A night at the Shady Trough

by Saphroneth

Put it on the tab, I'll pay it off when I feel better.

A lone shape moved through the bustling bar, untouched by the jollity all around. It threaded its’ way between tables, dodged an expansive hoof-gesture, and pulled itself onto a stool at the end of the bar.

“Evening.” Darkwood said, looking over and recognizing a regular. “What’ll it be?”

“Something fairly strong.” The Night Guard replied, morosely. “I don’t care much about the taste.”

“Ouch.” The unicorn pulled down a bottle, and poured some out. “Here you go. What’s up?”

The pegasus, Fleetwing, grimaced. Seeing Darkwood about to apologize, he shook his head. “No, no, it’s fine. I may as well tell you.”

Taking a long draught, he sighed and began. “There’s a mare. A day guard unicorn… Rosette. I met her a few months ago, and we’ve been seeing each other fairly often.”

Fleetwing took another drink, and frowned suddenly. “Oh, is my tab clear?”

“As of this afternoon, it was.” Darkwood confirmed.

“Good. Just put what I drink tonight on there, and I’ll pay it off later. I don’t particularly want to be coherent by the end of the evening.” A third draught finished off his mug, and he held it out for a refill. Wordlessly, Darkwood complied.

“Thanks.”

“You don’t have to tell me what’s eating you, you know.”

“Be good to talk it out. Now, where was I…”

“Rosette.”

“Right. So, we’ve been seeing each other, and – it could just be me, but I though things were going fairly well.”

“She not been avoiding you, then?” Darkwood asked.

“No, none of that. Her talent’s actually navigation, so if she wanted to she could, but… nah. Everything’s been fine.”

Fleetwing took another drink, and Darkwood took advantage of the pause to sort out a round of drinks from one table and replenish the peanuts at another.

“So, anyway,” Fleetwing resumed suddenly, and a little louder, “she’s been on a mission with her squad – Sergeant Shield’s lot – for the last few days, and she got back today. Problem is, they’re off again tomorrow morning for Stalliongrad.”

“Ouch.” The landlord murmured. “So you were all ready to see her again...”

“And she’s off for a month or more.” Fleetwing drained his mug. “Now you know.”

“You sure it’s a good idea to drink this much, though?” Fleet looked at him, and Darkwood shrugged. “I’m hardly complaining. Just looking out for you.”

“I’ve done this before. I’m always terrible when things change like this, until I’ve slept on it.”

The unicorn looked dubious. “Not the best property for a guard.”

“Not for an officer.” Fleet flapped his wings up in a shrug, then sighed yet again. “Regular guards just do what they’re told. It’s the point of the training.”

“Suppose it is.” Darkwood allowed.

He broke off from the conversation for a minute, to take Gerta’s first order and point her to Blossom’s table, then brought down a keg from the top shelf.

“Hey, Fleetwing. If you just want to get drunk and don’t care how it tastes, try this.”

The keg cracked as he broached it and drew out a mug.

“What is it?”

“Probably about eighty proof.” The unicorn deposited the mug in front of his customer. “I took some of the bad cider going cheap earlier this year and froze out a lot of the water. Terrible stuff, but it’s useful to cut into water in the field because you can dilute it so much.”

“And it sounds just like what I need.” Fleet downed half the mug in one go, then began to cough. “Starless night!”

“Thought you said you didn’t care how it tastes.”

“I may reconsider.” Fleet gasped out. “This stuff burns like nothing else!”

“Think I’ll chalk it up as a failed experiment, then.” Darkwood said regretfully. “You want more?”

Fleet’s face took on a conflicted air. “I honestly don’t know. Leave me a mug or two and I’ll see how it goes.”

“Will do.” The unicorn replenished Fleet’s mug, and went over to deal with some other orders.

---

“You okay?” Darkwood asked Fleet, who was by this point half-slumped over the bar. “It tasting better?”

“Yes.” Fleet replied, raising his head with an effort and enunciating clearly. “Either this has improved with exposure to air, or I’m developing a taste for it, or I’m just too drunk to care.”

“Well, that’s one good result.” Darkwood muttered. “Look, tell you what. You keep drinking, and I’ll arrange some kind of bed in the back for you. You have tomorrow off, right?”

“Yep!” Fleetwing nodded exaggeratedly, and fumbled in his pouch. “Twenty-four hour pass, got it just before sunset.”

“No need to show me, I believe you.” The bar pony said. “Just wanted to check you’re not needed tomorrow for the day shift. You’ve drunk enough that you’d probably still have a hangover.”

“How much iszat?” Fleet asked, starting to slur his words, and taking another mouthful of drink.

“I’d guess about twelve units so far.” Lighting his horn, Darkwood performed a modified form of divination spell. “Yep, about that.”

“Sounds like quite a lot.”

“It is, yes – that’s about eight pints of ale. But you should be fine. It takes about an hour per unit for the body to recover. That said, best not to fly tomorrow morning – you’ll crash.”

“I’ve got a twenty four hour pass, so same again then!” Fleetwing pushed his mug towards the keg, and Darkwood caught it with his telekinesis before it fell off the counter.

“Whatever you want.” The unicorn gave a shrug. “At least it’s fairly cheap.”

---

“Alright, off with you. I called last orders ten minutes ago, and I need to get my sleep sometime.” Darkwood pointedly glowered at the last occupied table, and after a moment two night guard unicorns and a diamond dog sloped out the door.

The bartender sighed, picking up the detritus of the night with half his mind on other things. One mug was cracked – a quick flare of restoration magic fixed it, and then the splashes of ale on various tables levitated into the air and neatly into the sink.

One of the beer mats had some semi-coherent scrawling on it. Rather than just throw it away, Darkwood put it under the bar – someone might want to find it later. It looked like some kind of early draft of a letter.

“Either that or a first novel.” The unicorn chuckled at his own joke.

A light snore reminded him of the last customer left in the building. Fleetwing was hunched over the corner of the bar, wings hanging limply and mouth half open.

Curiously, Darkwood gathered up a bit-sized ball of the potent cider and levitated it to his mouth.

It only took a moment to determine that the drink had not improved. He rinsed his mouth out with water, then tried the same amount of cider diluted in a mug of water.

“Not nearly so bad…” he mused. “Still not exactly great, but could work. Ah well.”

Returning to business, he enveloped Fleetwing in his magic, lifted him gently and carried him to the spare room. A moment’s thought and he turned off the alarm, and made sure both blinds and curtains were closed – the pegasus would have a killer headache when he awoke.

“Hope you and her enjoy yourselves next time you can.” Darkwood whispered, and shut the door.

He shook his head as he returned to the main room, then finished clearing up and made himself a meal in the attached kitchen.

Not every pony could manage sleeping most of the day, but it was certainly a rewarding line of work one way or another.

---

AN: Maybe I’m just British, but the unit of alcohol is a reasonably commonly used term around here in colloquial language. (Note that units differ between countries).

Oh, and a health warning: Fleetwing gets more drunk here than you probably should.

Rosette is a unicorn from one of my other fics, An Oath, and Fleetwing is a name I invented for the pegasus sat at the bar in the source picture.

Comments

[Saphroneth]

1156538 And done.

[Campi the Bat]

So, she's been gone for a few days, and only has the evening before she'll be gone for a month or so... And he spends that evening away from her, drinking. Not the smartest lad, is he?

[Saphroneth]

1195756
Well, they don't get today either - preparation, plus she's starting out early next morning and so on. So she's unable to get permission to be out past (say) 8pm.

[Lasairfion]

You could turn this into a regular series of people dropping in to the bar, telling their stories, exchanging experiences.... Might even be a good premise to get well known fics to cross-over into as a stop off point; a crossroads if you will, of worlds.

[ShadowLDrago]

3214073

It could be nice, just ponies coming in, having a drink and just chatting.

[Sanguine Eyes]

That cover art. I needed to do more research but it and its related works have been the inspiration for all my stories lol do you know the artist?

[Saphroneth]

5652251 equestria prevails, on DA. He's not very talkative, but MAN he's a good artist.
Hover over the picture, and see the "source" link that appears in the lower right corner. Then click on it.

[Sanguine Eyes]

5652261 Been looking it over. I find all my cover art on Google and just link the exact URL I got it from. I love the style. lol I had no idea he did all of those specific ones XD I was so picky with the quality and style of the artwork I chose for my one specific character and all related bits to him. its just a crazy coincidence that all the artwork was done by him.

[HamClad]

Isn't this picture based off the Golden Armor? Or if that's not the case, is the Golden Armor based off something else?

[Saphroneth]

9370360
I don't know quite what you mean.