//------------------------------// // Poker Night // Story: Returning Survivor // by Itchy //------------------------------// Mecha stared at the sight in front of him. What he saw was truly astounding, for it was his house. After just over a week, it was done. They had even thrown in the forge and smelter he needed for his workshop! Shaking his head, Mecha turned around. Thoughts of work could be put off until later, for today he had a tradition to continue from his father, and it wasn't giving all colts in the family the same middle name! So, walking into town, he came across Pinkie Pie hopping down the street. Seeing him, Pinkie Pie rushed up to him and asked, “Hey, have you seen Dashie?” Blinking, it took Mecha a moment to realize that she meant Rainbow Dash, and said, “Sorry, I haven't. Why?” Sighing, Pinkie Pie said, “I want to go pranking with her! Oh, by the way, when do you want your 'My House Is Done' party?” Stunned at the fact that Pinkie Pie actually knew that is was done, Mecha replied with, “Never. I've got my own way of breaking in my house, and it's not a party. And before you say anything, yes, it involves other ponies.” Slightly upset that she wouldn't get to throw a party, but respecting Mecha's wishes, Pinkie Pie asked, “What are you doing?” Shrugging, Mecha told her, “I'm going to continue a family tradition.” Blinking, Pinkie Pie quirked her head, and said, “Which is?” Realizing that no-pony in Ponyville knew his family, and thus the famous family tradition, Mecha just sighed and answered, “Poker Night.” And then, seeing that she was happy with the answer, asked, “Do you know where Spike is? I need him to send a letter to someone in Canterlot. Rapidly nodding her head, Pinkie Pie told him the location, and hopped off, in search of Rainbow Dash. LINEBREAKER Having given Spike his letter, Mecha walked into the market square, looking for his next target. Spotting him, Mecha walked up to the Sweet Apple Acres apple stand, and looked at the goods, while asking, “Lovely day, isn't it?” Looking at his friend, Big Macintosh merely said, “Eeyup.” Picking one apple up, Mecha inspected it while saying, “You got anything you need to do tonight?” Shaking his head, Big Macintosh replied with, “Eenope.” Putting the apple in his hoof down, Mecha finally face the red stallion, and finally got to the question he had been planning on asking all along, “Up for a poker night at my place?” Thinking for a moment, Big Macintosh nodded his head, and told his friend, “Eeyup.” Smiling, Mecha said, “Then show up around 7ish, and bring the hard cider! None of that stuff you sell to the general public.” And with a wave of his mechanical hoof, Mecha walked away, on his way to ask the last pony on his list. LINEBREAKER Walking down the street, Mecha noticed a trip wire in the street. Chuckling to himself, Mecha walked forward, purposely triggering the obvious (to him at least) trap, before immediately leaning left, causing a lemon meringue pie to fly past him, into the bush behind him, and onto Pinkie Pie's face. “Ah man!” came Rainbow Dash's voice from next to her. “I thought we had him!” Openly laughing to himself, Mecha continued to walk, while saying to the two ponies, “Mecha one, pranksters zero.” LINEBREAKER It was around six thirty, and Mecha was standing by the gates to Ponyville, waiting for his guest from Canterlot to arrive. So when the flash of a teleportation spell appeared, he wasn't startled. He was, however, when there were two ponies, instead of the one he was expecting. His expected guest Shining Armor was there, and standing next to him was a stallion that Mecha had never seen before. He was a unicorn with crimson fur, while his mane was pitch black. His cutie mark was a rising sun, and his slitted eyes were black, with tints of red. Blinking, Mecha heard Shining Armor tell the pony next to him, “I told you that a series of teleports would work.” Staring at the other pony, Mecha asked, “So, whose your friend here Armor?” Seeing that Mecha had no clue as to who he was, the unknown pony stepped forward, raising his hoof in greeting, and said, “Name's Solaris*.” Shaking his hoof in return, Mecha asked, “Not that it's not nice to meet new ponies, but why are you here?” Stepping back, Solaris pulled out a letter from the bag between him and Shining Armor that Mecha didn't notice until now, he pulled out a black letter with a blue seal. Recognizing a letter from Luna, Mecha took it from Solaris and quickly read it, looking between it and Solaris several times. Finally, he asked, “Aren't you a little old to have been...” Cutting him off, Solaris said, “Yes, yes, I know. You'd be surprised how often that comes up. Shrugging his shoulders, Mecha led the two ponies towards his house. LINEBREAKER The inside of Mecha's house could all but be summed up with one word: empty. To be exact, the only thing currently in the house was the poker table in the center of the living room, with a couple of chairs around it, a cooler that Big Macintosh brought, and the five ponies here for poker night. Sitting, down at the table, Mecha started shuffling the cards, saying, “Okay gentlecolts, here's the way things are. This guy,” he said, pointing at the only pony that the others didn't know, and continued, “is Solaris. He will be joining us. Buy in is the established 50 bits, and the game is Equestria Hold 'em. Any questions?” Sitting down, no one had any questions besides Doctor Whooves, who asked, “What's to eat?” Shaking his head, Mecha just started to deal, hoping that the delivery pony got there soon with his order. LINEBREAKER “So, at that point, I thought that the date couldn't get any worse,” Mecha said, laughing with his friends, while taking another chug from the drink that Big Macintosh brought. “But it turns out that it could. She turned to the waiter, and asked for a toothpick. It's at that point we learn that the restaurant didn't carry any due to a lawsuit. So what does she do? She starts yelling at me, as if I was the pony that sued them!” At this point, the whole table burst into laughter, before calming down. “Somehow,” Doctor Whooves started, “I can see it happening like that.” “It gets better,” Mecha said. “It turns out that the guy who had sued was sitting in the both behind us. When he heard her, he started to try and sneak out, only to be caught by my date. Being the lovely lady that she was, she swung at him. I ended up getting caught between the two, and went home with a black eye, a concussion, and one less restaurant to eat at.” Amongst the laughter of the ponies laughing at his then misery, the sound of knocking was almost missed. “I'll get it!” Doctor Whooves said, rushing to the door. Laughing, Shining Armor said, “He really loves food, doesn't he?” Chuckling, Mecha said, “Yeah, he does.” At this point they heard the door open, and a voice say, “Okay... that'll be 35 bits.” Recognizing the voice, Mecha chuckled when he heard the Doctor say, “Oh uh... here you go... uh... have a nice night...” before the door closed, and he walked into the room with the food, red faced and wide eyed. Laughing, Solaris asked, “Was that the mare you were telling us about earlier?” Shaking his head, Doctor Whooves just stared as he sat down. Chuckling, Mecha said, “It's actually kinda sad. He's been pining after her for like, 3 years!” At this point Big Macintosh spoke up, asking, “Did you even ask her to the Grand Galloping Gala yet?” Shaking his head, Doctor Whooves said, “Not yet. I just get so nervous!” “You, nervous?” Mecha shouted. “The stallion that can dis-arm a stink bomb that's been converted to a normal bomb with less than 3 seconds on the timer without blinking, nervous?” “Eeyup.” Doctor Whooves replied with Big Macintosh's normal line. “Wait a minute,” Solaris spoke up, “you guys are going to the Gala too?” Surprised that Solaris was going, Mecha let Big Macintosh reply for them with “Eeyup.” Looking at him, Mecha asked, “Why are you going?” Shining Armor answered for him, “Because I'm taking the day off then to go for myself, and a least one Royal Guard captain has to be present. He then drew the short straw.” Groaning, Solaris just bashed his head on the table, muttering something about “Brown nosing nobles who couldn't last a day in boot camp.” Laughing at Solaris's decision to hurt himself, Mecha started dealing the next hand, saying, “You know, we really should help the Doctor with his nerve problem.” Looking at the two cards he was dealt, Shining Armor said, “Only way I know of to deal with nerves is to down several mugs of the hard stuff. And I don't see how that's going to help him in this case.” Throwing in a couple of chips, Mecha said, “Actually, that could work. All we have to do is go to this party that Pinkie Pie is throwing for some griffin chick while the Doc here is drunk. What do you say Doc?” Flipping his cards over, revealing a winning set, Doctor Whooves replied, “On one condition. You guys have to come with me, just as drunk.” Looking around, they all agreed, much to Doctor Whooves chagrin, hoping that they wouldn't agree to what would be certain humiliation. At this point, Big Macintosh got up, and walked out, returning with a few more coolers filled with hard cider. LINEBREAKER The five ponies staggered into the Sugarcube Corner, clearly drunk beyond anypony's expectations. Granted, most pony's expectations is nothing more than buzzed. Anyways, the five walked in, and split up. Mecha walked up to a pile of presents, and started flirting with them, mistaking their colorful wrappers as the fur of some of ponies in town. Shining Armor wasn't fairing much better, saluting to a potted plant, clearly waiting for the at ease command that would never come, swaying from side to side, all while giving a detailed report on the training of the new recruits... of bunnies. Solaris was apparently an angry drunk, having walked up to Rainbow Dash, yelling random words, such as “Sasquatch, mulch, ice cream, flaming balls of steel,” and other such nonsenses. Not quite sure as to what was going on, she just stood there, taking the rant with confusion. Big Macintosh, having wandered to the dance floor, was dancing like a maniac. And not in the sense of him dancing rapidly and well, no, he was dancing like he was an actual maniac. The crowd of previously dancing ponies were slowly walking away from him, scared that the powerful drunken stallion might accidentally hurt them, whilst Applejack ran up to try and stop him. At this point, people turned to see Doctor Whooves walk up to a mare, with a bottle of hard cider still in his hooves. When he got up to her, he looked at the bottle, downed it in one last gulp, threw the bottle randomly, and then pulled out his tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. Looking straight at her, he said, “I've wanted to ask you out... *hic* for a while now... and I happen to have these nice... shiny... oh so shiny... what was I doing again? Oh yeah... I have these tickets to the Galloping Grand Gala... or was is Gala Grand Galloping? Whatever, I have these tickets to this grand e-*hic*-vent and was wondering if you, miss Do, would go with me?” Blinking, Ditzy Do merely smiled, her eyes crossed, and said, “Okay!” Smiling, Doctor Whooves merely handed her the ticket, before promptly passing out due to the sheer amount of alcohol in his system. Solaris had been knocked out by the bottle he through, leaving a still confused Rainbow Dash to wonder why he was ranting at her of all ponies. Mecha, at this point, was frustrated at the presents on the table for not responding to his flirting, and was waving his hooves up in the air, not realizing that he was falling backwards, causing him to hit his head on Shining Armor, who was then forcibly cut off from continuing his report on why chinchillas would make better soldiers than bunnies to the plants, by virtue of an embarrassed Twilight Sparkle knocking him out. Applejack, having given up on stopping her brother from dancing, took a heavy plant and knocked him unconscious with it. Looking around, Pinkie Pie said, “Okay, that was not in the party plans!” LINEBREAKER Waking up, Mecha looked around, seeing that the other ponies were up as well. Groaning, he held his head in his hooves, and asked, “Anypony remember what happened?” *Solaris is owned by Matrix7o6