Heart of Courage

Need… water. Twilight Sparkle’s brain mumbled to her as she forced her eyelids open against their will. Not alone in their protest, her eyes burned with an angry fire, now completely red around her irises. The muted light in the room was more than powerful enough for the unicorn to concede to her pounding head’s demands and seek the comforting darkness underneath her pillow.

Why is my pillow heavy? Twilight’s muddled mind thought as she fled the light. Why is it so warm? What the hay, did it just move on its own? She shot up and opened her eyes in fear, their sensitivity ignored as her fight-or-flight response took precedence. It took a few powerful blinks before Twilight’s brain remembered how to focus her vision, but eventually she realized what she had slept on last night. Socket Wrench?

The butterscotch pony lay curled up on her side, her back facing Twilight as her chest rose and fell rhythmically. Every few seconds, her wing, along with one of her ears, twitched as the result of some faraway dream.

The unicorn stared at her friend for a long minute while her mind rebooted. Slowly, but surely, her thoughts became more clear and concise. That usually would have been a good thing, but as she sluggishly became more aware, her confusion continued to rise. Twilight sensed something draped on her coat and when she studied herself, she saw that instead of her uniform, she wore regular pony clothes. The cute outfit she wore sparked a few snapshots of memories in her mind, but Twilight still felt that much more had transpired in the last twelve hours. What happened last night?

Looking around, the lavender unicorn took in her surroundings. She currently sat on her haunches in the middle of a large, nearly cloud-like blanket; a comforter of sorts crumpled on the floor. In front of her, Socket lay curled up, wearing civilian pegasus attire from some designer she didn’t know. Looking across the room, she realized that the source of the ambient light in the room came from a wall-to-wall display of Midnight City below, albeit from a different view than the one in Deval Aldridge’s office. Lines of flying vehicles crisscrossed the sky at different altitudes creating the threads of commerce that gave the city its life.

In front of the view screen stood a work desk, its surroundings littered with assorted papers, writing instruments, and a few books. The culprit of the mess apparently did not make it very far; Twilight realized that laying on top of the desk, with his head hanging off and tongue lolling out of his mouth, was James Fletcher. It felt strange seeing him wearing anything but his uniform, but the captain now also wore normal clothes. On the floor underneath James’ head, a puddle of drool grew steadily larger, leaving a thick watermark on an official-looking document.

Far to the left to the desk, a large king sized bed took up half of the adjacent wall. Well, that explains where the comforter came from. Twilight considered as she tilted her head to see above the footboard. In the center of the mattress, Deval Aldridge lay sprawled on his back, still wearing the dark colored clothes he wore yesterday. Surprisingly, all of the blankets remained folded neatly into the sides of the bed. His head rested on a lone white pillow, though the bed looked like it should have been large enough to fit two more.

As if sensing the unicorn’s stare, Deval leaned his head up and gave her his characteristic smile. “Good morning, Twilight Sparkle,” he said with absolutely no indication of a hangover. He seemed to enjoy the exhausted look on Twilight’s face before he let his head rest once more on his pillow.

I have a feeling no one will ever really understand that human. Twilight shook her head with disdain. Unfortunately, she quickly regretted that decision as a spike of pain lanced through the back of her brain, reminding her of the terrible hangover that her body would have to deal with soon.

Once the pain subsided, Twilight continued scanning the room even though it seemed to raise more questions than it answered. Off to the right of the cityscape, a large brown reclining chair resided in the corner. An overhanging lamp above and two tables of old paper-bound books on either side made it look like a great place to relax and read. Currently though, the recliner’s only occupant seemed to be too preoccupied with waking up than enjoying a good novel.

Curled up around a large fluffy pillow, Victoria Schaefer mirrored Twilight’s actions as she slowly glanced around the room. The human’s blonde mane, usually brushed immaculately, hung loosely across her face in a tangled mess, and her dress was clearly creased beneath her long legs. Victoria’s tired eyes finally found Twilight’s red ones. Wordlessly, the two females both asked the same thing: What happened last night?

With a loud groan, Victoria pushed herself out of the recliner and stood up to her full height. Rising on her tiptoes, she stretched her arms high in the air, letting out a quiet squeak. She ran a hand through the tangled mess of her hair before walking towards the wall behind Twilight.

Twilight’s body chose this time to remind her of its intense craving for water. Oh my Celestia, I need water now! Stumbling to her hooves, the mare turned to see Victoria disappear into a large and ornate master bathroom. She quickly followed the blonde maned human and reared up to reach the second sink, next to the one occupied by Victoria. Both pony and human spent several long seconds gulping down cool, refreshing, liquid life to satiate their bodies’ thirst.

A sound from behind Twilight caused her and Victoria to freeze, halting their voracious consumption of water to try and find its source. Her eyes locked onto the one thing that probably did not belong in this bathroom; a pair of human legs clad in dress pants, dangling out of the edge of the bathtub. Sharing an inquisitive glance, Victoria and Twilight walked over to investigate.

Inside of the bathtub lay Isamu Zhang. His head rested on a comfortable-looking pillow as he stared up at the two females with disdain. “What did you two do to me? I can feel my heart beating in my head.” Isamu croaked.

“You don’t remember?” Victoria asked quietly. Her face grimaced with every raspy word.

“I remember a few things.” Isamu grumbled as he began pulling himself out of the tub. Twilight and Victoria helped him to his feet before he quickly headed for the sink to gulp down water.

Twilight thought hard about the events of the previous night. “I remember a little bit as well, but I keep drawing blanks throughout the party. I don’t remember everything”

Victoria walked to the sinks and pulled open a few drawers before finding a hair brush which she began using immediately. “Same here. One thing is bothering me though. Everyone is here except Dmitri. Do either of you remember where he ended up?”

Twilight and Isamu exchanged questioning looks, water dribbling down the human’s chin “No idea.” Twilight answered.

“That is a problem. Dmitri out by himself… it’s not a good thing.” Victoria had managed to force her hair to relax into a semblance of a normal hairstyle. “Let’s see how the others are faring.” She turned and smiled at Isamu and Twilight before leading the pair back into the bedroom. During the conversation in the bathroom, their voices must have been loud enough to awaken the rest of the group. Socket Wrench and James Fletcher were both studying their surroundings as they fruitlessly tried to piece together what had happened, and Deval Aldridge stood next to his bed stretching out his leg muscles.

“Good morning, my friends.” Aldridge chuckled at the disheveled appearance of everyone in the room. “I haven’t had that much fun in a long, long, time. In fact, I don’t think I have ever had a night where I could not remember everything that happened.”

“Too bad we also have the same problem.” Isamu ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“Deval,” Twilight asked the dark-skinned human, “do you know where Dmitri is?”

The outlier let out a loud laugh causing everyone else to involuntarily flinch in pain. Then he simply raised a finger and pointed up. Five pairs of eyes rose to look at the large vaulted ceiling above. In the center, hung an impressive chandelier carved out of crystal. Though its beauty was captivating, what caught their attention was hanging below the chandelier.

“That is… interesting.” Isamu mused aloud while Victoria and James stared openmouthed.

“Wow.” Twilight sat on her haunches to get a better picture of the scene. Dangling below the expensive-looking chandelier like a large, distended cocoon, hung Dmitri wrapped head to tail in a white bed-sheet. Or probably several bed-sheets from the look of it.

Dmitri’s neck and head were the only things visible from the cotton cocoon around him as he slowly rotated in a circle, blown by a nearby air vent. The brown-coated earth pony let out a deep throaty moan while he blinked a lone half lidded eye. Swollen and blackened from a large bruise, his other eye remained closed. “Ugh, please get me down from here!”

Socket Wrench broke the tension with a hearty chuckle. Twilight let out a giggle at the earth pony’s predicament while across the room; James stared at his second in command with fascination. Meeting Twilight’s gaze, he cleared his throat before speaking. “Twilight, what do you remember from last night?”

Raising a hoof to scratch her chin, Twilight Sparkle wracked her brain for details. “Well to start, I do remember now that all of us changed into civilian clothes to avoid any incidents with the locals and our UEN uniforms. Then, Deval led us to Elysium….”

“Two glasses of sparkling wine from Saumur for the beautiful mares in front of me.” A handsome unicorn bartender smirked at Twilight Sparkle and Socket Wrench as he served the two ponies. “Excellent choice if I may add. Saumur is known for all types of wines.”

“Thank you, monsieur.” Socket Wrench beamed at the unicorn pony as she scanned a card over a sensor, and input a generous number for a tip. The bartender bowed his head in thanks before moving on to the next customer.

Socket smiled at her friend. “Bartending is hard work. Showing a little gratitude will get you a long way with ponies in jobs like his. I just paid for good service and even better drinks. Welcome to the future Twi… oh, I mean Moondancer!” She winked at her friend and held her glass up. Twilight, with a slight amount of concentration, raised the delicate flute with magic. The two ponies laughed and clinked glasses before taking a liberal sampling of the wine.

“Wow,” Twilight stated as her taste receptors went wild, “that is very good!”

Socket smiled, taking another sip. “This is my favorite wine from the colony. Hey, I have an idea. After we take you back home and end the war, how about we get the gang together and go on vacation to Saumur? We can relax by one of the beaches and also go wine tasting!”

Twilight answered by raising her glass for another clink which Socket mirrored immediately. “It’s a deal!” As she took another sip of wine, Twilight noticed an earth pony mare climb onto the bar seat next to her out of the corner of her eye. Normally, she wouldn’t have paid any attention to the stranger as she couldn’t keep track of the hundreds of sentients in the bar, but a familiar voice caught her ear.

Setting her glass of wine down, Twilight glanced at Socket who returned her inquisitive stare. Without saying a word, the two ponies covertly sized up their neighbor while pretending to scan their surroundings. Though the mare herself wasn’t familiar in any way, Twilight and Socket snickered when they realized who she was conversing with.

“Da, I am privileged doctor from Kane system. Here on business trip but I find time for relaxation.” The thick accented voice from Dmitri Bearclaw drifted over to the two giggling UEN ponies nearby.

“Oh, very interesting!” The mare had a pleasant, surprised look on her face. Whatever she saw in the brown-coated earth pony in front of her was lost on Socket and Twilight.

Glancing back to make sure her friend had a good look at the spectacle in front of them, Twilight saw Socket Wrench stick her tongue out and make a face as if she had eaten something foul. The lavender unicorn had to cover her mouth with a forehoof to keep from laughing out loud.

“Then you must know Doctor Penicillin; head of medicine at Headley Memorial,” the mare pressed upon Dmitri. Socket and Twilight shared a wide-eyed look before quickly turning to see Dmitri’s reaction.

For his benefit, the brown earth pony’s features only flashed fear for a split second before he answered. “Of course! I met him earlier today actually.”

Regrettably for him, the mare caught his lie. “Doctor Penicillin has been off world for a week now. He has been distributing vaccines for feather flu in the Freya solar system.” Before Dmitri could open his mouth to recover, the mare stood, scoffing at his dumbfounded face before sauntering away.

Watching her leave with a heavy sigh, Dmitri glanced upwards to see Twilight Sparkle and Socket Wrench laughing at his predicament. With a grumble and a roll of the eyes, the stocky earth pony stalked off to search for a new target.

Socket Wrench downed the rest of her wine between giggles before waving at the bartender who quickly ran over. “Could my friend and I have two rum and cokes? Top shelf rum and make them triples please.” She beamed a sunny smile at the unicorn pony.

“Right away, miss!” The bartender called out as he immediately went to work.

Finishing her wine, Twilight’s glass joined Socket’s on the bar top. “Triples?” She asked with disbelief.

Socket shot her a mischievous smirk. “Oh, yes.” Just then, two large glasses swirling with ice, rum, and coke appeared on the bar. “Thank you, darling!” The butterscotch pegasus tipped him again with her card before sliding off her seat. “Moony,” Socket said with a wink, “could you grab the drinks? I can see James and Deval at a table over there.” She pointed across the club with one of her wings.

“Ha, ha. Very funny.” Twilight sarcastically replied. She used her magic to lift both rum and cokes before following the pegasus. “I’m right behind you.”

“After that, my memory gets fuzzy. I can thank that rum and coke, Socket ordered for me.” Twilight stated while reading the breakfast menu for the restaurant on the roof of Deval’s place. Across the table, Socket Wrench gave her an innocent smile. “I just need one of you to jog my memory.”

“Well, I can help you there.” Isamu Zhang did not even try to hide the regret he felt for drinking so much the night before. “Do you remember the shots we took?”

“Oooo, yes!” Yelled Socket, earning her a few glares from those who still had headaches.

Twilight smiled over at Isamu. “Ah, yes. The shots.”

“Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!” Four humans and three ponies led the chant as a tableside bartender shook a silver mixer behind a row of seven small, empty glasses. Even Dmitri, whose face was freshly soaked from the drink after overstepping his bounds during a failed flirting attempt, yelled excitingly while wiping vodka from his eyes. Enjoying the attention, the human bartender made a flashy show of mixing and pouring his customer’s drinks.

As a cool blue liquid flowed from the silver mixer and into the line of glasses, the human called out, “and seven snowdrop shots!” Then he slid each glass to a member of the table.

Deval Aldridge raised his glass first but he was quickly joined by everyone else. “To the end of the war!” He paused for a moment as everyone watched him intently, waiting for him to continue. “To the end of the war so we can do this again whenever, wherever, and however many times we like!” A chorus of cheers erupted around him and everyone tapped their shot on the tabletop before downing it in a gulp.

“Wow!” Twilight stuttered after she daintily set her empty glass down. Cold shivers ran up and down her spine as the snowdrop shot made its way to her stomach. “That was strong, yet oddly refreshing.” Twilight took in a deep breath of what felt like frigid artic air, making her feel invigorated and energized, even if her previous drinks had begun to cloud her mind.

Across the table, James chuckled at Twilight’s shivering while he fought his own response to the chilling alcoholic concoction. Looking over at the bartender, James raised his voice to be heard over the music. “Seven sonic rainboom shots please!” The bartender nodded and deftly pulled fresh glasses from behind his mobile bar table as he went to work.

Twilight watched in amazement as the human held four bottles of various colored alcohols with his right hand, and three more with his left. By rotating his wrists, he was able to lightly pour layers of different colored liquors without mixing them, leaving behind a shot containing all the colors of a rainbow.

As each shot reached its owner, James cleared his throat. “Moondancer and Deval,” he started but had to pause for the drunken chuckles from the table at Twilight’s new name. “The officers of the Rainbow Dash have an unofficial tradition where we order a round of sonic rainboom shots whenever we are lucky enough to have shore leave. Now, neither of you are formally part of the crew but I think extenuating circumstances come into play here.”

James now looked across the table at the lavender-coated unicorn. “Twilight Sparkle,” he spoke quietly enough to avoid being overheard by the busy bartender cleaning up his workspace. “You’re my unofficial battle mage and your actions have saved multiple members of the crew as well as the ship herself. We wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for you.”

Now, the captain’s gaze fell upon Deval Aldridge. “Deval, I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if you didn’t agree to help us. I may not see eye to eye with you on everything, but you have my sincerest thanks.” The dark-skinned human nodded his acknowledgement to Fletcher while his ever-present sly smile played mysteriously on his lips.

James Fletcher raised his glass, an action mirrored by the rest of the table. “Allow me to quote a saying from Old Earth.” He collected his thoughts before continuing. “A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.”

The four humans and three ponies knocked their glasses together with a clink and once more, seven shots vanished down the hatch. It was a good thing that Twilight had managed to quickly drink all of hers, because it did not take long before the sonic rainboom shot took effect. Very quickly, a fiery sensation flooded her mouth as if she had just eaten a spoonful of cinnamon. Her chest and stomach heaved painfully making her feel like she had been apple-bucked. While reeling from the drink, Twilight rubbed the tears from her eyes and she became aware of the sweat soaking the fur on her face and neck. “Those hit hard!” She managed to squeak out.

Around the table, the other ponies and humans also reeled from the effects of the sonic rainboom shot. Dmitri seemed to have the weakest reaction as he only had a few tears in his eyes while he laughed at everyone else. Though, those tears might be from that drink thrown into his face, Twilight thought with some amusement. Next to him, Victoria waved a hand at her lolling tongue, trying to cool it off, while Socket Wrench tipped her empty rum and coke glass upside down to pour some of the ice into her mouth. James and Deval both sat back in their seats, neither willing to show any reaction even though sweat coursed down their faces. Finally, Isamu kept himself busy by gulping down large quantities of whatever drink he had ordered earlier.

“Da, little pony!” Dmitri grinned at her as he slurred his words. “They are ssshtrong now, but jushhht wait five minutesssh and you sheee how shhhtrong they really are!” The earth pony leaned his head back, laughing loud enough to attract a few annoyed stares from nearby tables.

Twilight’s ears drooped and her eyes grew impossibly wide as she slowly averted her gaze back down to the empty glass in front of her. Uh Oh…

“I have to say,” Twilight managed to mumble around a mouthful of some of the best oat pancakes she had ever had. “Dmitri, you were right. Those shots hit me five minutes later, almost to the second.” Swallowing that bite, she wasted no time replacing it with more syrupy-soaked-heaven-on-a-plate.

Victoria dabbed a napkin to her mouth before speaking. She still refused to act uncouth even if she battled hangover-induced hunger. “I still don’t know why we take those shots. The same thing happens to us every time. Remember what Albert Einstein said? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

James set fork down with a grin before motioning with an open hand. “Victoria, we serve on a patrol frigate, a class of ship that has the highest casualty rate of any spacecraft, civilian or military. I’m pretty sure we are insane by definition.”

The blonde maned human nodded her head in agreement. “Touché, James.”

Twilight took advantage of the lull in the conversation to gesture at the waiter in order to replenish her dwindling supply of water. While he filled up her glass, she let her mind wander about last night for a short moment before she came across a memory that made her immediately burst out laughing. The mare glanced around the table at the curious expressions staring back at her. “I just remembered something. Did anyone see how Dmitri got his black eye?”

At mention of the swollen side of his face, Dmitri lightly touched it with one of his hooves, only to flinch and groan from the pain. “Ouch! I feel like I got hit by train.”

Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof while giggling. “At the time, it looked really painful, but I guess alcohol helped deaden the nerves.”

“That sounds like Dmitri’s usual treatment for anything,” James managed to get out around a mouthful of scrambled egg. Swallowing before continuing, the human cleared his voice and began an imitation of Dmitri’s Stalliongradian accent. “Broken leg, need cast you say? Nyet, just give me vodka.”

Dmitri glared at the laughing humans and ponies sitting around the table with his lone, healthy eye. “Da, very funny.” The earth pony waved a foreleg in the air nonchalantly, but flinched when his hoof brushed against the swollen skin on his face. This resulted in another wave of laughs from the table.

“So Twilight, how did Dmitri get that shiner?” Socket Wrench asked with a wide grin on her face.

“It happened after those shots, while we were out on the dance floor.”

Twilight, Socket, and Victoria twirled, spun, and shuffled in their corner of the dance floor to a thumping, electronic song. To Twilight, every dance melody seemed to blend into the next one, leaving no clear beginning and ending. In time with the beat and the flashing lights, the purple unicorn reared her front legs up before dropping down and kicking her back right leg out. I am the best dancer on the floor! The mare thought, not even realizing that it just might have been the shots talking.

With a big smile plastered on her face, she watched Socket dance in front of her. The pegasus used her wings to backflip and spin around in a series of moves that would have been graceful if the mare hadn’t gone drink for drink with Twilight. Next to her, Victoria twirled around on her two legs; a feat still amazing to Twilight. How can humans do that so easily? The blonde-maned human shifted her hips around while holding a drink in one hand, and pumping her other in a fist to the music’s beat.

Glancing behind her, Twilight could see James, Isamu, and Deval engaging one another in an argument at their table. The trio’s clumsy movements and glazed eyes indicated that the sonic rainboom shots had taken effect. James’ gestured to Deval with an open hand while speaking, though Twilight couldn’t hear anything being said over the music. He must have said something funny because the three humans broke out in laughs before reaching forward to clink their drinks together.

Twilight let her eyes roam the sprawling dance floor of Elysium. Large enough to hold a couple hundred different sentients, she tried to pick out the remaining member of the group. Scanning the teeming masses, she caught sight of a familiar brown-coated earth pony. Dimitri had resumed his hunt for a mare to dance with, but his lumbering gate told her that the shots affected him more than he had let on earlier.

On the raised level surrounding the floor, Dimitri sauntered drunkenly up to a lone pegasus mare who had been watching the crowd while lightly bobbing to the music. Like before when she watched the three human males, Twilight couldn’t hear a word being said between the two. But from the shocked expression on the mare’s face, Twilight assumed that Dmitri’s attempted flirting might have been a bit too forward. A slap on Dmitri’s face from the pegasus confirmed her suspicions, and the mare chose to fly away from her trashed suitor, leaving him bleary-eyed and stumbling against the bar.

Dmitri, will you ever learn? That’s no way to talk to a mare. Twilight thought with disappointment. She shook her head ruefully and turned to rejoin her two friends, but at the last second, something caught her eye. Over by Dmitri, a huge earth pony had arrived, with the angry pegasus mare in tow. Nearly twice the size of the UEN pony, the newcomer jabbed a hoof into Dmitri’s chest to accentuate a point.

Waving a hoof casually in the air, Dmitri replied while turning away. Whatever he had said must have severely angered the large earth pony because at that moment, he reached over, pulled Dmitri close, and punched him in the face with a hoof hard enough for the impact to be heard over the music. The large earth pony then lifted and threw Dmitri into a table, knocking off every drink into its owner’s lap.

The occupants of the table that Dmitri now lay on were not pleased about having alcohol and broken glass spilled on them. One of the denizens, a humanoid alien covered in shaggy brown fur, lifted up the brown pony by the scruff of his shirt. By this time, Dmitri had regained enough of his wits to understand what was going on, but not enough to use common sense. While the alien roared into Dmitri’s face, the pony reared a hoof back and clocked the furry creature in the side of its head. One of the alien’s friends dove after Dmitri, but even intoxicated, the earth pony ducked as his new attacker flew overhead and crashed into the next table. It was then that all hell broke loose.

Twilight gasped and held a hoof over her mouth before she ran over to a staggering Dmitri, who held a hoof to his bruised face. “Ouch,” He managed to slur out when Twilight reached him and checked if he was okay. With her magic, she picked up a chunk of ice from a spilled drink and held it to his face.

A whooshing sound overhead followed a large bottle as it missed Twilight by inches. “Look at what you started!” She yelled at the brown-coated pony. All around the club, fights broke out left and right. Pure pandemonium had taken hold, and pretty soon, shouting and yelling began to drown out the music. Twilight quickly looked for her friends, but in the brawling sea of clubbers, she couldn’t pick out any familiar faces. Oh no, this is not good. She thought while still applying the ice on Dmitri’s cheek.

A human waiter relied on his serving tray to parry a drunken customer holding a broken bottle. On the other side of the club, the unicorn bartender held the crowd at bay by using his soda gun like a fire hose. A large bony-plated alien smashed some poor griffon into the DJ’s turntable, cutting off the music with an ear-splitting screech. Hidden doors began to open up as black shirted security forces moved in to quell the fighting. Punching indiscriminately, the specially trained bouncers put down anyone who showed any sign of resistance.

Luck struck the purple unicorn as she finally noticed James standing on his table waving at her. His nose had a small stream of blood coming out of one nostril and he gestured for them to come. Wasting no time, Twilight forced the loopy Dmitri to his feet and led him through the path of least resistance to rejoin her friends. Several times, she had to duck out of the way of thrown projectiles and once she even had to power up a shield to block a table that had been pushed off of the upper balcony. It seemed the brawl had spread to other rooms of the club.

The moment she reached James, he grabbed Dmitri and hauled him off to the closest wall where the rest of their group waited. Upon seeing Twilight, Deval opened a secret door and waved everyone through. “Come, my friends. We need to make our escape. Things have gotten a little too hot in here.” The dark skinned human grinned and followed Twilight into the escape tunnel before closing the door behind him. Running along the dimply lit passage, crashes and thuds from the fighting sounded muffled as the three ponies and four humans increased the distance between themselves and danger.

“That was close,” Twilight managed to sputter out between breaths. She hadn’t realized how exhausted she was after the recent events. With her adrenaline levels falling, she felt the familiar sensations of fatigue. By the time her and her friends exited out of a hidden alleyway door and onto the streets of Midnight City, the purple pony had trouble keeping her eyes open.

Deval Aldridge patted Twilight on the head, momentarily giving her a boost of awareness. “That was an interesting party. Maybe we should finish the night at my place.”

“And I don’t remember much after that.” Twilight wiped her mouth with a napkin while the rest of the table recovered from a serious bout of laughter. “Coming off of that rush from the fight Dmitri started wore me out.”

“I could tell.” Isamu nodded towards Twilight. “You fell asleep at a crosswalk on our way home. I carried you the rest of the way, but you did wake up for twenty minutes or so after we got to Deval’s.”

Twilight blushed and covered her mouth with a hoof. “Did I really? I do not remember that.”

James’ mouth stretched in a wide grin as he leaned forward, looking at Dmitri. “Only you could destroy a nightclub with a stupid pickup line. What did you even say?”

The only pony not enjoying the recent story stirred a large mug of black coffee with a spoon held in his teeth. Dmitri grunted before setting the utensil on the table. “Hmm, I can’t remember exactly what it was.”

Socket Wrench let out a snicker and whispered at Twilight, quiet enough for only their table to hear. “Hey Twilight. What did Dmitri say to that mare? You never told me last night.”

“I have no idea. I couldn’t hear what he said because the music was too loud.”

“I know that.” Socket Wrench shrugged. “I mean, when he told you at Deval’s place.”

Twilight pondered her memories of the night before but she couldn’t come up with anything. “I can’t remember. We had just gotten on the street and the next thing I knew, I woke up to you as my pillow.”

Socket’s eyes grew wide as did her smile. “So you don’t remember yelling at Dmitri and saying how he was a pig? You used Deval’s extra bed sheets and tied him up on the ceiling!”

“What? Are you serious?” Twilight raised her voice and glanced around the table at everyone’s facial expressions. She looked for any sign that they were pulling her leg but all she saw were widening smiles as everyone began laughing.

“Awesome, Twilight. Just, awesome.” James gave Dmitri’s back a friendly smack while nodding towards her. The contagious laughter of the table overtook Twilight’s shock and pretty soon, she joined in with her friends. Other tables in the restaurant gave them dirty looks but for the moment, the three ponies and four humans didn’t care one bit. All of the stress and worry vanished from the forefronts of everyone’s mind as the seven friends enjoyed the short respite they had before going back into the fray. Twilight knew that their break would be over soon, but she chose to lose herself in the moment.