Unintended Consequences

by Daedalus

Let's Build a Hangout

A few minutes after Chapter 1, Twilight left the library to do whatever she had planned out the week before. Spike and Aristotle spent a while talking about various things. Eventually, Spike asked, "Do you think we should have a place to hang out or something? Feels like we'll be spending a lot of time together."
"Yeah, we could build something outside of Ponyville or buy a building. It could be our Bro Cave."
"Bro Cave?", Spike asked. Aristotle answered, "You know, like a man cave, except it would be for us bros, so it would be a bro cave. Anyway, I found a good area just outside the town-" He was cut off by a loud rumbling sound. Then Rainbow Dash shouted, "Stampede!"

The pair (the dragon and the man) looked out a window and saw nothing. They looked out a different window and saw a huge cloud of dust that was getting closer and coming from the same direction as Rainbow Dash's shout. Then they saw Applejack and a dog divert the stampede from Ponyville. Spike and Aristotle turned to each other, and both simultaneously said, "Let's put it underground."
Having agreed to put the Bro Cave underground, the duo decided to go through the library's selection of books to see if they could find any laws about underground buildings. It turned out that they would have to get a building permit from the nearest town, which was Ponyville, to build beneath the earth, even though they were planning to build at a depth that put them outside of the hamlet's jurisdiction. This process of obtaining an underground construction permit normally took a week or so.
While waiting for a reply to their request for a permit, unfortunately, Applejack, having gone for a week without any sleep and thus not in the best state of mind, caused several minor disasters that, to Aristotle and Spike, meant mainly they would have to wait for all of Applejack's mess to be cleaned up. That was long enough for them to decide to expedite the process with the magic of having friends in high places. A construction team was hired, and with several months of work, the construction the Bro Cave was finished.

Also, an Ursa Minor nearly attacked Ponyville, but Fluttershy was able to convince it to go home. The Great and Powerful Trixie had turned herself into a woman to compete with Aristotle on the bipedalism front, so she was living with him to learn the ways of humanity and cool sorts of magic. Aristotle tried his hand at actual diplomacy with a dragon and nearly convinced him to accept Pinkie Pie as a sacrifice in exchange for leaving, but she smelled too sugary sweet for the dragon's taste. Aristotle was chewed out for that, and no one accepted his defense of "I was sure she'd be fine". Aristotle was later knocked out by a griffon headbutting him, which was deemed an appropriate punishment for some reason.

Spike conspired with the man to mess with Twilight's first slumber party, and Rarity would forever remember the day as "Frizzy Friday", which considerably disheartened Spike. He got better upon meeting, along with Aristotle, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were both confused by and interested in someone who didn't care about having a special talent (Aristotle) and agreed to try being diplomatic attache`s the next time the Earth Embassy had business to conduct. The Running of the Leaves was coming up when the Bro Cave was completed.
"You know," Spike observed."We'll need furniture."
"Yeah, but what do you do with an underground complex that runs throughout Ponyville twenty feet below? We could set up a city in here! Come to think of it, we could set up a casino in here. We're not in Ponyville technically, and we've got room. Yes. How about we set up a casino in the Canterlot side and leave the rest as a hangout. What do you think?"
Spike thought for a few minutes before replying. "Okay. I could use more money. Need gems, after all. But... how're we gonna get the word out, and how do we get the money to set it all up?" Aristotle replied quickly.

"It's easy. We use word of mouth. As for the other question, I get a lot of money as a diplomat, and I haven't used much of it. My schemes haven't really gotten up and running yet. Also, did you have any ideas for a name?" After much discussion, they settled on "The Duck and Dragon". Soon enough, the place was full of ponies from places without legalized gambling. The elite and riff-raff mingled at The Duck and Dragon, and it was rare to find that the Royal Family was not represented in the clientele on any given night. The casino later gained a house band in Apple Core (a group comprised of Aristotle, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Spike). The owners (beside the founders, The Great and Powerful Trixie and Discord were major stockholders for reasons best left unsaid) became filthy rich. The Bro Cave later included the various products of Aristotle's plan to create and direct an industrial revolution in Equestria, along with Spike's Hoard, Discord's Playpen (which was coincidentally the name of a bar Shining Armor frequented), and Trixie's Pillow Fortress (a daycare center The Kind and Apologetic Trixie started as atonement for the wrongs she had done others as The Great and Powerful Trixie). The Bro Cave was a monument to the lives of its owners.

Author's Note:

I decided to do something of a montage. Did it work? I also practiced comedic asides. Were they successful? If you've been following this story for a while, you may notice some retcons in the new edit.

Comments

[Daedalus]

2130792 It comes from the local pigs. Maybe I should have explicitly stated that, but I like to leave things to the readers' imaginations. Hopefully things should be clear now.

[The Zealot]

This, all of my this. It's short and sweet and oh so funny. It doesn't even matter that it skipped how the human got here, or any explanation of how he got his position and why the royalty are so lax (Gambling Cadance anyone?), but it doesn't need to because it's so funny that it makes up for all of that and more! This is a beauty, good sir, and you must keep it going.

[Daedalus]

3842641 I apologize for such a belated response. I skipped Aristotle's arrival because arrivals are often mentioned in these sorts of stories(the ones that I read, at any rate) and I don't particularly like having to go through the familiar motions of things getting set up, so I skipped to the, IMHO, more interesting part: an established outsider wreaking havoc on the setting. Though for all curious, Twilight Sparkle intentionally performed a spell to summon Aristotle. Well, not specifically him, just anyone outside the MLP Universe as I've defined it. This happened, assuming the production order of episodes is also the chronological, between the 3rd and 4th episodes of Season 1. Upon his arrival, he was sent to meet with the Royal Sisters to sort out his legal status, which is basically "Don't make too much big trouble, and we'll ignore the rest". As for Princess Cadance's gambling problem, my head canon of her is that she has an inherited tendency towards addiction where she becomes dependent on whatever she loves, being all about Love, though the rest of her family is self-destructive for different reasons.