Berry ran as fast as her hooves could carry her, silently wishing she were a more athletic earth pony! She tried to ignore the voices in her head telling her how badly she screwed up, ‘No time for self pity! I have to fix this!’ There’s the punch bowl. All she had to do was get rid of the contents discreetly. Maybe slip a bug in and mention how the punch was contaminated, or maybe just drink it all herself, or-
CRASH
...Crash right into the table at full speed knocking over the cups, the bowl, and some of the food laid out. Nearby ponies stared at her with confusion and worry, “Sorry everypony!” She laughed it off, “There was a…a spider in my mane and…I think there were spiders crawling around this table as well.” A half-flanked lie but it got the job done. She heard the sounds of; “ewww” around her, followed by several ponies dumping their drinks. “Phew.” She dusted herself off.
“Berry?!” Cheerilee exclaimed in a tone that sent a shiver down Berry’s spine. Worst pony to run into right now. “Are you alright?!” She said with concern, taking out a handkerchief from her saddlebag and wiping the contents off Berry’s face.
Berry felt like she was a little foal again, “I’m fine, I’m fine.” Berry needed to do something. “Has Pinchy drank from the bowl?”
“Um…not that I’m aware of.”
“Good.” One problem down.
“Good?”
Crap. “Because I don’t want her drinking something that had a bug in it!” Nice save.
“A bug? What? Berry, is there-”
“Berry!” Blues came barreling towards her, stopping just in front of the twin sisters with Twilight, Colgate, and Luna in tow. He seemed out of breath. “Just, phew…gimme a minute to catch my breath and…uhhh.” He collapsed in a tired heap.
“Berry…” Cheerilee said in a low, accusing tone. The concern in Cheerilee’s eyes were clear as day (well, more like as clear as a light in the dark…since it was night time), “What’s-”
“Hey Cheerilee, I think I saw some bullying going on near Sugarcube corner.” Colgate suddenly spoke up, pointing her tail in the direction of the pastry shop.
“What?!” Cheerilee sped off so fast she nearly knocked Berry over.
“Nice one, Colgate.” Berry turned to the unicorns and Princess Luna and cleared her throat, “Okay, what do you know?”
“Blues filled us in on the basics.” Twilight answered immediately, “And I might know a spell or two that can help with the problem, but…”
“Would it not be better to just tell the truth?” Luna's gaze hit Berry the hardest.
"Yeah, I think it would be best to just come clean before it gets worse, Berry." Colgate urged.
“Maybe. But I…” She realized she was being selfish. “But, I really don’t want ponies to remember this night as the one where Berry got everyone drunk. Please, princess, they’ll never forgive me and I’ll lose a lot of friends if I do. Please, believe in me. I can fix this! I just need you, well, all of you to trust and work with me on this. Please!”
“…” Luna closed her eyes, considering this. “Very well, I know how it feels to lose friends. I will assist you in whatever way I can.”
Berry smiled.
“However, if you can not solve this soon, then I will have to take action.”
Berry’s smile faded, lot of pressure right now. “Okay, okay…Twilight. Plan?” Berry wasn’t the smart pony here afterall.
“Well…” Twilight touched a hoof to her chin. “I suppose if you were to somehow get everyone’s attention, that might give us enough time to use our magic to discreetly dump everyone’s drinks.”
“Center of attention. Got it.” Berry could do that, she just needed an opening to exploit. “Hm.” Maybe if she started a fire (and then mentally smacked herself), no fires! She didn’t want to cause a panic. Maybe a spooky story? Nope. What about that family of minotaurs-
“…I have an idea.” She eyed the family of minotaurs down the road. “Blues, Colgate. I need you to go the Thunderbutt, grab a couple kegs of ale and come back here.”
Colgate had been preoccupied poking Blue's body, she wasn't quite sure if he was still alive. “Okay? But what are you-”
“Trust me.” And with that, Berry sped off to the minotaur. She prayed this would work…
A gray, 7 foot tall minotaur stood amongst ponies. One of his horns were broken, and he seemed genuinely nice…for a minotaur. What Berry assumed was his young son, was hanging out with some nightmare nighters. Ponies. Always an accepting bunch.
Berry stomped the ground, to get the big minotaur’s attention. He looked at her, a puzzled expression on his face when he saw Berry’s determined stare. And then he smiled, “Oh, hello barkeep.”
They’ve met? “Hello?” Berry responded, confused at first.
“I forgot to thank you for showing me such hospitality at your establishment last night. Many ponies don‘t approach minotaurs because we're so...intimidating. However, you treated us like we were part of the herd, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.” He graciously bowed.
“Oh, the pleasures all mine.” Berry returned the bow, and then remembered she was supposed to do something. She suddenly stood on her hind legs in a threatening stance!
“Wa-a-ait
wa-a-ait,
WA-A-AIT! YOU MINOTAURRRR!”
She sang quite loudly enough to get the attention of a great number of ponies nearby.
“Hm?” The minotaur seemed confused, “Um…I‘m Broken Horn? We met last night?”
“I challenge you
to a DRINK O-O-OFFFFFF!!!
Give me one chance to knock your socks off!”
Broken Horn didn’t wear socks, “…” He turned away from Berry, was he declining?
“DAMN!
DAMN!
DAMMMMMN!”
He pulled out a rolled up parchment from his bag and pointed to it.
“The Bovine’s code forbids me
From declining a drink-off challenge!
What are your terms?
What’s the ca-a-atch?”
He seemed to be mimicking Berry’s style of singing (which she heard from some other pony, moving on).
Terms? She needed terms, oh…crap. The one flaw in her plan. “Um…” All eyes were on her now. She eyed the broken horned minotaur’s considerably large bag of candy and then saw Pinchy with the smaller minotaur. She could kill two birds with one stone.
“I-If I win
You must share your candy bag
with my daughter~”
She pointed her tail over to Pinchy. Oh, there was one other thing she could do.
“And also you will have to pay my re-e-ent~”
Technically, Berry didn’t pay rent. However, a couple extra bits wouldn’t hurt for her Pinchy Fund further down the line.
Broken Horn stroked his dark red goatee, mulling over the option. He then turned his golden eyes onto Berry Punch and said in a deep, low voice:
“And what if I wi-i-in?”
“Berry!” Cheerilee came rushing through the crowd, seemingly out of breath. “What is going on? One of the teachers told me you’re picking a fight with a minotaur or something and-” Cheerilee eyed Broken Horn, who returned the gaze…and then quickly looked away. Was that? No. No, it couldn’t be.
“…I’m so sorry, sis.” Berry couldn’t miss this chance, even if it was unlikely.
“Then you can take Cheerilee out for lunch.”
“…WHAT?!” Cheerilee exclaimed a little too loudly.
“Sorry, sis, it’s the only way.” Berry murmured; the apologetic look stuck on her face. She knew Cheerilee was going to kick her flank later.
“What are you talking about?!”
Berry pulled Cheerilee closer to her, stared directly into the minotaur’s golden eyes peering down at her and then sang;
“She is totally single.”
Berry ruffled her sister’s mane playfully. Apparently, Berry had just pimped her older twin sister. She didn’t even know what pimping was!
Broken Horn grew silent, and then with a resounding voice he said:
“FINE!”
Colgate and Blues came back with ale of beer hoisted onto their backs. Blues looked even more exhausted than before, he should probably lay down or get some drinks or...maybe go to a hospital.
Broken Horn picked up one of the unused tables and slammed it down between himself and Berry Punch. The table making a loud THUD as it hit the ground.
“LET THE DRINK-OFF BEGIN!”