The next day, Spike and his crew stepped through the entrance to the Rich Plaza, wondering what they had gotten themselves into. Helping Shining Armor, Lyra and Bon Bon bust a counterfeiting operation was a big deal. A counterfeiting operation that had printed two hundred and fifty billion dollars was even bigger; probably the biggest in Equestria’s history.

The Plaza’s lobby was full of the usual kind of activity. A couple of bellboys moving luggage carts, janitors sweeping while the maids dusted and vacuumed, a messenger was dropping off something at the front desk... and that’s where Spike and company saw their target: a young woman in a maroon jacket and plaid skirt with a set of pink headphones over her ears—Lemon Zest.

She saw them coming and she took off running.

With a snarl, Spike took off in pursuit. He and his friends chased her across the lobby, down a short hall, through the door to the loading dock behind the building. An 18-wheeler was parked in the big space, and thirteen Dragons in black suits with submachine guns stood in front of it. When they saw Spike, they all turned and aimed at his head, but they didn’t shoot. And in the middle of the group was none other than Twilight Sparkle.

Spike looked into her face. Her eyes were smiling and cold.

“The great Spike Drake,” she said.

She grinned at him; a lunatic’s grin. She reeked with the smell of pineapple. Spike had little doubt that he would break out in hives from the perfume alone if she came any closer. She was ten feet away.

“You know, the last time we spoke, you were quite rude to me,” she added.

“I apologize,” he replied. “When you work for someone powerful sometimes the collar can get a little tight.”

She stared at him, like a challenge. The Dragons’ guns didn’t move.

“Stay alive,” Spike told himself in thought. “Keep them alive,” he thought about his friends. “See what the next minute brings.”

He spent the next two seconds running the odds in his head... and they were not good. Not good at all. Then the whole game changed again.

Two more familiar faces came out of the crowd. It was Lyra and Bon Bon.

“I think there is someone who would like to talk to them first,” Bon Bon said to Twilight.

She and Lyra vanished back into the crush of Dragons that were still staring at Spike. Then Twilight kicked Discord in the mouth and he fell to his knees. Discord felt inside his mouth. He touched one of his front teeth with two fingers, checking to make sure it was still tightly attached to his gums. It was, but blood stained his fingers.

“You are going to pay for that,” he told Twilight.

Then Twilight slapped Discord backhanded across the face.

“I have never hit a woman in my life,” he said. “But you are pushing it!”

Spike knew they were in for it now and part of his mind slowly digested the knowledge, wondering how it was going to be done. But at the same time, another part told him that he was about to discover what he wanted to know, what he had returned to Las Pegasus to find out, and he would get his answers soon. He tried to shout when strong hands suddenly wrapped around his arms and a black canvas bag came down over his head, muffling his voice.

He felt himself lifted and half carried, half dragged across the loading dock. Then Spike heard a door open and close, and he was tossed into what he was sure was a basement, well below street level. The air was heavy with the stink of smoke and ink, and with each step, the stench grew stronger. Then the canvas bag was ripped off his head to reveal Garble, Sour Sweet, Sunny Flare, Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest, Indigo Zap, Lyra, Bon Bon, Shining Armor, Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis and Zecora standing over him, frowns on their faces.

They were in a large room with a cold concrete floor that was puddled in spots from the water that seeped through the pipes overhead. It was bare except for half a dozen steel tables, one of which had a unique design. It had a downward slope cut into the center, which led to a concealed chamber below. The air was damp and musty and light bulbs hung in wire cages close to the ceiling.

“No cameras down here,” Spike observed.

“This is an interrogation room, created for the sole purpose of reforming the card counters and cheaters,” Sunny Flare explained. “It’s locked, sealed and completely soundproof.”

“Yeah... you probably don’t want anybody to see what goes on in here,”

They ignored Spike’s comment.

Spike looked at his friends. The women were all pale and trembling. An urge to cry gripped Fluttershy, but she quelled it. Crying wouldn’t accomplish anything, not wanting to admit she was as frightened as the other women who clustered together, holding on to one another. But she was more afraid than she’d ever been in her life. She could barely swallow from fear; a cold numbness stole across her.

“Don’t look so frightened, Fluttershy,” said Sour Sweet.

“Let us go,” she said softly.

“What did you drag us here for?” Rarity demanded. “What do you want?”

They heard the sound of feet on the floor in the nearby corridor... and a voice. Then a woman appeared. She was wearing a shiny black suit, different from her usual maroon, and she had on a blue tie.

“Directly below us is a room full of printing presses turning out enough counterfeit money to flood the world,” she said.

“And who the Tartarus are you?” Spike demanded.

Spike knew who she was, he had seen her many times with Impossibly Rich, but they had never been formally introduced.

“Spike, that’s Abacus Cinch!” Rarity said. “She’s Impossibly Rich’s CM!”

“This is bad!” Starlight added. “This is real bad!”

“Do you think a rotten delinquent like you will ever be allowed to meet Impossibly Rich on your terms? That is out of the question,” Cinch said. “But if you absolutely insist on going after her, you’ll have to go through me first.”

She paused only to take a breath.

“I could have had Garble kill you at the Hard Rock,” she said.

“Then why didn’t you?” Spike asked.

“You have cost us time, money, and effort. You have damaged my organization and my pride,” Cinch said. “I was curious to see what kind of a man you were. I thought there might even be a place for you with us. Unfortunately, I misjudged you. You are just a stupid womanizer whose luck has finally run out.”

Then Twilight stepped forward. Her eyes were greedy, longing for an excuse to kill Spike, wanting him to try something.

“Now, I suppose you want me to explain to you why I’m tormenting you,” she said to him.

“I’m sure they would like to know,” he jerked his head toward his friends.

Twilight slid her left hand into her jacket and pulled out four playing cards with the Sun on one side and a series of sapphire numbers on the other: an Ace, a Five, a Six, and a Nine.

“Spike, I challenge you!” Twilight shouted.

Spike didn’t answer her, he just blinked.

“Spike, I’m challenging you to a Gate Battle and you have to accept it!”

So that was it, Spike thought. Twilight had become desperate enough to challenge him to a formal rematch—the one right given to any employee who wanted to play any other employee they wanted just once to one big game with no upper betting limit—as a last ditch effort to regain some of their status within the casino hierarchy. And if the bet amount was reasonable, the person being issued the challenge was not allowed to refuse no matter what. Another unwritten rule prevented Gate Holders from refusing Gate Battles, so Spike’s hands were tied.

“Twilight isn’t a Gate Holder, but she’s a far more talented dealer than you,” Cinch said. “The Gates you won from Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich belonged to Impossibly Rich. They were supplied from her own personal collection.”

“So that’s it,” Discord said quietly.

“Twilight’s my ace,” Cinch told him. “I sent her to you as part of Impossibly Rich’s plan to take over the Flimflam Brothers’ Resort. And now, it’s finally ours.”

“I don’t think so,” Spike said.

“I hacked Micro Chips’ game at the Gamers’ Convention myself and everything after that went exactly as I planned it!” Twilight replied.

“Why?” Spike asked. “Why would you do that? Why would you do this?”

“You don’t know? You really don’t know?” Twilight asked. “I wanted to get my revenge on you... and your mother, Barbara Drake!”

“Barbara?” Sunset asked.

“My mother?” Spike asked. “Why? She did nothing to you!”

“You may think she’s a saint, but I know the truth!” Twilight went on. “All because of that woman, my family was torn apart! It was all Barbara’s fault!”

“What are you talking about?” Applejack asked.

“My family has always struggled to stay together,” Twilight said. “I thought my father loved my mother with all of his heart. They were so happy together... until you and Barbara showed up! My father left my mother for your mother!”

Suddenly, Spike’s mind flashed back to the day he’d arrived in Canterlot with his mother, Barbara. Twilight and Shining Armor had come home from playing at a friend’s house, and there Barbara had sat in the parlor.

“I was there...” he breathed.

“You finally remember,” Cinch said.

Spike also remembered how Barbara rose to her feet, the way she looked at Twilight and her brother, her eyes warm and soft as if they were her own children. Twilight would never forget that. To her, it had all been a lie!

“This is a very special friend of mine,” Night Light had said with love in his eyes as he took Barbara’s hand in his.

And in that moment, Twilight discovered just how special this “friend” was to her father. When Barbara came forward to hug them, Twilight pushed her away.

“My parents stayed together after your mother’s death, but their marriage has barely survived since,” Twilight continued. “I discovered the truth much later. That woman, your mother Barbara, stole my father’s love for us!”

“Twilight’s father and Spike’s mother have something of a history together,” Cinch explained. “Even after Night Light married Twilight Velvet, he and Barbara continued to see each other privately. Barbara entered the home under the guise of an old friend... Barbara then took that opportunity to seduce Twilight’s father.”

“That’s why their marriage almost fell apart!” Twilight spat. “He would have abandoned us for that horrible woman!”

“My mother would never betray anyone like that!” Spike stated.

“Are you calling me a liar?” Twilight shouted. “I saw them leaving together with my own eyes!”

“Wait!” Rarity exclaimed. “Does that mean...? Spike and Twilight are...?”

“That’s right,” Cinch stated. “They’re half-siblings. They have different mothers, but they’re related by blood.”

“You mean, this whole time, Twilight’s been lusting after her half-brother?” Pinkie asked. “That’s DISGUSTING!!”

“You are NOT my family!” Twilight yelled at Spike. “I decided a long time ago that if I couldn’t have your love, then no one could! Because of my father’s experience, I vowed never to fall in love and appear foolish, never to be the discarded object of a man’s whimsy. Never. Now, I will have my well-deserved revenge! Even if your mother didn’t steal my father from me and my mother, you still destroyed me when you came to Las Pegasus. You tore me apart from my brother! And I will NEVER forgive you for that! Now, I’m going to return the favor! I’ll take the last thing tying you to your mother, your Gates!”

Twilight’s face was distorted by her fury as she grabbed Spike’s cheeks and forced her mouth onto his. She sucked on his bottom lip and then nipped into it as she pulled away. The sting of pain caused Spike to flinch and he eyed her with a sour expression as she smirked. He spat in her face and punched her in the mouth, knocking her into Shining Armor.

Twilight loathed Spike, and it hadn’t taken him long to protest against the intimacy of her kiss; he was ablaze, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as if he had tasted pure evil. This was hatred. But it was a passionate hatred, alive and searing. It caused him to stare at her with his emerald eyes aflame. And she had swept into the very core of his being, hating him anew with her own fire. In silence she swore against herself, and she swore against him.

“There’s no need for this violence,” Cinch told him.

“You might as well give up now,” Twilight added. “Las Pegasus isn’t big enough for the both of us!”

“No,” Spike said. “You broke rule number one, and that has consequences.”

“What rule was that?” Twilight asked conceitedly.

“Being arrogant with people’s lives... just so you can beat me in a game,”

“No one can be better than me!” Twilight stated. “I laid awake in bed for three weeks in a row trying to figure out how to finally best you. And the only way to know who the best is for sure is to play the same game.”

“It’ll take more than a regular game to settle this,” Spike replied.

Twilight stood quiet for a moment. Then she reached into her jacket again. This time, she pulled out a huge stainless steel .44 Magnum Revolver. It was thirteen and a half inches long and weighed almost four pounds.

“You ever played Russian roulette?”

Spike said nothing, just looked at her.

“You ever played Russian roulette?” she asked again.

“Never,” he said.

“Play Russian roulette with me,”

“What would that prove?”

“A federal agent wouldn’t do it,”

“I’m not a federal agent,”

“Don’t give us that crap,” Sugarcoat said flatly. “We may not know exactly who you are, who you work for, how much you know, why you carry that gun, where you learned to handle it, or how you came to be tied in with the EBI in the shape of Special Agents Sweetie Drops and Shining Armor, but we know you’re a cop or a private eye of some sort. You look like one and you behave like one.”

“I’m not a private eye,”

“Prove it. Play with me,” Twilight said.

“Why would I ever agree to that?” he asked.

“Why else?” she replied. “For the thrill of putting your life on the line! The risk of gambling is the greatest pleasure anyone can feel! Money’s not enough anymore. No matter how much I win or lose, I don’t feel a thing. That doesn’t matter... You and I are the same. We’re perverts who get off on the thrill!”

Spike just stood there, looking at Twilight.

“The rules are simple,” Cinch said. “Load as many bullets as you want into the gun and spin the cylinder. The maximum you can load it with is six. You can put a bullet in every chamber, or not a single one and choose to leave it empty. Once that’s done, you both will conceal your weapons so that no one can tell the difference. You will then take the guns and pull the trigger once. Whoever takes a bullet to the head loses! Well?”

Spike still said nothing.

“Let’s have the best game and the best killing that we possibly can,” said Twilight. “And don’t worry; you don’t usually die from one shot... Or maybe you’re worried about what will happen if you kill me? You idiot! Don’t worry! Cinch will take care of everything. After all, a casino shooting would ruin her reputation. She’ll make sure nobody will ever find out. Honestly, you don’t have to worry about a thing. So, come on, let’s play!”

“You’re completely out of your mind,” Rainbow Dash stated.

Spike stood silent, gathering his strength and his courage. It would be a waste of time to argue or try to escape. But he had gotten out of worse jams. So long as they didn’t intend to kill him. He could have easily killed Twilight then, and he wanted to. But then they would have killed him. His only chance of getting himself and his friends out was to do it their way.

“It is a little crude and primitive for a game of chance,” Spike admitted, “especially one where you bet your very life, but if it means that much to you, then... I accept.”

“What?” Rarity exclaimed. “You can’t possibly--!”

“But only on three conditions,” he added. “First, I’ll play as many games as you want me to, but only if Applejack gets to be the ref. And finally, the loser must pay one trillion dollars to the winner. If you break any of those, then you forfeit and we all get to walk out of here.”

Sour Sweet laughed. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

“You’re trying to set the conditions... for me?” Twilight asked. “And they say I’m crazy. Let me think... one trillion, huh? That’s fine, I don’t care about money. That’s not the point here. And I don’t care if Applejack can be the referee. You’re worried I’m going to cheat? I don’t blame you. But I have to ask... why would you ever agree to as many games as I want? Are you trying to set us up for a stalemate? Or maybe you’re planning on miraculously missing with every single shot you take!”

Spike didn’t say.

“That’s why I still like this kid,” Garble put in. “He knows how to keep things interesting. But we’ll need some kind of insurance. So, I’m adding one rule of my own: every shot you miss means your opponent can take one shot at you. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes, that’s fine,” Spike replied.

“That’s the spirit!” Garble shouted. “Let’s get started!”

“Don’t do it!” Applejack told Spike. “Even if you win, you still can’t miss on purpose! One of you is going to get shot!”

Spike wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace.

“AJ, I’ll be fine,” he whispered into her ear. “Have a little faith. Remember, I have Lady Luck on my side. I will win.”

He was extremely overconfident.

Spike finally pulled away and Twilight sneered at his girlfriends.

“Your precious boy toy is going to lose,” she told them, “because unlike him I couldn’t care LESS about my ‘friends’!”

“The final Gate Battle is about to begin!” Cinch said to no one in particular.

Spike and Twilight moved to the customized table with the slope and chamber and sat across from each other as his harem spoke to one another.

“He’s putting too much faith in us,” Sunset said.

“He might die,” Coco replied.

“Kick her ass, Spike!” Dash shouted.

“Fuck her up!” Chrysalis added.

Twilight slapped the barrel of the gun into her left palm and took her right hand away. She leaned over the steel table and held the thing out to Spike, butt-first, left-handed, like a store clerk. Spike took the gun from her, cracked open the cylinder, checked it, and looked down the barrel. It was a working piece. It was brand new. It had never been fired.

“By the way, you don’t need to say how many bullets you put in,” Cinch told him as she handed Twilight a second, identical revolver. “But I’ll admit something to you... Miss Sparkle’s putting in six of six!”

“Is she stupid?” Dash thought. “That’s suicide!”

Garble approached the table with a box full of ammunition, but it wasn’t all live. Some of them were blanks... probably there just for added effect. Spike reached into the box, took out a few bullets, and the bullets changed into little lizards while Twilight’s revolver turned into a snake that curled around her arm. But it was all just an illusion.

“That’s...” Starlight breathed.

“The Roll Ruler,” Trixie explained. “It’s a mind control technique.”

Moon Dancer nodded.

“I thought its purpose was to control your opponent,” Rarity said.

“With both players using their Roll Rulers, we are beginning to feel the effects of the Gate Battle,” Trixie replied.

Then they started loading bullets. Twilight thumbed her six in at random, closed the cylinder, and spun it free. The ratchet purred in silence. Spike mirrored her movements. He slapped it back together and put it down. Both guns slid down the ramp and into the concealment chamber beneath them. Then Cinch opened the chamber and gave each of them a gun.

“All we can do now is pray,” Applejack thought.

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight said to Spike. “You know what’s coming, so I hope you’re ready... I’ll be remembered for getting rid of you.”

Her smile faded as Spike glared at her. Then she made another mistake.

“If you don’t pick up that gun in ten seconds, I will shoot you!” she stated as she pointed her Magnum at his head.

“Sparkle,” he said, “I don’t recommend pulling the trigger on that revolver.”

Her eyes shifted to the gun, which was in her right hand.

“That’s my gun,” Spike added. “Look at the cylinder. You’ll notice that it has a scratch on one of the chambers. I also stuffed the barrel with one of my handkerchiefs and filled the chamber with three bullets. So there’s a fifty percent chance that it will misfire... and you’re the one taking the risk.”

Twilight remained silent.

“I lied,” he said at last. “I didn’t put a single live bullet in. Just blanks.”

“What?” Dash exclaimed. “Are you serious?”

“Damn you, you bastard!” Twilight thought. “Damn you! Damn you, damn you, damn you!”

Spike watched her gun hand. Her wrist was small and her finger wasn’t hard on the trigger anymore.

“Spike, what’s the matter with you?” Zephyr Breeze shouted. “Stop messing around! Losing on purpose won’t prove anything!”

Twilight looked at Zeph, her teeth clenched, then at Spike, then at her gun.

“I’m not too proud to beg,” he added, “but taking pity on her isn’t kindness! It’s a lie! Why aren’t you taking this seriously? Give it your best!”

“How much longer do you intend to keep this up?” Twilight demanded. “Quit making a mockery of me, Spike!”

“I always give it my best,” he said. “Luck has always been on my side. And I will not lose.”

Spike took up his own Magnum, emptied it, and reloaded it with a single bullet. He jerked his hand to snap the cylinder shut, spun the cylinder, raised the revolver, and touched the muzzle to his temple. The steel was cold and hard. Spike looked Twilight straight in the eye and held his breath as he eased the trigger back. The cylinder turned and the hammer cocked. The action was smooth, like silk rubbing on silk. He pulled the trigger all the way. The cylinder turned and the hammer fell. There was a loud click. Spike felt the smack of the hammer pulse all the way through the steel to the side of his head. But he felt nothing else. He breathed out and lowered the gun and held it with the back of his hand resting on the table. Then he turned his hand over and pulled his finger out of the trigger guard. He was still alive.

“Your turn,” he said. “Or do you want me to go again?”

Spike picked up the revolver again, spun the cylinder, and let it slow and stop. He raised the muzzle to his head; the barrel was so long his elbow was forced up and out. He pulled the trigger. There was a loud click in the silence. He lowered the gun and spun the cylinder a third time. He raised the gun, pulled the trigger, and nothing. He did it a fourth time, fast. Nothing. He did it a fifth time, faster. Still nothing. He smiled as he spun the cylinder a sixth time and raised the gun to his head again.

“Odds are six to one,” he said as he held the gun to his head. “One in six... There’s one chance in six. Like one throw... of the dice.”

The room went completely silent. Spike pulled the trigger and felt the smack of the hammer falling on an empty chamber. Nothing else.

He pulled the trigger six times and didn’t die.

“How did he do that?” they all thought.

“Enough,” Cinch stated.

Spike lowered the revolver, cracked the cylinder open, and dumped the lone bullet out on the table. They were all looking at him like he was a wild animal. Like maybe they wished there were bars between him and them. His lack of fear was unnerving.

“You’re cold,” Sour Sweet said. “You’re not even a little scared to pull that trigger. You’re a freaking sadist!”

“You should know by now that there’s no way you can beat me,” Spike said to Twilight.

“There’s no way I can win!” Twilight thought. “At this rate, I’m going to lose for sure!”

Spike and Twilight both emptied their weapons, including the handkerchief which Twilight pulled out of her barrel, and they repeated the reloading process, but without any blanks. They didn’t even bother to conceal them this time.

“That wasn’t very kind of you,” Spike said. “As your punishment, I put only two bullets in the cylinder.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, one of my chambers has a bullet in it,” she said. “I’ll pull the trigger once and if nothing happens, I’ll do whatever you want.” She thumbed back the hammer. “But if it should fire, it’ll blow your face inside out. What do you think? Does that sound fair?”

Spike said nothing. The room was silent.

“Come on! I know you’re not scared of getting shot! There’s a five out of six chance to screw me. If I was in your place, I’d take me up on that offer,” she said. “In your place... That’s it! We’ll switch!”

She twirled the gun in her hand so that the barrel was pointed at her now.

“You shoot!” she told him. “If the gun doesn’t fire, you just walk away. Of course, if it does... well I certainly won’t be in any position to resist after that, so you can do whatever you want with me. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain, right? Come on! Do it! Your only choice is to take this gun and fire! So, do it! Come on! Do it now!”

Spike slowly reached out and spun her gun so that she was pointing it at him again, and not herself.

“You better make sure you don’t miss,” he told her, “because if you do, every bone in that hand will be broken before you can reload.”

Twilight stared at him with wide eyes. Her blood rained out of her face and fury swarmed it... and fear.

“I can’t believe it! I never thought a guy like you would ever appear in real life! I’ve been searching for so long... for the greatest man imaginable, for someone as flawless as you are, for someone just like Impossibly Rich! Please, control me, Spike! Control me like all the other girls! I want you to be the one to dominate me! I will give my everything to you! Rule over me! Rule over all I am! It has to be you! It has to be! Now!!”

Spike didn’t say anything.

“Don’t even try to hide it. You and I are the same. You want to feel the risk of death if you lose just like I do!” Twilight shouted.

Spike didn’t, nor did he feel any fear at that moment.

His lack of fear made him a great gambler.

And it was the reason he was going to win.

“Pathetic,” he stated. “One look and I knew instantly that you were trying to lose. Otherwise, why would you agree to let Applejack be the ref? The only reason you were unafraid to pull the trigger the first time was because you didn’t care if you were in danger. That’s fine, though. This, however, is just SHAMEFUL! Your cheats were made to be found out. You can’t possibly have done all this just to win a game against me, so why? Victory is different for you. For you, victory is death! That is the ONLY way you will ever win against me!”

Twilight turned pale.

Spike was right.

He took her cheating into account and then incorporated it into his own plan.

It was like punching her in the gut.

“You knew you would win, so why did you even put any bullets in your gun?” she asked. “You could’ve left it empty. Putting those bullets in the chamber just increased the chance you might get shot.”

“There are six chambers in the revolver, which means that after I put in two, I left four empty,” he growled. “Yes, there’s always a chance that one bullet would be fired. If you decided to load one or two, then there was a decent chance that I’d get shot. Russian roulette is NOT gambling! It’s stupid! It’s pointless and it’s not even entertaining! And I am nothing like you! We are NOTHING alike! To you, money and life are one and the same. No one with even HALF a brain in their skull would EVER trust their very life to a roll of the dice! And yet they do it, anyway... and they LOVE it! You flock like a sheep to the slaughterer because the only way you can feel ANYTHING is to risk it all! Gambling is only fun because BOTH sides have the chance to feel pleasure or pain! So why are you trying to monopolize it all for yourself? You don’t enjoy the risk! You just want to DIE!! YOU’RE THE TYPE OF CREATURE I HATE MORE THAN ANY OTHER!!! SO, YOU WANT TO HEAR THE TRUTH!?! YOU!!!! PISS!!!!! ME!!!!!! OFF!!!!!!!”

Twilight was motionless.

There was a long pause as everyone, Spike’s friends, his harem, the Dragons and Cinch’s underlings stared at them. They had all just witnessed the final, and humiliating, defeat of the former Princess of Friendship!

“This was a waste of time,” Spike said finally. “Now!”

Applejack reached for a rope that hung at her waist. She swung it as if it were a whip, snared a steel beam that was lying on the floor, and yanked hard, pulling the beam towards her, and knocking Sour Sweet, Sunny Flare and Sugarcoat’s legs out from under them.

Spike’s right hand grabbed Twilight’s neck while his left hand took the gun out of her right hand. It dropped to the floor and sounded exactly like four pounds of steel hitting a concrete floor. Then Spike leaped into the air and kicked her in the chest, sending her flying across the room. She staggered to her feet as she reached into her jacket and pulled out another gun. But before she could pull the trigger, a jet of green fire spewed from Spike’s mouth and, before her astonished eyes, Twilight’s gun began to melt until all that was left was a lump of hot metal.

As she tried to shake the molten goo from her hand, Spike made his move. He punched her once, twice, three times, until she fell to the ground again. Then the Shadowbolts and Dragons all opened fire. As his friends scattered, Spike ran sideways, up and across the wall. He wrapped Charcoal’s arm around him from behind and shot his gun at Backdraft. Sunset ducked as bullets pierced the metal pipes she and Fluttershy were hiding behind. Applejack grabbed one of the fallen revolvers, returned fire, and the Shadowbolt Five retreated.

Garble pulled out an Uzi and aimed at Spike. As the shots missed, chunks of concrete exploded from the walls. Spike hid behind a wall as Garble walked through the smoke, his gun at the ready. Spike dived out from behind the pipes and pinned Garble to the ground. Fizzle’s gun sprayed the walls, all around. The noise was deafening. Spent shell cases were spitting out and bouncing around, raining down everywhere. Backdraft blasted the ceiling with fifteen shots, bam bam bam, over half the magazine. The chamber was instantly full of bitter smoke and chips of concrete were flying everywhere.

More Dragons and Rich employees rushed into the room and fired into the dust. Spike and Applejack stood and returned fire. Maar and Cinders pulled pistols and Applejack shot the guns out of their hands. Spike dodged as Garble resumed firing back. They continued to trade gunfire and bullets sparked against the pipes.

Garble aimed at Spike again and Spike leaned back as the first bullet fired at him. The bullets shot through the air over his body, one barely missed his leg, another, his arm. He fell to the ground, and then looked up. Garble stood over him, aiming at Spike’s head.

CLICK!

Empty.

Running out of ammo, everyone dropped their guns and put up their fists.

Fume was the first to try his luck. He leaped at Spike, fists swinging. But Spike effortlessly ducked out of the way, countering Fume’s feeble attack with a roundhouse punch that lifted Fume off his feet and slammed him across the floor. Clump charged Spike, screaming. Spike simply stepped aside and Clump ran head first into the wall, knocking himself out.

Garble attacked and Spike blocked his punches with one hand behind his back. Two more Dragons—Barry and Billy—joined in and Spike locked two of their arms together before kicking Whip away. The two broke free and Spike jumped into the air between them. He hovered, neck-high, kicking Billy and Barry against a wall, and they slammed against it before they fell unconscious. As Spike countered Garble, he flipped over Whip, kicking him into the wall after them.

After Spike back flipped, Garble froze for a second. Then he moved.

He head butted Spike, then Spike grabbed Garble by the throat and head butted him again and again before punching Garble, sending him flying across the room. Garble lunged at him. Spike blocked his blows, and then hit Garble in the face. Garble fell, denting one of the steel tables with his head. Spike kicked Garble to his feet, and then knocked him against another table. Garble kicked at Spike, but Spike grabbed his rival’s foot and threw him across the room again.

Garble looked up from the floor, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, Spike glared down at him as he struggled to stand. Then Spike grabbed Garble and beat him to the ground again with his fists. Garble thudded to the floor as Twilight flew at Spike, her hands flailing.

“Bastard!” she screamed.

Spike barely protected his face, catching her clawing fingers in the nick of time before getting both hands around Twilight’s neck and squeezing her throat. She thrashed around wildly, fighting back. Spike shifted his grip and squeezed harder. Then Twilight did the dumb thing and gave up on Spike’s eyes, reached down, and went for his wrists. Spike only let go when more joined the fight.

Nineteen of them against a mob, but Spike, Applejack, Thorax, Pharynx, Rainbow Dash and Soarin had been trained in every known brand of fighting, especially dirty. As the charge met the thin rank, it slowed, crumpled and collapsed. They fought a grudging rearguard of action and their wake was dotted by men and women who clutched their faces, their middles and their groins, swearing, and, in two instances, throwing up.

Spike’s fists sledge-hammered into one face after another until there was a sharp thud when Bon Bon hit him from behind with the butt of her gun, right behind his ear, and he slumped to the floor. There was a blur, and nothing more. He fell and the world faded when he hit the ground. Fluttershy screamed with horror as Spike went down. She stared at him, frozen.

“Tie their wrists and put them in the truck,” Cinch ordered.

Clump and Backdraft got down on their knees and took hold of Spike’s shoulders as Cinch walked toward the exit. Her face showed neither pleasure nor excitement. They yanked Spike to his feet and dragged him toward the narrow door leading out of the chamber. The last thing he saw was Fluttershy being grabbed painfully by her hair before being cast over one of those bastards’ shoulders and held there forcibly. Then it all went black.

---

Spike regained his senses lying with his back flat against a wall with his hands above his head. Opening his eyes, just enough to get some idea of what was happening around him. He tried to lift his head, and felt a filthy stench flood his nostrils, burning his eyes. Slowly, carefully, Spike turned his head. He glanced around and saw that he was in a large rectangular container, a semi truck’s trailer, filled with over two dozen stone statues of ancient warriors wielding all kinds of weapons. He then glimpsed the borderline conscious forms of his friends, and like him, their hands were tied, suspended over their heads by thick black ropes.

Soarin was on Spike’s right, Applejack was on Spike’s left, Rainbow Dash was to Soarin’s right, and Sunset Shimmer was to Applejack’s left, Zephyr Breeze was on Dash’s right, and Fluttershy was on Sunset’s left, Discord was on Zephyr’s right, and Pinkie was on Fluttershy’s left.

So, on one wall, from the front to back, it was Pinkie, Fluttershy, Sunset, Applejack, Spike, Soarin, Rainbow Dash, Zephyr Breeze and Discord. And on the other side, across from them, it was Chrysalis, Starlight, Sunburst, Moon Dancer, Vinyl, Thorax, Pharynx, Trixie, Rarity, and Feather Bangs.

Spike was sore all over. He felt as if, while he had been unconscious, one of Cinch’s thugs had tried to tie him into a pretzel. His head throbbed, and every breath he took brought a painful response.

“What happened?” he groaned. “What hit me?”

“Bon Bon knocked you out, that’s what happened!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “She, Lyra, Fleur, Fancy, Zecora, Shining Armor, they all played you!”

“No, they saved our lives,” Spike said hoarsely.

“What?!” Dash exclaimed.

“Twilight would have killed us,”

“Spike, look at us, we’re as good as dead!”

“Stop your whining, Crash!” Spike shouted.

“Or what?” she dared him. “What are you gonna do if I don’t stop?”

“I’ll bitch slap you all the way back to Cloudsdale!”

“I’d love to see you try!” Dash yelled. “I will bite your damn nose off!”

She struggled to get close to him, which was impossible since Soarin hung in between them. So she knocked Soarin into Spike like a Newton’s cradle.

“Spike, how did you know that the gun would never fire when you pulled the trigger?” Fluttershy asked. “Please. I need to know why.”

“Russian roulette is a lot safer than people think,” he replied. “You think the odds are six to one—they’re closer to six hundred or six thousand to one.”

“Huh?” they all asked.

“Bullets are surprisingly heavy,” Spike told them. “The revolvers we used weighed less than four pounds, and each live bullet was about 15 grams apiece. A difference of six bullets means the gun itself was roughly ten percent lighter. That’s what happens to police officers who sit behind desks: they forget things like that. Like the weight of a gun that’s loaded and one that’s not. You put a single heavy bullet in a well-made, well-maintained weapon like that revolver and it would be a miracle if the cylinder came to rest with the bullet near the top. The momentum of the spin always carries it to the bottom. A precision mechanism, a little oil... and the law of gravity still applies.”

Applejack smiled. “That’s right,” she said.

“I-I can’t believe it,” said Sunset. “You-you could tell just by holding it? That’s inhuman.”

“And how did you know that Twilight would cheat?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m a dealer. I can tell a cheater from their gestures, their mannerisms, even the look in their eyes,” Spike answered.

“You really are amazing,” Fluttershy breathed.

“And Twilight lost...” Dash said, “... all over her ego.”

Spike looked to his right, then to his left, past Rainbow Dash, to the rest of the girls. At first, he felt sorry for them. Their naked legs looked so childlike and defenseless. His second reaction was one of admiration.

Then he cursed himself for allowing them to be trussed up like chickens, having their skirts and other clothes torn.

“I’m sorry everyone,” he said softly. “This is my fault. I’ve been a lousy friend, blind to what I have. I was so obsessed with Impossibly Rich, so caught up in wanting to make her pay for what she’d done to others that I put your lives at risk. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Spike...” Fluttershy began.

“Shh,” Rarity said. “Darling, don’t interrupt.”

They were going to die. Half of Spike believed that. They were going to die in Las Pegasus on a weekend near the end of summer. But the other half was blazing with the kind of fury and arrogance that had powered so much of his life: Are you going to let this particular group of people take you down? Spike followed that silent argument and made his choice.

Even though he hurt all over, even though he was dizzy, he traced his teeth with his tongue and made a promise that he could keep.

“I promise, I’m going to get us out of this,” Spike told them.

That was what he would do if he lived through this nightmare.

---

Abacus Cinch and her employees stepped into the darkness of the loading dock behind Rich Plaza. Twilight was silent, twirling a knife between her fingers, as she watched the Dragons finish loading the 18-wheeler. Then her eyes narrowed wickedly as she looked at Lyra and Bon Bon.

“I don’t trust them,” she told the Shadowbolt Five with more than a hint of envy in her voice. “It’s a mistake having them here.”

“Our orders are to leave them alone,” Sugarcoat stated.

Twilight smiled a superior smile.

“I want to slice those lips right off their face and bury them in the desert with those idiots,” she said.

The Treasury woman and Secret Service lady both heard what she had said.

“I’d put that knife away, bitch,” Bon Bon told Twilight.

“Before you have an accident,” Lyra added.

Twilight’s smile disappeared as they entered a black SUV and she walked further into the loading dock. She clenched both hands and looked up at the blackening sky. A few hours ago, her world had been falling apart, now things were starting to realign.

What better way to wreak vengeance on the woman that had destroyed her family than through her own son? Twilight didn’t want to hurt Spike, at least not at that time, but the years of pain had taken their toll on her, hardening her heart until all she thought of was the joy she’d receive to see Spike’s shocked and surprised face on that day. She had done what had to be done to assuage her own pain... and the betrayal of her half-brother by her own unfaithful father.

“I got what I wanted,” she thought. “So why do I feel so hollow inside?”

A wave of pity for Spike washed over her. She had walked out of that jail cell and into Impossibly Rich’s limo with every intention of destroying Spike. An ache to see the Lucky Prince of Las Pegasus crumble with the knowledge that he’d been royally screwed by the daughter of the woman whose husband Spike’s mother had stolen from them filled Twilight like snake venom. She’d intended to reduce him to a sniveling pile on the ground, but he had spoiled it all for her.

She couldn’t forget his face, feeling such compassion for the other girls, an emotion she never felt herself. She knew that Spike very seldom gave vent to his emotions; that he tried to keep himself in check. Her plan for revenge had turned sour and she didn’t feel the exhilaration she’d expected.

She was about to return when her brother blocked her way.

“Impossibly Rich and Cinch have been playing you for a fool,” Shining Armor said. “They completely made up that story about Spike’s mother stealing Dad from us. It was all a big lie! They planted hatred in your heart to turn you against Spike. We and Spike are not related! Do you hear me, Twilight?”

He was no longer calling her “Twily”.

“I’ve known that for a while now,” she replied. “But if I admit that to myself, if I accept that... I risk losing the only part of me that I have left.”

Shining Armor growled.

“When I was lost within my own darkness, Cinch saved me. Her words lifted me out of the depths of despair,” Twilight went on. “Even if it was just a lie, my resolve to get revenge made me stronger. It was all I had to live for.”

Shining could see the conflict in her face. She was struggling to escape. She was fighting and trying to reclaim the love she’d left behind.

“As your brother, let me warn you,” Shining said, “if you continue down this road, I will arrest you, family or not.”

And he joined Lyra and Bon Bon in the sport utility truck.

Then Abacus Cinch spoke to Twilight.

“You look down,” she observed. “Are you feeling drained now that you’ve gotten your revenge? Frankly, I’m disappointed in you. Spike put up quite a fight... I thought you were stronger than him.”

“Don’t talk like you know me!” Twilight snapped. “And don’t talk to me about him!”

“Oh, did I offend you, even after I helped you out of the infinite goodness of my heart?” Cinch asked.

Twilight scoffed. “‘Goodness’? You didn’t care whether Spike or I won as long as you got those Gates. Just as long as you got them, you didn’t care! I’m just a tool to you, a pawn to do your bidding!”

“The Gates are vital! We need to gather all thirteen as soon as possible and have you become the MVCD. I need to see that rainbow just as much as Impossibly Rich does!” Cinch shouted.

“Why is the Casino Guild trying to collect the Gates now? Why did they wait so long?”

“You’re not going soft on me, are you?” Cinch asked.

“Of course not, I gave you my word,” Twilight replied. “I’ll keep my end of the bargain. No matter what, I will become the MVCD, the strongest dealer in the world! I will!”

“I know you will. Impossibly Rich will do absolutely anything to find those last three Gates. One sign of uncertainty from you, or any of the other girls, and I will not hesitate to have Iron Will and the Dragons intervene,”

“Relax. That won’t happen,”

“I hope so. After all, your future depends on it,”

Guiltily, Twilight realized that her future rested in their hands now, and she had no clear idea what Impossibly Rich was going to do next as she joined Cinch in the black Cadillac. She dumped herself in the passenger seat while Iron Will got in the driver’s seat and started the engine. The black vehicles eased onto the street one after another in a straight line. They didn’t speed up until they reached the street that would take them toward Rich Towers. Shining Armor edged ahead of the semi and Fancy Pants fell in behind him and followed.

---

Inside the trailer, Spike could tell that night had fallen. The temperature had dropped. It was a cold night and it was going to get even colder in the minutes to come. Then he thought of Celestia. He hadn’t tried to contact her for several hours. Then he thought of the loved ones of everyone in the trailer with him. Even though their families would miss them and wonder what happened to them, no one knew where they were. Rainbow Dash was still struggling with the ropes, but hadn’t made any progress.

“It’s no use,” Applejack said, admitting defeat.

“At least I’m trying!” Dash shot back.

Discord shook his head sorrowfully. “It shouldn’t have gone down like this,” he said. “But it was inevitable. Chaos theory: you put a bunch of overly intelligent people together sooner or later you get chaos.”

“Spike,” Zephyr Breeze said.

At first there was no answer, but then he stirred slightly.

“Spike, I know I’m gonna regret asking,” Zephyr went on, “but tell me how the Dragons are gonna kill us.”

“First, they’ll torture us for no less than three days,”

“Torture?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I can deal with that.”

Dash knew that the beginning of torture was the worst. There was a long chain of agony, a crescendo that led up to a peak where the nerves were blunted and bruised to the point they reacted less and less until unconsciousness and eventually death. She had been told by past Wonderbolts who had survived such torture that towards the end there came a wonderful period of warmth leading into a sort of sexual high where pain turned to pleasure and hatred and fear of the torturers turned into a masochistic infatuation. It was the supreme test of will. Until they either killed you and saved themselves further useless effort, or to let you recover sufficiently so that your nerves had crept back to the other side of the parabola. Then they would start again.

Then Spike said something that swept a wave of horror over the men and made the women feel like they would faint.

“Then, they will cut off our bananas and berries and feed them to us,”

“Cut off our--?” Zephyr Breeze asked. “Oh, Tartarus, no, we gotta get outta here! Come on, man! Don’t give up!”

He screamed and his body jangled like a marionette. Torture was terrible enough, but to be castrated and force fed his own manly parts, that was even worse. He fought even harder when he looked at his sister, Fluttershy. If that was what the Dragons did to men, he hated to think what they would do to women.

“Soarin, give me your left leg,” Spike said.

“What?” he asked.

“Like this,” Spike said, stamping his foot against the wall of the trailer so that his knee pointed out like the corner of a triangle.

Soarin did as Spike instructed, and Spike used Soarin’s leg as a step so that he could pull himself up close to the rope around his wrists. The Dragons had made no mistakes with the knots and left no play in any of the bindings. They bit sharply into Spike’s flesh. Then he sniffed them.

“These ropes,” he said, “they’re made of... black licorice?”

“We could eat through them!” Soarin exclaimed.

Pinkie groaned in disgust. “Maybe you can.”

Spike chewed through the licorice and landed on his feet. Before he even thought about helping his friends, he shoved his hands into his pockets, which were now empty. No Derringer, no Gate cards, and no Fire Ruby. They were all gone.

“Spike, hurry up and untie us!” Discord commanded.

He untied Discord and Applejack and she ended up kicking one of the warrior statues, which fell to the floor and broke apart, and they were rewarded with two sounds. One was the stone breaking. The other was the crinkle of paper.

Spike bent down and picked up a wad of Equestrian dollars. He threw another statue down and it broke apart to reveal even more dollars. Then another, and another, and another.

“These statues are full of money!” Discord exclaimed.

And not just bills, but coins as well. They found everything from Equestrian dollars and cents to Jockeypanese yen, Trottingham pound notes, Germane marks, Itailian liras, even French francs and pesos from South Equestria—fake money from every country and region in the known world!

This was how the Rich Family had been able to build their international empire! The men ran legitimate businesses while the women had been printing phony money! They had been secretly controlling global economics since the Dark Ages! Now, they were going to destroy the economy of the world, ruin every currency! The key of it all was the counterfeit bill, and those who tried to get a peek at its source, never lived to tell about it!

While Spike and the guys helped free the rest of the women, Discord and Applejack both started pocketing stacks of the counterfeit cash.

“What are you doing?” Spike asked them.

“I’m taking this for evidence!” they both replied.

They exchanged a look. Discord knew that Applejack was a little more inclined toward the truth, but she wasn’t so sure about him.

Suddenly, the ride shifted from smooth and gentle to rough and bumpy. Spike heard the faint sounds of the semi truck’s engine. The sound got louder. Then he heard the thump of hydraulics, the squeal of brake rotors, and the howl of locked rubber gridding on a blacktop; the tires.

“Do you feel that?” Spike asked them.

“Yeah, we’re slowing down,” Pharynx confirmed.

The truck looped around a corner and headed down to an underground parking garage. Eventually, the truck started backing up. Then it came to a complete stop. Spike and everyone else returned to their original positions and made themselves look as if they had never moved.

The trailer’s doors were pulled open in unison and a pair of burly Dragons—named Barry and Billy—walked in. They had Glocks in their hands. They walked slowly with the guns held low. The duo stood next to Spike and Rainbow Dash as they and the rest of the group appeared to hang on the walls.

They immediately noticed the smashed statues in the center of the trailer and asked what had happened.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Dash said, and she and Spike brought a world of pain down upon them.

There was no plan in Spike’s mind except to do as much damage as possible to the two traitors and be able to exchange a few hurried words with his friends. No other plan was possible. Like lightning, he and Dash slammed the two Dragons against the inside wall of the trailer. Each slugged a ferocious fist across the Dragons’ teeth, and the two men crashed down to the floor like a weight had fallen on them from above, all the breath knocked out of them.

Soarin picked up their fallen Glocks, stuffed one into his pocket, gave the other to Applejack, and the gang ran out of the trailer. They slammed the doors shut and locked them. Then Spike led the way along a narrow corridor and down a twisting stairway that seemed to go on forever. At last they came to the bottom of the stairs, where Spike found a metal grate in the floor that led to the sewers beneath the city.

“Lower me down,” Applejack said after he removed the grate.

Grabbing her wrists, Spike lowered AJ down the hole. She touched down into the sewage muck and Soarin lowered himself down after her. One by one, Spike helped them down and they found themselves in a long, narrow passage.

“Come on!” Spike told Rarity.

“I’m not going in there!” she stated. “There are rats in there!”

“There are no rats!” Spike replied.

“Look at that rat!” she pointed.

Spike just threw his hands up in apathy before scanning the chamber and hopping off the short ledge. As the group moved down the tunnel, they heard the scuttering of tiny feet in the darkness. They turned left and followed the water-filled tunnel until Rarity saw something run down the ledge in front of them. She squirmed as Spike led the way through the shallow channel of dirty liquid, holding Fluttershy’s hand.

Crawling over each other, rats swarmed the tunnel. Spike sloshed past the vermin as Rarity struggled to keep up while trying to avoid them. Spike stopped and grabbed Rarity behind her legs, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her further into the sewer. After making their way to a larger tunnel, the group climbed up to the ledges on opposite sides of the water, rats still scurrying around their feet, and they proceeded to a ladder in the next chamber.

Spike led the way up the ladder and pushed up the manhole cover. He moved it aside, and climbed out of the sewer access tunnel, lifting himself onto the street. Then he helped his friends out one by one. They were in the middle of Las Pegasus Boulevard... a block away from Rich Plaza. It was fully dark out.

As Thorax looked at the new building, he thought of all the events that had led them here. Then, suddenly, a realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Spike, that’s how you launder two hundred and fifty billion dollars in cash!” he shouted.

Spike was quiet for a moment. Then he felt incredibly stupid for not figuring it out sooner. There was evidence all over the place: Impossibly Rich was wealthy enough that she was a counterfeiter. She made good money at it, but she wanted more. Lyra worked for the Treasury Department—she was the “expert” Impossibly Rich had called in to inspect the fake bills. And Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops and Shining armor were Secret Service, the latter after he was a cop. Pull a few strings here, call in a couple of favors there, and they could get the stuff through Customs with minimal fuss, paperwork and red tape.

Then Spike’s thoughts shifted to the Saddle Arabians—Haakim, Amira, and Hoo’Far—their old press printing Equestrian dollars and cents, Jockeypanese yen, Trottingham pound notes, Germane marks, Itailian liras, French francs and South Equestrian pesos. That’s when Spike remembered Fancy Pants, Fleur and Zecora—an Englishman, a French babe, and a half-Zanzebran beauty—when they sat together in the casino that very first day, it was like looking at the colors of a Picasso painting. They were the distributors.

And as for Torch... Torch was running a rival operation: guns, gambling, prostitution, and extortion, but mostly guns. They were a much better fit with him than drugs or counterfeiting. Impossibly Rich saw Torch’s operations as a threat, a takeover target. She didn’t like the way he was mining the Las Pegasus markets. So she moved in. She bought off as many of his Dragons as she could, which partially explained why she was having trouble covering her payrolls... and other, more personal, expenses.

A casino was the biggest front in the world: the people’s money went in, was exchanged for casino chips, and win or lose, Impossibly Rich pocketed the real currency, and when the chips were to be cashed in, the counterfeit money went back out... and into the world! That’s what Cinch had meant. Flood the world.

Spike remained quiet for a whole minute. Then he spoke.

“It was staring me blank in the face,” he said.

Now he was an inch away from busting Impossibly Rich, and he was not going to back down. Not now, never again.

They watched as limousines of many colors pulled up to the front of the hotel. The Rich Towers’ lights glanced off the body of a sleek, black stretch limo as it rolled smoothly up to the building’s entrance and the wealthiest of the wealthy made their way inside. It was like an Applewood premiere. Then Applejack noticed several of the security guards, some her former subordinates, passing around fliers bearing pictures of her and her friends. She knew what that meant.

“Wait a minute!” she told them. “We can’t go in there. We’ve been red-flagged. They’re watching for us. If we set foot in there, they’ll be on us faster than a flock of speeding hawks.”

“So, what are we gonna do?” Dash asked.

“We can’t fight our way in,” Sunset said.

Spike grinned as a light bulb went off in his head.

“I’ve got an idea! Follow me!”

Next Chapter: New Looks and Pep Talks Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes