Rumble's Offbeat Yet Tender Romance

by Daemonabacus

A Dance Class with No Room for Fun

Rumble timidly entered the dancing school, an unexpected bell startled him. As in unison, everypony seemed to rubbernek to turn to look at him, only to go right back to whatever they were doing. Except Miss Steps, who finished instructing one of her students and walked over to Rumble.

"Hello. How can I help you?", asked the lavender mare in a strong manehattan accent.

"Uh", shoot I didn't think this through. "I was walking past the class and...I thought...maybe I could watch?"

Miss Steps raised an eyebrow. It wasn't the first time a friend of her students wanted to 'just watch' her class preform, then the next thing she knew, there were students falling over spectacularly and whole dance routines were ruined.

"Let me guess. You wanted to talk with a friend? Sorry sweety, if you want to 'watch class' you will have to stay in a corner or watch from outside."

"Oh, that's fine. I won't be here for long, promise."

Thinking better of it, Miss Steps relaxed and dropped her serious tone; she was already frustrated, no point in chasing drama. She nodded and moved on with instructing her other students.

'Eh, the kid looks harmless. He had the decency to enter quietly and try to not disturb class...Unlike that yellow filly who had burst in here months ago shouting like she owned the place...'

'Hu, that was easy.' Rumble looked around the class, saw an empty bench near a wall, and trotted over to sit on it. Setting his saddle bag down, Rumble prepared mentally for the next step of his whim.

'Alright, now just think of how to approach him, I got...about ten minutes before class'. Rumble thought for a moment, only to get distracted watching the students.

Fillies and colts, all generally his age, engaged in an array of dancing routines and exercises. There were three fillies practicing ballet in front of a mirror, seemingly trying to perfect their synchronization and proper form. Another, three colts and a filly were huddled in a corner with a stereo practicing some faster paced free-er form of dancing. It seemed to be a sort of south-equestrian alpaca-style salsa dance, but Rumble wasn't too familiar with it so he honestly had no idea what it was; it looked cool though, and hard. There were some foals practicing galla waltzes, and two couples dancing rock'n roll style. There were lots of other things going on, but Rumble's ability to name genres hit its limit.

As a whole though, the class was full of energy; everypony was engaged and seemed to be having a great time, enjoying the dancing or the company of their classmates.

Except, to Rumble's surprise, the orange colt that had initially drawn his attention.

Tender Taps was dancing again, very impressively, but despite the elegance and precision of his movement, his eyes were shut and his mouth wasn't smiling radiantly like it had been before Miss Steps interrupted him.

Rumble felt saddened, Tender Taps had been so alive a moment ago, what happened?

'Of course...Cutie marks' Rumble asserted internally, his mind beginning again with a familiar train of thought, recalling a scene he read that morning in The Catcher in the Hay.

'This is just like when Golden's brother sold-out to make movies in Bridlewood. You take a cool thing like writing, flying, or dancing and make it into a performance; it becomes phony and it takes all the fun out of it!'

Rumble took another good look at Tender Taps, noticing his cutie mark in question: a Top-hat with a spotlight.

'Poor Tender Taps was dancing his heart and soul out, really having a great time! But then comes Miss Steps to remind him of his place. To follow his cutie mark. Dance not because it's fun but because he needs to put on a show.'

Rumble's inner sadness became frustration and it awoke his inner cynicism that accompanied thoughts of cutie marks. Unbeknownst to him, however, Rumble's ever growing dejection was leaking out through his face.

---

While Tender Taps practiced, he took absent glances of the dance room and noticed the gray colt stranger glaring at him. Not only that, but the stranger seemed to be upset by him personally?

'What's up with him?'

Tender Taps stopped dancing and looked on at the stranger, wondering what he could have done to upset him, and started to walk over to him.

Halfway there, the stranger realized that he had been seen, eyes going wide and his body retreating into a tight sitting position. He even tried to look off in another direction to pretend that he hadn't been staring at him.

Tender Taps decided to give the stranger the benefit of the doubt, as to not come off too confrontational. More likely than not, the stranger was upset about something unrelated to him and just so happened to stare off into space in his general direction; it's happened to him before.

"Hi! I'm Tender Taps, are you new to class?"

"Oh...", the gray colt began, he was obviously unprepared. He was trying to collect himself even more despite already having good posture. "...uh, no actually... Was I staring at you? I'm sorry, I do that sometimes, I didn't mean anything by it, honest!"

Tender Taps smiled, "Oh, no that's fine, I assumed you were probably upset about something so I came to help if you needed it. I'm one of Miss Step's senior students and she put me in charge of helping new students. Do you need help?"

"Well, no actually, I just came in to watch the students dance. I had some time before I went to school and I thought I'd watch the class perform...you guys are going to perform for the Hearts and Hooves day event at town hall right?"

"That's right!" Tender Taps smiled wide and lifted himself on his hind legs to strike a pose. He then began to tap dance and swing himself around, "Some of the students here and me are going to perform a musical for the event! It's going to be really cool, I even got a part where I solo! You should really come and watch". Tender Taps finished his little demo and bowed in front of the gray colt, he in-turn smiled back.

"That sounds awesome. I'll check it out, but...I wanted to ask you a question actually."

"Really? Sure, ask away."

"I saw you dancing before Miss Steps told you to stop soloing. And, once you started dancing again you didn't seem as happy about it, how come?"

"Oh, that...Well I was just free-styling. I needed to do a certain dance for the show and I wasn't doing that..." Tender Taps drew an embarrassed smile, he looked down and started to scratch the back of his mane. "...The routine for the dance is kinda simple...and I can do more impressive stuff, but I need to practice the specific dance for the show. Miss Steps says I need to do what's appropriate for the event."

"Well that sounds silly." The stranger retorted, in a dry and un-amused tone. "You should do what you were doing first, it was really cool! And, you were way happier too."

Tender Taps giggled a little, "Well, it was fun, but that routine is for a performance. I need to follow the routine otherwise I'll stand out too much and it won't make sense in the musical's story."

"Alright then, it's a shame though, if I were your teacher I'd figure out a way to change the musical so you could show-off your moves. It's silly to make you do something you don't want just because others expect something else."

The stranger said that last line with some passion behind it, and a little anger? Like he was holding back on something. Tender Taps then remembered how the stranger had been upset when he first saw him.

"Yeah, that is kind of silly when you put it like that, maybe I'll ask Miss Steps about that one...Say, when you were looking off into space earlier, were you upset about something?...You looked kinda sad" Tender Taps wanted to connect the dots and ask if the stranger was upset about the musical, but decided no to push too much.

"Oh, yeah, well...I'm...uh..." The stranger's eyes lit up, probably because he devised a better cover-up, "...I'm upset about something that happened in the morning, it's no big deal...it's just that I have a classmate that won't leave me alone and I'm going to have class with them soon. I want to figure out how to tell them to stop, but I don't know how."

That wasn't what Tender Taps expected at all, huh. "Well, why are they bothering you, is it a bully!?"

"oh, nothing like that, just..." the stranger seemed to be considering whether he should spill the beans or not, his eyes searched around until he made a decision and looked back at Tender Taps. "Well, you know how it's going to be Hearts and Hooves day soon?"

"Yeah"

"Well, there's this filly at my school who thinks I'm cool for some reason, and I think she likes me, but I don't" the stranger put emphasis on: don't, "How should I tell her I'm not interested without being rude?"

"Well...why don't you like her?"

"...uh, it's going to sound mean, and I don't mean it to be mean, but...she's kind of crazy, like ACTUALLY crazy. I'm starting to think she's been spying on me...I don't have any proof and I hope I'm wrong, but my point is...I don't want to upset her because she and her friends might not take no for an answer"

"Whoa, that is upsetting...", Tender Taps was truly overwhelmed, what is he supposed to do? He wasn't really familiar with how straight relationships worked, and even then, this specific scenario didn't sound normal or healthy. "Uh, honestly I don't know, but if you think she's dangerous maybe you should ask an adult."

"You're probably right...but she's not dangerous, don't worry about that. What I mean is that she's kinda in your face."

"Oh, ok. Well, good luck with that then...It might not be worth much but if I were you I'd just tell her straight out and then explain afterwards. You seem like a good talker, I'm sure you can handle it". Tender Taps didn't feel like he was lying, the stranger was good at conversing, just that he was clearly trying to hide something else on his mind that was currently distracting him.

"Oh, thanks. You're a great dancer, maybe I could come and watch you guys perform again, it's really amazing"

"Oh, thanks. It would be wonderful to get some feedback before the event, come around and I'll tell Miss Steps that you're cool".

"That sounds great, um...sorry to cut this short but I actually have school in two minutes and I need to get going. Sorry..." the stranger simply began to walk towards the door anxiously.

"That's fine, good luck with the girl. And say, I didn't get your name!?"

The stranger shouted as he opened the door, ready to leave, "Oh, my name is Rumble"

"Well, my name is Tender Taps, and it was great meeting you! Good luck and thanks for the compliments!"

"Yeah, it was great meeting you too!" he had left by the time he finished.

'What a strange colt, wonder what's getting him so upset?', Tender Taps then shrugged and got back to dancing the event's routine. It was just as boring as it was the first time, his mind began going numb as he fell into the motions and his body danced without the need of his mind guiding the movements.

Then, he remembered what the stranger--what Rumble had said--that he looked happier when he was free-styling.

Tender Taps looked down at his hooves and looked to see that Miss Steps was distracted, he decided to take a few strides out of routine.

'nice, maybe if I...'

Tender Taps added another stride to the routine, then another, then some extra taps and a faster beat.

'Cool, that's way better, and I didn't change too much...'

After a few moments a smile returned to the colt's face and a sense of freedom overtook him.

'Rumble's right, I have to convince Miss Steps that that old routine isn't any good...Thanks Rumble.'

---

Outside of the dancing school, now well on his way to class Rumble reviewed what had just happened.

'Why did that feel so awkward?'

Usually Rumble felt way more confident and in control of conversations, but when he spoke with Tender Taps, he suddenly felt cornered. It felt as if Tender Taps was watching his every move and word, looking for clues to read his mind.

But, the unusual thing was Rumble cared about what Tender Taps thought about him. He wanted to leave a good first impression, why?

'Uh, first cutie marks, then Scoots, now I'm losing my self confidence? Honestly, why am I having such a bad day?!', Rumble tried to focus on getting to the school and distracting himself with the short trot there.

Rumble sighed, 'Hopefully the CMC won't pester me, then I can get some time to clear my head or, more likely, just let me be distracted by school.'

Author's Note:

Ok y'all, I just want to say for those reading: This little story of mine is proving a little bit of a challenge. I have never written a "published" story before, and I've been taking my sweet time writing out scenes as they come to me; out of order.

I don't plan to crank-out chapters with any planned "frequency", I really just want to have fun, and I am having fun! So for those who actually like what I have going on here, thanks for the patience?

Comments

[Halojam]

I would read this instead of school literature

[Mix-up]

Still a bit stilted in the writing, but it was still a fun read, glade to see there wasn't any noticeable misspelling as before. Good job.

[Daemonabacus]

11461863
If you don't mind me asking, what do you think I could improve about my writing? I would appreciate the constructive criticism.

[Fic Demander]

so when's the next chapter?

[Daemonabacus]

11554116
How about right now?

[mrier27]

11462325

Grammar is the big one. Using “okay” instead of “ok” typically makes a piece of writing seem more professional, there’s also a handful of simple mistakes, such as:

"Whoa, that is upsetting...", Tender Taps was truly overwhelmed

Comma should be before quotations

'nice, maybe if I...'

“Nice” should have a capital n

You’re not consistent on whether it’s “Miss Steps” or “Miss. Steps” ((it should be the first one))

And a handful of others.

The last chapter had more, but that’s probably because you said you were tired when writing it.

Overall, I’d advise an editor and reading over it a couple times before publishing. I promise, it really is worth it. You can also probably go back and edit previous chapters for all these little mistakes.

Hope this was helpful - love the story and the ship so far. Happy writing!