As Solitaire stepped inside the bar, she was surprised by the nice and warm atmosphere that the place gave off. The outside of these places always seemed to look so dull and boring to her, yet the inside alway shocked her. Before her she saw ponies having the time of their lives. Some playing darts, some having a nice meal, and tucked away in the corner a small group of unnoticed ponies played a nice little game of poker.

Among the ponies was a griffin, the exact griffin that Twilight had told Solitaire would be here. He wasn’t unique in anyway, just your normal unfriendly griffin gambling his life away for who knows what cost. Solitaire studied him to see if anything was off, but instead it was the pony he was playing against that was cheating. She look and watched as a pitch black unicorn stallion with a white mane somehow change his deuce of spades into an ace of spades without giving off any aura from his horn.

It was a trick that she had picked up on as well from her time. In truth, a pony's body is in itself a magic conductor. The main problem is that certain species could only carry so much magic within them, and Earth ponies didn’t have any spare since all there's was focused into their hooves. Pegasi could use it to some degree with the ability to change the weather and fly, but once again it was the Unicorns who were the most talented in this area.

The reason the horn glowed was because it carried any extra magic essence in it. When using magic, it reacted by glowing. However, any professional gambler would or magician would know that it was actually possible to transfer that magic to other areas of the body. Anypony well trained in magic would know that since all magic in the horn is extra, it can be moved in transferred. That is why things such as beams were possible.

This was something Solitaire was sure Twilight Sparkle wasn’t taught, as it could be dangerous doing it. When Solitaire was taught how to do this by her father, she had many cases where it would go out of control and she had hurt herself. It wasn’t something taught at schools, just an old trick past down from Unicorn families.

She walked over, briefcase held in magic watching as it unfolded. She went right up to the unicorns side as he did. There was only four ponies and one griffin left at the table. The Unicorn didn’t pay much attention to Solitaire at first, but once she started leaning over the chair he was getting more and more uncomfortable.

“That’s a dirty little trick you just played there,” She whispered into his ear. “You want to think about changing it back before I tell the dealer what you're doing,”

Solitaire wasn’t one for cheating, she preferred to leave it all up to chance and play. The cheating Unicorn looked behind him to see her staring at him, and seeing that Solitaire wasn’t joking looked back and rushingly changed his ace back to a deuce. Looking at the cards he held in his hand, she saw that the other was a king of hearts. She looked at the board and had seen exactly why he had done what he did. Currently on the board was all spades, ten to jack, if he had an ace he would have had a straight.

“I fold,” The cheating unicorn said. “I’ll take my earning and leave if you don’t mind,” The others at the table nodded and went back to there game. The cheating Unicorn got up and walked up to Solitaires side. “Thanks a lot,” Solitaire heard the anger in his voice but didn’t flinch, a skill she had picked up from spending time with Sonnet.

“What ya want lady,” Solitaire turned back to see the griffin looking at her. “If you want to join you just saw there’s a seat open, name your price and we can restart and deal you in,”

“Will honestly I’m looking for a griffin name Graf, you him,” Solitaire replied, acting like she had nothing to do with their friend leaving.

“Yeah, why?” The griffin responded.

“I heard you're really good, that’s all,” Solitaire continued talking as if she knew nothing about why she was really there. “Name’s Solitaire,”

Graf looked at her unsure. “Yeah I’m good, but what’s a pony that’s suppose to be in jail doing at this little pub in Ponyville. Hoping to avoid the guards?”

“Family payed bail,” That was the first truth she had said to Graf this entire time. “You be surprised about what being related to a rising author does,”

“That’s right,” Graf said with a smile. “Sonnet - or should I be more correct in saying Crescent - Moon”

Phoenix looked behind her to see Sonnet’s ear twitch. Even this far away she can hear it Phoenix stared at Sonnet’s unconscious body in wonder. No surprise it’s so hard to keep her sane

“Yep that’s her,” Solitaire said, a big smile on her face. “Good old psychotic moon mare as I like to call her. Don’t tell her I called her okay,”

“Never plan on meeting here,” Graf said. “Anyways you hear to play or not,”

“Yep, and I plan on play full on bits. However, if you lose or forfeit mister Graf, I want something a little more… Juicy if you would” She looked at him eye to eye as she said it with a nice, calm, relaxed smile.

Graf looked at her curious “What do you mean exactly?”

“Oh come on, of all the Griffins in the world to know you are the only one,” Solitaire said. “A little birdy princess told me that you might know something about a little invasion a queen is planning. Now for all I know this could just be mindless ramble from a law breaking princess, but I want to know for certain,”

Graf looked at her, and Solitaire made out some discomfort in his eyes. Two of the other ponies, both Earth Ponies, went away from the table. The only three left at the table was a white Pegasus with a yellow mane, Graf, and Solitaire. “And what would I win off of you,”

“Funny you should ask,” She dropped the briefcase on the table. “Now, I don’t know how greedy you Griffins are but this should be enough,”

She opened it up and watched as Graf’s jaw hit the table. Before him was thousands of sparkling bits “How much-”

“Ten thousand bits if I’m correct,” Solitaire answered the question she already knew was coming. “I spent the entire day counting this to make sure it was the exact right amount of bits. I know you won’t play for anything under quintuple digits so I didn’t want to rob you out of a single bit,”

The pony next to him put a hoof on his shoulder and Graf looked to see her shaking her head. Solitaire just managed to catch what they were saying to each other.

“Don’t worry Blue Jay,” She heard Graf whisper into the ponies ear. “Even if I lose I won’t let anything happen to you. Besides this is the princesses she’s here for, it would be right,”

“You know what will happen when she finds out,” The Pegasus named Blue Jay whispered back. Solitaire had to pay a lot more attention to what she was saying, her voice was much softer and quieter than his. “She’ll kill us both, just say you can’t play,”

Solitaire look around the bar a little more as she heard those words. She hadn’t noticed it earlier, but there were multiple ponies staring at her. She’s a clever girl, I’ll give her that Solitaire look on with a smile, she hadn’t even realized that she was being watched. Still, she doesn’t know how hard it is for a gambler, much less a Griffin, to turn down an offer like this. She turned back to Blue Jay and Graf. Clearly there is something more going on here.

“As I said don’t worry,” Graf whispered back, “I’ll do anything to keep you free. Even if they catch me I’ll make sure they never catch you,”

There's one thing you gotta love about Griffins Solitaire put in almost invisible smile on her face. They’re loyal to the very end. Guess it must be an instinct or at least something along those lines.

“Well I’m willing to play for your prize,” Graf said as Solitaire’s ears turn to catch the sound of shifting hooves behind her. It was clear there was more than just ponies and Griffins in the bar “Of course I plan on winning even if I only have one turn to win,”

“You sure you want to make that bet,” Solitaire replied with a smug grin on her face. “You gotta be stupidly courageous to try something like that,”

“Try me,” Graf said, rolling his eyes. “Anyways since we seem to be the only two at the table this should be interesting. Besides, I’m not losing anything that major here,” hopefully

Solitaire looked behind her as she heard a pony get out of there seat. She watched as a drunk unicorn walked to the door. “I need a nap,” He said to himself as he wobbled toward the door, “Yeah… that’s a good idea. Take nap, destroy the world later,” She kept watching as he exit, her muscles becoming less tense as she saw this.

“Everything okay,” Graf said, pulling Solitaires attention back to the game in front of her.

“Yeah,” She said, not showing any signs discomfort. She watched as Graf order both of them some cider. The bartender dropping everything he was doing to take care of it, and a feeling of suspicion grew at this motion. Something tells me this will be more than just a simply game of poker. This entire bar is a hostile location.

Author's Note

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