> The Mane 6 plus Applejack! > by Nugget > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Something about a bottle... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s the day after the new year and the whole castle was wrecked… literally. What started as a simple idea from Twilight Sparkle wanting to throw a New Year's Eve party with her friends and keep the festivities to a minimum cascaded to an all out open house bash with nearly the whole town being invited, due to a simple mishap. Apparently, when you say to the party pony that it's alright to invite OTHER friends to the celebration, your mind might slip on the fact that she could instantaneously print up invites, distribute them out, maintain the RSVPs, and still be able to decorate the palace all within a single afternoon. It’s Pinkie Pie after all. “Uuuuugggggghhhhh!” Twilight grunted, sprawled out on the bed with her mane in a mess. If her stomach hasn’t already made her feel sick, then her cranium beating headache certainly did make her want to just layover and die from the mistakes she made. However, since the sun was beginning to shine and a baby dragon was going to be turning from his sleepover with the Crusaders, Twilight wasn’t left with the choice to lay in her quarters and wonder about the fifty or sixty different options she wanted to do to a certain pony for her unplanned guests. Besides, the last thing Twilight wanted to do right now was think. Batting her blood stained eyes, Twilight twist and turned herself in an attempt to stretch out her muscles and leave the bed. Once her wobbly hooves had touched the floor, she slowly made her way to the bathroom, careful to not accidentally fall over and give herself something else to moan about. Reaching the mirror, she looked at herself and sighed as if to say, “Why am I the one to always put up with this?” A brush of her mane, a bath, and some headache pills later, Twilight Sparkle emerged from her bathroom and was still a bit groggy, mainly due to her dire need of some food to replace the amount of alcohol that went through her system. In her need to match the percentage of which she drank with how much grub she wanted, Twilight threw open her bedroom doors and began to scroll down a trashed filled hallway. Reaching a kitchen filled to the brim with empty beer bottles, red solo cups, and party favors, Twilight made her way to the fridge. Opening it up, she instantly found the last thing she wanted at that time, more boxes of canned beer and vodka in her cooling unit. She wasn’t absolutely thrilled by the sight. Slamming the door shut, she made her way into a crystal pantry. After scrounging around while continuously moving an endless supply of empty stanned cups out of her way, Twilight managed to actually find something worth munching on to help her regain her strength, an unopened box of Honey Nut Oats. “Thank you Celestia!” she cheerfully said to herself. Levitating the box within her own purple aurora, while floating some pieces of grain into her mouth, Twilight proceeded out of her kitchen and back down her littered hallway. Passing by bulging trash bags and a couple dry bottles of whiskey, she stopped to let out a small grunt upon the scene of which surrounded her. It completely reeked with the smell of booze and what was left of good times. She sighed, “What a night…” Using her magic to pick up the remains of what others curiously left behind, Twilight began cleaning up the castle. Advancing down the corridor, she collected the litter by gliding it into a giant, dripping ball of glass, plastic, and whatever else needed to be thrown away. “These ponies are absolutely crazy for leaving my place like this… no worse than those royal delegates from Yakyakistan!” She huffed, “At least it's within their culture to trash things up… and I can not image what THEY would be like with some alcohol in their Yak blood!” A minotaur in a tea shop, perhaps? she thought to herself, continuing to pick up the pieces of the party. By the time she reached the front door of the castle, it seemed to Twilight that she has picked up enough garbage within her magic to fill the Ponyville Dump two-times over. It also came as a relief to herself seeing the hallway was starting to look less like the scene of a wild tornado and more like what it would be if Spike hasn’t picked up the place within a week. Charging up her teleportation spell to send the junk away, it made Twilight happier to know that some of her problems were about to disappear and be gone for good. That was when the entrance doors bursted open. Being tackled by a flash of pink, bubbling joy, Twilight lost concentration on her big ball of garbage. As it fell to the ground and scattered everywhere and anywhere, the once happy thoughts of Ms. Sparkle became almost instant rage upon a certain pony that has caused enough peril to her house already. It also didn’t take any more than two seconds for her to be on the floor as well, looking up at the excited face of Pinkie Pie. “Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh-hooooooooooooo!!!” she screamed, blowing a paper horn. “LAST NIGHT WAS SOOO AMAZING! I MEAN IT WAS MORE AMAZING THAN CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRIES...” “Pinkie...” “...SPRINKLED ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN FULL OF ICE CREAM THAT IS DIPPED IN…” “Pinkie...” “....VANILLA AND WHIP CREAM AND BLUEBERRIES THAT ARE HOOF PICKED FROM THE FINEST ORCHARDS IN ALL OF-” “PINKIE!!!!” Twilight screamed. Pinkie Pie looked down at her friend. “Yes, Twilight?” The purple alicorn was infuriated. “Can you please get off of me?” “Oh, sorry Twilight!” Pinkie stepped off her friend as Twilight returned to her feet. “I guess since I was so excited about the things that happened last night, I almost forgot what I was doing!” she squeed. Twilight wasn’t pleased. “You managed to invite over the ENTIRE town, have them nearly destroy my house, and then they leave this place in such a mess that I personally would almost call this a state of emergency?” “Ummm...” Pinkie clenched her teeth in guilt. “It… was… all meant in good fun?” Twilight nearly shifted into a blazing rage before catching herself doing Cadence’s breathing technique to keep herself sane. “It’s ok Pinkie Pie, it’s just that I will be needing to push everything back on my part…” She inhaled and exhaled, “...So I can spend the entire day undoing what the whole town did to my place.” “Ugh… There goes my tea time with Celestia today,” she frowned. “I hope she doesn’t mind.” “Aww!” Pinkie Pie expressed her sympathy by patting her friend’s shoulder, “You will be alright… I’m sorry about the party. Besides, this means that you and me can spend some time today cleaning up this place!” “You’re going to help?” asked an inquisitive Twilight. Pinkie stood up into a stiff position of attention and saluted the Princess. “You have my word. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” she said while performing a movement with her hoof that went over her chest before making it flap like the wings of a pegasus. Finally, she pulled out a cupcake and smashed it into her eye as a way for her to sign off on her promise. Twilight was a bit relieved by her friend’s willingness to undo her mistake. “Alright then, I guess we can get started by…” She looked over at the trash dropped from earlier. Twilight groaned, “By re-picking up the mess caused by you running into me.” “Okey-dokey-loki!” Pinkie Pie replied, hopping over to the heaped up pile of leftovers. “Wow! Twilight, from what I remember last night, there was certainly wasn’t this much alcohol that was brought over here!” “Really?” Twilight began to levitate the litter. “So then where did this all come from?” “I don’t know...” Pinkie Pie scratched her chin. “Maybe our friends brought over extra once the party really got rocking, to which it might explain why I saw Discord with those two boxes of-” Twilight snapped, dropping the waste back onto the floor. “OUR FRIENDS!!” She raced over to Pinkie, “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!! Pinkie Pie, tell me they are alright!” “Seeecchh.” She brushed off her friend and said, “They are fine Twilight! Wow, you were really out of it.” “Pew!” Twilight wiped her forehead. “What happened to them?” “Wellllll…” Pinkie Pie thought to herself for a moment, trying to catch what she membered about her friends. “All I can recall is that Rarity left the party once the rest of the guests, besides us, began to show up and I quote…” Pinkie tried to imitate Rarity’s accent. “This party is getting too rough and wild for a pony such as I… I will see you later, Pinkie!” “Ok…” Twilight asked, “And what about Fluttershy?” The pink pony returned to her normal voice. “She left the party with some hunky stallion… Apparently she wanted to be assertive of some sort, but I really couldn’t make out the details.” “Applejack?” “She and Rainbow Dash were feuding all night long in the throne room over who can beat the other in a table game of beer pong,” Pinkie recalled. “Do you think they are still there now?” Twilight pondered. “I don’t know…” Pinkie Pie shrugged her shoulders. “They could have passed out in there for all I know.” “Well, let's go check and make sure…” The alicorn began to use her magic to pick back up the garbage. “...After I get this trash sent away.” Vanishing within a single flash, the garbage was whisked away to the local dump. Twilight and Pinkie Pie then made their way into the throne room. Just after opening its doors, they discovered it wasn’t any different from how the rest of the castle looked. Laying on the table, rows of red cups stood on opposite ends while ping-pong balls could be seen scattered throughout the set. Accompanied by a foul smell which rose from the alcohol spilled on the stalagmite table, chairs, and floor, more bottles of glass and plastic were found around the place. Remarkably, the chandelier remain unscathed. Twilight and Pinkie Pie stood in awe by the mess, almost shocked by the fact that a once pristine and well keep up location has been turned into were the central hub of the party might have been. The tapestry was torn to shreds, the chairs were almost unrecognizable by the bags draped over them, and there were barrels of cider placed in random locations. It made walking almost an exercise in terms of how many times Twilight had to step or fly over one just to go twenty feet. “This… Is… RIDICULOUS!!!” she shouted. “How the heck did I let my castle get like this?” “Well, you did take it pretty hard on those shots, Twilighly,” replied the party pony. “Ugh!” Twilight regretted. “I will never drink whiskey again.” She flew up and stood on top of her crystal table, looking around the room for any signs of Rainbow Dash or Applejack. “Now where are you guys?” “I found one, I found one!” Pinkie Pie repeated, tugging on a rainbow colored tail. She was then able to pull Rainbow Dash out from underneath a pile of canned beer. “Uuuuuggggggg….” the pegasus groaned before beating her red eyes. “What happened? Pinkie Pie?” “Wake-y, Wake-y, Rainbow Bash! You sure had a wild time last night!” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in excitement. “Wah?” Rainbow Dash was dazed, rubbing her forehead to soothe her headache. “Ouch, my head hurts.” Twilight stepped down from the table and walked over to where the pegasus laid. “You sure have a lot of explaining to do, Rainbow Dash!” “Twilight, is that you?” asked the bewildered rainbow pony. “Um, yes!” Twilight was a bit put-off by her friend’s question. Dash responded, “Can you please wake me up after you stop being such an egg-headed sleep ruiner?” Twilight was annoyed. “So you call that pile of waste a good place to lay?” “Better than resting on your fat rear!” she laughed. Twilight didn’t take to kindly towards Rainbow Dash’s remark. Gritting her teeth with a loud “grrr” in her voice, she levitated an empty aluminium can and chucked it at Rainbow Dash. It hit her friend square in the head. “Ouch!” the pegasus shouted. “Hey, what gives Twilight!” The alicorn stood near Rainbow Dash and pointed a hoof at her. “You are going to talk… And my first question is; Where is my Applejack?” The pegasus rubbed her forehead, again. “How should I know? She left in a hissy fit after I beat her five times at beer pong.” “No, RD.” Twilight lowered her eyebrows, “My OTHER Applejack.” Dash was confused. “What do you mean? There is only one Applejack!” “No, Rainbow!” Twilight tried to explain, “If you remember from last night, I left some Applejack on the counter in the kitchen.” Rainbow Dash was still a woozy, missing out on the word “some” in her friend’s statement. “What do you Twilight? She wasn’t sitting on the counter at all! She left the castle in a fury last I remember!” Twilight face-hoofed, clearly understanding the fact that Rainbow Dash had no idea what she was talking about. It seemed to her that the aftereffects of a night’s rest and whatever Dash has drank left RD’s thinking and processing to be hazy and unclear, not working properly in other terms. Therefore, the purple pony cleared her throat and said, “I left a BOTTLE that contained Applejack in it on the counter last night and I suspected that you took it so that you can play this stupid beer-whatever game.” Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side. “Wait, you said you left a bottle with Applejack on the counter, right?” Twilight leaned into her friend. “Yes, And?” “So is that why I couldn’t find her?” “Wait! What?” Twilight shook her head. “Did you use that poison joke on her again?” Dash asked, still showing signs that she still was very confused. “Hehe, Appletini!” Twilight almost wanted to smack her friend in the face. “No RD! There's an alcoholic beverage called Applejack, and I lost it last night after Pinkie dared me to take two shots of it.” The alicorn looked over at Pinkie with disapproval. She squeed. “Sorry.” “So wait.” Rainbow Dash implied, “It has the same name as Applejack… yet we have a friend named Applejack, correct?” Pinkie Pie smiled since her friend was beginning to connect the dots. “Yes, Dashie! Since it was her new drink after all.” The rainbow pegasus blinked her eyes. Getting up off the floor before stretching her wings out, she said with a hint of gin in her voice, “Wait... So, that means when I finally got drunk and continued to want Applejack, it seemed to the others that I was talking about the drink correct?” Twilight wasn’t quite sure where her friend was going with her statement. “Yes?” Rainbow Dash was suddenly shocked. “Oooooohhhh, so that’s why everyone keeped on handing me their shots….” “Well... What else were you expending since-” A thought came to the mind of Twilight, immediately dismissing what she was going to say. “Never mind, do you still know where the bottle might be?” A single voice cried out from a pile of barrels nearby. “It’s over here!” it said with a particularly buzzed tone to it, raising a cerise hoof that held an orange bottle within its grasp. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie all went over to where it projected from. Upon moving some barrels out of the way, they found Berry Punch laying over a full trash bag, swinging her tail around as if the party never stopped. “Woohoo! You found me!” she cheered. Twilight wasn’t believing what she was seeing. “Berry Punch?” “Buck yeah!” She burped. “And if you say my name three times, you all win a prize! Yay!” The others looked at each other in befuddlement before they all said in unison, “Berry Punch, Berry Punch, Berry Punch?” “Hey that is good enough motivation for me!” The earth pony drank the remaining drops of Applejack contained within the bottle before passing out on the waste. Pinkie Pie remarked, “That Berry sure knows how to party.” “I’ll say,” Dash included. “Well…” Twilight pointed at the snoring Berry Punch. “We just cannot leave her here, right?” “I suppose so.” Rainbow Dash went over to shake the pony. However, after about a minute of trying to force Berry Punch awake, it was soon clear to everyone that she was completely out of it and deeply asleep. The group needed a plan. Pinkie Pie was first to come up with one. “Well, how about you, Twilight, just lift her out of here!” Twilight wasn’t sure by what she meant. “With my hoofs?” “No Silly!” The pink pony pointed at Twilight’s horn. “Oh!” the alicorn giggled. “I knew that!” “Surrrreeee!” Dash rolled her eyes. “Hey!” Twilight snapped back. “At least I knew the difference between both Applejacks!” Rainbow Dash was bothered by the comment. “Ugg! Can you please get her body outside?” “Hm!” was all that Twilight proudly said as she trapped Berry Punch in her purple aurora, lifting the earth pony into the air. The almost lifeless body of Berry didn’t even flinch at the sudden adjustment of being weightless and floating within magic. She just continued to sleep as if she was use to being unwillingly suspended within mid-air. Reaching the front door to Twilight’s Castle with Berry Punch still floating above their heads, the group began to reminisce about the only things they could remember from last night. Besides from the shindigs of Pinkie Pie constantly mixing and trying out different shots like “Celestial Delight” or “Luna’s Midnight Desire,” the only other thing Pinkie could think of was seeing Twilight slamming her bedroom door shut after she had enough of the party. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, remembers Applejack demanding her to give back the hat she stole of AJ’s head. “Wow! Dashie,” said Pinkie Pie in her amazement. “So she just pinned you against the table in her rage?” “I know right!” The pegasus was appalled by the actions of her friend. Turning around to face Twilight and Pinkie Pie, she didn’t see Spike walking in through the entryway. “And she was just banging me against the table like…” Dash lowered the tone of her voice. “You better give it to me or I will-” Twilight raised a hoof at Rainbow Dash as signal for her to immediately “shut up.” “What?” The alicorn pointed behind her, causing Rainbow Dash to turn around and find Spike with his jaw hung open. “Umm… Hi Spike!” Twilight hesitated. “Just umm…” Dash spoke up. “Cleaning up that is all…” “Umm, yeah, cleaning up!” Pinkie Pie added. The three mares wore grins that were almost as wide as their faces, almost laughing out of pure nervousness. Meanwhile, Spike was almost speechless. As he tried to process what was in front of him, he looked up to find Berry still asleep in a cradle position while sucking on one of her front hoofs like it was a pacifier. After about a second’s worth of thinking passes by, he shook his head and rubbed it while trying to say something that didn’t come off as dismissive or rude. “Sooo…” Spike uttered, “I see you girls had a rough night, correct?” The three looked at each other before the pressure of their nervousness caused them to burst out into laughter. “What? Was it something I said?” Spiked asked. Twilight tried to muffle her chuckles, letting out only slight giggles. “No, Spike… You… didn’t say anything... wrong… It’s just that you have no idea.” “Oh, okey! I understand since me and the Crusaders had a wonderful time together as well!” said Spike with a noticeable amount of confidence in his speech. With a small hop in his walk and a bright smile on his face, he brushed past the three ponies before disappearing behind the door that led into the kitchen. While Dash and Pinkie tried to stifle their snickers, Twilight stopped laughing at the moment when an another thought came to her mind. She shook her head. “Wait, what!”