Luna levitated three bits off the table, leaving 4 behind. A hand reached over and took three more. Luna responded by flipping the table away in anger.
"How exactly art thou doing that? Thou art rigging the game, we know you are." Nick grinned and accepted the bits as she hoofed them over, adding more to his total.
"Well, you could just quit now. You've only lost... 1000 bits now. Honestly I'm shocked you kept it up this long."
The lunar alicorn floated the table back into place, and magiced another 25 bits on the table. "Again. And reexplain the rules, maybe we missed something."
"Fine, fine. Twenty-five bits on the table. We take turns, and on each turn we can pick up one, two, or three bits. Whoever picks up the last bit loses," Nick explained. "I win, I get your 25 bits. You win, I give you 100 bits. Simple. Now, you go first."
Luna huffed indignantly and swiped two bits off the table. She had tried every combination, but it just wasn't working. Three, then two, then three again? A series of ones? Nothing but threes? Failures, every one of them, and while the royal treasury would not even notice the thousand bits she had lost, her pride certainly did.
"You know, Luna, there is a trick to this. If you really want to, I could tell you."
"We refuse to be mocked in such a manner. We will find the secret on our own power, or die trying."
"Isn't that a tad extreme?"
"No."
Nick shrugged. He'd been running this little carnival game for Luna for over an hour now, with 40 wins in a row under his belt. Frankly, it was sad to watch. Sighing, he stood up. "That's enough for now, Luna. I need to get to bed. Sweet dreams."
"Oh, we will ensure thou has sweet dreams, Nicholas. We would never deny that to a friend."
Nick dreamed of a nice, calm ocean that night. He floated on a small raft, lounging back and enjoying the peaceful sounds. The seagulls flying overhead. The waves lapping at the sides of the raft. Luna setting up a table. Wait, what?!
"Luna? What are you doing in my dream? I thought you had to go look for nightmares!" Nick scrambled to his feet, eyeing his friend suspiciously.
"Normally we would be, but we have buisness to attend to! Come, let us play another round. I think I will win this time for sure!"
"Ugh, maybe I'll just let you win."
"Do that and we will toss thee in the water and break this raft. Thou can still experience terror in a dream, even if 'tis just an illusion."
"Changed my mind! Let's get started."
The next morning, Nick woke up with a large pile of bits at the foot of his bed, and a note reading "Thou art the absolute worst. But we will find the solution by taking this game to Twilight and challenging her! Surely with our experience against you, she will lose. -Luna".
"Oh boy... if anyone, er, anypony can figure out the trick, it's Sparky. I just hope Luna doesn't get too upset when..."
"How in the #$@%#$!?"
"...nevermind, I can hear her from here. Guess Sparky figured it out fast." He paused for a second. "Wait, if Sparky figured it out, she'd tell Luna. Crud. I'm dead, aren't I?"
There was a deep blue flash of teleportation behind him. "It would be wise for thou to start running, yes."
"I'll just... go jump in the moat myself, save you the trouble of tossing me in there."
"Good. Thy punishment would have been more severe, but now that we know thy secret we can finally one-up our dear sister at a game! We are so excited."
"Well, have fun. If you use the trick right..." she whispered it into his ear. "Yup. If you do that, you'll win every time, guaranteed. Have fun pranking Celly."
And with that, Nick changed into his bathing suit and went swimming in the moat.
"Ah, what nice water temperature today. I could stay here a while."
"How even?! We did everything right!
NICHOLAS!"
"Or not. I better start running!"