Pony Prom

“Come on, you guys,” Inks called over the music blaring across the dance floor, “shake those flanks! I wanna see what you can do!”

“You’re seeing what I can do right now,” Willow groaned, standing like a statue beside Middy as she began bobbing gently back and forth to the music in front of him, “I don’t dance.” He paused to throw a dirty glance at the lantern floating behind him, “You stay out of this.”

“Why not?” Middy asked with a smirk, “I think you’d make a great dancer.”
“You used to dance,” came a voice from nowhere, it would have been more eerie were it not for the fact that Cheshire Grin had to yell to be heard over the pounding bass line of the music, “back when we were foals.” The unicorn mare appeared from thin air beside the couple, watching them with a relaxed grin as she wrapped a hoof around Inks.

“Yeah well we all did stupid things when we were young,” Willow snapped back in annoyance, his cheeks going pink, “didn’t we?”

“Aww, dancing’s not stupid, Willow,” Chesh said with a devious smirk, “it’s fun! If you loosen up a bit I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!”
Middy shrugged her shoulders, offering a hoof to Willow with a slightly defeated-looking smile, “She’s not going to leave us alone until we do it, so we might as well get it over with. Heck, maybe it’ll even be fun, y’know, with the right partner…”

“Yeah,” Willow turned on the spot and trotted back to the edge of the dance floor, “I’m not so sure. I’m going to find a drink.”

Midnight Estelle heaved a resigned sigh and turned to Chesh. The unicorn smiled somewhat apologetically. “Sorry,” Cheshire said, “he’s just kinda shy, always has been.”

“Good evening, cousin mine,” Clair waved Willow over to where he’d sat himself down at a table with Dream Weaver and Magpie, who’s shoes lay strewn about the immediate area, “why don’t you join us for a spell.”

Willow shrugged and joined the trio, taking up a chair across from Clair and between Dreamie and Magpie, both of whom seemed extremely happy to be off their hooves. “Where’s that lovely date of yours?”

“Back on the dance floor,” Willow spoke into his drink, not meeting his cousin’s eyes.

“And she doesn’t want you out there with her?”

“No, they want me out there,” he said, grimacing up at Clair, “that’s the problem.”

“So you don’t want to dance with her?”

“Yes,” he paused, “well, no, it’s not… it’s more complicated than that.”

“It is?” Clair shot back with a raised brow, “The way I see it, you either want to be together with her or you don’t,” he shook his head slowly, “there shouldn’t be more to it than that, don’t you think?

“I,” Willow sputtered, “well, it’s just… I…”

“You’re shy,” Clair said simply, “but there’s a simple cure for that, just listen to le médecin de famille de Chevalier.” The stallion stuck out a hoof just as Willow went to take a drink and placed it on the bottom of his glass, before gently, but firmly, angling the glass up so Willow was forced to drink the entire thing in one pull.

Coughing and sputtering Willow turned a glare on Clair and was about to bark something at him when the alcohol content of what he’d just drank hit him. His face flushed and he swayed slightly on the spot.

“Let’s see what that does for your shyness, shall we?”

“Clair, you are a…” But Clair never found out just what he was, for at that very moment, a glow of pink unicorn magic wrapped around Willow’s coat sleeve, turning his attention down to the small figure standing beside him.

“Clair,” Willow said, turning back to face the other pony once again, “was there something else in that drink, or is Cherry Bloom pulling me towards the dance floor?”

Clair leaned out from behind the table to see Cherry Bloom indeed using her magic to tug Willow in the direction of the dance floor. “Huh,” he said with a smirk, “I hope Middy isn’t the jealous type.” Dreamie and Magpie laughed at the curious sight.

“Mister Willow Wisp,” Cherry said, continuing to tug at his coat with a wide grin, “come on! It’s a dance, you should be dancing!”

“They’re not dancing,” Willow said, gesturing to the other ponies gathered around the table, “why don’t you make them go dance?”

“Miss Dream Weaver and Miss Magpie already danced lots,” she expounded, bouncing on the spot to get a better look at Clair, “and Clair’s gonna have to dance too!”

“How come,” Clair chimed in, pausing just long enough to give Willow a sense of false hope, “I’m the only one you don’t call Mister?” Willow’s face sunk and he stood up to let Cherry lead him back to the dance floor.

“Because sometimes you’re a Miss,” Cherry said with a knowing and dignified expression which only served to make her face cuter, Dreamie and Magpie both squee’d in delight, “and Onii-chan says it’s not nice to point out uncomfortable things!”
Clair paused to consider this before nodding his head and giving Cherry a smirk and a short bow, “Fair enough, Miss Bloom, fair enough.”

Willow sighed and relinquished control to Cherry Bloom, who immediately pulled him deep onto the dance floor.
“Sometimes I get the creeping suspicion,” Clair smiled into his drink, “that that foal is wiser than any of us.”

Midnight Estelle bobbed gently beside Cheshire and Inks, the couple had been insistent that she stay on the dance floor and though she kept her face a mask of neutrality, she had to admit inwardly that she was having fun. She wouldn’t be in any risk of being without a dance partner until a slow song came up, leading to more intimate one-on-one dances, but she wouldn’t get the chance to see how that would play out because, when they were roughly a song and a half into their three-way dance-a-thon then she felt a tug at the back of her dress and turned around to see Zest standing behind her in his little pinstriped suit, shuffling his hooves.

“Hi auntie Cheshire,” he said, smiling sheepishly at the three adult ponies, “I was wondering if I might be able to borrow Miss Midnight Estelle for a dance?”

Middy bit her lip to hide her expression of just how adorable she found this before she turned to regard Cheshire, who was desperately trying to hold back a smile while she put on a face of selfless generosity as she said, “Very well, I suppose I can let you have her for a dance or two.”

Zest nodded respectfully and offered Middy a hoof, she took it, shaking her head as she let a small smile play across her lips, and set about dancing with the foal. They held hooves and spun slowly, stepping about through the crowd in an awkward waltz. It didn’t fit the music at all, but Middy wasn’t going to knock the colt’s spirit, and everypony on the dance floor gave them a wide enough berth that they needn’t worry about running into anypony dancing in place as the music more likely called for. It seemed everypony around them was just as enamored with the little colt’s bravado as she and Cheshire were.

They spun through the crowd slowly for a few moments and Middy got so used to everypony stepping aside for them that she closed her eyes and was, for a spell, lost in the moment. She was brought back to reality, however, when she felt her flank, traveling backward through the crowded dance floor, crash into the flank of another pony!

Zest immediately let go of her and galloped off to grab the hoof of a filly who’d let go of the colt she’d just run into, it took Middy a moment to realize that it was Cherry Bloom and she watched as the pair took one another’s hooves and spun off into the crowd. She turned to see who she’d just run into and found Willow Wisp looking back at her. He scratched at his mane with a hoof, his face turning red as an apple before he reached out and offered his hoof to Middy. She lowered her eyes as she felt her face heat up, and after a moment of stunned silence she took his hoof, glancing up at him with a small smile, and the two ponies started to dance. She hadn’t even realized everypony was watching them until she felt the floor shaking with the thunderous sound of applauding hooves.