It was a usual afternoon for the fillies and colts in Ponyville. They were sitting in school right now, listening to their teacher, who was currently telling them about Ponyville's history. The only thing that was different to most days was the length of the school day. It was the longest one in the week and they were already here for more than six hours. Especially for one filly this was a problem.
Berry Punch hold her stomach as it made a loud rumbling. It was a long school day and she was hungry. Her stomach hurt and felt like somepony had given her a punch into it. Berry looked up to the clock on the wall. Only a few minutes left. She breathed out relieved. If she wouldn't get something to eat soon she would snap. The past few hours made her realize that eating her breaktime snack after the first lesson already was, despite it's tasty look which she couldn't resist, a big mistake. She was glad that school would soon be over for today.
Since Berry Punch knew that she would be in a hurry to get home once the schoolbell rang, she already packed her things. Her teacher probably did not like that, but she did not care. Her nagging hunger was the only thing that controlled her actions right now and the lesson was over in less than five minutes anyway. She doubt her teacher would say something important that she had to write down in this short amount of time. Berry Punch closed her history book and her notebook and placed them both inside of her desk. She lifted up her saddle bag, took her pencil out of her mouth and put it into it, then added a few books she needed for her homework today.
As she was done with that, she looked up to the clock again. Still two more minutes left. These last two minutes, she spent with staring at the clock. Her eyes attentively observed every movement of the clockhand. The short amount of time she had to wait stretched itself out immensely and it seemed like an eternity to Berry Punch.
Finally the school bell rang.
Berry Punch snapped out of her trance and jumped down from her seat. She threw the saddle bags on her back and rushed out of the classroom. She was the first one that left.
Outside of the school building, she quickened her pace and galloped home as fast as never before. She was hungry and her stomach still hurt, but the desire to get something to eat also gave her energy. She did not recognize the ponies and buildings she raced past. Everything was just a blur for her. And the only things she could hear were her grumbling stomach and the loud clopping of her hooves that sounded like thunder on the ground in her fast tempo.
As she had arrived at her home in the midst of Ponyville in record time, she practically jumped at the door and opened it without loosing a second. Her parents did not like it when she rushed in like this, but in this moment, this concern was only present in a very distinct corner of her mind. Getting something to eat was the prevalent thought her mind was occupied with now. She smashed the door shut with one of her backhooves, creating a loud bang that sounded through the whole house, and proceeded towards the kitchen. The door of the kitchen creaked as she opened it, which reminded her on the grumbling of her stomach and this made her even faster. In a second, she was at the fridge, opened it and looked at a plate full of delicious cupcakes. Six in number, all in different colors and smelling like heaven. Drool was dripping out of Berry's mouth as she saw them.
She reached in the fridge, lifted them out and sat down at the table with them. Her saddle bag, which she had totally forgot to take off, slid from her back and fell with a thump to the ground, but Berry's mind only recognized it tangentially. Only the cupcakes mattered now.
She pulled down the first one from the plate and shoved it into her mouth as a whole. It tasted strange, a taste she did not know, but she didn't pay attention. Figuring out which flavor it was was the least of her worries now. She munched satisfiedly on the first thing she got into her mouth for hours. As she had swallowed the cupcake, she reached for the next one. This time, she took out a big bite of it. It was quiet in the kitchen, so her munching was the only sound that could be heard around her. She could also hear some birds chirping outside, but these were the only sounds.
This was the moment when Berry Punch realized that her parents weren't even at home right now. Good. She nodded satisfied. That meant she wouldn't get into any trouble for creating such a ruckus minutes earlier. She had finished the cupcake while doing those thoughts and already grabbed the next one.
As she had finished the third cupcake, she felt better. The hurting in her stomach subsided and the grumbling had stopped. But she also felt dizzy suddenly. As she looked around in the kitchen, everything seemed to shake. Berry Punch shuddered. Was she so exhausted from hunger that her mind started to imagine things now? The situation was apparently more serious than she thought. Luckily, she had something in her stomach now, so these effects should be gone soon. But she also didn't wanted to take any risks and decided to eat the rest of the cupcakes as well. One after another wandered into her mouth and landed in her stomach, after chewing it.
As the sixth and last cupcake was gone, Berry Punch burped. Frightened, the filly put a hoof to her mouth. “Uh-oh”, she thought. “If mom has heard this I'll get trouble!”
Berry Punch stared blankly into the air in front of her. What did she just say? Her parents weren't even here. She just found that out minutes ago! How could she forgot it? Worse then the short amnesia was that everything was moving around her again, stronger this time. The cupboards, the fridge, the table, everything seemed to rotate. And she felt more dizzy than before. Berry Punch shook her head, but it did not stop. Shaking her head made it only worse, actually. Now, everything was like she was in a rollercoaster. She sat completely still for some minutes and slowly, the room around her slowed down again and returned to a slight rotating.
Berry put her forehooves on the table and slid off of the chair carefully. But before she could set her hindlegs properly on the floor, she collapsed and fell to the ground. The chair was shoved backwards, creating a jarring sound on the floor.
Berry Punch lied on the back, facing upwards. The ceiling in front of her eyes was shaking so much that she feared she would tumbling down every moment. But nothing happened. Nothing was shaking, actually, Berry Punch realized again that it just looked like that for her. She turned herself round onto her side and then on her belly. Limbs stretched out, she lied there for a moment. Then she tried to get up. Her legs felt wonky and trembled, but somehow she managed it. She stood unsure on her hooves and did not know what to do for a moment. But there was something she just wanted to do. What was it? Berry rubbed her head and taxed her brain. Suddenly, it came to her. Right. She wanted to put the plate into the kitchen sink.
Unbelievingly slow, she turned around. She was careful, since she did not want to collapse on the floor again. The filly pulled herself up the table and grabbed the plate with her mouth. Holding it was easier said than done, as her whole body was trembling now, but somehow she made it over to the kitchen sink with her wonky legs and let the plate sink into it.
Standing on her four hooves again and her surroundings still moving, giving her the feeling that an earthquake happened, she noticed that her saddle bags lied on the ground. “How did they come here?”, she wondered. Shrugging her shoulders she trotted up to it and grabbed it. That is, she tried it.
At the first try, her hoof grasped at nothing. She looked confused down at it. How could that happen? She saw that she was aiming at the saddle bags! She tried it again, more slowly now. Once more she saw that she was reaching out to the saddle bags, but then she was suddenly holding one of the legs of the chair. Berry Punch didn't understand anything. Something was not right with her anymore, but what? It couldn't be her hunger from earlier, she had already stilled it! The little filly shook her head.
Berry Punch got angry and clenched her teeth. Lashing out with her hoof at the saddle bags, she finally managed it to grab them and to put them on her back. This fast movement turned out as a mistake, however. Suddenly, she felt a sting in her head and the pain was so strong that it forced her down on the kitchen floor. She groaned and writhed around in pain. It felt like somepony was stabbing thousands of small needles into her head at once. After writhing herself around on the floor for some minutes, the pain began to fade away and another minute later, it was gone. Berry Punch panted heavily and stuck out her tongue. She didn't understand how this was possible, but there was no other explanation for her condition:
She had gotten sick somehow.
All was similar to it when she had gotten the flu the last time. The dizzy feeling, the headache, the rotating world around her. But she did not feel cold, her nose wasn't running and she had no scratching in her throat that made her coughing. Will these symptoms start later? She got up again and made her way out of the kitchen. She really felt sick now.
As she passed the kitchen table, she noticed something. A small piece of paper lied there. From all the hunger, she hadn't seen it before. She swooped it off the table with her tail and it landed in front of her. Narrowing her eyes, she could recognize the hoof-writing of her mom. It was a message from her. Still too wonky on her legs to stand long at the same spot, she decided to read it in her room. She picked it up with her mouth and holding it between her teeth, she finally left the kitchen.
Getting up the stairs to her room would be a challenge. Every single tread of the stairs was rotating on it's own. She carefully put her left hoof on the first tread in front of her and then dragged along the second one. She managed it without falling down and continued in the same way until she had reached the first stairhead safely. It was not easy, though, and more than once she was almost falling down the stairs again. It was better not to tempt fate. Falling down the stairs that lied behind her wouldn't have been very dangerous, but the next set of stairs was longer and reached up much higher and this would end fatal for such a little filly like her.
Instead of trotting up the stairs, she was trying another tactic. She trotted in front of the stairs and lied down, her forelegs stretched out over the stairs, her belly and her backlegs stretched out in front of them. She grabbed the stairs with her hooves and pulled herself up. Crawling up the stairs like a snake looked silly, but it was safer than the other method. And it was no other pony here that could see her, so she wasn't bothered by it. Tread after tread, she brought behind her this way. It took her longer than usual to get up the stairs, but finally she made it. She crawled a few inches forward on the top stairhead until her backhooves were lying on even ground too and then she rose to her hooves again and made the way to her room. Everything was still swirling around her and so she was glad that the door to her room was the first one in the upper corridor. Luckily, it was also slighty opened, so she just nudged it with her nose to open it completely.
She entered her room, leaving the door simply open, and trotted up to her bed where she pulled the saddle bag from her back and placed it on the hoofboard. Then she pulled herself up into her bed. She could feel the silky covers under her hooves as she did so and sighed gleefully.
She lied down on her back and rested her head on her pillow. The small crannies in the ceiling of her room looked funny to her. With all the rotating that happened in front of her eyes, they merged with each other and took on different shapes and patterns, creating silly forms and pictures. The filly began to giggle very loud suddenly. It was a strange sound, very high-pitched, but somehow also very heavy. It was a sort of giggling that she never heard coming out of her mouth before. It sounded weird, almost insane. And her brain was telling her that what seemed to go on on her ceiling wasn't that funny, but nonetheless, she had to giggle like somepony just told her the best joke she ever heard. Soon, the giggling turned into a massive laughter. And she could not stop anymore. Minutes were spent by her by just watching the crannies in the ceiling moving around and laughing maniacally.
Then she suddenly stopped from one second to another as she noticed something lying on her chest. It was a white piece of paper with something written on it. Oh, yes. The message from her mom. She had completely forgot about it. Berry Punch did not understand how she could forget so many things suddenly. Usually her memory was a very good one. But it didn't matter to her anymore.
While she felt sick earlier, she just felt incredibly good now and her worries that she became ill with the flu again disappeared. Her body felt like it was filled with cotton candy and her heart was overflowing with joy. She was as happy as on the first day of the summer holidays. Having the flu didn't feel so good.
She picked up the piece of paper and hold it closely to her eyes to read it. This turned out hard and it took her quite a few moments to deciper the text. As she had finished reading it, her face became chalky-white. That couldn't be..... Was it true what she read there or was she just imagining this because of her strange condition? She read it again, loud this time, and noticed that her voice sounded a little distorted suddenly.
“Dear Berry Punch, me and your dad will come home later today. We prepared something for you for lunch. But eat only the daisy sandwiches on the top compartment of the fridge, not the cupcakes in the middle! They are left from the birthday party of your uncle and filled with alcohol. We come back in the evening. I love you! Mommy”
She wasn't mistaken. What she read was right. The cupcakes were filled with alcohol and now she was drunk! This would get her into trouble for sure once her parents returned. She felt bad for not having read the letter of her mom earlier. But there was nothing she could do about it anymore now. The damage was done.
She put the letter aside from her. Then she placed her hooves on her chest and starred at the ceiling again. At least she didn't feel sick anymore. Every time she had asked, her parents had always told her that being drunk was not funny and felt terrible, but actually, it didn't feel so bad to her. Sure, at the beginning it was terrible. Seeing how everything shaked and rotated around her was terrifying and the headache was almost not to bear. But since she had lied down in her bed, she felt really good! Seeing the crannies in the ceiling moving so strange was funny and now she felt like she was flying despite that she lied motionless in her bed. Berry Punch concluded that her parents meant that being drunk only felt terrible at the beginning. Once you got over that, she realized, it was awesome! Being drunk was really fun!
As she had watched the changing arrangements of the crannies in the ceiling a while longer, her eyelids became heavy suddenly. She felt sleepy and desired a good nap now. Berry Punch rolled on her belly and buried her head deep into the pillow. In this position, the little filly just lied there and enjoyed the good feeling the alcohol caused inside her.
With her last thoughts before she drifted away to sleep, she realized that she managed being drunk quite well. When she saw adult ponies that were drunk, they had always hurt themselves in some way or dropped things. But Berry Punch didn't. She was not falling down the stairs and she had not dropped the plate as she had put it back into the fridge. The little filly felt proud. She was very good at being drunk!
In the last few seconds before she fell asleep, Berry Punch noticed a white light glowing in the corner of her eyes and then disappearing again, but she didn't pay attention. What should glow white in her room? She was sure it was just the alcohol playing tricks on her mind. Berry yawned and in the next moment, she was asleep.
Something she did not realize was that the white light was indeed there. After having praised herself for being so good in drunkenness, her cutie mark appeared. It was a bunch of grapes and a strawberry.