Fleur heaved softly. The days, and nights, had grown longer. She was tired, as were the rest that she could see. Flim and Flam, to their credit, had kept thinking up different ways to employ the mares, which included her, in stunts to draw ponies in. More ponies meant more to do. She had more ponies to interact with on the floor. More ponies meant more companionship sessions.

Ultimately, more ponies meant more everything else. Even the slow parts of the day, the respite, were being scrubbed away, leaving her haggard. She sank against a wall, struggling to regain herself. Tired. It was the only word she could really focus on.

"Let me help."

Her eyes opened and she looked around, but she was alone in the staff hallway.

"#1," spoke the voice, male, coming from inside her as if she was wearing headphones, which she was not. "Eric."

Fleur's eyes widened. "You did not speak before."

"You weren't ready to talk, and neither was I." A momentary pause there. "But you're tired. I'm not. Let me help."

"You… Mon ami?"

"I've ridden in the back a while now. Your turn. I'll be careful, promise."

Fleur felt like she was falling, but the ground was soft, like an infinitely large pile of cushions, warm and surrounding. She fell asleep almost immediately, surrendering to the presence she had thought was just that, a gentle presence.

Not-Fleur looked around with sharpened eyes. "Oui," she spoke to herself and started for the floor. The show had to go on!

"This isn't fair," argued the older Luna, but without her accent. "They're working us twice as hard for the same pay."

Celestia scowled with a furious energy. "This is what I ran away from," she growled out.

Octavia shook her head softly. "Octavia has most of the talent bottled up on her side. I can strum if I have to, but…"

Luna nodded at the other two. "I hear you, completely. Why are some of us…" She waved a hoof between the three. "Looking like we're getting a second wind, and some of us…" She leaned around the corner to point at the barely operating Sunset struggling to get her drinks right through hazy eyes. "Look like that."

"I was asleep," fumed Celestia. "Celly is… a perfect and lovely creature. She kept me safe and cozy and I felt so safe with her." She drove down a metal-clad hoof with a loud thump. "And now she's asleep inside me. I'm going to guess I'm talking to two humans right now."

The other two ponies glanced at each other before both nodded, admitting their humans had taken the controls. "Jean," announced Octavia.

"Lauren, but we did this before, didn't we?" Celestia inclined her head, though she was not entirely Celestia.

"James," finished Luna. "And I have an idea, a theory really." She inclined her head towards the floor. "The ones that are still tired were already awake. Both sides, I mean. So they couldn't fall asleep and trust their other-halves to take over, like ours did." She set a hoof on her chest. "I'll admit it, part of me is kinda tickled Luna trusts me enough to do that."

"Or tired enough," sighed out Lauren through Celestia. "This is just horrible. Look, alright. It's time we started getting to the bottom of this!"

Jean, otherwise known as Octavia, reached out a hoof. "Wait, before we… do that, and it is important, I want to talk." The other two mares looked at her. "Octavia usually keeps a pretty tight lid, so… I don't get to talk much. You don't know me, outside of my name. Can I tell my story?"

James, also Luna, set a hoof on Octavia-Jean's shoulder. "This seems important to you. As a fellow human-person--" She chuckled at that phrasing. "--yeah, sure. Where'd you come from, Jean?"

Jean-Octavia sat back with a little smile. "I'll gladly tell you." And her story went something like this.

I was in school. Huh? No, college, not highschool. I was studying pharmacy. Now, see how they look out there? That was me, but it was worse, because I was running way out of money while I was doing it. Living off ramen seems fun until it's literally your only option.

I was a nice enough-- Yes, I know most people say that about themselves. Sheesh, look, I tried not to be a jerk, and who had time to be one anyway? I wasn't that good around people I didn't know… so I mostly stuck to my studying, and my ever growing pile of debt.

School was a hassle, don't get me wrong. I understood the subject. I understood it! But school is a process, not just acing a test here and there. It was taking a lot out of me, but that's school for most people, right? I wasn't special there, and I'm not claiming that.

But you put the two together and I was looking for a way out. I wasn't thinking straight. In fact, I was kinda dumb. Who goes to a casino to make money? Nobody thinking properly. So there I was, walking into one, thinking, somehow. Somehow. I was going to walk out of it with more than I went in with, a lot more. I'd fix all my money problems!

I started with the slots, but I knew numbers. Not the right numbers in that moment to know I was being dumb, but enough to know my odds of getting enough out of the machines was too small. I had to be bold! I had to be brash! I marched up to the card tables like they owed me the money.

The dealer was all too happy to serve me exactly what I had coming.

When I revealed my hand, my already cracked world fell into little chunks. I had lost what little money I had left. I was a damned statistic, another casualty of gambling. I had laughed at people who fell into that kind of thing. It'd never be me! I was too smart for that! And there I was, living it.

"Tough spot." And there was a pony, seated on the next stool over. "Who knew that guy had a royal flush? What even are the odds?" She was nodding lightly at me, as if commiserating with an old friend, instead of some human she'd never seen before, who was freaking out a little.

I was seeing talking little ponies. That was it. I had lost it…

"Don't look so sad." She reached for me. Part of me wanted to run screaming, but I was tired. Tired and defeated. She found no resistance as she rubbed a little circle. "If you could be anywhere, doing anything, what would you be doing?" Her eyes wandered. "Say, in a casino." She had just reduced 'anywhere' rather quickly, but I wasn't really focused on that.

I looked around. "Anything." Sure, anything. Anything but where I was, and what I was doing. I was desperate to escape the disaster I had made. "Anything." I saw a musician. Guy was playing a big stringed instrument. He was tearing it up, and people were watching, fascinated. He was the center of their world.

"Like a bit of music." The pony leaned over towards me, pausing to puff up her mane that was blocking her vision. "I bet you could make a great musician."

"Me?" I laughed at the idea. "I don't play anything, and I'm terrible at…people."

"Don't be absurd." She was looking past me, her hoof on my far side, drawing me closer. "Look at his hands moving. He's not paying attention to the people. He's living in his music. Wouldn't you want that?"

Without really thinking about it, I began working on an imagined instrument. "That… But could I?"

"You could," she whispered into my ear, close enough that I could feel her whiskers tickling against the skin. Funny thing people don't think about? Horses have whiskers. Girls, boys, they got whiskers, just a thing, and hers were tickling me as she promised me I could.

My fingers were the first to go, but I didn't miss them. I was too busy imagining making all the right moves, swaying my hands back and forth even if they ended in flat hooves. "No more work," she continued.

"School?"

"That, no more that." She accepted my correction. "You'll have friends who care about you, others like you."

Now, at the time, I imagined other musicians. I didn't know it'd be a bunch of other ponies. Not that I mind, now, looking back. Seriously, nice to be with you all, but back to the story. It was about that time that I got my tail. It was long and grey and curled around the stool I was still seated in. The casino was still going on around me, ignoring the crazed man humming to himself.

I had the urge to stand up, so I did, my new hooves clopping on the floor as I left my shoes behind. I was playing a cello. I had never seen a cello, in person, but I was sure I was playing one. Sure, there was no cello there, but I was making the motions to do so anyway.

"Sir." A guard, more of a bouncer really, was closing in fast. "If you're not playing, I need you to step away from the table."

But he wasn't someone listening to my music, just a bother, really. I fluttered lashes that were far longer than they had been and turned away from him. Couldn't he see I was busy?! It was around that time, I think? I can't be really sure, I wasn't in a good mental space, but that was when I stopped being a he and went ahead and became a she, not that I cared. I care now! Sure, but I'm also… used to it… Anyway, getting off topic.

I was grabbed roughly at the shoulder and given a shove. The bouncer? I hit the ground on all four hooves. "Oi! You absolute scrubber!" I shouted with a new accent, my face pushing out into a female pony snout. "When I…" I turned around, but there was no guard there.

That pony from before was though, watching me piercingly. "You dropped this." Her horn was glowing, bringing over an actual cello. "Real jerk, hm?"

"Right wanker," I agreed, still speaking with that british accent. "I see that fucking rotter again…" I reached for the cello and hugged it close. "At least you're safe." That was the important thing, in that moment. That was about when me, the old me, the one you're talking to now, faded. Confused, dizzy, and just having a perfectly crappy day, can you blame me that much?

It didn't help that Octavia was a mare that knew precisely what she wanted. She sealed in over me with that picture of perfect poise. "Apologies for the language." She tipped her head at the pony that had led me down that path. "I should prepare for my next performance." She didn't even wonder why she was there. She just got right to business. I give that to Octavia. She's a professional.

Luna/James shuddered softly. "That sounds like a nightmare! But I get it, I do… This crowd sets me on edge." She glanced off towards the busy floor. "I let Luna ride when we were doing that. She knew how to be in a crowd better than I ever did… Look, there's no time for me to join you in story time. We have to do something. The others look like they're ready to collapse, and they don't have backup brains."

"Like us," agreed Celestia/Lauren, drawing a hiss of a breath. "Well, to start, we could go out there and get back to work."

But that was a short term solution to the problem and all three knew it. The trick was figuring out what the real solution was.

Author's Note

This chapter flowed fast and the ones paying for it were up, ears pricked. I blame them for typos, like the cad I am.

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