Vinyl, Midnight, Luna and Octavia staggered up the stairs to the balcony, cases upon cases of alcohol strapped onto their backs. Luna was at the front, so she used her magic to open the door onto the balcony. Slowly, they made their way over to the board game table and set their cases down next to it.
"So, we are all clear on the rules?" asked Luna, panting slightly.
"Can we use millilitres instead of ccs?" asked Vinyl, who didn't know how much a cc was.
Luna looked at her, then to Midnight, who shrugged.
"Fine." They all sat down at the table and opened the monopoly box. Midnight opened the rulebook and sorted out the money, ensuring that each pony had their 1500B (Bits) to start with. Luna scooped up the board and spread it onto the table as Vinyl picked out and shuffled the "chance" and "community chest cards". Octavia, who wasn't a unicorn and whose hooves were not as dextrous as the other's magic, picked up and began carefully sorting the houses and hotels. Midnight opened his box and pulled out the glasses, ensuring that they had enough. Each glass could hold 50 ml of alcohol comfortably, meaning that a trip to the boardwalk would give you 8 shots. It would also win you some long kisses.
As the various objects floated down to join the hotels and houses on the table, Midnight set the bank in front of himself and took the silver thimble piece from the box. He looked at it, remembered that he was a unicorn and created a new piece out of thin air. It was a smaller version of him, standing on some rocks, his front left hoof curled under his chest. Luna looked at it and created her own piece, a perfect miniature of the moon that hovered a centimeter above the board. Vinyl created a turntable, setting that on the board next to the moon and the statue of Midnight. All of the unicorns looked at Octavia.
She looked at midnight, lent over and whispered in his ear. He nodded and created a figure of Octavia, playing her cello. He passed it to Octavia, who set it onto the board. Octavia smiled lovingly at him. Midnight grinned back and his horn glowed as he once again used his magic. He carefully lifted Octavia's piece and animated it, playing one of Octavia's own concertos. Squealing, she launched herself around the table at him, nuzzling her cheek under his chin. Luna smiled, knowing that Midnight had deserved the hug and knowing even more certainly that she would have done exactly the same thing in either of their hooves.
"Can we get started already?" asked Vinyl, excited to be drinking.
"Sure," said Midnight, stroking Octavia's mane, then gently sending her back to her seat. She complied, but only because she knew that one way or another, the sooner they got started, the sooner she could kiss him. Midnight picked up the dice, rolling them, then passing them on.
"I got an 8. Try to beat that," he said, passing the dice clockwise to Octavia, who rolled a 9.
Luna rolled a 5 and Vinyl, directly to Midnight's right rolled 11.
"I get to go first," exclaimed Vinyl, grabbing a shot glass before rerolling the dice. She rolled again and got an 8. She moved her piece, landing it on Vermont Avenue, cost 100B. Flipping the 100B bill over to Midnight, she took a bottle of marshmallow vodka from her box and set it on the table. It was gently removed by a purple aura as Midnight took it and put it aside. Vinyl Looked at him, a confused and angry expression on her face.
"Start off light. We will get to the heavier stuff later," he consoled her.
"Fine," huffed Vinyl, pulling out a bottle of crème de menthe. Midnight sighed, but allowed it to happen. He measured out two shots and put them down in front of Vinyl. They were gone unbelievably quickly. Midnight missed it as he was putting the bottle down. Octavia and Luna had similar looks of surprise on their faces. Sighing again at Vinyl's depravity, Midnight picked up the dice and rolled, the two dice coming down a 7. His piece strode across the table on its own, rocks sliding up from the smooth game board to meet it's feet. The other three leaned in closer to look. Vinyl rubbed her eyes and looked suspiciously at the bottle of mint liquor.
"It always was my specialty, working with figures," said Midnight dismissively. The others looked to his cutie mark of a sword. Following their gazes, he said: "But no one ever bested me on the practice field. It's the fine attention to detail. I can flick the blade in ways that are virtually impossible to counter." The three mares, simply looked up into his cool gaze as he drew a chance card.
"Get out of jail free," read Midnight, and slid it under his part of the game board. He smiled and passed the dice to Octavia. "Your turn."
Octavia took the dice in her hooves and sent them bouncing across the board. They came up a three. Octavia passed Midnight three 20B bills and pushed two shot glasses towards Midnight for him to fill. He filled the first and then filled the other one up 1/5th of the way and slid them back. Octavia took the shots and passed the dice. Luna took them up and shook.
And so, an hour passed. Short kisses between the ponies happened after the first few travels around the board. Vinyl quickly bartered for the entire cyan group and then the yellow group. Octavia scooped up the remaining purple property naturally on her next go around, but also ended up with the green group. Midnight landed on the Boardwalk on his first travel around the board, and managed to get Park Place from Luna with a particularly lengthy kiss. Luna herself took the red properties. The orange and purple properties were both held by multiple ponies, preventing any houses from being built, but Octavia was already bargaining a long kiss out of Midnight for St James place, the only orange property remaining out of her grasp. Vinyl had placed hotels on all of her properties as soon as she could, getting drunk at a remarkable speed. She hiccupped into a kiss with Midnight as he landed on Marvin's Gardens.
The game descended into pure drinking not long after that. Pure drinking and random kissing. Seemingly random anyway. The dice weren't rolled much after the hour and a half mark. Eventually, some bleary eyed guards got up and took the board away from them, before going back to bed. They put the box away on the way down, abandoning the raucous drunks up on the balcony.
Midnight was lying across Luna's and Octavia's laps as they took shots from on his stomach when he saw Octavia's head drop. He sat up quickly, dislodging a giggling Luna and the various glasses still arrayed over his chest. He was fully upright as Octavia collapsed, and he suddenly became as sober as a pint of coffee and a cold shower could have made him. He stopped cold. Diving forwards, he placed his hoof beside her neck, feeling for a pulse. It was there, but faint. Lifting her up with his magic, he ran through the mess on the floor towards the door of the balcony. Slamming it open with his body before gently passing Octavia through. Luna looked after him, still giggling.
Running through the dark corridors to the infirmary, Midnight tried to make sure that Octavia's ride was a smooth one. He dampened the inertia of his sudden changes in direction at each corridor and held her away from walls that he skidded into. He reached the infirmary in record time, opening the door quickly and bringing Octavia through. Carefully, he put her on one of the beds as the nurse hurried up.
"What's the problem?" she asked quickly, almost snapping out the question.
"Alcohol poisoning I think," replied Midnight, panting after his long run.
"Fuck, I hate treating that. How did she get it, where did she get it and how much did she have?" the nurse snapped.
"A game of drinking monopoly, Luna's balcony, I have no Idea. Probably 20 shots."
The nurse stared at him.
"Are you suffering from it too?" she asked, an angry expression coming across her face.
"No. I'm Midnight, Luna's personal guard. We were playing a monopoly drinking game. Later it turned into just drinking. The mare on that bed is my marefriend." He didn't think it wise to mention that Luna was in on a threesome. That would cause more problems. "Just save her!" he pleaded.
The nurse's expression changed to one of minor panic. The marefriend of Princess Luna's personal guard. And probably a personal friend to Princess Luna herself. She turned and hurried to get the necessary supplies. As she returned, she found Midnight sitting next to Octavia, head down. He looked up as the nurse came back in.
"What can I do?" he asked, desperate to help Octavia.
"Lie down on that bed there and sleep." the nurse told him.
"How will that help?" Midnight said, slowly getting up.
"When I am through getting her medicine sorted out and the machines hooked up, you can keep an eye on her. I want you rested for it."
"Yes Ma'am," said Midnight walking over to the bed and lying down.
He put his head on the cover, trying to calm down enough to let himself sleep. Twenty minutes later, he cast a spell, forcing himself to rest...