Neon lights strobed in vibrant hues as a heavy bass beat reverberated throughout the nightclub. It was a Friday night, and the crowd of patrons, mostly college students, were celebrating having survived another week of classes. They moved and grooved on the dance floor. A few even tried to make conversation over the loud pulsing electronic dance music, with very little success. While this particular club did not serve alcohol, most of its patrons were drunk on life. Everyone was having a good time.
Everyone except for one person.
Lemon Zest sat at the end of the bar listlessly nursing a plastic cup of ginger ale as she watched the people on the dance floor. Normally, she would have been in the middle of them, dancing amid friends and strangers alike. Had there been a live band playing, she would have been riding the rails front row center. She had a well-deserved reputation as a party animal, tirelessly dancing into the wee hours of the morning and getting into all sorts of (mostly benign) mischief.
But tonight, she was simply not feeling like her usual self. Instead of a vivacious young lady nearing her twentieth year, she felt like a worn-out woman more than twice her age. Even after two hours of throbbing dance beats (and three carbonated drinks), she could not summon her will to dance.
On the stage overlooking the dance floor, DJ Pon-3 was at her booth, happily bobbing to the house song she had playing. Lemon allowed herself one tiny smile. If there was one good thing in her life right now, it was her roommate.
Lemon met DJ when their schools, Crystal Prep Academy and Canterlot High School respectively, competed against each other during the Friendship Games almost two years ago. True to her name, DJ shared Lemon's love of music. Despite the intense rivalry between their schools, the two instantly hit it off. They kept in touch after the Games, keeping each other apprised of the latest trends in popular music.
When Lemon found herself looking for a place to stay following graduation, DJ offered to split a small two-bedroom apartment with her near downtown Canterlot. DJ would also help her get a part-time job at the music store where they both still worked to this day. Over the past year, the arrangement has worked well, allowing both of them to save money while they attended classes at Canterlot Community College.
Lemon was ever grateful to DJ. Whenever her roomie landed a gig at a nightclub, she made it a point to come out and support her. As soon as DJ got the music started, Lemon would begin moving and grooving, which never failed to draw other patrons out onto the dance floor. The two of them could keep a party going until closing time - until dawn if they were so permitted. But for the last couple of weeks, Lemon's energy just seemed to be gradually dissipating. She no longer had the spring in her step that allowed her to endure four years at one of the most draconian prep schools in the entire country.
Lemon realized that she had finished her drink, leaving only the ice cubes in her cup. She cast one more longing gaze out onto the dance floor, holding onto the feeble hope that - by some miracle - she might find the will to start dancing. Alas, it was for naught. Even with the entrancing beat pulsing through every speaker, with all of the bright fluorescent light trails strobing throughout the club, she felt hopelessly anchored to her barstool. She began to wonder if coming to the club tonight had been a mistake. Surely DJ would understand if she needed to go home early because she was not feeling well - which, technically, was not a lie. But first, one more drink, Lemon thought to herself. She was about to gesture for the bartender she heard a loud cheery voice over the din.
"Aww, why the long face?"
Lemon looked up to find herself staring into the bright grinning face of Pinkie Pie. Forgetting her lethargy momentarily, she greeted Pinkie with an enthusiastic hug.
"Hey, Pinkie! How've ya been?"
Lemon had also met Pinkie during the Friendship Games. Despite the initial tension between their respective teams, Pinkie did warmly welcome the Crystal Prep visitors with one of her signature parties. The festivities helped to break much of the ice - until they were cut short by Crystal Prep's then-principal Abacus Cinch. Despite fiercely competing against each other in the Academic Decathlon and the Tri-Cross Relay, Lemon and Pinkie both came to admire each other's seemingly boundless energy and optimism.
"Oh, much the same, just keeping the party going!" As the house song's beats faded out, DJ began playing a softer, more relaxed trance song - one that made it a little easier to hold a conversation. Pinkie eyed Lemon's cup. "Whatcha having?"
"Just some ginger ale. I was about to get a strawberry spritzer"
Pinkie handed her debit card to the bartender. "Two strawberry spritzers, please!" She then sat down next to Lemon. "So, how's life been treating ya?"
"Oh, pretty good. Just working at the music store, knocking out my basic classes at CCC." After a moment of hesitation, Lemon half-heartedly added. "Still raising a little hell every now and then."
"Like you and Indigo Zap did in Vanhoover last summer?"
Lemon cracked a wistful smile. "Oh man, that will be hard to top! We saw it all! The waterfront, the woods, the Arts District, Kirin Town..."
"I remember that picture of both of you holding up the crabs!"
"I think that got us banned from that one restaurant," Lemon chortled. "Probably wasn't a good idea for us to just reach into the tank and grab the ones we wanted!"
The bartender returned with Pinkie's card and two frothy cups of strawberry spritzer.
"So where is Indigo nowadays?"
Lemon's gaze drifted down to her cup. "Out in Coltorado Springs. She's got her heart set on trying out for the national swim team. Nowadays, she's training nonstop - when she's not swimming, she's rock climbing or hand gliding. That week in Vanhoover was the last time I really got to hang out with her."
"What about your other friends from Crystal Prep?"
"Sunny Flare and Sugarcoat are both in Fillydelphia. Sunny is studying political science while Sugarcoat is looking to become a forensic accountant."
"Numbers don't lie!" Pinkie quipped.
"And Sour Sweet..." Lemon furrowed her brow. "Now that you mention it, Sour never really talked much about what she wanted to do after graduation. I haven't really been in touch with her over the past year beyond an occasional message on MyStable. I remember that you and Twilight helped her get that summer gig as a counselor at Camp Everfree."
"Oh yes! Gloriosa Daisy and her team absolutely adore her. Best archery instructor ever!"
"I believe it! Out of all of us, Sour was always the best with a bow."
Pinkie's smile gave way to a concerned look. "Is that why you're so glum? You miss your friends?"
The ice in Lemon's cup clinked as she rolled it about with one hand. "No, it's not that. I'm happy that they're all out there chasing their dreams. It's just that...I don't know what I want to do with my life."
Pinkie cocked her head in a silent beckon for Lemon to elaborate, which Lemon did.
"Crystal Prep taught us to aim high - pick a career, make a plan, and go for the gold. I was never going to become a doctor or a lawyer. The only plan I had after graduation was to knock out all of my basic education requirements at CCC and then transfer to another college. I had hoped that by then, I would have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. Now I feel like I'm just...floating adrift."
"Sounds like you're still in the middle of your rumspringa."
Lemon arched an eyebrow. "Rum-what?"
"Rumspringa. It means 'hopping around.'"
Hopping around, Lemon thought. It sounded pretty on-brand for Pinkie Pie!
Pinkie continued, "In the old days, the younguns in our family would leave home when they came of age to experience the outside world. After a year or two, they would decide whether to return to and stay with their community or make their own way in the wider world. Nowadays it's more about figuring out our life goals. My sister Maud spent a year doing plenty of wild and crazy stuff before she decided to really pursue her passion for rocks and become a geologist."
Lemon almost snickered. While she had never met Pinkie's elder sister, she had heard about Maud Pie's distinctly detached demeanor. It was very difficult to imagine her 'hopping around.'
DJ began playing a louder, uptempo song as the neon lights above the dance floor began to flash and strobe once more. A patter of feet up a nearby staircase drew Lemon's attention to an elevated railed walkway overlooking the bar. Above, a trio of girls clad in bikini tops, hot pants, and thigh-high boots strode single-file across the walkway.
Go-go dancers.
Pinkie gulped down the last of her spritzer before she called out to Lemon over the pulsing rhythm. "All I can say is, don't rush it. Enjoy the ride! You're bound to find your path sooner or later, even if you need to take a little detour." Pinkie patted Lemon on the shoulder. "Time to make my rounds. I'll be seeing ya, Lemon!" With that, Pinkie vanished into the crowd.
Lemon pondered Pinkie's words. Maybe she had been so preoccupied with "measuring up" to notice the paths branching out from the main road. At the very least, Lemon thought to herself, she was getting out and doing something - not just parking her butt in front of a screen twenty-four-seven! Even when Crystal Prep was at its most draconian, she had marched to her own drum. What did she have to fear from taking the road less traveled?
Up above, the dancers swiveled their hips to the thump-thump-thump of the bass line. Little by little, more patrons were venturing out onto the dance floor. A go-go dancer's purpose is to entertain the crowd and get people excited to start dancing themselves. Now that Lemon thought about it, it was not much different from what she normally would have been doing right about now. What she had always done whenever she had the chance, really.
Having mustered some of her verve, Lemon downed the rest of her spritzer. I will get out there onto the floor, dance through the next song, then call it a night.
As she made her way toward the dance floor, she happened to glance up at the dancer closest to the stairs. The girl was lean, clad in shiny white boots and a magenta bikini that almost seemed to glow in the dark. Most striking, however, was the dancer's neon green hair which was similar in its color to Lemon's. Lemon could not quite put her finger on it, but there was something that seemed familiar about this girl.
The song ended with each of the dancers striking a dynamic pose. As the patrons roared, a row of lights illuminated the dancers. Lemon's gaze fell on the green-haired dancer's lithe pale gold form. That was when the dancer met Lemon's eyes.
Lemon's jaw dropped as recognition dawned on her. The dancer's own face contorted into a mask of shock before she took off running down the stairs as fast as she could in her platform heel boots. Lemon weaved not-so-gracefully through the crowd, nearly knocking over a kissing couple as she made her way toward the bottom of the steps.
Up ahead on the club floor, the dancer bolted through a pair of swinging doors. Lemon rushed through the doors into a brightly lit hallway. Within the corridor, the din from the club was muffled just enough for Lemon to call out:
"Hey wait!"
The dancer halted in her tracks but did not look back. The double doors swung open again. Lemon whipped around to find the other two dancers coming up behind her. One, a girl with shoulder-length lavender hair, eyed Lemon with suspicion while the other, a girl with short bluish-white hair called out to their colleague.
"Everything okay here, Midori?"
The green-haired dancer straightened up. "It's alright, girls," she said as she slowly turned around.
Lemon stared, enrapt at Midori. Now, in the light of the hall, she could clearly see the dancer's toned abdominal muscles, her purple eyes, and, most notably, the freckles on her cheeks. Slowly, Midori reached a hand up to her temple, grabbed hold of her neon green hair, and pulled it down to reveal a familiar head of rose-colored hair gathered in a bun.
Lemon's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Sour Sweet?"
"Hey Lemon," Sour Sweet said with a sheepish smile. "Long time no see."