What did ah do last night?
It was Sunday morning in Ponyville. Celestia’s sun had just appeared in the sky, which for most ponies meant the start of a nice and relaxed day. For Applejack however, it meant something completely different. For her the sunlight hitting her face meant the end of a drunken slumber. And like most drunken slumbers, it didn’t end all that relaxed.
The first thing she noticed after managing to open her eyes was a pounding headache. Next came the feeling of intense nausea. And finally the unpleasant smell of smoke, sweat and vomit. Judging from the taste in her mouth, the vomit was hers. After quickly assessing whether or not she was in her own house and if she still had all her valuables, Applejack decided to try and get a few more hours of sleep in. Not doing anything on a Sunday is an ancient Apple tradition, after all.
Just as she was starting to doze off, an unwelcome thought popped into her head: I did something stupid last night. No matter how hard she tried to shrug it off and go back to sleep, the feeling of dread would not leave her. After a while she gave up and figured she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she figured this out. She sat straight up in bed and tried to remember what she had done the night before. Her efforts were rewarded with a sharp sting in her brain.
“Guess ah have to wake up my poor brain first…” she said to herself out loud.
After drinking as much water as she possibly could, Applejack felt slightly better and retried to remember the night before. This time with some success. She and her friends had been at the Carousel boutique to celebrate Rarity’s birthday. Well, celebrate wasn’t exactly the right word. They basically got hammered with Rarity to help her forget that she was getting older. Pleased that she could at least remember something now, Applejack tried to dig up more. But unfortunately she drew a complete blank. She had no idea what transpired at Rarity’s, much less why the feeling she had done something really stupid wouldn't leave her.
After mulling it over for a while she decided that the best course of action would be to go see her friends and ask them what happened. Surely one of them could shed some light on last night’s events.
First things first though, something had to be done about this hangover before Applejack would even consider leaving the house. Luckily she had quite a bit experience in this field and had a plan for even the most severe hangovers. All she had to do now was follow the steps.
Step one: Tea with honey. Applejack found that nothing worked better to calm down an upset stomach. Good thing Fluttershy supplied her with fresh honey from time to time.
Step two: Eating some muffins. This is a good way to get some breakfast without having to worry about puking it up later. She found this one out thanks to Pinkie, who made the darn things every Sunday.
Step three: A lovely little drink, called a prairie oyster. It tastes about as gross as it looks, but Rarity swears by it.
Step four: Some light meditation exercises. These always help against a headache and clear up the mind. This she learned from Twilight, who probably picked it up from Cadence.
Step five: Some physical exercises. This helps to pull the body out of its post-alcohol slump and gives new energy. She got this one from Rainbow Dash of course, who- … Wait a second…
“RAINBOW!” She yelled out loud. As soon as the cyan pegasus came to mind, a wave of panic washed over Applejack. Whatever she did last night, it definitely involved Rainbow.
Step five could wait. She had to check up on Rainbow right now. Even though her hangover felt far from cured… How much did she drink last night anyway?
She put on her hat and made her way out the house. The chilly morning air felt surprisingly good. Maybe even good enough to be added to the hangover cure list. Applejack managed to resist the urge to sprint to the remote meadow where Rainbow’s cloud house was located. She picked a leisurely pace, giving her some time with her thoughts.
As she walked through the city centre, she was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice a bouncing figure approaching her.
“Hi Applejack, I never expected to see you out of bed on a Sunday morning!”
Applejack looked up in surprise before answering. “Oh hey there, Pinkie. Ah couldn’t get back to sleep before I checked something. So what are you doing here so early?”
“Oh nothing special,” Pinkie answered. “Just taking a morning walk. It works great against hangovers you know?” Applejack couldn’t agree more.
They walked a couple of meters in silence, which was pretty impressive by Pinkie standards, before Pinkie broke it again. “So what do you need to check on this early anyway?”
Applejack smiled sheepishly. “Ah have this weird feeling that I did something stupid involving Rainbow last night, so I thought I’d check to see if she’s okay. Say, ah don’t suppose you know what we did last night?”
“Hmm, the last time I saw you, you two left Rarity’s party together. Dash seemed really really excited about something! Anyway, I’d better turn back here, I have muffins in the oven!”
Applejack was about to say goodbye, until something stopped her. “Hey Pinkie, could you not mention this conversation to anypony until I found out what happened? If it’s something, uh, embarrassing, ah’d rather not have the entire town know…”
“OKIE DOKIE LOKIE~!” Pinkie replied before trotting off while humming a tune.
The information that Pinkie had given her only made Applejack more concerned. They definitely did something together last night. A spiraling stream of thoughts formed in her mind.
Did Rainbow got hurt somehow?
Did she hurt her feelings?
Did she hurt her physically maybe?
Oh god, did she kill Rainbow?
Did she… kiss Rainbow?
The last option brought a new wave of nausea with it. Applejack couldn’t keep herself from running now. She had to find out what happened before she lost her mind.
When she finally arrived at her destination, she was both surprised and relieved to see that Rainbow Dash was peacefully snoozing on the ground under her house. It took a few tries, but eventually her attempts at waking up the sleeping pony were successful.
“Huh, wha- Oh hey Applejack, did you come by to give me my money?” Rainbow seemed awfully chipper, despite the fact that she looked like a hungover mess.
“What money are ya talking about?” Applejack asked in surprise.
A smirk appeared on Rainbow's face. “The 100 bits you bet me that I couldn’t do a sonic rainboom while drunk. Totally nailed it! Not the landing though. But eh, details. By the way, kind of a lame of you to just waltz off after I crashed. I could have been seriously hurt you know…”
Suddenly it all came back to Applejack. The entire night flashed before her eyes. At least, before her flashback was interrupted by Rainbows hoof waving in front of her face.
“So do you have my 100 bits or what?”
It didn’t take Applejack long to come up with an appropriate response.
“Shit!”