up to Octavia again. Octavia lifted her headphones with a hoof so she could hear. "After this, put on Sandstorm and get your flank down here!" Vinyl yelled. Octavia gave her a hooves up to show that she understood, then lowered her headphones again, sliding the mixer to the left and taking the right record off as soon as she didn't need it anymore, putting it away and grabbing another record case with her mouth, flipping it so that the record soared out of it, and catching the record with her hoof, then dropping it onto the empty turntable and setting the needle into position. As the song drew to a close, she mashed the right play button and slid the mixer slowly to the right, blending the two songs together before reaching all the way to the right. She took the left record off and put it away, then took her headphones off, jumped off the stage and hurried through the crowd toward Vinyl. "Well, it's about damn time!" Vinyl teased, smiling as she wrapped her forehooves around her marefriend and embraced her.

"You know me, OCD as the moon." Octavia joked before kissing Vinyl deeply as they swayed back and forth to the beat. Trixie smiled as she watched them dance, then directed her focus back towards herself and Twilight. Twilight had cast a spell to create an illusory sphere and was rolling it around between her hooves in time with the music, sending little flashes of light out of it with her magic. Trixie smiled as she watched her marefriend dancing. To think that when the night begun, the only way Twilight had known how to dance was awkwardly, and now, she could be mistaken for a full-fledged raverpony. Trixie decided to cast a simple set of illusory glowsticks that wrapped around her forehooves, and danced with Twilight, losing herself in the music once more.

Meanwhile, Vinyl had separated herself from Octavia and was now dancing like Twilight and Trixie, while Octavia looked at her questioningly. "Come on, Octy, don't just stand there! Let the music control you! It has to flow through your body, commanding your every movement! That's what raving is all about!" Vinyl exclaimed. Octavia eyed her with a worried look, so Vinyl took pressed her forehooves against the grey mare's. "You've gotta let yourself go, just feel the beat take you over, possessing your entire body and soul. Try to keep your hooves with mine, okay?" Vinyl said as she began moving her hooves to the music. Octavia followed Vinyl's hooves with her own. After a while, she smiled, drawing her own path through the air with her hooves, and Vinyl smiled. "That's it, babe! But you better get back up to the deck, the song's gonna end soon." she said.

Octavia frowned. Just as she was starting to have fun, duty called. She made her way back through the crowd and onto the stage, picking another record case up with her mouth and putting the record inside it on the empty turntable with the same flair she'd used before. She put the needle in position, and pressed the play button as Sandstorm drew to a close, mixing the end of it with the beginning of the next song.

Trixie pulled Twilight into her embrace and they danced together, leaning into one another as their bodies moved to the beat. Trixie closed her eyes and imagined that the rest of the club melted away. There was only herself, Twilight, and the music that flowed through and around them. Nothing else mattered to her at the moment. She could imagine the music's path around and through them both, and followed it with her magic, tracing its weaving trail with deep blue illusory light that lit up the club, which, in Trixie's mind, was empty except for the two of them. As the song drew to a close, Trixie opened her eyes to see Vinyl staring at her and Twilight, her mouth wide open. "Vinyl, keeping your mouth open like that is a good way to catch flies." Trixie said, smiling. Vinyl finally snapped her mouth shut

"Wow... just... wow! That light show thing you did was amazing! Seriously... wow!" Vinyl said.

"Oh, was Trixie actually casting that spell? She is sorry. It's sometimes hard to separate something Trixie only imagines from something she makes into an illusion." Trixie said.

Author's Note: First off: Holy moonrocks, 15,000+ total views for this story? How the buck did that happen? You guys are amazing! It still baffles me that so many of you read this.

All right, now to the actual chapter. Sorry if this is just assaulting everypony with song after song after song... I won't do it again if you don't like it, so feel free to tell me what you think. The first two were the result of thinking to myself, "If Octavia were a DJ like Vinyl, what might she play?", the answer of course being a mix between techno and classical. Also, for anypony who's forgotten or never heard Sandstorm, here's a link.

Hopefully, the next chapter will go up for Christmas. It might be delayed though, if I get stuck.

Major Problems

by asmariamoon

Chapter 10: Magic Dance