The venue that Hash Stack took me to looked quite unassuming from the outside. I might very easily have overlooked it as just another abandoned building on the dilapidated side of town if I’d walked past it during the day. Even at night it didn’t look all that impressive from afar. Then, as we got closer, it became clear that the place was far from ‘abandoned’.

An earth pony stallion and batpony mare were sitting outside one of the only doors that wasn’t boarded up, chatting amongst themselves. It didn’t take them long to notice the pegasus and myself approaching and they turned suspicious eyes towards us, the leather-winged mare’s almost seeming to glow with an inner light. I knew that, even without arcanetic augmentations, batponies possessed impressive night vision as a result of their nocturnal nature. One of her wings rested pointedly on the grip of a pistol holstered on her leg. I felt my steps instinctively slow as I had second-thoughts about coming here. This place was giving me a very ‘members only’ vibe, and I was pretty sure that I wasn’t on whatever ‘list’ they had of creatures that were in good standing with them.

A moment later, recognition flashed across the dark gray mare’s face, her gaze locked on Hash. “Started to wonder if you were actually going to come by tonight,” she said, the corner of her lips pulling up into a wry smile, showing off far more of her pointy teeth than I was comfortable with seeing in a pony’s mouth; most of which appeared to be made out of well-polished titanium.

“Had a last minute gig pop up,” the little ivory pegasus replied with a broad grin of her own. One of her wings waved in my direction. “Bringing a ‘plus one’ tonight, if that’s okay?”

Both of the door guardians turned their gaze on me now, looking me over, if only briefly before the dark green stallion shrugged. “If you’re vouching for her then it’s all good.” He jerked his head towards the door, which the batpony was presently opening. “Enjoy your night, ladies.”

Hash flashed me a wide grin and motioned for me to follow her inside. Still feeling a little uneasy about going into a place I wasn’t familiar with, but not eager to stay outside with these two strangers who were clearly only tolerating my presence because I was with the pegasus, I trotted after my roommate. The door closed shut behind us with a suddenness that startled me, drawing my gaze briefly back over my shoulder. Sensing my nervousness, the pegasus laid a reassuring wing over my shoulder. “It’s alright. They’re just there to keep out the riff-raff. Like Grinder and other boosterherders. You’re safe here; trust me. Okay?”

I nodded, forcing myself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm myself before forcing my lips into a broad smile of my own. “What? You didn’t think I was worried back there, did you? I deal with those types all the time. They don’t frighten me.”

The pegasus let out a little laugh and nodded. “Right, yeah.”

Now that I’d taken a moment to drag my mind away from thoughts of hypothetical danger and focus on the here and now, I began to recognize the all-too familiar sights, smells, and especially sounds, of a concert in progress. The building’s exterior hadn’t hinted at the level of soundproofing that must have been present here. It seemed the place had been retrofitted since it was last abandoned in order to serve as a place to host loud performances that wouldn’t draw in crowds of undesirables―of both the boosterherd and law enforcement variety, one would presume. Not that noise complaints were typically a thing that received a police response out in Haywood.

As we walked down the hall that was visibly lined with foam dampeners―and more than a few pairs of creatures who were vigorously embraced―I began to be able to hear the music more clearly. The judicious use of drums and heavy focus on bass riffs ensured that the melody didn’t distract the audience from the singer’s words as what sounded to me like a mare who’d been smoking heavily since she was a newborn foal belted out the lyrics:

“Got gems in my bloodstream,

“Got a hoof cast out of chrome…”

Hash and I rounded a corner and suddenly found ourselves at the far edge of a crowd of creatures all facing a stage on the far end of the room. I couldn’t make out the band members from here past the throng of cheering and gyrating bodies, but the deceptively high-end sound system ensured that I didn’t have any trouble hearing what was being performed even from the very back of the crowd. Still, the venue was incredibly crowded and I wasn't sure how we were going to manage to get any closer to the stage.

“Ain’t slept in a thousand nights,

“With this phone fused to my dome!”

Another wingtap on my withers drew my attention back to my roommate as she urged me to follow her around the edge of the crowd. It was clear to me that she was a regular here and so likely knew how to get us to a better vantage point from which to enjoy the performance. I dutifully followed Hash along the wall. Even if I did have a harder time squeezing my way past the rowdy listeners than the pegasus did as she wafted along just above them on her glowing levitation talismans.

“Can’t escape this saccharin’ lie,

“Payin’ for updates ‘til I die…

“A stranger in my own skin,

“But I’m not givin’ in, no not givin’ in…”

Hash brought us all the way around to the other side of the large room, opposite the entrance way. I was finally able to catch at least a partial visual of the band that was on the small stage. It looked like it was four creatures, but I still wasn’t in a position to get a clear look at them. The sight of the looming minotaur a few paces ahead of us in the direction that Hash was leading me suggested that we probably had gotten just about as far as we were going to be allowed to. Just past the bipedal bovine’s looming visage, I spotted what was apparently a ‘VIP’ area that led backstage. The minotaur’s job was clearly to keep anypony who didn’t belong there from getting any nearer.

I was about to nudge out a little standing room for myself in this part of the crowd when I noticed that the pegasus wasn’t stopping. She was flitting right up to the minotaur. I cocked my head, raising a brow in surprise. Then I thought back over how the flier had been received at the door just a minute ago. She’d been known to the bouncers there, so I suppose that it made sense that she knew some of the other staff as well. Hash was probably just taking a moment to say ‘hi’ to a bloom of hers.

“New drivers out, an option they’re not,

“Money’s due now, that I don’t got…”

More waving caught my attention again. I looked over and my surprise returned as I noticed that Hash was gesturing for me to come with her…to the other side of what the minotaur had been blocking off. Hash had backstage access? Exactly how much of a ‘regular’ in this place was she? Finding myself again feeling a little unsure about whether I really belonged in a place like this, I tentatively made my way to her, thinking in the back of my mind that I would get blocked off the moment the minotaur saw that the pegasus was trying to get a nopony like me this close to the talent.

Imagine my surprise when the bovine bouncer not only let me pass unmolested, but even offered up a polite greeting like I was a real VIP too; and not just somepony’s charity tag-along.

“I’m a stranger in my own skin,

“But I’m not givin’ in!”

We weren’t the only two off on the side of the stage, I noticed. There were a couple dozen creatures here with us, and all of them were prancing and whooping enthusiastically in the direction of the quintet of performers. Their energy was contagious, and the beat of the music was intense. It wasn’t long before I found that my own hooves were stamping along, my body bouncing to the rhythm of the song. Hash was doing likewise beside me, though with considerably more gusto. She also had no problem singing along with the lyrics, apparently being quite familiar with them.

“Not givin’ in…Won’t play by their rules.

“Not givin’ in…No we won’t be their tools!

“Not givin’ in…Not their commodities.

“Not givin’ in…Say it with me:

“Not givin’ in!”

Even I was belting out the tag line by the end, feeling myself grinning as I did so. There was so much energy in the air, it was hard not to get caught up in it. As the song’s bridge went into full swing, I even found myself yelling out with enthusiastic ‘whoo!’s of my own.

“What do you think?” Hash was forced to all but yell into my ear in order to be heard over the blaring bass chords that were loud enough to vibrate the crowd, I was pretty sure. “Pretty preem, right?!” There was a wide grin plastered across her face as the mare took note of my obvious enjoyment of the experience.

“You mean the seats or the band?” I asked playfully in return. “It is pretty nova being up this close, yeah!” While this wasn’t the first live performance I’d ever attended in my life, this was certainly my first experience being on stage with the performers. Usually, I was just part of the mass of ponies down there on the floor, and almost always way at the back just trying my best not to get crushed by larger―and drunker―creatures enjoying themselves. This was a lot better.

“‘The band’?” Hash asked in feigned afront, offering me a look of mock indignation. At least, I think she was just playing up the indignation on her face. “Don’t you know who that is?!” She asked, gesturing wildly toward the singer on the stage. I frowned at the mare, but spared a second to take a closer look. At first, I’d assumed that this was just some local gig-group who performed around the area. After all, that was the sort that mostly performed at these sorts of out-of-the-way venues. Well known groups with genuine star power did ‘real’ concerts at the larger stages for crowds of thousands, not a hundred drunken donks in the Haywood slums.

Which wasn’t to say that this couldn’t have been a band of some real renown. I’d heard that, on occasion, a prominent group would forgo the glitz and glam of the regular concert circuit and play these sorts of back-alley dives as a way to help build up their ‘street cred’ with their target audience in the lead-up to a new album release. If this was really a well-known band, then that could be what this was, I reasoned.

It was a group comprised of five creatures. The lead singer was a donkey mare with a greasy black mane that didn’t look like it had seen a wash in at least a month and hadn’t been brushed…well, ever, honestly by how tangled her locks appeared as they whisked around her head as it thrashed along with the bass. In her defense, the aesthetic she cultivated actually paired quite well with her black tank-top and the studded leather cuffs on her cannons. What stood out most on her though was her cybernetic left forelimb. By virtue of it being blaring obvious that it was a cybernetic augmentation.

By and large, the vast majority of creatures elected to have their augs tailored to match the colors of their coats, just as mine did. This wasn’t always the case, to be sure; but that just made such rare instances of ‘obvious’ cybernetics all the more memorable. Even then, I couldn’t recall ever seeing anopony sporting a limb that was just straight up brushed metal. Anypony who wasn’t interested in having their synthetic limbs looking natural at least opted for other bright or striking colors, allowing their augs to serve as visible expressions of their personality. If that was the intent here, I had to admit that I wasn’t sure what statement the donkey was trying to make. Other than what she was screaming as part of the lyrics to her song, that is.

My gaze drifted to the guitarist standing next to the screaming jenny. He was a griffin with golden plumage on his avian half and an ivory coat on his feline half. A purple-died crest of plumage on his head added an additional splash of color to the dour-looking tiercel. His talons danced along the strings of his instrument as the song carried through the bridge leading into the second verse. He appeared completely oblivious to the donkey who was currently strutting up and down the stage in front of him, gesturing wildly at the crowd in order to fan their excitement.

Behind the pair was a diamond dog strumming along contentedly on her bass. Her gunmetal gray coat was mostly obscured by a black jacket and pair of leather pants. Spiked collars around her neck and wrists finished out her ‘punk’ motif. What stood out most about her to me though was the level of cybernetic augmentation that I was seeing grafted into the canine. Forelimbs, hindlimbs, chest―I saw signs that just about every part of her body had been modified in some way. Every part of her hide that was visible was etched with crystalline lines betraying the arcanetics lurking beneath the surface.

A lavender unicorn stallion sporting a golden mane that was heavily gelled up into a classic ‘zebra cut’ stood amidst a nest of drums. He was sporting an open denim vest that was choked with various patches depicting what looked like cutie marks. Drumsticks enveloped in his cyan magic danced around him independent of his own prancing body, clearly enjoying his band’s own music. He even spared a few moments to canter a lap around the stage―his drumsticks not missing a beat while he was away from his post. The brief excursion earned him a round of excited cheers from most of the audience’s fairer sex, which he quite obviously reveled in before returning to his station.

Lastly was a powder blue hippogriff mare standing at a keyboard near the back of the stage. Her talons danced over the keys with smooth motions even as her head bobbed along with the strumming of the band’s bassist. Next to the diamond dog, she was the next most visibly augmented member of the band―aside from the lead singer’s hoof anyway. However, I saw that most of her additions existed only in her head and neck, much the same way that Hash’s did.

I finally looked back at Hash and shrugged. “I’m not too familiar with punk bands,” I admitted to the pegasus. “I’m more of a rock fan, honestly.”

From the look on Hash’s face, you’d have thought that I’d just slapped her. Her expression was bordering on genuine incredulity as she gestured towards the band with her wing. “‘Punk’? Okay, first off: this isn’t ‘punk’. We’re west of Seaddle; this is grunge,” she corrected me pedantically, turning her snout upward in a dramatic showing of her offense at my mischaracterization of the genre of music in question, prompting an eye roll from myself. “Secondly: that’s Hussar!” She said excitedly.

The little flier paused, apparently waiting for me to demonstrate recognition now that she’d revealed their name to me. However, all I could do was stare blankly back at her. This reaction only seemed to exasperate Hash even further. “Hussar?” She said again, more emphatically; as though repeating the name of a band I’d never heard of before―except this time slower and louder―would somehow spontaneously manifest knowledge of them in my brain through osmosis. Surprisingly, it didn’t, leaving the pegasus on the verge of sputtering exasperation at my incomprehensible display of ignorance. “You know: Jenny Silverhoof? Hussar!”

All I could do was shrug and return an apologetic look to the pegasus, at which point she let out a defeated sigh and visibly deflated. “How could you possibly have lived your whole life in Haywood and never heard of Hussar? There are posters for them all over the place!”

I cocked my head to the side and thought. “...Are they the ones with the logo that’s that weird demon face?”

Another metaphysical face slap had been inflicted, it seemed, leaving the mare wincing with emotional pain. “It’s called a ‘wendigo’, and it’s a creature from ancient equestrian mythology. Hippogriff warriors, known as ‘hussars’, used to wear wendigo masks when charging into battle to intimidate their opponents in the Pre-Storm King Era. The practice fell out of use when the hippogriffs fled into the sea.”

My lips curled into a wry smile. “Thanks for the history lesson, teach. The design on the posters looks pretty sick, I do admit.”

“Catching attention is kind of the idea. It’s better if it actually attracts ponies to their music though,” the smaller pegasus added with a smirk of her own directed back at me. “You had to have heard their stuff before.” Her wing moved in the direction of the band once more as they proceeded into the second verse of their song.

“Made slaves to the ‘free market’,

“Doomed to work until we die.

“Corps tellin’ us: ‘hard work pays’,

“They ain’t sold a bigger lie!”

“I guess it sounds kind of familiar,” I acknowledged, though this didn’t exactly earn me any praise from the frowning pegasus. “It’s certainly something I like,” I assured her, hoping to soothe my roommate’s ire at having her musical tastes go unappreciated. “I’ll pick up one of their shards after the show.” Now that I had some gibbies to spend on things that weren’t absolute essentials. It was no lie that I was quickly becoming a fan of this group. Their lyrics certainly spoke to me on a personal level.

“All work, no time to play;

“Got me prayin’ for brighter days.

“Won’t see ‘em if the corpos win,

“So I’m not givin’ in, not givin’ in!”

As the song descended once more into the chorus, the audience was singing along with the jenny at the head of the band. Hash Stack and the other VIPs around me were as well. I couldn’t stop myself from adding my own voice to that of the crowd’s, feeling the collective emotions of everycreature else washing over me. As depressing a picture as the singer’s words painted for the world that we lived in, it was hard not to feel just a little hopeful that we could overcome the adversities that this city seemed determined to constantly throw at us.

It was all hyperbole though, I knew. Things weren’t nearly as bad as the mare was making them sound. Yeah, the frequent neural mesh updates could get a little annoying because they’d drop seemingly out of nowhere most of the time, but they weren’t that expensive to download. You could even fall behind by a couple before your link lost functionality, so it wasn’t like you needed the latest firmware version at all times. I certainly found them more than a little inconvenient at times, but it wasn’t so bad with Hash around to pirate-patch things for me when gibbies were tight.

Besides, the corpos weren’t the ones in control, not really. We were the consumer, so it was really we who had the power. If we didn’t like how a company was treating us, we could just take our gryphusbits elsewhere to a competitor. Well, not with the neural mesh specifically, since there was only one company that sold them. However, most businesses had competitors. So the idea that we were being ‘oppressed’ by the corpos and we needed to band together and ‘rise up’ against them was a bit of exaggeration for how Light City was. A little fantastical, I felt.

Not that there was anything wrong with enjoying a fantasy or two from time to time. However, it was in a pony’s best interest to keep themselves grounded in reality when it really mattered.

Like my reality with Grinder. That stallion was a much bigger menace in my life than some ambiguous notion of capitalist dystopias.

The mere passing thought of the crimson stallion brought my previously high spirits crashing back down in flames. While the payday from Hash’s gig would get him off my back for now…it was only a matter of weeks before the next round of protection payments were due, and he’d be expecting me to collect on them. Was I just supposed to hope that the pegasus was going to swoop in at the last moment again with another absurdly large payday and save my life? Instead of being chained to one pony―Grinder―I’d just be putting myself at the mercy of two: my roommate and the boosterherd leader. That was hardly an ‘improvement’ to my situation, was it?

The song that the band had been playing was winding down it seemed, the music petering out in favor of the growing roar of the enthusiastic crowd, as well as the hooting and hollering creatures around me. I was only half paying attention, and just absently stomping my hooves in approval of the performance along with those around me. My thoughts were now firmly entrenched in dreading what the coming weeks would bring with them. Hash hadn’t saved my life. She had only granted me a brief reprieve from what was likely to be my inevitable demise.

Unless I could find a way to do what needed to be done…and I knew that I couldn’t.

Hash must have noticed the change in my mood, because the pegasus was also ignoring the band in front of us and once more looking at me; this time with a concerned expression. “What’s wrong, bloom?”

“Sorry.” I winced, not intending to have ruined my roommate’s good time too. Damn, I really did suck. “Just thinking about Grinder. I mean, I appreciate what you did for me tonight and all, but I’m just going to be right back here again in a month anyway. I can’t ask you to save me every time.”

“Says who?” The pegasus asked nonchalantly, offering me an encouraging smile even as she draped a wing over me. “Bloomba, don’t you ever think that you can’t ask me for help, okay? For anything. I’m here for you.”

Her words were filled with such sincerity that I couldn’t help but return a thankful smile her way. At the same time, I knew I’d never take her up on the offer, even when Grinder gave me another do-or-die deadline like this one. I’d burdened enough ponies in my shit life. I wasn’t going to drag Hash down to my sorry level with the same fuck-ups that brought me here.

The pegasus bit her lip in thought for a brief moment before offering up another suggestion. “You know, you could always just…walk away. Leave Grinder. Leave Haywood. We could get a place somewhere else; someplace he wouldn’t find you?”

Another fantastic dream that would never come true; no matter how appealing such a notion might sound. I couldn’t restrain the mirthless chuckle that the suggestion evoked. “Never gonna happen. There’s nowhere I can go in this city that Grinder can’t find me.”

“He’s just some two-bit boosterherder,” Hash huffed in response, patently dismissive of the omniscience I seemed to be attributing to the stallion. “Light City’s too big for him to have connections everywhere. As long as you lay low you’ll be fine!”

I was shaking my head before the pegasus was even finished, flashing her a pitying smile. I held up one of my hooves. “You don’t understand: You see these legs? Grinder had them installed when he ‘recruited’ me. I didn’t have a say in the matter. I also didn’t have the gibbies to afford them. He paid the tab.

“And Grinder ain’t exactly a charity, ya dig? He expects me to pay him back―with interest―and until my balance is cleared, he won’t risk me wandering off with ‘his’ property. He had my implants hexed with a tracking curse. He can find out where I am any time he wants. There’s nowhere in Light City that I can…are you okay?”

I’d never seen the alabaster flier go pale before. As white as she normally was, the moment I mentioned the tracker, she somehow managed to blanch into a hue that bordered on transparent. Her pink eyes had similarly widened with what looked to be absolute terror as well, which was getting me feeling more than a little concerned too. It confused me as well. While I’d expected a reaction from the pegasus at the revelation that Grinder had me on an ethereal leash, I’d anticipated that Hash would have been hovering more on the indignant or outraged side of the emotional spectrum. I hadn’t expected outright terror from her.

It wasn’t like Grinder was going to be coming after her if I fucked up. She wasn’t involved in this.

“...He can track you? See where you are?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed, my tone betraying my own concern regarding the mare’s reaction. What was she getting so worked up about? I was the one on a short leash. “I know it’s fucked up, but it’s not like he doesn’t know where to find me most of the time anyway. I rarely leave Haywood after all.”

“Pel, this is super important: does the curse just ping where you are? Or does it log everywhere you’ve been?”

I wasn’t quite sure what the pegasus was getting at, nor was I sure of the answer to her question. The truth was that I didn’t know. The details of how the tracker Grinder had installed in me had never really come up because I’d never thought it mattered enough to ask. All I had needed to know was that running and hiding to try and escape him was useless, and so I’d never entertained the thought of trying to escape to some other part of the city and get away from him. It had never occurred to me that Grinder might also be able to look up the exact path I’d taken during any given timeframe.

I suddenly felt a little nervous. If that was indeed something that he could do, then that meant that the stallion would be able to look up whether or not I’d actually gone door-to-door to collect the protection money―assuming the tracking hardware was that precise, and I had no reason to doubt that it wasn’t. So when I paid him the money tomorrow, it was entirely possible that he’d know I hadn’t actually done my job and gotten it from the building’s residents.

Was that what the pegasus mare was so concerned about? Admittedly, I was feeling pretty uneasy too; though I was under the impression most of that was spurred by Hash’s own obvious distress. Would Grinder care more about getting his money, or about where it had come from? I wasn’t sure, to be honest. Even paid in full, with a little extra towards my cyberware debt, it was possible that the earth pony would want to punish me in some way for defying his orders to shake down my assigned floors of the megasilo complex. My life might not be in danger any longer, but that didn’t mean I was going to get out of this unscathed.

“...Fuck!” Hash swore under her breath. She’d clearly elected to take my silent ignorance as a tacit indication that the risk of my movements being tracked and logged was too significant a probability to flat out ignore. That didn’t explain why she seemed as upset as she was though. Grinder was my problem, not hers.

I watched as the pegasus’ face shifted through a myriad of expressions ranging from fearful, to frustrated, to despairing; until finally resting on resigned. She reached out with her wings and clasped both sides of my face with them, ensuring that she had my undivided attention, much to my own surprise. “Listen: don’t go back to the apartment tonight, okay?”

“What? Why? Where am I supposed to sleep!” I sputtered at the mare. “I’m caught up on my part of the rent!”

“It’s not about―” Hash nearly snapped, but stopped herself and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before continuing in a―slightly―calmer tone. She still sounded more than a little stressed out over something though. “Please, just trust me, okay? Don’t go back home.” She released my face with one of her wings and dug around in her saddlebag, quickly withdrawing a laminated rainbow-colored card. She passed it to me. “This is a pass to the green room here. It’s got comfy couches, plenty of food and drinks, vid chips, there’s a mare―Daisy―she’ll bring you whatever you want, no questions asked. Everything’s on the house, no cost to you, so don’t hesitate. Treat yourself!

“How’s that sound?”

I stared in shock as the telekinesis of my implanted talisman took hold of the blank rectangle of chromatic plastic that purportedly entitled the bearer to so much privilege by its mere possession alone. Assuming that everything she was telling me about it was true―and lies of this nature wasn’t something Hash was known for―I couldn’t help but wonder: why did the pegasus have this? Was this something she’d used her know-how and skill to forge? “Just promise me you won’t go back to the apartment, okay? Not until I tell you it’s safe.”

That got my attention, my eyes ceasing their examination of this mystical card of plenty and riveting themselves back onto the pegasus. “...Why wouldn’t our apartment be ‘safe’?” Haywood wasn’t, by any stretch, a ‘good’ neighborhood, to be sure; however, I’d never felt that we were ever in any real danger while at our apartment. Not until right this moment anyway.

Hash’s mouth moved wordlessly for several seconds before she bit down on her lip again and shook her head. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it.” She plastered a smile on her face to try and reassure me, but it didn’t work. If anything, it made me more anxious. I’d seen that exact same expression before. My mother would wear it every time Grinder’s goons came by for their money and she knew she didn’t have all of it. It was the same smile she’d give me when she told me everything would be okay.

…Right before the collection ponies would beat her unconscious for coming up short.

“Now go; enjoy yourself!” She reiterated, pushing the pass closer to my chest. All the while that not-smile never left her face. Her eyes, creased at their edges with feigned joy, reflected nothing but a deep sense of worry and apprehension. Again evocative of my mother’s own pleading face when she encouraged me to stay quiet and out of sight until Grinder’s thugs felt satisfied that the mare had been properly ‘reprimanded’ and finally left our apartment.

Faced with such familiar foalhood sights, how could I not fall back into my old foalhood routine? How could I do anything but exactly what was being asked of me without resistance?

So I nodded along in understanding, keeping the pass close to me. “Yeah. Okay, Hash. Whatever you say. I won’t go back to the apartment.”

“Good!” She replied, almost too quickly. She swallowed. That saccharine lie of a smile quivered a brief moment but didn’t ever fully fall away. Hash wasn’t as good at this as my mother had been. “Good…

“I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

I swore I could almost hear the little flier speaking with my mother’s voice. Without another word, Hash ignited her levitation talismans and flittered off towards the club’s exit, leaving me alone within the crowd of VIPs who’d been too busy cheering for the band to pay either of us any mind. Nocreature even seemed to pay the pegasus any mind as she darted overhead, their attention focused on the band that was launching into the next song in their set.

A powerful staccato of chords blared above the roar of the crowd.

“We lost everything!
“We had to pay the price!”

This time the energy of both the music and the band’s cheering fans rolled off of me with no effect. Everything felt so muted and distant now. I wasn’t in the mood for the band’s lyrical messaging about systemic resistance anymore. I’d been made too numb by bitter memories and heightened anxieties. What had Hash gotten us into that had even the usually nonchalant hacker this concerned for our safety? I tried to bleed away the anxiousness with several deep breaths, but it was to no avail. There was too much going on around me. I needed to get away from the crowd. Clear my head. Recenter myself.

I glanced down at the pass I was holding in my telekinesis. My eyes scanned my surroundings until they found the minotaur bouncer from earlier. He’d know where this ‘green room’ that Hash had mentioned was. Hopefully he wouldn’t think I’d stolen this pass or that it was the forgery I suspected it was…

Much like before, the hulking bull was nothing but courteous to me and wasted little time in directing me to a nearby corridor where he assured me the door leading to the room was located. Even though the minotaur had never met me before, my association with Hash Stack appeared to have earned me a lot of clout in this place. Enough so that it left me wondering who she was to the creatures running the club. Because it was obvious that she was more than ‘just a regular’. They didn’t let mere ‘regulars’ have backstage privileges or personal passes to private rooms.

It wasn’t hard to identify the door that this pass likely belonged to. One clearly stood out from the others as being more important than a bathroom or storage closet. The door in question looked to be heavily reinforced. Indeed, it looked to me like less of a door to a glorified break room than it did a secured military bunker, if I was being honest. I wondered if I was going to find a secret underground resistance command center on the other side rather than a snack bar and a minifridge full of drinks.

A reader mounted into the wall beside the seemingly blast-proof barricade responded to the presentation of the card with a pleasant trill. Despite its obvious sturdiness, the door slid smoothly upward with a quiet hydraulic hiss. As much as the exterior had suggested some sort of militarized fortress, the interior was far more evocative of what I imagined the lounges reserved for high-level executives looked like on the upper floors of megacorp skyscrapers. Stepping inside felt like I was passing instantaneously from the slums of Haywood right onto the top floor of Aeriesaka Tower.

Why had Hash Stack given me this card? Why did she even have this card? Why did a grungy music hall inside of an abandoned factory have a back room that was decked out like the officer of a corporate CEO? What was going on here? A hundred questions swirled around inside my head as I tried to process what I was seeing.

It was mere seconds after I set hoof inside the purported ‘green room’ that a sunflower earth pony mare with a brilliant scarlet mane stepped into view from seemingly out of nowhere. She was wearing a form-fitting black cocktail dress that was very flattering to her figure and a broad smile that looked to be completely genuine. She was the spitting image of a high-end hostess that one might expect to find greeting them at the door of an exclusive restaurant. The kind of place that required a personal invitation from the owner, a seven-figure line-of-credit, and a six month wait with a reservation to get into. Yet, here she was; and so was I somehow.

“Hello there! My name’s Daisy; can I get you anything? Perhaps a drink to start you off?” She offered, even as the gemstone mounted in her forehead began to glow, pulling over a menu booklet and offering it to me. I took the menu absently in my own magic, barely even looking at it as I puzzled over where she’d come from.

“Oh, uh…whiskey?” I needed something to help settle my nerves, and alcohol had always worked in the past. The mare nodded politely, but continued to hold my gaze in patient silence as she looked at me expectantly. It took me a moment to realize that she was waiting for me to be more specific about my drink order. “Neat! Also a double.” I paused for a brief moment before adding with a hesitant tone. “...top shelf?”

Daisy grinned back at me. “Nothing but! I’ll be right back, miss; make yourself comfortable.” She gestured towards one of the many leather chaise lounges lining the walls of the room before she turned and headed for a side door that I hadn’t noticed upon entering. In my defense, I’d been rather distracted by, well, by the everything.

Once more on my own in a room whose opulence made me feel like I was desecrating a temple simply by being present, I hesitantly made my way towards one of the lounges. I bent down and examined the rich burgundy-hued crushed velvet upholstery and immediately decided that I couldn’t bring myself to actually lay down on it. I was positive that the moment I did, somepony was going to walk in here, recognize that a mare like me shouldn’t be allowed to touch things like this and―rightfully, in my opinion―buck me back outside where I belonged.

So I just sort of slowly meandered around the room, looking at the various paintings hanging on the walls. I didn’t know anything about art, but everything I saw looked expensive to me. At the very least, they had super thick and exquisitely-styled golden frames. In movies that always meant the paintings contained in them were extremely valuable. Which only further heightened my curiosity as to what was really going on in this place. Because it was obvious even to me now that this wasn’t just some converted old building that was being used as a makeshift nightclub to host small-time punk―excuse me―grunge bands.

The sunflower mare whose dress had me briefly contemplating my assumptions regarding my sexual preferences up to this point returned, balancing a tray with a single glass of whiskey on her back. That same smile from before was still firmly in place on her lips. “Here’s your drink, miss.” She sidled up near me, nodding her head back towards the tray. I reached out with my telekinesis and took the glass, but I didn’t drink from it immediately. “Have you decided what you’d like to order?” Her head dipped briefly in the direction of the menu that I was still holding onto.

I hadn’t even glanced at the menu I’d been given of course. Caught off guard by the other mare’s question, I fumbled both with the laminated piece of paper and my words as I struggled to make a hasty decision. I wasn’t even sure how to pronounce half the names for the dishes on this document. Quite a few of the letters had extra symbols above and below them that I didn’t recognize as being part of the alphabet that I’d learned in school either. Abandoning hope of being able to do anything but make a further fool of myself by trying to stumble my way through naming something on the menu, I just looked pleadingly at the mare. “I don’t suppose I can just get a fresh salad? Maybe with croutons, if you have any?”

The smile never left her face, and it was either completely genuine, or this mare was a good enough actor to be in film, because I could see nothing but warmth in her expression. It did quite a lot to relax me, if I was being honest. It was like she wasn’t questioning whether or not I was allowed to be back here. Even though it had to be obvious how out of place I was. “I’m sure I can whip up something you’ll like,” she assured me, retrieving the menu from my magic with her own implant and tucking it away on the tray where the drink had been only moments ago. She then gestured once more to a nearby couch. “Make yourself comfortable. Really. I’ll be right back.”

“Thanks…Miss Daisy,” I managed to get out as the mare turned to leave. She paused long enough to nod her head and flash another smile before once more leaving out the side door which I suspected led to a kitchen of some sort. I might not have been able to identify any of the foods on that menu, but I was pretty confident that none of them were the sort of thing that came packaged in a tray that got heated in a microwave for three minutes before being served.

This time I did ease myself onto one of the plush velvet chaise lounges. Though I was mindful to keep my hooves from touching the upholstery, still not wanting to risk scuffing it or getting it dirty. I marveled at the quality of the cushions I was laying on. They felt softer than the bed I slept on in the apartment. This couch probably cost more than my apartment.

I took a sip from my drink, and marveled at how smooth the liquor was going down. I barely even felt the burn of the alcohol. This really was top shelf! Like, the sort of stuff that cost more gibbies per bottle than I currently had in my account right now, top shelf. Why was something like this being served in an underground rock pit? What was going on here?

My thoughts were interrupted by Daisy’s return. This time the tray on her back had been replaced by a small cart that she was pushing towards the lounge I was reclining on. I found myself almost involuntarily sitting up, not feeling comfortable to be seen lazing around while somepony nearby was working. It felt rude.

My eyes involuntarily darted first to the mare’s flank as it swayed with each step she took, but then they very quickly locked onto the contents of the cart she was pushing towards me. Sitting on top of it was easily the largest bowl of fresh greens that I’d ever seen in real life. I was forced to immediately swallow back what felt like a gallon of saliva which had suddenly manifested in my mouth at the sight of the ‘salad’. ‘A small garden’ seemed like a more apt way to describe what was being presented to me. It wasn’t alone either. Accompanying it was a large glass of crystal clear water, a grinder filled with harsh parmesan cheese, and several decanters of various oils and colorful vinaigrettes.

The mare began to regale me with a detailed description of what I was being served, listing the contents of the salad and naming each of the various dressings as she pointed to them. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to her anymore. My brain was still trying to process the feast that was sitting in front of me. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been blocking Daisy out, but it was long enough that the mare had to ask me the same question three times before I registered that I was being spoken to.

“I’m sorry, what?” I blurted, finally managing to tear my eyes away from the heavenly bowl in front of me.

Her warm smile still didn’t waver though. “I asked: if you’d like some cheese on your salad?” She repeated once more, holding up the grinder in her hoof and nodding towards the bowl.

“Oh! Uh, no, I’ll take care of it. Thanks.” I then hesitated and looked between my whiskey and the salad. I knew what Hash Stack had told me about all of this being complimentary, but at the same time… “So, how much do I owe for all this…?”

“It’s all been taken care of, miss.” Daisy assured me. “You just relax and enjoy your meal. Call if you need anything else, okay?”

“Okay.” I wasn’t going to call her. I already felt like I’d wasted more of her time taking care of me than I had any right to. I was sure she had much more important things to do.

The mare nodded and left. The moment the door closed behind her, I buried my face in that bowl. Literally. Face in bowl, eating it like I was a fish going through water. Zero grace; zero dignity. Just a teary-eyed mess of a mare enjoying the first truly fine meal of her entire life. It had been forever since I’d been able to afford a meal that wasn’t just a calorie bar packed with vitamins. Even then, ‘real’ food to me had just been a microwaved tray of flavored tofu of one sort or another.

I mean, come on; me? Afford a real vegetable? That was grown in the dirt? In Light City? Ha! The closest I came to ‘carrots’ was purportedly carrot-flavored tofu formed into the shape of carrots. If I was feeling like spurging, I got a brand that added some orange coloring to further enhance the fantasy.

I licked that bowl clean. Also literally.

I’m sure I could have called for Daisy and asked for a second helping, but I just couldn’t quite fight my way past my own sense of inferiority to do it. Despite every assurance and indication that I’d gotten from both her and Hash Stack about there being no limit to what I could avail myself to in this room, to my mind, I’d already gotten far more than I ‘deserved’ out of this.

It was all still so surreal. Pampering like this didn’t happen to mare’s like me. Fuck, even if I’d pimped myself out as an escort―the sort that got taken out to dinner before being fucked in a nice hotel room―I couldn’t have hoped to score a night out like this. I didn’t have nearly the looks, or the social chops, to land a client who’d dole out the scratch to treat me to stuff like this. It boggled the mind what I―or any mare really―would have to be capable of doing in bed that would justify that sort of pre-sexcapades treatment, honestly.

My meal done with and my whiskey long since drunk, I found myself once more laying on the lounge with nothing to occupy my thoughts. Which caused them to wander again. Inevitably, those thoughts landed back on the matter of Grinder, and my inevitable meeting with him to pay him the money I owed. Even knowing I had more than enough to satisfy him, I couldn’t help but get that tight ball of nervousness and dread forming in the pit of my stomach at the thought of the deadline looming over me. It was pavlovian at this point.

I kept reassuring myself that I didn’t have anything to worry about. I had Grinder’s money. I could square my accounts and be free of him for the rest of the month. Until next time. That was Future Pel’s problem though. Present Pel was free to feel at ease tonight. I didn’t though, because those gibbies were still in my account and not Grinder’s; which meant that I wasn’t square yet.

Of course, I couldn’t think of a reason why I had to wait until tomorrow night to finally pay him. It wasn’t like Grinder was going to turn me away if I was trying to give him his money early. That way, maybe I’d even be able to enjoy tomorrow properly, without having to keep my eye on the clock the whole day and worry about missing the meeting to pay him.

Yeah, I’d call him now and set up a rendezvous to pay him off as soon as possible. Hopefully some time tonight. It was hard for me to think of anything he’d be doing that he’d consider more important than getting the fifteen kay I owed.

I tapped into my arcanetic implants and tried to connect with the stallion for a clairaudient call. Imagine my shock when the spell failed with an anemic sputter of diffused mana from the talisman, catching me by complete surprise. I’d never encountered a problem like that before. I creased my brow and reached out with my telekinesis to grab hold of the empty whiskey glass. The glass began to glow and floated effortlessly into the air. My talisman was clearly still functional. I returned the glass and focused once more on connecting with Grinder.

Once more the spell fizzled inexplicably. This time, however, I paid more attention to the illusionary message that had appeared in the corner of my vision. It was an automated report from my implant’s matrix that was informing me of the precise issue being encountered. I read through the alert with interest.

>>ERROR 203: LEY LINE ATTENUATION FAILURE

I frowned, staring in mild disbelief at the message. It was an extremely uncommon one, in my experience; and it certainly wasn’t one which I’d anticipated running into. If anything, I’d anticipated that I’d either somehow missed a matrix update for my implant, or Hash Stack’s own patch job had been uncovered and locked out. However, that wasn’t what this error was referring to. It only popped up when the implant was reporting insufficient energy to perform the requested spell. Essentially, the talisman couldn’t draw on enough mana to connect me to Grinder.

Which wasn’t possible. Not in this instance anyway. A clairaudience cantrip required less mana than the telekinesis that I’d just performed on the whiskey glass. Especially if Grinder was anywhere in Haywood. Even if he wasn’t, there was no way that I could have exceeded my talisman’s rated mana load while using just the one cantrip. I might not have the most robust cranial implant in the world, but it was absolutely capable of placing a call within the city.

I tried to reach Hash Stack. At least I knew that she was somewhere nearby―

>>ERROR 203: LEY LINE ATTENUATION FAILURE

Okay, now that was just weird. Still frowning, I got up from the couch and started walking around the room, wondering if I’d somehow just managed to find the only ‘dead zone’ in Light City where there wasn’t a clear means of connecting to one of the city’s many ley lines which allowed for the flow of spells from one location to another. It wasn’t like this part of Haywood saw a lot of infrastructure maintenance, after all.

It wasn’t until I stepped out of the room and back into the corridor that my call to Grinder finally went through. I glanced back towards the reinforced door behind me, briefly wondering whether it was just the door of that room that had been beefed up. Then my thoughts were redirected back to the call when I heard the familiar gruff tone of the stallion I worked for in my head.

“S’up, bitch? You got my gibbies?”

I swallowed back the instinctive lump of fear in my throat that hearing his voice evoked. I forced myself to breathe normally, doing my best to keep myself sounding nowhere near as intimidated as I felt. Weakness was dangerous. “Of course I’ve got them.”

“Yeah, I bet you fuckin’ do…” Came the stallion’s muttered reply. I wasn’t entirely sure how to take his comment, so I remained silent. “Warehouse. Now. With my money.”

“Got it. On my way, boss,” I replied automatically. You didn’t tell Grinder ‘no’ after all. Not if you wanted to stay healthy and whole.

The stallion ended the call without another word, and that was when I briefly hesitated. I glanced back down the corridor towards the stage and the still ongoing performance. I couldn’t spot Hash Stack, but I recalled how adamant she’d been about her warning not to return to the apartment until she got back. I still didn’t understand what the little white pegasus’ hang-up about that was, and it looked like I was going to have to wait to find out. It wouldn’t take me all that long to duck down to the warehouse, pay off Grinder, and then hurry back here. I could probably get back before she knew I was gone, for as long as she’d been away already.

Taking an educated guess, I glanced the other way down the hall and spotted the expected alternate exit. Building’s like this always had multiple ways in and out as a consequence of city fire codes, and even after its conversion into a nightclub/concert venue, I knew that the creatures running it would want to keep a back entrance available for the talent to use to avoid the crowd. I quickly ducked out the back way, waving a hasty ‘goodbye’ to the pair of hippogriffs who were sitting outside minding the door. They seemed a little surprised at my departure, but I didn’t hear them yell out anything which suggested they wanted me to stop, so I kept on cantering towards the warehouse I typically met with Grinder at.

It took me a little over ten minutes to make it the two kilometers to the meeting spot. Once there, I slowed to a walk and made my way to the main entrance. I nodded a silent greeting to the unicorn stallion who had been assigned look-out duty for the evening. The little hairs near the back of my mane stood up on end when all I received in response was an amused snort and a leer. While nopony in Grinder’s boosterherd would ever be accused of being overly cordial, that was a decidedly unusual response to a simple greeting from a fellow herd member. It felt more like something that would be directed at an outsider whose presence was merely being tolerated…and only temporarily.

Not that I was on great terms with everypony in the herd, but I was still one of them. Maybe it was because of how overdue I was with the money? Hopefully squaring my debt would smooth things over with the rest of the herd too.

My unease only grew the further into the warehouse I ventured. I was getting odd looks from quite a few of my fellow herd members, I noted; and I overheard more than a few whispers and even the odd chuckle being directed at me. I didn’t like it. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my hoof on it. Not that I could exactly just turn around and scoot out of here. There was no way I was going to be allowed to leave right now; not before I paid off Grinder. A small part of me was wondering how assured I could be of my freedom after giving him the money though.

Had the stallion reconsidered his position on my position with the herd since yesterday?

I rounded a stack of crates and found myself finally face-to-face with the herd leader. The crimson earth pony stallion was leaning casually against a large crate, having what appeared to be a casual conversation with a unicorn mare.

I froze, feeling all of the color drain from my face.

I recognized that unicorn. How could I not? I’d seen her just an hour ago in the apartment that Hash and I had broken into. I’d briefly debated the merits of putting a bullet in the back of her head. Why was she here? Why was she speaking with Grinder?

Their conversation paused as somepony else signaled to the stallion. The moment Grinder glanced in my direction and I caught the look of unbridled fury in his eyes, I knew exactly why that mare was here…and I suddenly realized whose apartment we’d broken into that night.

“Oh no…” I whispered under my breath.

Hash, what did you do?!

Author's Note

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