Side Story:

Poker Night

Happy Easter everyone! Consider this a solid steel Easter egg with lasers and gattling guns. With pure, delicious, awesome, epic, chocolate and/or other candies inside.

“So, you said you wanted to learn more about some of my past Travels, right?” I asked Twilight, as we made the long walk down the stairs to my Vault.

“Well, yeah. You’ve been all over the universe, haven’t you?” Twilight said rhetorically. “But why are we headed to your Vault? Couldn’t you just tell me about them back at the library?”

“I could, true,” I replied, nodding my head as we reached the doors to the Vault. “But it’s Tuesday night.”

“So?” Twilight asked, giving me a very confused look. Huh. You’d think that by now, she’d be used to all of my strange, and seemingly unexpected, quirks.

“Tuesday is game night,” I stated matter-of-factly, knocking on the door.

“What does that have to do wi-”

“One sec,” I interrupted. I turned back to the doors, which had the by now, all-too-familiar scowling face on it. “Hey, doors, listen. I’m sorta late for Poker Night, so if you could just skip the usual process of asking me the personal stuff, we can just get on with it.”

The face blinked, but did as I asked, recognizing both my touch, and choice of words.

Plus, I was the only one who would ask to get into the Vault by saying stuff about a card game.

Stepping into the Vault, I looked around, and spotted a lone table with four figures surrounding it. I waved at them, and nudged Twilight with my knee. “Look alive, Twilight,” I said good-naturedly. “These are my poker buddies.”

She remained silent, but her eyes sparkled with a fierce desire to learn something from these “visitors”. Oh, she’d learn something alright…

“Here,” I said, reaching out and snatching a book off of a random pedestal. Twilight lifted it out of my hand with her magic, and I added, “It’s a book on Poker. I don’t have enough time to teach you much, but that should help you out a bit.”

“Wait, you actually expect me to play?” She said incredulously.

Why is everyone surprised when I do something unexpected? You’d think that they’d expect it by now.

“Yeah, I asked them if they’d be fine with it, and you’ve been approved.” Finally reaching the table, I pulled out a chair, and plopped down in it, giving everyone a huge grin. “Waz up, guys?”

“Ah, good to see you show up, Nate,” A man with a British accent said cheerfully, smoothing out some wrinkles in his long, tan coat. “I was starting to wonder if the TARDIS had taken me back too far.”

“Hey, do you really think I’d miss Poker Night?” I asked, feigning offense. “Perish the very thought!”

“You miss everything else,” An Australian man muttered, lifting his hat with his thumb, and peering at me through his gold colored sunglasses.

“In my defense, you’re the one who taught me how to shoot that damn sniper rifle in the first place.”

“Oh, come off it!” He chuckled, grabbing a deck of cards from off the table. “What’s with the pony? Does it talk like the annoying blue thing over there?”

“Step it up, Snipes,” The blue thing in question retorted. “You’ve said that more times than Eggman has tried to build an empire.”

“Alright, some introductions are in order!” I clapped my hands together, before we started arguing, and gestured at Twilight. “Fellas, this here is Twilight Sparkle, my friend I was telling you about.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” She said, bowing her head in respect.

“Ah. Say, Nate, is she-?”

“Yeah, I think you’ll meet her later.”

“Okay, that clears things up.” He extended a hand to her, and said, “Pleasure to meet you, Miss Sparkle. I’m The Doctor.”

“Doctor who?”

“Exaclty!” He replied happily, as the rest of us rolled our eyes.

“Um…okay?” Twilight said, unsure if he was being serious or not. Either way, she shook his hand, and he sat down, pulling a pair of glasses out of his coat pocket and sliding them onto his face.

The Australian tipped his hat respectfully to Twilight, and said, “I’m not one to give out my real name to any bloke or Sheila that walks in, so just call me Sniper.”

“Alright…” She seemed to be slightly regretting her decision to join me, but hey. Was she really gonna pass up an opportunity to potentially learn more about the multiverses, just because the first people she met were…eccentric?

“Hey there!” The blue creature said from his spot. “Name’s Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. So, you’re that girl that Omnius won’t shut up about?” He said teasingly, winking at her conspiratorially.

While Twilight stuttered and tried to come up with a reasonable response, I grinned, and leaned forward, putting my elbows on the table. “Hey, Sonic…”

“What?”

“When are you and Amy gonna tie the knot?”

“Hey, don’t say that too loud!” He said, panicking slightly, his emerald eyes darting around, before he realized that there was no possible way that obsessive girl could follow him here.

We all shared a laugh at his reaction, and I pulled out a chair that was next to me for Twilight. “Okay, you all know why we’re here.”

“Of course we do, it’s Tuesday, isn’t it?” The Doctor said, scratching his nose.

“Right. But Twilight also wanted to hear about some of my past, erm, exploits, as it were. You three were the only ones who could make it, so…”

“Let’s get on with it then!” Sonic shouted, shuffling the cards at blinding speeds. While he shuffled, I pulled out a huge pile of poker chips, and divided them evenly among us, until we each had about ten-thousand dollars worth of chips.

The Blue speed demon dealt out the cards, and we all took a glance at our cards, trying to make sure that the others didn’t see them.

“Alright, so, who wants to say the first story?” I asked, tossing a few chips towards the center of the table.

“Why don’t we let the winner of this hand choose?” The Sniper suggested, adding a few chips to the pile.

“Good idea…All in!” Sonic called out, shoving his entire pile out. He grinned cockily at our amazed expressions, and chuckled.

Twilight checked her book, scanning the pages rapidly, before pushing her cards forward, and saying, “I fold…right?”

“Too right you are, miss,” The Doctor sighed, folding as well.

I looked at the hedgehog, and met his gaze evenly. “You’re bluffing, aren’t you?”

“Call it, and find out,” Sonic said, grinning confidently at me.

“…”

“…”

“…Damn you. I fold,” I grumbled, pulling my bandana over my eyes in shame. “You’re just doing this to tell your story first, aren’t you?”

“It’s possible.”

“I don’t want the game to end this early for ya, mate,” The Sniper said, pushing his cards forward. “I’ll fold…but I know you’ve got nothing.”

Sonic flipped over his cards to reveal a pair of Aces. “I had something!”

“Alright, I’ll give you that much,” Sniper muttered.

“Heh, yeah, that’s right. Fastest thing alive, and best card-player alive!” He laughed, giving Twilight a thumbs-up.

“I’d be careful if I were you,” Twilight smiled. “You don’t want Rainbow Dash to hear that! She’d take that as a challenge.”

“Oh, really?”

“NO!” I shouted, seeing where his thoughts were leading him. “Poker night! Remember? No other-worldly shenanigans! That was the agreement!”

“Relax, Nate, I’m just messin’ with ya,” he said, reclining in his seat. “Alright, now then, what’s a good story…Oh, I got it!” He snapped his fingers, and looked at Twilight mischievously. “How about I tell you about the first time we went to Casino Night Zone?”

“Oh, Ye Gods,” I half-heartedly complained.

“Alright, so get this: There was this mad scientist named Dr. Ivo Robotnik, or Eggman as me and my friends call him, who wanted to take over the world by taking animals and shoving them into robots. Tails, Nate, and I had to stop him, so…”

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“Hey, wait up, Sonic!” Tails called out, his tails twirling furiously as he tried to keep up with his idol/best friend.

“What he said!” I emphasized, panting heavily. I don’t know WHY I insisted on it, but I decided that I was gonna try and keep up using my normal running ability.

WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!

Glancing upwards, I whistled at the massive city that was spread out all around us. Gotta hand it to Robotnik…when he takes over, he takes over in style. Right now, the three of us were standing at the entrance to the city’s most prestigious gambling club (conveniently owned by a certain mad genius), The Casino Night Zone.

The entrance itself was a testament to the overall snazziness of the casino. Bright flashing lights lit it up, almost transforming it into a fruity lighthouse. And according to Tails’ scanner, another chaos emerald was hidden away in it.

Greeeeaaaaaat. A casino. Made by a mad scientist. Who’s more than likely expecting us.

“Well, sure is snazzy,” Sonic said appreciatively. “Who wants to go first?”

Still waiting for my legs to stop shaking, I said, “How about a quick rest, and then we can go on?”

“I’m with Nathan on this one,” Tails said, landing right next to me. “Can’t we just take a break for a second?”

“Mm…nah! Just go into your Speed Aura, and we’ll meet up at the end of the casino. Let’s do it, to it!” He shouted, taking off in a blue blur.

I sighed, and glanced at Tails apologetically, as he followed Sonic quickly, his signature tails propelling him forward. “He’s off,” I commented, starting to summon my Aura. Thanks to that little blue son of a bleep, I was getting used to summoning my Aura quickly, and it seemed to be draining me less and less each time I used it…note to self, research that later.

Pushing my hair out of my face, and sliding my glasses up a little, I ran inside, picking up speed as I went. The inside was just as chaotic (ironic, as we’re looking for CHAOS emeralds…wonder what Discord would think of those) as the outside, with random lights put up everywhere, bathing the area in a wild glow. Somehow, the very atmosphere seemed to make me feel more energetic, like I wanted to take more risks, to live life on the edge.

It was intoxicating, to say the least. Red carpet led the way into the main area, and I sped down it, looking around at the slot machines and strangely convenient neon-signs (really, they’re gonna have “MILES” and “SONIC” written up there? They might as well have just done away with them, and put up a giant sign of Admiral Ackbar saying, “IT’S A TRAP!”).

And then I promptly tripped, and rolled down a steep incline, and gained even more speed. I’m just glad my stomach was already empty, or else I would’ve vomited at least…twenty times? Maybe more…

“GAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaaAAAaaaaaAAAaaah!” I screamed as I fell over a system of hills, unable to either stop or control myself. “Somebody help!”

Sonic and Tails stood at the edge of the hill, watching me with amused looks on their faces.

“Should we help him?”

“No, I wanna see what’ll happen when he hits the pinball paddles.” Sonic grinned, and kept watching.

I landed on one of the flippers, and felt myself get launched into the sky, still spinning uncontrollably. I collided with a round bumper with a picture of a white star surrounded by blue, and ricocheted into another, slamming my forehead into it. Luckily, it seemed to absorb the majority of the blow, preventing me from being seriously harmed, but…OUCH!

For a while, I kept bouncing around in the air, before I finally started rolling down another hill.

“Oh, sweet ground,” I said longingly, still sliding down the sharp incline. “How I missed you so- Wait, what’s that spring doing down there?”

As soon as my feet touched the top of it, I felt it start to coil, building up more and more pressure, until it was all violently released in a heart-stopping, “BOING!” of terror (for me at least).

“NOT AGAAAAAIIIIN!” I screamed, bouncing off of walls, and the floor, collecting rings and occasionally getting lucky by landing on a badnik.

Finally, I landed at the end of the Casino, bruised and extremely nauseous, but alive.

“Hey, guys…” I said, shaking my head. Sonic and Tails helped me up, and looked at me concerned.

“You okay?” Sonic asked.

“What happens in Casino Night Zone, STAYS in Casino Night Zone.”

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Laughing wildly, Sonic wiped away a tear from his eye, and said, “And then, if you’ll believe it, when we met up with Eggman at the end, he had it rigged so that it was a giant game of pinball! So, what Nate does, is he jumps onto another bumper, and instead of hitting Eggman, he hits the lightning gun at the bottom!”

We all roared in laughter, and even Twilight had to suppress a giggle at my expense.

“And then, to add insult to injury, Tails manages to get a good hit on him, and the lightning gun falls ON NATE!” Sonic reminded me, tossing more chips onto the pile.

“Oh, come off it,” Sniper said, raising the bet. “I can’t believe that he has THAT bad of luck with lightning.”

“You better believe it,” Twilight chuckled. “He told me he wasn’t even here for four hours before he got hit by a lightning bolt!”

“Yeah, well…shut up! Alright, put your money where your mouth is!” I retorted, flipping over the first three cards.

Twilight looked into her book, and Sonic groaned impatiently. “Come on, Twilight! Can’t you just go one minute without using a book?”

“Shush! I want to make sure that I make the right choice!”

“Lay off her, mate. Bloody hell, but I thought Scout was the only annoyin’ speed freak...No offense,” Sniper said, taking a sip of his coffee.

“None taken.”

Twilight studied her book for another minute, and then took a moment to calculate the odds…before finally saying, “I fold.”

“As do I,” The Doctor reluctantly agreed.

“Call it,” Sniper grunted.

I flipped over the final card, revealing…crap. Sonic and I both tossed our cards onto the table, and Sniper chuckled, scooping up the chips. “Thanks for standin’ still, wanka!”

“Great…well, I’m making a snack run. Anyone want anything?” I asked, getting up and pulling out a small notepad. “Just remember that rule I told y’all…”

“You mean the no me-oof!” Sonic started, before getting elbowed by The Doctor, whose eyes darted between Sonic and Twilight rapidly. Sonic’s eyes widened, before he nodded sheepishly. “Uh, right…I guess I’ll just go with some onion rings.” Under his breath, he added, “Can’t believe I can’t have Chili-dogs…”

“Just get me some coffee,” Sniper said, already dealing out another hand.

“Ah, I’ll take some chips.”

“Fries, got it.”

“No, I said chips.”

“Fries.”

“Chips.”

“Fries.”

“Chi-Oh, wait, you’re doing that thing again. Well played,” The Doctor said, shaking his head at my antics.

“Alright, and for you Twilight?”

“Could I please have some hay fries?”

“Chips, got it,” I replied in a British accent.

The Doctor was not amused. Neither was Twilight.

“Can’t blame a Traveler for trying,” I laughed, walking off. “You guys go on without me; I’ll be back in a flash.”

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“Alright, sheila, so whose story you wanna hear next?” Sniper asked the lavender unicorn, stealing a quick glance at his cards.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Omnius though?” Twilight said, looking at the others and feeling slightly nervous. Here she was, surrounded by aliens, and playing a game she hadn’t ever played before…all on an empty stomach.

“Hey, why do you call him that?” The Doctor asked curiously, flipping over another card.

“Call him what?”

“Omnius. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, mind you, but every one of his other friends I’ve met either calls him Nathan or Sean. Why not you?” He tilted his head, and watched the unicorn fidget as she tried to come up with an answer.

“I dunno, Doc, I call him Omnius whenever he goes Super-mode,” Sonic said, tapping his foot impatiently. “Kinda fits him more, don’t you think?”

“Alright, granted, that’s fairly true,” The Doctor admitted, recalling the “Satan Pit” fiasco. He shuddered slightly, as he remembered the rage on Omnius’ face when the so-called Devil tried to escape. “But that’s not the point.”

“You mean he only uses “Omnius” as an…alias?” Twilight asked, somewhat sadly.

“Well, occasionally. Mostly he yells it when he feels all heroic, or crusader-y.” The Doctor frowned, and raised an eyebrow. “Why, somethin’ the matter?”

“No, it’s…it’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously something if it’s botherin’ you. Come on, love, you can trust us! We won’t mention a thing to Nate about it,” The Doctor said, laying a reassuring hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“It’s just that…if you’re his friends, and you can call him that, then why do I call him Omnius? Is it because he doesn’t really think of us as friends, but as something else he needs to protect?” Twilight slumped in her seat, feeling slightly guilty, and a small pang of…jealousy?

The Doctor nodded understandingly, and smiled warmly at her. “Maybe it’s not because of that…maybe you’re the one who thinks of him as the hero?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Twilight was now more than a little confused.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Sonic, you’re being awfully quiet over there! What’re your thoughts?”

The hedgehog shrugged, and said, “I think that Nate needs to hurry up on those snacks.”

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A few minutes later, I had returned with a huge tray loaded with their food, and the game continued, as we idly made small talk before I suggested that Sniper tell his story for Twilight. I hoped he had one that was less embarrassing than the one that Sonic told.

Whatever happened to, “What happens in Casino Night Zone, stays in Casino Night Zone?” I’ll get him back for that…

Snapping myself out of my revenge scheme filled thoughts, I turned towards Sniper, and gestured for him to go on with his story.

“Hm…well, there are quite a few I could say…hmm…” The Sniper thought for a moment, before nodding. “Okay, I think I’ve got one. So, there we all were, trying to stop the RED team from takin’ our intelligence. I was at me usual spot, keeping away the other team, and Nate was just across from me, since I was trainin’ him to be a sniper. Now, we’re doing fine, when…”

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PING!

“Traveler, get down!” Sniper called, ducking behind a stone wall, narrowly avoiding another shot from the RED Sniper.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” I shot back, peeking out from the edge. I pulled out a small pocket mirror, and held it out, trying to angle it so I could see the enemy sni-

PING!

“Oh, damn it! That was my only good mirror!” I cursed, tossing away the now useless shards of glass.

“Alright, pop quiz!” The Sniper called out from his position. “You and a mate are pinned down by not only a red Sniper, but also by a crazed bloke with a rocket launcher, and you have no idea if a Spy is coming to get rid of you! What do you do?”

“ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TRYING TO DO THIS, NOW?!” I shouted in disbelief, as another rocket soared past us.

“What are the three rules of being a professional Sniper?”

“I know, I know, be polite, efficient, and have a plan to kill everyone you meet!”

“Well, what’s your plan for killin’ them, then?”

I thought about it for a moment, trying to think. If I simply leaped out and took down the Sniper, I might, MIGHT, get lucky and send him back to the respawn, but then the soldier would get me, and by the time I’d return, the enemy sniper would be back in place, either taking me down, or taking the rest of my team down. If I went for the soldier, I’d get blasted by the Sniper.

What’s a Traveler to do?

“You’ve got ten-” PING. “Scratch that, six seconds to answer!”

Finally, I reached behind me, and grabbed a glass jar filled with a foul-smelling yellow liquid. Since I didn’t have enough time to aim a shot, I’d have to aim a splash…oh, ye gods, why did I let him convince me this was a good idea?

I guesstimated where the Soldier was, added one more foot to it (because I’m always off by one for some effin’ reason), and tossed the jar, yelling, “JARATE!”

There was the sound of broken glass, followed by the sound of a disgusted scream from the soldier, and…a spy? Okay, so Sniper was right. There was a spy. Lucky shot, I guess.

“Good answer!” Sniper praised, before leaning out and shooting the RED Soldier, while I ducked down out of the spot where my head used to be, and shot the spy.

“Now don’t forget the other bloke!”

Calmly, I aimed the rifle at the spot where the RED Sniper was, and waited for…yes!

“Yeah, the bullets come out of the slim end, mate!” I shouted triumphantly, pumping my fist into the air.

Without the suppressing fire, our Heavy was able to charge through, and provide a distraction while the BLU Spy snuck in, and snatched the intelligence, securing the final point we needed for our victory.

My rifle glowed, and crackled with blue lightning, and my mentor smiled.

“Mate, welcome to the big leagues. Go get ‘em,” he said, already aiming at a fleeing scout.

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“And that’s how Nate became an honorary Sniper,” He finished, taking another sip of his coffee. He glanced at the cup, and added, “Nice brew by the way. You make it yourself?”

“Nah, got a packet of premade stuff from a guy called Godot,” I replied.

“Good taste in coffee,” he grunted.

Twilight, however, was slightly shocked. “You…killed? And thought it was fun?”

“They had a machine that brought ‘em back, so no harm done. Sides, they’ve killed us a few times,” Sniper said nonchalantly, as if this were something he was used to explaining.

“But still! to do that so…so casually!”

I sighed, feeling a small twinge of regret for bringing Twilight along. Luckily, part of whatever magic that made me a Traveler (irreversible and guaranteed to not be copied!), would allow her to forget anything that pushed her too far for fate, or destiny, or whatever you want to call that strange force that guides us.

“Hey, Twi, it’s alright…just don’t really think too hard about it. That’s what I have to do,” I said sadly, tossing in a few more chips. I hesitated, before saying, “Hell with it, I’m all in.”

Everyone at the exact same time pushed their cards forward, and folded, allowing me to rake my chips back. Sonic cursed, and slumped in his seat, finally out of chips.

“Well, I’m out. I’ll stick around though, see how this turns out,” He said, chewing on an onion ring.

In an obvious effort to change the topic, The Doctor cleared his throat, and looked at me. “Well, that was fun and all, but now can I tell Twilight a good one?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I said, looking at The Doctor seriously. “First, let me know which one! I don’t want any more embarrassing or traumatizing stories!”

“Oh, don’t worry! I’m just going to tell her about that time you and I had to deal with another lycanthrope,” He said, waving it off as if it were nothing.

“You mean the one before, or after, the one that tried to attack the Queen?”

“After.”

“Oh, well by all means, carry on.”

The Doctor nodded, and looked at Twilight, a mischievous grin on his face. “Now, Miss Sparkle, you’ll surely love this one. Now, quite some time ago, Nathan and I were both on this space station in the year…oh, what was it?”

He glanced at me, and I shrugged. “Hey, you’re the one with the super-sophisticated phone booth. I just jump outta the sky, and see what happens!”

“Right. Well, it was definitely after 2517…” He tossed a few more chips on the table, and kept going with his story. “Anyways, I detected some sort of stray radio signal that was calling for help, and as Nate and I just happened to be passing by, we figured it’d be a good idea to offer our assistance. It was at some Russian Space Station orbiting the moon….”

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“Heeeeeellllllooooooo?” I called out, cupping a hand to my ear to try and hear any type of response. The Doctor and I were currently in some sort of docking bay, although, as he quickly pointed out, it was oddly abandoned for being the only place that other ships could come and, for want of a better word, park.

“I don’t think that’s going to do you any good,” The Doctor said, his hands in his pockets as he looked around us. “It seems as if there’s no one here.”

“Well, then what about that S.O.S signal you picked up?” I asked, scratching my beard. “Someone had to have sent it!”

“True. Well, we’re not getting anywhere just standing here! Allons-y,” He cheerfully stated, before going towards the nearest door.

We started walking around, following a set of yellow arrows that pointed to the bridge. When we reached a security checkpoint, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

“Hey, Doc,” I said, looking inside of the window to the booth. “There’s no one in there.”

“Hm…that’s odd,” He went quiet as gears started to turn in his head.

Uh oh. He’s got that “Shit went down” look on him. Gulping, I asked him, “Doc, what’s your diagnosis?”

The Doctor said nothing, and instead pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver, and unlocked the door to the booth. Walking inside, he looked around, and said, “Nathan, you might want to take a look at this.”

Leaning inside, I saw that something had torn long gashes in the side of the wall underneath the windows. The gashes were about two feet long, and they had torn open the steel to reveal weakly sparking wires, some of them cut by whatever had ripped apart the wall.

“What could’ve done that?” I asked quietly, suddenly feeling paranoid. My hand reflexively went to my belt, and came away with a small fingerless glove that I quickly slid on. Clenching it into a fist, I glanced around, jumping at some of the shadows.

“Oh, quite a number of things, I’d imagine. Maybe an angry guard who just got fired, or maybe-”

“A werewolf?”

“Oh, yes, that would do it too. Why do you mention it?” The Doctor asked, turning to me.

“Just the big-ass monster that’s staring at us through the window,” I replied casually, locking the door in feigned calmness.

Sure enough, there was a HUGE werewolf standing outside of the booth, now pounding on the glass, trying to shatter it and get at us.

Slowly edging my way closer to The Doctor, and putting myself between him and the window, I asked out of the corner of my mouth, “Why isn’t the glass breaking?”

“Oh, there’s nothing to worry about, Nate!” The Doctor said confidently. “That glass is seven-inch thick, blaster proof glass. Built to absorb almost any blow, it could probably withstand one of those RPG’s you seem so fond of.”

“Hey, stick make thing go boom-boom!” I grunted. “But that’s good to know. What about the door?”

“I’m sorry, the what?”

Suddenly, the door started shaking furiously, and we could hear the sounds of another- WAIT, ANOTHER?!

“Doc…”

“Yes?”

“What’s your diagnosis?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say that the people aboard this station have been infected, and when they attempted a quarantine, they failed to account for the method of the disease spreading,” He said logically, scanning one of the computer monitors inside of the booth.

Oh plot convenience. Never leave me.

“Ah. So, how do we get out of here?” The door rattled again, and I added, “Without being chomped to tiny pieces? I’m not in the mood for being kibble.”

“Well, there’s the vents,” The Doctor replied, nudging a ventilation shaft with his foot.

“Good enough for me! Let’s amscray!” I shouted, tearing the vent open, and crawling inside. “Yo, Doc, come on man!”

We both crawled through the vents, relying on both a combination of memory and coin-flipping to get back to the docking bay. Once we reached it, I gulped audibly, and stopped in my tracks.

“Oi, be careful! I almost cra-”

“Shush! Doc, we’ve got a small problem.” I gestured in front of me, and said, “There’s a shit ton of them, and only two of us.”

“Yes, and your point?”

“Remember my earlier comment about not wanting to be kibble?” I whispered, turning around to glare at him. “We need to figure out a way to sneak past them.”

“You have a point…You wouldn’t happen to have any wolfsbane on you?” He asked.

“Wouldn’t you believe it? It’s in my other pants,” I said dryly.

“Shame.”

“Very.”

We both sat there in silence, trying to contemplate a way to get out of this mess.  I looked outside, and realized something.

“Hey, Doc…don’t these things react to moonlight?”

“Yes, that they do…Ah, are you thinking what I think you’re thinking, because if you are, that’s brilliant!”

“Thanks. Taco Tuesdays are always important. It’d mix up Poker Night for sure,” I nodded.

“No, not that! Although, I will admit, that’s a good idea…we’ll make a note of it,” He said, crawling to the entrance of the shaft. “But! If I can use my screwdriver to unlock the radiation shields, we can give them an overdose of pure, un-atmosphere filtered moonlight!”

“Do it,” I said, kicking open the vent. “I’ll buy some time. Go doctor us up some moonshine!”

“Did you really have to say that?” He shouted as he crawled out, and ran to the shields.

“When else was I gonna be able to say it?” I called back, my gloved hand glowing as I charged towards the wolves.

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“So, he fights back the wolves, I get the shields open, and we then made a tactical retreat, at full speed I might add,” The Doctor finished, pushing his chips towards the center of the table. “All in.”

“’Tactical Retreat’?” Twilight asked, confused.

“He means we ran away,” I answered, pushing my chips in as well.

Now, it was only down to me, Twilight, and The Doctor. Sniper had lost the rest of his chips during the story, and he was now watching the three of us go for it in one final hand.

Grinning smugly, I tossed down two queens, and said, “Pair, ace high!”

The Doctor groaned, and threw his cards away from him. “Ace high,” he grumbled.

“Well, it’s not too bad, Doc,” I said, chuckling. “You just can’t be as good at Poker as I am-”

“Royal Flush!” Twilight squealed, flipping over her cards.

I stared in amazement at her cards, and then looked at Twilight, a huge smile on my face. “Guess that book taught you somethin’ after all!” I said, pushing the chips towards her. Everyone applauded for her, and I glanced at my watch, wincing slightly.

“Wow, it’s getting late. Welp, gents and pony, I think it’s time to call it a night. Same time?”

“Time and space aren’t relative,” The Doctor reminded me jokingly.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I said, waving it off. “Just go the same way you came in.”

They all got up, and wandered off in seemingly random directions, before vanishing into thin air, without a trace.

“So, Twilight,” I said, getting up and walking towards the Vault doors. “What’d you think of that?”

“I can certainly say I learned…something,” she said, blushing a little. “What’s, ‘Jarate’?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” I answered. “But yeah, that was your crash course in alien culture. Congratulations! You passed with flying colors, but no actual money. Ah well, Live and Learn, right?”

She nodded, and her head started drooping. She let out a small yawn, and I shook my head, chuckling softly. Without saying anything, I picked her up, and set her on my back, ignoring her tired protests.

“Shaddap, and go to sleep,” I chastised, walking up the stairs. “You’re tired, and I don’t want you falling down these stairs when you reach the top.”

“But…I’m wide awake…I can…” She yawned again, and I adjusted her on my back, feeling her head fall onto my shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Twi,” I whispered. “I won’t let you fall.”

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHX

Preview of Chapter 14:

Taste the Rainboom!

“Next part of the tour is the Lightning Chargers! That’s where we make the batteries for flashlights and such.”

“Lightning? Uh-oh.”

“Omnius, are you praying?”

“Five bits says I can drink an entire bucket of that rainbow stuff.”

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHX

Okay, time for the next poll to open! You can now pick between:

A Bird in the Hoof

The Cutie Mark Chronicles

Owl's Well That Ends Well

Party of One

The Best Night Ever

“But wait!” Some of you may be asking. “Where’s ‘Over a Barrel’?”

Sorry people, but I’ve decided that chapter 18…will be an Author’s Pick! It’s not that it’s my favorite episode or anything, but I just had a few good ideas for it.

And come on: Who doesn’t want to see a bar fight scene?

Anywho, polls will close after I publish, "The Good, the Bad, and the Neutral!" Stay tuned!

Next Chapter: BONUS CHAPTER: The Battle of Yavin Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 60 Minutes