The first thing Spike did before leaving the Resort was go up to his suite. He unlocked the door, expecting to find the room trashed and all of his winnings plundered. Thankfully, they weren’t and he emptied the suite of all his money and personal belongings, which he’d put into the trunk of the big black limousine he now sat in; except for his Derringer, his Gates cards, and his mother’s Fire Ruby necklace, which rested in his vest.

There was a tense quiet in the limo as Spike and company—Applejack, Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Moon Dancer, Vinyl Scratch, Zephyr Breeze, Sunburst, Thorax, Pharynx, Chrysalis, Feather Bangs, and Discord—took Rainbow Dash and Soarin to the airport. After the long black car screeched to a stop, the rest of the group climbed out and onto the curb, leaving Spike alone in the limo with Dash. And even though she sat on the seat next to Spike, she didn’t look at him.

“We should be thankful that we only lost our jobs,” Applejack began.

Zephyr Breeze agreed. “At least Impossibly Rich left the Brothers the Sky Resort out of pity. Compared to what Spike went through back at the Hard Rock, that’s nothing.”

“I feel so bad for him,” Fluttershy said.

“Betrayed by his own former allies,” Rarity added. “On top of that, he thinks it’s his fault we lost.”

“I can only imagine how he must be feeling right now,” said Sunset.

“All because Twilight sold us out,” Pinkie finished.

Inside the limo, the windows were all rolled up and they were tinted so no one could hear or see what was going on inside. Spike tried to avoid hunching over, but it was hard. He was so lost in thought. The things he’d seen—and worse, the things he suspected—it made his head spin. He’d tried to set right the wrongs of others. He’d tried to keep the promises he’d made... and he had failed.

“I’m sorry,” he said finally.

Dash scowled at Spike like he had stabbed her with something sharp.

“Is that all you have to say to me?” she asked. “That you’re sorry? Let me tell you something: ever since I met you I have almost been incinerated, drowned, shot at, and turned into virtual monster food! And that was just in a video game! Out here, in the real world, I’ve been kicked out of a building, I got beat up, stripped butt naked, and not only did you lie, repeatedly, you held out on us! And that’s even worse!”

Spike couldn’t reply. He couldn’t even look her in the eye.

“We are all caught up in something sinister here, Spike, and you’re going to tell me what or I’m going to break you in two!” she yelled impatiently. “Talk!”

“I don’t expect you to understand,” he said.

“You know what? You’re right! And now that I think about it, I wouldn’t want to!” Dash snapped as she got out of the limo. “I’m going home.”

She slammed the door behind her and forced her way past the others with Spike close behind.

“I was four-years-old when I lost my mother,” he said.

“Ask me if I give a shit!” Dash shouted, not looking back.

Her voice was burning.

“I didn’t just lose her,” Spike said. “She was murdered.”

Rainbow Dash stopped walking. Spike paused for a long moment... then he dropped another bombshell.

“Impossibly Rich is the one who killed her,” he said.

Finally, Dash turned around.

“What?” the eighteen friends and former coworkers all asked.

Finally, they were all ears.

“For the last 30 years, Torch was the most powerful crime lord in the world. Before I was born, he and my mother were helping the Equestria Secret Service bust a big international crime ring,” Spike went on.

“Impossibly Rich,” Fluttershy guessed.

Spike nodded. “They helped raid almost every known asset of Impossibly Rich’s operations. They confiscated billions in weapons, cash, and a priceless collection of rare Dragonese art that Torch thought was lost forever. In exchange for their help, Torch was promised amnesty and the art. But they still failed.”

The group listened intently.

“After my fourth birthday, my mother found out that Impossibly Rich was working to get revenge on Torch. She was going to usurp him and seize control of the Dragon Mafia herself. But before my mother could prove it, she was killed. Impossibly Rich disappeared, as did all of the evidence that could have convicted her, and my mother’s murder was declared ‘unsolved’. My mother’s murder was the hottest court case of that year... I have spent every day of my life since trying to find a way to bring Rich down... My mother believed in truth and justice, and now she’s dead because of some woman who didn’t want to live by the rules and laws of decent society. She died for nothing,”

“You really believe that?” Dash asked.

“Look me in both of my eyes and tell me that I’m wrong,” he stated.

“Spike, why didn’t you tell us?” Vinyl Scratch asked quietly.

They all turned to look at Vinyl with wide eyes.

“You can talk?” Pinkie asked.

“I never said that I couldn’t, people just assume that I can’t,” she said.

“You want to explain that to me?” Starlight asked.

“Not being able to speak is not the same as not speaking,” Vinyl replied. “I don’t like to talk. I like to let people talk who like to talk. It makes it easier to find out just how full of shit they are.”

Dash stared at Vinyl and asked, “What the Tartarus did you just say?”

“I get it now,” Applejack said to Spike. “This isn’t about you. It’s about your mother. Not avenging her, not about vendettas, or even trying to get even, you just want to put her to rest and finally see that justice is served. You want to see these people pay for their sins. Not just for Barbara’s sake, but for yours.”

He nodded.

“Spike, if it was my Mom and Dad, I would do everything it took to square their deaths. I would do anything,” AJ said. “So deal me in!”

“I’m with you, too!” Moon Dancer added.

“And me!” Trixie stated.

“So am I,” Fluttershy joined them.

“Ditto,” said Vinyl.

“Look, Impossibly Rich hurt you. She hurt all of us. I know how that makes me feel. I know what that makes me want to do,” Discord said. “But the take would have to be really, really good to get me even vaguely interested.”

“Every single one of these women will get what I’ve always wanted to give them,” Spike replied. “I’m gonna get close to Rich, and I don’t care if it gets messy. She stepped over the line. She broke the rules, so I’m going to get rid of her and the Flimflam Brothers. If you’d help us, you would get to keep your job as day manager at the resort, in exchange for one full day off a week.”

“You’re out of your Faust-damn mind!” Discord said. “Are you listening to me? You’re nuts! Applejack and I know more about Impossibly Rich than any man, or woman, alive. She can not be beaten. But what am I saying? You are a pro, the best. I’m sure you can make it out the front door of the casino, maybe even out of Las Pegasus. Of course, lest we forget, once you’re out, you’re still in the middle of the fucking desert! Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing. If you’re gonna try to bring down Impossibly Rich, you better know. This sort of thing used to be civilized. You’d hit a guy, he’d whack you, done! But with Rich, at the end of this, if we fail, she’ll not just kill you. She’ll make you suffer.”

Spike looked Discord in the eye, like he knew that Discord had something against Impossibly Rich... something personal.

“Everybody said she would try to screw me. That she’d done it to every one of her partners. But I defended her, I said, ‘No! We’ve been around long enough that we both shook Flank Sinatra’s hand. And there’s a code among men and women that shook Sinatra’s hand.’ You know what she said? She said, ‘Screw Sinatra’s hand!’ She called me dead weight! And then she torpedoed my casino, muscled me out. That’s why I had to work for Gladmane. He was the only one who was willing to buy me out. Now, she’s going to turn it into another gaudy monstrosity that’s going to cast a shadow over the swimming pools,” he went on. “I’ll help you, but only on three other conditions: number one, I want to be a big player again. I know I haven’t played in years, but I can’t let you guys run a scam in my house and not prove that I can do more than just boss others around. Number two, if any of you try to screw me, you’ll be dead. I want to break Impossibly Rich as much as you do. But I want to break her into a million little pieces. The woman has no taste. I want her to lose what matters most to her.”

Discord paused, shot a glance at everyone, and they met his stare. His eyes had gone cold for a moment, as though to add: Don’t get in my way on this, friend or no friend.

“And three, you’re gonna need a crew as nuts as you are,” he finished.

Spike turned to look at the rest of the group. None of them moved. None of them left. It was a smart tactic. It showed Spike that he had several people who would follow him to Tartarus and back.

Chrysalis was the first to speak.

“You can’t expect me to turn down a nice opportunity like this,” she said.

“Especially where there’s almost no risk factor,” Pharynx commented.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Chrysalis replied.

“I take it that’s a yes from you too, Pharynx?” Spike inquired.

“Look, we all go way back and I owe Trixie and Starlight from the thing with the guy in the place, and I’ll never forget it,” he said.

Thorax nodded in agreement. He was with Spike, too.

“Rainbow Dash?” Spike asked.

“I never figured you go this route,” she said. “No plan is foolproof. And even if this was a military operation, executed by trained men and women, I can’t. I’ve got my family to think about.”

“Think of them wealthy,” Spike told her.

“Think of me dead!” Dash countered.

“Stop talking like a child!” he shot back. “Why waste all those cute little tricks the Wonderbolts taught you just because it’s sort of peaceful now? You went through four years at the Academy without dying. Why should you all of a sudden die in peacetime? You’re Rainbow ‘The Indestructible Iron Woman’ Dash!”

Dash thought of her mom, her dad, her older brother, and the girl who looked up to her like an older sister.

“You saw Scootaloo,” she said. “You know the kind of crap she takes from others! I don’t want her to take it one more day!”

“I don’t either,” Spike replied.

Dash looked at him and asked, “Will my cut be big enough for me to help pay off her student loans?”

“Dash, it’ll be big enough for you to buy her the college!” Spike told her.

“All right, I’m in,” she said.

Suddenly, Rarity felt a familiar presence overtake her.

“She’s been possessed by Nightmare Moon again!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“I thought we had a deal!” Spike told her.

“Spike, my Castle, Impossibly Rich is planning to destroy it because it doesn’t draw in customers,” Nightmare Moon said. “If you don’t do something, I will lose my home.”

“I don’t know what you expect me to do,” he said.

“You’re a Roll Ruler! You know all of the angles! Figure it out!”

Then she left Rarity.

“Rarity, are you all right?” Fluttershy asked.

“I am going to have her exorcized for good one day,” Rarity said. “But I will help you to help her.”

“Does anybody wanna walk away from this?” Spike asked.

Most of them shook their heads.

“Even if I wanted to walk away, a guy doesn’t cut out of a big one like this; not after he passes a certain point along the way,” Soarin said. “Sometimes you got to fight, even if it’s hopeless.”

“Let’s gut the bitch,” Starlight gritted.

“No one messes with Sunset Shimmer’s friends!” Sunset added.

“I’ve always wanted to pull off a casino heist!” Pinkie smiled, super excitedly.

“I never liked Sparkle that much, anyway,” Sunburst admitted. “She’s a control freak.”

“Spike, you’ve always done everything for everyone else, it’s our turn to do the same for you!” Fluttershy put in. “We’ll make Twilight and Impossibly Rich wish they’d never set foot in Las Pegasus!”

“I don’t want to die, but if you gals think it’s worth a shot, then I agree,” Zephyr Breeze joined in. “Let’s do it.”

“Feather Bangs, you’re either in or you’re out,” Spike stated. “Right. Now.”

Feather Bangs waited to answer.

“I love the life too much to give it up,” he said finally. “But I don’t want to end up turning into Sparkle, or worse, the Richs. One day I hope to settle down and, Faust willing, have a wife and kids. So I’m with you.”

“You know what I just realized,” Thorax said. “We add up to nineteen: Spike, my brother and I, our mother, Discord, Applejack, Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Trixie, Rarity, Starlight, Sunburst, Moon Dancer, Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch, Soarin, Zephyr Breeze, and Feather Bangs.”

There was a silence that stretched and then Spike smiled. They all smiled. They were a gang, a crew, a team. They were Spike’s team.

His team, or whatever this was, was large, and it would be effective.

Later that night, Spike and his friends doubled back to the city and set up an observation post on one of the floors near the top of a fenced off construction site close to the Flimflam Brothers’ Resort. The eighteen were sitting in a circle behind Spike, who was looking through a pair of binoculars at the building across the street. A sign that read, “Coming Soon, Rich Towers!” had been put up in front of the main entrance. Adjusting the focus, Spike peered into the board room overlooking the dolphin pool. The same room he and his girlfriends had played Poker in the night he first met Chrysalis. There is where he saw Twilight Sparkle and the Shadowbolt Five.

At that very same moment, Sour Sweet, Sunny Flare, Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap were watching Twilight closely as she threw playing cards into a pile on the table in front of them.

“What’s the count?” she asked them.

“Plus 9,” Sugarcoat said.

“No,” Twilight stated.

“Plus 11,” said Sunny Flare.

“No,” Twilight repeated.

“Dude, I lost count, like, 20 cards ago,” Lemon Zest said.

“Unless you want me to climb across this table and kick your ass, you will never call me ‘dude.’ Ever,” Twilight stated.

“Plus 9?” Sour Sweet guessed.

“You’re just following her!” Twilight shouted, pointing to Sugarcoat. “We had a total of 76 cards that came out of the deck! Twenty-three were high cards with a value of minus one! Seventeen were neutral with no value at all, and the rest were low cards with a value of plus one! How could you lose the count?” she continued to yell. “Let me make one thing clear to you, I am not your friend! And you are not my friends! This is business! You are only as good to me as the money you make, and, right now, it’s not worth a Tartarus of a lot! Every single one of you is going to give back to Impossibly Rich everything you have ever lost!”

Indigo Zap locked eyes with Twilight.

“The count is plus 13,” she said.

“That’s right,” Twilight replied. “She’s the only one who got it right.”

“I may be right, Sparkle, but you stink!” Indigo stated.

“What’s your problem?”

“My problem is that you’re dealing from the bottom!” Indigo shouted as she grabbed Twilight’s arm. “The last card you put down was a King, well there’s a King on the bottom of this deck, ready when you want to pull it!”

She twisted Twilight’s wrist, forcing her to turn the deck over, and to reveal the King of Spades!

“You cheat!” Indigo shouted.

“You’re just ganging up on me because I’m winning!” Twilight countered.

“Yeah, well I’m gonna sort you out!” Indigo stated.

She punched Twilight in the mouth with her free hand, and then flew over the table, tackling her. They rolled around on the floor, ending with Indigo on top, until two other dealers—a young man named Citrus Drops and a woman named Frosty Orange—barged in and tore Indigo off of Twilight, the former telling them to break it up.

“Indigo caught her dealing off the bottom!” Sour Sweet shouted.

“She’s a liar!” Twilight yelled.

“Enough! We’ve had it up to here with you, Sparkle!” Frosty Orange pointed to her own neck as she shouted at Twilight. “You’ve been thrown out of every casino in town!”

“Can I help it if I’m popular?” Twilight retorted.

“We also know that you’ve been stealing from us and selling to the Dragons!” Citrus Drops added.

“Prove it!” Twilight ordered.

“Why are you even here?” Indigo snapped at her. “I mean it. We’re the ones who take all the risks. Seems to me that, aside from lying, stealing, and cheating, you don’t do shit.”

“You are going to pay Impossibly Rich that money you owe, every hay-penny, one way or another... you arrogant, little bitch,” Twilight stated.

The Shadowbolt Five watched Twilight as she turned her back on them and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

“I need a drink,” Lemon Zest sighed. “Anybody else?”

Sunny Flare looked at Sugarcoat, who looked at the floor.

“We don’t need her,” Indigo said.

Sour Sweet opened her mouth to speak, but Indigo cut her off.

“I’m serious. Why do we need her?” she asked. “We were doing just fine without her. You know, her cut was fifty percent as a mole, and she doesn’t even play! Why do we need her? You know what I think? I think we drop these damn uniforms, and everything that they represent, like a bad habit.”

“No, no. I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sunny disagreed. “I think we should figure this out.”

“Well, why don’t we take a vote and let the team decide?” Indigo asked.

“I’m with Sunny Flare,” Sugarcoat said. “This is Rich’s operation. She’s the one who brought us together.”

“And she’s the one who’s driving us apart,” Sour Sweet put in. “You all saw how she played Twilight against Spike. She may give us protection, but she’s more of a mewling quim that Sparkle is. I’m with Zap.”

“Zest?” Indigo asked. “What do you say?”

“You’re talking about risking our very lives here,” Sunny Flare said.

“All right, listen up!” Indigo told them. “We are in a position where we have to make a choice: Spike or Rich. Now, the rest of you don’t understand Spike the way I do, but we all understand Impossibly Rich and very well. So, you gotta ask yourselves one question: do you wanna spend the rest of your already miserable lives in an Impossibly Rich kind of world? Or do you want a piece of the world that Spike has offered me?”

The women all looked at the floor, their eyes full of thought.

“I’m with you, Zap,” Lemon Zest said.

“Okay, yeah,” Sunny Flare slowly agreed.

“I’m with you, too,” Sour Sweet joined in.

“So am I,” Sugarcoat stated.

Citrus Drops and Frosty Orange nodded.

Across the street, atop the construction site, Spike couldn’t help but smile as he read the Shadowbolt Five’s lips. There was a lot of debate, most of it in anger, some of it in worry, but it was all in urgency.

Suddenly, Spike thought of something he should have asked a long time ago.

“Starlight, did you know that Twilight was working for Impossibly Rich?”

“What?” she asked. “Why would you ask me that?”

“You were roommates,” Spike said. “She must have said or done something that made you suspicious... anything?”

Starlight averted her gaze and said, “Yes. She talks in her sleep.”

Spike exhaled and gave a slight roll of his eyes as he handed the binoculars to Sunset Shimmer, who glanced into one of the penthouse suites: Flim and Flam’s former penthouse. Spoiled Rich and Diamond Tiara stood near the center of the room, and seated at a brand new wood desk, was Impossibly Rich. She looked comfortable in the dark safety of her new office.

“There they are, the entire Rich Brood, minus Filthy, living large,” she said, handing the binoculars to Spike for a moment. “And guess who’s with them.”

It was Shining Armor.

Spike stared at him through the binoculars, shocked, as he read their lips.

“There’s a gentleman here to see you, ma’am,” Abacus Cinch said.

“Very well, show him in,” Impossibly Rich replied.

“Yes, ma’am,” Spike gave Sunset back the binoculars just in time for her to watch Cinch say, “She will see you now, sir. Come in.”

“Pardon the intrusion, Miss Rich,” he began. “I am Captain Shining Armor of the Equestrian Secret Service.”

“How can I help you?” Impossibly Rich asked.

She looked almost pleased to see him.

“Actually, it’s what I can do for you,” Shining replied. “I’ve been tracking Spike Drake’s movements since he left here earlier this evening. I have reason to believe he may be planning to crash your grand re-opening later this week, and I’ve come to offer protection.”

“While I appreciate your concern, Captain, my own people provide me with all the security I need. Cinch, I want you to cooperate with the Secret Service in every way,” she said.

“Strictly off the record, what do you think Spike is really up to?” Shining asked Impossibly Rich.

“Well, unless I’m mistaken, that’s what you’re being paid to find out,” she answered.

“Thanks for your help,” Shining said.

“You’re more than welcome, Captain,” she replied.

Shining Armor marched out of the office with Cinch, and she shut the door behind them. That in itself told Sunset there was nothing more worth looking for in the penthouse area. She handed the binoculars back to Spike, then left to rejoin the others, and he peered through them into Room 1215—Lyra and Bon Bon’s suite. Inside, he saw the remains of a supper for two, a basket of fruit, and an open bottle of Champagne in a silver bucket. Eventually, the two women emerged from their bedroom. Their skirts were short, not even knee length, they were wearing dark blouses, the top two buttons were undone, and their legs were bare, no pantyhose.

“And guess who’s with them,” Spike thought.

Filthy Rich!

He looked every bit the wealthy prick he was. A man who was accustomed to being chauffeured around: expensive cashmere overcoat, leather gloves and silk tie. He was carrying his monogrammed briefcase, which he placed on the table.

“We got ‘em!” Spike stated.

“Now, all we have to do is wait,” he added in thought as he read more lips.

“I’m glad you could get away,” Bon Bon said to Filthy.

“Spoiled has been asking all kinds of questions,” he replied.

“You didn’t tell her anything, did you?” Lyra asked.

“Of course not,” he boasted. “Filthy Rich knows how to keep a secret.”

“I bet you do,” Bon Bon commented.

She and Lyra leaned in and touched his cheeks with the back of their forefingers, but Filthy Rich didn’t move. Spike expected Filthy to move his hands, to cup their breasts, even squeeze them, but he didn’t budge.

“Are they still talking?” Rainbow Dash asked Spike.

“Mm-hmm,” he replied. “Wait... Filthy’s leaving.”

“He’ll be back,” Dash said.

“How do you know?”

“Spike, you know from personal experience just how fine Lyra and Bon Bon are,” she told him. “His wife obviously isn’t putting out at home, so he’s got to get it from somewhere else. He’ll be back for them. I guarantee he’ll be back.”

The way Rich had just acted didn’t convince Spike. He continued to follow Lyra and Bon Bon’s path back to their bedroom, and his eyes went wide as the two women started making out while they unbuttoned each other’s blouse.

“What are they doing now?” Applejack asked.

“Not much,” Spike replied.

“Well, don’t fall asleep,” Discord said. “Sooner or later, something’s going to happen.”

“Okay, I’ll try to stay awake. It’s just so boring,”

Spike started to sweat as he watched Lyra and Bon Bon remove their tops.

“Oh, slow down, baby,” he whispered.

“What?” Soarin asked.

“Nothing, I didn’t say anything,” Spike lied.

“You said something,” Thorax said.

“No, I didn’t,”

“We heard you say something!” Pharynx snapped.

“I said nothing!” he kept lying.

Spike shook his head, his eyes still pinned on Lyra and Bon Bon’s legs, breasts and butts. Their asses looked spectacular in those skirts. Then he tugged at his collar as he saw them reach for said skirts. He swallowed hard as the zippers went down, revealing their lace panties (mint green on Lyra, white on Bon Bon) which matched their bras.

“Spike, what is going on?” Zephyr Breeze asked.

“They’re getting undressed,” he said.

“What?” the guys all asked. “Let me see!”

Discord, Soarin, Thorax, Pharynx and Zephyr rushed to Spike’s side, all trying to take the binoculars away from him. Sunburst would have joined them, if Starlight hadn’t glared at him.

“Faust, have mercy!” Spike exclaimed. “They just took their skirts off!”

“I don’t believe this!” Rarity cried.

“This is no fun!” Discord complained. “I can’t see!”

“My turn!” Zephyr shouted. “My turn!”

“Wait a minute!” Spike said. “They’re going back to the living room.”

His eyes focused on the briefcase that Filthy Rich had brought with him and left in their suite. Bon Bon laid the case on its side on the table in front of her, snapped the locks open, and lifted the lid. It was filled with ten thousand brand-new one-hundred-dollar bills, neatly stacked and secured with rubber bands.

“Holy Guacamole!” Spike thought.

The bills looked new but the writing on them seemed blurred. He was too far away to make it out. His glance shifted to Lyra, who had walked to the bathroom, naked, graceful, and completely unself-conscious. Just then, Spike felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw that he’d gotten a text message... from Bon Bon.

“Come on up, you Peeping Tom.”

Spike stared slack jawed at the message. Then he blinked as he lowered the phone and his green eyes shifted back to the Resort.

Lyra and Bon Bon were standing there, looking straight at him.

They smiled at him like they were flattered they had their own personal, private pervert (try saying that five times fast) to spy on them through their windows. Maybe they sensed he had been standing there, minute after minute.

Spike’s gaze moved down to the base of the Resort. He saw three Dragon thugs—Garble, Clump, and Fume—standing guard outside the hotel.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

Even though he was across the street, Spike looked deep into Lyra and Bon Bon’s eyes for a moment. Then he bolted to the site’s stairwell just as Shining Armor exited the Resort. Spike’s friends bounded after him as he raced across the boulevard, toward the resort, once Shining Armor’s car drove away. Garble saw Spike charge him, but Spike was running so fast that he knocked Garble to the ground. He kept going and the other eighteen all bobbed and weaved between the doormen’s flailing arms as they rushed in.

Spike ran into the middle of the lobby, filled with people. Abacus Cinch and the Shadowbolt Five appeared in the crowd. Locking eyes with Spike, they chased him through the casino. The gang veered off in different directions through the rows of slot machines, zigzagging frantically as a pack of grim-faced Dragon enforcers ran after them, tossing people out of their way.

Spike sprinted through the Blackjack area, keeping ahead of Garble and his toadies. He tipped over a room-service cart, spilling food and dishes across the floor. Clump and Fume tripped over the cart and fell on their faces, skidding across the carpeted floor. Swearing furiously, Cinch took off after Spike.

“Get back here, you thief!” she yelled. “Stop those trespassers!”

Swinging wide, Spike ran toward the elevator bank. He kept going, hoping to outrun the sons of bitches, but they were catching up to him—Cinch and the Shadowbolts from one side, Garble and the Dragons from the other.

“Grab him!!” they all shouted.

Spike kept running, even as Twilight appeared in front of him, and he suddenly dove forward. Stretching out his arms, he flew arrow-straight at Twilight before sliding across the tile floor, between her legs, and into the open elevator, thus allowing the Dragons and Shadowbolts to crash into each other and land in a heap on the floor.

As soon as they all hit the ground, Spike jumped up and hit the button for the twelfth floor. He was out of breath by the time he reached it. As the elevator slowly ascended, Cinch and her subordinates shakily rose to their feet.

“Attention all staff! We have an emergency situation! This is not a drill!” Cinch shouted into her radio. “I repeat this is not a drill!”

Up on the twelfth floor, all the elevator doors opened. Spike stumbled out of one elevator, Discord, Chrysalis, Feather Bangs and Rainbow Dash out of another; Applejack, Fluttershy, Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie out of the third; Moon Dancer, Vinyl Scratch, Rarity, Soarin and Zephyr Breeze out of the fourth; and Thorax, Pharynx, Starlight, Sunburst and Trixie out of the fifth.

All nineteen had made it.

Once they were out of the elevators, Discord, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie and Pharynx took a moment to push every single button for ever single floor on every single elevator before the doors closed again.

“That should stall them for a while,” Pharynx said.

Spike nodded and they followed him down the hallway. Spike stopped and stood outside Room 1215 and knocked. Bon Bon opened up and stood back to let them in. She and Lyra were both wearing white bathrobes.

“I’m glad you made it,” Bon Bon said as she closed and locked the door behind them.

“Spike, would you please tell us what’s going on?” Starlight demanded.

“I’m Special Agent Sweetie Drops, Equestria Secret Service,” Bon Bon said.

“And I’m undercover Agent Heartstrings with the Equestria Treasury Department,” Lyra added.

“Show us some badges, right now!” Rainbow Dash demanded.

Lyra and Bon Bon opened the tops of their bathrobes to reveal tiny badges pinned to their bra straps, resting snugly just above their right breasts.

“Satisfied?” Bon Bon asked.

“Let me see that again,” Zeph said. “I-I didn’t get a good look at it.”

“We’ve been working with Shining Armor on this case for months now, so if we seem a little aggravated, I apologize,” Bon Bon told them.

She was looking straight at Spike as she spoke, the way she always had since they first met, like she was interested in him. She probably found it to be a valuable interrogation technique. Ninety percent of asking questions is about listening to answers. Her voice was low and warm and a little husky.

“The Dragons and the Rich Family, they think Shining Armor and we are dirty,” Lyra added.

“Well, I could have told you that,” Chrysalis commented.

“Is that a payoff?” Sunburst inquired about the briefcase full with the packs of brand-new bills.

They were all standing in a line in the middle of the living room. The briefcase was still on a table where Bon Bon had put it down.

“No. That’s a sample,” Lyra said. “You guys ever heard of the ‘superbill’?”

Spike had. “Sometimes called the ‘supernote’ or the ‘superdollar’, it’s supposed to be the mother of all counterfeiting,” he replied. “But it’s just a myth.”

“Spike, honey, it’s far from ‘just a myth,’” Bon Bon said. “And it is so much more than just counterfeiting. Fourteen out of fifteen world banks can’t even tell the difference anymore. The paper is Crane linen blend and the bills are printed on Equestria Intaglio presses.”

“You want to tell us how in the world the Richs got into the Equestria Mint to use the presses?” Discord asked.

“In 1995, Equestria was very friendly with some delegates from Saddle Arabia,” Lyra went on. “Why? We wanted their oil. The Equestrian government gave them a gift: a Canterlot Treasury Intaglio printing press. And it’s the only one to ever leave the country. Twenty years ago, Impossibly Rich bought that press on the Black Market.”

“Twenty years ago?” Spike asked.

“Mm-hmm,” Lyra replied.

“That would have been just before my mother died,” he breathed.

The group stared at him, bewildered.

They didn’t like his tone, or where he was obviously heading.

“Three years ago, Impossibly Rich got a hold of a set of one-of-a-kind Swiss made one hundred dollar front and back engraving plates, and she started printing superbills,” Bon Bon went on.

“That’s why Impossibly Rich had Garble kill Torch,” Spike said quietly, “for his printing plates. She bought off the Dragons that were tired of Torch lording over them, they got rid of him, thereby eliminating her only other competition, and monopolized her business.”

Lyra reached into her bathrobe’s pocket, pulled out a one hundred dollar bill, and gave it to Rarity, who looked it over very closely. It appeared and felt genuine, except for one little detail.

“It’s Chancellor Neighsay, all right,” she said, showing it to Soarin. “You can tell by the beard, but look at the words ‘Federal Reserve Note’.”

“The second ‘E’ in ‘Federal’ is out of line,” he said.

“You’re right,” Applejack added.

“What does that prove?” Pinkie asked.

“Well, every bill is inspected before it’s put into circulation,” Soarin explained. “If they had found that mistake, they would have destroyed the plate.”

Then Bon Bon lifted a single bill from the briefcase and handed that one to Rarity. And like with the previous bill, she inspected it carefully, rubbing the paper between her fingers. It was the best counterfeit bill she had ever seen.

“This is great,” she told Bon Bon. “It is a fake, but a good one. Even I can’t tell the difference.”

“You would need a neutron microscope to tell that one apart from the real deal,” Bon Bon said as she plucked the bill out of Rarity’s hands and gave it to Lyra. “It’s identical right down to the number of hairs in the Chancellor’s goatee. Impossibly Rich brought in an expert to help her. And she has printed two hundred and fifty billion dollars worth.”

Lyra held up the counterfeit bill Bon Bon had given her and held a cigarette lighter under it.

“There’s one surefire way to find fakes: they use an optical transfer ink that burns red,” she said as she proceeded to demonstrate. “The real ink... burns black.”

“So what in the Tartarus is Impossibly Rich going to do with a quarter trillion dollars of phony money?” Feather Bangs asked.

“You’re asking the wrong question, Feather Bangs,” Bon Bon said. “The real question is: where are the plates, because if we can find the plates, then we can stop the whole operation, right?”

“Theoretically, yes,” Moon Dancer said.

A bitter look crossed Spike’s face. He was thinking hard. He had been around the block more times than he cared to count to know that Lyra and Bon Bon were thinking of ways they could use him... and he didn’t mind it at all.

“Haakim and Amira,” he said.

The others looked at him again.

He had seen them sitting at the Blackjack tables, betting the minimum, patiently studying their cards; and playing the maximum at the Roulette wheel. They were playing a progressive system on red at Table Five and had increased their winnings to exactly three million over two months. They were very lucky.

And now, the fact that they were in town at the same time that their former printing press was could not have been a coincidence. The Richs, the Flimflam Brothers, and the Dragon Mafia, and now the Saddle Arabians... the pieces were slowly coming together, but Spike still couldn’t see the picture the puzzle was trying to make. He decided to put the thought aside for now.

He exhaled, thinking he should have seen this coming for a long time.

First his father dying in an explosion, trying to diffuse the same bomb that killed him, then his mother being killed after she and Torch helped the Secret Service bring Impossibly Rich down all those years ago. They had been the only things standing in Impossibly Rich’s way.

Then Spike thought about the conversation between Twilight and the other Shadowbolts a few minutes earlier: they weren’t going to be satisfied with just partial control and partial profits. They wanted the lion’s share. And Spike was beginning to see things that way. He was starting to think like them! He was the one working the floors—why shouldn’t he reap a larger portion of the benefits?

He was broken from his thoughts by Bon Bon’s voice.

“We have something in common,” she said to him. “I want to get close to Impossibly Rich to stop her counterfeiting operation. You want to get close to her to avenge your mother.”

“My mother’s dead. There’s nothing I can do about that now. And that’s not why I’m doing it,”

“You’re wrong,” Lyra said. “We can all tell that it’s still eating away at you. Impossibly Rich is unfinished business. And we all know that you’re the kind of guy who hates unfinished business.”

Spike wanted to deny it, but he couldn’t. And as much as he hated to admit it, he needed them, and they needed him; not only that, he liked them, and they liked him a lot. It was a Catch-22. If Spike was friends with the Richs, then he was Lyra and Bon Bon’s enemy. But if Spike was enemies with the Richs, then Lyra and Bon Bon were ready to be his friends.

Spike nodded. “Just tell me what you need from me.”

Lyra and Bon Bon smiled at him.

“Well, then it’s settled,” Lyra said.

“Welcome aboard,” Bon Bon added. “From this moment on, you are all officially working for the Equestria Secret Service.”

The blood suddenly drained from all their faces when they heard footsteps beyond the door, coming very close to it. The group froze for a moment, and then moved away. They heard voices, rising over the sound of the footsteps.

Spike reached into his pocket, whipped out his cell, and called in a favor.

He texted the Dazzlings: “Rendezvous behind the dumpers in 15 minutes. It’s a matter of National Security! P.S. Rainbow Dash told me about the you-know-what you girls made of me, so you BETTER BE THERE!!!!”

Adagio replied in less than three seconds. They would be there.

Meanwhile, out in the hallway, Abacus Cinch, Twilight, Garble, Indigo Zap, Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest and Suri Polomare stepped out of the elevator with two guests, a pair of high rollers, who had joined the manhunt. Spike’s heart pounded furiously as he signaled his 20 friends to follow him into Lyra and Bon Bon’s bedroom. Spike eyed a window washing scaffold outside the window. They could use that to get to the alley.

But it wouldn’t hold all of them. Some of them could ride the scaffold down, but the others would have to risk taking the secondary door out, through the bedroom, and make a break for the stairwell, to the delivery entrance at the back of the building, or the fire escape. They would have to act fast, as Cinch and her cronies were already storming through the hall.

When Cinch’s master key didn’t work, Garble took a running start and kicked the door open. As soon as Rainbow Dash heard the door fly open, she clung to the wall, kept out of sight, quietly cleared her throat, and put on her best Chicoltgo accent, so that she sounded like a gangster’s moll.

“Hold it right there!” she shouted.

Cinch, her staff, and the two big spenders stopped dead in their tracks.

“This is the casino manager, ma’am!” Cinch announced.

“I knew it was you,” Dash replied, still out of sight. “I could smell you getting off the elevator!”

The Shadowbolts subtly started sniffing themselves (and each other), checking for body odor.

“You was here last night too, wasn’t ya?” Dash added from the bedroom.

Cinch said nothing at first.

“Yes, ma’am,” she confessed. “I was.”

“You was here... and you were smooching with my lover!”

Cinch’s thugs all looked at her, who (for a brief moment) had a look on her face that said, “Did I?”

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken, ma’am,” Cinch replied.

“Don’t give me that crap!” Dash shouted. “You’ve been smooching with everybody! Alizarin Bubblegum, Celery Stalk, Citrus Drops, that delivery girl with the lazy eye, Frosty Orange, Melon Mint... Jet Set!”

One of the high rollers, a young man with rounded glasses who was wearing a green polo shirt with a white sweater draped on his back with the sleeves knotted at the front of his neck, gasped.

The others, including his wife—the other high roller, who was named Upper Crust, a young woman wearing a white top and skirt with a pink sweater draped in the same manner as her husband’s—looked at him with disgust.

“No!” Jet Set protested. “It’s a lie!”

“I could go on forever, baby!” Dash went on.

“I’m terribly sorry, ma’am, but I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” Cinch repeated. “We’re looking for a young man--”

“All right, I believe you,” Dash said as she scrolled through the apps on her phone and opened one that played gun sounds. “But my Tommy gun don’t!”

Cinch and her pawns gasped rather loudly.

“Get down on your knees and tell me you love me!” Dash commanded.

Cinch, Garble, Twilight, Indigo, Sugarcoat, Sunny, Sour Sweet, Lemon Zest, Jet Set, Upper Crust and Suri all got down on their knees, very slowly.

Cinch sighed, and then smiled. “I love you!”

Fluttershy snickered quietly as Dash said, “You gotta do better than that!”

“We love you!”

Spike opened the bedroom window and climbed onto the scaffold with Applejack, Sunset, Fluttershy and Pinkie, while Discord, Chrysalis, Feather Bangs, Moon Dancer, Trixie, Rarity, Starlight and Sunburst walked to the other exit, then ran down the hall and down the winding stairwell, and the rest of the crew—Soarin, Zephyr Breeze, Vinyl, Thorax and Pharynx—took the fire escape.

Rainbow Dash would follow Vinyl and the guys, but she stayed behind with Lyra and Bon Bon to make sure they would ditch Cinch and the others.

“Maybe I’m off my hinges, but I believe you. That’s why I’m gonna let you go,” she said. “I’m gonna give ya to da count-a three to get your lousy, lyin’, low-down, fore-flushing carcass out my door!”

Cinch and her lackeys scrambled to their feet.

“One...”

“Everyone, out the door, now!” Cinch ordered.

“Two...”

As soon as Cinch and her employees were back in the hall, Dash cranked up the volume on her cell phone. She laughed maniacally as the sound of a machine gun firing echoed throughout the twelfth floor. They dropped to the carpet with their hands over their heads, praying for the chaos to end.

“Keep the change, ya filthy animal!” Dash stated.

Then she darted down the hallway to the fire escape.

“Stay in your rooms!” Cinch shouted to guests that had come out of their own suites. “This is an emergency! There’s an insane guest with a gun!!”

Dash crashed through the door that opened out onto the fire escape and spotted Spike with Dazzlings in the alley below. She barreled down the ladder, and then vaulted over the last guard railing at the same instant Discord stepped out of the hotel’s delivery entrance, followed by the rest of the crew.

Meanwhile, back in Suite 1215, Lyra made a call of her own and handed the cell to her partner.

“Spike and the others are all set,” Bon Bon said.

On the other end of the line, Shining Armor smiled. “Then Operation Casino Storm is a go.”

Later that night, the gang followed Spike as he led them down a dark, sleazy alley. A glaring neon sign of a red spider spinning her web caught Spike’s eye and he stopped.

The Widow’s Nest.

This was the place.

“They’ve got pretty good ribs here,” Spike told them.

“What are we doing here?” Rarity asked.

“Following a hunch,” he replied.

Spike moved to the dimly lit front door and knocked three times. There was a moment’s pause, then they heard shuffling from inside. A panel in the door slid open and a pair of huge, ferocious eyes appeared on the other side.

“We’re closed,” a voice grunted, “private party.”

“I’m here to see Smolder,” Spike said evenly.

The eyes went big and the panel slid shut. Whoever was on the other side recognized Spike, and after a rattle of locks and the sound of a beam being slid back, the door swung inward. The bouncer, built like a brick wall, stood in the doorway, beckoning them forward with big, gorilla arms.

“Come on in, Spike,” he said, surprisingly friendly all of a sudden.

He stepped aside for Spike and Spike nodded to him as he entered with his friends right on his heels. When she stepped inside, Rarity’s nose wrinkled at the smell, her ears cringed from the music, and her eyes went bleak at the sight of the décor and the lack of customers. As they moved further into the tawdry little dive, through a dark, dingy passageway, they began to hear noises from somewhere beyond the bar. It sounded like a party: laughter, clinking glasses, high heels scraping against wood.

The hallway ended at a large, steel door. Spike pushed it open, and a blast of smoke and yellow light poured out around him. He and the gang took the last few steps and entered a long, rectangular room with a low ceiling and no windows. To be fair, the interior was as swanky as one could find anywhere in Applewood.

Discord’s eyes widened through the cigar smoke as he counted three Blackjack felts, a Roulette wheel, and two Craps tables, all regulation size, as if stolen right out of a casino. There were no less than 20 people in the room, and over half of them were Dragons. The rest looked to be businessmen in their thirties and forties, many of them dressed in suits and ties. There was another bar running along the far wall, and cocktail waitresses in black dresses moved through the crowd, carrying trays littered with various concoctions.

An underground casino and nightclub in Las Pegasus.

“Oh, I know I don’t see what I think I’m seeing!” Spike shouted.

He searched the room and finally caught sight of the owner, standing next to one of the Blackjack tables. His first instinct was to go over to her, but she came to him. She was wearing a flaming orange jacket and sneakers, a yellow T-shirt with a fireball on the chest, and tight blue jeans. She had baby blue eyes like Fluttershy, high hair the color of orchids, and she stood literally an inch shorter than Spike.

“What are you doing here?” she asked Spike.

“I need to talk to you,” he stated.

The owner led Spike and his friends into her dimly lit office and one of her enforcers closed the door behind them.

“Spike Drake,” she said.

“Smolder Chan,” he replied.

Smolder’s small hands gripped Spike’s shoulders with such surprising strength that she threw herself into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist, grinding her pelvis into his crotch, and kissed him repeatedly; on both cheeks, on the tip of his nose, but mostly on the mouth.

“It’s so great to see you!” Smolder said.

“Faust, girl, you got a tan!” Spike replied.

Las Pegasus had an underside that everyone suspected but never really got to see in action. And Smolder was one of the people who represented the part of Las Pegasus the tourists didn’t read about in the guidebooks.

“I heard you’ve been kicking some serious tail, handsome,” she said.

“Who told you?”

“I’ve got my sources,” she said as she got down and stood on her own feet.

“Garble told you I whipped him in the dance contest,”

“You know my bro,”

“‘Bro’?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Garble’s your brother?”

“All right, you’re obviously here about the funny money,” Smolder said.

“How’d you know?” Pinkie asked.

“C-notes, right?” Smolder inquired.

“Yeah,” Applejack confirmed. “Any of them come through here?”

“A few days ago, Garble brought a new face in and she lost no less five hundred large on the tables in there,” Smolder told them. “I was about ready to tune her ass up myself, but she came back the next day with the whole thing: brand-new one hundred dollar bills, sequential. And I knew they were fakes without even looking at them because this girl’s got a regular day job. I still had ‘em tested, though. But under infrared, they checked out.”

“You still got the bills?” Spike asked.

“Handsome, I’ve still got my lunch money from the third grade!”

“Let me see ‘em,” Spike stated.

Smolder crossed her office to the far wall, to a portrait that hung there: an erotic painting of her and Spike. She lifted the painting off the wall. Behind it was a large, black metal safe. She put one hand on the dial. Then she turned back to look at Spike and his friends. They were looking at her intensely.

She motioned for them to turn their backs, and they did. Smolder watched them turn. Once she was sure that no one was watching, she turned the dial of the safe. She opened the safe’s door; inside lay stacks of cash and gleaming jewels. She reached in, pulled out one crisp $100 bill, and handed it to Spike.

Spike barely looked at it. Then he breathed on it, exhaling a little green flame that ignited the paper.

It burned bright red.

“Eeyup, it’s fake,” Applejack said. “Who’d you say gave that to you?”

“Some lime-haired twat named Lemon Zest, works with my brother at the Rich Plaza on the north side of town,” Smolder replied. “Now she better start hoping that you find her before I do!”

Spike gave Smolder another long kiss on the mouth, with tongue.

“I appreciate it,” he whispered into her ear. “I’ll see you later.”

Back at the soon-to-be opened Rich Towers (formerly Flimflam Resort), Impossibly Rich was yelling at Abacus Cinch and the others. They had gone over the resort several times but there had been no sign of Spike, his friends, or the “insane guest with a gun.” It was like they all just disappeared into thin air.

“No excuses! You all have to be on the same page,” Impossibly told them. “All eyes of Las Pegasus are going to be on me. It has to be perfect.”

She glanced out her window. That’s when she noticed several of her customers entering their limousines and leaving.

“Where the Tartarus are they going?” she asked.

“I don’t really know what’s happening, ma’am,” Cinch replied. “We’ve just lost two dozen of our biggest players without an explanation.”

“Well, get an explanation!” Impossibly Rich shouted. There was a knock at the door. “Who’s there?”

It was Twilight.

“Well, what do you want?” Impossibly Rich asked.

“I regret to inform you that the intruders somehow managed to escape,”

“Miss Sparkle, there’s something stuck to your back,” Cinch said.

It was a note.

“It seems to be a message for you,” Cinch said to Impossibly Rich.

“Go ahead, read it,” she replied.

Cinch nodded. “‘I am going to bring you down. If you want to try and stop me, go ahead. It will be that much more fun, and infinitely more satisfying, for me when you fail, you bitch.’”

“That’s the Serpent’s son, all right,” Impossibly Rich said. “I was really hoping that he wouldn’t try to avenge her death. Well, this time, I will kill him!”

Next time, Spike and the girls are captured and Spike faces Impossibly Rich’s ace in a game of Russian roulette!