This is quite odd, I haven’t seen Pane anywhere since yesterday I have no idea what she’s doing, but I sure hope whatever it is is good. It’s practically going to be just me and her at the jazz auditorium.
Maybe I should check to see how Carve’s doing. She has gotten a bit skittish since Hearth’s Warming. Numerous times on accident, we’ve been repeating the time we first met, and it’s a bit worrying.
I get back home to see if Carve’s still there, and not only is she still there, but Pane is with her.
“Pane! Where’ve you been? I’ve been looking all over for you!”
“Well, I decide to give Carve a belated b- Hearth’s Warming gift to help her out.”
“Sure, that sounds thoughtful, but unless it’s-”
“Exactly what I’ve gotten her, there’ll be no trip to Town Hall.”
“Um, what are you talking about?”
“I contacted a photographer to take a picture of Carve so that she could have her own ID.”
“Wait, WHAT?!?”
“What, Rusty?”
“Okay, Pane, so which photographer did you get ahold of?!?”
“Photo Finish.”
I twitch my left eye in surprise. I know exactly who that was. She’s the reason why Fluttershy got so famous years ago!
“So, is she a photographer and does she just leave it at that?”
“I don’t know. Am I getting an ID with a picture she took of me?”
“Well, you got me there. I bet that feels good. In the meantime, we could head over to City Hall and get it before we try going to Gladmane Grand again.”
“So, does that mean all three of us are gonna...” Pane starts,
I nod, which prompts Pane to fly over and take me off the ground. The resulting motion is me and Pane floating as if she has let every once of magic loose.
“Oh we’re gonna have so much fun! We can have quesadillas, and cherry pie, and rounds of pinball, and-”
Uh oh, I think I’m gonna be s-sick.
Carve grips the both of us with her magic.
“Okay, Pane. Yeah, I’m excited that all three of us are going to see a concert, but it’s not like we have somebody we look to that will be waiting to meet us tomorrow. It’s just a musically talented unicorn. There’s only so much we can get to see.”
“Only so much, huh? Are you sure about that? Somepony’s bound to-”
“Town Hall, Flim Flam brothers, all of Equestria’s royalty for Chrysalis’ sake? I know. But a Manehattanite?”
“Pane, Carve does have a point. No random pony is just going to recognize Carve unless they met her before.”
“Thank you, Rusty. Now, let’s go get my ID.”
;=;
When Pane, Rusty and I are all finally in Gladmane Grand, we all look for the room number where ticket sales are taking place.
And it appears that this room 917 is a legitimate jazz auditorium. The amount of seats impresses me that we’re going to sit here tomorrow. I look further and notice four stands, each with stacks and stacks of show tickets. So this is going to be pretty big if the stands are devoid of tickets by the end of the run.
“HEY!!! IT’S THE STAND-IN CHANGELING QUEEN!!!” one of the ticket vendors shouts in ecstatic recognition.
All four ticket vendors leave their posts and all come to me to greet me.
“Um, hi. I was wondering if I could buy a few tickets for the performance tomorrow night.”
“Why sure!” The second ticket vendor answers. “These tickets were carefully set in price by the owners themselves of this establishment. Only 2 bits each!”
“Incredibly low cost, isn’t that? Somebody could pay more just playing pinball. BUT I will take it, since there isn’t much to lose at this point.”
“Well, the arcade is where most of the income to run this place comes from,” the third ticket vendor notes.
It looks like a deal. Pane levitates six bits into one of the chests as the four vendors give us three tickets to tomorrow’s show.
;=;
SO. MUCH. PINBALL. SO MUCH CANASTA!!!
So, tonight’s the show, and we have a few hours to kill, so we all go our own ways and explore Gladmane Grand. While Pane goes off with 50 bits to play a game that grants free drinks, and while Rusty gets some supper, I decide to head to the bulk of the games.
Around the seventh game I win of Canasta, a yellow coated unicorn decides to take the place of one of the previous players. His mane is brown and his cutie mark is that of a quill riding on a metronome.
And then I win even against him. He may’ve had a couple of good starts, but some of the skills I learned are slightly absent with the stallion’s skill. By now, I think I had quintupled the amount I started out with.
“Say, you’re really good. When’d you learn to play this game so well?”
“Rusty taught me Canasta a couple of years before Rolling Acres got demoed. My winning method is to always find the right opportunity to take the deck, which is quite a balancing act of sorts, especially late-game.”
“I guess he taught you well. I may be good at Canasta, but you knock me right out of the park. Say, I’m going to play a quick couple of rounds of Roulette. I nearly always win there. But after that, I have to get to the auditorium.”
“Um, mind if I join you on Roulette?”
“No problem. I’m Tempo Quill.”
“Very nice to meet you. I’m Carve.”
After five wins on Roulette, Tempo Quill waves me goodbye and heads off to the jazz auditorium. Suddenly, I gasp. Pane, Rusty and I are all supposed to meet in front of room 917 ourselves. So, I take it that this Tempo Quill stallion is the one performing. I guess I’ll have to find out for myself.
I check the time: fifteen minutes before showtime. 1:30 PM.