As Chrome Shield and Sweetie Belle stepped into the orchestra room, they could clearly see that it was much larger than the receiving room they had just come from.

Stone columns reached up at least two stories to an elaborate roof over their heads. Half of the room was curved with huge windows that looked out on another garden, and the floor had a checkerboard pattern in black and white.

Along a far wall was the orchestra, that was already a ways into their first song. Over by the large windows, a few dozen couples were already dancing, hand-in-hand. On the opposite wall from the orchestra, were a few dozen tables with chairs, along with a number of ponies and stallions milling about.

Chrome took Sweetie’s hand, and led her over towards the area nearest the dance floor. As they waited for the next song to begin, he looked around trying to find something to begin a conversation about, and then looked up.

“I see they used flying buttresses in this room,” he said, pointing upwards to some of the curved columns overhead.

“What?” asked Sweetie Belle, squinting up. “Where are the flying butt dresses?”

“Those arches. The ones that are helping to support the ceiling.”

“Chrome, those aren’t butts.”

It was then that he realized what was going on, and gave a little laugh.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“You’ve really never heard of flying buttresses?”

“Nope. Is this some kind of inside joke you cadets know?”

“No. You see, the columns throughout the room, the curved portions coming out of them are instrumental in holding up the room, and the walls. Ergo, the weight of the room’s construction is all dependent on the columns and those curves.”

Sweetie Belle was silent for a few minutes. Chrome was saying words, but she wasn’t making a proper connection.

“If you say so,” she shrugged, trying to be polite.

A few moments later, the orchestra stopped, and there was a small bit of applause, as some couples left the dance floor area, and others headed towards it.

“Shall we go, madame?” asked Chrome, holding out his hand.

“Okay,” she said, following his lead out onto the floor.

A few moments later, they watched as the couples around them assumed normal dance posture: face-to-face, hand-in-hand.

“I…I don’t think I can do this,” she said. “I can’t dance, like them.”

“You don’t need to dance like them,” he said. “We can dance in our own way.”

“And what way is that?”

As the orchestra began to start up, Chrome’s brain raced furiously. He had had a number of daydreams where he was dancing with Sweetie Belle, but now he realized his dreams hadn’t taken into account just how big her chest was.

And then, a solution to his problem came to him.

Moving behind her, he placed his left hand on her waist, and extended out his right hand.

“What are you doing?” she asked, looking back at him.

“Improvising,” he said. “Now, put your right hand in mind, and place your left hand over mine on your waist.”

After she had done so, he began to guide her. Giving her a light push with his left hand towards the right, and then guiding her to move to the left, by shifting her right hand in his.

“What are we doing now?” she asked.

“We’re feeling the rhythm. Now, one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four, left-right, left-right.”

The couples around them danced gracefully as they rocked to-and-fro.

“How’s that?” he asked. “You feeling it?”

“You mean your leg?” she asked.

Chrome was lucky she couldn’t see him blush, as he realized his cock was already erect down his right pant-leg, and he knew just what she was feeling!

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered. “Now, think you’re ready to move your legs?”

“I think, we’re not in sync,” she said, as she looked at the graceful couples around them (a few of whom were watching their dance technique).

“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “Just keep feeling the rhythm.”

Eventually, the gentle swaying and the movement began to work. And by the time the dance was almost finished, they had found a decent rhythm with the rest of the dancers.

Chrome was making sure to not move too fast, as Sweetie Belle’s chest was in danger of swaying a bit too heavily from side-to-side. Her bra was providing some support underneath the dress, but Chrome wanted to be sure Sweetie Belle didn’t sway too much and pop out of it.

“How was that?” he asked. “You getting it?”

“Yeah…yeah, I think I am,” she replied.

“Good. Now when the next song starts up, lets try to move our hooves.”

And thus, the next phase of their dance lessons began.

Chrome counted softly into Sweetie Belle’s ear, before telling her to move her hooves in various directions.

It was rather painful for Chrome, as every other move (at first), resulted in her scraping her own hooves across his, and in some cases leading to an ungraceful clop of her hooves on the dance floor.

“Sorry,” she exclaimed almost every single time.

But it was a learning experience, and soon the amount of hoof-scuffing had been reduced by 80%.

The couple was soon swaying rhythmically to the music of the orchestra, turning gracefully in their own little area of the dance floor, as Chrome guided Sweetie along.

Finally after a few more dances, Sweetie Belle requested to take a break.

“And just as it was getting good too,” said Chrome.

“Well, when you want to carry these things around,” she said, pointing to here chest, “then we can go longer.”

The two soon found am empty table, and each took a seat.

As Chrome gazed upon Sweetie Belle’s mane, he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder.

Turning around, he found himself-face-to-face with two stallions in cadet dress. One had skin that was sky-blue, and wavy hair that was a mix of white and light violet. The other had steel-grey skin, and a tuft of black hair slicked back.

“I thought that hair out there looked familiar,” said the sky-blue stallion.

“Clear Sight, Steel Spirit!” declared Chrome, as he got up and gave his fellow cadets a firm handshake. “I was wondering if I was going to see you both here.”

“We were with our dates over in the DJ room for a bit,” said Steel. “Boy, can those ponies dance. And here I thought we were supposed to be enjoying ourselves tonight, not be put through training.”

“Where are your dates now?” asked Chrome, looking around.

“Over there,” said Clear, pointing to a group of ponies near a corner of the windows. “Chatting about…whatever ponies chat about.”

“Hmm,” said Sweetie Belle interjecting, looking perplexed. “And just what do us ponies chat about, sir?”

“Well, I see you got yourself quite a catch,” said Clear Sight, his eyes going straight to Sweetie’s chest.

“This is Sweetie Belle,” said Chrome. “Sweetie Belle, this is Clear Sight, and Steel Spirit. A few of my friends from the cadets.”

“How do you do?” She said, extending her hand out to them.

“A pleasure,” smiled Steel, shaking her hand.

When it came to Clear Shot, he surprised the young pony by taking her hand, and kissing it.

“Charmed, Ms Belle,” he said.

“You old smoothie,” smirked Chrome, socking his friend in the shoulder.

“Such well-mannered gentlecolts,” she said, as they sat down to her left, and Chrome to her right. “I have to say, this is all such a surprise. I didn’t think Chrome had any friends in the cadets.”

“H-hey,” said Chrome. “Now just a-“

“What makes you say that?” asked Clear. “You mean he hasn’t mentioned us in passing?”

“Nope,” she replied, shaking her luscious mane. “Not once.”

“Chrome?” said Steel, shooting a shocked look at the nervous stallion. “Bro…I thought we friends!”

“W-we are,” stuttered Chrome. “Look, I just-“

“Shame on you, Chrome,” said Sweetie, wagging her finger at him. “Shame-shame-shame-SHAME on you!”

“Look, this is all ridiculous, I mean, do you guys tell everyone you meet that you know me?” asked Chrome.

“Do I even know you?” smirked Steel.

“Hey, don’t start on that-“

“Let’s calm down, everypony,” declared Sweetie Belle, “I think some punishment is in order. Chrome, you can go and fetch us some drinks, while I get to know your friends. Does that sound okay with you, fellas?”

“Sounds fine with me,” said Steel. “How about four champagnes, Chrome?”

“Anyone wanna come help me?” he asked.

“Nope,” you can do it all on your own,” smiled Sweetie Belle. “Without. Your. Friends.”

Chrome just rolled his eyes as Sweetie sidled up to Clear Shot, gave his right bicep a squeeze, and started talking animatedly to him and Steel.

“She’s just as bad as her sister,” he mumbled to himself, as he headed towards the reception room.

There were lines for the portable bars in the room. It took some time, but he soon had 2 glasses of champagne apiece between the fingers of his hands, as he made his way back to the table. Once by his date’s side, he carefully placed a glass in front of each member of their party.

“Thank you very much, sir,” said Sweetie Belle, opening her clutch and pulling out a few bits. “Here, keep the change.”

Chrome’s mouth sunk to a smirk as his friends just laughed.

“Ha-ha-ha,” he said, sitting down.

“You really should have introduced us to her sooner, Chrome,” said Steel. “She’s a spunky one.”

“Everyone got their glass?” she asked. “Now, a toast, to friends!”

“To friends,” said Clear and Steel in unison.

The four gave their glasses a clink, and took a drink of the bubbly liquid.

“There, all better,” said Sweetie Belle, after taking a drink from her champagne, and patting Chrome on the shoulder. “Now, back to our discussion. Who do you think it was that set up the attack on Chrome, Clear Shot?”

Chrome flinched and almost spit out his champagne at what he was hearing.

“Guys, why are you telling her about that?” he asked.

“Hey, come on Chrome,” said Clear, “She was asking. Doesn’t she deserve to know?”

“But at this point, it’s just speculation,” noted Chrome.

“So what if it’s speculation?” said Sweetie Belle. “Even if it is, I want to know who you fellas think did it.”

“We don’t know all of the stallions who did it,” said Steel. “We’ve been listening during training, but whomever they are, they’re keeping real quiet. We are pretty sure however, that it was all set up by Brawny Bones.”

“Who’s he?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Remember when we had sandwiches a few months ago, and there was that one jerk in line?” asked Chrome.

“Uh-huh?”

“That…was Brawny Bones.”

“Do you think he was in that room when Chrome was attacked?”

“We don’t know for sure,” replied Steel.

“But why would he get these other cadets to do that?” asked Sweetie.

“We can think of a big one,” noted Clear. “Let’s just say Brawny’s a real ‘limp noodle’ compared to Chrome’s-“

“Guys, we’re at a dance,” interrupted Chrome.

“Compared to Chrome’s…what?” asked Sweetie.

Clear could see Chrome making hand gestures to not go any further, and tried to change the subject.

“So, I take it you really got a thing for Chrome here?” he asked. “Seeing as you’re all concerned.”

“I’m, we’re, just friends,” she replied. “I just feel it’s terrible and cowardly what was done to Chrome, and I would really like to see the ones who did this caught.”

“So would we,” said Steel. “We just don’t think it’ll happen. They even told us not to tell the newspapers-“

“They did?” asked Sweetie Belle. “How could they? This is serious-“

“Sweetie Belle,” said Chrome, handing her her glass of champagne. “You need to calm down. Like I told you before, I don’t like this whole situation anymore than you do. Now please, take a few deep breaths and have a drink, okay? Let me have a few words with the guys.”

“Okay,” she said, taking the drink and sipping from the glass.

As she glanced around the room, her eyes fell on the entry doors where she saw Shining Armor chatting with some other ponies in the receiving room. Noticing that Chrome seemed to be particularly into the conversation with his comrades, she suddenly hatched a plan.

“You know what, Chrome?” she said. “I think I’m gonna go and say hello to Shining Armor out in the main room. I haven’t seen him since I was a filly, you know.”

“Really?” asked Clear Sight. “You a friend of the family, Sweetie Belle?”

“She was in his wedding party,” noted Chrome. “She and her college roommates were the flower fillies.”

“Yeah, when I was younger,” said Sweetie Belle. “I’ve grown quite a bit since he last saw me.”

“You don’t say,” said Steel, as he and the other cadets chuckled at the comment. “Why don’t you go with her, Chrome? We can go over and see what’s been occupying our dates all this time-“

“No-no-no, that’s alright,” said Sweetie, quickly getting up. “It’ll, give me something to think about besides…well, you know. Besides, I’m sure you three got plenty to talk about. And when I come back Chrome, we can get out there and dance some more, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, a grin forming on his face.

“I’ll just take this with me,” said Sweetie, picking up her champagne glass. “Be back soon.”

And with the three cadets already preoccupied, Sweetie Belle made a beeline for the doorway, being careful not to plow into any ponies with her chest.

However, just as she was about to leave the room, a rather buff cadet loomed into view around the side of the doorway, and she bumped into him!

Fortunately, it wasn’t enough force to knock Sweetie Belle off of her hooves, but it was enough to make her drop her glass, and the two in the other stallion’s hands, that shattered on the floor at his hooves.

“Oh my gosh,” she gasped. “I am so sorry about that-“

“Stupid cow,” said the stallion, looking down at his hooves and back up at her, “why can’t you watch where you’re going-“

As they made eye contact, Sweetie Belle suddenly realized that she recognized him. The last time she had seen this stallion, it had been when she and Chrome had gone out for sandwiches…and even then, he had been very unpleasant.

“Oh, it’s you,” he smirked. “The busty broad whom Chrome Dome has that huge hard-on for. So how bout it, honey? You put out for that freak yet?”

Sweetie Belle’s lip trembled slightly. However, instead of answering, her horn glowed green, and magically, she picked up the broken glass on the floor beneath them, and deposited it in a nearby waste basket near the door.

“Excuse me,” she said quietly, and walked past him, trying to put as much distance between him and herself as possible.

Author's Note

And at last, we come to the dance…and, one can see why it’s better to show a dance than tell about it (imagine how boring it might be if I described the same thing multiple times).

This turned into another talking storyline, and I added in the names of a few friends that Chrome Shield gave me to use. I wasn’t really sure what to do with them at first, but I did like that Sweetie Belle has some fun with them at Chrome’s expense, let alone learns a bit more about the assault.

And yes, the stuff about flying buttresses is my little nod to Beauty and the Beast, though for much of this chapter, I was listening to some tracks from the score for Titanic.