The Lyra pony departed quickly and silently. Elrod did not notice. He was thoroughly shaken and confused, and because of this he spent what felt like several hours staring into space in pure panic. In truth, though, it was only a few minutes, and when Elrod realized that he was not showing any symptoms of fulminant poisoning he looked around, trying to see where Lyra had gone.By this time, though, it was too late. She had either left the bar entirely or vanished into the crowd.

Elrod stood up. Roxanne had been replaced by a pair of topless human women and a wide-shouldered ovine zooneus, and although much of the room was focused on them the attention was far diminished from the show before. Not that Elrod would have noticed anyway. He had no sweat glands, but if he had he would have been soaked by now.

He quickly made his way back to the bar, where Jadeglow appeared to be having a rather one-sided conversation with Forth. Forth was listening, but far more focused on arranging several tiny drink umbrellas in the dirt of a potted philodendron.

“…and that’s why, like, we can’t discriminate, man. Just because I’m a pony, and you’re a pony, we’re still all brothers and sisters, right? Like, the animal people, man…they can’t get jobs. But why not? They’re closer to nature than we can ever hope to be!” She turned toward the massive suited mormyridian woman. “I mean, right?”

She stared at him through the glass plate on her suit, her unblinking eyes bleary from alcohol. A distorted electronic gurgling came from her suit.

“Right on, sister,” said Jadeglow.

“Forth?” said Elrod, putting his hand on Forth’s shoulder.

“Yes I am,” said Forth. She swiveled on her bar stool. “How can I help you?”

“Did you see a pony just now? A teal one? A Lyra?”

Forth tilted her head. “I don’t know what teal is.”

“It’s like, light green,” said Jadeglow.

“Then no,” said Forth. “I was too busy drinking. Also I was playing with umbrellas.” She pointed at them. “Look, I made a beach.”

“What about you?”

Jadeglow shrugged. “Lyra’s are like, the most common pony. They’re pretty nice. A little high strung sometimes. They really dig my palm trees…”

“I mean did you see her?”

“I see everyone, man. There were like five in here in the last hour. What did yours look like?” She paused. “Was she teal?”

Elrod groaned loudly, knowing that this was going nowhere. “Forth,” he said. “Do you know where Twilight is?”

“Of course.” Forth jumped down from her stool, her wings fluttering as she did. “I always know where Ms. Twilight is located.”

Jadeglow suddenly looked uncharacteristically nervous, and when Forth started to lead Elrod she followed. This was actually somewhat helpful, because Forth led Elrod into a part of the structure that was separate from the main floor and the bar. Elrod supposed it was meant to be an office area of some kind, although there were a few places that appeared to be private rooms. Exactly what they were used for was not something Elrod wanted to know.

When they found Twilight, she was walking away from them and trailing a thin line of smoke down the hallway. Elrod accelerated to reach her, but she was not fast enough. Before he could reach her, Roxanne and Valla turned a corner in Twilights path. The group stopped, and so did Elrod. He knew instinctively that approaching the exchange that was about to happen was a very bad idea.

Roxanne was wearing her boots and stockings again, but she was mostly covered by metal-studded leather jacket that she wore open in the front. While it was not exactly what a normal pony would wear on the street, it was immediately apparent that she was not supposed to be working at the moment.

When Roxanne saw Twilight, her eyes immediately narrowed and she frowned viciously. She immediately turned toward Valla, who though despite being vastly larger suddenly went pale.

“What is this, Goldberg?” she said. “Doesn’t Jadeglow pay you to keep bad influences like HER away from me?”

“Sorry Ms. Dash,” said Valla. “I’ll get her out of here right away.” Valla stepped forward. “Come on, Twilight,” she whispered. “This is only going to end badly for all of us. Come on. You need to leave and you know it.”

Twilight ignored her and ducked beneath Valla’s legs. As aggressive as Valla had been to Elrod, she seemed not to physically engage with Twilight. In part this was because of the difficulty involved: Twilight’s head, like that of all ponies, was only about a meter off the ground, which was somewhere around Valla’s knees.

“Roxanne,” said Twilight, pointing in the direction of the main hall. “What the hell was that?! What were you doing out there?!”

“Dancing,” snapped Roxanne. “I do five shows a week. So thanks for the cover charge and for ogling me. Now LEAVE.”

“You wouldn’t have to be ogled if- -”

Roxanne stamped forward, and Valla stepped back. “Oh, I don’t mind the ogling. I’d ogle me too. I look fucking awesome. It’s YOU I don’t want looking at me. You don’t deserve it.”

“After everything I did to get you off the streets and into a respectable career- -”

“OH, you’re going to lord THAT over me now? Because you want me to be some secretary for a big company wearing a frumpy-ass dress to work, or maybe to marry a rich human, get a Genesis Program and pump out little Rainbow Dash’s?”

“I didn’t say that and you know it!”

“You didn’t have to! This IS a career! I get to dance and show off and fly around, and I get a salary! Benefits! People that give a shit about me! I’m drawing in nine hundred customers per week, and not ONE of them is allowed to touch me!” Roxanne flipped her tail, slapping Twilight in the face with it. To Elrod, it was an extremely comical and ridiculous gesture. “Goldberg! Do your damn job before we end up having to call a wrecker to haul her body out of here. You know, after I ruin it!”

“Twilight, please,” said Valla. “You’re making a scene.”

“I’m making a scene? I’M making a scene?!”

Forth stepped forward. “Ms. Twilight,” she said. “This situation is escalating. It also produces no benefit.” She put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “The centaur girl is correct. We ought to leave.”
Roxanne’s eyes flashed when she saw Forth. “And who the fuck is this, Morgana? What, did you trade up to a newer model? She looks just like you. Which I guess is why you must be so infatuated with her.”

“Roxanne, it isn’t like that! She’s my secretary!”

“Do you know how many times I had to dress up like a secretary for dirty, frustrated middle-management types? I know what ‘secretary’ really means. Did you bring her here to show off? Do you think it will make me feel bad? Because it doesn’t.”

“We have a master-slave relationship,” said Forth. “Also, I have no genitals.”

Roxanne looked horribly disgusted and stared aghast at Twilight, who had put her head into her hoof in embarrassment. Forth had been attempting to describe their programming relationship and to define it as platonic, but that clearly had not worked.

“You sick fuck,” said Roxanne.

“Again, I’m going to reiterate: it isn’t like that.”

“And I don’t care. I’m tired. I have an encore portion of my show in half an hour. There’s choreography, and I need to go over the routine with the other girls. So kindly shove a hoof in your ass and FUCK. OFF.”

“Vibes, Roxy,” said Jadeglow, shaking her head. She stepped forward. “Morg, you’ve been my customer for ten years at least. I don’t want to ban you…”

“Then don’t.”

“You might not give me a choice. I’m about to have Val throw you out, man, and that’s really far for me. I’m, like, a pacifist. You know that. And I don’t want to make Val do anything she doesn’t want to, but you’re forcing it, Morg, you’re forcing it.”

Twilight turned toward Jadeglow, and then toward Roxanne. She sighed. “I knew you worked here,” she said. She looked up at Valla. “It wasn’t random chance that I came here tonight.”

“So you’ve been stalkingme.”

“No. I’m a detective. I can’t not know things, it’s not in my nature.”

“Then why come here? I think the last time we spoke I made it very clear that I never want to speak to you again.”

“It’s a case. I need help.”

Roxanne burst into sardonic laughter. “A case! Oh, well of course! You certainly wouldn’t come to me for relationship advice, just to talk about life for whatever- -because you don’t have EITHER OF THOSE THINGS! Just work! What, what is it now? You need my help planting evidence, or maybe covering up a crime, or beating the crap out of terrified children for precious ‘information’? Or maybe taking dirty pictures, or getting problem people to ‘disappear’?”

Twilight did not respond to the accusations. Her expression had become neutral and she stared blankly.

“You’re not even going to deny it, are you?”

“I do my job,” said Twilight.

Roxanne leaned close. “You do anything that people pay you for. You’re dirty, Morgana. I thought I could tolerate that once, and then that I could change it. But now I know I can’t. I stopped being a whore. But you still are. And you always will be.”

Roxanne turned and began to walk away.

“It’s a girl,” said Twilight, “a missing girl.”

Roxanne stopped. “So?”

“A natural born human. From Level C.”

“Level C?” Roxanne turned suddenly. “But that doesn’t make sense, there’s no way they could afford you.”

“I don’t care about the money on this one,” said Twilight.

Roxanne raised an eyebrow incredulously. “So I’m supposed to think you’re some sort of saint now?”

“No. I never lied to you. About anything. And I won’t start now. My motivation isn’t altruistic, but it’s not out of avarice either. It’s curiosity. The desire to solve the puzzle, to know.”

“Of course it is,” sighed Roxanne, frowning. “For a moment I thought you actually had some humanity in you after all.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that a girl is missing. My motives don’t really matter so much in comparison, do they? I talked to her father. He’s a mess. He thinks she’s dead, but I don’t know. Not for sure. This guy,” she pointed at Elrod, “he’s technically my client right now. He saw something, and someone tried to take him out. I did what I could I traced the trail back to a technomancer, to Monsanto and some sort of agroterrorist cell, but it all went cold.”

“I’m not a detective, Morgana,” said Roxanne. “As much as I’m sure you wished I could be.”

“I know that, but you have contacts. Long-term clients. Fans. I don’t. People don’t like me.”

“Go figure.”

“I just want you to ask. Please, Roxanne. If there’s anything you can find out…”

Roxanne’s hardened expression fell slightly. She looked at Elrod for a moment, and then at Twilight. After a long pause she sighed. “I might know something already.”

Elrod had expected Twilight to perk up, but instead her expression darkened. “Damn it.”

Roxanne did not seem insulted by this and in fact nodded in agreement to Twilight’s sentiment. “I know. It’s not much, but I’ve been hearing stories.”

“What kind of stories?”

“People going missing.”

“People always go missing,” said Forth. “Bridgeport’s homicide rate is fifty per one thousand.”

“I know that,” said Roxanne. “Goddamn it I know that. But this is different. It’s naters. Natural-born humans.”

“What are natural-born humans doing down here?”

“There’s more than you would think. A lot more.”

“It’s not on any records.”

“Of course not. They hide it. Do you know what it’s like being a nater? You’re either born in the Upper Levels with the world in you’re born a mistake. Naters are treated worse than zoonei. They can’t get jobs, healthcare, they’re considered defects. You would hide that too if you were like that.”

“And it’s just natural born? How many?”

“I don’t know the number. It’s just stories. But the community is tight. A lot. And I’ve spent some time with corporate executives, and they may have let thing slip…”

“Like what?”

“Like that the same thing is happening in the Upper Levels. The rich kids. Never the first born sons or daughters. But the others. They’re disappearing too, and nobody in corporate is willing to lift a finger to even try to investigate.”

“Bronislav Spitzer,” gasped Elrod.

Twilight’s eyes shifted toward him, and she gave the slightest possible nod. “Warn them,” she said to Roxanne. “If you know any personally. Don’t go through secondaries, it will turn into a shitshow real fast.”

“I’m not a moron. I know what I’m doing. But do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Can you stop it,” snapped Roxanne. “Unlike you, I actually care about people who aren’t me. I gave you information. Consider it an advance payment. Now you have to promise you’ll stop it.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

Roxanne sneered and turned back down the hall. “Of course. You can’t even give me a straight promise. You know why I left you, right? Because you’re a bitch like that.”

“Yeah,” sighed Twilight. “I know that.”