A unicorn opened the doors to the Ponyville Tavern. She was as white as the snow she let billow in behind her until the door closed. She walked with heavy hoof steps over to the bar and sat on one of the stools.
"Barkeep!" she called out, flagging the burgundy earth pony bartender down to her. Berry Punch finished wiping the mug clean and trotted down to the new customer. She recognized the unicorn mare sitting on the stool of the opposite side of her bar. She had been in there a few times before as a patron. Usually she was in there on the weekends as the DJ when the tavern turned into a club scene for the younger drinkers. When she wasn't there for her job, she was there to 'get wrecked' as she was fond of saying.
She didn't much care to serve ponies who were drinking for the expressed purpose of getting drunk for its own sake. As a former alcoholic, she knew the dangers of binge drinking well. One particular night of heavy drinking found her dancing around a bonfire. In her inebriation, she tripped and fell into it. Luckily, she managed to escape without any serious burns.
They say that quitting drinking is a twelve-step process. But falling into a bonfire is a one-step process. And since that night, Berry Punch never got drunk again. Which wasn't to say that she quit drinking altogether. She's only equine.
But she could tell right away that the mare across from her had no such restraint. When Vinyl Scratch went to Berry Punch's tavern, it was usually either for business or pleasure.
Tonight it was neither.
She had practically thrown open the doors of the tavern and stormed in, stomping her way over to the bar. Her call for the barkeeper wasn't a bark of an order. But the tone certainly could have been a bit more polite. Every muscle in her face was tense when Berry had walked over to her, like the hooful of seconds she had to impatiently wait to be served was a grave injustice.
She was angry. That much was clear enough. But what about, was less clear.
"What'll it be?" Berry asked.
"Hit me," Vinyl said. Berry humored the idea of taking her up on the offer literally. It made her smile a bit on the inside. But for all of her earth pony strength, she knew better than to tangle with an angry unicorn.
She'd given no clear order of what she preferred. But it was clear what she wanted. And Berry knew the usual group of drinks she had in the past
Berry grabbed a glass and tossed in a few ice cubes and poured clear grain alcohol over them. Vinyl grabbed the glass and drank the liquor as fast as one could dump it on the floor. She didn't even flinch from the burn.
She reached across the bar with the glass and dumped the remaining ice in the sink behind the bar.
"Another. Without ice this time," Vinyl said. Berry hadn't even put the bottle away. She just stood there and held it, waiting for the unicorn to finish. Vinyl noticed her glare and rolled her eyes behind her rose-colored shades. "Please!?"
Berry poured her another glass. Vinyl drank it just as fast as the first.
"Keep 'em coming. Please," Vinyl said. Berry waited a moment to do so. She made her way down the bar to tend to the other two customers before coming back to her. Vinyl didn't even watch her. Her eyes were locked on the bottle of booze as she tapped her hoof impatiently. The deep purple fur of the bartender filled her narrow vision.
She looked at Berry's eyes. Berry had her hooves crossed and she just looked back at her, searching her eyes for some clue as to what was wrong.
"What?" Vinyl asked, irritated. Berry nodded at last and pointed at her with her hoof.
"I know that look," Berry said.
"What? Thirsty?" Vinyl said, holding up her empty glass.
"I know that look." Berry filled her glass again. Vinyl threw back the drink. "You're angry."
"No kidding. You must be a detective or something," Vinyl sarcassed, waving the empty glass at her again. Berry just held the bottle without pouring another one.
"This isn't going to help you feel better," Berry said.
"Does it look like I give a damn!?" she said.
"Yes," Berry replied. "If whatever it was didn't bother you, you wouldn't be here. But you're burning up. And now you're trying to put out a fire with gasoline."
"You know, if I wanted my head shrunk I'd have gone to see a therapist," Vinyl said.
"Not tonight. I don't think any of them are working on Hearth's Warming Eve."
"Whatever. I'm paying for booze, not advice." Vinyl reached into her bag and pulled out a sizable hooful of bits. Enough to pay for what she had already drank, as well as several more.
"Then booze you shall have," Berry said, refilling her glass. "The advice is free."
"And unsolicited," Vinyl said, grabbing the glass. Berry chuckled.
"It's a mare," Berry said. Vinyl stopped moving with the glass an inch away from her face. "Yeah it is a mare isn't it? Only a mare could make somepony that angry."
"Whatever," Vinyl drank her drink a little slower that time.
"So what did she do? Hmm? Did you catch her in bed with another mare?"
"No."
"A stallion? Your best friend? Your brother?"
"What!? No! She didn't cheat on me or anything like that!"
"But she did something. Something bad enough to have you in a bar on Hearth's Warming Eve instead of at home," Berry said.
"Hey, it's my choice to be here. Okay? I'm an adult," Vinyl said.
"Oh, yeah yeah. You sure are. But it's just that I know this: On Hearth's Warming, I've noticed that if one could be home, they'd be already there," Berry said.
Vinyl looked down the bar at the only other two ponies. One was a regular booze hound that was in the process of drinking his weekly paycheck, as he always did. And the other pony was one of those involuntarily celebate d-bag stallions that wore desperation like a bad cologne. Vinyl looked back at Berry Punch.
"And you?" Vinyl asked. Berry just beamed with a proud smile and patted the polished mahogany wood of the bar.
"This is my home. Right here behind this bar. There's no place I'd rather be. And I know the same can't be said about you."
"Yeah well... what the hell does it matter now?"
"Nopony deserves to be alone. Least of all on Hearth's Warming Eve," Berry said. "That's why I'm here, to look after these knuckleheads. Ain't that right guys?" The two forsaken stallion raised their pint glasses to her.
"Well I guess you can look after me too then," Vinyl said.
"What do you think I've been doing?" Berry said. Vinyl looked at her from over the rim of her shades. She finally took off the sunglasses and put them in her bag. Berry could see that her eyes were as red as her glasses were. She'd been recently crying. "So what happened?"
"I- I don't know," Vinyl said. "I don't even know how it started. Me and Tavi were talking about something. She had one of her Hearth's Warming concerts coming up and I had a rave scheduled that same night and then... I don't know what happened, but we started arguing. And then we started fighting..." Vinyl trailed off and lifted her glass. Berry filled it, keeping a mental tally. Vinyl didn't drink it right away. She just held it for a while.
"So, fighting like..." Berry made a motion with her hooves like a boxer.
"No, no. We were just arguing, but louder. Meaner. The things she said... The things I said... It wasn't even about being right. It was just about winning at that point."
"Winning?"
"Winning the argument. Winning at... whatever. I had bigger crowds. She plays 'real' music and I'm just a music player. I make more money. She's a performer. Yadda yadda."
"So... did you win?" Berry asked.
"I got the last word," Vinyl said, finishing her drink. "Right before I stormed out and slammed the door."
"So... did you win?" Berry asked again.
"I don't think so. It doesn't feel like I won. It just feels..." Vinyl trailed off and stared at her glass.
"Empty?"
"Yeah."
"Well, filling up on booze isn't going to fill that hole," Berry said. "You might not feel good right now. And feeling nothing might seem preferable. And you can drink the whole bottle and yeah, you'll maybe feel numb for a while. But at the end of the night, you'll feel just like the bottle: Empty inside."
"Okay doctor bartender. What do you think I should do?" Vinyl asked.
"Apologize."
"I'm sorry?"
"Not to me, dumbass! Apologize to her!" Berry said.
"What? What for!?"
"For everything," Berry said. "Everything that happened tonight. Apologize for all of it."
"But it's not my fault!" Vinyl said. "I was right! I was right and she said-"
"It doesn't matter," Berry said.
"What!? How do you know that? You don't know that!" Vinyl said.
"Do you love her?" Berry asked.
"The hell kinda question is that!?"
"The yes or no kind."
"Yes. Of course I love her!"
"I know. I can tell. I mean, just look at you," Berry said, stepping aside. Vinyl looked at her reflection in the mirror behind the bar. She looked like a mess. "You always hurt the ones you love. And get hurt by the ones you love. That's the gamble you take when you let somepony into your heart. That's the risk. But it's worth the risk, no?"
"Yeah," Vinyl muttered.
"So go home and apologize."
"But I was right! It wasn't my fault!" Vinyl shouted.
"Well whoopty doo," Berry said. "You get to be right, then."
Berry Punch put the rest of the bits into the cash register drawer, except for the last two. She stacked one on top of the other and put the tiny pile in front of Vinyl. Next to it, she held the bottle of liquor.
"You get to sit there and be right," Berry said. "You get to be queen of Rightopia! Sitting on your throne of righteousness. You get to sit there and pout, I guess."
Vinyl narrowed her eyes in annoyance,
"You've got a choice," Berry said, shoving the coins in front of the mare. "You can take your last two bits here and buy another glass of booze from me..." She waved the bottle at her. "Or you can use them to act like an adult, take a cab home, get down on your knees, begging for forgiveness, and kiss your damn marefriend!"
"But that'll mean she wins," Vinyl groaned.
"Do you feel like a winner right now?"
"No."
"How do you feel?"
"Crappy."
"How do you think she feels right now?"
"I don't know." Berry smacked her in the head with her hoof. "Ow!"
"You say you're an adult. But if all you can think about is yourself then you're still just a dumb foal!" Berry said. "Put yourself in her horseshoes for once. How do you think she feels right now? Do you think she feels like a winner right now!?"
"No."
"How do you think she feels?"
"Crappy... Lonely."
"Do you think she deserves that? Do you think anypony deserves that!? On Hearth's Warming Eve of all nights!?"
"No."
"Then why the hell are you still sitting here at my bar?"
Vinyl looked at Berry, then at the bottle, and then at the bits. She scooped up the coins in her hoof and walked outside to hail a cab.
