//------------------------------// // Jail Time // Story: Monopony // by Therealdraginslayer //------------------------------// Just as the game began, Twilight had already began planning out the foundation for the rest of her game, using probability and mathematics to her advantage. Each time she would land on a property during her first time around the board, she would buy the property no matter the cost. She did this until she ran out of money of when she landed on Boardclop Avenue, the space right next to the “Go” square. It wasn’t until everypony had gone again that they noticed Twilight’s lack of funds. “Now, sugarcube,” Applejack started, “you don’t want to spend all your money at once. You might need it if you land on one of our properties.” Twilight merely smiled. “It’s okay, AJ. I’ve got this. And if I fail, then I can learn from this. By the way, Rarity, how do you win this game?” “You win when everypony else runs out of money and you’re the only one left!” Pinkie exclaimed, throwing the dice to the board. She moved her piece over a few places. “Ooh! I got a Chance card!” She looked at it intently and jumped in the air delighted. “I got the “Get out of jail-free” card! Woohoo!” Everypony smiled at Pinkie as Fluttershy took the dice in her hooves, tossing them down gently as though not to hurt the board. The dice landed in pairs six. Twilight smiled at the dice, pushing them back to Fluttershy. “Good job, Fluttershy. You landed right on the “Go”. And you get to go again!” Twilight took the money out of the bank and handed it to Fluttershy. “Thank you, Twilight,” she whispered, slipping the money in one of her neat stacks that looked exactly like Twilight’s: organized and formal. Fluttershy looked at the rest of her friends and noticed the way they held their money and how wrong it was: they all had their money in one giant stack… Except Rarity. She had hers neatly stack, but not in the same way as the rest of them. It seemed completely random the way she had arranged her paper money, but Fluttershy knew better than to question it. Rarity had been running a business for the latter half of her life and was clearly successful. “How long have we been playing?” Rainbow Dash questioned impatiently. “This is boring.” “Oh, this game picks up rather quickly when ponies start buying properties and start running out of money.” Rarity flipped her mane out of her eyes and looked down intently at the board. Fluttershy couldn’t resist the feeling that Rarity was calculating something in her mind. She shrugged off the feeling, using whatever willpower she possessed to do so. She tossed the dice and watched them land on a pair of two’s. Fluttershy moved her piece over four spaces and sighed as she landed on Dodge Junction Railroad. She shrugged and looked at rarity, awaiting the price to be listed. “I own two railroads so that’ll be…” Rarity started, making what Fluttershy could only describe as being a face of math. “...fifty bits, please.” Fluttershy nodded and handed Rarity a fifty bit bill and took the dice into her hooves. Please don’t get extra doubles. I don’t want to go to jail. The dice rolled slowly, like an eternity, and thudded against the cardboard game heavily, echoing much like Twilight’s piece when she first moved. Don’t be doubles. The first die landed squarely on a three...then the second landed… Rarity muttered something under her breath, but everypony else sighed heavily as it landed on a four. Fluttershy moved her piece over a more places, noticing that Rarity was rearranging her stacks of money. It made Fluttershy curious. Had Rarity been planning on Fluttershy to be sent to jail? Game or not, that would be rude and mean. But the longer Fluttershy thought about it, the more she realized that Rarity wouldn’t do that. She was her friend and friends look out for one another, even when against each other. Twilight Sparkle took the dice in her hooves and rolled them for a moment, calculating the possibilities ahead of her. They had gone around the board enough that only four properties remained and she could land on any of them. A utility remained, Water, and if she could land on it, she could increase her profits for somepony landing on it by one hundred percent with the addition of her electricity. But she could land on Baltimare Road and start building houses with the rest of the yellows… But she could also land on the “Go to jail” tile and her chance at any of it would. Then again it was one in eleven that she would land on it. She tossed her dice down. Clunk! Chink! Twilight felt a dreadful cloak cover her heart as her dice rolled to a four and three. “Oh, too bad, Twilight,” Rarity snickered. she composed herself quickly. “You have to go to jail.” “For how long?” Twilight asked, eyes dropping behind her head and being covered by her mane slightly. “Until you can afford bail or you can roll a double.” “H-how much is bail?” Twilight inquired worriedly, hoping it wasn’t a horrible amount. She only had four hundred bits all together and she needed to be prepared in case she landed on one of her friend’s properties. Rarity looked around at her friends and said, “When I play, it’s usually up to a certain percentage of what you currently have, but I think that since it is your first time, it should only be around two hundred bits.” The group nodded in an awkward unison, unsure of Rarity’s proposal, but Twilight immediately took the deal, handing Rarity two one hundred bit bills. Rarity placed the bill into the bank quickly and took the dice into her hooves. She rolled it confidently and smiled. She moved her piece over ten spaces and Twilight felt a cold dagger of disappointment enter her back as Rarity landed on the Water Utility. Twilight sighed and realized that she hadn’t landed on Baltimare Road…. But Rarity didn’t buy the utility. Twilight looked at Rarity curiously, unsure of her actions. She had enough money, why didn’t she buy it? Instead, she moved her stacks of paper money around and moved bills around accordingly. What was she planning in her head? Rarity slid the dice to Applejack and smiled oddly. Applejack took them slowly, throwing them to the board just as slowly. Pinkie Pie exclaimed in delight. “Woo! You landed on the Free Parking! What does she get?!” “Nothin’, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack stated quickly and in a raspy tone. She suddenly felt bad about her choice of words. “I’m sorry. I din’t mean ta snap like that.” “Oh, it’s okay!” Pinkie replied in her typical, eccentric voice. “I know this game makes people a little antsy.” “Whatever!” Rainbow Dash cried out impatiently. “This game is going way too slow. I vote for a small rule change: we should fine people for taking too long with their turn.” “I agree,” Rarity answered smugly. “This game is going too slow. If somepony takes more than twenty seconds in between game decisions, they will be fined two hundred dollars. Agreed?” Rainbow Dash nodded and she looked at Fluttershy intently. Fluttershy squeaked fearfully and nodded with them. “It’s settled then,” Rarity said. “Rainbow Dash it’s your turn now.” Without missing a beat, Rainbow Dash took the dice in her hooves and tossed them to the board and moved her piece over to the Community Chest square. She took a card from the pile and said, “Are their any houses or hotels out?” She looked down at the board and shook her head in disappointment. She simply put the card at the bottom of the stack pushed the dice to Fluttershy. Without taking a moment to waste and risk having to be fined, she took the dice and threw them quickly. She moved her piece quickly and smiled as she landed on a place that she knew she could have a strategic advantage with. She looked down at her properties and saw that she only had one of the railroads. Meanwhile, she knew Rarity had two other railroads and Twilight had one as well. She knew that Rarity wouldn’t be willing to trade her railroads for anything, as they are a steady source of income for her, but Twilight needed something that Fluttershy had. “I’ll take Baltimare Road, please. If that’s alright with you.” Twilight groaned to herself, but Fluttershy did not care at the moment. She wanted the other railroad before Rarity could trick Twilight out of it. Fluttershy completed the transaction and placed the property with the rest of hers and smiled at Twilight as she pushed the dice over to Pinkie Pie. But she was going to make Twilight ask for it. No sense in giving her idea away. She wanted ponies to think she was only an ameteur. +++ Twilight Sparkle watched the game proceed in front of her eyes, watching as her friends slowly collected more and more money. She watched as deals were dealt for each other’s properties, fines were collect due to unhasty turns, and houses were finally being built around the board. But they were Rarity’s houses and no matter how much Twilight tried to prevent herself from landing on such squares, her luck just would not turn around. “Ya just can’t git any luck tunight, can ya, Twili’?” Applejack said with a hearty laugh. Twilight smiled weakly at her friend, unsure of what her neck move would be. The dice were approaching her quickly but she needed time to think of her next move or else she would lose. She only had a two hundred bits left. Pinkie Pie took the dice in her hooves and did a dance with them until she threw them back to the board. “Woo!! I get to visit Rarity’s again!” “Uh, Pinkie Pie…”Rainbow Dash started. “You do realize that you now only have ten bits left, right?” Everypony looked at Pinkie Pie who nodded quickly and happily. “Yeah, I know, silly! It’s just a game.” Twilight felt a sudden rush of relief over her as she realized what Pinkie had just said. She was right. IT was just a game. Nothing more than a harmless game that friends could play to get closer to one another. But why did she feel like there was something hostile looming around everypony. She looked down at the game and over to Rarity who smiled with pride at her accomplishments in the game. She was the clear winner of the game even when the game seemed far from over. Fluttershy took her turn and paid Rarity her due money after landing on one of the railroads with a smug smile the entire time. Twilight used her magic to bring the dice close to her and mumbled a few words to herself. She threw the dice down… “Chance Card,” she said to herself and took the red card on top. She didn’t want to look at the other side. What if she had to pay a lot of money? What if she didn’t have enough? She didn’t want to be out of the game already. They had only been playing for an hour and it didn’t seem like it was going to end soon. Twilight flipped the card around and set her forehead on the table depressingly. EVerypony watched as her pieced moved through the air and landed on the Jail square. “Would you like to pay two hundred bits, or would you take your chances and get doubles?” Twilight looked at her small, pathetic stack of money and shook her head. “I’ll wait until it’s my turn again.” “Oh! Wait!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed happily. She shuffled through her properties and bills, looking frantically for something. She gasped and handed Twilight a small card. “Here! You can have it!” Twilight looked at the card closely and felt something warm bubbling in her gut. Pinkie Pie had given Twilight her “Get Out of Jail Free” card. “What do you think you’re doing?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed angrily. “She can’t do that!” Rarity shook her head at Rainbow Dash. “Actually, you can. You can help out anypony as long as you don’t lose because of it.” Twilight looked at her pink friend with a smile. “Thank you, Pinkie.” Suddenly, a cold draft sifted through the air ominously, but nopony else seemed to notice. Twilight looked around for a moment, hoping that the window had been closed. But as she looked back at the window, she noticed it shut tightly. She looked at the rest of her friends and smiled uneasily. But Twilight noticed something about Rarity and Rainbow Dash. They were sitting awfully close to one another…Yet that wasn’t what worried Twilight. They looked gray.