Return to familiar grounds

Ebony sighs as she looks around. 'So this is what it feels like to come home.' she thinks. It had been awhile since she had been here, after leaving to go to other towns. Looking around, she noticed that not many things had really changed.

A pony stumbled by, her eyes lazily looking about, both lost and confused. She did not seem to notice Ebony as she slowly moved by, mumbling in an irritated manner as she looked around like a lost pony. This unicorn happen to have a cast around her horn that looked a few days fresh. She stopped and pulled a flask out of her mane and took a sizable chug before putting it away.

It wasn't until then she noticed Ebony. Giving her a lazy and wide look over, she mumbled a few things to herself and belched.

"...Flying ponies and their wingsh. Bunch of lightweightsh...."

Ebony turns and looks at the pony that walks by, raising an eyebrow, seeing the unicorn take a large drink of something she didn't even want to think about. "What are you muttering?" she asks, turning to the unicorn, wrinkling her nose at the belch. "What about flying ponies and our wings?"

Shala blinked at Ebony curiously, as if surprised that she heard or even noticed her. Rather confounded, she reached into her hair, and with some trouble, found her flask again.

Turning the flask up and downing more of the liquid, she tipped back, nearly falling over before stopping. Again, she looked at Ebony with confusion.

".....What?"

Ebony looks at the unicorn with a weird face. 'What's with this pony?' she thinks to herself. "You muttered something about flying ponies and our wings, remember?" she asks slowly, making sure she said it clearly enough so the unicorn would understand.

Shala looked up and around, as if prying the very depths of her mind like a philosopher searching for the meaning of life.

"....Uh...No?....Do i know you? I think i have seen pony wings before shomewhere...."

Ebony raises both eyebrows and shakes her head. "No I don't think so, this is my first time here in a while," she says, forgetting whole first ordeal. "Who are you anyway?" she asks, the question sounding ruder than intended.

She was in the middle of another sip of her flask when she was asked. She replied with a few coughs and spit before speaking.

"...Shala.....Woods..." She spoke slowly, as if her coughing fit had winded her. Shala gave up on standing and fell back on her flank to sit. Standing felt hard.

Ebony nods slightly, "It's nice to meet you, Shala," she says, holding out a hoof. "I'm Ebony."

Shala blinked at the outstretched hoof. She hesitated for a moment but eventually met it with her own with a shake.

"Oookay....Do...do you know where i can...can find the...liquor shtore? I seem to have losht it...."

Ebony raises her eyebrow and shakes her head. "No can't say I can. I don't drink so..." Looking around, Ebony looks to the buildings, not recognizing a few of them. "Sorry Shala."

Shala mumbled to herself, looking around. Without much a warning, she got up and nearly face planted into the ground before wondering aimlessly about, looking for her prize.

Ebony watches, biting back a laugh as the unicorn nearly hits the ground with her face. "You want some help?" she asks, slightly concerned for the ponies safety, but not showing it on her face.

Quill was walking through the square, his quill and scroll tucked under a wing, when he saw a tipsy looking unicorn, talking with a pegasus Quill had never seen before almost fall onto her face, he noticed a bottle that the unicorn had and assumed she had been drinking.

"Do you need some help?" Quill asked showing some concern on his face.

Ebony turns, hearing a voice, and sees another pegasus. "I think she'll be fine. She was like this when we started talking." Looking back to the unicorn, Ebony shakes her head. 'Why would anypony want to feel like that?' she asks herself.

Quill walked over, still concerned for the unicorn. As he got closser, he notices that the unicorns horn was bandaged.

"I wonder what's the story behind that?" Quill thought to himself. Out loud, he asked "are you sure? She looks like she can hardly stand." As Quill reached the two ponies, he noticed a repulsive, yet familiar smell. Defiantly alchohol.

Ebony starts to nod, then stops knowing she couldn't speak for the unicorn. "Well...maybe not, what should we do?" she asks, turning back to the pegasus. "Ummm..." she mutters, not knowing the colts name.

"Oh sorry, my name's Quill Tip." Quill said distractedly, he walked over to the intoxicated unicorn and tried to get her eyes to focus.

"Ma'am?" Quill said talking slowly and enunciating his words. "Do you need help?" He looked back at the other pegasus. "Do you know how she got this way miss...?" Quill realized that he didn't know the other pony's name.

Ebony watches Quill Tip carefully as he speaks with the unicorn. "Ebony Star," she says nodding to the colt. "She was drinking something in the flask she has on her." she answers, motioning to the flask.

"I need to find the liquor shtore!" She said suddenly swinging to face the new pony. She blinked and looked him over closely, another mysterious pony having appeared.

"Oh, Hello. Do you have any rum? I ran out. It always sheems to be gone."

To Ebony Star, Quill said "nice to meet you." He then turned to Shala and said "no I don't have any rum, not since..." Quill shuddered at the memories of dirty streets in Manehatten at night.

"Why would somepony do this to themselves?" Quill asked himself, out loud he said "listen to me, I think you've had enough to drink today, there's no use in buying more. No one wants to see you sprawed out on the road, passed out or dead, you need to get some rest."

Ebony nods in agreement with Quill, "I agree, you should go home and sleep that off, Shala." Looking to Quill, Ebony sees him shudder, "You alright?" she asks.

Shala's mood suddenly went from clueless drunk to aggravated and suspicious. She looked at the two ponies with narrow eyes.

"Oh...Your THOSE kind of p-ponies." *Hic* "No taste in real drinksh." She reached into her hair to find her flask but had trouble locating it. Unawares, it fell out onto the ground below her.

"You ponies and your dry tastes..." She mumbled, thinking she couldn't be heard. "Manehattan would teach you to *hic* drink."

Quill looked coldly at shala

"Lady, i've been to Manehatten. There were nights there when I would get so drunk I would end up stumbling around the street untill morning. That place made me realizing how deadly drinking is. Ponies there would stumble into a street and get hit by speeding carriages." Quill shuddered again. "I swore to never touch that stuff again as long as i live."

Ebony listens with wide as the the two pony's go at each other. She had never drank before, so she didn't know what to say to the two. 'I feel out of place in this arguement,' she thinks to herself, her eyes flicking back and forth between the two.