//------------------------------// // HARD: Ball Pit Trivia for Fun and Profit // Story: Crystal Prep Gets Bulldozed and Replaced With an "Upscale" Chuck E. Cheese's // by Quillamore //------------------------------// On another side of the Chuck E. Cheese’s, Rarity was barely scraping by for things to do.  The hustle and bustle of the arcade was far from her usual territory, though the wad of tickets in her hands said otherwise.  She was just making her way to a peaceful, semi-cultured-looking piano-themed game when she made the understandable mistake of walking past the ball pit. “Did you know that most Chuck E. Cheese’s don’t have ball pits anymore?” Pinkie Pie’s head had popped out of the receptacle of plastic balls at breakneck speed, knowing exactly when Rarity would walk past a pit seemingly devoid of people.  As she had predicted, Rarity jumped at least six inches off the ground at the sight. “Back in the ‘90s, they were really popular, but supposedly, so many kids started taking the balls with them that there wasn’t enough to put in the pits anymore!” “Pinkie,” groaned Rarity once she’d collected her composure, “what did I tell you about sneaking up on people to tell them useless trivia?” “But it applied to the situation this time!” With a quick shake of her head, Rarity pushed her friend back into the ball pit and walked onward.  As she did so, she could barely notice something small falling out of her grasp. The next time she turned around, a boy her age was handing her a long strip of paper.  He lacked the colorful skin and hair most of her friends had, and just about everything about him seemed to be covered in beige. “My name’s Carl,” he spoke in a quiet tone, “and I see you dropped some of your tickets there.” Just saying that, Rarity realized as she stared at the ground, was an understatement.  She’d won over five hundred tickets in various games of chance, yet only about fifty of them had managed to stay in her hand.  Thankfully, she’d noticed before she’d had a chance to get too far in the arcade.  Not that she cared about the tacky prizes, but something about it would have been…disappointing somehow. Thank goodness that oddly-named boy had managed to get her attention.  In any case, though, she figured it would be far better to pick up what she could and move onto the next thing.  Carl, however, wouldn’t give her those sorts of chances. “Don’t you have any pockets to put them in?” he wondered. Gritting her teeth, Rarity could already see Fluttershy standing at the piano game.  She could only count down how many moments this inconvenient conversation with a complete stranger would last before she could go over and talk with someone she actually liked. “Well,” she replied.  “The sad casualty of women’s fashion means that sometimes, well, we don’t exactly have anything to put things in.” “I see.  So you really did pay attention in sixth-period anatomy.” The glare Rarity gave him was almost palpable, and the next reply he gave was, “Bad joke?”  However, the fashionista was already walking away. “Wait!” he yelled.  “I…I can hold those tickets for you.  Just meet me in an hour at the fancy restaurant, and I can give them back.” As transparent of a dating request as this was, Rarity did feel as though she had to hesitantly accept.  As annoying as Carl was, he did seem trustworthy enough, and she walked straight over to where Fluttershy was in a heartbeat, leaving him to clean up the tickets. “Are you sure you can trust him?” Fluttershy questioned. “But of course.  He just wants me to join him for a fancy dinner and was too afraid to ask outright.As long as I show up at the designated time, everything’s as good as safe.” Sure enough, as the hour passed, Rarity barely even missed the tickets.She hadn’t been near as lucky with her winnings this time around, and so there were no more chances of her dropping any.The time she spent was full of friendly conversation and the classiest of video gaming, and soon, she was about to be off to finish the classiness of the— “He’s.  Not. Here.” When the moment came, Rarity scanned through all the surrounding tables, only for them to be completely Carlless.  Even after a half hour of waiting, giving him the benefit of the doubt, he still never bothered to show up.  It was only then that Rarity realized just how much she had been used. “Oh, I am going to get those tickets back,” she muttered as she paced across the off-brand velvet floors.  “That ruffian Carl is about to get a little lesson about cheating from yours truly!” Fluttershy was just about to move out of her booth and follow her friend when a white hand stopped her in her tracks. “All you need to do is have fun and order a nice milkshake,” said Rarity, sounding increasingly neurotic.  “A peaceful mind like you isn’t going to want to see what I’m about to do…” She stopped short once she realized that she was actually evil laughing inside a fairly upscale establishment located directly inside a Chuck E. Cheese’s.As she headed towards the one place she knew she’d find the mysterious stranger, she asked Fluttershy one last question. “Strawberry’s your favorite, right?” Fluttershy simply nodded, ordered a strawberry milkshake, and tried not to think about the impending carnage.