A Night to Remember

The light blue haze of morning shone through the windows of the castle as Spike backed into the main chamber. "OK, Twilight, I just picked up that new order of those griffish quills- " Spike stopped dead in his tracks. Normally, the sight of the six mares talking and laughing around the old map wouldn't have been much of a shock for him.

One of them having a black eye, on the other hoof, just might.

"Rainbow Dash!"

Dash turned around suddenly. "Huh? Oh, hey, Spike. Didn't see you there."

"Your eye! What happened? Does it hurt?"

Rainbow Dash waved away the question with a hoof. "I'm fine, it's just a bruise. It's not like I haven't handled worse."

"But-but it's all messed up! Who gave you that? How did it happen?"

Twilight spoke up suddenly. "Spike, you're worrying over nothing. We're taking good care of the eye, it'll just be a couple weeks, and then you won't even notice it was ever there." She gave Spike a reassuring look, although the bags under her eyes told a much different story.

"Well, yeah, but even so. You all look worse for wear actually...what were you girls doing?"

Pinkie Pie shot up like a bullet. "Well, Rainbow Dash said she had a friend who had a friend who really really liked this one place and we went there and met some old friends and - "

"Em, Pinkie dear, I think you're going a tad fast. Give him time to process." Rarity placed a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder and slowly reeled her back to reality.

"Whoops! Sorry, Spike." Pinkie's voice didn't really convey a sincere apology, but with an innocent smile like hers, it was kind of hard to stay angry. At least, when it didn't have a chipped tooth, it was.

Rainbow Dash chuckled a little. "What she was trying to say, Spike, is that we had a great time last night."

Spike took a little bit to try and comprehend all of this information coming in. "But...you're all beat up and bruised and stuff! How could you have had a great time?"

Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up like fireworks at the Summer Sun Celebration. "You really gotta hear it to believe it, Spike. Of course, if your curious, I'd love to tell you all about it -"

"Oh, dear. Here she goes on one of her escapades," Rarity Interjected."Try not to embellish the story too much, dear? If memory serves, you tend towards the more dishonest side when you tell stories."

"Ah, let 'er tell it, Rares," said Applejack. "She'll do a better job explainin' it all than any of us, ah reckon, 'specially given the circumstances."

Rainbow Dash glanced at the other mares, expecting another interruption, before wheeling back around to Spike. "...Anyways. As I was saying, it all started with this little place called the Bottom Side Tavern."