Prologue: A Game of Truth or Dare
"And that's how I ate an entire ghost pepper wedding cake in less than 15 seconds single hoofed. It's also the reason I can no longer taste the color red." Pinkie said triumphantly to a chorus of chuckles.
"Pinkie I really don't get you from time to time." Dash said before throwing her head back, draining the contents of the frost cider mug she gripped tightly in her hooves.
"But that's the fun in it Dashie, if you knew exactly what I was going to do, then you would already see the punchline coming."
"I think I, um, agree with Pinkie on that one." Fluttershy spoke up above the dying laughter.
"Yeah, the world would be kind of flat and boring without Pinkie's three dimensional brand of crazy." Twilight sighed as she picked up the bottle. "Alright Pinkie, your turn to spin."
"Yippee!" She smiled and spun the bottle on her hoof before sitting it on the crystal floor, the dark green glass almost a blur. "Round and round the bottle goes. Where it stops, no pony knows!"
After a short few moments the bottle slowed to a stop with it's green glass neck pointing directly at Applejack. "Aww shucks, guess it's my turn."
"Yep! Now, truth or dare Applejack!"
"Hmm." She rubbed her hoof across the bottom of her chin before shrugging. "Ah what the hell, ah'll take a dare."
"Alright! I dare you..." She grinned a devishly evil grin as she looked around the room. "...to drink some of that shrinking serum that Twilight cooked up the other day!"
All the girls gasped in shock. AJ looked around the room a bit nervously. "Ya'll think that's really an appropriate Dare."
"Oh? What's wrong AJ? Are you too chicken to go through with it?" Dash heckled as she nudged her in the side.
"Chicken mah flank. Twilight, hand me that serum."
"Damn it all, I was going to use this batch for a spell too." Twilight sighed as her horn lit up and from across the room a small test tube of swirling periwinkle liquid. " Just a couple of drops will do it AJ, unless you want to spend the next two days the size of a children's toy."
"Thanks fer lettin' me know." AJ sighed as she popped the rubber stopper from the vial and tilted it back, letting 5 small drops hit her tongue before she recorked the vial and gave it back to Twilight. Within seconds the world started to get bigger around AJ as she slowly got smaller and smaller, stopping when she was around 6 inches tall. "Awe horseapples!"
Dash couldn't contain her laughter. "It's the return of Appletini!"
"Ya'll shut up! Ah'd love to see you do something as crazy as this!"
"Oh come now darling, you know Dash would do most anything you dared her to do." Rarity chuckled. "I mean really, Rainbow has almost as much self control as Pinkie Pie."
"Hey!" Pinkie and Dash said in unison.
"Like you would do anything yourself Rarity."
"And just what is that supposed to mean?" She glared down at Applejack, nearly spilling the glass of wine floating beside her.
"I mean every time we do this, y'all just always pick truth and don't have any qualms about letting out any bit of information without any hint of risk."
"Hey, I take plenty of risks thank you very much. I just prefer to take the truthful route rather than having to perform crazy actions to prove myself."
"But Rarity that is what makes these kinds of party games so fun." Twilight said. " I mean there is nothing wrong with only being truthful, but it's a good idea to take a dare every now and again."
"I understand that Twilight dear, but i just feel more comfortable being truthful." She took a long drink as AJ spun the bottle. "I could take a dare any time I want to."
"Y'all want to put yer money where your mouth is?" Applejack grinned as the bottle landed on Rarity."Then let's prove y'all can take and follow through with a dare. Truth or dare, Rarity?"
Her eyes narrowed and looked down at AJ. "Oh, it is on. Dare."
Applejack's mouth turned into a wicked grin as the potion wore off and she started to regrow. "Ah dare you to take the Long Trot!"
Silence filled the room as everyone looked at each other, Rarity wearing a look of confusion while Twilight and Rainbow exchanged looks of worry. "What is the Long Trot?"
Dash cleared her throat. "The Long Trot is an annual pub crawl that is held in Manehattan the night before the Summer Sun Celebration that runs from sunset to sunrise. Me and Applejack do it almost every year."
"A pub crawl?"
"It's where you go from bar to bar, drinking a pint of wheat ale at each different bar." Twilight said as she stood up. "And the Long Trot has fifteen different bars on it's crawl."
"Yep, and ah'm makin' a little change to yer crawl." Applejack said as she re-positioned her hat back onto her head and stood up. "Since y'all don't seem to like to take a dare, at each bar ah'm gonna dare ya to do somethin' crazy."
"S-something crazy?" Rarity stuttered as she began to feel the nervous anxiety welling up inside her. "L-like how crazy are we talking darling?"
"That depends. It might be somethin' as simple as paying for an entire bars round of drinks or as crazy as kissing every stallion in the bar, ah haven't really decided on that yet." AJ chuckled to herself as she held out her hoof. "So, are y'all gonna accept mah dare, or are y'all just gonna keep hidin the truth behind the truth."
"Whatever do you mean?"
"Oh come on Rarity, everypony has a crazy side!" Pinkie said as she rested her hooves onto of Rarity's head. "She's just saying you hide your crazy side behind all the truths you tell. It's not a bad thing but...well...it kind of is."
"Oh, well..." She looks around the room at her friends faces and to Applejack's outstretched hoof. She pondered on the slightly terrifying idea of what Applejack had in store for her, but she gathered up all of her courage and shook AJ's hoof. "I accept, but if I complete the crawl and all of your dares, you have to model for me...and Rainbow has to get a makeover from me once a week every week for a year."
"Whoa whoa whoa, you aren't going to drag me into th-"
"Deal."
"APPLEJACK WHAT THE FUCK!?"
"Oh come on now Dash, y'all owe me a solid anyways." She smiled and looked back at Rarity. "Besides, ah don't think she'll make it all the way to the Sun's Rise."
"I take it that's the last bar in the crawl?"
"Not only that, but it's only open once a year for the crawl. They hand out yer last pint of ale free, and if yer lucky enough to finish yer pint before the sun rises, they do somethin real special for ya."
"Oh? And what would that be?"
"Ah don't know, ah've never finished." Applejack shrugged. "Ah usually make it there but ah usually can't finish the pint in time. After drinking fourteen other pints in a span of a few hours, it's surprisingly hard to finish that last one."
"Well thank you for that amazing vote of confidence."
"Ah don't sweat it Rarity. I think you can do it." Pinkie giggled. "You're going to be soooooo fucked up though."
Everyone laughed a bit at the thought of Rarity being completely drunk, except for Rarity who finally let the weight of this dare sink into her.
"Oh dear Celestia what have I gotten myself in to."
Author's Note
Just a little something I came up with late at night and thought "Hey, this could be a good idea, why not?"
Anyways i hope to update this regularly between other updates and such.
Also, there is a chance you could get an idea in the story. I only have 2 of the 15 bar names I need for this story and thinking up other clever names is escaping me. So if you, the reader, want to suggest a name for some of the bars or even create a theme for it, i'll include it and credit you for your work.
Thanks for reading!
Count D
