Mecha stared at what remained of his inventory, after an infestation of parasprites had devoured almost all of it. Mecha figured he should be baffled at why they ate his inventory made up entirely of metal when Sweet Apple Acres was nearby, but he was way too upset to think about it. “They ate... everything...” he said, clearly in shock.
“Not everything boss!” Snips said.
“Yeah, we managed to save your tools!” Snails added.
Blinking, Mecha replied, “They ate over 10,000 bits worth of merchandise... I JUST EARNED THAT GREED FORSAKEN MONEY!!!”
Eye twitching, Mecha walked out of the store. He needed to relax, and a vacation so soon after the last one was out of the question, so... poker night it was.
LINEBREAKER
Mecha walked into the library, intending to ask Spike to send a letter, when he heard Pinkie Pie talking to Twilight. “Come on,” Pinkie Pie begged, “it'll be fun!”
Twilight Sparkle sighed, and asked, “Do you even know how it works!”
Pinkie Pie hesitantly responded, “Well, no... but I can always ask Mecha! After all, it's a family tradition for him?”
At this point, Mecha froze. His family had a multitude of traditions that they famous for. At least, on the stallion side. On the mare side, they weren't that famous. Mostly because any property damage was carefully hidden from view, as compared to the stallions public displays. Pinkie Pie could've found out about any of them, and with her unlimited energy... Mecha shuddered to think of the consequences.
So, he tried to slowly leave the library, only to be spotted by Pinkie Pie, who ran up to him and said, “Mecha! Just the pony I needed to see! I have a question for you.”
Mecha tried not to look nervous, and responded, “Oh really now? Well uh... you see...”
Pinkie Pie cut him off, asking, “How does poker night work?”
Blinking, Mecha let out a huge sigh. Poker night, he could give her. Had she asked about target practice... he shuddered. “Well,” Mecha started, “it's simple. The one hosting invites guests, no duh there, and provides the poker table and deck of cards. From there, it's a simple game of Equestria hold 'em, five card draw, or whatever poker game you prefer. During which, everypony has a couple drinks, while the bits exchange hooves. Overall, simple, and to the point.”
Smiling, Pinkie Pie turned to Twilight and said, “See! Nothing to it! So...?”
Twilight sighed, and told her, “Okay, we'll have a poker night. Let's just have it here since it has the most room, okay?”
Pinkie replied with, “Okie dokie loki!” before bouncing out the building.
Chuckling, Mecha turned to Twilight and said, “Lively one, isn't she?”
Sighing, Twilight responded with, “Yeah, she is. But enough of that, did you need something?”
Mecha replied with, “Need Spike to send a letter to Shining Armor and Solaris. Poker night has come again, as funny as it is time wise.” Mecha stopped, and thought for a minute, before adding, “Although, there is something you could do for me.”
Twilight's curiosity was peaked at this, causing her to say, “Oh really now?”
Nodding his head, Mecha said, “Yeah. You see, I've taken on Snips and Snails as my apprentices, and I figured you'd be the best to tutor them in magic so that they can lift objects in a precise manner, as well as being able to heat metal to the proper temperature. You will, of course, be paid for this, so what do you think?”
Twilight Sparkle blinked, stunned at the request. “Um... sure...” she finally replied. “But you don't need to pay me. And Spike should be at back any moment so...”
Mecha shook his head, saying, “I insist you be compensated for your time.” Looking back at his last sentence, Mecha said, “I've been spending way to much time with Luna.”
Here, Spike walked in, cutting off Twilight's reply, as Mecha made sure to quickly go about his business so that he could get a hold of Doctor Whooves and Big Macintosh.
LINEBREAKER
Big Macintosh was pulling a cooler out of the cellar to bring with him for poker night, when Applejack approached him, asking, “Do yah think ah could take one o' them coolers for poker night with the gals?”
Big Macintosh stopped and blinked, before replying, “Poker night with the gals? Interesting timing.”
Applejack shrugged her shoulders, and said, “Ah think Pinkie just wanted to have fun, and copied Mecha.”
Big Macintosh merely nodded his head, not really caring either way, before saying, “Go ahead and take this cooler then.”
Applejack was caught off guard, asking, “Isn't that for your poker night?”
Big Macintosh just laughed, saying, “It was the 'in case of extra guests' cooler. Ah got five more in the cart that ah'm takin' with me.”
Applejack stood there, stunned at what her brother just said, while said brother chuckled while walking off to poker night.
LINEBREAKER
Mecha took a look around the table, noticing that everypony was present. “Okay,” he spoke, hoping to get this out of the way as quickly as possible, “Does anypony have a long time crush that they want to deal with tonight, or can we just play poker this time?” Seeing nopony that needed to deal with that particular issue, Mecha dealt out the cards saying, “Good!”
After a couple of hours of drinking and card playing, the stories being told were getting stranger and more interesting. “And I kid you not,” Doctor Whooves said, “they bought the whole story! I mean, I was sure they'd get suspicious when I said I was the muffin inspector, but it turns out such a position existed!”
This lead to a roar of laughter from the rest of the group, as the game lay forgotten for a moment. “It turns out they were expecting the actual inspector to show up, and I had to bluff my way through the whole thing! After an hour of it, I was about to get away when the real muffin inspector showed up, and had me arrested for 'impersonating a confectionery officer of the law,' at which point I just broke down in laughter.”
The friends at the table didn't have to imagine it, as they were doing it right then and there. “What happened afterwords?” Solaris asked, after calming down from his laughing fit.
“Well,” Doctor Whooves said, “I was taken into court, and found guilty. The decided the only punishment that would fit my crimes would be to eat muffins from somepony who had failed to pass an inspection, to show me what could happen if just anyone could bake muffins. I have to say, they were some of the best muffins I've ever had.”
After another round of laughter, Mecha asked, “Where was this again?”
Quirking his head, Doctor Whooves said, “I don't quite recall. All I know is that I've never been happier to have an experiment blow up in my face.”
LINEBREAKER
After another hour of hands and storied, every bit was in the hooves of Solaris. Looking at each other, Shining Armor asked, “What now?”
Blinking, Mecha shrugged and said, “Dunno. Never in the history of poker night has somepony won everything.”
Taking a look at the table, Big Macintosh said, “Well...” which got the attention of the other ponies in the room. “After your opening statement, ah gave it some thought, and there is a pony ah'd like to ask out...”
Mecha groaned, laying his head in his hooves, and said, “We're going to have a repeat of last poker night, aren't we?”
Big Macintosh took out another bottle of hard cider, downed half of it in one swig, and replied, “Eeyup.”
LINEBREAKER
Although it was quite late at night, there were sill several ponies out and about on the main street, all of whom were startled when the five stallions stumbled onto the street, singing loudly;
“What shall we do with a drunken sailor,
What shall we do with a drunken sailor,
What shall we do with a drunken sailor,
Early in the morning?”
Having finished their song, each of the five took another bottle from the cooler being dragged along with them, each downing at least half of their bottles, before singing another song;
“Well, a Scotsman clad in kilt once left a bar one evening fair,
And one could tell by how he walked that he'd drunk more than his share.
He fumbled 'round until he could no longer keep his feet.
Then he stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the Street.”
LINEBREAKER
Twilight Sparkle was actually having a fun time at poker night. Granted, that might have something to do with the large pile of bits in front of her. Having drank the least out of all her friends, she was able to keep wining hand after hand. Furthermore, her friends were funny drunks.
It was at that point, she heard some terrible singing, something along the lines of, “Oh! lad I don't know where you've been but I see you won first prize!” before her door was knocked in. Looking over, she saw her brother and his friends, all drunk as the last time they crashed a party.
Mecha was the first to act, getting onto his hooves, and lifted Big Macintosh up, saying, “Now ask her so I can pass out in peace!” before finishing off yet another bottle of hard cider.
Big Macintosh looked over the six mares staring at him, before deciding that he needed to have another drink before doing what he set out to do.
While this was going on, Doctor Whooves and Shining Armor started to wrestle, not noticing that it wasn't each other that they were wrestling with, but rather a couple of potted plants.
Solaris one the other hoof was trying to run towards Rainbow Dash... while on his back. This of course made him think that instead of him going nowhere, she was running away. “Come back here you coward!” he shouted, trying to run even faster.
Now, the mares in the room were also pretty drunk, or at least, drunk enough to have similar reactions to the stallions actions. Rarity just took out a make up kit, trying to make herself more presentable, only to succeed in making a mess out of her face.
Pinkie Pie just took a look around, and started to do what she did best, hop in random directions, breaking the laws of physics, and swinging from everything.
Rainbow Dash, having seen Solaris “run” towards her, and remembering the last time she saw him, stumbled towards him, before yelling indecipherable words at him.
Applejack took in the scene in front of her, as well as the bottle in her hooves. Deciding that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em applied here, she downed the last of the bottle before joining in the wrestling match currently going on on the floor.
Fluttershy, cheeks flushed red from the alcohol in her system, just continued to drink the cider that Applejack brought, watching everything that was going on.
And Twilight Sparkle, possibly the only sober pony in the room, just stared in shock, as the ponies in the room made a bigger and bigger mess of the place.
Big Macintosh, having downed three bottles in quick succession, stumbled over towards Fluttershy, and started to speak, “Excuse me miss, but ah was wondering...”
At this point, Fluttershy put her hoof up to his mouth, silencing him, before downing a complete bottle in one go. Putting it down she signaled for him to continue.
“As ah was saying, ah was hoping ah could, ah dunno, take you out for a dinner or something?” Big Macintosh asked.
Looking between Big Macintosh and the last bottle of hard cider left, Fluttershy took the last bottle, drank half of it, and replied, “Sure,” and then passed out at the same time as Big Macintosh.
Mecha looked at the two passed out ponies, before shouting, “Finally!” and finished off his bottle, throwing it up into the so that it would land on his head to knock him out, so that he wouldn't embarrass himself further.
Shining Armor, Doctor Whooves, and Applejack were still wrestling on the floor, before they all lost to their opponents, the potted plants.
Rarity took a moment to look at herself in a mirror, to see just how much she had 'improved' her looks, only to see how much of a mess she had made, leading to her to screaming, and passing out.
Solaris and Rainbow Dash at this point were both blue in the face, as neither would let up in their screaming at each other. They did eventually stop, but this was because Pinkie Pie had flown through the air and landed on the two, sending all three into slumber land.
Twilight stared at the collection of unconscious ponies on the floor of her house, pondering as to why this happened. Shrugging her shoulders, she decided that she'd deal with them in the morning, and went up to her room to sleep off the craziness that just occurred.
LINEBREAKER
When morning came, Spike walked down the stairs, rubbing his eyes, yawning. When he finished descending, he took a look at the pile of ponies, before saying, “I'm gonna need more sleep,” and walked back upstairs.