//------------------------------// // Chapter 217 - The House Always Wins? // Story: Dadonequus Discord (Book 2) // by CrazedLaughter //------------------------------// This wasn’t good! Why did the spell choose to take you here?! The both of you here?! You tried focusing your magic on going back home, but without the horn, you just looked like a crazy person trying to shit himself. “C’mon! C’mon!” “Anon? Do you need bathroom? Erm…” Yona took another look around, and could only guess that this newfound place she arrived at may have one. She just wasn’t sure if it was safe. “Yona think there might be bathroom in weird place, but Yona don’t know if Yona should knock first or try to call for somecreature.” Dammit! You weren’t going to get anywhere like this, and Yona, you could tell, was growing more curious by the second about this place. “Yona, we can’t be here, okay? It isn’t safe, and I don’t want either of us to be in trouble” But again, where would you both go? Staying outside for an hour may not even work, as the spell might keep you both here until ‘something’ is accomplished. “I… I don’t know what to do though.” “Yona knock then, see if bathroom is free.” Yona approaches the door and prepares to knock. You turn white with fright, actually afraid of that maniac and what he might do to you and Yona if he spotted you both. But before you could stop her, before you could snap back to reality, Yona knocks on the door. “Hello, anycreature there? Yona’s friend need to use bathroom, please.” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! “Yona! Why did you do that!?” You yelled, actually startling the poor yak. “Y-yona just trying to help. D-doesn’t Anon need to go?” She asked, stepping back away from you, startled and unnerved by your frightened and crazed expression. “I… Ugh, Yona It’s! It’s! NGH! Dammit…” What were you going to get mad at her for? Especially since you panicked instead of explaining yourself. All you could do is stare at her, and remember that she’s your friend, an honorable friend at that. She looked so confused, and even hurt, and over what? You’re the one who cast the spell, you were the idiot who made things this way. For whatever this was, Yona was your partner, and you knew she felt the same. So… Be honest, Anon, don't fuck up your progress now. “Okay… Okay… Look, this place used to be my house, alright? But my dad, he sorta made a bunch of bets to this creepy changeling that rooms with us and we ended up losing the place because of him.” “Ooooooh, is that why Anon sleep at Professor Aunt’s cottage?” Yona asked. “Y-yeah, that’s why I’ve been sleeping there. Yona, I’m gonna be honest with you, that changeling? He takes the form of what I used to be, a human, and he’s taken on some traits you might not understand. He’s dangerous, period, and we shouldn’t be messing with him. We should just ask if we can use my portal door and go home, okay? Try to keep things simple.” You were being calm, reasonable, and even giving her your big adorable eyes to persuade her to follow your lead. Jimmy letting you use the portal door for free might not be an option anyway. You had no clue what was about to happen. “Changeling really that bad? Hmph, Yona think Anon might be scared for no reason. Yona not scared, and Yona make sure changeling not bully Anon. Yona even get house back! Yaks best at challenges and-EEP!” Yona takes a jump back when the door to the casino slams open. Oh shit, he was here. Jimmy, donned in human form and wearing a slick black suit with red tie, steps out as he straightens it. He didn’t say a word, he just looked over to you, then to Yona, then back to you, taking special notice of a lack of a horn, and grinned. “What is this, Anon? A sidepiece? Or is this all you could get after your marefriend dumped you? She dumped you, right?” “Yona not sidepiece! Yona whole piece! And Yona here to challenge weird changeling to getting house back!” Yona said with a stomp, shaking the floating island. She didn’t seem as weirded out as you thought she’d be, she just suddenly seems determined to help you. You just slammed your hoof into your face at Yona’s words. You could hear Jimmy snickering, the bastard. “Look, Jimmy. Whatever, we ended up here by mistake. Can we use my portal door to get out of here?” You tried to sound as sincere as you could, but Jimmy just shrugged as he walked around Yona, still smirking that evil smirk. “That’s pretty pathetic, Anon, asking me to let you go back to Ponyville for free. Tsk tsk, that ain’t happening. As for you, you say you want to win his house back? Interesting, int-er-rest-ing.  Are you being honest about that, yak girl?” Jimmy said with a snicker and he crossed his arms, awaiting her answer. “Yona have name, it Yona! And of course Yona challenge weird changeling. Why do you look like weird minotaur thing anyway? Yona never seen… Ooooh, that what humans look like? Erm, Yona not want to say anything mean, but Yona also think changeling should not be what he not.” Yona said, making you slam your hoof onto your face again. Hoo boy, this is already not going well. “I’m better at it than him.” He said, getting a little salty as he pointed towards you. He then cooled down and walked towards the door to invite you both in. “Anyway, that's not what's important now, is it? You're both here, and Anon ain't being his usual cocky self. What’s wrong, Anon? Afraid of losing? Afraid of her losing? I’m a generous guy, I can provide you both twenty chips for whatever you want. Of course, if you run out, and you can’t pay em back. Well, I welcome you both to the staff.” He said before letting out a boisterous laugh.  “What?! Why would we agree to that?! Yona, forget this! He wants us to bet our freedom! We can’t win this, okay? This guy is a cheat, I promise you he has the games rigged.” You then looked towards Jimmy as you narrowed your eyes towards him. “You do, don’t you? You wouldn’t be this confident unless Dad gave you some kind of power over your shitty casino.” Jimmy shrugged. “Who can say? I can open up any of the machines if you want to check em. Think of it as me being hospitable despite you being a smart mouth.” “They were made with chaos magic, so I doubt there’d even be a point. Yona, forget this, okay? This is not the kind of adventure we should be on. This isn’t a challenge, he’s leading us to be slaughtered. I’m telling you as a friend, we can’t do this, not without my horn.” You pleaded with her, knowing this was a lost cause. “Yona not like how he talk, Yona not like how slimy changeling is. Yona challenge changeling to normal challenge, not weird machine games! Yona demand challenge, now!” Yona said with another stomp, no longer faltering in front of Jimmy. “The name’s Jimmy, yak girl. And you’re on my turf, meaning you play by my rules.” Jimmy said as he put his hands together and rubbed, producing forty chips, twenty of them having yours and Yona’s face each. He held them out towards the both of you with an insidious grin. “What’s a few games gonna hurt anyway? You’re only mine if you lose them all. C’mon, take a chance.” “Yona not 'yak girl'! Yona name Yona! Yona not like it when changeling treat her like she not good! Grrr.” Yona growled towards him, and marched up and took her chips as she leered towards Jimmy. “Yona going to win, then Yona make Jimmy apologize to Yona and Anon.” “I’m sure that’ll happen.” Jimmy said as he gave her a gentle pat and walked up to you. You were about to call out to Yona, but she was already dead set on spending her chips to win and take the house back. “So, I’m gonna guess you cast another one of your spells wrong, huh? Great! I can’t wait to see Discord’s stupid face when you’re working for me.” Jimmy then shrugged with an evil chuckle. “And the queen? Oh, oooooh, Anon, you have no idea how much I want to see her face when she sees me walking you on a leash. It’ll be delicious.” “Fuck you, Jimmy! Do you think I’m going to be stupid enough to use all my chips?” You asked him angrily. “Does that mean you’re going to play?” Jimmy said as he held your chips towards you, giving you a snide look. You take them, staring at him hard, letting him know you weren’t afraid of him. “It means I’m going to figure out what you’ve done to the machines and turn it against you. I’m the chaos master around here, no-NGHRDGBF” Suddenly, without warning, Jimmy grabbed you by the throat and held you up as he suddenly became furious. “You listen to me, you little shit! I will never forgive you for what you did to me! I will never let that go! I’d end you right now if it didn’t mean Discord wouldn’t make me into dog food later. You fucked up a spell, well too bad, you’re here now under my good graces and when I tell you to play, you’re gonna play, and you’re gonna lose. You’re right, you little shit, I do have the place rigged. I even have those chips rigged, and your little friend has already stepped inside, there’s no turning back for either of you now. Either you spend the chips trying to win, or you check them all in for the time spent in my casino. Either way, you already lost, and you’re already mine. All this? This is a fucking formality. Now get in there, you little shit!” Jimmy said as he turned and threw you into the casino like a fucking sack of coins. You rolled across a dark red and black carpet into the casino floor. Goddamit, that fucker was already playing for keeps. What the hell were you going to do now?! You slowly stood up, realizing you were now caught up in an impromptu revenge scheme.  The casino’s interior was breathtaking.  Despite it being mostly black, green, and red, the neon lights that mimicked the hive’s walls glowed and lit up the place as various video poker and slot machines littered the first floor of the spire. These machines were made to resemble futuristic looking pods. There were also stairs that led up to another floor, no doubt holding the higher tier games. In the center was a huge circular bar with many a drink and neon green seats. Jimmy walked over to it silently, walking right by you, once again straightening his tie as he stepped behind the counter… …And watched. Dammit… “Yona?! Yona! Where did you go? Wh- Yona! What are you doing?!” You could see her standing in front of a video poker screen. But so far, she didn’t seem to be doing anything, she just kind of stared at it. “Yona?” “Anon… Yona confused. Yona see place to put chip thing, but Yona not understand game, Yona not understand magic window thing.” Yona said as she poked at the screen, not understanding the large pictures of the cards that were onscreen “Anon say game rigged. Yona smart, not play until she figure out bad game.” Whew, okay, that was pretty smart. But you had to tell her what Jimmy told you, as you were both now trapped within the walls of the casino. “Yona, we gotta figure it out quick. Jimmy is also charging us for our stay here. He waited for you to walk inside to mention that. If we take too long, he’s going to own us. He has literal magical power over this entire casino, and that isn't good.” Yona stopped, and growled. “Yona not like Jimmy at all. Underhoofed tricks bad, very bad.  But Yona think we have hour, just like Yakville. But… Yona think this place real, also… Anon, Yona have question.” “What is it?” You asked her, as you prepped a chip. You wanted to see how the video poker played, see if it gave bad cards or if it gave some hope of a good hand before tripping up on the last card.  “Does Anon think Jimmy use chaos magic on weird games?” Yona asked as she looked inquisitively at the poker machine. “If Jimmy can do all this bad things, then maybe he have magic over weird machines.” … Wait… “Yona… Hold on.” You began to ponder on it yourself. Jimmy had power over the casino, he forged the chips from his own hand. He somehow has the ability to keep you both here should you lose said chips. So then, Discord must have given him powers over the casino. Could that be the real reason Discord… No, because he could override it himself if he wanted to, he’d find a way. But to stay on point, it means Jimmy has chaotic control over this entire casino, and the 'rules non-rules' that go along with it. It made you ponder as you slowly raise a chip, and place it into the machine, and start to play. “Anon, huh?! We shouldn’t play yet, we still need to figure out trick!” Yona said, surprised that you suddenly started playing the machine. But you were deep in thought as you tried the machine. As you both thought, you lose with only a pair of jacks, as the machine needs at least a two pair at the minimum to return a played chip. Ignoring Yona, you try again, and once again, you lose, this time with just a completely bad assortment of cards. “Yona, what is Jimmy doing right now?” “U-uhm, Jimmy... “ Yona peered over, and could see him cleaning a glass as he kept his eyes directly on the both of you. “Jimmy staring like big creep. B-but, why is Anon putting in chips if Anon losing?” “Because… If Jimmy is using chaos magic, or some crappy version of it, then it should work the same as my horn. He needs to put some thought into it. He doesn’t need to look at us, I think, but he wants to, he wants to see us lose. He’s thinking about it, and so, he’s making it happen. He’s not even going to give us a chance, since he knows we have no choice but to play.” “What?! But that just cheating! Nocreature should do that, it wrong!” Yona said, astounded by your words. “Welcome to chaos, Yona. But hey, if I’m right, then I got an idea to win, and we only need to waste a single chip. You game, Yona?” You said, smirking darkly as you looked over to her. “Erm, Yona think she game? But, what Anon have in mind?” Yona asked, confused. “The slot machine, it uses a certain set of pictures to represent possible combinations for a win. But we’re going to be focusing on the jackpot, lucky number seven.” You said, keeping your eyes on the poker machine so as to not arouse suspicion. “Yona… Not understand any of that.” Yona said, deeply confused. “Essentially, I’m gonna go chat Jimmy up. I’m gonna just talk to the guy, get his mind on something else. And when I, say, slam my hooves on that counter, I need you to put in a chip and pull the arm of the slot machine.” You say, as you began to ponder what kind of conversation you’d have with Jimmy. “Erm, does Anon mean those machines there? Yona just put in chip and pull? Yona can do that, but…” Yona stops, and suddenly, it just hits her. “...Does Anon mean Anon make Jimmy focus on thing that make us win?” Yona asked, as she believed she figured it out.  You nodded. “Exactly. Yona, you don’t have a problem with it, right? Because I’m telling you right now, I need you here, I want to take this guy down.” Yona shook her head, she had no qualms with the plan. “Yona have no problem, Yona not like Jimmy, he big cheater anyway.” Good then… The plan was set...