The Best Idea We've Ever Had

by Embershade

Hangovers, Houseguests, and Plot

Herb’s head hurt. A lot. She blinked twice, looking up. She was laying on her back, somewhere. Wherever it was, it was very dark and cool, almost like a basement- actually, judging from the sounds of hoofsteps above her, and the muted voices, it probably was a basement. The sounds weren’t helping her headache. Grumbling angrily, she grasped around her and found what felt like a rock and threw it at the ceiling to attract someone’s attention. “Will you please be quiet up there?!” She shouted, her common sense deserting her.

The voices and movement stopped for a moment, before a flurry of confused and frightened voices replaced them, accentuated by the sound of hoofsteps thumping toward the basement door. It creaked open, and the early-afternoon light shined down the steps and almost directly into Herb’s eyes, causing her to yelp and roll away from the door. At the top of the steps, Pinkie Pie looked down worriedly. She turned to the Cakes. “Uhm… I’ll handle this, Mr. and Mrs. Cake!” She said, smiling in her most reassuring manner. The Cakes shared a glance, but nodded and left Pinkie to climb down the steps toward the chronic pony. She sat down next to the groaning unicorn and ran a hoof through her mane, cooing softly. “You all right, there? You’re lookin’ pretty rough. How ‘bout a cupcake?” She asked, her voice uncharacteristically subdued.

After a moment, Herb rolled over to face Pinkie Pie, smiling in spite of the massive, throbbing pain in her head. The pink earth pony's smile widened a bit, always happy to see a friend smile, and she hoofed Herb a cupcake- seemingly pulled from nowhere, as usual. The green pony took it- with some difficulty, as she still wasn't too good with hooves- and took a large bite out of it, fairly sure that it wouldn't help her hangover. She eyed Pinkie thoughtfully as she chewed. "How do you do that, Pinkie?" She asked after swallowing her bite of cupcake.

The pink earth pony tilted her head to the side, confused. "Do what?" Pinkie asked, rubbing the side of her head with a hoof. Herb shook the cupcake she held in her hooves.

"Pull these out of nowhere." The chronic pony clarified, finishing her cupcake in one large bite. Pinkie looked around the basement, as if checking to see if anyone would overhear.

She gestured for Herb to lean closer, and whispered when she did. "I have no idea." She said simply, and then collapsed in laughter at the look on Herb's face. "Oh.. I'm sorry, but I really don't! I have a lot of stuff like that." She said, still giggling slightly. By now, Herb was feeling well enough to get to her hooves- albeit a little unsteadily.

"Really?" Herb asked. "Like what?" She asked, sitting back down after a terrifyingly wobbly attempt to climb the stairs. The Pink Pony tapped her chin thoughtfully.

She looked at her tail, which was almost unnaturally still. "Well, when my tail twitches, it means look out for-" She was interrupted by Herb's grin.

"Falling objects?" Herb asked, waving her tail behind her. Pinkie looked confused, excited, and impressed all at once- if she'd tried to squeeze another emotion onto her face, it probably would've exploded.

She bounced around a little bit as she struggled to choose what to say. "How did you know? How?" The ecstatic pink pony asked, her nose inches from Herb's. The green pony grinned ruefully and brushed a hoof against the bandage on her head.

"How do you think I knew about that bri- ACK!" She yelped as a fluffy-maned pink pony tackled her to the ground with a violent hug.

"I thought I was the only one!"

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Synthesizer sat at a small wooden table in a comfortable, dimly lit hotel room. To her left and right sat two other mares- Vinyl and Octavia, respectively- who were, along with Synth herself, sharing awkward looks. Finally, after several tense moments and a few sips of coffee, Vinyl sat forward and spoke. "So... interesting night, huh?" She quipped, her face devoid of any sort of blush whatsoever. The other two stared at her incredulously, and she shuffled uncomfortably. "What?"

The two more sensible mares looked at each other, as if trying to decide who should speak first. After a second, Synth nodded to Octavia, who in turn turned to glare at Vinyl. "What do you mean, 'what'?" She asked, prodding a hoof into Vinyl's chest. "You were in bed with another mare!" She accused, shoving Vinyl again. Synth cleared her throat quietly.

"Well, to be fair, so were you." She said, then flinched under the withering glare Octavia tossed her way- the look screamed Whose side are you on? at the top of it's silent lungs. She turned to look at Vinyl, deciding to take on the role of moderator. "But, Vinyl, she's right. This is serious, even if it's pointless to assign blame." She said, before shrugging and taking a sip of her coffee. She sighed appreciatively- despite how tense and embarrassing the situation was, she couldn't help but marvel at Octavia's aptitude for making coffee- it tasted almost elegant.

She returned her attention to the other two just in time to see an infuriated Octavia launching herself across the table at Vinyl, who was trying very hard not to fall over from her laughing so hard. Synth sighed in disappointment- she'd missed what was, without a doubt, a very good joke. She decided to intervene when Octavia started strangling Vinyl, if only to save herself from being an accomplice to murder. After a few moments of frantic tussling, Synth managed to pull Octavia back long enough for her to calm down a bit. "Are you ready to take this seriously now, Vinyl?" She demanded, and for once the DJ pony did take her seriously.

They all settled back down at the table, Vinyl mourning over her spilt coffee, and after another short but tense silence the aforementioned Unicorn broke the silence. "Well... Octy, Synthesizer, what do you wanna do about this?" She asked, eying the two of them warily. Synth looked at Octavia, then laid her chin on the table and closed her eyes, thinking. Octavia held a hoof to her chin, thinking carefully. After a few moments, a thought struck Vinyl and she spoke up again. "Wait, wait... Are we even sure anything even happened between us last night?" The DJ pony asked, looking around at the other two.

Octavia blinked, as if the thought that they were all innocent of misdoing had never even crossed her mind, and Synth had to giggle quietly at her lack of confidence in Vinyl. The gray mare tapped her hoof to her chin once more. "Well.. if it's true that nothing happened, then we could go our separate ways without much further fuss." She said simply- and then, inexplicably, felt bad for saying it. She supposed Synthesizer wasn't so bad. Maybe a little strange- some of the things she said just weren't normal, and Octavia hadn't seen her fly even once, which was strange for any pegasus- but over all, she seemed like a nice pony. Not to mention that, though she'd never admit it to anypony else, Octavia found the semi-shy blue-violet pegasus more than a little attractive.

Synth flinched internally at Octavia's words- as much as it would be easier for them all to accept that nothing had happened and go their separate ways, she didn't really want to part ways with the two musical ponies. They'd been two of her favorite ponies when she'd been a human- and they were remarkably similar in person to how they were portrayed in the various fanfics that had been posted about them. She looked around at Vinyl, wondering what her opinion on the matter was, and was met with a blank slate- the white unicorn had found her glasses and put them on while Synth was occupied with Octavia, and her expression was unreadable. "Well.. I suppose you're right." She said, grudgingly agreeing with Octavia.

They all looked at each other, nervous blushes and awkward smiles on each of their faces- save for Vinyl's, which was hardly ever graced with a blush. Vinyl lifted her shades, and both Synth and Octavia were surprised to see conflict in her eyes. "Didn't you mention you weren't from around here last night, Synthesizer?" The DJ pony asked, giving the blue-violet pony a look of concern.

Synth, confused, nodded. "Yeah. I came here from.." She hesitated, realizing the mistake she'd made by drawing attention to her origins. "Uh... a farm in the north." She blurted, knowing just how transparent her lie was.

Apparently, Vinyl bought it. "Well, where are you staying while you're here?" She asked, rubbing at the side of her head and averting her eyes- the unicorn wasn't used to being openly caring with anyone but Octavia.

The very same Octavia that was now looking at Vinyl with a carefully controlled expression. Where was she going with this? She looked over at Synth, who looked like she had no idea how to answer the question, and then she suddenly understood what Vinyl was getting at. She turned to look at Synth, smiling kindly. "Well, considering that we've already been what will probably the worst of any awkwardness, you're welcome to stay with us, I suppose." She said, and was surprised to find that she meant it- as much as she'd disliked the pegasus pony the night before, she didn't find her anywhere near as bad now.

Octavia snapped herself out of her thoughts and looked around to find Vinyl and Synthesizer both looking at her strangely. Finally, Vinyl spoke. "Yeah... that's what I was going to say." She said, offering a hoof to Synth. Synth, smiling, took and shook it gently.

"Thank you! I'd love to." She said, trying not to get too worked up. Suddenly, an errant thought flicked across her mind. "But wait... You two don't live around here, do you?" She asked, and Vinyl slapped a hoof into her own face, making Synth jump.

"D'oh!" She grumbled, holding the hoof in place for a moment before turning back to Synth. "You're right, we don't. I totally forgot. Yeah, we're from Canterlot." She said, shaking her head in annoyance. Octavia, too, facehoofed.

"Vinyl, dear, how exactly did that fact manage to slip both of our minds?" She asked, shaking her head with the hoof still firmly planted.

The DJ pony grinned, running a hoof through her mane. "Ehh.. I usually blame this kinda thing on the hangover." She replied, giggling slightly.

Synthesizer watched the two with an odd little half-smile on her face. "Well, when do you two go back?" She asked, smiling at the embarrassed expression on Octavia's face.

Octavia cleared her throat uncomfortably, throwing a glance at the clock on the wall. "In about two hours." She said, prompting another facehoof from Vinyl. Synth couldn't help but think that the musical couple's foreheads must have really hurt by now.

The blue-violet pegasus pony rubbed her chin with a hoof, deep in thought, before coming to a conclusion. "How 'bout I come with? I actually know quite a bit about the set up you're running, Vinyl. Maybe I could help out- I need a job anyway." She suggested, chewing unconsciously on a strand of her mane as she waited, quite nervously, for an answer.

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Celestia, the Sun Princess and (co)Ruler of Equestria, sat in her private chambers alone, reading the latest letter from Twilight. It mentioned two peculiar ponies that had appeared out of the blue in Ponyville and had attended- and gotten quite intoxicated at- a party welcoming them to aforementioned town. Normally, the Immortal Princess would have paid it no mind- were it not for the fact that Twilight mentioned that the Unicorn had little to no magic aura, and the Pegasus couldn't fly. Now, that was odd. She was in the middle of getting the materials to write a return message when a ghostly chuckle echoed through her chambers. She looked around, confused- that laugh sounded so familiar, but it couldn't be who she thought it was.. not this soon. She scanned the room again, and there, in a chair that had been empty moments later sat-

"Miss me, Celestia? I missed you." The Draconequus asked, his arms crossed over his chest. "It kind of hurt my feelings that you decided to turn me into a rock again- that was just plain rude." He said, wagging a finger back and forth like a kindly reprimanding parent.

The immortal alicorn he was addressing spluttered and stared in shock. "Discord! How'd you escape so quickly?" She demanded, taking a threatening step toward him.

The Chaos Lord held up his hands defensively, then gestured towards the window that overlooked the gardens. "Easy, now, Princess. I didn't escape." He said, and Celestia saw that it was true- the statue was intact. "I'm just here for you." He said, wrapping an arm around her neck and tousling her mane playfully.

Scowling, the Princess shrugged off his arm and stepped away from him, going back to writing her letter. "What do you want from me, Discord?" She asked, trying to distract him while she thought up a spell to make him leave her alone. The Draconequus looked hurt.

"I just figured we were going about this the wrong way, Celestia. Two immortals, with no choice but to battle each other over and over again into eternity? Sounds so... grim." He said, sitting back in Celestia's chair, much to her irritation. "So, I was relaxing in my stone prison when the thought struck me; Why don't we be friends, you and I?" He suggested, batting his eyelashes in what he must've thought was an attractive manner. The Sun Princess turned around and stared, incredulous.

She shook her head, as if shaking herself out of her own thoughts, and raised an eyebrow at the mad god. "Are you bucking kidding me, Discord?" She asked, then pretended to examine his eyes. "Has what little logic you had abandoned you?" She said, now just ribbing the annoyed-looking draconequus.

He glared at her, giving her his best disappointed look, and shook his head. "I mean it, Celestia. I'm going to be stuck in your dreary gardens for at least the lifespan of your precious Element Holders. It might be nice to have a friend to spend the time with. Hey, maybe we can even solve our differences so that next time, we don't have to fight." He said, and though Celestia knew he couldn't be trusted, she wanted to believe that the Draconequus could be reasonable.

"Okay, Discord- I'll spare a little bit of time to 'hang out' with you every day, so long as you promise no funny business." She said, feeling like a character out of a story-

She paused to look at the author, raising an eyebrow. "Breaking the fourth wall on your own, much?" She asked, before turning back to Discord.

and the Chaos Lord held out his hand. Celestia put a hoof in it, and they shook.

Discord grinned and settled back into his chair. "So, Celly, what do you wanna do?" He asked, steepling his fingers over his lap and looking for all the world like an evil genius- which, of course, he was. When Celestia shrugged, he held out his hands- an empty bottle snapped into existence in one, and three full bottles of Hard Apple Cider in the other. "Spin the Bottle or Truth?"

Comments

[Embershade]

Okay, well, I'd just like to say before I get the negative reviews and such, that I am not happy with this chapter. This chapter will probably be re-written before I even finish the story- the pacing is a little sloppy, I didn't handle the dialogue very well, and I'm sure there are at least a few grammatical errors. With all that in mind though, I can't help but think that this story's gonna get interesting.

[fire]

its a good story and u are a good writer

[Gigabyte]

Breaking the 4th wall on your own much?

So
Much

[Hemi-PoweredDrone]

343946

The fact that you acknowledged you're faults makes me like you more, I know there's some people that would put out sub-par material and say it's perfect. In my opinion it's good as it is, and if you can make it better than that's more than anyone could ask for.

When's the next chapter being released?

[Embershade]

347636 Well, I'm glad that I don't come off as an arrogant jerk- I've been told that I am in the past. As for the release date of the next chapter, I'm hoping to have it out before I hit the hay tonight- Though, admittedly, I make the trip to dreamland rather late in the evening, so it's very likely that most won't realize it's been updated until the morn.