The Wonderful Life of Berry Punch

by Dusk-Spark


Ch. 8: "The hay am I drinking?!"


With the last shred of the evening sky gone from Ponyville, Nightmare Night was on.

Berry was sitting at a table, with her head buried in her hooves. Back in school, she’d do this if she was super tired from the night before. In her adult years, it was because she had a hangover. This time…it was because she was sitting next to Blues (and not because their first nightmare nighter was one of the scary looking minotaurs she'd heard about). Colgate was supposed to be the one sitting there; instead, she just dropped off a dentist’s costume for Berry (which she modified slightly to make Berry look like a zombie attack victim. Cheerilee had a matching one, albeit with less zombie) and then rushed off to parts unknown...
....
You know, right after their random song and dance outbreak in the school halls. That was fun.

“…” The awkward silence in the air. Berry could FEEL it penetrating every part of her bo- Berry suddenly lifted, then slammed her head down on the table.

“Are you alright?!” Blues said urgently. Apparently, the sudden bang startled him.

“Just peachy.” Berry said immediately, obviously lying. She hated peaches.

“…About what happened earlier-”

Berry shoved a hoof over his mouth, “Just…let’s not talk about it. Okay?” Berry sighed and shut her eyes, “Normal me. Normal me." Why was she acting so…odd…like she had regressed back to her adolescent years? All that happened was their muzzles touched, it wasn’t like they kissed or any...thing...
Berry felt her cheeks go warm when she remembered his breath against her. She smacked herself hard with a hoof. “Okay. I’m good.” She needed to get her mind off that whole thing. 'Where’s Pinchy?' Berry scanned the town square for her adorable little pinky unicorn filly.
. . . . . . . . .
There she was. With Pipsqueak, Noi, Coronet, Lemon Daze, Dinky, Rumble and some of the pint sized minotaurs (which were still quite large compared to the ponies), oh the cutie mark crusaders joined in as well. Thunderlane looked like he had his hands full, at least Rainbow Dash was there (having came with the Cutie Mark Crusaders).
She saw her filly laughing joyfully while collecting candy and it brought a smile to her face. Even if she felt a little sad about not being there with her.

“You really love her, don’t you?” Blues suddenly spoke up in his usual deadpan.

“Yeah. I really do. It‘s funny; before I left Ponyville, I never gave any thought to having a foal of my own. I was young and impulsive. My cutie mark was just a picture of fruit, was I supposed to be a juice maker? Was my destiny to be a farmer? I spent a lot of my adolescent years thinking about it and being disappointed by my cutie mark, I wanted to go out and see the world. Meet interesting ponies, maybe…do a lot of things not just, be stuck in the same place making juice for the rest of my life.” Berry’s voice trailed off, “Then I had her, and suddenly all I wanted to do was be a good parent. Everything else came secondary. Heh, I had to beg that old mare who owned the bar to give me a job. She was so convinced that if I worked there, I would just drink everything for free...and every day was a new hell. All those drinks...that I couldn't drink, or I get fired. You. Have. No. Idea. How. Much. Willpower. That. Took.” Even now, she had nightmares about it.

“Has she ever asked about her father?”

Why was he asking that? It was a really weird response to what Berry had just been talking about, “She...hasn’t yet, but I know the question'll come by eventually. One day she‘ll ask me where her father is and then I‘ll…” She stopped, looking down into her cup as if the contents of the drink would give her the answer. She sighed and answered, “When that time comes, I’ll tell her the truth.”

"And...what is the truth?”

And here it comes, “Did you think I never tried to find him? I always kept an ear to the ground, always listening to the conversations of others. Maybe someone saw him on their travels. Heck, I had a little wall with connecting threads and sticky notes, clipped out newspaper articles, things that could help me find him. Honestly, I think I was a little obsessed. About three years after Pinchy was born, I got a lead. So I followed the trail along Equestria. I remember, back then all I wanted to do was tell him about his daughter in Ponyville, I thought that maybe he still had feelings for me. Maybe we could go back to Ponyville, be a real family and all that and I wouldn't have to mooch off Cheerilee or have to bear the disapproving stares of other mothers.”

“So what happened?”

“…” Berry sighed, “I found his home, out in the Griffin lands. A quiet little town, a lot like Ponyville. I was at his front door, I was just about to ring the bell and then…something just...compelled me to look the front window first. So, I peeked in as much as I could, and I saw him there; with another mare and two foals of his own. A lovely little newborn filly and another foal about Pinchy's age. I was confused at first, this traveler who nearly 5 years ago said that there was so much to see and do in the world, that he was a free spirit that could never be tied down…was playing the role of FATHER AND HUSBAND to somepony else.”
She placed a hoof over her aching heart, “It hurt a lot you know. To travel for months, believing that…I don’t know, SOMETHING would happen. To make things better. I was angry, I was going to bang on the door until he came out and then reveal Pinchy to him, I was gonna tell him that Pinchy needed a father…something stopped me. A twinge of doubt in the back of my mind wondered, was it right to tell him? For 5 years he hadn‘t even known Pinchy existed. He had a wife and two foals now. And who was I to try and take him away from that? It might‘ve torn his happy life apart. I couldn‘t do that just because I wanted to drag him to Ponyville with me. So I turned around, every bone in my body wanted to barge in and do what I had intended but I couldn’t do it, it wasn't right to him, to his wife, or the foals inside. I wasn't gonna be the one who took their dad away or made a big scene and was hauled off by the police. I trotted back into Ponyville and never told anyone the truth.”
She looked into Blue's golden eyes, "Except you." She turned her eyes away from him and then sighed.

“Do you regret it? I mean, do you still have feelings for him, er…” Understandably, this was a difficult subject to approach.

“It’s been years. I think a little part of me will always remember him, but that life is behind me now. I‘m just Berry Punch the single mother, the town drunk, the bartender, the screw up. I don‘t know if my choices were wrong, I don‘t know if Pinchy will hate me for never telling her the truth. But I‘m not a smart pony, I can‘t predict the future.”

“You’re not a screw up.” Blues suddenly looked mad.

“I-”

“No. You’re not a screw up. Look at Pinchy over there; look at her smile in her Mare-Do-Well costume, with all that candy in her bag and with her friends. If you were a screw up, she wouldn‘t even be out here. Not only that, Berry, a lot of townsfolk really like you. Even I-” He stopped, “Even…I…think you’re a good pony.” He averted his gaze from her.

“…Pft!” Berry couldn’t keep her laughter contained anymore. “What are you getting so shy about?” Berry wiped a tear from her eye, “It’s almost like you’re trying to confess your love to me or something.” But that couldn’t happen…right?

“Y-Yeah.” Blues laughed it off. He raised his mug to Berry. “To Nightmare Night.”

Berry smiled and raised her mug as well, “To a wonderful Nightmare Night.”

Clink

Berry chugged the contents of her drink in one gulp.
“!!!!”
….
Berry was frozen stiff. The mug’s edge still against her lips. Blues was holding the same expression. They both slowly put down their mugs at the same time.

This was not juice.

“…Berry…is this-”

“Yes.” Berry said, her voice could barely contain her shock. “It’s alcohol.” She squeaked out.

“Why…is this alcohol? Maybe we‘re mistaken?” Blues said, hopeful.

But he was wrong. Berry had been around alcohol for years. SHE WAS QUEEN DRINKSALOT FOR CELESTIA’S SAKE! There was no way she would mistake the taste for anything else. “How did this-” Berry remembered the note. “Oh crap.” The note, the end of the note. It was a warning. They took the wrong keg. And now the punch bowl was spiked.
‘DAMMIT DRUNK BERRY!’ She mentally screamed.

“Berry, we have to tell someone.”

“NO!” Berry said a little too loudly, drawing the attention of nearby ponies. “No…WE DON’T HAVE ANY SMARTIES!” Nice save. She scooted closer to Blues, “Look, Cheerilee already thinks I’m a screw up and I know a lot of ponies think I’m just a town drunk." She saw him open his mouth and then raised a hoof, "Please don’t console me. And if we tell everypony; “Yeah, Berry accidentally spiked the drinks because she was drunk when she was preparing it” I will never live it down. Cheerilee will never trust me with anything ever again, Pinchy will probably be teased in school, and the town will hate me for this. I am NOT about to let that happen. No. If we‘re gonna do this, we need to do it discreetly.”

“How are we going to do that?” Blues had little to no faith in covertly getting rid of the drinks. It was a crazy, nonsensical plan but Berry was very insistent on it despite the fact that neither of them were unicorns.

“I don’t know!” Think Berry, think. Her eyes drifted the moon's brilliant glow, as if it would have an answer...and it did! “Princess Luna.”

“I thought you wanted to do this covertly.” He wasn't sure how telling the princess counted as covert. That was right up there with wanting to give back the money you stole, by handing it to the police.

“Yes, but I can‘t use magic, maybe her alicorn magic will help us. Okay, go find Luna and Colgate, maybe Twilight if she's around. Meet me by the punch bowl!”

“Wait, wait!” Blues said as he bit down on Berry’s tail, stopping her from running away. “What are we gonna do about the stand?”

They had bigger issues to deal with, but Berry probably needed to do something about that, “Argh!” She grabbed a marker with her mouth and turned the candy bowl towards her.
Scribble, scribble, scribble.
“There.” On the bowl was the sentence:

“Please take one.”