An orange coated mare with a blonde mane covered by her large Stetson hat stepped inside the only bar in Appaloosa. She wasn't a drinker, but she was there to visit her cousin. It's been months since they last saw each other.
"Applejack!" A yellow coated stallion with a brown mane, also covered by a Stetson hat, said to his cousin as she stepped inside the bar. "I'm glad you could make it."
Something felt different about him. Applejack ignored the slight feeling. "'Course Ah could, Braeburn." She said with a smile. The scents of the bar entered her nose. A terrible mix of various alcoholic beverages, vomit, and likely blood. This place wasn't for her. She thought it wasn't for Braeburn, either. The three glasses of whiskey next to him said otherwise. "What're you doin' here in this bar? Ah didn't know you drank." She said. Her eyes turned to his new hat. "And when'd yah get that fancy hat?"
Braeburn's eyes moved to his glasses. His lips curled into a grin. "Not too long ago. I got it when I started drinking. There's a nice story behind them." He said with a chuckle.
"Mind tellin' me?"
He pushed out a breath of air. "It's a long one. You sure you want to hear it?"
Applejack nodded. "'Course Ah am, Braeburn. Y'can tell yer cousin, right?"
Braeburn shrugged. He picked up the glass of whiskey. "Alright, Applejack. I'll tell you." He downed a shot of whiskey and began his story.
It was just a few weeks ago. It happened right here in the bar. I came in after a long day of work. I was just looking for some water. I wasn't a drinker back then.
"I haven't seen you here before." The barkeep told me.
"Nah. Ah'm new to bars." I said to him. "Got any water for a tired pony?"
Barkeep laughed at that. "If you want water, there's a trough outside."
Then the front doors opened up. They were loud. Louder than when I entered that day and every day since. I looked behind me to see who the pony was that caused the ruckus. Just a stranger in clothes that look like he dug 'em out of a grave before wearing them. There were even clumps of dirt on his clothes and old hat. With some cleaning, the hat could look a bit fancy. That's more than I could say for his clothes. I could tell he'd traveled far. He could have walked from Ponyville.
He moved his head from side to side. I looked at him for a bit. We locked eyes for a second. His eyes were sunken in his head. I guessed he hadn't slept for a day or two. The stallion stepped forward. His hat surrounded in an aura I'd never seen before. A light brown, like someone poured milk in a glass of beer. His hat floated off his head and on the counter in the spot next to me.
The stallion sat in the stool next to me. He looked to the barkeep with a soft smile. "One shot of whiskey for me. Another for my new friend. Both on me." He said to him. His voice? Thicker than mud and coated with bourbon. Everything in the bar seemed to stop. All the side conversations died. A fight even stopped. It was like they all stopped because this stallion spoke. Maybe it was. Maybe they saw a ghost. The barkeep just seemed used to it. He gave the stallion two small glasses of whiskey.
I looked closer at the stallion's face. It was low and dirtier than the clothes he wore. I'll never be able to forget his skin. It was the same color of tanned leather and probably the same texture. He spoke like any other pony, maybe a drunk, sure, but something was just wrong about him.
I twisted in my stool and turned to him. "Sorry, mister." I said to him. "Ah'm not here for whiskey. Just water."
The stallion growled at me and turned my way. Since he was no more than a meter away from me, I got a clear look at his eyes. They were pale blue. Anypony could mistake him for a blind stallion, if not a dead one. The stallion covered one of the glasses in his brown magic and slid it my way. "You better drink your drink and shut your mouth." He commanded. "Now, drink with me."
"Who the hay do you think you are?" I asked in a voice that was nearly a shout.
The stallion smiled. His lips looked like they hadn't seen any water in months. "Barkeep, get me another drink. I've got a story to tell my friend." He waited patiently for his new glass to come. He downed it and turned back to me. I could feel my face cool down. "My name is Mint Julep. I see you noticed my skin already." He sucked in a breath. "It's like this because I'm dead."
My heart nearly stopped at the news. I was talking to a corpse? I've heard a lot of strange things. This was a new one.
"I've been dead for three years." Julep continued. "Killed a mare for her drink. A few ponies got me back the same way I killed her. Blast of magic to the chest." He opened up his shirt to reveal a hole in his chest. It wasn't deep or anything, but it was charred black. If I wasn't still shocked from the news of him being dead, I would've probably thrown up. "If you think they didn't kill me, you would be wrong. I don't know how, but I'm cursed to walk across Equestria. In the back of my mind, a voice is telling me to challenge a pony to match me drink for drink or face the same fate that poor mare got. I host the challenge once a week. I have 151 ponies to my name."
I pushed the shot back towards Julep. "Ah'm no drinker."
His eyes darkened. "I chose you, so you must drink." He pushes the glass back towards me. I could tell he was going to be stubborn.
"Well, Ah'm gonna have to refuse your little challenge."
He smiled softly. "Then you'll have to die right here." His horn lit up.
My heart nearly stopped another time. "Hold up, Julep." I held up my hooves. "Ah don't wanna be shot down like a dog in the street." I sucked in some air. "Ah'll take your little challenge."
His horn faded. He held his head back and laughed. "So let it be done." His laughter faded. "If you win, you'll be free. I'll finally be able to rot in a grave." He turned his head to the barkeep.
The barkeep nodded slowly. Deep in my heart, I knew I was going to lose. I watched on as the barkeep filled a dozen glasses with whiskey. I grabbed one of them in my mouth and drank it all. I looked Julep in the eyes. "Your turn." I told him.
The corpse smiled and laughed. He took two shots in his magic and downed them both. "There's nopony I can't beat." He said. "Don't matter the drink. Don't matter if the other pony's alive or if I'm dead."
I watched him take another two shots and throw them back in his throat. I took another glass and drank it. The whiskey burned my throat, but that couldn't stop me. I was drinking for my life, and I couldn't just back down after a bit of a burn.
Julep took another two shots. After he drank them, I could see he was wobbling in his seat. I was getting dizzy myself. He could take far more drinks than I could.
That also meant he would take more. He knew this. He didn't seem to think it had any negative impact on him. He took another shot. I followed. If the drinks don't kill me themselves, then Julep will after I pass out.
He looked me in the eyes. He was sweating wildly, like he worked in the fields for hours. I could tell he had overestimated his drinking ability. He looked to the remaining drinks. My vision was blurring, but I could barely see that there were only two of them left. One for each of us.
We both took one and tapped the glasses to each other. We were both on our edges. This was the deciding drink. The two of us drank the glasses like they were the only things keeping us on the planet. In a sense, they were. Only one of us would make it out of there.
My vision blurred to the point that I could barely see anything more than a meter or two away from me. I could see Julep with his head resting in his hooves that were stuck on the table. I smiled at the sight.
He looked up at me. He coughed and said something. I couldn't tell what it was. I'm not sure if it was because he was too drunk to say anything coherent or if I was to drunk to be able to hear anything.
He shook in his seat enough that a leg broke. The stool fell over with Julep in it. I watched as his eyes widened while he realized what was going on. He fell to the floor with a crash.
His eyes widened. After he realized that he had lost, he looked up at me while still on the floor. With a sigh, he lit up his horn. A beam of his brown aura struck me in the chest. I could feel my sobriety return.
He smiled softly. "Congratulations. You beat me." He closed his eyes. What happened next, I'll never be able to forget, no matter how much more I drank.
He started to melt, like an ice sculpture on the Summer Sun Celebration. It wasn't something I'd be willing to repeat. There was a lot of blood. The only thing that didn't melt was his skeleton. It wasn't a bleached white skeleton, either. It was covered in blood and muscle. There was also a large charred black hole in his sternum.
I picked up Julep's hat and wore it like a crown. I also took some of his money. He won't need either where he's going. I turned back to the barkeep. "Can I get another round?" I asked him. He obliged.
Applejack looked at Braeburn with a mix of wonder and fear. "So, Applejack." Braeburn said after he finished his story. "Julep's buried two meters under and I'm still alive. I won't be able to forget that night I escaped death." He drank another shot. He looked up to the barkeep with a soft smile. "One shot of whiskey for me. Another for my old friend. Both on me."