“Well, we’ve still got some time to kill before we need to call it a night,” Gallus remarked as they walked through the quiet streets of Ponyville at night. He gave Smolder a friendly nudge. “I don’t suppose Silverstream gave you any suggestions for things we could do?”
“Not really," Smolder replied. "So might as well ask—did Sandbar?”
“Eh, one or two.”
“…and? Anything worth our consideration?”
Gallus mulled it over for a moment, a sly look starting to creep onto his face. “Well, there was one idea we could do…and it’s at a place I’m pretty sure you’ve never been to yet.”
Which was how, some minutes later, Smolder found herself being led into a local dance club filled with dancing ponies, flashing colored lights, and thumping music. Not a familiar sight for the dragoness, it was all rather overwhelming, not helped by the fact that she knew what Gallus was thinking by bringing her here.
“Dancing?” she asked numbly, Gallus doing the leading by pulling her along. He seemed rather excited now that they were here. At least one of them was. “Here? Really?”
“Yeah, it’s cool,” Gallus assured her with a grin. “C’mon, you’ll love it.”
Smolder hesitated, surveying the dance club. “But are… are we really okay to be here?” she hesitantly asked as Gallus eagerly pulled her along.
He shot her a look that was part amused and part surprised. “What, you think we’re not old enough?” he asked snidely.
“Well, for me, that depends on whether you’re going by dragon years or pony years,” Smolder replied, studying the crowd of dancers they had begun filtering through. “Seriously though, not to sound like Sandbar, but…we aren’t going to get in trouble for being here, are we? I don’t want to get in trouble for something without at least knowing what I’m getting in trouble for in advance.”
“Nah, I come here all the time and nobody’s stopped me yet,” Gallus assured with the wave of his talons. He gave her a wink. “How else did you think I knew about this place?”
Smolder frowned, taking in the rave dancing going on around her. “You? Here?”
“Sure!” Gallus confirmed and then laughed. He nudged her with one elbow as he led them towards the middle of the crowded dance floor. “Why does that surprise you so much? You think I wouldn’t be interested?”
“No, but…I don’t know…” Smolder argued weakly in her defense, still awkwardly looking around. “…I guess I’m just a little overwhelmed by it all.”
“Really? I figured you’d love this,” Gallus said semi-pointedly as they finally came to stop dead center of the floor. “That’s why I figured since we had the time tonight, I’d finally get you here too.”
“…right,” Smolder mumbled sheepishly. She didn’t seem too enthused about it.
Gallus nudged her again. “So c’mon!” he urged, starting to shuffle in place to the beat of the music. “Loosen up a little and let’s have some fun.”
But Smolder just stood there watching him, not moving. “Gallus,” she finally admitted dejectedly, averting her gaze. “I…I can’t dance.”
Gallus stopped, surprised. “What?”
“What, do I need to diagram that sentence out for you?” Smolder suddenly snapped at him. “I. Can’t. Dance!”
Gallus just kept staring at her blankly. “But…what about back at the Amity Ball? You were dancing then!”
“Yeah, to Yona’s yak dance, but that’s basically just stomping around as hard as you can!” Smolder argued back. She turned away as if ashamed. “Anybody could do that dance.”
“But it’s still a dance,” Gallus pointed out, giving her another sly nudge.
Smolder rolled her eyes, a little frustrated. “Fine, I just don’t know very much dancing,” she corrected and surveyed again the crowded dance floor. “Besides, there’s not enough room here to do Yona’s stomping dance thing.”
“Smolder, you’re overthinking this,” Gallus assured her, shimmying up to her in time with the beat. “It’s not how many dance moves you know, it’s how you express them.” He grabbed her arm encouragingly with one foreleg. “Don’t think about what moves you’re doing. Just…let the music’s energy take you by the core and do whatever motions that let you express that energy.”
Smolder gave him a befuddled look. “What the heck does that even mean? How would I even do that?”
Gallus winked at her. “Like so.”
He then pulled his foreleg abruptly away, rolling it as if a wave was flowing through it which he carried on into the next, before abruptly reversing it, letting the “wave” roll back to the original foreleg. Starting to step backwards across the dance floor, clearing a small space for himself, Gallus proceeded into a small and rhythmic sort of hop and skip dance, weaving both forelegs and hindlegs around and between each other as he walked in a set pattern. Then, abruptly rearing up, he shuffled his footpaws around in a brief dance move that rocked his whole body side to side before dropping down onto his front, using one forepaw to break the drop, then rolling onto his back and seamlessly transition into a new maneuver, putting his weight on his upper body while spinning his hindlegs in a circle around him, like they were the arms of a windmill.
By then he had caught the attention of the other dancers, stopping to cheer him on as he performed the impromptu breakdance routine, now transitioning into a backspin as Gallus tucked in his limbs and let his momentum spin his body rapidly on the smooth floor. They oohed and awed when he abruptly stopped the spin and launched himself into an one-armed handstand, holding his body balanced out at an angle. But that reaction was nothing to when Gallus, really getting caught up in it now, launched into a backflip only to throw out his wings and let himself glide backwards a short distance away from the flabbergasted Smolder, landing in a crouched pounce position and allowing his momentum to continue carrying him in a backslide a little further across the floor.
This move generated a loud and impressed gasp from the audience of onlookers, which consisted of nearly all of the dancers in their corner of the floor now, while Smolder just stared at Gallus in awe, having never known he was such a proficient dancer. But Gallus still wasn’t done as he dropped down onto his belly and proceeded to do a move that made him look like a wiggling worm, inching his way back towards Smolder. Once he was about halfway there, he planted his forelegs down hard and kicked his hindfeet up into the air and over his head, like a donkey trying to buck off an unwanted rider. Then dropping back down onto his belly, he threw himself up into a standing position with a quick handspring motion, then spun himself around and moonwalked the rest of the way back to Smolder, where he then leaned smugly on her side.
“Like that,” Gallus said as the onlookers applauded briefly for his routine before returning to their own dancing.
“Like that?” Smolder repeated, motioning to the dance floor Gallus had just preformed on incredulously.
Gallus made a modest cough. “Well…okay, not exactly like that,” he admitted. “Just…don’t think about it, simply go out there and do the first dance move you can think of and go from there.”
“…Is that what you did?”
“Basically, yeah.”
“Well…okay…” Not totally convinced, Smolder nonetheless followed his advice and, balling her claws into fists, started to wave her arms up and down in a scissor-like pattern to the pumping beat of the music. She started this pointing them in one direction, but after a moment, she then turned and pointed them to the other side. Literally the only dance “move” she could think of, she just kept it up with that.
After a moment of watching this, Gallus raised a brow. “That’s it?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Smolder admitted, a little ashamed and embarrassed at how much her dance skills paled in comparison to Gallus’s.
But Gallus just shrugged. “All right then,” he said with a good natured shrug, “Everybody do the monkey!”
And then he started to copy Smolder’s moves, going in sync with her. Smolder smirked at his rolling with it and kept right on doing her little dance, starting to enjoy herself now.