Author's Notes:

Please note: This chapter contains an explicit portion. It is marked before and after by "Explicit portion begins/ends here" for those who wish to avoid it.

The snow was starting to pile up to Apple’s ankles as he stood in front of The Watering Hole, looking nervously side-to-side. His new friends hadn’t forgotten him, right? A dark thought came over Apple for a second.

“They would never. Although, I barely know them... Maybe they did cancel on me…”

“Silly Apple, they would never come to a party with somepony like you!” He started banging his head against the deep green painted wooden wall, nearly giving himself a pretty good concussion, but then he felt a hoof tapping on his shoulder, urging him to stop. A look to the side revealed Sunny’s beaming face.

“What’s so funny?” Apple asked, feeling his head with his hoof to check for any wounds.

Sunny giggled, “Oh, nothing… Just that the sight of somepony unleashing his fury against a wall isn’t something you see every day.” He thought for a second, “or night.”

“Yeah, it’s already 10 past 5, they should’ve been here by now. We agreed to meet here at 5 so we could get some food before heading to the soiree!” Apple said as he adjusted his cloak.

Just then, the sound of hooves crunching in the snow came from around the corner. Anticipating, Apple and Sunny turned around to face the new arrivals and were greeted with Apricot accompanied by an unknown mare with a grey coat and a mane and tail that ranged from yellow to red. She had a melon slice for a cutie mark. Apple frowned.

“Hey guys!” Apricot said, perhaps a bit too loud, before poking the mare next to her. “This is Melon pone! She’s my PFF from high school! She recently moved here, so I thought it would be nice for her to meet some folks.”

Melon pone giggled. “You jerk!” She playfully nudged her friend. “My real name is Melon Drop.” Melon Drop noticed Apple staring at her flank, specifically at the melon slice. “Dude. Why are you looking at my cutie mark like that?”

Sunny was ready to jump to his aid. “Oh, he’s just a bit awkward about things like that. He probably really fanc-” he was cut off by a poke from Apple.

“No no no, that’s not it.” Apple’s frown grew even more. “I… dislike mel-” he was, in turn, interrupted by a poke from Sunny.

“Keep it to yourself buddy…” Sunny whispered to Apple between his teeth.

“Right… well, this is certainly an interesting welcome. I’ve heard about the strange things that happen in this town sometimes…” Melon Drop said.

“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet! One time, there was this bunny stampede…” The flow of chatter continued as Apricot and Melon Drop went inside to look for places to sit.

“Do you recall her ever asking if it was ok to bring a stranger along?” Sunny asked, wiping a thin layer of snow off of his jacket.

“No, I don’t. And especially not if it was ok to bring a melon along” Apple said as he readjusted his mane inside his hood.

“What’s the deal with you and melons anyway?” Sunny asked.

Apple tossed his head upwards. “None of your business, thank you very much! It’s very much my own.”

“Alright, alright… hey, there they are!” Sunny pointed to Blue and Ember appearing in the snowy mist.

“Hey!” Blue said, quickly closing the gap. “Sorry about being late, I took too long showering.”

“That’s fine. Let’s just get something to eat” Apple said, holding the door open. Ember and Blue went inside, but Sunny stayed outside.

“Sunny? Aren’t you coming?” Apple let go of the door, letting it slowly close. “What are you waiting for?”

“I'm kinda bringing another guest as well.” Sunny said with a nervous look.

“Oh? You told me about Apricot earlier, who-” Apple’s pending question was answered before he could even finish. Around the corner came a mare with a dark red coat and the most intricate manestyle he had ever seen, but it didn’t take him long to realize he had seen her before.

“Wait… aren’t you Ember’s neighbor?” Apple asked.

Sunny thought about how to answer this tactfully, but Scotch interrupted. “I’m Scotch, and yes, I am Ember’s neighbor.”

“But weren’t you horribly insulting to her or something?” Apple asked, slightly confused.

“I very well might have been, but I’m not here to continue fighting. Today has been too much of a shit day. Two tests with the prospect of another exam later this week? Yeah right. Celestia I hate Mondays…” she said as she trotted inside.

“Looks like we’re complete. We have to hurry now, I have to get in there before Ember and Scotch lose their tempers” Sunny said, about to run in, but Apple stopped him by asking one last question.

“Is Scotch like, your marefriend or something?” he asked.

“What? Oh no, she’s not ‘into’ stallions” Sunny replied before quickly running inside.

“Oh…”

Scotch’s heart was beating as she entered the bar. This was it, the moment that could make or break the entire evening. She saw the pigeon sitting at a table with three others, who were merrily chatting away while Ember herself was placing some orders for drinks with the waiter.

‘The least she could’ve done was wait for the rest of us’ she thought to herself. ‘No, wait, bad Scotch. You’re supposed to be making friends here. Just… play it cool.’ She suppressed her usual anger that arose when she saw Ember and walked towards her.

Ember turned around from the waiter when Blue tapped her, and pointed a hoof at the new arrival. For a moment, Scotch and Ember looked at each other. A lot can happen in one moment. The natural order is established; all future interaction of the night could be decided. In this particular case, neither party could agree as to what the natural order actually was going to be. In this second-long stare, it was as if a lightning bolt was temporarily suspended between their eyes… and then the moment ended.

“Hello Scotch. Good to see you tonight” Ember said stiffly.

“Good evening Ember. It's good to see you too” Scotch replied, equally wooden. She sat down at the table, opposite Ember. Sunny finally came in.

“Oh thank goodness, you two haven’t started fighting yet” Sunny said, relieved that his effort to unite these two hadn't been disregarded to the realm of fables, not yet anyway. Not long after Sunny, Apple came in.

“Hello everyone!” he said, sitting down at a table next to Scotch and Melon Drop, while Sunny sat in between Scotch and Blue.

Sunny and Apple were eager to start the evening off, so after the waiter had been called once more and more orders had been placed for the new guests, the night could begin. And what a night it would be.

At this hour on a Monday night, it didn’t take long for their orders to be finished. While bar food wasn’t usually something to write home about, the least it could do was fill you up.

“Who hosts a party on a Monday night anyway?” Melon Drop asked.

“Well, Miss Melon, I shall be more than happy to tell you” Apple said, giving Melon’s despicable cutie mark another glare, missing the fact that Melon shot Apple’s own cutie mark a sharp look as well.

“Please, do continue, Mister Salt, is it?” said Melon.

Apple’s eye twitched ever so slightly, but he decided to ignore the comment. “This party is, of course, hosted by Ponyville’s own Octavia. It is not just ‘any’ party. It shall be a soiree, where we can talk and discuss various matters while listening to a small ensemble from the Canterlot Orchestra perform various symphonies, amongst other forms of classical music, of course.”

“That sounds really nice actually, Mister Salt. A shame none of us are dressed for the occasion” Melon said, giggling when she got another evil glare from Apple.

“I can assure you that formal wear is not required” Apple said, becoming ever so slightly flustered.

Blue raised a hoof. “Uh, that’s not what it said on the flyer you gave us, Apple. It said something about a rave. I was actually really excited for that.”

“I didn’t see anything about a rave on there” Apple said, taking the flyer from Blue and looking it over. Sure enough, the flyer looked identical to the one he saw earlier; date, time, location, everything. The only difference was this one was promoting a rave concert rather than the classical soiree he was expecting.

Ember took a sip from her drink. “I was excited for the rave too, not that I have anything against classical.”

Apple started furiously apologizing, but Sunny stopped him. “It’s fine, Apple. There must be two parties going on at the same place, that’s all.”

“Yes, right, sorry. Let’s just finish our food and get to this party” Apple said, trembling ever so slightly as he levitated his fork into his food. This was not going as he had carefully planned in his head.

Melon noticed Apricot glancing at the griffin next to her multiple times. She chuckled. Apricot had been talking about this Ember ever since she was invited. However, Apricot and Melon liked to think they were connected via the universe. Well, Melon did at least, so she pretty much knew all about Ember before long. “And? Is she what you expected?” Melon asked.

Apricot turned around. “It’s pretty much what I expected and more” she said, casually nodding.

Melon winked at her PFF. “Remember not to flirt too much. Don’t want to ruin the we’re-friends-going-out mood, you know.”

“Like you’re one to talk” Apricot said. Melon looked at her friend with slight confusion. “Really? ‘Mister Salt’?” Apricot said when she noticed Melon clearly wasn’t getting it.

“Oh, Apple? I mean, he’s pretty cute, you have to admit that” Melon said, a slight blush appearing on her light gray cheeks.

“Oh come on!” Apricot exclaimed, but in the polite way so that none of the others beside Melon Drop heard her. “You’re crushing on him pretty hard. I saw your eyes shift to his ‘cutie mark’, but I also saw you stare at the whole picture ever so slightly too long.”

“W-well, that was just because, you know, because-” Melon began.

“But you’re going about it totally the wrong way. You were embarrassing him!” Apricot said, a hint of disapproval in her voice.

The blush on Melon Drop’s cheeks grew deeper. “I just wanted to look into his eyes directly, you know. And after he gave me that stare, I just had to see it again. He looks hot when he’s pissed off.”

Both mares laughed. “Well, it’s going to be a long night, and you know what, I’m feeling generous. I'm going to help you. But no more pissing him off, ok?” Apricot said.

“Ok… But don’t make me say weird pickup lines. You know how I feel about that” Melon Drop said.

Apricot giggled “Of course.”

It didn’t take long for the group to finish their food, but they still stayed and chatted for a while. With there still being a lot of animosity between Scotch and Ember, it made the situation a little bit tense. Eventually they decided it was time to head out and by 8 o'clock, they finally arrived at the party.

The house the party was held at was one of Ponyville’s most peculiar structures. It appeared to be literally split in half down the middle, straight through the door. The left section of the house had the pipes of a large organ sticking out of the roof. The house, with it’s two distinct styles, was an odd sight. Tonight though, it looked even stranger than usual. There was a black steel structure behind the house, and as they got closer it appeared to be a framework holding up stage lights, speakers, and smoke machines along with a DJ booth in the middle. The booth, surrounded by jumping ponies from Ponyville and the surrounding area, was shone on by four different rays of light from spotlights hanging on support pillars holding up the whole structure. It was occupied by a white unicorn pony with a spiky blue mane, wearing her trademark purple glasses and bobbing her head along with the beat.

“Oh my, this isn’t what I expected at all” Apple said, looking around at the crowd in a nervous manner. “I don’t do well in huge crowds like this.”

“You don’t have to stay out here you know. It appears there’s a whole separate party going on inside the house” Sunny said, gesturing to the line of prim and proper ponies filing into the house with their muzzles ever so slightly upwards.

“I don’t want to leave all you guys though. I mean, this party was my idea in the first place, it wouldn’t be right for me to go off and leave you all to have all the fun” Apple said as he shifted his weight from one side to the other, clearly getting nervous as the crowd grew around them.

“I’ll go inside with you if you’d like” Melon said. “Believe it or not I’m not too fond of huge crowds either. Like the music, but hate getting shoved and bumped all the time. A nice evening just chatting sounds like a good change of scenery.”

“I actually don’t mind some classical myself” Ember said as she hovered above the group. “I find it rather relaxing and Celestia knows I need to relax after the shit week I’ve had.”

“Me too! I love classical!” Apricot blurted out, earning her a jab in the side from Melon. “Owww what was that forrrr?”

“What did I tell you about coming on too strong? Remember? If you’re helping me, I’m helping you too. Cool your flanks” Melon muttered to her. Apricot blushed a bit and nodded.

“Aww come on you bunch of donkeys. Am I the only one here who wants to go crazy?” Blue said in a disappointed, almost whining tone. Ember and Scotch both rolled their eyes, then happened to look at each other and notice the other just did the same thing. A small smirk formed on their lips. “I thought the whole point of tonight was to have fun.”

“It is” Apple said. “We can all still have fun. Let's just spend some time at each of the parties, that way everyone can have a good time.”

“Fiiine” Blue said in an exacerbated tone. Now it was Apple’s turn to roll his eyes. Sunny just chuckled beside him. “Let’s meet at the buffet table in an hour and we can all tell each other how the party’s going from there, sound good?” The group nodded. Blue, Scotch, and Sunny went towards the mass of jumping ponies while Ember, Apricot, Apple, and Melon made their way towards the house.

The ponies congregating in the yard were a stark contrast to those that were making their way inside the home. Outside was chaos, inside was dignified and proper. They even had little cheese ponies on little plates with little toothpicks in them. A bowl of melon balls caught the ire of Apple as he walked past the hors d’oeuvres table. Melon noticed and snickered to herself, determined to figure out this bizarre distain. Mutterings and goings-on could be heard throughout the warmly lit space, accompanied by the soft melody of a cello and a few other instruments. A soundproofing spell was clearly at work to be able to keep the insanity that was happening out back from penetrating the refined environment inside.

Ember inhaled deeply and slowly let it out. “Oh this is nice. Relaxing atmosphere at last. I never have time to just unwind at home. Scotch is always yelling something about falling into holes or some shit at me the second I pull in the driveway. Crazy bitch.” She muttered the last part.

“Mmm I too enjoy the soft, flowing tones of classical music. It helps me deal with Pippin a little easier. Not much, but a little” Apple said as he looked around the crowd. All over the room there were little groups of ponies, two to four strong, just chatting and smiling as they sipped their drinks. “This is what a party should be.”

“I don’t mind a good rave now and then for the adrenaline rush, but those should be attended sparingly if you ask me. I’m not as young as I used to be” Ember said as she took a drink off the tray of a passing waiter.

“Oh please, you’re still plenty hot” Apricot said.

Ember coughed on her drink. “Excuse me?” she said once she stopped coughing. Melon rubbed her forehead with a hoof and closed her eyes.

“Ehehehe did I say hot? I meant, um, it’s hot in here! Yeah! That’s it. Hot in here. Anypony else want a drink? I’ll get us some drinks!” Apricot hurriedly said as she grinned and backed away from the group before making a break towards the drink station.

Ember raised her brow and unfurled her wings. “Hm, she’s an odd one isn’t she. Not as weird as you, Apple, but still up there.” Apple gave her a flat look as she grinned at him. “Hey, you wanted friends, well then get used to being picked on. Friends give each other shit all the time. That’s the real magic of friendship bud.”

Apple cleared his throat. “Yes, well then, should we start to make our way around? See who’s playing? I do hope to see Octavia at some point, I’m a huge fan of her work.”

“Oh I just love her rendition of Beethooven’s symphony #2 in E flat. The way she captured the transition from dark to light at the central peak really showed the influence she got from Crescendo, that Prancian composer” Melon said as she began to walk forward towards the main room of the house. She got a few steps before she realized the other two weren’t following her. Glancing back over her shoulder, she was met with a puzzled look from both of them. “What? A mare can’t have intelligent interests? I’m not all parties and drinking just cuz I’m in school.”

“I would absolutely love to discuss Octavia’s works with you” Apple said, a big smile forming on his muzzle. “Would you like to grab some hors d’oeuvres? I’d love to hear what you think about her rendition of Baritone’s concerto…” The pair trailed off into the room, leaving Ember standing there, still not entirely sure what just happened.

“Guess I’ll go find where Apricot went and see if she’s still delusional” Ember said as she went into the next room where the food and drinks were set up. She saw Apricot over by one of the tables looking at the array of different fruits laid out in patterns of various musical notes. “So you still think I’m hot?” Ember said, causing Apricot to jump, let out a quick ‘eep!’, and toss the plate of fruit she was assembling up over her head. Ember caught a piece of pineapple as it fell back down and popped it in her mouth. She chewed it with one brow raised as she looked at Apricot.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to say that I swear. Please don’t hate me!” Apricot hurriedly said, looking everywhere but at Ember.

“Hehe, relax, I’m not mad or anything. I thought it was funny” Ember said, finishing the piece of pineapple. “I tend to have that effect on ponies.”

Apricot blushed and turned her head. “I see. Where are Apple and Melon?”

“They started getting all horny talking about Octavia and went off to I guess try and find her to fangirl over her or something. I dunno” Ember said as she grabbed a plate and began loading it up with different fruit.

“Oh” Apricot said. “Is there any particular piece of hers that you like?”

“Meh, I don’t really like any one composer more than others. I just find the music in general to be relaxing. Moving heavy crap around all day really makes my wings sore so it’s nice to come home and soak them while I have it on in the background” Ember said.

“I enjoy that too. After a long day at school I like to come home and just lay on my bed with it on. Helps me fall asleep too” Apricot said, smiling at the pleasant memory.

“Yep, it’s certainly hard to beat” Ember said. “You wanna go see what else is going on here?” Just then from the other room, a mare exclaimed ‘oh my!’ in a refined tone. “Heh, sounds like Apple and Melon may have found Octavia.” she chuckled. Apricot giggled too.

“Yeah let’s go see what they’re up to, then we can go find out how the party outside is going” Apricot said as she started heading towards where the mare's voice came from. Ember nodded and followed after her.

A thumping bass permeated the air throughout the whole back of the house. The crowd of ponies was speckled with glowing neon sticks being swung around; flashing lights having a strobe effect on the mass of bodies moving about. The crowd’s energy would flow up and down in direct conjunction with the beats being pumped out through the massive speakers and you could tell the DJ knew exactly what she was doing as she flipped switches and knobs to change the tempo and mood.

At the portable bar set up at the back of the crowd, Sunny leaned against one of the stools, observing the crowd moving to the high-energy music. Sipping his drink, he looked around to see if he could spot Blue or Scotch who had disappeared into the crowd a while ago and have yet to resurface. He was about to go in and try to find them when Scotch pushed her way out of the mob of ponies.

“Bunch of crazy bitches” Scotch muttered as she walked next to Sunny and ordered a few drinks. Sunny smiled, still scanning the crowd for a sign of Blue, or any of the others for that matter.

“Having fun?” Sunny asked. He knew the answer but thought it would be fun to hear her reply anyway.

“So much it should be illegal” Scotch replied, rolling her eyes and downing one of the drinks. “Thank Celestia this place has a bar otherwise I’d have to choke some ponies. Grabbing my arse…”

“Heh, well it is a pretty crazy party out here so I imagine that kinda stuff will happen. Once we find Blue I figured we’d head inside and see how the other party is going with the others. I bet it’s much less chaotic” Sunny said, finishing his drink and placing it back on the bar. “You stay here, I’m gonna go find Blue.”

“Whatever. Just watch your arse in there” Scotch said, making decent progress on her second drink already. Sunny started to thread his way into the crowd. The only real advantage he had in finding Blue was her color and the fact that she was a unicorn. Other than that, everypony looked the same in this giant mass. Shouting her name wasn’t an option over the thumping music that drowned out any voice. He started just working his way up and down the rows of ponies as best he could. After checking through the whole crowd several times, and even the other bar on the opposite side of the area, Sunny made his way back to the bar where Scotch was still sitting.

“Well, I have no idea where the hell she got to. I went over every pony here and I can't find her,” Sunny said, sitting down beside Scotch.

“Maybe she made her way inside already?” Scotch suggested. Sunny shrugged. He hadn’t thought of that yet but it seemed to be the only option left.

“Ok, let’s go check and see if she’s in there I guess. If not, well, maybe Ember can fly around some and find her or something.” Scotch downed the last bit of her drink and got up, Sunny following behind her as she pushed through the crowd towards the house.

Ember and Apricot made their way into the main room where the music had come to a stop just after they heard the mare's voice a few moments ago. A small circle of ponies were gathered towards where the band was set up but something else seemed to be going on. Making their way to the front of the group, Ember and Apricot looked on in disbelief. A cello laid on its side on the stage and a rather inebriated Blue had her forehooves wrapped around Octavia’s hind leg, being dragged across the stage as Octavia tried to shake her off. Ember shook her head and covered her face with a claw, Apricot stifled a snicker behind a hoof.

“Get off me you ruffian!” Octavia growled as she continued to poke Blue with the bow from the fallen instrument, trying to break Blue’s grip on her hind leg.

“Come on! I only want you to sign my butt! I love you Trebel Flanks!” Blue cried, clearly having had a few too many at the party out back. “Pleeeease!”

“Would someone please remove this animal from my leg?” Octavia pleaded, not making any progress on prying Blue off. All the high society ponies around looked at one another and shrugged. They didn’t want to get near the crazy blue mare and risk her latching onto one of them instead.

“Excuse me, coming through, pardon…” Apple pushed his way through the circle of ponies and rushed over to Octavia and Blue. “I am so terribly sorry Miss Philharmonica, please forgive my friends actions here. She has clearly had too much to drink at the other party” Apple explained as he began pulling Blue’s legs off of Octavia, all the while Blue was whining and putting up a struggle.

“Just get her off me so I can finish our ensemble. We were right in the middle of the third bar when this crazy mare came out of nowhere and latched onto my leg asking me to sign her flank. I told Vinyl something like this would happen” Octavia muttered, glaring towards the back of the house.

“Yes, of course, certainly” Apple said, finally breaking Blue’s grip on the leg and pulling her back a ways. Blue kicked her hind leg out, hitting Apple in a rather tender place. He let out a high-pitched ‘eep’ and stumbled back, losing his grip on Blue. Blue took this opportunity and made another grab for Octavia but a yellow talon grabbed her foreleg before she could reach it.

“Ok, that’s enough of that” Ember said, grabbing Blue around the torso with her other claw. “Once you go around trying to get somepony to sign your ass, you’ve had too much to drink. Let's get you some fresh air and sober you up a bit” Ember said as she picked Blue up and began heading towards the door. “Sorry for the interruption Miss Octavia, we’ll keep her under control for the rest of the night.”

“I should hope so. I don’t need any more of those wubstep lunatics invading my soiree” Octavia said, readjusting her mane and tail and straightening her bowtie. Turning around to pick her cello up from the floor she muttered something about ‘Vinyl’, ‘kicking flank’, and ‘no hornjobs for a month’. Melon trotted up to the still-recovering Apple and helped him back up.

“You ok there? She got a pretty good kick on ya huh?” Melon said.

“Yeah I’m fine, just knocked the wind out of me is all. I’ll be fine in a few minutes” Apple replied, awkwardly standing and slightly leaning to the left. “Let’s just follow Ember and make sure Blue is ok.” As they reached the back of the small crowd that had gathered, Apple and Melon saw Ember holding a now passed out Blue, telling Scotch and Sunny what had happened. Sunny was trying to suppress a laugh while Scotch rolled her eyes.

“Freakin lightweights. I could drink ten times whatever she had and be perfectly fine” Scotch remarked. “I don’t understand what’s so hard about handling your liquor.”

“Not all ponies have years of practice trying to drink away their pathetic existence” Ember shot back.

“Don’t start that shit with me you fuckin’ crow. Just because I’ve been in school forever doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing. I just took my time to make sure I was doing what I really wanted to” Scotch said, glaring at Ember.

“Whatever you say” Ember said as she turned towards the door to the back, still carrying Blue. The cold air outside would help get Blue back to normal a little faster.

“Ladies, please, don’t fight here. We agreed to have a good time tonight, not open old wounds, remember?” Sunny said.

“Yeah yeah…” Scotch drolled on. “Friendship is magic and all that other bullshit. Wild Pegasus is magic if you ask me. I’m headed to the bar for some more.”

“Wow she really can put down a lot of liquor can’t she” Melon said to Apple next to her. “Only pony I know that can drink that much is Berry Punch and even she has a cap. Didn’t you say something about Blue having a crush on her or something?” Scotch was about halfway out the door but flicked her ear around when she heard this.

Sunny chuckled. “Oh Blue was staring at her quite a bit when we were out at the bar the other night. It was rather amusing actually. Guess we all know she wants Octavia too apparently. She has good tastes at least” Sunny said as he made his way towards the door, followed by the other three. Scotch trotted out the door and made her way to the bar, gears turning in her head.

The party out back hadn’t died down in the slightest since the group was inside the house. The beats were still pumping out and the DJ didn’t show any sign of stopping anytime soon even though it was getting later in the evening. All of them, minus Scotch who had planted herself at the bar again, made their way to an empty table at the back of the crowd to sit and see what could be done about Blue.

“We could try cold water, that seems to always wake them up” Apple shrugged. “At least that’s how I get Pippin up when he’s passed out in the middle of the hall and blocking the way.”

“All they have is beer and liquor here so I don’t think that’s an option right now” Sunny said.

“What about some kinda shock or surprise?” Apricot suggested. A huge grin immediately formed on Embers beak, memories of the other night coming back in full clarity. “What’s so funny Ember?” she asked.

“Ohhh nothinggg…” Ember replied in a sing-song tone. “Just remembering a funny surprise I played on a friend once who passed out. Sure woke them up that’s for sure. Hehehe…” The rest of the group looked at her with raised brows. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. Won’t work here anyways.”

“Oookay then… any other ideas?” Melon asked.

“Something spicy maybe?” Apple shrugged.

“Hmm, yea that might work. I saw some salsa on the table back there. I’ll go grab some” Melon said as she got up and headed toward the buffet table nearby. She returned with a small bowl of salsa and put some on a chip and popped it in Blue’s mouth, then they all waited. About ten seconds later, Blue’s eyes shot open and she began panting furiously, trying to wipe the burning hot salsa off her tongue.

“Sown off a bwitch whawt was thawt fowr?” Blue said once she finally got it mostly out of her mouth, letting her tongue hang out still.

“You’re no fun unconscious” Apricot said. Another smirk formed on Embers face but Apricot decided to act like she didn’t see it this time. She’d make a point of figuring out what that meant later.

“Yeah but freakin hot sauce? That’s just evil. Couldn’t you splash me with cold water or something?” Blue asked before reaching for a cup of beer that had been on the table prior to them all sitting down. Sunny was about to stop her but she downed it before he could even utter ‘wai-’. “Ah that’s better. What?” Blue asked, noticing their collective grossed-out expressions.

“Nothing. Nevermind us. What you say we go and try to enjoy the rest of the party?” Apple suggested.

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go!” Melon said with a big smile, grabbing Apple and pulling him towards the crowd. “You coming guys?”

“Yeah come on guys, the night’s still young and I still got plenty of party still in me!” Blue said with an equally big smile on her face.

“You guys go ahead, I think I’ll just stick back and have a few drinks” Ember said, gesturing towards the bar. “We’ll come find you in a little bit.” Sunny and Apricot nodded in agreement.

Blue shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She trotted after Melon who was still pulling Apple into the crowd even though he was protesting about not doing well in tight spaces.

“So…” Sunny said, tapping his hooves together on the table. “What’s up?” Ember and Apricot both gave him a flat look. “Hey I don’t see either of you starting a conversation” he said defensively.

“Yeah, cuz we’re drinking” Ember said, taking another sip of her drink and looking around.

“Well, doesn’t mean we can’t talk about something still” Sunny said. “How’s your company doing Ember?”

“Considering I’m the only one in Ponyville that doesn’t drop your stuff from the sky, pretty good” Ember replied.

“Heh, now you know why I never order anything fragile to be shipped here” Apricot chuckled. “I just pick it up at the train station when it comes in.”

“Wise choice. I was considering going into the delivery business too but that’s a big change. I’m busy enough as it is with just moving things, you add regular shipment delivery and you’re talking serious volume” Ember said. “I suppose it’s not entirely out of the question though.”

“That’d be pretty cool. Bet you’d be rolling in it then huh” Apricot said.

“Heh, yeah, probably” Ember mused.

“So I’m curious, what’s it like living on your own? I really can’t wait to get the hell outta the dorms, but I’ve never lived on my own before, outside school anyways” Apricot said, her eyes scanning the surface of the table sheepishly.

Ember smiled. “For me it’s pretty great. I value my personal space more than most do so it was great to find a place that’s set far enough away to be quiet, but not so far that it’s a pain in the ass to get stuff. So long as you got the money, then you’ll do fine.”

“Yeah, see, that’s kinda the problem. Culinary is a great field to be in, in Canterlot. But in a smaller town like Ponyville it’s next to impossible to find a place that’ll pay enough to support yourself, and I have no desire whatsoever to move to Canterlot. I guess I’m gonna be in the same boat as Blue is when I finish school.” Apricot hung her head and cast her eyes downward. Ember watched her closely. She knew all too well how she was feeling seeing how she was in a similar position herself with school not getting her where she thought it would. She got lucky with how things turned out for her, but she also knew that not everypony else would fair as well.

“For what it’s worth, I kinda know how you feel” Ember said, looking down at her drink and swirling it around a little. “School wasn’t what I thought it would be for me either. I just got lucky with how the business took off like it did. If it hadn’t, I really don’t know what I would’ve done.” Apricot looked up at her with a small smile. “Lemme put it this way Apricot. If you need help finding a job when you finish school, you can work with me for a while to help get you started with some money. I know it’s not your target field, but money’s money.”

“Thank you Ember, I really appreciate that. It actually makes me feel a little more relaxed about it knowing I have somepony, er, griffin, to go to if I really get in a tight place” Apricot said, a genuinely relaxed smile forming on her face. Ember smiled back and took a sip of her drink.

Sunny was just sitting there, chin resting on his crossed hooves, watching the two with a huge grin on his face. Ember noticed. “What? Something amusing to you?” she asked the bemused stallion.

“Oh, nothing” he sing-songed. “I just love seeing two friends bonding. Even though you just met, I can tell you’ll get along just fine.” Apricot giggled a little and turned to face the crowd again while Ember rolled her eyes and did the same. A moment later, Scotch stormed over to the table, her coat covered in dirt and her eyes full of fire.

“Alright you damn featherbrain, I don’t know how the fuck you keep managing to dig these holes all over the place for me to fall into, but I’m fucking sick of this shit! I’m gonna kick your furry arse right here, right now!” she shouted, banging on the table. Ember looked at her with complete confusion.

“What the hell are you talking about you crazy bitch? I’ve been here this whole time. Ask these two” she said, gesturing to Apricot and Sunny who nodded, not sure if they should get involved or not.

“Bullshit. They probably cover for you while you went off and dug the hole. All this because that damn tire lit your lawn on fire” Scotch said, glaring at Ember.

“Yard on fire… What? Oh Celestia are you talking about that stupid failed experiment of yours like two years ago? You seriously think that I don’t have better things to do with my time than run around town, predicting where you’ll be, and somehow find enough time to get ahead of you to dig a fuckin hole so you’ll fall in? Ever think that you’re just an unlucky dumbass?” Ember said back, clearly thinking Scotch had finally lost her last shred of sanity.

“Once or twice would constitute luck, but this shit happens way too often and there’s only one pony, no, griffin, that would have it out for me” Scotch fired back.

“You’ve lost your damn mind, Ethyl” Ember said, knowing that that name hit a particular nerve with Scotch. The fire in Scotch’s eyes burned a bit brighter.

“The only thing here that sucks is that whore of a roommate of yours. Saw her sucking dicks all throughout this crowd tonight” Scotch sneered. The smirk on her face would make Discord proud.

At the mentioning of Blue, Ember immediately slammed her glass down on the table and got up, fully extended her wings, and gave Scotch a glare that would rival a cocatrice. “What the fuck did you just say? I’ll give you one chance to change what you just said before I beat the hell out of you right here, right now.” To emphasize her intent, Ember dragged her talons across the table surface, leaving deep gouges in the metal. Sunny and Apricot slowly started backing away while they still could.

“You heard what I said you egg laying wanker” Scotch jeered, slamming her forehooves on the table opposite Ember. They were inches from each other’s faces, waiting for the other to flinch or make the first move. Sunny thought about trying to say something but then saw one of the stage lights glint off of one of Embers talons and immediately retracted his thought. As much as he hated seeing ponies fight, this was out of his control. Apricot just stood there, partially frozen by fear.

“Hey guys! Come check this out! Melon got Apple to crowd surf and it’s freakin hilarious!” Blue said, bursting out of the crowd and immediately breaking the steely glares going between Ember and Scotch. “Come on, you’re gonna miss it!” Blue trotted up and started tugging on Embers leg, trying to get her to come along with her. Ember broke her staring contest, looked at Blue, and sighed.

“Alright, fine. For you, Blue…” Ember said with a hint of irritation. She’d much rather pummel Scotch into one of the holes she insisted she kept falling into, but Blue was her friend and she wanted to make her happy more than fight. Sunny and Apricot let out a collective sigh of relief and hurriedly followed after Blue, eager to get far away from the scene they just witnessed.

“You coming Scotch?” Apricot asked in a cautious tone. She didn’t want the rage-filled mare to turn on her next.

“No, just go do whatever. I’ll be at the bar again” Scotch said darkly, turning and heading for the bar once more.

“Ok… We’ll come get you when we’re ready to leave then I guess” Apricot said before turning and trotting after the others. Scotch just gave her a wave of the hoof; a ‘whatever’ gesture as she walked away. The anger from the fight hadn't dissipated yet, just got momentarily bumped to the side. She still wanted to beat the shit out of Ember, but even she knew those claws could do some serious damage; she wasn’t stupid. In actuality, she was pretty damn scared just then when they were face to face. Typically when they fought, there was a fence in between them, but here there was only air. No protection. Sure she had her horn but when it came to combat spells, well, she was pretty much at nil. The vast majority of unicorns only knew basic, useful spells like levitation and maybe some very basic teleportation, but combat spells weren’t readily taught unless you were in the Royal Guard or went out of your way to study them on your own. Scotch was in neither of those categories.

Still wanting to enact some type of revenge to prove that she won the fight, Scotch sat down heavily on the bar stool. The bartender gave her a look that said ‘you again?’ but the piercing glare he got in return flipped his attitude around rather abruptly. Scotch squinted her eyes, glaring hard at the bar top in front of her, tapping her hoof on it beside her. The gears in her head were spinning full speed as she tried to formulate a way to hurt Ember without so much risk of getting ripped to pony shreds. She slowly opened her eyes from her tight squint, an idea slowly populating in the back of her mind. She focused all she could on it, trying to bring it to the front and see what it was. Once all the pieces clicked into place, her eyes got wide before narrowing to slits once more, this time accompanied by the most evil, twisting grin that possibly ever formed on a mare's muzzle. She rubbed her hooves together in excited anticipation for how she would go about her revenge. The best part was, it didn’t involve Ember directly, but Blue would be destroyed.

“Oh for the love of Celestia put me down already!” Apple yelled at the ponies bumping him around over their heads like he was some kind of watermelon-colored beach ball. Melon stood to the side, a huge smirk on her face as she thoroughly enjoyed the sight before her. A moment later, Blue arrived with the others in tow and immediately burst out laughing again at the sight of the floundering Apple. Sunny and Apricot joined her while Ember, still a bit sour from the confrontation that just occurred, stood with a flat look on her face before even she couldn’t resist laughing at the sight. Apple noticed them standing there and glared once he realized they were not there to offer assistance.

“Et tu, Sunny?” Apple said to the laughing stallion as he continued to be bounced around above. “I’d certainly expect this from the others but I thought you were above that.”

Sunny qualmed his laughter for a moment and regained his composure. “Hey from down here it’s pretty damn funny. You of all ponies too.” Apple gave him a flat stare in return. “Fine, fine, we’ll get you down. Would you mind, Ember?” Ember rolled her eyes, a grin still on her beak as she spread her wings wide and with two good flaps, was hovering above the bobbing Apple. Rather than just pluck him up though, she just stayed there with a smirk.

“Oh I see how it is. Just gonna let me float around the whole damn concert and enjoy this beautiful view of the night sky are we?” Apple said, clearly getting irritated.

“Oh shut up ya big baby,” Ember said as she reached down and grabbed his forelegs in her claws, lifting him up before lowering him back to his hooves. She chose to stay hovering above the group for now.

Apple took a moment to brush over his coat, pulling several pieces of food from his mane and tail with a disgusted look. “I have never wanted a shower more than right this very moment,” he shuddered. “Hooves went… places…” Melon, Blue, and Apricot burst out laughing again while Ember and Sunny rolled their eyes. “I’m serious! The violation was very much real and I do not appreciate such things!” Apple exclaimed. This only made them laugh more so he simply threw his hooves up in exasperation. After looking around at those present, Apple noticed one missing. “Hey, where’s Scotch at?” The question got Apricot and Sunny’s attention rather quickly.

“She’s at the bar, we’re gonna get her before we leave later,” Apricot replied quickly. She saw Ember glare off in the direction of the bar and hoped she wouldn’t fly over there and start shit, but she remained hovering where she was. The fact that Ember could kick some serious ass but also had that level of control over it made Apricot even more anxious to get to know her more. With Ember hovering above them, Apricot tilted her head a little, trying to sneak a peek at Ember’s flank, but she rapidly averted her stare when Ember suddenly turned back around and came down to land.

“Looks like there’s some commotion going on over by the house. Wonder what happened,” Ember said, gesturing towards the house with a wingtip.

“Maybe somepony else tried to show their devotion to Octavia by trying to take her leg hostage,” Melon snickered. Blue turned red in the face and turned her head the other direction, finding something particularly interesting on the ground beside her.

“Ooo I wanna see that!” Apricot said as she started trotting towards the house. “Come on guys, maybe Octavia will smack somepony with her cello!”

“I highly doubt that,” Sunny said reasonably.

“I can hope can’t I?” Apricot retorted. Sunny gave her a small smile as he followed after her. Ember took to the skies again rather than pushing through the crowd of ponies and getting her feathers all ruffled. Scotch did that enough earlier. The closer they got to the house, the more yelling could be heard and the more dense the crowd got. It became near impossible to get any closer at a certain point so they stopped where they were and Ember flew ahead to see what was going on. She returned a minute later with a grin.

“Ohoho you’ll never guess who’s fighting up there,” she chuckled.

“Who? Who? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!” Blue bounced up and down. Ember grabbed her and held her still until she stopped hopping.

“I don’t know who the hell gave you caffiene but I already hate them. Anyways, it’s Octavia and Vinyl.” The other ponies looked at her with confused looks. “Hello? DJ Pon3? The mare that was on the stage the whole night? That’s Vinyl.” A moment of realization came over the group as they turned and saw that the space behind the DJ booth was vacant even though the music continued to play. “You ponies really need to listen to some new music…” Ember muttered.

“What are they fighting about though?” Apple asked.

“Best I can gather, a pony from the party out here, or rather a very drunk pony from the party out here, stumbled into the house, somehow made their way on the stage, and then began making out with Octavia's cello while she was still playing it,” Ember said. It sounded too funny to be true to her too and her friends didn’t buy it either apparently, judging by the stares they were giving her. “Hey, don’t believe me? Push to the front and hear for yourself.”

“That couldn’t have happened. There’s just no way in hell something that funny could actually happen,” Melon said as she looked towards where the two ponies were facing each other, yelling various obscenities she was sure.

“Like I said, go hear for yourself,” Ember said, gesturing with her head for them to push towards the center of the circle of ponies. Sunny and Apple took lead and started funneling a path through the wall of ponies with Blue, Apricot, and Melon following. After about a minute of pushing, and a few winks from a few ponies when Apple pushed somewhere he shouldn’t have, they reached the front of the crowd just in time to catch some of the shouting.

“... told you this would happen Vinyl! I said it explicitly last month when we were planning this whole thing that there was no way that this ridiculous mob you call a fanbase wouldn’t somehow interfere with my soiree. Well look what happened. One of the drunk neanderthals interfered, and violated my cello nonetheless!” Octavia shouted at Vinyl, who just stood there with her purple glasses still on.

“Oh yeah? Well maybe your party was just so damn boring that one of my fans felt generous and wanted to spread some of the awesomeness we’re having out here to your stupid high society asswipes in there,” Vinyl shot back. Octavia gasped and put a hoof to her chest in response to the harsh comment.

“The refuse you have the audacity to call music is nothing more than reprocessed voltaic auditory disorganization,” Octavia replied, brushing her mane out of her face and tipping her muzzle upwards.

“I don’t know what half that shit even meant but I doubt it was a compliment coming from you. Look, why don’t you just go back inside and pluck your little strings or whatever it is you do on that oversized violin,” Vinyl said.

“It’s a cello, Vinyl. And I would, but I can’t bear to even touch it at the moment because your drunken buffoon made the side all sticky with Celestia knows what. You’re paying to have it refurbished I hope you know.”

“Like hell I am Treble Flanks. How about you say you’re sorry for causing a scene at my kick-ass concert and I won’t take the noise cancelling spell off the house.”

Octavia glared at Vinyl. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh I dare, just like I dared you to do that thing with the whipped cream last Tuesday. You didn’t mind touching sticky things then,” Vinyl grinned. Some witnesses said you could see smoke slowly curling out of Octavia’s ears after that remark. A collective ‘ooooooo’ passed through the surrounding crowd.

“I swear to Celestia Vinyl, I will end you,” Octavia growled, lowering her head as if she was about to charge Vinyl like a raging bull.

“Pssh, what ya gonna do? Classical me to death?” Vinyl snickered. Before she was even done laughing, Octavia had snatched the purple glasses off of Vinyl’s face and in what seemed like a moment of slow motion, threw them to the ground, causing one of the lenses to shatter. A collective gasp rippled through the crowd before all became deathly still and silent; all eyes on the two ponies facing each other. Vinyl’s mouth hung agape and Octavia wore a look that said ‘oh I went there’. The surrounding ponies slowly started backing away, knowing that nothing good was about to happen. “Alrighty, I’m smashing the cello” Vinyl said casually as she turned and trotted towards the house. Octavia stood there a moment, processing what she just said before bolting after her into the house. All the music had stopped playing now since Vinyl had dropped her spells on both the house and the DJ booth to focus on Octavia. Pretty much the whole crowd had turned to watch the spectacle unfold between the two musicians.

Loud shouts and the sound of various things being broken could be heard from within. Occasionally a piece of furniture or musical instrument or speaker would be ejected out a window, followed by more shouting. All the high society ponies stood outside the house, clearly uneasy as the large crowd of Vinyl’s fans stared at them with weird looks. They slowly started making their way to their carriages parked along the side of the road, eager to get away from this volatile environment. The racket emanating from the house continued on, showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. It was becoming clear that the concert was over so ponies began to disperse, most in an awkward fashion seeing how this wasn’t normally how a concert ended. Ember, Blue, Apricot, Sunny, Apple, and Melon were left standing there, staring at each other for a few moments while they processed what they just saw happen.

“Well then, I guess the party’s over,” Apple said, running a hoof through his mane and looking around.

“I’d say so, yes,” Sunny agreed.

“Well that blows. What are we gonna do now? It’s not even that late yet,” Blue pointed out. “I’m not even close to tired.”

“Why don’t we go hang at the bar for a while? You know, just hang out and talk bout stuff,” Apricot suggested. The rest of the group nodded in agreement on the idea. “Ok then, I’ll go get Scotch.” Ember immediately ruffled her wings in clear irritation of that part; her face quickly turning into a sharp glare. Sunny took a tentative step back along with the others. They all trusted Ember, but damn if razor sharp talons didn’t put a pony on edge.

“Look, I know you two kinda had it out back there, but you don’t have to talk to each other there ok? We’re just gonna hang out, have some food and drinks, and chat,” Apricot said as she came up next to Ember and gently put a hoof on her side. Ember didn’t look at her, but stayed facing forward and let out a low growl.

“If she makes another comment like that about Blue, or even you for that matter, I’m gonna turn her into pony jerky,” Ember snarled. “If she decides to be civil, then so will I.”

“All I ask is that you try, Ember,” Apricot said, gently tapping her until she retracted her wings and her glare lessened. “I’ll go get her, you guys go on ahead and we’ll meet you there.” The group turned and started walking towards town while Apricot went and fetched Scotch from the bar, only to go to another bar. While they all walked, each pony seemed to be planning their escape route for if things really came to blows at the bar. Naturally they all hoped it wouldn’t, but it couldn’t hurt to be prepared.

It seemed that a lot of ponies from the party had the same idea. The bar was rather crowded; much more so than a regular late night crowd. Berry Punch was behind the bar as per usual, flinging drinks in her impressive fashion while a few waiters and waitresses buzzed around the room serving the influx of guests. The constant murmuring of conversation could be heard throughout the space and proved effective in creating a warm, inviting atmosphere to anypony coming in from the cold. They all took turns scanning the room for an open table.

“Excuse me but are there any-” Apple started to say to a passing waitress as she zipped by with a tray stacked high with mugs of cider. “Pardon me but is there an open-”. He began to get flustered at their ignorance of him. Ember looked at him with a grin and nudged him in the side.

“You’re going about it all wrong,” Ember said as she spread her wings and began looking for the next waiter to come their way. Once she saw one hurriedly cleaning a table before trotting towards the other side of the room, she pushed off the ground and landed heavily right in his path, causing him to skid to a halt in front of her. “We’d like a table, please. Now.” The waiter looked at her rigid stare and the not-too-pleased look on her face before looking down at her talon tapping on the stone floor in an impatient manner. He gulped once before sheepishly nodding and started trotting towards a semi-round corner booth. Ember turned towards the group with a smirk. Blue was laughing while Melon and Sunny were snickering to themselves behind their hoof; Apple just stood there with a look of shock.

“How could you be so rude to him? He didn’t do anything to you,” Apple said in a surprised tone.

“What? I said please,” Ember shrugged as she began walking after the waiter. “Besides, we’d be here all night if we had to wait for you to assert yourself.”

“Yes, well, I still don’t approve of your forceful methods,” Apple remarked as he followed after her. Ember just rolled her eyes. The waiter waited for all of them to be seated before asking if they’d like anything to drink.

“I’ll have a rum and coke,” Sunny said as he began to peruse the menu.

“I’ll have a Gin Sour,” Melon said. “And a plate of potato skins please.”

“Oh dear, umm, hmm…” Apple said as he looked over the drink menu. It might as well have been written in Dragon glyphs.

“Just bring him a gin and tonic,” Sunny said to the waiter before looking over to Apple. “Trust me, you’ll like it. It’s not too strong at all.”
Apple nodded and continued looking at the menu intently, determined to decipher the code that was alcoholic drink names.

“I’ll take a Long Island Iced Tea,” Ember said. “And an order of the cheese sticks.”

“I’ll have an Orgasm!” Blue said loudly. Everypony at the table immediately facehoofed. “What? Haven’t you had one before? They’re awesome!” Ember leaned over and put a claw over Blue’s muzzle.

“I think you had plenty to drink at the party there, Blue. Bring her an Arnold Palmare and a tall glass of water,” Ember said to the waiter who still had a confused look on his face but nodded anyway.

“Oh, we’re still waiting on two more by the way,” Melon said to the waiter. “Just go ahead and put our orders in and by the time you get back they should be here.” The waiter nodded and gave them a polite smile before trotting off towards the bar.

“Well he sure is a quiet one isn’t he,” Melon remarked.

“Being threatened into serving us might do that to a pony,” Apple commented as he looked at Ember with a flat look. Ember just smiled and shrugged.

“Hey, I don’t have time to stand around and wait for ponies to decide to do what I want or need them to do all the time. You think I’d have a successful company if I let an employee do that? Of course not. I only do it when necessary, not all the time,” Ember said to Apple. Apple looked like he was going to say something else but the look she gave him said she was starting to become irritated and he didn’t want a repeat of that so he just dropped it.

Melon kept scanning the room for some sign of Apricot and Scotch, but they still didn’t seem to be there yet. “You think they’re ok? I figured they’d be right behind us,” Melon wondered.

“Maybe they fell in one of those imaginary holes she’s always talking about,” Ember snickered.

“Unlikely,” Sunny said. “They probably just got caught in the crowd leaving. There were a lot of ponies there afterall.” No sooner did Sunny finish his sentence did the two ponies in question come through the door. “Ah, see?”

“Apricot! Scotch! Over here!” Blue shouted over the crowd, and right into Ember’s ear. It was at that very moment Ember regretted releasing Blue’s muzzle from her grasp. Apricot spotted Blue waving at them and smiled before nudging Scotch and they began making their way over to them. As soon as they reached the table, the waiter returned with their drinks and appetizers.

“Huh, what perfect timing,” Melon commented. “These are the two we were waiting on,” she said to the waiter. “What’ll you guys have to drink?”

“Ugh, just gimme a Zombie and a Painkiller,” Scotch said, receiving very odd looks from the group, including the waiter. “What? It’s what you drink if you wanna forget the last 24 hours.”

“Why would you want to forget tha-” Apple began before Melon put a hoof over his mouth. “Ah, well then, anyways...”

Apricot looked around the table at all the different drinks the others ordered before pointing to the tall glass in front of Ember. “I’ll have that. Whatever that is,” she said with a smile. Ember raised a brow at her.

“You want it, but don’t even know what it is?” Ember questioned her.

“Eh, sometimes I like the unknown, what can I say?” Apricot said, still with a big smile on her face. Ember kept her brow raised.

“I’ll be right back with those and then I’ll take your food order,” the waiter said before trotting off towards the bar again. The group picked up their menu’s and began looking for what they might want. Seeing that Ember and Scotch were seated across from each other, it was clear to everypony else that they were exchanging ‘shooty looks’ at each other over the tops of their menu’s. Apricot nudged Ember in the side, getting her attention.

“Remember, you promised,” Apricot said in a hushed tone to her.

“I know, I know. I’m not doing anything, just making sure she knows I’m watching her,” Ember replied. Apricot gave her a look that clearly said she didn’t believe a single word of that. “Look, I said I wouldn’t start shit, and I meant it. Ok?” Apricot gave her a small smile and turned back to her menu. Scotch rolled her eyes and continued to look over her menu. Those with very acute hearing might have heard her utter ‘whipped’ under her breath.

The waiter returned a moment later with the additional drinks. Scotch immediately dove right into hers, not even giving the condensation on the side of the glass time to roll down. Apricot gingerly took a few sips from hers while Ember smirked at her. She coughed once or twice but smiled and continued drinking. They all put their food orders in and the waiter took their menu’s, leaving the table clear except for the small lantern flickering in the center, casting streams of light across its surface. The silence lasted for a good two minutes before Sunny coughed to break it up.

“So… What’s everypony doing this week?” he asked, clearly fishing for anything at all to get some form of dialogue going.

“Got a few tests this week, and a report I really don’t feel like finishing, but that’s nothing new,” Melon said, absentmindedly stirring the ice cubes around in her drink with the straw.

Apricot sighed. “Yeah, me too… I can’t wait to be done with this crap. It’s so damn boring. I just wanna get out and start my career already.”

“It’s only the beginning…” Ember said in a tired tone.

Apricot gave her a small smile. “What do you mean by that?”

Ember took a drink from her glass before answering. “You go to school because that’s what they say you should do. You take the classes that they say you need to take to get the degree you wanna get. You spend thousands and thousands of bits to do everything they say you need to do, but when you graduate, you see that what they told you to do isn’t what’s gonna get you a paycheck. All the classes and crap you spent hours studying doesn’t mean shit in the real world all the time. It simply comes down to common sense and a strong sense of independence and responsibility. That’s the only thing that’ll give you a fighting chance to survive in this damn world.” She sat there looking into her glass, a look in her eyes showing she was deep in thought; a pensive frown on her beak. The whole table was silent, not sure what exactly would be an appropriate response.

“Come on Ember, it can’t be that bad,” Melon said with a slight chuckle. Ember looked at her with a glare.

“Have you ever lived by yourself?” Ember asked her. Melon shook her head ‘no’. “Then you don’t have the experience to talk then, do you? Come talk to me when you know the feeling of coming home to a dark house every single night of the week after working the whole damn day. Talk to me when you know the feeling that no one will be there to greet you or help you relax or tell you shit will get better. Talk to me when you know how it feels to dread getting up in the damn morning because you hate what your life has turned into and you don’t have a way to change it. You think school is bad? Well I got news for you, real life sucks a thousand times worse.” She stood up and began walking towards the restrooms, a very dark aura surrounding her now. Melon shrunk back in her seat with a somewhat ashamed look on her face.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen…” she said quietly.

“We know,” Blue said in an understanding tone. “You see, all she said was true though. She was extremely miserable before I moved in with her. Even for a while after I moved in she would be just plain horrid to deal with in the mornings; always angry and glaring at stuff. But as the weeks went by, she started opening up more and calming down and before you know it, she was actually coming home from work with a smile on her face. She never directly told me why, but I kinda put the pieces together on my own of course. To put it plainly, she was horribly lonely.” Blue looked at her drink as she said that last part, not wanting to look up just yet. The striking silence fell over the table once again.

“Maybe we should talk to her. You know, show her that we’re here for her now,” Apricot suggested.

“She’ll come around. It might take a little bit of time, but she will. I don’t know if she really considers you guys ‘friends’ yet so it might be a little harder until then, but we’ll get there,” Blue said, looking in the direction Ember walked off in.

“I hope so… I feel so bad for her,” Apricot said sadly.

“Yeah, me too. I didn’t know it was that bad before,” Sunny added.

“At least I’m not the only one who’s familiar with depression and shit at home,” Apple remarked. “We can at least brood on that together.”

Sunny gave him a flat look. “Brooding isn’t the way to fix that you know. The only way is to get out and spend time with ponies, just like we’re doing right now,” he said as he gestured to the others sitting around the table. Apricot, Blue, and Melon smiled at him while Scotch was sitting there, seemingly in her own world of thought. Sunny nudged her in the side. “Right?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, friendship and magic and all that, sure,” she said.

“Why you always gotta be a bitch, Scotch?” Blue blatantly asked. “I mean, come on, I know your life can’t be much better. You’ve been in school for how long now and still haven’t graduated?”

Scotch fixed her with a stern glare but saw Apricot looking at her in the corner of her eye. She let out a big sigh and looked towards the table. “Look, I know I can be a real pain in the arse to be around. Believe me, I know. I don’t mean to be such a bitch all the time, really. It’s more or less a defense mechanism I’ve developed over the years from not being very socially adept in school, or anywhere else really for that matter. I’m not used to the concept of ‘friends’ really so this whole thing is gonna take a lot of getting used to for me.”

“So long as you’re willing to put this shit between you and Ember to bed, then I think we’ll all be able to get along,” Blue said.

“I agree, all this fighting between you two isn’t getting anything accomplished,” Sunny said. “I mean, really, what do you expect to accomplish from it anyways?”

“She just pisses me off to no end and I can’t stand it,” Scotch said as she threw her hooves down on the table. “I don’t know why. Maybe because she seems to have her life together, which is way more than I can say for myself. It’s like she said, I’ve been in school for how long now and it still feels like I’m treading water.”

“Well if that’s the case, why don’t you switch your major?” Sunny asked.

“I’ve done that like three times already. I can’t do it any more without starting completely over since credits can only be transferred a certain number of times,” Scotch said in an exasperated manner, plopping her head down on the table with a ‘thud’. “I just wish I could switch lives with Ember or some shit. Just see what it’s like to even be remotely successful in something.”

“It’s not all sunshine and glitter, you know,” Blue replied. “There’s a lot of stress and other shit you don’t even realize that goes along with that.”

“Yeah, but still, I just want some kinda feeling that I’m doing the right thing in school at least,” Scotch said, lifting her head just in time to notice Ember walking back towards the table. “Shit… Don’t say anything to her, ok?” The others nodded. Ember came back to her seat and sat down without saying a word or looking at anyone. Melon coughed and took a drink.

“Sorry about that. I just kinda lost my cool for a moment,” Ember said as she finished off her drink. Apricot looked at her own drink, having only taken two tiny sips out of it thus far and mentally slapped herself for not being able to keep up with Ember. ‘You’ll never get her attention at this rate’ she said to herself. Ember glanced at her and she just gave her a polite smile in return. ‘Smooth, Apricot, real smooth…’

“It’s fine. It’s good to just let it out every so often,” Sunny said. “If nothing else, you distracted us from how long the food is taking,” he chuckled. As if the waiter was around the corner just waiting for them to mention something about the time, he trotted up carrying a large tray filled with all of their orders. Blue’s eyes got real wide and she began to salivate as the waiter set the plate down in front of her. Before it even fully left his hoof, Blue was devouring the food like it was going bad by the second. He gave her an odd look and continued to pass out the dishes. Ember gave the waiter a look that said ‘I’m sorry, we really should have her trained better’. He smiled as he continued around the table. Once everyone had their meals, he made his way to the other tables nearby.

Ember slapped Blue upside the head with a wing. “Da hell’s the matter with you? We’re in public.”

“Buh I’m hungwy,” Blue said in a muffled tone through a mouthful of food. Ember gave her another flick to the head with her wingtip. “Ah stop it, fine, geeze...” Blue slowed down her ravenous pace while the others around the table snickered to themselves.

Scotch stared intently at Ember from across the table, slowly chewing her food. She knew she said she’d try to make amends with her to the others, but there was still this boiling animosity within her towards the griffin. The way Scotch saw it, Ember had everything that she wanted herself; a house, a job, money, and most importantly, a friend. Why didn’t she get to have any of those things? Why was she stuck in school with no clear goal in sight? Didn’t she deserve to be happy too? The eventual conclusion she arrived at was no, she didn’t deserve happiness. If she did, surely her life wouldn’t be this pathetic and hollow feeling. Shooting imaginary daggers at the griffin sitting across from her, who was just sitting there eating and chatting with Apricot about whatever, Scotch deemed that if she herself couldn’t have those things, then she’d do whatever she could to take them away from Ember. Obviously she couldn’t steal her house or job, but what she could do was drive a deep wedge between her and Blue by going through with her plan she formulated back at the concert. And so the evil grin returned as the ponies around her went about their conversations, blissfully unaware.

Roughly an hour passed and the conversation amongst the group flowed from the upcoming weather schedule to how high Ember had ever flown to the rumor that the weather mare Rainbow Dash tasted like Skittles. Apricot insisted that the last one was true but the consensus of the group was that she was full of it. Apricot simply crossed her forehooves and stuck her tongue out at them. Ember had ordered several more orders of cheese sticks and received several odd looks from the others in response to the speed in which she devoured them. She certainly didn’t let that deter her from enjoying every one of them though.

Throughout the night, Melon and Apricot continued to silently communicate through looks across the table at each other. They each knew the other had their eyes on a prize and it was up to the other to help make it happen for the other; mutual crush assistance, you might say. Melon looked at Apricot, then subtly flicked her head towards Apple. Apricot, in response, wiggled her brow a few times to encourage Melon to make a move. Melon grinned and turned a light shade of red as she averted her gaze to appear inconspicuous while planning her next move.

Apple was seated directly across the table from Melon and was discussing something about foreign politics and history or something with Sunny. Melon lost interest the moment she heard the words agrarian socialist and some other terms she couldn't dream of knowing the meaning of. But she didn’t care about that. All she wanted was to get a bite of that apple. She subconsciously licked her lips as her mind wandered into steamy territory as she thought of the things she’d do to him when she finally got him alone. But, before any sexy fun times could be had, she had to get his attention and have him even notice her.

Slowly, she extended her hoof under the table, guiding it in the direction of Apple. When she felt contact with something, she began to slowly move up and down along the side of it; a sultry look now on her face. Melon was focusing on Apple, expecting him to perk up and look her direction in response to her touch, but he continued on with his conversation with Sunny as if nothing happened. A puzzled look came over Melons face as she moved her rear hoof further down the object she was rubbing and felt the curve of a paw. Immediately her pupils contracted and a huge wave of realization swept over her. She slowly turned her head to look at Ember, feeling her eyes drilling into her. Ember sat there, arms folded on the table, glaring at her; a single talon tapping on the table. Melon gave her the best ‘oopsie’ smile she could and let out a nervous chuckle as she hurriedly pulled her hoof back towards her seat. Once Ember turned back towards Blue, Melon looked at Apricot, who was simply shaking her head in a pitying manner.

Rather than try something like that again and risk getting clawed to death, Melon formulated a new plan. She sat and waited patiently for a lull in Apple’s conversation with Sunny where she could interject. Soon enough she saw her window and went for it.

“... and that’s how Equestria was made,” Sunny said with a smile as Apple stared at him in a confused manner.

“I surely don’t remember reading about it that way,” Apple replied.

“Well, you can’t believe everything you read now can you,” Sunny said.

“Nope, sure can’t,” Melon interjected. “Say, Apple, I was wondering something. How many mares have you dated?” The question clearly made Apple uncomfortable as he shifted in his seat a bit.

“Um, well, none actually,” he replied sheepishly. “I was never much of the social butterfly as you can imagine so I never really managed to muster up the courage to ask a mare out. I spent most of my free time reading and playing online games with some friends.”

“Female friends?” Melon asked, already knowing the answer.

“Heh, no. Mares usually don’t enjoy the role playing games me and my friends played. It mostly involved re-enacting historical events and political factions, stuff like that,” Apple replied.

“Have you ever wanted to play some games with a mare?” Melon asked, putting a slight inflection on ‘games’. She noticed Apricot roll her eyes.

“Computer or board games? It seems mares aren’t too interested in the kinds of computer games I’m into but I also enjoy board games. Twister was one of my favorites when I was a younger colt,” Apple said, a thoughtful look coming over him as he remembered some better times.

“Oh I could certainly get into that,” Melon said in a slightly suggestive tone. “Maybe we could play it sometime. You know, have some fun.”

“Sure! I can ask Pippin if he’d like to play too. He’s amazing at it,” Apple said with a smile. Melons face dropped as she quickly realized she was getting nowhere this way. She’d have to find a more direct approach, but not with everypony else there.

“Yeah… uh, sounds great,” Melon said, trying to hide her disappointment behind a forced smile. Apple smiled back and turned back to Sunny to resume their conversation. Melon looked at Apricot for some sign of what she should do next but Apricot just shrugged. Neither of them had experience dealing with a stallion that didn’t pick up on their subtle advances immediately so this was new to them. She may have been momentarily stumped, but she wasn’t giving up that easily. She just needed some more time to figure out what might get her noticed by Apple.

While Melon may have been temporarily out of the game, Apricot still wanted to try her luck at getting noticed by Ember. She sat there staring at the griffin sitting next to her, letting her mind fill with the thoughts of what it would be like to be taken for a flight. Ember’s wings were larger than pegasi wings so she assumed that meant she could fly faster, possibly for longer distances too. Her eyes shifted to the primary feathers and their incredible blend of fiery orange and yellows. It made her look like she was flying fast just sitting still. Ember reached over and grabbed her drink with a claw which brought to Apricot’s mind the fact that she could actually grasp things with her claws, something Apricot would like to be able to do. Magic was great and all, but even so, it looked like claws would be even more convenient. But that was a dream that would go nowhere so no point in dwelling on it.

As Apricot was pondering the utilitarian uses of claws, her eyes absentmindedly drifted towards Ember’s backside. She found it curious that only ponies seemed to get cutie marks and made a mental note to ask Ember about it someday. Did griffins have some other way of determining their destiny? Was it up to them to find it out for themselves by other means? Or did they just do what they wanted, not letting a magically-appearing butt tattoo influence who they became? Apricot was rather partial to the last one, but never knew a griffin that she could ask. So many questions filled her mind…

“Enjoying the view?” Ember asked, causing Apricot to jump back to the realization that she was staring at Embers backside with wide eyes. She immediately turned a shade of red that could rival Ember’s feathers and averted her gaze.

“Oh, uh, well, yes! I mean no! No, yes! Aw fuck me…” Apricot stammered out. Blue snickered behind a hoof while Ember continued looking at her with a raised brow and a curious expression. This was going worse than what just happened for Melon. “I, uh, was just thinking about some stuff, that’s all.”

“Did that stuff involve her ass?” Blue laughed. Apricot turned red again and sheepishly looked down.

“Maybe…” she mumbled. Blue stopped laughing and looked at her surprised, not actually expecting her guess to be accurate. Ember wore a similar surprised look on her face.

“Wait, what?” Ember asked in a puzzled tone. “Apricot, what’s going on here? Don’t think I haven’t seen you looking at me all night. I’m not oblivious to things like Apple over there.” Apple, Sunny, and Scotch were in a deep conversation about a Trixie-centric government and the implications it would have on the rest of the world, so this remark passed by completely unnoticed. “See?”

“Sorry, I’ve just never been this close to a griffin before. I mean, sure I’ve read about them and all, but to see one up close is still really cool,” Apricot replied. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything of course.”

“I get that a lot so it’s cool,” Ember said. “It’s not unusual for ponies to have a whole bunch of questions about us seeing how most of the stuff they hear about us isn’t accurate.”

“Like what?” Apricot asked.

“Like the fact that we’re all dicks. We’re not. We just have a tougher way of handling things than you ponies do. Someone pisses me off, they’re gonna know about it,” Ember said, turning a claw around in front of her, inspecting its sharpness. Apricot gulped.

“Heh, good to know,” Apricot said in a nervous tone. Ember put her claw down and looked at her.

“Look, relax Apricot. You seem pretty cool to me so I’m not gonna just up and slice you if that’s what you’re thinking.” Apricot gave her a sheepish smile at the insinuation that she’d expect Ember to hurt her, even if it was a tiny, tiny percentage true.

“I know you won’t, and my staring isn’t all out of fear. I was hoping to have the chance to get to know you better too. You seem knowledgeable about a lot of life stuff and I’ve been thinking about a lot of that lately with school starting to wrap up and all.”

“Always happy to offer some advice,” Ember smiled. Apricot relaxed some more.

“Awesome, thanks. Maybe we could get together sometime next weekend and talk about it?” Apricot held her breath waiting for the inevitable turn-down. Was she overstepping her boundaries; assuming she and Blue weren’t together? They were living together afterall. But that didn’t necessarily mean they were anything more than really good friends. Waiting for Ember’s reply felt like an eternity.

“Yeah that could work,” Ember replied. Apricot immediately perked up and her eyes brightened. “You can come by my place and Blue can cook up something.” And just like that Apricot was deflated. She was hoping it would be just she and Ember alone, but she would have to make the best out of the situation she was presented.

“Sounds awesome,” Apricot said, forcing a bit more enthusiasm than she was currently feeling. “How’s Saturday night work for you?”

“Fine with me. I’m usually home by 4 so how about you stop over around 5. Blue, that ok with you?” Ember asked, turning to Blue who was staring at Berry Punch behind the bar with a distant look in her eyes. “Yo, Coffee Flaks, snap outta it!” Ember said, snapping her talons in front of Blue’s face a few times to bring her back to reality.

“Huh? Yeah, sure, three-way, fine,” Blue absentmindedly said, resuming her stare at Berry. Ember rolled her eyes and turned back to Apricot.

“Saturday night it is then,” she said. Apricot smiled and took a sip off her drink as she looked across the table at Melon, who was grinning at her and wiggling her brow. Apricot gave her a questioning look and Melon picked up two forks from the table and began to interlock their prongs back and forth while continuing to wiggle her brow at her. Apricot stared at the forks for a moment before she realized what Melon was implying and proceeded to turn a deep red again before shaking her head ‘no’ and sticking her tongue out at Melon. Melon just smirked and rolled her eyes, putting the forks down.

“And that’s why I only take fresh muffins to the park now,” Sunny said, concluding his conversation with Apple.

Apple chuckled. “Hehe, I can definitely see why now. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind when I next go.”

“What’s all this about muffins and the park?” Apricot asked with a look on her face that told Sunny and Apple that she was completely lost.

Sunny smiled and chuckled a little. “I’ll tell you the story another time. It’s getting really late and I gotta be at the shop early to open up, so I think I’ll be headed out now. You and Melon wanna tag along since it’s on the way to the dorms?”

“Sure. Yeah, it is pretty late huh,” Melon replied, looking around at the much lighter crowd surrounding them. There were only a few tables of ponies left and they all looked like they were about ready to leave as well.

“I better be headed home too. Pippin tends to pass out in the hallway with our door open and I don’t want somepony to just walk in and take something,” Apple said as he got up along with Sunny. “You guys leaving too?” he asked Scotch, Ember, and Blue.

“Not yet, I just got this new drink and haven’t finished it yet,” Scotch said, gesturing to her mostly-filled glass.

“I’m gonna finish these cheese sticks and my drink before I go too,” Ember said. “These things are way too damn good to waste even a crumb.”

“I’m just gonna hang here til she’s ready to leave,” Blue said, gesturing towards Ember. “I mean, we’re headed to the same place afterall.”

“You sure you three will be alright alone?” Melon asked in a slightly skeptical tone.

“Yeah, yeah, the worst has blown over, right Ember?” Scotch said in the most convincing tone she could so as to not raise suspicions about her plan. Ember sipped her drink and nodded. She was too tired to bother fighting anymore. At least not tonight anyway.

“Alrighty then. Well, this was a lot of fun! We certainly need to do it again sometime soon,” Apple said in a cheery tone. It was clear the socially-sheltered stallion finally managed to relax and enjoy himself for a change.

“Yeah I agree,” Melon said. Sunny and Apricot nodded. They all waved bye as they walked towards the door and eventually outside and down the street out of sight. And then there were three…

Several minutes passed of everypony just staring at each other, no real conversation forming. Blue took the initiative and decided to talk about some of the writing she was currently working on.

“Hey, have I told you about the latest piece I’m doing? It’s about Equestria, but it’s set in this alternate reality where nuclear war has fucked everything up super bad! It’s so awesome!” Blue exclaimed. Ember rolled her eyes having heard this exact same story about ten times prior to this. Scotch wore the most uninterested look on her face as she kept working on her drink. Neither of these reactions deterred Blue in the slightest and she continued right along. “So there’s these big underground things called Stables, and they like, save the ponies and stuff. But before I get into all that, lemme tell you about PipBucks…”

Scotch looked around. With Blue and Ember leaving, it was time for her to enact her plan. She was now the last pony in the bar, save for Berry Punch herself. Berry was starting to clean the bar counter. She slowly moved her hooves, wiping a dirty towel back and forth over the bar. Her mane flipped back and forth with every move and at this late hour, at this level of sleep deprivation, and with that small amount of alcohol she did drink, it seemed tantalising to Scotch. Almost in slow motion, she saw Berry’s purple mane swing around her head. Some dirty thoughts started to populate in the back of Scotch’s mind. She wanted her.

And after all, why not? Like Sunny said, Scotch could use a pick-me-up. At least she told herself that was the reason. The real reason was to piss off Blue, who Scotch could see outside of the window talking to Ember. But she’d rather keep that reason to herself.

Other senses taking over, she stood up. As she walked in front of the bar, she looked at Berry through half-lidded eyes, causing Berry to look at Scotch, confused for a second. Scotch slowly walked around the counter, making her way towards Berry behind the bar.

“Uh, can I help you?” Berry asked.

“I dunno, can you?” Scotch replied in a sultry tone, winking at Berry.

“Well the bar’s closed if you haven’t noticed. Can’t give you anything else tonight” Berry said, gesturing to the empty tables all over the room.

“Oh I’m not interested in the booze. I’m in the mood for some… Punch” Scotch cooed as she peered out the corner of her eye to see if Blue or Ember had noticed yet. The two were still talking outside the window but weren’t looking inside. Have to get their attention. Thinking quickly, Scotch swept her foreleg across the bartop, knocking an empty bottle off and onto the ground, causing it to bounce and then shatter. This got Blue and Ember to turn her way. Now was her chance. Skipping all the romance, Scotch swung her foreleg over Berry’s neck and pulled her into a deep kiss, making sure she had a direct view of the window and Blues face. Seeing Blue looking at them, mouth agape, Scotch went all for it and gave Berry the best mouth fucking she could. After a few moments, they pulled away to pant.

“Oh… so that’s what you meant by Punch… You know what, I think I can open the bar for a few more drinks” Berry said, reaching behind herself to the bottles on the shelf and pulling a few down from the second from the top row. “You wanna do this or what?”

Scotch blinked for a second, not completely believing that this was actually going how she planned. She heard that Berry could get wild after closing, but didn’t think it would be this easy. Remembering that Blue was still staring at them, she had to act fast and do something to keep their attention. “You bet your juicy arse I do.” Scotch grabbed one of the bottles from Berry and took a big swig from it, glancing at Blue while doing so. ‘Oh this is going to destroy her’ Scotch thought to herself, a grin forming on her muzzle.

Berry was apparently growing impatient. Grabbing Scotch, she rolled her onto the bar and locked her mouth onto hers once more. Scotch was taken by surprise at being flipped onto the bar but went along with it, trying to plan ahead. Keeping up with Berry was proving to be a challenge she didn’t anticipate. Scotch craned her head back a little to get a glimpse out the window, making sure her audience was still there. Blue was pressed against the window while Ember stood behind her with her arms folded, a flat look on her face.

“What do you keep looking for? You trying to put on a show for your friend out there?” Berry asked, noticing Scotch’s constant head-turning towards the window.

“Well, yes and no. I’m trying to piss her off royally to be honest. But that’s just part of it. I’d still wanna buck you even if that wasn’t the case” Scotch replied.

“Shoulda just said so” Berry said, a grin forming on her face. “What you say we give her something to really watch.” Scotch’s eyes went wide as Berry locked her mouth against hers again and started moaning extra loudly. At the same time, she rolled herself partway onto the bar and straddled Scotch to one side, flicking her tail back and forth while stroking Scotch’s mane. Scotch was surprised for a moment but quickly got on board with the plan and smiled an evil smile before matching Berry’s moans and tail-flicking.

“I can tell this ain’t your first time” Berry grinned, breaking the kiss for a moment. “Since you’re not a newbie, let’s kick this into high gear.” Wasting no time, Berry rolled herself on top of Scotch and began grinding hard on her. Immediately Scotch could feel a wetness coating her belly. While rocking back and forth, Berry tilted her head back and took a long swig off the bottle she was holding. Setting it down beside her, she gave Scotch a wink, then started to move her head down towards Scotch’s legs. Once she was in front of Scotch’s prize, she gave Scotch one more smirk before shoving her muzzle forward, straight into Scotch.

“Oh fuck!” Scotch exclaimed, throwing her head back against the bar. It has been a long time since Scotch had actually had somepony do this to her. Now it was all she wanted.

“Thu wike twhat huh” Berry said, her muzzle still connected to Scotch. Scotch could only moan and twist with pleasure, forgetting that she had an audience outside watching everything. Berry went from just blowing air into Scotch to sticking her tongue out as far as it would go, licking at her walls from top to bottom, coating Scotch in her saliva. She tasted amazing. Pulling her muzzle away with a grin, a single strand of Scotch’s glorious secretions still connecting her mouth to in between Scotch’s legs, Berry gave a half-lidded smirk to Scotch who was laying there panting heavily.

“Why’d you stop?” Scotch asked in a disappointed tone.

“You know how this works, you gotta give a little to get a little” Berry said, turning around and laying on her back, legs spread. “Come on, get in there.”

“Calm your horses, I will.” Scotch said, rolling onto her stomach, her face a mere inches from Berry’s already thoroughly wet marehood. ‘Sure doesn’t take much to get her juices flowing’ Scotch thought to herself as she moved her muzzle closer. She swore she could smell fruit punch. Sticking her tongue out, she took a long lick from the base of Berry’s vagina, sending a shiver up both ponies spines. Berry arched her back with pleasure and let out a long moan, encouraging Scotch to get creative. Curling her tongue into an “o” shape, she stuck it in as deep as she could before letting it unfurl to its normal shape. Then, while flicking back and forth, she turned her muzzle sideways and repeated the process. Berry started to buck her hips up and down on the bar, her moans getting louder and louder, her breathing becoming more and more erratic. Scotch put one hoof under herself and began playing with her own marehood some more, still wet from the previous attention Berry had just given it. She could tell she wouldn’t last too much longer if Berry was to do what she had just done to her again. It was at this moment that she snapped back to reality for a brief moment, remembering why she was doing this in the first place; to destroy Blue. She could hear the door being pulled on and some faint yelling outside as Blue tried to get in, but Berry had locked the door already. This was just too perfect.

Deciding to really kick things up a notch, and to ensure Berry was the one to finish first, Scotch started to think of her options. She could just keep working on Berry with her tongue like she was and get her to her peak, or she could get kinky and give her the wildest orgasm of her life. Easy choice, she went with option two. While she continued to lick away at Berry’s sopping wet pussy, she loaded up a spell into her horn that she learned a few years ago. A few seconds later, a small aura of magic appeared right around Berry’s clit and began to rub it, slowly at first, but with an increasing speed. The banging on the door was getting harder; Blue might actually try to break it in. She had to pick up the pace a bit just in case. As soon as Berry felt the magic envelope her clit she nearly lost it. “Oh sweet Celestia fuck yeah!” she shouted as she bucked her hips against Scotch’s face even harder than before. “Make me cum like I was your marefriend!”

‘That’s just what I intended on doing’ Scotch grinned to herself as she picked up the pace even further, Berry’s juices sloshing out all around Scotch’s mouth, soaking her muzzle and the thighs beside. Scotch was only getting so far on herself with her hoof, so she decided to try something she never did before and split the spell in two; one on Berry, one on her. Focusing as much as she could given the sensational overload occurring, she closed her eyes and pushed the spell through her horn more. A moment later she could feel something warm and tingly enclose around her own clit. Her focus waned for a moment, the aura on Berry’s clit flickering momentarily. Scotch promptly regained her focus and got control of the spell. The warm, tingling sensation was unbelievable; there was no way she would last more than a few minutes at this rate. She continued to lap up as much of the sweet liquid pouring out of Berry as she could.

“SS-scotch, I’m gonna cummm s-sooon” Berry stuttered, her eyes flicking open and closed in rapid succession. Scotch wanted to match Berry’s orgasm so she picked up the pace on herself, inching ever closer to that glorious finish.

“Mm-me t-toooo” Scotch stuttered back, her vision becoming cloudy and her focus waning. She rubbed herself furiously, feeling the wetness soaking her thighs and running down, pooling on the bar. Any second now....

“AahhhhAAHHH!” Berry exclaimed as she arched her back, a torrent of warm liquid squirting out directly into Scotch’s mouth, taking Scotch by surprise. Scotch’s eyes widened as she pulled her muzzle back a little to inhale. Watching Berry convulse, a stream of cum trickling out of her vagina, Scotch lost her own control. With one final tug with her magic, she let go. Letting out something in between a squeak and a scream, she clenched her eyes shut as one of the most powerful orgasms she’d ever had ripped through her. She looked beneath her just in time to see a giant gush of cum squirt out of her pussy and splash over the bar. She let out a gasp as a second wave came over her, nearly as powerful as the first, unleashing another gush, splattering down the side of her legs. Her vision became blurry and her horn glow died down, a sticky residue coating the length of the spiraling shaft.

Exhausted, Scotch collapsed onto the bar, laying right in the puddle of Berry’s secretions, but she was too deep in ecstasy to care at this point. Panting heavily, her vision starting to clear up, Scotch turned her head towards the window just in time to see Ember pulling Blue away from the bar, Blue kicking and screaming inaudible profanity towards the window. Ember had a solid grip on her torso though so she wasn’t getting free anytime soon. A huge, evil grin spread over Scotch’s muzzle. It worked exactly as she wanted; Blue saw the entire thing.

“Wow… That was fuckin incredible” Berry mumbled, drawing Scotch’s attention from the window.

“Hell yea it was” Scotch replied. “Best I’ve came in months. Celestia did I need that with all the stress from damn school.”

“Heh. Glad I could be of assistance I guess” Berry smirked, rolling off the bar and nearly falling over, her hooves still very wobbly.

“Thanks again for being cool with this ‘plan’ of mine. I really owe you one” Scotch said, rolling off the bar herself and examining what a matted mess her and Berry’s coats were. “How about I help you clean this mess up?”

“Nah don’t worry about it. There’s a cleaning crew that comes in in the morning before we open for lunch to wipe the whole place down. It’s their problem” Berry shrugged. “Believe it or not, this isn’t the worst thing to happen on this bar.” Scotch looked at the bar and scrunched her muzzle a bit. This solidified her sitting at the tables rather than the bar from now on.

“Ok… Still, thanks again. You seem to be a fan of the alcohol so how about I buy you a nice bottle of liquor?” Scotch suggested. “It’s the least I could do for you helping me ruin somepony else’s dreams of being with you before me.”

“Oh so that’s what this was about. Huh, never knew little Coffee Flanks over there had a thing for me. Heh, guess I am kinda hot” Berry snickered. “Sure, that works for me.”

“Well it wasn’t to get back at her actually, I was really going after that damn pigeon she was with. Fuckin can’t stand her… And seeing how I couldn’t really think of a way to get at her, well, I went after the next best thing, her roommate.”

“How evil, I love it!” Berry grinned. “Nothing like seeing your secret crush get fucked by somepony else while you can’t do a single thing about it.”

“Exactly” Scotch replied, putting her scarf on by the door. “I’m serious about the liquor. I’ll drop it off in a few days.”

“Eh take your time, I got plenty of options in the meantime” Berry said, shrugging at the bottles lining the wall behind her.

“Heh, yeah, true. Anyways, take it easy” Scotch said as she unlocked the door and stepped out into the snow. Another evil grin spread across her muzzle as she started walking parallel to two continuous lines in the snow, right beside two paw prints headed towards her house.