Guiana, back on her own stage, began to slow down her routine due to the first signs of fatigue. Thankfully Typha, the unicorn dancer, had finally run out of free time and was encouraged to switch places with one of her friends.

“Oh thank goodness,” Guiana muttered. “Cattail, can you take my place?”

“Of course! I think my break’s more than over by now,” Typha grinned.

Guiana grinned back, before hoisting her saddlebag over her back and descending from the stage. Typha walked by her happily, not allowing the crowds to go a moment longer without something to marvel at. The lights from her outfit cast onto the wall behind her, assuring Guiana that she was excited to put on her show.

Before anything could get in her way, the mare set her sights on the backstage area so that she could store her bits and get on with something slightly more relaxing. Of course, something had to find a way to block her path.

“Guiana? Is that your name? Do you have a minute?” Wish asked eagerly, still trying to navigate her way through the end of the crowd.

The mare groaned under her breath. “I’m on break as of right now.”

“Oh, okay. I can wait!” Wish declared, still following behind, but now scanning the area for a place to sit.

Guiana bit her lip, deciding that the strange blue pony probably had good intentions based on her compliance. She jumped onto the stage and vanished behind the curtains, before emerging again after a few minutes, appearing slightly less stressed.

“What did you need?” Guiana asked, still sounding slightly tired.

“I just wanted to ask you a few questions, but if you aren’t feeling up to it, I can leave you be,” Wish responded politely.

Guiana thought for a moment. “What kind of questions?”

Wish’s face suddenly lit up, happy that things were going as planned. “I’ll be working here soon, and I was wondering if you had any advice for me.”

The mare breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright, well, I’m sure you’ve already heard about the opening act thing. They look for creativity and stuff that’ll bring in new customers,”

Wish nodded, “I’ve heard, still working on the plan for my act,” she giggled, worry starting to creep in. “Anything else? Like, an audience’s favorite techniques? Or things to avoid?”

She thought for a moment, bringing a hoof to her chin. “If you have a good body, it’s easy to pull in a crowd. To earn an audience, you need skill, dedication… that stuff. The ones with working brains are usually the ones that can see how much effort you put into performances, and those same ponies happen to be the ones with the most money. So, try your best.”

“Ooh, I like that!” Wish grinned. “Every detail counts, even if it seems invisible compared to everything else, ponies will see it.”

“Right!” Guiana smiled, standing proudly. “It’s rare that anyone points out the effort that goes on behind the scenes, or the little changes made to a routine to make it more appealing. And when they do, it’s probably just because they want special treatment.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Wish added. “Although, I tend not to question ponies too much. As long as they’re nice, of course.”

Guiana hummed her disapproval. “I’d be careful with that, it’s easy to slip into the wrong crowd and get into trouble.”

Wish nodded, avoiding eye contact as if she’d been caught doing something wrong. “Right, I’ve had my fair share of encounters,” she giggled to lighten the mood.

She nodded back, reasoning that she was speaking the truth.

“...Alright, I need to get going, but thank you for talking with me, I feel like I needed that,” Guiana grinned, picking a direction to wander in.

“No problem!” Wish exclaimed. “I’m sure we’ll talk again soon!”

Midnight lay still on the couch, looking over her notes. So far she’d written some observations about the effectiveness of Typha’s dress, the unfortunate success of the bat pony’s intrusive strategies, and a few notes on each dancer’s apparent routine. She had some data, but she felt like it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Hopefully Wish is having better luck,” she thought. “Being direct with ponies that’re this social is probably the way to go.”

She stared off at the stages, too concentrated on her thoughts to pay attention to anything. But, slowly, something began to catch her eye. The dancer with the smallest crowd appeared to have the smallest pool of money, and yet, she continued working. She shifted her focus towards the oddity, hoping that something might come out of it. And, on closer inspection, something became very apparent. This pony might actually be making the most money!

Although most guests tend to pay in coins (bits), some prefer to pay with paper money. It seemed like the particular crowd that this mare garnered mostly used that instead, and those varied in value from being equal to a bit, to five hundred bits! Midnight was unable to spot any of those legendary bills, and that was probably a good thing, but there was still a staggering number of tens and twenties, probably enough to beat out the bat!

Night sat up in her seat, daring to consider approaching the stage herself to prove if what she saw was true. Seeing the size of the crowd just beside her destination, she hesitated. The club’s blaring music began to fill her ears, quieting her wild ideas.

“Fog machines, dim lights… ugh!” She thought, frustrated. “I’ll just write down all these thoughts, then…” Anxiety forced her train of thoughts to go silent.

She sighed, disappointed but not fighting it. She quietly reached for her pen, preparing to get thoughts out of her head and write down what she could about her findings.

A few sentences in, she felt some kind of presence beside her. Cautiously, she turned to the side, and immediately jumped in her seat.

“Hey Night,” Nano said, two inches from her face and just out of sight.

“Sweet Celestia!” she exclaimed, her heart rate still recovering. “Hello Nano,” she managed.

Nano’s eyes widened briefly. “Oops, didn’t think I’d scare you that badly,” he added, slightly worried for her. “You okay?”

Night took a moment to steady her breathing. “I’m fine, yeah. I was just-- wait, where's your shirt?” she asked, only mildly concerned.

Nano appeared even more confused for a moment, having shifted to his serious mindset after shocking his friend. "Huh? Oh! I'm… letting someone borrow it," he said, smiling guiltily. "Whatcha up to?"

Night rolled her eyes. “I’ve been writing down any patterns I noticed with the dancers, like the techniques they use compared to how much of a crowd they tend to generate,” she stated.

Nano nodded. “Like your version of the research Wish has been doing?”

“Yea, exactly,” she smiled lightly. “Actually, I think I might’ve found something really cool.”

“Like what?” Nano encouraged, curious again.

Her smile grew stronger. “So, I noticed that you and Wish tended to stay near the most popular dancers, but have you thought about looking at the low end?”

Nano furrowed his brow. “No, we… I mean, she figured it’d be smart to look at what successful ponies had done right,” he admitted.

“That’s not bad,” Night snickered. “But this other dancer seems to have an advantage that the others lack. Do you see what’s covering her stage?”

“The tips?” he questioned.

She looked him in the eye, her smile turning into a proud grin. “Paper money! Can you see the numbers on those bills? I think she might be making more than anyone else here!”

He recoiled back in surprise. “No way! How much!?”

“I, uh, haven’t been able to tell from back here,” she stuttered. “But I swear I saw several twenties!”

“Oh?” Nano remarked, half taunting. “Then let’s run up there and check!”

“Uhm, well, I…” she stammered, anxiety and curiosity battling in her mind. “I guess-- I can go,” she fought to keep her confidence.

Nano smirked. “Come on, I’ll be there with you.”

Midnight hesitated, sitting in a way so that she could easily get up. “Alright, but I need to be able to see our seats at all times. I can’t risk having anything stolen.”

He nodded proudly. “I promise nothing will happen to our things. Besides, it doesn’t even take ten seconds to get back here from the stage!”

Nano moved to the side, indicating that she should now leave the couch and follow along. Night took a deep breath and stepped down, taking a minute to adjust herself before going anywhere.

“Ready?” Nano asked patiently.

“Yup,” she nodded firmly.

At her word, they headed out towards the stage, the blinding lights and never-ending music punctuating their desires to reach the goal. Nano trotted casually, as if going to meet a friend, though he stayed within leg’s reach of Night. She continued with her head held high in an attempt to assure herself that nothing was going to go wrong, but if anything caught her by surprise, she felt as if she’d jump to the ceiling like a cat.

The stage itself seemed to shine with its own allure, as the light coming from the ceiling reflected off of the coins on the ground. Their temptation hardly affected Night, who had her sights set on the bill nearest to her at the edge of the stage. But just before she could make out the numbers imprinted on the paper, a dark green boot stamped itself directly on top of it. The dancer, who transitioned to lying down on her stomach, tucked the bill into the unreasonably low collar of her outfit and blew Nano a kiss, before pulling herself back up by her hind legs and twirling around the pole.

Night stared at her in a brief moment of confusion before turning to look at Nano. He kept looking at the dancer, giving an amused huff as if to say, “That’s sweet, but it’s not gonna work.”

The duo closed the last few steps before making contact with the stage. Night, trying not to attract too much attention, craned her neck around trying to look at the money just out of reach.

“Oh! I see fives, tens, twenties…” she exclaimed, trailing into thought as she counted what she could see. “I can’t even see the numbers on all of them, but there’s got to be more than twenty twenties!”

“I’m getting the same thing,” Nano added. “But, how can we be sure she’s making the most?”

“We just gotta, uh…” she trailed again. “Count them all? No… and I don’t think we could just ask her, could we?”

“Might as well try. There’s no way we can count all of that,” he replied, still a little shocked at how much money actually lay before him.

Midnight squeaked her worries of the idea. “That is technically an option.”

"Might be our only option," Nano trailed, slowly turning his attention back to the dancer.

She silently followed his lead, in desperate need of some kind of direction.

The mare on stage danced with a certain crass nature, keeping her forehooves on the pole while shaking her rump from side to side somewhat forcefully. She showed no fear of contorting her body in odd and uncomfortable ways just to see what she was capable of. In one instance, she performed a headstand while supporting herself by her hind legs, which she wrapped around the pole. She would expertly manage to kick one leg forward without losing balance, following a rhythm that encompassed her entire body.

In another instance while lying on the stage, she raised her legs to clamp onto the pole and attempted to hoist her entire body up so that she could enter a standing position. Instead, she nearly fell face first onto the stage. Her forehooves instinctively came in to stop the collision, resulting in a slightly more boring version of the pose she was going for, with barely extended forelegs and barely raised hind legs. In response, she began hopping backwards towards the pole, driving her body upwards until she ended up in another headstand. With a repeat of her previous headstand move, she concluded in a flip back to normal standing position.

Night watched with wide eyes, amazed at the dancer’s abilities. Nano snickered, exaggerating his reaction to distract from the hint of arousal he felt from watching the display.

“I’m surprised, that was really good!” Night exclaimed, facing Nano.

He blushed a little harder, preparing to say something before being interrupted.

“I’m glad you both enjoyed my show,” the dancer commented, eavesdropping from the edge of the stage. “It’s not often that young adult ponies like yourselves take interest in it. What drew you in?”

“Oh, well, we--” Night stuttered, not wanting to lie.

Nano gently tapped a hoof on his friend’s shoulder, smirking confidently. “We were both captivated by your incredible talent, and out of all the dancers here, we think you might be the best.”

The dancer blushed in turn, coming down from the stage to allow the green earth pony dancer, Guiana, to take her place.

“That’s quite the compliment,” she flirted.

Nano couldn’t help but feel a bit aroused at her notion. “Heh, well, we were mostly concerned with one part of your performance,” he trailed, confidence slipping as his plan lost all direction.

The mare giggled. “And which part was that?” she cooed, moving closer to him.

Night stuck a wing out in front of Nano’s chest to return the favor. “My friend, Wish, is hoping to become a performer here soon, and we’ve been researching the other acts here to see what we could learn. Yours especially stuck out due to… what we assume to be… making the most money,” she spoke with confidence, trailing into embarrassment at the end despite her best efforts.

The mare took a step back, turning down her flirtiness. “I see. Is Wish the filly running around with the crazy colors in her mane?”

They both nodded, trying to regain their footing.

She stopped to think for a moment, glancing around before pointing towards Midnight’s seat. “Let’s talk over there, I think I have some things I can share.”

Midnight repositioned herself on the couch, subconsciously guarding her notepad fiercely. Nano was able to cool down since the mare laid off her efforts, any remaining blush being solely of embarrassment. The dancer herself ended up in the middle, sitting up in a casual way that looked as if she didn’t plan to stay for long.

“So, tell me about your friend, we can start there,” she began with a friendly tone.

Night attempted a smile, still somewhat anxious. “Well, she’s got a lot of energy, she’s creative and passionate…”

“There’s never a moment in which she isn’t horny,” Nano teased.

Night rolled her eyes. “Not like that! She’s very… passive about it. She frequently brings it up, but she’s not ‘destructive’ with it.”

The dancer thought over what she’d been told. “So, we’ve got an aspiring stripper who’s creative, passionate, energetic, and horny in a good way…?”

Night’s pupils shrank in fear of misrepresenting her friend, but nodded regardless.

“I think I can relate to that,” she chuckled. “Tell your friend that she doesn’t have to change any part of herself to be successful. Stay creative, put away your fears, you know. How does the one saying go? ‘If you love your job you’ll never work a day in your life,’ that! Have fun doing it!”

Night smiled brightly, her fears totally subdued. “That’s really good advice, thank you!”

The mare grinned. “Happy to help! Tell her that we all wish her good luck!” she proclaimed, hopping down from the couch and preparing to head off.

Nano’s head shot up as she left the couch. “Thank you, but you never told us, do you make the most money?” he asked, genuinely curious.

She huffed. “That is not something you need to worry about, but if it’ll make you feel better, none of us have fallen short in quite a while,” she smirked.

She waited only a moment for his response before heading out, quickly out of earshot.

Nano smiled, surprised but impressed.

As they watched the mare leave, the sound of another pony hastily trotting towards them came up from behind. They turned to look, and saw none other than Wish herself, just barely too late to catch sight of the dancer. Nano prepared to speak, but was stricken with the idea to get Night to do the talking. He tapped her shoulder, grabbing her attention, and nodded his head toward Wish. Night was confused as to why he felt the need to do that, but followed his lead.

"Hey Wish!" she exclaimed. "Where have you been?"

Wish grinned. "You wouldn't believe how efficient it is to interview customers instead of directly going to the dancers! I feel like I've learned all there is to know about--"

"Yes, that does sound wonderful, but Night here wanted to share what she's accomplished tonight!" He interrupted, motioning towards her with a hoof.

Night looked even more confused, anxiety threatening to cloud her thoughts from being put in the spotlight. She stuttered too quietly to be heard, attempting to straighten her thoughts and subdue dumb fears.

"Oh, go ahead Nightie!" Wish smiled.

With that, the fog in her mind was cleared in an instant, smile returning even brighter. "Nano and I went down to do some research of our own. We thought we might've found the secret to making a ton of money, but that idea died out pretty fast."

Wish kept smiling, listening intently.

Night blushed just barely enough to be visible. "We got to conduct our own interview on one of the dancers, the gray one with the green boots, and she had some advice for you."

"Oh? What was it?" she inquired.

As Night felt her own marehood dare to open up along with the gentle blush on her face, she took an invisible moment to steady her breathing. "She, essentially, just wanted you to believe in yourself. Keep doing things the way you always have so that you can keep having fun doing it."

"That sounds like great advice, I'll be sure to keep it in mind!" She upheld her smile.

"Pff, you give me too much credit, Night," Nano butted in, smirking. "You were the one with the idea and the one that got us to the interview!"

Despite the fact that it was Nano egging her on, her blush didn't fade. "Thank you, guys. I do my best," she smiled strongly.

After a brief pause to allow everyone to settle their emotions, Wish began. "So, about that dancer, did either of you ever catch her name?"

"I don't think we did," Night replied, somewhat disappointed.

"Her name is Jade, and apparently she's the oldest one here. Honestly, I think she looks pretty good for someone who's nearly--" Wish answered, once again interrupted.

"Hey! Red unicorn!"

From seemingly out of nowhere, Drupe the batpony glided in with Nano's shirt tied around her neck by the sleeves. She landed perfectly before him, quickly untying it and throwing it at him.

"Enjoy," she stated bluntly, with the slightest hint of embarrassment.

Before anyone could react, she took off again, flying back to the top of her dancing pole to conclude whatever extremely unconventional move she came up with in order to justify flying out to a random guest in the middle of an act with a shirt tied around her neck.

The trio of friends looked between each other, having no idea what they were supposed to say to that. Nano lifted his shirt up and inspected it, just to be sure it wasn't tampered with. He quickly noticed that the bottom hole was still tied up, as it was being used as a bag before. Inside it sat a small index card with a bit of text written on it.

"IOU: one favor"

Nano appeared very surprised.

"Something wrong with it?" Wish asked.

"I'm not sure how I did it, but I think I won her over," he proclaimed, showing the card to the others.

They both seemed equally surprised. Drupe hardly seemed the type to do something like this. Was it out of pity? Guilt?

"However you did it, props to you!" Night cheered.

"I think that would be perfect to use on our next visit, next time you see her," Wish added. "It's getting awfully late at this point, and I think we've collectively talked to every stripper."

Nano nodded reluctantly. "Yea, now that I think about it, I'm definitely getting tired. What time is it anyway?"

"Let's head outside and find out," Wish replied, suddenly feeling the same fatigue he did, but making an effort to keep her energy high.

At once, the trio left the couch, finally beginning their trek home. The powerful music and flashy lights began to seep back into their senses for a final time as they walked parallel to one of the stages. Every dancer continued to do their absolute best to keep up the pace and earn a good tip, but everyone seemed a bit tired as they neared the end of the shift. The number of guests had steadily decreased, though it still remained quite a bit higher than when they first arrived.

Upon opening the doors to the outside, Nano rubbed his eyes to help them adjust. The sky was completely black, too cloudy to boast even a single star. Although the lack of music and fog helped to differentiate the scene, the bright lights of the city were surprisingly similar to those inside the club.

"Tch. It's barely any different from when we left. Maybe I really should look into getting a watch," Nano commented to no one in particular.

Midnight grinned mischievously. "Do it, you won't," she teased.

Nano giggled. "Bet."

Author's Note

First arc complete! Thank you to everyone who's favorited, tracked, upvoted, and commented so far! It means the world to me that people continue to show support despite extended breaks between chapters. Speaking of, it will definitely be a while before the next one, but the next arc will have much greater focus on more physical matters of horniness. See you there!