Come Drown Your Sorrows in Pints of Mead

In the dingy din of the tavern, nopony paid attention to the skinny blue mare sitting at the bar. Her mane was slightly tousled and her eyes were black from exhaustion, but she wasn't drunk, nor was she excited, nor was she loud, nor was she angry. She sat in the corner, tucked away, a small drink sitting in front of her.

All of the sudden, she slammed her head into the counter and groaned. A few ponies looked her way, but when they saw that nothing else exciting was going on, they turned back to their company.

Calla Lily had been having a bad day. It was raining drops of water the size of golf balls, the manticore population of The Forest was quickly spiraling out of control, the dam had sprung a leak, her basement had flooded... and worst of all, her son was still missing.

Kid had disappeared a few weeks ago on an outing with his sister. She had turned her back to wave at her friends, but when she looked back for her too-tiny little big brother, he had vanished.

Nopony knew if he had run away or been ponynapped, but the whole neighborhood had exploded with frantic ponies looking for the sickly colt. Calla was terrified that little Kid, who was in poor physical condition, was injured, lying in a ditch somewhere, or worse: dead.

She had cried a lot in those first days, but crying had only given her a massive headache. Combined with all of the stress today... yeah, it was a bad day.

So, for the first time in her life, the usually cheery unicorn was sitting, sullen, in the tavern. A bottle of wine shared with her husband had done nothing to ease her pain, and she figured that now was the time to throw everything out of the window for the night.

Unfortunately, she couldn't bring herself to get intoxicated. She let the alcohol fuzz up her brain, but she wouldn't go further than that. She owed it to her filly, who she had left in an old friend's care for the night.

Brawny Hooves had been sitting with his wife Calla Lily in the Tavern with a couple bottles of wine for a while. They had been drinking to coupe with Kid's sudden disappearance. Brawny thought it wasn't the healthiest way to deal with problems, but they didn't know what to do.

Brawny had been staring down into his wine glass for a good while. Next to him were two or three empty glasses. He had barely touched this one. After a while of blank staring, a tear slipped from his eye and fell into the alcohol.

He was really heartbroken when he found out Kid had gone missing. He loved the little guy. He was such an awesome colt. Maybe they babied him too much? Maybe they just weren't good enough parents? Maybe Kid just wasn't used to having parents?

"I miss the little guy..."

Calla started crying in earnest, despite how hard she tried not to let the tears fall, but she made the moisture disappear before it his the smooth surface of the oak wood table.

"I don't know what I did wrong..." she murmured. "I thought I was doing it right! He was so happy... What if he's hurt, Brawny? My poor baby, all alone..."

She took a sip of her drink and leaned on his neck, letting his soft mane soak up the tears on her face instead of her magic.

It had been tough indeed. Nikki was taking it the worst, believe it or not. Her magic performance levels had dropped significantly, and she wouldn't talk to anypony. Not even her best friends. The little green unicorn was missing her brother so much that it hurt Calla to watch.

Brawny Hooves comforted Calla the best he could. He was never that skilled in emotional support. It wasn't as if Brawny wasn't feeling the effects of Kid's disappearance. It had hit him pretty hard too. A lot of times in the day he would sit in the house, almost dead.

Depression had caught everypony in the household. Brawny, Calla, Nikki, none of them were unaffected by this. Brawny wasn't known for crying, but he shed a few more tears when he held Calla closer to him.

"He'll be fine. We'll be fine. Everything will work itself out. And you're a perfect mother. I mean, you raised Nikki, right? Look how well she's turning out." Brawny sighed, and thought for a moment. "You know... We may need professional help at some point..."

Brawny wasn't a firm believer in therapy. It was expensive, and he believed it didn't do much to help ponies. It's nice to get help, but all they do is bleed you for an hour conversation. He was worried for his family, and would do anything to make sure they don't fall apart. He didn't spend years with Calla and Nikki to let it all die out

Calla sniffed, thinking about it.

"Well, there's Dr. Counsel in town, but I heard she's very busy and very unlikely to be able to take us. Then there's a few in Canterlot, but it's so far away... No, we can't, Brawny. We'll wait. He'll come back. He knows how much we love him... Right?"

She looked up, anger suddenly flashing in her eyes. 

"I can't believe it. We must have done something, Brawn's... Think..."

(shorty!)

Brawny was a bit startled by the look in Calla's eyes. She normally wasn't this angry. Or angry at all. He was almost afraid to talk to her. He still loved his wife, so he tried anyway. He might risk a missing limb or horrible brain trauma, but you never know. And he wasn't doing anything interesting anymore other than being a husband and father. He tried talking to her in his softest tone possible

"Calla, he's gone. Let it go. I doubt he'll ever come back. Not because of our parenting. Well we might of babied him a little, but he was never used to having family. And you saw how he acts. He lets himself starve when Nikki wants a snack. He probably felt that he shouldn't have a family when there's of ponies out there with no parents to take care of them. Or he didn't want to take all this stuff when lots of others can't have toys or food. Just face it... He's... He's..."

Brawny held Calla tight and started sobbing. It was a shock to see a big tough stallion like him crying. But his son was missing. Who wouldn't be heartbroken over that?

"I miss *sniff* him too Calla! I wish he came back! I wish I could hold him and love him forever! I lost my son!" He cried and wailed for so long that he noticed several of the ponies had already left the Tavern. After seeing that, he wiped his face with a napkin and ran out of tears.

"Maybe we should think about that doc in Canterlot..."

Calla cried with her husband, trying not to attract too much attention but failing utterly.

"I... I don't know... I thought we'd never reach that point, but, then again, I never thought we'd adopt! Life's getting to us, Brawns, and we're just past the primes of our lives! This is supposed to be a mid-life crisis, not an early one! I'm going to die early, and--" She cut off, horrified at what she had just said. "Gah! Listen to me! I think you may be right on this one. We need to have a talk with Nikki, too. We can't dampen her spirits now. Her dreams will be crushed! Much as she likes to preach it, she's really wrong about not caring about life anymore, and so are we."

She glowered. "We can contact the special forces in Canterlot, but I'm worried both that they won't find him, or they will. While we're at it, let's see the Faust damned therapist anyways."

Brawny Hooves cleaned his face of any tears, and quit his foal like sobbing. Calla sounded angry. That was something even he was afraid of. He'd be afraid of any angry Unicorn, really. Especially ones like Calla and Nikki. He held Calla close and hugged her a little tighter.

"Okay, we'll talk to Nikki when we get a chance. Trust me, we'll make it through this. We're strong. There were a lot of times where we could have just given up. Did we? No. Because you can do it. WE can do it!" Brawny kissed his wife, hoping it could make her happy.

"Maybe we need something to fill the little void. Like a dog, or, maybe another foal."

Calla nodded, looking at the ground.

"Yeah... sure... but, Brawny, you can't possibly think we could replace Kid, right? Not my poor, tiny little Kitty..."

She got off the barstool and dropped her bits on the counter. Frowning, she started out, intent on finding her daughter and talking some sense into the foal.

"Yes, I have to say something... but what could capture her attention? Any ideas?"

((SHORT))

Brawny Hooves had to admit he was dumbstruck at the moment. He had no idea how he could grab the attention of his daughter so that they can have a discussion with her about Kid. They couldn't just flat out say it. They would obviously have to ease into it. And neither of them were in the best condition to have a talk about the fragile little colt just yet.

"I'm not sure, Calla," he said, following her out. "But we should talk to her in the morning. We need rest. I'm surprised we haven't broken down yet." Brawny trotted out of the tavern, leading Calla back to their home. "I'm worried for little Nikki. I'm getting a creeping feeling that she might run away too..."

Calla shook her head almost groggily, feeling the effects of the alcohol finally getting to her.

"No, Brawns... don't think that, you're jinxing us..."

She groaned and trotted faster, wanting to get home and take a nap. Stress was tiring, and missing foals were as well. Silent fillies were bad, too. Yeah, it was time to give Nikki a very large hug and just go to bed.

Calla walked up to the door, tried to turn the knob, and then remembered that it was locked for a very good reason. Reason was apparently fleeting, however, because the simple problem just caused her to burst into tears again.

Brawny Hooves watched as his wife burst into tears after she forgot the door was locked. If she was that bad, then they really needed some form of help. Brawny sighed in sadness watching this beautiful and kind mare break down. He used his key to open the door and carried her inside.

He took her upstairs to their bedroom, almost bridal style, and laid her on the bed. He left a box of tissues next to Calla and fell into the bed next to her, holding and cuddling her close. He gave a quick smooch on the cheek and an "I love you" before closing his eyes

(I guess we're done. Woo!)