Once A Shadow - From the other side

After what could have been described as the worst and best night of my new life, I felt rather good. I woke up, with Spitfire snuggling up next to me. What I didn't notice until a few seconds later was Soarin standing in the doorway with his jaw dropped halfway to the floor. "Umm," I said "this isn't what it looks like?" He just laughed and said

"Don't worry, I won't tell anypony. You are one lucky guy, you know that?"

I chuckled "Yep, don't I know it. And it doesn't stop there, I'm planning on taking Barry over to Las Pegas."

"Huh, really? Well good luck with that. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave before Spitfire catches me here. I'm supposed to be training with Blaze." He then bolted down the hallway as he heard Spitfire yawn.

"Morning sunshine, and how are you today?" I said jokingly.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. And how are you? you seem pretty perky this morning."

"I'm good. do we have anything important happening today? Cus' I was planning on taking a trip to Las Pegas with Shadow's friend."

"I don't think we do, so I guess so. Have fun, and try not to get too drunk."

I laughed. "I'll try, but I can't promise anything." As I headed over to the Silver Thunder, I noticed the fine weather. Birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and there was barely a cloud in the sky. A perfect day to visit Las Pegas. I headed through the front door, and saw Barry and Silver at the bar. "Hey guys, What's up?"

Silver looked up at me. "Hey Hornet, the usual I presume? Or are you here for another reason?"

"A bit of both Silver, I'm here to talk to Barry about something, but since I'm here I may as well have a cold one."

Barry looked at me nervously. "Is this about Shadow? Cause if it is, I want nothing to do with it."

"Relax, I actually wanted to talk about you, you feel like taking a trip up to Las Pegas?"

His expression turned into a mix of excitement and uneasyness. " Las Pegas? What's that, Vegas or something?" I nodded.
"I don't know, I don't exactly have the money for that kinda stuff."

"You don't, but I do. So what do you say, care to come with me to make (or lose) a fortune?" I said reassuringly.

It took him a few seconds to make up his mind. "Aww, alright, let's go. I just gotta talk to Thunder about it first." After a few minutes, he emerged from Thunder's office, thankfully unharmed. "I've been given the all clear, let's go make some trouble!"

I smiled. "Now you're talking! See ya Silver!" I said as me and Barry ran out the door. After a few hours of a boring train ride (and a shitolad of extra boring games of I spy), we had arrived.

Las Pegas. A city that never sleeps, where fortunes can be won and lost in the blink of an eye. It's the Ponies equivalent of Las Vegas, and to me it felt more like home than anywhere in Equestria. The towering neon lit buildings, the noise of all the ponies having a good time, ahh, home sweet home. "Barry, Welcome to The Strip, where you'll find money, mares and good times a plenty!"

"I've never seen anything like it." Barry said, gobsmacked.

"Of course you haven't, Vegas was always one of a kind, so is Las Pegas. Now, where shall we start our escapade? Oh, I know! There's this one place, where I ended up in Equestria, It's called the Tops: Hotel and Casino. It's a great place, believe me, you will love it."

Barry, being not that interested, pointed towards something a little more his style. "What about that place? I reckon we could have a good time there."

I shook my head. "Look, you've been here only a few minutes, so I'll forgive you. Let me give you the rundown of the best of this place: That one you just pointed to, the Gommareh? It may look pretty on the outside, and the mares there are nice, but trust someone who knows the layout better than you. That place is shady, they've always got something going on behind closed doors, and I'm not just talking about the sex. My advice: stay away from there unless you've got some business with them, and even then be careful. Now that that's out of the way, let's get cracking!" (Cue montage of me and Barry getting drunk, getting rich, and getting in trouble.)

"So you're telling me, that he told your girlfriend that you had an STD, just so he could get a packet of chips? Wow, what an asshole!" I laughed.

Barry was pretty much as drunk as he could be, and was barely able to stand upright. "Yeah, I mean, what the hell? He could have just asked for 'em you know." He took a swig from a bottle he was carrying. "You really *hic* know how to have a good time, I should hang out with you more often. You're WAY more fun to hang out with than Shadow."

I was drunk too, but not near as much as Barry was. I mean I had promised to Spitfire that I wouldn't get too drunk, and I was planning on keeping the promise. Besides, she was probably planning on getting me drunk anyways. "Hahahaha! you are wasted mate, absolutely wasted. you either need to go home or have a rest."

Barry scoffed. "Not fucking likely! besides, I'm fine! Absolutely fine. I don't...need to...have a rest...I feel.. peachy..." Just then he fell to the ground.

"Barry, Barry, Barry. What am I going to do with you? Oh wait, I know!" I said with an evil tone.

Don't worry, I took him back to Ponyville, safe and sound. The only thing I did to him was draw a moustache and some scars on him. (evil smirk).

I walked up to the Ponyville Library, with Barry on my back. I knocked on the door, and a few seconds later Twilight answered the door. "Oh my goodness! What happened to him?" She mildly shreiked.

I tried to reassure her."Don't worry, he's fine. He's just a little intoxicated. He'll wake up in a while. Long story short, we went to Las Pegas and went a little crazy. Don't worry, nothing bad happened, and he'll have completely forgotten about it by the time he wakes up."

She breathed out a sigh of relief. "Well, so long as nothing bad happened, I'm okay with that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for his inevitable hangover."

As she closed the door, I flew off and left. That was fun, I should do it again sometime. Maybe I'll take Shadow, but then again he has a lot on his plate already, and I don't think he'll have time for it. After flying through Cloudsdale and reaching the Wonderbolts HQ, I went into my room, and found a pleasant surprise waiting for me. Spitfire was waiting for me, with a bottle of whiskey in hoof. I smiled and closed the door behind me. (I'm pretty sure you know what happened next) ;D