Slices & Pies, the premier pizza joint in Ponyville was experiencing its usual influx of Friday night business. A regular

stream of ponies came in to pick up their orders to take back to home for family dinners, games of cards, or to watch

the local hoofball game on the TV. A few customer did choose to dine on one of the few picnic style tables arranged there.

With the opening of Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship the establishment had picked up a new customer base in the form of students from the school. With the weekend in front of them they enjoyed an evening or two away from their books and studies.

Slices & Pies was often a noisy place in the evening, but on Friday nights it was particularly boisterous.

The phone rang almost nonstop. Orders were constantly being called by the staff. Waiting customer laughed

and chatted with each other while they waited in line to pick up their order. The jukebox boomed out tunes,

and the clattering, ringing, and chiming of bells from the pinball machines created vibrant soundscape.

Mingling among these sound was the occasional sharp clonk sound of a pool cue striking a cue

ball followed by the sounds of other balls striking each other. Accompanying this was the

frequentsound of balls clattering into the pockets located around the edge of the table.

If one was to search for the creator of these sounds this particular evening they would find it was

a young, female yak. Yona might be the daughter of Prince Rutherford, and one day in her homeland of

Yakyakistan she would have a proper title. But in Ponyville she already had a one. Queen of the Pool Table.

Yona slowly circled the table. She surveyed it with a critical eye. Finally she leaned forward and across the table and lined up her pool cue on the cue ball. Then she rose again from the table and reached for the cube of chalk resting on edge to table. A couple quick swipes coated the tip of her cue stick. Unlike the other players gathered around the table Yona had her own cue that she carried with her in its own purpose-built case. Slowly she slid the cue back and forth between her fingers as she prepared to take the shot.

Once again she leaned across the table and lined up on the cue ball. A second later there was a sharp

clonk and the cue ball raced forward and struck another ball sending it careening into a corner pocket.

Then as if controlled by some strange magic the cue ball rolled back diagonally across the length of

the table to strike the final remaining ball on the table. That ball teetered at the edge of the pocket

for a second. Then it fell into the pocket with a thunk sound. As is it did Smolder and Gallus groaned.

The yak grinned at them and then looked over at Sandbar.