//------------------------------// // Bar Crawl // Story: Gildaloo // by Bysen //------------------------------// She was slightly nervous. No, scratch that, she was absolutely horrified. This was Scootaloo’s first time at a bar and her first time drinking alcohol. Aside from a cheeky cider every so often back in Ponyville. She’d moved away from there a few years ago to start flight school here in Cloudsdale. Out of all her new friends here, and some old ones she still knew, Scootaloo was the oldest… but still “I think I’m gonna have to see some I.D before I serve you anything.” the bartender said giving this young girl the eye. “Y-yeah.” Scootaloo replied as she grabbed her wallet out of her trousers pocket and handed him the card. “Here you go.” she said, but not loud enough for him here hear over the hustle and bustle of the bar as she a handed it to the guy. He looked at the picture then at her. The orange-ish skin, purple hair and childish smile matched. She sat on a stool, her dark blue jacket draped over the bar, she felt a little exposed in her dark-purple tank top but it was far too hot in here to wear the thing more. Even if the jacket had once belonged to Rainbow Dash. “Alright Scootaloo. What’ll it be?” he asked, surprising her. “H-how’d you know my name?!” she replied in a rush. He just stared at her for a moment before retorting “Gee, I don’t know. I guess it’s just this power I was born with. Oh, here’s your ID back…” as he held the card out to her between two fingers. She sheepishly took it back, clearly feeling like the idiot she'd made of herself. The guy chuckled slightly and added “Relax. I’m guessing none of your friends can come here yet. Or they don’t know you're here. Either way; what’ll it be? First drink’s free. Happy birthday.” Yep, that’s what the card said. Today was her 18th birthday. None of her friends were old enough to go out drinking yet and she was all alone here. Scared out of her gourd after hearing all those anti-drinking and date-rape stories from her overzealous social studies classes back in school. But still here. She’d made it this far so she wasn’t going to just walk away without at least having something to drink. Especially a free something to drink. “Uh… a hard cider. Sweet Apple stuff if you have it.” “Coming up.” he said as he turned and walked towards the one of the fridges. He came back less than half a minute later, but before that, Scootaloo took a look around the bar. There were a few people out on the dance floor. All of them obviously hammered since there was no music for them to be dancing to. Most of the people here just looked like groups of friends out for a night, two women here, two guys over there. Of course there were a few lone birds here too. She wanted to say they looked kinda pathetic drinking alone… but she knew what she looked like too. Placing a rather large mug in front of the girl, the barkeep said to her “Now I gotta warn you. This stuff’s strong. Guessin’ this is your first time drinking too. Gotta know your limits kid. I’ma guess two’ll do ya. And I ain’t serving you no more than three.” oh yeah, all those responsible service of alcohol laws too. “Heh, two?” Scootaloo laughed as she grabbed the mug and downed half of it in a matter of seconds. “I used to drink this stuff by the barrel back in Ponyville.” “Really? And how old were you exactly.” he leant over the counter and asked her as she went to take another swig. She nearly choked mid mouthful. He only laughed in response. “Haha… just slow down a bit and tell me when you want another.” he said as he turned and went over to another patron, waving goodbye over his shoulder. She had about just under half of the mug left and decided he was right. Don’t skoll it down, just nurse it for a while instead. Scootaloo took a small sip and placed it back on the table before looking around again. Lively as ever… same idiots still dancing to no music. A couple kissing over in a booth. A few other pairs of people and a few people still sitting alone. Which she was no longer one of she found out as she turned back around to see a woman now sitting beside her. And looking right at her. “Hey.” Scootaloo greeted somewhat awkwardly. “Hey.” the slightly buff woman replied. Her look was… ‘unique’. Short white hair with a purple tipped fringe that hung thinly over her eyes, which had purple eye shadow around them in turn. She wore a wool-lined leather jacket that must’ve been boiling in here and yellow elbow-high gloves. “So you’re from Ponyville huh?” “Yeah. Moved from there with my dad to start flight school couple years back.” she answered the newcomer. “You ever been there?” Scootaloo added. “Once. Years ago.” she replied smugly in return as she waved over the barkeep. “Couldn’t help but notice your Wonderbolt jacket. Doesn’t look like merch. Looks pretty official to me.” she said resting a yellow-gloved hand on the thing. “Oh yeah!” Scootaloo boasted, lifting it up and showing her the embroidered Wonderbolts patch on the shoulder. “I got it from one of them! It’s like, the most awesome thing I own.” she added with a huge grin. Made even bigger by the slightly jealous look on the woman's face. “Hey, name’s Scootaloo by the way.” “Gilda.” she told in turn, extending her hand. Scootaloo took it and shook it. The bartender had come back by this point and Gilda turned to him and said “This round’s on me…”