This is Your Brain on Joke
It was a normal early morning in Maretime Bay. The clouds were parting, the sun was creeping up in the sky, and everyone in the Crystal Brighthouse was still fast asleep. The Brighthouse had been a bit cozier since Comet came to stay with the rest of them. As much as he loved Starlight Ridge, he needed to see Equestria. It was a bit of an adjustment at first, although he was relieved to walk on the ground without slipping for once in his life, it took a few days for him to adjust to the warmer weather and brighter sky. But as he woke at dawn, he felt ready to try something new and embrace living in Maretime Bay. Which was good since the group already made plans for today to be a...
"Beach da--" Comet clapped a hoof over his mouth to stop his shouting in excitement, realizing that he was the only one who was awake right now. Zipp was the only one to be disturbed by this. Her head rose, but it only stayed up for a few seconds before she slammed her head back on her pillow and fell back asleep.
Comet quietly got up and walked downstairs, careful not to wake anyone. Then Sunny's alarm blared. Sunny's hoof popped out of the sheets, grabbed the alarm, and threw it across the room where it slammed against the wall and broke into pieces. A few seconds later, Sunny got out of bed with a yawn and a stretch before she went to treat her bedhead. When she was done styling her mane, her face lit up as she remembered their plans for the day. "It's beach day!" she exclaimed before running past Izzy and down the stairs. Izzy just took the broken alarm clock and a screwdriver like she did every morning.
By the time everyone came down for breakfast, Sunny had already made her special pancakes for them. The group sat around devouring their breakfast, hoping that the sooner they finished, the sooner they could start having beachside fun. But a knock on the door distracted Sunny from the table and she forced herself to swallow the potentially dangerous gulp of pancakes she was eating before going to answer it.
"Good morning, Sunny," the delivery pony said, greeting her with a smile. "I have your mint shipment here."
Sunny had to cock an eyebrow in confusion despite her smile as she took the box filled with small baggies of mint from the mare. "Thanks, but I usually get my shipments delivered to my cart."
"True, but I'm on a tight schedule today so I figured I could just deliver it to your residence since your shop wasn't open yet. Have a nice day." And with that, the pegasus turned and flew off.
Sunny was about to close the door, but then she noticed the approaching duo of the town sheriff and the dragon child happily riding on his back. "Good morning, Hitch," she greeted as she invited them inside. "Are you ready for an amazing beach day?"
Hitch sighed at this and hesitated to look his friend in the eye. "That's what I'm here to talk to you about," he said in a familiar melancholy tone that caught most of the group's attention, for they knew it all too well. That was the voice Hitch used when he had no choice but to be the bearer of bad news. "I'm afraid beach day is canceled."
As expected, his friends fell apart at the news. Zipp and Pipp were voicing their frustrations, Misty froze in surprise and despair, Izzy started to cry, Comet was visibly crushed, and Sunny was just confused. "Why?!" Pipp demanded to know.
"Well, there's this big shark in the water that's being very territorial and unwilling to listen to reason. Until I can safely relocate him, I have no choice but to close down the beach in the interest of public safety."
"That makes sense," Sunny said as she brought her supply of mint to the kitchen table. "I think we can hold off on the beach for a little while. We do live a short walk away from it."
While their logic was sound, it didn't stop the other ponies from looking glum about it. But before Sunny could attempt to cheer anyone up, a thump and a splash came from the kitchen and took the group's attention.
"Sunny," Izzy said from the kitchen. "I knocked over one of the smoothies you keep in the fridge, and it got everywhere."
"Oh boy," Sunny said quietly. "When Izzy emphasizes 'everywhere', she means everywhere." With that, Sunny trotted towards the kitchen to help Izzy clean up.
Then Sparky jumped off Hitch's back, ran to the dining room table, and grabbed a large stack of pancakes from Sunny's pile.
"Remember your table manners, Sparky," Hitch said when he caught up to him, sliding a plate under Sparky's stack. The baby dragon plopped the stack on the plate and reached for the syrup bottle. Hitch took the bottle and poured the syrup himself, knowing full well that the young dragon would just glob the whole bottle's worth onto the stack if he didn't intervene. Once he was done, Sparky began to dive his face into it and eat the stack in monster-sized bites. "My next battle is teaching him to use a fork," Hitch said as he sat down next to where Sunny put her box of mints.
Pipp was kind enough to fly across the table and bring Hitch some of the remaining pancakes. "So, when will the beach reopen?" she asked when she landed beside him.
"As early as today. I have a plan to relocate the shark using... This." Hitch then took a small plastic baggie filled with clippings from a flowery blue plant. "Last night, I got special permission to get a sample of poison joke to remedy the situation."
"Poison joke?" Zipp asked. "Isn't that the plant that does weird stuff to whoever touches it?"
"Yes," Misty chimed in. "But the plant also has weird effects on someone who eats, smokes, or injects it into their bloodstream. They get spacey and suffer from all kinds of hallucinations."
"So it's a drug," Comet summarized.
Misty nodded. "It's one hell of a drug."
"How do you know so much about poison joke, Misty?" Zipp asked, giving her a suspicious look.
Misty turned her head and sheepishly tried to hide her face from them. "I don't want to talk about it," she answered simply.
Hitch was willing to shrug it off. "Yeah, that's the main reason it's been made illegal," Hitch said as he set his baggie on the table. "Unless you intend to use it for animal tranquilizers."
"So you're going to give the shark a poison joke tranquilizer?" Pipp asked, catching on.
Hitch smiled and nodded. "Yep. I have an expert coming in from Zephyr Heights to mix it this morning. He didn't have the plant on hoof, so I used my sheriff's authority to get some. Once it's done, I'll shoot the shark with a dart and carry him to deeper waters."
"That seems crazy and potentially dangerous," Misty said, flatly.
"Yes, it's both those things," Hitch agreed. "But it has to be done, and there's no one better to do that than the sheriff."
It was at that moment when Sunny and Izzy came back from the kitchen, completely oblivious to their friends' previous conversation. "How did you manage to spill it into the pasta container?" Sunny asked in a mixture of amazement and annoyance. "It was sealed."
Izzy shrugged. "Just one of life's great mysteries."
The group went mostly quiet as they finished their breakfast, with only the occasional joke someone told at random times. Finally, with the kitchen taken care of, the group went off to start their days, but Hitch had to stop mid-trot a short ways from the table to reach back for his poison joke, and put the baggie he grabbed into his saddlebag without looking. And with that, he walked out of the Brighthouse to start his morning patrol.
Sunny looked at the clock and realized that she had to open up shop soon. At least she didn't need to move it closer to the coast anymore. "Izzy, could you help carry this box, please?" Sunny asked.
"Okie dokie," Izzy said happily before effortlessly lifting the box with her magic. She then noticed that a small baggie seemed to have managed to fall out of the box, so she just stuck it back in without a word. Then she turned to Sunny and followed her out the door. "On the bright side, now that I have no plans for today, I can try to do something that I always had in mind. But I'm gonna need five tubes of glitter glue, a stuffed mongoose, and six tons of cardboard. And that's just for starters."
It wasn't until both mares were out the door that Zipp's eyes widened in concern over what her friend just said. "Six tons?" Zipp asked in alarm, but the unicorn didn't seem to hear her. "Izzy, six tons?" she repeated after opening the door, but Izzy was still oblivious. So Zipp decided to fly after her. "Izzy, six tons?" the others heard her ask one more time before the door closed.
"So, Comet," Pipp said, catching the auroracorn off guard. "Since you got some free time, Jazz has been dying to do your hooves."
Hearing that, Misty looked down at her own hooves. "You know what? I could go for a hooficure too."
After delivering the package to the stand, Izzy immediately left to gather the things she needed for her plans. Zipp followed her, compelled to see where this was going, and left Sunny alone. As Sunny was humming to herself and setting up for the day, she noticed something strange among the assortment of mint. Something blue and flowery. Whatever it was, it wasn't mint.
"This must have gotten mixed up during packaging," she reasoned. "But I can't say I recognize what it is." Curious, she opened the bag, brought some of the contents to her muzzle, and sniffed it, hoping she would recognize it. "It must be a new one made with earth pony magic. Well, I'm sure the supply company wouldn't package it if it weren't tasty." And with that, she bit one of the petals to determine its flavor.
"Yuck!" she shouted, her face scrunched up in disgust, and her tongue shooting out as if it was trying to fling the taste out of her mouth. But the flavor changed as she smacked her tongue to the roof of her mouth and her face softened until that change was complete and she smiled in appreciation. "Bitter at first, but a tangy aftertaste. I can work with this." She turned her head to her trusty blender and some of the ingredients she already had prepared next to it. It didn't take long for her eyes and smile to brighten at the ideas forming in her head. "Experiment time."
Everyone in Mane Melody was relaxed at the moment. Comet was admiring the snow pattern Jazz gave his newly shined hooves, Misty made the mistake of letting Pipp experiment with her mane, and the rest of the building was rather quiet. For these reasons, Zipp slamming the doors open and rushing in was so alarming.
"Have any of you seen Izzy?" Zipp asked frantically. "I lost her when she went into the woods, but she found a cotton candy machine!"
"Well, she's the last pony who should sugar binge," Pipp said nonchalantly, returning to her work on Misty's mane without giving her sister a second glance.
"Don't worry so much, Zipp," Comet said. "You have to roll with Izzy's craziness."
Zipp chuckled. "Yeah, it makes life worth living. But that's half the reason I need to find her."
"Because your plans for today got canceled and now you want to use Izzy's thing so you can solve your boredom?" Pipp asked, not looking away from Misty's mane.
Zipp looked at the floor and rubbed her foreleg with her hoof. "Maybe," she admitted.
"Zipp, I know Izzy's thing might need to be stopped, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, just do whatever you usually do in your free time. Solve a mystery, detective."
"But all my cases are closed. You have to admit that it's been pretty quiet since we stole Comet."
"No one 'stole' me!" Comet exclaimed, but the sisters ignored him.
"Just go out and look for a case, then. It didn't take me long to fill the boredom with work." Then her face faltered slightly. "Even if I'd rather be at the beach convincing Hitch to let me bury him in the sand, or convincing him to take surfing lessons with me, or building the most incredible sand castle. Knowing Hitch, he'll be the one judging it in the contest and--"
"Why do all of your plans involve Hitch in some way?" Zipp asked with a sly smile, taking delight in seeing her sister's face redden.
Pipp turned to her, trying and failing to give her best poker face. "It's not what you think."
Zipp chuckled. "That means it's exactly what I think it is."
Pipp took on an embarrassed look until she replaced it with an evil grin and held up the comb in her hoof. "Zipp, since it's a slow business day, how about you join Misty and help me with some new mane styles? I could even style your manes so you can be twinsies." One of the benefits of having a polar opposite sister was knowing how to make her leave, and Zipp ran far and fast after that, making Pipp chuckle before returning to work.
"Pipp?" Misty asked. "Do you think that your attention got divided a little too much just now?"
The princess took on a confused expression. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason," Misty said, trying to suppress her concern over how, despite not cutting a single strand of hair, she made her mane look rather similar to Hitch's preferred style.
Then they heard the bell ring as the door opened again. This time, it was Rocky carrying a small tray of smoothies. "I'm back," he practically sang out before flying to Pipp. "I got my usual and the strawberry ripple you asked for." After giving Pipp her drink, he trotted over to Jazz to give her a cup. "And you wanted to be surprised, so I got you the new flavor."
"Thank you," Jazz said, smiling as she took the cup in her hooves and happily sipped the straw.
Pipp paused from mixing a new hair dye to give her employees a surprised look. "Sunny never said anything about a new flavor. What is it?"
"Get your Blue Blossom Blast Smoothies!" Sunny called out to the streets. "Limited time offer! Only a few left, so get them while they last!" She smiled as she looked at the multiple ponies who tried her new recipe with that strange new ingredient and happily sipped the substance from her own cup.
Sprout walked up to the stand, giving the pre-made mix of the new substance a quizzical look. "So what exactly is a 'blue blossom' anyway?"
"I don't know," Sunny admitted. "I think it's a new plant grown by earth ponies. The company sent it to me by mistake, so I experimented and found a delicious mix for it that neutralizes the initial bitterness." She then turned her head away from him, a thought striking her. "Although it was strange that it worked since I rarely succeed on my first try," she mumbled to herself.
"I can see how well it's selling."
"Yeah, many of the ponies in town bought one. And I don't know why, but I've been super relaxed since I started drinking one. I feel so... good." Sunny stood there for a few seconds, her eyes closed almost as if sleeping.
Then her eyes shot open at the sound of Sprout tapping on the counter. "Are you OK?" he asked.
"Yeah, I guess I didn't get enough sleep last night. Would you like the Blossom Blast?"
Sprout, ignoring the warning sign, shrugged. "Sure. I could use some relaxation." Sunny poured him a cup of the mix, which was almost gone at this point, and sent him on his way, happily sipping from the cup.
Seeing that there was no longer a line, a teal pegasus with a handlebar mustache walked up to the counter. "I'll take a strawberry and banana smoothie, please."
"Are you sure you don't want to try the new 'Blue Blossom Blast' flavor?" she asked, squinting her eyes and slightly swaying. "There's only a few left in stock."
"No thank you. I just want the strawberry and banana today."
"Okay," she somewhat mumbled with a spacey expression, but her customer service smile never left her face as she groggily brought the strawberry container to the counter and removed the lid. But her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she heard it.
"La la la la. La lee la lee la lee"
"La la la la. A lee a lee a lee..."
She looked down to the source of the singing and was astonished to find that the strawberries had somehow grown mouths and formed a shrill choir. She slammed the lid back on the box and hoped that the customer wouldn't ask questions, but he didn't seem to even notice it. Confused, she brought her ear to the lid and heard nothing. Carefully, she slowly opened the lid again.
"La la la la. La lee la lee la lee..."
Sunny once more slammed the lid back on and gave the now slightly irritated pegasus a nervous look. "I don't think they're quite ripe," she nervously said as she put the berries away and brought out the first other fruit she grabbed. "How would you like a citrus smoothie instead?"
But when she opened the orange container, she was greeted with a worse sight. They too grew mouths, but they also grew small arms and appeared to be cheering for the oranges in the center who were throwing a rock concert.
"We're not gonna take it," the orange band sang.
"No, we ain't gonna take it. We're not gonna take it anymore!"
On the last word, the lead singer dug into the center of his orange skin and peeled it off for dramatic effect.
Sunny slammed the lid back on, her eyes wide and her pupils dilated. "What did the strawberries sound like again?"
"Sound like?" the customer asked in confusion. "Miss, are you alright?"
She was about to answer, but she jumped back in alarm at the sight of his mustache moving and wiggling on its own. "What's wrong with your mustache?" she shouted in alarm.
The pegasus huffed. "Well, I think my mustache is just fine," he said indignantly, unaware that the ends of said mustache transformed into cobra heads that started to viciously hiss at the poor smoothie maker. "I think I'll be taking my business somewhere else." And with another huff, he turned and flew away.
The earth pony pressed her back against the wall and panted as she tried to make sense of what she just witnessed. "Is someone messing with me?" she thought to herself. "Is this a freaky dream?" Then, to her shock, the cups started to float out of their stacks and in a circle around Sunny, and she swore she could hear them laughing at her. Overwhelmed, she crouched down, squeezed her eyes shut, pressed her hooves over her ears, and whispered "I'm dreaming" to herself over and over to try to drown it all out.
Izzy happily trotted towards the smoothie cart, but upon getting close enough to see into the window, she noticed that Sunny wasn't anywhere in sight. "Huh, she must be on break," she said before trotting off along with her wagon full of mason jars containing butterflies.
"All you need is your Beat. All you need is your beat."
The music practically blared from Hitch's phone. He had just finished a patrol and was sitting at his desk and watching one of Pipp's music videos while waiting for his expected guest. Sparky was happily dancing to the music all around the room, and Hitch was dancing slightly in his seat as well, but he never took his eyes off the screen. He thought about how often he was viewing her social media pages and briefly wondered if it was weird, but he decided that since she was a streamer, it was encouraged for him to be up to date on her posts. And that it was also fine to scroll through her older content. And it was okay if he just stumbled upon old ads from Zephyr Heights that featured her. It was also perfectly normal to sometimes pause the video whenever she made an adorable face so he could look at it and smile.
Okay, he admitted it sounded a little creepy when he thought all of that to himself, but he just couldn't help it. Every day she would inspire him, cheer him up if he was down, and just make him happy when she was around. He reasoned that it was okay if he wanted her around even more than she already was. If he wanted to hold her close. If he wanted her to feel the same way...
"Hitch?" He was startled by the sudden sound of a familiar pegasus's voice which caused him to fumble with his phone and drop it on the desk facing up.
He cleared his throat before trying to make himself look as cool and alert as possible. "What's up, Zipp?" he said with a hastily plastered-on smile and leaned back in his chair as he tried too hard to sit upright.
"Nothing," she said nonchalantly. "That's exactly why I was wondering if you needed my help solving any cases while you wrestle a shark."
"I'm not gonna wrestle him," Hitch corrected, looking slightly annoyed.
Zipp smirked. "Right, you're just gonna shoot him, drug him, and carry him to an unknown location against his will."
Hitch slumped over his desk and put his hooves to his temples. "No, Zipp. I don't have any new cases today."
"Not even a cold case?"
"Sorry."
"Dammit," she grunted. "I lost Izzy, I'm not going back to Mane Melody anytime soon, and Sunny has to work. What am I gonna do?"
Hitch thought for a moment. "Well, what do you normally do when you need to relax?"
"I go to the beach," Zipp deadpanned. "Where's your drug guy?"
"He's called a pharmacist, and he's running late. But if you have nothing else to do, then you can hang out with me and Sparky until he gets here."
Zipp perked up at this. "Sure, I'd love to help you mix drugs."
"Try again," Hitch said, unamused.
Zipp sighed. "I will leave with Sparky while the pharmacist mixes the drugs."
"Thank you." Hitch then turned to a small bookshelf to see if there was anything she would like on it. "I won't lie, I mostly just have magazines..." Then his eyes perked up in delight. "I do have a few true crime novels. I have one here about an interview with a master thief if you're interested."
"Weird. She hasn't worn that hat in ages."
Confused, Hitch turned to her to see what she was talking about. Then his jaw dropped as he realized what she was talking about. She was looking at his phone, which was still sitting on his desk with the incriminating image of Pipp from an old video. "Why hadn't it gone dark yet?"
"Oh, I just found that," he tried, and failed, to say casually. "You know how much she posts on the internet."
Zipp just smirked. "But this is from three years ago."
He gulped. "It must have resurfaced. I wasn't even paying that much attention to it." He then picked up a random book in the hopes of being able to use it to change the subject. "I spent most of my free time reading this book."
Zipp cocked an eyebrow, obviously not believing it. "So if you were too invested in that book to stalk my sister on social media, then do you mind telling me all about it?" she asked smugly.
The poor sheriff broke out into a cold sweat and decided that the best course of action was to double down on his fib, even if he had to make something up. "Oh, um... It's about this group of friends who like to adventure and solve mysteries. Then... um... uh... One of the guys in the group developed feelings for one of the girls in the group, and that upset their whole dynamic." Hitch adopted a sad expression. "Overall, it would have been better for everyone if he kept his mouth shut."
Zipp's face went blank, and she was done playing around. "Hitch, do you wanna screw my sister?"
The only word to perfectly describe the look on Hitch's face was shattered. His ears drooped down, his eyes bugged out, his lips parted wide while his teeth were locked tightly together, and his whole face turned a bright red. "Wh-what? N-no!" he stammered.
The princess didn't change her blank expression. "No need to worry because I'm not the overprotective older sister. As long as you're both consenting adults, I'm cool with it." Now seeing that his face was turning a deeper shade of red and he was now sweating buckets, Zipp cracked a smile. "And don't take this the wrong way, but no one needs it more than you do."
Hitch managed to force his face to start reverting to normal, but he was still blushing deeply. "I... I only know one way to interpret that..."
Zipp picked up the phone, but Hitch was happy to see that the screen had gone black. At least until she was able to use the smudges on the screen to figure out his passcode. He began to panic as she opened his texting app and clicked on Pipp's name.
"Pipp, I think you're sexy," she said aloud while she typed, causing Hitch to scream. "You wanna do it?"
"Zipp, stop it!" he wailed before wrestling the phone from her.
Zipp laughed uncontrollably for a few seconds and clutched her sides. "Relax, I was just messing with you. I only asked her if she wanted to hang."
As her laughter died down, Hitch's horrified face remained as he looked at the text she sent. "No," he said chillingly, making the pegasus worry. "You asked if she wanted to bang."
Zipp's face fell as he took in the effects of her typo and snatched the phone back. "How could I do that?"
"Explain it!"
"She hasn't responded yet!"
"Explain it anyway!"
"She's typing!"
Hitch put his hooves over his face as his phone dinged with her response. "Oh no!"
"Hey, sheriff," Zipp read aloud. "Let me get dressed so I can take it off nice and slow for you before we..." She stopped reading, her eyes bulging and her pupils dilating. "I won't read the rest out loud for the sake of the young ears present."
Hitch shrieked and took the phone back once more. He looked in horror at the start of the graphic and disgusting response but then came another ding on the phone. This time, the message made him drop the expression and, strangely, replace it with a smile.
"What is it?" Zipp asked with concern.
"Nothing," he said with a smirk. "I'm just really into it."
"No!" she screamed as she pressed her hooves to her ears and squeezed his eyes tight as if it would block out the unwanted thoughts. The last thing she wanted was to know the details.
It was Hitch's turn to laugh. "Yeah, I'm way into teaching you a lesson."
Zipp opened an eye as it clicked in her head and the stallion continued to laugh and explained the typo to Pipp. "How did she know it was me?" she asked.
Hitch gave her a flat look. "She says that it wasn't like me to casually ask for..." He had to stop himself from finishing the original sentence that came to his head. "... Such a thing. Nor was it like me to send a message without checking for typos."
Zipp was about to say something, but their conversation was cut short by a grey stallion opening the door with a worried look on his face. "Sheriff Hitch," Rufus said. "I think something's wrong with Sunny. She's acting weird."
Zipp and Hitch shared a look before turning back to the stallion. "Typical Sunny weird, or..." Hitch asked.
"I don't think so," Rufus said while rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know what she's doing or why, but I think it's a health code violation."
The duo shared another look, this one in shared concern. Sure Sunny made mistakes and did have a small prison record, but she would never jeopardize her precious smoothie cart like that. Hitch returned to his text chat with Pipp telling her to get the others and meet them at the smoothie cart. They didn't know what was going on, but they would understand when they got there.
They didn't understand what was happening at all. Sunny was in her cart, but that was the only normal part of the scene. She was singing to herself as she held a garden hose above her head and rubbed herself with the cascading water. The rest of the group was standing in front of the cart, unsure of how to approach this.
"I've been watching this for a few minutes," Izzy said once the whole group was there. "She's acting weird."
"You're telling me," Misty said as she turned to face her, but she finally noticed something else as she did so. Unfortunately, Misty was unable to express her newfound shock due to the shocked expression she was already wearing. "Izzy, what's that?"
"A bag of Skittles," she said, holding up the hoof with the candy while not mentioning the ostrich she had on a leash at all.
Hitch, deciding that it was his duty as sheriff, friend, and honorary brother, approached Sunny first. "Sunny?" he said, trying to get her attention.
She turned to him, still smiling. "Hi, Hitch," she said in a cheery, but spacey tone. "I can't talk right now. I'm in the shower." And then she returned to bathing, blissfully unaware that she was in public. At least until the water turned off and a pony a short distance away demanded to know who took his hose. "Hi, Spike," she happily said when she looked up. "You're blocking my water."
Hitch quickly took her out of the cart and all of her concerned friends crowded around her. "Are you OK?" Pipp asked, hovering in the air with her forehooves pressed to her mouth.
"Am I OK?" Sunny asked, suddenly taking a concerned tone herself. "What about you?"
They all looked at themselves, and then at one another, but they couldn't figure out what she was referring to. "What do you mean?" Comet asked.
Sunny looked him dead in the eyes. "For one thing, your neck is long and noodly," she said before turning to Izzy. Well, above Izzy. "You're a giant." Then she turned to Pipp. "You have giant ears for wings," she whispered before turning to Misty. "You're a rabbit," she said, causing Misty to check if she had floppy ears or a cotton tail. "You're the tooth fairy," she said to Zipp, who thought it was tame in comparison. "I don't even know what happened to Posey." This time, she pointed to the ostrich that wandered to Hitch's side. "Sparky's head is a balloon," she said with her hoof pointed to the baby dragon sitting on his father's back. "And you..." When she pointed to Hitch, she paused her ranting and broke into a fit of giggles. "You're just Hitch," she said through her laughter.
While she continued her laughing fit, the others grew more concerned. "Sunny, did you hit your head?" Hitch asked as he gently cradled her noggin, looking for a bump or bruise.
"Did you get jinxed?!" Izzy asked in alarm.
Zipp put her hooves to her head as she thought of an even worse scenario. "Is Opaline back for revenge?!"
"No," Pipp said calmly as she put the pieces together. "It's been years since I was in school, but I remember learning about this in health class. First, we have hallucinations..." She then got close to Sunny, putting her hoof below her ear and focusing. "Quickened pulse..." Then the princess took the opportunity to lightly push Sunny, causing her to ungracefully stumble and fall. "Loss of balance..." As Pipp pulled her up, she looked into her eyes. "Bloodshot eyes with dilated pupils..." She then lightly bopped Sunny on the nose, and it took a second or two for her to react to it by rubbing her nose. "Slow reflexes..." She followed this action with a tap on Sunny's shoulder, and the mare looked in the opposite direction. "Disoriented..." Finally, she turned to the rest of the group. "Yep, she's stoned."
"STONED?!" they all exclaimed.
Pipp nodded. "High as a kite."
"And I think I know what drug it is," Misty said with a nervous glance at Hitch. "Didn't you say that you bought some poison joke to drug a shark?"
Hitch blinked, not understanding what she was implying. "Yeah, but I have it right here in my ba--" He stopped speaking as he peered into the saddlebag, and realized that the little baggie of Joke was gone. It couldn't be possible. He was sure that he put it in his bag after breakfast. But he dumped the contents of the bag onto the ground, emptied all of the pockets, and turned it inside out. But the blue plant was nowhere to be found. He screamed, and most of the others followed suit.
"How could you lose it?" Zipp demanded. "You're the responsible one!"
"I don't know!" Hitch screamed back. "I thought I put it in my bag!"
"What's poison joke?" Izzy asked, tilting her head.
Misty sighed. "It's a bad plant. If you eat it, it'll mess with your head and turn you into...that." She pointed to Sunny, who was now lying on her back with her legs raised and her hooves touching each other.
"Photosynthesis," she said as she spread her legs out on all sides before bringing them back together. "Photosynthesis." She repeated the action.
Zipp's attention was now focused on Misty. "How do you know so much about it?"
The blue unicorn looked down and rubbed her foreleg. "Opaline used to feed it to me and laugh while I was tripping out. She only stopped when I built up a tolerance."
"Oh," Zipp said nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm sorry for bringing that up. And for thinking that you were a junkie."
"No, but it could be addictive, so we better be wary of that."
Pipp forced Sunny back to her hooves and turned back to the others. "We need to get her to a doctor."
"Everypony!" Sunny suddenly exclaimed. She was still spacey but blinked into her alicorn form. "The sun is in agony! We need to save her!"
She began to fly up, but Pipp pulled her back down by the tail. "Fast."
"You go on ahead," Hitch said, surprising everyone. "I have to retrace my steps and find out how I lost the baggie. It's a good thing that I have a strict routine. I'll join you once I'm sure that poison joke is off the streets once more."
"Don't worry, Celestia!" Sunny shouted to the sky, being dragged by both princesses now. "I'll get you out of there! And get you some suntan lotion!"
"What's going on here?" Sprout asked, drawn by the commotion and holding a mostly drunk smoothie cup.
"Long story," Zipp explained. "We're taking care of it now."
Sunny, blinking out of alicorn form and lying on the road, drew her attention to the red stallion. "Who lit Sprout on fire?" she asked in a strangely casual manner.
"Come on," said Zipp as the royal sisters dragged their friend to the hospital alongside their horned friends.
Comet looked to the sea for a moment and sighed as a thought occurred to him. "I just realized that the beach is going to be closed for a while longer." He turned back to his friends and continued walking with them to the hospital.
Confused, Sprout looked to his flank and screamed as he saw that his hindquarters were aflame. He shrieked and dropped his drink, to the surprise of the other ponies on the streets who saw no fire. "Stop drop and roll!" he screamed before plopping down on the street and rolling over until he slid under the fence and fell into the bay.
The doctor took what seemed to be an agonizingly long time to examine their friend. He was looking over her other symptoms as well as looking for any afflictions from physically touching the plant while he was waiting for the results of the drug test to confirm that it was poison joke and assess how much of it was in her system.
"Could you please describe to me what you see right now?" he asked as he shined a light to focus on her eyes.
"Sock monkey," Sunny said, dazed, confused, and pointing towards her ear. "I'm not answering any of your questions until you get this octopus off of my face."
"I see," the doctor said in a deadpan voice before making a small note on his clipboard. That's when the nurse came back with the test results. "OK, according to this, she is on poison joke."
"What was your first clue?" Zipp said sarcastically.
"We've also concluded that there aren't any other drugs in her system and there isn't that much of it in there."
Pipp's ears perked up at this. "So she'll live?"
"Well, no amount of poison joke will kill anypony, but it does put the pony in a state which we in the medical profession refer to as 'totally be trippin' balls', and the lucidness and intensity of the hallucinations can drive them to do dangerous things that can get them killed. I strongly recommend that you keep an eye on her until the drugs work their way out of her system."
"So there's nothing you can do?" asked the blue unicorn.
"Now that she's started having these visions, there's nothing we can do but wait for her immune system to do the work," the doctor said in his flat tone, writing on his clipboard before giving the slip of paper to Izzy. "The physical effects of touching the plant can appear within six to twelve hours, and this bubble bath has all the ingredients that can combat them. So get her home, give her a bubble bath, and make sure you keep an eye on her."
"Aye aye," Izzy said, saluting while holding the shampoo's prescription in her magical grasp. "You don't need to worry about us. We're very responsible."
"Oh my hoofness!" they heard a mare shout from down the hall. "There's an ostrich loose in the hospital!"
Everyone, even Sunny somehow, gave Izzy an accusatory look and she gave them a sheepish smile in return. "Oopsie. I knew I should have left him outside."
Pipp took the paper from her and put her free hoof on the unicorn's shoulder. "Why don't you let us take care of Sunny while you finish... taking care of that."
Izzy tilted her head "Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Zipp said with a shrug. "I was complaining about being bored anyway." It was at that moment when Zipp's phone rang. Seeing it was Hitch calling, she immediately answered it to find that he was practically screaming for her help. "Actually, could you all take care of this?" she asked with her hoof pressed to her phone's mic. "It seems Hitch needs my help." They nodded, and she flew out of the room in a flash.
"So do the three of you still have a hold on this?" Izzy asked. "I'm kind of on a time crunch since I need to dye the yard blue before the sun sets if I want this to work, but since Sunny's sick--"
"We've got this," Pipp said with a confident smile. "No need to let this get in the way of your plans, so go get that ostrich."
"Now," the doctor added.
Izzy smiled, but quickly went to Sunny's side and gave her a side hug. "Feel better, buddy," she said as her embrace tightened, but she stopped when she felt her hair being tugged. Looking up, she saw that Sunny was chewing on her hair with a blissful expression. "No." And with that, smile still on her face, she pulled her hair out of her friend's mouth, unintentionally causing Sunny to fall face-first to the floor, and all those who bore witness to it flinched except for the doctor who kept an uncaring expression.
"We got her," Misty said as she and Comet lifted her and supported her with their shoulders. "You go get your ostrich."
"Now," the doctor ordered again, this time with more emphasis.
"Alright, take care." Izzy then turned around and trotted out of the room.
"Dammit," Commet said quietly once she left. "We should have asked what she was doing before sending her off."
The mares' eyes widened at that, wishing they had asked. "Yeah, we should have figured out if it needed to be encouraged or stopped before sending it off," Pipp said with a sigh.
"We have other priorities," Misty said, dismissing it and drawing their attention back to Sunny. "Come on, let's get you bathed."
"Do you mind if we make a quick stop at Mane Melody first?" Pipp asked with her hoof on the handle. "I'm worried about Jazz. She was acting a little strange before we left."
"But why did the monkey want my pee?" Sunny asked as she was being carried out, holding the last syllable as she dragged out.
The door closed behind them, leaving the doctor alone in the room. "I didn't want your pee," he said to no one as he prepared for his next patient.
A few minutes later, the door opened again to reveal a dark pink pegasus carrying a yellow earth pony with a pink mane. "Doctor," said the pegasus. "My friend Posey has been acting strange today..."
He sighed as he felt that today was going to be a long day. "I should have been an accountant."
As Zipp looked around town, she was amazed at what she saw. Everywhere she looked, she saw at least one pony acting strange, yelling, and/or claiming to see things that weren't there. And when she saw how red those ponies' eyes were, she came to only one conclusion: they were all high on Joke. According to her estimations, she would say about a third of the town was stoned. However Sunny came across the stuff, much of the town had as well.
"Hitch!" Zipp called out, needing the prince of law and order to help her keep them all from doing something crazy. Half a second later, she spotted him in the distance, and he also seemed to spot her. They started to run towards each other, but the mare was soon blocked by a large white pegasus with a short brown mane and glasses.
"Your Highness," the new pony said as he tried to hold back his rage, catching Zipp off guard. No one in Maretime Bay addressed her by her title while she was here, not even the pegasi. He must be new or just visiting today. "Do you know where I can find Sheriff Hitch Trailblazer?" This explains it. He was the pharmacist who was supposed to mix the tranquilizers.
"Well he's actually--"
"Because he isn't at the station!" the pharmacist said angrily, unaware that he had just interrupted the crown princess of Zephyr Heights. "I know that he was the one who had the Poison Joke, and I see that he's no longer the only one! Someone needs to go down for this, and I promise you that it won't be me!"
Zipp glanced behind the pony to witness a truly rare sight. Hitch, the overly proud sheriff of Maretime Bay, removed his badge, dropped it in his saddlebag, and whistled as he tried to be nonchalant and to sneak around the white stallion.
Turning her gaze back to the angry pegasus, she decided to do the best possible thing for her friend's sake: abuse her power and authority. "So because you were late and couldn't be bothered to get the drugs yourself, you left them in the hooves of a small-town pony instead of doing the responsible thing and keeping them close to yourself as much as possible. This security was too precious and you immediately set up a fall guy and now you're going to blame it all on him?" The princess shook her head and tsked. "I wouldn't want a guy like that to be in your position, and I doubt my mom would either."
"Well... I... uh..." The doctor leaned back, much more nervous now.
She smirked, seeing her scheme working. "I'll tell you what," she said as she raised her wings in a regal, yet cocky pose. "If you make yourself scarce for the rest of the day, I'll claim that you had to do this because you were preoccupied with my direct orders."
"Really?" he asked hopefully.
Zipp looked at her hoof with her smug smile still plastered on her face. "My reputation could take a hit from this, but you'll be cleared. All you need to do is leave and wash your hooves of this whole incident."
"Thank you, Princess." He then took off, possibly never to return.
Seeing the whole thing, Hitch approached her while Sparky dug into the bag, and pulled out the badge. He gave it to his father, who put it back where it belonged. "Thanks. I owe you."
"No duh," she said, dropping the whole calm facade and drooping her wings a bit. "What can you tell me so far?"
"All I know is that I was retracing my steps one minute, and the next thing I knew was a bunch of ponies are being loopier than a bowl of Spaghettios."
"I believe I can fly!" Jazz sang out from the roof of Mane Melody before being caught by Rocky and brought back down to the ground.
Hitch didn't even bother to look as he was no longer surprised by this. "I had to throw together a small task force to keep everypony from dying. How Sunny got drugged also affected the whole town."
Zipp's eyes suddenly widened as a thought came to her. "Of course. We shouldn't be retracing your steps, we need to be retracing Sunny's steps." And true to her name, she zipped to the smoothie cart with Hitch following close behind her. Once touching down in front of it, she turned back to the sheriff. "I followed her to work this morning, and I guarantee that she couldn't have gotten the joke from there. I left soon after, so did you see her on your rounds?"
"I always stop by for a quick chat, but she was busy mixing a new recipe, and you know how she can get when she uses the blender. It can be almost impossible to get her away from it. The only other time I saw her was breakfast."
"Breakfast," Zipp said in a hushed tone as she realized that he showed them the plant during breakfast, and a theory started to form. "Hitch, let me see your bag."
"What?" Hitch said, tilting his head, and the dragon on his back mimicked the action. Still, trusting his friend's instincts, he complied. "I already checked five times. It's not in there."
"I'm not looking for something that's missing," she said as she took the bag and started rummaging through it. "I'm looking for something that shouldn't be here." A second later, she held out a small bag of a green plant and wore a triumphant grin. "Bingo."
"What is that?"
"Mint. She got a supply delivered to the house this morning. But if this got into your bag, then..." She put her visor on and scanned the remains of the new Blue Blossom Blast, and found traces of an unidentified substance. Removing the lid from the blender, she sniffed and drank some of the contents to confirm that there was something off about it. Finally, using the magnifying vision of her visor, she found a blue petal in the mix with a familiar pattern. "I found it! I found the poison joke!"
The two friends proceeded to hoof bump, but they stopped their celebration upon realizing what that meant. "So a second ago, you just..." Hitch started to ask with a worried look on his face.
Zipp just face-hoofed and brought out her phone with a groan. "New mystery: why did I drink that?"
Sunny was laughing with an ear-splitting smile on her face as she drifted down a blue abyss filled with giant pretty pink googly-eyed bubbles that gleefully sang as she descended. She finally stopped, suspended in mid-air. She and the bubbles gasped in awe at the figure that emerged from a bright light in front of them. The sight of the larger-than-life head of a lavender alicorn with a dark violet mane with a pink stripe, a regal expression, and a golden crown on her head, greatly excited the earth pony.
"Sunny Starscout," said the disembodied head of Princess Twilight. The earth pony smiled in awe as she started to slip into 'fangirl mode'. But the mood shifted as the void turned red, the bubbles were scared, and the princess's expression darkened. "You are More Wasted Than A NUKED JUNKYARD!" With a roar from her voice, many of the surrounding bubbles were burst by the lightning coming out from her horn and angry eyes.
"I'm sorry Princess Twilight!" Sunny sobbed, pleading with the god-like version of her foalhood hero. "I try to be good like you! I try to be good! I try to be--"
Sunny's pleas were muffled as she continued to drown in her bathwater. Misty walked in with a clean towel draped over her foreleg and rushed to her friend's rescue immediately. "Dear Faust!" she exclaimed as she pulled Sunny's head above water. "I swear I was only gone for five seconds tops!"
Once Sunny was finished coughing up the water, she continued to cry and whine as her lucid dream worsened. Meanwhile, Misty pulled the drain plug and moved to get her friend out of the tub.
"Need some help?" Pipp asked from the doorway as she was slurping from a smoothie cup.
"Only if you want to. Opaline used to make me carry her around all the time just for kicks." She then looked down at the pony she was lifting. "Although with how light Sunny feels compared to her, Opaline could have laid off the chocolate eclairs a bit."
Pipp just put her cup down and grabbed Sunny by her hind legs while Misty lifted her by the pits. Together, they lifted her out of the tub and sat her down on the floor before Misty wrapped her with the towel. With their work done, Pipp returned to drinking her smoothie. "This is so good," she cooed, her voice a little slower than normal. "I can't believe Jazz didn't finish this."
"I can," Misty said as she toweled her friend off. "She was stoned too, remember?"
Pipp sighed. "Yeah, I'm just glad that Rocky's looking after her. I hope that Zipp and Hitch figure out what went wrong soon."
The mares' conversation was interrupted by the sound of a knock at the open door. Turning to the source, they saw Comet standing there, foreleg covering his eyes. "Is everypony decent?" he nervously asked.
"Don't worry, Comet," Misty giggled. "We're all totally naked."
"Not totally," Pipp said in a playful tone as she tapped her tiara with her hoof, and the two erupted into a giggle fit as Comet put his hoof back down and looked at the floor with an embarrassed smile.
"Sorry. I guess when you ask a stupid question..." He then forced a cough and attempted to change the subject. "So, how's our patient doing?"
"Santa?" Sunny asked as she gave him a far-off stare.
"That should answer your question," Misty said as she rubbed the back of her head. "But at least she seems easy to manage on her own."
"It's an absolute mess out there," Pipp chimed in. "I haven't seen so much pandemonium since the day we found that baby panda. Maybe one or two of us should lend a hoof. Sunny only needs one of us to watch her, right?"
Comet nodded. "I'll go. Most of them are gathered at the beach to keep that shark from getting them."
Pipp put a hoof to her chin and looked up at the ceiling, as if in a deep thought. "Is that still going on?"
"Well, I'm going to take care of the beach." He then turned his gaze to the ground and narrowed his eyes. "I'll take care of a lot of things there," he mumbled before turning to leave.
"Do you mind going out and lending a hoof to the townsfolk?" Pipp asked. Misty was taken aback by this. She was the idol who did much better in crowds than she ever did, so she didn't understand why Pipp would want to be the one who stuck behind. "I'd do it myself, but I just feel so relaxed right now that I don't have the energy to trot all over the place."
Before Misty could ask any further questions, Pipp's phone rang and she picked it up to see that it was Hitch wanting to video chat. "Hey, Pipp," he said in a worried tone when she answered. "We're going to need your help over here."
"I bucked up, Sis," Zipp said, equally panicked yet still seemed surprisingly relaxed. "We need you, Comet or Misty to help."
"Meet up at the grocery store, and we'll catch you up on everything."
"On it," Pipp said before ending the call. "Change of plans, Misty. You watch Sunny while I help Zipp and Hitch."
"What happened to 'being so relaxed that you didn't want to leave'?"
"That was before I needed to be a good sister and friend." Pipp turned to the door, the smoothie in her grasp once more, but her expression suddenly became more spacey. "Friend to Hitch," she said suddenly and awkwardly. "I like Hitch. I like his smile, his face..." she began to giggle. "... His butt... BUTTERFLIES!" She suddenly shouted as she processed the words that slipped out of her mouth. Feeling awkward and embarrassed, she fled the Brighthouse as fast as possible, hoping to put some distance between herself and the humiliating moment.
Misty scratched her head in confusion as the scene played back in her mind. "OK, that was weird," she thought aloud to herself. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that she's..." Misty let out a loud gasp as she made a startling realization. She then tried to rush to the door, hoping that she could still catch her friend before she got too far.
"Sunny," a familiar voice rang out when Sunny was left by herself once more. Turning to the direction the sound came from, her eyes rested on the bathroom mirror, but her reflection didn't seem to have any interest in mimicking her actions and seemed to stare into the wasted girl's soul. "Sunny, this is your sober brain talking," the mirror mare explained. "We can get through this, but it will go better if you do as I instruct you."
Sunny, disoriented and confused, walked over to the reflective object, and licked it. "I taste like glass," she said with a dopey grin that displayed her teeth.
Mirror Sunny's eye twitched. "Wow, I am a moron right now."
"I'm telling you, I'm not on poison joke!" Izzy cried as two stallions carried her away from the more populated spots in the town. After all, they couldn't find a reason why she would coat her mane in peanut butter outside the influence of drugs. "Now let me go so I can collect fifty peacock feathers!" The two ignored her as they continued to drag her down the street to a place where they felt that she would be less likely to be a danger to herself or others. But as they continued walking, she spotted Hitch in front of the grocery store talking to another stallion at the door with Zipp sitting a short distance away. "Guys! Help me!"
Hitch gave her a dismissive wave, not looking away from the pony in front of the store. "In a minute Izzy. I'm dealing with an emergency."
"I'm an emergency!" she cried out just before the two turned a corner and they were out of sight. "Freedom!" was the last word Hitch heard her crying out in the streets.
"What do you mean you don't have anything?!" Hitch practically shouted at the shopkeeper in distress, ignoring Izzy's plight. "She needs to purge now!"
"So does every other drugged pony," the shopkeeper said without much care. "We simply ran out. Every store and market ran out. Your best luck is finding someone willing to share the stuff, but it doesn't seem to do much good for the ponies already seeing pink elephants."
"Then it's too late for me," Zipp said with a dazed smile as she lay on the ground and waved her forehooves around her head. "Little balls of sunshine dancing all around..."
"Oh no, not Zipp too," Pipp said as she arrived, landing at her sister's side. "How did this happen?"
Zipp sat up, still in her trance. "It all started when a toy company made a bunch of little plastic horses..."
Pipp face-hoofed at her intoxicated sister. "I mean, how did you get high?"
"It's in the..." Hitch started to say, but his attention was caught by the cup that Pipp threw in the nearby trash can. "Pipp, what was that?"
"Jazz's unfinished smoothie," she answered with a shrug. "She got that new flavor, and I didn't want it to go to waste."
At the same time, he got a text from Misty that further confirmed that Pipp was drugged too. "Gah!" was the only sound that came out of his mouth.
"What? I'll get her a new one when she's better. It's no big... deal?" Pipp trailed off as her gaze shifted to something that she was sure wasn't there before. There was now, just behind Hitch, a large leather armchair on top of a beautiful red rug and next to a tall lamp. And in that chair rested a large aardvark with wide-framed glasses reading from a book that rested in his lap.
The unnaturally large animal looked up at the pegasus with a smirk, bringing his glasses to the edge of his snout so nothing could block his gaze. "I hope you enjoy your all-expense-paid drug trip, Eddie," he said in a deep, accented voice.
Pipp didn't say anything at first. She froze as she wrapped her brain around how this happened. "Oh," she said, smiling as the pieces came together in her head. "It's in the smoothies." She immediately dropped her smile in exchange for a foggy expression as the effects of the poison joke fully kicked in.
Hitch panicked as he paced between the stoned princesses. "This is horrible! I need so much backup! I need a time machine!" He then paused as sat on the ground. "I need a nap because this day has been exhausting. And a drink as well," he added. "I'm parched."
"Ooo," Sparky chirped soon afterward, holding a cup up to his father.
Hitch smiled down at his son, taking the cup from him. "Thanks, little buddy," he said before drinking the beverage. But his face fell as he realized that Sparky probably just picked it up off the ground. Looking down at it, he returned to worrying as he recognized it from Sunny's cart. "Oh no..."
"Come on," Misty said as she continued to pull Sunny on a leash tied to her bag. After all, it would be irresponsible to leave her alone in the Brighthouse, and she still needed to find Pipp and bring her back before she did anything that she would regret. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done as the streets were full of panicking ponies and stoners. If normal crowds were Misty's nightmare, then this was her Hell. Everywhere she looked, ponies were running amok and shouting. Some of them doing stupid things, others trying to stop those ponies from doing something stupid, and the rest were just trying to stay out of it. "Why is the town such a disorganized mess?" she asked aloud. "They usually listen to Hitch in times of emergency, and he's usually on it. Why isn't he on it now?"
Her question was answered upon finding the sheriff in the middle of the road, lying on top of Pipp with a dopey look on his face and a paper cup stuck on his hoof. At the end of the other hoof was a baby dragon trying desperately to pull his father off of his friend in a futile effort. "Such a soft, pretty pink cloud," Hitch said in a daze before burying his head further into Pipp's feathers, causing her to giggle.
"Hitch!" Misty shouted. "What happened here?!"
He meekly held up the hoof that was stuck in the cup. "Don't drink the smoothies. They'll make the sky turn green."
He was high too. The last hope Misty had for things being alright was high off his ass as well. With wide eyes and an otherwise blank expression, she slowly took everything in. All the ponies running around, all the screaming, all the stoners, and Izzy escaping her capture by somehow managing to propel herself into the air with bottles of carbonated soda taped to her hooves. Also, Sunny managed to slip from her leash. And now, she had to deal with it all alone. It was too much. Overwhelmed, she just crouched down to the ground and curled herself into a fetal position. "Eehhhhhhhhhhhhh..." she softly cried as the world around her crumbled.
"Sure, I'll take one," Sunny said to a nonexistent figure, and holding a balloon that was equally fictional. But her attention was drawn to the nearby sound of sobbing. When she turned around, she saw her friend in a fragile state on the ground, driven to tears by anxiety. "Misty," she said, getting closer to her, but she didn't respond.
Looking down, Sunny found a puddle that showed her another reflection with a mind of her own. "Come on, Sunny," said the sober part of her mind. "That drug can change your perception, your attitude, and somehow your intelligence too. But what it can't take away from you is how much you care about your friends and your community. It doesn't matter how high you are! You're going to do what must be done by your friends and home!"
Sunny nodded at her reflection with a newfound determination. Blinking into her alicorn form, she flew above the rest of the chaotic town. "Everyone!" she called out, causing the whole town, high and sober alike, to look up at her. "I just saw a baby lizard!"
"Dear Faust!" Misty whined.
"And that lizard was trying to sell all the balloons he grew all by himself on his farm. But he can't sell them with all of us running around in a disorganized mess and causing all kinds of trouble. This isn't the best of Maretime Bay. We're a community forged in friendship and unity. We all need each other now more than ever. No matter how daunting it seems or what we see or hear, we must trust in one another that we're all looking out for each other. As long as we trust each other, we can get through this."
Misty calmed down after hearing this. Not only did the chaos and noise stop while she was talking, but she was almost speaking coherently. Maybe she was getting better.
"Only if we work together, can the baby lizard make it to Jupiter!"
Never mind.
"So who's with me?" Sunny shouted, causing the crowd to cheer in unison.
"Really?" Misty whispered to herself. "They're going for this? Not that I'm complaining, but..."
Sunny touched down on the ground and stared at her reflection in the puddle once more. "Not too bad," her sober brain said. "You kind of lost the point and you looked like a total dummy, but you got the message across, so good job."
She smiled at herself before she approached Misty and lowered her head to meet her eyes. "Are you OK, buddy?" she asked with her eyes squinted.
Misty took a moment to dry her eyes, but then she smiled and nodded as she rose to her hooves. "Yeah. I'm OK."
"Good," Sunny said, not lifting her head to follow Misty's gaze. "I need a nap." And on that note, she unceremoniously fell on her face, blinked out of her alicorn form, and proceeded to snore.
Misty walked up to the crowd, the sober ponies looking intent at her while the stoned ponies were trying to ignore their visions, taking Sunny's advice and trusting their neighbors to help them. "Alright, I'm not exactly a take-charge kind of pony, so the first thing we're going to do is choose a leader. Since we don't have much time, it's the first pony to volunteer."
"Hey, Misty," Zipp said, announcing her presence and stumbling forward. "I like your new beak." Then she tripped on the pile that was formed by Pipp and Hitch's bodies, causing her face to meet the road. "It's OK. The flying monkeys will help me."
Misty gave a heavy sigh. "And I would be especially grateful to anyone who will help me bring all my friends home."
Since the Sheriff's station was closer, the town ponies piled the small group of Misty's stoned friends on the station's floor. Sunny continued to sleep, which Misty saw as a good sign as she remembered getting sleepy whenever the drugs wore off. Meanwhile, Misty had to walk alongside Zipp to keep her from breaking anything, and Pipp sat down next to Hitch, their backs resting on intersecting walls.
"So what do I look like to you right now?" the Sheriff asked, purely out of curiosity.
Pipp giggled. "You're just Hitch. But that's great since I wouldn't change anything about you."
"Awe, you're so sweet."
Then Pipp tilted her head and gave her friend a mischievous grin. "So what about me?"
"Wh-what?" Hitch stammered, being caught off guard.
Pipp just moved in closer. "What do I look like to you right now?"
He gulped, but it seemed the drugs in his system were making him relax, and he let go of his inhibitions. "You look like an angel. But I thought that the first time I saw you in Zephyr Heights, soaring above the crowd and singing with your heart." Having finally said all of this out loud, he blushed and moved in a little closer to her. "So, I guess you're just Pipp, too."
It seemed it was his turn to make her blush as she leaned in closer to him. Slowly, they both moved closer, and closer, and closer still until their muzzles were just about to...
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Misty cried out, separating the two by putting her hooves on their foreheads and pushing them apart. "Neither of you are in the right mind for that right now. I should probably separate you." She then whistled to Sparky, who obediently rushed over and gave the unicorn a salute. "Sparky, watch Pipp while I take care of your dad." And with that, Misty dragged Hitch to the other side of the room by the foreleg that still had the cup stuck to the end of it.
Sparky got down on all fours and bared his teeth, playfully imitating a guard dog. "Good puppy," Pipp said, hallucinating Sparky as an actual dog and scratching him behind the ears, much to the young dragon's delight.
Once she and Hitch were on the other side of the room, Misty decided that it was high time that she pulled the cup off of his hoof. But upon seeing the inside of it, she found the color of the smoothie's remains to be strange. Opaline had found many clever ways to trick Misty into consuming the plant and one of the tell-tale signs of poison joke spiking in liquid is the blue of the petals mixing in with the drink's natural color. However, the remains seemed to be pure orange. Not to mention how it reeked of citrus. After licking a small bit off of the side, one thing became clear. "Hitch, is this the same smoothie that you got high on?"
"A-huh," he said, still in his daze.
Misty gave a long, heavy, and exasperated sigh. It impressively lasted a little less than a minute as she came to terms with the truth of Hitch's intoxication. Finally, she looked Hitch in the eyes and let him know the absurd truth. "Hitch, this smoothie wasn't spiked. You've been sober this whole time."
And just like that, he was able to stand up straight and stop swaying as the visions all stopped at once. However, his face fell and he averted his gaze as his face turned red from the embarrassment of having it all been in his head. "Well, now I'm embarrassed."
In a cave hidden away from the rest of the beach area and its walls coated in ice, a wicked violet snow leopard was laughing her rear off at her rabbit companion, who had eaten an entire flower from the stack of poison joke they found a short distance away from Opaline's abandoned lair. While the small animal kept running and screaming at the twisted visions of his imagination, Allura had her back to the wall in a relaxed position and was holding a smoking joint between her fingers. Only when Twitch ran face-first into a wall and fell on his back did Allura look away from the free entertainment.
Wiping away a tear caused by heavy laughter, she calmed down and returned the smoking joint to her mouth. "All my years of traveling, and this is the only real use I found for fire. It's amazing how many dimensions have this plant growing in them."
"Sister!"A deep voice roared at Allura telepathically, causing her to jump up in surprise. "You find time to lay about even though you still don't have the Nova Charm yet?!"
Allura shook herself out of her stupor and turned her head upwards. "I'm afraid that there's been some complications."
"Like never checking if an item that's sacred to an entire magical civilization had any magical properties itself? You should have gotten me out of here ages ago!"
"I'm doing my best! I don't know anything about those stupid ponies who took it! Stop giving me that glare!"
"What?" the voice said, dropping his anger in favor of confusion. "You can't see me."
"No, but these hallucinations make it easy to see your face right in front of me. Actually, I'm only half-sure that you're even talking to me at all. To be honest with you, brother, I am really high right now and--"
"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" And with that, Allura got up on her paws, threw the unconscious rabbit on her back, and ran towards the mouth of the cave. "Wait!" the voice suddenly called out, causing her to stop in her tracks. "Mind saving me some of that? I think I'll need it when I meet up with you."
While Hitch and Misty cared for the stoned sisters, Sunny was happily napping in the detainment cell. Other than that, nothing had changed apart from the sun's setting.
"Misty," Hitch said after giving the pegasi sandwiches since eating seemed to keep them occupied at the moment. "Is poison joke a memory loss drug?"
Misty had to wrack her brain to remember. Once she started to build up a tolerance, it was easier to remember the stupid things she did, but for someone who hadn't touched the drug before... "I would say that the odds are about fifty-fifty. Why?"
Hitch looked away, acting like the floor had more of his attention as their conversation continued. "I just want Pipp to forget some stupid stuff I said. That's all."
"What stupid stuff? Whatever you said, she seemed to like it. You were about to kiss."
"That's exactly what I want her to forget. What if the drugs were just scrambling her brain? I don't want her to remember all of this and then things get awkward between us."
It was silent in the room, apart from the sound of munching. But a hoof rested on Hitch's chin and guided him back to meet Misty's eyes. "Hey, do you know what I've learned from you guys? Sometimes, you have to take chances. You were up against insurmountable odds to bring magic back and finding the Earth Pony Crystal was one in a million, but you succeeded because of the chances you took. And when I thought that freeing you from Opaline's trap wasn't going to end well for me, I took the chance to go against everything I was taught to save my friends, and I was rewarded with my cutie mark. I can guarantee that if you take that chance with Pipp, you'll be pleasantly surprised."
Hitch returned the smile that Misty gave him, but he soon removed her hoof and returned to his staring contest with the floor. "I just can't..."
Their conversation was interrupted by a yawn coming from the cell behind them. They turned around to see Sunny, sitting up on the small bed and stretching her forelegs over her head. "Hey, guys," she said just as she caught them in her blurry vision. "I think my head's finally clearing up."
"That's good," Hitch said, moving to sit at his desk, ready to do some paperwork.
As Sunny stretched, she slowly recognized the room she was in as well as where she was standing in it. Upon testing the door to see that it was locked, panic began to rise in her. "Is this for safety, or did I do something terrible? I didn't kill anyone, did I?"
"No, Sunny," Hitch said with a dismissive wave of his hoof. "Everything's fine, so don't worry." But something in her friend's eyes told her that something wasn't fine.
"What's wrong?" she asked with lowered ears and a flat expression.
Hitch leaned back in his chair, hooves tapping together and eyes rolling up towards the ceiling. "Well technically, you're being detained."
"What?" Sunny asked loudly, but she was more annoyed than she was shocked.
"Yeah, I can't turn a blind eye to drugging all of those ponies."
"But they were your drugs!"
"And it's not smart to make a smoothie with an ingredient you don't recognize and immediately feed it to the whole town!" Hitch took a deep, calming breath as Sunny pressed her face against the bars in both defeat and fatigue.
"At least it's nicer than the last holding cell I was in."
This was enough to coax a small smile from the sheriff. "It's the same one. We remodeled."
"Well I like it," Sunny said with a small smile of her own. "Which is good, since I'll be here for a while."
"I'm already filling out the paperwork for your bail, and I'm willing to take my part of the blame in all of this as long as you accept yours too. It's statistically amazing that no children drank any of that."
"Eh," Misty said with a shrug. "I got my first fix when I was seven. It's no big deal."
Everyone else, including the stoned pegasi, gave Misty a horrified look, and Hitch made a note in his head to stop being surprised by anything done by Opaline, the most needlessly cruel pony he had ever had the misfortune of meeting.
"What?" Misty asked after taking a moment to take in everyone's expressions.
Then the doors to the station burst open, Comet stumbling in through them. His mane and tail were a mess, his glasses were crooked and cracked, he was soaking wet, covered in scratch marks, and he was panting heavily. It took a few seconds for them to notice it, but he was also levitating the blender that once held the remains of the infamous smoothie. "Well..." he said breathlessly. "I took care of the shark... You're welcome..."
Then he passed out on the station floor, making Misty rush to check if he was still breathing.
"Beached dolphin!" Zipp shouted before rushing over to try to push Comet back out the door.
"Well, I'm done with the paperwork," Hitch said, walking over to release Sunny but not taking his eyes off Comet. "Let's see if we can make it back home."
"Works for me," Sunny said as she moved to walk through the open door, but her face collided with the bar next to it, and she fell to the ground. "Ow... Maybe my head isn't as clear as I thought."
Hitch was carrying Zipp on his back in the back of the group with Sparky walking alongside them, Misty was guiding Pipp's movements in the front, and Sunny and Comet were supporting each other in the middle as they all walked up to the Brighthouse.
"Are you guys sure you're OK?" Hitch asked for what must have been the tenth time.
"We're fine," Sunny and Comet said together for what also must have been the tenth time, but then they stopped just behind Misty and Pipp, as they had also stopped just short of the Brighthouse.
Sunny peeked over Misty's shoulder to see why she stopped and was surprised to see that all of the grass on their property line was now a different color than before. "All of you see that the grass is blue too, right?"
"Dance, little glow worms, dance!" Pipp exclaimed as she tried to take flight and almost broke free of Misty's hold.
After doing a quick head count, Hitch came to one obvious conclusion. "I forgot about Izzy!" he shouted, causing the other sober ponies to share his look of concern.
They rushed straight to the door, but they weren't ready for what they found when they opened it. The living room was full of a range of animal-shaped crafts that were made out of the junk she spent the whole day collecting and putting together, the fireplace was burning a large green flame, there was a cauldron on the kitchen counter that seemed to be watched by Senor Butterscotch and the ostrich which were wearing dark cloaks, strange shapes were painted on the floor in the form of a circle, and Izzy was in the middle of said circle. Her whole body seemed to be dyed pink, she was wearing an open astronaut's helmet, and she was suspended from the ceiling by a bungee cord that she seemed to be failing to reach. "Hey, guys," Izzy said once she saw them. "Could one of you help me with a little something?"
The rest of the ponies were too stunned to do anything at first, trying to comprehend what exactly was happening. "Izzy," Sunny eventually said, still in shock. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but I really hope I'm hallucinating you right now."
Early the next morning, Sunny's alarm blared and she threw it across the room, but she wasn't too quick to get up this time. Since she was still tired from the previous day's events, she was still buried under the covers, trying to rest her weary head. Izzy, however, was quick to get up and fix Sunny's alarm with her screwdriver. But the rest of the household was either still exhausted from running around everywhere and staying up all night to keep their hallucinating friends alive or suffering from horrible hangovers. Hitch and Sparky even spent the night on the couch.
Izzy, seeing that all of her friends were fast asleep, decided to slip downstairs and make everyone her special waffles with edible glitter mixed in the batter.
As Pipp slowly forced her eyes open, she tried to recall the events from the previous day. She remembered a giant aardvark, an army of dancing worms, trying to bite cupcakes that she hoped weren't ponies, and a vague memory of a conversation with Hitch. The memory of that last vision was warm and happy. The atmosphere was cast in a heavenly glow, and he said that she was beautiful. She remembered him getting closer and closer, their lips about to meet, and... "Buck!" She grunted loudly as she pushed her pillow to her face in embarrassment. "I hate it when Zipp's right."
"Right about what?" a groggy Misty asked, just getting out of bed herself.
Pipp tossed the pillow and looked over towards her sister's bed, glad to see that she was still asleep. She then turned back to Misty and motioned her to come to her. "Can I tell you something in confidence?" she whispered to the unicorn once she was at her bedside.
Misty nodded. "Sure."
Pipp put her hoof to the side of her muzzle as Misty brought her ear closer. "I think I have a crush on Hitch," the pegasus said with a deep blush before looking away with an embarrassed expression.
Misty just blinked. "Yes, and?"
Pipp's eyes popped open at that, and she finally sat upright. "What do you mean 'yes and'?"
"Well, Sunny told me that the two of you got along really well on your journey to Bridlewood, there was that live stream of yours that showed how he took care of you while you were sick that ended with you snuggling up to him, and you almost kissed him when you were high."
"I WHAT?" she shouted, her blanket being flung off by her wings popping open. She then felt a soft yet somewhat weighty object strike her on the side of her face. She looked down to see that the object was a small pillow that came from her sister's bed.
"Shut up," Zipp said, still mostly asleep, just before she brought the covers over her head and resumed snoring.
Pipp sighed and sank back into her mattress in shame. "Maybe he'll think it was the drugs talking. But even if he does, things will still get super awkward between us."
Misty just chuckled. "Look, I'm sure that if you talk to Hitch about the way you feel--"
"He can never know!" Pipp suddenly cried, grabbing Misty's face and bringing it so close to her own that their foreheads were touching. The close proximity only made Pipp's stare more uncomfortable.
"Shut up," Zipp said again but didn't bother to move from under the covers this time.
Pipp ignored her. "Misty, as my friend, and an integral part of this friend group, you cannot, under any circumstances, tell Hitch that I like him. It'll ruin the group's dynamic. For the good of all... Do. Not. Tell. Him."
"Don't tell who what?" asked a masculine voice by the doorway. Hitch, who was woken up by the sound of Izzy's waffle making, looked at the only two mares who were awake in confusion.
"Nothing," Pipp said, practically tossing Misty aside.
Hitch gave Pipp a gentle smile as he walked to her bedside. "So how are you feeling?"
"My head hurts. How do you kill a hangover?"
Hitch hummed as he thought to himself. "I can't say for certain or out of personal experience, but whenever my grandma would come home from a New Year's celebration..."
As Hitch continued talking, Misty once more experienced the familiar feeling of inner conflict. She knew that they liked each other and that the whole group would be happy for them, but it was clear that neither of them was sure if they should take that step. With both of them here, she had the power to end this madness, but what if Pipp was right? What if it would destroy the dynamic of the friend group if it were brought up? Or what if she ruined their chances if she was the one who brought it up? Was it still kind to say something that could bring two ponies together, or was it more kind to keep a secret that a friend trusted another friend to keep? The pros and cons continued to rage a war of indecision in her mind, her thoughts getting louder and louder until finally...
"PIPP LIKES YOUR BUTT!" Misty shouted before quickly bringing a hoof to her mouth, the words practically exploding out of her.
Pipp and Hitch leaned away from her with identical looks of shock and terror on their faces.
"Shut up," said Zipp.
Misty brought her hoof down but was now sucking in her lips and looking down at the floor, a pink blush decorating her face. "I'm gonna go!" she said just as suddenly before darting downstairs.
For a few minutes, the two remaining ponies just kept alternating between looking at each other and looking away, neither of them sure of what to say. Then Pipp finally broke the silence. "I'm sorry. I was trying to figure out what happened yesterday, and she told me about when we almost kissed."
Oh, buck, Hitch thought to himself, his heart sinking into his stomach. She knows I tried to kiss her. He started to sweat and his eyes kept darting around, trying to think of a way to get out of this, but upon looking into her emerald eyes, another thought struck him. What would Pipp do?
"I'm sorry," he said with a sigh. "Everything was so crazy yesterday, and I wasn't thinking straight either."
"What?" Pipp said, a little confused.
"I may have developed some feelings for you, and I was compulsively acting on them. I'm sorry."
Wait, Pipp thought. Did Hitch say that he was trying to kiss me?
Hitch rubbed the back of his neck as he continued. "Misty said that I would feel better if I told you, but I'm sorry if this makes things awkward." He put a hoof on her mattress as he leaned in a little closer with pleading eyes. "But can we still be friends?"
Pipp looked at him, flustered and surprised. Then, after a few moments, she gave him a warm smile and, with both of them still blushing, she put her own hoof on his. "Wow. I'm supposed to be the confident one, but here you are putting me to shame."
Hitch's eyes widened as he processed what she just said. Just as he started accepting that she liked him as much as he liked her, she was leaning in closer, silently asking to pick up where they left off yesterday. As he leaned in as well, they closed their eyes and slowly came closer together until their lips finally met.
Then their eyes snapped open, Pipp's in surprise and Hitch's in alarm. They brought their hooves to their muzzles, and Hitch had a sick look on his face.
"Sorry," Pipp said, her ears drooping. "I didn't know how bad my morning breath was until I had something to compare it to."
Hitch gagged at the taste and tried to spit the sensation out somehow. "I forgot that you barfed last night!"
"Hey!" Zipp shouted at them from her mattress, glaring at them and curled up in her blanket like a cocoon. "How many times do I have to tell you ponies to--!" She was interrupted by a pillow hitting her in the face and forcing her to lie down on her mattress once more.
"Shut up," Comet said before returning to sleep. He was still tired and was feeling the pain of his injuries.
Half an hour later, the whole group managed to lazily make their way to the kitchen table downstairs and were silently eating Izzy's sparkly waffles. The moment of silence was only disrupted by a knock on the door, which Zipp reluctantly answered while still draping her blanket around her body. Opening the door, she found herself staring face to face with the glaring pharmacist from the previous day.
"Princess," he said dryly. "I just thought of many reasons why yesterday's mess couldn't be considered as my fault--"
"Let me stop you right there," Zipp interrupted with a raised hoof. "I'm suffering from a terrible hangover this morning, so please come back tomorrow, and I'll trick you then." And without another word, she shut the door in his face and turned to return to her breakfast. "If this hangover were a pony, I'd kill them."
"I agree with Zipp, although I certainly would have chosen a better metaphor," Pipp said before clearing her throat momentarily. "Sunny, the next time you feed your friends drugs, please make sure that the resulting hangover isn't as bad as this."
Sunny nodded, still feeling the hangover from the previous night even though it improved considerably. "OK, Pipp. Next time I'll be sure to--"
"WRONG ANSWER! NO NEXT TIME!" Hitch suddenly shouted, only to dial it back upon seeing everyone but Izzy recoil at his shouting.
"Looks like we have a collective case of headaches and sensitive ears," Sunny said once she recovered. "So, if everyone could just speak in a whisper, that would be great."
The table fell silent again until Zipp finally processed the state of the living room, which still had remnants of Izzy's bizarre ritual. "Wow," said the amazed white pegasus. "I hallucinated much less of that than I thought."
"Much less of what?" Izzy innocently asked.
"You. What were you even trying to do yesterday?"
Izzy frowned and turned away, trying to hide her face with her large amount of hair. "Don't worry about it," she said in an uncharacteristically flat demeanor. "It was stupid."
"Izzy," Zipp said, moving to stare the unicorn in the face. "At this point, I have to know."
Izzy took a moment to think about how to tell the group what she was up to without going into too many embarrassing details. "I swear to Faust, I thought koalas were native to this area," was the only answer she gave before returning to her waffles, leaving everyone even more confused, and giving up on their hopes for answers.
"So, to talk about literally anything else," Pipp began as she moved closer to Hitch and put a hoof over the one he still had set on the table, causing everyone who saw to light up. "Since you're our friends, and you live here anyway, Hitch and I would like to make a special announcement."
The couple leaned in closer together and Hitch took over. "Pipp and I have decided to take our relationship further."
"Pay up," Zipp suddenly said, causing Pipp and Hitch to wear identical expressions of confusion and the other ponies to groan. The lone exception to the complaining was Misty, who was still hiding in her hair from her outburst as she slipped away.
Sunny reached down to the back of a cabinet under the kitchen counter and pulled out a jar of jellybeans. She walked over to Zipp and placed the glass jar of colorful sweets in front of her very happy pegasus friend. "Enjoy your prize."
Misty, who had gone into the kitchen to get an empty mug, sat down next to Zipp and placed the mug next to the jar of candy. Zipp opened the lid to her prize and dumped a considerable amount of the jelly beans into her friend's mug. "And that's your share for helping me."
"Cheaters!" Izzy exclaimed with an accusatory hoof, causing Sunny, who was right next to her, to flinch again.
Zipp just gave a smug smile through a mouthful of candy. "All's fair in love and war."
Misty nodded in agreement. "Yeah, also she was the only one who wasn't out of the pool yet, so this was the only way I would get any."
"But we all would have shared the candy if everyone lost," Sunny protested.
Zipp shrugged. "But then I wouldn't have gotten as many."
"Wait, you took bets on if we would get together?" Hitch asked in shock.
"And you bet with jelly beans?" Pipp added.
"Actually, we bet on when you would get together," Misty corrected. "We've noticed that there was a certain chemistry between you."
The couple blushed but smiled at each other when they realized that they already had their friends' full support.
"So, Pipp," Zipp said through her candy and waffles. "Are you and Hitch going to do that stuff that you texted about now?"
Pipp, an influencer who lived her life knowing that there were almost always eyes on her, a princess brought up to be respectful and dignified at all times, a loving friend, daughter, and sister, and a pony who always aspired to be a good example to others, didn't hesitate to give her sister what the locals of Zepher Heights affectionately referred to as "the feather" without dropping her smile.
"Not in front of Sparky," Hitch said, although he still chuckled. And seeing, to his relief, that Sparky was none the wiser. He waved the moment off and returned to the blissful scene. "Misty was right," Hitch said. "Sometimes you just have to take chances."
"Wait," Misty said, a look of contemplation on her face. "Is that really the only moral we got from all this insanity?"
The rest of the group took a moment to think about it and tried to come to a more satisfying answer.
"Don't just eat random plants you find?" Sunny suggested although she recalled plenty of reasons why it was an honest mistake.
"There are better ways to identify a substance other than taste?" Zipp asked but realized that it didn't fit the whole theme of the day's events.
Hitch raised a hoof as he thought of one. "The mind is a powerful thing, and it can pull mean pranks on your body if you're not careful."
Sparky thought about it, but he shook his head.
"Don't drink smoothies that don't belong to you?" Pipp suggested before shaking her head. "No, that doesn't sound right either."
It was Izzy's turn. "It's always better to ask for permission than forgiveness."
"That one's just you," Sunny chuckled.
After a few more seconds of thinking, Comet stood up. "Sometimes... Things just happen?"
Although everyone tried to come up with a reason to refute that one, it seemed as though that was the best possible answer to their question. "Works for me," Misty said with a shrug, and the rest of the group laughed.
"Oh, and Sunny?" Hitch said, getting the orange earth pony's attention. "Just so you know, our court hearing is on Saturday, but I think we can beat most of the charges.
"Ahffum," Sunny said through a mouthful of waffles.
"And as for you," Hitch said, turning to Comet. "I'm not entirely sure if I should reprimand you for going into danger like that or if I should reward you for getting rid of the shark, so remind me to do both later."
"Comet got rid of the shark?" Pipp asked, only hearing this now.
"Yeah. Thanks to him, the beach is open today."
Upon hearing this from the sheriff, the other six ponies and a baby dragon raised their hooves and claws to the air and exclaimed "BEACH DAY!" before rushing to get their beach equipment.
"Wait!" Hitch called out, getting their attention and stopping them in their tracks. "What about your hangovers, fatigue, and battle wounds?"
"Buck that," was Comet's immediate response. "Beach day!"
To Hitch's surprise, the others nodded in agreement. Seeing that, the sheriff relented. "Alright, but no swimming for half an hour. We just ate."
And with that, seven ponies and a baby dragon rushed down to the beach, willing to pretend the events of the previous day never happened.
