Captain Orange's Hard Cider
It was supposed to be a fun night off. Really, it was. Just two young stallions fooling around, just like the old days as colts on Friday nights. I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen.
No, and I don’t mean that. Geez.
I had just gotten off work after a tough day of training and practice. The Wonderbolts’ boss and the rest of the team was away in Manehattan for the weekend to attend an important meeting. So, like any stallion would have on a Friday night, I invited Rapidfire, a fellow Wonderbolt -- and my best friend -- over to my place in Cloudsdale to hang out, which, of course, was one of the largest and most exquisite cloud homes in the city, worth only a mere 5 million bits.
What? It was a small amount to me.
It was a three-story cloud home, furnished with everything a pegasus pony could ever dream of. I had my own racing circle, my own obstacle course—heck, I even had my own personal hairdresser for my totally tricked-out mane style. Yep, life was certainly good as a member of the Wonderbolts.
Well, anyways, Rapidfire and I had arrived at my place just as Celestia’s sun was setting over the mountains of the west. We walked inside, sat down on the sofa in my living room, and sort of talked for a while. Mostly, we just talked about each other’s relationships. I talked briefly about how things with Spitfire had seen better days, but when I asked him about how things were going with his newfound kinship with Fleetfoot, he went on and on about how wonderful that mare was. He even delved into a few rather personal details I wasn’t exactly the most interested in, like how things were going in the bedroom.
After about an hour of rather inelegant conversation, we were beginning to get bored. It had gotten dark outside, which meant competing at the racing circle or the obstacle course wasn’t really an option. I tried doing the obstacle course at night once, believing I could fly through all the rings and around the pillars at top speed with only the light provided by the Princess of the Night. Let’s just say I ended up having a mouthful of cloud for dinner that night.
Therefore, there were surprisingly few things for two stallions to do in my house at night. Now, if Spitfire and I were here alone, then maybe that would be a different story... well, a few months ago at least.
Eventually, Rapidfire gave us something to do with this ingenious idea.
“Hey Soarin?”
“Yeah?”
“You got any of that, you know, hard cider stuff we used to drink on the weekends while we were trainees at advanced flight camp?”
I rolled my eyes and chuckled. Of course he wanted to do that of all things. Well, we did have the night off and it was Friday, so what the hay. Plus, it had been pretty much forever since the last drink. As Wonderbolts, we weren’t exactly supposed to be doing it.
“Really? You really want to swallow more of that awful stuff? Are you serious?”
He nodded, a small grin and devious look on his face.
I smiled as well. “Alrighty then. Let me see what I can dig up in the back room.”
I hopped off the couch and walked past the stairs and down the hallway. I trotted all the way to the end, and entered the last room on the left.
This was basically my messy storage room, where I pretty much just threw anything of mine that was important enough to keep—like old foalhood trophies and stuff I had won—but not really cool enough for me to need often or care about all that much. The room was completely littered with boxes full of junk on shelves lining the walls; heck, it was the only room in the house that looked like this. I was positive I had an old bottle of that stuff Rapidfire asked for lying around in here somewhere.
But I hadn’t the slightest idea where.
Not wanting to keep my friend waiting, I quickly dug into the nearest box to me. I was rather annoyed to discover that it was full of those little puffy cushion things and nothing else.
“Why is this even in here?” I muttered out loud as I tossed it to the side.
I moved to the next box, opening it up to the exact same result.
Now growing somewhat agitated, I tossed this box to the side as well without even caring that the little foam things spilled all over the floor, and moved to the next.
This one I could tell contained something other than stupid foam, as it was heavier than the first two. Expecting it to be full of something else useless like marbles or something, I was surprised to open the two cardboard flaps and see pictures. Tons of them. I instantly recognized what they were from.
They were pictures of Spitfire and me on our vacation to Las Pegasus a couple years ago. I forgot these even existed, and I kind of felt this strange aching feeling in my stomach as I flipped through a few of them.
The two of us in front of that huge hotel. The two of us sitting at that game table, obviously having a good time and hopefully not gambling our year’s pay away. Spitfire on the bed gazing up at me, her fire-orange hair sprawled down around her shoulders, lying in that position.
Damn, those were good times... and boy, did I ever miss them.
The little imaginary paradise I found myself in was short-lived, however, as I suddenly realized there wasn’t a bottle of cider in this box. Just some dumb old photos.
I dropped the pictures back into the box and placed it in the same place it was sitting before. Now I wasn’t just angry, but rather depressed as well. I was feeling things I had tried to suppress for a long time, and I hated it. I desperately needed to find that bottle now, if not just for myself, then for my friend.
I moved to the fourth box, expecting probably more puffy foam thingies or depressing photos. However, when I lifted it off the shelf, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was quite heavy—at least twice as heavy as the last one, so it certainly wasn’t like any of the crap I found before.
I was also elated to hear the sound of a liquid sloshing around in a container as I brought it to the ground.
Please, please don’t be water or something, I thought as I lifted the top flaps.
My prayers were answered. Lying in the puffy foam stuff were two bottles of Cider.
CAPTAIN ORANGE’S HARD CIDER
Please Drink Responsibly
Perfect, I thought as I grabbed the one of the left. One for now, and one for the next time I accidentally stumble upon those pictures.
I trotted out of the room, cider in mouth, and into my living room. Rapidfire was still sitting there, a somewhat cross expression now on his face.
“What took you so Luna-damned long?”
I sat down on the couch next to him. “Hey, I wasn’t gone for that long, I had no idea where it was! Be happy I even found it, featherbrain!”
Rapidfire just chuckled. “Hey, at least I know where I keep my drinks, Soarin. It’s kind of weird you don’t.”
I rolled my eyes. This was so typical for him. I got up from the sofa again. “Whatever. Just let me go grab some glasses—”
“Glasses? Seriously, Soarin? What are we, fillies? I don’t recall ever not drinking straight out of the bottle at flight camp.”
He had a point. It was pretty lame to just sip a drink out of a glass or cup. Real stallions drank straight out of the bottle.
I nodded as I sat back down. “Yeah, you’re right, Rapidfire. What was I thinking?” On the rare occasion she wanted to drink, Spitfire always wanted to drink out of a glass. I guess I didn’t really mind.
“I don’t know, but can you hand it over? I’m dying for a swig. It’s been way too long since we last did this.”
Yeah, way too long, I thought as I handed the bottle over to him. He flipped the cap off the top of the bottle, and his throat shuddered as he took a huge gulp.
“Wow, that’s some good stuff.” He handed the bottle back over to me. However, the smile on my friend’s face disappeared when he made eye contact with me. “Hey, is something up, Soarin?”
Yep.
“No! Why in Equestria would you think something like that? I’m totally awesome!” I sheepishly yowled.
Rapidfire rolled his eyes and shook his head while I swallowed my own large swig from the bottle. By Celestia, I had forgotten how much this crap burns your throat.
“And ya kn... know wha she did next?” Rapidfire blabbered before taking another swig.
I wrapped my hoof around my pal, using my other hoof to grab the bottle out of his and ingest another hefty gulp. “Wha, what did that dirty little mare of yours, um, uh, Fleetfoot, yeah, do next?”
“She like totally—” For whatever reason, Rapidfire tried to stand up while speaking, but instead stumbled and ended up falling face-first onto the floor.
I watched him just lay there for a couple seconds before he used his wings to slowly flip himself onto his back to face me. “Ow! Soar-, uh, whatever your name is! I just got the b-best idea ever!”
“Really?” excitement suddenly began to fill my insides. Everything felt so amazingly awesome, similar to how I felt the second I won my first big race after joining the squad.
“Obviously! I wouldn’t have, like, said it if it wasn’t! Hear me out... we should totally go flying, best buddy!”
I immediately didn’t feel so hot anymore after he said that, like each individual word in his sentence sucked more and more energy and bliss out of me. Something was really telling me his idea probably wasn’t the best thing to be doing right now.
“Uh, I don’t know Rapid, that doesn’t really seem like a good idea. I mean, we can, like, hardly even stand! I don’t know if we’ll—”
“Ah, c’mon! We’re damn Wonderbolts! If anypony can do it, it’s so us!”
He did have a point. We were the best freakin’ flyers in Equestria. What could possibly go wrong?
I hoisted myself off the sofa and, with a lot of effort, stood next to Rapidfire, who was still on the floor for some reason. “Well, all right, then. Where do you wanna go?”
The stallion attempted to lift himself off the floor, but almost immediately fell flat onto his face again. “Hey, buddy, can you lend me a hoof? I’m havin’ some trouble here, I think.”
I rolled my eyes before stretching my front left hoof out for him. He quickly snatched it and unexpectedly pulled extremely hard.
“Woah!” I promptly lost my footing and came crashing straight down on top of his stomach. I was now lying on top of my friend in a very awkward kind of cross or “X” position.
“Soarin! What part of help me up did you not understand! It wasn’t an invitation to fall on top of me! You know I’m not into that stuff.”
I rolled my eyes yet again. So typical of him.
After probably somewhere in the vicinity of maybe ten or fifteen minutes of very awkward wiggling and squirming, we eventually separated from our awkward encounter and made it out the front door. We just sort of stumbled around in the street towards what I thought was the general direction of the edge of Cloudsdale. Celestia knows what time it was, and I wasn’t really sure what direction I was going in, either. It was so dark, and everything seemed to blur together in this gloomy blue-purplish blob.
Amazingly, we managed to stumble our way to our destination at the very edge of the city. I looked down at the black abyss, and a sudden feeling of dread began to overcome my senses. Like I should really turn back and go home.
“C’mon, Soarin, let’s fly!”
I simply watched as Rapidfire spread his wings, jumped off and the edge, and glided off into the darkness.
I really didn’t want do this. I knew flying in the dead of night was certainly not recommended action in itself, due to the obvious hazards. But when I’m like this... it seemed like such a bad idea.
But hey, I am a Wonderbolt. The best in Equestria. If there’s anypony who can do this, it’s me. Plus, I’d never hear the end of it from Rapidfire if I sissied my way out of this one.
So, there was only one thing left to do.
Without another thought, I spread my wings, took a deep breath, and hurled myself into the darkness.
The experience was amazing at first. I wondered why I hadn’t tried it before. The rush, the wind blowing through my hair, it all seemed so much more amplified than usual. For maybe a half hour or so, I remained stuck in that position, simply flying straight forward into the darkness.
“Isn’t this awesome, Rapid?” I yelled over the wind.
When I received no answer, I glanced to my right where I thought he was gliding next to me. My heart dropped straight down into my stomach when all I saw was more darkness.
Nothing but complete darkness in every direction. Apparently I had moved into an area of cloud cover, because I couldn’t even see Luna’s bright moon.
I didn’t have the slightest idea where I was, or where on earth I was even—
BOOM!
