Plan B
Button Mash was on his way back from the restroom, and his extremely odd and mostly uncomfortable run in with Brolly, Thunderlane and Rumble when he decided to avoid the dance floor and take the long way around, heading towards the bar. He still had a fair bit of coin left in his pocket, more than enough for at least another beer to help clear his head, or, alternatively, give him the motivation to make good on Blossomforth’s generous offer of taking away his virginity.
Step by step, he pushed through the crowd and when he finally did make it to the bar he came across a curious looking Shady Daze, seated in a bar stool, sipping a Crystal Island Iced Tea from a straw.
“Hey,” Button said on approach.
Shady Daze popped the straw from his mouth, looked up at his friend and smiled faintly, “Hey.”
Button Mash took a seat beside Shady. Shady set his drink down, and then turned to the birthday boy, smiling, until his eyes found the worried wrinkled frown worn long across Button’s puffy, flushed face.
Shady arched a brow, “What’s wrong, Button?”
Button snapped his tongue and bit his lower lip, “Um...”
His eyes scanned left of the bar, then right, and when he was sure that Cloud Kicker, Flitter, Brolly, Thunderlane and — especially —, Blossomforth, were nowhere within earshot, he sighed and fell into a slump across the bar counter. Shady was quick to put a comforting hoof to Button’s back. He pet the younger boy’s back.
“I think I’m making a mistake tonight, Shady.” said Button, “I mean, Blossomforth is really, really, really, really, hot-”
Shady, grinned and nodded his head. “That’s true.”
Button, frowning, dragged his head across the bar counter wearily and with great hesitation. He kept his muzzle buried in the lengthy folds of his hoodie, but his eyes rose up to stare at Shady.
“She’s really, really, hot,” he admitted, again, while his cheeks ran flush with traces of crimson, “But, I don’t know if I can just... you-know-what her tonight.”
It was quiet for a minute between them, until Button lifted himself up, shrugged Shady’s hoof from his back and then, when he was sure no one was watching him, he tapped the fetlocks on his hooves together nervously. His left leg danced against the steel legs of the bar stool, which clinked and clanked every time his fetlock touched cold metal.
Shady took a moment to think. This kind of statement, and Button’s fragile emotional state, lent themselves to a softer, kinder sort of approach when it came to giving advice. With a guy like Rumble, Shady could easily slap sense into his thick head, but — thankfully — Button wasn’t Rumble, and the softer, and more gentle Shady Daze was with him, the more his words would carry weight.
After a long minute of thought, Shady smiled softly and tapped Button on the shoulder again. “The fact that you can’t say you want to fuck her is probably a sign.”
Button gave a low and guttural grunt, then his brows dropped down his forehead to form a goofy looking frown. “But if I don’t go through with it I might never get a chance like this again!” he blurted, “And, I’m an adult now, Shady! I want to do adult things! Like you, and like Rumble! And, I want to lose my virginity too! It’s not fair! I know I’m not cool. I never get to be cool! Not like how you guys are cool! I never get to be as cool as Thunderlane, or Brolly, or-”
“Brolly is not cool!” Shady asserted, “He’s actually a douche bag.”
“Yeah, but, he still gets to go out with Flitter, and she’s, like, super hot too,” he sighed and blew a held breath through his nostrils. “If Brolly’s a douche bag, and he gets to go home with Flitter every night, what does that say about me, Shady? I mean, I’m a nice guy, right?”
“Yes. Yes you are.” said Shady, “One of the nicest guys in Ponyville. Probably even Equestria. Which is why it really sucks to see you so down right now.”
“Well, okay, if I’m such a nice guy, then why can’t I ever be cool and stuff? I mean, having sex would be awesome-” he tore himself away from Shady’s gaze to scan the bar again for any prying set of ears or eyes. When he was sure that no one around him was a spy working against him, he continued “-But I don’t think that I want my first time to be… sleazy, Shady. I want-” He took in a deep breath of air, puffed out his cheeks and then exhaled slowly, “I want someone in my life. Someone who likes me, for me, and someone I can read comics with, and play games, and who my mom likes-”
Shady Daze nodded his head as he followed along, “Right, right,”
“And, I don’t really think Blossomforth is that kind of pony,” said Button, “And then… I think about you, sometimes. Like, when you were with Twist? You guys looked so happy, even though in the end it turned out you’re-”
Button took pause to scratch his neck and gave an imploring, wondering look up at Shady.
Shady cocked his head to the side, “Gay?”
“Yeah.” said Button, “Even if you’re gay, and you broke up because of it, well... you and Twist still looked so happy together.”
“We were,” said Shady, smiling dimly, “We still are.”
“Well, that’s exactly what I mean, though.” Button sighed, “You're happy being you, and Rumble’s happy with... y'know, like, just having sex with girls, and, I mean, that’s good for him, but I don’t wanna just be like Rumble, or like Thunderlane, or Brolly.”
“Then be like Button,” said Shady, “Just be yourself.”
Button deflated again. “I don’t know, Shady. I’m bad at this stuff.”
“C’mon, Button,” Shady said, gently prodding the colt in the soft flesh around his kidney, urging a smile onto his friend’s, “No one’s forcing you to do this tonight. If you’re not ready to have sex, you’re not ready. Plain and simple. There's no shame in that either, dude.”
“Yeah, but then Thunderlane, and Brolly, and Rumble, are all gonna pick on me for turning her down, and I don’t want to hurt her feelings-” he stared down at the floor “Plus, I also really, really, don’t want to die a virgin...”
“Button, dude, c'mon now. You obviously don’t want to do this, and, that’s totally fine, Button.” Shady said, then paused to take a sip from his drink, swallowed, then took another. “And, hey, guess what? Fuck Brolly and Thunderlane if they make fun of you, alright? Seriously. You’re a great guy and, maybe we don't say it enough, but it's true! You're really great, Button.” he lifted his drink to his chin, coiled his tongue around the straw and sucked up what little was left from his glass, “Besides, do you honestly want to be anything like Brolly?”
Button sucked in his cheeks and pouted his lips like a fish, “If it gets me closer to being with someone...”
Shady sighed, put his drink down and shook his head, whistling a quiet ‘Tsk, tsk,’, “The right answer is actually ‘No’, Button.” he said, “You really don’t want to be like Brolly.”
“But I want to be happy…” Button mumbled, “Y’know, like... with someone.”
“What about Dinky?”
Button Mash raised a brow, “What about her?”
“Oh, come on, Button!” Shady said, chuckling as he brushed wrinkles out of Button’s hoodie, “You guys are totally perfect for each other. Ask yourself; how many girls in Ponyville have even heard of Comet-Con, let alone had a twenty minute conversation about it? Or about how her costume won the silver medal, no less.” Shady rubbed another wrinkle from the hoodie, near Button’s neck, then gently tapped the colt’s cheek, “Dinky is totally the girl for you, Button.”
Button tried to fight the rush of blood to his cheeks and forehead, “She is pretty cute...”
“Oh, dude, Dinky’s adorable,” said Shady. “And, you’re adorable, and, I think that you guys would be absolutely adorable. Together.”
“Well, um, does she like me?” Button asked, his face falling victim to a crimson flush, “D-does, uh, does she say ever say anything about me?” he kicked his right leg into the bar, “Like, uh, does Twist, or Archer? Do they ever say that Dinky ever talks about me?”
“Only any chance they could get tonight,” said Shady, proudly flaunting a whole-hearted smile to his friend. “Twist told me tonight that, apparently, little Miss. Dinky Doo has had a little bit of a thing for you for a while.”
“You butthead! Why didn’t you say anything at The Toad?” Button grunted. “If you knew that you should have said something before I left with you guys!”
“Hey, dude, we got kicked outta there so fast…” Shady said, “I mean, between Rumble being a dick, and Rumble acting like a prissy little bitch, and Rumble offending Morty, and Rumble getting us banned for life-”
“Still though...”
“Look, tonight is your night, Button,” said Shady, “Everything we do, we’ll do because you want to do it. If you don’t want to have sex with Blossomforth, I totally understand, and, I would never judge you because of it.” Shady stopped to crack his jaw, “If you really want, we could just get out of here? Head back to yours? Maybe play some more video games, eat some cake, and have a few more beers, then call it a night?”
“What… What about Dinky?” Button asked, “What if I said… I, maybe, wanted to hang out with Dinky tonight?”
Shady stopped and scratched his chin “That might be hard. Her, Twist, and Archer were going down to Diamond Tiara’s, and, I sorta get the sense I’m really not welcome there. Not that I’d ever want to go either, mind you. But that probably means you and Rumble aren’t welcome either.”
“They’re all going to Diamond Tiara’s place, huh?” Button asked, tapping the barstool with the tips of his hooves, “But, she, like, hates everyone who isn’t Silver Spoon, I thought?”
Shady Daze snorted, “That’s almost word-for-word exactly what I said to Twist and them when they told me...”
“Diamond Tiara’s the worst!” Button said, rolling his shoulders, trying to even out an ache in his back, “Remember when she told everyone at school that I was in the hospital getting an action figure taken out of my butt?”
Shady, despite his best intentions, snorted, “Yeah...”
Button’s eyes softened up, “And then there’s that thing she did to you...”
Shady brushed the fur at his neck until his fetlock touched skin. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“That was really mean of her.”
Again, another sigh escaped from Shady’s throat. He dug into the pink flesh under his light blue coat with his hoof. After a while it started to hurt and he stopped. “Yeah,”, he tried to clear the dry feeling by clearing his throat, “Whatever though.”
“You were pretty upset with it when it happened.”
“I was.” he said, “I still am. Not a lot, but, it was a pretty shitty thing to do to a guy. Especially given the circumstances.”
“Yeah,” said Button, gazing away from the soft, incredulous look on Shady’s face and instead at his own dangling legs, “I… I’m glad you’re okay though.”
Shady Daze snapped his tongue and tried to sip whatever liquor was still left in his glass, “Relatively speaking, of course.” he said, taking a moment to run his wet tongue across his dry upper lip. “I guess it could have been worse, though.”
Button Mash swallowed his words and said nothing. When he looked up Shady was still wearing that soft, sorrowful look on his face. Gone were any and all traces of joy, this was Shady Daze at his weakest and most defeated of the night.
Button sincerely regretted ever bringing up the subject.
“The worst part,” he said, “Was that I thought we were friends. That’s what sucks the most,” he grunted “I thought, after all the stuff with the Foal Free Press, that her and I, and Featherweight, and the… whatever... the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’, I thought we were all sorta friends-” his eyes felt a little wet, which was probably just from all the sweat and musk in the air, but he wiped them anyway, “I don’t even know why she did it.”
Button’s heart kicked in his chest while he tried, desperately, to peace together a sentence to take Shady’s mind away. That horrible, painful, look on Shady’s face was one that Button hadn’t seen in a long, long time, and nothing about it made him want to see more of it.
“Shady,” said Button, tapping the bar with his fetlock, “Are you doing alright?”
Shady Daze shrugged. “I think so.” he said, meaning it. “Why? What’s up?”
“Well, it’s just… I know how much you hate talking about this kind of stuff?”
Shady Daze gave his friend a hearty, toothy grin. He scrunched his nose, snorted through his nostrils and then threw his left leg around Button’s shoulder. He rubbed his face into the many wrinkled folds around Button’s neck, then pulled back.
“Yeah… Uh, well, thanks for listening, Button.” Shady said to the colt beside him, “Sometimes I forget how good you are at that.” he would have smiled, but, instead Shady’s nose scrunched and his lips peeled back, “You should probably give that hoodie a wash after tonight though. It’s getting pretty rank.”
Button Mash sniffed at the hoodie and gagged. It did smell incredibly foul; like sweat that had dried long ago, coupled with stale beer and little drops of whiskey that somehow hadn’t made it past his lips.
His eyebrows sank and he spun around in his barstool.
Shady nudged the colt, “Why don’t we do this? I’ll go find Rumble, you go tell Blossomforth, as politely as you can, that she’s a good girl but you’re just not interested in her that way, then we’ll get outta here and head back to yours?”
Button fidgeted in his seat. He wiggled his rear and moved his head from side to side while he mulled over his options; staying here, with Blossomforth, wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do, and, meeting up with Dinky Doo seemed like it wasn’t going to happen for him.
What other options did he have?
As if he could sense his hesitation, Shady pet him around the cuff of his collar.
“You know what makes you really cool, Button?” Shady asked, poking the colt on the shoulder to draw full attention, “It’s that you’re not an asshole.”
Button arched his head sideways. What did one say to a statement like that?
“Seriously. You’re like a pony born without any sort of ugly, black, cancerous spots on your soul. You’re just… good. Wholesome, even. You’re a really, really good guy, Button. And, I think, no matter what happens here, or there, or wherever tonight, or tomorrow, or for the rest of your life, if you just follow that good little soul of yours you’ll end up okay.”
Button’s turn to turn flushed and speechless. He could hardly muster the courage to form a sentence to show Shady just how strongly that impromptu speech had been received. The weight of the words, and the meaning behind them, wasn’t lost on him however, as he smiled at his friend.
“Thanks, Shady.”
Shady smiled.
“Hey, uh, are you and Rumble okay?” Button asked, “You guys seem kinda… off tonight?”
Shady took in a sharp breath and tried to hide his face from Button. After a moment of pause, when Shady was sure his face wasn’t too flushed and puffed out, he turned back. “He is being an exceptional asshole tonight,” Shady answered, shaking out a cold chill that crawled up his spine, “But, hey, that’s just his charm, right?”
Button grinned, faintly, then nodded. “If you want, I could talk to him?” Button offered, “I mean, you could tell Blossom I’m, uh, like busy, and then we could all sneak out, or….”
Shady grinned, “You’re not getting out of this that easy, amigo. Part of being a grown up is dealing with responsibility, and part of your responsibility tonight is letting Blossomforth know you’re not interested in letting her steal away your sacred virginity.”
Button gave a quite, humbled, chuckle. “Right…”
“C’mon now, Button.” Shady said, slapping the bar, “If we leave soon I bet we can still catch the last screening of The Dodge Junction Hedgeclipper Massacre down at the Icarus. My treat.”
Button smiled. “I do like cheesy slasher movies…”
“That’s the spirit.” said Shady, petting the colt on the head and tussling his mane, “I’ll go find Cloud Kicker and Flitter, tell ‘em we’re on our way out, then we can all get outta here. Sound good?”
Button nodded. “I guess I’ll go find Blossomforth, then?”
***
Thunderlane pushed and shoved himself a path through the crowd of Club Black with Rumble and Brolly only a few steps behind him. The air was wet with sweat, the lights brighter than they had been half an hour ago, and, since somepony had turned on the fog machine near the dance floor the whole room had a haunting, radiating misty aroma now.
The drugs were kicking in. Rumble could feel them. There was a lightness to his body and a steady pace in his heart that rushed blood throughout him. His veins burned, his head felt clear and easy and his focus was solid and singular. There was an unbreakable smile spread across his black lips.
Everything was great. Everything was awesome.
Every so often, when he looked past Thunderlane, he’d catch a glimpse of a mare smiling at him, or of a mare’s backside, and it caused a yearning in him for something lewd and raunchy. Every mare out tonight looked impossibly hot and totally fuckable. Each ass looked good enough to eat off of, or, more hopefully, to have bouncing on his lap and against his crotch. Mares. All of them looking so unimaginably attractive. Each girl who threw a wicked, or inviting smile his way made it harder and harder not to immediately pounce on her.
This was Rumble’s newest dilemma of the night. Booze was good, sure, and drugs were too, but what was a night like this without a good bit of the old in and out? Nothing made a better night cap then busting a nut against the backside of some impressionable older girl’s backside after she finished moaning his name into his fluffy feather pillows with the Wonderbolts cases.
Curling back his upper lip so that the cracked skin tickled his pink gums, he tried to fight the urge to break off from Thunderlane, run up to a mare and ask her if she had plans later.
Thunderlane was entirely ignorant of his condition. His older brother trotted forwards happily, moving through the crowd without a care or concern — other than if Cloud Kicker had found another suitable mate. Rumble picked up speed to catch up with him, until he was trotting beside his brother. He tapped the older pony on the shoulder, bringing him to a halt.
Thunderlane turned to him. His brother’s eyes were bloodshot and his pupils dilated. “What’s up?”
Rumble shuffled, “Am I supposed to be like...” he crossed his hind legs, “Uncomfortably-fucking-hard right now?”
Thunderlane’s laugh came out as sharp as a whip. He stomped the floor and whipped his head back so hard that, even with all the gel in his mane, it still flew backwards. “WHAT?”
“Shut up!” he shrieked at his brother, “I just really need to get my rocks off!” he growled, sniffed in and cleared his throat of phlegm, “Am I... Am I supposed to want to get my rocks off while I’m on this stuff?”
Thunderlane’s laugh picked up, turning from a throaty chuckle into something close to maniacal. He whipped his head from side to side and Rumble realized he wasn’t going to get anywhere with him, or Brolly for the matter, so he did and said nothing but followed after his brother.
At the bar Shady Daze sat sandwiched between Flitter and Cloud Kicker, talking, or joking, about something that was making Flitter giggle into her curled hoof, and Cloud Kicker slap his back. When he saw Rumble’s approach his open mouthed, teeth flaring, grin fell into a frown, his eyebrows creased down his face.
Rumble bit the inside of his cheek.
Shady looked away.
Whatever. If Shady Daze wanted to be a miserable git about it all fucking night long, that was absolutely, one hundred percent, fine with Rumble. He was really only hurting himself by being a sad little homo about it.
Instead of looking at the sad sack that was his friend, he turned his eyes to Flitter and a yearning took a firm hold of him. A red stage light above the bar cast a healthy aura all around her, and it did it’s best to make her look as stunningly sexy as he’d ever seen her before. When she giggled, his heart skipped in his chest.
He knew what he was looking for now. Shady, Button, Brolly, Thunderlane, the rest of ‘em could go fuck right off as far as he was concerned. What he needed was a nice, long, passionate dance with Flitter.
Beside him Thunderlane kicked up his pace. He threw himself into an empty bar stool beside Cloud Kicker, threw a leg over her back, pulled her away from Shady and Flitter and pressed his mouth to hers. Her eyes went wide, then fell close. After a few too many minutes of watching his brother make out with his girlfriend, Cloud Kicker, thankfully, put her hooves into his chest and pushed Thunderlane away from her.
“What was that about?”
Thunderlane rubbed his chin against her forehead. He licked the space between her ear and head, then her ear, then brought his mouth to just beside her ear. “I just wanted to show you how much I love you.”
“Oh?” Cloud Kicker moved her face to catch her muzzle against his throat, “Lucky me.”
Thunderlane snickered, “You know it, babe.”
Rumble rolled his eyes and sized up the empty spaces left at the bar; There were three chairs left and none of them were beside Flitter. Instead, beside her, was a dorky looking colt — wearing horn rimmed glasses and a green and black, plaid checkered button up off the rack of a thrift shop — who was stirring the ice cubes in his gin and tonic.
Rumble would have asked the colt to politely move, but before he could Brolly — flexing his muscles — made his move. He pushed Rumble out of his way, then when he trotted up to the younger, nerdy looking pony, he didn’t have to say so much as a word for the dork to understand what was happening. Quietly and never looking up at Brolly, or Flitter, or anyone else, the colt grabbed his drink and trotted away with his head at his feet.
The lucky bastard at least got to walk away without a scratch on him. It could have been the drugs, but, Brolly was being kind tonight, or, at least as kind as a guy like Brolly could possibly muster.
With an empty seat to his name, Brolly hopped in the chair and hugged Flitter. She giggled while she lay her face against his squared out chest, and Brolly wrapped his hooves around her.
Rumble’s scowl grew.
Cloud Kicker had taken it upon herself to stand up and offer Rumble a spot beside Shady while she and his older brother made out in full view of everyone around them. Fighting the urge to vomit at the sight, he quickly stole her spot and turned to the still frowning Shady Daze.
“Sup, homo?”
Whatever resentment he’d been brewing inside him, Shady pushed it aside and grinned at Rumble. “Not much.”
Rumble tapped his hooves against the sides of the barstool and fidgeted like a spastic mental patient in his seat. Shady couldn’t place his hoof on it, but the need and want in Rumble, all the quick glances around the bar, the look on his face and the eagerness to get up and move turned Shady off.
“You doing alright, Rumble?”
Rumble nodded a bit too eagerly. “Yup. Yup. I’m doing good. Great! Fantastic, even!” he cheered, “I’ve never been better.”
His eyes were bloodshot and he kept running his tongue over his lips, which were dry and cracked. Every so often he’d crack his jaw, or sniff at the air, and then Shady Daze realized what was going on.
Rumble was on drugs.
Great.
He was more than a hooffull to deal with sober, two hooffulls of effort to deal with when he was drunk, but Rumble under the aid of narcotics was a whole different story. There was a boundless energy radiating off his best friend, who’s eyes danced around in their sockets, while his gigantic, dilated, black pupils took in his surroundings. He danced happily in his seat, watched the crowd, then turned to look past Shady Daze.
“I thought you were gonna buy me a beer, Thunderlane?” He shouted at the older pony.
Thunderlane pulled his face back from sucking on the nape of Cloud Kicker’s neck, leaving behind a wet ring in the shape of his open mouth, and smiled at Rumble. “Yup.”
He spread open his wings, wrapped his left one around Cloud Kicker, his right he folded around himself, then he threw a hoof in the air, slammed it violently on the bar counter, spilling drinks and shaking glasses, and beckoned for one of the bartenders.
A bartender came over. One of the ones who’d ignored Shady earlier, and Thunderlane shouted drink orders at him; a blue-collar beer with a shot of tequila on the side for Thunderlane, the same for Rumble and a double vodka, rocks, for Cloud Kicker. He went to pay, reaching his hoof to his pocket, when Cloud Kicker fed her elbow into his stomach and turned her head towards Shady.
Thunderlane cracked his jaw and sniffed at the air, “Hey, Shady.”
The colt raised his eyes, “Yeah?”
“You want a drink?”
“Oh, uh,” he turned red in the cheeks, trying to hide it by turning his head away from Rumble and Thunderlane, “Sure.”
“Better be careful he doesn’t slip something in yours when you’re not looking, Thunderlane.” Brolly said.
Thunderlane turned to Shady and grinned, “You know they don’t make Roofie Coladas here, right?”
Far to his left, Brolly’s mad cackle cut through the air, followed closely after by his hooves beating against the bar counter. Thunderlane fought hard to contain a snicker, but it didn’t last. Soon, he was cackling just like Brolly was. With Thunderlane to his right and Brolly to his left, and both of them laughing, Shady was surrounded by it. He frowned, rolled his body forwards and lay his head in his folded hooves.
Rumble groaned when he heard his friend sigh.
There were too many negative emotions in the air. He couldn’t deal with this. The nasty back and forths between Brolly, Shady and Thunderlane. Especially Brolly’s contribution to it. Whatever Brolly’s problem was with Shady’s homosexuality, well, that was really between him and himself. Still, offering any encouraging words of wisdom on the subject probably wasn’t going to sway Brolly to give up his hatred of Shady. He said nothing, but gave Shady a comforting sort of smile.
“Stop being a fuckin’ turd sniffer, Thunderlane. Just get him a regular beer,” he suggested, “And a shot of whiskey. Same as you or me.”
A humbled, well earned, fire took kindling in Shady Daze, which Rumble was proud of. The (only slightly) younger, (and very much) gayer, pony’s ears twitched, then lifted, and when he raised his head, Rumble saw the proudly worn grin spread across his face. Rumble, beaming with pride, smiled.
He’d done good.
He rapped Shady around the flab behind his left ear and then messed around with his mane.
Yessir. Rumble could happily claim that among many other titles — role model, community leader, emotional saviour to the lesser of Equestria’s creatures, friend to the small minded and simpler types, and, folk hero to the common pony — he could add ‘LGBT Rights Activist/Crusader’ to that already outstanding list.
Seeing Shady happy made him happy.
“Thanks for that, Rumble.” said Shady, flaunting a mouth full of white teeth to him and trying, in earnest, to hide the red of his cheeks by burying them between his folded legs.
Rumble flashed his friend a goofy, open mouth, full toothed, grin in return and then winked at Shady, “Anytime, you butt pirate.”
A return to normal. Tempers around the bar had all cooled down, his brother was about to buy him and his best buddy a shot and beer combo, and, more importantly, in a matter of minutes, once the shot and beer were polished off, Rumble planned to ask Flitter to dance.
All he needed now was a plan to keep Brolly distracted.
Their beers came, then the shots. Brolly made another crack at Shady, who chased away whatever negative emotions came with it by taking his shot first then slugging back as much beer as he could in a breath. Just the same, Thunderlane did his shot, took a drink from his beer then resumed his public display of affection for Cloud Kicker by pulling her onto his lap and tasting her throat with his tongue.
Watching his brother love his girlfriend made Rumble uncomfortable, and then, uncomfortably aware of how badly he wanted to fuck Flitter’s brains out again. He needed it; she was the perfect release. She knew how he liked it between the sheets, and he knew how she did too.
Time to formulate a plan.
Contemplating just how deep the hole he was digging himself would be with Brolly, Rumble reached for his shot first, fired it back, then chased the foul taste of whiskey away with a few good sips of Lo-Brau. The booze, as always, would help clear his mind up and help him form a plot.
What were the elements?
1) Brolly was drunk and on drugs.
2) Flitter was with Brolly.
3) Flitter could do so much better than Brolly.
4) Shady, being both single, and also gay, was trapped in a hetero bar.
5) Brolly didn’t much care for Shady Daze.
6) He (as in Rumble) had the tools to remedy the situation between Shady and Brolly and still get to go home with Flitter.
7) It was great being him (as in Rumble).
He (still, as in Rumble) took proud sips of beer until the bottle was empty. When he’d finished, he set it down and spent a while pondering; There were too many factors; too many moving, volatile solutions to the mix. This was that puzzle he hated more than anything; Brolly had to be taken out of the picture so he could have some alone time with Flitter. Shady and Brolly needed to resolve their differences. Flitter needed to do that thing she did with her hooves between his legs.
Shady and Brolly. The two squares trying to fit into a circular entrance.
He did have a plan. It was going to be a very hard sell to Shady, and, an even harder deal for Shady to sell to Brolly, but, Rumble was a dreamer who believed, truly and sincerely, that with enough imagination, motivation, reassurance and the promise of a lifetime of favours in the far future, well, anything could be accomplished.
Smiling at just how fucking clever he was, he stared at his puppet, Shady, who was drinking from his bottle of beer, blissfully unaware of what Rumble was planning. Watching Rumble watching him, Shady perked his head up and smiled.
Rumble smiled back.
All the pieces were starting to come together.