Five Score And One For The Road
Chapter 36: Epilogue. Home (Where Everypony Knows Your Name)
Previous Chapter“Ruby? Dinky? Dinner’s ready. Did you want to eat here?” Aura's Mom asked us.
I looked around at all the half-finished dolls then up at Dinky. We had completely lost track of time!
“Oh. No, I had dinner plans. I better get home,” I insisted as I started gathering up all my supplies I absolutely didn’t want to misplace before throwing my bag on. Dinky did the same and Aura walked us to the front door.
“Goodbye, Aura! Goodbye, Dinky!” I hugged them both goodbye. “We’ll keep working tomorrow!”
It was going to be the most accurate Hearth’s Warming ever this year! It had to stay a surprise though, they were some of the presents after all. So, I headed home, unable to talk about what we did tonight in any specifics.
“Just playing,” I practiced aloud with an innocent smile to nopony but the dirt road. There was a slight chill in the air and I loved it for being different. The walk home was otherwise, mostly, uneventful. We lived a little ways out, but that worked out best for everypony. Soon enough, I spotted Dad and his partner up on the balcony next door.
“Hi Dad! Hi, Saucer!” I waved up at them. They stopped talking and waved back. I liked Flying Saucer. He was a little reserved like Dad, but they really clicked.
“Hey, Rubes! You just now comin’ home?”
“Yeah. I lost track of time!” I apologized and headed straight into the other house.
“Mooom! I’m home!” I called out while I took my bag off. The only thing I was greeted with was the dim coals of the fireplace and the aroma of the stew simmering over them.
Mom was out late? Again?
I huffed and checked on the food while I was here. I telekinetically removed the lid and fetched a prong to poke-check on the zucchini and eggplants I cut up earlier. Panfrying them first was the right call. I tentatively pierced and tried one. The red wine had also really deepened the flavors and the herbs were all present. It was the best stew yet!
I checked for any dirty dishes.
No, Mom definitely didn’t already eat without me. Disappointed that I couldn't eat immediately, I trudged back outside.
“Daaad??” I called out to him. I interrupted them again but they didn’t seem to mind. “Do you know where Mom went?”
“I think she’s still at the bar,” he explained.
I don’t know why I asked.
“You want me to go with you to get her?”
“I’ll be fine.” I would enjoy the walk anyway. “You wanna come eat with us? They’ll be plenty!”
“Sounds good. We’ve been smelling it all day!”
“I’ll be right back then!”
I headed off to the center of town. It was a straight path and just the right amount of walk from the further houses like ours into downtown. Most shops were empty now but ponies were still cheerfully mingling in the streets as usual.
“Pinchy!” Minuette cheered. She jumped out from a group of ponies chatting and surprised me. It was a pleasant surprise.
“Hi, Minnie! Have you seen Mom lately?”
“I sure have! She’s at the bar having a great time.”
“She’s been spending a lot of time there lately.”
“Can you blame her? Ever since -oh!” Minuette cut herself off and felt her sizable belly. “Oh! The foal kicked! Did you see that??”
“I did!” I exclaimed and gently pressed a hoof there. After a moment I felt it kick again!
“It must be any day now,” I agreed with the general consensus of everypony. “I’m so glad you’re having the foal over there. Nice sterile hospital, an epidural, a human birth certificate.”
“No kidding. We lucked out on the timing!” Minuette crushed me against her side in a big hug. “My parents are going to love it!” Minuette started trotting off to her house. “We’ll see you tomorrow!”
I waved goodbye before I continued to the bar. I could hear the ponies in it cheering and laughing from several shops away. It sounded busy tonight.
I looked up at the sign I painted myself before entering the establishment: Berryshine.
Mom was in her usual spot behind the bar. She seemed to be the life of the party more than normal tonight.
“Then I told her I knew she could! And she could too! But gosh, I hated seeing that little face sad. I told her she just had her plate full already: Growing up again, playing, just being my filly.”
The crowd in the bar awwed before Mom’s eyes noticed her new patron: me.
“Ruby!” Mom cheered. The ponies in the bar all turned and cheered as well.
“Pinchy!” I was technically a regular, since Mom owned the place. There were a lot of new ponies tonight. Probably because of the portal opening.
“Oh my gawd! Ruby! You’re so ador-aaaah!” a dark blue pegasus in a hoodie greeted me right as she fell off her barstool. She laughed. “I’m okay!”
The very fuzzy orange stallion and white earth pony mare she was sitting between both helped prop her back up. The white mare wasn’t much better on her hooves. The two mares bumbled into each other and toppled onto each other on the floor in a fit of giggles. There were a lot of glasses to wipe behind the bar. I wouldn’t be surprised if those two drunk mares didn’t put half of them away together.
“Silly birb,” a colorful changeling sitting off to the side murmured to her friend who nodded and smiled in agreement.
Mom walked around the bar to double-check the two were alright before turning her attention back to me.
“Pinchy, how’s that secret project going? Did you finish?”
“Not yet. But the street lights are on and you promised you’d be home early tonight.”
“Oh no. Is it really that late already??” Mom asked. “I’m sorry. I lost track of time.” Mom scratched her short, curly mane while she looked over all the ponies still in the bar. Finally she just shrugged. “Alright, everypony! It’s closing time! Thanks for drinking all my alcohol and listening to me ramble.”
Most of the ponies gracefully left. Most of them.
“Heeeey, Berry,” the pegasus who had too much alcohol muttered as she pulled herself to her hooves with the stool. “Your story… was great! You really oughta write it down!” She climbed onto her stool and reached for her glass only to find it had ‘mysteriously’ disappeared.
Mom thought about the drunk mare’s idea before shaking her head. “No. That’d be silly. Nopony would read that; we all have a story.”
It took the pegasus a moment to remember what she was talking about. “No but… uh…” she struck the bartop with an idea. “I’ll write it for you then!”
The white mare with her was petting her mane and shushing her. “Ssssh. I think we’re causing a scene.”
“Oh? I’ll cause-a scene alright,” the pegasus said with a drunk smirk on her face. “How ‘bout I tell’em your story??”
The pegasus nickered into her white mare friend’s ear and her face turned as red as Mom’s coat.
The stallion cleared his throat to interrupt.
“Hey, Barkeep?” the fuzzy orange stallion called while he strapped some kind of butterfly wing device on. “What would you say for ‘one for the road’?”
“Hmm…” Mom considered that as she slowly walked back towards the bar. “...Okay. But I get to pick it. who wants in?”
There was a round of cheers.
“Mom!” I scolded her. I followed her around the bar, surprised she would do this. I saw that gleam in her eye as she reached for one of the bottles under the counter. I rolled my eyes.
“Hay, Carrot? Can you get this for me?” Mom asked Carrot Top who had been quietly sitting there sipping on a red drink before she plopped the bottle down in front of her.
“I can but I can’t stick around,” she said before she bit down on the cork. Meanwhile, Mom sat out glasses for every patron who stuck around and wanted in on the bartender’s choice last call. Just in time for Carrot to uncork the bottle and sit it down on the bar.
“Alright. Good night,” she said as she slipped off her stool.
“Hay, where’s my tip?” Berry teased as she poured the first glass by rolling the bottle over one foreleg with the other.
“My tip is go easy on the grenadine. More ginger ale.”
“Haa ha… I’ll remember that,” Mom said just as she finished pouring the last: one for herself. She sat the bottle down. “Hay, Carrot? Thanks for helping me tell that, uh, that one part.”
Carrot stopped leaving to turn back to her friend. “Of course. You’re welcome, Berry Punch.” She smiled. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I have to get to bed. I should’ve been baking today! I want to get all the ovens up to temp tomorrow morning before Marco Pollo starts squawking.”
“Good night, Carrot,” Mom called to her friend.
“Night, Carrot!” I repeated.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow at the portal -with a whole convoy of baked goods!”
“Do you want anything else from the other side?” Mom asked.
“Just my seedlings. Don’t forget!” Carrot Top said. With that, Carrot headed out and Mom turned back to her remaining patrons.
“Alright, ponies. A toast!” Mom said as she raised her glass. “...to home!”
“To home!!” The ponies cheered in various degrees of slurred speech before drinking. I smiled.
“Wow,” the orange stallion complimented after his drink. “That’s amazing. You can’t even taste the- …” he sniffed it. “This is juice… oh! Is this from your own field??”
“It is! The vineyard just started maturing!” Mom beamed so proudly. “Ruby and I stomped these ourselves!”
“That’s so awesome. Good on you, Berry,” the stallion said before dumping a pouch of Crystal Empire bits on the counter. “Alright. Well, fly safe, Cloud!” he said before bearhugging the drunk pegasus and heading out. Mom watched his tail as he left.
“Nodda nuff-a those ‘round, huh?” the hugged mare mumbled. Mom nodded.
I rolled my eyes.
“Hey, Cloud?” the drunk white mare asked before getting assaulted by ‘Cloud’ nuzzling her. “You-you got a place to stay?”
“Yes!” Cloud cheered before pulling the other's hoof. “Spectra, Come’n! I’m crashing at Sleet’s place! You’ll love her and her herdmates!” The last two drunk patrons started heading out, practically carrying each other.
Mom smiled as the last two ponies left. Then, turned to me. It was just the two of us now.
“Alright. Let’s go,” Mom agreed.
We doused the hearth and plunged the bar into darkness before heading back out into the chill autumn night. We both reflexively glanced up at the moon. In less than twenty-four hours, it’d be full for the thirtieth time. Mom sighed satisfied.
“So, how’s dinner looking?” she asked.
“It smells amazing! And you were right: frying the vegetables up first helped a ton.”
“Did we cut them up too small?”
“Just right, I think!”
“Good, good. I was thinking we could tear that stale loaf up, toss it in for dumplings? Use it all up before we go.”
“I invited Dad and Saucer over to help us eat it all.”
“Perfect,” Mom agreed. We slowly started heading that way but Mom was dawdling. She looked back at the patrons leaving.
“Are you staring at that stallion again?”
“No, well, yes,” Mom struggled. “That white mare too. She seems familiar,” Mom took a second to rephrase herself. “I was just thinking: you think Nathan will still want to stay?”
“I can’t see why not! He’ll be really proud of you with the bar too.” I agreed. “That’s not it, is it?”
Mom laughed. “No. You know me too well,” she admitted. “Do you think… Mom will recognize me?”
I nuzzled Mom’s face and she nuzzled mine back. It was going to be a lot for her but we promised to visit.
“I think so. She’s still Mom. We’ve changed a lot, but for the better. She’ll be proud of us.”
“...yeah,” Mom agreed then smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m being a silly pony.” Mom’s pace picked back up with her smile. “Alright, Pinchy: let’s go home!”