Rainbow Dash couldn't tell whether she was flying or being carried away or a whimsical mixture of both. What's more, she couldn't care either way. The night club reeled around her. Poles glinted in the strobing light. The bodies spread like clouds. There were giggles... whimpers.
"You're a light one," a mare's voice purred next to Rainbow's ear.
"Hmmmmm..." Rainbow leaned against Smoke Rings' lithe flank. "All I ever bench press is the sky." She blinked. "Where are we—?"
"Shhhhh..." Something nibbled on her ear. The perfume rose, wafted. "Somewhere quiet... all to ourselves. I promise."
"Hey... lead the whinny." Before Rainbow could giggle at herself, she heard a disgruntled moan. Her world spun in time to catch a peach shape marching angrily away from a booth.
"That's it. You can keep the bits."
"Wait! B-Squared!"
"Don't call me that, you hussy."
"But... but the fillies! Guh!" A lime green figure hobbled after the other, struggling to keep up. Heads turned and eyes rolled. "Where are you going? This is the party of a lifetime!"
"You can enjoy the party with... Pink Prissy or whatever her name is—"
"Bon Bon! I was just making a joke!"
"Honestly, Lyra... are you that dense?!"
Rainbow's lips pursed. As the two shapes blended into the club scene, she muttered, "Wait a second... what's wrong with...?"
"Uh uh uh..." A wingtip caressed Rainbow's chin, tickling, lulling. "Save your breaths..."
Bright lights.
A sour smell.
Door hinges creaked, and then Rainbow heard the clatter of a flimsy metal lock.
"Heeheehee..." Smoke Rings chuckled warmly. Fuzzy forelimbs held Rainbow close as a muzzle stroked up and down the smaller mare's cheek. "Let me get a good look at you, darling."
"Hmmmmm..." Rainbow smiled deliriously. She nuzzled her lover back, exhaling with drunken glee. The air shifted, and for a brief moment she could no longer sense the perfume. "Mmmmm... mmmm... smells kinda like a bathroom stall." One eye opened, and she caught the outer lid of a toilet. "Wait... where...?"
"Shhhhh..." Hard teeth gently tugged at Rainbow's bangs before grazing her ear lobes. "Do you want to wait any longer than I do?"
"Oh gosh..." Rainbow exhaled, her body draping in the limbs of her partner. "Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh..." She allowed her head to rest limply against the mare's shoulder. Rainbow felt cradled in warmth... bathed in toasty fuzz. She sighed, her eyelids fluttering shut. With squirmy little motions, she settled into that steamy velvetiness, waiting for it to embrace her like a morning bed—
"Mrmmmmmff..." With a lusty breath, Smoke Rings hoisted Rainbow up until she sat on something cold and hard. She leaned in, nuzzling the petite pegasus from neck to belly. Hot exhale after hot exhale, she muttered against Rainbow's coat: "Celestia... what a catch. I could eat you whole..."
"Hmmmm..." Rainbow teetered forward, desperate to lean against the mare again. "Could... c-could you just hold me..." The edges of her eyelids grew hot, moist. "Please..."
"Shhhhhhh..." Smoke Rings was practically panting by now. She nuzzled Rainbow harder and harder, her wingtips reaching forward... sharp and grazing. "I'll do much more than that, you sexy little scamp." Her voice had a growling tone.
"Fuuuu..." Rainbow whimpered, curling her forelimbs to her chest. Electricity shot up her spine. "Smoke Rings..."
"Please..." The voice dipped lower and lower into a breathy abyss, suffocating. "Just pretend I'm a stranger..."
"But..." Rainbow teetered. "But you are..."
"And I would like it very... very much..." There were no more pauses between the kissing and licking. "...if you cried a little..."
Rainbow's head reeled. She leaned back, feeling the hot trickle of drool across her chest. She imagined that they were tears instead. A restless night in bed, alone with the shadows. Lying in the shower, hot and breathless. Wanting. Yearning. Never receiving. She desired... she sobbed. Across the darkness, specks of light glistened. Like freckles. She wrapped herself up in them, and for a brief flash in time, she was happy. And she let the universe know.
"I wish..."
She smiled, breathing heavier and heavier. Lifting up.
"I wish I—"
The perfume returned, accompanying the sour smell of a night club's bathroom. It smashed through her sinuses and drilled straight down into her stomach. Rainbow's eyes bulged, and all she saw was cold tile and mildew. The flash of sterile lifelessness perfectly matched the hospital rooms where she slowly watched her father wither away and die. She wanted to sob, but she was too drunk for tears. So her body expelled something else instead.
"Bleacckkkkkitttt!"
"Grunnngh!" Smoke Rings leaned back. For a split second, she gargled a dollop of Rainbow's hot bile before spitting it out onto the floor alongside the rest of the fresh puddle. She coughed, wretched, and wiped furiously at her stained muzzle. A deep exhale, then—venomously—"Shit on a stick! You sick flankhole!"
"Mrmmmgnngh..." Rainbow teetered, wearing a hot apron of that day's lunch. "Mmmm... c-can you hold me now?"
"No, I won't friggin' hold you!" Smoke Rings sneered. She backed up, slamming into the stall door. Bonk! "Oww! Dammit! What's wrong with you, ya stupid little freak?!"
Rainbow belched, more vomit dribbling from her chin. "S-sorry..."
"Do you come to a place like this just to drink or what?!"
"Only had..." Rainbow gulped, shuddering from the hotness in her throat. "...m-maybe seven drinks?"
"Seven?!" Smoke Rings rolled her eyes. "Unnnnnngh... goddess alive, I friggin' hate you idiotic little tourist turds." She unlocked the door and bucked it open. "Grnnnngh... dammit! Last time... last damn time I swear!"
"Where..." Rainbow blinked, squatting on the lip of the toilet seat. "...where are you going?"
"Buck you! That's where I'm going! Rnnnngh... should have stayed back in Mareami. At least the fillies there know how to hold their shit in..."
Rainbow heard the running of water, then angry hoofsteps leading to the door.
"Mmmm... Smear Rubies..." Rainbow lisped, reaching limply forward. "Smashing... Raspberries?" Splut! She landed hard on the floor, her petite figure making a vomit angel in the crusty pile of stomach fluid. "Rrrrngh..." Wincing, she tried to get up, but her limbs were too numb. Ultimately, she resorted to tugging at the tile, pulling herself forward at a snail's pace and leaving a trail of half-digested refuse behind her.
When she was half-way out of the stall, she heard the flushing of water. A mare exited the chamber next to her, giving the fallen pegasus a disgusted look. "Grnnnngh... friggin' bum..." She trotted over Rainbow Dash and made a bee-line for the door. "Get a life. Goddess, I hate this town."
Rainbow ignored her. She reached the sink counter and hoisted herself up. Her eyes peered into the mirror, and she immediately wished that they didn't. A haggard blue pegasus stood across from Rainbow, wearing a yellow-and-brown bib made out of regurgitated curds. Beyond the tattered mane and fresh love bites marking her neck, she saw the same cold pair of ruby eyes, alone and hopeless.
The mare exhaled, her first sober breath in an eternity. She turned the faucet on and—flexing her numb limbs—she proceeded to splash tap water over her neck and chest, belatedly cleaning the bile off her coat.