Shut Up And Dance

by TheVClaw

Chapter Three: Elusive's Question

Elusive carried an apprehensive look on his face while sitting on the plush lavender couch in his main display room. Even though he usually had the furniture in his main space reserved for only customers and clients, the unicorn saw little reason to keep it vacant while the shop was empty. The closed sign was hanging over his door, but his hoof kept tapping on the armrest of the chair like he was expecting royalty to enter the Carousel Boutique. Although, considering the fact that Rainbow Blitz technically was a member of the royal family (along with Elusive and the other Elements after being groomsmen for the Royal Wedding), the tailor felt that his nervousness was pretty well justified.

Especially since he was planning to ask Blitz for one of the largest favors he could’ve ever fathomed.

Granted, Rainbow Blitz certainly was loyal, especially to his closest friends. But given what Elusive was needing from him, it seemed almost as incomprehensible as asking Butterscotch to sing in a stadium full of dragons. Regardless, he tried to keep his breathing steady as the clock inched closer to the time Blitz was to arrive at the shop to talk. It seemed that every single fiber of the unicorn’s logic was against him asking for something so insane, but he tried to stay diligent while sitting in wait.

It’s just a favor, Elusive thought to himself while his lips were bit tightly shut. That is all. If Blitz says no, then that’s completely understandable. He’s my friend, and he’ll still be one even if he declines. There’s absolutely no reason to feel hurt if he says no.

Unfortunately, a deeper part of Elusive’s mind felt much less confident about that last part. No matter how badly he wanted to shake that anxiety away, the idea of being hurt by rejection was still lingering deep down inside of him. As he took a breath, all that the stallion could do was hope that Blitz wouldn’t be too hasty if his answer was negat--

Knock Knock Knock Knock!

Elusive actually felt grateful that his thoughts were interrupted by the door knocking. “C-Come on in!” he blurted out almost instantly, not even thinking it could’ve just been somepony else. Fortunately, it was Rainbow Blitz who walked into the boutique exactly on time.

“Hey Luc-- Er, I mean Elusive” the pegasus quickly corrected before closing the door behind him with a kick of his hind leg. He noticed Elusive sitting on the couch, and looked towards him with one of his hooves raised. “Now before you say anything,” began Blitz insistently, “I totally get why you might be mad about those flyers I sent out the other day. Dusk talked with me about them, and I… probably should’ve had you look over them first.”

He then opened one of his wings to pull out a new piece of paper that was hidden underneath it. “But! I totally got a new flyer made, so if you still need a dancer I can--”

“Blitz, please,” Elusive interrupted with a clam tone and a raised hoof of his own. Blitz respectfully stopped, and put his flyer down with a cautious look on his face. Noticing how it appeared his friend was being more courteous about his assistance, Elusive sighed and gave him a grateful smile before saying, “Now, while I do appreciate you trying to help -- Albeit, in a manner I would have preferred be done differently -- that’s not the reason I asked you to come here today.”

Blitz’s eyes narrowed a little bit in confusion. “Uhhh… okay?”

“Please, sit down.” Elusive motioned to the empty space on the couch beside his with a hoof. Blitz still looked slightly puzzled, but he went to sit down nonetheless. The unicorn then lit his horn, levitating two cups of tea and a plate of cookies from the kitchen; regardless of whether or not the refreshments would really help, Elusive knew better than to give a proposal of this level without being prepared. Blitz quickly perked up at the sight of the treats, and snatched a cookie from the plate before it was even rested on the coffee table.

“Alright, peanut butter chips!” exclaimed the pegasus giddily, happy to see that his friend baked his favorite kind. “Thanks!”

“Not a problem,” said Elusive in a sincere tone which almost made his smile not appear so forced. Fortunately, the stunt-pony was more preoccupied with the snacks to notice any small fidgets from his friend. The tailor waited a brief moment before speaking once more. “Now, just to make this perfectly clear. These cookies are not a bribe, and you can say no to what I’m going to ask if you want. All that I request is that you actually think about what I’m asking from you, alright?”

Despite how good the cookies were, Blitz stopped chewing when he caught the uneasiness of Elusive’s tone of voice. He looked back towards him with one of his jagged brows arched slightly. “Hmm?”

“So…” Elusive closed his eyes and took a breath, wanting to get some clarifications out first and foremost. “From what I heard, you’re still on mandatory medical leave. So because of that, you have approximately eight weeks free from the Wonderbolts, right?”

Blitz exhaled through his nostrils with a deflated look on his face. He reluctantly nodded and swallowed before answering, “Y-Yeah. It’s not exactly something I wanna talk about.”

“I completely understand, and I apologize for asking,” returned Elusive just as quickly. “However… I just wanted to make sure that you... didn’t have any major plans for the next two months?”

Blitz was now starting to look suspicious, which wasn’t helped by the shakiness he saw from his friend’s muzzle. The pegasus’ eyes narrowed on him as he helped himself to another cookie. “What’s this about?”

Elusive’s lips pursed tightly shut, which just made Blitz look even more wary. The unicorn tried his hardest to make his smile look natural while his hooves tapped together worriedly. “W-Well… I was looking over the schedule for the Equestrian National Dance Competition, and… it s-seems that the duration of the competition l-lasts for just over two months…”

Blitz head pulled back a little, his eyes blinking repeatedly. Elusive wasn’t sure whether or not his friend was catching on, but he still felt nervous while finishing his explanation. “A-A-And… since I’ve had so much trouble finding a mare to be my dancing partner, I… wanted to ask you for a favor…”

Blitz instantly figured it out, and his eyes widened while half a cookie stuck out of his mouth.

---

Dusk Shine carried a wide, almost menacing-looking grin while floating two of his beakers towards the positioned flask on his lab table. Even though magic was clearly the Prince’s specialty, there was just something about science and technology that made the Alicorn so enthralled with it. And since his student Starshine was still up in the Crystal Empire, and Barb was waiting outside Elusive’s house as some sort of favor (at least, he hoped that was the reason), Dusk was quite happy to partake in a chemistry experiment he wanted to do for a while.

Barb tried to bring up how he usually looked like some sort of mad scientist while in the middle of his experiments, which wasn’t helped when his student said the exact same thing. Alas, that didn’t seem to keep Dusk Shine’s toothy grin from dissipating from underneath his thick goggles. He peered at the glowing blue liquid in his flask with fascination, and then at the two beakers with purple and green fluids inside of them.

“And now…” Keeping his magic as steady as possible, he slowly began to pour the dark purple mixture from one of the beakers into the flask’s neck first. The chemical compounds Dusk was experimenting with were very unstable, so he made sure to keep his voice as faint as possible while speaking to himself. “I just need to carefully… carefully… add the solution as slowly… as…”

Dusk Shine usually kept the door to his lab locked during experiments, but Barb threw it wide open to make a thunderous bang. “DUSK SHINE!” she screamed in a panic. “YOU NEED TO--”

BOOM!!!

The explosion from the beaker was violent to say the least, and Dusk’s entire lab erupted in a cloud of neon pink smoke. Barb had to cough a couple times while averting her face from the plume of dust that blew past her. When the vapors dissipated, the Prince seemed to be unharmed; however, he slowly turned around to reveal that the entire front half of his body (along with his usually clean labcoat) was coated in the pink dust. Barb was temporarily frozen silent, which gave Dusk just enough time to wipe the dust from his goggles and glare at her. “Barb…”

On any other day, Barb would’ve most likely cracked up at how silly the Alicorn looked. But at that moment, she was more worried about what was happening outside the castle. “Dusk! Elusive and Blitz are fighting!”

“WHAT?!” shouted Dusk in shock, instantly forgetting the explosion or how he looked.

“They’re at Elusive’s place right now, so you need to--”

POOMF!!!

The Prince didn’t even wait for Barb to finish before teleporting out of his lab in a flash. Barb may have been happy that Dusk responded so quickly, but she still groaned after a moment of silence. “Oh, it’s alright, Dusk,” said the drake to herself in exasperation, “go on without me. I don’t mind walking some more.”

As she left the dirtied lab, she added in a bitter mutter, “He better not expect me to clean that up.”

Meanwhile, Dusk already reappeared in the kitchen in the Carousel Boutique. As soon as he landed on the linoleum floor, the Alicorn looked around fretfully to make sure no knives or other weaponry was taken. His attention was quickly skewed as soon as he heard Blitz shouting repeatedly.

“NO!!! Nooooooooo, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO! There is NO bucking way dude!”

Dusk galloped towards the main room of the boutique, and caught sight of the two just as Elusive yelled back at the angry stunt-pony.

“Blitz, you could at least TRY to listen to my offer!”

“I’m not doing it!” said Blitz as diligently as possible, “I get that you need a pony, but I am NOT gonna be that pony! That is not happening!”

“Well, what do you expect me to do then?! There is no pony else I could get on such short notice! And if I recall, you PROMISED you would help me!”

“What the buck do you think I was doing the last couple days?! Scratching my ass?!”

Dusk had enough and stepped in to intervene. “Guys, GUYS!” shouted the Alicorn as he stepped in between his feuding friends. Both of them stopped bickering, but that was only because they were startled by the sight of the Prince who was still in his lab clothes and covered in pink dust. He put his hooves out between both of them and said authoritatively, “I don’t know WHAT you two are fighting about, but we should at least try to settle it like adults!”

He put his hooves down and looked towards the unmoving unicorn first. “Now,” he said after taking a calming breath, “What is this about, Elusive?”

Elusive had to blink a couple times while looking his friend up and down. “Ummm…” He finally pointed at Dusk’s appearance and asked, “May I ask what this is about?”

“Hmm? Oh!” Instantly realizing how he looked, Dusk Shine huffed impatiently and zapped himself with a burst of magic. The Alicorn was instantly cleaned with a poof of his purple aura, and also left him without his labcoat or goggles. “Alright, now that that’s out of the way, what is this fight about?!”

Rainbow Blitz spoke up before Elusive could. “Well, apparently he wants ME to be his dancing partner for that competition thing!”

Dusk whipped his head towards Blitz with a confused look on his face. After realizing his friend wasn’t joking from the pegasus’ firm stare back, he turned back to Elusive quizzically. “Wait, what?”

“I know how it might sound, Dusk Shine,” responded the tailor with a hoof raised in clarification, “but after seeing how well he performed his ground exercises the other day, I really do think he has the best potential as a replacement.”

“Ummm,” piped up Blitz annoyedly, “those ground exercises are for FLYING, genius! I’m not a bucking dancer!”

“Well, you have all the makings of one in my book,” retorted Elusive with his eyes narrowed on him. “I auditioned over two hundred mares yesterday, and none of them were able to do half the steps as eloquently as you did in that field!”

“Oh, for crying out loud…” Blitz groaned under his breath and turned away while shaking his head. Elusive’s muzzle clamped shut to keep himself from yelling at how his friend was treating this situation.

“Now, wait up,” said Dusk as he brought his attention towards the unicorn. “So you’re saying that Blitz should be your partner? Is… is that even allowed?”

Before Blitz could turn around and add an accompanying “Yeah!” to Dusk’s point, Elusive answered firmly, “As a matter of fact, it is!” He lit up his horn to bring out the ENDC rulebook, which he floated towards Dusk Shine. “I even triple checked the rules of the Equestrian National Dance Competition, and there isn’t even ONE notion that states competitors have to be of opposing genders! Two stallions are able to compete as a couple.”

“Oh, yeah right!” groaned Blitz with a roll of his eyes. While Dusk Shine looked through the rulebook studiously, the stunt-pony glared at Elusive and added, “Do you really think a rule like that HAS to be mentioned?! That’s like saying I could have Armour join the Wonderbolts because there’s no rules about tortoises not being eligible!”

“Actually there are rules like that,” stated Dusk while keeping his focus on the book. “If you remember, Wonderbolt rulings specifically state that only ponies could join. No outside species.”

“That’s not the point, dude!” snapped Blitz before turning back to Elusive. “What I’m trying to say is that you can’t just expect me to do something this stupid! I have a reputation to hold up, you know! How do you think I’d look to the public or my team if I started dancing around with another guy!?”

“Oh, and like my reputation wouldn’t be on the line as well?” asked Elusive with a bitter stare back at him. “You’re not the only one worried about appearances regarding this idea, Rainbow!”

“Oh, please!” Blitz openly scoffed strongly enough to make a vein appear on Elusive’s forehead. Meanwhile, the pegasus said mockingly, “I can just read the headlines now. ‘Male fashion designer caught doing something GAY!’ Oh, the horror!”

“OH, YOU WANT TO GO THERE?!” roared Elusive loudly enough to make Dusk flinch and drop the rulebook. He pushed past the Prince to get right up in Blitz’s face. “In that case, might I remind you that I’M the reason you weren’t banned from the Wonderbolts after Wind Glider tried to frame you?!”

Blitz’s muzzle wrinkled for a brief moment before retorting back, “Well, if it wasn’t for ME,” he said as he pushed his face against Elusive’s, “then YOU would’ve KILLED the Wonderbolts at that Flight Show!”

“THAT WAS YEARS AGO!!!”

“IT’S STILL WORTH BRINGING UP!”

“WHY YOU--”

“ALRIGHT, THAT IS ENOUGH!!!” With a look nearly twice as angry as Elusive and Blitz combined, Dusk Shine forced himself between the two and lit his magic brightly. Just as Barb ran into the front of the shop, she stopped when she saw both ponies screaming with their heads tilted to the sides. Two strong auras of Dusk’s magic were tightly gripped on Blitz and Elusive’s ears, which was more than enough to make them stop yelling at each other.

Barb had to cover her mouth with her claws to keep from giggling.

“Okay,” the Prince began firmly while glaring at both of his friends, “while I can understand why both of you are upset, I am NOT going to tolerate you two acting like this over a dance competition!”

Despite how hard Dusk was squeezing his ear, Blitz still gave a seething look towards Elusive and growled, “He started it!”

“Oh, like I was the one who broke Toffee’s leg--AHHHH!!!” Elusive’s response was left unfinished with one strong twist of his ear by Dusk’s magic.

Both of them cried out even louder, and were barely able to stay on their hooves. “I SAID THAT IS ENOUGH!” yelled Dusk sternly enough to make Barb stop laughing in an instant. “Now, unless you want me to take matters into my own hooves, I would suggest that both of you act civilly! Because if you two would rather act like a couple of diapered COLTS, then I can easily get the materials and spells necessary to make that a reality!”

Neither of the stallions knew what Dusk was implying with that kind of threat, but it was more than enough to make both of them freeze and avoid learning the hard way. Even Barb looked surprised by Dusk’s statement, but still stayed out of it. Eventually, Dusk let go of Elusive and Blitz’s ears with his magic. “Okay,” said the Alicorn with a sigh while the two winced as they rubbed their ears. “Now, from what I can see in the rulebook, Elusive is right. There doesn’t seem to be any clarification on gender when it comes to competitors.”

Elusive shot a quick stare towards his friend in silent victory.

“However,” added Dusk firmly while keeping his glare on both of them, “this is still something that needs to be talked about without fighting.” He looked to Blitz first while keeping his voice professional. “Rainbow, I think it’s very clear that Elusive doesn’t have any other options when it comes to this sort of favor. Do you really think that he would ask you to do this if he did?”

Despite being pissed at both Elusive and Dusk, the pegasus still took a couple seconds before sighing. “Well… no, probably not.”

“Good,” stated Dusk before returning his focus to the other stallion. “Now Elusive, despite how important this competition is to you, this is still a rather large favor to ask. Even to someone who’s the Element of Loyalty.”

Elusive exhaled while still rubbing his sore ear. “Yes, I am very aware of that,” muttered the unicorn under his breath.

“Okay then.” After taking a breath to look at both ponies, Dusk cleared his throat, and decided to try a compromise between the two as a means to settle things. “It seems that this is a really big favor that requires a lot of thought and planning, so I’m going to ask of something from both of you…”

Elusive and Blitz both looked back at their friend, and Dusk put his attention on the unicorn first. “Elusive, I think Blitz would need some time to think this over. So, if you promise to leave Blitz alone for the rest of the day, will you accept his answer regardless if he promises to give it some thought?”

Even though he looked apprehensive, Elusive still nodded his head faintly. “I… suppose so.”

“Thank you,” said Dusk happily before looking to Blitz. “And Rainbow, will you promise to think about Elusive’s proposal today, and give him an answer by sundown?”

Blitz just huffed with an unamused expression. “Why should I wait that long? I already know my answer, and it’s no!”

With that, Blitz began to walk away while Elusive’s jaw dropped with a pained look. Barb quickly went to console the unicorn while Dusk stormed after Blitz, “HEY! I just got Elusive to leave you alone, and you’re just going to disregard his feelings like THAT?! You could at least try to think things over!”

“Do you really expect me to do something like a dance competition?!” asked Blitz as he looked back at the Prince like he was high. “With another stallion?!”

“I’m not telling you to say yes, I’m simply wanting you to think it over!”

“I already thought it over!”

“I mean for MORE than five minutes!”

“Why the buck should it matter?!”

“It’s important because he’s your FRIEND, Blitz!”

“I’M NOT DOING IT!”

“BLITZ! I--” Dusk quickly stopped himself with an angered exhale, and then lit his horn so a beam of magic went over him and Blitz like a giant glowing dome. Once the two were completely encased in the globubble, nothing could be heard from either of them while Elusive and Barb were across the room.

Elusive was trying his hardest not to cry at Blitz’s attitude, but his attention was quickly focused on seeing how heated his friend’s argument was with Dusk. Both of them were completely muted in the Prince’s sound bubble, but it was clear both of them were trying to yell over each other. At one point, Blitz got right up into Dusk’s face, undoubtedly letting his stubbornness overtake anything else in the discussion. But surprisingly, Dusk didn’t yell back; instead, the Alicorn’s glare intensified before taking a breath. Blitz was just about to turn and leave the space before Dusk said something in what looked to be a normal tone.

Barb and Elusive had no idea what the Prince said, but it was enough to make Blitz instantly stop with a wide-eyed look of shock. The pegasus quickly turned around and put his hooves up to stop Dusk from saying anything else, and was clearly going “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa” from how his lips were moving. The argument got more intense, but now neither of them were yelling. Blitz was now looking legitimately worried while trying to talk Dusk down; meanwhile, the Alicorn kept a firm stare on him while saying whatever point he was trying to make.

After another moment, Blitz could be seen sighing with his head hung low in defeat. He kept one of his hooves up and could be seen mouthing the words, “Alright, alright.” However, instead of Dusk looking glad or cocky about his obvious win, he ended up looking just as bad as Blitz did. With a guilty bite of his bottom lip, Dusk Shine went in to hug the pegasus tightly while saying what looked to be an apology. Elusive couldn’t tell what his friend said, but it was enough for Blitz to hug him back in calm forgiveness.

For a while, the two just said some more things in the bubble without any intervention. After it seemed both of them were okay with whatever was discussed, Dusk dissipated the dome with a still slightly-worried look on his face. Blitz didn’t seem mad, but a look of defeat was still apparent when he sighed and looked back at Elusive and Barb.

He walked up to the unicorn and said softly, “Alright, I… I promise that I’ll… think over your favor, okay? I’ll be back here by sundown to give my answer.”

Elusive didn’t want to press anything, so he just nodded before going up to him. “A-Alright then.” He then hugged the pegasus gratefully and made sure to add, “That was all I wanted from you. And if you still say no, I’ll still be your friend, I promise.”

Blitz nodded while hugging Elusive. “Hey, no doubt, dude. Of course, we’ll still be friends.”

After a couple more goodbyes, Rainbow Blitz left the shop silently. Elusive was still wary, but he was also hopeful that Blitz would actually own up to his promise. Meanwhile, Dusk and Barb decided to make their leave as well. After giving their farewells, Dusk used his teleportation magic to send both him and his drake to the castle in an instant.

Barb waited until the two landed back in the castle’s throne room before asking, “So… would you mind asking what that sound-bubble thing was about?”

Dusk Shine sighed painfully and shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I Bubble Berry Promised.”

“Ah.” Barb may have been a baby, but she still understood the importance of a Bubble Berry Promise. She quickly dismissed any further questions, and decided to leave the throne room to get lunch ready. After the dragoness disappeared, Dusk waited until she was out of earshot before sighing deeply in guilt.

“Oh, man,” groaned the Alicorn shamefully. “I really hope Blitz isn’t upset at me.”

“Upset about what?”

“GAHHH!” Dusk jolted like a startled housecat at the new voice. He looked to see that Starshine was not only back from his trip, but was lounging in Bubble Berry’s chair while trying not to giggle. “Starshine!” shouted Dusk with a blush alongside his annoyed scowl. “Did you really have to do that?!”

“Oh, come on!” said the unicorn with a dismissing wave of his hoof. “It’s not the first time I surprised you in this room, remember?”

That just made Dusk narrow his eyes on him with a peeved expression. “That is really not helping.”

Comments

[Brasta Septim]

“Oh, please!” Blitz openly scoffed strongly enough to make a vein appear on Elusive’s forehead. Meanwhile, the pegasus said mockingly, “I can just read the headlines now. ‘Male fashion designer caught doing something GAY!’ Oh, the horror!”

Oh god, my sides Then again, he does have a point- if Elusive's anything like Rarity, he's campy as all hell, on top of being a fashion designer.

[Baree]

That is a rather big tease. I can think of several scenario's for the bubble scene. I hope we do find out what happened there at some point in the story.

[dojooreo123]

7877459 i second that. love this story. must have MORE!!!

[Skrive Flip]

I vote positively for both secret Dusk pressure and Starshine sexy innuendo!

[jxj]

7877218 Elusive definately got the short end of the stick during the R63 transformation in terms of stereotypes.

[jxj]

Really good chapter. I really want to know what Dusk told Rainbow.
For the record, magic qualifies as science and technology.

[Storm butt]

I'm a little surprised you didn't have Elusive argue that rules like the same gender can't compete together would be barbaric and out of touch. I dunno why but he seems so obviously gay that it feels like he would have a bit of a voice about that kind of stuff.

"What in Equestria do you think this is? The dark times where ponies didn't have a single sense of fashion and wore those dreadful garbs? No! So in this day and age two stallions can so much as dance!"

Also...

> Because if you two would rather act like a couple of diapered COLTS, then I can easily get the materials and spells necessary to make that a reality!”

Babe please stop encouraging your fetish audience. You're waving a carrot in front of a pig.

Also I swear to god if you make the thing Dusk said the fucking Royal Wedding I'm never going to forgive you.

Regardless, I do like the fight in this chapter. It seemed natural, though I do kind of wish somebody would have called out Blitz for being a bit homophobic and bro-like about it. I mean his entire argument against it was that it was "icky" for a guy to do it with another guy and that just seems like kind of a douche thing for him to do so blatently without the others calling him out.

[Storm butt]

7878191 Not really, in my opinion. I think that he's basically like Fashion Plate, Hoity Toity, and Fancy Pants now in terms of personality. Besides, not much wrong with being feminine and a guy especially cause Elusive makes it work so well.