Like Spoiled Rich, Abacus Cinch never smiled. Not even if she had a good reason to. And like her bosses, Cinch had a reputation to maintain. If she smiled, if either of them smiled, their employees might think they were nice women. And that was the last thing Cinch or Spoiled Rich wanted.

The Richs were dangerous people, a dangerous family. Every member of Las Pegasus’s underworld knew it—and that was fine with Cinch. Over the last few years, she’d helped the Richs grow their already vast fortune through crime. As long as she managed to avoid getting caught, she was happy. But she never showed it, because as long as Abacus Cinch never smiled, she would be feared.

Cinch stood at the head of a long table in Impossibly Rich’s penthouse office, surrounded by her most trusted employees. Sunny Flare sat next to Indigo Zap, who was passed out in her chair; Lemon Zest was bobbing her head up and down, listening to music through her headphones; Sugarcoat was crunching numbers on her laptop, and Sour Sweet was playing a game on her cell phone.

“Where’s Diamond Tiara?” Sour Sweet asked.

“She couldn’t possibly show her face in public, or in private, after that crushingly humiliating failure,” Sugarcoat said.

She was talking about Diamond Tiara’s loss to Spike.

“So, it’s safe to bet that Impossibly Rich has decided not to rescind her granddaughter’s life plan?” Sunny Flare asked.

“Correct, that’s Impossibly Rich’s wish,” Abacus Cinch said.

“What’s going on?” Sunny Flare asked. “Spike won two Gate cards from Diamond Tiara, does that count for nothing? Why are we ignoring that?”

“I couldn’t say,” Cinch replied. “I don’t have the ability to read what’s on Impossibly Rich’s mind. But when she requested that I look into Spike Drake’s personal history and files, I discovered that he has considerable reserves of funds.”

“What?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Before Celestia adopted him, he lived completely alone. Both his father and birthmother are dead, and he has no other living relatives of his own,” Cinch said. “I also found out that Spike spent six months in the psychiatric ward of a mental hospital. The expense must have been astronomical. And yet, he paid for it himself. That can only be explained by some enormous, healthy bank accounts.”

“Wait a minute! You’re telling us he went... bonkers?” Sunny Flare asked.

“You want to know what I found out through my portion of the grape vine?” asked Lemon Zest. “Spike’s name was on the list of players who are going to compete in the Las Pegasus Poker Tournament against Filthy Rich.”

Indigo Zap’s eyes shot wide open and she sprung from her chair, which scared the other women.

“What’s wrong, Indigo?” Sour Sweet asked.

“Spike, playing Hold ‘Em Poker against Filthy Rich?” she said. “That’s bad! Impossibly Rich won’t just destroy him, she’ll kill him! No! No, no! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nononononono, NO, NOO!!”

And she bolted from the office with Sugarcoat calling her name.

“What’s her problem?” Lemon Zest asked.

---

Meanwhile, inside the Flimflam Brothers’ Resort across the street, Spike was walking across the lobby from the hotel’s gym, his duffel bag over his shoulder. The elevator doors opened to reveal Applejack, who was wearing a gray sports bra, matching sport shorts (which Spike thought looked like a pair of panties at first), and orange tennis shoes from her own workout earlier that morning.

“Howdy, Spike,” she greeted him. “What have you been up to?”

He didn’t answer, and the extra bummed look on his face worried her.

“Spike, are you okay?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“You know what I just realized?” he finally replied. “The summer’s half over. I mean, in a month and a half Soarin, Rainbow Dash, Zephyr Breeze and Fluttershy will all go home... to opposite ends of the country! I might not ever see them again.”

“That’s why you gotta live for now,” Applejack told him. “Enjoy the moment while it’s here.”

“You’re right,” Spike smiled. “We’re awesome people in an awesome city with many awesome things to do!”

“That’s the spirit,” she replied as the elevator doors opened onto the third floor. “Hey, while I have you, could you help me with something?”

“Yeah, sure, I’m glad to help,”

Spike followed Applejack into her and Sunset’s suite and helped her move the couch back onto the rug. The whole act took about three seconds, but when Applejack put down her end, she groaned.

“Are you all right?” Spike asked.

“It’s nothing, just a little pinch in my neck,” she replied.

“Here, let me massage it,”

Applejack sat on the sofa they had just moved.

“Maybe you’d be more comfortable on your bed,” he suggested.

Applejack went red in the face, and Spike could sense her nervousness as he guided her onto the mattress. She had often imagined Spike running his hands over her near naked body, but she never thought that it would actually happen. But now, her fantasy was becoming reality. She shivered as she laid on her stomach and Spike’s hands made contact with her neck.

“His hands feel incredible,” she thought.

“Well, here’s your problem,” he told her. “You pulled a muscle and now you’ve got a knot in your shoulder. Babe, you are really tense. Oh, sorry, Applejack! Is it alright if I call you ‘babe’?”

“Sugarcube, you can call me anything you want,” she said.

Applejack began to relax as Spike’s firm but gentle hands caressed her freckled shoulders. Then she felt something warm drip onto her back. She relaxed again when she realized it was just massage oil. She wanted to take off her bra and allow him full access to her back, but she continued to enjoy the return of Spike’s hands to her body; those hands that both soothed and excited her.

He complimented the oil massage of the exposed parts her back to her wide hips and legs, to inside her thighs and just above her rear, carefully avoiding the intimate areas of her body, which only intensified Applejack’s desire to be touched in those spots.

“Oh...” she sighed. “That does feel good.”

Applejack did her best to keep herself from twisting in pleasure. Ten minutes later, her pain disappeared completely and she started breathing heavily as Spike’s fingers edged closer to her forbidden regions.

“Oh, yeah, right there!” she moaned. “If you ever get tired of dancing and dealing cards, you could do this for a living.”

“Well, that’s sweet of you,” he replied. “I spent a few months in a monastery with a group of monks whose knowledge of pressure points is second to none. They even trained me how to undress a woman without her even noticing.”

Spike finished by running his powerful hands down Applejack’s legs and to her feet. She thanked him as he headed for the door and she looked down, between her legs. Her shorts were soaked.

As Spike stepped out into the hallway, he was confronted by Twilight.

“Where’re you going?” she asked. “And what were you doing in Applejack’s room?”

“What the Tartarus is that?” Spike exclaimed as he pointed behind her.

Twilight squealed as she turned around to look and Spike took off running toward the elevator.

“Gotcha!” he called back over his shoulder.

---

An hour later, Applejack met up with Rarity in the Sweet Snacks Café. Rarity was eating a stress salad (with no dressing) while going over several fabric samples, all in different colors. AJ slid into the booth and sat across from her.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Rarity said. “I have a question and I need an honest answer. Do you think I’m... pale?”

“Yeah,” Applejack replied. “Why?”

“I’m planning to ask Spike out to lunch later this week and I’m trying to decide which blouse color would make me look the least pale. What do you think; puce, ash, slate, or ecru?”

“I’m going to change the subject now,” Applejack stated. “You get massages at the spa, right?”

“Say no more,” Rarity replied as she handed Applejack a business card. “Their names are Aloe and Lotus Blossom. Tell them I sent you. They’ll take good care of you.”

“No, I was wondering if while getting a massage, you ever got... a little...”

“Wet? All the time, why? Wait! You got--! Oh! You did! Where?”

“It wasn’t at a massage place. It was, uh...”

Applejack’s voice trailed off midsentence. She didn’t finish her thought, and Rarity became even more intrigued.

“You don’t want to tell me, when you have just revealed everything!” Rarity said. “You got excited when you got a massage from Spike!”

“If you tell anyone, I’m gonna punch my fist through your chest, and spin you around my forearm like a wagon wheel!”

“That’s terrifying, yet somehow beautiful,” Rarity replied.

“I got a pinch in my neck, Spike offered to help, he rubbed it, and...” Applejack trailed off again.

“Sploosh,” Rarity said.

“Yeah... Sploosh,” Applejack confirmed.

“So, you’ve got the hots for him,” Rarity said.

“It’s not that,” Applejack replied. “Well, it’s not just that. Now I feel awkward around Spike and I feel guilty around Twilight. I feel like I cheated her out of her chance with him.”

“But you didn’t, you had no intent,” Rarity told her. “Or did you?”

“I’ve got to tell Twilight sooner or later,” AJ said.

“Sure, if you want to be selfish about it,”

“How is that selfish?”

“Nothing happened, and Twilight doesn’t know anything. But you feel guilty about it, so you tell Twilight, she feels bad so you can feel better. Ergo--selfish,” Rarity explained.

And speaking of Twilight, that’s who came in and sat beside Rarity.

“What the Tartarus is going on?” she asked Applejack. “Spike’s acting strange. You’re acting strange. What is going on?”

Applejack knew there was no way to avoid it now, so she just told Twilight.

“Okay, earlier Spike helped lift my sofa back onto the rug,” she began. “Well, he noticed that my neck hurt, he massaged it, and I felt much better.”

“So?” Twilight asked.

“Well, I felt so much better that I... got a little hot... and wet... down south...”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed. “Why would you tell me that?”

“That sounds like a question you already knew the answer to, so why did you even bother asking it?” Applejack retorted.

“All you had to do was be honest like you almost always are!” Twilight replied. “You should know that you can tell me anything.”

“Oh and how would that conversation have gone?” Applejack challenged her. “‘Hey, Twilight, guess what the cute new guy was able to do just by touching me’? Would you really have been fine with that?”

“Now he’s cute?”

“What happened to ‘I can tell you anything’?”

“I meant anything I should know. If it’s not important, or if it’s going to upset me, then don’t tell me!”

“I thought that’s what I was doing!” Applejack shouted.

“You think I am that petty?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t think you are,” said a new voice. “I know you are.”

Twilight, Applejack and Rarity looked up to see Spike standing a few feet away. Twilight got up from the booth and immediately got in his face.

“I know what you did!” she told him.

“I was helping out a friend,” he said calmly.

Twilight glared at him, breathing deeply.

“So, you decided to give her a rubdown?” she asked.

“Only because her neck hurt!” he replied. “Wait a minute. Do you think I was trying to make a move on her?”

“I don’t think now is a good time for you to brag about how good you are!” Twilight boomed on.

Spike folded his arms in front of his chest.

“What exactly do you plan to do about it?” he asked.

“Plenty,” she said coldly. “I’m going to do just plenty.”

“Don’t you think it’s about time you got started?”

“Now, wait a minute--”

“No, you wait a minute,” he cut her off, “and listen to me very carefully. I saved your job for no reason other than I had nothing better to do. Now, I don’t know what your reasons were, but nobody twisted your arm, made you any promises. So what is this act? Not outraged virtue?” He clicked his tongue.

“You really are a rat,” she replied acidly.

“Why don’t you quit while you’re ahead, Sparkle? I know about the guys you’ve had on a string. Sunset told me about every single one of them,”

“Why are you treating me this way? I didn’t do anything,”

“Neither did I, so why don’t you just say goodbye nicely?”

“And maybe I should say thank you for being humiliated,” Twilight said. “Well, put this in your pipe: one of these days I’ll break your back. I swear it!”

She attempted to strike Spike in the face, but his hands were much quicker than hers. He caught her by the wrist, which he stopped just before her palm made contact with his cheek.

“Don’t. Ever. Try that again,” he stated.

Spike let go of Twilight’s arm and she whirled on her heel and stalked out as Rarity and Applejack got up from the booth.

“It’s a good thing for you she doesn’t pack a knife,” Rarity said to him.

“How do you know she doesn’t?” Applejack asked.

---

She pulled the lapel of her jacket around her neck as she stepped into Impossibly Rich’s office that evening to join her for a cup of tea... just the two of them. Impossibly Rich poured as her guest sat down on the couch across from her.

“It smells wonderful, doesn’t it?” Impossibly Rich asked her informant. “I hope you like it.”

The mole warily picked up her teacup.

“Drink, before it gets cold,” Impossibly said with a smile.

She drank... as did Impossibly Rich.

“I enjoyed the ballroom dance competition,” Impossibly Rich confessed. “More than I expected to. That boy, Spike, is the first person to win hundreds of millions of dollars from me. If anyone were to win against me, it would be him. Normal people aren’t that skilled in dancing in this day and age, but him... Well, that doesn’t matter... I want you to come to work for me full time.”

The spy choked on her tea.

“I’m serious,” Impossibly Rich added. “You’re more than worthy of a position with us.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?” the mole asked as she put down her cup. “Why would I ever side with you?”

“Do you mean that you’re refusing a request from me?”

Impossibly Rich dropped her politeness, clamped her hand around the mole’s throat, and came to within an inch of her lips pressing against her informant’s. Impossibly’s eyes became cold and feral and her voice was the hard clatter of rock grating on ice-covered cement.

“Now, why would you do that? I know you’re well aware of the advantages and benefits of being in my employ. So, tell me why. Are you scared of my other employees? Is that why you’d inflict such a massive loss on us? Or are you afraid of me? Just tell me you’ll at least consider it. It’s not very smart to refuse me outright. Now tell me why. I asked you a question! Answer me!”

Then, as though that fleeting glimpse of ice and flint and total heartlessness had been a slip, a mistake, a spasm, an illusion, the bitch worked hard at being the other, more familiar Impossibly Rich.

“Oh, my apologies,” she said. “I suppose, in this position, your poor brain probably can’t think at all. You know, I find you extremely enigmatic... and I love that. I’ll say it one more time. Come work for me.”

“May I ask one question?”

“Of course, I’ll be happy to answer anything,”

“The way you treat people is terrible. Why do you treat others so poorly?”

Impossibly Rich walked over to the aquarium full of fish that stood on the far side of her office.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” she asked. “But even the cutest of creatures live in a world where the strong survive and the weak die. If you gathered up and removed the creatures at the bottom of the food chain, what do you think would happen? A new bottom would form. And just like before, the chain would grow. And some creatures would rise up; the weak would dare to steal from the strong. So think, what if ‘creatures’ didn’t include just animals. What if they included humans too? I want to see that! I want to know what humanity would do!”

Impossibly Rich’s agent remained silent.

“You should be less concerned about your ‘friends’ about finding out you’re working for me, and more about what I will do to you if you fail to help me take ownership of Flimflam Resort,” Impossibly advised.

“Last time I looked, and I look every morning, it was your name listed as owner on more valuable property in this city than anyone else in history,” the mole replied, “which means you have a lot more to lose.”

“I don’t lose,” Impossibly Rich said. “People who bet on me to lose are the ones who lose, and they lose big. If you’re planning to come after me, you better know I move quickly, and when I do I cut like a knife. Besides... you know what his mother almost did to your family,” she added.

The mole cringed at the mention of her.

“She took whatever she wanted,” Impossibly Rich reminded her. “And she didn’t care who she hurt. That’s why I got rid of her. You owe me! If anything, I saved your parents’ marriage! I saved your family! Do whatever you have to do keep them from discovering the truth about you!” she commanded. “Now leave! Return to the Flimflam Resort, and make sure no one sees you, or else my entire plan will be ruined!”

The mole acrimoniously agreed... and left, not even noticing Diamond Tiara, who had been listening in the shadows just outside the door. Diamond Tiara then followed her grandmother to the helicopter pad up on the roof later that night, being careful to keep out of sight.

“Miss Rich!” Abacus Cinch shouted over the sound of the helicopter’s spinning blades.

“Is something wrong, Cinch?” Impossibly Rich asked.

“Where are you going? I would have made arrangements!”

“I’ll be leaving the country for a while. There’s something I have to do,”

“This is the worst possible time!”

“I know. That’s precisely why I have to take care of this. You can deal with the rest however you wish, that includes my son and daughter-in-law. I’m counting on you!” she shouted as she climbed into the helicopter and it took off.

As Diamond Tiara made her way back down those steps, into her family’s resort, she felt lost, like she was sinking, like she would break. She wished that she could be someone else, anyone else, at that moment, yet she couldn’t see what she needed to do to be the woman she wanted to be. She thought she was as strong as stone, but even that wasn’t enough. She didn’t know what to do. She had been told her whole life what to do and what to say, and nobody showed her that there could be a better way.

Spike was the very first person to do that!

Then Diamond Tiara thought about how much her mother and grandmother controlled her. The blood rushed to her head and it made her want to vomit. She would never forgive them for the Tartarus they put her through.

“I refuse to live my life by their plan!” she thought angrily. “My life is not theirs to control! It’s mine to live! They can’t have it! And I won’t let them! There’s only one reason they will not see anyone outside the family as equals! They see everyone else as lesser beings! Less than humans! In other words, they think that everyone else is less than them! And that’s a bad idea! No, it’s a dangerous one... one that I will make them regret!”

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