Chapter 4

"Ugh, What Happened…"

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Where are my glasses? God, I'm dizzy… I wonder where I am. I can't stand up… I want to go to sleep, but I have to get out of these woods.

…

Ah, okay… I think its morning, but I'm not sure. Still dark as Hades here. A little light, but not enough to see by. Why can't I stand up? I think my eye sight is getting worse, but I might be imagining that. What was that sound?! Please don't be something dangerous!

…

No! Get away! Why can't I talk! This bear is gonna eat me! Please someone save me!

…

I think I'm safe. Maybe… Unfortunately, I'm in a cave and the dripping water is too loud. I think it's nighttime. No spots of light through the trees. Yeah, maybe it is night. Not safe to go out now. Wait! Was that breathing? Oh no! I need to get out of here. Something bad's in here, no doubt about it!

…

No. It can't be true! The end! The end of the forest! Please all mighty say this is true!

…

Yes! The light is blinding, but it's true! Only a few more feet. Wait! Why am I dizzy again? No, please, no! I need this. Yes, just a few more inches. Can't see… Whasa-fus-ja-da…

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'Ugh… why is my head pounding?'

"Ngh, five more minutes mom," a voice says from my right, "I was up- *snore*"

Prying my eyes open, I find that I have somepony's glasses on my face- though they aren't really helping me see. Glancing around the room I spy Rainbow Dash lying in the bed next to me. Deciding that she would know what had happened, I nudge her, but getting nowhere I shove her off the bed.

"Hey!" she pops her head up over the side of the bed, "What was that for?! I was having a good dream!"

I roll my eyes and ask her what happened last night.

"Oh, you don't remember?" she replies, propping her head up on a hoof, "Me, you, Pinkie Pie, Vinyl Scratch, and Freezer Burn all had a drinking contest. You so beat us! Everyone was super shocked about it. Hey! Where are you going?"

"To find the one who owns these glasses," I say, then turn back around to the door when I hear the blanket get flipped over.

"No need to go anywhere," a voice says, yawning, "I'm right here."

Turning I see Vinyl Scratch, a pony I just met last night peeking out from the blanket.

'Wha-what happened!? Please say nothing happened!' I can feel my face twitching in shock.

"Um, why are you underneath the blanket?" I try to ask calmly.

"I was cold and there was no room at the head of the bed, and don't worry, nothing happened," she explains, then the next thing she says stops me in the middle of letting a breath of air out, "At least I think so…"

The white pony tapped her chin, thinking about it thoroughly before saying, "Maybe we should go check with someone else."

Honestly, I was on the verge of passing out. 'Hopefully,' I think, 'Hopefully nothing happened. I didn't want the princess to view me as something like that. Curse my need to prove myself!'

Exiting out of the room we were in, we step into a hallway I've never seen before. Thankfully, a maid was walking down the hall and Vinyl got her attention.

"Hey, ah, can you tell us where we are?" she calls out to the mare, "We were partying pretty hard last night."

"No problem," the maid replies, "You are at the Hotel Casco in Manehattan."

"Thank you," Vinyl replies, going back into the room we were in, "Okay, somepony call Twilight or something. We need to get back."

"I got it," Rainbow Dash offers, moving towards the hotel phone, "Okay, what was her number again? Was it two-six-eight-four or six-nine-three-four?"

"Nah, its four-zero-three-nine," Vinyl Scratch tells Dash, laughing, "I think that applejack messed with your brain!"

Rainbow Dash just shrugs in response and starts dialing. Due how inebriated (drunk) I had been last night, I could hear the ringing and the pick-up from where I was on the other side of the room. The conversation went like this:

*Hello?*

"Twilight? Is that you?"

*No, it's Spike. Can't you tell?*

"Spike, can you get Twilight? Where is she anyway?"

*We were just eating breakfast. Where are you?*

"That's great, can you put Twilight on?"

*Sure, I guess. TWILIGHT! RAINBOW DASH IS ON THE PHONE!*

"Tell her to hurry."

*RAINBOW DASH SAID TO, er, I mean, here's the phone.*

"Finally! You're slower than Spike!"

*Ha-ha, very funny Rainbow Dash. Now what do you need? For the other matter, where are you? You, Silver Tongue, and Vinyl Scratch disappeared a little after the drinking contest.*

"Er, well, about that… We're actually in Manehattan."

*MANEHATTAN!? How in Celestia's name did you get there?*

"We actually don't know, but we were hoping you could help us out?"

I roll my eyes at the evident pleading in her voice.

*I guess. Where are you specifically? I'm going to teleport there.*

"Thank you, thank you, Twilight! You're a great friend. We're in Room 114 of the Hotel Casco."

*Ugh! Good bye, Rainbow Dash.*

"Bye!" Rainbow Dash hangs up, which is when Twilight appears in the room with a sudden burst of magic.

"I can't believe you ended up in Manhattan!" Twilight admonishes us, "I'd understand if it was Canterlot, since that's closer, but you ended up in Manehattan! That's more than twice the distance! How'd you manage that?"

Blushing in embarrassment, I nervously glance around the room. Not Rainbow Dash. Oh, no. She just shrugged and smiled.

"Come on, Twilight, you know me," Rainbow Dash replies, "And besides, what does it matter anymore? We should just get home."

"You're right, we should get going," Twilight mutters, "Wait, why do you have Vinyl's goggles on, Silver Tongue?"

I roll my eyes behind the dark lenses. "I still have a hangover, and I guess I've had them on since last night. I woke up with them on."

"Fine then," Twilight says, not looking amused, "but I'm not dropping it. We are continuing this conversation when we get to Ponyville. Now everypony get closer."

We get closer to Twilight and she performs the teleportation spell, but from the corner of my eye, I see Vinyl Scratch tossing some bits onto the bed.

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"I'm so sorry Princess Celestia," I say for the eighth time, "I should have controlled myself last night. I guess I can't resist a challenge."

The princess simply chuckles again, "I don't hold that against you, Silver Tongue. Everypony has moments of weakness. Even I do."

I look up at her, not really believing her. "You do?"

"I have times when I can't resist a little sugary snack," Celestia confides, "There was a little piece about it in a newspaper."

I can feel my eyes pop open and my eyebrows shoot up. "Wha-what?!"

"Even a princess can get caught when she lets her guard down," Celestia calmly tells me, "You shouldn't get embarrassed over such a small thing. I'm simply happy you were able to have fun."

I blush, embarrassed again, and ultimately sure it was showing through my red coat. I open my mouth to speak again, but one of Celestia's guards interrupts me.

"Your majesty, it seems there has been an upheaval of sorts between two of the noble families," the guard reports, "I suggest we depart immediately in order to sort out whatever disagreement happened."

Celestia smiles at the guard, "Yes, we should. Go get the chariot ready, and I'll meet you there post haste."

"Thanks for visiting and sorting all this out princess," Twilight says politely, "We really appreciated it."

Geez, Twilight, subtle much? I roll my eyes behind the glasses I was still wearing. I know she's the princess, but read between the lines! She obviously wants you to be less formal with her.

Celestia says some brief goodbyes and then meets her guards at the chariot, leaving Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch, and me alone in the library. Just staring at each other I might add. We all (Vinyl Scratch aside) clearly felt awkward and didn't know where to start the inevitable conversation of what happened last night.

"Hey, Twilight, did ya find where they were yet?" Applejack says, walking into the library's front door, "Rainbow ain't answering her phone, oh. There you are!"

I offer an uncomfortable smile, still not wanting to be the first to speak up into the silence between us.

"So, uh, where'd you guys get off tah?" Applejack says, clearly feeling the vibe in the room, "Everyone was worried 'bout ya."

At that point, Twilight, who couldn't stand the atmosphere anymore, just suddenly explained everything in a rush, "Apparently when they left the library last night they somehow ended up in Manehattan, none of them know what happened, but they woke up at the Hotel Casco all in the same bed, together!"

Applejack, who probably didn't catch all that, answered with a, "Wait, what?"

After that, Twilight face-hoofed and went up into her bedroom, probably tired from all that had happened this morning.

Then there were four… I think to myself bitterly, still whirling from the worst hangover EVER!

"Whatever's gotten into Twilight?" Rarity asks from behind Applejack, "What did you say, Applejack?"

"Why do you think I did it?" Applejack counters, "There's three other ponies here too! All I asked was where they went off to!"

Rarity sighs, most likely not wanting to pursue this conversation, "Well, then, where did you disappear to? I'd like to know as well."

Once again, awkward silence reins it ugly head... Rainbow Dash starts to glance between Vinyl Scratch and I, but obviously wasn't going to say anything, and Vinyl Scratch, well, looked like she didn't care at all.

"Fine," she says, surprising everypony in the room, "I guess I'm gonna have to explain then."

Sitting down to get more comfortable, Vinyl Scratch starts to explain, "When we woke up this morning, we were in Manehattan. We don't know how or what happened."

"Manehattan!?" Rarity exclaims, "That's so far! How did you ever get there? You certainly didn't walk there!"

Pushing up the glasses on my face, I figure now's a good of time as ever to talk, but before I could speak, Rainbow Dash starts, "We don't know. We just woke up this morning at the Hotel Casco, well, in bed together."

She didn't necessarily sound disgusted or embarrassed, but she definitely sounded like she really didn't want to say that. When I felt that "the silence" was gonna happen again, I open my mouth to speak, but what happened next could be rated the worst memory that could ever happen to me.

"I JUST HEARD YOU FOUND THEM!" Pinkie Pie yells as she bounces into the library, "DID YA FIND OUT WHERE THEY WENT?"

She probably said something else, but the sudden bombardment of loud sound hit my hung-over brain in such a way that I immediately, and painfully I might add, passed out into sweet, sweet nothingness.

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'We have to keep moving, keep the hellhounds off the groups trail… its starting to get too hard to push forward, but both Lisa and I are dedicated to protect them.'

"Julie, their coming from the right!' Lisa calls to me, 'How are we gonna hold them off? What are we gonna do when we have to rest?"

I grimace at the idea of those things picking me from their teeth.

"Don't think of that! The group is probably at the safe zone already! We just gotta shake 'em loose 'em and we'll be fine!"

Not even I, the one who spoke the words, felt that it was true, but nonetheless, we needed something to hold onto for hope. The hope that we'd get out of this. Unfortunately for us, this time neither of us was rested and both of us already had the damned beasts poison coursing through our veins, and Lisa was already lagging behind.

"Go ahead of me!" Lisa calls to me, causing me to stop and look back at her, "You can get to safety! Leave me!"

Her last reserves of strength had just run out, and she was lying, gasping, on the muddy ground as the rain poured over us. I shook my head in response.

"I'm not leaving you Lisa!" I tell her, kneeling down next to her, "Let's face it. We're going. Might as well stay together for our last goodbyes, huh?"

I was crying, but the rain was thankfully concealing the tears. Our last minutes in this world, however torturous, were thankfully spent protecting the others in our group.

"I'm gonna miss mom," Lisa says quietly, "And Cindy and Erica and everyone else, but most of all I'm gonna miss how life was before all this." She gestures around us; the hellhounds were already surrounding us.

Coughing, I nod, "Remember how we'd spend like every waking moment together? Remember how mom used to say, 'When I'm gone, you only have your sisters, so you need to nice to each other.'"

My eyes were slipping closed; I could feel my heart giving out to the poison. It felt weird, dying, but I didn't regret anything I did in my life.

Just before I slipped into oblivion, I hear Lisa say, "Yeah, me too."

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"How many times do I gotta say I'm sorry?" Pinkie Pie is saying, "How would I know she couldn't hold her liquor?"

My head felt blissfully pain free, but I still held my eyes closed. That dream, it felt so real… Was it?

"Pinkie Pie, a lady does not say, 'hold her liquor'," Rarity admonishes Pinkie, "And it doesn't matter how many times you say that your sorry to us, we aren't the ones who are unconscious."

"I think she's awake," Vinyl Scratch points out to everypony else.

"How do you know?" Twilight asks her, I can feel her standing very close to me, "I can't tell."

Vinyl Scratch laughs, also moving next to me, "Her nose is all wrinkled up." I can imagine she's pointing at my muzzle. "It's cute actually. Keep pretending to be asleep Silver."

Groaning, I sit up and rub the back of my head with a hoof. "I had the weirdest dream."

Everyone was standing around me, the looks on their faces showing different degrees of concern. I was in a bed that I figured was Twilight's, but wasn't entirely sure since there was another one across from me.

"What was it about?" Rainbow Dash asks me, "Was it about how we got to Manehattan? Cause we already found out."

Rainbow Dash hands me a newspaper. Reading the headline, it says, "IT SEEMS THESE PONIES HAD ENOUGH". Below it was a picture of Rainbow Dash, as well as, Vinyl Scratch and me, but that wasn't it. How we were situated was it. Rainbow Dash was flying, positioned near the center of the photograph, in her front hooves was Vinyl Scratch, who was just hanging there and from the look on her face, she was either singing or feeling "under the weather" and there I was. Sitting on top of Rainbow Dash's back, I had my mouth stretched into a huge grin and my forelegs being held out to the sides, looking like I was having a very good time I might add.

"Where'd this come from?" I ask them, and then read the picture's caption, "'From the look of these ponies, Pinkie's party has changed from a welcoming bash to a getaway Dash.' Ugh, that wasn't even a good pun!"

Looking at Twilight I see her rolling her eyes, "That's not the point, Silver, and I actually think whoever wrote this was waiting outside the library. There's an entire collection of ponies leaving the party."

I turn through the pages, looking at the pictures. Only one, however, caught my eye. On the last page, barely discernible from the other pony in the picture, was Applejack and me.

"I think you missed one," I mention, though not really wanting to, "Maybe that drinking contest wasn't such a good idea…"

I laugh, but it comes out in an obviously forced manner, and point a hoof at the lower right corner of the photograph. Twilight leans in, probably trying to get a closer look, and as soon as she sees what I was pointing at, her jaw drops.

"I-I'm glad you think so Silver," she replies, "I wha-was wondering when you were going to cuh-come around."

Applejack looks at us like we were crazy. "What in the hay are you two yammering on about? Let me see that."

Applejack snatches the paper from me and looks at the last page, her eyes moving as she took in the photos.

"Which one are you talking about?" she asks me, setting the paper down on the bed in front of me, "Is it this one?"

I shake my head, and then point to the correct one. "That one."

When Applejack looks at the picture, you can practically see her brain working. "I don't get it. What does Berry Punch have to do with… dear, sweet Celestia! I cain't believe it!"

Suddenly everyone was very close to me, trying to get a look-see of the picture and one-by-one each of them wore looks of surprise on their faces. What was the picture of? You're about to find out.

"Holy hay!" Pinkie says, laughing for some reason, "You two are really going at it! Not even Lyra and Bon-Bon kiss like that!"

Once again, I feel lucky for my red coat, for no one knew just how strongly I was blushing. Applejack, on the other hoof, was turning as red as my coat.

"Now stop everypony," Rarity cuts in, "They're obviously already embarrassed enough as it is, we don't need to make it worse. Besides, we still have the other matter that has yet to be resolved, and I don't have all day mind you."

Twilight clears her throat, "She's correct. Now I've, uh, Pinkie found a memory spell that I can use to help you three find out what happened last night. According to this, you should sit or lay down so as to not injure yourself when the spell is cast."

"Got it!" Vinyl says then lies on the bed next to me, "Ready!"

I open my mouth to say something, but, once again, I'm interrupted, but not by someone talking. This time, I was interrupted by Rainbow Dash landing rather forcefully down onto the mattress.

Laughing as she settles onto the bed as well, Rainbow Dash says, "Ready too."

Twilight looks to me, but I just lay back and close my eyes, ready for whatever was going to happen.

"Okay, here goes nothing," Twilight mutters.

Nothing happens for several moments, but then I suddenly feel very sleepy. Maybe it's the spell… whatever, I'mma go to sleep for a little…

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"Where are you *hic* guys going?" Pinkie Pie asks us, a silly smile on her face, "The *hic* party's just star-*hic*-ted."

I look over to her, but she was moving too much, so I moved my gaze away from her to the open door. The cool air feels great on my, uh, skin, I think…

"Come on, Silver," Rainbow says, "Time to go… uh, somewhere…"

I giggle, but can't help but wonder when Pinkie disappeared. "Gotcha Dashie! Hey, where's Vinyl?"

"She's right next to you," Dashie laughs, "What's up with ur head?"

I shrug, also laughing, "I dunno! Can't think… 'bout, uh, stuff!"

Vinyl starts laughing too and there we are- a bunch of drunk little fillies. "Hey! I got an idea! Let's go to Manehattan! That would be fun, right?"

Who spoke, I don't know, but next thing I know, I was on Rainbow Dash's back and we were flying. All together like the bunch of weirdoes we are.

"Hey Silver!" Rainbow Dash calls over her shoulder, "You should fly! Like, uh, make yourself wings or something!"

…

"Yay!" I yell out into the night air, "I'm flying!"

Vinyl laughs; now sitting atop Rainbow she's way more comfortable. "I wanna fly too! Make me wings!"

"I dunno how, Vinyl," I call back, me and Rainbow Dash were flying at like Mach 5 or something, we were very fast.

…

"Yeah, I'm like a preferred customer here since like a year ago," Vinyl Scratch tells the front desk clerk, "Just need a room for tonight. I'm sure my tab can handle in, or something."

Rainbow Dash busts out laughing, "You got Miss DJ P0N3 in your midst! Give us your room!"

I start laughing too, still too cider silly to be coherent. "When we get there, I'mma go straight to bed."

"Same here," Vinyl Scratch says, "What 'bout you Dashie?"

Rainbow nods, and then starts laughing again.

…

"Why can't I lay down up there?" Vinyl Scratch whines, "I'm cold!"

Rainbow Dash pretends to sleep by snoring, and I giggle.

"Get under the covers then!" I tell her, kicking the blanket at the end of the bed loose, "There you go."

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"What the hay was that?" I hear someone say.

Opening my eyes, the first thing I see is Rainbow Dash and Vinyl Scratch sitting up on the bed looking at Twilight.

"Well, it was a memory spell, so… it probably put… you in… your memories?" Twilight gives a sheepish smile.

"You don't what the spell would do, did you?" I hear come from my mouth (though I don't remember moving my mouth), "What if we got stuck in a memory loop?"

Twilight opens and closes her mouth, trying to grasp what that mean. "Oh… Wait, how do you know what a memory loop is?"

"I don't," I reply, "I just threw two words together that made sense. Guess I'm pretty smart, huh?"

Twilight rolls her eyes, but then asks the question that everypony has been waiting for. "So… did anything happen at the hotel?"

Vinyl Scratch and Rainbow Dash looks at me, and then I look at them. We were pretty much telepathically sharing a secret and it was great!

I choose to answer, with a smile on my face I might add, "Nothing happened. We just flew to Manehattan, got a hotel to stay at, and fell asleep. Right, Dashie?"

Rainbow Dash gets the hint and replies, "Sure thing, Silver."

"Oh, come on!" Pinkie exclaims, "So not fair!"

Twilight begins to tell Pinkie off or something, but then my stomach growls interrupting her. "Maybe we should get something to eat before we continue this."

Agreeing, everyone moves out of the bedroom down the stairs.