Late Night Meeting
A light breeze blew in the crisp air, the sign of the passing of summer to autumn. Gone were the harsh heats of summer, even though the season tried to stay around for a little bit longer.
The night sky shone beautifully, all the bright orbs of light trying to compete with each other, yet complementing one another, the small wispy remains of clouds adding to the beauty.
I loved the passing into fall; it marked the time where ponies would start to huddle together in their sleep, to stay close to the ones they loved, even if it was for something as trivial as staying warm. Stores and shops would change their inventory to match the seasonal styles and feelings as well as try bringing in more revenue by selling ‘heat’ to combat the cold: hot chocolate, scarves, and sweaters. I especially loved how the cold felt as it hit my fur, each gust making me more awake than the last.
However, being forced to walk through town at roughly two in the morning to deal with my idiot friend was seriously taking me out of my enjoyment.
“Again, I’m so sorry that I woke you up Grey. We didn’t know what to do and Berry couldn’t handle him anymore.”
I turned to look at my companion, the light blue unicorn mare who woke me up – Minuette, or Colgate as most knew her by. Her usually well-kept blue with bluish gray striped mane was half frazzled and half pressed against her head. I would have mentioned her appearance when she woke me up, but I’ve been around Rarity long enough to know that you should never point out when a mare looks bad. Learned that lesson the hard way.
“No, it’s okay,” I yawned. “Probably for the best that you two decided to get me. If you woke up his cousin” – a shiver went down my spine – “I doubt most of the bar would have survived.”
Minuette turned to look at me. “Is Bon Bon really that scary? I’ve known her for years and that doesn’t sound like her.”
“Well, she is one of the nicest mares I’ve ever met,” I explained. “It’s just that, when he does anything she would consider ‘stupid,’—and a lot of things that he does fall under that category—she can sort of lose all control, you know.”
“Does he really do that many stupid things?” Minuette raised an eyebrow.
“He hit on Sassaflash in front of Caramel, got told by both of them that they were in a relationship, left, came back not even five seconds later and asked her if they were together still, left again, came back three seconds later, asked the same question, and tried to emasculate Caramel right in front of him.”
“...wow..”
“Oh yeah. He walked away from them with only one black eye, though that was only because Sassaflash was barely able to hold Caramel back.”
“...why, why are you friends with him if he is somepony like that?”
“I have my reasons for being friends with him, Min.”
“I see...”
“Anyway, how you been?” I turned to face Minuette. “I haven’t talked to you in a while and everything.”
“Well, you might see me more often if you didn’t work so hard or spent all your time with a certain unicorn mare,” Minuette teased.
“I, I don’t know w-what you’re talking about.”
She giggled a little as she turned away from me. “Looks like they were right about you.”
I’m going to have a word with a lot of ponies soon about sullying my good name.
A small breeze hit the two of us, causing Minuette to shiver a little.
“I don’t like early fall,” she complained. “There is nothing good about this cold. I’d rather have some heat.”
“Well, I guess this cold has one good thing about it,” I said.
“Really?”
"Well, yeah; even though it has just started getting chilly, fall lets you cuddle up with your special pony under the blanket, as the two of you relax in the warmth of a crackling fireplace, a nice sizzling pot of hot chocolate for just the two of you."
There was a short silence between us that was followed by an equally short giggle.
“What Min?”
“That’s just so corny, Grey,” Minuette chortled.
“Hey, it’s not my fault. Rarity has been making me read those romance novels she has while I help her out.”
“Sure, sure.”
“It’s the truth.”
She shook her head and looked ahead. “Just sounded like you were trying to flirt with me.”
“I wasn’t, I swear.”
“I know how you feel about Twilight, so don’t worry about it,” Minuette laughed it off. It sounded like she might have mumbled something extra, but that could have just been my sleepy mind doing something that didn’t happen.
In the span of a quick yawn, I went from walking semi-awake to somehow having the taste of dirt in my mouth. I must have blacked out for a second there since Min offered me a hoof up, as well as making sure I was alright. I told her I that I was and we got back to our walk to Berry’s bar, which was pretty short.
At first glance, you'd think that the bar was just another home. That’s because it was: the previous homeowners decided to slap on the addition for some reason that they never really explained. Berry Punch had taken advantage of the extra room and made it her bar, 'The Hole in the Wall', which was a clever name. It was very convenient for her, allowing her to check on Ruby and not leave her patrons for too long... although she always leaves somepony she trusts to watch over it while she leaves.
I opened the door for her, like a gentlecolt should, which got a bit of head shaking out of her, before I followed her in.
The bar was...well, a bar: a countertop for ponies to drink at, with stools in front of it for those who want to sit while they drink, another countertop behind it, a back bar, full of various drinks and glasses and a mirror for patrons to look at, and a few tables here and there surrounded by chairs.
I looked around and only saw a few ponies inside, including myself, Min, and a plum coated, raspberry pink maned bartender. I took a seat in front of her and just waited until she was done cleaning the glass in her hooves.
“So, how long are you going to watch me clean this glass Grey?” Berry muttered.
“I don’t know, Berry. How long you plan to clean it?”
She shook her head a little, placed the glass down, and looked at me with her fandango eyes.
“Long day Berry?”
“Oh, yeah. Having to deal with drunkards is a part of the business that I don’t like dealing with,” Berry grunted reaching for another glass to clean.
“Keep telling you that you should hire somepony to deal with that for you.”
“And I keep telling you that I could handle it myself!” she snapped, slamming her hooves into the countertop.
“Berry, relax. Grey isn’t here to start anything, so please calm down,” Min said as she took a seat next to me.
I could see Berry’s body relax a bit as she took in a deep breath. “I’m sorry about that. Been one of those days.”
“It’s okay. No harm, no foul.”
“Well, since Grey is here now, I’m going to bed.” Min gave us a smile and walked through the opening in the back.
“So, Berry, where is the idiot?”
She smirked and stifled a laugh. “He’s at the back corner.”
“How much has he drunk so far?”
“I’ll leave it to you to figure that out.”
“That bad?”
“You’ll see,” Berry replied sagely, already cleaning another glass in an impressive display of disinterest.
“Alright then,” I said as I got back onto my hooves and went towards the back corner.
It didn’t take me long to see the idiot that I was woken up in the middle of the night for. There he was, the pink coated unicorn stallion, sloshing around his drink, the usual bangs of his pink and black mane covering his eyes, giving him an air of mystery that he didn’t really need.
I sat down next to him and gave him a deadpan look. Apparently it did nothing since he just acted as if I wasn’t even next to him.
“So, I got woken up to deal with your idiocy. How many drinks Pop?”
“This has been the only one the whole night.” Pop mumbled, still refusing to look up.
“’The only one?’” That took me back a bit. “You got to be lying about that. You never have just one.”
“Well, I am. Only have had one because that’s all I want.” He shifted his gaze at me and I saw the exhaustion in his pink eyes.
“You alright? It looks like you haven’t slept in a bit.”
“That’s because I haven’t,” Pop groaned, rubbing his forehead with a hoof.
“What’s going on Pop? The last time that happened it was because you pissed off Bon Bon enough that she kicked you out of the house.”
“It’s nothing like that. Just, just been thinking a lot about things.”
“Like what?”
He looked back down at his drink. “Do you remember anything from when Discord was set free around town?”
I ran a hoof through my mane. “Not really. That whole day is a blur. All I remember is that I was walking to get some groceries, then a whole lot of nothing then waking up in the bank of one of the rivers, cold to the bone and covered in bruises.”
Pop snorted at that. “Sounds like you were on the receiving end of a one way fight.”
“Hey, I can take a punch.” He just gave me that look he knows I loathed. I quickly fought a furious internal battle against the urge to punch him in the face. “Anyway, where are you going about that?”
“I’ve been having dreams from when that happened, dreams that I think might actually be memories which have been running around my mind. In them, I act like somepony else, somepony like you, and it doesn’t seem to upset anypony. They actually seem to like me like that.
“And that, that has me thinking: what if I changed myself? What would happen? Would ponies actually like me instead of tolerate me?”
“Hey, you are my friend,” I tried to reassure him. “You know I like you.”
“I know why you became my friend, Grey,” Pop grumbled. “I know she asked you to look after me.”
I frowned slightly. “That might have been why we first started to hang out, but that’s not why we became friends. Not because of Bonnie asking me to look after you, but for my own actual reasons.”
“Oh, really? Like what?” Pop snorted.
“Nope, sorry. Not going to share.”
Pop grunted disdainfully. “Then what you just said is so full of it.”
“Believe what you want to believe,” I retorted. “I know what the truth is and what isn’t.”
It seemed like Pop had something he wanted to say, since he opened and closed his mouth a few times.
“Whatever you want to say, you might as well say it Pop,” I invited.
“How, how do you do it Grey? How is it that being a goodie four hooves comes so easy to you?”
I paused, partially out of surprise that that question was brought up, and partially because I knew exactly what to say to it, but didn’t want to. The confession hesitated on my tongue; but what needed to be said needed to be said. “Trust me, I wasn’t always that.”
“Please,” Pop scoffed. “Anypony who meets you can tell that you are one at heart.”
“Never said I wasn’t one, just said that I wasn’t always one. If you knew me from when I was a colt, you would never believe he and me were the same pony.”
Pop rolled his eyes. “Sure, sure.”
“No, I’m serious,” I continued. The words tasted so bitter that I might need a drink myself just to get through it all. “I went through a pretty hard rebellious phase right after I moved to Manehattan. Picking fights, skipping school, that sort of thing.”
Pop looked mildly impressed. “Seriously rebellious there.”
“It was rebellious for the mindset of a seven year old colt who just wanted to lash out, okay?” I grunted.
“Then what made you ‘change for the better?’”
I paused again. “You promise not to laugh or anything?”
“As your friend, I cannot promise if I would laugh or not.”
“Seriously, you could be a good lawyer, Mister ‘Apparent Genius.’”
“Stop beating around the bush, Grey.”
I had to force the rest of my story out of my throat. “...it was a stupid, brave filly who wouldn’t give up on me, no matter what.”
“’Filly’?” He put a hoof against his chin. “I know I heard about this before, but I can’t remember where.”
“Probably from your cousin; she’s one of the few who know about her.”
His eyes went wide as the realization struck him. “Wait, is it—”
“Yes, it’s her,” I admitted.
“Who would you kn—”
“Because I know who you were going to say, Pop,” I cut in, rubbing my forehead with a hoof. “So, please, drop it right now.”
“Come on Grey. If it is her, it’s been years—”
“Drop it,” I ordered. “Right now.”
Pop snorted to himself. “It’s good to see that who you are so reliant on not letting go of something you should have let go by now.”
“Seriously, drop it Pop,” I glared at him. “Last warning.”
“Or what?” Pop sneered.
“Or I’m going to make that shiner that Caramel gave you look purely cosmetic.”
“Please, you aren’t strong enough to do that.”
“You haven’t seen me in a fight, ever. How would you know that?” I shook out my forehooves and rolled my shoulders, the series of pops and snaps echoed through me as they loosened up. “Besides, I’m not here to talk about me. I’m here to help you get through whatever funk you are going through.”
“What do you mean? I’m not in any funk.”
“Let’s see: you have been nursing that one drink the whole night, you are acting like a mare kicked you out of bed because her stallion came back, you said you have been thinking about changing yourself a lot, and you have almost shifted the conversation away from changing yourself.”
“Fine, I guess I might be in a funk then.” He slumped a bit as he looked around, trying to make sure nopony else would hear what he was going to say, before leaning in and asking, “How do you do it dude? How are you able to be you so easily?”
It took me a few seconds to reply, trying to figure out whether or not that was a compliment or a burn. “In all honesty, it helps if you have somepony in mind that you want to change for, to be the pony you want to be for her, somepony who is worth her time and love.”
Pop stifled some laughter, but it was evident that it might be a losing battle. “Oh, that’s so cute dude.”
The room got a bit warmer all of a sudden. “Hey, you asked for some advice.”
“Oh, I know. It’s some good advice, though seriously cute.” He leaned towards me a little. “I want to pinch your cheek now, you little cutie.”
“Do it and you’ll be on the floor,” I replied coldly.
“Geez, can’t take a joke, can you?” Pop leaned back against his seat, raising his hooves up in defense. “Besides, I could use what you said for her, hopefully.”
“If you are going to use what I said on Cloudchaser, you will have to be at it for years, since you would have to change how she thinks of you.”
“No, not on her; that ship has sailed long ago.”
“What happened?” I asked him, actually wanting to know.
“Just something I did that I’m not going to share with anypony else. She and I know what happened and that’s enough.”
I wanted to know more about what he was talking about, but I knew how tight lipped he could be. “Fine then.”
“Thanks Grey,” he said, visibly relaxing a little. “Means a lot.”
“You could thank me by answering this question truthfully.”
His shoulders slouched down. “I swear, if it has anything to do with what we just talked about.”
“No, it’s not, I promise,” I told him, raising my hooves up in defense.
“Fine then; go ahead and ask.”
I rubbed my hooves together, jittery. “Earlier, when you said ‘for her,’ who d—”
“It’s not Twilight,” Pop sighed.
“O-oh. Um, good I guess.”
“Seriously, I know how crazy you are for her, Grey. I wouldn’t do that to you, dude.”
“I, I wouldn’t say I’m crazy for her...” I stammered.
“Yes, yes you are.” He pointed a hoof at me, dismissively. “Hay, you were daydreaming about her right after the first time you saw her.”
I huffed. “Wouldn’t say I’m crazy for her...”
"Grey, I'm not as blind as Icy. I can see it. Hay, I'm sure everypony can see it."
I felt myself surprisingly slowly sliding down under the table for some reason, the words “Wouldn’t say I’m crazy for her...” barely being audible.
Pop shook his head and lifted me back up straight with his magic. “Stop doing that, you dolt.”
I stared him down for a few seconds before I looked away, crossed my hooves, and grumbled, “Rude bugger.”
"So, is this what I look like from the other side? No wonder everypony gets annoyed with me."
“You done having fun at my expense?” I asked him.
“Wouldn’t be fun being your friend if I ever stopped doing that,” Pop answered, giving me that cheeky grin of his, “but I think I reached a good enough quota for tonight.” He sat up and brushed past me, stopping next to me to give me a few words. “If you don’t make your move soon, somepony else will.” With that, he walked out of the bar.
As I watched him leave, a thought came to mind. “Hey, Berry.”
“Yeah Grey?” she asked, putting away the last of her clean glasses.
“Did he ever pay for his drink?”
“No, no he did not,” she said, matter of fact, as she wiped down the countertop.
“Yeah, thought so.” I looked back at his cup and saw that the once amber drink had been turned into light gold by the melted ice. “What’d he order anyway?”
“Straight whiskey on the rocks,” she told me, squeezing the water out of her rag.
If you don’t make your move soon, somepony else will. His words resonated in my head as I kept looking at his drink. Without a second thought, I downed his drink, a burning sensation going down my throat.
“You better pay me for that drink,” Berry told me as she took the cup from me.
I gave her some bits, said my goodbyes, and left for home, using the ‘liquid courage’ in my stomach to think of what I needed to do.
Author's Note
Man, this one took way too long for me to finish, though I'm glad with the final result in the end. Hope you all enjoy reading it. Like always, feel free to let me know your thoughts and stuff in the comments section below.
