Saddled with nearly a billion bits of debt, the Flimflam brothers and Trixie have come to the conclusion that gainful employment is a sucker's game. With the Crystal Empire recently rediscovered after a thousand years, though, it is possible that another ancient city, lost for about as long, might be about to re-emerge. Of course, when it does, the Elements of Harmony will doubtless be dispatched - but if they could just find it first, they might be able to reap the rewards before they show up.

The chances of failure resulting in humiliation and/or death are high; the chances of musical numbers, equally so; but they have to try. The alternative - working - is just too terrible to comprehend.

(This is a sequel to Flim and Flam Save an Orphanage, but that story probably isn't required reading if you're good at picking things up from context. Just know that it's set early in Season 3 and that the events of Magic Duel did not and will not happen, and the rest should be easy to work out.)

Flim, of the world-famous Flimflam brothers, has just been paroled from the dungeon. Reunited with his brother, Flam, and their old friend, Trixie, they have learned that their childhood home is in imminent danger. Compelled by one or more of the Royal Pony Sisters to raise an honest fifty thousand bits in just a few days, and without the aid of the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, can they indeed redeem themselves?

High-speed carriage chases, musical numbers (both random and planned), rap battles, widespread property damage, consumption of intoxicating and/or hallucinogenic substances, arson, and generalized disturbances of the peace may all turn out to be necessary.

Not MERELY a Blues Brothers fusion. In my opinion. However, the pre-reading board of Equestria Daily disagrees in the strongest possible terms. They do, however, admit that it is "not poorly written."

Use of image generously permitted by theWalterX - check him out at deviantart!

The year is 1977. The Soviet-backed New Lunar Republic is at war with the United States, led by Comrade General Secretary Luna - or is it, indeed, Nightmare Moon?

The war rages on, from the Everfree of Washington to the Rocky Mountains to the Texas Corridor, seen through the eyes of an ensemble cast, while the ponies in and around Canterlot play dangerous games. The arrival of certain human prisoners of war, captured in border skirmishes, makes for new, unpredictable, and potentially powerful pawns, even if one is a failed conscientious objector and the other has a head injury. Comrade Madam Mayor of Ponyville and Pony's Commissar Foggy Night just want to help Sweet Apple Acres meet its production quotas, but Commissar Blueblood dreams of being Prince Blueblood once more, while the exiled Princess Celestia has big plans indeed - and not even her most faithful revolutionary, Twilight Sparkle, can pull them off all by herself.

Trigger warning: commies, slavery (specifically, forced labor substantially compliant with the provisions of the Geneva Convention and bearing no sexual character whatsoever)