The saloon was dead, nopony talked they all just sat and drank their sorrows away. One pony sat at the bar, his eyes were closed and he was rubbing the sides of his head with his hooves. The bar tender walked bye the pony.
"Hey, hey! I can see the bottom of my cup over here!" The pony shouted out after the bar tender.
The bar tender rolled his eyes and wandered over to the pony.
"Don't you think you've had enough, son?" The bar tender said, with a worried expression on his face.
"Why, a pony drink'n the way you do, must have'a something to forget"
"If I wanted someone to lecture me on my alcohol consumption, I would visit my mother."
The bar tender turned away and shook his head, he turned back with a bottle of moon shine and filled up the pony's glass.
The pony drank it down with a single gulp,and the bar tender walked away. The pony plopped his head down on the bar and thought to himself.
'He was right, I do need to forget, I need to wake up from this nightmare' he picked his head off the bar, not noticing the pony taking a seat next to him. He continued thinking.
'I'm gonna move somewhere, manehattan maybe that could work, and then i'll, i'll do something' he looked down at his empty glass and felt angry. He wanted more booze.
"You've had enough." Declared the pony sitting next to him.
"What is with you ponies?" He turned the pony and continued.
"I'm done, when I say i'm don..." He realized who it was even under the hat and tattered poncho he knew, it was Jack Knife
"Don't panic, Slickmane i'm not here to kill you, I just want answers"
Slickmane spoke, his confidence was lifted from the 5 glasses of moonshine he drank. He stood from his seat and exclaimed.
"You know what I don't have to tell you anything, I ain't afraid of you, you don't scare me and I could take you come on, come on what you got!"
Jack Knife placed his left hoof on the bar and on his shin was a knife, HIS knife.
"Sit your ass back down, and shut your damn dirty mouth." Jack Knife said, stern as an
army colonel.
Slickmane took a seat, and fell silent. Jack Knife continued.
"Now I don't know if you know this about me, but I love to play games, are you a gaming stallion Slickmane?"
Slickmane nodded at Jack Knife, then looked to the exit.
"Then I suggest we play a game, my favourite game, it's called 10-1, do you know the rules?"
Slickmane shook his head.
"Well, I start off at 10, 10 being the current level of pissed off I am, then you give me answers, if I like the answers I go down a level until I hit zero, simple enough, no?"
Jack Knife looked up just to see Slickmane book it from the saloon.
'hrm' He thought.