The Hangover (Ponyville Edition)

Applejack opened her eyes and closed them again immediately when the glaring light of the morning sun sent a spike of pain through her throbbing head. She dared to open them once again when she heard a groan from the other side of the barn. She got to her hooves, brushing her disheveled mane out of her eyes before walking toward the direction of the noise.

There was a *clink* as her hoof brushed against an empty cider bottle lying on the floor. The place was a complete mess. Dozens of discarded cider bottles were strewn across the floor, and in the corner was a small pile of empty crates emblazoned with apples. It was from behind these crates that she heard the sound of somepony snoring loudly, interrupted by the occasional groan or mumble.

She pushed the crates aside to reveal Twilight laying sprawled out on top of a pile of various flowers. The majority of them appeared to have been snacked on, missing heads or stems, and some just seemed to have random bites taken out of them.

Applejack reached out with a hoof and gently shook the snoring alicorn, getting only a series of sleepy mumbles in response.

"Twahlight wake up!" She yelled loudly, finally getting the sleepy pony to wake with a start.

"Huh....AJ?" She groaned, rolling over to look at her. "Where's your hat?"

Applejack patted her head with a hoof, her eyes widening. "Aw shoot."

In a panic she rushed around the room, scattering straw, flipping over crates, and upending tables. Finding nothing, she ran out the door.

Twilight lay there for several minutes listening to the sound of hurried hoofsteps as Applejack apparently made several laps around the barn before coming back to the door and throwing it open, nearly blinding Twilight with the sudden influx of sunlight.

"Aaagh. What are you doing AJ?"

"Ah can't find mah hat anywhere! For that matter I can't seem to find Rainbow anywhere around here either." The country pony replied as Twilight walked over to greet her.

"What happened last night Twi'? Ah can't remember a thing."

Twilight frowned. "I can't seem to remember much either, but maybe if we start from what we can remember it'll jog our memory. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Well...It was about sundown."

**The Previous Night**

Twilight and Rainbow stood in front of a beaming Applejack as she held a bottle in her hooves.

"This is it girls, the new drink ah was tellin' ya'll about. Ah took some of the Apple Family cider and got Lyra to use her unicorn magic to remove a good amount of the water in it. What yah see here is somethin' like cider, but with as much if not more alcohol than whiskey! Ah call it Applejack!"

"You named it after yourself?" Rainbow Dash balked.

"Oh and ah suppose you have a better name for it? Lemme guess, you would've called it Dash or sumthin like that?"

Rainbow rubbed a hoof through her mane and chuckled, her eyes darting back and forth. "Heh heh, it's a good name AJ." She reached forward, grabbing the bottle and taking a deep swig. Immediately her eyes started watering and she let out a series of coughs before recovering.

"Ah told ya it was strong." AJ said with a smirk before taking a swig of her own, smoothly downing a good portion of the bottle.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at Applejack. "Caught me by surprise is all. I bet I can handle my liquor better than you." She said, grabbing the bottle from Applejack and downing the rest of it without breaking eye contact.

"Well then, I guess we have a drinking contest than." Applejack retorted.

"Oh it's on." Replied Rainbow. Meanwhile Twilight just stood there watching the whole thing as she sipped from a bottle of cider.

**Present**

"Okay, I remember the drinking contest." Applejack said wrinkling her nose. "If ah recall I won after RD threw up in the corner over there. You'd had a couple bottles of cider and were mumblin' somethin' about a snack that didn't contain apples."

"Ah. Yes. I'd had two bottles to be precise." Twilight replied. "I also had a shot of that drink of yours and everything got kind of fuzzy after that. I certainly don't know where all these flowers came from."

Twilight squinted, picking up one of the flowers with her magic. "Hmmm. There's only one shop that sells these kind of roses in Ponyville. If we go there it might give us some kind of clue as to what happened last night.

Applejack nodded and the two ponies set off into town. After several minutes the arrived in front of a brightly decorated storefront. A sign displaying a variety of flowers was hung out front. As they approached a cream colored earth pony with a red mane stood next to a half empty cart of flowers. A rose cutie mark adorned her flanks.

When the flower pony noticed them her eyes widened and she held out a hoof. "Stay away! You can't have any more!" She yelled.

"I'm not going to take your flowers. " Twilight said cautiously, trying not to alarm the already terrified pony. "So...we were here last night?"

The flower pony relaxed slightly, narrowing her eyes at Twilight. "You don't remember a thing do you?"

Twilight and Applejack shook their heads.

"Yes, you two were here. There was also a rainbow maned pegasus on your back." She said, looking at Applejack.

Looking back to Twilight she continued. "You ran over to my cart yelling and just started eating them by the hooffull! I tried to stop you, but you just said something about a 'princess's discount, then you grabbed a whole pile of them and ran away without another word!"

"I'm so sorry." Twilight said rustling around in her mane and pulling out a bag of bits before levitating it over to the disgruntled pony, who just scowled in response. Rolling her eyes Twilight levitated over a second bag, this time being greeted with a smile.

"Have a good day, please don't come back!" The flower pony said cheerfully.

"Hold on. Do you know where we went after we left here?" Twilight asked.

The pony hummed thoughtfully. "I can't say for sure since you ran off so quickly, but I think you headed downtown."

Following the flower pony's advice, they walked further into town. After a few they were about to pass by Sugarcube Corner when Twilight noticed a couple of flowers lying on the steps.

"I think we were here." Twilight stated.

"Very astute observation there professor." Applejack responded as they walked up the steps and into the shop.

When they reached the counter Mrs Cake greeted them cheerfully. "Ah there you are Twilight, I was wondering when you would stop by to pick up those cupcakes you had ordered."

"Cupcakes?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, the two dozen you ordered last night." Mrs cake replied, lifting a couple of boxes up onto the counter.

"Look." Twilight stated. "Neither of us can remember anything we did last night. Was Rainbow Dash with us?"

"And was ah wearin' mah hat?" Applejack chimed in.

"Oh..um yes, the three of you were here. You weren't wearing your hat though, Rainbow Dash was. You two make such a cute couple you know that?"

"What!?" Applejack yelled, her face turning beet red. "We're not..."

"Oh don't worry, I won't tell anypony." Mrs Cake said with a wink.

"Ugh, let's just get outta here Twahlight." Applejack said before turning back to Mrs Cake. "Any chance ya happen to know where we went after we left here?"

"Yes, before you left Rainbow Dash was jabbering on about some party being thrown by a DJ Pon3. You might want to talk to her."

A short time later the duo found themselves standing outside of a strange house that looked almost like it was made from two different styles that were just smashed together. Like some bi-polar mix of classical and post modern.

Twilight walked up and knocked on the door. A few short moments later it was opened and they were greeted by a white unicorn wearing purple shades.

"Hello DJ Pon3, do you happen to know if we were at a party of yours the other night?"

DJ Pon3 nodded.

"And did ah have muh hat?" Applejack asked.

She shook her head.

"Rainbow Dash?" Applejack asked.

DJ Pon3 nodded with a smile.

"Any idea where we went afterward?"

DJ Pon3 nodded and held up a hoof and made a drinking motion, swaying like she was drunk.

"Ah know we were drunk." Applejack replied.

DJ Pon3 shook her head and paused with a thoughtful look before pointing at her glasses and repeating the motion.

"Drunk glasses? Ah don't follow."

"Wait..she means purple." Twilight chimed in.

To that they received a nod.

"Drunk...purple...pony. Oh, we went with Berry Punch?" Twilight asked.

DJ Pon3 nodded vigorously, smiling.

"Thank you!" Twilight said as the two of them turned to head back into town.

After another jog across town they once again found themselves standing in front of a door. This time it belonged to a cozy looking town house. This time they were greeted by a smiling purple earth pony who stood in the doorway swaying unsteadily on her hooves. Clearly she was still quite inebriated even this long after the party.

"Heeeey." She said cheerily. "You guys are crazy. I love you guys!"

"Us...crazy?" Twilight said, sharing a blank look with Applejack.

"Oh my Celestia, you don't remember a thing do you?" She replied with a laugh, turning her attention to Applejack. "It was a typical Pon3 gig. We were all dancing for a while, and then out of nowhere you came up and totally made out with me for like a minute straight."

"Wuh...what?" Applejack stammered, once again blushing furiously.

"Oh yeah. And Rainbow was wearing your hat for some reason. I barely recognized you without it! She left early though. Was saying something about taking a nap, and roofs, and barns or something like that. Anyway, you guys ready for some crazy bucking stories?" Berry asked, grabbing a nearby bottle of whiskey. She managed to down about half of it before promptly passing out right there in the doorway.

Applejack grabbed her gently, rolling her back into the house and closing the door.

"Huh, barn...roof, you've got to be kidding me." Applejack muttered. "Come on Twalight I think I know where she is."

Once again the two of them hurried across town, making their way back to Sweet Apple Acres. When they finally made it back to the barn Applejack looked the one place she hadn't thought to look. Up.

Sure enough she spotted the end of a rainbow colored tail dangling lazily over the lip of the roof, right above the doorway.

"Rainbow!" She yelled loudly, getting a long yawn in response. Seconds later a cyan head appeared over the edge of the roof. Still perched on her head was Applejack's familiar brown stetson hat.

Rainbow Dash rubbed her head awkwardly in response to the angry glares she received from the exhausted ponies standing below her.

"Sooo, crazy night night huh?"

"Crazy night!?" Applejack yelled. "We've been running all over town lookin' for ya. Apparently I turn into a filly fooler when ah'm drunk, Twilight steals flowers, and you wander off wherever yah please! One thing's for sure, ah'm never drinkin again!"

END