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// Prompt #20: Never Again 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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Berry Punch did not consider herself an alcoholic. She was a connoisseur of beverages. She had sampled everything from three-hundred year old Griffon wine to Pinkie Pie’s Friendship Lubricant Punch. She own and operated Ponyville’s only winery, and ran it with an iron hoof, and consistently produced a high-quality drink. Ponyville 723 was still a drink that was sought after in Canterlot by the classiest ponies, or those who wished to be seen as classy.

But yet, Berry Punch did enjoy a drink or three. She genuinely enjoyed wines, especially. But every time that Berry opened the door to her home, staring at her from across the room, was a half-drunk bottle of Stalliongrad vodka, made from potatoes. It was actually an exquisitely crafted drink, but Berry Punch could not look at that bottle without shuddering. It had been sitting there for years, and would remain on the mantle of her fireplace for years to come. She had put the bottle up there as a reminder. It was not always a pleasant one, but it was a reminder that she needed. 

Berry could never entirely give up drinking-making and tasting wine was literally her special talent, and with that came a certain amount of enjoyment of the act of both. But Berry kept that bottle, because it had been the bottle that she had been halfway through when  she realised that she needed to clean up her act, that she’d been enjoying the tasting side of her job a bit too much.

“Mommy!” cried Ruby Pinch, Berry’s daughter, as she rushed through the doorway.

“Hello Ruby,” said Berry, leaning down to nuzzle her daughter, “How was school?”

“Great! Miss Cheerilee was teaching us all about griffons and stuff today, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders went and...”

As Berry listened to her daughter babble about her day and the latest exploits of the Crusaders, she looked at the bottle on the mantle once again. The light of the afternoon sun streamed through the window, and hit the bottle, illuminating the inscription of a date, and a simple ‘For Her’.

The date was the day that Berry Punch had discovered that she was pregnant with Ruby.