My Little Pony: Friendship is Mythic

It was five o'clock somewhere.

The alcoholic's anthem. What those in denial say to make themselves feel better about
what they do.

Fortunately, for every alcoholic in this bar right now, it was ten o'clock at night.

And what a cold night it was. Frigid temperatures. The moon could barely peek its head
through the thick clouds, which were being blown like black cotton candy by the steely
wind. The wind cut through pony and cloud alike with the precision of a razor blade.
Ponies shivered and pulled their coats closer to themselves in a vain attempt to make
their journeys less miserable.

The clouds had no such protection, so they expressed their lamentations through their
tears, and what cold and bitter tears they were. They rained down on the innocent
victims below, soaking those who did not have cover. It came down in frigid sheets. A
thick haze rose up a few inches into the air, as the cobblestones tried their best to reject
the rain.

And thus it was in the little town of Ponyville.

Ponies rushed from shelter to shelter, trying to get home or to get out of their homes
and into locales that were less oppressive.

Like this bar.

The Wet Whistle.

It was a new bar, once upon a time, a long time ago, but the trudge of time had aged it.
It had aged the bar's owner with it. New ponies came and went. People moved in and
out of town, but Joe had stuck around. This place was his livelihood, and he had never
regretted opening it.

Age had warped the wood of the tables and rusted the hinges on the door. All his mugs
were scratched and some were chipped. Years of use had worn grooves in the bar
from sliding glasses across its surface. More than a few customers had sat down on a
splinter sticking up out of an old chair. Most all of the tables wobbled at least a little bit,
and every time that his old jukebox took a bit and played a song, Joe was amazed to
see that it still worked.

The Wet Whistle was an old joint, but it had a certain rustic charm. The walls were
creaky, and the ceiling liked to leak in some spots when it rained hard enough, but
some old dogs refused to die. Ponies still came here, and Joe still served them.

A lot of the patrons now were newcomers or people who had been coming here only a
few years.

Most of the older folks had moved on with their lives or their lives had moved on from
them. Some, however, still stuck around, refusing to move on to other things. Or maybe
they were just loyal to Joe and his bar. He didn't know. He didn't ask. He just poured
them drinks.

And one of those old patrons was sitting at his bar right now, smoking a fat cigar.

Joe finished drying a glass and walked over to her, adjusting the strings on his apron.

"You know, Rarity," he said, in this working-man's Canterlot accent, "Those things
stink."

Rarity looked up from her mug, slowly, and just stared at him, blankly. The light
and twinkle in her eyes had burned out a long time ago. Gone was the vitality and
youthfulness that had resided in them when she was younger.

Sometimes, though, it came back if she tried hard enough.

Regardless, she had been quite the beauty when she was younger, and she still looked
good for an older mare. Finding her manners, her eyes lit up, and she said in her fake
accent, "Joe, darling. You have asked me the same question nearly every night for
almost thirty years now." She fluttered her eyelashes at him, saying, "And what, darling,
have I said every time you asked?"

Joe laughed and rolled his eyes, repeating the familiar line, "'They smell bad, but they
taste great.'"

The white unicorn gave a small smirk and said, "Yes, my dear. Precisely. So why is it,
then, that you deign to ask me?"

The earth pony laughed and said, "I don't know. Maybe because it's true that they stink.
It's been true every night for thirty years."

Rarity just gave a polite laugh, herself, and said, "Oh well. I regret to inform you, good
sir, that I have absolutely no intentions of quitting my dreadful habit anytime soon!"

Joe turned around and walked back over to the dishes, laughing the whole while and
saying, "I know. I know. Just ribbin' ya'."

Rarity knocked back the rest of her glass and said, "So, then, while you are 'ribbing' me,
why don't you find your way back over to that liquor cabinet of yours and make me a
soda and rye?"

The barkeep grabbed a fresh mug and poured some soda water into it, mixing in some
rye whiskey after he was done. He clanked the glass on the counter and slid it over to
her, saying, "Rye, eh? Whatcha thinkin' about?"

Rarity caught it and rolled her cigar in her mouth, saying, "I don't know." Her eyes began
to dim again, and her voice dragged. She said, "This and that. I'm just reminiscing, I
guess."

Joe simply said, "You do that, and when you need another rye, just let me know. I ain't
goin' anywhere."

Rarity nodded, going back to staring into her glass. Her eyes went back to their natural
state, which was akin to that of the glass.

Then the bell over the door jingled as someone walked in, and Joe looked up to see
who it was. He went to give his same old greeting that he'd been giving for thirty years,
but his jaw dropped, instead.

He just couldn't say it.

The only thing he could say, in his deep accent, was, "Twilight Sparkle?!"

Rarity's head immediately snapped up, and she saw her: Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight took a step forward, letting the door of the Wet Whistle close behind her,
trapping the cold wind and rain outside. She was wearing a thick coat and a scarf, both
purple, and she looked about the old bar with the longing of nostalgia in her eyes.

She looked to the old crooked coat rack and put her belongings around it. The bent rack
of wood wobbled a bit, and she had to balance her coat and scarf on it to make sure it
didn't fall over. She laughed softly at it and scanned the room.

The first place her eyes went to was Rarity, still sitting at the same place that she had
been sitting when Twilight saw her last, about twenty years ago.

The two ponies locked gazes. Twilight's eyes were still cheery and bright, unburdened
and happy. Rarity's were less so, and the contrast was very stark. Twilight's coat was
still purple, although a dimmer shade thereof, while Rarity's, like her eyes, had a gray
tinge to it.

Twilight sighed happily and walked forward, going towards the seat next to Rarity's.

She said, "Rarity. It's been a while."

Rarity snuffed the stub of her cigar out into an ashtray and pulled out another one.
Clipping the end off of it with a cutter, she put it into her mouth and lit a match, not
saying anything. The match jumped to life and the brief smell of sulfur filled the air. She
held it to her stogie and puffed on it a couple times. Satisfied that she had gotten a good
light, she shook the match out and tossed it into the ashtray with the others.

She swiveled in her stool towards the purple unicorn, who never stopped walking, even
though she did it a bit slower than she had twenty years ago.

Rarity just shrugged and said, her accent completely gone, "Hey, sight for sore eyes. It's
a long time no see."

Twilight slowly plopped down in her old seat, which was two to the left of Rarity's. She
could feel her bones creak, but it was better than normal.

Twilight replied, with some trepidation, "Yeah. It has been, hasn't it? How's work?"

Rarity took a long draft from her glass and put it back down on the bar, saying, "Working
hard. Hardly working. You know me."

Try though she may, Twilight just couldn't make small talk right now. She felt guilty; it
had to come off of her chest. She reached a hoof out and put it on Rarity's shoulder,
saying, "Hey, Rarity. I just wanted to say..."

Rarity's eyes turned to look at her, and she said, coldly, "Say what?"

Twilight winced a little and took her hoof off of her, saying, "That I'm just sorry about-"

Rarity just shrugged and went back to staring in her glass, saying, "Water under the
bridge. I'm not worried about it."

Twilight stared at her. Twenty years of guilt had been sitting in her stomach, festering
and rotting like a sore, and it was just now beginning to ease.

The purple unicorn smiled and laughed nervously, saying, "Really? You aren't?"

Rarity shook her head and patted Twilight on the shoulder, saying, "Nah. Just forget it.
That was a long time ago."

Twilight smiled, more widely than she had in years, saying, "Wow. Thanks! For real?
You really are generous."

Rarity laughed, for the first time in a long time. Being around Twilight reminded her of
who she had been, a long time ago. It certainly had been a long time since anyone
called her generous. Thinking back briefly to older times, some of her youthfulness
returned, and the glimmer in her eyes returned with it. She said, "Not really, my dear. I
am just not so completely unpleasant all the time."

The old fashionista quickly changed the subject, saying, "Hey. Have you seen my new
shop? I dare say that it is bought, fully paid for. It is sitting right across the street from
the bar."

Twilight said, "Oh. I hadn't noticed. I wish I had been able to see it through the rain,
outside."

Rarity nodded and said, "Yes. I'll have to give you the tour, some time." The white
unicorn craned her neck toward the barkeep and said, brusquely, manners temporarily
forgotten, "Hey, Joe! What's keeping you? Pour her a drink."

Joe hadn't been able to take his eyes off of Twilight ever since she walked in. It wasn't
every day that one of the old gang wandered into this place. He trotted happily over to
them and said, "Sure, Rares. What can I get you, Twilight?"

Twilight smiled. Her heart was warmed. This really was just like old times, although a
little less...toxic. Time sometimes sweetened old memories and made them seem a little
better than they were, but Twilight could never forget some of things that had happened
to her in this town.

She said, "I'll have what Rarity has."

Joe said, "A rye and soda?"

Twilight looked disgusted and stuck out her tongue, saying, "What? Ew. Gross. Rarity.
You always drink the grossest stuff."

Rarity just rolled her cigar in her mouth and smiled, saying nothing.

Joe laughed, heartily, for the first time in a long time, and she said, "Fine. You always
liked cosmos, right? With a little sugar and gin in them? How about one of those?"

Twilight leaned back and smiled happily. He still remembered her favorite drink after
twenty years. She said, "Yeah. I'll have one of those."

Joe turned away and went to work on the drink.

Rarity just smoked her cigar and sipped on her rye and soda.

After a minute or two of silence, Twilight said, somewhat hesitantly, "So Rarity...how's
the old gang?"

Rarity looked at her for a second, then went back to reminiscing to her drink. Her
demeanor fell, again. She said, "Well, you know, the old gang ain't around anymore.
They've all left town, except Mac and Applejack. They're still running the farm."

Twilight's heart dropped a little bit. She just looked down and said, "Ah. I see. The other
girls are all gone, then?"

The white unicorn sat in silence for some seconds, then she said, "Well, I guess you
heard about Dash."

Twilight frowned.

Rarity continued, saying, "She was killed in a crash."

Twilight's frowned deepened, and her brow wrinkled.

Rarity said, "She spun out, and she rolled. Hit a telephone pole."

Twilight stood up out of her seat. Hints of tear drops came to her eyes, and she
said, "What?"

Rarity nodded, saying, "Yeah. I guess it's been two or three years ago, now. She died
with Pinkie on her mind. She still had that damned locket on."

Twilight plopped back down into her seat, sad beyond words. Her heart became heavy
again, and it took the empty spot in her gut that the guilt had left. She said, "And what
about...you know," trailing off at the end.

Rarity didn't look up this time. If anything, she wanted to dive even further into her mug.
She met it halfway and drained the rest of it, slamming the glass down on the bar,
calling out for another drink.

Then she went back to staring at the bar.

The ceiling lights buzzed.

Cigarette smoke rose up into the air.

And there was silence between the two of them. Rarity just did not speak.

Twilight's ears flattened, and she frowned. She said, "Fluttershy-"

"Yeah," answered Rarity immediately.

Twilight's frown deepened, and she said, "How did she-"

Rarity snapped again, looking angrily at her this time, saying, "How do you think?"

Twilight avoided Rarity's medusa stare and looked back down at the bar, saying, "Ah. I
see. So she never-"

"Nope," said Rarity, bitterly, "Some beasts just can't be conquered, I guess."

And so Twilight dropped it. She didn't want to think about it, anymore.

That's when Joe came back, at the most convenient time possible, and he put a cocktail
glass full of a pink drink gently in front of Twilight, saying, "Hey, Twi. Be careful with
those. I don't have many left."

And then Twilight picked it up, looking at the barkeep and smiling weakly,
saying, "Thanks, Joe. I appreciate it."

He shook his head and said, "Don't worry about it! You just let me know if there's
anything else I can get you!"

Then he smirked and nodded and went back to his other work.

Twilight Sparkle took a sip from the pink concoction and smiled. He had gotten it just
right. No matter how many bars she went to, no one could seem to get it perfect like he
could. It was delicious.

And so the two just sat there, in silence. Rarity puffed on her cigar, and Twilight just
sipped on her drink. The drink reminded her of a certain someone else, but she was
scared to ask about her.

Swallowing her fear, she just said it, "So...what about Pinkie Pie."

Rarity said, abruptly, "She's married. Has a kid."

Twilight smiled, again. Finally, a happy ending. She said, "Really? And she moved out
of the Cakes' place?"

Rarity nodded.

Twilight said, "Where to?"

Rarity shrugged and said, "I don't know. Fillydelphia or something. We don't really write
anymore. I guess she's too busy."

Twilight said, "Great. That's good to hear. I'm happy for her."

Joe delivered a new rye and whiskey to Rarity and nodded, leaving.

Rarity lifted it up to the light and looked at it. Then, she swiveled in her seat towards
Twilight, holding the glass up. She said, trying to lift her spirits again, "Do you know,
Twilight Sparkle? Do you know what I think?"

Twilight shook her head.

Rarity said, "I say that we toast to the old gang, to AJ and Pinkie and Dash and
Fluttershy."

A genuine tear came to Twilight's eye, and she took her cocktail and held it up.

Then Rarity said, "And to you."

The tear ran down down Twilight's cheek, and she said, "Hear hear. A toast to the old
days, and to everyone else, too."

And then their glasses clanked together, and both ponies took long swallows of their
drinks, before bringing the glasses down on the bar, again.

And there was quiet, again. Neither said anything, out of reverent silence for their old
friends. For their old days. For the old times, in older places. They both just said there,
at that old bar, in that old building, and they stared into their old glasses, thinking and
remembering.