Chapter 38
Dance
Kara had just left school the day of the dance. There was no way that the hours would pass by quick enough for her taste. She had to keep reminding herself that every second that passed meant that there was one less between her and that evening. Her excitement heightened her already significant amount of impatience. She had made sure to work out all of the details of their plan with Zone, but she was still slightly concerned about it. She wasn’t sure that she would be able to hold the invisibility spell for as long as she would need to. She hadn’t told him that though, she felt that it was a detail he need not be aware of. His attendance was one of the things causing her excitement and she didn’t want to give him any reason not to be there. It had taken enough work to convince him to go and keep him that way.
He was a good friend to her and she wanted to be sure that he wasn’t left out. Despite how she had despised his attitude towards the beginning of the year she had come to enjoy his company far more than she had ever expected to. She had learned a good deal about him during their weekly sessions of practice even if not as much as she would’ve liked. He had become far more open towards her, but was still very guarded. It never ceased to surprise her how quickly his personality changed as soon as a stranger entered the conversation. He would move from good conversation to abrupt one word answers in no time at all. It made her realize just how much the trust he put in them amounted to. She was quite proud to possess it.
She also couldn’t wait to watch his jaw drop as she arrived. She had spent quite a while pitting together her outfit for that night and didn’t intend to disappoint. She imagined her dress waiting for her in her closet. Wearing it a violet saddle rested on her back with a lavender piece of fabric that would wrap under her stomach holding it in place. Sky blue and turquoise cloth flared out behind before falling down towards the floor and curling up slightly at the ends. She intended to curl her hair as well, at least her mane anyway, after she had made her way home. A fair amount of time had been spent on working out her make up as well. As she trotted gleefully home all that she could think about was the prospect of the coming evening.
-/|\-
Zone trotted home still feeling rather uncertain about Kara’s plan to have him come. He felt flattered that she had taken the time to figure it out, but he felt like it was hardly foolproof. He didn’t even know if she could use the spell and wasn’t excited to be her guinea pig. He was fairly sure that she had never tried it on another pony before. There was also the fact that he didn’t even really want to go at all. He didn’t enjoy very social situations and the dance did fall under that category. Even though he felt certain that he would be spending the whole time with both Kara, and Ink, whom he knew, that didn’t make feel much better. He would much rather spend time with them by himself, like when he met with Kara after school to practice, than with a crowd around them. Still, he recognized that he had promised to come and he wasn’t going to back out of that. He sighed tiredly as he thought of the event.
-/|\-
Ink was laughing quietly to herself as she made her way home after school. She was absolutely elated for the dance even if only two of her friends could be there. It was such a fun event and she couldn’t wait to spend her evening there. She would get to mingle with her classmates and enjoy the music and the excited atmosphere all at once. In her own enthusiasm she had picked out her dress quite a bit in advance. She was quite proud of it and felt good about how she’d appear at the dance. Her dress had a high collar with long sleeves and fringe at the ends. At the back it swooped gracefully down to the floor just behind her back legs. The front of it was a bright violet color and just behind her withers it changed to a more pastel purple. A lavender piece of fabric hung loosely as it wrapped around the back of it. A similar shade also decorated the bottom inch of the back. She was certain that everything about that night would be nothing short of fantastic. As she looked forward to the dance she grinned from ear to ear in delight.
-/|\-
Astro was excited about her plans for that night, but she couldn’t deny the worry that was coursing through her. Despite how thoroughly she had run through the aspects of her plan anxiety still coursed through her. What if something ended up going wrong? What if she was caught sneaking out when she shouldn’t have been? What if she ended up getting Spot in trouble with her? She did her best to shake of thoughts to some avail. She tried her best to think about the better aspects of that night. Her prospects for it were positive despite her anxiety.
While she did feel very sure that Spot would not have formal attire as that was one of the reasons why he had decided to not go to the dance she had gotten herself a dress. When she had decided to sneak out she had also decided that she would keep to the semi-formal rule of the dance. The dress that she had chosen was all varying shades of blue. The front was a light pastel blue, the band around her waist was a midnight blue color, the top piece of the back was a bright dark blue, and the bottom was an electric blue similar to her eyes. She had a hair piece that was also a hue close to her eyes’. Sail had agreed to help put her hair up. Then finally she had long gloves that were midnight blue to wear on her front hooves. As she started to prepare herself she looked on towards the moonlit night with hope.
-/|\-
Spot had long been looking forward to the night he would have with Astro. He was excited to see her, and was glad that she was taking the chance to come out and see him. He felt that she needed the opportunity to get out and enjoy herself for once. He knew that she would have fun that night and was also fairly certain that she would dress up. He had not bothered to get himself something nice to wear as he had never bore any love for those kinds of clothes. Still, if she had chosen to dress up then he was happy for her and would be even more excited to see her outfit. Of course because he had opted to just go looking like he usually did he had no preparing to do which had both good and bad effects. On the bad side he would have almost nothing to do to pass the time to wait. On the bright side he could just leave when he needed to without having to worry about anything. It was a good walk as well so he would have to head out early, and that made him glad that he had nothing to worry about. He allowed himself to just enjoy the fact that he would be spending his evening with Astro.
-/|\-
The hours had passed quicker for Kara than she’d though that they would. Getting ready had been quite fun and the time had flown by. She trotted towards the school having completed everything that she’d wanted to in preparation. She was right on time and saw both of her friends waiting just outside. It was almost time for her to walk in with Zone and she was slightly uneasy about whether or not she would be able to pull it off. Her fears were put off for a moment however as she walked up on them. She did get the reaction she had been hoping for out of Zone. He was quite shocked and failed to greet her due to his shock. She just smirked at him feeling rather proud. “You look nice.” Ink greeted her.
“Thank you, you too.” she responded politely.
“Thanks.” she replied with a grateful smile.
“You can head on in alright. We’ll meet you inside in a minute.” she dismissed her.
“Alright,” she said before turning to go reluctantly, “Good luck.” she called to them over her shoulder.
“Right, so I know that we were going to start around the corner, but I’m not entirely sure that I’ll be able to make it that far.” she began hoping he would agree to change their location.
“If I vanish in the doorway that’s going to draw attention.” he argued not wanting to alter their predetermined plan.
“Fine, but when you appear in the doorway it’s not my fault.” she retorted.
“You’re the one casting the spell so it kind of is.” he pointed out.
“Yeah, but you’re making me go this far.” she countered.
“Look just get this over with.” he said back with a roll of his eyes.
“You asked for it.” she finished before preparing to cast her spell.
Her horn started to glow with a violet light and she closed her eyes, clearly concentrating. He felt all of his concerns rise to his attention once more. He couldn’t help wondering why he’d ever agreed to this. He did trust her, but he knew nothing about magic and was rather worried about what might happen if she failed to perform her spell properly. As the glow around her horn brightened he felt his anxiety heighten. He held his silence, but if her eyes had been open she would’ve seen the concern plastered across his features. He gulped silently as a final burst of violet light erupted from her horn.
As he allowed his eyes to open and look down at himself he was quite pleasantly surprised to find nothing there. He hadn’t expected it to work and the fact that it had lightened his mood greatly. He almost laughed, but he remembered her warning just before he did. You’re still tangible and you can still be heard. He kept his mouth shut and made no noises to express his elation. He was smiling, but nopony could see that. Looking over at Kara however the smile dampened slightly. She wasn’t as well off as he was. It was immediately obvious that it had taken quite a bit out of her. She did seem proud of her success, but her smile was strained from the effort of supporting the spell.
She took off for the entrance at a quick trot without a word just hoping that he was following. She wanted to ask to confirm, but talking to some empty space next to her would’ve been cause for attention which she didn’t want. Each step was growing to be a challenging as she entered the building as she did her best to keep up the spell. She quickened her pace needing to get to the hallway that they had decided upon seeing as it was unlikely that there would be anypony there. As she rounded the corner towards it the magical exhaustion was starting to grow unbearable. As she entered the hallway she saw that it was empty as she had planned. At that point she just hoped that he was there with her. She felt a tap on her shoulder connected to nopony and she dropped the spell gladly.
He appeared next to her looking rather concerned. “Are you alright?” he questioned worriedly. All she really wanted to do was collapse and nap for a bit, but she wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Yep.” she promised with a nod, “I’ve just never tried anything that demanding before. Come on, let’s go find Ink. She’s probably wondering where we are.”
“If you’re sure you’re okay.” he replied not entirely certain that she was.
“I’m fine. Stop worrying.” she scolded him still grateful that he was worried about her.
-/|\-
Spot had left earlier than he had probably needed to for the forest clearing, but he didn’t mind. Astro had always been a punctual pony and he didn’t want to keep her waiting because he hadn’t bothered to be there on time. He also wanted to allow himself some extra time in case he got a little turned around. The location certainly was secluded like she’d wanted it to be. He had made a couple return trips though just to be sure that he could find it. Luckily for him the majority of them had been successful with only the first few taking longer than they needed to. As he entered the trees he ran through all of his previous visits one more time. He walked along the path that he had planned out for himself and arrived there without issue.
He smiled as he saw Astro already waiting there for him. He figured that it was safe to assume that she had arrived early. She looked stunning in the dress that she had picked out and the soft radiance flowing off of her only heightened her brilliance. She returned his grin when she saw him arrive as a slight blush came to her cheeks. The moon’s light along with her own lit up the small clearing beautifully as it glanced off of the silver looking leaves. You could smell the fragrance of the various flora nearby and hear the songs of the night birds through the trees. The whole scene felt to him like something out of a fairy tale.
“I see you made it.” she greeted him as he walked up to her.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” he promised as he offered her a hoof. She took it still with a slight color still in her cheeks. He hummed softly creating his own music for their private dance.
-/|\-
Zone had long since been left behind by Kara in her rush to talk to everypony there. It was a pass time that he didn’t much enjoy, so even when she did try to get him involved he would back off quietly while she was busy with her conversation. She had eventually given up on trying to include him in her escapades and let him go off and do what he wanted, which for the most part involved him just waiting on the sidelines. She hadn’t completely abandoned him though as she would periodically come over to talk to him for a bit before taking off to dance to a song she liked or talk with somepony that she hadn’t yet spoken to. It became quite clear that while she was closer to the friendship group that they shared she knew and was on good terms with almost everypony in her grade.
He turned his attention away from his silent thoughts as he saw her approaching him. “Are you really going to stand here and mope the whole time?” she questioned in annoyance.
“I’m not moping.” he answered in annoyance.
“Certainly looks like it.” she retorted.
“Well I’m not.” he argued.
“Well I don’t believe you. C’mon! It’s a dance! It’s in the name!” she finished as she dragged him off to the dance floor. He sighed tiredly, but ended up smiling despite himself.
And so the time passed for each one of them while their lives ticked by. For some ponies days seemed to pass like moments and months like minutes. Some of them may have been mere ticks on the great celestial clock of their world, but each bit of time that they had was one that they would enjoy. Their lives passed with dreams, perfect dreams and some vague nightmares that would force their way in. Still all of it was encased by a shroud of peaceful slumber. The great clock that led their lives however still had an alarm that would awake greater things.