The Put-Down Spear was the only bar in the Castle Town. It was mainly for off-duty Royal Guards, but everyone was welcome. Lots of tables were arranged around the open space, with booths lining the walls. To a pony, it would seem very packed, with as many tables and seats as possible. However, since pony bodies were longer than humans', they needed more room to maneuver, so it was actually quite easy for Lazlo to move around.

On the way there, Shining Armor told him about the place. A retired captain of the Royal Guard had asked Princess Celestia for permission and help to open the place. He wanted the Royal Guard to have a place where they could get drinks at affordable prices, meaning they'd get a discount and could relax and socialize, and it's close to the barracks. Celestia agreed, and they worked out some rules, like it's open non-stop, everypony is welcome, but Royal Guards get a discount, and they make sure the guards don't get too drunk, though mostly if they'll be on duty soon. Since then, it's been run by retired officers, all keeping the rules and traditions.

"Captain!" all the guards there yelled when they entered and noticed Shining Armor. According to another tradition, it didn't matter the rank of a guard, however, Shining also told him that when he became captain, he had a party here and bought drinks for every guard that was there, also a tradition. They greeted him like this then and they do so every time he comes, probably in a false hope of a free round.

They made their way to a free booth and sat down. Lazlo took a look at the list of drinks. There was quite the selection, well, at least with the fact that this world didn't have as many alcoholic beverages as Earth. Equestria only had wine and cider, but he noticed whiskey, beer, and herbal liquor, mostly from the neighboring countries.

When a pony came up and asked what they would like, Shining ordered a cider, while Lazlo decided to try a herbal liquor called Eagle Tear, a griffon drink, and also ordered a cider.

"Fan of the stronger stuff?" Shining asked when the drinks arrived.

"Stronger?" Lazlo asked back. "This thing is only thirty percent."

"Only?" the ping pong continued.

"My grandpa's pálinka is around fifty percent, but we have stuff up to eighty percent, I think, maybe even more," Lacy bragged. Shining and even some other ponies who sat close to them looked at him with a skeptical expression. "Nevermind. Cheers!" he raised his glass.

"Cheers!" Shining did the same.

The liquor was similar to Jägermeister, and it was pretty good. Then he tried the cider, a classic apple one, which he would say was average.

"So..." Shining Armor started a conversation after their first sip of their drinks. "If I remember correctly, you said your grandfather was in the military, and that he had some good stories. Care to share?" By the time he got to the question, Lazlo noticed that several ponies were looking towards them.

"Eh... Two come to my mind," he leaned back. "He told me he was in a somewhat special role. He was a driver. Umm... So we have cars and other vehicles, imagine it, like a... umm... like a locomotive that can be moving on the road... maybe that's the closest one here. So anyway, sometimes he had to take stuff to other military bases or take or bring high-ranking people, things like that. And sometimes he had to do it at night."

He paused for a moment to take another sip from his drink.

"So one of those times, he was on his way out of the barracks in the middle of the night, way past the curfew when a sergeant saw him and yelled at him for walking around in the middle of the night. He didn't believe him when my grandpa told him that he had an order. So they ended up going to the... umm... To be honest, I have no idea what rank that guy was, so let's go with lieutenant since I know that one, and it's above the sergeant. Anyway, the lieutenant was in charge of this base, and when the sergeant marched into his office with my grandpa and told him what happened..." Lazlo stopped for a minute to chuckle. "After that, for minutes, the lieutenant was yelling at the sergeant for obstructing my grandpa from fulfilling his orders."

Some ponies laughed at this, even Shining Armor grinned.

"The other story, I remember, is somewhat similar to this," Lazlo continued. "So one day there was an umm... what do they call... like a practice for an alert situation... something like that." He took another sip from his drink. "He was told that in case of the alarm, he had to go and get a car and bring it to the place where they'd all be gathering during the alarm. And he did so. After that, a sergeant, I think, was checking if everything went alright and as was written down when he noticed that the lieutenant was nowhere. So he told my grandpa to get him, and my grandpa went to the lieutenant's room and told him that there was an alarm practice about an hour ago. When they got back, the lieutenant asked him, 'Private Sámray! You were supposed to get me when you went to get the car! Why didn't you do so?' and my grandpa answered, 'Sir, I was not told to bring you with the car!' Then the lieutenant turned to the sergeant, who was conducting the practice. 'Sergeant! Why did you not give proper instructions to Sámray?!' and he yet again yelled for minutes at him in front of the whole base. Though I don't know if it was the same sergeant, I'm not even sure of the ranks, to be honest."

This resulted in more laughs. After that, some of the ponies who were listening asked some questions about his world. As they consumed more and more drinks, the time eventually came for telling funny stories.

"So, I don't remember much of it, but my first and so far only drunken vomit was a few months ago," Lazlo began another story. "As it turned out, whiskey and rum don't get along. I got plenty of both of them from some drinking game and was totally wasted. Most of what happened after that was told by my friends. They saw me suffering on a couch. Then, suddenly I got up and said, 'I'm going to go and vomit,' then walked to the bathroom and... well, yawned a colorful, then walked back and continued my suffering," he finished. "At least there was no need to clean up after it..." he added.

Of course, since most of those around him were guards, it was inevitable that they too shared some of their experiences.

"I was on door duty when two mares walked by and stopped close to me. They were talking, and one of them was slowly backing up, but I was behind her. So I had to focus, while a young mare was slowly getting her butt close to my face. It was hard, but I managed to keep my gaze forward," some laughed at this, and some cheered on his endurance, again, some doubted that he didn't at least steal a few glances. Lazlo was a little confused, as it wasn't really hard to 'steal glances', but because of that magical decency, or whatever was the proper name for it, it wasn't like there was anything interesting to see there. Not like he had any desire to. He saw it once, though not by choice, and it wasn't that pleasant to his eyes. "Anyway, as she got closer, I was about to call her out when suddenly she stopped. And then let out a quiet and discrete fart." That again brought some reaction, many voiced their disgust or amusement. "Then suddenly she suggested to move on and as she turned, she noticed me and realized what she had done. She hurried off fast. And then, I admit, I broke procedure, because I had to use my wings to create a small wind to make it go away, it had a horrid smell, I almost passed out.

Well, technically you didn't break procedure," Shining pointed out. "As you acted in a way to clear an obstacle that was in the way of doing your duty properly." At that, many voiced their agreement and also praised the captain for his flexibility.

"Man, these 'technicality speeches' are often annoying, but I say things like that too from time to time, so fuck it," Lazlo said as he sipped another glass of whiskey. His alcohol level was rising steadily.

He also got questions about how he reacted when he first arrived and how his first days were.

"It was weird, I mean, it's still weird at some degree, but..." he rested his head on his right hand for a moment before continuing. "It was right after the new year party, so like now, I was pretty drunk there. Went to bed, well more like a sofa to be exact, and then next thing I know is that I woke up outside on a field, and children talked around me." Some chuckled, some nodded in sympathy. "I mean, yeah, I got wasted a few times before, but never woke up in an unknown place before, not like one of my friends, who told me that he once woke up on a train, well, a regional train. And then another weird thing was that those children talked about me like they never saw an adult before, so I was like 'Wut?' and then got up and looked at them. And I saw colorful mini horses talking. I was thinking that I was drugged with some hallucinogen, like what the hell? I don't think I even realized that I was very underdressed for the supposedly middle of winter." He paused for a moment to drink some more.

"Then came the girls, Twilight and the others," he continued. "I think my brain just went to autopilot, or something to prevent overloading, or I don't know, I guess it was just too much for it, but didn't want me to faint or something. And then after some talking, they escorted me to another party. It was fucking crazy, I tell you. Part of me was still hoping then that it's just some kind of weird drunk dream, or whatever, and once I get knocked out again, I wake up on that sofa. But that didn't happen, and next thing I know, I met with Princess Celestia, who just wanted to have a tea and some chat, then offered her help," he shook his head. "I mean, I don't really trust politicians, I know them, my mother is one after all... But back then, I think I was still in autopilot mode, or something, and it was better than any other scenario I could've imagined. Back then I still had hope that one day, I'll get my old life back... but after it turned out that I can't go back..." he stopped in mid-sentence.

One of the ponies rubbed his back with his wing in comfort. Lazlo just nodded a little, silently thanking him.

"But Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Spike, even the princesses stayed with me, trying to help me. Even when I was an asshole to them... A horrible person. And yet, they still came to me. Trying to get me out of my hole, and somehow... they did it. I guess I still have some of it in me, but it's not that dark anymore. I don't have those dark thoughts," he stopped talking.

The ponies, who were listening, began feeling the mood dropping, so some tried to change the subject so the atmosphere wouldn't get too depressed.

They began again telling funny or bizarre experiences, like one who managed to talk a pony, who escaped from the mental hospital, to go back, or one who saw some of the things that happened at the Grand Galopping Gala, mostly about what Twilight's friends did, and how much they had to work to restore order. With that, the subject went back to the element bearers and the princesses.

"They caused quite the headache for us then." the guard said, after finished his story about how they had to clean up the mess after the gala. "But I guess we can forgive this to them, after all, they're heroes!"

"Yeah, they stopped Discord! I can't imagine my life in an Equestria under his control."

"And they brought back Princess Luna! I remember seeing the joy on Princess Celestia's face when she announced that her sister was back!" another spoke up.

"The princesses work very hard to make our life good here, they deserve the happiness too!"

"We have another princess to watch over us!"

"To the princesses!"

"To the element bearers!"

"CHEERS!"

After the toast to the rulers and heroes of Equestria, the party started to wind down. The bartender suggested they stop now, as some guards had duty the next morning, including Shining Armor. So with that, they all left the place. Most went back to their barracks, while Shining went to his house, which was close by, as there was a row of houses for the current and retired captains, or other Royal Guards, who achieved something great during their service.

A few, though, offered to escort him back to his room in the castle. On the way, he tried to explain to them the concept of memes, but wasn't successful, probably because his blood alcohol level did influence his ability to explain something, not to mention some of the tech slangs he used, when they couldn't even understand the normal tech terms. Eventually, by the time he got back to his room, he managed to dumb it down to 'pictures with texts that make it funny'.

At least, by the time he went to bed, he had more friends than when he got up that morning. And since they left the place before he got completely wasted, he hoped that he wouldn't have a hangover, or only a mild one the next morning.

Author's Note

Another shorter chapter. Slowly getting to the end of this mini-arc.
Since I know, I won't be able to finish with the next chapter till Christmas, then I guess, I wish you all Happy Holidays in advance, but since I'll be on leave on the last week of the year, I try to get one more chapter done in this year, but I can't promise anything.
I'm also thinking of writing some kind of instructions of how to pronounce some of the names, though the most easy thing would be is to whip up google translate, select the hungarian language, copy the text, and then listen to the beautiful voice reading it out loud. (Also since I changed some names according to some pronunciation I heard, it get's a little messed up already.)

And let's not forget that I'm still thankful for my dear friend for checking my grammar!

As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time!