> Marble Pie's Bizarre Adventure
>  by Ditherer the Fussbudget
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prelude to a Debut, or Sly & the Family Stone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


"A.K. Yearling"


You're in deep cover, as usual - on a sabbatical, as far as your publishers know. That's actually only partly a lie; there's enough peace and quiet out here to kill a mare.

You've been using your new manuscript to ward ponies off. Ethically, you can't publish it; that's too close to making things public knowledge. Besides, the reviewers probably wouldn't praise the eyepatch, let alone how you got it.

But in the musty middle of nowhere, you've got quarters set aside.

Nice ponies here, even if they're a little simple. Still, you're not one to leave ponies under the threat of danger.

You haven't told them about the arrows, of course. It's need-to-know, until you finally find a means to destroy them permanently...

Well, burn that bridge when you come to it. For now, it's stir-crazy life and casual espionage down on the farm.

Sorry, "rock farm".

But you think you've got your big break! Igneous, the father and steward of this whole shebang, is heading inside from the fields. You lean out the window of your guest shed as he heads in.

With the same effort as a wink, ｢Paperback Writer｣ transfers, and the world enters your consciousness through his left eye. Not the most riveting sight, but you'll cope.

He walks in and kisses his wife on the cheek while she preps dinner. Then he makes a circuit around the house, looking in bedrooms.

Feisty and Monotone are outside working on other fields. Which just leaves...

...A-ha!


Marble Pie


Limestone's room is a mess, as usual!

She may be older than you, but she's not very efficient. You sigh at the discarded quilt and rumpled pillows, and then, discreetly, send out a little of your special power.

She's always telling you, "Don't touch my bed!" Well, now you're not, so there!

Some of ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ scuttles onto the blanket. Three or four of the little silverfish, each stamped with your cutie mark, clamp onto each pillow.

With a rush of air like a giant window opening, everything lifts off the ground. Your Stand rides the bedstuff up into the air, and gently, everything returns to its rightful place.

You realize you're humming to yourself just as the voice comes from behind you.

"Marble Victoria Pie." It's Pa!

You freeze, withers tightening.

"Did you forget the importance of hiding your gifts when we have company?"

"Pa, I'm sure our guest hasn't-"

"Coal strains! You're not sure of anything! Are your sisters disobeying their Pa too?"

You hang your head and turn around.


Daring Do


This is a crucial moment.

Having been in tight scrapes so often, you can feel them coming, and dive immediately into the fast-thinking most ponies only use three or four times in their lives. In the course of two seconds, these thoughts run through your mind:




Quiet, whose name is really "Marble", used magic without a horn.

It involves a bunch of tiny white things you need to get a closer look at.

Which means they already know, and they're hiding it from you.

And they can see Stands.

Which means they'll see that ｢Paperback Writer｣ is on Igneous' left eye!

They'll know you're onto them, and that'll make things difficult.

But if you retract, you might lose vital information!




You designate a new target in sight.

｢Paperback Writer｣ transfers instantaneously to Marble, hiding behind a curtain of her hair. Wow, apparently this mare lives without depth perception.


Marble Pie


"No, Pa, Maud and Limestone have kept it a secret."

Pa continues chewing you out. "I should hope! If anypony outside of the family learned-"

It could ruin the farm.

"-it could ruin the farm!"

I know, Pa. "I know, Pa. I'm sorry."

He looks ready to start again, but then he remembers something and turns away. ”I must check the Fibula.”

You almost snort in irritation. You’re not the most “modern” of your sisters, but even you think it’s obtuse to call it that.

But he’s already turned out the door. ”We’ll talk on this more when Ms. Yearling leaves this homestead. Until that time, you’re not to use that agency on this land!”

You bow your head, and he leaves.

｢Opposite of Thieves｣ retracts, dissolving into the air behind you. You were only using a little of it, it wasn't like you'd covered the floor and started plastering the windows with them...

”What the hell?!”

Ouch. You wince and turn back to the doorway.

”I told you to leave my room alone!” Limestone gets in your face, and you take a step back. ”My bed has to stay set up my way! Do you-” She stops and looks at you for a moment.

Then, a little roughly, she pushes your mane out of the way. You stare back at her while she inspects you. She does most of the first aid on the farm, and she has the same intensity in her eyes as then, the careful calculation.

“Is there something in my eye?”

A couple more seconds of searching and she drops your mane back in place. ”No, I just… thought I saw something. Get out of my room.”


Daring Do


Just in time.

You’ve recalled your Stand, for now, just breathing hard and staring out your window at the Pie home.

Your body continues making noise, worrying at itself. Internally, you’re calm.

You were hoping to transfer your eye back to Igneous, but the curtain of hair made it impossible. You were close to hopeless, in fact! Too many clues slip away from you into nothingness.

But he hasn’t left the house. Wherever it is, it’s not buried anywhere, thank goodness.

Honestly, this is probably the least glamorous mission you’ve set for yourself. Most of the treasure you find has been neatly set up by long-dead ponies. You’ve never really had to burglarize from someone living before.

Well, someone living who didn't seriously have it coming.

You tighten the eyepatch reassuringly.

An hour later, you attend a terse and quiet dinner, and answer polite questions about publishing. Feisty spends most of the dinner staring at your patch, but Marble listens intently. (A mare of letters, maybe?)

Evening descends. Given that they’re farmers, you bid them goodnight with the sunset.

Then, returning to your cabin, you plot your infiltration.


* * *


In the annals of the Family Pie, collected from many journals now crumbled away, this history is written:

The Pies stretch back many generations, much further than any among them can know for certain. They came from the Old Country, before the formation of Equestria, with only pilgrim badges for treasure and ballastellas for navigation. They were the first to till the land time wouldn’t touch; in the wasteland which was once part of the Badlands, they brought up beauty.

A dozen fads of jewelry and mining came and went in the interim, but they stuck to tradition over being changeable. They lived with and off of the land, coaxing out and harvesting enough to feed themselves. It was a stoic existence, and a humble one.

If any had asked how they managed it, they would demure. However, if legend and rumor should be believed, the secret lay in their family charm, which dated back possibly to the first excavation of their farm, but never faded or tarnished.

Made of a material which modern analysis would say came from a meteorite, carefully chipped, cut, polished, cleaned and protected. A brooch, the symbol of steady willpower and unity. The secret root of the Pie rock-farm, and the source of the family’s extreme success.

And three feet away from its thief.


Daring Do


You're in the heart of the Pie household, standing next to the bed of Igneous and Cloudy Quartz. Most of the other doors have been closed up until now, but the heads of the family keep theirs open. You close it behind you when you’re sure the coast is clear.

It's important to make sure they’re dreaming, so you transfer ｢Paperback Writer｣ to each of them and yo-yo it back. It can’t actually see dreams, unfortunately, but you can tell by the rolling motion of their eyes that both of them are dormant.

Even asleep in each other’s embrace, neither of them look exactly peaceful. They seem naturally... calloused, in some way. You don’t know if they’re heavy sleepers or not, so you expend a couple of emergency sleeping darts on them to play it safe.

It takes a couple minutes of searching to find the “Fibula” - again, most of the puzzles you’ve solved in your lifetime have been much more explicit than this. But find it you do.

It’s just in the bottom drawer of their nightstand, in a featureless rectangular box. Once you get close enough, you can feel the power radiating off of it.

It’s arrow-shaped, but not an arrow. Just a large, bulky ornament of some kind. It looks like it’s just for fastening clothes together, instead of combat or unlocking things.

But you’re wearing your saddlebags, and it clunks into them.

You take a few steps away from the bed back the way you came, and you feel it thrum softly. It glows from inside, the power like heat touching your skin. You hoof it back to the door, open and close it behind you.

Somepony’s immediately in front of you. It’s Monotone.

”Why were you in my parents’ room.”

“Oh, I was just announcing that I was leaving. I didn’t want to wake anypony I didn’t have to.” You smile.

She tilts her head a fraction to the right and then points a hoof at your pack. ”What’s in your bag.”

If you weren’t all mild-mannered right now you’d be able to pass it off as a hundred different things! “It’s a, uh, magical beacon. My publisher needs me for a meeting in Manehattan immediately.” That’s it, smile apologetically, maybe she’s buying it…

”You’re lying.”

Geez, that’s spooky. “...Alright. I’m a concerned adventurer, and I need to take your family artifact to a safe location where it can be studied and understood.”

Her face tightens a little. ”Okay, go.” The response surprises you, but you don’t make a big deal out of it, except she doesn’t move out of the way.

“...Alr-”

A hoof appears from the shadows, slamming into your face. You roll with it, flipping sideways in the air and crouching against a wall. 

Before gravity remembers you, you kick off and drive both forelegs into your attacker. But they touch only air; Monotone’s instantly on your right, still in sight. Super-speed?

No, you didn’t feel a rush of air. She just teleported, instantly. You brace yourself and transfer ｢Paperback Writer｣ to her.

Another hit and you’re thrown into the door. Surprisingly, it holds, and you slump to the floor. She looks down on you, still expressionless, like she’s waiting for you to say “Uncle”.

You spin and kick for her legs. She reappears just outside of the range, and her Stand tries to stomp your foot. It looks like a pony made entirely from jagged featureless dark-gray stone. You file that in the back of your head, alongside your new observation that the teleport didn’t look any different from her end.

You pull back and unfurl your wings. They’re a little sore, but you can’t do any stretching right now. Then you close your eyes and flap upwards, navigating with her vision. The ceiling grazes your feathers, but you dodge around another kick. She doesn't even teleport to follow you. 

Wait… could it be as simple as that?

Monotone leaps in the air to grab your tail in her teeth. You somersault away easily, but your pack comes loose and the Fibula falls out onto the floor. She rushes over and grabs it.

You swear, turn around and land, eyes still closed. You’re in the kitchen, now.

It’s not a big house.

A quick inventory flashes through your mind as your wings snap back. There are two darts left, and a whip in your saddlebag. She's staring at you, still waiting for your next move to create an opening.

Calmly, you take a deep breath. Then you reach up and adjust your eyepatch, switching eyes.

Your left eye’s usually replaced with your inactive Stand, or otherwise hidden. When you open it, the world swims around you. No sooner have you done that than she teleports in front of you, lashing out.

Except she appears slightly to the left, and the hit goes wild. You close your eye and respond with one of your own, hitting her upside the head. She grunts, slightly.

You open your eye again, a little clearer now, and jump back away from her Stand. She rushes for you, and you sidestep her, only for her to appear again. Then you land another hit, connecting even though her Stand blocks the damage. 

The blood’s rushes in your ears as you back up into a cabinet. From her point-of-view, you realize you’re in a corner.

She approaches you cautiously, relentlessly. Your attacks aren't doing much to her, and it would only take a few strikes from her or her Stand to smash one of your bones into paste. Besides which, this needs to get wrapped up before you make any more noise.

You snap open your left wing and drape it over your face like you’re in a melodrama, and through your feathers, you speak. “This is my final attack! I know the secret of your Stand, and I’m going to defeat you without leaving this spot!”

And then, using your Stand to measure the angles, you throw a dart straight for her, and shift your feathers. 

When Monotone teleports this time, you’ve got your second dart ready in your hoof. She jumps directly into it.

Her eyes widen, slightly. Yes, you figured it out.

In cases of sudden danger, Stands usually act automatically, or alter their user’s reflexes to allow for an escape. Hers let her move anywhere within your line of sight, which meant it could dodge anything you aimed. If you started aiming with your eyes closed, she’d have gotten suspicious that you figured her out, but while you had that golden advantage, you could cover all your vision but two spots and force her out of one of them.

She couldn’t have dodged if she wanted to.

While the sedative activates, you see her trying to summon her Stand. Better to not take chances; you recall your own, shut your eyes firmly, and roundhouse her into unconsciousness. 

She goes down like a sack of potatoes.

Phew. That was good exercise. You trot over and grab the Fibula, returning it to your pack. It seems a little dimmer, now. With a smooth drop, it’s back in your saddlebags, and you’re ready to hit the road again. 

It’s then that you realize somepony else is watching you. 


Marble Pie


Ms. Yearling’s standing a few feet from your oldest sister’s fallen body. Her eyepatch is on the wrong eye, and the one you see doesn’t look right. There’s a word written above the pupil, like a little rainbow - ”DARE”. She’s got something glowing in her pack.

Your head spins at the thought of your Pa actually being right.

She stares at you with her not-eye for a half-minute, and you’re frozen. 

It’s absurd, but his words come back to you. ”We’ll talk on this more when Ms. Yearling leaves this homestead. Until that time, you’re not to use that agency on this land!”

It would be wrong to call on your power here.

Conflict passes over her face. Evaluation. Then, under her red dress, two wings unfurl, and she darts out through the front door.

”RAAAUGH!”

There’s a crash.


Daring Do


Somepony jumped onto you from the roof. Judging by the shout, and process of elimination, it’s Feisty. 

She breathes hot, close to your ear. ”Did you really think nopony was paying attention when you went sneaking into my parents’ room?”

Yup. 

She bends you, applying more pressure. ”Thought the rubes would make an easy target?”

She’s a pretty good wrestler, but your wings are already out. You flap them, kicking up dust, starting to lift yourself. 

She spits, and suddenly something’s penetrating your feathers. You can’t see it, but it smarts. Shards of something, multiple impacts. You strain your head to make sure your wings aren't permanently damaged, and she forces it against the ground.

But you can see her limbs.

You transfer ｢Paperback Writer｣. From her eyes, you see her spit again. Small bits of black rock explode from her mouth instead of saliva. You retract your wing away from them, and she stomps on it to hold it still. 

Something snaps under her hoof, and you see yourself cry out through her half-lidded eyes.

Alright. Enough playing around.

You shove against the ground with all four legs. She stays on your back, but retracting your wings makes her wobble. Then you turn on one hoof and throw yourself against the house. She lets go then, finally, and you roll over.

On the ground again, you kick out at her face. But something slices into your hoof, and you have to pull it back. In the starlight you see more tiny chunks of black rock, dribbling from her skin as she leers. 

You snake a hoof into your pack and recall your Stand. Below her, your eye becomes a glass thing with a word on it, and she looks at it more closely on reflex. Then you snap the whip out of your pack, smacking her in the neck.

She hisses and grabs at it, but it’s staying anyway. It’s enchanted to stick to what the end touches - no self-respecting grappler would leave home without one. And, in this case, you use it to fling your enemy back into the house, straight through the open door.

No chance of not causing a commotion now, but you can at least get away before you start a boxing match with Mom and Pop, you hope. Whatever Stand you were just fighting, you don't have enough information on it, and you high-tail it eagerly. 

After a minute, you decide you must have knocked Feisty out, since she wouldn't have come after you subtly. You take off and stow the patch for the time being. Then, you focus on the positive. The farm’s a good size, and your wings are going to need some attention, but you’re nearly out! 

You’ve got the civilization-threatening magical item in hoof, and all you had to do was temporarily knock out half of a family. That's, like, a regular morning. 

It’s only when you near the outskirts of the fields that you see somepony else. Somepony running ahead of you, like you’re racing. 

Abruptly, she stops and turns around, facing you.


Marble


Ms. Yearling slides to a stop close to you. For a moment she looks like your mother, impatient with some bit of childishness.

You clear your throat. “My Pa...”

You’re mumbling. Cough, cough.

You raise your voice. “My Pa told me I wasn’t supposed to use my ability on the farm while you were around to see it. But I couldn’t let you leave without trying to stop you. So now we’re not on the farm any more.” 

The words hang limp in the air. Before she can respond, you shout, “｢Opposite of Thieves｣!”

Your voice isn’t usually that loud, and it squeaks a little when you summon your Stand. But it comes.

A dozen of the long white insects scuttle into existence around her pack, and the brooch lifts itself up and flies to you. You catch it, feeling its reassuring weight and the intensity of its glow. It’s not supposed to be this far away from the center of the farm. Looking in it, you see your reflection. 

It has her glass eye. 

You jump at that, and see both of hers are normal, and she’s charging you. It takes a moment of strain, but a mass of your creatures appears on both sides of her, lifting her into the air. Before they can set her back at square one, she lets out her wings and spins in the air. Your bugs fall off and evaporate, and then she swoops and dives for you, hoof outstretched for a kick.

You close your eyes and hold the brooch between you and the fist. 

There’s no collision. The impact happens over your shoulder, a couple hooves behind you.

When you turn around, she’s already getting up again. Where in Equestria does this mare work out?

”It’s no use trying to hide anything from me, Marble Pie. I can see everything you do.” She dusts herself off in a single motion, and adds, ”And your father was right not to trust you.”

You blink.

You blink again.

And then you charge at her.

You throw a right hook, and she blocks casually, probably already thinking of how to grab the brooch. But you’ve sparred with Limestone, you’ve played games with Maud. You’re the youngest sister on a rock farm, by the earth! The hook breaks through her defenses effortlessly, and you smash her solidly in the cheek, forcing her whole body to roll with the craning of her neck.

She stumbles, and then replies with a kick of her own. You bear it and try another straight hit, but she blocks it for real this time. No more element of surprise.

One of her hooves lands on the brooch, clawing for it, and when you try to twist it away from her she starts to pummel you with fast kicks, her hooves hammering your barrel until your concentration breaks, and you're forced to let go. Another hoof joins the first, and she prizes the heirloom off of you.

Then she turns her back to you, to inspect it. ”That’s a very interesting Stand you have. In another life, maybe we could’ve used them together.”

You spring to your hooves and rush her, hair falling back against the wind. She kicks out a back leg without turning, and you’re down again. You can't help but notice that there’s something fluid, trained and professional about all of her movements.

”You can’t sneak up on me. You're strong, but you've never been trained, and you've probably never been outside of this farm for long. I've had to deal with a lot of nasty things that are stronger than me, and right now I know where you’re moving at the same time you do. I know you saw the reflection.”

Those words are all the confirmation you needed. “｢Opposite of Thieves｣.”

She sighs and starts walking away. One bug, clutching something in its tiny mandibles, crawls out of your hair and latches onto your left eye.

Suddenly the eye moves back to its original owner, and the bug moves with it. Yearling raises a hoof to shove it away, but it reels back and slams its cargo into her forehead first. 

A dart you found in the kitchen, matching the one you found on Maud in your brief check of her vitals. A tranquilizer, or something else that stops ponies from moving and makes them sleep.

She freezes. You sink back to the earth, feeling your exhaustion. It’s too late at night for fighting...

And then she just brushes the bug off, and pulls out the dart.

She turns to you, with her magical eye and her prize in hoof, smiling. ”You know, kid, if I didn’t immunize myself to the things I carry, that would’ve done a real number on me.”

You summon up more of the bugs around the brooch, covering it. It hovers towards you, and she ignores it while she grabs the dart off the ground and eyeballs it. ”Looks like enough… Note to self: always carry five...”

It’s closer…! You stand and lean and reach out a hoof for it.

”If it makes you feel better, this is all a part of saving the world.”

You make contact. And then the dart hits your foreleg.

You look at your opponent’s face. Blood trickling down from her scalp. Yourself, reflected in her eyes. 

The farm stretching and distorting away behind her smile. ”Tell your sisters thanks, for a good match. And, uh, I didn’t mean that thing about your dad. Sorry.”

You slump to the ground. She turns, trots off toward the distance...

And your vision goes black.


10 Days to the Collapse of the Pie Family Rock Farm




Stand: ｢Paperback Writer｣
User: A.K. Yearling / Daring Do
Ability: Replaces the user's left eye except when in use, and resembles a typical glass eye apart from the word "DARE" above the pupil. When activated, replaces the left eye of any target within line of sight of the user or the eye itself, allowing them to see and hear through it at any distance. The user has an eidetic memory of anything seen by the Stand while active - e.g. in someone else's head. Non-Stand users only see a regular eye.

Stand: ｢Opposite of Thieves｣
User: Marble Pie
Ability: Consists of a swarm of silverfish-like creatures. When they cover an object, it gently "resets", floating back to its owner, placing itself in an earlier position, or erasing some recent usage. Does not reverse damage.

Stand: ｢OK Go｣
User: Maud Pie
Ability: While visible to a target, can teleport the user anywhere within that target’s field of vision.

Stand: ｢Down With the Sickness｣
User: Limestone Pie
Ability: Any harmful material or toxin taken into the user’s body has no effect; instead, it can be incorporated into their body, so that it makes up part of their breath, sweat, saliva, et cetera. If the material is not expelled from the body after a few hours, this effect wears off.
> The Leisure Lost, or A Heady Tale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Daring Do


The jungle passes overhead as you run, a name still tingling at the corners of your mind. You’ve fought a few of these strange abilities now, and you wonder if you’re keeping yours. Whatever forgotten school of magic they come from, it's different than most of the things you've had to put down. 

You got this one from your arrow, while he made off with the other. So far, you’ve come within spitting distance of three, and learned how unhelpful your power is in anything like a one-on-one. 

｢Universe Alone｣, ｢Young Lust｣ and ｢Selfish Art｣... If you could match the faces to the powers, this would be so much easier! But as it stands, your mind keeps being drawn to old mysticism. The Universe, Lust, Art, they're all Tarot cards - Major Arcana in the Thoth Deck, to be specific.

Celestia, and here you thought you’d sworn off anything with Thoth in the name for good.

You stop, check the coast, and fly up into the branches of the trees. The motions are routine, and you continue mulling over your problem. When your own arrow pierced your skin, you didn’t get one fitting the pattern. Yours is... ｢Writer｣. Something, ｢Writer｣, and there aren’t any writers in the Thoth Tarot. Unless you want to discount your adventurer's intuition, you can only conclude that each arrow works differently, even though they don’t seem to have any distinguishing marks.

Of course, this just makes acquiring both even more important.

You finally see the truck through the ropey green entanglements, and a hint of trademark colors. Only someone like Caballeron would need to spend the exorbitant money for a truck. Those things run on magically-tempered fossil remains; all that lost information, all those subsumed dangers and adventures... Well, it sums up Caballeron’s approach to history almost perfectly.

Not that you’re campaigning to make every sunken temple a museum or anything, and you weren't exactly inspiring the next generation of mousy archivists to make more accurate records. But you at least understand that history has teeth, and you keep a safe distance until you’re ready to dance with it. Then you do your business and get out of Dodge.

Caballeron’s a big fan of smacking the dragon right on the snout. It’s why you could never work with him, and why he asked you anyway. (Ugh, the way his eyebrows waggled.)

You flap harder and swerve rightwards for him. He’s riding in the back, while two of his henchponies sit in the front, one driving. One thing your power is good for is moving undetected, and you use it to check each of their lines of sight in turn. It’s almost like snapping stills with a camera.

Once you figure out where it is, you keep yourself in Caballeron’s blind spot, flying lower. He doesn’t have the arrow out, so it must be in the crate next to him, and you won’t be able to get it in a single swoop without a distraction.

You follow the trail the truck's on, extrapolating outwards. There’s a very rough-and-tumble road laid out, and it’s sloping upwards. The climbing altitude prevents you from making it out correctly, and you can’t check without losing them, but you think this is heading up and eastward. With your luck, it's toward Smoking Mountain in the distance.

Figures it would be the volcano. Is there something important about it that only he knows about? You only found this place through rumor, but he’s the sort to buy up rare books.

Well... like always, there’s only one way to find out. You keep close to the truck, following it on its path, and wait for your opportunity.


Marble Pie


The map of Equestria sags at the very edges where your kitchen table runs out of space, and it takes a lot of effort to not correct it with your Stand. Maud picks these up on her visits to see Pinkie, and there’s a stack of them pressed into one of the upper shelves of the family closet.

And next to it, in a space specially cleared, the Choosing Stone. It’s rounded on one end and pointy on the other, like an arrowhead, but otherwise smooth speckled grey. It's nothing like the brooch but still irreplaceable, and you're surprised that Ms. Yearling didn't run off with it too. Did she just not get the chance?

Maybe she didn't know its secrets. Most ponies think it's a joke to say that a slightly dullish rock decides ponies' destinies, but really it just points toward the answer of whatever you ask it. Ma and Pa were the last to use it, and so it’s really responsible for you and your sisters existing in the first place. Now Ma pulled it out of hiding - under their pillow - to give to you personally.

Pa… wasn’t able.

They both knew immediately that the farm wasn’t in a good state, before you could even let them know what happened. Time is short, and this is exactly the kind of emergency preparation anypony would wish for. But even if it's a step in the right direction, neither of them wanted to see you do this.

”We can only use this with the right tools. A map’s not enough, not for this.” Lime mutters as she walks back and forth over it, inspecting the map like trying to pick out a forgery in a line of paintings.

Maud pulls out a giant sheaf of paper from the pack she’s now wearing, and drops it on top of the map, over the Celestial Sea. The front reads, in mundane manuscript font, “Daring Do and the Arrow of Ages [WORKING TITLE]“

Lime’s nervous, but nods at that. ”Alright. Then I guess it’s time.” She draws closer, looking at the Stone like it’s going to turn into a snake.

Then Maud holds her back with a hoof, waving her away. ”I provided the materials. I’ll use it.”

Limestone sours, growling. ”You mean you’ll try sacrificing yourself because you’re the oldest.”

”Yes.” Maud gazes at the Stone instead of her sister. ”If it only works for a pony once, then it should be me.” 

Limestone pulls her muzzle over so they’re making eye contact again. ”Then how are you going to find your spousal somepony, rockhead?”

Maud shrugs. You’re just as shocked as Limestone by her flippancy. The Choosing Stone’s always been used by the family to create and confirm marriages, and using it for reconnaissance almost feels dirty.

A picture of Yearling’s smirk as she trotted away fills your head. Dirty tactics for dirty opponents.

Maud pushes Lime back slightly, and turns back to the Stone. She’s apprehensive, too, but she cracks her neck and approaches it straightaway.

”No!” Lime runs, shooting a small mist of broken glass from her mouth. It tinkles against the ground, glittering. Maud keeps her front hoof up to avoid bleeding, and in that moment of hesitation, Lime dives for the Stone.

She cradles it to herself, not even looking at it but to your oldest sister. ”Don’t you ever think you’re going to get away with that self-sacrifice horseshit around me, sis.” Then she picks up the Stone with both hooves.

And drops it. Something darker, rounder and smaller falls to the floorboards, skittering to Maud’s hooves. 

Limestone sputters. ”B-Boulder?! How-”

In the crook of a hoof, Maud’s holding the Stone. ”｢OK Go｣ is fast.”

Lime points a hoof at her. ”I didn’t even see you move!”

”It’s really fast.” She approaches the map again, and Lime’s not having it. You walk up to it yourself. Whoever puts it onto the surface gives up their usage.

Lime pounces when Maud comes within slamming-down range, lunging for her. ”｢Down With the Sickness｣!”

Maud moves a few hooves out of the way, backwards, and another spray of glass narrowly misses her. Limestone thumps onto the floor, but rolls with it. In seconds, she’s on her hooves, leaping over the glass to hit Maud again.

Then there’s a great thumping noise, and the room dims as the map begins glowing. Both of them stop their tussle and turn to the source: the Choosing Stone, with one of your silverfish on its face, leaving your hoof as it hits the table. Their eyes turn to you as your Stand fades, staying still just long enough. 

You take a monster breath. “ShowmewheretheauthorA.K.Yearlingisrightnow.” 

The Stone accepts your request, which is half the battle already. It's never spoken falsely, so the rest is just pinpointing the location it gives, judging where she’ll be heading in real time...

It slides of its own will and lands on the northwest desert, just beyond your family’s territory. Halfway, how fitting, to Las Pegasus.  You try to memorize its current position, extrapolate to the rest of her journey, and it’s mostly a straight line north for now. You don’t know what lies up there, to be honest.

Maud and Lime are at the table, and you’re sure they’ll be annoyed with you later. For now, they’re asking themselves the same questions. 

And then, just to make things more difficult, the Stone moves again. It jumps up from where it’s been laid down like someone kneed the table, standing on its rounded end and spinning. It strikes the table again, pointing further up to Vanhoover. While you're reading the city name, the Stone jitters and swings back and forth like a seizing pendulum. Vanhoover, desert, Vanhoover, desert...

You trade glances with your sisters. Lime chews on her lip, and concern clouds Maud’s face.


* * *


A couple hours later, you’re packed. Food and blankets are the important thing, and water. Lime’s trying to cover the latter, but you’ve got a good handle on easy foodstuff. The few cans in your pantry get thrown in, and some flints-and-steel.

You look at the map on the table, appraising. Then you fold it up tiny with your Stand and slip it into your pack. The manuscript slides off of it, still in one piece, and your eyes catch on it. It’s lean, probably unfinished, but there could be valuable information in it. Is it an act of respect to the enemy to read it?

Your mouth twists with the weight of the decision. Eventually, you look away from it, and ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ secures it in your pack.

”Marble?”

You turn to the bedroom doorway. “Ma.”

She comes over and hugs you, squeezing. You hug her back. This whole farm might be gone by the time you make it back...

”Your Pa wanted to see you off, but he... hasn’t been feeling well. I sent for a physician, but he will probably refuse the treatment. So, if you have anything to say, it would be best to say it now.”

Your chest tightens, but you take a deep breath and head for the doorway. Inside, you linger, looking into the dim room at the lump in the bed. 

“Pa, I-” You fumble for words. “I’m going to get back the brooch, and stop Yearling from whatever she thinks she’s doing. And I’m going to keep my older sisters safe, so we can all come back and prepare for harvest season. We’re going to make sure that nothing happens to this farm, or to each other, or to anybody." You’re talking too much now. “So, I’ll be back soon, and don’t worry, because, I’ll be back soon.” Yes, talking too much.

Pa stirs. He looks less imposing under the covers. There’s something foalish about him, now, too sick for his day’s work. His eyes aren’t open all the way, slipping between two dreams.

”Marble Victoria Pie, you be sure you take care of your sisters. Don’t let them think they know best because they’re 
eldest.” He coughs. ”And keep yourself out of trouble. You hear me?”

You nod, and he nods back, slowly, eyes closed. It’s become almost a rattling motion now, and he drifts back to sleep. There's no great pain or weakness in his actions, but when you turn away your eyes are still watery.

Without the brooch’s power, all of this legacy and tradition is crumbling. It's like you can’t hold the weight of your own histories any longer. You work on not thinking about it as your Ma returns to the bedside.

And, discreetly, you put some cans back in the pantry.

Once you retrieve the arrow, you've still got to bring it to the farm. That should be the easy part, though. You’ll marathon the distance if you have to, so long as Yearling doesn’t have it.

Within the hour, you and your sisters set out, both of them making their own goodbyes. Lime pays her respects with silence until you’re out of sight of the farm.


* * *


The San Palomino Desert stretches onwards as your hooves trudge through the sand. The heat's something you're used to, but it still eats at you with time. It you weren’t a farmpony, it might’ve devoured you whole before nightfall.

But you and your sisters are tough as rocks. Not to mention good at entertaining yourselves. Maud keeps a fascinated eye on any non-sandstone outcroppings or formations, Limestone complains, and you flip through the manuscript.

Sometimes pages come loose, and you don’t complain as the wind takes them. It’s not a very dense or difficult read, nothing like the books you’ve read to pass the winter freeze by, those farmbound romances. Volumes scavenged on town runs about legal protocol, tool repair, genealogy...

In essence, Daring Do is the dashing pegasus hero, who steals items to add to a big collection. They’re always ancient artifacts no one else can have, and in this case, a dastardly stallion named Caballeron is after a quiverful of arrows. She gets there in time to take one, but he has the other. Then she fights through his magically-powerful but nameless goons, and finds him again, except this time it’s at the top of a mountain, where the prophecy will be fulfilled.

”When the three two arrows are brought to the peak of the highest mountain, they will come together, and their wielder will gain mastery over the world.” The number draws your attention more than the last twenty pages combined. Did she think it wouldn’t fit the story?

Writer’s decisions are beyond you.

Suddenly, you walk into Maud’s outstretched hoof, bumping your nose. Ouch. 

She holds you back, and speaks softly, ”Do you see that?”

You’d ask, “See what?”, but Lime does it for you.

There’s only one thing to see in the dusk-desert right now - a single jagged, tree-like formation jutting from the sand. Something in it's off-color, even from a distance. Maud can see it better than you can, and Lime can’t make it out at all.

”I’m going to get closer.” Maud says, creeps a couple hooves forward, and then uses her Stand to bridge the gap automatically. Lime charges after her, and you follow in her hoofsteps.

In the rock, there’s a small ovular depression, with something white sitting in it. You realize what it is by the time you arrive: it has a pupil, and written above it is the word “DARE”. 

Lime sees it, seizes up and starts shouting. ”Give us back our brooch, you afterbirthsucking scumfuck bitch!” It swivels to look at her, then at Maud, and then at you. 

Maud takes a breath, which would be imperceptible to most ponies, and then slams her hoof into the rock surface right on top of the eye. Her attack is instantaneous, and the whole structure crumbles. If not for the sand dampening the thunder, it would've echoed.

When the dust settles, the eye’s nowhere to be found, but you have to assume she was keeping some kind of watch. You’re on her trail.

You feel good and bad about that.

But as soon as the three of you all make sure that the eye hasn’t rolled away somewhere, you press on.


* * *


Night falls, and you’re forced to camp out. As long as you don’t do it for as long as Yearling has, you’ll still catch her up. You’re making good time, you hope.

Lime digs under the sand for rock while you look at the stars. Are they different, if you head to the furthest edges of Equestria? And is there something beyond those edges, really? 

Your older sister pulls up grainy rock and chokes it down. The whole thing looks eerie from where you’re sitting, so you do your best to ignore it. A minute later, she’s pushed a stone knife out of her hoof, and she smashes into the cans, leaving long puncture-gashes across them. It’s been a long day’s work, with a long day’s appetite and none of the breaks you’re accustomed to.

Over a campfire, the three of you eat almost everything you’d packed. Maud brought the logs from the fireplace’s store, and you light them up. The soup itself is fine, but not filling - all of its minerals are the tiny unseeable ones. 

Ma always told you, growing ponies need chunks of zinc as big as their heads. But health matters aside, your sleep’s restful.

The next day you set out again, and it’s a good trek before you see anything of interest again. Unfortunately, it’s not Yearling.


* * *


You fumble with the map as Limestone crows over your shoulder. ”That’s definitely not Las Pegasus!”

You glance from the town below to the map and back. “I know.” The buildings are small, sparse, townish, nothing like the land of casinos and sin your Pa warned you about.

”Well, where is it, then? Did you take us in the opposite direction?!”

Maud speaks up. ”It’s Tall Tale.”

You consult the map. Tall Tale’s on it, north enough to be above Vanhoover. ...You couldn’t have made it there yet. Limestone snatches it from you, fuming, inspecting it without talking. She gets angrier the longer she looks at it. 

You shake your head at the town yourself. ”I don’t think it is.”

”Tall Tale is magical. It was built on the grave of Star-Swirl the Bearded. It’s never in the same place on the map twice in a row.” 

Who?

”Then why didn’t you tell us it might be here? I was about to make us all turn around!”

”I didn’t know. Who are those ponies.”

“What- oh.” In the midday sun, on the outskirts of the town, there are two stallions. Yellow coats and pinstripe outfits, like half a barbershop quartet. They stare out at you, quietly, waiting.

“Uh… why don’t we go around?” You suggest. 

Limestone looks at you witheringly. ”We can’t. Somepony didn’t pack enough food.”

Ouch. You glance back at the… guards? 

The three of you approach them, just as quiet, negotiating between coming off as harmless or a threat. As you draw nearer, you can see that the two are related somehow. Twins, or is that just the matching outfits? Blue and white stripes, grey bowtie, simple sunhat - and both of them are as close to stony as ponies in those getups can be.

It’s only when you reach the outskirts yourself that they finally speak up.

”That’s as far as you go.” The one with the mustache talks, and when you look at him you’re finally close enough to see it. He’s got her eye.

He picks up before you can react. ”We, the Flim Flam brothers, have come to defend our homestead against-”

”Against what indeed, brother mine! The most dastardly trio of witches this side of the Luna Ocean, to be sure!” 

”You doubtless know that we've had warning of your arrival, by the last of your victims!"

”A creative, too, a bohemian cursed in her prime, who left as soon as she could to spare us her fate!”

”Fruitlessly!" 

"Yes, brother, for those efforts were in vain!"

"A curse which has already spread to us, and soon to the whole of our beloved home!”

”A home that cries out for justice!”

”Yes, justice, but justice of the right sort!” 

They hardly seem to be talking to you until the mustached one flings a hoof at your sisters. ”We've been well-warned that you won't accept a peaceable offer, but we must make it all the same! If you three will submit to arrest, then there will be no need for struggle and shame on this day!”

When they finish, both are on their hind legs, pointing at you. Their faces are expectant and, impossibly, solemn.

You don’t know what to say to all of that. You’re not certain you followed all of it.

Limestone speaks for the three of you. ”Listen up. We’re not trying to hurt you, we’re just passing through so we can tear A. K. Yearling a new one. Don’t get in our way.”

You can tell by their expressions that this wasn’t what they wanted to hear. ”If that’s your decision, then by our authority as deputies of Tall Tale-”

”Licensed and certified by the very Celestial government itself!“

”-we will take you into custody by force!”

Limestone seethes as they produce two bulky chrome hand-cannons. 

”I said we don't have time for this.” She gallops for them, shouting.

The clean-shaven one fires, and a net bursts from the barrel, opening like a predatory octopus. Lime skids to a stop, trying to reverse, and kicks up sand until she falls over. But before the net hits her-

Maud appears between them. The net closes around her automatically, wrapping her inescapably in its ropes. She falls to the ground from the momentum. Lime panics and rushes over Maud, straight for the stallion, shouting.

”I am going TO KILL YOU! ｢Down With the Sickness｣!”

”So she's stopped playing coy! ｢Aberdeen Rose｣!”

Lime’s eyes go wide. The cloud of sand she sprays from her hoof freezes in mid-air before it can touch him. Then, after a pregnant pause, it drops to his hooves.

They have Stands.

Mustache steps into your field of vision, blocking your view of them. He can’t help but twirl it as he stares you down, and his eyes glint and flash, including hers.

On instinct, you send out your Stand.

”｢Georgia Devil｣: hoof-to-hoof!” Then he assumes a pose you’ve only seen one time before. 

It was in one of the dozen times you’ve really been away from the farm, in a decadent Ponyville theater with Pinkie, watching a “martial arts movie”. A warlock had summoned up a terrible evil by mistake, a screaming faceless monster, and to defeat it, he summoned up something even more terrifying, a gangly bipedal thing like a sunken-in, hairless minotaur. 
You still have no idea how ponies made it look so lifelike. But before he engaged it, monster to monster, he took on exactly this stance!

The terror you feel is heightened by the wisp of something clear that flows off of your skin. Like vapor, it rises up and into him, and he crooks his hoof, inviting you closer.

You back up, and he pounces, nearly cartwheeling to get to you. He’s still holding the net-gun, one hoof not even involved in the acrobatics. Your backpedaling gets more emphatic. Inadvertently, you kick up sand, throwing it in his way. He dodges to one side and comes at you again. Before you can run away any further back the way you came, he strikes out, and the impact's predestined. Your right foreleg goes numb for a moment, and then bursts with stinging.

You lash out at him yourself, and he blocks it, but he’s pushed back a few feet into town. ”Ah, a deceptively strong one.”

”｢Down With the Sickness｣!” He turns to see Lime, floating in the air towards him, supported by silverfish. Just in time for her to glare, shift her cheekbones, and shoot sand from her tear-ducts.

It hits his face, his eyes, and he covers it for a moment. 

In the distance, you see Maud standing behind the clean-shaven one, hugging him. No, holding him in place. 

You look at her curiously, and she calls back to you, embarrassed. ”His Stand lets him stop things from moving around him. He can’t escape my grip without deactivating it. Now maybe we can be reasona-”

Mustache calls out over her voice, more boisterously than necessary. ”I’m coming to rescue you, brother!” The sand’s out of his eyes, now. ”｢Georgia Devil｣: marksmanship!”

The vapor comes off of both you and Lime, and he turns to run. Before you can react, he turns the gun on each of you, and it fires like another pony's aiming it. The nets hit without him even looking, and then he drops it as he runs.

You fall to the sand in a tangle, pressed against on all sides, kicking into the air. When you can look up, you see Lime’s in the same position, fuming. Furiously, she bites into the rope. 

Away from both of you, the apparent brothers reunite. ”Don’t worry about me, brother, I’ve figured out this one’s powers myself! If we only time ourselves correctly we can knock her out in one go!”

Maud is statuesque. 

Mustache agrees. ”｢Georgia Devil｣: flaw analysis!” 

More vapor - energy? - comes from Maud and into him, and he starts inspecting her. He looks almost like a physician, now.

”Yes, yes, almost certainly. If we strike her in her back hooves, we can do some real damage.”

”And what she doesn’t know, Flam, is that my ｢Aberdeen Rose｣ can be reduced to let you make that very-same strike.”

Maud looks nervous. ”｢OK Go｣.” You don’t blame her for wanting to escape, but she doesn’t move.

Another wisp of vapor, and then Mustache slams a hoof into her back leg. She grunts, and more of the vapor escapes her. The other brother pulls his Stand in further, and Maud bears a few more attacks.

Finally she slumps, limply, and her hold breaks. They spin and shoot her with a net, and once she's caught up in it too, they turn to you. 

Only to see Lime outside of her chewed-up net, smashing one of their guns against the road-stone.

”Not a mare of peace, then?”

”Not willing to come quietly and confess to your misdeeds!”

”Making war in the streets and terrorizing the justice of our town! It’s-”

”absolutely-”

”-untolerable!”  They run for her, and she shoots a net at them. The shaved one freezes it in place before it hits him, and his brother has to tug it away manually. 

Lime turns the rope she ate into a lasso, and catches up his back hooves. It’s all just delaying tactics, nothing that could end the fight. But during that time, Lime’s able to smash open the barrel into small, manageable chunks, and she wolfs down as many of them as she can, swallowing them like pills without water. Last to go is the handle.

As they collect themselves, she stares them down. ”I don’t know what you’re even talking about and I don’t care. I don’t care at all who you think you are. Nopony hurts my sisters! ｢Down With The Sickness｣!”

And out of her tail emerges a small blade, connected to the same handle as before. It’s larger than a knife, but not quite a sword. She charges for them, blade in her teeth, screaming.

Mr. ｢Georgia Devil｣ runs for her, drawing the vapor from his brother now. He leaps as she swings, and kicks the flat of the blade. In an instant, it snaps and goes flying. Behind you, ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ finally undoes the clasp on your net.

Lime takes a few hits before she’s backed up into ｢Aberdeen Rose｣. She tries to turn around or break the hold, but she can’t.

”｢OK Go｣.” Maud appears on top of Mustache, putting her weight on his back. She looks tired and weak now, like she hasn't been eating right. 

He collapses, frustration bristling in his face, and she makes no further attack. You finally wriggle out of your net, and he turns to you. His eyes glint with sheer viciousness, and as you stare at them, you realize it. Yes, yes, that’s it! You can stop this mess right now, before it gets out of hoof completely!

”｢Opposite of Thieves｣!” 

He throws Maud off of him, letting her fall back to the ground like shedding skin, and then he stomps towards you. You can see the energy leaving you, and feel it too - your Stand is getting weaker. But that’s alright. 

You approach him yourself, and speak before he can lash out at you. “My sisters and I haven’t done anything to you. We’re only peaceful travelers. You’ve both been told stories by the same mare who’s trying to destroy our home!”

It was all thanks to Lime’s sand...

He huffs. ”So you think you can dupe one of the masters, hm? You three are all as tricky as each other! If you were victims of some misunderstanding, you would have come quiet-” Then he notices ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ depositing Lime’s blade at your hooves, and rears back a step. ”Ah! Thought you could stall a professional long enough to get a swipe in, too! Well, a true traveler of peace will stand none of that! ｢Georgia Devil｣!”

The feeling of weakness is a signal to move. There’s no time for words, now, and you’re bad with them anyway, so you scoop up the blade with both hooves. 

Before he can strike, you thrust the flat up in front of your face, into the light.

He stops. 

When you drop the blade, he looks at you quietly, waiting. 

In the light of his reflection, Yearling’s eye is gone. That sand irritated it enough that she had to take it back.

“Um.” You cough into your hoof, pause, and start telling your story.


* * *


A little later, you're walking the streets unchaperoned. The brothers were certain she was bound for Las Pegasus, but not why. After a certain point they just made their excuses and disappeared. 

All of the houses look the same here, but Lime was able to suss out a medical shop. She gained enough supplies to heal up Maud, just about good as new. The both of you are still helping her walk, though. Not because she really needs the help, but because it’s the right thing to do.

All of the doors are shut, the windows curtained, the roads quiet. Even the cashier at the drugstore was unfriendly to you. You can’t rest here. You couldn’t even find Flim or Flam, if you needed to. Thankfully, there are only a few more blocks before you get back to your journey.

Limestone isn’t so appreciative. ”Well, great. We’re broke, starving, and heading back out into the desert!”

”There’s a way to fix one of those.”

She scowls at you. ”Yeah, how’s that?”

On one of the houses, the door opens slightly. Outside comes a skittering silverfish, attached to a half of a loaf of bread. Further down the street, a can comes through a cat-flap, and a box of crackers presents itself on the stoop the next door over. Limestone watches it with something like shock, and then glances sidelong at you.

“I’m sure they won’t miss it.” You smile, sheepish.

And as quickly as you entered, the three of you get out of Tall Tale.


8 Days to the Collapse of the Pie Family Rock Farm




Stand: ｢Aberdeen Rose｣
User: Flim
Ability: An adjustable sphere emanating from the user which reduces or stops the motion of objects in range.

Stand: ｢Georgia Devil｣
User: Flam
Ability: The user can drastically improve any one skill they attempt to display, during which they will behave as a well-trained expert. This effect only works for one skill at a time, and only lasts as long as there are living things for this Stand to draw potential out of.
> Pretty One Play, or The Gambler
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Daring Do


Following Caballeron’s truck has led you all the way to the peak. Smoking Mountain is a pretty important site around these parts, just like the temples. Natives wouldn’t take kindly to you flying around here - at least, if they ever felt like coming over themselves. 

As it slows down, you switch your power to his eye and hang back a little. Your vision’s split between the foliage and his hooves holding the arrow. He hops out of the back as soon as it’s safe; they’re only a few good jumps away from the lip, but he doesn’t pay it much attention. 

He doesn’t face his henchponies, and they don’t react to his words. ”Now, we must wait for the others to collect Daring Do so she can join us.” (Snrk.) ”But first, this arrow...” He draws a hoof along it, lengthwise, tracing gold filigree.

Then he trots, steadily, to the edge. That’s lava, alright. The smoke isn’t very thick right now, but this is clearly a volcano. 

The next words are quoting something. ”In the names of the cosmic powers, I destroy the unbreakable at the height of the tallest mountain!” He raises it over his head.

And then throws it down, into the fiery abyss.


Marble


It takes another night and day for your group to pass the rest of the desert. Las Pegasus becomes visible early into your morning, but it takes hours to get any closer to it. The heat’s demoralizing, but you trudge onwards.

Limestone breaks the silence with a sledgehammer. ”And how are we going to find her in an entire city?”

You’ve been thinking about that, but Maud answers. ”She won’t be just anywhere. She must have come this way to get something, or meet someone. She’ll probably be in a casino or a high-end building.”

Lime sighs hard enough that her teeth grit. ”That’s not any better! What if she already sold it on the black market or something?!”

You shake your head into a slight breeze that’s picking up. ”She wouldn’t. She wants to keep it safe, and probably hide it somewhere no one would look for it. That wouldn’t be in a place like Las Pegasus.”

”We’re still not going to be able to find her! Even if we camped out on the edge of the city, there’s too much ground to cover!” Lime fumes. Maud contemplates her words, but says nothing.

“We don’t need to," you say simply, and then when Lime doesn't respond, ”She knows we’re after her. In Tall Tale she sent ponies after us to make sure we couldn’t follow her, and she watched us beat them. She’ll probably do the same thing here.”

Maud finishes your thought. ”Then we just need to draw attention to ourselves.”

You nod. “Right. We need to get the important ponies of the city to know where we are.”

Limestone’s eyes narrow. ”So we need to pound in a few faces?”

Uh... Well, you weren’t quite thinking of that. Maybe find them and show off your abilities? Or drop Daring’s name in the right places.

”No, Marble wants us to gamble.” Maud says, and the last word hits you like a train.

”Oh. Well, yeah, I guess that’s worth a try.” Lime's substantially calmer. 

You turn back to them, frantic, hair whipping out of your eyes. “No! We can’t do that!”

Maud looks at you, startled. ”Why not.”

“I-it’s wrong! I’ve never gambled in my life!”

Lime shrugs. ”I don’t do it much, but Maud and I used to bet chores when you and Pinkie were little.” 

But, but Pa outlawed that! 

Maud doesn’t make eye contact. ”I’ve played a few hooves of poker here.”

Lime looks at her, shocked, and then her face breaks out in a grin. ”You’ve been to Las Pegasus to play poker?”

Head-shake. ”No. I just like to watch the stallions dance.”

Limestone’s laughter cuts through the intensity of your face flushing, and you wonder if the heat’s getting to her. ”Holy shit, Maud, I didn’t know you were with it! Give me some!” She throws up a hoof in the air.

Maud looks at her while you fix your bangs back into place. Your eldest sister’s abrupt good cheer seems to be getting to her. She gives one of her bigger smiles. 

Lime waves her hoof in the air. ”C’mon, don’t leave me hanging!”

Then Maud activates ｢OK Go｣, and she appears in the air, head pointing at Lime. In that moment of inertia, her hoof moves out and they impact. Lime closes her eyes and savors the hoofbump. Then Maud’s back beside you. 

When Lime opens them again, she's entirely refreshed. ”Alright! Let’s go take the house’s bits and stab this mare in the eye!”

You never knew your sisters were so...  degenerate.


Daring Do


No!

The air parts around your wingbeats as you dive from green into blue into red. Nothing good happens when magical items get thrown into volcanoes, and your instincts have thrown you straight down after it.

There are shouts above you, but you have to retract your eye so you don’t get distracted. Gravity outpaces you for only a few more moments, and then you crash into belching clouds of heat, hooves outstretched.

The arrow’s pointing downward into the burning. What's the radius from lava that scorches living tissue again? You follow it, reach out... Snatch it!

The metal’s very warm, but not too hot to touch. You span your wings and let the warm air buoy you.

Then, you realize your cover’s blown. You fly into a patch of smoke and let it cover you. There's no time to take a breath first, and you start coughing, feeling it sting your lungs. Yeah, not as great as working with stormclouds, not that you were ever cut out for weatherworking.

As you float back up and try to keep the ash out of your lungs, you can make out words: 

”-fall in?!”

”I can’t see her, sir.”

You’re about to rise above the lip, now. You follow Caballeron’s voice, and try to switch your eye with his, but no dice. You can’t rely on your luck all of the time.

”No! The prophecy--!” He goes silent, you’re not sure why. You aim away from the voices, putting the smoke between the two of you. 

Then he calls out, ”Soldier of fortune!” The smoke parts as something whistles in the air. A projectile, clearly, maybe hidden on the truck. You dive out of the way, flying clockwise between its path and your enemies.

You can make it back out into the jungle now. But did he see you? Would he fire blindly? If you could just get your Stand fixed on him again…

The whistling gets louder again, and it’s coming from behind you! You twist in the air and see the red-tipped point of a rocket blazing after you. It looks like something out of a comic book, but the smoke disappears around it.

Is this Caballeron’s power?


Marble


This place smells funny. 

You’ve never touched alcohol before except to get over a cold. It tasted much worse than cough medicine, so you don’t know why anypony else would drink it, but earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi are all getting smashed. Unicorns you understand, the last one to spend time on the farm drank a lot. 

There are even a couple of griffins here and there, mostly playing on the slot machines. They’re better at it than their pony neighbors, given the claws. Could Yearling really be in a place like this, chatting in the corner somewhere? Somehow, it doesn't feel right.

Maud and Limestone are sticking together at one table, obscured by all of their chips. ｢OK Go｣’s physical form is floating behind them. When you first saw, it took you a moment to not panic, but nopony reacted to it. Right, they can’t see it.

They seemed to agree on their plan silently, and it turns a minute for you to figure it out. ｢OK Go｣ stares at the other ponies’ cards, obviously. But Lime signals which one she needs next by having ｢Down With the Sickness｣ push sand out of her neck’s pores in the same shape. Then the Stand points its hoof at whoever has it, and a few other signals pass between them.

This system is pretty simple, but it’s made them relatively rich.

You don’t have a problem with this - you mean, if ponies are going to do something like gamble, cheating’s not much worse. Both of them can ruin your life completely, after all.

You’re still on edge, though. ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ isn’t a good Stand for this, and you know it perfectly well. It fished a few tokens from unoccupied machines to give your sisters, and even that was pretty nerve-wracking.

It’s too close to unicorn magic, and ponies are used to unicorns finding ways to cheat. In fact, all of the unicorns who enter are wearing magic suppression rings over their horns. If security saw your power lifting something, they’d assume somepony had broken theirs. Probably.

In any event, you’re sipping tonic water and keeping an eye out, just in case somepony comes to throw your sisters out, or a Stand user shows up. Frankly, you’re the most suspicious pony here.

”Enjoying yourself?” A slightly nasal stallion’s voice comes from your left. You turn, and for a moment you think you see Daring, but this is definitely a male, purely black mane, looking out at your friends. His cutie mark’s a speech bubble. 

You nod back at him for the sake of being polite. “Mmhm.” 

He gestures to your sisters’ backs. ”Any relation?”

“Mmmhm.”

The conversation enters a lull. He sips his own drink, something amber, and you wonder if this is how stallions flirt in Las Pegasus. Ma told all of you to be careful around colts.

Your thoughts turn back to her for a moment. Pinkie, too. You don’t know how you’ll explain this to her if you can’t set things right in time. 

How many days do you have left? It can’t be more than a week by now. And if that’s true today, it might be tomorrow before you get a real lead... If the return trip takes longer than you spent heading out this far, it won’t matter if you have the brooch. Not to mention that if Tall Tale moves again, you’ll need better supplies to cross the desert again.

Maud’s healed up decently, but her hoof still needs real treatment. What you need, more than anything, is time.

”Why not just buy yourselves another farm?” The stallion speaks, and snaps you out of your reverie. 

You turn to him, eyes wide. He looks back at you, almost leering. 

When he notices nothing is going to come out of your open mouth, he goes on. ”Ms. Yearling sent me to find you and give you enough money to support your family comfortably. Looking at them, I don’t think you need it.” He gestures to your sisters again as another round picks up.

Does he have a Stand? Is this a trick, or the attention you’re looking for, or is she really trying to buy you off?

”Aaand you’re not going to talk to me, are you? Great.” He finishes his drink in a final swigging motion, and the tumbler clinks on the corner table. ”Not that it matters. If you don’t take it she’s still going to finish this herself. But why pass that up, you know? You’ll be able to give your family everything they’ve ever wanted. Eh?”

You keep eye contact with him. Reach up, like you’re shooing a fly just behind his ears...

And then slam his head into the table.

The noise doesn’t register over all of the beeping and blinging and crying, so you do it again. The cheap material under you creaks with the impact. That one was louder. You wait for him to lift it back up, but he doesn’t, he just keeps it down and seems dazed.

｢Opposite of Thieves｣ alights on his neck, pulling him back up. Life reenters his eyes, and he throws up his hooves to ward you off. Your Stand scuttles onto them, and he watches in horror as they fall back down to the table against his will. 

Your final hit knocks him onto his back a few hooves away from his upturned chair.

”Marble.” Maud shouts next to you. Next to her, Lime is staring.

The game at their table’s been paused. You turn to them, and realize there’s blood on your hoof.

Shortly after that, you get escorted out by security. But not before Maud and Lime can cash in most of their winnings. You didn’t get that stallion’s name, or a chance to question him - you didn’t even explain why he pissed you off so badly, you couldn’t in the moment. But when you tell your sisters what he’d offered you, they want to know where he was, too.

When the three of you finish fuming, you repeat the method in a few more casinos. Nopony bothers any of you, except with their complaining. Late in the afternoon, you use some of their collective winnings to get a hotel room. It’s got three separate beds in it, and it's larger than your whole house back on the farm. None of the charm, though.

With designs on a bigger ruckus tomorrow, you all go to bed shortly after the sun. You, personally, lie awake and plan.

Daring’s probably still around, so she got your message. That settles something in the pit of you. The farm’s still waiting for you to come home. Pa’s still just sick. You know it.


Daring Do


This missile’s definitely following you. Getting a good look at it showed you something important about it, but not much of use. Your mind suggests that it might be heat-seeking, but you have no idea. Maybe it’s just magically tracking you. This isn’t the right century weaponry for you to guess, you’re a historian!

What was it he said before he shot it? ’Soldier of fortune’? No, it must be ｢Soldier of Fortune｣. There’s another of the Thoth Arcana. 

What would his arrow do if it ran out of them? Give someone ｢Five of Cups｣? Or is that suit only in one of Fate Rider’s Tarot sets? This isn’t a productive line of thought.

You drop it and dip right, hard, moving straight into the jungle. Weaving between the trees close enough to risk cutting yourself on the bark, waiting for the explosion. Your saddlebags, which are fed up with your flying, are loosening around you, but there’s no impact. Just the whistling, getting louder.

You glance back at it. To your dismay, you’ve just confirmed your theory. The trees it hits are just being dissolved to make room for it. Holes are eaten into them at lightning-speed, just as the rocket passes through. You have a feeling you know why it’s waiting to blow up.

Exhaustion is creeping into your wings, but that’s nothing new. You’ve got an hour left in you, if you push yourself hard. After that, it’s just a matter of sticking the landing before you pass out. The most crucial choice you have to make right now is whether to try outrunning this thing.

It takes your instincts a couple seconds to weigh the options. You’ve never seen this ability before, and for all you know it’ll zap you out of existence no matter how far away from Caballeron you get. If yours is linked to you, maybe this is linked to him. After you defeat him, it might go away. That logic works against liches, at least.

You bank upwards out of the trees and fly low across the canopy, heading back for the smoke. The truck’s still visible, and the ponies come into view. All of them are scanning the sky, and they see you coming. You make your way down toward them, moving across the smoke. It’s harder to move your wings now, and the air is grey and sticky.

｢Soldier of Fortune｣ isn’t having these problems. As it carves a path towards you, your pack finally stops cooperating and flies open. Papers and manuscripts flutter out into the drafting air, and you're struck by a sudden fear. Did the arrow fall out?! You’ve still got his in your teeth, but--

As you turn to check, and see that it’s still lodged in there, you also see the rocket. The tip of it hits the edge of your tail. You flap desperately, trying to catch up to your headstart, but it explodes. Something lodges in your side, and smoke fills the air.

Brown shrapnel fills the air as you tumble end over end. The shockwave hits, and plasters you past the lip of the volcano. Then you see both of the arrows fall down towards the lava.


Marble


You hear the scuffle before you open your eyes. It’s not dawn, and it’s not Maud and Limestone. 

Your eyes open and the room’s filled with grey stallions in suits and sunglasses. Two are already heading for you with a black sackcloth bag. Maud appears in front of them, kicking their faces before vanishing elsewhere. Limestone’s just wailing on them one at a time, throwing shards of bits from her hooves to stave back the larger group. Your beds are like islands in the sea of enemies.

One holds out a firearm, pointing it at you. ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ swarms on instinct, uncocking it and dropping out the ammunition. One unicorn among the squadron froze Lime in place, and they try to get a bag over her. Maud jumps between them and knocks him out.

Lime’s being pinned down, but the ones holding her legs cry out. Gold spikes shimmer in the moonlight and then fall out of her skin. You smash the nearest one yourself, and attract the attention of three others. Not what you’d intended, but...

You head for Limestone, letting Maud clear the way for you with fast kicks. A nod at her, and then you jam another thug’s gun. ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ chitters excitedly as it works. 

You raise your voice. “Maud, go to the door and then back to us!” 

She moves without hesitating, ｢OK Go｣ jumping her there for an eyeblink and then back to you. You smash two heads together while Lime noshes on coinage.

“Alright, now carry us!” You say as your entire swarm envelopes her. She reaches out like she’s pulling you into a hug, and you pull Lime in with you. Although she has no idea what’s going on, her mind’s running too fast to panic.

Lifted off the ground, Maud flies close the high ceiling. The stallions begin throwing things. You kick away a piece of furniture, while Lime spears another with something sharp escaping her mouth.

Then you set down at the entryway. The door opens outside, and ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ is already doing the job. You shove and hustle through, running out into the hallway.

You can see another twenty out here, and your heart skips a beat as your hope dims. While you try to think of what to do next, they’re already mobbing you. 

You punch blindly at the nearest one, but you don’t knock him down. Maud’s more successful, but her momentum gets her bodied by another one. Where are they coming from?!

Lime stumbles and gets surrounded, cut off from you. It’s only a moment after that when you see the black enter your vision. 

The bag tightens. You struggle against the bodies pressed against you. ｢Opposite of Thieves｣...! You try to loosen it, throw it up and away from your head, and…

A kick to your head registers, and you collapse.

Some amount of time later you come to, unrestrained. You’re not moving, so you’re not in a vehicle, or on somepony’s shoulder… The light's dim, but there’s nothing on your head any longer. As you open your eyes, you take in a casino hall. 

It’s the same as all of the others you’ve seen today. Ugly carpets and checkerboard decorations. Most of the lights are off, though, and so are the machines. The dimness is a nice rest for your eyes. And below that sparse lighting, you can make out Limestone, still out.

You push yourself up to your hooves and wince. Oof, your head. Maud’s further away than Lime, and looks pretty bruised even from here. As you feel around your mane’s part for sore spots, you finally look straight ahead. There are the card tables, spaced generously to make room for waitresses and onlookers. To your left is a bar, still lit but unoccupied.  And at the edge of the splotchy light, there’s somepony sitting in a chair.

White coat, difficult to see properly except for the glinting sunglasses. Once you see him, you can see the… mercenaries?
Security stallions, maybe. They’re standing a little ways out of the light. 

Since neither of your sisters are awake yet, you have to be one to talk. “...Hello?”

”Miss Pie, Miss Pie... Miss Pie.” The figure’s voice is male, crisp, and a little high pitched. Is that a colt?

Your Stand touches your sisters, helping them crack their eyes open. 

”Wuh…?” Limestone’s eyes adjust as fast as yours did. She spits blue words into the air.

When she stops, what you’ve decided is definitely a colt speaks again. ”It’s good that you’re awake. Before we get to other matters, please accept my apologies for your rough treatment. My guards didn’t feel that you would listen to reason, and it’s important that we settle our troubles before morning comes.”

In the time you were looking back at him, Maud stood up. She speaks in a panicked tone. ”What’s going on. Why are we here.”

Limestone works herself up again, having surveyed the room. ”They’re with Yearling! We’re gonna have to kick their asses until they tell us where she’s hiding!” Despite the threat, none of the guards make a move, or an expression. 

The colt answers after your sister. ”That’s precisely what we need to settle. Furia’s history with Miss Yearling has not been a happy one, but tonight she’s taken things a step too far.” He golf-claps, and the lights all come on.

You and Lime flinch like ponies with hangovers. At least that explains the sunglasses... 

You can see him clearly now. He’s a pegasus who looks about half your age, with an eggshell coat and his muted silver hair. It reminds you a bit of that unicorn who stayed on the farm, actually, but in his case it’s efficiently trimmed to fall short of the glasses. His cutie mark is a sun, like Celestia’s, in a pinwheel design - except it’s composed only of deep, wineish reds. You could almost mistake it for a rose.

What you can see of his expression is mostly hospitable, the soft side of businesslike. ”I know from Miss Yearling that the three of you have come a long way, and wouldn’t know me by my reputation, so I won’t hold that against you. My name is Giorno Rossa, and I am the owner of Las Pegasus.”

Well, at least you got somepony’s attention.

”What’s that mean.” Maud appears in front of him. To his credit, he doesn’t react. In fact, he doesn’t even startle at seeing her in a new location. If he’s met Yearling, you suppose you’re not surprised he knows about your abilities.

”I am the head of this city’s only gang, and the one responsible for dealing with its various problem elements. In this case, both Miss Yearling and the three of you."

Maud stares at him, eye locked. She’s about to summon ｢OK Go｣, isn’t she? 

Before this can turn ugly prematurely, you speak up. “We’re only trying to find her to take back something she stole from our family. We’re not interested in money or gambling, or in threatening this city. If you can tell us where she went, we’ll be gone before the morning.”

Limestone leers at what you think is a pretty reasonable response. ”And if you don’t, we have no problem with wrecking this whole place to find her.” The last two words echo.

Lime...

Giorno responds. ”I’m afraid she’s taken something from my family as well, and has already left the city. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to follow her in your present circumstances.”

”Where is she right now.”

”I honestly couldn’t tell you. Even if I could, you would never reach it in time to find her.”

Maud’s Stand manifests beside her. You go on-edge, your Stand active and ready to scurry in any direction. Before you can think of anything to say, ｢OK Go｣ kicks him in the head. There’s a loud crack, and the glasses go flying - but he doesn’t.

It’s only for a split second afterward that you see the hoof that met ｢OK Go｣’s in midair. Blue, outlined in gold, materializing a few inches away from the side of his head. Then you make out something else.

His eyes, looking at you. Red, but glassy.

You flinch, expecting one of them to be Yearling’s, but realize quickly that they aren’t. They don’t move around the room, searching for any new threats. In fact, they aren’t looking at you at all. They’re not looking at anything.

A few guards rush toward Maud, turning from forgettable statues into blurs of motion. And then stop just as quickly. Giorno holds up a hoof as he leaves his chair. 

He picks up his glasses on the first try, and after a few seconds of orienting, they slip back on. ”I didn’t mean what I said as a threat. It’s because of my Stand ability that Miss Yearling is too far away for you to reach her. She defeated me in a threefold bet, and now I believe she’s on her way to completing her journey. In fact, she may have already finished it.”

Lime growls, stalking toward him. ”Send us after her.”

He makes eye contact with her, which requires him to tilt his head a little. Somehow, it’s still a little unnerving. ”I’m afraid I can’t. My Stand and my agreement with Ms. Yearling wouldn’t allow me to. I understand the importance of family as well as anypony, but I cannot break my word.”

You don’t even need to see Limestone’s face. She’s going to hurt him if this keeps up.

“Then why did you bring us here?” You ask as you edge closer to your sisters. 

He’s looking “at” you now, smiling a little bit. ”You must be Marble.” 

Your coat shivers for a moment.

He continues. ”I’m glad you asked. My Stand may be able to send you on her path. It would certainly bring Furia happiness for you to go after her, if your family would do a favor on behalf of ours. But even if you agreed, my hooves are tied by honor. In the end, everything comes down to fate.”

Maud jumps back to join the both of you. It’s funny how none of the stallions have moved for all of this. You start to wonder if they’re really there, but you can see the nearest one to you breathing minutely. 

Then you realize that you aren’t concerned about them looking at you. Maybe it’s that they’re all wearing sunglasses, so you can’t quite tell. Or maybe it’s that they’ve already done the worst they could, and there’s nothing left to worry about.
Maud waits expectantly, eager for more information.

Giorno can’t read it on her face, though, so Lime speaks up. ”Tell us more.”

He smiles, thinly. 


Daring Do


Hrrk!

The back half of your body’s killing you, but a glance back proves it’s not gone. You’ve gripped onto the rock instinctively, but the texture’s inconsistent. Your hooves are deep in ashy dirt, but behind’s hard granular stone. 

Hold on, hold on… There’s something- the arrows!

You’d curse if your body wasn’t already letting go of the rock. Thankfully it doesn’t snag. You fall, rotating into the heat.

Have to wait to open your wings until you’ve spun around properly. They’re still falling, so you haven’t lost time; it has a bad habit of slipping away from you when your back’s turned. Lava's hot enough that you can’t even be a few wingspans above it without catching on fire. 

You essentially have to fly through a cloud of unrefined sawdust, but the spinning helps. It doesn’t matter if you’re bleeding. Prophecies are bad business, when they’re real. Caballeron’s sources are as trustworthy as his methods, but the fact that this fall has happened to you twice has convinced you this one’s worth taking seriously. 

Once you have them, you’re getting out of here as quickly as you can. 

You’re through the stinging cloud, now, and your eyes are clouding with dust and soot. You can’t cry it out right now, or reach to rub it, so you move faster. 

On the drop, you try something new. ｢--- Writer｣ transfers into the rock, in a small circular depression. 

Alright, so it’s anything eye-shaped. With your eye free to navigate again you let gravity keep working on you. And you're on the right track, they’re just below! With the inferno just under them.

This is the sort of thing you write chapter-books about. 

You swoop down, loosening your pack on your back. It falls momentarily up and away from you, and you snatch it with a hoof. The heat is already singing your coat, and it’s not doing your back half any favors, but you focus on putting everything you can into the swing. 

Thankfully, everything else is jammed so tightly inside that it can’t come loose. Trying to replace gravity with momentum, you push the bag in front of you. It moves like a pendulum, and you try to be the fulcrum, despite the fact that you’re falling into a volcano. 

Come on, come on…!

Both arrows are falling just beneath you, entering the point of no return. In a single smooth motion, it passes over and swallows them both. You don’t even wait to complete the swing, just pull it up and start flapping your wings as quickly as possible.

The wood pellets are finally catching up with you, and you close your eyes for a moment, not giving up the motion. If you rested on the wall like a fly you might not be able to take off again. 

You’re not a pony who usually needs to work out, but you’re starting to reconsider. Even if your flank hadn’t been blasted, you would still be in no shape to try flying out of a volcano. Easier than climbing it, though. 

Your special eye sees something moving up ahead before you can hear it. You register it in time to hear the whistle. Oh no, no, come on! It turns on the spot omnisciently and shoots for the eye, and you call your power back. Then you focus on getting as much altitude as possible.

This thing can’t really follow you for the rest of time, can it? You haven’t even tried to see if it has a range problem. For crying out loud, it’s a projectile!

But as you dodge past ｢Soldier of Fortune｣ and wait to hear it coming after you, you know you’ll have to defeat Caballeron. You’re too weak to outfly this thing much longer. Hell, you’re too weak to fly, period. Don’t think about that.

Its speed seems to be constant, although that might just be because it never crashes. But what happened when it exploded? Ash and wood fell everywhere. You’re not slow, the wood had to come from somewhere. If this one explodes into smoke but not wood, that would prove it’s taking what it hits into itself. 

As you pass the point you let go of how many seconds ago, another wave of fatigue hits you. But you make it over the lip, and roll out of the mountain’s smoking section. 

The ground’s unforgiving, shredding at your wings and withers as you clutch the pack to yourself. But you get yourself grounded as the whistling comes after you. Getting a load of your tactical situation, you can’t see the henchponies any longer. Where’s--

Ah, there he is. Caballeron’s standing smugly a good fifteen seconds’ gallop away. It’s good that you only messed up your wings just now. Your body refuses to run from lack of stamina, and you ignore it. You only need another minute, anyway. Just long enough to find a shard of sharp stone.

That one’ll do. You pick it up in your teeth and move it to a hoof. This is thankfully less precise than writing while running. You hadn’t understood why the upper classes kept cursive script around until you tried doing that.

The whistle brings focus. So does the doctor’s victorious expression. You can’t afford for this to take more than a couple seconds. Still propelling yourself on your backlegs, like some kind of lizard sprinting across water, you hold your mane straight with one hoof. With the other, you cut, once, and toss the hair out in a cloud. 

Please work, please work...

Returning to all four hooves, you keep galloping. Now you just have to create distance!

You hear the explosion at the same time as the tide of smoke slides out over you with its too-warm chemical embrace. You’re unhurt, and he must know that better than you, but his expression doesn’t change. Shock?

Then you feel the hooves on you, muscles pulling against yours on both sides. The two henchponies.

Your stomach sinks. His power really didn’t target anything but you. It sucked them up like a vacuum cleaner so they could force you down.

...What kind of jarheads would let themselves be fired into an active volcano?!

Normally you’d just flap out of this, but you need to reserve your strength for that. They don’t try to tear you limb from limb or hurt you, though. They’re just holding you in place. 

As the smoke clears, you see he’s stalked a little closer. ”It’s a shame that I have to end you, Daring Do. I was looking forward to impressing you with my godlike power.” Godlike? 

You spit. “What’s the big idea, Caballeron? What are the arrows for?”

”They came from the stars separately, and once they’re brought together, they’ll bring me impossible power.”

“What, you think you’re some fried-out culture’s swanky chosen one?”

He smiles. He’s a lot more demure in person, though none of your fans will ever know that. To be honest, you quite enjoy writing him, it really works out your stress to make him as outwardly awful as he is on the inside.

”You’re not going to be able to outdistance this one, I’m afraid. ｢Soldier of Fortune｣.” It appears on his shoulder, large and green and boxlike.

Your face hardens. “Has not letting me go ever worked out for you, Caballeron?”

His smile is predatory as he hunkers down and aims. ”I’m afraid there are bigger forces in my corner now, Daring.” And then, as you meet his eyes, something comes to you. 

That’s it. ”｢Paperback Writer｣.”

He stops focusing on his power for a moment. ”Hm?”

You take a deep breath, letting your body stay limp; a hold from two stallions isn’t much different from being bound with loose rope. “That’s my ability. And if you attack me now, it’ll destroy you for sure.”

He sours. ”I don’t appreciate this stalling for time. If you possessed a Stand, you would have used it already to defeat me.”

“Whatever you say.”

He snorts, then almost shrugs, except for the weight. And fires.

Watching the rocket manifest inside the chamber is discomforting - you much prefer the ingenuity of ancient nonmagicals - but it fires. Before it can start whistling, though, it spins on the spot. In fact, it hardly waits to leave the launcher.

Caballeron doesn’t have time to react as it hits the eye you just implanted over his. You can see it happening from his perspective, and it’s enough to make you flinch, but if it costs you your own ability to defeat his, then... well, an eye for eye.

When it detonates your vision goes black, and he’s blown backwards. The eye returns to you, along with the first deep-brain lancing of a migraine.

Whatever.

You take advantage of the surprise your captors are undergoing and lift your back hooves off the ground. A twist, and you kick both of them in the groin simultaneously, like a natural-born gymnast. They let go, and become unimportant. You run past the unconscious form of your archenemy, towards the jungle.

As soon as the land stops, you glide, not ready to try flapping yet. The landing’s tricky, but you manage it alright. Now, you just have to figure out how to escape this jungle with the arrows intact. 

First, though, you gather up a little underbrush and lay down for a moment. As soon as you do, your body refuses to get back up. 

As you rest, and then sleep, you stare out into the canopy. Birds are chirping frantically here and there, which is annoying, but nothing awful’s happening.

When you write this out, that damned volcano’s going to explode.


Marble


Giorno’s explaining. ”Firstly, I’ll tell you how my Stand works. ｢Pinball Wizard｣.” 

He holds out a hoof, and it manifests fully. It’s definitely larger than you, and bulky. Its coat's blue with white accents, and over the eyes are the three squares of a slot machine readout, all blank.

”Its first ability is future prediction. I should clarify that this is not an exact prediction of what will come, but an establishing of a… time limit, you could say. For instance, the time until your homestead will fall apart without you.” He turns to his Stand, and the readout spins furiously to life. 

The first is a number, and the other two each drop down a pair of letters. ”7|DA|YS.” A week. You calm down, for a moment. No matter how unusual your situation is, you still have a week to find her.

”Its second ability is of greater importance, and activates when somepony plays a game with me. Based on the winner, that pony can be sent closer to or further away from their event.” He waits for you to get it, and after a moment you do.

”Do you mean...” Maud starts, but she’s so stunned she doesn’t finish.

Limestone steps in for her. ”Time travel?”

He nods, smiling thinly, and there’s something almost elderly about the motion. ”I hope you understand that I’m not very public about these abilities. After all, with both in tandem, I was able to gain a number of important positions very quickly. All of this has been thanks to a family heirloom of mine, which is sadly no longer mine to wear.” He motions to his neck. 

“Another brooch?”

”A necklace. You are Marble, aren’t you? 

You nod. Then realize, and cough. “Uh, hm, yes.”

”Miss Yearling didn’t mention that you had such a lovely voice. My mother had the same one, I think...” He trails off. If you didn’t know, you’d say he’s staring into space. 

You try not to dwell on whether this is his idea of flirting. ”So you sent Yearling into the past?”

”Yes. Four days. She called in a number of favors to play a game with me, and forced me to bet my most precious item in exchange for all three of her artifacts. She won, unfortunately. Wherever she was heading, I have to assume she made it.”

You suddenly and violently remember something, hard enough to reel back and gasp. Your sisters are immediately focused on you. “The Choosing Stone! That’s why it pointed us to Vanhoover! She was there at the same time as she was coming here!”

Lime’s eyes widen, and her expression turns serious. ”Then she made it there. We have to go back and stop her at her own game.” She turns to Giorno. ”Do you have to play each of us one at a time or can we do it all at once?”

”I can send you back in time all at once, if you’ll agree to return my necklace to me when you get it back from her. Unfortunately, you’ll have to actually defeat me. I’m honorbound to play my best against you.”

Maud examines him, eyes narrowing a fraction. ”Why. Wouldn't it be easier for us to just go get it for you.”

He sighs. ”Yearling used her victory to force me into a hoofful of agreements, and I’m honorbound to them. I can’t use my Stand just to send anypony after her, I can’t allow harm to come to her informant while in my custody, and I must defeat the three of you.” He puts a hoof up to stop the three of you. ”However… since you’re chasing her for your own reasons, I have no issue with your finding her. If I play against you and you defeat me, then my honor only depends on how well I’ve tried to uphold this bargain. And if her informant goes with you, then he’s no longer in my custody.”

Maud digests that. Lime doesn’t like it, but she’s not snarling any more.

”So it’s a win-win for you.” she says.

Giorno shakes his head. ”The only victory that matters is keeping my word while getting back that necklace. It’s a very precious item to me.”

“Who was her informant?” No sooner have you asked than he’s motioned to his right. 

Two of these guards walk over with somepony sandwiched between them. ”Really, really, I don’t need this. Alright? I can just head on my way. Daring only wanted me to make an offer, and it’s clear that they didn’t want - you know they’ve cheated your casinos out of millions of bits, right?!” You recognize the voice, and when he enters the light there’s no doubt. The stallion from earlier.

”Mr. Pants has been my guest for about five hours now, and I would enjoy being rid of him.”

“W-we don’t want him!” 

He looks at you with shrinking terror. ”Y-y’know if you let her near me then you’re breaking terms, right?”

Maud, suddenly at your left, whispers in your ear. ”He might be a useful bargaining chip.”

Lime nudges you and speaks out of the corner of her mouth. ”We could totally beat the tar out of him as soon as we win.”

These two... You sigh. As long as your sisters are the ones to deal with him, you suppose you’ll live.

”I’m afraid it’s necessary that you take him on. My Stand will only work once per pony, even for a group. He obviously won’t play me of his own volition, and I won’t have the chance to get rid of him again until somepony else who doesn’t work for me accepts a challenge.” 

The stallion shudders, and then he looks at the three of you, almost pleadingly.

...Alright. “Then we’ll accept.”

You can tell by his expression that his stomach dropped. You can also tell, on instinct, that this is a stallion who’s never roughhoused in his life. There’s so much terror in him over a few good punches.

Giorno explains the rest of the terms as Mr. Pants is led over to you. ”Each bet must be at least one day, and at most seven. Currently you only have seven until your home collapses, but my Stand will only act when it reaches your final total. If each of you bet the maximum and won, you would add three weeks onto your time to find her. If the three of you all bet seven and lost, you would be sent two weeks too far to make a difference.”

Your skin crawls. If you lost a week’s worth of time, then one of your sisters would have to spend their game just trying to make up for the loss. And if she lost, then that would be it. 

Yearling only has a four day headstart, though. If you can just turn those seven days into eleven, you’ll be back on her tail! You’ll even be able to make it back home with time to spare! 

Just four days... The thought goes through Maud’s head, too. Even Limestone is reserved and planning, though her face looks troubled. If you aim low, betting one day, then one day, then two days...

No, what if the last of you loses? You need to make sure that it doesn’t set back to zero, then. Make your big bet in the middle of the three, and have the last match ready, just in case. Yes, that’s the safe path ahead.

You find yourself suddenly on rocky terrain, thrust directly into the world of gambling. But your sisters are naturals at it, they should be fine, and that means you'll be alright if you just don't panic.

Giorno continues. ”These will be games of honor, not casual rounds played for fun. If you’re caught cheating, you will be punished with an immediate forfeit. That is, you will lose the days you bet automatically. This counts for any unfair advantage - if you accidentally saw my cards, or spoke with each other in code, for instance.”

You blanch, then think of something. “Doesn’t your Stand give you an unfair advantage?”

”Hm?” He’s very nonchalant about that.

“You can tell how long it is until something happens. Can’t you just… compare the time until you win with the time until you lose, and use that to decide how to play?”

Come on, he must have thought of that. Thinking like that is the only way somepony like him could have this kind of power. Is he being more devious than he’s letting on? Will you three actually be able to get out of here? You’re getting paranoid now, gambling is already getting into you and you don’t like it.

He nods, a bob of the head. ”Yes, I could. At least, before I played. However, during a match my Stand is not on anypony’s side. I will leave it here in the open for us, so it’s clear that I’m not consulting it.” 

You can sense some kind of deceit there, but you don’t have any idea what kind of question would draw it out, or what would happen to the three of you if you made this colt angry. He wants you to get through, right? But he also has to try his best to defeat you, honestly. All of this “honor” is going to make your head spin.

Maud asks a question. ”What’s the game.”

Giorno motions to the circle of stallions, and you hear the squeaking of wheels. A large metal table slides between the four of you. Laid out on it are, among other things, numerous decks of cards, boards of various makes and models, a set of jacks, colored chips, dice, and even a hefty gun a little larger than the ones pointed at you. 

Once it stops moving, he gestures vaguely at the spread. ”It’s your choice. Each of you can play whatever game you’d like, so long as it’s one on one.” 

You look over the options, leaning in to see them better. Most of these are completely unrecognizable to you. Bits laid side by side, a pair of red retainers... 

Limestone speaks. ”We need a minute to strategize and decide which games we’re going to play. We’ll just be over at the bar.” She sounds almost... apologetic. She never sounds that way unless she’s trying to get away with something.

Is she going to do something to jeopardize all of this? No, she can't be, she’s more experienced at this than you are.

Giorno nods to her, and you’re thankful that he can’t see your face. She promptly leads you and Maud away, past the ring of stallions. They don’t move to follow you.

You and Maud take seats at the bar to rest your legs for a moment. ”What order are we playing in.”

”I think I should go first,” you say. 

”No shit.” Limestone ducks into the bar and starts reading the bottle labels. ”You should definitely go first, Marble, and bet low. Like, one day. Then Maud can go second and score us all the days we need, and I’ll finish up in case she can’t.” She finally picks something clear and half-full, and unscrews the lid. Then she swigs down a few mouthfuls.

It’s a disturbing sight. You didn’t know she’d ever touched that kind of stuff before, or that she’d need it at a time like this. You’ll have to talk to her about it later, though.

“Okay.” If you’re going first, what are you going to play? ...Do you even know any games? It wasn’t like Ma and Pa ever had many at the house. As a filly you mostly had Pinkie to play games with, and you don’t think Giorno’s going to want to play hide and seek with you.

Maud leans over the bar and lowers her voice. ”So how are we cheating.”

W-what?!

Lime takes another couple of gulps and waves a hoof. ”Nothing too elaborate if you can help it. He’s got a lot of ponies watching. Can ｢OK Go｣ move you fast enough to switch cards in a place like this?”

Maud nods. 

”W-we shouldn’t!” You hiss. 

They both give you a look that makes you feel like the youngest sister.

You try to reason with them. “If we get caught, we’ll lose completely!” 

Lime puts a hoof on yours and hisses back. ”Calm down. This is stressful, but you have to keep your composure. Nopony’s getting caught. You’re going to play a nice game for a single day, and then whether you win or lose, Maud can play her own game and win all of it for us. In fact, if we have one day more than we need after she’s done, I’ll just bet that one and play completely fair, alright?”

...She has a point. If it doesn’t work out for Maud, Lime will still have a shot. And if you won, it would be even easier. There’s some risk involved, but not nearly as much as you might have expected.

In the end, you have to trust in your sisters. And besides, aren’t you the one who didn’t think cheating was any worse than gambling? You take a deep breath and exhale.

“Okay. I’ll play him first, and you two… do what you have to.” You don’t know if you’ll be able to watch that. 

For the brooch. For the farm. You each make eye contact in your little triangle, and then you turn back to the situation.

When you approach, Mr. Pants is standing uneasily in the corner. Your sisters hang back a safe distance, observing, and you step forward. A table’s been set up, with Giorno at one end of it. The metal game table, which looks more and more like something from a doctor’s office, is set perpendicular to it. Over it, hovering like a dealer, is his ｢Pinball Wizard｣.

You notice his ears twitch minutely as you come closer. He turns toward you slightly as you come closer, even though you’re trotting on soft carpet. ”Who’s going first?”

“I am. But... before I choose my game, I want to ask what A.K. Yearling played with you.”

His Stand feels around the surface for a moment, passing over odds and ends. Finally, it lifts up the gun.

”Marescow Roulette. A nonlethal version, of course, since my Stand couldn’t operate if either of us were dead at the end of the game. It’s a very fast game - you pull the trigger as many times as you like, and then you hoof it over.” To demonstrate, his Stand’s hoof manipulates the trigger. Click-click-click-phwoom! A cloud of violet dust fills the air, and then dissipates.

The Stand picks a small purple pellet off of the table and places it inside the empty gun, snapping it shut again. You stare at it, and bite your lip. How did Yearling overcome that?

Maybe by just being lucky, that seems to be her solution to a lot of problems. You want to beat her at her own game, but... that’s being too dramatic, isn’t it? You’d have to cheat to do that for sure, and you’d probably be found out. That would only ruin Maud’s repuation, and mess up your whole plan.

Just as a test of your luck? What if there’s some trick to it that you don’t know yet, and you would after the first game? You know that your sisters are going to be the deciding factors here, but... You can’t just be frivolous and make work for them!

”Is that what you’ve chosen?”

“N-no!” Damn, now you can’t accept it even if you wanted to. You were close to changing your mind again, you could feel it! You close your eyes and try to breathe; you’re not even playing yet. It doesn’t matter if you win. Just play something you understand. “Go Fish.”

You hear Mr. Pants snort, violently. Giorno doesn’t react at all, even to smirk. With perfect gravity he nods his head, and his Stand throws a stack of playing cards to you.

”For the sake of time we’ll play with only aces through fives. Please pull them out, cut them, and shuffle as much as you’d like.”

“Mmhm.” You do as he asks, not thinking too hard about it. You were always pretty good at Go Fish, you should have no problem with it now.

”How many days are you betting?”

“Huh? Oh. One.” You decide where to make the cut after you’ve set aside the rest of the cards. It’s a fresh pack, so they’re all in the same order, and you find that kind of refreshing. You could just use your Stand to rearrange them back into this order, if you wanted, but there’s always a risk for you, and a bigger one for Maud and Lime...

You push those thoughts out of your head.

”You know you’re not going to get anywhere with a small bet like that, don’t you?” He asks, raising the glasses to look you roughly in the eye. He’s trying to psych you out.

“I-I’ll be alright.”

”You won’t. If you think this first game doesn’t matter, then you’re wrong. Fate decides who to smile on by their beginnings, not their plans. If you expect to win without really playing, and meaning it, then you won’t survive.” His voice becomes hard at this, and you feel an aura of danger around him. ”I don’t want to overstress this, but if I send you into the future, I’ll have to ensure that you don’t leave this building in order to keep my word. It’s no threat to say I’m perfectly capable of that.”

Then he leans back in his chair, and it retreats. You shuffle the cards and do your best to ignore his words. It is true that luck hasn’t been on your side in the last few days, though. Every time you’ve tried to go up against Yearling, you’ve only gotten by. Are you getting too used to that position? Is the right way forward to leap out of it all at once and do something totally different?

Too late, too late.

Calm down. You’ve got to stop being so superstitious and focus on the cards in front of you. Agonizing about Yearling and trying to overcome her is like attacking a shadow in your mind. You have to learn to live with it, and work with your strengths! 

The shuffle is extra thorough, but you want to make sure that you don’t know which cards are which. When you’re finished, you set it down. 

Giorno calls one of his guards over to him. ”I give you my word that his only purpose is to deal cards.”

That should be alright. “Fine.” You were expecting him to call one over to read the cards to him, but as your hand gets dealt to you, you realize why he doesn’t. Each of the cards has little bumps under the suits. 

That was a griffon invention, wasn’t it? ’Graille’? 

You pick up each card as it’s dealt to you. Four of Diamonds, Five of Spades, Ace of Hearts, Four of Hearts, Ace of Clubs. Two pairs already, Aces and Fours.

Giorno sits patiently, and then “looks” at his cards all at once. ”...If a player runs out of cards in their hand, will they draw or end the game?”

“Draw. It’ll be an automatic Go Fish.”

”Then that will be their full turn?”

You nod. “Yes, that’s fine.”

”Then we’re agreed that the game ends when one of us must go fish but has no cards.”

“Yes, that sounds fair. Or when we’re each left with two of the same card and nothing else.”

He has no reservations about that. ”Then I’ll let you begin, signora.” The last word has an accent that the rest don’t. He says it the same way he says “Miss”, though.

You look through your hand, and make your decision.


ROUND ONE: GO FISH


”Do you have any Aces?” You ask, and then feel a little foolish. There’s no need for that kind of politeness, you’re playing a criminal in an empty casino. 

He feels the cards to double-check, then shakes his head. The dealer throws you another card, defeating the point of going fish. Two of Hearts. Useless, for now, but since you’re playing with only six kinds of card, it can only get more valuable.

”Fives?” He gets a lucky shot on you on his first try. You hoof over the five. He takes it, and then reveals three more of his own. A book on the first turn?! 

He sets aside the pile of four. There can only be five of those. Which means that if he gets two more, your fate is already sealed. 

You stop running the numbers in your head and try to focus on the ones in your hand. He was lucky, but you can be lucky too!

”Fours?”

”None.” Another card comes spinning at you, the Four of Clubs. Alright, luck is already looking up for you. If you can be dealt another Four, you’ll be fine. Just play the dealer, not the enemy.

”Threes?”

“None.” You say, and he gets a card. Now, you have an important decision to make. You have three Fours, two Aces and a Two. He might have just received a Four, in which case you can call him on it. And even if he doesn’t, you can take another card and improve your odds of getting a book. 

But he might also have an Ace, and it makes more sense than trying to chase that one advantage. Or he might have a Two, or more than one of them. If you can break that hold, you’ll be able to stop either side forming a Book with them. Each of these routes has some advantage, and broadcasts something about your situation... Do you want him to think you’re really eager for Twos?

No, save that for another turn. And if you ask for Fours twice, he’ll know you only need one more of them for sure. Aces, then.

“Aces?”

He hoofs one over. Yes! 

Then he stares at his own cards for a moment. ”Threes?”

Huh? He already asked - Ohh. Okay, he has a pair of Threes.

The dealer throws him another card. And again, the same question: three Aces, three Fours, one Two. 

You might as well ask for it. “Twos?”

He shakes his head, and you receive a...

Two of Diamonds. Your three little stockpiles are each building up nicely. Each one is like a hot coal, though; if you can’t put it inside of the furnace it belongs in, it’ll scorch your hooves for sure! If the game continues to a stalemate from here, you’re already doomed by his first stroke of luck!

You can’t let that happen!

“Threes?” He asks. You shake your head, and he gets his answer by the card thrown in front of him. Why’s he still asking?

He maintains a poker face. 

There are only four cards left until this is all up, and now you have to decide, which of the three numbers do you want to remind him of? Just cycle back to the first one, that makes sense. He’s had a couple draws to possibly get another Four, hasn’t he? 

Okay. “Fours.”

”I’m afraid not.” The dealer passes another card down the table. 

The Four of Spades! “Book!” You put those four aside, and celebrate that you’re even! Now there aren’t any more Fours or Fives, which means you just have Aces, Twos and Threes to worry over. He’s got at least one Three, and maybe three of them. You’ve got all but one Ace, and half of the Twos…

Out of the cards left, all that matters is who gets the Ace and who gets the Three. Except if he calls out an Ace, you realize with some horror. If he splits that down the middle, you’ll never get it back!

”Twos.” He says, and you almost sigh in relief. Then you pass over the Two of Diamonds, and leave the Hearts untouched. So he must have had three Threes before. Now he’s drawn a Two, he’s finally changed his tune. Maybe he was worried about you having a stack of them. Trying to defuse a Book about to happen...?

Now you have no choice but to signal that one still exists in your hand. Otherwise you’re stalling by asking for your Two back...

“Aces.” 

He shakes his head, and you’re granted another card. Please, please be--

The Ace of Spades! “Book!”

Distantly you hear Limestone cheering behind you. You all but slam the quartet of cards onto the table! Your heart’s going to make you dizzy in a moment, but now all you have is a Two! Luck is on your side now!

”Twos.” He’s changed his tune from Threes, at least. You hoof over your last card, and he doesn’t make a Book.

Which means... Oh. 

No. No, no, no. Both of the cards to complete his hand haven’t been drawn yet, and you’re out of cards completely.

”Go fish.” Giorno says, without a trace of humor, and the dealer throws you a card. You don’t even pick it up. 

It’s either a Two or a Three. If he asks for the right card, you’ll have to give it to him, and draw another one for your last turn. You’ll be paralyzed! 

No, don’t panic! You resist the urge to bolt from your seat, or surrender. You’ve still got more Books than him right now.
If he guesses wrong, you can still defuse one of them. Then he can’t do better than stalemate with you. He just has to make the wrong call here, and the danger’s passed!

”Two.”

With a shaking hoof, you flip over the card, not even looking at it until you have to. Three, Three, Three…!

“No!” you cry, as the Two of Spades stares up at you, and you stare back at it, close to tears.

If you’d just switched the cards… If you’d done anything differently...

You push the card over to him. ”Book. Go fish.”

You get the last card in the deck. Three of Spades.

”Threes.” 

You slide it over, and hang your head. You almost don’t believe it.

”Book, and game.” He sits back, and you hear a clicking noise. 

On your left, ｢Pinball Wizard｣’s readout is changing, slowly. The “7” flies up and away into its ghostly skull, dragging up a 6 to replace it. 

”6|DA|YS” You sit and stare at it for a moment. 

Maud appears in your field of vision, and you jump. She looks at the Stand, then at the table, then at Giorno, then at you. Her expression doesn’t change, but she nods so slightly you can barely notice it.

You almost fall out of the chair putting your fetlocks around her, and the tears come. She pats you on the back reassuringly, rubbing just below the neck on a knot of muscles.

”You did good," she says as you shake your head, wiping your blurry eyes into her shoulder. ”Hush. It’s okay.” The warmth in her voice carries you back to normalcy. She hugs you, tight.

You let go first, and pick yourself up.

”I’ve got it from here,” she winks at you. 

And then you take a few steps away, back to an observer’s distance. Maybe this will all work out for the best. But there’s something in you that doesn’t feel like it.

Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Mr. Pants looking at you with disdain. You don’t make eye contact with him. You really, really don’t think this will end well.

Giorno remains businesslike. ”And what would you care to play?”

Maud already knows, and her voice is resolute. ”Poker. Three rounds.”

”Winner has the most chips?’

”Right.”

”Then we’ll start with five each. How much are you betting?”

”Five days.”

Your breath catches as you hear that. It’s a logical decision, you know, but still painful. She doesn’t want to bet all six days and leave nothing for Lime. But at the same time... If she wins, the third round still happens. If Limestone bets the minimum and loses, you’ll be a full day behind. No better than you are right now, and still playing into Yearling’s hooves!

That one day difference… It could’ve been you that made it, couldn’t it? 

No, you have to try not to think that way. Trust Maud! Believe in your sisters! They’re braving the wilderness you weren’t able to travel through! Clearing the thorny path so all three of you can make it back home!

｢Pinball Wizard｣ throws a new pack of cards, and ｢OK Go｣ catches it. Maud shuffles them slowly and thoroughly. Her form is a lot better than yours. She even does the thing where the two fans shuffle into one another one card at a time. She knows what she’s doing. Keep calm.

Giorno speaks after a small eternity of fresh cards sliding against each other. ”I have one more request, in the interest of fairness.”

Maud blinks. ”What.”

”Put your Stand next to mine over the game selection table.” 

Another blink. ”Why didn’t you ask my sister to do that.”

His answer comes nonchalantly, a shrug of the voice. ”Because that isn’t how her Stand works.”

...What?! He knows about your Stand?! You’re suddenly kind of thankful you didn’t try to swap the cards with ｢Opposite of Thieves｣. 

No, of course he would know. This is Yearling’s final attempt. She escaped you in a direction you can’t travel in, of course she’d tell the gatekeeper about you. 

Then... none of you can use your Stands without it being recognized. Unless...

Maud remains unfazed as ｢OK Go｣ hovers next to Giorno’s Stand.  Yes, she knows it too! Her ability is simply a matter of jumping between places. Jumping somewhere and then back again instantaneously - Yearling never saw her do that! Your sister still has a chance to win!

The dealer throws out the cards one at a time.

Maud waits to pick hers up, just like her opponent does. Nothing seems life-threatening about this at all, in fact. 

You glance back to see where Limestone is, and she’s got one of the guards hoofing her something. It looks like an unfinished table lamp. Sitting on the carpet next to her is another bottle, this one a light amber. Mr. Pants is past her, pretending not to be looking at any of you, and he seems really irritated now. 

Lime motions, and a unicorn guard zaps some part of this device. She takes a long tube out of it and sticks it in her mouth. Is she going to pump it up to size? You remember Pinkie’s early experiences with balloon-filling...

She inhales, deeply, and keeps inhaling. When she stops, she closes her eyes and holds a hoof out. It’s her universal sign for “wait for it…” Then she twitches her ears one at a time, down and then up again. Each time, a little ring of gray smoke goes sailing away into the air.

When it finishes, she opens her eyes and spreads her hooves, still solemn. A couple of the guards clap, quietly, and she nods.

You sigh. This isn’t going to affect her ability to play, is it? No, it couldn’t. She has some kind of plan, you have to trust her on that. At any rate, ｢Down With the Sickness｣ should stop her from actually getting drunk. Maybe she just wants to seem that way. 

You hear the organizing of cards and turn back to the table. Maud and Giorno are looking through their cards now.


ROUND TWO: POKER


Maud’s cards are... Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Ace. She looks at them quickly, holding them close to her eyes and shielding them from anypony else who might be watching. Then she collapses them into a single stack, and holds them low, at an angle facing the table. 

Giorno takes a little more time, but when he’s finished, he pushes one chip forward. She does the same. As her free hoof makes the motion, you sit down to get the right angle on her hand. 

The visible card in the stack is different. Two of Diamonds. After a moment it’s different again, the Three of Diamonds. How can she switch with more than the uppermost card on the deck? Is she sliding these into the rest of the cards? 

That sounds like a giant catastrophe waiting to happen! If she’s only able to switch out the top card and she’s trying to surpass that limitation, it could multiply her chances of being caught! Plus it’s not efficient! Even you know the basic kinds of poker hand, and it could take three or four switches to make a lot of them worth anything.

In a game with only three rounds, the chances of getting anything really good are pretty bad. In this case, Maud could get something or other with a Four or a Nine if she traded out the Ace. But randomly switching the cards one at a time, how’s she going to tell?

The dealer coughs, and his voice is baritone. ”Raise, call, or fold.”

Maud glances down at the top card for a moment, and then slides forward another chip. ”Do you play this often.” It’s different now, King of Diamonds. Three of Clubs. You look away in case you’re being suspicious.

Nine of Diamonds.

Nine! She made it to the card she needed! Looking as if she’s busying herself with her hand, she slides that card to the back of the five. But beneath it, there’s a Two!

You fight your rising panic, the desire to gasp. Did she switch them out incorrectly, or one too many at the same time?! Oh no, no, no. Does she know? You try to think of some way to signal to her, but you know that would be found out immediately - she’s surrounded. The only way she’s pulling this off is because everypony’s standing so far away, and partly because Limestone’s distracting them.

Giorno feels for his chips and pushes another one forward. ”I’ve played from time to time. It’s very useful for mingling, but it isn’t a game I would stake my future on, if I had any choice.”

Maud doesn’t reply, looking at the table, transfixed. The card changes again, Three of Diamonds. Why does she keep switching them?! Does she not remember where in the deck she put them?

Well, how could she, really? But to still need to switch cards out at this rate... What could she be looking for, besides the ones she already had...?

Don’t chase after those cards, Maud! Make something with what you have, you’ve already bet half of your chips!

Then you realize something even worse. If her cards are too different, somepony might notice. If only one card were changed out, it would be easy to say that they were just mistaken when they glimpsed her hand. But if three or more were different, they could guess what had happened. Even if they don’t know ｢OK Go｣’s full capabilities, they could deduce it quickly.

That’s five days gone, the worst case scenario! You hide your terror with your bangs, keeping a hoof over your mouth.

”Hm.” Maud replies. ”Are we at the betting cap?”

Giorno stares upward for a moment, counting in his head. ”Yes. If we bet any more, the game wouldn’t need to go on for two more rounds.”

Ten of Diamonds. Wait, with the Nine that could make something. A, a Straight, or a Flush, what she was going for originally. All she needs is to have thrown out the Five and not something she needs--!

It disappears. Five of Clubs.

”Okay,” Maud says, and they reveal their cards.

Giorno goes first: Six of Diamonds, Six of Spades, Ten of Spades, Three of Hearts, Nine of Hearts. 

”A pair of sixes,” he says, with no trace of smugness.

Then Maud flips hers over: Five of Clubs, Six of Clubs, Seven of Hearts, Eight of Hearts, Nine of Diamonds. ”Straight.”

Yes! Yes!! You rattle a hoof in the air victoriously.

Giorno turns toward the vicinity of the dealer, who confirms the win. 

You can’t believe it worked out! ...In fact, you’re still not sure what she did.

Maud takes the chips, leaving him with only two. At least outwardly, she seems as undisturbed as ever. Maybe she should be, she could end it with this round. In fact, unless Giorno goes all in on this round and the next one, he’ll lose for sure! 

But... he must have known that when he bet three chips, right? He’s played this game before. Is he intentionally making it harder for himself? 

They leave the cards they’ve already played aside, and the dealer throws them each a fresh hand. 

Maud leaves hers on the table for a moment, and speaks when Giorno lifts his. ”I have a request to make.”

He looks up at her, and her eyes reflect in his sunglasses. ”What?”

”If we draw, double or nothing.” 

’Double or nothing’? Does that mean-

”You mean you want the bet to increase to ten days?”

Oh, no, it does. Your heart starts accelerating again. He raises an eyebrow, and she doesn’t say anything.

Finally he answers, rather cheerfully. ”That’s exactly the kind of term that might let somepony defeat me! It cuts through to the spirit of gambling. I’ll accept, so long as your sister also agrees to it.”

That startles you, and you answer. “Well, y-yes, of course I agree to-”

”I’m sorry, signora. I mean the third pony I’ll be facing.”

"O-oh."

A guard walks over to Limestone, who seems to have finished smoking. She’s gesticulating wildly at the assembled guards with her back to the game. You have no idea what she’s saying, and it looks like they don’t either. 

Maud picks up her cards for a moment, and you almost miss them. Two Ten Nine Three Ten. That’s not a very good hand, is it? You guess that might be why she wanted a safety net; if she doesn’t do well here, she can always try to make it better by going perfectly even in the third match. If not, she still wins enough time to get you where you need to go.

You shudder at the thought of what might happen if she failed a game like that. The guard comes back over with a signed sheet of paper. Limestone’s signature is barely on the line, and the “n” has two eyes drawn on top it. All of you have a little Pinkie inside you, you guess.

It’s good enough for Giorno. ”I have one more term, though. Neither of us can fold in the third round.”

Maud considers that. ”Deal.”

Folding is where you give up without playing your hand and hoof over the chips, right? Why would anypony want to do that in third round?

Wait. Oh, that’s it. If Maud lost here, she could only lose two chips. She would have to bet one in the third round, and then fold to give it to him. Then, no matter what he bet, or what their cards were, they would automatically draw.

But if that isn’t how they’ll play in the third round, then she won’t be able to draw with him. Her escape route is, in other words, impractical. You feel drained by this realization, but for some reason Maud’s aura is energized. Her shoulders tense, and your knee gets pinchy.

But she puts her cards down at an angle like she did before, and Giorno looks at his normally. He browses them almost like a magazine, leisurely. If his cards are any good she shouldn’t need to worry about losing.

But you notice that her bottom card’s changed again - Three of Spades. And then you notice something more alarming. She’s not holding five cards, like you thought; she’s holding a small stack of them. Not enough to notice missing from the deck, but much thicker than a hand! Which means--!

As soon as you see the trick, the sheer risk of it almost bowls you over. She didn’t push cards into the deck at all. She just took a hoofful off of the top and put them back on, one at a time. That's why her hand was messed up after the Nine. She had extra leftover, and she had to keep putting cards back on before she could reveal the hand.

But now... Why is she trying so hard? If she wants to win the round, she should only need to switch out three cards at most. The maximum she could possibly switch would be five, and there are more than that between her hooves. And if she wants to lose so she can draw in the third round somehow, she’d just need to switch out one or two, or leave them as they are.

Why is she doing this? And why is it you can see your Pa’s face now, looking down on you disapprovingly? There's a ｢fever of gambling｣ that seems to choke this whole room. A desperation in the name of chance!

Ponies waste their money to feel like this?!

Giorno pushes forward one chip, and Maud glances at her cards. The Three disappears, revealing a Two of Hearts. Then she pushes forward a chip of her own, and glances at her cards again. The Two becomes a Queen of Diamonds, then a Two of Spades.

But the contents of her hand aren’t actually shrinking. She’s cycling through them. She’s trying to see what all of the cards are going to be in the next round! Thinking ahead like that frightens you. Is she really chasing after a draw?

The dealer speaks. ”Raise, call or fold.”

Giorno pushes up another chip. ”Raise.” 

Maud does the same. She looks down and--

”Hey, quick question. Why are you holding your cards like that?” The voice comes from over your shoulder. Mr. Pants is standing there, looking at Maud curiously. Like he can smell something wrong.

“What are you doing over here?” You ask him, hoping to get him to turn his head so Maud can check her cards. 

He doesn’t look at you, instead drawing closer to her. ”I was intrigued after she made a deal to go double or nothing. I’m a bit of a poker fan myself. And, I mean, it IS what’s going to decide whether I get beaten up in a few minutes, so I think I’m entitled to know how the game’s going.” He looks at the chips. ”Hmm. Looks pretty good for you. He’s going to need to play his hardest all three rounds to defeat you.”

He looks at Maud, whose eyes flicker to his. Then ｢Opposite of Thieves｣ pulls him back and away from the table, making him yelp. The guards all turn to him, and then crowd in with sudden speed, which only makes him panic more.

Giorno speaks up. ”What’s happening?”

They go quiet, and for a moment nopony speaks.

”My sister is keeping him from interfering. He isn’t hurt.” Maud says.

”I feel like there are bugs crawling all over me! What kind of a freakshow power is this?!”

You stop pulling him, and resist the urge to attack. Your sister needs you.

When you turn back, the Two is a Queen. If she puts that against another Queen, and neither of them have other cards, you’re pretty sure it would be a draw! And she already has another in her hand, if she just moved them so they’d be dealt separately...

“Let him back over. He does have a right to spectate, so long as he doesn’t touch anything, or make comments that would give anyone an unfair advantage. If he does, I’ll have him restrained.”

Maud sees the Queen.

“But why is he so interested in seeing her cards? We don’t know what his intentions are.” You ask as your power skitters away from him.

”If you think he’s some kind of spy, you should remember that I don’t need to play these games. I have no reason to try to win unfairly. When it comes to seeing her cards...” 

The Queen goes, revealing a Four. Maud’s hand shrinks anyway, she’s removing cards from the back!

”...I notice your voice is a lot closer to the ground than it was before. What is it you’re looking at, Miss Pie?” Giorno asks. He sounds like your Pa when he says that. Pa the colt.

Four to Jack, Jack to King. King?!

You stutter an answer, trying not to think of that card. “W-well, I’m just very worried about my sister...”

He doesn’t react. If he draws that King, he can trump a Queen easily. And if Maud draws it, unless there’s a second one, she won’t be able to make a draw! The only way would be to have in her hand and then put it back on the deck...

”You have a right to be. Family is deeply important. But so is individual life, and Mr. Pants has a right to be aware of his own future.” Speaking of Mr. Pants, he comes back to the table. 

”Th… thank you, Mr. Rossa.”

”Of course. Now, what was it you were concerned about? The ‘way she held her hand’?”

”Yeah. I’d like to know why she holds it down and away from everypony, including herself. And why she checks it so many times.”

Maud answers him, no longer looking at her cards. ”It’s a tic. I don’t usually do it, but since the enemy can’t see me, I thought it would calm my nerves.” Her hoof moves over the one on the bottom, and the King disappears into the deck. Then a Two. She switches it into the back.

You resist the urge to eep at these decisions. Is she just doing it at random, now? No, she has some kind of deliberate plan, she must. 

An Ace of Spades below it, and her hoof makes the same idle rubbing motion. She’s... reading the Graille bumps?

Mr. Pants’ eyes narrow, like he thinks somepony’s playing a joke on him. ”Then why not just spread them all out so you can see them all at once?”

”I don’t want to give my enemy any chance of receiving an unfair advantage. That would mean he’d have to forfeit.” 

You know she can’t really read them, but you remember from playing before that they were pretty simple. A pair of bumps for Two, a trio for Three and so on. But an Ace? That’s a complicated set of bumps that could be a King or a Jack or anything else. 

And she already put one of those on top of the deck, which means she can’t know if they’ll match. If she gets rid of it in this hand, it might still be higher than his largest card, and that would cut the game short. That’s the sort of thought going through your sister’s mind right now.

Mr. Pants rolls his eyes. ”Fine, why don’t you just show them to me, then?”

She looks him in the eye. ”Because i don’t like you.”

He doesn’t react to that, his mouth open to rebut her but nothing coming out. After a moment standing there like a codfish, he speaks to Giorno. ”Her Stand power is moving very quickly, right?”

Giorno nods, his cards now set on the table. 

”Then how are you sure she’s not switching out any of her cards from the deck?”

Oh, no. How many cards does she have left? She must have picked up ten if she wanted to see how the game would go, but she can’t have put that many back. 

You don’t remember. It wasn’t nine either, was it? No, it was less than nine, she has at least two left to put back. And she still has to change her original cards if she wants to lose this round.

Your mind starts moving in spirals! You’re getting carried away completely! Pa wants to tell you something, but you don’t know what it could be.

Maud answers him. ”My Stand is still next to his.”

Giorno nods again. ”I can still feel its aura. It hasn’t moved.”

Mr. Pants’ right eye twitches. ”But that’s just her Stand! I saw her move in the blink of an eye myself!” He gestures to the dealer, pointlessly. ”Why don’t you have him put a hoof on the deck, just to make sure? That would be fair for everypony.”

Giorno considers that. ”Alright.”

The dealer does. You expect the cards to fly out of Maud’s hand, but they don’t. She still doesn’t know what to do with the Ace! Besides which, she doesn’t have enough time to make the switch for the remaining cards. She can’t do that all at once.

”And after this round, why don’t you shuffle the deck, just to make sure she hasn’t affected the cards on top?” Mr. Pants suggests, and you stare at him in horror. Thankfully you catch yourself, and your hair conceals it.

What is it, Pa…? You’ve done your best to protect them, haven’t you?

You want to erase that last request from history, but you can’t. With those words, he’s just thrown you into the currents of random luck!

Giorno finally smiles and shakes his head. ”There’s no need for that. Whatever order the cards are in is the order fate’s put them in, and going against that is pointless. If Miss Pie did rearrange them somehow, it should come to light on its own.”

Your shoulders sag with badly-hidden relief. 

But this demonic interference doesn’t stop there. ”Then why hasn’t she just played her cards yet?” 

He really likes waving his hoof at ponies, you can tell. So long as Giorno doesn’t listen to him, she still has time... Can you use your Stand to lift the dealer’s hoof a few inches? That seems like it wouldn’t go unnoticed. If you could just distract everypony, including him... A good punch would do the trick, but that wouldn’t give her any time to make her decisions.

And there’s no guarantee that it wouldn’t look incredibly suspicious.

Maud answers. ”Because I’m raising.” She pushes another chip forward with her free hoof.

Giorno still hasn’t picked his cards back up. ”Why? I don’t have anything to call your bet with.”

Maud blinks.”If I win this bet, I want him restrained. He’s annoying me.”

Mr. Pants sputters, but Giorno turns thoughtful. ”Agreed. Now:” He turns over his hand. King of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds, Eight of Spades, Ace of Hearts, Three of Diamonds.

After a moment, Maud turns hers over. Seven of Clubs, Ten of Hearts, Two of Hearts, Three of Clubs, Nine of Clubs.

You realize that the discard pile has grown, ever so slightly. If you weren’t sitting down like this, you’d never have seen it.

The dealer speaks. ”King wins.” Maud hoofs over the chips.

Now they’re even. But her energy’s lost now. With this new rule in place, trying to draw is a bad idea.

You hope she can see that now, and that she’s just going to go for a normal win. Just keep the King and let it happen, Maud...

Both sides receive their cards. Maud’s movements aren’t any different than the last two rounds, and Mr. Pants steps over to look at her cards. Four, Four, King, Three, Queen. She sets them down like usual, only affording him a glimpse.

He grumbles, but stays where he is. Giorno takes a little more time.

Since she knew how the cards would be dealt, that only leaves room for a couple random cards, right? Two, maybe, or three. Only one in this hand, definitely, because you recognize the others. 

She might still be able to switch out from the discard pile if he’s not looking, but she has the King. And besides, a pair is also a good thing, isn’t it? You think that should beat out the Queen without a problem.

Both sides push in a single chip to start, and the dealer makes the same announcment. ”Raise, call or fold.” 

And then, immediately, Giorno pushes all of his chips in. ”Raise.” It’s a pointless gesture, but Maud can’t fold.

She pushes all of hers up to match him, and from a position of safety, she meets his eyes. ”Raised.”

”Then, before the game ends, I’d like to raise a little further.”

”Go on.”

”I’m raising my agreement to restrain Quibble Pants. In exchange, I’d like your agreement to be put to sleep if you lose this round.”

You don’t understand. Maud doesn’t answer, so you do it for her. “You mean, knock her out…?”

”No. One of my guards will just cast a temporary spell to keep her asleep for the duration of the third round. Her Stand makes her difficult to keep track of in a situation like this, and it would be very time-consuming for my organization if she escaped somehow.”

He’s dooming her to her fate. The chips don’t mean anything, but that raise...

”Okay. You have my word.”

”Then I’ll have one of my guards ready to cast as soon as the outcome’s declared.” Giorno motions to one side of the room and a unicorn steps forward. His horn glows a soft blue and points at her. With no apparent strain, he holds his position.

And that’s it. No big decisions to make, no last-second changes. You realize how terrifyingly restrictive normal poker is. Since neither of them can fold, the psychology is missing, too. It’s just a matter of the road she paved.

She plays her hand. Four of Clubs, Four of Spades, Queen of Hearts, Three of Spades, King of Clubs.

The dealer speaks. ”Pair of Fours.” Giorno opens his hand.

Queen of Diamonds, Jack of Clubs, Two of Spades…

...Queen of Clubs, Five of Spades.

”Pair of Queens.” The words come in slow motion as you turn to Maud. You don't even have time to complete the turn before she’s illuminated for a brief instant by white light. 

She topples out of the chair faster than you can stand up, but you fall forward and catch her, her mane covering your eyes. She’s limp, but after a few seconds you can feel her breathing against you chest.

“Maudie…” You shut your eyes. Tears leak out anyway, and then you hear the grinding. ｢Pinball Wizard｣, floating alone, changes the readout.

It takes a minute to cycle through the numbers, down to ”1|DA|YS”. That tears it, and you just cry. You lower your head, and hold your sister, and you cry. 

｢Opposite of Thieves｣ might wake her back up, but then things could get nasty. There’s still a round left to play. But with a maximum of seven days, that means the best case scenario only leaves you with one more day than you came in with. Yearling will still have a head start, and if you lose something like that… You’re completely doomed.

As you choke to yourself, you feel somepony behind you. Limestone’s there, looking down at the two of you. Her eyes are wide with concern, and then she looks up at ｢Pinball Wizard｣. The sight haunts her.

Making a move to her seat, she sits down shakily.

”Miss Pie. Which game would you like to play?”

”Dice.” It hardly sounds like her voice. She looks disturbed; her eyes are just as focused as his, right now. ｢Down With the Sickness｣ did keep her from getting drunk, didn’t it?

”What sort of dice game?”

”B-best of three. We each roll our own pair and try for the highest number.”

”Hm. I’ll agree to it as long as we switch dice each round.”

Lime hesitates before she responds. ”O-okay.”

”And how many days are you betting?”

”T… t-t…” She shivers and looks over at you. 

Seven. You stare back at her, unable to speak. She has to bet seven, or the three of you are completely doomed! 

But you can see it from here.  Deep inside, she can’t do it. She slumps her head, and out comes the word.

”Two.”

Giorno frowns, slightly. ”Are you sure you don’t want a higher bet, Miss Pie? This is the last game.”

She looks up at him, opens her mouth. You’re frozen, helpless, like in some kind of nightmare. 

And then she shakes her head. ”Two.”

You’ve never seen her like this, but you realize what caused it. You and Maud. The two of you, helpless like this, routes of escape cut off completely. If she wins, at least you can hope for a miracle. You can try to find a way to catch up to Yearling.

...Something comes to you. The seed of an idea, looking just past Limestone. You’re suddenly, emptily content she bet two days.

The dice get distributed, two per player with six sides each. Limestone doesn’t look at you as she wades into the mire of your failures. She seems as distant as a ghost.


ROUND THREE: DICE


”We’ll roll at the same time.” Giorno says, picking his dice up. The table’s been cleared of cards.

Limestone picks hers up, and they roll.  The dice clatter on the table, and then they stop. It all goes by quickly, uniformly, and without any tricky strategy.  

Giorno gets a two and a three. Limestone gets a two and a one. The dealer’s still there, and he announces the winner. You hardly hear it.

You don’t understand. Didn’t she have a plan? Or is she trying to throw the game now? Just leaving it in the hooves of fate?Fate isn’t on her side. But if she even had some plan to cheat, what could it be? 

The dice move across the table now, as each side slides theirs to the other. Limestone talks to herself under her breath as she picks them up, examining them. ”Okay, okay…”

If Giorno wins this round, it’ll be a one-minute war. Lime rubs her hooves together, pressed close. She holds the dice to her forehead and shuts her eyes tight. She never planned for the future well; you think she expected to come in after a big victory and rub it in. Or for Maud to bet just a little less. But whatever she pictured in her head, you can tell in her eyes that she’s hopeful.

You try to bolster that hope, watching her hooves resolutely. You could have won by thinking further ahead, and Maud could have won by seizing victory as soon as it appeared. Both of you were stymied by outside interference: Giorno’s rules, a third-party observer. Here, you just need the luck of the dice to win!

Move forward, without these thorns in your way! Limestone!

She shakes them, vigorously. Then lets them fall, eyes still closed. Giorno lets his go with less enthusiasm. They hit the table just after hers, under the watchful eye of the dealer, but hers stop first.

Five and six. Almost perfect!

She opens her eyes, looks down at them, and sighs in total relief. Then Giorno’s stop. You don’t want to look, but your eyes react too fast to stop them: four and two.

The dealer speaks. ”A total of six against a total of eleven. Miss Pie is the winner.” 

Yes! This is the kind of luck you need to get out of this place and back on the trail. If she can manage one more roll like that, just one more in her whole life... 

She picks them up and blows on them affectionately before she hoofs them over. Giorno takes them, slowly, and gives her his own. She picks them up immediately, looks at them closely, and exhales. Then she presses them to her head again, in a perfect imitation of the last turn.

That strikes you as odd. Is she being superstitious? As long as she wins, it doesn’t matter. 

Giorno feels his own, hefting them a little. After a few more breaths, Lime opens her eyes.

”Okay! I’ll show you the power of destiny! Roll!”

Giorno lets his out, and they fall to the table. A couple plunking falls, and they come up-- six and five. 

Even though they’re standing still, you can feel the guards closing in on you. But against reason, the feeling of victory in your chest doesn't disappear. There’s still one, stupidly small chance left, and this is her chance to seize it.

Lime’s already let go of her dice, watching them roll with perfectly a neutral expression. Ones and fours pass by, all the different combinations playing out in passing. 

One stops, a six. You sit up straighter and don’t breathe. The other one makes its final wobbling motion and halts.

Six.

The dealer’s voice comes with a sense of mild surprise. ”Eleven against twelve. Miss Pie wins out of three.”

Limestone closes her eyes. At least she could make it through. That makes things a little smoother, to finally have a victory. The sound of the readout changing comes.

All eyes turn to ｢Pinball Wizard｣. Well, yours and Limestone’s.

The number retreats up into the skull, replaced by a “0”. Ah, so it counts the readout in a wheel from 0 to 9. That’s an odd touch, for a Stand. But then the next number is... 

”-1|DA|YS”

Th-there must be some mistake. Is this a nightmare?

Limestone looks as alive as ever. ”What are you trying to pull?! Everypony saw me win!”

Giorno’s Stand returns to him from over the table, and he’s quiet for a moment. ”You were caught cheating, and it was counted as a forfeit.” Ch-cheating?

”Cheating?! How’d I pull that off, huh? Why didn’t you say something during the game, if you thought I was cheating?”

Giorno doesn’t raise his volume to match hers. ”I didn’t think you were cheating. My Stand can automatically detect when a pony receives an unfair advantage in one of its wagers, and counts it as a forfeit. Whether anypony else notices is irrelevant.”

Then... Maud could never have won, even if she got to a draw.

The thought hits you like a boulder. You were the only pony who could have won any days at all in this battle.

”Marble Victoria Pie, you be sure you take care of your sisters. Don’t let them think they know best because they’re eldest.” He coughs. ”And keep yourself out of trouble. You hear me?”

Pa...

Limestone shouts. ”And your Stand can’t just be wrong about something?! Do you have any actual proof that I was cheating, or do you just hate paying up when you lose?!”

Giorno thinks. ”I did notice an odd weight to the dice you were using. And that they were slightly warm to the touch. I thought it might have been sweat from being gripped tightly, but now it seems more likely that they were cooked.”

’Cooked’?

Mr. Pants takes this opportunity to have a eureka moment. ”Her ability lets her store things in her body and use them later without hurting herself! That’s what all of the drinking was for, and the smoking! She kept them together and used the fire to melt the dice!”

Limestone looks murderous. The guards really are closing in now. 

Giorno keeps the train of thought rolling.  ”I included the switching-dice rule to ensure that no trick dice could be used. Heating the dice didn’t seem likely to me, but you’d only have started in the second round. The first was a throwaway, while in the second you received the second-best roll possible, and the third ended with a perfect roll. It would’ve thrown off suspicion easily. However...” He feels for the dice. 

Limestone tries to grab them first, but the dealer holds her hoof against the table. She shoves him away with a flexing of her fetlock, but two more are already holding her from behind. ”H-Hey! Let go of me!”

He rolls the dice without shaking them, just plopping them onto the table one at a time. They roll for almost no time at all before they stop. Six. Five. Six. Six.

The dealer informs him of the result, neutral again.

”Eleven and twelve.”

He rolls them again, and again the words, ”Eleven and twelve.”

The colt’s smile is rueful. ”You might have won if you’d fought me honorably. I don’t have much skill with dice. Your final total is one day after the collapse of your home, and I’m afraid you won’t be able to see it again. If you’d like to have a last moment as a family, I’ll oblige you once you arrive.”

Limestone shouts, struggling. ”Now hold on a minute!”

｢Pinball Wizard｣ appears in front of him, glowing. The energy coming off of the Stand almost floors you. 

Lime’s hooves glow orange and sizzle, and the stallions holding her let go. ”Run, Marble! Take Maud and get out!”

You shout back against the rising sound of crackling static. “No!”

This doesn’t seem like an ability you could escape from, or they’d have picked a more confined place to play. And besides, the path to victory is already laid out ahead of you! His own words put in the final stepping-stone you were looking for!

You take a deep breath and shut your eyes.

Lime’s screaming something as she runs to you, but Giorno’s voice cuts over hers. ”｢Pinball Wi-”

“SOMEPONY HASN’T PLAYED YET!” It’s the loudest you’ve ever shouted. The words crash through his, and he goes quiet.

One heartbeat, two, three, four, five, six... The crackling stops. You open your eyes and the Stand’s withdrawn. 

”What did you say?” he asks.

“Somepony hasn’t played yet! You can’t use your Stand on us if you haven’t played all of us! You have to play him!” You point your hoof.

Mr. Pants points a hoof at himself. ”Me?! I never agreed to play anything!”

You don’t bother looking at him, still explaining yourself as rapidly as you can. “He’s a part of the group you want to send away and you told us each member would have to play, so even if he doesn’t want to he still represents us. And since he won’t play anything on his own and my sisters both cheated, I’ll pick the game he plays and the wager because you know I play fair.”

Giorno goes quiet. 

Mr. Pants comes closer to you, voice catching with some halfhearted faked laughter. ”Now hold on, I’m not about to-” 

Limestone breathes fire at him. He yelps and dodges backwards as the carpet catches fire, and she approaches him crooking a hoof, shaking it and absorbing the flames into her legs as she goes.

”Shut up," she says, and he does. 

You keep talking as if Giorno’s already accepted. “The game he’s going to play is the same one A.K. Yearling played with you, Marescow Roulette. That way it’s fast and fair, and there’s nothing complicated that would give him a chance to cheat on purpose, or throw the match. And he’s going to bet the maximum, seven days.”

That’s all you have. Please, please go through. If you can just start the game, you can salvage this. Images of the farm withering away fill your mind. All the rocks crumbling into dirt, grass and trees and brushes clambering onto the land...

Ma, wondering where her three daughter ran away to. Pinkie getting the news too late to help.

You can’t accept that! You have to have this one, final shot! It was only through everything your sisters did that this last door could open up for you!

At last, Giorno speaks, softly. ”You have the same heart as my mother, too. Your emotions run hot, even when you try to keep them quiet. You could learn to be a great gambler, in time. Tonight, signora...” 

He removes the glasses, looking at you with his glossy eyes. You meet them. To the side of both of you, a Stand hefts a pistol.

”I’ll accept your final game.”


ROUND FOUR: MARESCOW ROULETTE


Quibble Pants


Oh Celestia, Celestia, Celestia. This isn’t your day at all, is it?

You're a would-be helper of Daring Do, and a former casino worker in the Spinning Wheel, until she called in a favor. (An incredibly generic name, of course, but you weren’t consulted.) It had taken another favor from your Uncle Fancy to land you that job, too, ever since your (temporary!) suspension from the Debating Society of Equestria.

Whatever people say, arguing isn’t easy. Arguing positions for money requires a great amount of natural talent. (And a very delicate, subtle sense of ethics.) You’d hoped the next few months would pass quietly and give the others a chance to catch up. It was no fun debating half of the trainees, after a while. None of them seemed to understand what made an argument true or false was its quality. If it didn’t convince ponies, sometimes those ponies were just stupid.

(Not that you’d ever try to explain that to them, they’d just mock you more.)

You’re distracting yourself from the feel of this chair and the gun floating in midair. Think of it like a trip to the doctor’s office. You could just close your eyes for the whole thing if you wanted. From what you heard earlier, it’s not as if it matters if you play; Daring went back four days earlier than today. At their rate, even if you won this for them, they’d still be shifted forwards. Which at least meant you’d stay in the custody of this gang until the Society cooled off. (Not a thrilling prospect, but skipping a few days ahead in the wait would be nice.) 

You still have no idea how Daring knew how to contact you. She just showed up outside of your rathole apartment and hoofed you money. Her instructions were hard to follow and overcomplicated, too; you spent six hours racing between casinos looking for three gray mares trying to make a scene. And when, by the sunlight, you finally found them…!

Your head still smarts from that particular encounter. The violent mare who did it to you is standing over the table, in the spot you’d taken. She played Go Fish not twenty minutes ago, but now she’s worked her way up the gambling ladder. (No doubt because she wants to see you squirm some more.)

Most ponies find Marescow Roulette to be in bad taste. The ones who don’t think it’s too short or too expensive. You’ve never curated a game of it in your time at the Wheel, but the rules are self-explanatory: pull the trigger as many times as you like, and if it’s six you’re an idiot. 

The chamber spins as it hangs in midair. Marble Pie watches it intently through her mop of hair. Then it finally settles, and floats over to you. You take it gingerly, and the force holding it disappears. 

Another reason ponies don’t play this game is that it’s predictable. The projectile is always heavier than air, so its chamber falls to the bottom of the cylinder. Which means it’s almost never the first and almost never the last. 

Knowing this doesn’t make it much easier to shoot yourself in the head. But if you just fired it into the air, there would be no quote-unquote “excitement”, you guess.

As you press it below your ear, you realize you could throw the match if you wanted. Just keep pulling it until you lose, and then your fate’s sealed. The mob boss would never even get a turn.

So do it! Hurry up and pull the trigger!

(There’s not accidentally a real bullet in here, is there?)

...It’s like knowing something scary’s about to happen. Or watching your toaster until it pops. It’s bad for your heart, that’s what it is. You try to ignore that and pull the trigger.

It doesn’t move. (Of course, they wouldn’t want any touch to make it fire.) You apply more pressure, forcing it backwards. After an agonizing moment, it’s finally back all of the way.

It clicks. Before you can register what’s happened, you take ahold of your bravery. You pull it again.

Click. 

Marble’s eyes go wide. You expect your body to start crawling with centipedes again, but it doesn’t - for this one golden moment, she can’t interfere.

Again. Click. Aga-

Giorno’s ability plucks the gun out of your hoof. ”That’s enough, Mr. Pants. I agreed to a fair match. We must each have a turn.”

You don’t answer, just staring at the gun as it floats away. You were close to getting used to it. Now you might have won yourself a bonus week with these goon bodyguards.

The only good news is that once he hoofs it back to you, you’re sure to lose. As long as he gets one shot in and it doesn’t work, he’ll probably give it back anyway. 

Marble’s focused on the gun, but the sister who isn’t unconscious is glaring at you. (Both of these mares need to go back to the circus and stop threatening you by standing so close!) 

Giorno lets the gun move on its own, not bothering to hold it with his hooves. When you see how big it is against his head, you remember he’s young and not just short. He’s not wearing the sunglasses any more, which makes it hard to ignore his eyes, but his expression is just as neutral and calm as ever. 

He’s a pony who knows he can’t lose - no matter what happens, he’ll get what he wants. He pulls the trigger without hesitating. There’s no sound.

He clearly pulled it, but it doesn’t fire. And there’s no click either. He frowns, and then motions for one of the suits. 

The tankish stallion examines the chamber for him. ”It’s stuck halfway between the third and fourth chamber. There’s a jam.” 

The frown deepens. ”Open it and tell me which chamber the round is in.”

He does, with some effort, and then counts. ”...The fifth.”

Giorno sits, deep in thought.

Marble pipes up. ”You’re not sure if you’d have fired it once or twice, are you? If it was only once, you’d have won. If it was twice, you’d have lost. And now that you know where the bullet is, you can’t know what you would’ve done for certain.”

You snap at that. “Nopony would fire it twice with three chambers left!”

She glares at you. ”They might to be fair against a pony who wants to lose on purpose!”

Something about her outrage doesn’t sit right with you. When she was truly angry at you, she attacked physically. Now she’s just glaring at you? Maybe it’s the bodyguards everywhere, but you doubt it.

Giorno answers her. ”You’re right, signora. I’m not sure whether I’d have pulled it or not. I’m afraid knowing that has given me an advantage on declaring the winner that I shouldn’t have had...”

”Then call it a draw, and start with a fresh gun! You can go first this time. Just don’t declare our fate based on some malfunction!” 

Giorno nods at her incensed, emotional tones. ”Yes, alright. My Stand would count this as a draw anyway, I think.”

There’s already a second gun on the table, and it gets loaded with a round just like before. You watch the chambers spin, and realize something.

“I should go first! She’s going to use her Stand to make sure the round’s in the first chamber!”

Now she doesn’t respond to you.

Giorno chuckles at that. ”If she wins by cheating, then she’s going to lose the bet anyway. It makes no difference.” And with that, he pulls the trigger. Click.

A pause, and then he pulls it again. Click.

Then his Stand delivers the weapon to you. ...You guess you were wrong. Or maybe she undid the trick as soon as you saw it coming. It would’ve been a very Daring Do move.

Either way, you already know what you’re going to do. He’s had his turn, so he can’t complain if you unload all the rest of the chambers. You’re just going to pull the trigger as fast as possible until you lose.

The two sisters stare at you, and you lock eyes with each of them in turn. Then, with relish, you smile. Sayonara, Pies.

First pull-

PHWOOM! Your heart stops as the burst of magical dust almost knocks you out of your seat. You wait to be dead, your entire body tense. Then, you realize that you just lost the game, and you start laughing.

Marble’s face is still and calm, accepting her fate, but her sister shakes, her scowl breaking as her eyes water. You don’t usually like to see mares cry, but you’ll make an exception here.

Marble stares into the air mutely. After a moment, her sister turns, either gasping or sobbing at the sight of it: the final tally. Their eyes follow the Stand you can’t see back to Giorno.

The boss’s face goes from sympathetic to confused, then finally settles on shock. ”...How?”

Lime whispers something under her breath, cheeks streaked with tears.

Giorno searches the room, breathless. ”Answer me! How did you get to twelve days?”


Marble


It worked. It’s over now, except for the explanation.

You let out a breath, and then stand up straighter. “Mr. Pants was right, I was using my Stand to rig the game. I made sure that the gun jammed on your turn, so you would have to restart. It was the only way to force a draw.” You hadn’t expected him to start shooting over and over, but luckily the bullet wound up pretty far back. If it had been in the first three...

It doesn’t matter any more. His actions helped sell this as unintentional, anyway.

Mr. Pants doesn’t get it. ”But why? Why would you just want to waste everypony’s time like that?”

“Because you’re playing on my behalf. And before you walked over here, there was an agreement made with my sisters that a draw would mean double or nothing. I agreed to it too, because I thought the request was for me. And then, if a verbal agreement wasn’t enough, I used my Stand to rearrange the signature on that piece of paper while the gun was being loaded.”

One of the guards rushes over to the paper. Sure enough, they discover it says “Marble” now. It’s a little scratchy, but still legible. You actually had to use your Stand to make the ink wet again and then have each dot rolled into place. The extra penstrokes are piled up off of the line in a large blot. 

Not as theatrical as breathing fire, but you’ve realized your Stand has some uses you weren’t thinking about up to now.

Giorno sounds frustrated. ”You still lost. If you rigged the game, you lost twice over! Your total should be fifteen days after your farm collapses!”

You smile, and point a hoof. “I escaped that fate through the power of your honor!” Your hair parts from your eye for a second, and you imagine both of them flash. “When you played a second round, I made sure the bullet would end up in the first chamber. Then, each time you were about to fire, I moved the chamber back one, so it would always fire empty for you.”

Mr. Pants scoffs. ”Why not just let him shoot himself in the head?!”

“Because that would be cheating. I placed the bullet’s chamber there, and changed the odds of him winning. I would’ve lost all of my points.” 

He rolls his eyes. ”But you cheated anyway!”

It suddenly strikes Giorno. He mutters it. ”Only on my turns… to give me an unfair advantage.”

You nod, sharply. “Right. I purposely made sure that each time I used my Stand, it would bring you closer to winning.”

Mr. Pants starts to ask something. ”But why would that-”

“Limestone had to fight you and lose to get the information, but her sacrifice wasn’t for nothing. As soon as you thought the games were over, you told everypony that your Stand can sense unfair advantages and register them without making any moves during the game! It was why you were so nonchalant about checking for cheating, you thought it wouldn’t matter! But when we lost our final round because you received an unfair advantage, your Stand automatically counted your win as a forfeit. Mr. Pants won by default!”

With that, you go quiet, your face feeling flushed from talking so much. There’s a rush in your head like nothing else!

Your Stand reaches out, pulling Limestone and Maud over to you. The latter’s still asleep, for another minute or two. You’ll have to explain it to her when she wakes up; you’re worried she’ll attack somepony as soon as she opens her eyes. 

Giorno sits in silence for a moment.

You expect him to laugh, or get angrier, but he doesn’t react at all. 

When he finally looks up at you, you think there’s something foalish in those glassy eyes. ”You will bring it back to me, won’t you?”

You respond without hesitation. “I will.”

Limestone’s pulled herself together, her despair forgotten. She rubs her eyes with a fetlock and answers him herself. ”We’ll get it back and bring it to you, no matter what.”

He nods, and then feels around the table for something absentmindedly. 

｢Opposite of Thieves｣ lifts the sunglasses and rests them in front of his eyes. He feels them with a hoof, and then smiles slightly.

As his Stand materializes, the next word comes with that same accent. ”Arrivederci.”

The air fills with crackling electricity again. Your ears pop, and Mr. Pants evidently understands what’s about to happen.

”No, no, hold on, I didn’t really play that round, it doesn’t count. Y-you should have a rema-”

”｢Pinball Wizard｣.” 

In a flash of light, the room shifts around you. The casino fills with ponies, noise and flashing lights. You arrive in an ocean of decadence, and suddenly feel very tired.

Your Stand clumps onto Mr. Pants so he can’t run away from you. 

Waking Maud up takes a minute, but once you get somewhere quiet and explain the situation, she pulls you into a crushing hug. Limestone joins it, and for a moment you revel in the idea that you’ll never have to go through that again. At least, not with cards and dice.

The sun’s not quite up yet outside. This is an early start, but you don’t have time to sleep.

You need to take advantage of your head-start.


Daring Do


The first sleepy, dew-wetted streets open themselves up as you trot forward. Your wing’s finally healed all the way, which has made things easier for you, but you're walking for now.

Vanhoover is a large city, but not a very metropolitan one. It's more focused on families and farmland, and all that jazz. But it’s the quickest way north, and the fastest path away from where you were. 

The gangster squirt’s going to do what he promised, it’s how he got to the top. You’ve been in the room when he decided ponies should die. Not pretty. But hey, maybe in a couple weeks you’ll learn that the Pie Family has moved to a place like this. You might do a book signing and come by, just to make sure things turned out alright. Only once Quibble gets back to you, of course... 

You push these happy thoughts out of your head. You’re carriyng enough raw magical power to register to anyone who’s looking. You need to retrieve the two arrows and get out of here before something nasty happens. Now, which way to-

A hoof pounds into your face from out of nowhere. You stumble and fall backwards, moving with the hit - but you’re jerked in mid-fall, forced to turn to the side as something wrestles your saddlebags from you.

They float up and away, covered in...

That’s not possible.

You hit the ground on your back, body tensing and ready to roll. But you look up into the eyes of three mares, each utterly unpitying, and swear.

They’ve caught you.

10 Days to the Collapse of the Pie Family Rock Farm



Stand: ｢Soldier of Fortune｣
User: Dr. Caballeron
Ability: Takes the form of a rocket launcher. A rocket fired from it will follow its target up to 900 meters away from the user. Rockets fired by this Stand will only detonate when they touch their target; anything else they touch will be absorbed into their internal compartment. An impact from a rocket alone is not fatal, though it may be concussive.

Stand: ｢Pinball Wizard｣
User: Giorno Rossa
Ability: Determines how much time is left until an event might happen, and monitors changes in those times. Additionally, can push a target, or a group of targets, forward or backward in time in relation to one event, based on the outcome of a wager with the user. This effect only works once per target. Anyone who receives an unfair advantage in a wager will be counted as a loser when it ends.