"Where are my bits?" Emerging from the shadows, Doctor Fetlock blew up her mane out of her vision. "This is why I try to not do work before being paid. You were good customers." She looked between the two unicorns, held by her large griffon secretary. "You were good customers. Where are my bits? You're late."

Flim flailed a hoof, held up by the stuff by the stern griffon. "Your ponies were defective."

"We owe nothing for substandard merchandise," agreed Flam.

Fetlock rolled her eyes. "That is not how that works, and you know it." She leaned forward, mane falling across one of her eyes. "It's literally your business ethic. Now, how about you learn mine?"

Gudrun, the griffon, lifted both thrashing unicorns higher. "We headed back?"

"That depends." Fetlock had her eyes on the brothers, considering. "Which would be more demeaning, you think... Becoming an airhead, a slut, a mook, or a slob?"

Flim trembled with building terror. "I can't say I like the sound of any of those!"

"You're right." Fetlock got to walking down the dark alleyway. "Why pick one when I can go with the whole package?" She chuckled darkly, puffing her mane out of the way as she went.

Fleur sang for the crowd of smiling ponies. She was smiling right back at them. The casino had changed. The seediness... It was hard to put a hoof on it, but it had faded. They had become a warmer place. Sure, ponies were still playing games of chance, and watching pretty ponies sing, and sometimes... playing with them, but the feeling...

She frowned for just a moment, trying to capture it. Working for somepony that cared about her, both of her, made a difference. She was genuinely happy, singing for that crowd and putting out her very best. Happiness was the goal, not the next shiny bit.

Fleur bowed to the cheering audience, a few flowers landing near her hooves as the curtains closed. She snapped one up and tucked it in her mane. "How wonderful," she half-sang to herself as she turned to go.

"Why are you keeping this a secret?" There was Twilight, leaning against the bar, looking at Sunset Shimmer. "Just tell me and we can bring her down. That mare's been hiding from us constantly. Every time I'm close, she slips away!"

Sunset slid a glass across the bar towards Twilight. "Hey, look. I don't know where she is, but I also don't want you attacking her anyway."

Twilight threw up her hooves. "I'm not 'attacking' anypony!" she cried with clear frustration. "She's foalnapping people. Don't you care? She did it to you!"

Sunset leaned over the same bar, watching Twilight calmly. "I'm not in a bad place. Maybe if you'd asked a few weeks back. But we have things sorted out." She tapped the glass with the edge of her hoof. "Have a sip, you look tense."

"For good reason." Twilight's wings spread wide. "You know you're... not the real Sunset, right?"

Sunset hiked a brow. "Yeah, most of us have noticed that by now. We're something different, but not bad, I think."

Twilight thrust a hoof to the large but calm form of Celestia. "And she's imitating Princess Celestia!"

"No she isn't." With a glowing horn, Sunset calmly polished a glass. "Celestia isn't a princess."

"What?" Twilight wheeled back on her. "Of course she is."

Sunset applied a hoof to her face. "Right, yeah, sorry." Accursed future knowledge. "Either way, this Celestia is not trying to replace the other, just run a casino nicely. She's doing a good job."

"She's claiming that name!" Twilight suddenly lifted the glass, drinking the glowing glass down in one shot before she sagged back. "You don't see anything wrong with this?"

"Nothing worth being that upset about." Sunset floated the glass she was cleaning back up into a holding rack. "Nopony's getting hurt, are they? I'm not hurt, she's not hurt. The real Celestia, not hurt. The people who were taking advantage of the situation, we already chased away."

"About that." Twilight crossed her arms as she sat on the stool, her balance not entirely there. That drink had been a little harder than she planned for, and she had consumed it all too quickly. "Were they the ones that … What? How were they involved in you… being?"

Sunset lifted her shoulders in a casual shrug. "They didn't share all the particulars. Near as I can tell, they wanted some famous mares to get ponies in here, and then we happened. You should ask her." She pointed to Spitfire across the way. "She kept a real close eye on the whole thing."

Twilight's eyes shone with possibility. "Thank you! I knew I could count on you." She patted Sunset on the shoulder. "Fake or not, Sunset's always there." She slipped to the ground, almost tumbling.

"Watch yourself." Sunset shook her head slowly. "Lightweights shouldn't guzzle their drinks…"

"Spitfire! Captain… Spitfire." Twilight half-crashed into the pony she sought. "There you are. Why are you wobbling?"

Spitfire blinked at the inebriated princess. It was not she who was wobbling. "Woah, hey Twily. Did I catch you in the middle of an episode?"

"This is serious." Twilight leaned against Spitfire as she righted herself. "I hear you saw everything, how these copies were made." Twilight waved wildly back in Sunset's direction. "Tell me everything."

"Well… I have a price."

Twilight's brows fell in a suspicious glower. "What kind of price?"

"First, a hug." Spitfire spread her hooves. "I want a hug from the princess of friendships, and you gotta mean it."

"You can't be serious." Twilight was not moving to deliver the hug. "And what's the other part?"

"Technically the more important part." Spitfire pointed to the collar on her neck. "Most of us still have these stuck on. Can you do some awesome magic to get rid of them? They're mildly cursed."

"Mildly cursed?!" Twilight almost fell over backwards, wings spread akimbo. "Let me see that." She went in far too close, practically mashing her snout into Spitfire's neck as she eyed the collar critically. "Ah, hm, yes… Wow… Standard, but nefarious." She raised a hoof and moved it as if turning a key, the collar limply fell to the floor like it was no big deal at all. "There you are. How terrible! Who put that on you? I am assuming you did not consent to that."

"Not even a little." Spitfire rubbed where the collar had been in contact with her. "Good job though! You promise to get them off the others, and we got a deal."

Twilight smiled brightly. "No hugs then?"

That brought a pout to Spitfire. "If you really don't want one." But then she was hugged by Twilight. "Yay."

"You are very much not Spitfire," noted Twilight. "I can't even imagine her acting like that."

"We're both in here, and you're making her prickly. Anyway!" Spitfire hopped up to all fours and started walking. "So it went like this…"

So it was that Twilight was brought up to speed. "Fascinating… So you're a human." Spitfire nodded. "But also a pony." Spitfire nodded all the harder. "And you're alright with that?"

Spitfire shrugged softly. "What's the alternative? Both sides are alright with the other. I like having a tail and wings. Oh man, the wings." She spread them wide. "Love 'em."

"The alternative… would be trying to get you back to the world you came from." Twilight rubbed at her cheek thoughtfully. "Don't you want that?"

"Can you even do that?" Spitfire frowned in thought. "But even if you did, we've been here long enough… Yeah, wow, that'd be a huge mess."

"A mess? Why?" Twilight reared up only partly. "I want to help you."

"I appreciate that." She swatted Twilight on the back, almost knocking her over. "But I had stuff going on, which I dropped, being here. If I just popped back, I'd be so lost. No job, no house, no nothing! Or… I could keep being an awesome pony who has a job and a place to stay and a bunch of friends. Seems an easy choice."

"Hm." Twilight allowed Spitfire to lead her around, liberating the ponies of their collars. "It's not an especially powerful enchantment, but you have to know how it works."

Spitfire leaned in with a smirk. "And why do you happen to know how a collar enchantment works?"

Twilight colored swiftly. "Not for the reason I think you're imagining! My diary used the same kind of locking spell on it… I've, um, lost the key once or twice. Learning how to get around that spell came up, is all." She cleared her throat. "Anyway! So the brothers?"

Spitfire nodded. "About about them?"

"They hired another pony, Fetlock." She snorted in an equine way. "Not the first time I've heard of her, or cleaned up her messes. She did this?"

"Because they asked, yep." Spitfire pointed outside. "Hey, you're here at the right time. I'm going to show off soon. Want to see me spread these wings?"

Twilight warded the idea away with a gently hoof press against the idea. "Thank you, but I should be going. Do you know where the brothers are, or Fetlock, by chance?" But Spitfire didn't know. None of them knew. Twilight would not catch up to the good doctor that day.

"Two maybe recruits," reported GamerLuna with a big smile, waving to the side and hopping out of the way to allow two ponies into view. "They're special."

Celestia raised a brow from behind the desk she sat at. "Special?"

GamerLuna knocked a hoof against an imagined pane of glass. "Window specials."

Celestia's brows went up together. "Oh! Oh…" In came two ponies, dazed and confused.

One of them was a mare, smiling nervously. "I know you don't… owe us anything."

That voice was not one she knew off the top of her head, but something about it…

"We're still in here," complained the stallion with the mare. "But we're not alone, and they want things."

"Icky things," agreed the mare, shuddering. "And we can't just say no."

"We tried!" wailed the stallion.

The back and forth sealed it. "Flim, Flam?" Her eyes went to the mare. "Poor thing."

"I know! I know you're probably ready to laugh at us."

"But we had to come," noted the stallion, shuffling in place. "Fetlock filled the ghosts in our heads with lofty dreams of this place. We couldn't say no."

"Ghost…" Celestia went quiet for a moment. Was she a ghost? "I see. Well, to be clear, if you want to work here, we can find a place, but it will not be your old place. Not even a little. I will not lie to you."

The mare trotted up to the desk and reared up, hooves on the edge of it. "You are so pretty." Her eyes widened an instant later. "I didn't mean to say that!"

Celestia set a hoof on the mare's snout. "You should learn to reach an accord with that 'ghost'. You two are stuck together. The sooner you learn to get along, the better it will be."

The stallion sat on his haunches. "You're not laughing, or shouting angrily, or threatening."

Celestia sat back. "That is not the sort of pony I am, either of us. Now, we need to know what sort of work you can do, and want to do. Brothers, I feel you'd rather talk and wheel and deal."

Both of them nodded. The mare of them inclined her head sharply. "I want to get snuggly with handsome and pretty ponies and get close and--"

Celestia raised a hoof. "You want to work in the escort hall, alright." Her eyes went to the stallion. "And you?"

The stallion wriggled in place. "Please help me," he sobbed out. "I don't like this, not at all."

"I am very sorry." Celestia's ear sagged, genuinely sorry for the brothers. "But this isn't something I can fix, only try to provide a safe place for you."

Author's Note

Things are coming together, but we're not quite done yet here.

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