Sweat ran down Clickspring's forehead and dripped off his muzzle while he worked on the sluice leading to the overshot water wheel of his home. Built of strong planks of rot-resistant cedar the aqueduct leaked here and there but mostly held together well, especially considering it's age.

He stood on a small wooden bridge over the rushing water, right at the end of the sluice where it emptied onto the top of the wheel. He held a large wooden rake in his hooves and plunged it down into the water, then pulled it up along the vertical slats of a filter grate and hauled a mat of sodden leaves and twigs out of the water. Awkwardly manoeuvring the rake over the edge of the sluice, he banged it against the wooden side, knocking the mess off. As he watched it fall about ten meters to splash into the river he pushed his square glasses up onto his muzzle and pressed them firmly in place. The return enchantment would probably work if they fell off into the river but he didn't want to risk it failing or damaging the expensive lenses.

He turned back to the filter for another rakeful of dead tree. After a few more scrapes and dumps, the channel was clear and the water flowed freely. He climbed down from the bridge and hung the rake back up onto its hooks. With that chore taken care of he would have a bit more power to run the machines in his workshop. He sighed, wiped sweat off his forehead and started the short trot along the walkway that ran beside the elevated wooden channel. The wood part of the sluice ended at the top of a hill, where it turned into a stone-lined water channel which brought river water from a few kilometres upstream.

Clickspring was emphatically not looking forward to doing this task after the Running of the Leaves. He'd have to clean the whole damn thing out, from where it connected to the river all the way to the wheel.

"Mr. Cliiiickspriiing!"

He stopped, looked over the edge and saw the brown and grey bulk of Dirt Nap down below, waving one of his large hooves. He was wearing a bright yellow safety vest and a yellow hard hat.

Clickspring waved back and hollered over the rush of water, "Hey, Nap! How goes?"

"Ah'm good! Can we jaw fer a bit?" The other stallion looked around nervously and yelled up, "Private like?"

'As in not yelling at one another out in the open for anypony to hear,' thought Clickspring. He could only think of one thing that the big earth stallion would want to discuss with an old fag like himself, and that certainly should be done in private.

"I'll be right down!"

It was only a few minutes hoofing to where the sluice walkway met the hillside next to Clickspring's shop, then a slithering trot down the steep grassy slope to meet Nap. Clickspring felt weirdly unsettled and nervous and wondered if this was how fathers felt when that had 'that talk' with their sons. He pointed to the stone mill building and said, "We can go inside if you want. It's about time for lunch anyway."

Dirt nap nodded. "Sounds good. Ah bought mah lunch. Ah gotta eat quick and git back to work, but ah needed to talk to you."

"Ok."

Clickspring led the way to a side door on the mill, which let them directly into the kitchen. While he busied himself with getting the heavy iron kettle filled and onto the stove, Dirt Nap set his yellow helmet down on the table and got a paper wrapped sandwich and a steel vacuum flask out of pockets on his safety vest.

Dirt Nap settled himself on one of the too-small wooden chairs and said, "Mighty nice place you got here. Must be, whut, two, three hun'erd year old?"

"Something like that, yeah," Clickspring said while poking around inside of his water-cooled refrigerator looking for something he felt like eating. "So, what did you need to talk to me about?"

The earth pony chewed on his gruyère cheese and alfalfa sprouts sandwich for a few minutes then drank some coffee from his vacuum flask. Clickspring set a bowl of berries and yoghurt onto the table for his own lunch.

When Dirt Nap finally spoke it was like the words were being dragged out of him. "Ah... Ah was wonderin'… H-how did you know? About. Y'know… Yer likin' stallions?"

Standing near the stove waiting for the kettle Clickspring said, "My sire asked me the same thing when I came out to him. Actually, he first asked me if I'd already had sex with another stallion." He chuckled and shook his head. "Pretty bucking rude really. But I hadn't, so I guess it was a fair question."

He glanced over at Dirt Nap who looked as nervous as a big earth pony munching on a cheekful of sandwich could. He was ruggedly handsome, well muscled, young and he smelled of sweat, earth and smoke. Clickspring's magically over-stimulated libido flashed his mind with a brief fantasy of being underneath Dirt Nap, getting his rump thoroughly ploughed.

Grunting in annoyance he shook his head and tried to get his thoughts back under control.

"Erm… Well, I guess I'd always known I wasn't like the other colts but it took me a long time to figure out why. I liked the things that colts are supposed to like; mucking around in the creek, superpony comics, helping my sire build stuff around the house. But I also like things fillies are supposed to like; playing with dolls, looking pretty, cooking." He shrugged and said, "I had sex fantasies with mares and stallions in them, but I didn't know what bisexuality was. I thought I had to be either straight or gay and since I didn't want to have foals, 'gay' seemed to fit."

Dirt Nap nodded and slurped down some more coffee.

The kettle's whistle started to shriek so Clickspring carefully grasped its wooden handles in his hooves and filled a mug, then threw in a tea bag. He casually asked, "Do you like stallions?"

Dirt Nap choked on his sandwich, coughed and gurgled while Clickspring stared and hoped he wouldn't need to have his back pounded or an abdominal thrust. That would involve way too much touching and the Curse would probably kill him… or at least make him wish it had killed him.

Grabbing his coffee flask Dirt Nap gulped down a swallow while his eyes watered. Seeing that he was going to be ok, Clickspring finished making his tea and sat down at the table.

"Ah, ah don't rightly know." Dirt Nap gasped and pounded his chest with one hoof.

Clickspring shoved his muzzle down into his bowl and slurped up a mouthful of berries and deliciously sour rotten milk.

Dirt Nap took another bite out of his, by Clickspring's standards, gigantic sandwich. After chewing enthusiastically he swallowed and said, "Ah just cain't see mahself with a mare, raisin' foals. Jus' feels wrong somehow."

"You ever fantasise about stallions though? Think about them when jerking off?"

"N-no. Uh, but ah've had dreams sometimes where ah, uh…"

Clickspring licked yoghurt off of his muzzle and grinned, "Give yourself a blowjob?"

Dirt Nap grunted and nodded while munching on another mouthful of bread, cheese and sprouts.

"Oh, everypony with a cock has that dream. Some mares as well I'd wager. I used to know a pegasus who could reach; gave us a demonstration at a party this one time."

Clickspring chuckled and shook his head at the memory, then said, "No, having that dream doesn't mean that you're gay. Any gayer than any other stallion anyway. You've never daydreamed about a stallion you know?"

Shaking his head Dirt Nap said, "Nope, though, ah kinda… Well, it's a mite gross."

"Nap, I don't think it could possibly be any grosser than the things we've talked about at the sessions. Especially Pinkie Pie, the Element of Splatter."

"Bwah ha ha haaa!" Crumbs sprayed out of Dirt Nap's mouth and scattered across the table, making Clickspring wince as a few landed in his bowl.

After a moment Dirt Nap settled down and said, "It's just, ah really like the smell, in the changin' room at work." Dirt Nap's ears flattened and he scowled. "Ah'm a colt cuddler, ain't ah?"

Clickspring sighed and pushed his half-eaten lunch to one side and said, "Maybe. But that doesn't seem like much to go on to me. I kind of like how Pinkie smells of sweet baked goods, but that doesn't mean I want to date her. If you're asking for my opinion, and I think you are, you shouldn't be in a rush to pick a label for yourself. You might be gay, you might be bi, or might be something else that doesn't have a convenient label and lifestyle."

Dirt Nap exhaled shakily and said, "Well that ain't no help, Clicky. Ah gotta figure this out, afore, y'know, the Festival."

Clickspring nodded and grimaced. The Running of the Leaves was only a fortnight away and the earth pony Festival happened a day or two after that. Once most of the harvesting was taken care of the earth ponies would have their evening of planting a fresh crop of foals out in one of the fields.

Thinking about the big, open-air Festival, Clickspring suddenly had a flash of inspiration: There was another party Dirt Nap could go to that might make for a good preview. "You know… Maybe if you see a bit more of what queer ponies are like it'll help you figure yourself out." Clickspring sipped some tea and said, "I could take you to The Back Passage."

"The whut now?"

"It's a social club for queer ponies. There's music, dancing, a bar and usually some live sex shows. So you could see in pony what it's all about. See if it pushes your buttons, or not. It only happens once a week though; Saturday night if you want to go."

Clickspring felt his patience wearing a bit thin as Dirt Nap gave him that shocked stupid expression yet again. While he didn't believe in the stereotype that earth ponies were moronic clodhoppers, Dirt Nap wasn't making it easy to stick to that conviction.

"Ummm… Ah'd better get going." Dirt Nap snatched up and crumpled his sandwich wrapper and stuffed it into a pocket on his vest. As he was putting the cap back on his half full vacuum flask he said, "Thanks, fer talkin' with me about this, Clicky. Ah'll think about it, an about going to that club."

Clickspring nodded and said, "Can't say fairer than that. Have a good afternoon, Nap."

Dirt Nap plopped his safety hat on his head, opened the kitchen door and said, "See yuh." He closed the door and galloped off.

Clickspring gulped the remaining mouthful of tea, swished it around, swallowed and hoped he hadn't just confused the poor stallion even more. Dropping his mug and bowl into the sink he left the kitchen and went into his workshop. He was nose deep in a metal lathe, applying grease when he suddenly yelled, "Celestia's tits!"

There was no way he could waltz into a sex club without setting off the Curse. It had been bad enough just sitting in the kitchen with a stallion buffet on the other side of the table. He sat back on the floor, groaning and rubbing a slightly greasy hoof through his mane. "Oh, bollocks… I'm horned. Well, maybe he won't even want to go."

"S-so this tavern we're venturing to is called what, again?"

Noctilucent had to trot to keep up with Dirt Nap's long strides. Even if she'd been au naturel her teenaged alicorn body would have had to stretch her legs to keep up with the earth pony.

"'The Back Door', ah think. Sounds kinda om'nous, t'me." Dirt Nap's dock clenched down tight against his pucker as he worried.

She could smell the big work pony's nervous sweat and she sympathised, as she was fretting about what would happen as well. From the way Nap had described the place it sounded to be a den of perversion in the heart of sleepy Ponyville. She wasn't at all certain that she wanted to walk into a tavern swarming with aroused perverts. But it was too good an opportunity to miss; a chance to see firsthoof how Dirt Nap would react and if it would help or hinder his progress. It may help her to craft more useful dreams for him and for any other perverts she might need to guide in the future.

Clicky would be there too, with his own issues to deal with. Seeing how he reacted in such a sexually charged environment may also be helpful, though hopefully not as painful as the last time she'd witnessed him dealing with the Curse.

Ponyville was fairly quiet this evening as most ponies had already enjoyed a week's-ending debauch on Friday night and were now relaxing in their homes after a traditionally big Saturday night dinner. The few ponies that were out and about were dressed in light sweaters and jackets to ward off the early fall coolness in the air. Dirt Nap was naked and didn't seem to mind the cool air, but Noctilucent was wearing a dark grey 'hoodie' made from lightweight cotton and was regretting not wearing a skirt or leggings.

Arriving at the front door of Clickspring's mill and seeing that the sign was flipped over to 'Closed', Noctilucent pulled a handle on a chain outside which set off the chime. The music box was still playing a hoofful of seconds later when Clickspring opened the door and stepped outside to join them.

"Whut the pits are you wearin', Clicky?" Dirt Nap stared at the pale yellow unicorn who was wearing what looked like a large skirt.

"Ah, hah, hah, hah! You like it?" Laughing nervously, Clickspring turned around in place to show off the long dress which hung loosely almost to the ground, made of thick folds of bright orangey red fabric with a grid of light and dark green lines woven into it. To anypony with remotely artistic sensibilities, it was an eye-watering, awful colour combination. It was held up by a beige fabric belt tied around his waist.

He said, "It's a kilt."

"Tis a féileadh-mór," said Noctilucent. It had been many, many years since she'd last seen a stallion dressed in the traditional garb of the Shetlands. Not even counting the thousand year time-out.

Dirt Nap looked more puzzled than ever, "'Failure mode'? Y'got that raight."

Clickspring snorted in annoyance and said, "Let's just call it a 'kilt', ok? Come on, it's not far." He flounced off towards Founders Street, nose held snootily high in the air.

The only businesses still open at this hour were the Café Palomino, a late night diner, and Ponyville's two taverns. Noctilucent assumed they would be going to one of them but Clickspring led them down an alleyway between a grocers and a home furnishings store, both closed and dark for the night. Behind the furniture store, he led them down a staircase that ran along the side of the building, to a door built into the basement wall. As she walked down the stairs Noctilucent could hear a muffled drum beat coming from inside, which became much louder as Clickspring pushed the door open and ushered them inside.

They entered a small a reception area with enough room for a few ponies to stand together as long as they rubbed shoulders. The walls and ceiling were painted a matte black and were covered in layers of colourful posters and printed leaflets, advertising everything from concerts to massage services to 'lonely pony seeks'. Opposite the door was a coat check with a very bored unicorn mare sitting behind the counter. She was completely black with a spiky mane, heavily applied pale grey makeup and one of the spirals of her horn was painted grey. She looked them over with disinterest and blew a bubble with the gum she was chewing.

Clicky gestured down a narrow set of metal stairs leading even further underground and raising his voice over the thumping music he said, "Just a bit further. Follow me, and brace yourself."

As they clattered down the steel stairs in single file the music grew even louder, throbbing through their insides. The air was warm and humid and there was an unmistakable funk of sweating ponies. At the bottom of the stairs they each had to pay two bits to another staff member, likely also the club's bouncer by how big the muscular, white pegasus was. Pushing through a set of swinging doors they entered the full, blaring blast of the club.

It was a large room, two stories high and painted in the same dingy, matte black as the entrance. Flashing fairy lights festooned the walls and floated overhead, drifting around long draperies of multi-coloured, shimmering cloth. On one side of the room was a stage where stacks of black boxes covered in blinking lights surrounded a pair of ponies, performing some strange ritual upon the boxes. Noctilucent realised that the spell they were casting was responsible for the noise that crashed into her like a physical blow, making her insides vibrate to the heavy bass beat.

The middle of the room was a dance floor packed with ponies bouncing, jumping and swaying as they danced to the painfully loud music. Several pegasi and a unicorn hovered above the crowd, performing aerial dance moves. On the other side of the room was a long bar with ponies crowded up against it and clustering around small round tables; drinking, chatting and pony watching.

Noctilucent looked around with her ears flat to her skull and wondered how there could possibly be so many perverts living in a sleepy little farming village. The room was very warm and humid, so she slipped her horn through the hole in her hoodie's hood and flipped it back to drape over her withers.

Dirt Nap just stood with his mouth open, ears flat and eyes wide, looking completely stunned yet again. Noctilucent playfully reached over with a hoof and pushed up against his chin to close his mouth.

Waving his hooves at them to attract their attention, Clickspring leant in close so he could yell at them over the music. "We should go hit the bar! There's a two drink minimum but it's on the honour system so don't feel like you have to if you don't want to." He paused to catch his breath and yelled, "That goes for everything here. Just say 'no thanks' if you're not interested and nopony will be offended. Ok?"

Noctilucent and Dirt Nap nodded mutely and followed him towards the bar. Gazing at his kilt concealed rump, Noctilucent sighed and thought it was a shame he had covered his most appealing feature. At least she could see his leonine tail hanging out through a pocket in the folds of fabric. She liked a nice piece of tail.

A white unicorn stallion noticed Clickspring approaching the bar and quickly wove his way through the crowd with as much grace and poise as a ballerina. "Heeey! Clicky! Didn't expect to see you here!"

Clickspring grimaced at the younger unicorn hugged him. He yelled into his friend's ear, "Hey, Frosty! Didn't expect to find me here either." They separated and Frostbite grinned at Clickspring who struggled to smile back. Noctilucent was a little surprised that he had not collapsed onto the floor and realised why he had chosen to wear a féileadh-mór.

"Let me introduce you to the reasons you find me in this den of sin again!" Clickspring waved his companions over and yelled, "Noctilucent! Dirt Nap! This is my friend, Frostbite!"

Frostbite politely touched hooves with each of them and draped a foreleg over Clickspring's withers. He was a tall, white pony with a white mane which was swept up in a wave and he had a fine set of muscles under his shiny coat. He wore a sleeveless pink mesh shirt and had glittering silver piercings in both of his ears and one through the right side of his lower lip.

Noctilucent knew his type: Gorgeous and well aware of his effect on everypony around him. Hopefully he wasn't a stuck up prig like her nephew.

"Pleased to meet you!" he yelled over the thumping music, "Any friend of Clicky's, eh! First time coming here?"

Noctilucent just nodded because the spell which turned her voice into a whisper would be inaudible and she did not want to break out the Royal Voice.

"Yup! Uh, it always this dern loud?" Dirt Nap didn't have to yell so much as just talk loudly thanks to his big, barrel-chested voice.

Frostbite laughed as Clickspring squirmed out from under his leg and headed over to the bar. "Yeah, pretty much! Hang on a sec!" His horn glowed white for a moment and the music's volume in a small sphere around them was quickly turned down. "Better?"

Dirt Nap and Noctilucent both nodded and she sighed and yelled, "M-much better! Th-thank th… you!"

"Woah. I can still barely hear you."

His horn glowed brighter and the music and sound of the crowd almost completely disappeared. "So, what brings you two here, eh? I've seen you 'round town, didn't suspect either of you were queer though."

"Well, ah'm just kinda curious, ah guess. Ain't never been anyplace like this before." Dirt Nap looked down and scuffed a hoof on the floor and said, "It's… nice." He startled as a beer bottle floated in front of his face, wobbling a bit and held in Clickspring's unstable, yellow glowing magic. Grasping it from the air with his fetlock, he smiled and saluted Clickspring with the bottle.

Noctilucent smiled at Frostbite and said, "We, ah… I'm Dirt Nap and Clickspring's therapist, here in a p-professional capacity. I'm not, ah, q-queer?" She had not heard that term for it before.

Frostbite's eyebrows went up in surprise and he said, "So, neither of you are queer, eh?" He pursed his lips and blew a low whistle. "You're both in for an interesting evening then. Especially you Miss ah…"

"Noctilucent."

"You're going to break a lot of filly's hearts tonight, Noctilucent."

Although she had anticipated she might need to fend off a flirty mare or two, hearing Frostbite confirming it made Noctilucent feel queasy. She sat down and pouted, suddenly very much wanting to be somewhere else.

A moment later a glass of red wine held in Clickspring's yellow tinted magic wobbled over, stopping in front of her. Grateful for the distraction she snagged it in her own magic and quickly gulped a generous mouthful. One of her eyes twitched as the sourness made her mouth pucker, it was certainly not the best wine she had ever sampled but hopefully it would revive her flagging spirits.

Clickspring hobbled over on three legs, carrying a tumbler of something transparent and fizzy in the crook of his fetlock. He avoided getting too close to Frostbite, likely not wanting to risk his friend's physical affection again and sat down on the floor next to Noctilucent.

"So, what do you think so far?" Clickspring asked.

"I-it's very loud." Noctilucent shivered as the gulp of sour wine crashed into her stomach.

Dirt Nap nodded and said, "Ah kinda like it. Ah like the music an everypony dancin' an havin' a good time." The stallion's big nostrils flared, drinking in the mingled sweaty odour of dozens of ponies crowded together into one big herd.

Frostbite said, "You should get out on the dance floor. Do a lil bump and grind, work up a sweat."

He did a little dance and sway where he stood. "In fact, that's exactly what I need to do right now. Hope to see you all later, eh." The white unicorn's horn dimmed and he pranced off and was swallowed up by the crowd of dancers. The sphere of quietness died and the loud music and stomping of hooves thundered back into their ears.

Dirt Nap plopped his empty bottle down on one of the tables, belched loudly and said, "Reckon ah'm gonna get some'a that too! Y'all gonna join us?"

Clickspring shook his head and yelled, "No, thanks! I'll wait for you here!" He turned to Noctilucent and she shook her head since she could no longer speak over the gut-churning noise.

Shuffling over to the edge of the dance floor the big earth pony began awkwardly moving his limbs around and looking at ponies around him to figure out how to dance to the music. Noctilucent noted that he seemed to have lost his fear of mares as there were many of them on the dance floor, and she wasn't certain of the reason for the change. The music? Herd acceptance? Perhaps the beer? Not likely, since he had only just drunk it and he was also quite a large pony, a single beer shouldn't have given him Baachus' Courage. She idly wondered if anyone still worshipped that sheepish god.

As she and Clickspring watched the bouncing, flailing crowd slowly absorb Dirt Nap the music segued into another song. Clickspring smiled and began bobbing his head in time to the beat, he put his tumbler down on the floor and began weaving his body from side to side and waving his forelegs around in the air, doing a little dance where he sat.

He noticed Noctilucent watching him and leant over and yelled, "This is an old fave of mine!"

She couldn't say anything back so she just nodded and took another sip of the terrible tasting wine.

"Come on, let's grab a quiet spot so we can talk!" Clickspring pointed to an empty table by the side of the bar, one of a cluster set back a ways from the dance floor. As they approached the table the music and noise of the crowd quickly died down and Noctilucent realised the tables must be enchanted with a permanent version of the sound dampening spell.

Clickspring hopped up onto one of the stools that clustered randomly around the tall table and his hooves dangled a few centimetres off of the floor. He pushed his tumbler onto the table and began moving the empty bottles and glasses on the table out of the way while Noctilucent hopped up onto the stool next to his. Her nearly empty glass settled onto the table and she performed a seated wiggle dance, hooves held up in the air as she pulled her hoodie up over her head. She draped it over one of the empty stools and used her magic to roughly comb her long mane back into order.

Noctilucent caught a glimpse of Dirt Nap out on the dance floor, standing up on his hind legs and waving his hooves in the air along with dozens of other ponies. She felt relieved, seeing him enjoying himself for a change instead of huddled in a miserable pile of pony anxiety.

Clickspring rubbed a hoof on a glowing white sphere that was half embedded in the table and the music died away almost completely. He took a drink and exhaled a long shaky breath.

Noctilucent asked, "Y-you are not comfortable here either?"

Clickspring nodded and replied, "I don't like crowded places like this. Too many ponies and too many voices. It makes me feel like I'm drowning."

"I am also f-finding it a bit oppressive." She was overheating and wished she could fan herself with the wings that were bound tightly to her barrel. The insulation provided by the layer of feathers was not helping. She could cast a cooling spell upon herself, but with nowhere to direct the heat everypony around her would be soaking it up.

Clickspring said, "I'm a bit surprised that you came along. I thought it would be just Nap and me. Did he talk you into coming for moral support?"

She chuckled and picked up her glass and swirled the remains of the red wine around. "Oh, n-no. Nap would never come and talk to me about something like this, I'm a t-terrifying mare remember? H-he did drop by the clinic last evening and had a long meeting with Dr. Cake about your offer. I was asked to tag along i-in case Nap needed support and to see how he reacts to…" She waved a hoof at the room. "To all of this."

"Also Dr. Cake is not, um, queer and the thought of coming here made him uncomfortable." She drank down the dregs of her wine and said, "So he asked me if I would take on the task in his stead. T-though I must admit that I was also curious to visit this place."

Clickspring chuckled and said, "Not thinking of switching teams are you?"

"'T-teams?'"

"Never mind. Just a stupid joke." Clickspring finished his drink, nodded at her empty glass and said, "Do you want another?"

"Nae, uh… No, thank you." She made a sour face and said, "While I do prefer reds, this was not a p-particularly good one."

They sat quietly for a while and pony watched the crowd on the dance floor. Noctilucent was feeling much calmer and she sat with her eyes half closed, the heat and alcohol were making her feel a little drowsy. She caught sight of Clickspring's friend over top of the other dancers, he was being carried around on somepony's shoulders and was wearing a bright yellow rope made out of feathers around his neck. Very strange.

Clickspring shifted on his stool, trying to stealthily adjust his male parts under his kilt.

Noctilucent leant over and said, "A-are you in pain?"

"Oh! No… uh, well, a bit, yeah."

She noticed that he was leaning away from her and looked a bit frightened. Likely fearful that she was going to flirt with him again, poor fellow. She sat back up in her chair and blew through her lips, making them vibrate and produce a wet flapping sound. Nothing sexy about that, surely?

"W-where is the garderobe?"

Clickspring blinked, looked at her and asked, "The what?"

'Fek.' she thought. "I-I mean, the washroom."

He gestured with a hoof and said, "It's over on the other side of the bar."

She nodded her thanks, hopped off of the stool and trotted off, her ears folding flat as she left the bubble of quiet.

Making her way through the press of warm pony bodies, Noctilucent hoped she could quickly locate an unoccupied stall and cast that cooling spell on herself. She was going to melt if she didn't do something soon! She couldn't help thinking about what Clicky's friend had said, that she shouldn't be surprised about being approached by other mares. Maybe she should have worn that skirt for simple modesty as well.

A round, bright yellow shape suddenly appeared in front of her and for a moment Noctilucent thought of her sister's celestial orb, before crashing into the backside of a pony who had just dropped out of the air in front of her.

"Woah! Heeeey!"

Noctilucent stepped backwards and shook her head while the bright yellow pegasus mare with a long flame orange mane that she had run into flapped her wings about to regain her balance. She turned on Noctilucent and yelled, "Get in line sweetheart! Uh… Scratch that, you can go right to the front of the line, gorgeous!"

Struggling to stay in character and not belt the clumsy oaf square betwixt her lustful eyes, Noctilucent squeaked, "E-excuse me!" She darted past and rushed to the washroom door, her anger and embarrassment at the encounter making the already unbearable heat of the club feel like being plunged into a furnace.

A trio of mares standing by the washroom sinks gave her curious looks as she barged in and galloped to the stalls, one of which was fortunately not occupied. Banging the door shut behind her and locking it with her magic, she closed her eyes and quickly cast the cooling cantrip on herself. She focused the output of heat onto the water pool in the toilet and soon the water began to bubble. Pausing the spell Noctilucent stepped on the flush pedal, waited for the rectangular bowl set into the floor to refill and then restarted the spell. After two more flushes, she was feeling nicely cooled down and made use of the facilities for their intended purpose.

As she exited the washroom she looked around nervously for the amorous mare she'd bumped into, but there was no sign of her. Stopping at the bar she read the wine list embedded in the bar's surface. She recognised the name of an Fancy winery which had been famous back in the day and ordered a glass of their merlot. Clickspring had been drinking something that smelt of ginger and there was only one ginger flavoured drink on the menu, so she ordered him a ginger ale, which sounded disgusting, and also a tumbler of ice chips. After a quick flash of magic to conjure enough bits to pay from her hoodie's pocket, she watched as the earth pony barkeep waved a wand over the coins. She felt a very focused dispel being cast on them before payment was accepted.

While she waited for her order she noticed that the earth pony mare sitting on a stool next to her was staring at her. She was a lurid crimson with a white mane that was cropped very short, and she was really staring hard at the side of Noctilucent's head, as if she were trying to hypnotise or intimidate her ear. Luna would have sentenced this impertinent churl to several days in the dungeons beneath the Castle of the Two Sisters for such impertinence. Noctilucent had to be satisfied with leaning away and trying to ignore her unwanted attention.

"Ham Hocks, when are you gonna learn that 'sexy glower' of yours just puts ponies off?" It was the yellow and orange pegasus again, bellying up to the bar between Noctilucent and this Ham Hocks character.

Ham Hocks grunted, jumped off of her stool and sauntered away into the crowd. "Filly wasn't bitin' none, anyhow!"

The pegasus yelled after her, "Yeah! Imagine that!" She chortled and then turned back to the bar and placed an order for a half-dozen beers before turning to Noctilucent who was still waiting for her order to arrive.

"Hey, just wanted to say I'm sorry for earlier. Didn't mean to freak you out like that, just kinda got carried away."

Small, glowing spell spheres ran along the length of the bar creating an oasis of quiet, mostly so that the bar staff could actually hear ponies orders. Noctilucent still had to 'yell' for her whispery voice to carry at all. "O-ok! We, ah… I apologise for running into you!"

"I'm called Blaze, please to meet you." She held out a hoof to Noctilucent, who politely tapped it with the tips of her cloven hoof.

"N-noctilucent! I'm Noctilucent! Th-thank you for, ah, I guess rescuing me from..." She made a vague gesture in the direction that Ham Hocks had gone.

Blaze grinned and said, "Hey, damsels in distress are a speciality for me." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh! I, I'm not, ah…!"

"Yeah, I figured that out already. Saw you sitting at a table with your special somepony. S'cool though, not like it's required or anything."

"H-h-he's n-not my...! He's j-just a friend!"

Noctilucent's drinks finally arrived and she worried for a moment that she hadn't purchased something for Dirt Nap. But then she hadn't seen him since he took off onto the dance floor, hopefully he was well and learning something useful. She gathered up the three glasses in her magic, smiled at Blaze and yelled, "Farewell!"

Blaze saluted, touching her forehead with the leading edge of a folded wing. "Ciao, Noctilucent. Nice meeting you."

Walking back to the table she watched the dancers who were still manically leaping, jumping, bumping and grinding to the heavy beat of the music. She was getting used to it, enjoying it a little, even. The overbearing compulsion of the bass had her prancing a little as she made her way back to the table. She saw no sign of Dirt Nap but earth pony stamina was legendary so she imagined he was still out there somewhere in the sea of sweaty ponies.

Clickspring was fanning himself with a leaflet he'd scrounged up from someplace. He looked very bored and waved as she approached.

"Welcome back. I was beginning to worry that you'd fallen in or some beautiful mare had swept you off of your hooves."

Noctilucent chuckled as she set the drinks and tumbler down on the table. "O-one very nearly did."

Clickspring laughed and picked up the glass in the crook of a foreleg, gulped down half of it and said, "Thanks for the ginger ale."

"Y-you are welcome, but ginger infused ale sounds most disgusting."

Clickspring gave her an odd look with one eyebrow raised and said, "It's not actually beer."

"No? That explains why it lacks the smell of spirit, but w-why call it 'ale' then?"

"I don't know. Maybe because it's yellow and fizzy?"

She nodded at the glass of ice and said, "I brought some ice if you wish to cast a cooling spell upon th… yourself." She cast the simple transference cantrip on herself again and used the ice as the output for the spell. The ice clinked and shifted as it began to slowly melt.

Clickspring continued fanning himself.

"H-have you seen Nap at all?" She hoped they wouldn't be here for too much longer and she wanted to have a quick word with him.

"I saw him doing shots with Frostbite and a few other ponies, then they all headed off into the back passage."

Noctilucent looked puzzled and asked, "B-but are we not already in The Back Passage?"

Clickspring pointed with a hoof at an open doorway in the wall opposite the staircase going up to the club's entrance. "That's the back passage in The Back Passage. It goes to the basement of the building next door and it's like Festival every Saturday night in there. Inter-tribal Festival, so anypony can go in."

"Oh! S-so right now Dirt Nap is…"

Clickspring nodded and said, "Getting an eyeful and maybe losing his virginity I guess, though whether he decides to go for it or not…" He shrugged and switched the pamphlet to his other hoof and went back to fanning himself.

Noctilucent sipped at her much nicer wine, sighed and said, "I w-wish I'd known he was going into such a place. And this doing 'shots'? Drinking I take it?"

Clickspring nodded and lifted his tumbler to take a drink.

"I'm not certain that is considered legal for his age."

Clickspring choked, almost spilt his drink and gasped, "Road apples! We've got to get him out of here!"

He plonked his drink and leaflet fan onto the table and leapt down off of his stool but before he could gallop off he was yanked to a stop by Noctilucent's magic gripping his tail. He stared back at her with big, surprised eyes.

"There is an a-allowance in the law for tribal Festivals. The earth pony Festival is less than a month hen… away, s-so Dirt Nap is adult e-enough to be here. Dr. Cake and I did discuss this before he agreed to this f-field trip. You need not g-gallop to his rescue unless you're feeling heroic."

Clickspring's mouth formed a round 'o' as her words sank in, and it made Noctilucent giggle, or perhaps that was the wine's doing. But then he snorted and shook his head. "No, that doesn't matter. He's been drinking and I need to know he's not doing something he'll regret."

Noctilucent sighed and hopped down from her stool. "V-very well, but I shall go. Th… you are in no fit state to go p-poking your snoot into a baacchanalia, I fear that your leg fruit would burst!"

"Leg fruit?"

"Balls, culs, colt apples, bollocks, acorns…"

"Okay, okay!" he yelped, making shushing motions with his hooves at her. "I'll be alright, just not real happy. Besides, there are studs only rooms in the back passage that mares aren't supposed to go into."

Noctilucent gulped down what was left of her wine, let go of Clickspring's tail and said, "I am coming with th… with you. Let's have this done already."

Clickspring sighed in a resigned manner and trotted off with Noctilucent on his heels. She was not eager to visit this passage of perverse sex, it sounded far too much like the revels that cousin Erotas used to throw. While she had never attended one of those sordid affairs, the rumours had been enough to make her feel ill.

Progress to the back passage's entrance was slow, as Clickspring needed to dodge and weave around the ponies that mingled by the bar. Blaze waved to her as they passed, and Noctilucent smiled and waved back. As she followed Clickspring down the dimly lit 'back passage' corridor the loudness of the music died away behind them and the air became redolent with sex. Noctilucent felt her upper lip curling in an instinctive response to the heady mix and she struggled to keep her tail held down over her moistening muff.

Clickspring abruptly jumped sideways and flattened himself against the wall as a big pony bore down on them in the dark hallway.

"Comin' through! Oh, hey there Clicky. Noctilucent." A spooked Dirt Nap trotted past them, heading for the dance floor.

Clickspring looked over his shoulder at Noctilucent. Noctilucent gazed back at Clickspring. They both snorted, shook their heads and turned to make their way back to the club.

Author's Note

Several months of careful field study in gay bars were required in order to write this chapter.

Erotas is a character in another story which I'm currently researching and making notes for. (Stop giving me ideas for stories, brain! Let me finish this one first! shakes an angry fist)

While Cross Lament has graciously given this a once over and saved you from some of my bone headed mistakes, please let me know if you spot any issues. Ta.