Chapter 1: Games of Chance
All was well in the kingdom of Canterlot, as the locals were making a crowd by the town square. Their loud cheers nearly deafened the Royal Guard, who was running towards Canterlot Castle. The cause of the crowd: a game of chance.
A lavender unicorn was rolling a pair of rose-colored dice with magic, as a golden pony was inspiring the crowd to cheer louder, as a white and regal stallion, wearing a suit and tie, was paying sharp attention on the dice.
The mare tosses the dice, and they added the roll to seven. The unicorns roared with excitement, and bumped their cutie marks together (one a gold and red sun, and the other a purple shooting star.)
"That's yet another seven, my good Sunset!" The roller shouted.
"Of course, my dear Starlight!" Sunset replied, as she reached for the pile of gold bits. But as she did, the regal stallion raised a hoof.
"Excuse me, my dears," He said, in a accent that every pony can recognize. The accent of Fancy Pants, the most interesting unicorn in all of Canterlot. "But I would like to bet on another roll."
Starlight scoffed. "Sorry, Mr. Fancy Pants, but you've got nothing to bet with. You know the rules, you gotta pay to play."
"Actually, I do have something of interest." Fancy Pants nodded, and his mare friend, Fleur De Lis, reached in her saddlebags, and grabbed a tourmaline and dusty book, with a crystalline heart on the cover. The gold threading on the top read, "The History of the Crystal Empire." Starlight wasn't amused, but Sunset looked at the book with beady eyes.
"A book? Really?" Starlight rolled her eyes. "I've expected more from you, Fancy Pants."
"A book?" Sunset leaned closer to the book.
"Yes," said Fancy Pants. "This ol' thing has been on my shelves for ages, and I was going to deliver it to the book store downtown," He leaned to Sunset. "But I see this book catches your eye." Sunset nodded and reached for the book, before Starlight took her hoof away, and gave Fancy Pants gave her her trademarked smile.
"Can you excuse us for a second?" She replied and the two ponies huddled up. "What are you doing?" Starlight whispered to her comrade.
"Starlight, don't you see what that book is?!" Sunset responded.
"No, should I?"
"That book is the history of the Crystal Empire, the lost kingdom of the Crystal Ponies!" Sunset was grinning as big as the cloud city of Cloudsdale, but Starlight wasn't.
"That's just a tale for foals, just like the so-called existence of humans and that there was another world beyond Equestria." Starlight scoffed. "If I would believe in fairy tales, I wouldn't be playing with loaded dice, now would I?"
"Well, no." whined Sunset. "But with loaded dice, we have no chance of losing, right?"
"Well, that's true..." Starlight thought, and nodded. She then, turned back to Fancy Pants. "You've got a deal. Your book against our bits." She started to roll the dice, when a crimson stallion, with a white mane and a pair of dice for a cutie mark, called out.
"Hang on," shouted the pony. "Why don't we use my dice, or is that a problem?" He smiled with an evil grin. Starlight placed her dice back in her pocket, and grabbed the stallion's dice. She glared at Sunset.
"I'm going to kill you!" She whispered, and began to roll. "Please, mother of Faust, show me a SEVEN!!!" She tossed the dice, and she began to pack the bits, just in case. The dice were bouncing and rolling, until they came to a stop and showed two numbers.
A three and a four. Seven. Everyone couldn't or wouldn't believe it. Not even Starlight Glimmer.
Fancy Pants was stunned. His luck was with him in games, such as this, but it have seemed to have abandoned him. As Fleur comforted the surprised delegate of Canterlot, the unicorn duo danced in joy and collected their winnings, among them, the book of the Crystal Empire.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Fancy Pants." Starlight boasted, but as she reached the bits, the red dice fell out and landed on the cobblestone, adding up to seven. Snake Eyes shouted in disbelief.
"I KNEW IT!" His voice can practically heard from all the way to Manehatten. "YOUR DICE ARE LOADED!" The crowd of unicorn regals began to rally around the two scamming ponies, looking furious. Starlight's eyes lit up, and she turned to her companion.
"YOU gave me loaded dice?!" snarled Starlight, pointing her hoof at Sunset. The crowd moved aside for the head of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, along with a couple unicorn guards as well.
"What's going on here, ladies?" asked Shining Armor, sternly.
"SHE GAVE ME LOADED DICE!!!" Starlight screamed, leaning against Shining's chest. "Captain, arrest her!!"
"I did no such thing, Captain," Sunset interjected. "I would never betray my honour with petty theft." She trotted and shoved Starlight off of Shining Armor. "Arrest her! She tricked these ponies and took their money!" Starlight's face became red with rage.
"You are going to regret that, you rotten excuse for a pony! I challenge you to a magic duel!"
"I accept your challenge, but only because I feel sorry for you!" Both unicorns' horns began to glow with aqua-green auras. "Any last words?" Sunset smirked.
"Prepare to be defeated!" Starlight snarled!
"Famous last words." The unicorns shot magical blasts at each other, missing by only inches. Even some of them collided, blinding the cheering ponies surrounding the combatants. Then, after minutes of fighting and cussing, the ponies came to a halt, gasping for air.
"*huff, *huff, Is that... *huff," gasped Starlight. "...All you got?"
"I'm just... *huff, ...getting started!" Sunset was taking deep breaths, as she was speaking. "Should we... *huff, ...call it a tie?"
"I... *huff, suppose!" Starlight and Sunset turned to the ponies. "Attention, everypony! We agreed that this duel is a draw! Thank you for all your support!" Their horns began to glow. "But we must be on our way! Farewell!!!" The guards became alerted at the sight of their horns.
"HEY, GET BACK HERE!!!" One of the guards began to charge at the two, but he was too late. They've already teleported.
"Where'd they go?!" A prissy grey stallion cried.
"They took our bits!!!" Snake Eyes snarled. Shining Armor took notice at the ponies.
"Everypony, calm down!" He called towards them. "We'll settle this problem as soon as we can. Our only request is that you all be patient."
"PATIENT?!?" yelled Fancy Pants, who stomped his hoof on the cobblestone. "This angry mob demands satisfaction, and we demand it NOW!!" He turned to the group of ponies, behind him. "ARE WE GOING TO LET THOSE TWO DISRESPECTFUL PONIES TAKE WHAT RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO US??!"
"NOO!!!!" The ponies called in unison.
"THEN LET'S GET THEM!!!!" Then, with a wave of his hoof, Fancy Pants, the regal ponies, and the other Canterlot citizens ran down the street, shoving the Royal Guard aside. Shining Armor was in shock, as he saw his soldiers trampled and injured.
"Oh, this isn't good."