Fantasy walked through the front doors of Silver Mirror with the rest of us in tow in my Equestria dreamscape. The mansion was full with the sound of laughter, music and revelry. Along with the sounds of festivities the air was heavy with the scent of food cooking, tobacco, perfume, rum, pony and the dry scent of feathers.
 
A young, handsome earth pony stallion servant wearing a black silk vest, a white silk shirt and red bow tie came down the stairs and trotted up to Fantasy and bowed. “Good evening Ms. Fantasy you’ve returned. Do the arriving guests require any assistance?”
 
The black unicorn mare smiled at the palomino stallion. “ Ah, Golden Hoofs. Excellent! Just the stallion I was looking for! Petina, Carousel and Sky Brush have arrived and need to have their luggage ported up to their room. Will you please see to it?”
 
“Of course.” Said the young stallion. “Will our guests need to bathe or freshen up before making their formal introductions to the Mistress of the House? If so I can have a bath made ready for them immediately!”
 
Fantasy shook her head. “No that will not be necessary, and from the smells coming from the kitchen it appears they have not missed dinner which is good. I was planning on just taking them immediately to the main drawing room and introducing them to Scratch.”
 
Suddenly another wave of musical mayhem came rolling out of the back part of the mansion with a enough volume to make the front windows rattle noticeably; this was followed by a chorus of laughter, cheering and whistling. Fantasy smiled and shook her head.
 
“Although perhaps ear plugs might be in order.” She turned and looked at us.
 
“Come let me introduce you the head of this asylum before she blows out her own eardrums.”
 
We followed Fantasy down a Parquet floored hallway until we reached a pair of ornately carved teak double doors. Fantasy magically grabbed both door handles dramatically threw the doors open.
 
This gesture captured the attention of most of the occupants in the room and conversations came to the halt. A mixture of ponies, zebras and griffins were suddenly staring at us. All told about three-dozen pairs of eyes tracked us as we strolled into the room; we had almost everyone’s attention. All accept one.
 
A white mare had removed the front panel of this device that looked a combination of a calliope and a volley gun. The mare had succeeded in crawling in on her belly halfway inside the contraption leaving only her backside protruding from the device. A bright blue two-tone tail connected to some very shapely haunches that squirmed and wiggled as the rest of its owner struggled with some unseen part of the machines innards. Black musical note cutie marks graced the mare’s flanks.
 
Relaxing on deep violet silk divan alongside the device was a very attractive female griffin who we recognized from various photos as being Golden Bill. She smiled at us and tapped side of device with a front claw. The mare inside either didn’t hear or chose to ignore her it tapping. The griffin next tried knocking politely on the wooden cabinetry housing the instrument.
 
“Scratch, Scratch can you hear me?” Inquired the griffin.
 
“Tu Boosy tu tulk! Grunt! Almust huv thus valve werking rut!”
 
The griffin rolled her eyes made a fist and banged on the side of instrument. “Scratch! Our ‘special guests’ have arrived and are waiting to make their introductions to you. Could you be so kind as to meet them?”
 
There was a loud bang from within the machine followed by muffled cursing. The back part of mare wiggled back and forth as she quickly backed out of the device. The rest of the unicorn mare emerged with a screwdriver clenched between her teeth. She stared at us for a second and then she let the screwdriver fall out her mouth and it clattered to the floor. With her signature red-purple goggles and Cheshire cat grin she got up and trotted over to us.
 
“Cool you made it!” Exclaimed Scratch. “I have been so looking forward meetcha!” Scratch shook each of our right front hoofs in fast succession. “ Petina, Carousel, Sky Brush thank you so much for accepting my invitation for this gig!”
 
“Thank you for making the offer!” Replied Petina. “Ever since your performance at Canterlot last year we’ve been big fans you and your troupes work! So there was no way we would pass an opportunity meet and work with you!” Petina grinned at Scratch. “And from everything I’ve read you seem like the kind of pony I’d love to know better!”
 
Scratch grinned back Petina as if she clearly understood exactly what she’d said. “Well before we go any further with the nights festivities let me introduce you to amazing group of individuals that are gathered here before you!” I couldn’t quite place Scratch’s accent it was not quite Manehattan nor was it Fillydelphia.
 
Over the next twenty minutes we were introduced to an eclectic mix individuals gathered in the room. Most were part of Scratch’s stage or road crew. A couple of them were freelance contractors like us hired by Scratch to perform some specialized task. A few of them were locals who Scratch had befriended since acquiring Silver Mirror. At most I was only able to remember a smattering of names however most of Scratch’s crew knew of Petina and Carousel. Apparently the two mares training of Rainbow Dash combined with their weekly performances at the Bucking Mare had made them the source of many of Scratch’s recent conversations.
 
Chitchat carried on as the weather outside turned stormy and the next band of precipitation came ashore. Soon the sound of thunder rumbling and torrential rain falling outside provided a constant background rumble to sometimes-raucous conversations. Finally around 9:30pm a loud gong rang out from another room in the mansion.
 
“Oh yeah!” Exclaimed Scratch. “Dinner is ready everypony! Let’s eat!”
 
With that we retired to the dining room.
 
To be continued.