The Mareage! [Las Pegasus](Open:See OOC)

[IceStorm]

~~~Golden Bit~~~

 

 

 

The sights and sounds of The Mareage operating smoothly through this brisk Tuesday morning was the first thing that hit Golden Bit's senses when she entered the main lobby from her penthouse on the upper floors. Expectations had always been high for her because of her innate ability to read others. She always knew that she was putting ponies in the best position for them to succeed. Because of that, daily operations and smaller tasks of running the casino went by in a breeze and finances and accounting were always so on point that it required little more than basic math to keep track of at this point. Payouts were always accounted for, and the insurance company that paid them was always prompt with their services. Which was a welcome relieve because in the older days getting them to pay out was like trying to pull teeth from a dragon without restraining them or knocking them out. Very good way to loose a hoof... or four...

 

Regardless, today was in fact, Tuesday. Specifically, the first Tuesday of the month and that meant that today was open interview day. She was always excited to see what kind of ponies would show up to these events and what there specialties were and what they were looking to accomplish. Most of these interviews were for the theaters, or ballroom events. Figuring out a price point and what the ponies will be performing or doing while in her casino. She'd dealt with enough of the unsavory types with her own family smearing her name, she didn't need outside help from a pony that she hired to take advantage of her generosity.

 

Currently she found herself patrolling the table section of the casino. The Polynesian design and architecture inside give a soft white marble look. The carpet that was on the casino floor was lush, soft and extremely clean. Comfortable for even the ponies with the most sensitive hooves to walk on without discomfort. All of her gaming tables were lined with a white felt with black markings to go along with the theme of the casino and she smiled as she passed the hallway that lead down to her two other major attractions. The Secret Garden was a welcome relieve to the desert that was in the surrounding area, and moreso, the dolphin habitat that was inside of the gardens always brought ponies into see. Dolphins in this part were not easily accessible and for ponies to be able to see them up close this far away from one of the shorelines always brought smiles. Of course, just like her volcano outside, her primary attractions were always free.

 

The exception being the Volcano eruption, one night out of the week. But that was because it was accompanied by one of Wind Dancer's shows every Sunday and it wasn't that she was charging for ponies to see the Volcano, but more that she was charging ponies so that she could pay Wind Dancer. She was one of the few casinos in down that didn't take large sums from their clients because they used one of their venues to perform. She was the opposite! She was thrilled about the fact that of all the places they could have chosen to perform at, they wanted to perform at her casino! Because of that, she only ever charged the performers however much it would cost her to set up the event, and never any more. This usually resulted in her performers walking away with a good eighty-five percent of their profits for the night. Which is how it should be. They did all the work for it after all, she just provided a venue. She soon stationed herself in the main lobby where a pony would check in for her hotel, which was also the main entrance to her establishment. She stayed towards the back of the lobby back by the main entrance to the casino to keep her eye on things out there as well, but was anxious so see who would be coming in today.

[PyroBlaze]

Terry sighed to himself as he walked down the road, rolling his shoulders a bit. Honestly, he was trying to figure out what to do with himself right now. Maybe he should hit the gym... He still had to set up some gigs for some point, and that would likely be better before the gym so he didn’t have to get cleaned up again beforehand. 
 

The earth pony slowed to a stop in front of one of the casinos, looking over at it. This was always a good place to put on a show, and Golden Bit was always a pleasure to work with/for. Fair division of profits, he always thought. Nodding to himself, he made his way inside, smiling as he looked over the patrons he could see. He usually wasn’t one for staying in a place like this, as evidenced by him living in his inn, but he understood some ponies liked it. Besides, as long as they weren’t hurting anyone, he figured they could do whatever made them happy. He could agree playing in a casino could be fun though, mostly the ones that needed some form of skill like the card tables. 
 

In any case, he soon enough caught sight of Golden herself near the entrance and gave her a wave before heading over himself. He ran a hoof through his mane along the way, taking her in once again. As always, she was a good-looking mare filled with a great personality, both things he could appreciate in any creature. 
 

“Nice day, huh? Are you enjoying it so far?” He asked as he walked up to her, giving her a friendly smile. “You look great today, by the way.”

[IceStorm]

~~~Golden Bit~~~

 

 

Ah, the first of what she hoped would be many today came through her door. An Earth pony that had done a number of shows for her in the past, all of them pretty successful. The fact that he was a magician, and an Earth pony to boot made him a great attraction. He always sold out, and she made a fortune in cider sales every time. She waved back in return to him as he approached her. When he commented about her looking nice today she smiled. "Thanks, you're looking pretty dapper yourself," she smiled. 

 

"As far as to how my day is going, I must say that so far it is going rather well. My day is just getting started, however, so that can always change in an instant here. Las Pegasus is a city that's full of surprises, and not all of them are always good. Especially on the mornings that I wake up to find that there was a one million bit payout the night before and I wasn't contacted. You have no idea the kind of paper work one of those entail. Still I suppose that's a good surprise for the pony that hot the jackpot so as long as they are smart with it," she added with a smile.

 

"I'm presuming that since it's open interview day that you're here to look into scheduling an event?" she asked pulling out her planner so that she could double check and record dates and get everything ready for marketing. "If so, what are you looking for and which venue do you want? I'll see what I have available. Just remember the rules. I need at least two weeks to run the marketing for it, and no Sunday events after four. That when Wind Dancer's main performances are, and with the crowds she's been pulling recently, neither myself or the other casinos have been able to give other perfomers a fighting chance when they overlap with her," she said waiting for a response to when before she offered venues.

[PyroBlaze]

Terry smiled as she returned the compliment, nodding along as she responded to how her day had been so far. Sometimes he felt like he wanted to know what that was like, worrying about paying out that many bits and still be in the black, but then again he was enjoying living the simpler life of a smaller business. Probably helped that he was only partially in charge of it, he had Leche to help out. It was her place originally anyways. 
 

“Yeah, winnings like that are likely to make them overconfident or overprotective, either they’ll keep going and lose most of it, if not all, or they’ll just stop altogether. That’s a little hard to do around here though, especially for those that come to experience that stuff.” He shrugged slightly, pretty happy to play for little to no stakes. It let him practice his skills without feeling like he was actually cheating anyone out of anything. It’s not like he won all the time when he did that, that would take all the fun out of it for everyone involved. 
 

“Yep, making the rounds, seeing what I can find. You’re my first stop, and the best one if past experience is anything to go by.” He chuckled, giving her a smile before continuing. “Fridays seem good, maybe Saturday. Catch that fresh off the work week crowd. My schedule is pretty open right now, so what kinda stuff you got on those days of the week?” He asked, trying to narrow it down some for her. 

[IceStorm]

~~~Golden Bit~~~

 

 

Golden Bit nodded solemnly when she heard Terry mention that they ponies that tend to win big either get over confident or over protective. That they either lose it all again thinking that they can hit another one or sit on it, though the latter is harder to do around here. "Honestly I prefer the ones that know when to stop, and if it just happens to be their first pull of the night well then hey. I still have plenty of other sights for them to see if they wish to stop for the night. A lot of times if they come in from out of town and they hit big like that, I'll also comp their stay, food included as well to try to entice them to come back another time later on down the road. I could be here all day though explaining the logistics behind it all, but ultimately that's what the insurance companies are for," she smiled as she flipped through her planner.

 

"Let's see here, Friday... Friday... Friday... fresh out of work... Okay, I have both my grand theater, and my large theater. The amphitheater is booked for the Las Pegasus University Orchestra, but I don't think that would interfere too much. The Grand theater is at cost plus five percent of profit, and then the large theater is cost plus three. Both are available from seven onward. Saturday... probably wouldn't be good in a couple weeks but it looks better the week after. Imagine Ponies are doing a live event in the grand theater and much like with Windy, I don't like putting big names next to each other unless they are touring together. Because it's not fair for them, and it's not fair the to customers that might wanna see both," she smiled. "So, do the Friday dates interest you? If so, we can head over to my office and finalize the paperwork."

[PyroBlaze]

“And that’s the kind of thing that makes you so great.” He chuckled, smiling over at her. He listened as she started laying out the options for his act, thinking about it before he responded. The bigger theater meant a larger possible crowd, but it also meant he’d get less of the proceeds. Not too much of a problem, really, he was still getting most of it, and the money wasn’t why he did this stuff anyways. 
 

“Yeah, that all sounds good, I’ll take the Grand slot, I think. Lead the way, Golden, I’m right behind you.” Terry nodded, motioning for her to go ahead. 

[IceStorm]

~~~Golden Bit~~~

 

 

Golden Bit smiled and then turned to step into her office closing the door behind them. "Alright... So, pull up the paperwork now...." she started before pulling out the forms for the grand theatre and began filling it silly of the basic information on it. "So, your performance will be on the 18th and the show will start at 7PM. It is recommended that you arrive between two to three hours early to make you own preparations set up for your act. Up here at the top of the contact is an itemized list of the costs associated with the grand theatre, and your estimated draw. You usually sell out my smaller theaters so you should do very well being the main act in the grand theatre. The power to run the stage comes to £2,500, and then staffing the event. Security, vendors, ticketers, all of them coming up to about £19,000. That makes the total cost of hosting the event £21,500." she continued.

 

"Now, this section underneath she's the available seating and the prices be seating with the tier IV seating being the cheapest and help attract new ponies that may not know who you are. Seating in this level starts at £5 and goes up the closer to the stage you get. The prices gradually increase going from tier to tier with the diamond tier seating being the most expensive which are the seats right around the stage."

 

 "At a complete sellout, ticket revenue is £107,750. The cost of operations will be deducted from ticket sales so my perfomers never pay it off pocket to set anything up. That brings that total down to £86,250. Minus the 5% or profit, though it is slightly more than that, as for simpler math we've rounded it up to an even £4,500. I think the actual may is like £4,379 or something like that, seek an even £4,500 just makes things easier. That would bring your total overall profit down to £82,750 for this event. Do keep in mind that these numbers are based on maximum potential. The actual payment you receive will be based on top turn out which could be less. But I wouldn't have offered you the grand if I didn't think you could fill it, of get enough to still make a good bit from it."

 

"Now, in the event that you need to cancel, you will owe us for all marketing up to that point, which for the Mareage is £1,000 a week, and you must cancel at least there days in advance. And cancellation after that will result in you been responsible for the event costs, starting at ten percent of cost, and increasing to cost day off event. Should there be no contact made and there is no show for the performance, you will be responsible for all costs associated with the performance, and you will be blacklisted from the Mareage for six months on the first offence and permanently on the second. Not saying that you would or that I think any of that. Just the typical legal speil I have to tell everyone."

 

"Now, in the event that we have to cancel, because of something happening beyond my control, We will contact you to let you know about the cancellation and offer another date it compensate at reduced cost. If such an option if not available and the cancelling is due to a fault of ours, the Mareage will therein lieu pay out a total of  renter percent of maximum ticket sales without coat reduction. For a  Total of £21,500.  If these terms and conditions are acceptable, then please sign along the line. If you would like to make some addendums to this contract, now would be the time to do so," she finished with a smile. For those who could fill her grand theatre, there was no better venue in town for the profit. She had no doubt that Terry would pull a decent crowd.

 

Spoiler

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B1QYo_2amg0wjC_gURZe5SvumiqKkmW-k_ZWLLuMTUc/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

[PyroBlaze]

Terry stepped into her office, looking around the room briefly before Golden produced the paperwork and started filling in her stuff. He nodded along as she began explaining some guidelines as well as fees and possible profits. He looked it over himself once she was done filling it out, just to make sure he heard everything right and help him retain the information. He didn’t expect her to try and sneak anything into the contract, but who knows if some lawyer snuck it in without her noticing, so he was also on the lookout for any of that. Thankfully, everything seemed to be fine, so he smiled at her and signed the paper before giving it back to her. 
 

“Well, I guess that takes care of that for now. Is there anything you need help with? My day’s pretty free, so I may as well spend it helping others.” Especially those he liked, but he decided to leave that little tidbit out. “Also, I’d love to have you over at the inn sometime. You can be the guest for a change, take a load off.” He added, smiling at her warmly. 

[IceStorm]

~~~Golden Bit~~~

 

 

Golden Bit watched as Terry looked over the contract and everything. Most of her performers did this as a way of double checking that Golden's lawyers weren't up to something behind her back. At least that's what most of them told her anyway. Truth she always suspected that it was because the way performers tended to get treated everywhere else. They see it as we're giving them an opportunity to perform, so performers must pay us to perform at their venue. they give them what's left over. Golden couldn't stand that philosophy. All they were doing was providing a place for them, as well as a bit of security. That was it. They were still doing all the work and she made hand over hoof more from the crowds drawn buying refreshments, food, and souvenir items as well. The performers more than earned their bits for putting on a good show. That was the primary reason why she wrote the contracts and not her lawyers. She was the final dictator in how her business was handled therefore she had final say. Nopony else in this building could override this document. 

 

When he was finished, she smiled as everything appeared to be to his liking. He signed the document, and once he hoofed it back over to her, it lit up in her magic before being split into two copies. One got filed in her cabinet, and the other poofing out of existence. When he then asked about something he could help with, saying that his day was pretty free so that he could spend it helping a few others if they needed. "Well, with today being my weekly open day for interviews, I'm expecting to be fairly busy. That being said, I always have time to commerce with those around me until I'm needed to perform another interview for today," she said with a smile as he offered her stay in his inn if she ever wanted to get out of the casino for a bit. "I might have to take you up on that offer at some point. I can think of a few others that could benefit from that as well," she finished with a smile.

[PyroBlaze]

“Well, the more the merrier, as they say.” He responded when she mentioned others that could use a visit to the inn too. She hadn’t really answered his question about helping out though, maybe she just wanted someone to keep her company? He could definitely do that. 
 

“So, until someone else shows up for interviews, what would you like to do?” Terry asked, smiling over at her. “We could play cards, just a friendly game, or something else.”