"You ran afoul of the Scelus Familia?!" Rainbow repeated in disbelief. "How did you manage that?!"

"Well, it's not nearly as hard as you would think," Thorax answered. "It turns out they really don't like when ponies win a lot of money in their gambling parlors."

"Y'all wasn't cheatin', was ya?" Applejack inquired, tone of voice a little accusatory.

"Not... exactly."

"Huh?"

"Well, changelings kind of have an advantage in the bluffing department."

Applejack looked confused for a moment, then realization dawned on her. "Oh! Y'all was...?"

"Yeah, I could tell when the other players had good hands or not based on what emotions I could sense from them."

Applejack frowned. "That is sorta cheatin'."

"I realize that now. I know I shouldn't have done that, but..."

"But what?" Fluttershy asked.

"Well, playing cards is... really fun."

After the tour mare, whose name tag read Penny, left me to explore the parlor on my own, I tried to decide what best to do. I didn't have any bits, so I couldn't partake in any of the games OR get a room to spend the night. That pretty much left either leaving the place or walking around to watch the games being played, so I stayed and watched.

The first one I saw was a wheel spinning game. The pony operating it was taking wagers and inviting others to join in before the next spin. A stallion was standing there with a few piles of playing tokens in front of him. They were all different colors, such as red, blue, yellow, white and orange.

"Five hundred, any number that's red," the stallion told the pony, pushing a relatively small pile towards the game operator. Taking the tokens, the operator made one last call for wagers before taking a hold of the wheel and giving it a good tug, sending it spinning around a couple of turns before it stopped on a number in black.

"Dang it!" the stallion cursed, slamming his hoof down onto the table, causing a pile of his tokens to fall over.

"That's the chance you take when you play the game," countered the operator as he took the tokens and placed them into a caddy set into the table before asking if the stallion wanted to take another chance.

I turned my attention to another game, which happened to be the dice game. A group of ponies were gathered around a different stallion, who looked more like a colt than an actual adult. He took the dice and gave them a toss, the two rolling across the table and then stopping with the three and five sides facing up.

"Point," the game operator announced as he gathered the dice and passed them back to the colt. He took them and tossed again, this time coming up with two sixes.

"Shooter loses."

The ponies all groaned as the colt swore under his breath, something that I choose not to repeat. I turned my attention away and found myself coming to the card games. First was blackjack, which wasn't very interesting to me. The operator seemed to win the majority of the games, which didn't feel very fair to me.

Passing by the tables running those games, I came to a stop at a hold 'em game. Two ponies, a stallion and mare, were looking at the two cars they'd just been dealt, and the stallion made a wager the mare matched. The operator, a mare this time around, proceeded to deal three cards in a space marked community. They were a three of hearts, jack of clubs, and ace of diamonds.

I could feel a sudden jolt of happiness coming from the stallion, and upon investigating, I noticed that he had a pair of aces as his two cards, giving him a three of a kind hand and clear advantage. The mare tossed her cards into the center and announced her intention to fold, ending the game as the stallion was given the winnings from the operator.

At this point, the stallion looked at me. "Gonna join us for a game?"

"Um, no," I answered him, frowning and looking away. "I don't have any bits at the moment."

Smirking, he took a couple of chips from his pile and tossed them towards me. "Now you got twenty bits to play with."

"Oh, sir, I couldn't-"

"I insist," he cut me off, gesturing to a seat between him and the mare. "Know how to play this game?"

"Kind of. You make your hand from the two you're dealt and the ones in the community, and you make wagers regarding who has the better hand, and you can either fold, match the wager, or raise the stakes if you think your hand is good enough to win."

"Or if you wanna bluff," he added. "That's always a valid strategy."

"Buy in is five bits," the pony dealing the game cut in, looking at me with a mixture of expectation and annoyance.

"Oh, sorry," I answered, pushing one of the chips towards her. She collected it and placed it with the others in a caddy on her side of the table. She then went to a machine and pushed a button, and a deck of playing cards sat inside it was split in half and shuffled, and then the process repeated two more times before the pony placed her hoof gently on the top card and slid it towards the stallion, then me, then the other mare sitting at the table, and then one to herself. She did this a second time and called for wagers.

The stallion took a look at his cards and moved a small stack of chips towards the dealer. Going by count, it looked to be about ten bits worth.

It was then my turn to bet. I looked at my cards then; three of clubs and two of hearts. My memory of what hands were good told me that, depending on what came up in the community, I could have a straight. Looking from the cards to my chips, I frowned, realizing that I needed to at least match the stallion's wager. Reluctantly, I pushed ten bits worth of chips towards the dealer.

The mare reviewed her cards and matched the wager, with the mare dealing the game contributing chips from her own caddy to the center. After she did that, she dealt the community, and my eyes lit up brightly.

Four of diamonds, five of hearts, six of spades.

The stallion and mare at the table both looked at me and smiled.

"I know that look," the stallion said as he tossed his cards towards the dealer. "I fold."

"Same here," the mare concurred, her own cards being given to the dealer. "He must have a straight to be smiling like that."

The dealer herself flipped her cards over, revealing two face cards: a jack and queen. The jack bore the likeness of Captain Shining Armor, and the queen was Princess Luna.

"House folds, new player is the winner," she announced, then pushed the pile of chips towards me. I flipped my cards over to reveal the straight and collected my winnings.

"Told you he had a straight," the mare player told the stallion, who nodded at her.

The dealer mare shuffled and new deck and passed us each two cards. Mine were a pair of queens, once again bearing the likeness of Princess Luna, though these were heart and diamond suit instead of spade and club, as I would've expected since the color of those suits matched her. The stallion wagered another ten bits, which I matched, as did the mare and the dealer. The community was numbered cards, with five of diamonds, two of spades, and nine of clubs.

Another ten bit wager came from the stallion, which I matched, and was also matched by the mare.

The dealer, who had matched the previous wager, doubled the stakes of her own bet, then dealt a fourth card to the community; what's known as the turn card. It was a face card; queen of clubs. I hid my excitement after the stallion matched the dealer's twenty bit wager, which I had to match, and the mare did as well. The dealer frowned a little as she put in twenty bits and dealt the final card, or river card, and it came up as an ace a diamonds.

The stallion sighed as he flipped over his cards, a two of diamonds and nine of spades. I put my remaining bits in, confident that I had the winning hand, and the other mare bowed out, revealing her jack of clubs and diamonds.

The dealer matched my wager and we flipped over the cards.

The stallion saw my hand and scoffed in a playful manner. "Beginner's luck," he called it.

The mare looked a little annoyed, but she was already preparing herself for the next deal of cards.

The dealer looked over my cards and hers and pushed the chips in my direction. "New player wins again."

I took the bits and put them into the little square on the table where it said chips went. A new game started, and this time around, the mare won with her own three of a kind hand; all fives. The next game went to me, and then the stallion won a game himself with a flush.

After that, I went on a hot streak.

It started with a genuinely good hand; a full house consisting of three jacks and a pair of nines. After that, I noticed that I could feel what the other players were feeling and unconsciously started incorporating that into my playing, recognizing the sudden anxiety of the mare as she put in a large wager on a poor hand. The stallion, likely a seasoned player, was a little better able to hide his emotions, but I could still sense that he got apprehensive when a sufficiently large bet had been placed.

The dealer, despite likely having been educated on how to play this game expertly, was the worst at disguising her emotions, a twinge of fear always running through her before a large wager meant to bluff the others into folding.

I don't know how many hands I had won in a row, but it had been enough to catch some unwanted attention, as I would later learn. At the time, however, I was more than happy to be winning so much, so I didn't realize the situation I was about to find myself in.

"You've been doing quite well, sir," the dealer mentioned. "Perhaps you'd like to step away and enjoy some of the other amenities? Perhaps get yourself a meal?"

The thought crossed my mind, but I could feel her apprehension as she said it. She wanted me to get away from the table for some reason, but I couldn't understand why.

Well, I could; I was winning a lot of hands, and because I was winning a lot of hands, I didn't want to leave the game, and the more I won, the less she had in her chip tray to play with. After politely declining her offer, she stepped back and lifted the tray of chips out of their slot in the table.

"A new dealer will be along shortly," she informed us, then walked over to a door with a pony standing outside. After a brief verbal exchange between the two, the pony at the door unlocked it and allowed her into whatever room was behind it.

The new dealer, a stallion, appeared a moment later. He spoke with an odd accent, and very quickly dealt us a new game.

"So, whose gonna gives the first wayja?"

All three of us looked at him weird before the stallion who'd given me my first bits put his opening ten down. I matched it after seeing my cards were number cards of different suits. The mare examined her cards and followed suit.

"Conservative bunch, ain't cha?" the dealer remarked as he placed his own ten bit bet and dealt the three community cards.

I again tried to hide my excitement a little as the cards were numbered, and I only needed one to complete a sequence for a straight.

The stallion to my left put down another ten, as did I, and the mare. The dealer took an interest in me as he placed his own wager, then dealt the turn card. As he did, he looked at me intently, which gave me some creepy vibes.

Nonetheless, I could still feel the other players, who were all getting nerved up as the turn card was apparently one that wouldn't benefit their hands. The stallion was apprehensive, and his wager matched that as he only put ten down, not wanting to bow out of the current deal. I thought about what to do and decided to match the ten, but the only mare left at the table was acting like she had the best hand of all of us, but I could sense under the facade that she was in as bad a situation as us, but was hoping to bluff her way to victory. She ended up raising the stakes to twenty-five bits.

"I call and raise you annuda twenty-five," the dealer announced as he pushed out the bits and dealt the river, which gave me a pair of threes with a six high.

The stallion bowed out, pushing his cards to the center. I felt confident and raised the wager to one hundred bits. The mare also folded, her emotions a mix of anger and disappointment.

"I bow out," she announced, taking her bits and walking away from the table.

"The mare leaves the table to the stallions," the dealer said before looking at me. "I call your hundred and raise a hundred."

Even as he said it, I could feel the apprehension in him. I matched the wager on a call, and he then smirked at me.

"Got ya, bug."

"...What?"

Before I knew it, two stallions appeared behind me and took hold of me in their magic.

"The owner wants to speak with you, in private."

I made an attempt to protest, but a bubble appeared over my head, and I found that any objections I had were effectively muted to the other guests of the parlor, who were too preoccupied with their games to notice me being hauled off to another section of the building. I gave up and allowed them to take me wherever I was going, which was an elevator. After getting on and pushing a button for the basement level, I was made to stay silent between the two large ponies.

After only a moment, the two began conversing with each other.

"So what do ya think boss is gonna do with dis one?" one asked.

"Anything," the other answered. "Ya know the maintenance room is down there. Lots of tools, if ya catch my drift?"

"Oh, yeah, I do. This little one done messed up good."

I tried voicing my protests, but the bubble kept those thoughts to myself in a rather literal way.

"Keep barkin' at us," one chastised me. "Ain't gonna do your cheatin' flank any good."

The elevator came to a stop, and I was pushed out onto a cold concrete floor.

"You two head back up," a mare's voice told the two stallions. "I have this one."

The goons grunted as they got back on and pushed the button for the main floor.

"Never get to watch the good stuff," I heard one say before the door closed and cut off any further conversation.

I struggled to get back to my feet, but a sudden burst of magic pushed me back down onto the floor.

"Don't get up!" the mare barked at me. "We ain't nowhere near through yet!"

"Wh-What's going on?!" I cried out, but the bubble was still over my head and muting my speech to anypony around me.

A moment later, and the bubble popped, and the mare approached me, her magic lifting my head up so I could look at her.

She was a unicorn, a white color, with orange mane and tail, and red eyes. Her cutie mark was a patchwork rabbit doll holding a carrot, not too dissimilar from the sign on the outside of the building.

"I'm Velveteen, and you are up to your flank in deep trouble!"

Author's Note

Well, looks like Thorax is in for it now. So, wonder what will happen to him? Think he can sweet talk his way out of this mess? Guess we'll find out later.