As The Sun Sets

As soon as Cadance stepped through the portal, she was assaulted with the salty scent of sea air. That combined with the particular brickwork, and the fact that wherever they were had an alleyway told the well traveled Alicorn exactly where they were

"Manehatten?" She questioned, just as 'Selene' followed through the portal.

Silver, who had stood off to the side, instead of stepping forwards after going through the portal, responded while closing it again, "Good guess."

"I for one, am surprised you figured it out so quickly, what gave away the location?"

"It was either Trottingham or Manehatten because of the alleyway and the salt. It had to be Manehatten, since it's darker here than it was in the Crystal Empire. That and Manehatten is the only place with brick work like this." She gestured vaguely at the walls

Silver made a face, "You recognized the brick work?"

"The industries that made bricks were a really big deal back when Manehatten was founded, they were still around when I was a filly."

Silver summarized her thoughts on the trivia, "Huh. Anyways, shall we?" She gestured out of the alleyway, out onto the grey stone facade street.

Cadance took the lead, walking past Silver, who started moving as Selene walked past.

"To know for certain, what exactly are we doing here tonight?" She asked Silver

Silver responded as she turned left into the open street. "Well, we've been to a hole in the wall, a nightclub, I got this idea from a story I heard about Cadance. Know what Karaoke is, Ms. Selene?"

Cadance, who was appreciating the ergonomic spacing of the houses and small plots of trees taking up space in the road joined in the conversation with a wide smile and a partial gasp, "Karaoke!? Ohmygosh- I looove Karaoke!"

"That's because you cheat."

"I do not!"

"You're only allowed to start one Heartsong Little Princess" Silver admonished, while Selene confusedly mouthed 'Little Princess', "Everything else better be normal terrible singing, like the rest of us."

"So... Following the theme, this is a Carry-okie bar?" Selene struggled with the word

Silver's tone switched conversational, with a twinge of curiosity, "You catch on quick, say, what's your story by the way? We've got a ways to walk, how do you know Cadance?"

Does she really not know?

Selene glanced at Cadance for answers, who just smiled a 'you got this!' smile

"Cadance and myself met in school-"

"Forty years ago?" Silver interrupted

"Thirty five years ago." Selene continued, "I was studying magic theor-

"Aren't you a pegasus?"

"My thesis was about active pegasus magic."

"Wasn't your roommate an engineer?" Silver turned to Cadance

She remembered that? Ah wait, I have to-

"Yeah, but that was way after, when I went to school again at the same time as Shining."

Silver tilted her head as she walked, "Wait, did you go through the college experience twice?"

Cadance answered by nodding then saying, "I got my masters in psychology the second time around. The first, it was mostly Celestia teaching me how to 'Princess.'"

At least that's not technically a lie

"Ew, a psych major."

Cadance mock frowned

Silver took the next several pony lengths in a bouncing gallop and crossed in front of their path to reach for a door hidden by the seamless transition of building to building. "Aaand here we are ladies." The held open door allowed a sliver of guitar noises filter through and out into the street; the scent of alcohol barely notable over the salty air.

Noxa Selene spoke as they slowed in front of the opening, "How exactly did you have the time to find this place?"

"I meandered around Manehattan for a while, I'm actually a Minutemare hereabouts. Definitely not my jurisdiction but hey," Silver laid into her 'Hattenite accent, "metal does business down here."

Cadance incredulous, elbowed Silver as Selene walked inside, "Hold on, that wasn't a lie? You're actually a Minutemare?"

Silver shrugged, "Weekend nights; gives me time to think."

Well okay then

Cadance followed in after Selene and into the plush wooden hallway as she swore she felt a light bit of magic shift in the area. The ground was simple thin polished planks of wood, the base of the wall started up in an odd dirty red velvet cushioning like from the back of a couch; it ended at around neck height, before transitioning back into wood. The little hallway inside was small enough that they had to walk front to back. Just as Cadance heard the door close behind Silver, the wood on her right cut off, leaving just the velvet behind and showing off the interior of their location of fun for the night.

There was a bar that took up the right side of the room, curving around to the right of the room the further back it got. The rest of the floor forwards was taken up by tables and chairs. At the far end of the room, there looked to be a raised platform with both a microphone, a projector, and a dj-ing booth with a replica of a pony skeleton wearing a hat sitting over it. The room was mostly filled with orange light, aside from the open space in front of the microphone that had plenty of coloured lights pointed at it. That in conjunction with the disco ball and the ponies shaking a dancing meant that the 'dancing' area was a mash of colours from every end of the rainbow.

The music was loud enough to feel, coming from speakers likely hidden somewhere near the lights as Cadance couldn't see the origin of the upbeat near country rock and roll.

As both Cadance and Selene stepped past the wall and into the room proper, they got a good look around the corner of the room to where there were seemingly bathrooms on the other side of the bar. As Selene was trying to make sense of what she was seeing, a mare with an indiscernible coloured coat and a very extravagant mane that looked more like someone had put a beach ball on her head; rolled up to the two of them on roller blades.

The mare shouted over the din, "What can I help you mares with tonight?"

Selene opened her mouth to respond, but failed, her eyes glancing to Cadance for help. Cadance took a step to the side as Silver pushed forwards, her smooth voice cutting through the audio, "We're just bargoers tonight. Thank you though, gorgeous." Silver accentuated the flirting by tossing a bit to the mare who caught it in her teeth, winked, and then rolled away. Doing a single spin in time with the music before disappearing behind the rest of the crowd.

Silver was already a few steps closer to the bar, she turned to face Cadance and Selene, "C'mon you two, quit standin' around!"

Cadance locked eyes with Selene and nodded her head in the direction of the bar; that was all that was required to get the disguised Luna to get moving. Cadance took up the space behind her.

She was not ready for this at all. In all fairness, I guess.

She thought as she gave another quick once over around the room.

Yup. Here we go again.

Cadance put a smile on her face as she hopped up onto the bar stool. Hopefully showing Selene how it was done, and leaned forwards onto the countertop. Silver ended up taking the middle seat between the three of them, and was already in the midst of flagging down the on staff bartender.

After the stallion waved in acknowledgment, Silver leaned back to open up Cadance's eyeline to Selene, who was trying to decipher the bottles of alcohol and kitchen equipment on the other side of the countertop.

"So what're you two getting? I'm honestly gonna be dialing it back today."

"You still have that spell ready?"

Silver gave her an eyeroll that said 'of course I do'.

"How does blind sound?" The words didn't feel right coming out of Cadance's mouth, yet she still said them with confidence.

Silver's fake smile turned more serious, "Glad you're getting it." She flipped around and went to jostle Selene before putting her hoof back down and talking her out of her focus instead. "Hey!" Selene turned to her, "Whatcha getting? and how much?"

Selene moved her mouth a bit before realizing she wasn't talking nearly loud enough, cleared her throat, "I am not sure. Where I'm from, we don't have such... variety"

Was this what I was like the first time Silver took me out? Confused? Apprehensive? No wonder she was so irritable, I can see how it's annoying.

"I'll order for you. We'll go take for take, I'm trying to stay awake since the Princess here wants to go home in a bucket."

"How can I help you three beautiful mares?" The stallion Silver had waved down broke up their conversation by reminding Cadance that their disguises weren't exactly incognito. Silver looked incredibly out of place, and Selene was a picture of equine beauty. Cadance probably had the best disguise, but was still an athletic, well groomed, petite earth pony mare.

Silver answered, "Two 'dice rollers' and something sweet and heavy for her."

The stallion nodded and magicked a bottle opener and a clear glass from a fridge nearby.

Didn't realize he had a horn

Cadance watched the application of the tool, and the eventual placement of the bottle in front of her. She stopped paying attention as she read the label. 'Blue Moon'

The interior held a yellow frothy liquid that smelled of piss and orange juice. She tentatively turned to Silver, hoping to ask.

Silver, who was already paying attention, leaned over while watching the stallion flip some short glasses in his aura, "It's beer, I don't think you'll like it, but you can have a go if you want."

Well that's that.

Cadance remembered to grab the bottle with her hooves instead of her wings or horn, and lifted it to her lips. The first taste caused her to remove the bottle from her face, and cough violently as she put it down.

"That is vile!" Cadance wiped her lips. Despite her disgust, she was beginning to see why it was funny.

A hoof slapped her back, and she heard the muffled laughter of Silver. She glanced back at the bottle, it tasted exactly how it smelled. She steeled herself for another gulp, and managed not to cough this time. The alcohol content was low, at least in comparison to what she'd had so far, but her body still cringed at the flavour.

"Hey check it out." Silver held up her short glass of clear, fizzy pink liquid. "It's got a dice shaped ice cube!"

It did, indeed have that. Cadance tilted her head, wondering how and more importantly, why. Silver put her glass back down and turned with Cadance's attention to Selene, who was eyeing the glass in her hoof with clear suspicion. The moment went on until Selene realized she was being watched by her cohorts. She brought the drink closer to her chest in defense, "What?"

She thinks she's done something wrong

"Don't think, just drink!" Cadance said, accidentally burping the taste of rind into her mouth again, making her gag.

Silver 'pfft'ed, "She's right, if you wanna be able to keep up, you've gotta knock it back all the way. Observe." Silver grabbed her glass roughly and brought it to her lips, and tossed the majority of the drink to the back of her throat in one smooth motion. She let out a hearty "ahh'' and Cadance watched a short twitch and chill run down Silver's spine.

Selene gave a cursory sniff of the thing before looking back to Cadance. She gave a 'go ahead' wave with her hoof, and Selene made the attempt to mimic Silver.

The choking and gagging of which Cadance did, and was expecting of Luna, however, did not come. Selene simply swallowed the drink and raised her eyebrows at the flavour. She also bit down, and it took a moment of confusion for Cadance to realize she had also gotten the ice cube with the rest of the drink.

Wait, did Silver just swallow her ice cube?

"Interesting." Was Selene's only response.

"Not as strong as you're used to?" Silver asked

"No. I-" She was interrupted by Silver frantically waving down the bartender, the stallion wasn't busy, so he walked over immediately.

They carried a short exchange, "Something stronger, and in higher volume, please and thank you." To which he nodded and trotted around the corner of the back wall. Silver then turned to Cadance, who was suddenly reminded that she was in the current situation, "Don't like it?"

"Hu-Oh, Eh. Not really."

Silver reached out a hoof, and Cadance slid the glass bottle over to her with her magic; she chugged whatever was left of it in seven or eight gulps.

Selene was wearing a face of sheer confusion.

Cadance, knowing the introspective thought by Selene's emotion, and by Cadance's own experience wearing that face, called out, "Just roll with it!"

She nodded, and took on a serious expression. Probably more serious than necessary, which was just around when Silver leaned back and glanced between the two of them before eventually settling on Selene. "So you've never been out like this before? Tearing up the town?"

Is everything she says half of a quip-

Selene shook her head, "No, not like this at least." She gestured vaguely at everything going on in the room.

"So what'dya do for a living? Cadance here is pretty boring, as I'm sure you already know." Silver had leaned forwards again, and propped her head up on a hoof, with the back of her mane facing Cadance.

"E.U.P. Guard."

"Ooo, a military mare. That'll be why you're so straight faced, though, I would've expected a mare like yourself to be a bit more used to drunk filled closed spaces; you seem distinctly out of your element."

Cadance decided to verbally step in for some support, "Noxa was always a 'straight and narrow' kind of mare. I don't think I've ever even seen her drink. I was surprised she could handle whatever that was without even twitching."

"You should try to be less surprised."

"You should strive to-" Selene stopped, "Yes, that."

Cadance rolled her eyes just as she came to a mental conclusion by accident. "Wait, why do..."

"What?"

"Sorry, I have no idea how to word this question..." Cadance rolled the thoughts around her mouth for a second, "Why do you still shake and such? When you drink? I would have thought yo-"

"Oh that's easy." Silver waved a dismissive hoof before gesturing to herself and ruffling her wings. "New body, new reflexes. I'm far from having broken it in yet."

Cadance, correctly pointed out the fallacy in that, "But what about when you were still Dusk?"

The bartender took that moment to place a series of tall glasses of offensively blue drinks in front of all three of them.

"Well when I was Dusk, I didn't have any organs, so excuse me for acting just a teensy bit."

Selene, from the side, stuttered in confusion, "You- organs?"

"Old Dark Mage, Ms. Selene. Don't worry about it."

"What is this?" Cadance asked, gesturing at the drink

"Manehatten water." She wiggled her eyebrows as she reached forwards and took a sip. After the liquid went down, she flopped her mane about and let out another 'ahh', albeit silently.

Cadance looked at her own, only for her peripheral vision to draw her towards the sight of Selene chugging what must have been nearly a full pint of the stuff.

The bartender let out an apt, ''Dear Celestia!" which caused Silver to turn and see the sight herself. Cadance watched from behind Silver as just the very tip of her left ear began twitching. That was around when Selene slammed the glass down onto the countertop hard enough to shatter it. Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the cries of alarm, and the upset cry of the bartender.

"Sorry!"

Silver just silently moved a modest stack of bits over to the tending side of the bar. Cadance took a sip of her own tall glass. It tasted of fruit, sweet salts, and a lot of vodka.

"Whoo!" She shouted, "That's really strong! Selene!" The mare turned to listen, "You're crazy!"

"Please, I have imbibed far worse." Selene then turned and tried to get the bartender to bring her another, with the promise that she'd be more careful.

Silver, vivaciously leaned backwards towards Cadance, flipping her muzzle upside down to make eye contact, "Don't think? Just Drink? Really?"

"Slick Quire?" Cadance responded back, equally as sarcastic, and slightly surprised at her swift verbal comeback.

Silver made a face of admission, "Touché." Silver flipped herself over and called out to the bartender, "Hey mate! Could we get the music menu?" The stallion nodded, and Cadance went back to nursing the cup of vodka. Eventually putting it back down after deciding that keeping it so close to her face wasn't a great idea.

She shifted in urgency, and leaned over to Silver, "Crap! Wait! The spell!"

Silver waved her off, "You're good, I revised it recently. It's been on you since we walked in."

So that's what that was.

Unfortunately, the mental vibe she had going had already drained away. Looking at her drink made her feel slightly ill. Knowing it was fine didn't convince her anxiety of hurting her foal.

The bartender arrived again with a folded paper menu, placed it down, then leaned over the counter to speak. "If you ladies got any talent, we'd love to have you. Nopony's been up to the mic all night." Silver nodded, and the bartender left. Cadance watched him leave, noting the upside down shot glass cutie mark.

Cadance subtly slid the menu over to herself using telekinesis just as Silver reached for it, leading Silver to mime chasing it back over to Cadance. Who grabbed it herself and opened it up for the two of them to read.

The songs were helpfully subdivided by nature, the largest columns being: Rock, pop, swing and funk.

Cadance talked at a normal tone, due to how close Silver was, as Selene got her next drink, "Not going to lie, I don't recognize any of these."

"Eh, I came prepared. Just pick one that sounds fun." Silver pushed her seat back, "I am going to go answer your question."

"My-? Oh." Cadance's unasked question was what exactly Silver had prepared for. The 'oh' came from realizing Silver was already halfway up to the mic, now sporting a horn instead of wings. Cadance turned to Selene, who had spun around, and was in the midst of gazing forlornly at the retreating silver mare.

Cadance, sensing the rampaging emotion, hopped a seat over and bumped 'Selene' with her shoulder. "You okay?"

Selene shook her head, still locked onto what Silver was doing. She'd drifted away from her path to the mic, and was fiddling with something behind the dj-ing stand.

Selene suddenly speaking broke her out of her focus. "I don't know what's worse. Being screamed at and put down, or... this... barely even being acknowledged."

"Hey." Cadance drew out, hopefully buying herself time to figure out what she was supposed to say to that. The word drawing Selene's attention away from Silver, and settling on Cadance as she struggled to find the words through the light buzz she was feeling. "Don't look at it like you're being ignored..." Cadance spun he hoof, "Look at it like..."

Think Cadance! Think!

"Like it's a second chance."

Good! Okay! I can work with that!

Cadance gestured vaguely in Silver's direction, "She's letting you start from scratch."

"I fear she is simply humoring us, and would like nothing more than to remind me of all my failures. Something she is unwittingly doing... or maybe not." Selene's frown deepened.

"You just have to give it time. She'll need it to be able to trust you again-"

Selene interrupted, "Dusk, that is, Silver, does not trust ponies who have once before betrayed her."

Cadance bounced her mane once, "Okay well, Silver isn't Dusk right now, and you're not Luna either." Cadance accentuated the point by poking Selene in the chest. "Just give it a chance?"

Selene thought about it, looking back to where Silver was currently taking the stage.

Cadance never got an answer. Silver took the mic, adjusted its height, stepped around in front of it, and lit her horn. Several instruments made of translucent blue light appeared on the stage, visibly shielded by the flashing lights as Silver began to magically play the instruments just as the music cut out.

Immediately, the slowly incoming musical accompaniment gained the attention of the dancers as the beat flowed throughout the room. Several either adopting new dances and bops, and some simply stomping in preparation for whatever the strange mare was going to start singing.

Silver began shaking her hips and taking exaggerated steps down into the crowd as she began to sing.

There's a mare downtown in the club I know
She doesn't say a word she just hit's the flo
The way she moves always caught my eye
Couldn't take no more, I just had to try

I moved to the floor as she danced away
Her hooves like magic as she looked my way
And in one swoop she had me by her side
I know I was in for a ride! As we!

Silver swept up the nearest party goer into an upright, two legged tango, spinning them through all manner of twists and turns. The stallion in question dizzily struggled to keep up before eventually being spun away into the crowd as Silver took a jump and continued to jig and jive with the music.

We'd be dancing till the door!

The beats convinced Cadance that she should go join the dancing, yet, she didn't, as she didn't want to leave Selene here to stew by herself.

Mare I'll tell you, that girl can move
Got me twistin' and turnin' around in my jimmy shoes
Never knew I'd feel so alive
That mare sure knows how to twist and jive

I swayed around the club all night
Not once did she ever leave my side
No matter what, we couldn't stop
Dancing, waiting for that drop, as we!

Silver, in the middle of the crowd now, having done enough dancing and singing to give herself enough space, continued her dancing and singing with timed stomps and spins. Occasionally drawing in a brave party goer and turning their perceptions into mush as she spun them around. Cadance knew how jarring it could be, having been on the receiving end before, she couldn't help but giggle at the dazed looks from the ponies stumbling away from Silver's storm of dancing.

The music transitioned, an electrical sounding base filling the foreground, Silver began jumping in place, waving the other ponies to join her, and in short order, the entire crowd minus those lingering near the edges, were jumping up until the beat slowed and Silver filled in the next line in near relative silence.

Swing to that sound
Our hooves tap-tappin and our hearts beat-beatin
and we, spin round and round
we got lost in the rhythm the lights in the crowd
that look in her eyes made me sure
we'd be dancing, dancing dancin' till the dawn

The music picked up again, and Silver plus the rest of the crowd threw themselves into dancing away what was left of the music while Silver sauntered back up to the stage, occasionally filling in jarred verbal musical accentuations. Once the music came to a close, Silver spoke into the mic. Cadance gave a quick glance to Selene, who was nearly falling off the small seat watching Silver.

"Alrighty ponies! How do we think of all of that noise!" Silver drew out the last word into a long shout, and the ponies cheered and stomped in excitement despite the grammatical failure of the sentence.

Silver, instead of working the crowd more, brought one of the floating magic guitars to her side and tentatively gave it several soft strums with her hoof that shook the room with their volume, signaling the start of the next song.

Cadance reached over to Selene, who was recovering from almost falling off her chair after being startled by the music. She grabbed her by a hoof as she stepped down from her own chair. Selene stepped down and Cadance went to take another gulp of her drink. As she turned back to Selene she noticed that at some point, she'd downed the rest of her new drink. The surprise laugh sent her into a coughing fit.

Don'tthrowupdon'tthrowupdon't-

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fm-ine" She coughed a couple more times, just to clear her throat, then bounced in the direction of the moving mess of colours. "Let's go dance!"

Apprehension

"No really!"

"Cad-er Allium. I do not know how to dance like that." She said, tossing her head in the direction of the crowd, as if such a thing was blatantly obvious.

Cadance saddled up next to Selene, "It's way easier than it looks. C'mon, you're not gonna make me go dance on my own are you?" She bumped Selene with her hips to emphasize the point.

"Very well. Roll with it, as you said."

"Great! Come on." Cadance dragged Selene by the hoof just as Silver started the first lines of the song

Educated! With money!
He's well dressed, not funny!

Cadance pulled Selene into the mix of the crowd, shouldering past one or two ponies until they came to an open spot under a flashing blue light, which transitioned the next second into red, then green, and so on.

And not much to say in most conversations
But he'll foot the bill in all situations
'Cause he pays for everything!

Cadance shouted over the noise, "Like this!"

Mares don't like colts
Mares like carts and money!

Cadance decided to take one from Twilight's book, and chose to do everything, in every direction. Mostly hopping, but to the uninformed, what she was doing appeared to be an organized seizure.

Colts will laugh at mares when they're not funny!

Selene tried, she awkwardly moved her limbs in the same order, albeit less exaggerated, but there was still a massive frown on her face as she focused.

That won't do, how did Silver do it?

Cadance approached Selene and grabbed her front hooves, "To the music! Don't worry about the moves, just feel the music!" Cadance, to Selene's disapproval, reared them both up onto their back hooves so that they were balanced by each other, and started pushing and pulling, shaking Selene forwards and backwards.

Paper or plastic
Don't matter, she'll have it

Once they'd found a rhythm, Selene's frown turned neutral, her eyes expressing the fun she was clearly just starting to have.

Vacations and shopping sprees
These are a few of her favorite things

As the beat was picking up again Cadance shouted out, "Now you're getting it!"

She'll get what she wants if she's willing to please

Their back and forth got faster

His type of girl always comes with a fee

Then they started stepping to accentuate the pushing and pulling

Hey, now, there's nothing for free!

Just as the beat shifted, Cadance let go of Selene and stepped back, the motion they'd worked up carrying Selene to drop onto all fours and resume the awkward dance she was doing before, but with a smile on her face.

Mares don't like colts
Mares like carts and money!

Cadance glanced towards the stage, and Silver caught her eye and sent her a wink

Colts will laugh at mares
When they're not funny!

Cadance kept dancing.