Edited for grammar and structure. 21 JUN 2020

"Darling?" Rarity spoke out from the silence that followed Becky's explanation. "Please tell us you're not serious."

"Dead serious," Becky replied with no hesitation.

"No way! What are you trying to pull here?" Rainbow Scoffed. "No pony, and no pony friend-"

"They're humans, Dashy." Pinkie corrected her.

"Whatever!" Rainbow hollered back. "No, whatever you all are, could be so cold or unresponsive about something this serious."

Rainbow was quickly enveloped with a purple aura and yanked down to a rather pissed off looking purple pony princess. "Rainbow! How can you be so-"

"It's fine!" Becky stopped Twilight's scolding session. "I don't expect you all to understand what it's like for us. How someone could be so… passive and accepting of death."

Cerb felt this might be his time to step in with his prophetic thoughts.

"Where we come from, death is far too common for us."

All the pony's eyes fell upon the behemoth that was this mountain of a man.

"So, it's not that we're cold and unfeeling, or don't care enough to wear it on our sleeves. We've just dealt with it so much that we've learned how to accept it."

"Learned how to accept it? What does that even mean?" Starlight questioned his statement.

Applejack had something to say about this, as well.

"You know. I have to agree with Rainbow Dash on this one here."

All the ponies, including Rainbow Dash, turned and gasped.

"Wait? You do?" Asked Rainbow Dash, not expecting such support from her friend AJ.

"Well, it's just that…" Applejack lowered her hat, tears welling up. "Hooves down the hardest thing I ever did have to go through was having to deal with my parents-"

Applejack clenched her teeth with her eyes held shut, pushing the tears away.

"And the way I see it, no creature alive could so easily just move on or face something so horrible like this. No creature without a proper heart, at least."

Cerb's eyes narrowed, becoming rather offended at the accusation, Applejack doubled down.

"I'm sorry, ya'll. I just don't buy it."

A less than empathetic question darted across the group from Lumberman. He shot it out fast enough to cut off any interjection from his friends or the mix of shocked and suddenly angered ponies.

"How many loved ones have you buried?" He asked.

"Come again?" Applejack replied.

Lumberman took another sip from a bottle of Tequila.

"I asked you how many loved ones have you buried? How many friends or family have you had to lay to rest?"

He ignored the mixed expressions that defined just how bad of an idea it was to traverse this conversation.

Applejack stomped her hoof.

"I thought I just done explained it. Both my parents. You hard' a listening?"

Lumberman slumped back in his lawn chair.

"So, just your parents? One funeral I'm guessing by the way you phrased it. Right?"

Applejack recoiled a bit, partially from having to think back to it, but also defensively. Not sure exactly what he was trying to get at.

"Well, yes. That's right." She came out of her recoiled stance with a glare. "What about it?"

Lumberman took another sip.

"Anyone else? Hmm? Care to drop a number of funerals they've had to attend or how many friends and family members they've lost?"

No pony answered. In the silence, wondering eyes from all present waited to see what surprise responses would develop, though none seemed to show themselves. Yet, Applejack stood defiant, ready to respond to any heartless or insulting follow up this new visitor would have the guts to try and throw at her.

Lumberman took a slow deep breath as he capped his bottle, set it down next to him on the grass, then sat up, leaning forward and softly folded his hands together.

"Miss Apples. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that we are terribly sorry to hear about your loss."

Applejack nodded a bit uneasy but wasn't about to drop her southern sense of proper manners. As angry and defensive as she was, she still had enough wits to act accordingly.

"Well, ugh. I appreciate the sentiment."

"Don't mention it." He coldly answered.

His words weren't dishonest, but they lacked any real sense of emotion.

"But as much as I hate to make this sound like a competition over misery. Two loved ones among eight friends just doesn't stand up to what we've been through together."

Applejack gulped, suddenly thinking that she may have misread this situation, feeling as if she just opened up a can of worms she would have to eat.

Lumberman looked on with a thousand-yard stare, staring right through Applejack.

"Now me personally, I lost my oldest brother when I was only eight. Lost my only grandmother when I was eleven. I carried my father's casket when I was fourteen. I had a cousin die in a car accident on her nineteenth birthday because her stupid ass friend wanted to facetime with her boyfriend while driving. And in case you didn't know, those big metal things on wheels behind you-" He pointed passed where they all were sitting, to the driveway. "Those are cars. But the one she was in was smaller and going fifty-five miles an hour when it hit a bigger car from oncoming traffic."

Applejack sat with her head hung, taking her lickings as he continued.

"There's three more I haven't said yet because I 'ma save those for last. What about you Chris?"

Chris popped his head up, he'd been trying to take in as little of this uncomfortable lecture as possible. He looked at Lumberman, then to Applejack, then Rainbow Dash, then back to Lumberman.

Lumberman's steely resolve removed any hesitation from Chris and he sighed in defeat. If knowing that if death and loss were the topics to explain, his well-known story was going to be shared. So, despite his discomfort, Chris began to share his experiences.

"I've lost three of my grandparents. Each time they died in their sleep when I came to visit. Every time I was the last one to give them a hug good night. Each time I was the one who called for help because I couldn't wake them. Now I have only one grandmother left, and she won't stay in the same room as me for anything over an hour. Either she leaves, or I have to. And no more hugs goodbye."

Chris rubbed his hands together slowly, glancing over to Lumberman. Half to acknowledge he was going to go on with more, and half to protest.

"Also, when I was six, I was introduced to my new baby sister in the hospital. My mother had me hold her. We all thought she fell asleep in my arms…" Chris rubbed his hands one last time before folding his arms as if he were holding himself. "For everyone in my family who's died, I've literally been the last one to hold them."

Lumberman looked to Sniff next. Truth be told, even Sniff was a little upset at the accusations that the two horses made a moment ago. He could share the shitty history of his missing family. Maybe that would put little Miss Fruit Pony and Prism Brain in their place.

Sniff cleared his throat.

"I never met any of my grandparents. When I was fifteen, my mother told me that my father died when I was five. I had aunts and uncles, but my mom never told me what happened to them. All my family are ghosts or lost in the wind. I don't even have pictures of my missing family. I have to imagine what they must of looked like. But I'll never get to know."

Kelly was next to Sniff, so she assumed to go once Sniff was done saying his piece.

"I only really knew my fathers' side of the family. I knew one of my female cousins from my mothers' side when I was a kid. But apparently, my father said we couldn't see them anymore. I guess they were involved in drugs or something else illegal. One day I came home to my mother crying. She said something about all her brothers and sisters are gone. The rest she screamed in Portuguese… I never learned how to speak Portuguese, so I don't know what happened."

Becky eyed Lumberman, then looked away, sitting in her chair with her knees curled up. Everyone took that as her having already said enough.

Benny was next in line but wasn't about to partake in this event.

"I'm not sharing my personal experiences. Some shit ain't worth talking about."

Defiantly, Benny turned away. Whatever he wasn't sharing, no one was going to push him to do so. With that thought, Benny's tone seemed to have shifted Lumberman's goal.

"Hey, I wasn't going to ask you, man. I know better." Lumberman said as if preemptively apologizing. "Same for you, Cerb."

Actually, though, Lumberman had given more thought to Cerb's past, but not his reaction to it. Even on a good day, it was a bad idea to reopen those wounds.

"Twenty-two…" Cerb grunted out, and the numbers hit Lumberman like the unforgiving winter's air.

Kelly and Chris seemed to all but shiver at his response as well.

"Dude," Lumberman apologetically spoke and went to motion for Cerb not to continue but was cut off.

"No," Cerb protested. "I know you want to get to the last three, but I'll do all mine and cover them, too."

Knowing this was going to get overblown, Lumberman pleaded.

"Come on, man. You don't have to do this. I'm sorry I even brought it."

"No, it's fine," Cerb scooted forward in his chair, clearly agitated. "I've had enough group sessions about this. I'm good for this."

Cerb stood up, bringing everyone and everypony to a heightened sense of alert.

"Since we all haven't been properly introduced, let me fix that. My name is Justin Husk. AKA, Cerb, short for Cerberus."

Everypony's eyes immediately widened at this revelation.

"Cerberus, because I joined the world's finest military fighting force, the United States Marine Corp, Devil Dogs. The god damn hounds hell, and I led the charge. My baby brother thought he'd follow in his big brothers' boots. A damn fine Marine who went down fighting."

Cerb eyed Rainbow Dash, hard. His intensity made her shrink.

"He was the first one I laid to rest. Broke my heart knowing that he died putting his life on the line saving others, but I couldn't be there for him. Broke my mothers' heart even worse. Broke it so bad that it stopped. So, I actually had to come home to bury both of them."

These poor ponies weren't ready for this much emotional weight, but Cerb wasn't even done yet.

"For the next five years, I swore to avenge my brother. Make them pay for what they did. My brothers and sisters in arms did, too. Fourteen fell outside of my watch. Roadside bombs, ambushes from cowards hiding among their civilians that were used as human shields, snipers..."

Cerb started to grow red in the face, and his voice raised to what might have been his drill instructor from boot camp.

"All up until the last six. The last six, I was there for. The last six that died in my arms or just out of reach."

Cerb raised his hand, pointing out both Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

"And if you can't believe that shit!" Cerb put both hands up to the collar of his shirt and, in one fluid motion, ripped his shirt down the center, revealing his bare chest and stomach of scars. "Then believe the scars that should have made me number fucking twenty-three!"

Cerb removed the ruined shirt and threw it down to Applejack's hooves before he stormed off back to the house. Inside, the sound of the garage's broken door being slammed back into the frame. Over and over again, banged his hands against it, either to close it or break it. Regardless, his lashing out kept all mouths shuts on the lawn.

Everypony winced with every bang and grunt as Cerb slammed it back into the frame and bashed it with his fist.

Lumberman hid his face in his hands. In his anger over the Rainbow Dash and Applejack's accusation, he didn't think through just how sensitive of a subject this was for some of his friends. Becky curled tighter into a ball in her chair. The rest slumped over, except for Benny. He remained still, unphased by Cerb's bout of rage.

Finally, the banging stopped, but Cerb could still be heard inside the house trying not to yell out his frustrations and painful memories but failing.

Still turned away, Benny spoke up again to fill in what Cerb left out.

"Cerb didn't finish with the last three. The last three were our friends that joined the Army. They didn't make it back from the war like me and Cerb did."

He turned back towards the group with the look a man who just watch his world slip away, both literally and figuratively.

"I don't know that much about your world here, but I do know this. To us, your world is pure fantasy. You live in a candy-coated world were the biggest problems you face are wild animals that are too slow or stupid to actually catch any of you, some big baddie that tries to make you feel bad, or a villain that tries to scare all of you into letting them take over the world. And before the day is over, you always beat them with no permanent damage done or loss of life."

The mares had no rebuttal. He was pretty much right about that.

"But for us, the people we care about, dying one way or another, those are the problems and fears we face. So, no, we're not faking it. We're just really good at hiding it until we can't anymore."

Benny stood up from his chair and headed back to try and deal with Cerb.

"I'm going inside. I don't know what any of you all can do to help, but I think we're done for the day if you don't mind."

He only got a few steps passed the chair until he felt something wrap around his leg. He looked down to see a mesh of pink and two giant blue eyes looking up at him.

"Please don't be mad at Rainbow Dash, or Applejack, or anypony else," Pinkie begged. "They didn't know how bad everything was for all of you was. Honest!"

Pinkie laid belly flat on the grass, clutching Benny's leg with eyes that were even more unnaturally large than before.

Looking down into her eyes, Benny felt an odd warmth wash over him. He reached down and groomed his hand over her forehead and through her mane.

"It's okay. I get it. It's like I said." He looked back up to the gloom of pastel-colored ponies. "You all live in a fantastic world that's honestly so much better than ours could ever hope to be. Ours has so much pain and suffering. If we don't learn to deal with it, accept it, or learn how to move past it and look forward to the good things we still have left to live for…" He lowered his eyes back to Pinkie's. "Well, it would destroy us."

Benny kneeled down and pulled Pinkie's front hooves away from his leg. Of course, he could only do so because she allowed him to.

"Do you remember when you first meet your Cranky Donkey friend?"

Pinkie gasped in shock.

“You know Cranky!”

He gave a half-hearted grin.

"No, but for me and a little girl I used to know, watched you and him meet. Just like how you saw yourself on Chris's phone earlier."

"Ohhhhh, I see," she cooed.

"Do you remember how angry and sad he was because he couldn't find his girlfriend?" Benny asked.

Pinkie went into full Pinkie Pie Story Telling mode.

"Well, technically she wasn't really his special somepony. They just meet and really hit it off and then-"

Benny gently clasped his hand over Pinkie's muzzle to silence her.

"You know what I mean, Pinkie."

Pinkie grinned and shrugged apologetically.

Having silenced the belligerent pony, Benny continued to explain.

"Okay, now imagine what it's like for us. But instead of just losing track of someone, we lose them forever. And then we lose another person special to us. And it just keeps happening over and over. Some people never recover and do something stupid because they can't deal with the pain. Some people live with the pain and project it onto everyone around them. Most people, though, they just learn to focus on the good things in life. They still hurt and feel sad when they think about those they lost, but the pain doesn't hurt as much. That's how we are."

Benny looked up to Becky, who was being comforted by Kelly.

"We've had a long time to get ready for Becky's illness and what it means. But we all agreed a long time ago not to dwell on it. Instead, we agreed to look forward to all the good times we still had left and to enjoy each other's friendship as much as we could while we had the chance… I'm sure you all can relate to that much, right?"

Pinkie wiped a tear away from her weeping eyes.

"Oh my gosh, Benny. I can totally understand that. I already want to enjoy as many fun times with my friends as I can. I'm sure if I knew I was going to lose one forever, I'd be super-duper extra committed to making sure we had so much fun that we didn't have time to think about any of them leaving."

Benny patted her on the head gently before standing back up again.

"I'm glad you understand. Now have a good night."

And with that, Benny disappeared into the garage and out of sight. Only the sound of the door falling off the hinges gave away his presence. Though a faint sensation of the lightheadedness hit him again as he walked through the door.

At the sound of the falling door, Lumberman stood up and walked away from the group, taking his bottle with him.

"Hey, Lumberman. Where you going?" Chris asked, but received no response.

"Let him be for now," Said, Sniff. "He just needs to blow off some steam."

Kelly looked behind them to see where he was walking off to.

"Does he even know where he's going?"

"Does anybody?" Becky asked sarcastically.

Twilight strained her neck up to see the path he was making.

"Ugh, it looks like he's heading to the Everfree Forest. He really shouldn't be going in there alone. Or at all. I should go tell him that it's not safe."

"No, Twilight, I got this." Applejack stood up, taking her eyes away from the shirt that Cerb had thrown down at her.

"Applejack, I don't think that is really the best idea right now," Twilight tried to say convincingly.

"Nope," Applejack responded defiantly. "Had I not opened my big mouth and been so quick to judge, we could have avoided this whole ordeal."

It was clear that she was a pony on a mission to right her wrong. And if any pony could take care of herself alone in the Everfree Forest, it was Applejack. If she couldn't bring Lumberman back, should could at least keep him safe until he turned back on his own accord.

"Wait." Rainbow Dash jumped in. "If that's the case, I should be the one to talk to him. I started this."

"Rainbow," Applejack said putting a hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder. "I know what you're saying, but I pushed the issue and made it personal."

"Well yeah, but-" Rainbow Dash was silenced with Applejack's hoof to her muzzle.

"Rainbow… I brought my family into this… for the family name, I need to make this right." Applejack went right for the feels on that one, and Rainbow Dash wasn't going to fight it. Although it rubbed her the wrong way that AJ would pull that on her.

Rainbow Dash sat down, arms crossed in protest, leaving Applejack to chase down Lumberman and hopefully turn him around.

"Ugh... fine."

Rarity's voice came from behind to grab Twilight's attention.

"Twilight, darling., I'm sorry, dear, but it seems like our expertise will not be of much help at this point in time. Fluttershy and I are going to head back, give the poor things some time to… digest their situation."

She let her eyes trace their way over to Rainbow Dash, who was stewing in her own frustration and self-pity.

"And to let the emotions fall back to more hospitable levels."

An unsupervised Pinkie Pie made her way over to Becky and Kelly.

The two ladies noticed the approaching hoofs crushing the grass up to them. Becky was still curled up into herself on her chair. She turned herself enough to at least face the little party horse.

"Hi, Pinkie," She said softly.

"Hello," Pinkie replied with a big toothy smile, though her smile quickly dropped, as she turned away a bit embarrassed. "So, normally right about now, I would be throwing a Welcome Welcome Home To Your New Home Party."

"Yeah, probably not the best time for one of those," Becky said, starting to crack something resembling a smile.

Kelly moved into a position intentionally getting Pinkie's attention.

"I hope this doesn't sound too strange to say, but you look so much cuter in person."

Pinkie beamed.

"Wow! Really? What makes you say that?"

Kelly blinked, not sure how to explain herself.

"Oh, well, I mean, I used to own stores that sold toys of you. They were really cute, but you just look cuter in person."

Pinkie was enjoying the random compliments.

"Ooo. Neat! I had no idea there were toys being sold of me, but why do you keep saying I look better in person? I'm a pony. You're a person. I've never been a person, how could I be seen as a person?"

Becky snorted at the miscommunication.

"No, Pinkie, in-person means face to face."

"Really?" Pinkie then sat down, pulling a little notebook out of seemingly nowhere from behind her. "Wow. I'm learning so many people things today. I should write this down."

Kelly turned to Becky, a curious smirk growing on her face.

"Is this why people back home said that Pinkie Pie was Best Pony?"

Pinkie stopped writing, her full attention back on Kelly.

"Pinkie Pie is Best Pony? People really said that?" She gasped. "That gives me such a great idea!"

Pinkie Pie dashed over to where Sniff was still sitting, aggressively shaking his hand.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie. We haven't been properly introduced yet."

"Ugh, hello, Pinkie Bi. Call me, Sniff." He said a bit too far-gone in this madness to stop shaking her hand/hoof.

Pinkie let go of his hand, determined to make a proper introduction stick.

"No, silly. Pinkie Pie, not By."

Sniff grinned, seeing how easy the jokes were going to be.

"Oh, so you're not bi?"

Pinkie beamed with all the ignorance a pony could from not knowing the innuendos of the human culture.

"Nope."

Maybe it was his way of dealing with the stress of this whole situation. Perhaps it was just within his nature to be an ass. Though, it could have been just a way to get back at Kelly for slapping him upside the head for what he said to Rainbow Dash.

No matter the reason, he pushed the joke even further.

"Do you like eating pie?"

Pinkie, of course, gave an honest answer, still ignorant of the implications.

"Well, duh. Have you ever eaten pie?"

What kind of ridiculous question was this guy asking her? Pinkie made the best pies. I mean, she made every pie. Pie was in her name, for crying out loud.

"Oh, boy. Have I ever eaten my fair share of pie," Sniff continued with this new running gag he had created.

True, it was all too easy to make, but at least he was enjoying himself.

Chris turned to stop this conversation.

"Dude? Really? Don't. Come on."

Pinkie dashed over to Chris. Another more personal salutations had to be delivered.

"Hey! Can you show me more of your magic me thingy so I can see more of me and Maud?"

Chris reached back for his phone.

"Ugh, yeah. I have a bunch with you on here."

Stuck in mental sugar rush, she ran her words a mile a minute.

"Super! But not now. I have plans that won't let me watch me right now. Maybe tomorrow, though? Okay?"

Chris smiled, still not over how incredible this was.

"Sure, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to watch them."

Pinkie lurched forward and give him a big hug.

"Thank you! Thank you!"

She gave him a few extra squeezes.

"Wow. You're nice and soft and squeeze like Misses Cake. I like that. Errrrr!" She gave him another big hug before letting go and dashing over to Twilight.

"Hey, Twi. Are Rarity and Fluttershy heading back to town?" asked a very excited Pinkie Pie.

Twilight didn't even flinch at the sudden outburst of Pinkie. It wasn't nearly as easy to surprise this princess when she knew that Pinkie is in a state of excitement.

"Yes, there isn't much any of anything we can do here, so they-"

"Okay, thanks, Twi! Let me know if you need anything. Bye!" Pinkie then made her way back to town, passing Rarity and Fluttershy in a trail of dust.

Sniff was staring at Chris, who was still watching where Pinkie had run off from.

"Dude, you need a tissue?"

Chris snapped out of his gaze.

"What?"

Becky snorted and tried to suppress her laughter.

"More like a paper towel."

"Hey, Chris." Kelly slouched deep in her chair, spreading her legs. "You gonna invite Pinkie to a no pants party for two?"

The three of them all lost it, laughing at inappropriate levels at Chris's expense.

Chris stood up and started marching back to the garage.

"Oh, ha, ha, ha. I just had a group therapy session about my dead family and friends. Fuck off."

Just short of reaching the garage, he hollered back, "I'm drinking your vodka, Kelly."

"You can't drink away your impure feelings, Chris!" Sniff yelled back to Chris from his seat.

Chris popped his head out.

"Oh yeah, well you better think up a new nickname. There aren't any skirts in Ponyville!"

Sniff brought his hands up to his mouth like a megaphone.

"Jokes on you! They never needed skirts!"

Chris popped his head of the garage again, this time holding up the bottle.

"You're not denying it, and that's what's really important, right?!"

Kelly turned and looked to Sniff.

"So, looks like your favorite pass time just got a lot easier for you now that all the local ladies don't wear skirts, huh?"

Sniff had a huge shit-eating grin that quickly melted away as he realized that he inadvertently admitted that he'd be lusting after ponies.

In a seductive voice, Becky playfully asked, "So, Sniff. You gonna ask Pinkie about tips for dining on the local selection of pies?"

He turned to the two ladies, without a quip to come back with.

"Oh my god. You two are terrible. Chris just had a terrible experience, and you both are going to let that wounded man drink alone. I can't believe this."

Sniff slowly stood up, his legs still sore. "Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. I can't believe I call you two my friends. Chris! Don't drink alone! You need a friend! Wait for me!"

The two girls giggled and laughed with each other on the lawn, watching Sniff leave on his walk of shame. That lasted until a unicorn interrupted them with a question.

"Can I ask you both something?"

The two looked down to see Starlight.

"It's kind of a friendship question." Starlight blushed a bit and averted her eyes, feeling silly for asking them as she did.

Kelly darted her eyes down to Starlight and back to Becky, who shrugged.

"Ugh. Sure. Ask away."

Starlight stood up straight and proper.

"Okay, well, really, it's two questions. The first one is, is it normal for you all to act like this?"

"Act like what, exactly?" Kelly asked.

Despite her best efforts, Starlight couldn't hide her nervousness.

"Well, in the short time since I meet you all, you fought with each other, then you were all serious and sad, then calm, then angry and hurt, and now you're making jokes at each other. Despite the fact that this has been such a horrible day from being exploded here, then to only have a heaping pile of chaos that only my friends could create, thrown on you."

Starlight lowered her eyes to look away again, rubbing one of her hooves against the other.

"I'm sorry. I'm still getting used to the whole friendship thing. I've just never seen any group of ponies, or other creatures, get along while fighting or harassing each other like you all do."

Kelly didn't seem to understand that last bit.

"Harassing each other?"

Seeing the potential miscommunication, Starlight corrected herself.

"Oh, maybe harass isn't the best word. Well, you were making jokes and poking fun at your friend Chris until he was mad enough to leave. But then you did the same thing to Sniff, and he left, and it seemed like those two made up just as fast as you chased him away."

"Oh, we weren't actually really making fun of them," Kelly explained.

This only further confused Starlight.

"Really? I'm not trying to be rude, but it sure seemed like it."

Becky took over for Kelly.

"Well, for one, this is how we normally act. We make jokes when we go through rough times together and joke about things that bother us." There was an awkward pause, not conveying the concept well enough. "Umm, think of it as a way of coping with each other."

Starlight couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"When you're having a hard time, you cope with each other by making fun of each other instead of talking it out or hugs and the things normal ponies..." Starlight caught herself a moment too late. "... do?"

Kelly answered for this one.

"No, we do all that stuff, too. But we usually do that in private. But if we're all with each other, or out in public, we use jokes to take our minds off whatever's bothering us."

Becky readjusted herself in her seat.

"I know it sounds weird. Not even everyone back home gets it."

Starlight looked back to the garage were Sniff was partially in sight, leaning up against one of the cars that Lumberman pointed out. He was drinking from a bottle and probably talking to Chris, it looked like.

"Can't say I blame them when they storm off like that."

Kelly smiled and covered her mouth with both hands before folding them together on her lap.

"Okay, that one needs to be explained, because it's part of the game."

That brought Starlight's attention back to them.

"A game? This is a game for all of you?"

"It's called the walk away rule," Becky said with a twisted sense of humor.

"So," Becky took a breath and prepared herself for explaining the rules. "If any of us make a joke at the other's expense, they have to make a joke back without changing the subject."

Becky decided that giving an example would help her explain it better.

"So, like earlier, the subject was Chris being over-excited to get a hug from Pinkie."

With a proud smile, Kelly jumped back in.

"But Chris didn't come up with a joke to counter with, which is why we joined in."

"Soooo," Becky was drawing out the explanation to build suspense. "Since he couldn't keep the jokes going back and forth. He had to walk away. That's the rule."

Starlight could understand the core concept of the rule, though the whole idea just seemed too bizarre, and still so much she didn't understand about it.

"Okay… so when do you stop making jokes about your friend?"

Kelly continued to educate the poor, lost Starlight.

"The jokes stop if they stay away long enough. There's no real time limit on it. Generally, the funnier the joke, the more time allowed. However, if someone makes a joke that leaves them open to have the joke turned back onto them. It's called getting flipped."

Starlight didn't understand the joke, nor should she. However, she repeated as much as she could to verify how much she did comprehend.

"So then Chris flipped Sniff with a joke about getting a new nickname because there aren't any skirts in Ponyville?"

"Yep." Becky nodded. "And he knew he didn't have anything to come back with, so he had to walk away."

Starlight pondered this for a moment.

"But if the subject was being over-excited about a hug from Pinkie Pie, didn't Chris change it by bringing up Sniff's nickname and something about skirts?"

Becky and Kelly stared blankly for a moment, not wanting to give away that these were all sexual jokes about Chris and Sniff fooling around with ponies.

Becky broke first, snickering, and Kelly quickly did the same. Starlight forced a quiet laugh, still not getting where the punchline was.

Becky tried to compose herself to address Starlight again but just ended up laughing even harder.

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry, Starlight. Let's just say it's an inside joke."

Both girls continued to laugh at just how wrong and absurd all of this was. However, given all of the events of the day, the laughter got to Becky, and she fell into a coughing fit.

Kelly patted her on the back.

"You gonna be alright there, Becks?"

Becky continued to cough into her arm but managed to raise her head just enough to make eye contact and gave a thumbs up.

Starlight started to worry if this was the illness all of Becky's friends were worried about.

"Is she okay? Should I get her some water or something?"

Becky held off her coughing just long enough to fit in a request.

"No. Vodka, please."

Kelly snickered.

"Okay, party girl. You stay put. I'll grab ya something strong."

Starlight interjected herself back into a conversation as Kelly stood up.

"That actually is a great segway into my next question."

The girls looked down at Starlight, smiling and trying to look as innocent as possible.

"What is Vodka?"