//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: Order Up 
// Story: Bubble Berry's Bakery 
// by Bright Light 
//------------------------------//

Streetlights lit up the dirt path of downtown Ponyville. While during the day, the streets were bustling with busy ponies doing errands or going to work, the town was silent except for the loud rain pouring down on the ground. Care Package, a young stallion just got out of work from his job at the post office. It was a late night and his head pounded as he pushed himself forward through the town under the rain. 

Being a pegasus, he would of flown, but, a recent accident had caused him to only be able to work in the mail room until he healed. As he lightly jogged through the rain his ears heard something past the patter of water, hoof steps. He stopped to look around to only see that he was alone. He continued on his path until he heard it again. The clip-clop of hooves coming right towards him, this time louder. Care Package ran faster and heard the hooves speed up as well, this time coming right near him. He turned around and stopped to see. Still, absolutely no one.

He hurried himself along in the direction of the city hall. He was running into an intersection when suddenly the echo of scrapping metal shrieked into his ears. A knife stabbed forward into his side. Care Package felt the burning blade rip into his flesh, he pulled himself away and cried out. He started to cough as he ran, and blood spurted from his mouth, he felt like he was drowning. The smell of copper was in the air.

The sound of hooves echoed behind him coming closer and closer, he tried to look back at what, or who caused him injury. He made a mistake and he ran into a dead end between two buildings.  Care's throat burned and he panted looking for some kind of opening or door. He tried moving some trash bins out of the way to perhaps hide behind them but he just ended up smearing his blood onto the cans. Care Package looked to the entrance of the alleyway and saw a pink stallion.  The soaking conditions from the rain flattened out his hair, from the once puffy and curly mane that every-pony was used to. 

“Berry? Bubble Berry? P-Please, you got to help me! I just got stabbed by someone! ” The cut-up stallion begged gasping for air as he ran up to the friendly pink pony . 

“Care Package, Care Package. Ssshshh it's okay. I'm your best friend, right? I'll help you. ” Berry talked in soothing, comforting voice and took Care Package's hoof. "Trust me." Berry gave a soft smile to him. 

Care Package felt claws of dread grip at his gut when Berry suddenly pulled Care Package in close. The burning sting of a blade ran across his neck. Care Package cried out but it was distorted by his gurgling of blood. He backed away clutching the wound. 

"That's what friends are for. Right?" Berry said in the same calm tone coming closer to Care who gasped for air. He fell backwards onto his flank and pushed himself away until he bumped into the brick wall behind him. 

"We'll always have a very special friendship beyond anypony else." Berry raised his knife up above Care. 

"I promise."

The pink hoof came down onto the call bell. 

“Order up!” Said the cheerful pink pony holding a plate with a large cupcake sitting on top. 

“One large red-velvet cupcake!” A mare approached the counter and took the pastry. This morning, the crowd in the Sugar Cube Corner was exceptionally large, but this was normal for Berry. He breezed through handing out every order as if it were nothing. The line cleared as quickly as it formed. 

Back when Mr. and Mrs. Cake first hired Berry a few years ago, they helped out with a majority of the orders, register work, and busing tables. As the years went on, The Cakes had foals of their own. Berry was promoted to assistant manager and given the responsibility of cashier, serving pastry, busing tables, and having responsibility of baking and decorating small pastry. The Cakes handled larger pastry orders such as cakes, pies, and more complex deserts. At first, The Cakes were worried that Berry wouldn’t be able to handle such a tremendous workload. He happily accepted the extra work and served every customer with a beaming smile. 

“Have a good day!” Berry smiled to a customer trotting happily out of the shop with a box of a dozen donuts on his back. No one came into the shop for several minutes and it seemed the rush was over. Berry grabbed a towel out of the sanitary bucket under the counter and began wiping down the counter. Many ponies sat at the round tables, enjoying their pastries, milkshakes, and coffees. Some talked to each other while others were more quiet and read a book or the paper in the corners of the room. After finishing wiping off an empty table Berry approached a group of sitting younger colts.

“Hiya fellas, everything come out good?” Berry looked around at the younger colts. One had a mouthful of cupcake. 

“It’s great!”

“Yeah it’s good.” 

The boy with a mouthful of pastry simply nodded, unable to reply.

“You seem to really enjoy my cooking, huh Score?” Berry asked. The boy nodded again in response. Berry laughed. 

“Good, good. Well, you fellas enjoy!” Berry got right back into the groove of work. As many ponies left, the pink pony continued to tidy up. At around 2 o’clock, Berry flipped the open sign on the front door to closed. 

“Good work today, Berry. - Thank you, Berry.” Berry talked to himself as he wandered over to the counter and placed the broom back to its corner.

“Oh, hey Gummy!” The pink pony’s face lighted up as he saw the toothless alligator stand with his normal blank stare. 

“Wanna to come count my drawer with me?” Berry picked up the baby alligator and placed him on top of his head. Berry took his money out of the drawer and brought it over to his office. 

Well, he considers it his office. The room used to be a broom closet, but after Berry’s most recent promotion, The Cakes thought that it was appropriate that he get his own office. It was functional, to say the least. One oil lamp was bright enough to do most paperwork and counting bits without causing too much eye strain. The desk itself was an old end table and the chair wasn’t really a chair at all, it was a stool. A short one, probably for school-aged ponies, so Berry had to sit up straight at all times in order to be comfortable. He happily completed his work though. He only had to be in there for about twenty to forty-five minutes at a time. 

As Berry wrote some numbers down on a spreadsheet he looked over at Gummy. 

“What do you think, Gummy? It’s a good office for the amount of work I do.... Right?” Berry looked deeply into Gummy’s face. Gummy simply blinked. 

“Heh, thanks. You're always supportive of me.” Berry patted Gummy on the head with a smile. He reached into the register drawer and continued to count the bits. 

Then, somepony knocked on the door. 

“Oh!” Berry moved his table over and leaned his stool a bit back to open up the door. 

“Hi, Mr. Cake!” Berry greeted the short pudgy stallion when he walked into the “office”. 

“Hello Berry. Just wanted to say, you have been doing a fantastic job lately. Business is just super.” Berry knew when the Cakes started to compliment on his work they were going to ask for something from him. 

“Mrs.Cake and I have been talking and we’ve been thinking that it may be time to hire somepony new to the bakery.”

“You-You’re firing me?” Berry looked as if the cold grip of death grasped onto his soul. 

“Oh goodness! No, no, no, Berry!” Mr. Cake put a hoof on Berry’s shoulder. 

“Not yet anyway. I was just going to ask you if you knew anypony that might be interested in working at the bakery. As assistant manager, you have the power to interview and recruit new people into the shop if you want.” Berry’s face looked unsure about the whole thing. 

“I mean...No offense, Mister Cake. But, I like working alone. I think I’m good at working alone. It’s what I’m used to.”

“I understand your concern...” Mr.Cake replied in his customer service voice.  “When you joined this job and there were fewer customers there wasn’t a need for any other workers...but in the future, we’ve predicted that the number of customers will continue to rise.” 

“Hmm, that makes sense.” Berry nodded.

“If someone skilled is hired, who knows how to work the register and hand out the food, then you can spend more time cooking.” Mr.Cake pointed out

“Oh yes! Of course. I’ll get right on it, Mister Cake! ” Berry smiled to the pudgy stallion. 

"Great, get back to work. I'll see you tomorrow." Mr. Cake left. 

While Berry's pay was small compared to others. The Cakes had given him the perk of living under a roof with a warm bed. His room was on the second floor of the Sugar Cube Corner and, while small, was quite nice. The Cakes did not live in the Sugar Cube Corner and had their own house just a few blocks away from the Sugar Cube Corner. He had the normal bedroom amenities, but the most notable was the small widow's walk where Berry, like that night, could look out onto the horizon of Ponyville and take in the warm glow of an ending day. 
Berry took in a deep breath of the warm spring air and headed back inside. Gummy was asleep in his tiny bed. He went over to his mirror and looked at himself. He was quite average weight considering he worked at a pastry shop, he made a few funny faces to himself before going over to his bookshelf. On one of the selves was a rock and next to it was a framed picture of Berry and his family. It was taken just a month before Berry was about to leave for Ponyville. His brothers looked glum compared to the adolescent puffy haired pony that was smiling widely. His parents were looking at the camera sternly. Berry gave a sentimental smirk to the picture and took out a cupcakes cookbook. He opened it revealing a hidden compartment that contained a key. Berry took the key and exited his room with a cheerful bounce to his step. 

Berry entered into the basement and went down the stairs. He turned on the light above him. Walking over to the supply closet, he took out the key and used it to open the door. 

"I promised didn't I?" He smiled as he entered in, turning on the light.