The rain fell softly against rooftops, the road, and the occasional pony.
“It’ll be muddy tomorrow.” Said a cream-colored stallion quietly from the window of a bar. Not in a rueful or angry way. It was just an admittance of fact.
He turned around to the counter. Trotting behind it, he scrubbed idly at a glass. Strange for the bar to be empty on a Saturday night. Not even that Berry-something mare was here.
“The weather team scheduled a midnight shower on one of my busiest nights.” He muttered, again lacking emotion in his voice.
The bartender wasn’t one to waste time. He held several jobs to support himself, and his work hours wouldn’t allow any pointless endeavors.
It might be imagined that he was unsure what to do.
Luckily for him, the bell above the door rang. An orange pegasus stepped in, and slowly stepped toward the counter. An almost flood-like puddle followed after him.
‘I’ll have to mop that up.’ The bartender thought to himself.
The customer sat down on a stool, clearly not in any hurry.
“I’ll…” He gasped, as if choked. Setting his head against the counter, he seemed ready to fall asleep.
“Yes?”
“I’ll have a… an apple brandy” The visitor finally managed to say.
The earth-pony behind the booth wasted no time. The drink was mixed and poured almost before the request had been finished. But, before he passed his customer the glass, he hesitated.
“You’re in the Royal Guard.” The bartender stated.
“Uh, y- yeah. How-?”
“Your uniform.”
“O-oh.” The Pegasus glanced down at himself, as if checking to see if the uniform was indeed there.
“Uhh… Flash Sentry.” The Pegasus added, gulping down his liquor. He stopped as the tender said nothing back.
“That’s the part where you tell me your name back.” Flash said, his liveliness having increased tenfold since downing the drink.
“Oh. Buttercream.”
“Ah.”
Both sat in silence, the conversation clearly going nowhere fast.
Flash decided to break the silence. “Could I, uhh…”
Another glass of apple brandy slid in front of him.
“Sure.”
The orange pony held the glass in his hooves, but didn’t drink. The two sat in silence for the longest time, before the silence broke.
“Why are ya here in Ponyville?” Buttercream asked, lacking enthusiasm.
“Oh, uh, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza came to visit Twilight Sparkle. I’m in her guard.” Flash returned.
“You lose the formalities when you talk about Princess Sparkle.” Butter noticed.
“Urk! Uh…”
“It’s fine. I get it. You like the new princess, eh?”
“Well, sure, I guess. It’s nothing serious though. Every stallion has his dreams, right?
“Yeah” Butter mumbled.
Lightning struck in the distance, seen by a flash of light through the windows. A clap of thunder shook the small building.
“Goddamn.” Buttercream muttered, clear annoyance showing.
“Who damn?” Flash asked.
“Nothing. Get drinking.” The bartender darted back. It wasn’t like him to get so upset. Perhaps the lack of customers had him down, or perhaps the thunder agitated him.
‘Maybe I need a drink myself.’
Thunder once again sounded in the distance. It was certainly unusual for the weather team to run a storm this late.
‘They must be really behind schedule’
“So what about you?” Flash asked. “You have a waifu? Or just a mare back home?”
“Did.” Butters quickly responded, suddenly becoming very interested in a sticky spot on the counter.
“Oh, uh, sorry for the loss…”
“She isn’t dead, if that’s what you mean.”
“Ah.”
The silence that commenced only stopped for the patter of the rain and the occasional thunder strike. Both stallions sat in silence.
“So what happened to you?” The earth-pony asked.
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“You were a wreck when you came in here.”
Flash laughed. “Heh. I worked 14 hours today. Not so bad once you drink abit.” He lost his smirk. “Pissed off my major the other day.”
“Mmmm.”
“How ‘bout another?”
A glass of liquor slid across the counter once again.
“Might as well have a third, eh?” Flash joked.
“Yeah.”
“So, if your mare didn’t die, what happened? If you don’t mind me asking.” Flash questioned.
‘I do mind.’
“Kidnapped. 3 years ago.”
“What-napped?”
“Err, sorry. Ponynapped.”
“So nopony ever found her?” Flash questioned, the alcohol blurring his respect.
“No. They cancelled the search. Combed over all of Las Angeles. No trace.”
“Las Angie-whaaaaaa…?”
The pegasus fell off his stool, asleep.
‘Figures.’
Buttercream gulped down the last of Flash’s brandy before carrying the gaurd to the apartment above the bar. It was vacant at the moment, but had a bed at the very least.
Setting him on the crummy looking mattress, Butter thought about what had happened. He needed to be more careful.
If he had let something slip…
He shuddered. Best not to think about it.
Grabbing a pen in his mouth, the bartender wrote Flash a note.
You got drunk and fell asleep. I took you up here since we had a “nice” chat. Don’t piss off your major anymore.
-Buttercream
P.S. Don’t worry about your drinks. They were on the house.
He looked over his note. “I doubt the other bars around here would do something like that.”
A pause. “Maybe they would.”
Grabbing his keys in his mouth, the cream stallion left his bar for the night. Flash would be able to get out since the locked doors would still open from the inside.
Nopony else would come to the bar this late, during the middle of a thunder storm. Besides, he had a different job early next morning.
Buttercream trotted off towards his apartment.
Princess Twilight Sparkle quickly walked down the muddy street.
She and Flash had agreed to meet at the new bar on Baker Street. The bartender there wouldn’t spread rumors, and the shower she’d arranged would keep the other town ponies from visiting, even on a Saturday night.
Except, no lights were lit in the building. The door was locked as well.
And Flash was nowhere in sight.
“All this work for nothing.” Twiight deadpanned. “Maybe I should ask Cadence…”
The clock tower struck 12 times.
“I should leave.” The alicorn mused, as she grumpily trotted back to the castle.
Author's Note
Hey look! I wrote a thing!
This is my first fic that I've actually had the guts to publish.
Feel free to critique and comment and all that jazz.
Very loosely based off of:
