Large, boisterous thunderheads blocked Celestia's sun as they rolled over the normally crisp clear midday skies of Ponyville. A scheduled storm was inbound and nopony, save for a few brave souls, was out and about. Instead, most were taking refuge inside from the impending storm by cuddling with loved ones by a roaring fire. Smoke billowed out of nearly every chimney in Ponyville, adding a layer of haze to the already darkened sky.
On a low hanging cloud somewhere near the edge of town, laid a sleek, colorful pegasus. In her hooves she held an invintation. Inscribed upon it were the words:
"With the impending scheduled storm, we were wondering if you, honored guest, would be intersted in joining a group meeting of randomly mailed ponies. At the meeting we will just make small chat or share stories of our past, happy or sad. Refreshments and small snacks will be provided.
Time: 5:00 p.m. - midnight at the latest
Location: Shiner's Tavern
If you're interested, just show up. This letter is not required. If you are not interested, then take my express apology for bothering you with this letter. Please discard this letter in the nearest waste basket, whether you are coming or not."
The pegasus lowered the letter onto the cloud, the parchment bent slightly against a slight raise. "Who sends out this stuff?" complained the pegasus to the unresponsive sky.
"I can't think of anypony who'd be interested in what this fast, cool, athletic, yet lazy, pegasus has to say. All anypony wants is tricks. Would it even be worth going?" She asked to herself. 'You have no place else to be.' her mind argued.
"Well, I guess not. Still, I could go see what my friends are doing, before I go to this 'Shiner's Tavern'. I can get hammered, if nothing else." She shot back.
(The letter in mouth, she tucked it into her mane haphazardly, the parchment crumpling into a prop. The rainbow themed pegasus spread her large, feathered wings and shot up from her temporary fluffy perch.) Having made up her mind, the rainbow themed pegasus spread her large, feathered wings and shot up from her temporary perch, with the invintation tucked haphazardly into her mane. Rainbow Dash flew through the skies of the dreary Ponyville towards Sugarcube Corner.
A sweet entrapping aroma wafted through air surronding the building in front of Rainbow Dash, and she proceeded in as a thunder rolled ominously across the sky.
"Hello, dearie. What can I get ya?" inquired a sweet voice from behind the corner. It was Mrs. Cake manning the counter.
"Hi, Mrs. Cake. Where's Pinkie Pie?"
"Pinkie? She's in the back, playing with the foals. She... doesn't like to be bothered when playing with them." responded Mrs. Cake, an expression of aphrension crossed her face.
"What is she doing later? I'm just looking for someone to pass time with, as the storm passes."
"Later? She mentioned something about heading out for free cider or something. I was half-distracted with a mess one of the foals had just made, sneaky little things they are."
"Really? Oh, well, thanks anyway."
"Anytime, dearie." A cheery smile adorned itself upon Mrs. Cake's face.
"Tell Pinkie I dropped by."
The earth pony nodded in acknowledgement of the request, before turning round and heading into a back room.
Dash turned round and proceeded out of the Corner. As she walked out into the bleak, gray Ponyville, the town clock read 4:30. Taking it as a cue to hurry up, Dash took to the skies, in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.
Wind whipped the apple trees as a multi-colored streak flew over them, leaving several branches snapped from the onslaught. Angling her wings to slow her speed, Rainbow Dash lowered to the mat in front of the door of the Apple house, on which was pinned a note.
'If you're looking for Apple family members, we decided to take the rest of the day off and head into town for something to eat. If you're looking for Applejack, she won't be back till LATE at night.'
Dash let out a sigh of utter annoyance as she read the note. "Of COURSE she's not here, just my luck." Dash kicked a rock out of annoyance at the outer wall of the house, only to have it rebound and knock her on the muzzle. "Ouch." Dash said sharply as she raised a foreleg to rub her barely bruised muzzle.
Another roll of thunder interrupted the otherwise silent farm. Finished with the note, Dash shot up into the sky and sent another gale of wind through the trees of the Apple farm. Unsure of where to go next, she decided to head to the closest friend near her. Dash lazily flew over to the library.
Approaching the door, she saw a note. A sigh of annoyance escaped her lips, "Not another no show." The note simply said: "Library closed for the remainder of the day. Went out to dinner alone."
Groaning, the pegasus pawed the ground in annoyance. "In this weather? The storm is due to drop at anytime, and my friends choose to go somewhere. Bunch of feather brains." The pegasus said to the note, to no avail.
"Well, that's Pinkie, AJ, and Twilight knocked out. Maybe that tavern idea wasn't so bad after all." she said to nothing in particular, recounting her efforts aloud. "Fluttershy is supposed to be busy nursing some sick baby deer, so no need to waste the time to go over there. I doubt Rarity would have anything interesting to do, aside from having me model, which I'm just not in the mood for."
Having knocked out the rest of her options, she looked at the town clock, which was easily visible from the library. The clock read: 4:45 p.m. "Quarter of an hour left? Eh, I doubt that 'Shiner' will care if I show up early."
At this, she took off into the streets of Ponyville. She hovered a small distance above the ground as she read signs, looking for her destination. Having never heard of it before, she had no idea where to look.
The minutes snailed past as she searched to no avail. Growing frustrated, she continued her efforts. Eventually, she found her destination. It was a decent size building, with two windows, a door, and a solid, wooden roof. The only true distinguishing feature was a sign that hung from a piece of carved wood that jutted out above the left window that read "Shiner's Tavern". Bore upon the sign was a glass being shined with a hoof towel, and a sparkle was on the edge of the glass.
Relieved she had finally found the tavern, Dash walked up to the door, raised a foreleg, and knocked firmly on it. A silvery aura of magic surrounded the handle, which turned under the arcane influence and opened to allow entrance. Dash crossed over the threshold, and once she was inside, the door shut behind her with a quiet click.
Looking around the dimly lit room, the only source of light being a few stubby candles and a smoldering fire, Dash saw a hoofful of familiar faces. Lyra, Bon-Bon, Carrot Top, Colgate, Derpy, Doctor Hooves, to name a few. Berry Punch was passed out, drunk, snoozing on the counter, near the bartender, Shiner. Shiner was a lanky and lean unicorn, with a silver coat that nearly reflected his magical aura. A small monocle adorned his right eye, which gave him an unintended air of superiority.
Dash walked up to the counter, standing next to the passed out Berry Punch, and put her forelegs up on the counter. Shiner passed a full glass of cider to her.
"Nice getup." said Dash, pointing at the monocle. She wrapped her right foreleg around the container, raised it, the cool brim touching her lips, and took a sip of sweet apple cider.
"What? This thing? I... need it, thank you. Yes, I'm aware it might make me seem to look a little superior, but I do not act that way." The unicorn said, in a trained voice reminiscent of the accents of Hoofington.
"Where you from, bartender?" She took another sip of cider.
"A small bluff outside of Hoofingtoon. I attended school there and initially worked in Hoofington. I inherited this tavern from my father when he passed on." replied the unicorn, a pang of sadness coursed through his voice.
"Well, what brought this..." Dash turned and gestured to the rest of the room, with the glass still in hoof. "gathering idea on?"
"Well, I'm relatively new here, so I figured a night of free cider, courtesy of Sweet Apple Acres, and conversation might drum up some business." The bartender sighed.
"You know the Apple family?" asked Dash, curiosity rising.
"Eyes, ma'am, he does." spoke a voice in a familiar drawl inches from Dash's left ear. The pegasus jolted forward slightly from her position, slamming the glass down, before regaining her composure. She turned and saw her orange friend Applejack.
"Applejack." said Dash as she placed her free forehoof on her chest. "Don't do that." Beside Applejack, Dash saw Twilight and the rest of her friends standing there. "Wait, you're all here?"
"Eyus, we are. Now, as Ah were fixin' to say. The bartender's daddy and mah pappy go back for some time. When Shiner here approached Big Mac with an offer of free rum on the house once a week for a year, Big Mac agreed to supply enough fresh alcoholic Apple cider, courtesy of our farm, for this little shindig Shiner has goin' on."
The rest of her friends greeted Dash individually.
"So, why are the rest of you here?"
Twilight answered. "Well, Applejack told you why she's here. I'm here because Applejack happened to be eating with her family at the same restaurant I was at. She invited me to tag along, informing me of the 'shindig', as she put it, going on. Fluttershy said she got dragged here by Rarity, under the pretense of 'getting out more', but later Rarity told us that she was coming here for some juicy gossip."
"And I'm here because CIDER. FREE cider from SWEET APPLE ACRES? This party pony is gonna be there." Pinkie Pie bounced around giddily as she explained her reason.
"Well, I went around looking for you guys, wanting to see if any of you guys wanted to do something to pass the time while this storm passes over. This was sorta my last resort." said Dash.
"Well, we're all here, so let's go find a spot to sit in." suggested Twilight, gesturing to the empty spaces in the floor.
The six of them found a spot close to the smoldering fire and laid down. Rarity moved the furthest from the fire under pretense of "smoke damage to my styled mane". Applejack responded that was a bunch of bologna, but Rarity insisted on being farthest from the fireplace. Pinkie was talking animatedly with Fluttershy. Twilight had sat down next to the fireplace. Dash walked in between Pinkie and Twilight, and tucked her legs under her, taking a moment to rest before the night's activities began.
A couple of minutes ticked by as Dash rested. Having nearly dozed off, she was awoken by Twilight. "Um.... we came here to conversate, not sleep, lazyhead."
"I'm surprised you didn't bring a book to read, egghead." Dash shot back.
"I didn't know I was gonna do this, or I might have." The unicorn admitted.
"Can't go anyway without a book, can you?" Dash verbally poked at Twilight.
"Yes I can, Dash. I am now." Twilight responded to Dash's inquiry.
Dash merely shrugged. Before she could think of anything else to talk about with the egghead, a stick hovered lazily past her face and prodded at the smoldering remains of the fire. The stick succeeded in reigniting a piece of wood, and the fire came back into full force, albeit slowly, crackling and popping gleefully.
The noise in the room, the quiet conversations, all but ceased as the bartender walked in to the middle of the room.
Shiner cleared his throat as he placed his forelegs on a podium which gave whoever was speaking a clear view of everypony in the audience. "Now, most of you know why you are here. Random invintations sent out to random ponies, inviting you to my tavern for a night of light conversation and sharings stories, true or not." The bartender's voice rang out across the silent landscape of ponies that he had managed to accrue.
"Now, which of you Ponyville denziens would like to go first?" His voice rang out once more.
A few ponies shifted their shoulders, apprehension crossed their faces at the idea of being the first pony of the night to share a story.
