In Search of a Taste
“We’ll never know for sure unless we get one of them to talk,” Rarity said, pulling more fabric from Fluttershy’s waiting hooves.
“Do you really think something is going on with Twilight and Cheerilee?” Fluttershy reached into the basket beside her, pulling free a fresh swathe of cloth.
“Of course. Now, I don’t think either of us are close enough to Cheerilee to ask her outright, but I also don’t think Twilight will spill either. We need leverage.”
One of Fluttershy’s ears twitched. “Leverage? Can’t we just ask her?”
“Absolutely not. If it was going to be that simple, I would have done it already.” Rarity clucked her tongue and emptied Fluttershy’s hooves again. “We need an edge to get the truth.”
“Um, well, I don’t know if it’ll help that much, but I don’t think she handles alcohol well. There was one time last Spring...”
Twilight walked down the deserted garden path, headed to a small cottage nestled in the shade of the Everfree Forest. Rumor had it Applejack had just dropped off a sampler of this year’s cider, and it was always better to show up before Rainbow Dash did.
She strolled up to the door and quickly made sure she was alone. Twilight raised a single hoof and knocked softly. “Fluttershy,” she whispered. “It’s me.”
The door cracked open just wide enough to let a single yellow wing slip through. It waved twice, then retreated into the small cottage. Twilight followed after one more glance over her shoulder.
“Thanks for coming over,” Fluttershy said, double checking the latch on the door.
“I wasn’t going to miss a new batch of Sweet Apple Acres cider for anything,” the unicorn answered, peering around the room. “Where is it?”
Fluttershy gestured into the adjoining kitchen. “In there, but...”
Twilight plunged on ahead without listening. As promised, there sat a small collection of wooden barrels stacked in the middle of the table. Two empty glasses stood nearby, still dripping from an earlier cleaning. Without waiting, she dug in, filling a waiting glass with the rich amber liquid.
The unicorn took a drink, then paused. She took another, slower sip, and eyed the tapped barrel suspiciously. “Is there something wrong with this?” she asked.
“Sorry, I was trying to tell you that Applejack said it would be a little different from normal.” Fluttershy padded into the room and spun one of the barrels around. Burned into the wood was the word ‘Hard’ with a large X underneath. “Applejack brewed this for herself and Big Mac, but Applebloom found some of it, so she hid the rest here.”
“Hard cider, huh?” Twilight smacked her lips. “I’ve never had any before, but it’s not exactly bad. If you’re just hiding it though, why did you invite me?”
“I wanted to try it, but didn’t want to do it alone,” Fluttershy admitted. She carefully poured herself a glass, but didn’t take a drink. “Applejack said I could have some, but she was busy today. Pinkie doesn’t like to drink, Rainbow is supposed to be working all day, and Rarity won’t drink anything other than wine or champagne.”
Twilight nodded and took another sip. “Are you going to try it?”
“Oh, yes,” Fluttershy said. She lowered herself down until her muzzle was level with the countertop. “I like watching the bubbles and fizz.”
Mirroring her friend, Twilight also brought her head down. “Yeah, it does seem more fizzy than normal. I remember reading it has something to do with the ingredients that make it alcoholic...”
After a minute, Fluttershy picked up a straw from the countertop and placed it into the glass. She fought against the straw’s bobbing for a moment before finally pinning it down and taking a tentative sip.
“This is pretty good,” she said.
So she took another drink.
And another.
“Oh,” Twilight sighed, drawing down the last couple of drops. “I’m out.”
“Me too,” Fluttershy said. Her straw dropped into the glass with a soft clink.
They both looked as one to the open cask with it’s spout gleaming invitingly. “We probably shouldn’t have too much more. Applejack only offered you a taste, right?”
Fluttershy nodded. “One more glass shouldn’t hurt, right?”
So they poured another. Then a third, and a fourth.
“It’s empty...” Fluttershy said, her wing wobbling below the open spout of the now-empty cask.
“Then this is coming with me,” Twilight announced. She lifted the unopened cask and carried it towards the living room.
Fluttershy joined her a few moments later, following the sound of two crashes. Her first concern, the drink, sat askew and undamaged on the coffee table. Twilight herself seemed fine as well, though she was lying sideways, idly running a hoof across the rug.
“This rug feels really weird,” Twilight remarked.
Fluttershy shook her head and poured another glass.
“The strangest thing about... about it is how easily ponies get everything confused and mixed up,” Twilight slurred, some time later. “It’s such a simple thing, elementary even. Just put the book back where the numbers make sense! Don’t put it on the ground, or a cart, or a desk or something, just put it on the shelf!”
“If you think about it, the floor is just a really big shelf...” Fluttershy responded.
The drink flowed for a couple of hours as both mares drank away Applejack’s cider. After all, Applebloom couldn’t drink some if Twilight and Fluttershy did first.
“I think we’re out,” Fluttershy said, draining her last glass. She stretched forward to place her empty glass on the coffee table, and...
When had they moved to the living room? Everything was fuzzy, and it was hard to focus. Nopony responded either way, forcing Fluttershy to swing her heavy head around in an attempt to locate Twilight.
There was a second empty glass, sitting on it’s side on the table. One of Applejack’s small barrels sat between the glasses. The tap was fully open, but nothing came out. Twilight was nowhere to be seen that direction, but the light was off in the kitchen. Judging from the lack of light filtering through the curtains, it was late enough that she was unlikely to be in a dark room.
In the other direction was just the stairs to her loft bedroom. Twilight might have made her way up there, but the only thing up there was Fluttershy’s bed.
Bed sounded nice, actually. Fluttershy pulled her heavy body off the couch, wincing at the loud sound of her hooves hitting the uncovered floorboard. Where had the rug gone? It was a problem for later. She took one last look around the room and, seeing nopony, shut off the light and fumbled her way upstairs in the dark.
The bedroom was dark as well, but that wasn’t a problem. Fluttershy crawled underneath blankets heavier and warmer than normal, curled against her favorite plush pillow, and fell fast asleep.
--_--_--_--
Twilight was unwillingly dragged to consciousness by her body lodging multiple complaints. One: multiple small, angry parasprites were trying to bash their way into her skull. Two: the western frontier was invading her mouth, sand and all. Three: she was uncomfortably warm and sweaty, likely due to the multiple thick blankets over her. Four: something soft was wrapped tightly around her barrel, restricting her breathing even further.
Last, but most certainly not least, she was in a bedroom she didn’t recognize. Twilight remembered going to visit with Fluttershy, but just about everything after was a warm, fuzzy, painful blur. She groaned and attempted to stretch, but stopped when whatever was wrapped around her squeaked, a very familiar sound, and pulled tighter.
With a growing sense of dread, Twilight opened her eyes, ignoring the knives of sunlight sneaking around the curtains. One pair of yellow hooves were just barely visible wrapped around her chest. They, and most of the rest of her body, were hidden under a sheet, comforter, and what looked to be a traditional pegasus woven rug,
“Fluttershy,” Twilight croaked through the desert in her mouth, “Fluttershy, wake up.”
The pegasus didn’t reply, only tightened her hold even further. That brought to the front of Twilight’s mind the sixth reason she had woken, the one she’d been trying to ignore just in case she couldn’t escape her current predicament.
She really had to use the bathroom. And with Fluttershy applying pressure, it was only getting worse.
“Fluttershy,” she tried again. “Get up, please.”
Again, there was no response. Twilight tried to pry herself free with magic, but her headache was making it impossible to concentrate enough to bring any magical power to bear. “Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy didn’t say a word, simply raised her hoof. Thankful, Twilight scrambled out of the bed and quickly rushed to the bathroom. Business concluded, she exited only to find her friend sitting upright in bed, blinking blearily at the covers on top of her. She seemed transfixed by the rug sitting atop the normal blankets.
It took a couple of attempts before Fluttershy could speak. “Why is my living room rug on my bed?”
“Good question, I don’t quite remember,” Twilight answered honestly.
Fluttershy started, her gaze snapping up to her friend. “T-Twilight? Goodness, you startled me. Why are you in my bedroom so early?”
“I woke up here. You were holding me down until just a few minutes ago. I just had to use your bathroom, that’s why I wasn’t out here.”
“You woke up here, in my bed, and I was h-holding you?” Fluttershy repeated, blinking rapidly. “Did... Did we have a slumber party? I remember inviting you over to try Applejack’s cider, but everything after that...”
“I remember a little more than that. We drank it all and were sitting on the couch and talking, but everything else is hazy.”
Both mares stood for a moment, blinking at each other across the mussed-up bed. They slowly came to the same realization at nearly the same time. Fluttershy reached it first, evidenced by a blush that quickly engulfed most of her face and a quiet squeak.
Twilight wasn’t too far behind, though her reaction wasn’t quite as noticeable. It was mostly internal, her mind struggling to piece together the fuzzy-at-best memories of the night prior. Lacking some critical information as she was, only a few possibilities came to mind.
Most likely, they’d drank until drunk and then passed out. That would explain the rug, if one of them had mistaken it for a blanket while downstairs. The other possibility was more adult in nature, but highly unlikely as Twilight was certain she harbored nothing but platonic feelings for Fluttershy - or any of her friends - that the drink could bring out.
“D-D-D-Did we...” Fluttershy stammered, somehow growing steadily redder. “Did you and I and... bed... and....”
Without sufficient evidence, Twilight honestly couldn’t say one way or the other, despite what she may have wanted to. “I don’t think so, but there’s... really no way to be certain.”
Silence fell across the room. For lack of something to do, Twilight busied herself by detangling the rug from the blankets and sending it down the staircase. “So, uh...”
“There’s no way to tell, right?” Fluttershy asked. “And if there’s no way to tell, and if it happened, it might as well not have happened, right?”
“That is... technically correct, yes.”
Fluttershy nodded emphatically. “Right. Okay then.”
“Oh-kay...” Twilight glanced at her friend. “Fluttershy, are you--”
“Breakfast,” the pegasus cut her off. “I’m going to go make breakfast. I’m going to make breakfast, and we never speak of this again.”
She left before Twilight could respond, leaving the confused unicorn alone with her uncertainty, worry for her friend’s well-being, and a pounding headache.
“I’ve read that greasy food can help with hangovers!” Twilight shouted down the stairs.