Bright Lights in the Big City
“One hundred and fifty two, one hundred and fifty three, one hundred and fifty four...” Wildfire mumbled under her breath and, with every word she uttered she dropped another glimmering, golden bit into the leather sack around her neck. “Hundred fifty fi...”
The yellow mare was cut off when her hoof fell to her side and she didn’t feel anything but the marble, tiled floor. She looked to the corner which she had taken refuge in and realized that indeed, she had run out of bits. A heavy sigh exhaled from her lungs when she tightened the bag of bits and slung the small strap around her neck. She shoved it under her white shirt which bore gigantic yellow buttons and drew her bottom lip into her mouth to bite on it. She held out her hoof and continued counting before she began to look around the large, bustling kitchen.
Bustling was a good way to describe it; ponies were always talking and moving like a machine, running fast but never in the way of others. They all clicked like they were designed for their roles and had fit in for years. They barked orders on top of each other barking orders on top of each other, and yet somehow nothing ever had to be repeated. It was energetic and frazzling, but in a fascinating sort of way.
She had found brief refuge on her break in the corner of the kitchen where nopony seemed to venture, as it was crammed uncomfortably between the two large fridges and sink. But if you were thin enough to squeeze into the area, it did provide a moment of relaxation where nopony would bother you. But with a sigh she looked to the clock on the opposite end of the kitchen and realized that her moment was indeed just that, a moment.
Wildfire slipped out back into public view and reassured that the bag of bits was still around her neck before venturing further. She was about to head forward and resume work when suddenly a mare burst out before her from the swinging door directly to her right.
“EEP!” Wildfire would deny she ever made that noise if asked, but regardless it still came out of her in sudden startlement. The unicorn before her rushing to the other end of the kitchen was dressed rather…appealingly from head to hoof in feathers that left far too little for her comfort to the imagination. There was an empty platter on her back that she quickly dumped into the sink at her side before grabbing a new one. Wildfire felt near mesmerized at the sight of her. This place certainly knew what they wanted in a waitress, she thought.
“Hey, Wildfire, could you not stare at the mares like you’re a dirty old stallion and come back to work?” A voice questioned from beside her. This again made her jump and make another unseemly girlish gasp. However this time in recognition of the voice she swung around and hit her hoof directly into the shoulder of the stallion next to her.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Wildfire hissed when her hoof connected to the shoulder of the stallion. His face remained blank, but he was busy running a hoof¬towel over a plate when he stared down at her and blinked his eyes.
“I didn’t sneak up on you,” Brightstar said in a matter-of-fact kind of a tone. He raised his eyebrow but still managed to keep his face blank. “You were just too busy looking at the backside of the staff, apparently. Y’know Dusk looked redder than a rose when he accidently saw that?”
“Please don’t talk to me about how you and Dusk stare at mares,” Wildfire looked away and into the kitchen. There was at least a dozen ponies, but she spotted two familiar faces that moved a bit slower and less like an oiled machine than the rest; they seemed uncomfortable, as if their gears worked for a different machine and they were simply uncomfortably forced into the one they had at hoof.
“Oh, sorry!” Dusk Melody, in his dark blue coat, called out when one of the chefs shoved past him and knocked him a bit to the left. “Geez,” he mouthed when he looked back to the stove and thought nopony was watching.
“Waaaaait, you’re telling me you DON’T bake those little strips of hay into the bread?” Cyclone asked in a loud tone that boomed above all the others. She was black as night but she had this look in her eyes that was brighter than the sun. She was talking to a much less enthusiastic stallion who bore a smile that looked far more polite than authentic. “Then how in Equestria do you shove em in there when they’re all hard and flaky?”
“Why are they paying us, again?” Brightstar leaned over to wildfire and mumbled. He seemed to have humor in his tone, but once more Wildfire leapt back when the same mare walked before the two with another platter on her back. Brightstar looked to her and blinked his eyes, a faint smile on his lips. “They don’t bite, y’know. Least not if you don’t ask them to without some bits.”
“Quiet,” Wildfire raised her hoof and shook her head. “I’m going back to work.”
“Hold up!” Brightstar reached out his hoof and snatched at her own to swing her back around to face him. “Got a job for you.”
“The dishwasher has a job for me?” Wildfire raised her brow with a bit of humor. “Oh, how ever can I assist you?”
“Ha ha,” He rolled his yellow eyes with sarcasm and then tapped his horn. It glowed bright yellow and suddenly a large platter filled with glasses of clear liquid that Wildfire smelled to assure was only water was brought before her. “Darkie and the others are on in ten minutes. Boss likes us to keep them hydrated, y’know. I’d do it myself but I’m already emotionally scarred by seeing my sister dressed like that. If this is my punishment for drinking like a fool with all of you and ending up here then I’d say it’s too much.”
“Your sarcasm is appreciated,” Wildfire giggled. Though she said this, there was a look in his eyes that legitimately begged her to do his deed. She accepted with a nod and let the platter slide onto her back. She flicked her tail and threw him a smile. “Back in a jiffy,” she winked at him.
“Yeah yeah,” He waved her out and absent mindedly returned to his sink and picked up another dish.
Wildfire pushed her way out of the door and was greeted with bright neon lights that read. “Las Pegasus Bitgivers.”
This was…possibly the biggest lie Wildfire had ever read, and all it took to tell her this was a simple look around the place. Slot machines upon slot machines were lined up almost directly before her. All of them were filled with stallions and mares of various ages with various looks of anguish on their faces every time they pulled their respective levers. She bit down on her tongue when she passed them and tried to look down at the red and black carpet under her hooves.
The place certainly was bustling, that was for sure. When she was forced to look up she saw several handsome stallions and beautiful mares as dealers around various tables. One stallion threw her a wink that shined with confidence, and she smiled. A mare threw her a sultry wink and she blushed.
Wildfire looked straight ahead and saw a stage at the very back of the place with a curtain drawn in maroon and gold shades. Very eye¬ catching, but she had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that the curtain was not what anypony was going to be focusing on in a bit. She shook her head, pushing the thought aside and continued onward.
She found a staircase at the far left of the stage that led up to a steel door with two stallions in sunglasses and suits standing before it and eying anypony that passed. Wildfire approached them and nodded to the glasses on her back, the grey stallion on the left giving her a simple nod before stepping aside. The black stallion used his magic to open the door for her, which she gave him a polite smile and nod that…he did not return. Much like the royal guards in Canterlot, bodyguards must have been taught not to show emotion, she thought.
“Alright girls, ten minutes till show time!” A discernible but butch sounding mare called out. She was standing near the doorway directly in front of Wildfire with a clipboard in her hoof. “Starshine you better bet those feathers are gonna be fluffed before you go out! And hey, Leaf Pool, you better stretch out those legs so you don’t get a cramp like last night!”
There were several cries of “Yes, Ma’am!” Before all the dancers went back to chattering quicker than Wildfire could keep up with. The mare turned around, and Wildfire was surprised to see she actually looked rather beautiful despite her deep sounding tone. She gave Wildfire a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. It didn’t seem rude, just standard.
“Just in time,” the mare said with a nod to the table behind her. “Just put it over there. Be sure to get out before the show starts.” And, with that the mare walked past her before Wildfire could so much as say thank you. She was already looking back at her clipboard before she walked out the door.
“Wily!” A white mare seemed to burst from the crowd with an excited and downright bubbly look on her face. She was covered head to hoof in feathers and straps that made Wildfire’s face warm just looking at them. The mare bounced forward with a huge smile on her face. “Here, let me take that!”
“Thanks, Darkstar,” Wildfire felt the relief lift from her back when the unicorn used her magic to lift the tray of water from her back and slowly levitate it over to the table, which several mares gathered around quickly and snatched up their own glasses. She giggled again and turned to Wildfire. “You’re awfully… bubbly…”
“I was just showing some of the girls…” Darkstar paused, and then something seemed to click in her mind. Her eyes widened and she gasped before grabbing Wildfire’s hoof and giving her a tug. “Oh Celestia you don’t know yet! Come here, I need to show you this!”
“W - Wait, Darkstar I need to get back to wo...”
“They won’t notice if you’re gone for a second, just come here!” Darkstar pulled Wildfire through a mass of feathers and unmentionable places that she caught an unwilling sight of. She was dragged to the very back of the stage to a table with a large mirror before it. It had several different kinds of makeup and papers, but what caught Wildfire’s eye was the photos scattered about.
“Those aren’t…?”
“Uh huh!” Darkstar nodded before the other mare could finish and snatched up the photos. She handed them to Wildfire, who saw herself in one of the photos sitting next to Brightstar and giggling. The background was that of a castle, and a hoof was half covering the photo as if it had been taken carelessly. “The night of the big party! Boy I’m really glad that I had that camera after everything that happened. I didn’t have time to get all of them developed until last night! I wanted to show you all this morning but you guys start work so earrrrly!”
“Oh, Geez Darkie,” Wildfire couldn’t help but cover her mouth with her hoof and giggle when she flipped through the photos. Darkstar’s smile certainly was contagious, that was for sure. She came across a photo of Dusk Melody and Brightstar cuddling, or to be more accurate Dusk passed out clinging to an uncomfortable looking Brightstar’s midsection. “If you show this to Dusk he’ll be a blushing mess. He was out like a light so fast that night, huh?”
“Oh, look at this one of Cyclone!” Darkstar ripped out one from Wildfire’s hooves and showed it to her by holding it up. Cyclone was standing on her hind legs with her wings outstretched and a glass jar of some kind of liquid in her hoof. By the look on the mare’s face it was undoubtedly the hard moonshine they'd all been drinking that night. “Oh, darn, my hoof’s in THAT picture too! Geez I wasn’t paying attention at all.”
“I think if any of us were we’d ask how the heck we got to Las Pegasus in one night…” Wildfire mumbled more to herself than Darkstar, but of course the other mare heard her. Darkstar nudged her in the shoulder lightly and giggled, and when Wildfire looked to her she had a reassuring grin.
“Hey, I dunno about you but I’ve had fun here! All these mares are so nice. I don’t feel embarrassed at all when I dance with them,” Darkstar said while looking back to all the mares near the curtain still chattering. “I feel a lot more flexible, too! Haven’t had a workout like this in months.”
“Well, I don’t mind being around all that food,” Wildfire admitted with a small smile growing on her face. “I learned how to make a few things that I wanna try when we get back to Canterlot, too. It’s just…embarrassing, y’know, knowing we got so drunk we ended up halfway across Equestria? I mean how does that even happen?”
“Ummmm,” Darkstar drew out that line a bit suspiciously long and looked away briefly. She seemed desperate to change the subject all of the sudden. “Well it’s not so bad if it happens to all of us. We can be embarrassed together! I mean, we’ve almost got enough bits to get back, right?”
“Yeah, we almost got enough bits. One or two more nights and we’re good.” Wildfire shrugged and then giggled again. “We saw some neat things, though, like that big fountain with Celestia on it.”
“You also sort of walked into an adult store thinking it was groceries,” Darkstar giggled.
“It was called Eat 'Em Raw!” Wildfire defended herself futiley and pushed the photos back into Darkstar’s hooves. “I thought it was vegetables or something! Don’t bring that up, I’m getting bad flashbacks!”
Both the mares shared a brief laugh at the memory then Wildfire looked once more to the photos and then saw one of herself drinking the same liquid Cyclone had. She felt her face grow warm briefly with mild embarrassment, but luckily she didn’t have much time to dwell in it.
“Alright girls, it's show time!” The same mare with the clipboard from before had returned and pointed to the curtains. “Unless you’re planning to shake your plot out there everypony out!”
“S - Shake my what?” Wildfire mumbled, colouring up again. Cyclone was the exhibitionist, closely followed by Darkstar, not her. She felt a light but insistent push on her shoulders shove her forward and turned briefly to see Darkstar smiling and urging her to leave. They exchanged goodbyes briefly and Wildfire trotted quickly to the exit and buttoned up the top of her shirt, that line from before forcing her blush to linger.
When she exited the door she had come in before it took her eyes a moment to adjust. All of the lights were dimmed, illuminated only by the glowing screens of the slot machines and of course, the lights beaming onto the curtains of the stage. A faint music was playing in the background and growing with intensity. Wildfire trotted quickly to get a better view of the stage in the midst of a small crowd that had taken a break from their gambling to view the girls for...much different reasons than her, she assumed.
“Mares and Stallions, put your hooves together for…” An announcer voice echoed across the casino, catching everypony’s attention for a split second. “The Exotic, the wonderful, the talented, Feather Fluffers!”
The curtain ripped open and several of the ponies around Wildfire cheered. It made her want to shrink a little when she saw a total of twenty mares with Darkstar to the far right all crouched down with the lights slowly piling onto them. In an instant the music kicked off and they all sprung to their hooves and kicked before them in unison. They walked forward together, shaking their flanks and swinging their tails back and forth. Their hooves stamped virtually at the same instant with every step. The music was intense and loud, and definitely something she didn’t normally hear back in Canterlot. It was energetic and fast, lively and fierce. It even made her want to sway her hips a bit, though of course she controlled herself.
The mares all spun together and then split off into groups of five and circled around each other. They clapped their hooves to the stage in beat of the song, and Wildfire spotted Darkstar throwing the crowd a wink every time she turned back to face it. The ponies around her were loving it, clapping every time they switched groups. One of the mares fluttered over another with her wings and did a little flip in the air. It was beginning to look much more like some elaborate circus act rather than an exotic dance. Of course it was all theatre to entertain the drooling crowd.
Wildfire backed from the crowd slowly. She had seen this dance a dozen times, but it always managed to captivate her. She figured she better get back to the kitchen soon before the ponies began to realize she was missing. She made her way through the crowd, but stopped briefly when she spotted something or, more accurately, somepony.
Dusk Melody and Cyclone were standing against the wall. Cyclone was talking and staring at the stage while Dusk looked bored. The pegasus sighed and nodded every few seconds to Cyclone's words. Wildfire walked up to them quickly and watched them both spot her, both giving a wave. “What are you two doing out of the kitchen?” Wildfire questioned with a tilt of her head.
“We burned the food!” Cyclone said almost…proudly? Wildfire didn’t want to believe that was the right word to describe it, but she couldn’t really pinpoint it as anything else. Dusk seemed to blush and nod slightly. “It was still EDIBLE, I dunno why they got so mad when I tried to eat it even though they couldn’t serve it! Like I’m starvin’ here! So they forced us on break while they re-cook it.”
“One of the chef’s bumped into me and I dropped half a gallon of noodles into the burner,” Dusk said in a bit of a defeated, embarrassed tone; he tried to smile, but it looked forced. “Cyclone turned it up too high and burned the sauce.”
“I thought I told you to be careful about the fires,” Wildfire bit into the side of her cheek. Both ponies nodded, only Dusk sighing. He looked briefly back to the stage and blushed yet again. He had this strange look in his eyes like he wanted to watch but was far too embarrassed to let it be known.
“Yeah, they told us to just go on break. They aren’t mad or anything…must really be swamped if they want a couple of klutz’s like us running this mad house, huh?” He chuckled and looked between the two mares. Cyclone laughed as well, and Wildfire smiled. “It’s kinda neat though, just seeing this place run and all. It's a lot more hectic than I thought it would be. I don’t really notice I’m tired till we finish because we don’t get enough time to think.”
“Oh yeah, I drop dead the second we hit the sack!” Cyclone laughed and then glanced to Wildfire with a sudden change in attitude in her expression. “But man, Darkie must be even more worn out than us! She dances like that ten times a night! I don’t think I could do that once without wanting to pass out!”
“I dunno,” Wildfire shrugged and turned back to the stage. The ponies were jumping over each other now like some sort of complicated cheerleader routine that she had watched throughout her years of school. The only difference was the singer on the loudspeaker was rolling her R’s like there was no tomorrow. Two of the mares, Darkstar being one of them slid across stage, as in literally slid on their hooves without running, and twirled around each other by grabbing the other’s hoof and spinning as though they were on ice. “I think she enjoys it, I mean she wasn’t shy about it at all, was she? I didn’t know she could dance like that though. That ain’t just natural talent she has going on, she obviously learned it from somewhere.”
“You should ask Brightstar,” Dusk responded with another shrug. “Maybe their parents made them take those awful dancing classes. Y’know, the ones where you get so good that adults feel bad about themselves watching you.”
“Yeah, Brightstar isn’t one for dancing like that,” Wildfire giggled and tried to picture it in her mind. He was far too stoic to let himself go wild like his sister. It was a funny thought though, one that she made sure to store for when she got down on herself in the future. “That reminds me, I don’t wanna be fired on my last day. Gotta hit it back to the kitchen!”
The three ponies exchanged their goodbyes for the time being while Wildfire burst back into the kitchen. She barely had time to look at Brightstar, much less ask him about his sister’s exotic dancing before she was thrust back into work. Without realizing it, she too had become part of the machine she had marveled at earlier. Though she felt like a bit of a rusty gear, the chefs were patient with her and gave her a bit of oil, both figuratively and literally, when needed. She learned to prepare three new meals in the course of the next hour, and then spent her final hour chatting with Brightstar while washing dishes and occasionally going out to collect the dishes of the final customers leaving the place.
She was able to break his stoic expression and twist it into a gagging one whenever she brought up the sight of his sister in such an exotic piece of attire. She took great joy in this. He was not nearly as pleased with these jokes as she was. While there was scarcely five hours between opening and closing, the place did close down just long enough to make it spotless for the next day. Luckily for Wildfire, being a janitor wasn’t part of her job.
The best part of the night for her was always closing time. Though it was short lived and not nearly as energetic, the exhaustion clearly showing on the mares on stage, a final dance number was put on that usually was mainly for the workers. Most of the ponies besides the truly committed gamblers had learned to scramble long ago, and Wildfire found herself sitting at a table with weary eyes and a bag full of collected bits that the four ponies celebrated with glasses of free sparkling water provided by the casino as well as a round of leftover food that wouldn’t fit in the fridge and would spoil by morning’s time.
“Alright,” Wildfire said excitedly while placing the final bit on the top of a tower in the tiny city of gold she had created before her. “We finally got enough for all those tickets! Now let’s not try to gamble all out money for a lucky break like we did the first day! We worked hard for this money and we are heading HOME.”
She glared pointedly at Cyclone at that idea, who was whistling and shoving most of the food into her own mouth as if she couldn’t possibly hear Wildfire.
“And you said working here was a dumb idea, Brightstar,” Dusk Melody joked and jabbed his hoof into Brightstar’s ribcage. Brightstar was the only pony facing the back wall of the establishment and hunched over on his chair. He reminded Wildfire very much of the anti¬social pony who sat in corners during parties too shy to talk to anypony.
“Something wrong, Brightstar?” She questioned with a tilt of her head.
“My sister is still dancing. I know I'm a voyeur and all, but I’d rather go blind than stare at that,” He grumbled grudgingly. Everypony shared a laugh and once again found it far funnier than he did.
“Mares and gentlecolts, thank you for your time! The dancers will be retiring for the evening and the Casino will be closing in fifteen minutes! Now skedaddle!” The announcer joked over the loudspeaker.
“Oh thank Celestia,” Brightstar spun around and saw the dancers just long enough for the curtain to close. Everybody smiled at him again while he returned to a cool, emotionless expression.
Wildfire was in the process of gathering up all the bits and shoving them into a single bag when she looked around to everypony surrounding her. “Well, we did it guys!” She said in a team leader kind of muster that everybody nodded in affirmation to. “Now we gotta just get a good night’s sleep and hop on the first train to Canterlot at dawn.”
“Here’s to going home,” Cyclone shot up her glass and nearly hopped on the top of her chair. “UGGH, I miss my bed so much!”
Everypony laughed, and soon an undressed and sweaty looking Darkstar joined the four at the table and joined into the conversation as if she had been a part of it the entire time. They chatted the remaining fifteen minutes, Wildfire making sure to keep her bag of bits close to her. The night was far from young, and the ponies tired, but in that moment they all chatted like they weren’t stranded in a strange city for a week working their hooves off for a way home.
Come tomorrow, they would all be heading home.
Surprisingly, getting the train tickets was fairly easy. Wildfire had a feeling that just about everypony expected about a dozen more hoops to jump through in order to get them home that following morning, but shockingly she was handed five tickets issued for seven thirty that morning and told to wait for her train. The second she had returned with the tickets everypony slam dunked their work clothes into the trash as if glad to be rid of the place. All except for Darkstar, who had decided to keep her dancers uniform. This was to Brightstar’s disapproving glare, obviously.
“I think my favorite part was the lights,” Darkstar gushed and waved her hoof in the air. “Y’know, like when it gets dark in the sky but it’s still super bright because of how well-lit Las Pegasus is? Everything in Canterlot is sooooo moody and soft lit! So prim and proper, nopony has harsh lights like this!”
“There was a ton of weird smells,” Dusk chuckled and fiddled with his hooves. “I rather liked it though, especially the kitchen. My hooves might have blisters, though. Hehe.”
“I think one of those waitresses gave me her address,” Brightstar mumbled and turned over a piece of paper in his hooves. “I…think she might have been hitting on me? It was weird…what should I do with it? She wrote a weird note and uh…it’s kinda…inappropriate.”
“OOH, gimme!” Cyclone shouted and fluttered over in an attempt to snatch it. It took the combined efforts of Brightstar and Wildfire to get her away from the paper before Brightstar could shove it in his bag away from her clutches. She never did explain why she was so adamant on reading it, just that she liked the idea of love letters.
“Well, I…” Wildfire started. She thought of saying something like how she liked the environment more than anything or something corny like that, but before she could do anything she heard an announcer voice call above their heads.
“Seven thirty Friendship Express to Canterlot. I repeat, Seven thirty to Canterlot now boarding coach.”
“That’s us!” Wildfire smiled happily and gathered up what little belongings she had and hopped to her hooves. The rest followed suit, all except Darkstar who was fiddling with her outfit. “C’mon Darkie, the train’s waiting!”
“Yeah, sorry, these feathers are just getting all caught in my hooves!” She laughed as though she found it funny. In a strange attempt to hurry herself up, she ended up dropping the entire outfit while standing up on her hooves. Dusk was the first to reach out and grab it, but strangely enough she yelled. “Wait!” Then snatched it as fast as she could. It blew before them like a cape and suddenly five strips of white paper came flying out of one of the pockets.
It was all very over-dramatic. Everypony stood silent when each piece fell to the floor. Darkstar stood there with a smirk on her face, giving time for Wildfire to pick up the one nearest to her. She scanned the ticket and felt her mouth drop open. Everypony but Darkstar gathered around her to read it over her shoulder, and then one by one all of their faces turned to the mare who was now singled out.
“Darkie, what the buck is this?” Brightstar was the first to ask.
What is was, was a ticket. Not just any ticket, but a ticket to Canterlot. It was scheduled for four days prior. Wildfire did the quick math in her head and realized that indeed, it was the day that they had been hired by the casino. Wildfire looked to Darkstar’s outfit again and blinked her eyes.
“You had tickets?” She asked, not positive how to put emotions in her words, or even if she could.
"Well, yeah, but that presentation didn't go as planned." She took a step forward to the ponies she called her best friends and laughed. "Well, you see, it was kind of a prank! The 'you-waking-up-in-Las-Pegasus-and-freaking-out' prank!" She smiled, "It was rather funny at the start as you all panicked. Then we got those jobs and you all kinda liked the big city and I really liked dancing. Admit, you all had fun, right?"
“Darkie, I…”
“Darkstar,” Brightstar interrupted Wildfire and took a step forward. He looked his sister in the eye with an expression that read like a sharp knife. Darkstar was still trying to chuckle. There was a moment of silent where he looked back to the three behind him and then forward to his sister. “You do realize we’re going to have to get you back for this, right?”
"Huh?” Darkstar asked disbelievingly.
“Oh, we totally are,” Cyclone stepped forward and nudged Brightstar’s shoulder. “You know you’re gonna get it good when Brightstar’s in the mood to prank you. I’m thinking salted caramel donut laced with laxatives. Then there’s the prank I have in mind…”
Wildfire couldn’t decide in the moment if she truly wanted to be mad or not, in fact all she could think of was how strange it would be to see what Brightstar or the rest of them came up with. He raised his brow at his sister and she looked at him like he was crazy. She opened her mouth a few times, but couldn’t say anything. Like Cyclone, she was plotting her revenge on the white unicorn.
“Hey, guys, let’s get on the train!” Wildfire interrupted the mini staring contest the siblings were holding and tried her best to laugh it off. By some miracle, Brightstar smirked and even Dusk chuckled a bit. “We had fun, right? I mean, c’mon, it was funny! We were never in any real danger, and we got to see the big city!”
Darkstar laughed, "Right! Big city! Big fun." She was happy that Cyclone had started laughing, but her brother was a harder sell. Brightstar however simply rolled his eyes and wrapped his leg around Darkstar’s shoulder and led her forward in front of the group. "Put those tickets you bought away, Wily. This is when I was supposed to bump you aside and show the real tickets." She took the dropped tickets and presented them to the conductor.
“Let’s go home, Darkie,” Brightstar said in a calm, collected tone. He stared straight ahead with Darkstar under his leg. “They’re right, I did have fun. The place was nice.”
“Oh, yeah?” Darkstar asked hopefully. “That means I’m off the hook, right?”
“No.” Brightstar responded simply. “No way in Equestria.”
“Oh.”
Not sure what else to do, Wildfire still held the tickets she had just bought, the tickets they had worked so hard all week for. "What the hay am I supposed to do with these?"
"Luna will reimburse you for them," stated Darkstar.
"What?"
"What do you mean, what?" Darkstar giggled, "Did you think I organized this prank all on my own? I was to get you stranded here, and prove you could make your own way back. Luna thought you'd call out to her to bail us out. So I win the bet!"
"What bet?" Dusk asked, his pink eyes narrowed, the effeminate pegasus easily believing this was something his mom would do.
Darkstar's bright red blush was easy to see, "A year’s supply of cakes and sweets from the castle bakery." She saw the looks she was getting from her friends, ranging from outraged to stunned to shocked. "I was going to share!" The others just shook their heads as the train began to move and they settled in for the long ride home. Whatever Brightstar had planned for her, Darkstar still thought it was totally worth it.
