"Can I see some ID?" asked Berry Punch.
"Of course!" The mare beamed as she produced a plastic card.
Berry scanned the date. It was today. This mare had only been old enough to drink for about fifteen minutes.
Berry Punch had done the same thing on her birthday, over a decade ago now. The bartender had poured her a whiskey coke on the house. She nursed it for an hour, trying to acquire the taste. It would take a few years for her to succeed.
"Happy birthday, kid," said Berry. "What do you want?"
"Um… what do you recommend?"
"Whiskey coke," Berry Punch heard herself say. She started pouring it before the mare gave a response. Just for the hell of it, she stuck a cherry in the glass.
Berry slid it over to the first-time bar patron. She sipped it tentatively and made a face.
"Pretty good," she said.
Berry Punch tried to remember her name. It had been on the ID, but she had glossed over it. She felt like she should say something to this pony. Once, she had been in this exact same situation, alone in a bar on what should have been her biggest birthday party. Berry didn't celebrate with friends that year because she'd moved away only a month before the date rolled around.
Alone in a new town, she couldn't think of anything else to do but wander into a bar the moment she was legally allowed.
But what was there to say to this stranger? If Berry brought it up, the pony would either shrug her off, or worse, ask for more details about her life. She wasn't about to open up to a stranger.
Another customer called for her attention, she served him while mulling it over.
She couldn't remember a single thing about the bartender who served her on that fateful day so long ago. It made sense. At the time, she had focused on drinking. Unlike most of her friends, she had actually refrained from drinking at all until she was legally allowed to. Most ponies she told this to didn't believe her, considering the amount Berry drank nowadays, but it was the truth. She liked to follow the rules and do what others expected of her.
She was busy for a while before the mare called her over again.
"Are you supposed to eat the cherry?" she asked.
"Yeah. It's a cherry," said Berry Punch.
"It's not like, prepared in a weird way or something?"
"If I put it in the drink, it's safe to consume."
"Alright."
The pegasus chomped down the cherry.
That was always Berry's favorite part about drinking, the cherry at the bottom. Like a reward for a job well done. She had a habit of putting them in drinks even when they weren't appropriate. A drink without a cherry or an olive or something just feels different without a definite end, like a sentence without a punctuation mark.
All those years ago at the bar, Berry had been so lonely that she couldn't stand the sight of the word. It felt like every use of the word 'lonely' was a personal insult to her, a declaration that there wasn't anyone for her in the world.
The whiskey didn't make her okay with it. It just made her not care, which was the best she could hope for.
The mare had finished her drink much faster than Berry had. She tried not to make judgments about other ponies, but she considered that to be a bad sign. To be drinking alone on your birthday never had a pleasant story behind it. If only she knew how to reach out to this stranger and make her feel better.
The best she could come up with was, "Do you want another one?"
"Not yet. Gonna let it settle first."
The mare leaned back, contentment creeping across her face. Berry wasn't about to push the issue. She probably wouldn't have to. Ponies tended to start talking to her about their problems completely unprompted. Usually, it annoyed her, but in this instance, she would welcome it.
There wasn't anything left to do but sit back and wait for it to--
"How long have you been working here?" asked the mare.
There it is.
"Three months," Berry Punch said.
"Really? You seem like you know what you're doing."
"I've had a lot of practice mixing drinks."
The mare nodded. "Cool. What's your favorite?"
"I'm fond of a good Old Fashioned, myself." An Old Fashioned called for a cherry, and it fit together with the drink wonderfully.
"Could I have one of those, then?"
"Sure thing."
It only took Berry Punch fifteen seconds to put everything in the glass and start stirring. She sliced a bit of orange peel, rimmed the glass, and plopped it in the drink.
"And you're supposed to put orange peel in it?" asked the mare.
"The aroma affects the flavor. It's the most important part. Oh, aside from this." Berry plopped a cherry in the drink and slid it over. "You'll have to pay for this one."
The mare took a sip. "That's… intense."
"If you don't like it, I can make you something else."
"Yeah, I'd rather just have another whiskey coke, if you don't mind."
Berry whipped it up and swapped the glasses. Carrying the Old Fashioned, she walked into the back room and, once out of sight, downed the whole thing in one gulp. Then she ate the cherry.
She never really found any friends to fill the void. She had a few acquaintances, sure, but that wasn't the same thing.
Once, she'd heard a yak say, "Never be friends with someone you wouldn't want to die with." A strange way of putting it, considering Berry had never met another pony she would be content to die with. Given the choice, she would much rather die alone.
Thoughts like that were a clear sign she hadn't been drinking enough. She made another Old Fashioned and downed it in a similar manner, then went back out to the bar.
It was a slow night. There wasn't much to do but stand around keeping an eye on everypony.
If Berry spoke to the mare, she would say something like, "I want you to know I understand you. I've been there before. It would be a lie to say it gets better, but it gets easier. You can move forward, I trust you know how to handle this. I'm here to talk if you need me."
Now, if she could only find a socially acceptable way to phrase this, she'd be golden.
The door opened, and two more mares walked in. They were on the young side, so Berry had to check their IDs too. The moment she handed them back, the mare behind her sprang up from her chair.
"Hey guys! What took you so long?"
"It was hard to find this place," said one of the newcomers. "Sorry to keep you drinking alone on your birthday!"
The mare laughed. "It's fine, Apple Bloom. Come on, the bartender knows how to make a whiskey coke."
Making a whiskey coke wasn't an impressive skill. Anyone who heard the name of the drink knew how to make it. She didn't make a fuss and poured drinks for the three, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and the one who had been sitting alone earlier, Scootaloo.
They talked and laughed with each other long into the night. The trio were the last to leave the bar when closing time rolled around.
Berry Punch was the only one still there after they left.
At least she had the common sense to keep her big mouth shut, she thought as she made another Old Fashioned. She drank it and stared at the cherry at the bottom.
