Chapter 6.

Weeks pass, soon becoming months as you follow the slow process of claiming for insurance money. The contacts you had mentioned to Berry had so far yielded very little, a brewery in Shetland having sent a few barrels due to arrive in a couple of weeks, and beer from your parents' brewery due to arrive when the bar was suitable for re-opening.

You were surprised to hear that the restaurant bar on the other side of town, run by a Mecklenburgher couple, had been looking for a pianist and singer to help with their evening service after the last stallion had been discovered emptying the tills when left alone. Tonight was the night for a performance you had agreed to give, and you had arrived with barely minutes to spare after going with Berry to drop off Ruby for a sleepover at Ditzy and Dinky's home.

Stood backstage, the lights begin to dim and you watch the slightly eccentric waitress take to the stage and clear her throat.

“WELCOME EVERYPONY TO THE GILDED LILLY!” she cries, “THE GILDED LILLY IS A PLACE ALL ABOUT FUN AND DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR A CHANGE!”

You watch as the owner takes the stage and stands next to his employee. “When my wonderful wife and I move to Ponyville, all we want is to make people happy. Food and drink okay, but sometime you need laugh!”

His wife gets on the stage. “Recently, a pony by the name of Paddock came to us. His own bar burned down. He needed beer so he wouldn’t lose his business. We had much beer to spare, so in the end, we gave it to him. He wanted to pay us back, but we turn him down.”

He points to the back of the room “So instead, he play piano now! Until he gets back on hooves, he plays here once a night for special game.”

“That’s right, mate! But, first, I’d love to sing a little ditty for you all, would you like that?”

The crowd began to clap in approval, and you take your seat at the piano. Taking a quick glance, you see Berry sat at the back, watching intently.

“This tune, is a little something I wrote for a very special mare in my life. She’s out there, in amongst you all tonight. Her name is Berry, and well, I love her very dearly. Here’s to you, sweetheart.”

You gently play the opening line to the song, before bursting into a jollier tune;

Ring a ring a rosey, as the light declines
I remember Cloplin City in the rare ould times

My name it is Green Paddock, as Cloplin as can be
Born hard and late in seventy-two, in a house that ceased to be
By trade I was a barman, lost out to fire, you see,
Like my house that fell to the flames, my trade's a memory

And I courted Berry Punch, as pretty as you please
A rogue and child of Celly, from the rebel Liberties
I saved her from a unicorn chap, with skin as blue as sky
When she kissed me for the first time, she taught my soul to fly!

Ring a ring a rosey, as the light declines
I remember now Ponyville, in the new and better times

The loss done made me bitter, the smoke it dimmed me brain
Cause life keeps on changing, and nothing seems the same
But at least I still have my love, of lovely purple mane,
Her smile like a summers day, makes a smile of my frown

There is a few moments of silence as the last of your message filters into the crowd, before they burst into a round of applause. Looking out as you place your flat cap back on your head, you see Berry, weeping unashamedly on the shoulder of another onlooker.

The proprietor takes to the stage once again, congratulating you and suggesting a toast, clutching his wife. The whole establishment join in with the toast, and you feel a little jolt of pride as they drink to your devotion to her, before realising that it’s now time for the game that the owner had mentioned when he first took you on.

“Alright Now!” you start, clapping your hooves together theatrically and stretching, slipping your cap back off and putting it on the piano, “Let’s get this going then!”

You play the first scale of an old drinking song, watching the crowd’s interest peak once more.

“Now it’s time for the audience to get piece of action!” the owner of the Gilded Lily yells, “We are going to make a Cloplin drinking song on the spot! Now, we’re going to need four ponies to come to stage!”

Still sat on the stool behind the piano, you watch as four stallions appear. The first looks similar to the gentlecolt who had introduced you, yet much younger. The other three were earth ponies, and appeared to have come from the same table, leaving an embarrassed looking blue pegasus staring at his friends, mouth open. You recognised two of them as Snapshot and Big Macintosh, regular patrons at your own pub until it had burnt down. The middle one gave a somewhat camp wave to the pegasus, and part of you expected him to blow a kiss.

“The rules are simple,” the colt on stage begins “They sing one right after another and make up song as they go. Song ends when a pony can’t add anything or when I say so. Now we need topic,” he says as he turns to the crowd “Name me something that would happen to you that you want to keep secret.”

“Lobotomy!” somepony cries out.

You look at the owner, who gives the audience an odd look, and shrugs.

“Lobotomy. Let’s hear the lobotomy drinking song. Take it away, Paddock!”

Stretching your hooves in front of you with a satisfying click, you play the first line of an old drinking song.

Big Macintosh clears his throat and begins. “I had a lobotomy,”

“and now I’m not so nuts.” responds the owner’s son,

“They took away half my brain,” Caramel said with a chuckle.

“and now I eat cigarette butts.” Snapshot said, making the whole crowd laugh.

It goes back to Big Mac. “I am not too bright,”

“Now I’m kind of sane.”

“I am really stupid.”

“Hey is that the rain?”

All four of them began to sing together, barely in tune “Oh aye de di de di de di de di de di”

Big Mac remains quiet, so the next pony along fills in for him. “I used to go down on the streets.”

Caramel continues the song “I used to have a scar.”

“Now I ask for money.”

“And I like to chase carts. WOOF WOOF!” Big Mac says with a grin.

“But when I come into your town.”

“I like to shout a lot.”

“I run around scream:”

“Wow, this is hot!”

“Oh aye de di de di de di de di de di"

“Oh I feel so much better.”

“I think I’ll go back home.”

“And after I’m finished,”

“I’ll marry a lawn gnome.”

“Boy that’d be so beautiful,”

“as happy as can be.”

“Cause I don’t care so much, you see,”

“For my lobotomy!"

“Oh aye de di de di de di de di de di”

Caramel lets Snapshot begin this verse. “Oh I really need a job now.”

“I look in the paper.”

“But I can’t find nothin’.”

“I have a scraper.”

“But I’ll keep on looking,”

“I’ll look until I can’t see.”

“If you want someone who’s nuts,”

“Be a host named Paddy!”

“Oh aye de di de di de di de di de di de diiiiiii”

You stop playing and laugh aloud with the crowd, who applauded for all of you. The four stallions take a bow before heading back to their tables.

Walking along with Berry on your way back to her home to drop her off, you notice that she’s oddly silent, as if trying do decide on what to say. Eventually, as you reach a small bridge a short distance from the library, she stops, turning to you,

“You really wrote that for me? And you meant it?”

“Aye.” You respond, gazing at Berry in the moonlight, “I know we’ve not been together long, but I love you, Berry Punch.”

She flings her forelegs around you,

“I love you too! You’ve been so good to me, and Ruby adores you, and... and... and...”

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?”

“I’m going home with you tonight. I’m not going to take no for an answer, Paddock. I want you. Let me have you whilst I don’t have anything else to worry about, whilst Ruby is away and I can be as loud as I want.” she says, bringing one hoof up to your chest, stroking you, her eyes fixed on yours.

You gulp, “Well... if you’re not taking no for an answer, then I guess we should head back to yours.”

Berry pushes you through the door, her forelegs wrapped around your neck, the same way she had done many times before, but tonight, the two of you were to consummate your love completely. Once inside she practically drags you, her eyes closed as she continues kissing you deeply, to her room. Seizing the upper hoof, you levitate her gently onto the bed, laying her down with her back lined up with the edge of the bed. She turns back, her eyes half-mast,

“What do you have planned, my sexy Cloplin rogue?”

“It’s a surprise,” you reply, leaning over and kissing her, savouring her flavour. Berry flicks her tail, it brushes against the barrel on your flank, a wonderful teasing sensation flowing from your rump. You smile, and turn her head to face away, as you gently nibble the tips of her ears,

“Oh my goodness, Paddock, how did you know?” Berry gasps, arching her back, the back of her neck pressing against you. You shush her quiet, before kissing your way down her spine, finishing with a gentle nip at the base of her tail, the mare groaning with appreciation of every kiss. She rolls herself onto her back, pulling you up with her using a surprising show of strength for a usually docile mare. Smiling, with you on top of her, she then grips your hat in her teeth and slings it onto her dressing table, knocking over a few bottles of perfume.

Your eyes locked with hers, you lean down and kiss her, your magic easing the door shut with a gentle click...

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