You know what I should have done before now?
Gotten Sunburst drunk. Because it’s hilarious.
He was currently leaning against Shinings shoulder while using his magic to trying to build a tower out of playing cards on the table before him.
“Not much of a drinker, your coltfriend?” Swift asked Shining with a smile, sipping his brandy.
“Not much, no,” Shining admitted, “And is it too late to ask you to keep that quiet? We’re still not fully public about Sunburst having joined me and Cadance.”
I grinned, “Everypony in the bar has eyes, Shining,” I said and shook my head, “If you were that worried, you should have used illusions.”
Shining sighed but nodded, “I guess as long as we don’t actively draw attention to ourselves, it’s not that important,” he admitted and used his magic to take Sunbursts glass away from him before raising a hoof and motioning to the waitress for some glasses of water.
Sunburst sighed and shook his head, “I’m not that drunk,” he protested.
“Sure you’re not,” Shining said and shook his head, “But perhaps we should switch to water for a while. Trust me, your head will thank you tomorrow.”
“He’s not wrong,” Swift pointed out, “take it from somepony that has made that mistake too many times, dude.”
Sunburst nodded, “I guess you’re right,” he said and blinked, taking his glasses in his magic and starting to polish them as he pushed himself up to sit a bit unsteadily, “I’m not used to this sort of thing. I’m more of an O&O kind of pony.”
“Only really played that once,” I admitted, “With Spike and Talon. Was fun though.”
“You know, we should play it,” Shining said with a grin, “Maybe not tonight, but I bet we could get a real game going.”
Swift looked hesitant, “I don’t know if it’s my kind of thing. I heard about it, but not sure it’s for me.”
“I bet you would like it under the right circumstances,” I said thoughtfully, “Let me think a bit about it later, I may have some ideas.”
I bet I could have another dream world for it. Or would that be larping? Uhm. That’s also so, so much work to make a dream world. Maybe I should just make some dice in Sanctuary and we could play there. Buck, I bet I could just reuse a far away part of Sanctuary if we wanted to go the more active route. Just keep it isolated behind sheer cliff walls or something to keep any monsters from spreading.
He considered it before he shrugged, “Eh, I guess I could try it once,” he admitted and sipped his drink again, “So when are you leaving for Nocturnis?”
I shook my head, “Not sure, but soon. A week at most, it depends on how quickly things can be put together.”
The waitress joined us, putting a big glass of water before each of us. Swift ordered another brandy, I another cider. Shining shook his head and kept Sunburst from ordering anything.
As she left again, I continued, “We have been away too long as is. And I have something else to deal with when I do,” I then added, shooting Swift a look.
He cringed slightly, “So… how did that go?”
I sighed, “I think I can spin it in a way my ponies will accept. But quite a lot of them won’t be happy about it.”
“At least until bits start to flow,” Swift said.
I shrugged my wings, “I don’t know. It might help at least,” I said before I looked at Shining and Sunburst, “Sorry, I should explain. The Solar and Lunar guard want to establish a training base at Nocturnis. A lot of ponies in Nocturnis and likely somewhere else won’t be happy about it.”
Shining shook his head, “That’s a bad idea. Not only are guards not going to be happy about being posted there, no offense, Page but the climate in Nocturnis sucks unless you’re a bat.”
“Admitted,” I agreed.
“Also,” Shining continued, “you’re right about a lot of ponies in Nocturnis are going to be unhappy about this. How are you going to spin this?” he asked and sipped his water.
I shrugged and took a drink from my cider, “Money mostly,” I admitted with a small shrug, “It’s… something we don’t have a lot of. It might be a mistake, but guards on leave have a tendency to spend any bits they have. Especially if stationed away from home.”
Shining thought about that for a second before he nodded, “That they do,” he agreed, “If there is anything to spend them on.”
“Eh, we do make some pretty good alcohols,” I said with a shrug, “That’s always popular.”
“But then you have a bunch of drink guardsponies,” Shining said and rolled his eyes before glancing around, “There is a reason the owner has a heavy club behind his bar.”
As on cue, a brawl broke out at a table at the other side of the bar where a cardgame has been going on. The table flipped and chairs fell as ponies got into it and the pony playing guitar by the fireplace stopped playing.
As we watched, the barkeep, a large earth pony started to come out from behind his bar, but he didn’t have time to before somepony else stepped in.
The pegasus waitress stormed over and tossed a pitcher of ice water, pitcher and all, at the disrupters of peace. The clay jug shattered into a million pieces and the brawling ponies scrambled away from each other with yells of surprise.
Some had bloody noses but it didn’t look like anything worse had gone down. And then I learned some new words as she started to dress them down in a way that would make any drill sergeant ask her to marry them on the spot.
I grinned and sipped my drink, “I think we can handle it. I’ll let you know that the Nocturnis guard isn’t any better.”
Admittedly a lot of it never got before me, it was dealt with at a much lower level so I pretended not to notice it. In fact, I think the mares may actually be worse than the stallions. Which will be a real culture shock for any Solar or Lunar expecting things to be different.
Sunburst looked on as they were marched over the bar counter to pay for any damages and bills and then thrown out as the guitar music started up again “...What will happen to them?”
“Not much,” Shining said with a grin and gave him a nuzzle at his closest ear, “Happens all the time. They’ll be banned for a week or two and then they’ll be back. They’re guards, it happens.”
“It happens,” Swift agreed with a smile.
Sunburst looked between them, “...Either of you ever gotten in a fight here?”
“No, of course not,” Shining said with a smile.
I raised an eyebrow at him before I glanced at Swift, “You buy that?” I asked him.
He sipped his drink and shook his head with a laugh, “Not for a second. I actually remember a story about a certain captain of the guard when he was a private and a much larger earth pony making some crack about the flanks of a certain pink alicorn.”
Shining Armor had the grace to look a bit embarrassed, “In my defense, it was very crude. And I kicked his tail. We were banned for three weeks.” he said before he glanced at Sunburst, “Don’t tell Cadance.”
Sunburst smiled, “I won’t. What happened after three weeks?”
Shining grinned, “We were back at the same table, playing cards.”