Rarity walked over to her friend, Fluttershy, and asked her what she was doing there. Fluttershy lowered her sunglasses in suspicion.

"I should be asking you the same thing," she said suspiciously.

"Simply put, I spotted that man over there at the poker table outside of Sweet Snacks last week!" Rarity explained. "I don't know why he was there, since they're supposed to be operating here!"

"That's true. Yet, for some reason, they nearly managed to recruit three new members."

"The Dazzlings?"

"Bingo. The only reason they didn't join was because they couldn't follow through with one of their requests. Apparently, they wanted them to whack somebody, but they couldn't bring themselves to do it. So, they backed out and have gone missing since then. At least, that's what I heard from my mother, the head of the Canterlot City Police Department. And I see you're working with Sam and Max over there. Word of advice when around those two: expect the unexpected."

As they continued their conversation, Sam decided to play the Whack Da Ratz game by using his own gun. After getting twenty points, he received a green teddy bear magnet as a prize, which he put in his pocket. As he was doing that, Rainbow walked over to the one-armed bandit and decided to play the slots. She inserted a token and pulled on the arm lever. The three slots all had bags of money and a little jingle played.

"You're on fire!" the automated voice said.

"Hell, yeah! I won!" she exclaimed.

"And you just wasted your money. There's no prize, idiot!" Twilight chastised.

"Hey! I used play slots just to get a piece of gum over at the candy store. It was fun."

As the girls were talking, a man in a pink teddy bear mask exited the elevator for a bit, then turned to go back.

"Hold it! What's the password?" the man in the blue mask asked.

The man in the pink mask muttered something that was indecipherable.

"You may enter."

And with that, he was allowed to go back up the elevator.

"If only I could make out what that man was saying!" Fluttershy grumbled. "It'd make infiltrating this place a whole lot easier!"

"Well, the store owner, Bosco, did say that he had a miniature listening device," Rarity said. "Only problem is that it costs ten million dollars."

"Figures."

"How are we going to get that kind of money?"

Just then, both of them saw Pinkie throwing the Ace of Spade at the clown nose above the rotating door.

"Pinkie Pie, honestly! What was that for?"

"I was trying to beat this Leonard Steakcharmer guy at Indian Poker," Pinkie explained.

Leonard was a bald man with a curly mustache. He wore a dark red shirt and a belt with his initials on it.

"Cheater," Fluttershy muttered as Pinkie waved at her.

Rarity made a slashing motion with her throat, telling her to shut up.

"Okie dokie lokie!" she whispered.

Pinkie played another round of Indian Poker with Leonard. After looking at each other's card, Pinkie decided to bet a token. Leonard was confident that he won until the dealer announced that it was Pinkie who had won.

"You cheated me!" Leonard wailed.

"No, I didn't! I beat you fair and square!" Pinkie exclaimed. "At least your stepbrother doesn't cheat!"

"Why? Why'd you have to bring Boris up?"

"Pay up, Steakcharmer!" the dealer ordered.

Leonard cried as he was forced to give up his ten million tokens that he had won from playing Indian Poker. Pinkie took the tokens and shoved them into her hair for safe keeping. Fluttershy took out her lollipop and walked over to Leonard.

"Well, well, well. Payback's a bitch, isn't it, Lenny?" Fluttershy mocked.

"Leave me alone!" Leonard growled.

"Hmph! Be that way!"

Pinkie and the others, except for Fluttershy, then decided to go back to Bosco's and pay for the miniature listening device.

Once they got to Bosco's and paid the amount in tokens, Bosco gave them the miniature listening device, which was revealed to be a literal bug.

"Are you insane, Bosco?! THAT IS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING!" Rarity shouted.

The bug then repeated everything she said and in her exact voice like a parrot.

"What the hay?! That thing's like a parrot!" Applejack gasped.

"You got that right, missy!" the bug said in a drill instructor-like voice. "Now, listen up, maggots! Just drop me in enemy territory, and I will get all the information you need. You just make sure to pick me up again, and I will repeat every word. Every word!"

"We might put you in some dangerous situations," Twilight said, picking up the bug. "Do you think you can handle it, sir?"

"I was in 'Nam, lady! You don't want to know what I been through. They slaughtered ladybugs. Ladybugs! And that's not all. I've seen 'em kill... larvae! Larvae!"

"Yeah, yeah. I think we get it. You can handle it."

She put the bug into her skirt pocket for safe keeping, then she and others walked out of the store.

After returning to the casino, Twilight placed the bug close the person who was guarding the elevator. The bug crawled on to the wall and prepared to listen to the guard's conversation.

"A bug?" Fluttershy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He can handle it, Fluttershy," Twilight smiled. "Just like you're able to handle yourself out here."

"Well, thanks. I try. But how are you going to get him to strike up conversation?"

"That one guy came out of the elevator when Rainbow played the one-armed bandit, right? I believe that he comes down the elevator to see if a prize has somehow been dispensed from it. He's most likely the maintenance guy."

Twilight gave Rainbow a token to play the slots again. Rainbow smiled and ran over to the one-armed bandit using her super speed. She inserted the token into the slot and pulled the arm lever. Once again, she won the jackpot, but with no prize. And once again, the man wearing the pink teddy bear mask exited the elevator. And as soon as he attempted to go back in, the guard asked him for the password, which he gave to him.

"You may enter," the guard said, letting him through.

Twilight walked over to the bug and picked him back up. She then walked over to where the others were and had the bug repeat what the two guys. And, in their voices, as well.

"Hold it! What's the password? That's gotta be, what, a hundred times I've come through that door today? And you still don't recognize me? It's the bear heads, boss, they all look alike. Leave the gun, take the cannolis. You may enter."

"Thank you, sir!" Twilight said as she put the bug back into her pocket.

Before going to the guard, however, Fluttershy gave her friends each a mask to wear. Every one of them looked like a different animal. Fluttershy wore a purple bunny mask, Twilight wore a bear mask, Pinkie wore a chicken mask, Rainbow wore a red fox mask, Applejack wore an alligator mask, and Rarity wore a wolf mask.

"Why are we wearing these, Flutters?" Rainbow groaned.

"To help us sneak in," Fluttershy explained. "The Toy Mafia won't allow just anyone in. You also need to have an animal costume. I originally made these for the Halloween show last year, but we got rained out. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah. That was a huge blow."

"Anyways, let's go."

Everyone walked up to the guard, who then asked them for the password.

"Leave the gun, take the cannolis," Sam said.

"You may enter," the guard responded.

The group walked up to the elevator and went up to the top floor. Upon exiting the elevator, everyone saw members of the toy mafia.

"This is it? Where's the food?" Max asked. "Surely there's a buffet back here."

"Hey, look! That must be Ted E. Bear!" Sam said as he pointed to a man wearing an orange teddy bear mask.

"Where do you wise guys think you're going?" the man in the pink teddy bear mask asked.

"We were just browsing."

"We frown on that around here. I'm Chuckles, the casino pit boss. I've had my eye on you."

"For how long?" Fluttershy asked.

"Long enough. Your win at Poker was, shall we say, creative. That was nice work. You also somehow got the password to let you into this room -- very clever. I'm impressed. The Toy Mafia can use guys who are long on brains and short on scruples. You interested?"

"What mafia?" Sam asked.

"Exactly."

"Well then, I can't think of anything I'd rather do, at least not for the next five minutes."

"I've always wanted to be a thug. Officially, I mean," Max said.

"The fact that you've already got your own animal costumes shows great initiative, but before we can accept you into the family, there are two jobs I need you to do for me," Chuckles said.

Just then, the elevator opened and the dealer broke the news that the original meatball sandwich had just been stolen.

"There are THREE jobs I need you to do."

"What kind of jobs?" Max asked.

"Oh, the usual. I want you to lean on somebody, I want you to whack somebody, and I want you to recover a small item that belongs to us."

"Who do you want us to lean on?" Sam asked.

"A local shopkeeper who's been refusing to stock our products. Take these special teddy bears and make sure he displays them on the sale table in front of his store."

"Teddy bears in store front. Got it," Twilight said as she took the box.

"The store is called Bosco's Inconvenience."

"Uhhh... Sure. We'll do it," she said nervously.

She gave the box to Pinkie, who then put it in her hair for safekeeping.

"Who do you want us to whack?" Sam asked.

"We're having trouble with a witness who refuses to see things our way," Chuckles explained. "I want you to silence a certain Sybil Pandemik."

"Silence as in gag her?" Max asked.

"Gag her with a pistol! Heh heh heh."

"You want us to kill Sybil," Sam said gravely.

"Make it messy, as a message to other potential witnesses. We have her under surveillance, so we will be watching."

"I knew it! I knew that web cam was put there by somebody recently!" Twilight thought.

"What is it that you want us to recover? It's that rotting old sandwich, right?" Sam asked.

"The original meatball sandwich has great sentimental value to our organization," Chuckles explained. "I want you to track it down before the disrespectful slimebag who stole it manages to fence it to some other lowlife."

"Someone like Jimmy Two-Teeth!" Rarity grumbled under her breath.

"Deal with the thief as you see it. We'd like to preserve plausible deniability on this one."

"Got it. We'll do those things," Fluttershy said.

"Do these three things and you shall be as we are."

"Verbally overrot?" Max asked.

"Members of the Toy Mafia!"

"I see. Well, we'll be on our way, now," Fluttershy said.

"A word of advice, because I like you, when you walk away from the Toy Mafia? Watch your back."

After the conversation was over, the group exited the room and went back to the streets of the office. While on their way there, the girls took off their masks and put them away to use later.

Upon reaching the streets, the group got out of the DeSoto and were understandably conflicted. Why wouldn't they be? They had just been told that they needed to pressure Bosco into displaying the Toy Mafia's teddy bears, kill Sybil, and retrieve the original meatball sandwich. How can they do it without arousing suspicion and actually killing Sybil? If they were going to solve this case, then they needed to do something one way or another.

Author's Note

The character of Boris that Leonard is referring to is Boris Krinkle from TellTale's very first game, Telltale Texas Hold'Em. Both Leonard and Boris are told that they look like each other as a joke in their respective games.

Also, the masks that the girls wear are a reference to Scott Cawthon's iconic horror franchise, Five Nights at Freddy's.