"So how's the repairs coming?" Midnight asked as she picked up her next hoof.
Berry's sulk deepened. "Slowly. Very slowly and very expensively." The growl in her throat was almost a match for Midnight's when she was in a foul mood.
Nopony asked if Pinchy was still grounded. All the girls were still in trouble one way or the other after the love poison debacle.
"I can lend you some more money," Midnight offered. It had taken a bribe of fifty bits just to get her to come and play for the night and even then she was being ridiculously careful with her play money.
Berry shook her head. "Midnight, I appreciate the money but you really need to tell me your secret to investing; with all the bits you spend and give away, you'd think your secretly rich or something."
Sapphire shot a quick glance at the kirin.
"I hunt a lot of my food, which is free, Rarity lets me have any reject gems she has, and none of my hobbies cost all that much. Sapphire's and Windrunner's pay pays for the groceries, and Honeysuckle puts pretty much all of her extra money into the mutual house account. That and part of the bits I gave you are Squeaks' rescinded allowance." All of which was true, with the exclusion of her second pay check and gems bonus. "And if I can't give you money, I could come by and do some work around the house for free; I did learn a thing or two from my days at odd-jobbing."
"I'd appreciate that."
A plate of apple slices and peanut butter clacked onto the table.
"Thanks again for letting us use your house for poker night," Sapphire told Star Axe as he withdrew his wings.
"No problem at all ladies," the old thestral said. "Just glad I've still got some use." He turned to Derpy. "Dinky's finished her homework and wants to know if she can play a bit before washing up for bed."
Derpy thought for a minute. "A half hour only, then straight to her bath."
"Only a half hour?" Axe asked.
"She's in trouble, just like her friends. Even if she didn't help them make the poison, she could have stopped them. A half hour only."
Axe nodded. "I'll let her know."
"Geez, don't ya think that's a little harsh?" Vinyl asked as Axe left.
All the other mares, sans Sapphire and Lyra, glared at her.
"I mean, it could've been worse."
"How?" Berry bit out.
"Well, they could have screwed up that tornado your fliers made to send water up to Cloudsdale and sent it through town. I mean, besides mucking with Cheerilee's and Big Mac's heads, how much damage did they really... do?" If looks could kill, Vinyl's ghost would have been on its eleventh resurrection. "Hehe... question rescinded."
"That must have been hell on you guys," Lyra said as she discarded a few cards. "I heard a lot of pegasi were out sick for that."
"Yeah, it was a bitch," Midnight agreed, discarding a few cards herself. "It also shows just how little Fluttershy thinks of herself."
Sapphire looked over at her. "Midnight!"
"She does!"
"Care to explain?" Lyra asked.
"Okay, look at this," Midnight said. "We each had to get our wing power checked the day after Rainbow organized the event; it tells us how fast and powerful we're flying," she elaborated for the non-fliers.
"What was yours?" Berry asked, sounding anything but unhappy for the first time that night.
"I had a 6.5, Sapphire and Derpy had a 7.5, Scarlet had an 8, and Windrunner had a 15.7," Midnight said.
Lyra whistled. "Damn, she's fast."
"Rainbow's was over 16," Midnight said with a shrug. "Anyway, Fluttershy clocked in at 0.5."
"Ouch," Vinyl said. "Talk about feeling inferior."
"Yeah, but after a week of training, she came back and had a wing power of 2.5."
Berry and Lyra looked at each other. "So?"
"So!? That's a five hundred percent increase!" Midnight said, incredulous. "That would be like me coming back after a week and having a wing power of more than thirty! Rainbow only went up to just under seventeen! Tartarus, I trained my flank off and only got up to 8.6! And do you know what she did when she learned her new score? She ran off thinking she was a failure!" Midnight nearly threw her cards up in frustration. "She LITERALLY out-trained RAINBOW and she STILL thought that! Thank the makers she came to her senses on the day of the tornado, but sweet Celestia on a stick!"
Vinyl snorted. "I just got an image."
"Well, she's sensitive," Sapphire said. "I'm just glad Honey helped her realize how much everyone needed her or we'd never have pulled it off."
"On a brighter note that's also about training," Midnight said, inhaling deeply. It was over and Cloudsdale had their water. "AJ's training for the big rodeo in Canterlot that's in a week."
"Is that why Scarlet isn't here?" Derpy asked.
"Yep; helping her train."
"I bet you'd do good in a rodeo," Vinyl said. "You're big enough that riding a bull shouldn't be that hard." Then she snickered.
Midnight and Sapphire threw apple slices at her. "Really, I want to know; how the BUCK does Octavia live with you?"
"She knows she's lucky enough to share a pad with the best DJ in Equestria."
They all rolled their eyes.
"Besides, I've actually seen how hard it is to stay on one," Midnight told them. "The only way I'd be able to stay on is with my teeth and wing claws."
"That... would be bad," Lyra said.
"Yeah; poor guy would have every right to deck me afterwards."
"No, I mean with you biting him, you might get a taste for bull meat!"
They all looked at each other. "Here we go again," Berry muttered.
"Then when you came back, you'd want more, so you'd eat the cows around here, but then when they're gone you'd start attacking ponies for your fix, but then we'd catch you and be forced to lock you up in town hall's basement and we'd have to feed you out-of-towners to keep you from breaking out and eating somepony else, except some ponies would find out and accidently let you lose, leading to an epic fight that will end with the town not knowing if you're still alive or not and we'd have to leave farm animals outside the Everfree forest to hopefully appease you!"
"Bon Bon said she'd been reading a few horror stories lately," Berry told them.
"All of this implying I'm some sort of psychotic time bomb waiting to go off," Midnight said, giving Sapphire a meaningful look.
"I don't know... are you?" Lyra asked, leaning forward for a better look.
"Just fold already," Midnight grunted.
"... alright," Lyra finally said. "I fold." There was a pause. "Hey!"
"To late!" Vinyl laughed. "Pair o' Princesses!"
"Two tens," Sapphire said.
"Nothing," said Derpy.
"Three aces," Midnight smirked.
"Full house," Berry said, laying her cards down and pulling the pile of bits towards herself.
"Jerks."
"Then don't imply I'm a secret cannibal," Midnight told her as she dealt out a new hoof. "Besides, I bet bull meat's disgusting anyway."