Casino Night

"Thirty five, black!"

"B-b-what?!"

Fluttershy couldn't believe her eyes. She blinked rapidly, hoping that it was merely a terrible, estrus-induced hallucination that the white ball hadn't landed where it should have

'He has to be wrong. He simply has to be.'

Fluttershy was an honored casino guest. She'd even dolled herself up for the occasion in her favorite emerald-butterfly dress. She was a high-roller. She played her proper role at the wheel, and therefore wasn't supposed to lose. Or at least in her novels, high rollers don't lose. High rollers rake in chips and get noticed by the patrons and attract a certain sexy casino owner even when their friends couldn't and then spend all night fucking said casino owner until every Sun-damned hole was stuffed full and...and...

Fluttershy had lost every. Last. Bit.

Alas, as it was, a white little ball contrasted the black pocket of the accursed "35"...not even far away from the favored "9". With an expression that could only be forged in the fires of monotony, the moss-green roulette stallion casually swept Fluttershy's remaining chips off the board. She felt her heart drop with them as they disappeared into the black hole to be magically re-sorted. Did she do the math wrong? No, the number had to come up eventually, right? She felt it, damn it! She felt it and-

"Ugh! Can we go now, Fluttershy? Please?" Sweetie Belle stopped fiddling with flowers on the end of her dress long enough to plead. "I'm not trying to ruin your fun, but I keep, uh...dripping. If Rarity wasn't sick, we'd have already been back in our suite. I'd bet she wouldn't even spend a bit on these tables." the foal already embarrassed herself once prior to her performance, and in front of the casino's owner no less!

Fluttershy looked dumbly towards the foal. To her, escorting Sweetie Belle had become an afterthought, and her voice seemed almost foreign. Sure, the night was supposed to be about the foal's performance for Equestria's first casino. Sure, it was going to be her chance to break into the music industry when the big-wigs with deep pockets saw her on stage. Sure, Sweetie had to behave like a professional, even during her her raging-yet-still-unfamiliar monthly estrus.

'Who cares?' quipped Fluttershy's mind. 'All mares get it!'

However, the fact that the naive filly dared to voice an inconvenience at the time of Fluttershy's greatest embarrassment was what infuriated her most.

"Place your bets!" the earth pony staffing the roulette table called out to the small crowd of well-dressed Canterlot elites.

"Oh, didn't Rarity say how she wound up in bed with that little headache, huh? Hmm? Huh?! Why she needed some 'alone time' in the dark? Too many manehattans with lightweight Twilight, that's how! After being shot down by him, of course she'd go and drinky-drink-drink her diamond-studded flank off, the horse!" her sharp tongue startled poor Sweetie, who stepped back in both shock and fear.

"S-sorry Fluttershy, I just, all the lights and the sounds and the shouting...I thought that this was supposed to be my night to shine, not a night for Sis and her friends to take over and...to..." she noticed that her words fell on deaf ears. Fluttershy's eyes darted up from the foal to the table. Sweetie Belle hid behind her coiffed mane as her "friend's" gaze returned with a far more sinister intent. Sweetie traced a delicate ivory hoof against the crimson carpet, drawing an outline around the golden shapes and flowers to distract from her discomfort.

"Letting it ride!" with a flick of a hoof, the roulette stallion sent the milky-white orb spinning rapidly around the wheel's rim. The small group of Canterlot gamblers hunched further over the table in anxious anticipation of the results. In any other situation it would have been a rather comical scene; their gaudy attire pressed against one another in a miasma of pastels and lace.

"Hey, Sweetie," Fluttershy began with an abnormally mischievous grin. "How much do you think your outfit that Rarity put together is worth?" A manicured hoof reached out towards Sweetie's ensemble and tapped her adorable sapphire-heart choker. The action caused Sweetie to flinch back.

"What, this stuff and the dress? I-I don't know. But Rarity made it special, just for me, just so I can look pretty when I sing, s-so..." Even though little Sweetie could assume Fluttershy's thoughts and intentions, she couldn't quite articulate them. It wouldn't matter; the mare had already settled on her plan.

"Last call for bets!"

"Don't worry, Sweetie Belle! I have it all figured out, I swear!" before the foal could react, Fluttershy swept poor Sweetie into her forehooves and plopped her onto the table. Her little filly bottom landed square on 9 red as she reflexively crossed her legs to prevent any estrus-leakage.

"Put it all on nine, red!"

"What?!"

"What?"

Sweetie Belle and the gaming stallion cried in unison, the latter finally shocked from his deadpan expression. Even the Canterlot crowd bothered to take notice of the amusing scene and several chimed in:

"Can...can one actually bet a foal?"

"Perhaps this is a special-guest only rule? If not, I certainly have some frivolous sons I could do without..."

"That is an absolutely adorable dress, my dear filly. Who, pray-tell, designed it?"

Various posh accents flittered into one another, but Sweetie Belle merely looked towards the yellow mare with a pout of betrayal. Even the demanding questions of the games stallion were not to be heard, as Fluttershy could only focus on the small white ball as it ran its course.

"F-fluttershy..."

"Nine, red...nine, red..." Fluttershy chanted with an almost religious fervor. Each bounce of the settling little orb rattled her heart. Every slight "clack" against the swirled red-black-green wracked her nerves. Finally, inexorably, the game piece began to stop in the pocket of nine, red.

"YES!"

...before bouncing right into twenty two, black.

"Twenty two, black." the stallion mumbled out, unsure how to react to the series of events. He'd been given strict order to give great leeway to the Elements of Harmony during their stay and also while they gambled inside the high-roller rooms, but none of his briefings covered anything like this. Without a moment's pause he was on the nearby phone, no doubt with his superiors as they rolled back the tape to review.

"I dare say, what an unfortunate spin!"

"Oh, and so close to the bet. I wonder what she'd have won? Several more foals, perhaps?"

"Seriously though, the dress? A name?"

"Fluttershy...?!"

The yellow mare merely hid behind her mane, unable to comprehend the situation. How? How was is not nine?

"I...I..." she stammered, unable to say a word to the teary-eyed filly that pleaded with her.

"Did you just bet m-"

"Ahem." the roulette operator cleared his throat and silenced the chatter.

"Good news, ma'am. After further review and discussion, the house has decided to accept your bet. You've also made it in just before the wave." with his stoic attitude of professionalism once again intact, the stallion lifted the paralyzed Sweetie Belle onto his back. He shifted uncomfortably, grimacing at the slight feeling of moisture. Of course, she had to be in heat...

"W-wait! That wasn't supposed to be the foal! Just her clothes!"

"Nothing I can do ma'am. What's put on the table is what's gambled." he shrugged, nearly sending poor Sweetie tumbling to the floor.

"But you can't, y-you can't!" Fluttershy glanced wildly around the room as if looking for an unseen answer. Rarity would have her wings for this.

"Ten minute recess. Another games operator will be with you shortly while I take care of this rather...unique...wager." he clopped a forehoof against the table in a formal manner, waving off the crowd.

"Fluttershy, please! Why?!" Sweetie Belle reached with her forehooves as if a drowning filly stretching for a life-preserver. However, any attempts to scramble away were stopped by both the chill in her spine and the restraining glare of the annoyed stallion. It wasn't long before the shivering foal was taken through a large set of oak doors. Fluttershy could only look on. Perhaps a braver pony would have challenged the events, perhaps even dared to cross the velvet threshold in pursuit...but Fluttershy was anything but a brave pony. A feeling on nausea crept up her throat, a sensation all too familiar for the anxiety-riddled mare.

"Uhhh...ugh..." Fluttershy stared at the wine-colored rope, unable to make any noises other than those of a dying cat.

"Don't worry, my dear. A mare can always have more foals, can't she? Hahaha!" a particularly portly Canterlot unicorn slapped Fluttershy on the back and nearly sent her toppling. His laughter only made her more sick.

"I'm, I'm a l-loser, I'm...I'm...Oh, pony-feathers. What am I going to say to Rarity?" the hyperventilating mare mumbled inaudibly. With her gaze finally removed from the mysteriously repellant velvet barrier, she now focused on the golden "employees only" sign affixed to the door. In that moment, it might as well have been a gateway into another world.