Game of Circumstances

Chapter fifteen: Breakfast at the bar

You may say I’m insane, you may say I’m stupid, but I never slept that well.

Dunno if it’s the comfy bed or the idea of dying in two days, thought. Bah, you don’t care for that.

So, back to the story, I woke up approximately at three in the freakin’ morning, although there wasn’t the sun to annoy you and wake you up because you didn’t close the curtains. Yes, that already happened to me.

Everypony was still sleeping - and sneezing - , so I decided to get out of bed, because staying awake in your bed while you’re just looking at the ceiling is pure shit, and staying in bed with everypony sneezing around you is worse.

I quickly got me out of the hotel room and went at the bar, which also served food for breakfasts.

They had cleared the mess we had caused yesterday’s night during the night, and the bar was back to normal, without the blood everywhere, the broken tables had been replaced by new ones…

In short, all was like it was before we passed by.

I saluted the barman, who responded by a quick head movement. I noticed that he seemed sleepy. Hmm. Normal when you actually passed the rest of your night restoring what some ponies had just destroyed, no?

I choose a bar seat in front of the barman, and sit down.

“Hey,” I said to him. “Still sorry for yesterday.”

“Bof,” He responded. “I’m not the owner of this Inn, and I have the habit to sleep only two or three hours by night.”

“So we’re cool?”

“Let’s say that.” He said. “You came for something? Or just to ask me if destroy the bar is a problem?”

“Oh, yeah, I would love to eat something.” I said. “Other than apples, please.”

“Of course!” The barman said, wearing a rather nice smile. “The merchants came by this morning and sold us everything we could afford. We got pancakes, tea, anything you want to eat!”

I smiled at his display and ordered a couple of pancakes. Didn’t know what it was, but why not?

Soon after, he posed in front of me a plate with, in it, the most beautiful thing I ever laid eyes on in my life.

So, that’s it, ‘pancakes’?

Two rounds, golden, of these things. A heavenly flavor reached my nostrils, and I suddenly I noticed that I was salivating, and that the barman was slightly chuckling.

“You should see your face!” He said. “Hope you’ll like it as well as you seem to enjoy their smell. Anyway, that’s my specialty, and usually, ponies do enjoy what I cook.”

I smiled, and took a mouthful of the first pancake.

Gosh.

I can’t describe how I felt after that. Pure bliss, I guess. I just remember that I instantly closed my eyes and savored the flavor for, like, one good minute, or at least until the flavor left my tongue. I floated in an ocean of pure pleasure.

When I snapped back to reality, the barman was totally laughing in front of me.

“You’re a funny one you,” He said, still half-laughing while I withered him. “That’s the first time somepony react like that to my pancakes.”

I ignored him and ate my pancakes in silence.

Y’know, you can say whatever you want on these pancakes, but ‘till you haven’t tried it, you don’t know what real life is.

After that, I ordered an apple juice – I assured myself it was an old apple juice before -, and let the barman attend to his affairs. He surely had better to do than to speak with me.

Five minutes after, I heard noises coming from the Inn part of the building, and the door creaked open, revealing a still sleepy friend of mine, Sirius.

“’Morning.” He said before sitting on the chair next to me.

“Good morning, Sirius;” I said, taking a sip of my juice.

“Morning, doctor.” The barman said, coming back in front of us. “Want something too?”

“Depends on what you got.” Sirius responded. Spotting my empty plate from where was still coming the smell, he smiled.

“Pancakes?”

“Of course,” The barman answered smiling. “Give me a minute, and you’ll have your pancakes.” On these words, he slipped back to the kitchen located behind the bar. We remained silent, until Sirius let go out a huge yawn.

“Gosh,” He said, putting his head between his hooves. “I slept like a shit.”

“Bad luck, Sirius.”

“That’s it, laugh at my sleepy face, I’m not the one with sleeping troubles.”

“Bah, eat your pancakes and all will be better.” The barman who had just got out of the kitchen with Sirius’s pancakes said, posing them in front of him.

He ate his pancakes in silence, waiting for the barman to quit us. Soon after he did, Sirius looked at me and said:

“It’s as good as the last time I got in this Inn, ten years before.”

“You know him?” I asked.

“Of course. But nopony here seems to have recognized me.” He said, taking a mouthful. “Have I changed that much?”

We remained silent again, him eating and me thinking, head resting on the forelegs.

Something was odd with this town, and yesterday’s evening incident was not to reassure me on the real motivations of the inhabitants, and peculiarly the town’s guard. The ones we punched weren’t the only two corrupted elements here, I was sure of that. In fact, the more I stayed in Happiness, the more I felt like I had just stepped in the No pony’s land between cultists and rangers.

The Ash rangers weren’t that clear either. Why had they chosen this town precisely? There was something odd here too. I didn’t think that they had just chosen Happiness like that. They had surely other reasons that they were not disposed to reveal to me or anypony that was stranger to them.

I felt sorta like I was stuck between two unstoppable jaws. This town was a time bomb, and if I heard myself, I would have been gone for long already. But I felt also like whatever was going to happen here in the two next days was important for me, and Gibbs wouldn’t move before this thing happens.

I snapped back to reality to find myself surrounded by a well-known party pony that was also a bunch of mental problems by herself.

“CALIE!” She yelled, still hopping around me. I sighed and facehoofed.

Why, why, WHY by all of the Alicorns Princesses that lived, why did I save HER?

In fact, that was another point to add to the strange behavior of Gibbs. After all, that was him who sent me save that thing.

I ignored the usual blabbering that was going out of her mouth and finished my apple juice.

“And then I woke up, and I saw you weren’t there, so I was like surprised, and after, I told me that you were surely here, and I jumped out of the room and…”

“Hap’…”

“Yes?”

“Just shut up. I’m thinking.”

“Ok.” I must have a power on her, because I’m the only one that can do that.

“Hey, Cal?” I turned to face Sirius. “What do we do after that?”

“We try to learn what’s going on here. This town looks like a big trap to me.” He nodded.

After that, we paid the barman and got ourselves to our room, where we took the small weapons we had and got us prepared to wander in town. We reviewed one last time the plan – Sirius and Hap’ together in the southern town, me alone in the northern -, and we finally got out of the Inn.

I watched them as they took the big street, and began myself to walk through town. There was surely something interesting to spy somewhere.

It had to.