The elevator came to a stop and opened into a suite of a grand kind. She blinked, looking around in shock at how nice the room was. A small pool sat outside, just begging to be used. "What the?" She parked her weapons next to a fully stocked bar. "These ponies sure do know how to treat their not-even-paying-for-it guests, don't they?" She snatched a shot glass and ran a finger across the selection of bottles.

She recognized not a single one of, oh. No, they had an Applejack. It claimed to be a cider though? She shrugged and poured herself some. "If I'm stuck here, may as well enjoy what they have." She drank from it and felt her body lighten with every swallow. "And this shit is way stronger than apple juice!" She placed it down and plopped onto a chair, staring at the world around her. "Seriously, what the hell?" Loona's will to argue it felt diminished, relaxation filling her mind.

"You know what," she began as she stumbled up to her feet. "This place is... Just awesome." She waltzed out towards the pool, slowly stripping off her clothes and diving in. She almost crashed into the far end. "Woah, shit. Maybe that stuff was stronger than I thought. Shit!" She poked her head up and drifted along with the slow current, letting her body soak and calm down. "Just gotta relax, let loose..."

She paddled her way over to a glass table and plucked the bottle of apple juice. "I met your spicy cousin a second ago." The juice was good, if one wasn't looking to get drunk. "Whatever, oh!" She hurried with surprising clarity to the phone she saw. She grabbed the receiver. "Hello?"

"Front desk," sang a cheerful female voice. "How can we help you?"

"Do you have food? I'm hungry and I got nothing here."

"We'll send it right up," the voice promised. "But you must have come from far away. Your clothing looked strange. And you didn't smell like us."

Loona scrunched her nose. She made it a note to sniff one of those horses to learn their smell. "Long away. It's been a heck of a trip."

"Good thing you're here with us then!"

"I'll say." She peered out the window. "Thanks, I'll be waiting." She hung up the phone and looked out over that strange city of ponies. "What have you gotten me into, Dad?"

A knock came at the door. Loona strolled over to it, smelling the air around her as she tried to memorize their scent. She opened it up to see two ponies pushing a cart full of food. One of them, a stallion, small by her view, began unveiling food trays. "Let us know if we got anything wrong, but you, madame, struck us as somecreature that would enjoy a meal with some meat on it!"

Loona inhaled deeply, feeling the aromas swirling in her head. She could just see Blitzo berating her for the feast. "It's perfect." She helped herself to a piece of cooked steak. How and why ponies had that ready to go, she couldn't say, and didn't really care when she had the option of devouring it. "Damn, this is good," she got out around her full mouth.

The mare clapped her hooves. "Glad to hear it! You enjoy yourself." The two shared a high-five with their hooves and trotted off, both looking so very happy with themselves.

Loona swallowed down the steak and took a moment to think about what had just happened. She had never really expected ponies to be so nice to her. Hell wasn't exactly filled with the most positive-minded people, perhaps by design. "Whatever." She peeked at another plate, revealing what looked like mashed potatoes drowning in gravy. "Worth a try." She grabbed a spoon and ate a small amount. She licked her lips, dropping the spoon back into the food. "Wow..." She blinked, picking up the spoon again and grabbing a plate, shoveling the potatoes into her mouth with the speed of a monster truck. "So good!"

She nearly threw the plate at the wall before coming to her senses. Loona took a slow breath. "Okay. Okay! Fine." She flipped the city line the finger. "I forgive you, deadbeat. At least you dragged me somewhere that's not awful."

She dug into the rest of the food, finishing everything off as best she could. Afterwards, she lay against the table and picked up the phone. "Front desk?"

"Hey, are you done eating?"

"Uh-huh." She peered over the city. "You got anything fun going on around here?"

"Lots! Do you want to hear about it? There are shows, very popular in this town. Just let us know what kind you enjoy. Oh, movies, but those are also kind of shows? Plenty of places to shop, and eat, but I doubt you need that." The pony on the line sounded so very excited about it all.

"Calm down," Loona laughed at that. "Okay. Tell me where I can go dancing." She felt the night air blow into her room, heard the faint sounds of music outside.

"Dancing!" Loona winced at that loud outburst. "Oh, certainly. Did you want to do something stately, or 'get down with it' as the foals say?"

Loona rolled her eyes, doubting many actually said that. "The latter."

"Wonderful! Just a moment!" The line clicked, and music played, the tune so fast that she couldn't understand the words. It was music to dance to though. "I think this club is just perfect for you!" The pony gave instructions to a place a few blocks away. "Enjoy yourself, ma'am!"

Loona snapped a finger. "Actually, before you go, you got any good drinks there? Like, I know I'm not paying for it, but I need something. Soda, whatever, nothing too alcoholic."

"Oh, don't you worry about that." The pony sounded amused at the idea. "No such thing as a dance hall that doesn't have a few drinks for the dancers. You just enjoy yourself."

Loona slammed her hand against the wall in excitement. "This town's awesome! Alright, I'll be going then. Thanks, bye." She dropped the receiver and started for the door. "Gonna work off this booze and let it all out with a bunch of horses." She rolled her eyes at her own words. Did they even know how to dance worth a damn? She figured she'd find out.

The elevator opened, revealing a handful of ponies. They made room for Loona, staring up at her with wide eyes. She caught a few looking her over. They were definitely checking her out. She bared her teeth, and that got them looking somewhere else. With a little laugh, she emerged on the ground floor, marching for the exit. She spotted that nice mare at the front desk and waved at them on the way.

Outside, she walked towards where they said the club was, stopping to pick up a small yellow flower that looked like a daisy. It had a nice scent, so she kept it with her. Thumping music pricked her ears. "Maybe they do know how to shake their pastel butts."

The bouncer held a hoof out. "We're at full capacity," he said with a deep voice. "You'll have to wait."

Loona scrunched her nose. "Really?"

The bouncer considered her a moment. "You're taller than most. Skinnier too." One could almost see them figuring out how much space Loona took up compared to the average pony. "Tell ya what, I think we can manage you."

She stepped through into a very large building, almost bigger than Luna's room. "Dance hall" wasn't a bad way of putting it. It felt more like an old timey dance party than anything else. But that wasn't stopping the ponies in it from moving every limb they had energetically to the electronic music filling the space.

Loona's eyes went wide. All around her, ponies were dancing and singing with one another, but what surprised her was just how wild they were being. "Okay, ponies know how to enjoy a dance." She pushed her way through the crowd with a little laugh. She managed to reach the bar, grabbing the closest seat to order something.

A male pony walked up, just tall enough to lean over the bar. "I'm Psycheo! I take it you're new around here?"

Loona considered the stallion. "Yeah. Loona. You here to dance?"

Psycheo laughed. "Not me, sweetie! I'm just the bartender. If you wanna see some dancing, turn around!" He reached down and slid a drink over to her.

Loona intercepted it with a hand, just to push it back. "I actually want something to clear my head. Don't need any more booze, right this second. Maybe later?"

Psycheo lowered the glass. "Well, if you say so." He picked up a glass of water and poured it into a cup. "Not too many ponies asking for that."

"There's not exactly a lot of ponies like me." Loona chugged down the water. "Seriously though? These ponies are getting hammered?"

Psycheo waved his hoof around. "What do you think it is? Water? Or anything else but an alcoholic beverage?"

"You're kidding," she laughed, grinning at him. "This is feeling more like home by the moment." She pushed off the bar, leaving her emptied glass behind. "Time to get myself on that floor."

"I'm sure everypony there will be happy to see you!" Psycheo laughed and ducked down to pour something for somepony else.

Loona let herself start moving to the music. She had to duck and bob to avoid colliding with ponies. As the bouncer had warned, they were full. She could imagine, were she also a pony, she'd have a hard time getting around at all. Fortunately, she was tall, and could get just enough room to move. She turned herself around, feeling the music work through her body.

All around her, ponies were dancing to the beat, hooves moving together in a way she had never seen before. She followed with her own moves, matching the beat of the song that was shaking her at just the right volume. This club knew how to make some great music.

Some ponies came up to dance around her, gyrating with their bodies. Some lifted up onto their back hooves to jump around her, while others tapped against her feet to get her attention. "Yeah? Dancing here."

One offered up some glowing bracelets. "You sure are. You'll look better with these."

"What?" Loona moved forward until she caught a little light reflecting off the glimmering accessories. "Oh. Huh. These actually look pretty good." She slid one onto her wrist. "You ponies are alright. Say, you don't know Luna, do you?"

The pony blinked at that. "Of course I do. Guardian of dreams and fellow night-walker!" Cheers erupted around them as other ponies heard and joyfully joined in praise of their night princess. "She's awesome, what about her?"

"Nothing much, really." Loona helped put more bracelets on herself. "Met her earlier, just didn't expect ponies to be into her so much."

"You met Princess Luna?" The dancing mare clopped a hoof to either cheek. "Wow! She met Luna!"

All the ponies in the area looked at Loona with clear surprise and awe.

"That's so amazing!" One of them called out. "What did she say? Was it nice? Was she cool? Did she use her magicky powers?!"

Loona sighed, slumping over slightly as she was subjected to question after question. "She was nice enough, um, gonna meet her again?" That got a fresh wave of questions. "Look, I just want to dance, alright?" That got them to back off, as if the right to dance was a sacred thing.

The ponies moved on, the dance hall filling with more music. They were playing from something high up and very expensive-looking. As she watched the ponies moving together, she picked up one of their dances and shared it with the crowd around her. The night passed by kinda pleasantly, she had to admit.

"So," she said once the crowds had calmed down, and the DJ finished. "Who was that? Didn't look like the normal DJ."

Psycheo laughed at that. "Oh, she's a celeb in the dance scene. DJ Pon3! AKA, Vinyl Scratch. She's basically a hero to club dancers. Anyone who loves dancing knows who she is." He spread his hooves. "Totally rad."

"Huh. Didn't know horses could be celebrities." She sat on a bar stool, peering over the dance hall. It had mostly cleared out by then. "Dancing here is such a big deal?"

"It is to those that do it." He was cleaning up the bar. Things really were cooling off. "And it isn't to those that don't."

"Yeah, that checks out." Loona shrugged with a laugh. "Fun enough. Thanks for the good time." She pushed to her feet. "Guess I should head back."

Psycheo motioned to the exit. "I'll see you again soon enough."

Loona figured that too, considering what they were there for. "Later." She hopped out onto the street to see it was late in the evening. If it wasn't for the lights on the streets, it'd be entirely dark out. She was quick to get to her hotel, where she found the nice front desk mare still on duty. "Hey, you work this late?"

"The hotel's my passion." The mare clapped her hooves together. "Did you have a nice dance? You look better!"

"I did, thanks. Think I'm gonna pass out for a bit now." She hopped onto the elevator and tapped the button to the top floor. Her vision blurred a bit, just as the doors closed. "Ugh, thought I had worked it out of me." But booze didn't work that way entirely. Only time could cure her.

Loona got back to her room, staring at the stars outside. "Stupid ponies," she muttered as she flopped onto the bed. "That's so not fair."

Author's Note

Loona has a lovely night in Canterlot. Maybe this place isn't all bad. She does have a mission though...

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