//------------------------------// // #3 - Attention // Story: One More Dance // by LightningSword //------------------------------// One More Dance #3 -- Attention The hall monitor had long since left to find Principal Celestia or Vice Principal Luna and alert the authorities, but the length of time it took suggested that the two could not be found.  This left the six girls to make sure Dac would stay on the roof; now that they had discovered his motives, they were determined to get Dac the help he needed.  Whatever was going through his mind at that moment, it was clear that his thoughts were all wrong. “You told him what?!” Rarity barked, shocked at Sunset Shimmer's explanation.  “How could you?!” “I know, I know, it was wrong!” Sunset pleaded.  “But this was before Twilight came along! I didn't think he'd take what I said to heart! And I didn't think he'd take it like this!!” “You should've known something like this would happen, Sunset!” Dash admonished.  “Someone was going to take it pretty hard from you eventually! Now, someone's about to get really badly hurt, or worse!” Sunset's eyes began to well up.  “You’re right,” she said with a broken voice, “I've done terrible things to people. Dac was right. I really should be ashamed of myself. Now, it's on me to face the consequences.” “I never said that,” Dash added.  “You made mistakes. We get that. But if you think you're alone in this, you've lost your mind!” “Dash is right, Sunset,” Applejack nodded, “we're all a part of this now, for better or worse. That boy's head is messed up, and we need to do what we can to make it right.” “Yeah!” Pinkie cheered.  “Making sad people happy is my specialty! YAY!” Fluttershy gave a soft smile.  “Whatever it takes.” Rarity was the last to agree, “Absolutely! We're in this together!” Sunset felt much better, but not as much as she'd liked.  She was still responsible for this in some way or another, and Dac was too angry at her to let her apologize.  She knew she had to do something, but what and how were entirely different. “Dacky!” Pinkie Pie shouted up to him with her hands cupped around her mouth.  “Dacky, don't be sad! You have friends down here, and friends don't let friends stay sad! Tell you what! If you come down, I'll throw you a big party! Balloons! Cake! Punch! Music! Dancing! Fun, fun, FUN!!” Dac said nothing. “Hmm,” Pinkie said, scratching her head, “that's funny. Do you think he heard me?” “Here, let me try,” Rarity offered.  She cupped a hand around her own mouth before shouting, “Dactylic? Darling, it's Rarity! Can you hear me? Please come down so we can talk! We're awfully worried about you, you know!” “Leave me alone!” Dac replied, his voice faint, but clear. Rarity was visibly hurt by the brush-off.  “Well . . . I was only trying to help you . . . .” “Hello?!” Pinkie tried again.  “Dacky?! We wanna talk to you! Come on, don't be such a frowny-puss!” Once again, nothing. “Now, that don't make no sense!” Applejack interjected.  “Why would he answer Rarity, but ignore Pinkie Pie?” There was a pause amongst the group as they thought it over, until Pinkie suddenly gasped loudly, “I think I know!” “What is it, Pinkie?” Sunset asked.  “Does it have anything to do with when he talked to you?” Pinkie's grin slowly dissolved, “Yeah, it does. Now, I remember what I said to him.” “How'd you answer him, Pinkie?” Dash asked, “What did you say?” Pinkie hesitated, and her frown grew steadily worse, “Nothing . . . .” Dac walked into the gymnaisium and looked around, finally seeing Pinkie Pie, resident party planner of Canterlot High, sitting in the basketball hoop ten feet off the ground.  She'd been buzzing back and forth from the gym for the last couple of days, taking measurements, putting out orders for party favors, writing down different kinds of food, and setting up the decorations for the Fall Formal three weeks early for no reason.  The basketball team, the gym teachers, and various students had been a bit annoyed with her zealous antics, but since nobody had a real reason to complain, Pinkie was allowed to flit about as she pleased. Pinkie swung off of a hanging streamer and down to the floor.  “WHEEEEEEEEE!!” she cried exuberantly.  The second she touched the ground, she raced over to a nearby box and dove in, plundering a trove of balloons and party favors.  “Let's see . . . ooh! More streamers!” she announced, her legs kicking outside the box, “and we'll need some more balloons, too! Hmmm . . . oh, hey, there they are! Sweetness!” “Uh, hi, Pinkie.” Pinkie squealed, startled, and fell completely into the box.  She popped her head out from the box and saw Dac looking at her and blushing, “Oh, hi! Umm . . . Dirk, right? Or is it Deck? Dark? No, wait . . . Dick?” “Dac,” he corrected her, “just Dac.” “'Dac'? Oooh, that's even better!” Pinkie smiled before jumping out of the box.  Just as her feet touched the floor, she gasped again.  “Uh-oh! STREAMER EMERGENCY!! Gotta go!”  With that, she plucked another set of pink streamers from the box and raced off to the other side of the gym. “Uh, I won't keep you or anything,” Dac said, “I just wanted to ask you something. If you're not too b—” he suddenly jumped when he felt someone sneak up on him.  He turned, and saw Pinkie dangling upside-down from the ceiling on a loose streamer.  Oddly enough, her skirt stayed in place as she was hanging. Pinkie grinned and dropped from the ceiling, landing on her feet.  “Sure, Dac! What's up?” Sure that she wasn't going to run this time, Dac pressed on, “Well, I just wanted to ask . . . if you're not too busy—” “EEEEE!” Pinkie suddenly shrieked, startling Dac.  “That corner's missing balloons!”  And she plucked some balloons out of the box and raced off, blowing them up easily and quickly and tying them to one end of the bleachers on the other side of the gym.  She then raced back over to Dac, not even the least bit winded, “'Kay, I'm ready now!” “Okay . . . Uh, I just wanted to ask, if you were free sometime, maybe—” “OOH! Cookies! We need cookies!”  Pinkie whooshed away again, this time to a long banquet table by the bleachers.  She opened a box next to it, pulled out a box of chocolate chip cookies, then froze before opening it.  “Oops!” she chirped.  “I forgot! Not for another three weeks! Hee-hee!”  She set the sealed box on the table and ran back to Dac, still full of energy.  “Sorry, Dacky! Go ahead!” Dac hesitated, worried that her fleeting attention might wander again.  “Are you sure?” he asked nervously.  “Are you absolutely sure?” “Sure I am!” Pinkie giggled.  “Absolute, one-hundred-percent, super-duper sure!” “Okay . . . I was wondering if you would like to get togeth—” “APPLEJACK!”  And once again, Pinkie Pie was gone. Dac sighed dejectedly as Pinkie ran to meet her friend at the gym doors.  This was never going to work.  If he couldn't even keep her attention, how would he be interesting in any way if they ever did go out on a date? “Applejack!” Pinkie Pie squealed as she jumped up and down excitedly.  “Did you bring the stuff? Apple pie, apple juice, apple fritters, apple dumplings, apple frappe, apple—” “Pinkie Pie, hold your horses,” Applejack calmed her.  “I only came to tell ya that I can't bring none o' that stuff today. I know y'all wanna go overboard with the Fall Formal an' all, but there're certain lines ya just have to wait to cross. Know what I mean?” Pinkie Pie looked at her confusedly for a second, then smiled and replied, “Okey-dokey, Lokey!”  She then remembered with whom she was speaking before, and turned back to Dac.  “Oh! Hey, Dac, what were you gonna ask me?” Dac had his back turned, and was walking toward the opposite exit.  “Never mind,” he said without turning. “I . . .” Pinkie mumbled, shocked at what she remembered, and how it related to the present, “I . . . made him . . . SAD!!”  Pinkie then buried her face in her hands and began to cry. Fluttershy walked up to her and gave her a comforting hug.  As Pinkie sobbed, Fluttershy tried speaking over her cries, “We really didn't mean to hurt his feelings. It's just that . . . well . . . .”  She could hardly go on herself, and tears began welling up in her own eyes. “Now, don't you two go blamin' yourselves,” Applejack assuaged them.  “It ain't about who hurt who. His feelin's weren't yours to hurt. What I'm guessin' is, he wanted to feel better about himself, and he thought he could do it by havin' a girlfriend, or at least a date or two.”  She sighed and glanced up at Dac, still on the ledge.  “Nobody told him that it don't work that way.” Sunset closed her eyes and shook her head.  “This wouldn't be happening if I hadn't treated him so horribly!” she wailed.  “Why did I have to be that way?! I've said so many awful things to so many of you, and now look what it's come to!” “I wouldn't take all the blame, sugarcube. None of us knew what kinda pain he was in. Whether we meant it or not, we all made it worse.” “I don't see how you could think that way,” Sunset replied miserably. “Believe me, it's true. I oughta know . . . I remember that day. The day Pinkie Pie talked about, when Dac talked to her? He asked me out that day, too.”  Applejack hesitated, absently placing a hand on the brim of her hat to fill the void, before finishing, “An' I turned him down, too.” Dac had tried not to let his feelings show that day.  He had always thought Pinkie was cute, and being the party girl that she was, he was sure she'd agree to go out with him on a really fun date; when he gave up on asking, he'd put conscious effort into not looking or sounding as miserable as he felt.  That day, Sunset was right again—he was boring and lame. Both Pinkie Pie and Applejack thought so.