The three ponies walked merrily amongst the other townsfolk. Berry couldn’t help but marvel at how amazing the town’s decorations looked. Some might call Ponyville a hick town out in the sticks (or other colorful descriptions), but Ponyville folk knew how to party in style.
All around her, Berry heard talk about the upcoming party: Plans, what kind of costumes ponies were gonna wear, which houses they were gonna go to first, something about some minotaurs joining in for the fun. This was gonna be a great night!
They arrived at the schoolhouse with the rest of the pony folk, Pinchy immediately trotted to her school friends, the foals talking energetically about things that kids talk about.
Berry was just about to take her leave when Cheerilee stopped her, “Are you SURE you can handle everything? There’s no shame in asking for help.”
“Oh will you relax.” Berry stepped past her sister, “I’m not a total screw up, and I can do a ton of things if I focus long enough.” Berry looked right into her sister’s eyes and said in the most sincere tone she could muster; “Trust me. I got this.”
“…Alright.” Cheerilee still didn’t sound convinced, it wouldn’t have been the first time Berry had screwed things up after all. Nevertheless, it looked like she was willing to give Berry the benefit of the doubt. “Just…don’t be afraid to ask for help. You have friends and family, they'll help if you ask.”
“Oh you worry too much!” Berry said as she playfully bumped flanks with her sister, “Now go on, you’ve got young minds to nurture, tests to grade, students to punish, teachers to argue with and all that jazz.” Berry waved a hoof eagerly to her sister. She could tell that Cheerilee was trying not to look worried, but she wasn’t anywhere near as good of a liar as Berry Punch.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Just a few more seconds...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And she’s out of sight. “Okay!” Now Berry could start panicking. She broke into a mad sprint back home, “Okay, okay, let’s see. What was I supposed to do?” She racked her brains as she tried to remember all the things Cheerilee said this morning:
“You‘re supposed to bring refreshments to the party and help set things up later tonight. You‘re also supposed to bring the candy to hand out to the Nightmare Nighters…have you even done that?”
There was definitely something else she was forgetting…COSTUME! She needed to finish Pinchy’s costume, whatever it was. “Okay, I know I did some work on it. But what else did I do? Actually, what was the costume supposed to be? Agh! Why do I always have to get drunk?!” She was seriously considering not drinking anymore...for about seven seconds.
She kicked the door to her room open. “Come on drunk Berry, you had to have left a clue or something!” She pleaded with her past self as she frantically searched her room: Tossing clothe all around, checking behind framed pictures, flipping over things that weren't nailed down. “Okay, okay, stop!” She stopped in the middle of lifting up her nightstand. “Okay, if I was drunk Berry…where would I leave a clue?”
. . . . . .
She immediately looked up to the ceiling.
There was a note pinned to the ceiling. However, she couldn’t read it from the ground. She got up on her bed, then stood up on her hind legs, struggling to stand in this…unnatural way. She wasn’t Lyra, who could do this naturally, nor was she Octavia, who had years of pony martial arts under her coat. Plus a bed wasn't exactly the most stable ground. Now how was she going to get it down? “….” If only she had some kind of…claw on her hooves with a single opposable digit that could help her grab things. Maybe Lyra would have a name for it? Whatever. She hopped up from the bed, biting the edge of the note and tearing it down from the ceiling. After falling onto her back on the bed, she examined the note. Half of it was gone, still stuck on the ceiling. ‘How did I get it up there in the first place?’ She read the note and it…
. . . . .
There were times, during Berry’s high school years where she would sometimes see messages along the bathroom stalls. Something of an…anonymous message board or something. The note was kind of like that; it started off with a simple reminder of what the costume was supposed to be (Mare-Do-Well), which then started to turn into self-depreciating humor. Where she then stood up for herself, and then had an argument with herself. She had no idea what to call this sort of thing. It was kind of like a large-scale battle of sorts but with ponies a lot more heated. Fire Conflict? Nah that was a stupid name.
Wasn’t important either, all she did know was that drunk Berry was looking out for her this time (instead of putting her in a compromising position) and had written down something at the bottom of the note that read:
“Carousel Boutique”
It was written in Drunk Berry's usual, messy handwriting that only regular Berry could possibly understand. That was a dress shop, owned by the unicorn Rarity. Who happened to be good friends with Cheerilee but Berry and Rarity hardly ever spoken aside from the occasional: “Hello.”
With a smile on her face, she had to resist doing a little dance. “THANK YOU DRUNK, BERRY!” She praised herself, she immediately hopped off the bed but missed the landing and ending up falling. “Owww.” Pain. Her body was in pain, “Come on Berry, shake it off.” She tried to tell herself as she just laid there. “Ow ow ow…” She really hoped she didn’t break anything.
“Hm?” Berry noticed something unfamiliar under the nightstand. She reached a hoof out to it and dragged it closer towards her. “…” It was an old framed photo of Berry as a younger mare standing side by side with a unicorn stallion. She sighed as she pushed the framed photo back under the bed. “Another life, Berry. Another life…”