Fallout: Equestria - Most Dangerous Game

Chapter Thirteen:

“Is anywhere out here normal?” Jade asked, more to herself than anypony else as she looked around the gutted town. “Can’t we just find a nice, civilized place to rest?”

She supposed she should be glad the ruins of the pre-war town weren’t overcome with raiders or monsters. While some red dots did mill about in her sight, they were no more than rats and odd, mutated squirrels. Possums and skunks too, many scattering in their wake, the many gangrenous heads they boasted chittering all the while. She really had to wonder what her systems deemed as hostile as the things disappeared into the shadows of old trash bins and shattered storefronts, glassy shards still spilling out onto the sleek asphalt. Crunching like eggshells under her mechanical hooves as she and her companion made their way toward what they guessed was the center of town.

“It would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Ocean responded as her gaze followed a set of fleeing crows. “Though I’m pretty sure the Aqua Dome would have been considered relatively civilized out here.”

Probably why that DJ pony made me out to be some kind of horror villain for gutting the place. Jade’s mind scolded. Yes, but he didn’t say it was the wrong thing to do, did he.

“Lucky us, if that’s our run of normal then surely we’re due a break,” Jade joked, stepping over a fallen banner rotting amidst the glass.

Apparently, it had been some kind of ‘Happiest Town in Equestria’ day when the bombs had fallen.

Given the leadership of the place was skimming money off the top, I hardly think so. She thought, a sickening feeling the mayor had only set up the date as a distraction while he ran. Really, and I still think I’m bad?

Now the place was nothing but a ghost of its merry past. There weren’t even bones, as if somepony had come to clear everything away but gone way too far. The buildings weren’t just ruined, they were utterly stripped. Walls had been removed, rather than blown down, foundations had been excavated and inner frames had been pulled away. Even some of the trees that surrounded the trash-filled yards had been cut down as if by chainsaw, not quite as neat a job as any pre-war contractor, but also a cut above the average wastelanders.

Even parts of the road had been removed, as if surgically. Most notable of all around drainage grates and pipes, as if to get at the metal kept safe below. It all made Jade’s mane crawl, for there was no evidence of where such resources had been taken. She had flashes of a huge raider den, a pyramid of scrap metal dedicated to the bloody sacrifice of wastelanders, or a pit of chem’ fiends chanting for the slaughter.

Wow, have I really gone that native? She had to wonder, a thought seemingly more derived from the phantom of Data’s observations as the two of them finally came upon the center of town. She’s one to talk, right now she’d be right at home in a ghost town.

More banners and streamers littered the wet road, rotting away in pools of green mold and mush. Shattered tables and even a few plastic cups marred the scene, around the base of a great statue. Looming tall on a squat pedestal before the entrance of the pale church on the opposite side of the open plaza, the stone stallion was frozen in a heroic, rearing pose.

Marred by grime and streaks of green, Jade assumed that the town’s name may have once been derived from the icon. That was before the defiling graffiti that now covered its surface. The underside especially was dotted with phallic imagery, not even considering the wooden effigy of a submissive mare that had been crudely forced upon the pedestal, transforming a heroic scene into one of sickening depravity.

“Well, isn’t that charming?” Jade muttered, hoping the trees around the place hadn’t been cut down just to depict a mare taking it up the tail.

“Yeah, I’m thinking we’re not due that break any time soon,” Ocean added with a wince, while her suit muttered about tribal surfacer culture.

The coy thoughts his voice brought out in X-23 rubbed against Jade’s brain in a way that made her feel very awkward, most of all given the devious display before her. She was swift to avert her eyes, marching past the vile statue toward the church beyond.

Come on, Jade, you saying you were never the submissive type? The rogue thought really made her hope the ghost in her brain was Data, any other mare suggesting that would have been too awkward to consider. Okay, not thinking about that now, moving on!

The church steeple loomed tall into the cloudy sky, its silver peak glistening as it cut at the low valley mist. Once crafted from white wood, the many planks had turned the sickly cream color of off-milk, mottled by green and orange mold. Yet in some odd twist, the structure itself appeared to be unchanged by the relentless stripping the rest of the buildings had seemingly endured. Instead, the once proud icon of Celestia that the stained glass above the door boasted had been painted over by an odd, technological symbol. Below, the blasted doors stood ajar, while within, the pews and aisle appeared relatively unscathed, if not a little weather-damaged.

“Classic surfacer degradation, defacing their own monarchs. An expected display of resentment,” muttered Ocean’s suit, while the hippogriff studied the place up and down.

“I’m guessing you ponies didn’t like the princess much?” she asked, the fact made all the more evident as they passed the church’s overgrown left side, seeing more windows of the princesses shattered or defaced with vile imagery.

‘Lies. Traitor. Forsaken,’ were just a few among the words painted on the wall in an eerily crimson paint. Yet there were more, others spoke of the Ministries, and a few the dangers of technology.

“No, they loved them as far as I know,” Jade said with a shrug, offering Ocean a knowing look. “Though, I wasn’t a pony, remember?”

“Right, yeah, sorry,” the hippogriff corrected with a wince. “It’s just now you’re so… Urg, it’s been a long few days.”

No matter how much she did her best to hide it, assuring Ocean it was fine, the fact she was so removed from her old self stung a lot more than she let on. It was like going Nirik, only instead of losing her mind she’d lost her body, and it was only getting worse by the day. Yet as much as her new reality played with her mind like a puppet master plucking at her strings, the world before her at least offered something new.

Beyond the closest set of ruins, a pillar of light loomed high into the clouds. Shrouded in the mist from below, she assumed this was the glow she had observed from the cliff top. Around it, more beacons of illumination lingered, like distant colored planets orbiting the central star. They bobbed and weaved, swaying back and forth like the spotting beams of some kind of dragon raid drill back before the war.

The lights weren’t the only thing, however. In her enhanced ears Jade could pick up the faint din of music, a low and rhythmic rumble that thrummed through the thick air. It sounded much too akin in volume to the Aqua Dome, and from the way she caught Ocean hesitate at the sound, she knew she wasn’t the only one to have assumed as much.

“I’m going to go ahead and guess we take the next few steps carefully?” she asked, looking at Jade as if that were more of a firm request than a suggestion.

“Yeah, agreed,” the synthetic mare said with a nod, levitating out Early Retirement and holding it close. “Stick close and keep your eyes out for red dots acting out, don’t wanna lose you in the fog.”

Dropping into a low stance, Jade could feel her systems working as she slipped into a totally military mindset once more. Just another aspect of her mind she was terrified of losing, she did all she could to ignore the reality of it as she made her way from the plaza into one of the alleyways at the far end. Ocean was close behind her, shotgun drawn in one claw as her servos kept her movement quiet as Jade’s own.

More rats and roaches scattered in their wake, their muffled squeals more likely to give the two away than anything else as they reached the end of the aisle and hunkered down. Jade pressed her back to the brick wall, carefully observing the few dots that fled from her position, before picking up on several non-hostiles. They were the only ones left when the wildlife cleared her E.F.S, giving her pause as she dared peer out into the misty gloom.

Now, just because they’re not trying to kill us yet, does not mean they’re gonna stay nice. Jade’s calculating brain was quick to warn her. Yes, but I’m also not some evil ghost, I won’t shoot first.

The battle between her programming and equinity raging, she made out shapes in the gloom. Beyond their cover was another road, and past that, the rusting skeleton of a metal fence. Or more accurately, what was left of it. The twisted metal had been stripped away, leaving what was left utterly mangled as the nubs of the stolen bars poked free of the squat concrete base, barely visible above the withered grass.

To the right, just a few paces down the road, was an arched gate proclaiming the place as the town park. That was if the majority of the letters hadn’t been removed, leaving her heads-up display to fill in the gaps, as it had done under San Prance. Some trees and shrubs still existed within, their mutated canopies glowing a faint green, while hardy vegetation swayed below their thick trunks.

Jade’s eyes weren’t drawn to the plants, however, but the several ponies milling about what appeared to be a set of stalls and a guard post just before the light show that was the building in the center of the field. The first thing she noticed, was that they didn’t look like raiders, or even slavers. Adorned in rags only a cut above the slaves she’d rescued from the Aqua Dome, the way they trotted about and conversed like civil ponies made them look like no more than normal wastelanders, like in Horse Shoe.

“What is it, what do you see?” asked Ocean, as she peered around from the side of Jade’s shoulder. “All I see are blue dots, that’s good right?”

“For now, yeah,” Jade told her, stepping out from the cover and holstering her weapon. “Doesn’t mean they can’t turn red though. We approach and act friendly, but keep your eyes peeled.”

Ocean nodded, offering a salute Jade assumed was done for the sake of her suit as she sent a mental message to X-23 to be ready. There was a flutter of acknowledgment from the stealth armor, as the cyber mare cautiously stepped across the road and through the corroded park gate. The instant she was in range of the settlers, they reacted before she did.

Damn it, have to get used to knowing when they can see me. She thought, well aware she saw them way before they saw her. Can’t I have a meter of their visual range or something, Data?

The little blue pegasus in her brain rolled her eyes, folding her forelegs with a huff. All the while Jade kept her focus fixed on her E.F.S, looking for the flash of blue to red as a pony called out from the fog ahead.

“Who is it, who goes there?” It was a mare, and from the looks of her, a mare just as ready to pull out a weapon. “This land is sovereign property of the Community, state your business!”

Okay, that’s a lot to take in. She thought, stashing away what the mare had said for later, as she finally called back.

“We’re friendly, just passing through!” There was a pregnant pause, as if the thick air had taken a deep breath of apprehension. “Looking for a place to hold up, rest maybe?”

Yes, because the bunkers of corrupt politicians aren’t a good enough place to rest. Her mind huffed, while the mare ahead seemed to relax a little, approaching. Now, now, let’s act nice, not like some evil ghost.

Cautiously emerging from the mist, Jade saw that she was a pink-coated mare with a creamy mane. Yet all else was hidden under a ragged black cloak, trimmed with an industrial yellow. A hood drooped over her horn, bangs of her mane poking free above her faded blue eyes as a pistol was holstered to her flank. She looked at the two with suspicion at first, then a flash of surprise, before she almost seemed to adopt a look of eerie tranquility.

I hate that look. Jade knew it instantly, the expression of somepony only pretending to be formal, when really they hated to look at her. But why, we’ve only just met?

She could only assume seeing two fully armored cyber monsters emerge from the mist like specters would have that effect. At least she hoped the tales of her ghastly haunting and pale slaughter hadn’t reached this far yet. Looking at her pipbuck in particular, the stranger offered a fragile smile. While on either side of her, two more robed ponies approached, one a unicorn stallion, the other an earth pony mare.

“I apologize, can’t be too careful with anypony just emerging from the mist,” the mare began, nodding back to her fellows. “We have to keep the perimeter secure.”

“I see, no worries,” Jade responded as kindly as she could while assuming the three of them weren’t as innocent as they claimed. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. But like I said, we’re just passing through.”

“Yes, we get that a lot here, though it’s always nice when members choose to stay,” responded the mare, earning curt nods from her fellows, before adding. “Not that you have to, just always on offer.”

“Right…” Jade raised an eyebrow skeptically, glancing at Ocean, only for the hippogriff to shrug. “And where is here, exactly?”

“Oh, you don’t know!?” The mare asked in alarm, as if anypony who’d just wandered in from the woods should know exactly what the gutted town was. “This is the cradle of the Community, the valley is neutral ground for all surrounding tribes and gangs.”

Okay, this is getting weird. There was no doubt in her mind that there was something going on here, but to think she had to worry about three ponies was folly. I hear one word about some creepy cult and I’m out!

“I take it that’s got something to do with the light show back there?” she asked, nodding to the glow just beyond the mist, behind another set of mutated trees. “Saw it all the way from the hilltop.”

“Oh, you must mean the Love Shack,” the mare asked, drawing out the words as if speaking to a lover.

Was she some kind of advertiser in a past life? Jade had to wonder, feeling the sour sensation the mare was trying to sell her something cheap. Even after the end of the world, I can’t escape sales ponies!

“Oh, that sounds a lot more fun than the Aqua Dome!” Ocean exclaimed, and Jade winced at the leak of information, more so as a flash of recognition appeared to pass across the community mare’s face.

It was only for a split second, but clear as day to her observant eye. Prompting the mare to nod soon after as she went on.

“Well yeah, every wastelander needs someplace to have fun, let off some steam without worrying they’re going to be murdered, right!?” She nudged the shoulder of the stallion to her right, prompting a chuckle from him.

“A good place to rest up a bit, Jade?” the hippogriff suggested, and with a sigh, the cyber mare nodded.

“As good as any, I guess we can check it out,” she agreed, while the three ponies before them all nodded eagerly.

“Oh, I’m sure you won’t regret it! There’s food, drinks, a show from the Heart Breaker herself!”

“The who and the what now?” Ocean asked as Jade gazed off at the gloomy light show beyond the trees.

“Oh, I have a feeling you’ll know her when you see her,” the mare beamed cryptically, shooting Ocean a wink that ruffled her feathers.

Only thing I feel like I’ll know when I see is how suspicious this all looks. It was the only thought to pass through Jade’s head as she tugged at Ocean with her tail and led on into the illuminated mist.

*

Standing before the vast archway of twisted metal and awkwardly welded plates, Jade’s envisioning of a great temple of scrap didn’t feel too farfetched. It was becoming increasingly obvious where most of the town’s stripped materials had gone the more her eyes passed over the rough mass of metal, brick, and wood. Forming a shape almost like a huge, mutated log cabin, the Love Shack certainly appeared to live up to its namesake. Lit up more than the sun through the cloud layer, it was like a wicked beacon amidst the hills.

Pedestals around the place boasted spotlights that shone back onto the sloping roof; laced with what appeared to be long chords of bubble lights. The peak was a gleaming spire, appearing like some kind of lightning rod, while each arch was covered by a set of muddy curtains. The words that gave the place its name had been crafted from old signs and arrayed above the main entrance in a rough crescent, before being wrapped in blinking neon rods that flashed pink, green, and blue.

More gleamed at either side, from a flashing display that alternated between a full mug, brim frothing with foam, to the outline of a pony downing the thing in one go. Another was the neon outline of a mare on a pole, flashing from one leg out, and back in, in a glowing mockery of a strip dance.

“And here I thought the statue was bad,” Jade muttered as she and Ocean stood before the place. “Hardly helps we don’t exactly blend in.”

“It reminds me of the Aqua Dome,” Ocean muttered with a shudder. “But if they were gonna kill us, they would have tried by now, right?”

“I’m not sure, the moment you mentioned that place, that mare seemed to recognize it,” Jade informed her, taking a deep breath. “Just keep your eyes open and stick close, we get what we need and go.”

“Rodger, rodger,” Ocean agreed with another salute as Jade began into the shack, pushing by the curtains with a wave of her foreleg.

If this Red Turret’s influence is as widespread as they made it out to be, surely she has some eyes here. Jade thought as she passed into the bustling interior. Damn me, and my stupid ideas.

A din akin to a hundred chanting ponies billowed up through the narrow tunnel beyond the dingy shroud. As if there were some gladiatorial arena within, the masses chanted and cheered, the rough red carpet below marred by equally as many muddy hoofprints as music shook the rickety metal overhead to its rusty foundations. Yet before the two could move past the inner set of curtains, a hoof was casually lifted in Jade’s face.

“Weapons please,” droned a very board-sounding mare, and glancing left along the length of the gray foreleg, Jade found a small booth. “No weapons under the roof.”

Dressed in what looked to be something between a police uniform and a stripper’s skimpy lingerie, the cool gray mare with faded yellow mane didn’t even lift her gaze from the equally depraved magazine in her lap. It was a wonder she could even read the thing, blue cap slipping over the dark sunglasses masking her eyes as she slumped lazily in the booth, cigarette sticking loosely from her muzzle.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Thought the cyber mare, the little Data in her head stating all the ways she could dismantle this mare, right after she was done imagining how sexy the skimpy uniform could look on either of them. Really, that’s where your thoughts go? Data, you’re dead for Luna’s sake!

“Excuse me, that’s got to be some kind of mistake?” Jade reasoned, clearing her throat with a mechanical buzz, while behind her Ocean shifted uneasily to allow two very intoxicated ponies to flop out. “Every pony out here is looking to kill each other!?”

“Yeah, that’s kinda why the Community likes to take their guns away,“ stated the mare, finally moving as she peered over her shades at the two. “No accep… Damn, who are you two supposed to be?”

“Somepony you don’t want to mess with.” The little Data in her head begged her to growl something so dramatic, yet outwardly Jade just sighed. No, I’m sick and tired of this.

“This place has bed and board, right?” she asked, noting one of the mare’s forehooves slide under the counter ever so slightly, only to swiftly reappear.

“Errr, yeah of course.” Jade had seen Megamart employees making two bits an hour with more enthusiasm. “And you’ll get everything back once you leave. Community policy is to lock all weapons in the vault, you’ll get a number tagged to yours.”

This feels so sketchy… But a place to actually rest up… Take a fucking break! Jade considered that even without her guns she was still a killing machine. Data, that’s what you think. I don’t want to be a killing machine.

Before she could answer, there was a clang on the counter as Ocean deposited her shotgun.

“What are you doing?” Jade asked, shooting the hippogriff a sideways glance.

“What, I thought you said we were going in?” she asked, cocking her head. “You really want to go back out in the fog?”

Luna help me, why can’t things just be simple? Jade thought, shaking her head with a sigh as she levitated out her weapons, much to the booth mare’s odd fascination.

“H–how did you…?” The skimpily-clad pony’s words trailed off, cigarette slipping from her agape mouth as she slipped Jade a ticket marked with the number forty-four in exchange for the firearms.

“I know how it works as much as you do,” responded the cyber mare, feeling oddly like she were just buying a train ticket. “We done now?”

“Errr, yes, yes, just head on in. Remember to keep your ticket for when you depart,” responded the mare as she waved the two on. “Oh, and make sure to pop that helmet off, no pony likes looking at a steel mask. Face-to-face rules still apply to griffins.”

“Actually I’m a…” Jade nudged Ocean on before she could leak any more information, right as her helmet popped free with a hiss.

No telling them where we’ve been, what we’re doing, or that you’re secretly a member of a lost race of fish-bird-ponies. She thought, more so trying to avoid the inevitable questions as the vibrant yellow of Ocean’s face appeared to confuse the booth mare all the more.

Finally passing through the inner curtain, however, Jade assumed Ocean may well wish to slip the helmet back on. The first thing to hit her enhanced senses like a brick wall was the smell. Whether picked up by her advanced receptors, or biological means, there was no mistaking the wreak of alcohol and debauchery. A sweaty odor hung in the air as thickly as the fog pooled outside, pressing down over everything like a heavy blanket. One glance around and she could see why. The place was flooded with blue bars, and while there was some red in the mix, there was no way she could make out any particularly devious individual among the pulsating throng of ponies.

There were hundreds, far more than it appeared the establishment could house, even with its grand scale. Music thrummed, and lights blazed as a virtual sea of sweaty bodies stretched out below a squat set of steps before her. Above, the roof loomed tall above a set of steel girders. Like the rafters of some old barn, they were wrapped in more lights, while ponies and griffins lounged about them like cats in trees. Some of the first pegasi she’d seen since waking up were among them, each one appearing to bear an odd, burn mark on their flanks, at least those she could see under the multitude of ponies in the same black and yellow robes.

“Now this is my kind of club.” The small part of her that was Data observed in the back of her mind, prompting Jade to roll her eyes. Always one for the eccentric, I know.

Beyond the ocean of crazy merriment, Jade could at least make out a set of seating booths, each one a curved cell that appeared to be lined with rough leather, complete with a glossy table. There was a bar too, its length lit up with as much neon as the signs outside, while a virtual cliff face of vibrant glasses rose up at its core. Mirrors created the deceptive illusion there was far more booze than there actually was, the effect clearly fooling the drunken mares and stallions that slumped drooling on the glossy bar top. Yet even with that, Jade had to wonder where all of this had come from.

Even if they stripped the whole town, there’s no way they got this much? She was pretty sure from her observations that the pre-war buildings had been made of brick, not this much metal. This Community thing really seems to be more than it lets on.

The idea made her mane crawl, more so as she and Ocean descended the steps, parting the crowd with their presence. X-23 grew tight, like some timid foal clinging to their mother’s side as the two of them earned odd looks from the crowd. Weapons or not, they fit in about as much as an ice cube in a steel mill, while the level of scrutiny certainly felt like it was going to melt something.

“You know, it feels weird being on the outside of a party like this for once,” Ocean muttered, bowing her head. “Back at the Dome, it was always so muffled.”

“Not to mention the smell,” Jade quipped, and the hippogriff nodded, while her suit rather begrudgingly stated that only part of it would have been filtered out by her helmet.

Is that a testament to the odor, or the faults in her prototype armor? She had to wonder as the two of them finally approached the bar. At least folks moving aside removes the need for pushing and shoving.

Counting her small blessings, she stepped up another squat set of neon steppes, coming face to face with the bar. As she had observed from the doorway, the thing was sleek and glossy, crafted to mimic marble; it was as clean as it could be with drunken ponies passed out all over it. A set of stools ran around its edge, each one bolted to the floor and topped with a plush, purple pillow. Once again, it seemed exactly like Data’s kind of place, yet ignoring the energetic mare in her head for now, Jade stepped up to the bar, glancing left and right along its length.

Before she knew it, a pony was before her, her bubbly mane poofing up as if she’d moved faster than she could blink. Her cherry-red coat glimmered as much as the neon glow around the place, while her vibrant green eyes peered right into Jade’s, a perfect white smile parting her features. Yet for all her glimmer, Jade was pretty sure the outwardly over-happy personality could be shattered like glass. She’d seen ponies like this before, while just like the mare outside and in the door booth, it appeared this earth pony was hiding something.

Why do I get the feeling they’re all looking at me like I’m some kind of bomb about to go off? That prickling feeling was creeping up and down her synthetic spine yet again. Surely that DJ stuff isn’t that bad?

“Hello there, I’m Cranberry Twist, welcome to the Love Shack, best party house this side of the wasteland!” beamed the mare giddily. “What can I get you, something flashy, something fun… Oil change perhaps?” She added that last bit with a coy wink that made Jade want to scowl and buck her face in.

Seriously, if the mare outside was a sales pony, this mare is only one step above a robot! She thought, pretty sure that if anypony needed an oil change it was the one reciting her lines as if from a programmed script. Just how many times has she run this speal?

“No, no, we’re fine thanks, just looking for a place to rest up,” Jade said firmly. “You have rooms here or is it all just partying?”

“Oh, yes, we’d love to keep you around for a bit,” Cranbury Twist exclaimed, looking Jade up and down. “I’ll have a room made up for you faster than you can say save me.”

“Excuse me?” Jade asked with a raised eyebrow, but before she could press any further the bar mare whirled on the spot.

“The two of you just take a seat right over there and I’ll be sure to send somepony over when it’s ready,” she announced, adding with a wink. “You’re just in time for the Princesses’ show, should keep you busy until we can see to you properly.”

As rapidly as she’d materialized, she was gone in a crimson flash, shooting off down the bar to beam at the next set of drunken fools.

“Here I thought I could talk fast,” Ocean observed, nodding towards Cranberry. “Still, she seems nice.”

“Too nice if you ask me,” Jade muttered, cautiously heading back into the crowd. “Let’s wait by the exit, just in case.”

“What, you really think they’re up to something?” Ocean asked, head low as the crowd once again parted in their wake, the looks becoming ever sourer.

“You see as many backstabbers as I have, and you get a feel for false personas,” Jade muttered, earning a nod from the small Data in her head. “Back before the war everypony was still out to get each other, they just did it with words and paperwork, rather than guns and bullets.”

“We did always hear stories about the pony cults… Or Ministries,” Ocean added, wincing as she corrected herself. “Sorry, force of habit.”

“No, the more I think about it, the more cult-like it all seems,” Jade responded, resting against a steel beam beside the door. “Everypony was so devoted to one thing they didn’t really think about the consequences.”

The state of Stratus trapped for years by crazy equine technology came to mind at that statement as Jade’s eyes panned over the crowd. She imagined she looked rather like some kind of door mare watching for any meddlers trying to get in with her dangerous-looking power-armored companion. It was an ironic thought, but in her scrutiny, she did pick out one thing amidst the crowd.

One mare, sat alone at a booth, hood almost completely covering her features, save for a pair of sharp eyes below her horn. Whisps of mane curled either side of the spire, while a half-empty glass was resting in one of her forehooves on the table. It was odd, that in the throng, this one mare was what caught her eyes, yet the stranger’s focus was locked right on the two of them, it was unmistakable. The mysterious mare was blocking out everything just as much as Jade herself.

Now that’s creepy. Part of her mind muttered, while another part desired little more than to simply go invisible again. Now we’re being watched.

“Hey, maybe we should just get our stuff back and head out,” Jade told Ocean, as the mare by the booth took a long pull of her glass, setting it back down firmly.

The hippogriff cocked her head, yet before either of the two could say anything more, the music dulled, the lights dimmed, and an odd chime rang out. Much to Jade’s surprise, the crowd slowed, the volume dipping sharply. Everypony looked to the rear of the place, beyond the bar as steam started to fill the air. It was like the start of some pre-war pop gig, yet Jade only looked to the mysterious stranger, feeling a cold stab of dread seeing she had vanished.

Yeah, rearmed and outside seems really good right now! She thought urgently, yet as she glanced back, she could only see the flood of ponies that entered, as if summoned by the change in atmosphere. Oh, so now they don’t care about pushing and shoving!?

"Urg, let's... Just find somewhere out of the way," she grumbled, side-stepping the crowd to take a seat in the first unoccupied booth closest to the door.

I swear, coming in here was a mistake. Even the Data side of her was starting to agree as the two hunkered down on the worn seats, crooked wood creaking under their weight.

“Hello, my crazy little ponies!” Boomed a voice from somewhere in the room, buzzing out of a hundred speakers as from the gloom above, a platform lowered. “I’m guessing you all know what time it is!”

Suspended by rattling chains, the square plate held aloft a large set of speakers, each glowing with neon rings and operated by a pale mare with a stark blue mane. Her electrical features quite obviously dyed, she tapped and skidded her forehooves over a set of disks, a pre-ward DJ table from what Jade could make out. At her words the crowd started to chant, repeating the words princess over and over, before all suddenly falling silent. Jade was pretty sure if her heart could race, it would be doing so right now as the lights faded to complete blackness, all beams now directed to the rear wall, where two metal slabs rolled aside to reveal a stage.

Like the boot-up of a long-dead terminal, the podium lit up stage by stage, an array of neon stars flickering to life around the microphone stand and pole that stood at its center. Smoke pooled around the lone figure the beams all landed upon, her creamy coat and pink mane glistening in the glow as she batted her eyes at the crowd, throwing her head back to reveal a towering horn.

Over her back, a cherry-red, sequin dress shimmered as much as the silver beads neatly woven into her mane. Yet all of that was second to what Jade saw next, even the thought of escaping died. The mare stepped up to the microphone, muzzle curled with a devious smile as she flared a pair of grand, feathered wings.

An alicorn! Like a computer, Jade’s mind truly crashed. How in the goddesses’ name do they have an alicorn out here!?

Footnote: 50% to next level.