//------------------------------//
// Casino Calling 
// Story: Mages of Virtue: The Phantom Thief 
// by Nova Arc 
//------------------------------//

Finally, it was Saturday once again and Sunset was rather happy this morning. She and Loli had pretty much just cemented their newfound friendship and had were now working together to do the nigh-impossible: catch the Phantom Thief!

Sunset hopped out of bed and went straight to the kitchen, seeing as Loli and Trixie were still asleep, and made breakfast. In a matter of minutes, the flat was filled with the smell of eggs, sausages, bacon, and the best bagels in Etheria, straight from Magehattan! The scent spread, enticing Loli, who literally floated from her bed to the dining room/kitchen and didn't fully awaken until she was standing right in front of the table. And when she did...

"FOOD!!!" But just before she could divebomb the table, she was stopped by a yellow aura that enveloped her. Sunset moved her away from the table and onto a chair.

"Uh-uh-uh. Not until Trixie gets up," Sunset said.

"Aw," Loli said, disappointed. "She probably wouldn't wait for either of us."

"So, you want to be like her?" Sunset asked.

Loli contemplated this, then answered, "Y'know what? I can wait." Luckily, she didn't have to wait long as Trixie was soon out of her room. Neither Loli or Sunset knew how, but she was apparently immune to the bed-head syndrome; no one's hair should look as good as groomed as Trixie's was when they woke up!

"I swear, it's some weird hair-manipulation spell outside the range of my Affinity," Loli said quietly.

"Morning, Trixie," Sunset greeted. "Sleep well?"

"Trixie slept fine, tha-" Trixie suddenly stopped and noticed Sunset beaming. "Uh, is everything alright, Sunset?"

Sunset looked a bit confused as she answered, "Yeah. Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, for starters... Uh, never mind." Trixie sat down, giving Loli the go-ahead to dig into her plate.





Rox Candy looked up at the ceiling as she lay down, staring at the clock above her massive queen-size bed with a mattress so soft it was like lying down in a marshmallow that had been held over a fire all light long. She lay there, her mind empty, just the way she liked it... until her door opened.

"Lady Roxanne?" a voice called from the other end of the room. "Time to get up." Roxy knew that voice and what it meant and instantly hid her head under the blanket. "I know you're awake."

"No I'm not," Roxy said back.

"I don't recall you being able to sleeptalk."

"I, uh, developed it a few days ago," Roxy said again. The silence that followed proved that the other person was not falling for it; Roxy had to step up her game. "Um... this is a prerecorded message. Please leave a message after the beep. Beeeeeeep."

For a moment, Roxy thought she had nailed it... but then- "Nice try, Lady Roxanne." Roxy heard footsteps coming closer and closer. With a shlink, the curtains and window blinds of her bedroom were drawn open, allowing sunlight to flood in.

"Aaaah! The light! It burns!" Roxy bounced up a little and twisted in midair, wrapping herself even more in her blanket.

"Really?" asked the voice, before it yanked the corner of the blanket, unraveling the whole thing and sending Roxy bouncing off the bed and onto the ground. The young girl bolted for the door, still wearing her pajamas. But just as the handle was in reach, the source of the voice tackled her to the ground and sat on her. Still, Roxy clawed her way across the ground.

"Must... escape.... official... things," she groaned as she crawled across the ground, a testament to her strength as she was still able to move with the weight on her back. The weight belong to a young woman in her earlier mid-20s wearing a white dress shirt and blue trousers. Her light brown hair was tied into a pair of buns with white ribbons. She grabbed both of Roxy's ears and pulled.

"How many times have I told you to at least listen to what I have to say before trying to jump out the window?" she asked.

"Owowowowow! Hey, I already have a general idea of what you're going to say," Roxy said defensively. "Which is how I know I don't want to even hear it."

"Oh, really?" said the woman.

"Yes! Stop if I'm wrong, but ain't it something along the lines of, "First of, you have to get your measurements taken for your new gown. Then, sign a bunch of papers in your father's absence. Then you have a meeting at 4pm, where you get to meet a bunch of your father's business partners in hopes that they'll try to auction you off to their rich, snobby sons, in which case you have to forget you morals and beliefs and kiss their fat, lazy, rich, gold-plated, ego-centric, lazy a-"

"You just got your weekend allowance, the car is yours, and I was about to suggest we go shopping," she said, cutting Roxy off. "But... if you'd rather do all that other stuff, I think I can get in touch with Jet Set. I hear his son just bought a brand new mansion in the west side of town."

Roxy remained silent for a while. Then, she finally managed to say, "So, we can go shopping?"

"Mhm."

"And anywhere else I want to go?"

"Your father won't be around all weekend, last time I heard. So the car is all yours."

"And I don't have to ride in that dumb anaconda tank?"

The woman above her chuckled. "Hell no."

"You know what a troll is, right Pearl?" she asked with a grin.

"Mystical troll or Internet troll? You're going to need to be more specific." She pulled harder on Roxy's ears. "And choose wisely."

"Internet! Internet!"

Pearl released Roxy's ears and Roxy breathed a sigh of relief as the woman got off her and helped her to her feet.

"I'm 24-years-old. I'm very much aware of what a lot of crap is."

"Well are you aware that you could have said all that stuff before throwing me out of bed and sitting on my back?" Roxy said as she rubbed her sore ears.

"You implying something?" Pearl asked, cracking her knuckles.

Roxy gulped. "What? No! Of course not. Oh, look at the time! I should get ready before the lines get too long," she said hurriedly as she pushed Pearl out the door.

After getting ready, Roxy picked a sandwich out of the fridge and got into the purple sedan waiting outside. She sat next to Pearl at the back as they were driven out of the massive estate. Even after driving five minutes, the mansion - no, castle -  was still visible from the back seat.

"Why do rich people always feel the need to flaunt their wealth and rub it in everyone's faces?" Roxy asked out loud.

"No idea," Pearl replied. "Maybe they're compensating for something?"

"Probably either their height, intelligence, self-esteem..."

"Or dignity?" Pearl added with a grin, causing Roxy to laugh. Pearl may have been a respectful servant, but when with Roxy, she completely changed; they could practically be sisters!

Finally, they arrived in town. As they got out of the car, Pearl told the driver to circle back to his usual parking spot by the school dormitories. Roxy took a deep breath. Getting a chance to go out on her own like this was a rare event. Normally, she had her father send at least six bodyguards to watch her every move and make sure she didn't get in trouble. Cold Cut took his daughter's safety very, almost too seriously. All his bodyguards were armed with royal guard-grade equipment and were trained by various military forces. Roxy constantly felt smothered, knowing full well that she could pretty much beat the living daylight out of her father's entire personal detail. Well, all except one...

Roxy and Pearl roamed the streets, passing shops and looking through the windows to see if there was anything that she liked. They stopped at a clothes store that was having a sale. She picked out a bunch of clothes and tried them on, getting a second opinion from Pearl. After Roxy was done, they switched and Pearl tried on some new items. Cold Cut wouldn't have liked that, but they'd been doing this for over two years; no law said he had to know!

They each walked out with a bag of clothes, smiling. Pearl was happy seeing Roxy happy; it was quite rare these days. But then, as they got closer to the southern part of the city, Roxy saw something in the distance that made her grin even wider. Pearl tracked her line of site to the one place she did not want them to go to: the Karma Casino.

"Absolutely not," Pearl said before Roxy even had the opportunity to ask. She looked at Roxy, who was attempting to use the ancient art of the  Puppy Dog Eyes to force a yes out of Pearl. "Lady Roxanne-"

"Roxy," the younger girl corrected. She preferred not to be referred to with any titles when she could avoid it. "You know how I feel about titles."

"Fine. Roxy," Pearl corrected herself, "do I need to remind you what happened the last time we were in a casino?"

"Nope," Roxy said. "Way too much fun to forget," she continued with a grin. "C'mon, Pearl. Just a couple rounds?"

"At least do me the honor of not lying to my face," Pearl said.

"So, is that a yes?" Roxy asked, again trying the ancient art of cuteness.

"No!" Pearl was not ready to get involved in any shenanigans Roxy wound up getting herself into, which was quite often. Sadly, she didn't have a choice, seeing as Roxy had already vanished from her side... and Pearl was holding both their bags. "I hate it when she does that.

It didn't take long for Pearl to find Roxy, but she was still too late. Roxy was already at a roulette table and was waiting for her turn. As she was about to pick up the dice, she was stopped by the hand of one of the dealers.

"Ain't you a little young to be in here, young lady?" the man asked.

"You could say that," Roxy replied. Then, she pulled out her phone, worked her magic, and place it on the table. The high-tech surface registered the phone and brought up Roxy's avatar, which resembled a golden chili pepper with a purple top. Soon, there was a rush of coins with the face of a famous mage going from her phone to the dealer's end, where there was a wallet labeled "BANK". "But I think my good friend, Starswirl the Bearded can cover for me." By the time the flow was cut, the "bank" total had risen from 20,000 to 35,000! The dealer stared blankly between the figures on the table and Roxy's grin.

"Okay then," he said, rolling the dice over to Roxy.

But before she could even think of throwing, Pearl grabbed her ear.

"How many times have I told you not to ignore and leave me standing like an idiot out on the street just so you could run around and play some dumb gambling game?!"

"Owowow!" Roxy tied to move with the motion of Pear's twisting, but still took the pain. "Pearl, wait! I've already put in the cash! I'll just do this one roll, and we're out! I promise!"

"You're promises mean as much as a pile of horsesh-" Pearl immediately stopped when she noticed all eyes on the table staring at them. "The hell are you all looking at?"

"C'mon, girl," said one of the men at the table. "Let the kid have her shot. It's only B15,000! Besides, when I win, I could treat a sweet thing like you to a very fine evening." Then, he wrapped his arm around Pearl's neck. Big mistake. Pearl let go of Roxy's ear and instead grabbed the man's hand and twisted his wrist back so far that the back of his had was almost flat against his arm, causing him to gasp in pain.

"First off," Pearl said, "don't call me "sweet thing" or "girl". Second, don't touch me. I barely know who you are and where you've been. Third, my boss can barely afford me and considering I don't know, nor do I give a damn, who the hell you are, I doubt you could even give me a decent lunch." Pearl looked at Roxy, who was still tending to her ear. "One roll, we're out," she said as she released the man's hand.

Roxy smiled and picked up the die once more, shaking the pair of cubes against her right ear, then her left. "I hear two sevens," she said. She held the die up to Pearl. "For good luck?"

Pearl raised an eyebrow. "For real?"

"Pwease?" This time, the big eyes got to Pearl and she blew on the dice. "I can already hear the jingling of these babies in my purse!" However, she didn't just roll the die; she had to be a bit more extravagant. She tossed the pair of dice into the air and flicked them across the table. The green cubes rolled and bounce off the other end and began to slow. The first one stopped: 7. The second still spun on it's edge. Roxy had the strong urge to kick the table to stop it, but she knew that winning in a casino means not being suspected of cheating in any way whatsoever. Finally, it stopped, as did the breathing of everyone at the table.

...

...

...

7.

The table erupted in cheers and Roxy hugged Pearl so hard she lifted the older woman off the ground. "WOOHOO!!! When have I ever let you down?"

"Please give me a week to sift through every single scenario," Pearl said, although with a slight grin. "Now get your winning's and let's get the hell outta here!"

"Leaving so soon?" asked the dealer.

"Hey, we agreed on one roll, and that's it," Pearl said.

"Really?" He looked at Roxy. "Whaddaya say, little lady? Double or nothing?"

"Nah," Roxy said, without  second thought. "I just wanted to make sure I wasn't rusty. And I think this just about proves I still got it. Am I right people?" she asked, earning another cheer from the crowd.

"Alright," the dealer said, tapping the bank and sending a flow of coins to Roxy's phone. But there was a problem: he only send B15,000.

"Hey, where's the rest?" Roxy asked.

"Kid, you're lucky I gave you anything," said the man. "I said "double or nothing". You declined."

"I won that money fair and square!"

"Roxy, don't," Pearl said, holding her arm.

"Yeah right. So, was it telekinesis or did you just straight-up warp the laws of probability?" the dealer accused.

"What?! Are you freaking blind?!" She pulled up her shirt shirt sleeves and pulled back her hair. "In case you didn't notice, I'm the only one at this table who isn't an Esper or a Skyborn! I'm just surprised you didn't make sure I didn't get that second seven!"

"So you're saying I cheat?" said the dealer, walking up to Roxy.

"Don't," Pearl urged.

"If the monkey suit fits," Roxy growled.

The dealer glared daggers at her. But then started backing as he felt an odd heat emanating from her, forming a slight heatwave around her.

Pearl grabbed the phone the moment she saw the man reach under the table. "Time to go!" She dragged Roxy across the casino to the exit. They left the building without any problem. Or so they thought.





"I'm telling you," Loli said, "Sapphire Shores can hit much higher notes."

"But Coloratura can modulate her voice without autotune," Dawn argued.

"But when did you last hear Sapphire use autotune?"

Dawn paused in thought. "Huh. touche."

Loli laughed. "Y'know, you should be like this more often."

"Like what?" Dawn asked, confused.

"Teehee! You're so adorable when you're clueless," she said. "I mean more open."

"Not this again," Dawn groaned.

"Look, I'd never put you in a situation where'd you'd look back on your choices with regret, you know this. So what is it? You're still holding on to what happened three years ago?"

"It's not something you easily forget." Dawn stopped and sat down on a bench. Loli sighed and sat next to him. "I want to. Trust me. I mean it wouldn't be a bad thing. But..."

"You're afraid someone might get hurt." Loli smiled. Dawn was unusually nice and caring and he hated seeing people get hurt. But this had a major flaw: he developed a bad habit of taking the pain alone. "Okay, we'll make a deal."

Dawn looked suspiciously. "I don't trust your deals," he said.

"Hear me out. Try to find at least two other people you can make friends with. Do that and I'll... try to open up to you-know-who."

"Ah! Your secret crush," Dawn said with a grin.

"Shhhhhh! Do we have a deal or not?" Loli said, trying not to turn red.

Dawn thought about it. After everything he'd been through, he doubted whether he'd even feel any different having another person he thought he could talk to. But on the bright side, he may actually get to see Loli as a bumbling mess tripping over her own tongue! "One person," he said. "Then maybe we have a deal."

"Alright. But you gotta do your side first before me. You've got nothing to lose. Me? Whatever may be left of my dignity is on the line."

Dawn laughed and looked across the street. It was quite busy, even for a Saturday. But then he spotted something a bit... odd.

"Hey, is that Roxy?"

"Huh? Where?" Loli asked. It wasn't hard to spot the curly mop of blond hair running across the other side of the street. It was similarly easy to spot the three shady figures in black suits suspiciously going in the exact same direction. "Should we do something?"

Dawn thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Why not. I'm bored."





"They're still on us," said Pearl as she maneuvered her way through the crowded street.

"I know," Roxy replied, following closely behind. "Maybe we can't shake 'em. They're pretty persistent, huh?"

"True. But we can't risk a fight out in the open. Plus, however you say it, a sixteen-year-old in a casino does not make for a great alibi."

"Yeah. And the last thing I want is to be recorded and wind up on the six o'clock news!"

Finally, they took a turn into an alley. Unfortunately, it was empty and there was nowhere to hide.

"Don't move," said a voice. The three men had blocked the alleyway and the girls' only way out was over a fence in front of them. Then again, there wasn't any more running involved in this part of the plan.

"I don't think they have guns," said Roxy.

"Yeah," Pearl agreed. "If they did, they would've brought them out already."

"So, you take the one in the middle, I take the rest."

"Remember who's training who here," Pearl said with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

"Now come with us," said one of the men, "and no one gets hurt."

"Yeah, about that," Roxy said. "Either way, someone's gonna get hurt, but we're not going anywhere with you creeps!"

Swiftly, Pearl whipped out a pair of kunai in each hand as she turned and crouched and threw it at the men. Roxy used her as a stepping stone to get in the air as the kunai exploded into a cloud of smoke. Blinded, the man in the middle couldn't see Roxy as she crashed into him from above. The men to the side couldn't see her when she grabbed them and threw them back further into the alley either. As they got up, one of them got an eyeful of Pearl's impressive rack, which didn't last long.

"Y'know," Pearl said, cracking her knuckles, "it's very rude to stare, pervert!" Before the man could pull back his hand, Pearl delivered a quick succession of blows, causing him to stagger back as he began losing the feeling in his upper body. He stared confused as he tried to ask what was going on, which was difficult when you lost all the feeling in your chest. "Oh that weird, numb feeling? I just struck five major nerve points in your chest and stomach. Don't worry, I tried to make the hits non-lethal," said the woman just before the man collapsed, unconscious.

The other man was suddenly a bit less sure of whether or not he'd rather fight the ninja in front of him or the miniature giantess that was currently dragging his unconscious partner across the ground, his eyes blank and mouth open.

"Hey, P?" she called. "This was boring. I blame you."

"What?!" Pearl replied, outraged. "Me?!"

"We should've let more guys come after us before taking 'em on! Jeez, this barely lasted two minutes!"

"Seriously." Pearl shook her head, perfectly aware that the last man trying to escape toward the fence. Pearl sharply drew a kunai and turned "Not so-" But her hand never even pulled back before a silver streak cut around her. The object bounced off the wall to the side and struck the back of the man's head, causing him to fall forward and reach out for the fence with the few milliseconds of consciousness he had left.

Pearl followed the streak, which turned out to be a disk, as it trailed back the a hand belonging to Dawn. "Need a hand?"

"Does it look like we need a hand?" Roxy asked rhetorically, holding up the unconscious goon.

"Fair point." Dawn said, as the shield retracted into a disk just small enough to fit on the back of his glove. "So... do I even want to ask?"

"Probably not," Roxy replied. She then finally caught sight of Loli staring at her. "What're you looking at, emo?"

"I'm not an emo!" Loli said back, a bit irritated at the name.

"Tell that to your fashion adviser." Roxy hefted the unconscious man onto her shoulder. "Now if you want to make yourselves useful, help us get rid of these guys before-" Before Roxy could finish, a ring appeared around the base of Loli's pigtails and her hair extended into a hand, grabbing the man on the ground in front of Pearl. Her shadow also extended and grabbed the man Dawn had knocked out. She tossed them both into a garbage bin as Dawn hit them both in mid-flight with a memory wipe spell. Roxy followed suit once Dawn had wiped the man she held. "Would you look at that? Guess you can be good for something," Roxy said, ruffling Loli's hair and walking away.

Loli deadpanned as Pearl walked by. "She... can be so... annoying," she grumbled.

"Try living with her," Pearl said as she followed Roxy out.

"You know, for someone you look up to, you two couldn't be further apart," Dawn said as they walked out.

"You don't say," Loli deadpanned. She was in a really bad mood. If there was one thing she had a problem with, it was being called an emo.





Back in school on Tuesday, Loli was still not in a good mood. The only thing she was looking forward to was being able to hit something (or someone) with permission she before she did something really bad.

"I have never seen you in this bad a mood," Sunset said as they sat on the bleachers, waiting for Iron Will to call up the names of the two who would be fighting today.

"I'm fine," Loli said, taking a deep breath.

"I don't need extraordinary hearing to know that you're lying," Sunset joked. But Loli didn't so much as crack a smile. "What's wrong?"

Loli sighed. "You know that feeling where you look up to people but it's like all of them turn out to be jerks when you try to get to know them?" Loli asked. Sunset was a bit confused.

"Um... kinda, I guess... I used to," Sunset said, remembering her earlier days as Celestia's apprentice. "I used to think Princess Celestia looked down on me every time I wanted to go further and she held me back. Maybe this person is just seeing how patient you are."

"Oh, they're testing my patience alright," Loli said.

A few moments later, Loli walked back towards the bleachers, carrying her ribbon-wrapped scissors in one hand and holding up a beaten Lyra with the other arm.

"Sorry," Loli said, now a lot less angry. "I really did try to hold back." It wasn't convincing to the eyes of a third party, who only see the pink blur ripping across the platform, knocking Lyra back and forth like a ragdoll. "I promise I'll make it up to you! I'll restring your lyre tomorrow!"

"You don't have to," said Lyra. "But... I was going to ask you were you got your guitar strings." Bon Bon then arrived to take Lyra from Loli and escort her to the nurse's office, but not before shooting Loli a "There will be some serious retribution" glare.

"I think I just made enemies... with Bon Bon," Loli said sheepishly.

"Congrats," said Sunset. "Maybe next you can try becoming Pinkie Pie's mortal enemy," she added, warranting a laugh. "Looks like you calmed down, though."

"Yeah," Loli said rubbing the back of her head. "Not exactly the best way."

"Alright," Iron Will's voice rang, getting the students' attention. "Final round of the day. Sunset Shimmer," he announced, much to Sunset's surprise. "You've been rather docile during sessions."

"Probably should've seen this coming," Sunset said as she made her way down.

"And Dawning Forge." The room went silent. Many turned to face Dawn, who sat there, as surprised as Sunset.

"Uh... okay," said Dawn as he walked toward the platform. The two stood on either end of the platform and face each other. Sunset wasn't sure how to read the smile on his face; was it real or was he trying to hide something?

"Good luck," Dawn said with a genuine smile; which surprised Sunset.

But she smiled back and said, "You too," as she brandished her weapon and grinned. "You might need it more than I do," she taunted.

Dawn grinned back. "We'll see about that."