"I came to Las Pegasus to spend bits, not to earn them."
“Ohmygosh-OHMYGOSH-OHMYGOSH-…”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—”
As Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie cast their eyes around the foyer of the hotel formerly owned by Gladmane, observing the flashing lights, marveling at the indoor roller coaster, hearing the melodic chords coming from the arcade, broad grins form on both their faces as their eyes grow to the size of saucers to take it all in.
“LAS PEGASUS!!!”, the two exclaim in unison. Pinkie bounds up and down in place as Rainbow performs loop-dee-loops in midair, both in the name of extraordinary fascination and anticipation.
“Wow, Dashie! Can you believe we’re here? We’re in Las Pegasus! The funnest, most partyingest city in all of Equestria!!!” Pinkie embraces Rainbow with a huge hug, causing the latter’s joints to creak under the pressure.
“Hey, not so hard,” Rainbow requests, her smile pervading through the mild discomfort. “We’ve talked about personal space before, right.”
“Oh. Sorry!” Pinkie releases her grip as Rainbow catches her breath. “But still, I can’t believe it! WE! Are IN! LAS PEGASUS!!! So what do we do first, huh? Go on the super-scary roller coaster? Sample the exotic drinks? Hit the arcade? This place has some incredible games!”
“Oh I’m definitely thinking ‘games’, Pinkie!”
Beaming in agreement, Pinkie begins to pronk towards the arcade … but stops halfway when she notices Rainbow flying in another direction. “Hey, where’re you going?” she calls out as she turns and runs towards her friend. “The arcade is that way.”
“Yeah, but the new games are this way,” Rainbow notes as she heads towards an unmarked pair of double-doors.
Pinkie looks to either side of the double-doors, noticing pictures of numerous ponies standing over felt-top tables piled high with massive stacks of bits. A previous conversation dawns on her. “Hey, isn’t this the ‘Pony Fantastique Theater’ Applejack told us about? The one with the trapeze act and the pink prairie dogs?”
Rainbow quickly responds. “Yeah … and all of those acts left after learning about Gladmane’s motives. You do remember who owns this place now, right?”
Pinkie ponders for a moment. “Oh yeah, those cider-squeezy unicorn brothers, Flim and Flam.” She frowns upon saying their names. “So what’d they do with the empty space?”
“Some of the other Wonderbolts told me about this. They put in a whole bunch of new games, and get this: you can actually win bits by playing them!”
“Waitaminute. You’re telling me that Flim and Flam will pay us for the privilege of staying at their hotel?” Pinkie’s eyes roll as she processes the idea. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she concludes. “And that’s coming from me!”
“Oh, and check these out!” Rainbow opens a saddlebag, reaches in, and pulls out a hoofful of thin, red circular discs. Pinkie takes one of the discs and inspects it, noticing the faces of the two brothers grinning and staring back at them.
“What are these?”
“They’re chips, Pinkie.”
Pinkie attempts to bite into the chip, but only succeeds in straining her teeth. “Ow! I think these chips are past their freshness date.”
Rainbow groans as she snatches back the chip. “They’re not edible chips, Pinkie! These are gambling chips. You use these at the tables, and if you win the games, you get back more chips.”
“Which … you would then use to play more games?”
“Now you’re getting it, Pinkie.”
“And the games give you more chips, and the chips let you play more games … where’s the fun in that?”
Rainbow gives Pinkie a puzzled look.
“I mean, it looks like all you do is push a bunch of chips around a table. That doesn’t sound like fun.”
“It’s the thrill of winning,, Pinkie Pie! And not just winning, but winning actual bits!”
Pinkie rolls her eyes in thought. “If I need bits, I just plan more parties or put in extra hours at Sugarcube Corner. I came to Las Pegasus to spend bits, not to earn them.”
Rainbow groans. “Look, why don’t I show you how all this works. Follow me.” She then flies towards and through the double-doors, with Pinkie shrugging and following her friend.
Upon entering the newest addition to Flim and Flam’s hotel, Pinkie pauses to look around the room. The walls are lined with strange-looking machines displaying various slots of pictures displaying fruit, gems, and hearts, with handles protruding from each. The central area boasts numerous tables crowded with ponies; she approaches one and sees several ponies seated at a table, with cards being dealt to them by an orange pegasus sporting a white shirt with vertical blue stripes and a black bowtie … attire that she remembers Flim and Flam having worn. Continuing her trek through the central area, she spots other games involving cards, dice, and slotted wheels being played, often with shouting and cheering coming from the participants, and all with dealers sporting the same outfits. Towards the back, she finally sees Rainbow floating near a vertically-situated wheel adorned with hearts of many colors; she notices that the wheel is partitioned into dozens of slices, each displaying three hearts. Another uniform-clad pony stands behind a table, which displays squares of same colors as the hearts on the wheel. She turns to Rainbow Dash and observes her placing a red chip onto a blue square.
“It’s definitely colorful,” she admits to Rainbow, “but I still don’t see the fun.”
“The fun comes when I win more chips, Pinkie. Look, you see how I’m placing a chip on the blue square? The dealer spins the wheel, and I win chips for every blue heart that shows up. Just watch.”
“No more bets,” the dealer drones as he reaches up and grabs an edge of the wheel, giving a tug and spinning it. The colors swirl before Pinkie’s eyes before the wheel loses momentum and begins to slow.
“C’mon blue, c’mon blue, c’mon blue! …”
As the wheel slows to a crawl, an arrow at the top clicks away as the partitions rotate around. Eventually, the wheel comes to a stop; the partition pointed to by the arrow shows two blue hearts and a single orange heart.”
“Two blues and an orange, we have a double-winner,” the dealer announces as he pushes a pair of red chips towards Rainbow.
“ALL RIGHT!!! I just won ten bits!” Rainbow exclaims. “What next, what next … I’m feeling yellow this time.” She pushes one of her chips to the yellow square, as Pinkie observes the dealer spin the wheel again.
Again, the colorful blur of colors gives way to a rotation of discernible hearts. The clacking of the arrow slows in pace as the wheel eventually grinds to a halt, with the arrow pointing to three yellow hearts.
“Triple-yellow, triple-winner!” The dealer pushes three more chips to the ecstatic blue pegasus.
“WOO-HOO!!! I just won TWENTY-FIVE BITS in two plays! This is awesome!”
“Yeeeaaahhh … maybe you should take a break now. I mean, you got all that extra dough, so you can have some real fun now! Come on,” Pinkie asks hopefully.
Rainbow looks incredulously at Pinkie. “ ‘Break’? Now? I’m just getting started!”
“But what about the arcade? ‘Dance Pony Revolution’ isn’t as much fun with only one player.”
“I’ll catch up in a bit. Just play skeeball or something until I’m ready.”
Pinkie’s ears droop. “OK,” she says dejectedly.
Rainbow turns to Pinkie and sees the sadness in her eyes. “Hey, hey there, Pinkie. I won’t be that long. Look, just give me twenty minutes, and I’ll meet you at the roller-coaster. Sound good?”
Pinkie’s ears perk back up at the suggestion. “ooOOOoo, sounds great,” she responds enthusiastically. “OK, twenty minutes … see you then, Dashie!”
“Looking forward to it,” Rainbow replies before turning back towards the wheel.
The final ball rolls right down the center of the lane, hits the ramp, and sails into the ‘50’ slot.
Pinkie bounds up and down in glee as the scoreboard reads ‘450’ for the 5th consecutive game. the onlookers who had paused to watch the pink pony’s skeeball skill proceed to give her a stomping ovation.
“How do you do it,” one foal inquires.
“Comes from years of practice,” Pinkie happily replies.
“And how long have you been playing skeeball?”
“Oh this was my first time!”
The foal shakes her head in confusion as her parents lead her away. Pinkie counts out another bucketload of tickets and promptly shoves them all into her mane. The onlookers now dispersed, Pinkie pronks over to the redemption counter where another employee clad in Flim-Flam-y clothing warmly greets her.
“What can I do for you, Miss Happy-Go-Lucky?”
Pinkie reaches back into her mane and pulls out her collection of tickets. “I earned twelve-thousand, three hundred and seventy-five tickets. What can I get for that?”
The employee strokes his chin for a moment, then bends down behind the counter. He straightens up and drops a kazoo onto the counter. “This costs twelve-thousand tickets. Interested?”
Pinkie takes hold of the kazoo and inspects it carefully. “This kazoo costs twelve-thousand?”
“Well … uh …”
“I’LL TAKE IT!!!” Pinkie leaves the bulk of the tickets on the counter and pronks away, blowing her kazoo with great enthusiasm while drawing quizzical looks from nearby arcade-goers. As she reaches the arcade’s entrance, she glances at a clock on the wall; the kazoo falls from her mouth as she gasps.
“Thirty minutes??? Oh no, I’m late for the roller-coaster!” Pinkie scoops up the kazoo and shoves it into her mane, then gallops around numerous tourists as she makes her way to the ride.
Panting as she reaches the entrance, she starts to explain. “Rainbow Dash I’m so sorry I’m late but I got into a groove playing skeeball and I just lost track of time please forgive me for …” She stops talking when she finally realizes that Rainbow isn’t there. “Rainbow Dash? Are you here?” Her calls are muted by the buzzing of activity around her.
“Huh. Maybe she lost track of time too.” Ignoring a couple ponies who turned to see who she was talking to, Pinkie pronks her way towards the gambling room.
Making her way to and passing through the double-doors, Pinkie navigates her way around the throngs of ponies and the myriad of gambling games, eventually reaching the heart wheel where she had left her friend. She notices Rainbow now seated at the table, a look of anguish in her eyes as the wheel slows to a hoofful of clicks of the arrow, before stopping on …
“Triple-green!” the dealer announces.
“AW, COME ON!!!” The ire in Rainbow’s voice frightens Pinkie.
“Hey, Dashie?” Pinkie asks apprehensively. “I think you might have lost track of time for a bit. Maybe now would be a good time to—”
“Ten bits on red and fifteen more on blue!” Rainbow adamantly shoves more chips to the announced color squares, and the dealer spins the wheel again. Seconds later, the wheel again comes to a stop.
“Orange-yellow-purple!”
“I WAS JUST ON ORANGE AND PURPLE! GIMME A BREAK!!!”
Rainbow looks back at the chips in front of her … or rather, the chip. She sighs in dejection as tears start to form. “No … I can’t be …”
“Rainbow Dash? Is everything OK?”
“No,” the pegasus solemnly replies. She hovers away from the table, flying off at a slow pace. Pinkie looks back at the table, grabs the chip her friend left behind, and runs off after her, catching her at the double-doors.
“Rainbow Dash, what’s wrong?”
“I … I lost everything, Pinkie.”
“What do you mean ‘everything’?”
“I came with fifty bits to gamble with, and after some early success, I started losing. Then I ran out of chips, so I … I got more chips by using what I brought for the arcade. And food and drinks. And … the hotel room. Pinkie, I’m broke.” Rainbow turns away from Pinkie, ashamed to face her. “I should’ve listened to you and just quit when I was ahead … but I just felt such a rush while playing that … that I lost track of everything. Time, money … common sense. Now I got nothing.”
“You still have me.” Pinkie embraces Rainbow again, causing the latter to crack a smile.
“I’m sorry I ruined our vacation. I guess I should just catch the next balloon back to Ponyville.”
“Not without me you don’t … but maybe they can give you your money back.” Pinkie’s comment causes Rainbow to laugh in spite of her plight.
“You are one special pony, you know that? But thanks … I needed a good laugh.” Rainbow continues to chuckle, oblivious to the seriousness in Pinkie’s expression.
“It never hurts to ask,” Pinkie flatly states as she turns and trots back to the wheel.
“Hey, where’re you going?” Rainbow calls out before flying after her.
Pinkie reaches the table as the dealer eyes her over. “You interested in playing, little filly?”
“Nah, I was just wondering, since you took so much of my friend’s bits, maybe you could give her back a little for her troubles? You know, enough to stay at the hotel for a while, maybe get some food?”
The dealer’s laugh echoes Rainbow’s. “HAHAHAHAHAA … lady, you are a funny foal, you know that!”
“That’s common knowledge,” Pinkie replies, “but what about my request?”
“Sorry, miss. All bets are final. Your friend here knew the risks when she played.”
“Well that isn’t very nice. What about ‘a friend in need’? My friend’s in need!”
A sly grin comes over the dealer’s face. “Well you could always just win your friend’s money back. It’s an easy game, you see; you just pick the color of hearts that the arrow points to, and that’s all there is to it.”
Pinkie’s ears droop again. “If I wanted to work all day, I’d’ve stayed in Ponyville … but, I suppose if I must, I must.” Pinkie places Rainbow’s chip on the table and starts moving it from one color to the next. She eventually stops on the green square.”
“Good luck to you,” the dealer states as he spins the wheel. Several revolutions later, the wheel slows before coming to a stop on …”
“Triple-green! Nice start, lucky lady!” The dealer shoves three chips towards Pinkie, who then shifts the four chips from one square to another. She finally settles on placing two chips on the red square and two on the orange square.
“Pressing your luck, I see. OK then …” The dealer spins the wheel again; seconds later, it comes to a stop on a sector displaying two orange hearts and a red heart.
“The filly’s on a roll!” The dealer shoves over six more chips over to Pinkie, who concentrates on the squares a third time before shoving all ten chips onto the purple square. Rainbow Dash watches Pinkie shove the fifty bits’ worth of chips to the square as an uncomfortable sensation comes over her.
“Pinkie Pie, what’re you doing? You can’t risk fifty bits on one spin like that?”
“Did you?” she asks with a stern look. Rainbow sheepishly bows her head.
“You got some real moxie there, pink pony! All right then …” The dealer gives the wheel a particularly hard spin, causing it to take almost a full minutes to finally slow down and then come to a complete stop.
“And the wheel ends up on … Triple-purple!!!” The dealer turns to Pinkie, smiles, and half-jokes, “You didn’t do something to my wheel now, did you little lady?”
“Me? No, silly, I’m just working now.”
“Riiight …” The dealer turns back to the wheel and inspects its mechanisms for a minute before turning back to Pinkie. “Wheel checks out. You’re just one lucky pony I guess,” he admits as he shoves six chips of a different color towards Pinkie.
“Hey, I should be getting more than this!”
“No, Pinkie,” Rainbow quickly interrupts, “those are twenty-five-bit chips. You just won a hundred and fifty bits!”
“Oh. Okie-dokie!” Pinkie says with a smile, before returning to a serious expression. “All right … two-hundred bits in chips … let’s put it all on …”
“Excuse me, miss?”
Pinkie abruptly turns away from the table and comes face-to-face with a burly red unicorn, clad in a grey suit and black necktie, and sporting a serious look.
“Please come with me, miss.”
“Okay!” Pinkie scoops up her winnings, shoves them into her mane, and gleefully follows the unicorn. Rainbow Dash follows the two with greater trepidation as to the significance of this meeting.
The unicorn leads the twosome back through the double-doors and over to an ornate staircase in the main foyer. He leads Pinkie and Rainbow upstairs and down a non-descript hallway that ends at an ornate door. “Go in,” he commands Pinkie.
“You’re the boss,” she cheerfully points out as she opens the door. Rainbow flies in ahead, and is taken aback at the luxurious nature of the circular office. Two oak desks take up half the floor space, with windows overlooking the main entrance. Various gadgets and doohickeys line the walls and red carpeting covers the floor. The pegasus’ eyes quickly fall on the new owners of the hotel, Flim and Flam, who in turn look up from their respective desks before getting up to greet Pinkie.
“Well well well, if it isn’t one of the many friends of our dear Applejack …” Flim starts.
“… apparently, it’s two of her friends,” Flam quickly corrects. “How’re you enjoying your stay so far?”
“This place is amazing …” Pinkie pauses for a moment. “But, why am I here?”
The unicorn brothers alternate explaining their plight to Pinkie:
“Well it’s like this, Miss Pinkie Pie: after we took over Gladmane’s hotel with the help of your friends Applejack and Fluttershy, we created an attraction based on the imagination of everyday ponies like yourselves …”
“… but after a few days, ponies stopped showing up for that particular attraction. Seems like ponies need more than an empty room and imagination to be entertained these days.”
“So we started looking for new ways to fill the room and provide top-notch entertainment services to our guests, when it finally hit us: instead of simple redemption games like skeeball, what if we allowed guests an opportunity to win back the very bits they were spending to stay here …”
“… and so we boned up on our theories of probability, invented some new table games and ancillary devices, and the net result is what you two experienced first-hoof today: Las Pegasus’s first gambling casino.”
“Now we’re really no different from anypony else; we’re simple townfolk trying to earn a bit. And running a hotel like this costs a lot of bits, I must tell you …”
“… so we have to make sure that these particular games offer us an advantage. So small that no single pony would be seriously affected, but multiplying that small advantage by the thousands of ponies who play every day adds up to a tidy profit for myself and my brother.”
“All to help keep operations running smoothly, of course. I mean, the roller-coaster doesn’t maintain itself, you know …”
“… and all those dealers and food-and-drink operators don’t work for free.”
Flim and Flam share a quick laugh, as Pinkie and Rainbow take in their conversation.
“But what does any of that have to do with me?”
“I’m so glad you asked that, Miss Pie,” Flim states. “You see, we as owners have to be certain that more ‘unscrupulous’ ponies don’t take advantage of our good name …”
Rainbow rolls her eyes as Flam continues: “… trying to sneak in loaded dice or marked cards, or other such underhoofed means.”
“So when we learn about a pony who’s able to calmly bet on the Heart Wheel and win time after time, with mathematical odds against such occurrences happening repeatedly increasing towards infinity …”
“… we naturally become suspicious of that pony’s motives. So tell us, Miss Pie: exactly how is it that you’re able to win on every bet?”
“Oh is that was this is all about?” Pinkie chuckles before responding, “ That’s just my Pinkie sense.”
Flim and Flam turn to each other with quizzical looks, while Rainbow Dash turns to Pinkie and gapes.
“I’m sorry,” Flim says, “I’m unfamiliar with this ‘Pinkie sense’ you talk of.”
“Oh, no one knows how it works, even I don’t know how it works; my friend Twilight once tried to figure it out, but even she gave up after a while, and boy was THAT a doozie!”
“That’s all well and good,” Flam continues, “but what is this ‘Pinkie sense’?”
“It’s just some special sensation that protects me from bad things happening and guides me to making correct choices. Like one time, I rescued a bunch of ponies from a collapsing worksite and didn’t get hit with any falling debris. Hey, YOU remember that time, don’t you Rainbow? Remember when me and the others all got dressed up as the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well?”
Rainbow shakes her head, displeased at having that particular memory drudged up. Flim and Flam stand in silence for many seconds, before Flim replies to Pinkie.
“So, it’s this ‘sensation’ of yours that actually allows you to always pick the correct color on the Heart Wheel …”
“Yep.”
“… and, I would assume, this same ‘sensation’ would allow you to win at any of our gambling games; is that a fair assessment?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by ‘assessment’, but those other games I saw? Yeah, I could probably win those too.”
“I see.” Flim ponders this information for a minute. “If the two of you will excuse us, my brother and I need to have a private conversation …”
“… we won’t be long, so if you can kindly leave the room for just a few minutes,” Flam requests. The brothers’ horns begin to glow, with the radiance enveloping Pinkie and Rainbow; the twosome are gently shoved out the door, which closes behind them.
Once alone in the hallway, Rainbow turns to Pinkie with a glint in her eyes. “Pinkie, is that true what you just told them? You can actually predict every result?”
“Yeah … I mean, I don’t control my Pinkie sense. It just comes and goes, and I roll with it.”
“Pinkie Pie, do you know what this means?”
Pinkie looks at her friend with apprehension. “Um … no?”
“This means we’re rich!!!” Rainbow declares with bits in her eyes. “Pinkie, you can take Flim and Flam for every bit they got, and there’s nothing they can do to stop you!”
“But I don’t wanna do that!” Pinkie timidly replies. “You heard them talk about their expenses. I don’t wanna be responsible for a bunch of ponies losing their jobs, or the roller-coaster breaking down ‘cause they couldn’t pay for maintenance.”
“Oh please,” Rainbow says dismissively. “They’re Flim and Flam! You remember the cider incident, right? And what about when Applejack told us about their so-called ‘tonic’? You don’t think they’re owed a little payback for all they’ve put us through?”
“Yeah, they made mistakes … but haven’t we forgiven, like, everypony who’s ever messed up? Besides, it’s no fun just playing to win more bits.”
Rainbow opens her mouth to counter, when the door to the office open. Flim and Flam usher the ponies in, sporting broad smiles in the process. Flim begins to address Pinkie.
“My brother and I have had a long discussion about the matters at hoof, trying to decide how best to proceed …”
“… which is no small feat, given that your powers could ruin our business model and put us back on the street, hawking our wares like we used to.”
“But at the same time, we don’t feel it right to do wrong towards a close friend of Applejack …”
“… so we’ve come up with an offer that we hope you will take seriously.”
Flim’s horn glows as a black card made out of some unknown material floats towards Pinkie. At the same time, Flam’s horn glows as a notarized piece of parchment also floats towards the earth pony. Pinkie starts reading the conditions indicated on the parchment, before …
“Could one of you just give me the short version of all this.”
“It would be my pleasure,” Flim states. “This special one-of-a-kind ‘platinum black’ card entitles you to unlimited access to all the attractions that this hotel has to offer, absolutely free, and lasting a lifetime. Unlimited free play in the arcade, unlimited free rides on the coaster and other attractions, unlimited free access to our luxurious buffet …”
“… not to mention a free room at the hotel for as long as you like. And all we ask of you in return is to sign this form, promising us that you will never again gamble in the casino area,” Flam adds. “So what do you say?”
Rainbow Dash lets loose a hearty “HA” towards the unicorns, who turn to her with looks of disdain. “I see what you two are up to! You can’t take that somepony found a way to crack your system, so you think you can just buy your way out of your troubles?” Rainbow turns to Pinkie, smugness on her face. “Go ahead, Pinkie: tell them what you really think!”
“Can the card be good for me and a guest?”
“It can indeed,” Flim and Flam state in unison.
“DEAL!!!”
Rainbow double-facehoofs as Pinkie springs over to a desk, picks up a quill, and signs the parchment with ‘Pinkamena Diane Pie’ as quickly as her mouth allows, as the unicorn brothers nod to each other in quiet satisfaction.
Twenty minutes after getting in line, Pinkie and Rainbow finally reach the loading platform for the coaster cars. As the two settle into their restraints, Pinkie turns to Rainbow. “You’ve been awfully quiet,” she cheerfully points out.
“Awww, I’ve been just thinking about things. About how I just lost control of myself, both in the casino and in front of Flim and Flam. I’m sorry I nearly ruined our vacation.”
“Hey, if we can befriend Discord, Starlight Glimmer, the dragons and the changelings, I think I can find it in my heart to forgive your oopsies! Besides, thanks to you, we now get all the fun we could ever want!”
The restraints fully in place, the car suddenly jerks forward down a slightly sloped hill towards the coaster’s clicking chains. As they head up the hill, Rainbow sighs and turns to Pinkie.
“Twilight’s right … you are a genius. Thanks again for being there for me … and for reminding me that there’s more to Las Pegasus than just gambling.”
“And thank you for coming with me on this coaster …”
Both their eyes widen as they crest over the top of the hill.
“Ohmygosh-OHMYGOSH-OHMYGOSH-…”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—”
