RoMS' Extravaganza

by RoMS

Aug. 20 - Megalocardia

A glass slid across the worn-out countertop and ground to a halt in front of Daring Do.

“It’s on the house.”

“I’m not asking for charity, ya know,” Daring growled, her head resting into her legs as she shuffled on her uncomfortable chair.

“None of you, space drifters, do. But sometimes that’s what you need.”

Daring threw a glance at the bartender, a unicorn mare with a coat so white it reminded Daring Do the walls of a sterile hospital — if that existed in this part of the solar system. “That’s just a trick to get me to spend my money here.”

“Tut-tut. To hell with your excuses. I can tell when somepony wants a drink.” Her laughter whizzed past Daring like a sharp blade. “Drink. Nopony comes here in my boui-boui on their own volition.”

Daring contemplated the glass. Devoid of any brand etched into its side or bottom. The type of plain glassware without a single mark of provenance peering through the rippling amber liquid it held. A good guess would say the thing had been industrially produced in factories back on some ponies’ homeworld. And though those factories had been silent and gone for a thousand years, artifacts of Ye Old still had the disposability of trash.

“What’s your name, drifter?” the mare asked.

“Daring.” Looking down at the drink, the space pilot pretended not to hear the bartender’s guffaw. “You?”

“Rarity.”

---

meg·a·lo·car·di·a — Abnormal enlargement of the heart
·
What if a machine, somewhere in the barren Celestial Solar System, could grant you any wish?
·
Daring Do has spent her life looking for an answer. After yet another unfruitful scouring of the ruins of her once-great pony race, she finds her way to a pub rocking along an asteroid belt. The bartender has more to offer than a drink.

---

Edited by.
Inspired by the song Melanocardia by the Russian post-rock band Aesthesys.