Chapter 16:

Now:

The prospect of opening trade with the rich occupants of Tenpony Tower was a great draw for the council and after a few more hurried discussions between themselves and then a few transmissions to some of the higher ups at Tenpony Tower we were on our way. We now found ourselves escorting an armoured cargo wagon through the sky, which was transporting a ton of food and supplies, that's not an exaggeration either, that is actually the weight of the stuff they were hauling. They had decided to send on more food as well as some building supplies and medicines. We were escorting the ship with another armed sky wagon, our team in our ship, minus Crackshot but plus Candy, another team on the other wagon, they'd fly back with the transport wagon once the food was off loaded while we continued on with our work. Tenpony had offered us free use of the hotel so long as we didn't make a mess or cause them any undo problems with the Enclave.

We arrived and the crew started unloading the massive crates of food and supplies quickly while a guard met us and escorted us into the tower. "I'm going to have to ask you to surrender any bullets, energy cell clips and explosives." He said, stopping at a guard station. "Of course." Brutus said. We pulled out our weapons, sliding out the ammo clips, snapping bullets from chambers and pulling grenades from packs.

"You'll get it all back when you leave." He said, putting it all in a box and locking it up. "We can offer you rubber bullets for protection if you need." Odd that no one remembered to mention that my guns were also energy weapons and ammo clips or not they were deadly.

"We're four unicorns, a changeling and a zebra, I think we can fend for ourselves."

"Don't forget Candy." Lily smirked.

"Oh you're right, she better take a couple clips." Brutus nodded, laughing to himself.

"You're hilarious." The guard rolled his eyes.

"Can you point us to Homage?" I asked.

"Yo." The grey unicorn walked up to us before the guard could answer.

"Yo? Aren't you just too cool." Lily laughed.

"What can I say? Too cool for school."

"It's nice to finally meet you face to face Homage." I said.

"And you Doctor Cane, and this little sweetie must be Candy?" She asked, looking at the foal asleep in the sling under my neck.

"That she is." I nodded.

"Well why don't you come this way and we'll get you settled in some nice quarters while the higher ups do all their meetings and working out details?"

"Sounds like a plan."

/////////////

She lead us to the 'hotel' which was really just one of the floors of the tower, re-purposed and re-sectioned into more hotel appropriate design. A bellhop met us at the desk and took us back. "This will be your room Doctor Sugarcane." He said, stopping in front of one of the doors and handing me a key for the door. "This one is yours Mister Brute Force." He gestured to the other one across from it. "Yours is this way Ms. Lilith." He started up the hall again.

"Oh no, I can just share a room with Brutus." She said, laughing softly.

"Oh, of course, as you wish." He nodded. "We allocated rooms for each of you, except the foal of course..." This made Brutus smirk, "but if you're all going to share that is fine as well, I'm sure the manager will be glad know you'll only be needing two rooms."

"Four still." I said, gesturing to CB and Xem.

"Well, we can just share too." CB said, pausing and blushing, her mouth going faster than her brain could regulate.

"Fine, three rooms." I corrected, getting looks from the whole group.

"Of course." He nodded, giving the key to CB and starting back to the foyer.

"Cane, you feeling okay?" Brutus asked.

"What? They're grown ups, I trust them to act in a grown up fashion, even without adult supervision." I replied, getting sheepish smiles from both children, "it also helps that I'm three steps away from the room..." I closed my eyes and flashed down the hallway with my magic, "and that I've really mastered the teleportation spell."

"So we meet back here in an hour once we're settled and go from there?" I asked.

"I'll come back and take you up to the radio tower to meet with DJ Pon3." Homage smirked, waving and heading off down the hall, "and bring Candy, I never get to play with babies anymore, there's so few of em nowadays in the tower."

"Alright, meet back in an hour." Brutus nodded, heading into his room with Lily, CB and Xem moving down the hall to their room.

"Uhh, what about me?" Venture asked dumbly.

"What? You can't share a room with me anymore?" I asked, opening the hotel room door. "Like the hundreds of business trips we took?"

"Yeah, but your fiancee wasn't coming back with us."

"What about Las Pegasus?"

"Totally different, she surprised us, neither of us knew she was coming."

"Fair point, we can get you a room when the need arises okay?" I asked and he just nodded.

So with that we retired to our rooms for the time being, unpacking and unwinding, getting cleaned up and ready for the planning meeting that night.

10 months ago:

I think the point of a bachelor party is to celebrate your last night being single. The last time you have to chase tail, and do stupid, stupid shit. I didn't have any plans to chase tail or anything like that, this was more about making some good fucking memories for once in my life.

If I remember right—which is to say, I might not—I think the night started somewhere around a club that was too busy already, but Crystalline licked her lips and batted her eyelashes and we were inside. The music was too loud, and I wasn't sure it really seemed like a good idea. Too many unknowns, I figured, but after a few bottles of Dead Buck Ale I was forgetting myself. We were out of the club so fast, I wasn't even sure what was going on. Next stop was some old bar, with old stallions milling around and giving us dirty looks.

Venture lined up a few more bottles of something, that had a picture of a dog on the front. I squinted at it in the dim light, but then on the count of three downed the bottle with Venture and Brutus. Crystalline was still close by, but she was drinking water. “Mighty unprofessional for a the hired help to get drunk,” she said with a grin. Then we were moving again, bar hopping I realized, we were bar hopping. I remember laughing more then I should have, and wondered if I should be loosing my senses so quickly.

We stumbled into a casino next, dropping more then we should have, Crystalline kept bring over drinks. Winking at each of us in turn, bumping her rump against whoever was closest. Venture was a few beers a head of me, five or six, I think. He was laughing and smiling, and I remember thinking that this was perfect. We were in the casino for hours, I was sure that days had passed, but we just kept drinking and playing. The whole thing ended when Venture stumbled and slammed into the side of a heavily armed earth pony, who was missing an ear, and still had blood in his mane. The stallion didn't appreciate having his drink spilled, and Venture was just smart enough to be an idiot about the whole thing.

“You're gonna buy me another drink,” the stallion said.

“You're—hic—gonna kiss my ass!” Venture answered. Brutus was the one who grabbed Venture and dragged the group of us out of the casino, giving the buck a stack of chips worth at least a few drinks. Another bar came next, then a different club with equally as loud music. Then we were outside, and stumbling. I was pleasantly buzzed at this point, but Venture was leaning against Crystalline like he didn't know how to walk anymore. Crystalline stopped next to a split in the road and whispered something into Venture's ear. He perked up and was off down another path. We followed him through the maze of the town until we weren't there anymore.

“Venture! What is going on?” I called, from a few steps behind him.

“No, no! This will be amazing,” Venture shouted, as he rushed us all up this hill just outside of town. The area was nice enough, still within the guarded perimeter of the town, but not something I thought of when bachelor party came up. When Venture stopped, there were old houses around us, long worn away by time and war. The walls still stood on some, there were plants growing through others, and trees littered over the area. Brutus and Venture were grinning at me like maniacs. I took a step away from them, and fixed them with my best, “what the actual fuck is going on?” look. At least I was armed.

The next thing I knew Crystalline was next to me, a large strange looking gun being offered to me. I used my magic to take it, holding it in front of me, and looking it over. “Venture...” I said slowly. The gun was topped with a large plastic container that was filled with small red pellets of paint. “How the hell?”

“A gift from a ghoul named Crackshot? She said you'd appreciate the work of a weapon specialist,” Crystalline said, grinning at me. She had her own gun too, filled with the same small pellets, but her's were blue. “Now you better get that ass of yours running honey, because I'm giving you until five before I start shooting at it,” she said, cocking the paint ball gun. I laughed, and I listened. Brutus and Venture had already disappeared behind different structures.

“Whoever gets hit the least wins!” Brutus yelled. His voice was quiet, far away from me.

“No cheating this time Sugar!” Venture shouted from a hiding place.

“One time and you never let it go!” I shouted back. I ducked behind a crumbling wall, and I saw the first two pellets of paint explode on the side of it. Green paint, I wondered for a minute had that colour, and decided it was Venture. My heart pounded in my chest, as the adrenaline mixed with the buzz, and pleasant memories of a long gone life. We had played a few times when we were young, I had washed some of the paint off because the bastard always won. I heard Brutus shout out as he was hit, followed by Crystalline shouting in victory.

I hadn't thought of play fighting in a long time, running through the trees and houses, and just making it a game. I spent most of the game chasing Venture, and he did the same. It wasn't until a purple pellet exploded on my side, that I even remembered there were other players. “Shit,” I snapped, dropping low to the ground. Brutus let out a whooping noise from just behind me. I popped up from my hiding place, and fired three shots blindly. Each one coming into contact with some part of him.

I dropped down again, and scanned for Venture. I had hit him twice already, but he had me three times. There was a swell of blue paint on his side, from where Crystalline had stuck him a few times. I tried to count the marks in my head, but found that with all the running and alcohol, I was having trouble focusing. I shook my head and set out to look for someone else. I dropped down low to the ground and started to crawl. I remember the feeling of a paint pellet exploding on my side, I remember turning to see who had hit me, then it was kind of blurry, I remember a burst of something cold and wet against my side, and then I was blinking my eyes open in my lab, sprawled out on the couch...my head pounding like I had been smashed into a wall.

Everything was sore, most of the night before was a blur, though it was slowly coming back to me, and my body ached from tail to horn. Yeah, it was a great night.

Footnote: 50% to next level

Perk added: Wild and Crazy memories: A night of binge drinking the finest Wasteland swill, and surviving! Has resulted in you developing some pretty heavy booze tolerance. It's now twice as hard to get drunk to the point of being inhibited, and the effects last half as long.