With the Help of a Wolf

by bronzewolf78

Chapter 6

Chapter six

Some time into the night, Pinkie made an announcement for all of the foals to leave. Begrudgingly, they did. Pinkie made a once-over of the first floor, since the second was barred, and when she found that there were no more underaged guests left, shouted, “Bring out the hard cider and liquor!”

Ah, there it is. I knew that there was going to be alcohol here. Every party that isn’t thrown by kids or for kids is going to have alcohol in some way or fashion. Even the snobby high-class parties have alcohol.

A large red earth pony hauled a barrel in and set it down next to the refreshment table. There was already a line before he had even set it up. He left, probably to get another barrel, judging by the size of the line waiting, which was composed of basically all of the ponies that were present.

Vinyl moved the needle back onto the record from where she had stopped it for Pinkie’s announcement. Vinyl slightly turned her head towards me. “Oh, you’re still here?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I raised an eyebrow and lifted a corner of my mouth.

“Thought you’d be in line.” She raised a pair of headphones and held one side to the ear that she wasn’t listening to me with.

“What, for the drinks? Nah, I don’t drink.”

She straightened and looked at me, actually raising her sunglasses to look at me, shock and disbelief in her crimson eyes. “At all? Not even Sweet Apple Cider?”

“Nope.” I shook my head. “Never liked alcohol.”

“Have you even tried Applejack’s cider?”

“No. Is it really that great?”

Vinyl simply swept her hoof in a wave over the line of thirsty ponies. The red stallion had brought a couple more barrels in. Applejack was at the front of the line, helping to distribute the drinks as fast as possible. “Think ponies would wait in a line that long for something that wasn’t amazing?”

“Supply and demand, I guess. Either way, it’s more for someone else if I don’t have any.”

Vinyl put her glasses back down, the purple shade hiding her most attractive quality. Man, I really need to stop thinking like that. She swapped disks with levitation without even looking. She grinned. “I’m sure that Applejack will save you some. It’s not like her to forget about the pony the party is for.”

“Speaking of which, I haven’t seen Twilight yet, which is odd, considering this is her house… Or Fluttershy, for that matter.”

Vinyl chuckled. “I’m not surprised you haven’t seen Fluttershy. And Twilight’s probably trying to convince her to come out of whatever corner she’s hiding in.”

I smiled. “Probably.”

We stood in companionable silence for a while. Well, ‘silence’ is a relative term, with bass shaking the floor we stood on. After a couple more songs, Vinyl muttered, “...running out of tracks…”

“What was that?” I asked, thinking she was addressing me.

“What? Oh, I’m just running out of the songs I have stashed here, and I really don’t want to use the ones that sorry excuse for a DJ left.”

“Is that going to be a problem?”

“I doubt it. Go mingle. It’s your party. I’ll figure it out.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Go see if you can’t find Octavia. I can never really find out what she does at these parties.”

“Alright. See you around.”

“Later.”

The line had more or less morphed back into the groups of ponies that it had been earlier. I made my way back to the snack table. Food is food, after all, and I don’t know if it’s Discord’s magic or just me, but I was starving. I snagged several treats and balanced them on an outstretched wing. I made sure that they wouldn’t fall off, then I started to wander around, looking for someone I recognized.

You’d think that a rainbow mane would be easy to find, but in a sea of different colors, it’s kind of difficult. I felt like I was playing a mixture of I Spy and Where’s Waldo. I decided to make a perimeter of the floor. I’d be destined to find someone relaxing on a couch or something on the side of the room.

And I was...right? I found Twilight talking to a couch. And a white unicorn next to her. It was odd, because she would look at the other unicorn, then turn around a make a comment to an empty couch. Were ponies that drunk already?

All of this went through my head as I made my way over to where they were sitting. Twilight noticed me and waved me over. The white unicorn looked up and smiled, but her eyes widened and it immediately turned into an ‘O’ of surprise. She had an overly styled purple mane and what was probably a little too much eye makeup on.
“Oh my,” she said quietly.

My heart sank a little. Was this going to be the rest of my life? Was it going to escalate to the point of mob mentality? Hopefully not; the party seemed to be more tame than the scenarios going in my head.

“Hey Twi.” The two mares took up one couch, and for some reason, I didn’t want to sit on the other one, so I stood and leaned on the arm closest to the purple mane.

“Hey Hot Head. This is my friend Rarity. Rarity, this is the one I’ve been telling you about,” Twilight introduced us.

“Charmed,” Rarity said, still staring at my mane.

“So why are you guys talking to a couch? You bring it to life or something?” I asked, taking a cupcake off of my wing and taking a bite out of it.

“Heavens, no, although there was that one time when Twilight-”

“Hey! That was one time! And-”

“Anyway, dear Fluttershy is hiding in there. We’ve been trying to get her to come out and enjoy herself more.”

“Can she hear us?”

“Of course.”

I took an apple off of my wing and crunched on it. “I’ve got an idea.” I took another bite. “Want one?” I offered, moving my wing toward them. They declined. “More for me then. So, what’s she like when she’s drunk?”

“Fluttershy?” Rarity almost gasped.

“We’ve never really seen her drunk. She doesn’t like to drink.” Twilight explained.

“Ah. Well there goes that.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well,” I finished the apple, moving over towards the ‘empty’ couch. “Which side is she on?”

“About the middle, dearie.”

I sat down on the side closer to the other couch, making sure that Fluttershy could hear me. “One of my friends from back home couldn’t speak a word in front of girls unless he had alcohol in his system. Some sort of lack of self esteem. He was fine around us, though.”

“You want to get Fluttershy drunk so she can be more outgoing? That doesn’t seem… ethical,” Twilight tilted her head to the side, thinking.

I shrugged. “It’s not my decision.” Another bite. “But it’s there if you want it, Fluttershy.”

I got no response from the couch. I glanced back at the mares. Twi looked like she was thinking, and Rarity was looking at me and through me at the same time. It was weirding me out. And that’s hard to do.

“Or, I could just do this,” I reached in between the cushions until I felt something fleshy, then pulled up. There was a yelp as I set Fluttershy down on the couch next to me where she continued to shiver. I put forward my not-so-full wing of food. “Here. You’ll feel better.”

She timidly took an apple and I could barely hear a “thanks…” in response.

I wrapped a forehoof around her shoulder. “You know, I used to be the shy guy in my school.”

She sat there and nibbled on her apple. Twilight and Rarity looked on.

“I didn’t like talking. I didn’t like meeting strange new people. Hell, my best friend for so many years was my dog. I only realized what I had been missing when I actually started to have fun with others.” I tapped Fluttershy’s shoulder to make a point. “You’ll feel a lot better when you do.”

Still no response. I sighed and stood up. “Well, I’m all outta food, so I’ll be back.”

“Oh, before you go, darling,” Rarity spoke up. “You simply must come by my boutique sometime. I will make the most marvelous suit for you!”

I smiled. “I’ll do that.”

I made my way back to the snack table, stepping over ponies that had passed out. I ran into Rainbow Dash on the way there. Literally. She was dancing and inadvertently launched herself into me.

“Ho, Rainbow!” I caught her and she went limp in my forelegs. “Are you ok?”

“Ah, I’m fine,” Rainbow slurred. Her breath was strong with alcohol.

“How much have you had to drink?”

“A couple shidersh...Not much.”

“Ugh, Rainbow...Come on,” I led her to the snack table. I stocked up my wing with a couple mugs of cider and several glasses of water, as well as a couple of cream sodas for myself. I held Rainbow under the other wing as I led her back towards the other girls. I set her down on the couch next to Fluttershy, then sat on her other side. I passed out a cider to Rarity and Twilight and set one down on the table in front of Fluttershy. I set down the waters on the table, and gave two to Rainbow and one to Fluttershy.

“Aww, you didn’t have to get us drinks!” Twilight said.

“Thank you darling, such a gentlecolt!”

“Um… thanks,” Fluttershy mumbled.

“Don’t mention it.” I tapped the table next to the cider. “It’s there if you want it, Shy. And drink up, Rainbow; you’ll thank me later.”

“I don’t need this,” Rainbow grumbled.

“Actually, Rainbow, hangovers are much worse when you’re dehydrated. Not to mention alcohol poisoning,” Twilight tried to help me help Rainbow.

Rainbow looked down at the water again. Grumbling, she downed a glass.

I popped open a bottle of soda and took a swig. The taste was just as good as I remember. The guys and I used to chug these at parties back...home. Home. I looked down at the clear bottle.

I was tossing a foam football up and down in my hand. We were in a basement, having one of the times of our lives. I took another long drought from the bottle of cream soda in my other hand. Two of the guys were talking on the other side of the room; one had his back to me. We were always messing with each other. I handed the bottle to one of my friends standing next to me.

“Here, hold this.” The football landed in my hand again, and I whipped it at my friend’s back across the room. It went high and hit him in the back of the head. He turned around with an aggressive grin on his face.

“Who threw that?” He asked. Everyone pointed at me. This kind of thing was common at these parties. “Oh-ho, you asked for it.” He came at me and tackled me to the ground.

“Waitwaitwait-hold on a sec,” I told him. He let me wriggle an arm free. I took off my glasses and handed them to the same guy that had my drink. I put my arm back and said, “Ok, go ahead.”

He tried to keep me pinned, but I rolled him over and stood up. I let him get his footing, then charged at him. He sidestepped and wrapped me in a bear hug, keeping my arms pinned to my sides and my feet off the ground. “Had enough yet?” He asked loudly in my ear.

“Hardly.” I reached in between my legs and grabbed one of his, pulling it up and forward, causing us both to fall backwards. He let go of me when I landed on him, and I used the momentum to roll to my feet. Even with the wind knocked out of us, we were both still smiling.

A couple more moments from that night flashed through my head. Those were the days… and they were gone. I realized that I had no way of getting home. I would never see the guys again. I would never see my family again. I could only imagine how my brother would take it. I miss home… I felt a tear soak a line down the side of my muzzle.

Twilight’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Hey, are you ok?”

I looked up and realized that four concerned faces were looking into mine. Even Rainbow seemed to have sobered up a little. “Well, I’d be lying if I said yes.”

“What’s wrong, bro?” Rainbow asked.

“I-it’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” I tried to wave it off.

“That doesn’t look like nothing to me,” Rarity said.

“It’s just that I… I miss home. I don’t know how my family and friends are doing.” I choked out. I felt Fluttershy’s hug and hoof rubbing my back. She started cooing sweet nothings to me.

“Hey, don’t let me ruin your good time. Go have fun.” I looked up and forced a smile. They had none of it.

“This is your party, Hot Head,” Twilight pointed out. “We’re not going to let you have a bad time.”

“But… why do you care? I’m a stranger.”

“Hey,” Fluttershy gently turned my head so that I was staring directly into her huge cyan eyes. I didn’t resist as she took off my shades. She brushed away another tear, giving me a gentle smile. “We care. We care because it’s who we are. It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you’re from. Nopony deserves to be sad, especially at a party. It doesn’t matter why we care. Come here.” Fluttershy pulled me into a gentle hug. “It’s going to be ok.”

I don’t know what she did, but I felt better. Before I could reflect on it more, the other girls piled on in a group hug. In a way, this is better than back home…

-----

I was sitting on a different couch upstairs, laughing at shenanigans. The party had ended a while ago, and it was Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and me left alone in Twilight’s house. Everyone was at various stages of drunk. Fluttershy and I were sober, Applejack looked tipsy, Twilight and Rarity looked close to the line between tipsy and drunk, Rainbow was hammered, and Pinkie Pie was… Pinkie Pie. It was hard to tell if she was drunk at all. Applejack and Rainbow had had a drinking contest early on, and I wasn’t sure who won. I think it just ended without a winner. It seemed like Applejack was a heavyweight, and Rainbow was the opposite, given they had about the same to drink. Twilight had only had a couple over the past couple hours, and Rarity had limited herself to one. Pinkie was still going, but it didn’t seem to affect her much. Regardless, I wasn’t an expert on the subject; never touched the stuff.

They were recounting various adventures they had had. It was interesting stuff, but I wondered how much of it was true. I knew that creatures like hydras and Cerberus were just myths, but so were Pegasus and unicorns, and the latter were sitting in front of me. I just put it out of my mind. I’ll figure that out later.

“...and that’s why nopony can catch Pinkie Pie!”

After the laughter died down some, I leaned forward. “Hold on, what did you call it Twilight?”

“Pinkie Sense!”

“That makes no sense. How can she-”

Twilight quickly interrupted me. “No. Don’t even try to figure it out. I almost went mad trying.”

“And she knows the inner mechanics of the quantum theory of magic,” Rarity added.

I looked at Pinkie, who was sitting next to me. She smiled in return. I narrowed my eyes at her, deciding to try something. Her grin faded slightly and she raised an eyebrow. I threw a light, fast punch at the side of her head. One second, her head was there, and the next, it was out of the way. Her smile shined at me.

“See? Told you,” Twilight mocked my astonished face.

“I give,” I said simply, lowering my hoof and leaning back against the couch.

They laughed at that too. There was a content silence for a while. I tried to get another conversation going. “So where’s Spike? I didn’t see him during the party.”

“Oh, he’s in bed. It’s way past his bedtime,” Twilight explained. Almost as if on cue, there was a crash followed by a “Oh, darn…”

“Dammit, Spike…” Twilight mumbled, standing. She left to go deal with the draconian.

“Little rascal can be quite the handful at times,” Applejack remarked.

“He seems like a fun kid,” I put in.

There was a small chorus of assent. Twilight came back during nonsense that only best friends could find funny. Or drunk people. After another long while, I found myself caught in a conversation about magic. It separated into Twilight and Rarity talking about magic, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy talking about something else, and Applejack, Rainbow and I in a conversation about exercise.

“So Rainbow gets her exercise from her training. What do you do, Applejack?”

“I don’t hafta do anythin’ outside a my job on the farm. Applebuckin’ is hard work.” Applejack’s voice was full of pride.

“Yeah, even with all of the hard work she puts in, I could still beat her in a hoof-wrassle,” Rainbow Dash bragged.

“Hey now, we both agreed to end that! It was goin’ nowhere.”

“Really?” I asked, growing a mischievous grin. “I totally think AJ would beat you, Rainbow.”
“Nuh-uh!”
“Alright, prove it. There’s a table right here.” I knew that I was going to have way too much fun with this.
“Fine! Come on, AJ!”
They got set up on either side of the table and didn’t delay in starting. There was no significant change in position of the hooves for a while, but AJ didn’t look like she was really trying. The other mares noticed and looked on in interest, their previous conversations forgotten. For a while, it was the same. It started to actually get boring to watch. I leaned in to whisper to AJ.

“Hey, you don’t look like you’re trying.”

“I’m not. She’s drunk and weak; Ah could hold this all night.”

“Just end it then.”

“...Alright.”

Applejack slowly edged Rainbow’s hoof closer and closer to the table. I couldn’t read Rainbow’s face. Eventually there was a satisfying thunk of hoof on wood.

“...I hate losing.” Rainbow complained.

“Hey, you gave it your best, Rainbow,” I tried to cheer her up.

“Oh, fight me,” she retorted.

Rarity gasped and Twilight scolded, “Rainbow Dash!”

I grinned. “You wanna go?”

“I could take you any day.”

“Hey Twilight, how good are you with your magic?”

“Umm, pretty good, I guess. Why?” Twilight looked skeptical.

“Do you know a spell to sober someone up? I don’t want this to be too easy.” My grin had to be every kind of cocky.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Fluttershy objected.
“It’ll be a good way for ‘em to let off steam,” Applejack countered. “Plus, it’s a show for us.”
“If that’s what you two want.” Twilight’s horn flashed, and Rainbow blinked a couple of times. Her eyes focused back on me.

“You ready?” she asked.

“Bring it on, lightweight!” Maybe there is such a thing as too arrogant.

Rainbow lunged at me, and I was too slow to dodge. She swung a hoof wide, tripping me. As I fell, I saw her jump. I quickly rolled to the side and she slammed the floor where I was. By the time I got up, she was on me again. She landed with one hoof wrapped around my neck, trying to drag me to the floor. I stood my ground, and she fell awkwardly to my side, still supported by her hold on my neck. I wrapped a hoof around her, crushing her in a bear hug. I stood on my hind legs to get my other front leg in as more to keep her pinned with. She hooked a hind hoof around one of mine and pulled, causing me to fall back. This all seemed familiar to me, from what I used to do with the guys. I made every effort to keep my hold on Rainbow as I hit the floor.

“Hey guys, do you mind if we take this outside? I don’t want anything to break in here,” Twilight suggested. The others seemed to agree, so I reluctantly let go of Rainbow. She had other ideas.

I was lying on my back, and I let her stand up. She hooked her front hooves under my shoulders and took off. Flying backwards without being able to see anything is terrifying. She shot straight forward, and I thought she was going to slam me into the wall. She did worse. We shot straight out of a window, and she let me go. I still hadn’t figured out the wing thing yet, and falling upside-down wasn’t helping. I landed heavily on my back and bounced, slamming into the ground a second time. sliding with the second one. I layed there dazed as the others came out of the house using more conventional means. Rainbow slammed the ground next to my head as she landed, startling me.

“Hey, now isn’t naptime!”

I took her front hooves out from under her, then flipped myself onto her back and pressed her down into the dirt. She flapped her wings, which I hadn’t managed to pin, bringing us both into the air. She shook me off, then grabbed me so I wouldn’t fall. She flew me straight up, doing a half-loop and hurtling us both towards the ground. I flashed back to falling in front of the plane again and froze up. The ground got closer and closer, and there was nothing I could do about it. Rainbow pulled up at the last second. I felt her let go, and before she could get away, I reached up and grabbed her, bringing her underneath me. I rode her into the ground. She took the brunt of the impact, and I was flung off from the momentum. I lost sight of her, and I skipped and slid along the rough ground until I crashed into something headfirst. There was a dull ache in my head. Well, she asked for it.

My head flame lit up a large area of the night, and I could see the silhouettes of my audience far away. I could see Rainbow struggling to her feet a little farther on. I charged at her, going airborne. I flew the last half of the distance, raising a hoof to slam down on her. She looked up at the last second, barely managing to dodge. I had put my entire body into that punch. My hoof hit the ground, leaving a small crater and making the ground shake for a couple of seconds.

“Oh, you’re serious about this,” Rainbow remarked.

“I play to win,” I said.

“I don’t lose,” she countered.

“Really? That wasn’t what I saw inside.”

“That didn’t count. I was drunk.”

“How good is Twilight at healing magic?”

“None. Why? Did the little foal get hurt playing with the real deal?”

“Nope. I was wondering how long you would have to spend in the hospital after I’m done with you.”

“Harsh.” Rainbow hovered, gaining altitude above me. I leapt after her, flapping my wings. I got closer and closer, enough to the point where I could grab her. Unfortunately, she got to me first. She shot herself down and slammed her front hooves against my chest, sending me downward. She zoomed around me, and I got slammed upward. I felt her grab me again from behind, and she shot skyward again. She pulled into a loop and I could feel Rainbow speed towards the ground again. Not again. I waited a couple of seconds, then struggled until I got loose. I twisted around and wrapped Rainbow into a bear hug, making sure to pin her wings. If I go down, you’re going down with me. I resisted her struggling up until the point where she kicked a spot where noone should ever kick. I involuntarily let her go, and she immediately swooped out of my vision. I looked up at the ground and saw why. I had no time to brace for impact.

Author's Note:

So, first actual fight scene! Let me know what you guys think about it!
And leave me a comment! I am very much comment-driven!

Comments

[Bob Market]

i feel sick i thinck where rainbow kicked him oohhh wait she is pony and ponys have strong legs i thinck that shit that gotta hurt like hell

[djponyfl]

another very good chapter.

i can't wait to read the next chapter.

[Lillyfroo]

Awwwww yeah BRAWLIN'! I still think he's gonna turn into a wolf mid-fight, though. Eeyup.