Live While We're Young
It was now the night time in Ponyville, and the students of the School of Friendship headed for the main atrium of the School, which had undergone a surprising transformation in the time that they'd been gone. In the place of the old room was a place decorated with balloons, streamers, and table covered in food and drink. It looked marvellous, and as Sandbar, Silverstream, Smoulder, and Gallus filed in, they noticed an absence conspicous by its noticing.
"There's no turntables!" Silverstream cried. "How can we have a dance party without any turntables?"
"See the music stands?" Gallus pointed out. We'll be getting a live orchestra tonight, just you and me."
"Awww, you're really sweet, you know that?" Silverstream smiled, grabbing a glass of punch.
"Don't spill it on my suit."
Let us pause for a moment to take in what they were wearing. Sandbar and Gallus were finely attired in suits, the latter looking somewhat ridiculous as the shirt was struggling to contain his considerable volumes of chest fluff. Silverstream, on the other hoof/claw, was wearing a long, sky blue dress in the traditional styles of Mount Aris, with a few nautical motifs in there to emphasise her dual heritage as hippogriff and seapony.
"Yeah, where is everycreature else?" asked Smoulder.
Suddenly, a great crashing and banging opened up from the back of the hall, and two yaks entered making a massive racket. One of them, of course, was Yona. But the other was a male who made the expression 'jacked up on steroids' seem like an understatement. He was massive, with incredible amounts of fur all over the place and running along the floor.
"What on Aris is Yona wearing?" Silverstream asked. "It looks so weird!"
"Weird? I think 'Rarity designed it whilst drunk' would be more accurate," Gallus sighed.
Yona and the other yak bounded over to them. "Yona happy to see friends!" she said. She was clad in this truly ridiculous green number with full front sleeves and a skirt that reached the floor, as well as having a purple wig attached to her head. The other yak was presumably wearing traditional Yakyakistani garb. "Yona want to introduce Tilden."
"Nice to meet you, Tilden," Sandbar said polity, and extended his hoof.
"Tilden like pony school! Interior cool, with lots of food! Yaks like food!"
"As well we know," Smoulder said quietly, to ensure nocreature could hear her.
"Yona see friends around. Yona been learning pony dances for occasion, but Yona hope they have the stomp in there somewhere."
As Yona set off, suddenly two more faces whizzed in. It was Cozy Glow and-
"Wait a minute, is that Pipsqueak?" Sandbar asked. "Hey Cozy!"
"Hey Sandbar!" his little sister replied. "I came with Pip!"
"Nice to meet you, sir," Pipsqueak replied, the little pinto colt's Trottingham accent jarring somewhat with all that had come before. "Cozy and I met when she retrieved my kite for me. I couldn't get it down, but she flew up and got it for me. I can't thank her enough for that."
Cozy Glow abruptly handed Sandbar a pot. "Mom told me to give you this," she said. "You left your lucky pot at home."
Sandbar went red. "Errm, oops. Thanks?"
"No problem," Cozy Glow replied, before she and Pipsqueak headed off for the food table.
"I'd have prepared mine here," Silverstream began, "but seafood is rather smelly and we don't have any kitchens we can use as all the food is catered."
"Fish is, by definition, smelly," Smoulder said, as a yellow dragon wandered over to her. "Hey there, Inferno!"
"Great to see you, Smoulder!" the yellow dragon replied, the pair high fouring as they did so. "I wasn't quite sure what to think when you invited me to a pony party, but wow! They really pulled out all the stops today!"
"I thought you'd like it," Smoulder smiled, and they headed over for a table.
"Well, I guess that answers that question," Gallus replied, as he extended his own foreleg. "My lady," he said, with mock nobility. "Would you be so kind as to accompany me to the dance floor?"
"Of course!" Silverstream replied, before her rear leg got caught on her skirt. "Oof! I really need to watch where I put my hooves."
This just left Sandbar, waiting on his own. He knew that getting ready for a fancy dance took a long time, but Ocellus sure seemed to be taking hers. He glanced about at the party, seeing the musicians start to file in, when suddenly-
"Sorry I'm late!"
Sandbar wheeled around to suddenly see Ocellus standing there. His jaw dropped. She looked absolutely stunning.
Ocellus was wearing a red dress in two shades. The sleeves were short and slightly ruffled in dark red, followed by a lighter red bodice complemented by a dark red... belt? Sandbar wasn't sure what to call it. The top of the skirt, which ran from about halfway down her barrel and over her back and tail, was dark red with dots, presumably to emulate her shell, and finally the rest of the skirt was the lighter red from earlier, which dropped to the floor and completely covered her rear hooves.
"Sorry, I got really engrossed in my work," Ocellus panted. She'd clearly been galloping all the way here. "I also didn't want to get this dirty! I'd hate for Rarity's work to be ruined and-"
"Ocellus, it's OK. You're here now, and that's what matters. Shall we go in? The band is about to start."
"Sure!" The pair trotted into the main dance area, where the Master of Ceremonies had set herself up on the stage.
"OH YEAH! GOOD EVENING, SCHOOL OF FRIENDSHIP!"
Sandbar blinked. "They got Vinyl Scratch as Master of Ceremonies?"
Vinyl Scratch smiled. "I hope you're all having a good time! Sadly, I'm not on the turntables so I can't turn out some groovy tunes, but first up we've got the Band of the C. E. G to play for you. Please welcome Colonel Swift Baton, their conductor!"
There was mass applause as an old unicorn with a dirty grey coat and black mane took to the stand, and used his magic to raise his baton.
"C. E. G?" Inferno asked Smoulder.
Crystal Empire Guard," Smoulder replied. "Princess Twilight's brother is their commanding officer, so I imagine she pulled a few strings to get them down here."
Vinyl elbowed Octavia, who was standing next to her. "What are these dances called? I've got a list here and their all fancy words. I have no idea what they mean!"
Octavia looked closely. "Those are Prench. The first one ought to be fairly obvious."
"OK," Vinyl replied. "First off, La Mooriskay!"
Octavia facehoofed. "It's pronounced, 'La Mourisque'."
The first dance was a relatively stately one, to allow the dancers to get their footing and get used to moving about on what rapidly transpired to not be especially stable ground. The yaks especially did a good job of being stable and not bouncing about, especially as mayhem would otherwise ensue.
"You're good at this," Gallus complemented Silverstream. "I can hardly imagine moving about in all that is easy."
"Being related to royalty does have come with many perks," Silverstream smiled, "and this was one of them. Besides, I was raised underwater. This is no different to swimming through high pressure water!"
"When you put it that way, I can see your point," Gallus replied.
The band finished playing, and the ponies on the dance floor applauded.
"I hope you all enjoyed that!" Vinyl called. "Next up, we have something very slow. It's Le quack- le qua- le quat- Ahh! Le quatree bransles!"
Octavia shook her head. "Le Quatre Bron, Vinyl. I understand that this isn't your usual field of music, but can you please make an effort to pronounce them correctly?"
"Hey! I'm usually at nightclubs with techno music! You can read them if you'd like."
Octavia sighed. "I'm playing later today, so that won't be an option. Sorry."
Vinyl sighed, and indicated to Swift Baton. "Take it away!"
The music began once more, and true to Vinyl's word it was slow. So much so, it proved to be a bit of a challenge to keep time on the floor.
Pip glanced up at the conductor. "If they play any slower they'll be playing the piece backwards!"
"I hope not! These sequences of hoof movements are hard enough forwards, let alone backwaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Cozy trod on part of her dress, and went flying across the room. She spread her wings to slow herself down, and narrowly avoided crashing into the drinks table. "Sorry."
The attendant helped her back onto her hooves. "Please do watch where you're going in future."
Cozy nodded and went back over to Pip. "You were saying?"
The band finished again, and Vinyl consulted her piece of paper. "Hey! A word I can actually pronounce! Next we have a Pavane!"
Octavia said nothing, not wanting to work her marefriend up any more than she was. That, and the Band of the C. E. P was being given a rest to make way for the strings of the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra, in which she was playing 1st Cello.
And once again, it was very slow. So slow, in fact, that some of the dancers got rather bored. "Hey!" Smoulder called, from somewhere in the crowd. "We can't be here all night! Can you guys speed it up a little?"
The conductor of the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra, an older pony with a wig as big as his muzzle, felt rather offended at that remark, and decided to grant Smoulder her wish. "Oh, we can speed it up alright," he said. "Sword Dance in F Major," he indicated to the players.
They shuffled through their scores and pulled out the relevant music. The conductor raised his baton.
"Rock on! Next it's Macaroni in F!"
Octavia shook her head. "That's a type of food, not a piece."
Suddenly, the conductor began to conduct at a furious speed.
"Wait, what?" Sandbar asked. "How fast is this?"
Ocellus wobbled about as she desperately tried to keep up with the beat, but it was no use. Both of them decided to bail from the dance floor. It was a good move indeed.
Yona and Tilden reacted to the speed of the music. "Band play the Stomp!" Yona cried.
"Hooray! Tilden love Stomp!"
Suddenly, the entire room began to shake violently as two yaks jumped up and down, making the floor vibrate as they pounded up and down. Things fell over, glasses of drinks were spilled, and dancers struggled to remain upright.
Even worse, the constant shaking caused the orchestra to start playing the wrong notes. As they moved their bows in to play the correct notes, their hooves would slip or the instrument would move, which made landing the right notes very, very hard.
"Well, that didn't go as planned," said the conductor.
"It is, admittedly, rather difficult to play when the floor is moving," Octavia noted.
Once all that craziness was over, the dancers decided to take a rest. Silverstream idly popped open her and Gallus' lucky pot when suddenly three familiar figures suddenly appeared.
"Hey Silvs!" called a voice. Silverstream turned to see it was her brother, Terramar!
"It's amazing to see you!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"
"Didn't you know? The Band of the Royal Hippogriffia Navy is playing tonight. And dad is one of them. Of course, it's not just him and me tonight."
Suddenly, Sky Beak and Ocean Flow swept down from on high. What was even more surprising was that Ocean Flow was a hippogriff! Silverstream was stunned. She'd never seen her mom as a hippogriff before.
"Good evening, sweetheart," Sky Beak said, as he ran his talons through her mane. "Bet you weren't expecting us! We're staying in the Hotel of Friendship next door."
"What about you, mom?"
Ocean Flow smiled. "I can hardly sleep at the bottom of the swimming pool, can I? Besides, being back on land is surprisingly fun, even if it feels a little weird after so long."
There was a trumpet call. "Well, I'd better get set up. Have fun!"
"Hooray! Another word in Ponish!" Vinyl called. "Next we have the 'Floral Dance'."
The music was a much needed contrast to the mayhem of the last dance, even if the sight of a hippogriff with gigantic cheeks as he negotiated the playing of his tuba was very funy to some of the younger creatures. Silverstream was, of course, in her element as she guided Gallus along.
"Forward, back, turn, turn, forward, left, right!" she called.
"Got it!" Gallus called, as he moved backwards and forwards in line with her instructions. "I must admit, the brass is very good. It's a shame we don't have anything like this back in Griffonstone."
"Really?" Silverstream was shocked. "We're really proud of being hippogriffs! In fact, we have a festival dedicated to it that happens-"
"Every other weekend. Terramar told me. Griffons don't have anything like that. We just keep ourselves to ourselves."
Up on the stage, Sky Beak was the assigned soloist, and did a fine job of it.
Another dance over, and the C. E. G band took to the stage once more. This time, Vinyl had incredible difficulty reading the name of the dance without laughing.
"Did she say what I thought she said?" Ocellus asked Sandbar.
"I think so, but with two 'g's and two 't's," Sandbar replied. He then saw Cozy Glow snickering over near the stage. "Really, Cozy?"
"She is only a kid, after all," Ocellus replied, before suddenly Terramar whizzed overhead and nearly crashed into a light fitting.
Rainbow Dash flew over to Terramar, and pointed to a sign.
NO FLYING PERMITTED DURING THE AMITY BALL.
"Oops, sorry." Terramar looked over. "But aren't you flying?"
"Next, we have the Bergerettee!" Vinyl announced.
"Bergerette," Octavia gently corrected.
The next three dances, the Bergerette, Basse-Danse, and Bransles seemed to all fly by as the night drew on, with all of the creatures assembled having a fantastic time. The conductors of the respective bands all took their bows, and headed backstage.
"But now, to round off the night, we have a special guest, a requested appearance from a Mister Sandbar. Please welcome to the floor... the Compass Boys!"
Five ponies came forward onto the stage, complete with inexplicable floating instruments (all five of them were unicorns, being a Canterlot based group).
As their sound brought the night to a close, the six friends who had helped define the School of Friendship were closer together, and indeed, would Live Whilst They were Young.
Full track list is below for all 10 dances.
(0:00-2:08) La Mourisque, taken from La Danserye, Tylman Susato, 1551.
(4:36-7:19) Les Quatre Bransles, taken from La Danserye, Tylman Susato, 1551.
(1:15-3:05) Pavane in D Minor, taken from the Capriol Suite, Peter Warlock, 1926.
(8:29 to end) Sword Dance in F Major, taken from the Capriol Suite, Peter Warlock, 1926. Although the wrong notes are intentional in the original composition, here they are caused by Yaks jumping about.
The Floral Dance, composed by Katie Moss, 1911. The above is the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band recording that nearly hit number 1 in the UK charts in 1977.
(7:20-8:13) Faggott (stop laughing), taken from La Danserye, Tylman Susato, 1551.
(2:09-4:35) Bergerette, taken from La Danserye, Tylman Susato, 1551.
(0:00-1:14) Basse-Danse in D Minor, taken from the Capriol Suite, Peter Warlock, 1926.
(3:58-5:52) Bransles in G Minor (ignore the D Minor key signature), taken from the Capriol Suite, Peter Warlock, 1926.
Live While we're Young, recorded by One Direction, Columbia records, 2012.
Ocellus' dress was originally designed by cheerful9, who can be found here; https://www.deviantart.com/cheerful9/art/Ocellus-wearing-dress-799114339
This was the loose inspiration for the dress Silverstream is wearing.
Pipsqueak and Cozy going out was based on this story;
Can anycreature spot what 'Tilden' is a reference to? I'll be quite impressed if you do!
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I like how you gave the students actual uniforms and dresses. I found it odd that Sandbar was the only one “dressed” for the dance in the episode (besides what Rarity gave Yona), and even then it was just a bow tie.
As Yona set off, suddenly two more faces whizzed in. It was Cozy Glow and-
"Wait a minute, is that Pipsqueak?" Sandbar asked. "Hey Cozy!"
Oh so she went with pipsqueck wow ok cool
Ahh one Direction ponys nice man
Ok wow very interesting music I've never heard of them but it looks like the dance when's very well seen everybody have their own partner for the dance kind of reminds me of my old prom night good times and I did like the pictures of of silverstream and Ocellus although I am pretty surprised that smolder did not wear any dress to the dance but anyway this was a pretty good chapter can't wait to see what's going to happen next
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Or for some baffling reason, none of the others actually participated. I can only assume that the animation team was running out of money at the time of production.
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Smoulder wouldn't be seen dead in a dress in public.
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Oh I guess although I did read a story about how smolder have the courage to ask rartiy to make her a dress and even showing up to the dance in her dress
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I think was requested by a friend of mine.
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Oh really cool
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Indeed.
It's always nice to see kids having fun when it comes to prom night kind of reminds me of my high school years
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Sweet.
This might be just because I went to high school in the States, but this was surprisingly formal for a school dance.
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Brits do everything stupidly formally.