Snake in the Grass
Jackie looked rather harried as he returned to the hotel room after his visit to the museum, quickly going to the closet to look for various things, especially all black clothing. Jade and the others looked up from a rather intense looking poker game to see what he was up to. "No luck convincin' the curator to let you take the Snake Talisman, ah take it?" Apple Bloom asked curiously.
"No," Jackie replied ruefully. "Apparently, the museum's security has recently been upgraded to protect the Pink Puma diamond, and they're pretty certain they can handle the Dark Hand. So they weren't willing to listen."
"Well, to be fair, with the exception of Tohru, the Dark Hand isn't really that impressive," Scootaloo pointed out. "Short of sending in a swarm of Shadow Kahn, I don't think they'd have much of a chance against a good security system. And the fact they haven't already done that suggests to me they can't, for some reason."
"Unfortunately, I bumped into Ratso while I was in there," Jackie pointed out. "He was taking pictures with a spy camera."
"In that case, call Captain Black," Sweetie Belle suggested reasonably. "Have him flex some law enforcement muscle. He's government, right?"
"Secret government," Jackie pointed out. "This isn't exactly the sort of situation he can just step in and make demands on. And even if he could, he wouldn't have anything in place by midnight."
"Midnight?" Jade asked curiously. "What's so important about midnight?"
"Nothing important," Jackie replied evasively. "I need to head out. Don't do anything reckless while I'm out." With that, he stepped into the next room to change into his black clothes, a duffel bag full of various things he'd grabbed around the hotel room over his shoulder.
The four young girls glanced at each other. "Jackie's going to break into the museum to steal the Talisman before the Dark Hand go after it at midnight, isn't he?" Scootaloo asked flatly.
"Eeyup," Apple Bloom confirmed as she tossed a sandwich into the air for Audrey III to snatch and devour.
"And he doesn't want us to come along because it's 'too dangerous'," Jade added, rolling her eyes in frustration.
"Eeyup," Apple Bloom confirmed as she looked down at her cards.
"So...what are we going to do about it?" Scootaloo asked curiously.
"I don't know about you, but I'm going to call Captain Black so he can file these actions as an official op so that if Jackie gets into trouble, he can cover for him," Sweetie Belle offered, pulling out her cell phone.
"I think we should help a bit more directly," Jade countered. "We could sneak into the museum and help him. Anyone working there wouldn't even think it odd that the three of you were wandering around, thanks to those pendants of yours, and I can always ride Audrey in from the roof or something. Security guards never look up."
"I think we should do what Jackie said and not do anything reckless," Sweetie Belle grumbled. "I don't want to get in trouble!"
"You could just stay here then," Jade pointed out.
"Nuh uh!" Scootaloo interrupted. "We do anything, we do it together!"
"Do what together?" Jackie asked as he stepped back into the room, dressed in black with the duffel bag over his shoulder.
"Playing Poker," Apple Bloom spoke up quickly.
Jackie chuckled softly. "Well have a nice game, you four," he told them before heading out the door.
Once the door was closed, Scootaloo glanced back and forth between Jade and Sweetie Belle. "Look, we all want to help Jackie, and none of us like feeling left out...but we also each have our own ideas how we can best help him. So here's what I suggest. Whoever wins this hand decides what we do. Fair?"
"Sounds good to me," Jade replied smugly as she glanced at her cards.
"I've got no problem with that," Sweetie responded readily.
"Alright then everyone," Scootaloo spoke up. "Lay out your cards."
"Jack high flush!" Jade and Sweetie Belle spoke up together, laying out their hands simultaneously. They had identical hands, Jade in hearts and Sweetie in diamonds. They stared at each other in shock.
Scootaloo grumbled under her breath as she laid her hand out. "Full House," she spoke up, not looking forward to having to choose sides after making such an effort to be the peacemaker. "Apple Bloom, what's your hand?"
"Four of a kind, deuces," she replied, laying out her cards. "So...that means ah choose what we do?"
"Yup," Scootaloo confirmed. "So...what do we do?"
"Well...ah certainly think Sweetie's idea's a good un to start," Apple Bloom began. "Ah mean, covering in case somethin' goes wrong is never a bad idea." Sweetie smirked at that, and Jade pouted. "But..."
"But...?" Scootaloo prompted.
"Well...tomorrow's Thanksgiving," Apple Bloom pointed out reasonably. "Families are supposed ta stay together on Thanksgiving, right? Since we can't be with Jackie and Uncle, we should at least be with Jackie, right?"
Jade grinned widely as Sweetie Belle sighed. "So much for being responsible..." the unicorn muttered, unable to find fault with that logic.
Jackie carefully made his way past the security on one of the museum's skylights, rappelling down a rope made of bed sheets from the hotel. He carefully made his way past the laser security grid, ducking in and around each laser to avoid crossing it. Maybe I should have brought Scootaloo along, he thought silently. Cumulo would have been real useful there. ...or the Rooster Talisman. Discarding such thoughts as counterproductive, he made his way to where the Snake Talisman was displayed.
Once there, he prepared to disable security so he could remove the Talisman...only to pause. Something was off. Looking closer, he noticed what it was. The Snake carving on the Talisman was backwards.
"A fake?" he gasped out, shocked. "Did the Dark Hand come early?" He started to turn and run, only for something else to catch his eye.
A tiny leaf was stuck to the top of the Talisman.
Groaning, Jackie reached behind him at about waist height, his hand almost unerringly finding Jade's shoulder.
"Wow," Jade murmured, stunned. "You are good."
"You are so grounded," he grumbled at her, turning to find himself face to face with all four of them. "Where's the Talisman?"
"Here you go!" Apple Bloom spoke up, handing over a cloth bag.
Grumbling under his breath, Jackie took the bag and turned to lead the group back out, only to pause as he glanced to his side between two displays, spying a female figure across the hall in a black jumpsuit. "...I think this mirror is broken," he spoke up.
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Yes. Totally broken that mirror is.
It shows the ship of that particular season in it.
7445683 agreed, alas I must say, the girls played well this dark hand...
Gotta love rampant justification.
Hi Viper!
Seems the girls are flush out of luck when facing Apple Bloom in a card game.
The girls have the right idea leafing a duplicate behind.
I'm pretty sure the girls mirrored Jackie's reaction perfectly.
7445838 Saaaaaannnnnnsssss those puns
They better be playing seven card stud or five card draw, because that combination of hands are impossible in any hold 'em variant, and only masochists play five card stud.
Hello Viper.
Sweetie Belle was right on the money with her idea, though. That might save Jackie a visit to lockup at the local precinct.
Ahh her roots are starting to show.
They grow up so fast.
Well viper showed up...on the plus side Jackie plays his cards right he might be able to give Viper the slip without arousing the suspicion of said thief and alert Captain Black so he can create a cover-up...though playing cards is hard to do when you have a rampart boner...
Aww! Stopping right as we meet her!?
Shoot I was hoping for more screen time for Viper. I hope she does get to appear more later.
Ello viper. Can't wait to see how the rest of this episode pans out!
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
The fact that Jackie takes Jade and the CMC playing poker as normal days quite a bit about how used he is to strangeness.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
When it comes to poker, I'm usually horrible
7445683 Shipping Jackie and Viper. Good times...
Chapter Thirty Three
"Aiyah!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 24
"One More Thing!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 42
Jackie, you're an awesome fighter and a great guy, but sometimes you've got the tactical sense of half a stale pork rind.
7447965 memesvault.com/wp-content/uploads/Hahaha-No-Meme-11.png
7445683 I don't think of myself as a shipper but if I'm honest with myself and I look deeper...
...I ship Jackie x Viper. Hands down; one of my first ships.
7447997 Indeed.
7446713 Good times.
7445725 Yup.
7446048 "Jack High Flush" So that would be Jack, 10, 9, 8, and 7 of a suit. We have one in Hearts and one in Diamonds, no impossibilities yet.
"Full House" so that's 3 suits of one card and 2 suits of another. Assuming a single standard 52 card deck is in use the available cards to make a Full House could be anything from 1-6 and Queens or Kings in either side and 7-Jacks could be used in the pair but not the three of a kind. Still no impossibility.
"Four of a Kind, Deuces" That's all four 2s in a standard deck. While this reduces the number of possible cards used in Scoots' Full House it still does not cause any problem with the possibility of those four hands existing at the same time.
So, how exactly is there a problem with those hands? I admit to knowing little more about poker and it's variations than what I picked up playing an old Yahtzee computer game from a cereal box. (Remember when you could get really good things in cereal boxes? Nowadays they make you get like ten boxes for a chance at a T-shirt or something like that.)
7448914
Actually, that first hand you mentioned would be "Jack High Straight Flush". "Jack High Flush" only requires all the cards be of the same suit, and Jack being the highest card.
And they said it was a problem if they were playing a 'Hold 'em' variant, where each player has two cards and there are five on the table, and each player makes the best possible hand from their two and those five.
7448914 You can't have two flush hands of different suits in a game with community cards. Both Omaha and Texas require that you make your five card hand with at least three cards out of the five shared community cards, three to five with your two hole cards in Texas, exactly three with exactly two of your four hole cards in Omaha. Getting two suit flushes out of the same community would require six cards.
7449119 Really?
7449300 look im sorry I don't know every myth and religion ever and mixed up some creatures it wasn't meant as an insult. I don't even know what a Kami even is I have literally never heard of one.
So the ponies cheated at cards?
7445838 You're an undead Carlos.
7445838 Oh god.
All bad joking aside I do love the ship of Jackie and Viper. This can only get better from here. ONE MORE THING! I wonder how Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow will take the new way the girls look at things. How is Uncle and Jackie going to take meeting the Mane 6?!
How long will it take Jackie to give up on keeping Jade and the Crusaders from following him??? Because he's fighting a loosing battle and even admitted Scootaloo would have been helpful.
7450184 A Kami is a God/Goddess or Deity
You know, something I've been wondering: how exactly did Applebloom even develop her silly southern accent in this story? There isn't exactly anyone for her to learn it from. Did she just manifest it spontaneously or something? Doesn't anyone wonder about that?
7454695
You know, if my experience with Christianity is any experience, then the fact that someone belongs to a religion doesn't do anything to guarantee that they actually know crap about it. Just saying.
7446586 .....I think you've been saying nothing but that since last year
7496782 Doesn't mean he's lying.
Either that, or Jackie is a sexy woman.
7450978 I look for it to happen around when they start handling the oni mask.