Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
The local pub has, for the longest time, been at the heart of the social lives of many. A cold pint, a relaxed environment and a feeling of freedom from life's obligations - if only for a few hours - has historically been the circumstances from which most of history's geniuses have emerged. The local pub has also been, for the longest time, the main gathering place for groups of friends to meet up and let everything hang out as they share their thoughts. Such are the reasons for the pets' weekend meet-ups.
Angel was usually one of the first to arrive. Fluttershy had a tendency to flutter away to sleep quite early, leaving Angel bunny plenty of time to spruce up and wander over to Berry's. Tonight proved to be the same. The bunny bounced through the doors of the bar to find himself the first to arrive. There were some ponies there, but no faces he particularly cared to socialise with at this point. Instead, he hopped straight up onto a bar stool and observed the wall of drinks behind Berry Punch.
Berry smiled at the little ball of white fluff as she washed down a couple of pint glasses. "Stella?" the plum-coloured pony propositioned. Angel smiled back, thumping his foot on the bar stool in approval. Berry placed the glass she had in her hooves onto the drainer, dried them off with a hand towel and collected a clean glass from the shelf under the bar. She slammed it down under the tap providing the delicious nectar and pulled the handle to begin pouring. "That'll be three Bits, please." Berry stated.
Angel produced a wallet and extracted three Bits, stacking them neatly on top of each other on the bar. Berry slid the glass in front of Angel, picked up the currency and dropped it into the till. "Gummy and Tank not here yet? They're usually here by now." Berry questioned. The rabbit shrugged, taking a swig of his pint. Berry went back to cleaning glasses. "Enjoy."
The pool table was free. Expecting the others to turn up shortly, Angel whipped out another Bit, slid it into the coin slot, and slapped the button to make the balls drop. They clattered against each other as they rolled down to the end of the table. Angel placed down his pint and picked up the triangle which lay on the wooden shelf that lined the wall by the table. He hopped back to the table, placing the triangle down, grabbing the balls from under the table and sorting them out into their respective places for the break. 'Spot, stripe-spot, spot-black-stripe, stripe-spot-stripe-spot, spot-stripe-spot-stripe-stripe' he murmured to himself as he rearranged the balls inside the triangle.
"Hey, got them set up already?" a familiar voice called from the bar. Angel turned to find Tank lifting Gummy up to one of the bar stools. Tank turned to Angel, "Dibs on the first game, mate!" Tank chuckled.
Angel laughed at the tortoise, "Nah, mate. Let the 'gator go first; I wanna have more than one game tonight, hah!"
Gummy shook his head at the two "I'm alright," he claimed "let Tank have a go first. I can't be arsed just yet."
Angel bounced to the cue rack and studied the handful of bent and broken cues. 'Should have brought my own' he thought, grabbing the least damaged of the cues available to him.
Tank flew over to the table, pint of Guinness in hand, noticing the cue that Angel had picked. "Aw, here man, you took the good one!" he joked. The tortoise settled down by the corner, placing his pint on the shelf and taking the flying contraption off of his back. He shoved it on the floor in the corner out of the way and went up to inspect the remaining cues. A couple of them were without tips, one of them had a broken butt, and the others were all slightly bent. Tank clamped his jaw down on the one he figured was least bent and carried it to the baulk of the table.
"Guess you're breaking?" Angel smiled, cocking his eyebrow at the tortoise.
Tank shook his head "No, no. You go first."
"Fair enough." Angel conceded, placing the cue ball where he wanted it. The bunny leaned over the table, lined up his break and slammed the cue ball into the triangle of balls. They scattered across the table. He heard a wonderful clunk as one of the balls fell into a pocket. Angel leaned over to the side to glance at which ball had been pocketed. "Stripes!" he beamed, checking out the state of the balls remaining on the table. "12" he called, pointing his cue at his desired stripe which was nestled in amongst a couple of spotted balls. He leaned over once more, taking aim carefully. As the cue came into contact with the cue ball, the cue slipped and sent the cue ball off in the opposite direction. Luckily for Angel, he managed to contact one of his own stripes before both balls came to rest. "Bastard! Miscued!" he grunted, frustratedly.
Gummy eventually arrived at the table, carrying a tumbler in his mouth. He stretched up and spat out the glass onto the shelf.
"The fuck's that?" Angel quizzed the alligator.
"What?" Gummy asked, puzzled. Angel nodded his head in the direction of Gummy's drink. "Oh, right. It's Feckin Irish whiskey!"
"Oh, Irish whiskey? What's it called?" Angel trolled.
"Feckin Irish!" Gummy repeated.
"Whoa, whoa!" Angel sniggered, holding out his paws, trying to calm the gator down "Dude! I hate the Irish as much as you do, but come on, man, there's no need for that!" the bunny exclaimed, trying badly not to laugh.
It took the alligator a second to catch on to the joke, but the penny quickly dropped "Here, fuck off, man!" he laughed.
Tank and Angel howled with laughter as the bunny hopped away back to his pool game.
"Anything down?" Angel asked.
"Nowt." Tank replied.
Angel studied the positions of the balls as he chalked up his cue "Good, good" he remarked as he bent over to take a shot at a striped ball into the middle pocket. The cue ball connected with the number 13 ball sending it barrelling toward the middle pocket. Unfortunately for the rabbit, the ball ricocheted off the knuckle, rolled across the pocket and bounced back into the middle of the table. "Ah, fuck off!" the bunny frustratingly exclaimed.
Tank slowly made his way along the table towards his next shot.
"And begins the slowest pool game in history" barked a feminine voice from across the bar. The lads turn to see Winona perched on a stool.
"Hey, Winona" Tank called out, continuing to make the journey down the pool table. Angel waved at her, and Gummy acknowledged her with a sip of his whiskey and a slight nod of the head.
The pup made her way over carrying a pint of Snakebite and Black. "Mixing blackcurrant and lager with your Sweet Apple Cider?" Angel began "Isn't that sacrilege?"
"Har-har" Winona retorted sarcastically, snarling jokingly at the bunny. "Funny coming from the bunny who drinks nothing but Wife-Beater!"
"I kid, I kid." Angel claimed, hopping over and greeting Winona with a hug. "How's the farm?" he asked.
Winona sighed "Same old, same old. I mean, I appreciate they're running a business and all, but for the kind of money they come out with, you'd think they'd be able to fork out a little more for the dog who does a hell of a lot more work than they give her credit for." she moaned, taking a chug of her cider "I mean, they've renovated that bloody barn more times than I can think, yet I'm still living out of the same house I've had since I was a pup. I can barely fit in the damn thing anymore!" Winona grumbled. "Don't get me wrong, I love them; they keep me fed, they look after me, and I'd do anything for them, but that's not to say they don't overwork me."
"I know how you feel," Tank interjected, making his way up the table "I find it hard trying to keep up with Rainbow Dash-"
"Dude, you find it hard keeping up with a snail!" Angel laughed, noticing how Gummy remained quiet, sipping his whiskey from the corner of the room. "Hey, chatterbox. How's things with you?"
The 'gator sat silently as Angel waited patiently for a response. Gummy opened his toothless mouth and coughed a couple of times before bringing up an entire cupcake along with some sweetie sides. The 'gator groaned, seemingly in a little pain. "The pink one was baking again today. I was her taste-tester. Over the course of the past five hours I have consumed seventy-four cupcakes, one hundred and twenty-three candy canes, ninety-two gummy bears, seventeen gob-stoppers, two wedding cakes, thirty-six chocolate brownies and a balloon." The whole group stared at Gummy.
"She believes I'm toothless because I'm a baby alligator." he continues "No. In our circle, I believe I am second oldest only to Tank. No. I am toothless because I consume so much sugar, my teeth are rotten before they even appear. I'm an alligator who relies on a steady diet of meat - I am carnivorous - yet the closest thing I get to a substantial meal is in the form of the common housefly. I have tried previously to consume many of the ponies of Ponyville, and yet, due to my toothless form, they simply joke at my feeble attempts to feed."
Gummy sipped his whiskey once more and turned to the bar. Lobbing a single Bit up to the bar, the 'gator calls to Berry "A packet of Pork Scratchings if you please." Berry throws a packet toward Gummy, landing them directly into his mouth. He tries to clamp down on the packet with his gums, but nothing happens. Instead, he places them up on the shelf and tears the bag with his claws. Once open, he tried to gnaw at the scratchings, only managing to scrape off a small bit of the fatty portion of the scratchings. Out of frustration, he tried swallowing them down whole, but they only became stuck in his throat, and coughed them back up immediately. "What a cruel and unusual fate." he sighs.
At that moment, Opalescence struts confidently into the bar, flicking her purple scarf over her back. She leaps up to the bar, coughing arrogantly at Berry, expecting to be served. Berry, however, was busy serving a couple of ponies already at the bar. This tried Opal's patience. She coughed louder, but Berry didn't notice. Annoyed, Opal tried coughing once more, but this time she felt a lump in her throat. Gagging, Opal managed to spew a fur ball up onto the bar. She licked dangling fur off of her lips in disgust. 'How uncouth.' she thought, batting the ball off the bar. Despite all this, Berry still didn't notice the cat's attempts to lure her attention.
The bartender finished pulling the drinks for one pony and moved directly across Opal's path to serve the next pony. The prissy cat growled at the lack of attention she was being paid and leapt up onto the bar. She strolled swiftly over to where Berry was serving, hoping to catch her attention by passing directly under her muzzle. Unfortunately for Opal, Berry turned to face the wall of drinks in search of a spirit to serve her customer, and headed in the opposite direction down the bar.
Opal snorted. She ran down the bar and leapt toward Berry. Miss Punch, however, moved at that precise moment, and Opal ended up falling down the staircase of the beer cellar. Conceding defeat, Opal lay at the foot of the stairs for a moment. As she looked up toward the exit, Berry slammed the cellar door shut. The room became pitch black in an instant. Opal, panicked by being locked in, tried running up the stairs to claw at the door. However, she lost her footing half way up and fell.
As she tumbled, she managed to grab something. That something just happened to be a barrel of beer which she managed to pull over, separating the line from the barrel and the tipped barrel poured beer all over her nicely groomed fur. In a fright, she leapt across the cellar floor, away from the spilled beverage, and shook off whatever wetness she could. She stank of beer, and not even the kind she liked. 'How uncouth' she thought, trying to find her way back to the stairs.
Meanwhile, upstairs in the bar, the final member of the group arrived. Owlowiscious fluttered over to the bar, perching himself on the bar stool. Berry smiled and asked "What'll it be?"
"Hoo Hoo" he retorted nonchalantly.
Berry nodded in acknowledgement, turned to the bar and began mixing together a drink of peach schnapps, vodka and cranberry juice. "Double?" Berry asked as she pre-emptively poured the second shot into the glass.
"Hoo!" Owlowiscious grinned.
As Berry finished up the drink, Owlowiscious pulled out a couple of bits from his somewhere with his beak and lobbed them up in the air. Berry slid the cocktail gently across the bar toward the owl, catching the Bits on their way down. Twilight's nocturnal assistant grasped the glass with his dexterous claws and flew it across the bar to the pool table.
"Nice of you to join us" Angel taunted.
"Hoo." Owlowiscious replied.
"Knock it off, you little wanker." Angel scorned, flipping the bird (like, you know, the middle finger, not literally flipping Owlowiscious, though that'd be hilarious).
"Bite me, dick bag." Owlowiscious snarled.
"Come on, lads, be civil." Tank insisted as he made his way up the pool table for his shot.
Owlowiscious and Angel locked eyes. A few moments of silence passed as the others waited for the inevitable. A couple of seconds later, their growls turned to smiles and laughter. The two embraced, slapping each other's backs as they hugged and chuckled at themselves.
Owlowiscious grabbed Angel's shoulder. "Ah, man, how have you been? It's been too long."
"It was last week, you daft bat." Angel chortled.
"Aye. Like I said: too long!" Owlowiscious flapped over to his drink, taking down a fair gulp.
"Twilight being a pain in the arse as always?" Angel guessed.
"Only gotten worse since Golden Oaks. I'd say she needs some time off, but with Twilight, that actually makes things worse. Not to mention that Spike doesn't fucking help. I don't even try to help him anymore. He's a lost cause. How can someone who saved a whole kingdom be so bloody absent-minded?"
Winona interjected, "Not to mention the fact he only thinks with his dick."
Owlowiscious nodded in agreement "Yeah, that was the last time I helped that daft little prick. Seriously, though, he was so incompetent he didn't even know he was inflicting Rarity with corrupt magic. If I was Twilight, I'd castrate the little shit."
"If the dragon's attitude displeases you," Gummy philosophised "then why do you continue with your seemingly relentless torture?"
"Sometimes I wonder. Twilight's good, though. Golden Oaks was littered with mice, and it was a welcome change. As much as I love Fluttershy and everything, you can't put an owl on a vegetarian diet, and it's become harder to find food in the Everfree Forest. The part of the forest those minotaurs tore down for their amusement park destroyed a fair chunk of the ecosystem."
"And Twilight's apparent lack of home pride makes it the perfect nesting place for an owl." Gummy concluded.
"At least you don't have to rely on Twilight feeding you." Tank spoke up, continuing up the table to take his shot. "There have been a number of occasions Rainbow Dash has neglected to feed me. Thankfully I have those propellers so I can wonder off and get my own meals; I can go for days before she realises I have dietary requirements. She also seems to forget that I'm not a pegasus; I struggle to perch on the clouds as easily as she does."
"Tough love, Tank." Angel suggested, "When Fluttershy fucks up, I make sure she knows she fucked up. You have to make your point known. Get over your confidence issues and tell her what's what. Works for me."
Winona chortled "Oh come on, you're an emotionally manipulative little shit. Tank doesn't need to take a leaf out of your book." she turned to Tank "Look, our owners can make mistakes. Sure, Pinkie might overload Gummy with a few too many sweets, Rainbow Dash might be a little forgetful, and Fluttershy might forget a single cherry on a fucking salad..." she squinted at Angel "but they love us, and we should repay them with our love, not by beating them over the head with a carrot when you don't get your own way."
"Alright, alright, Mary-fucking-Sue!" Angel groaned. "Sorry we're not all perfect and prissy like you, you little bitch."
"Ass-hole." Winona growled.
"Actually, speaking of prissy," Owlowiscious interrupted, barely unable to keep his laughter under check "here's the Queen of prissy!" he bellowed, bursting out in laughter at the cat's soggy appearance. "The fuck happened to you?" he exclaimed, making no further attempt to contain himself.
Opal wiped herself down with a towel she'd gotten from Berry. "A beer keg 'happened' to me," she explained, holding her chin up high. "and if anything else is said about the matter I ensure you, you'll be suffering a similar fate." she turned away as she continued to soak up the mess.
"You not drinking?" Angel queried.
"Berry's bringing it over." she explained as she tugged and rang out her tail like a dish cloth.
"Oh, you got that daft cream thing again?" Angel wondered.
"That 'daft cream thing' you're referring to is an expensive cocktail of fruits and blended together in rare East Equestrian Kumis and vodka. It is creamy, yes, but the kumis is free of lactose, which makes it drinkable."
"No wonder you're getting so fat if you're drinking all that shit." Angel snappily remarked.
"Eat a dick, you scruffy little ruffian." Opal retorted.
"Wait... Kumis?" Tank inquired, making his way up the pool table to take his shot.
The gator provided the wealth of his knowledge on the subject. "Kumis," he began "is the milk secreted by a mothering mare. It is a difficult process to collect the milk. The foal must start suckling to begin the flow. The child's mouth is quickly removed from the teat, but it is important to keep the foal in place during the process or else the flow will cease. The milk is collected in a pail and is fermented over several hours or even days with occasional churning to prevent coagulation. During this process, bacteria acidifies the milk and the yeasts turn it into a carbonated and mildly alcoholic drink, suitable for consumption. It is often mixed with fruits to compliment the flavour, or, as in this case, with added vodka for an alcoholic kick."
The group stared silently at Gummy's blank, expressionless face as he took one final sip of his whiskey, each attempting to process the information provided by the toothless alligator. As the silence lingered, Berry turned up with a saucer of the milky concoction.
"Your drink, Opal." Berry smiled as she settled the saucer down on the shelf lining the walls by the pool table.
"Thank you, dear." Opal grinned as the bar mare trotted off.
Angel looked at the saucer, puzzled. "Wait, wait, wait. So let me get this straight, because I just wanna make sure I'm getting this right: You drink the milk that comes out of a mare's tits?"
Opal scowled at Angel's simplistic summary of her rare and extravagant beverage. "It's a bit more than that..."
Angel sniggered "What, did Berry make that batch up for you personally? Haha!" he taunted. "How much did you even pay for that?" Angel questioned before downing half of his Stella.
Opal rolled her eyes. "Eight bits"
Angel almost choked, spitting out some of his drink across the room. "Eight bits!? I can get four pints for that much! Fucking hell!"
"Quality over quantity. Not that you'd know anything about quality, you scruffy little toe rag." Opal snorted.
"Eight bits for a puddle of milk served on a saucer? Shittin' hell! For that price I wouldn't be happy unless it had been extracted from the tits of Celestia herself!" Angel retorted in disbelief.
"Whoa, whoa, hold up!" Owlowiscious interposed. "Celestia? Why not Princess Luna? She's best Princess."
Angel shook his hand disapprovingly in Owlowiscious' face "Luna? I'm sorry, you're talking about the pony who did more damage to the land of Equestria than fucking Discord. Best Princess my fluffy little shitter; Celestia all the way."
"Discord? Really?" Owlowiscious rolled his eyes. "That thing can turn entire cities to dust by the click of his fingers if he wanted to. Luna did nowhere close to that. Besides, she was overwhelmed by the Nightmare force or whatever it's called."
"Oh, bull." Angel scorned, dismissing Owlowiscious' point of view "Luna understood exactly what she was doing. The 'Nightmare' thing is entirely fabricated - there's no such thing. If anything, Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon under her own will. The point is her refusal to lower the moon completely destroyed the ecosystem. Plants and animals wiped out through her short-sightedness, not to mention the Everfree Forest - the abomination on our doorstep wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Luna."
"What does the Everfree Forest have to do with anything?" Winona queried.
"Actually, I'll give him that one" Owlowiscious admitted. "It's all about the Elements of Harmony. Celestia and Luna originally found the tree underground in what we now know as the Everfree Forest. They understood the Elements had great power and, under Luna's insistence, they used them against both King Sombra and Discord. Through their power, the tree and the Elements of 'Harmony' were given their name by Celestia and Luna. The Elements themselves, though, are corruptive. Luna's paranoia and subsequent downfall may have been directly linked to her connection with the Elements. The Everfree Forest sprouted up from the tree and grew to consume the Castle of the Two Sisters. I mean that's the theory, at least."
"Theory?" Winona questioned, still somewhat puzzled.
"I spend a lot of time with Twilight, alright? Between Golden Oaks and the Canterlot Archives, I get a fair amount of reading time. I found one of Starswirl's research papers in the Canterlot Archives outlining his findings on the Elements. He believed that it fed on the emotions of those who wield them. Luna's problems were amplified by the Elements; he also believes that the corruption could have bled into Celestia, as well, but I don't think he ever found out for sure." Owlowiscious explained.
Winona's eyes spread wide open, "Wow." she exhaled as her mind put things into perspective.
"It'd be all well and good if either of you were right, though..." Tank smiled as he made his way up the pool table to take his shot, "because Cadance is clearly best Princess."
The group rolled their eyes and moaned in disapproval. "Ah, fuck off!" Angel grumbled.
"It's true!" Tank insisted. "You have Luna who spent most of her time acting like an angst filly; Celestia, who we know is susceptible to doing things only to serve her own propaganda; and then we have Cadance, who is so wonderful and selfless - hell, her job is to spread love throughout Equestria. There is nopony better."
"Another Mary Sue" Angel argued. "Another Princess who feeds off of the idea that her shit smells like fucking roses. People forget the shit that she's pulled to get herself into power. She focussed on perfecting her love spells because she wants everypony to love her. She's easily the most selfish of the lot. Her entire personality is based on her selfishness. Do you not remember the shit that went down with our Griffon Kingdom ambassador? Shit, man, that guy lost both of his back legs because of her! Of course the news was suppressed by the Princesses, and the rest of it was spun to make it out like she did nothing wrong, but here's the thing: Cadance has and does do wrong, all in the name of making herself more popular. She's worse than the bloody Sirens."
"I like Twilight myself" Winona shared as she sipped on her drink.
"Oh yes, the Element of Magic who can't get a single fucking spell right." Angel laughed, at the forefront of the counter-argument once more.
"Oh come on, magic is some tricky shit," Owlowiscious frowned, backing up Winona's opinion. "I've seen Twilight practising her magic on a daily basis and it takes a lot of discipline and focus to do the kind of spells she pulls off. She's got hundreds of spells which require absolute precision. She makes it look a lot easier than it is. Most unicorns can't do much outside of levitating objects, basic manipulation of their surroundings and the rare defensive spell. That's it."
Winona nodded "Yep. She's damn good at her craft. Surely you remember when she first arrived in Ponyville, Angel? You remember the Ursa Minor? Trixie couldn't hold a candle to that."
Angel shook his head "Trixie's magic is worlds apart from Twilight's. Trixie has a talent in performance magic, not incantations. Trixie excels in her range of visual gags and very few are practical on a day-to-day basis outside of her work. It's like comparing two racing ponies - oval racing is much different to circuit racing. On the surface, they look very similar, but both take a different skill set to be competent at."
Opal turned her nose up at Angel's remark "Oval racing requires no skill. It's mindless running around in circles. Like the Cloudsdale 500; it's pointless and boring."
Winona was offended. "How hold up, Miss Prissy, oval racing is spectacular. It takes a lot of skill to race so close to one-another without wiping each other out. So what if they're only making a left turn? The great thing about oval racing is that it's so great to sit down and watch. Circuit racing is just processional! You ever been to an oval race? The atmosphere is incredible, and ponies actually overtake each other!"
"Not wiping each other out?" Opal laughed "Dear, the only reason anypony watches that drivel is because of all the accidents. If I want to know what happened in those races, all I need to do is read the news the next day."
"You have no idea!" Winona barked. "There's no other sport in Equestria where you can have four ponies separated by less than a tenth of a second crossing that finishing line! It just doesn't happen anywhere else!"
"Even I could finish within a tenth of a second of the leader! It's an absolutely mindless sport!" Opal taunted "Not to mention how bad Fleetfoot has gotten since she joined. She used to be one of the leanest racers in Formula Pone; she's put on so much weight since joining NASCART!"
Winona shook her head in defiance, "No, she actually looks healthy now. A lot of Formula Pone drivers are horrifically underweight because the driver isn't taken into account for the total weight, meaning the smaller and thinner, the better. With NASCART, each team has a ballast which can be increased and decreased based on the weight of the driver so all teams are even!"
"Poppycock!" Opal hissed. "There's nothing healthy about that saggy plot!"
"She has put on a lot of weight..." Angel agreed, "I mean, Fluttershy is known for her 'filly fat', but damn, Fleetfoot's plot could put hers to shame."
"You know who else has a huge ass?" Tank interrupted with a smile on his face. The whole group knew the next word out of his mouth; they all cringed as they realised they could do nothing to prevent it. "Cranky." He slowly laughed as the group collectively sighed at his terrible attempt at a joke.
The attention was taken by the familiar sound of a ringing bell and Berry calling out "Last orders!"
Owlowiscious rotated his head to observe the old golden clock on the wall above the table. "It's eleven already?" he hooted.
"The passage of time" Gummy blinked "appears to fluctuate wildly in accordance to the level of engagement between one and their surroundings. We rarely perceive time at a consistent pace. Pleasurable activities breeze by effortlessly like a feather in the wind, yet work - to those who dislike their role - appears to last an eternity in comparison." he paused, gazing up at the clock. "Not to mention the fact that we arrived a mere ten minutes ago."
Angel hopped around the table collecting the empty glasses. "Guess I'll help clean this shit away" he squeaked, hopping over to the bar.
Winona took her turn to check the clock on the wall. "I best be going." she sighed "I'll be up ridiculously early as usual; got a lot to do."
Owlowiscious fluttered over toward Winona and and gave her a little hug with his wing. "See you later," he smiled.
"Sayonara" Gummy nodded.
Tank slowly blinked and gave a warm smile as he readied himself for his shot, "Good night." he called.
Winona made her way for the exit, "Night, Berry!"
"Good night, Winona" she replied.
"Aye, fuck off!" Angel teased.
"Eat a dick, you fluffy little shit." Winona grinned back at the banterful bunny as she left the establishment.
Opal peered at the clock. Huffed, she licked her front paw, running it through her fur to smarten it up. "I shall be leaving as well," she stated "I have beauty sleep to catch up on". The group said their goodbyes once more and the prissy little princess disappeared off into the night.
Owlowiscious wobbled his head as he pondered, "I should take my leave, as well. Twilight is bound to wake up at some point. I best be there to help her out. Take care guys."
Gummy randomly raised a front and back foot as he opened his mouth, "Would you mind terribly giving me a lift back?" he asked Twilight's nocturnal assistant.
"No, not at all. By all means." he perched himself on the back of Gummy, plunging his claws into the toothless alligator's sides. Owlowiscious flapped his wings and departed with the gator in tow.
Tank was busy lining up his shot as Angel hopped back over to the table. "Guess we'll finish up here before we go, ey?" the fluffy little shit suggested.
Tank leaned over the table, steadied his aim, and peered down the cue toward the cue ball he was about to hit. He glanced up toward his shot, pulled back the cue and let the shot fly. The cue ball sped down the table, hitting several balls on the way down, accidentally coming into contact and potting the #13 that Angel missed. The cue ball ricocheted into a group of balls toward the top of the table, pushing the #8 toward the corner pocket. Tank's head raised in shock, hoping to not sink the black. Unfortunately for him, though, the damage was already done. It glided toward the corner and with a heavy 'clunk' the game was over. "Dammit!" he grumbled.
Angel couldn't help but laugh. "Haha! That's that, then!" he shook his head, placing his cue back on the rack. He gave Tank a friendly slap on the back. "Good game, bro. I'll see you later, yeah?" he continued to laugh as he hopped out the door.
Tank frowned, defeated, as the lights of the bar were shut off. "Good night" he sighed.