Chapter 5: A Desperate Dance
Trixie walked with her chest stuck out in front of her, flanked on either side by Star Dancer and Moon Dancer as they made their way toward their favorite after-school hangout, the Sip N Slip Youth Club. Over the last few months Trixie had spent quite a bit of time there with her two new best friends. They followed her pretty much everywhere, and she couldn’t get enough of them. Their attention, their friendship, their adoration…
Everything she’d never had growing up alone.
That didn’t matter now, of course! Her friends would never leave her. They followed her into the club where the brilliant lights flashed and the other fillies and colts dances their worries away, worries of studying and meeting other foals and teachers. None of it mattered while they danced the evening away… until curfew.
Star Dancer slipped up beside Trixie with a nervous grin. “Hey Trixie, um, do you think you could show us one of your spells again?”
“Mmmm, maybe later, Trixie needs a drink.” Trixie brushed her off with one hoof and a playful smile.
Star Dancer giggled back. “Then allow Star Dancer to get Trixie a drink!” She took off across the club toward the counter while Trixie and Moon Dancer made their way over to one of the smaller tables near the dance floor, taking their seats on the thick plush cushions. Moon Dancer didn’t talk a lot, but she was nice company to have around.
Her attention was pulled back to the dance floor as the song that was playing abruptly ended, replaced by a new song with an even faster and harder beat. Several young fillies and colts laughed to themselves as they left the dance floor, muttering about being tired and not wanting to embarrass themselves. Of the few foals who remained on the dance floor there was one colt in particular who was spinning around the floor, the light from his horn glowing across a cocky smile.
“Aw come on you babies!” He shouted at the retreating crowd, turning to display the cutiemark across his flank, that of a set of very shiny looking shoes with metal bottoms. “Can’t handle a REAL song? Hah!”
“Hmph.” Trixie smirked and glanced to the side as Star Dancer returned with her drink, setting it on the table beside her. “He thinks he’s hot stuff.”
“Oh, that’s Fancy Dance.” Star Dancer informed her with a blush. “He’s the son of one of the most well-respected ponies in Canterlot! Supposed to be a dancing prodigy too.”
“Is that a fact?” Trixie huffed and threw her nose into the air. “I don’t like him, he’s not all that great.”
“What are you talking about? He’s an amazing dancer.” A goofy smile spread across Star Dancer’s lips as she watched Fancy Dance out on the dance floor. He wasn’t a bad-looking colt, Trixie had to admit, his pearl white coat and deep brown mane meshed well together, and his moves were those of a very flexible and talented pro… and yet…
Star Dancer was looking at him in admiration. The very same look she’d been giving Trixie! That just wouldn’t do.
Trixie pulled herself away from the table and moved out onto the dance floor, approaching the cocky colt with her nose in the air. “So you think you’re that amazing, huh?” Trixie demanded.
“Huh? Of course I don’t think I’m that amazing.” The colt cackled. “I know I am, baby!”
“Then why don’t you prove it?” Trixie demanded. “I bet you I can dance better than you!”
“Huh!?” Fancy Dance’s eyes widened in shock as a stunned gasp emanated from the rest of the youthful audience. Even the music came to an abrupt, screeching end as the DJ turned to watch the confrontation with a stunned gaze. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“I don’t hear a yes.” Trixie smirked. “Or are you too scared to find out how much better I am?”
“Not a chance! Bring it on!” Fancy Dance growled and stepped back into the center of the dance floor as his horn began to glow with a bright, silvery light.
The music kicked on again an instant later, and he began to dance, a graceful, yet powerful dance across the stage. His horn weaved through the air, tracing a graceful silver line across the stage. The oooh’s and aaah’s of the surrounding foals were coming from all around Trixie as every pair of eyes in the building watched the colt move across the stage. Several minutes later the song was coming to a big dramatic ending just as the colt’s horn began to flash, the line he’d been tracing glowing even brighter all at once, revealing the words ‘For The Love Of Music’ spelled out across the air as he struck a final dramatic pose.
The stamping of hoof-to-ground echoed across the entire building as filly and adult alike showed their appreciation for the performance. Several hoots and hollars echoed across the dance floor as Fancy Dance left the stage to march right up to Trixie’s face.
“Try not to humiliate yourself, little filly.” He warned her with a grin.
“Try not to cry when I’m better than you, silly colt.” Trixie moved to stand alone out in the middle of the dance floor, turning to see all eyes focused on her. For just a fraction of a moment, Trixie was unsure. That was so many eyes watching her, judging her…
“You can do it Trixie! We believe in you!” Star Dancer exclaimed from her table.
Trixie smiled to herself. Yes, of course she could do this.
She gave the DJ a slow nod as her horn began to glow with its typical crimson light. The light engulfed the table cloth in front of her two friends and pulled it away from them, flinging it through the air to Trixie herself, where it wrapped around her neck and flare outward like a flowing cape just as the music picked up in a hard pounding beat. With a grin and a flourish of her cape, Trixie set herself spinning, letting her cape flow behind every movement she made as if she was moving through water.
She wasn’t the most coordinated or agile filly in the world, but what she did have was Celestia’s teachings about how to use her horn to manipulate the world. So she used it now, to move her limbs in quick, sweeping manners, moving herself across the stage with an almost unnatural fluidity. A nudge here, a flip there, and her body was moving to the rhythm of the music back and forth across the stage no matter how fast the tempo got. There were several gasps from the crowd during some of her more inspired moves, which only made her grin to herself.
At last Trixie flung herself through the air and slammed into the ground at the edge of the stage just as the music came to a final crescendo, her tablecloth-cape flaring up around her shoulders into the air with just a slight nudge of her formidable magic. The silence was only momentary before the crowd burst into a second round of appreciative stomping, the roars deafening but oh-so-delightful to her perky ears.
“Trixie! Oh my gosh that was so totally amazing!” Star Dancer exclaimed as she and her sister skidded right up in front of her. “I had no idea you could dance like that!”
“I guess I’m just talented that way.” Trixie grinned, shooting a glare over her friend’s shoulder to see Fancy Dance bowing his head in embarrassment and turning to leave as the other ponies crowded around to congratulate her.
Ah, crisis averted. She was loved once again…