Author's Note

Content Warnings: Gambling

Jackpot

CASINO was always enjoyable to see, but a nightmare to stay in.

A glitzy slot and card joint with red and gold geometric shape theming. It covered everything and made the place difficult to navigate… for someone unfamiliar with the terrain.

Lucky Strike grabbed a drink from one of the server’s platters, a skeletal upper torso attached to a wheel dressed in a tux. It zoomed off after he grabbed the drink. He chugged the too-sweet wine in one gulp, then put the glass on the edge of the machine he was playing at.

Pulling the lever, triple seven appeared once more, racking up points on the card he had slotted into it. Another cool mill acquired.

His mark ached. A red seven surrounded by cartoonish impact lines.

He got up and moved to another part of the CASINO. The light glistened off his golden fur and neatly combed white-blonde mane, a perfect complement to the glamorous interior of the CASINO. He took another drink from a nearby server, not even bothering to pause as he chugged the whole thing and put the emptied glass back on the tray.

Lucky was so close. The quota for his shift was just in reach. A little more and he would be done for the day. A few more pulls of the lever and he’d reach the requirements to satisfy this accursed Malformant for another day… but there were no more opportunities, no lucky streaks to take advantage of. The alicorn of providence didn’t smile kindly in his moment, and he had a decision to make.

Leaving was possible. Nothing truly bound him here but his duty and love of his home city. Both of which caused him to immediately disregard that option. He could wait it out, hope that his replacement came early enough to help him finish off his shift, but that would just mean there would be two ponies unable to meet their quotas in the dead of night when Redacted would have a harder time reacting to any consequences from a breach.

The patrons were looking at him. He’d been standing around too long. He tried not to focus on them normally, but having humanoid skeletons with flimsy skin stretched tightly over their bones boring into him was difficult to ignore. Time was running out, and he had a decision to make.

There was only one real option. Lucky would have to press his luck. He would be damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Better to at least try.

His selection thus whittled down to two viable options: poker or slots. The prior was mostly skill, but extremely difficult because he would have to directly confront The House. The latter was the easiest, but was based solely on luck… something he was in short supply of. Unfortunately, he would have to do with the latter. Lucky was ever good at Poker, and breaches caused by losses at that game tended to be worse than others.

He glanced at all the slot machines on the floor. His mark ached. He looked for the one that made it ache the least and trotted toward it. Taking a seat on the uncomfortable stool, he focused on the display blasting bright colours and promises of fortune at him.

Hoof on the lever.

Do or die.

He pulled.

“It’s a bad day,” Lucky Strike remarked.

“Don’t say that!” Coal laughed. Smoky fur, thick build and pitch black mane. Eyes full of mirth. “You haven’t even started!”

Lucky stared at the CASINO. The abominable place still looked out-of-sync with the rocky crags around it. Glam amongst dark coal. Rocky crevices intersecting the strange slice of reality that shouldn’t have been there to begin with.

His mark ached. There was no luck to be found there.

“...I know my luck, Coal,” Lucky muttered.

Coal’s laugh petered off. “…Lucky? What do you mean?”

“You have to keep your promise, Coal,” Lucky said. “Keep it all safe.”

A hard line. An expression of resignation and incoming grief. A face too used to loss and pain and suffering. Too compassionate for his own good. It made him the worst pony for the job… and the best.

“What if we bring in Poker Face? Streak? Snake Eyes?” Coal suggested.

Lucky shook his head.

“We can ignore it then. Keep you—”

“You know the breach is so much worse if we don’t try versus when we do,” Luck interrupted. “We need to win enough in the CASINO to buy time… expensive bit-hogging leeches,” he muttered the last part under his breath.

“...I’ll make sure Director Introversion is ready.” Coal looked askance. “I’ll also put in the call to headquarters to get some Agents here ahead of time to handle the aftermath.”

“Do that… but, hey! This is just precautionary, you know?” Lucky laughed. He didn’t feel it. “I could still win big!”

“Y-yeah! Definitely!” Coal laughed as well. A raspy sound that meant Coal wasn’t feeling it either.

Neither Lucky nor Coal expected to see each other again.

A drop of liquid gold fell onto him. It burned. A gold-plated claw rested on his shoulder, holding him firmly in place. He wouldn’t get away. A pig face leaned over top of him, upside down from his perspective. Its other faces were rotated away for the moment, different expressions for different occasions. He got the creepy smiley one… a frown from his position relative to the Malformant, which might be worse.

“You’re bankrupt,” The House stated.

Lucky stared at the big fat ‘NO FUNDS’ in red block letters on the slot machine’s display. It flashed on and off, hammering in his failure. Red light put both him and the monster in sharp relief, extenuating the worst of both of them. The monster’s glee and his resignation.

“You will be required to pay back the debt in full,” The House continued.

He gulped. He’d been arrogant when he first took on this post. Told everyone he’d never be in this position. But here he was. Not a decade later and reaching the end of the rope that had come to make him hang.

Though, if he was being honest, the noose had been around his neck since the beginning, he’d just never realized that he’d put it on himself.

The House Always Wins tilted its head, sizing him up.

“Valued player—” Lucky was surprised to hear the words “—you have done well thus far and we are gladdened by your patronage, but you forgot one of the most important things.” Another clawed hand came onto Lucky’s other shoulder. It dug into his flesh and drew blood. Lucky didn’t flinch. “The House Always Wins.”

More liquid gold dripped onto him. It burned through fur and flesh. It hurt. It hurt so much. But Lucky refused to give it the satisfaction. He stared resolutely forward. Though he would die here, at least he did his best.

Coal better be ready.

“Warning. Warning. CASINO breach in progress. All residents are required to stay in their homes. Warning. Warning. CASINO—”

The announcement was cut off, the magic disrupted by the Malformant’s advance.

It started as a rumble.

Then it was a quake.

Gold filled with blood. Figures of strange and abominable shapes. They stalked out of the CASINO’s gilded entryway. The Blood Debts.

They were there to collect.

Screeches. Shrieks. The wail of the damnable monsters.

Coal stood resolute on the frontlines, ready to take on the monsters. They would repel them… or they would lose the city.

The Abominations charged.