Author's Note

A bit of a mature chapter, with both strong language and suggestive lyrics (the song snippet is from the song “The Heat is on in Saigon”).

Also I imagine it sound a bit like this version of the song: https://youtu.be/lciC1a1RvsM

Also there’s a bit of Burnt crushing on Odonata, so that’s pretty great

Chapter 8: Shangri-La

Somewhere in a dingy club, young Changelings, mostly male were getting ready for a performance. Some of them looked excited, others looked nervous as they whispered to one another in Thaydonese.

They were the bar-boys and girls of the club, working under their pimp.

Then one of them with a light green mane asked, “how long do you think they’ll be here?” He was answered by a younger female Changeling with a short mane, “who knows Odonata, let’s just hope the war doesn’t reach Flygon.”

“It’ll fall the moment they reach us!” A slightly older male exclaimed, tugging at his long mane. “Junebug calm down, for Sol’s sake,” the eldest of the bunch grumbled.

“Oh, I’m sorry Danh, just because you’re the most attractive doesn’t mean you’ll get out of here first!” Junebug snapped.

Danh rolled his eyes, “Bluet isn’t even panicking,” he gestured towards the younger female, “just focus on our performance and pray to Concupisco or at least Hedon that they like us.”

The flimsy door of the dressing room was slammed open, startling everyone inside. Stepping in was a tall and lanky female, her cobwebby mane was lime green, and her eyes weren’t like the others. She had pupils that were pony-like, meaning she was a hybrid.

“I’ve spread the word, boys and girls! Tonight one of you will be Miss or Prince Flygon,” she declared, her accent was different than theirs, it had a Prench hint to it.

“What will we do once they leave?” A young male with his mane in a ponytail asked, being barked at in response by the pimp, “shut up and get ready, Mazarine!”

She clapped her hooves together as she began saying, “alright let’s review our goal, once one of you snags a GI, you’re to get me a Visa card as soon as possible. Just trust your Mistress alright you...” she paused as her ear twitched, “son of a bitch, I think they’re here already!”

The workers were about to ask more questions when she remembered something, “oh right, one more thing. We have a new boy, get your ass over here, Lacewing.”

A small male walked into the room with his head down, he looked embarrassed to be there and extremely young at that. “He’s from one of the villages, never been touched. So he may score first, unlike the rest of you maggots,” she sneered.

“Help him get ready, I will do as a Hostess does and greet them!” The Mistress ordered as she left the room.

Danh glared at the boy, taking a step towards him as he snapped, “I’d give that virgin act a rest! We all know what she means by that,” the other workers caught wind of what he meant and they cackled.

“You are my first Equestrian!” They all mocked, some of them saying it in an exaggerated moan.

Lacewing looked like he was about to cry but he kept face, instead of fiddling with his ao dai. The Mistress stuck her head in as she asked, “what’s taking you all so long?! And you, out of that dress.”

She raised an eyebrow as he looked down shyly before an idea struck her. “Hang on... you are my new Prince!” She exclaimed.

The workers didn’t sound pleased to hear this, so they swore towards the boy.

“What, Prince?!”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

She elaborated, “you see, a virgin will give them a treat. Just play innocent and stay sweet, alright mon jeune garçon!” She used her magic to slip the pants off his back legs, leaving them exposed under the skirt.

He flushed bright green, as even he knew he now resembled one of the concubines from the Royal families. Danh seemed particularly bothered by this, rolling his eyes as he grumbled, “he’s not even that good looking...”

The Mistress was about to head out as she said, “they’ll pay the moon for fresh meat.”

Danh jeered, “fresh is only fresh once, you’re not special little Lacewing!” The young boy sighed and didn’t say a word, pulling his mane out of its bun to hide his face.

They were all yelled at to get out of the dressing room, being told to not make their performance or song too long. They had business to attend to for her, so she’ll be damned if they miss their chance at getting her out of here.

“I can’t believe I let you guys drag me here...” Bright Mac grumbled, looking ashamed as they sat down.

Burnt Oak shrugged, “Hey, free drinks for Equestrians, so there’s that.”

James rolled his eyes at them, he was already uncomfortable with being here. He knew that the Changelings who worked in this field were desperate and usually young, so this was going to be awkward for him.

Turns out, he was right about feeling awkward. Since as soon as ‘The Mistress’ stepped out, he felt sick when he saw the workers enter the bar when she announced, “welcome to Shangri-La!”

They were dressed rather queerly, which only made him more uncomfortable. The bar-girls wore colorful bikini tops and bottoms, which he very rarely saw now that he thought of it. The boys wore stockings and chokers, the material looked cheap but then again, that’s not what customers cared about.

One of them, however, caught his eye, which startled him. He was a rather small yet older male, his long bright green mane reached his shoulders and on top of his head was a camo-print cap.

There were also a few female Changeling soldiers there, drooling over the bar-boys which made James cringe. Of course, they were there as well, it couldn’t just be the Equestrian soldiers.

“It’s showtime!” The Mistress called out, about six of the workers got in their places, the capped one got up as well.

“From Fang Phong to the Mekong Delta, may I present, the most beautiful specimens in Flygon?”

She gestured to a long-haired female in a sapphire blue bikini, “Vedalia!”

“See my bikini, it’s just the right size!” She sang, being pushed aside by the youngest girl when her name was called, “Bluet!”

“Don’t you enjoy how it rides my hinds?”

“Mazarine!”

The dark-greened hair male got on his hind legs, “look from behind, it’ll knock out your eyes—“

“Odonata!”

Another male took the attention away from by pointing at his mouth before sticking his tongue out, “I’ll show you, my special trophy of war!” His accent was the thickest, and James could see Burnt melt a bit inside at the sight of him.

He rolled his eyes again.

“Junebug!”

The second to last male unbuttoned the top he had on and threw it to the side, “For an Equestrian I’ll show more!”

Fortunately, they all had very pretty voices, only being more exotic to the Equestrians due to their naturally echoey tone as well as their accents.

Then the one who caught James’ eye earlier was lead to the middle of the room, the Mistress seemed to favor him as she introduced him as, “and you all know him as, ‘The Sex Toy from Neighon’, Monsieur Danh Van Tranh!”

The other workers seemed to be annoyed at the sight of him, others had looks of pure envy on their faces as they saw not only the Changeling soldiers, but Equestrian ones give him more attention.

He smirked mischievously as he pulled a random soldier from his seat, who did not look bothered by this. “If I’m your pin-up, I’ll melt all your brass,” he started in a softer voice, tickling under the GI’s chin, “stuck on your wall with a pin in my ass!” He pulled him closer by the collar of his shirt.

“If you get me, you will travel first class,” he let go to play with his mane in a way that made James freeze in horror, “I’ll show you, we will make magic cheri!”

“If you buy tickets from me, the winner will have him for the night, free of charge!”

That was when James realized that he knew who this ‘Danh’ was, or at least he suspected he knew who he was. The way he looked, his singing style, the fact that he was ‘from Neighon’, hell even right down to his coy behavior... it reminded him of the infamous concubine that was also his father...

Park Seo-jun.