And now we go.
Our mischievous smiles not wavering for a moment, Celestia, Luna, and I leaned our heads forward and touched the tips of our horns. "Remember," Celestia said, "this is a night for tomfoolery. Do not hold back, unless it breaks our cover."
"Under no circumstances would I dream of it," I replied. "Let's do this thing! We're wasting too much time!"
"Antares is correct!" Luna roared. "We go!"
With that, we all channeled magic through our horns for a massively long-range teleportation. With a pop, we vanished from my room, to reappear in an ornate hotel room. Next to the door of the hotel room stood three stone-faced ponies, all three of whom bowed low to us when we appeared. Celestia returned the bow with a nod.
"Mares and gentlecolt, I do not need to tell you that discretion on your part is key. Watch over the three of us, but do not let your presence be known."
"Yes, princess," all three of them muttered.
"Excellent." I cracked my neck and walked towards the hotel room door. "Alright then, ladies, let's do this thing!"
With a cheer and a group high-hoof, the three of us exited our room, walked down the hallway, down the stairs, and out of our hotel room into the bright, flashy, and glorious city of Las Pegasus. I took a deep breath and let my hooves feel the clouds ground below me. Not that I really remembered the few times that I had gone, but Las Pegasus struck me as vastly different from Las Vegas in terms of air cleanliness. Flash, though? Hah, Las Pegasus matched Las Vegas there. Every inch of every cloud building flashed with magically colored clouds that went off like Christmas lights at different intervals, and signs abounded for casinos and restaurants and even a few brothels. Las Pegasus prided itself on being the capital of prostitution in Equestria, though the crown taxed both it, and the gambling quite heavily.
I scanned the streets, and my eyes locked on a nearby casino. The Princesses Den. I turned my head to the other two, and all three of us smirked at the same time. Bingo.
The three of us trotted over to The Princesses Den, with the three Blade Wings following silently behind us. All around, pegasi and unicorns moved around, their chatter adding to the noise of the city. We reached the casino, and a doorstallion tilted his head to us, and opened the door for us.
We walked inside and saw us.
Everywhere.
When the casino said "The Princesses Den," they weren't kidding. The waitresses were all dressed in skin-tight jumpsuits of sorts that were colored either pink, dark blue, white, or peach, complete with fake cutie marks and wigs, representing the four of us. Giant statues of the four of us flanked a red carpet that led to the main floor, where slot machines of all types, most of which bore the image of one of us, blinked and buzzed, and flashed, calling the ponies inside to spend their hard-earned wages on a dream that they might get some of their money back. Large poker tables surrounded by well-dressed ponies dotted the upper levels of the casino, and other games littered the floor as well. I clicked my tongue and looked up at the large marble statue of me looking down at the red carpet.
"I hate being commercialized like this," I grumbled.
"It comes with the crown, but I admit that I have rarely seen it done on this scale." Celestia chuckled and walked up to a statue of her. "My, my. Simply fascinating. I might want to come back here for my birthday."
"Well at any rate, what say you to some poker?" I grinned and looked up at the poker tables. "I'll wager that they've never seen the likes of us, and our weekly poker sessions are going to help us out a fair amount, wouldn't you say?"
"Thou art the birthday mare, Antares." Luna began walking towards the stairs that led to the upper level. "To the poker tables we go!"
With a cheer, the two of us followed Luna to the stairway, and walked up to the second level. When we reached the top step, a large pegasus pony with sunglasses, a black suit, and a pin of me on his lapel stepped in our way.
"Sorry, ladies, this section is for high class gamblers only." The bouncer motioned down to the lower levels. "If you still wish to play poker, there are some excellent tables down below."
Celestia smirked and opened up her saddlebag. "Sir, I know that we aren't dressed the best, but I promise that we will fit right in up here." Celestia levitated a large bag of bits out of the saddlebag, and even under the sunglasses, I could tell that the bouncer's eyes widened. "We'd like to play up here, if that's okay."
The bouncer sputtered out a few gibberish words before nodding and bowing to us. "Please forgive me for my rudeness, madames. Please enjoy yourselves! I'll escort you to a table myself!"
"I note that the tables have pictures of the princesses on them." I motioned to a nearby table. "If at all possible, could we get a table with a picture of Princess Antares on it? She's my lucky princess."
The bouncer smiled and nodded. "Absolutely. Right this way."
We followed the bouncer to a table not too far from the stairs with a smiling picture of me emblazoned on the green felt with a speech bubble that said "good luck!" near my mouth. You ever had that happen to you? It's odd, let me tell you. The bouncer pulled out three cloud chairs, allowing us to sit down. At the table were five other ponies. There were four pegasi, two mares, and two stallions, all of whom were dressed nicely. There was also the unicorn dealer who wore the stereotypical dealer outfit.
"Would you like something to drink, madames?" The bouncer asked. "I can have a waitress send something over."
"If you have a list, that would be wonderful," Luna said.
The bouncer nodded. "I will have three sent to you at once. Have a good night, and good luck! May the princesses watch over you this night!"
"Thank you." The three of us turned to our fellow gamblers and grinned at them. Time to do some cleaning. Celestia took the bag of bits out of her saddlebag, and paid for a basic set of chips for all of us. With that settled, the dealer began shuffling the cards.
"Alrighty, mares and gentlecolts! The name of the game is Manehattan Hold-em!" He finished shuffling and began dealing. "We have three new players at our table. What are your names, ladies?"
"Star Shine," I replied.
"Sunny Skies," Celestia answered.
"Night Gazer," Luna responded.
The dealer nodded. "Excellent, excellent, excellent. Alright, ladies and gentlecolts. Time to start putting chips in. One hundred small blind, five hundred big blind. Small blind to you, Ms. Shine."
"Kewl." I put a one hundred bit chip in the middle, and glanced at my cards. Princess of Diamonds and Five of Hearts.
After a few seconds, a waitress dressed like Cadance came back with three drink menus that she placed in front of us as we all started our betting. I looked at my menu and noticed a drink called the Pegasus' Ono Champagne Cocktail. My eyebrow raised when I noticed the thousand bit price tag. I whistled and tilted my menu to show it to Celestia. "Never had a drink that expensive before. Somethin' else, innit?"
Celestia smiled and nodded before igniting her horn, and taking all three of our drink menus to give back to the waitress. "Three Pegasus' Ono Champagne Cocktails, please."
The waitress raised her eyebrow, but nodded and tilted her head to us. “Very good, madames. I'll get those for you in a jiffy. May the princesses watch over you this night."
"Thank you." Celestia chuckled, and the three of us turned back to the game. I noticed that the other players all looked at us with expressions of incredulity. Buying three of the most expensive drinks in the place kind of makes a statement, I suppose, especially when you aren't dressed. Celestia smiled at the rest of them, and put two hundred bits into the pot.
Luna smirked and leaned in closer to us. "Tis a pity that our niece is not here. She would have won back the cost of those drinks very quickly."
"We'll manage," Celestia whispered back. "We're not so bad ourselves."
"I've won a few of our nights. Never forget that," I retorted as I put what I needed to into the pot.
"How can We?" Luna rolled her eyes. "You spoke of nothing else for the next week!"
"And here are your drinks, ladies!"
The three of us straightened up and saw a gray pegasus stallion with a stack of poker chips for a cutie mark in a tuxedo with his black mane slicked back. He had our drinks balanced on one of his wings. He moved in between the three of us, and placed our drinks down in front of each of us before twirling his hoof and bowing low. "I hope that you're enjoying yourselves."
"Oh I think that we are," I said. "We in the middle of an exciting game of Manehattan Hold-em!"
"Ah, one of my favorites!" The pegasus sat down at the empty seat next to me. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm High Roller. I own this fine establishment here."
"Well, I must congratulate you on your successes, then, Mr. Roller." I looked around at the packed tables as the fourth card was flipped over. "You seem to be doing well."
High Roller chuckled and patted his chest. "Yes, well, I do pride myself on having a business sense. When I got into the casino business I said to myself 'High Roller, you need something to make ponies come to your casino. Something that's going to make it stand out from all of the other pretenders,' and you know what I thought? I thought, 'well, you know what's a symbol of power and everlasting strength? The princesses of course!' So I went and built this here casino of them, and it has done me very well, Ms. Shine."
I see he knew my name already. Somepony around there was feeding him information. Very interesting.
At any rate, the dealer flipped the fifth card over, and I subtly glanced down at my own cards again before looking at the ones on the table. Pair of fives, and was just two cards short of a flush. Not a good hand but hey, the night was young yet. The two ponies to my right put two hundred bits into the pot, but I pushed my cards to the dealer.
"I fold."
High Roller clicked his tongue and shook his head sadly. "Well, now, I'm afraid that is just too bad, Ms. Shine."
I scoffed and pulled my drink closer to me. "Think nothing of it. It's one hand, and the night, as they say, is young."
I took a sip of my drink, and nodded my approval as the flavors hit my tongue. I "mmmm"ed and inclined my head to High Roller. "My compliments. That's quite delightful."
High Roller puffed out his chest, and his wings flared out a little bit. "Yes, I do pride our bartenders on making some of the best drinks in all of Equestria! That is but a sampling of what they can do, if you have the right tastes."
Or a big enough bit bag, you mean.
Before I could respond, I heard Celestia cheer, and I turned my head to see her raking in a gigantic pile of chips, a huge grin on her face. I looked at the pile of cards on the table and grimaced.
"Ah, you had the flush I wanted."
Celestia laughed and began stacking her chips. "Well, that's the way the cards fall sometimes." Celestia levitated three thousand bits worth of chips over to High Roller. "If I could get somepony to cash these. I think you will find that this will cover the cost of our drinks."
High Roller turned his oily smile to Celestia and nodded. "But of course, my dear. Shall I start a tab for you three?"
"Very well."
"Excellent." High Roller beckoned another waitress dressed like me over, and gave the chips to her with his instructions.
And so it went on like that for a little while longer. We played five or six hands, with one of the three of us winning most of them, while I chatted with High Roller. When I finished my drink, Celestia ordered me another, something that High Roller was more than happy to accommodate. I knew what High Roller was up to, of course. He just wanted to make it seem like he was a good guy so that we'd come back, and he'd get more of our money. Flashing around our bits like we were, he'd be dumb not to really, so I didn't really blame him for that. It's all part of the game.
After a half hour of playing, I'd say that we were doing pretty well. We'd already broken two other players, who had been replaced with two others, and each had a sizable stack of chips, easily larger than the one that we started with.
"Well, you were right about your optimism, Ms. Shine!" High Roller took my empty second glass from me, and gave it to a waitress. "The princesses are indeed smiling down on you! You said that Antares is your lucky princess, and I think you're right!"
I smiled and nodded as I put my cards down on the table. "And I think she might be smiling on me again. Full house: princesses and nines!"
The rest of the table groaned, but High Roller applauded me. "Well done! Very well done!" I nodded to him as I scooped up my winnings, then put the big blind into the pot. "So, I never actually asked: what brings you fine ladies to my establishment tonight?"
"Oh, it's Star Shine's birthday today," Luna said as she put her own chips into the pot. "We took her out to celebrate."
High Roller gasped and jumped off of his chair. "Your birthday? Well why didn't you say so?" He motioned over to one of the waitresses and pointed to me. "It's Ms. Star Shine's birthday today! She deserves a high-class celebration!"
I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. I glanced over at Luna and Celestia, both of whom were grinning at me. High Roller had me at his mercy, and all three of us knew it. And they loved it. After a few minutes, a line of dancers, also dressed as us princesses, came out, and High Roller spun my chair around to face them.
In front of the line of dancers was a mare whose dress could be described as more... risque. And by that I mean she was wearing knee-high socks with, yep, my face on them. She was also dressed as me, naturally. She came forward and hopped onto my lap and unfurled her wing, revealing a plastic replica of my tiara, which she placed on my head. "I heard Princess Antares is your lucky princess, cutie." She put the crown on my head and gave me a nice big kiss on the cheek, which by this point had turned beet red. "Then may she smile down on you." Another dancer came forward, and the first one took a necklace from her, which, to my utter lack of surprise, had my cutie mark on it. She placed it around my neck and kissed my other cheek. I glanced over at my fellow princesses. Luna had her head buried in her forelegs, and I knew that the only reason I didn't hear any noise from her was because she was laughing too hard for that. Celestia, being a little better in control of her emotions, merely had a wide grin on her face.
I inwardly sighed and looked back at the dancers who had begun doing some sort of kick dance, while the pony in my lap began singing.
"Oh we wish you a happy birthday, and we know the princesses do too.
We're so glad you came our way, so we could party with you.
May the Princesses smile down upon you, and may your year be gay!
Until then, my dear, hap-hap-happy biiiiiiirrrrrrtthhhdaaayyyyy!"
W... wow.
My years as a princess meant that I possessed the ability to force a smile on my face and make it look very genuine. A skill I needed to put to use then and there. I began clapping at the dancers. "Thank you very much. Wow, I don't know what to say."
"Well, this one's on the house." High Roller moved aside and a waitress came up to me with a third glass of Pegasus' Ono Champagne Cocktail.
* * * *
Two hours later, the three of us cashed out, slightly better off than when we had entered, and walked out into the streets of Las Pegasus. High Roller saw us out personally, and assured us that we would always have a place in the upper level for whenever we wished to return.
Once we were a block or so away, I groaned and facehooved, lighting my horn and taking the tacky tiara off of my head. "Wow. I have never felt so commercialized. You gotta know that there are escort mares out there who get paid to dress like us."
Celestia sighed and shrugged, taking my tiara and necklace and putting them in her saddlebag. "Well, so it goes, I guess. We can't crack down on all of it, and I saw no great harm in that kind of thing. It wasn't so overt that I felt the need to step in, though I admit, it was strange."
"I wonder what would happen if I walked in there as myself?" I grinned and imagined the possibilities. "Asked to see the owner and demanded to know what the heck all of this was?"
Luna snorted. "We imagine he would faint from shock, Antares."
We burst out into laughter, until I noticed a bar nearby with a sign out front.
Drinking Competitions Here
Ooh. It sounded almost unfair as an alicorn who was immune to alcohol to do something like that, but...
I grinned and inclined my head to Celestia and Luna, both of whom grinned back and nodded to me. We turned and walked into the bar.
Well, the atmosphere differed from The Princesses Den, I'll give it that. Dubstep playing on a jukebox, a few dozen burly, tattooed stallions, and a few petite mares attached to said stallions, sat around the bar drinking, talking, or playing pool. A few looked over at us when we walked in, but didn't make any fuss. We walked up to the bar, and the bartender, cut from the same cloth as the rest of the stallions, looked up at us with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh, I heard there was a drinking competition of some kind?"
The stallion snorted and tilted his head in a nod. "Yes'm. In five minutes. Not sure if'n you'll get much outta it. It's drink 'till one of ya passes out."
I shrugged. "Well, I'm out for a night on the town. I saw your sign, and it looks like fun."
The stallion shrugged. "If'n ya say so. Just give me a few minutes to set up the table."
The stallion went to a back room, and I turned to Celestia and Luna. "This could be interesting."
Luna nodded. "Indeed. We shall let you take point on this. I am curious to see where you are going here."
"Oh, I think you'll see."
After another minute, the bartender flew out from the back room with a long table in his forelegs. The music stopped, and the entire bar erupted into loud cheers. Everypony flocked around the bartender, who put the table down, and raised his forelegs.
"Alright, listen up! The drinkin' competition's 'bout ta start, yeah? You wanna join, you just let me know, along with who yer gonna be drinkin' against. Entry fee is ten bits!"
Ten bits for essentially all you can drink. Sheesh. One glass of the champagne drink I had been drinking was a hundred times that.
Celesta hoofed me over ten bits, and I gave them to the bartender when I got enough room. Seemed like the event was quite popular. Most of the stallions in the bar had their ten bits to give. The bartender scooped them all up and put them in a large glass jar. "Alright, who's first?"
"I am!"
I looked over to the source of the voice, and I saw probably the largest, most muscular stallion in the entire place. He wore a tattered construction worker's jacket, had a biker's mustache, and a large tattoo of something or other on his right shoulder. Next to him stood a small tan mare, whom he had his wing on. So he looked like a stereotypical bad guy, basically.
"Any of you mares stallion enough to face me?" He pointed at each of the stallions who had entered. "I'll take on any one of you wussy little fillies!"
I shrugged and raised my hoof. "Okay, sure. I'll take you on."
The stallion looked over at me, and his face went blank for a few seconds before he burst out laughing. The rest of the bar quickly followed suit.
"You?" He chuckled and pushed the mare away, sending her scurrying to a corner seat, before walking up to me. "You're a lightweight! You'd probably get one drop on your tongue and pass out!"
I shrugged. "Well, easy victory for you, then, isn't it?"
The stallion snorted and rolled his eyes. "Too easy. I'm not gonna waste my time with you." He grinned nastily at me and, to my utter shock, he slapped my plot with one of his wings. "It'd be a waste of some nice flank."
I turned and raised my hoof just in time to stop Celestia and Luna from annihilating the guy. Their horns were firing up, but one look from me, and they calmed down. I smirked at them and nodded. I knew what I was doing. I turned back to the stallion, whom I noticed this close up stood easily two heads taller than I did, but still shorter than me in my alicorn form. I smirked at him.
"So, what, you scared that I'm actually gonna win, or something?"
The stallion snorted again. "No, I just want a real challenge."
"Well, I'll bet you that I will be a real challenge."
"Bet?" The stallion's nasty grin returned, and he raised his eyebrow. "Very specific word choice there."
"Deliberate as well, Mr..." I spun my hoof.
"Cement Mixer."
"Mr. Cement Mixer." I nodded. "Excellent. Well, then, Mr. Mixer, I bet you that when we get in the drinking competition that I win, and if I do, then you have to go to both an Alcoholics Anonymous class, and a class on how to properly and respectfully treat mares until they say that you're ready to 'graduate," so to speak."
Cement Mixer snorted and rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh, fine. And when I win, you come back to my place and I'll show you a, heh, good time."
I shrugged. "Done."
Cement Mixer extended his hoof and I shook it. "Done."
The bar cheered, and the bartender formed two cloud seats for us before setting down two trays, both holding twenty shots. Easy.
I ignited my horn and raised the first shot glass, and Cement Mixer picked up his first glass, still grinning at me. "You ready to lose?"
I raised my glass to him. "I was just about to ask you the same thing."
"Alright, the first pony to pass out loses." The bartender raised his foreleg and looked at me. "May Celestia help you." With that, he lowered his foreleg. "Drink!"
I raised the shot glass to my lips and drank the whole thing in one gulp. Being an alicorn meant that even the burning sensation of whatever that was didn't hit me as hard. I put the shot glass down and picked up a second one.
"Drink!"
Down the hatch.
"Drink!"
Another one down.
"Drink!"
Empty glass number four.
I looked over to my opponent, whose smug grin faded slightly. I noticed one of his eyes twitch as he raised his fifth shot glass. "Alright, you're not doing so bad, but you're still going down."
I shrugged and drained the fifth shot glass. "You'd think that, but I can't feel a thing."
Cement Mixer glowered and drank his sixth shot, then his seventh. For every one that he drank, I matched. By the time he went to grab his tenth shot glass, I noticed that he missed it.
"Seeing double?"
“Eh shaddup," he growled. He hiccuped and finally managed to grab the glass. "Yur gunna really get it tonight. Yer gonna feel more th.... uh... th'n alcohol when you wake up."
I shrugged and drained my eleventh glass. "If you say so."
Cement Mixer growled and raised his twelfth glass to his lips, but it slipped from his grasp and began falling. I caught it with my magic and raised it back to his lips. "Whoops. You almost dropped it. Would you like me to help you?"
"Don' need yer help!" The stallion grabbed the glass and quickly drained it before throwing it back on the tray. "Yer goin' down!"
"Yes, I'm traveling back to my home later this evening." I drained my twelfth glass. "Or is that not what you meant?"
Cement Mixer growled again, and tried grabbing for his thirteenth shot, but he kept missing. I gently nudged it in his path with my magic, and he picked it up and drained half of it, spilling the rest all over himself. I sighed and drained my thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth glasses in the span of five seconds. "You're falling behind." I nudged two more over to him. "You'd better keep up."
Cement Mixer wobbled in his seat, and tried reaching for another glass, but I saw him go cross-eyed, and he collapsed on the ground. Victorious, I stood up and brushed myself off, smiling at the other patrons in the bar. "Well, that was exciting, wasn't it?"
Silence.
I chuckled and walked over to the sleeping form of my opponent. I surreptitiously cast a healing spell on him to make sure no damage had been done, like alcohol poisoning. That settled, I looked at the rest of the bar. "Anypony else wanna slap my plot?" Everypony in the bar shook their heads. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
With that, I turned and walked up to the mare that Cement Mixer had come in with. Her eyes went as wide as the table when she saw me come up. I smiled warmly at her and motioned over to Cement Mixer. "You his marefriend?" She nodded. "You like him?" She shook her head. "Okay, then leave him. Don't worry, he won't bother you if you do."
And then I walked right out of the bar, Celestia and Luna following behind me.
When we reached the street, I motioned over to one of the Blade Wings following us. He trotted up to me, and I pointed to the bar. "Make sure he follows through with his side of the bet, alright?"
"Yes, Princess Antares," the Blade Wing said with a salute.
"Good." I took a deep breath and turned to the other two princesses. "Well, ladies, that was... something else, but what's say we spend the rest of the night in my palace eating the rest of my cake, some ice cream, a teapot, and reading the cards the Ponyville foals gave me, yeah?"
Celestia and Luna both smiled at the idea. "I think that sounds lovely," Celestia said.
* * * *
Well, as much as I liked going out and having fun, I liked being myself again too. Ten minutes later, Luna, Celestia, and I were in my room in Baltimare, all three of us back to normal with my cake and some ice cream resting between us, and the stack of foal's cards in front of me.
"Well, ladies, I had fun. That ending especially was... unexpected."
"Unexpected, but hopefully some good will be done," Celestia said with a nod as she took a slice of the cake. "How was that alcohol, by the way?"
I grimaced and stuck out my tongue. "Swill, and I don't think that's because I had had three Pegasus' Ono Champagne Cocktails beforehoof." I shrugged and poured myself a cup of peppermint tea. "Still, I enjoyed myself, and that's what matters."
"Indeed." Luna poured herself and Celestia some tea, and she raised her teacup. "The night was enjoyable, Antares, particularly..." Luna's grin turned mischievous. "That mare in the socks." I groaned and facehooved, something that made the other two laugh. "In any case, happy birthday to you."
Celestia raised her own teacup. "Happy birthday, TD." We all took a sip of tea. "Now, then, let's read some of these cards!"