I should just say I forgive him. Fake it until you make it, right? Rainbow Dash thought to herself as Pinkie Pie rattled case “details” which was the same few places and names over and over. Scroot patiently listened to Pinkie’s loud and repetitive briefing as if she was providing new information that he’d never heard before, and her chatter seemed to be wearing on Rainbow’s nerves more than his. She began to think that maybe they had just gotten off on the wrong hoof and that they met under circumstances that had simply evolved from bad to worse.

The brakes squealed as the train slowed to a halt and the passenger car doors released the occupants. A voice on the intercom announced their arrival in Manehattan’s south train terminal while many of the ponies were filing out of the car and a few were boarding.

“So, do we go trotting into Carneighie Hall, 8 ponies deep, or… what’s the plan here?” Applejack asked as they followed Scroot off the train and into the Manehattan station. The royal guards landed shortly after they had arrived, in their full formal pegasus amour, which earned a lot of attention from other ponies in the main courtyard of the station.

“Well, I think we should set up a place to meet.” Scroot said while nodding toward a coffee shop in the food court to the west of the courtyard. “I think you ponies should sit tight there, I’ll go to Carneighie Hall with the royal guards.”

“I thought you wanted my help.” Rainbow Dash protested. “Sitting in a coffee shop doesn’t sound very productive.”

“I’ll go get us a table.” Fluttershy said quietly and began toward the shop.

“Wait,” Pinkie put a fore-hoof on Fluttershy’s chest to stop her, “We’re not going unless you Pinkie Promise to come and get us before you do anything with Trixie.”

Scroot rolled his eyes, “Sure, whatever.”

“Pinkie Promise!” The little pink pony squealed.

“Don’t agree unless you mean it.” Rarity warned, “A Pinkie Promise is serious business.”

Scroot slowly turned to Rarity with his brow furrowed and said, “What?”

Rarity nodded confidently, “I know what it sounds like, but trust me.”

Scroot smiled, gave her a wink, and then turned back to Pinkie, “I cross my heart.”

“…and?” Pinkie said while leaning toward him.

“And what?” Scroot shrugged, “I Pinkie Promise that I won’t do anything to Trixie. I will only observe and report.”

Rarity whispered in Scroot’s ear. He rolled his eyes and repeated what she had said, “Cross my heart. Hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Pinkie’s eye brow slowly crawled up her forehead until it reached maximum extension, “Do you mean it?”

Scroot groaned, turned to the royal guards, and said, “Guys, you’re with me.”

“Yes, sir.” They acknowledged in unison.

Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack trotted away to the coffee shop while Pinkie stared down Scroot for a few moments before joining her friends. Rarity watched Scroot walk with the guards and had a sickening feeling in her stomach. Her face tingled with the fear that Scroot may run into trouble and that she may not see him again. Even though they were after only one pony, Trixie had proven that she was capable of being very dangerous, and that made Rarity tense. She called his name and galloped after him.

Scroot stopped just outside the building under the L-train’s catwalk and turned to her as she neared them, “What’s wrong, Rarity?”

“I want you to know that I am going to worry.” Rarity said as she stopped just in front of him.

Scroot laughed, “This isn’t my first rodeo, hon. I’ll be okay. I promise.”

“Well, I don’t like it.” Rarity said firmly. “I recognize that you know what you’re doing, but that doesn’t help. I am going to be scared for you while you’re gone, and I will need you to return to me unharmed, is that clear?”

“I will.” Scroot smiled, “For you.”

“Right, then…” Rarity hesitated for a moment, but cast inhibitions aside and suddenly kissed Scroot. The kiss was light, yet deep and emotional. She didn’t let it go on for too long, and she pulled away from him quickly which caused a sharp pop from their lips. She gave him a tiny smile and then cantered back to the coffee shop without another word.

* * *

Envoy’s fur felt disgusting. Her own mane repulsed her, and the feeling of her own skin simply made her feel dirty. It was a level of violation that she had only feared from her worst nightmares, and it required a significant amount of effort to refuse the urge to collapse on the sidewalk, curl up, and cry her eyes out.

Ponies shouted and screamed as Envoy trotted into traffic without even attempting to use the crosswalk. She said nothing back to them as her tunnel vision directed her to the L-train to leave Manehattan with the intention of never returning. She pushed past the saxophone player as she made her way up the stairs and ignored his cursing at her. She was shoving ponies side to side as she forced her way toward the train, and the saxophone player was just behind her and shouting obscenities. She was so focused that she didn’t even notice pushing Scroot aside as he got off the train.

Scroot grabbed her tail with his mouth after he had called her name for the fourth time, and Envoy snapped a fast buck with her right rear hoof which caught Scroot just under his left eye. Both royal guards blocked Envoy’s entry, and she walked into their torsos as if they were a brick wall. She looked up at them, realized who they were and turned to see who she had kicked. Scroot was still rubbing his face with a hoof and shaking his head.

“Is this the suspect?” One of the guards asked.

“No, this is my partner. She’s okay.” Scroot explained.

“Your partner? She just kicked you in the face.” The guard said with a raised brow.

Scroot pressed his mouth into a thin line, “Thank you for pointing that out, sir. I hadn’t noticed.” Scroot patted Envoy on the back, “Look, we have an interesting relationship. That’s all.”

“She’s not at-” Envoy began quietly, but stopped speaking over the saxophone player shouting at the royal guards that Envoy had assaulted him.

One guard nodded to the street performer, “We’ve got this under control, sir. Please move along.”

The player turned his attention to Envoy while continuing to shout and carry on. The guard stepped closer the pony and stood over him, “Shut your mouth and walk away.” His voice was soft, and yet his presence was intense.

The street performer became silent as he sized up the guard, whom was a giant compared to him, and then he simply shook his head and made his way back down to the street while grumbling profanity at them.

Envoy continued, “She’s not at Carneighie Hall, Scroot. Can we please get out of here?”

Scroot opened his mouth to ask her about the interview, but stopped and took a moment to study Envoy’s face as she spoke. The corners of her mouth quivered downward with each syllable, and the inside of her eyebrows were intensely pointing to her horn. He nodded to her and spoke softly, “Yeah, we’ll head back to the station and figure out where to go from there, okay?”

Envoy didn’t say anything, but she took the nearest seat by the door they were standing in. Scroot sat next to her and the guards sat across from them. Many ponies that Envoy had shoved past were on the train, but they appeared indifferent to her impatience upon boarding.

The train began its journey back to the main station, and quite a while had passed before Scroot asked, “You want to talk about it?”

Envoy continued to stare into the floor and didn’t respond. She briefly scratched behind her ear with her right fore-hoof and returned it to the bench as she hunched over. She swore that she could smell the attacker on her body, and she almost wanted to skin herself alive to rid herself of the stench.

“What happened to your shirt?” Scroot asked quietly.

“Shut the fuck up, Scroot.” Envoy whispered.

Scroot nodded and remained mute until the train arrived at the south station. The guards and investigators made their way off the train and trotted into the coffee shop where they found the other ponies in the north-east corner. Rarity and Fluttershy were on a red loveseat which was across from Pinkie Pie and Applejack who were on a matching couch that rested against the east wall. Rainbow Dash was settled in a recliner against the north wall between the loveseat and couch at the head of a low and long oak table that spanned the length of the couch. Envoy sat down in a round chair to the right of the loveseat and rested her face on her fore-hooves. Scroot joined them next to Applejack on the furthest cushion of the couch while the royal guards chose to stand.

“Are you okay, Envoy?” Fluttershy asked, but was ignored.

A tan pegasus that was sitting on a small brown stool just behind their loveseat tapped Rarity and asked, “Why are they escorted by Royal Guards? Are they in a band or something?”

Scroot simply said, “No autographs, please.”

The pegasus smiled big, “Oh, wow! Who are you, guys?”

“We’re on official business, and we can’t discuss it.” Rarity explained curtly and then turned back to Scroot and gave him a smile.

The pegasus recoiled from Rarity’s brash dismissal, and then scoffed while returning to his attention to his own space.

“So, what did you find out?” Pinkie Pie asked Envoy, and she was ignored as well.

The group stared at Envoy who had given into her brain’s commands to be overcome with weeping. Envoy strained hard to stop herself from sobbing further and lifted her head while sucking in a large breath. She stared at the ceiling for a moment and flapped a hoof over her face to dry the tears.

She let out her breath slowly and began, “A… witness…” She growled, cleared her throat, and then continued in her usual gentle voice, “Said that Trixie is a dancer at a strip club called The Plot. We just need to find out where that is.”

“I know that place,” Scroot said. “Prostitution was pretty rampant there back in the day.”

“Envoy, please tell us what’s wrong.” Fluttershy pressed.

Envoy blew air and shook her head. She looked at Fluttershy and began, “The witness… the manager of the Carneighie Hall…” and then she stopped. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything more. She had just calmed herself down, and the words felt heavy like they were going to rip her composure right out from under her, “Look, I need a new shirt, and to be left alone about it until much later than right now.”

“So, you are okay?” Fluttershy asked again.

Envoy sighed and nodded weakly, “I’m about as okay as I’m going to be right now, but really I don’t want to talk about it.”

Applejack nodded, “Alright, I’m sure that y’all are tired of hearing this from me, but what’s the plan here?”

Scroot began, “We’ll all go on the train to 3rd Avenue where the club is. Envoy and I will go inside and see if we can find her.”

“And if you can’t?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Envoy and I will have to do some interviews with the dancers. Discreetly though because, as you can imagine, the management there isn’t too friendly to police officers asking questions. The strippers can be nice regular folks, but the security assholes are something completely different.” Scroot said.

“So, if you’re trying to do this discreetly, why are we parading around royal guards in full armor?” Rainbow Dash asked while pointing a hoof at the guards.

“I thought of that,” Scroot said, “Rarity, I need you to come up with something that will make them look like club security. We need them to look at lot less clean cut. The bouncers at The Plot are like a revolving door of sociopaths, so they likely won’t notice if a couple more stallions are standing around in there.”

Rarity nodded to Scroot and then to the guards, “Sirs, if you will follow me to the little shop across the street, I will get you outfitted.”

They silently agreed to follow her request as she led the way out of the coffee shop.

“Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy,” Scroot said, “It probably hasn’t changed a lot since much of their income was under the table. Anyway, it’s a shotgun building like a trailer, but the front entrance is on the narrow east side, and the back door is the west side. I need each of you to standby at each entrance so if Trixie is there, and she manages to escape us, you can follow her from the sky so we won’t lose her.”

As the pegasi acknowledged their assignment, Scroot continued, “Pinkie, I need you at the back entrance to watch from the ground while Fluttershy will be waiting to give chase from the air.”

“Got it.” Pinkie said with a nod.

Scroot briefly put his hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “And same thing with you, but at the front entrance with Rainbow Dash.”

“Alright, then we’re ‘bout ready to get to it?” Applejack asked.

“As soon as Rarity gets back, we’ll head out.” Scroot nodded.

“I hope she comes my way.” Pinkie Pie grumbled to herself, but loud enough for everypony to hear her. “Seriously, I almost hope she gets away, comes out that back door, and I get the chance to hurt her.”

Fluttershy looked over Pinkie with concern for her friend’s mental health while Applejack put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder and said, “I understand how y’all feel, sugar cube, but I really just want this to go well. I hope none of us get hurt, and we do it all clean like.”

Pinkie gave a chuckle, “I don’t think you get how badly I want to make Trixie bleed.”

“I’m… um… I’m going to get another macchiato. Do you want anything?” Fluttershy asked.

Applejack briefly looked around the company and then back to Fluttershy, “I think we’re all good, but thanks, sugar cube.”

Fluttershy nodded and then she stepped off the loveseat and cantered to the service counter.

“Well, Rainbow.” Applejack started while holding her coffee between her fore-legs to take a sip, “What was bein’ in the slammer like?”

Scroot watched Rainbow Dash to see her reaction while she had done the same to him. He downcast his eyes and pretended like he wasn’t paying attention.

“Dude, it’s cool.” Dash said to Scroot, “It’s not an elephant in the room or whatever. I can talk about it and it’s whatever.”

Scroot gave her a smile, “Thanks.”

“It’s not for you. It’s just easier on everypony else, you know?” Dash chuckled, and then she turned to Applejack, “It was cold in there, AJ.”

“Kept you in a freezer, did they?” Applejack said as put her drink back on the table.

Rainbow Dash nodded while swirling her coffee with her wing, “For real. And the food was just awful. I mean it wasn’t like bad quality food with maggots and mold growing on it or anything, but it was bland and tasteless.”

“You at least make any friends?” Applejack asked with a smile.

Dash started to answer, but just smiled and shook her head. She watched Pinkie Pie glare into the floor as the pink pony imagined herself in hoof-to-hoof combat with Trixie.

She nudged Pinkie’s shoulder, “I missed you.”

Pinkie looked up and gave Dash a smile, “I missed you, too, Dashie. It’s been a rough few days on all of us.”

“You got that right.” Applejack said while trying to get a few more drops of coffee from her empty cup.

Pinkie continued, “It’s like my whole life completely turned into a different thing, all at once. One minute, I’ve got all my friends around, and we’re putting together another big project, and then… three of them were gone, just like that.” She concluded with a clap of her fore-hooves.

“I know what you mean.” Rainbow Dash said, “Like a nightmare that won’t end.”

“Right.” Pinkie agreed, “I’m just so pissed about this whole thing, and I want it to be over so I can begin to adjust to our new normal.”

“So, what do you think?” Rarity announced her return with an exaggerated wave of her hoof to the royal guards that were standing at her side. She had given them black t-shirts that fit tightly over their swollen muscles, baseball caps to conceal their faces, and black low-profile saddlebags that covered their cutie marks. She had even used her make up to create convincing looking scars on their faces and bodies.

“These boys look tough.” Applejack said, “I think you did great.”

“Why thank you, darling.” Rarity said as she inconspicuously placed a black button up shirt on Envoy’s lap.

“Thank you so much.” Envoy said and gave a pained smile. She slipped off her blouse and put on the new shirt while her magic removed the tags and buttoned it up. The old shirt floated away in Envoy’s magic and stuffed itself into a trashcan by the counter.

Fluttershy returned from the counter with a small coffee cup in her wing and looked over the guards, “Wow, they’re so incognito.”

“So, are we ready to go or what?” Pinkie asked loudly.

“Yes, we’re ready.” Scroot nodded to Pinkie as he stood and began to make his way back to the train. The others followed close behind him, and the royal guards brought up the rear. They trotted up the stairs and filed onto the boarding platform just as the northbound train stopped in to load and drop off passengers. They boarded the train silently as everypony else did, and they rode silently as everypony else did as well. They appeared to be just another group of commuters simply going about their lives. As the L arrived over the intersection of Cantle Road and 3rd Avenue, Scroot pointed out the club that could be seen from the train platform. The ponies got off the train and followed Scroot and Envoy down the Avenue to the club.

The Plot was a narrow building but fairly decent in size. The 900 square meter concrete and stone building used to be an office which had windows surrounding the exterior, but the entire outside surface of the structure was painted a deep black and the windows were covered in an expanding powder coat rubber that made them completely opaque. The front entrance had an awning that covered a cheap wooden ramp which led to a black steel double door. A purple neon tube curved and looped to spell out The Plot on the transom, and the ramp was lined with dark red velvet ropes which were connected by aluminum posts that were poorly painted gold.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash took their positions in front of the entrance ramp, and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie started around the rear of the building.

Scroot, Rarity, and Envoy entered the first room of the club. It was extremely small, and could only fit two average sized ponies in front of the cover window. The stallion in the window simply stated that the cover charge was 10 bits, and didn’t check for their identifications or any proof whatsoever that they were of age. The disguised royal guards were close behind the investigators as they entered the main room of The Plot.

The room was narrow and had a bar with servers dressed in lingerie along the east wall. The west wall had two small, circular stages in the north and south corners and both had chrome poles coming from the center of the circle and rising into the ceiling. The main stage in the center of the west wall was rectangular and had two poles about a meter from each corner of the stage edge. The south wall had three doors; one was a male restroom, another was a female restroom, and the one farthest to the east was a bead door that had the letters “VIP” above it. Bisecting the room long-ways was a series of booth seating for customers.

The seats were simply pillows on the floor in front of a half-circle back rest. Twelve seating crescents faced west and were back to back with a symmetrical, east facing set of seats. These areas had no tables and the ponies that occupied the space simply placed their drinks on the floor in front of them.

A unicorn stallion with slicked back green mane was in a sound booth between the south and center stage. He bobbed his head with the punching beat of the electronic music as he moved sliders on the soundboard, changed vinyl records on the turntables, and seamlessly blended one driving, bass-heavy song into another.

The first thing Scroot noticed was that the royal guards were much larger than the security ponies working in the club. He thought, so much so that every bouncer in the building could try to fight them, and the royal guards would probably come out on top.

The royal guards took positions at the north and south end of the bar while Scroot, Envoy, and Rarity wandered to one of the unoccupied booths between the bar and the stage and sat down with Rarity between the investigators. They blended in well with the surrounding customers being that their clothing matched the casually-formal style. The stallions around them were tossing bits onto the stages to compliment the mares’ perversely sexualized dances, and the waitresses were strutting with an attention grabbing sway while navigating through the gawking males.

Although it wasn’t out of the ordinary for ponies to go nude in public, it was crass for a mare to flaunt her genitals openly and just as equally tactless for a stallion to show-off an erection. Additionally, to call attention to somepony that was exposed, especially somepony that one didn’t know, was considered indecent and extremely rude. In The Plot, though, the entire idea was to get the naked ponies together and blatantly ignore all of those societal rules. It was certainly laughable that they created the club with the expectation that prostitution wasn’t going to happen.

A dark red pegasus mare with brilliant long gold mane stopped by their booth and, without warning, sat in between Scroot’s legs. She scooted her butt between his legs while she looked back at him. Rarity swelled with anger, but Scroot appeared nonplussed and disinterested with the display so she attempted to calm herself.

“Can I get you something to loosen you up, babe?” The server asked, and she softly touched Scroot’s chest with her wing.

“A soda, two light beers, and a pack of full-flavor 100s.” Scroot said simply, “And I’m not tipping you, so fetch us those drinks, and leave the show out of the service, alright?”

The server stood quickly and draped her tail over his head, “I don’t need a tip, baby. I do this for fun.”

Scroot was surprised by the sudden assault of her genitalia being inches from his nose, and he had heard nothing she had said over the music, but she left them and was headed toward the bar, so Scroot assumed that she had heard him correctly. He glanced over to Rarity and she was surprisingly smiling at him.

Rarity looked at all of the different styles negligees and thought to herself that there were so many missed opportunities to use the frames for very pretty dresses. She admired some of the dancer’s hard bodies and color coordination with their minimal clothing. Rarity had never been in a strip club before, and she shared a quiet chuckle with herself because, in a society where ponies were nude in public all the time, the dancers put on clothes just for the purpose of taking them off again. Funny, she thought.

But, Envoy felt as if she had placed herself willingly into the stocks of Tartarus as she watched mares placing their flanks willingly into the crotches of strangers. She felt like it was a slap in the face to any female with self-respect. They were taking these stallions’ money and allowing them to treat them as objects as if they were owned property being rented for a short time. She moved over on the seating to be closer to Scroot while her effort in concealing her anger caused her face to twist into a hard glare. She couldn’t stop thinking of Carneighie Hall and how badly she wanted to keep that strange pony from touching her, but she couldn’t. She just could not see why any mare would subject herself to such voluntary torture.

Rarity leaned over, “Are you alright, darling?” She almost had to shout over the music which caught Scroot’s attention.

“I’m not okay.” Envoy said. “This is just… awful and disgusting.”

Scroot leaned forward to join the conversation, “These girls want money, and these guys want pussy in their face. It sounds like an even trade.”

“Listen, at Carneighie Hall, the manager was a stallion named Green Berry.” Envoy said. She scowled her attackers name as if she had stepped on a rusty nail while she said it.

“A well-dressed asshole with white mane?” Scroot asked.

“That’s the one.” Envoy said with a suspicion that Scroot knew him.

“I’m surprised he could get hired at a respectable establishment like the Hall. He’s a creeper that we picked up a few times for sexual battery, but he’d…” Scroot paused as Envoy frowned hard and nodded slowly as if to silently say that makes sense. “Did he-?”

“Oh, my gosh, Envoy. That’s terrible!” Rarity exclaimed and touched Envoy’s hoof, “It’s no wonder, dear. My goodness, do you want to get out of here?”

“I’ll be okay, Rarity. I’d actually prefer we just pretend it didn’t happen.” Envoy said.

“You want me to send the guards back there to pick him up?” Scroot asked.

“No.” Envoy said and she waved her hoof, “I’d really just like for it to go away.” Envoy said, “It’s over and done with. It’s… It’s just… these stupid girls have no idea what kind of bullshit they’re inviting on themselves. That’s all I’m trying to say.”

The server returned with two draft beers, a soda, and a pack of cigarettes, “That’ll be 13 bits, and all we have are shorts, honey.”

Scroot gave the server a hard glare and said, “If there was even a slight chance you were getting a tip before, you can forget it now.”

The pegasus gave a cute giggle because she thought he was joking, but his stone features and cold stare as he gave her 13 bits exactly told her that he was not. She frowned at the money, and then frowned at Scroot. “You’re a fuckin’ asshole, you know that?”

“I know, I know.” Scroot said while lighting his cigarette on Envoy’s horn.

The server scoffed and started to say something else, but cleared her throat, reeled back her anger, and stood up straight with her eyes closed. She let out a slow breath and then gave Scroot a lighthearted smile, “Okay, if you need anything, just let me know, sir.”

Scroot didn’t look at her, “Okay.” He leaned back against the seat and let out the smoke as the server left them.

“So, I don’t see Trixie.” Rarity said nonchalantly while taking a sip of the soda.

“Envoy doesn’t drink, babe.” Scroot told Rarity.

Rarity glanced at the cup and then Envoy, “Oh, I’m sorry dear. You don’t mind my cooties, do you?” She said while putting the soda back onto the floor in front of them.

“Babe?” Envoy parroted while casually scanning the room.

“Don’t make me explain it right now.” Scroot said while looking around to all the dancers in the room. Trying to see a blue pony in the strobe lights, lasers, and multi-colored LEDs was proving difficult.

“What, are you two banging now?” Envoy asked.

“Not right this second.” Scroot smirked.

Rarity rolled her eyes playfully, “No, we are not ‘banging’ as you may call it, but we are exploring some feelings at the moment.” Rarity explained while taking a swig of her beer, “Scroot, this tastes like urine.”

“Well, you’ve learned your first fact about your new special somepony: He likes old gelding beer.” Envoy chuckled and then she nudged Scroot, “What now… babe?”

“We’ll start talking to the dancers. You have any bits?” Scroot said, and Rarity gave him a hard look.

Envoy cocked her head, “You want me to invite strangers into my personal space to get case information? Did I not tell you what happened today?”

“You don’t have to get dances, but we will have to tip them if we want them to talk to us.” Scroot explained while leaning into the walkway between the bench seats on which they were sitting and the main stage to their left and waved at a white mare that was sitting at a table by herself.

Rarity raised a brow at Scroot, “Sure, you’re going to invite young mares into your lap solely for the investigation.”

“Scroot, I don’t know about this.” Envoy said nervously. “I’ve never seen you… you know…”

“Come on, don’t make this weird, and try to act natural, okay?” Scroot said while accepting a wink from the mare. She nodded and waved to two other dancers that were coming from the bar, and the three of them trotted to their booth.

“Hey, honey.” The white earth-pony mare greeted. She brushed her short scarlet hair that was parted in the middle and framed her face, “I’m Sparkle, and these are my friends; Ruby and Ace.”

Ruby was a thickly built unicorn mare with a smooth green coat and bright orange mane which was spiked into a lazy looking mohawk, and Ace was a slender but muscular yellow pegasus with a long black mane that had the back of his head shaved.

Scroot looked at his partner and gave a tiny nod toward the two dancers that Sparkle had brought with her. Envoy took a deep breath, act natural. She thought to herself.

“Sparkle, why don’t you have a seat next to me?” Scroot offered while sliding 5 bits from his bag toward her.

The white earth pony chuckled as she took a few steps closer, made a point to put her rear-end close to his face, and then she sat on her haunches on Scroot’s right which forced Rarity away from him.

Envoy nodded to Ace, gave a clearly insincere smile, and patted the seat on her right. Ace took the invitation and sat uncomfortably close to her with his chest against her right shoulder. Act natural, Envoy.

“There’s room for you, too.” Scroot said to Ruby while he pointed to the seat on his left. As she joined them, Scroot put a hoof on each mare’s back, “Can I ask you ladies some questions?”

“Is that it?” Ruby said. “I was really hoping to shake my butt for you.”

“Well, my wife and I are celebrating 10 years today.” Scroot lied as he pointed to Envoy with his head.

Ace ran his hoof down Envoy’s back and scooted closer to her, “Oh, congratulations!”

“That’s awesome.” Sparkle said while leaning onto Scroot’s chest. Rarity watched them touching her stallion and felt like they were stealing from her. She remained silent in her effort to contain her anger.

“This is my anniversary present; coming here to get revved up.” Scroot continued. Envoy stared at him and hoped that he wasn’t asking her to say anything. She wasn’t confident in adlibbing, and the dancers appeared to be buying his story.

“So, who is this?” Ruby asked giving a brisk nod to Rarity.

“Her marefriend.” Scroot said simply.

Ruby gave a smile and looked over Rarity as if she was a Las Pegasus all-you-can-eat buffet and slowly said, “Nice.”

“You want me to rev you up, baby?” Ace whispered in Envoy’s ear.

She lost her fake smile and pushed lightly against Ace’s chest, “No, thank you. This is for him, really.”

Ace backed off and allowed Envoy her own space, “Alright, but I do hope you change your mind.”

Envoy levitated 5 bits from Scroot’s bag and put it in front of Ace, “I won’t.”

Rarity watched Scroot flirting heavily with the two mares and recognized that her frustration was misplaced and unreasonable, but she blurted anyway, “Scroot, is there something you wanted to ask these fillies?”

Scroot gave Rarity a look. He tried his best to mutely say, let me work my magic and do the job right, but he gave up on trying to telepathically communicate, nodded to her, and then turned his attention back to the dancers, “I’m really enjoying myself so far, but I am having a small issue.” He told the mares.

Ruby rubbed his shoulders and nibbled his ear, “Anything I can help you with, baby?”

“Well, you ladies are very nice, but I’m looking for one unicorn in particular. I heard incredible things about her, and I wanted to… well, you know… take her for a spin.” Scroot said while tipping Ruby one bit at a time.

“Who is she? Maybe we can share you with her.” Sparkle suggested.

Scroot gave a chuckle, “Well, she is new here, and-”

“Scroot!” Rarity quietly called.

“Rarity, seriously, chill out.” Scroot growled, but his angry glare was deflected by Rarity staring with wide eyes at the center stage.

The loud hiss of fog machines ejecting a thick white cloud which rose from the center stage caught Scroot’s attention. The stallion in the sound booth lowered the music and brought a microphone up from his table to announce the dancer that was making her way to the stage as a cornflower unicorn mare with jet black mane strutted from the smoke and struck a confident pose. Her purple cloak draped over her body was wrapped around her neck and held together by her magic like a transparent brooch in the center of her chest. The sparkling pink magic separated and slowly pulled the front of the cloak open and back as if to dramatically reveal her body, but all Scroot saw was the healing, and yet suspiciously fresh, bite mark on the dancer’s leg.

Author's Note

I'll get illustrations done eventually, but this chapter did not cooperate with me for the longest time.