Tank N' Pals

by Wildebeest

Sing For Your Supper

Chapter 10: Sing For Your Supper

After running like mad for a good two or three blocks, the six decided to take a moment to catch their breath.

"I *huff* think we lost him," panted Angel, briefly glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Carl wasn't on their tail.

"Good *gasp* heavens, what was that place?" asked Owlowiscious.

"Not a clue," said Tank. "Maybe it's a prison."

"But then why would they call it 'Pet Paradise'?" the owl questioned.

"To deceive the likes of us, no doubt," Opal said bitterly.

Owlowiscious let out a horrified gasp. "That must be it!" he exclaimed. "They lure us in with the promise of paradise, and then, before we realize what's going on, they TRAP us!"

"How awful!" cried Winona. "An' they're runnin' this operation in plain sight! How come the cops haven't done anythin' to stop 'em?!"

She furiously swiveled around and started marching back the way they came. "Ah don't care what the rest of y'all say; ah'm goin' back there, and ah'm gonna free those-"

Tank sharply grabbed hold of Winona's tail. "Later, Winona," he said. "We'll have to formulate a plan before we try to take that place down. For now, let's just focus on..."

Suddenly, Tank was cut off by a deep, guttural growl coming from Opal's tummy.

"...getting some food."

"Thank you," Opal said sharply.

"I suppose we might as well," said Angel. "I'm getting a little peckish, myself. 'Sides, I'm sure it won't be difficult to find some eats here in the city."

As if to drive the point home, Gummy tapped Angel on the shoulder a moment later and pointed down the block. A few meters ahead of them, they spied a small, umbrella- topped stand, barely concealed by the billows of smoke emanating from inside. Behind it stood a brown, scraggly-looking stallion in a heavily stained apron.

"FALAFEL!" he called. "GET YOUR FALAFEL HERE! NICE, HOT FALAFEL!"

"'Falafel'?" parroted Winona as she slowly approached the stand. "What in the hay is 'falafel'?"

As Tank hovered after her, the pungent aroma of exotic Saddle Arabian spices filled his nostrils. "I don't know," he said as his mouth started to water, "but it sure smells good!"

Without a second thought, Winona strutted up to the stand, reared back onto her hind legs and gripped the edge of the stand with her forelegs.

"GET YOUR..."

The vendor was momentarily distracted by the faint, incessant sound of panting coming from his blind spot. He turned his head to see a chocolate-coated dog staring up into his eyes and giving him the sweetest smile she was capable of.

"Eh? Whaddaya want?"

Winona turned her attention to the hunk of uncooked falafel on the stove, panting hungrily. The vendor just laughed derisively and shoved her face away from the cart. "Get the hell outta here, mutt," he snarled, quickly returning to his work.

Winona backed away from the cart and let out a disappointed sigh. "Shoot. That always seems to work on Applejack. Looks like we're gonna have to look elsewhere, fellas."

"Now wait a moment," said Tank. "He's selling his stuff for a price, right? So if we just give him some cold, hard cash, then he can't turn us away, can he?"

"Tank, where the hell are we gonna get some money?" asked Angel. "It's not like some pony here is gonna give us a job or anything."

"Well, there must be another way of earning money here on the streets," said Tank. "Like that!"

Further down the street, there was a red- jacketed young stallion with an unkempt orange mane on a synthesizer keyboard, lazily playing one riff over and over again. Occasionally, a passing pony would drop a bit or two into the upside-down hat at his feet.

Angel rolled his eyes. "A street performer? Are you kidding me? What are we gonna do, tap dance?"

"Shh!" hissed Opal, who was cautiously approaching the performer.

"What's the matter?" asked Owlowiscious.

"That song," replied Opal, letting the hypnotic sound of the keyboard lure her closer and closer "I recognize it." As she drew nearer, she began to absently hum along to the melody. Her humming grew louder and louder, until it finally reached the ears of the weary keyboardist.

"Is... is that cat singing?" he pondered out loud, briefly turning his attention towards the persian.

Singing? thought Opal with a giggle. No, dear, that's humming, not singing. Do you want to HEAR singing?

THIS is singing!

The musician was taken aback as Opal leaped up onto the keyboard in a single bound and immediately started belting:

"What is this feeling coming over me?
I'm taken back in diiiiisbelief!
Is this really me, heh, in the mirror I see? Starin' back at me?
Could it be? A new reflectioooon, of a woman complete!

"All of a sudden I'm so carefree,
'cause love is doing something strange to me!
Got a new flame, heh, haven't been the same,
Something in me changed, rearranged,
AND I FEEL LIKE I'VE BEEN SAAAVED, YEAH!"

The "SAAAVED" was belted with so much intensity that the stallion was sent careening back onto his flank. This was almost too much to process at once. There is a cat... on my keyboard... singing along with my music.

After a moment, his expression of bafflement was replaced by one of excited, euphoric delight. Well, then, I better give her some music to sing along to!

The musician sprang to his feet and continued the melody he was playing before, only this time with a renewed sense of passion and fervor. Every note, every chord was just pounded out as he desperately tried to match Opal's power. Opal closed her eyes and let the vibrations of the speakers move her, bouncing up and down in perfect synchronicity with the beat.

"Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, got it bad in a serious way, oh, yeah!
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, your love has brought me to a higher place, OH, YEA-AH!
Who knew, who knew, it'd be you to restore my faith?
Every day, I'm amazed; and it makes me wanna get down and PRAY-AY!"

Before long, a small crowd of ponies had congregated around the keyboard. Opal's animal companions, however, were merely content to stand motionless on the sidelines with their jaws hanging open.

"MAKES ME WANNA GET DOWN AND PRAAAAAY-AAAAY!"

That last syllable was so earth-shakingly powerful that it nearly made Tank flinch. Where the hay did she get vocal cords like that?

At long last, Opal decided to wrap the song up with a whisper of, "All right, that's it." The sound of raucous applause filled the air as the keyboardist quietly played her out. A moment later, the sound was accompanied by the pitter-patter of coins dropping into the hat. And with that, the crowd finally settled down and dispersed.

"Dude, that was off the chain!" cried the stallion, picking Opal up and nuzzling noses with her. "Like... you're something else. You're really something else. You and I are gonna go far, singing cat. We're gonna go REAL far. You and I."

Opal grinned at him and squirmed out of his hooves, sticking a perfect landing onto the sidewalk below. She reached into the hat, scooped some coins into her paws and casually walked back to her friends.

"Not interested?" inquired the stallion, failing to notice that the cat just stole from him. "Eh, that's okay, then. I ain't gonna tell you what to do. You can go back to your animal friends."

The other six just gave her bug-eyed stares as she tossed each one of them a couple of bits. Just before they started walking back up to the falafel stand, she could faintly hear the keyboardist muttering, "Man, I GOTTA lay off the acid..."

"Opal, what in the blazes was that?!" cried Owlowiscious.

"Christina Mareguilera," Opal replied smugly. "'Makes Me Wanna Pray',* track one of Buck to Basics. Rarity bops to this album all the time when she doesn't think anyone's watching."

"T-that's not what I meant!" the owl sputtered. "I meant, where did you learn to... to sing like that?!"

"Sweetie taught me," she said in a rather matter-of-fact tone.

"Sweetie taught you well," said Owlowiscious, punctuating his statement with an impressed whistle.

Upon approaching the stand, the six pets all took turns tossing their freshly- earned cash towards the vendor. After hearing the clattering of coins near the stove, the vendor handed each one of them a falafel pocket without even taking a moment to look up from his work.

"Thank you, come again," he mumbled as the gang dashed off with their newfound grub.

By the time the six had managed to find a nice, empty spot on the sidewalk to enjoy their meal, the smell of freshly smoked paprika and hummus was driving Tank absolutely wild. The tortoise eyed his dinner greedily, licking droplets of drool from his mouth. From his perspective, the humble little pita pocket looked like a veritable cornucopia.

"Tonight," he said with a smack of his lips, "we eat like kings."

Author's Note:

*featuring Steve Whinnywood on the piano

Comments

[Metool Bard]

I am not going to ask how, nor why. Such comedic musical brilliance needs no explanation.

But if Sweetie Belle can teach a cat how to sing, how come she hasn't gotten her Cutie Mark yet? Same reason Scootaloo is so awesome on her scooter and hasn't gotten hers yet, I guess.

[Wildebeest]

2194800 What's ironic about it?

[Spitz]

...

And nopony questioned the singing cat?

[TwilightsmyMare]

Awesome! Who knew Opal had such talents? You know other then being purrfectly prim and proper.

[Sinful Pickle]

2194827 Because he was obviously going to masterbate, and he told them to beat it, when HE was going to 'beat it,' so to speak.

[Wildebeest]

2198086 Oh, right

Funny thing is, that wordplay was completely unintentional.

[Mattricole]

Talk about getting PUSSY WHIPPED!

...okay that was in poor taste, sorry.

[Sinful Pickle]

2198096 Unintentional wordplay is the best kind of wordplay.

[Sinful Pickle]

2198103 I don't think that was in poor taste.

[Nightshade Dawn]

Metool Bard it's just that sweetie Belle doesn't want to sing in public scootaloo doesn't want to dance in public and applebloom wait she should at least have hers by now cause of how good she was at showing sweetie belle make the stage for the tallent show in that one episode.

[Nightshade Dawn]

[dragonspinner33]

how long until you update this fic

[Wildebeest]

2688077 New chapters are coming VERY soon. Don't worry!

[GameQubb]

if they could talk on the show I could see Cristina Agilera playing as Opal

[Yoshifan30]

Well another unexpected situation so after escaping from the so-called Paradise they had to find something to eat before they do something else but they see a couple of Street performance but it looks like caught opal and starring singing one of Christina Aguilera song which the cat has quite a singing voice and was that they got enough money to buy food and I'm sure they won't question why a couple of animals have money lol