Collab Cage Mini-Monthly January -- "What the hay happened last night?"

by The Collab Cage

A First Drink Too Many

Written by: KrazyTheFox

Twilight woke up early that morning and certainly not in the best of moods. First, there was the sun, far brighter than usual it seemed, finding its way into her eyes no matter where she tossed or turned in her bed. Then there were the birds. Oh, Celestia, the birds would not shut up. Last, but most certainly not least, was her bed. It was lumpy, cold, and very, very hard. In fact, upon opening her eyes, Twilight discovered that she was not, in fact, in her bed, but rather on a bench in Ponyville’s park, draped in a thick blanket. Which would explain quite a few things, to say the least.

She rolled off the bench and onto the ground, failing to keep herself upon her hooves, as her attempt was met with a piercing headache and a bout of disorientation. Ugh, just what happened last night? Blinking a few times, she rolled over on the ground and made an attempt to stand once more. A few failures later, her hooves finally found purchase in the dirt and she managed to hold herself up—leaning against the bench, of course. Her knees weren’t quite that stable yet.

Once her headache dulled a bit, Twilight examined her former bed and the mysterious blanket that came with it. It didn’t take her long to deduce that it was one of Rarity’s blankets, often used when everypony went stargazing with her. Well, if this is Rarity’s blanket, then maybe she knows what happened. I guess I should pay her a visit soon. She shook her head gently and levitated the blanket next to her. It wobbled, but, thankfully, stayed in the air. Alright, one hoof at a time. I should be able to make it back to the library.

An hour passed as Twilight trudged her way back home and upon reaching her front door, she pushed it open and stepped inside, expecting Spike to greet her. No such greeting came, but instead, her nostrils filled with the putrid scent of alcohol, sending her back to the floor in a bout of nausea. As she tried to open her windows, her headache returned in full force, causing her to drop the blanket. Ow. Lots of Magic. Bad. She sighed and massaged her forehead. I guess a shower wouldn’t be a bad idea...

She stumbled up the stairs and into the shower, turning it on. The hot water numbed her headache and so she decided to sit in the shower until it ran out, which happened to turn into about two hours of feeble attempts at piecing together her night. She turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, toweling herself off, feeling marginally refreshed. Her hooves no longer ached, which was good, she thought. Rarity still probably had the best idea of what had happened the previous night, so she trotted downstairs to grab her blanket and head off to meet her.

“Twilight! Feeling not too horrible, I trust?”

Twilight jumped and hit her rear on the wall behind her.. “Augh! Rarity!”

“Oh, sorry Twilight. I didn’t mean to startle you. I went to the park to see how you were doing and you weren’t there, so I thought you might have made your way home already and you didn’t answer the door, so I let myself in. I do hope you don’t mind too much.”

“No, no.” Twilight took a few deep breaths. “It’s alright Rarity. I was meaning to talk to you, anyway. And do you know where Spike is? He wasn’t here when I got back.”

Rarity sighed and levitated a tall glass of orange juice over to Twilight. “I thought you might ask. Here, drink this—you’ll feel much better. And Spike spent the night with me... you weren’t really in any condition to watch over him to the night. He’s at the boutique sorting a new order of cloth that just came in.”

Twilight grasped the drink in her magic and made her way to the couch beside Rarity. “So, uh...”

“You want to know what happened last night, correct?”

Twilight nodded.

“As I’m sure you noticed, you drank... quite a bit. Almost as much as Rainbow Dash did, in fact. I must say, all things considered, you held your liquor extremely well.”

“That’s reassuring.”

Rarity frowned. “Well, no, not really. You, uh—”

“Yes?”

“You were a bit... inappropriate last night.”

Twilight paled and shook her head. “I was what!?”

Cringing, Rarity looked away from Twilight. “Cheerilee was at the party and—”

“Oh no.”

“It started early in the evening... about nine, if I recall correctly. Rainbow Dash already had a few too many and she left to go, erm, pick up Cheerilee.”

Tearing up, Twilight shuffled in her seat, looking around for a tissue. “I—she—she what?” She found one and wiped her nose.

“Cheerilee turned her down at the time, although you didn’t seem to realize it. You very nearly toppled the pegasus when she returned, asking for details. You went to get a drink right after.”

“S—So what happened to Rainbow Dash?”

Rarity shook her head. “Applejack ended up dragging her to Sweet Apple Acres. She’d had far too much to drink and couldn’t make her way back home. Poor Applejack missed the fireworks and the rest of the celebration.”

“And Cheerilee?”

“I... don’t know how to put this, Twilight... she wasn’t happy with you. You ended up following her around and bothering her for the better part of an hour.” Rarity placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and flattened her ears, biting her lower lip while she searched for the right words. “She finally went home when you... I don’t think you want to know.”

“Please, Rarity...?” whispered Twilight.

“You licked her flank.”

Twilight slouched into the couch and stared past Rarity at the wall, her lip trembling. She quickly found herself wrapped in soft, white hooves stroking her back. “I—”

“Shhh, Twilight,” whispered Rarity, levitating another tissue to Twilight. “It’s alright, dear.”

Twilight nuzzled into Rarity’s neck, her shoulders heaving. She cried for several minutes as Rarity continued rubbing her back and providing the occasional tissue.

When Twilight finally ran out of tears, Rarity brushed the last few from Twilight’s cheeks. “Feeling better?”

Twilight nodded lightly. “Mhmm.” She breathed for a moment, and closed her eyes, sinking a little more into Rarity’s embrace. “But what do I do?”

“Honestly, Twilight, I’m not entirely sure that there is much you can do but hope for the best.” When Twilight’s face fell even further and she opened her mouth to speak, Rarity silenced her with a hoof to her lips. “But, I would start by apologizing and offering her some flowers.”

“You think she’ll forgive me?”

“I don’t know for sure, but you won’t know until you ask, will you? She’s a wonderful mare and should understand.” Rarity levitated Twilight off of the couch and placed her on the floor, waiting for her regain her balance. “Now, why don’t you go freshen up and then you can see about making amends.”

Twilight gave Rarity a small smile and began trotting upstairs. “Thanks, Rarity. You’re a great friend, you know that?”

“Think nothing of it. Now, I do believe you have a mare to catch,” said Rarity, returning the smile.

---

Spike waved a bolt of cloth in front of Rarity’s face. “Uh, Rarity? Hello?”

Rarity watched Twilight skip along the road towards the library, whose face was plastered with the largest smile she’d ever seen on the unicorn from inside the Boutique, her gaze only broken by Spike lightly tapping her nose with the cloth. “Oh! Spike. I’m sorry, I got distracted for a moment.” She levitated the cloth from his grasp and set a few scissors to cutting it.

“What’s so interesting outside? I don’t see anything.”

Rarity shrugged. “Oh, nothing. Just admiring the beautiful weather we’re having.”

Comments

[Themaskedferret]

*laughs* very cute. Bravo.

[Lapison]

...Did you work with bookplayer on this? Seems like you've got the same party that went on.

But hooray, collabing! And well done, if a bit more brief than bookplayer's.

[LunaTheFox]

2138859
I did! Sort of. I asked her if she'd like to share universes and delays from both of it made it a bit harder to do. Instead of working together from a general outline, she wrote hers first. Thankfully, she did a great job with making it easy to write in Twilight's part, so we ended up sharing universes after all!