//------------------------------// // Day Eight // Story: One Of Those Days // by AstroStar //------------------------------// “We apologize for this delay,” the train conductor announced to the passengers on the train. “Due to the sudden appearance of a herd of sheep on the track ahead of us, we’ve been forced to stop. We’ll keep you advised when we will expect to be moving again.” The passengers in the carriage groaned, including one pink earth pony who slammed her face on her snack tray in complete frustration, nearly knocking her precious chocolate ice cream sundae to the floor in the process. “I give up,” Pinkie sighed. No matter where she went, no matter what she did, things kept getting worse.Last week at work had been bad, and her getaway trip to Manehattan had been even worse, so much so that she chose to return to Ponyville early while Applejack finished her business in the city. She just wanted to go home right now, but now a flock of sheep decided to get in her way. While she continued to wait, she began to realize that with Sugarcube Corner being closed yesterday, the store would be backed up with orders. What was worse was the delay was taking up valuable time she could have been spending in the store helping the Cakes get back on track. On top of that, Pinkie was sure that even when she finally made it back to Sugarcube Corner, there would be even more crazy customers just waiting to greet her when she got back to work. With a heavy sigh, she took a few bites of her chocolate sundae she bought back at the Manehattan station. She didn’t have the energy to handle things right now. Her sullen attitude was noticed by the chubby white stallion sitting right next to her. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he asked Pinkie, adjusting his thick-rimmed glasses, “You seem upset. Is everything all right?” Pinkie simply sighed. “No. I’ve had a bad week last week, and an even worse day yesterday. And now thanks to this delay I’m going to miss helping out for the morning rush and… I’m not really feeling up to it.” “Sounds like you need a pick me up,” the stallion replied, patting Pinkie on her back. “Luckily for you, I know a little bit about motivation!” “You know about motivation?” Pinkie asked. “Yessir! Motivation is my middle name!” The stallion smiled, “I’m a motivational speaker, and do my best to spread motivation to anypony who needs it. Even if I was divorced three times, lost custody of all my worldly possessions except my lamp, my bathrobe, and my paddle-ball, and now live in a run-down cart by the river,” his tone became harsh as he recounted his plight. Pinkie cringed a bit. “That’s… not really motivational.” “I KNOW, RIGHT?!?” the stallion shouted in Pinkie’s now-frightened face, “You should get motivated so you don’t end up like me! Now, what do want to be when you grow up, lady?” “Uh… I kinda already am grown up.” Pinkie slowly answered. “Well whoop-de-FRICKING-DO!!!” the stallion sneered, “I bet you’re all proud of yourself, being all grown up, having life rear its ugly head and just crush you and crush you until it decides to eat you up whole, and spit out your pathetic bones right into a run-down cart down by the river!” The stallion got into Pinkie’s face. “Do you even know what it’s like to have EVERY SINGLE DREAM AND PASSION of yours snuffed out before you even had the chance to prove yourself? Do you? DO YOU?!?” Pinkie shrunk back in fear at the stallion’s question. She remained silent as the stallion continued his rant. “If you don’t turn things around, life will get you. Oh, you may think you’re all fine right now, but when you least expect it, WHAM!!!” With a sudden burst of energy, he slammed his hoof onto Pinkie’s snack tray, shattering it and its snacks into tiny shards and pieces that tumbled to the floor. “Ugh, somepony’s gonna have to clean that up later,” the stallion muttered to himself. He turned back to Pinkie. “So, are you motivated, yet?” “I’m good!” Pinkie lied. The stallion smiled. “Another job well done. Now it’s your turn to motivate me!” “Wait, what?” “I need motivation too! I’m tired living in a run-down cart down by the river!” Pinkie slowly looked down at the remains of her treat on the floor. “….You can have the rest of my chocolate ice cream sundae…” “YES!!!” The stallion went to the floor and began to lick the remnants of the sundae off the floor and into his mouth. “MOTIVATION! SWEET, SWEET MOTIVATION!” Pinkie backed away slowly from the stallion and quickly asked the conductor if she could be reseated. ~~~~ By the time the early morning express finally arrived back in Ponyville, it was already lunchtime. Pinkie quickly made her way from the station, away from whatever was up with that motivation pony and headed back towards Sugarcube Corner. Just as she expected, the store was right in the middle of its lunch rush. What surprised her was the line had stretched out the door and down the street. She had been expecting a backup, but even she was surprised to see how long the line was. Pinkie snuck her way towards the back of the building and entered through the kitchen door where she saw Mrs. Cake dashing back and forth across the kitchen desperately trying to fill all the orders as they came in. “Mrs. Cake! I’m back!” Pinkie shouted. “Pinkie!” Mrs. Cake shouted, overjoyed that help had miraculously arrived. “Welcome back! How was your trip?” Pinkie’s eye twitched. “Don’t bring it up ever again,” she warned in a low voice. Mrs. Cake backed away a bit from Pinkie’s sudden dark expression. “How about I catch you up on the day so far, instead?” The older mare then began to fill Pinkie in on what she missed while she was out. With the store closed yesterday, several ponies came in first thing today to place requests for parties and other receptions. In fact, there were so many requests that the store’s schedule had been completely booked for this week and the week after that! To make matters worse, Pumpkin and Pound Cake were due for a doctor’s checkup later today, which will only help in delaying their already backed up schedule even farther. The sheer amount of orders on top of the store’s regular activity at the front was enough to make Pinkie’s head spin. It was going to be a while before she could fully relax from the sheer insanity she had experienced over the past few days. It wasn't going to be easy, but the Cakes really needed help right now, and that was the only thing that mattered. With that thought, Pinkie went over to the front store counter to relieve the overwhelmed Mr. Cake. It took Pinkie a few seconds to get settled back behind her counter before she took the next customer. “Hello sir! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner. How may I help you?” “I’ll have 15 plain glazed donuts,” the customer ordered. “That’ll be 15 bits.” The customer reached over into his saddlebag and placed five bits on the counter. “Excuse me, sir? That’s only five bits. You’re still 10 bits short,” Pinkie explained. “No, I’m not,” the customer smirked. “I gave you fifteen bits.” Pinkie shook her head. “No, you didn’t. These are five one-bit coins.” She pointed to the five coins on the counter. “Actually, these coins are 20 years old now,” the customer explained. “And thanks to the rate of inflation, one bit then is worth 3 bits now. Therefore, these five 20-year-old coins are three bits each,” he smiled smugly. Pinkie frowned for a few seconds, before giving off a smug smile of her own. “Ok, if we’re going by the money standards of 20 years ago, that’s what we’ll do!” She grabbed a calculator from under the counter and began to press a few buttons. “So if one bit back then is worth three bits now, then you owe….45 twenty-year-old bits!” Pinkie smiled innocently. The customer blinked. “What?” “If you’re using money from twenty years ago, then you need 45 bits today for the order that was worth 15 bits twenty years ago.” Pinkie explained. The customer’s smug smile had melted away into a groan of frustration. “On second thought… I’ll just stick with the original price.” ~~~~ Sometime later, a snobbish looking unicorn took a quick glance at her watch while watching Pinkie frantically make her strawberry milkshake. She had placed her order several minutes ago and was still waiting for her drink. “Could you hurry it up a bit?” the customer grumbled. “I’m in a big hurry!” “I’m sorry ma’am, but we’re backed up right now,” Pinkie apologized. “Please be patient with us. We’re going as fast as I can, ma’am.” She pointed over to Mr. and Mrs. Cake dashing back and forth from the kitchen to deliver orders to the right customers. “Hmmph. Another worthless excuse,” the businessmare scoffed. “Don’t you even know how to do your job?” An older stallion, waiting for his daffodil sandwich to come out of the kitchen, overheard the rant and decided to cut in. “Come on. These fine folks are doing their best. Leave them alone.” “Don’t tell me what to do!” the customer snapped in the elder stallion’s face. “Do you know who I am? I’m the new Senior Accounts Manager at Bank of Equestria!” She emphasized her statement by producing a freshly-printed business card from her pocket. The stallion arched an eyebrow as he inspected the card. “You work for Bank of Equestria? I find that interesting.” The customer groaned. “Listen, sir! I’m a very important pony and my time is valuable. I’m not going to waste it on a pathetic whelp like you.” “You might want to reconsider what you just called me,” the stallion warned. “Why should I?” Shaking his head to himself, the stallion produced a business card of his own, one looking remarkably similar to the one the businessmare produced seconds ago. She took one look at the card and froze in horror after she read the stallion’s title. “I’m the Senior Accounts EXECUTIVE at Bank of Equestria,” he explained. “In other words, I’m your new boss.” ~~~~ The lunch rush passed, and the front of the store settled back into calm once again, even though Mr. and Mrs. Cake was still hard at work in the back working off the store’s order backlog. Pinkie took a moment to breathe now that the storefront was no longer busy. The moment, however, was interrupted by a familiar wall-eyed grey pegasus entering the store, stopwatch in her forehoof. “90 seconds! GO!” Derpy suddenly announced, activating the stopwatch in the process. Pinkie quickly shook off her surprise at Derpy’s entrance and greeted her. “Hello, Derpy! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie smiled. “It’s nice to see you today, Pinkie,” Derpy smiled back. “How’s it going?” “Just getting through the day as best I can,” Pinkie shrugged. “Kick that bad attitude to the curb! You can do it!” Derpy cheered. “Love that motivation! Should I even ask what I can get for you today, Derpy?” “Muffins!!!!” “No surprise there. What kind of muffins you want?” “Oh, I don’t know. What do you suggest, Pinkie?” “Perhaps you’d like to try our new Cinnamon Sugar Muffin?” “Quite the suggestion you have there. Is it good?” “Really good, Derpy! Mr. Cake came up with the recipe himself.” “Sounds like a winner, Pinkie. I’ll take two!” “Two Cinnamon Sugar Muffins coming right up!” “Unique muffins this time around if I do say so myself.” “Very unique! We’re trying out new things in the kitchen.” “Wow!I can’t wait to try them all!” “You won’t believe what kind of flavors we’re trying out.” “Zucchini?” “Actually… I don’t think we’ve even thought about using Zucchini.” “Better start coming up with that one, then!” “Can’t quite think of a good recipe right now.” “Don’t worry about it, Pinkie. I can help. I’m a bit of a muffin fanatic.” “Everypony knows that.” “Fine, but I still want to help.” “Great! I’ll let the Cakes know, Derpy.” “Happy to help! And…. Time!” Derpy stopped the timer. “How’d we do?” Pinkie asked anxiously. “73 seconds!!!” Derpy smiled. “YES! New record!” Pinkie cheered. “You were right, Derpy. This 90-second alphabet game is really fun!” “It is! But… I got confused a bit back there,” Derpy admitted. “I started with H, right? Shouldn’t you have had the last line?” “Wait, let me think,” Pinkie replayed the last sequence of events in her head. “We started with ‘H’. I said ‘Hello’, you said ‘It’s nice to see you’ that was ‘I’…” Her face fell in shock as she finally realized the error. “Oh no! We forgot the letter X again!” “Not again!” Derpy groaned. “That’s the fourth time this month!” “We’ll try again next time,” Pinkie smiled.“I’m going to start on the letter ‘I’, right?” “You got it, Pinkie! But… Can I get my muffin now, please? I'm really hungry.” Derpy asked. “Oh yeah! I forgot! Sorry!” Pinkie smiled innocently. ~~~~ The sun began to make its hours-long trek from the very height of the sky to the western horizon. It was right around this time that the afterschool crowd came in. Pinkie was preparing the popular ice cream flavors for the foals when two earth fillies entered the store. “Hi Apple Bloom! Hi Diamond Tiara!” Pinkie smiled as she waved hello to the two newfound friends. “What can I get for you today?” Before Apple Bloom could make her order, Diamond Tiara placed a few bits on the counter. “We’ll have two rocky road ice creams, on me.” “You don’t have to do that, Diamond,” Apple Bloom assured her. “Please, Apple Bloom. Let me do this,” Diamond Tiara insisted. “I’m still barely 30% of the way through making up for the way I acted to you, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.” Apple Bloom nodded in agreement. “You were pretty bad back then,” "I know," The sour memories of her bullying past made Diamond Tiara sigh. “I can’t believe how stupid I was back then. Mother kept on telling me that was the way proper ponies like me should treat those who weren’t at our level. How was I supposed to know better?” “Ah’m just glad you’re not mean anymore, Diamond,” Apple Bloom smiled. “Me too! Too bad I still have to deal with mother, though.” Suddenly a familiar haughty voice erupted from just outside the storefront. “Diamond Dazzle Tiara!” The three ponies cringed as Diamond’s mother, Spoiled Rich, thundered her way rather harshly into the store. “Speaking of which, here comes Ponyville’s Mother of the Year right now,” Pinkie muttered under her breath. Spoiled Rich went up to her daughter, brazenly shoving Apple Bloom out of her way in the process. “There you are!Why didn’t you come straight home after school?” she frowned. In the past, Diamond Tiara winced in fear whenever her mother took this harsh tone on her. Nowadays, she found herself groaning in frustration. She was getting tired of dealing with her mother. “I was just treating Apple Bloom to some ice cream.It’s not a big deal,” she simply explained. Spoiled Rich’s jaw dropped. “You were wasting your money… our family’s money… on that THING?” “Ah have a name, you know!” Apple Bloom shouted. Spoiled Rich ignored her. “Enough of this foolishness. Tell this ‘Blank Flank’ goodbye, right now!” Diamond Tiara facehoofed. “She got her cutie mark last year, for crying out loud!” Spoiled Rich scoffed. “Hardly relevant. Besides, you’re missing the point. Ponies like us don’t yield to lesser ponies, EVER! Our status is a symbol that must be recognized and acknowledged throughout all of Equestria!” Unbeknownst to Spoiled Rich, Diamond Tiara silently mouthed her mother’s spiel as she said it for what seemed like the thousandth time. “Believe me, mother. I know,” the pink filly groaned. “Do you, really?” Spoiled rich asked. “If you do, then you’d better give that rube what she deserves.” Diamond Tiara opened her mouth to rebut her mother request but fell silent for a few seconds. Seemingly resigned to the situation, she just sighed. “You know what, mother? You’re right. I think it is time Apple Bloom gets what she deserves.” Spoiled Riched smiled a small, malicious smile. “That’s my girl,” Apple Bloom backed away a bit as Diamond Tiara closed in on her. “Apple Bloom?” Diamond Tiara asked. Apple Bloom gulped.“Yes, Diamond?” The farm filly prepared herself for whatever nasty spats might have been coming her way. What she, nor anypony else watching was expecting was Diamond Tiara gently taking hold of her forelegs, a loving smile painted on her face. “Will you be my very special somepony?” Diamond Tiara warmly asked the farm filly. “Oh... my…” Apple Bloom gasped. She promptly held Diamond Tiara in a loving embrace. “YES, DIAMOND TIARA! YES!!!” Overjoyed, the two fillies held on to their embrace before lovingly rubbing their muzzles together. The moment caused Pinkie Pie’s jaw to drop completely to the floor. Meanwhile, the smug smile on Spoiled Rich’s face quickly melted away into pure abject horror. Once the two separated, Apple Bloom went up to the mortified Rich. “Looks like I’ll be hanging around more often, mother,” she grinned. Spoiled Rich screamed in terror before running out of the store at full gallop. The two fillies watched the fleeing pony for a few seconds, then they both fell on to the floor, laughing long and hard. “Did ya see the look on her face?” Apple Bloom laughed. “Especially when you called her mother!” Diamond Tiara snorted in delight. “She’ll never forget that one!” After a few more seconds of raucous laughter, the two shared a congratulatory hoof bump. “Ah guess it’s safe to say mission accomplished, right?” Apple Bloom asked. “Misson Accomplished!” Diamond Tiara nodded. “Thanks for helping me get back at her, Apple Bloom.” “It was worth it to see that look on Spoiled Rich’s face,” Apple Bloom grinned. “Wait,” Pinkie Pie spoke up, “Was all that just a prank?” “Of course!” Diamond Tiara nodded. “And… you two aren’t...” Pinkie couldn’t quite find the words to finish her sentence. Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nope! We just did that to scare up Spoiled Rich a bit. It was Diamond Tiara’s idea. Ya gotta admit it was funny to see Spoiled Rich unnerved like that,” Despite herself, Pinkie giggled “It was funny now that I think about it, but that was still just mean of you, Diamond.” Diamond Tiara shrugged and smiled an innocent smile. “Old habits die hard, I guess.” ~~~~ “Hello, sir! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted the yellow-maned green unicorn stallion “I’d like to order a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake and a chocolate cupcake to go, please?” he ordered. Pinkie took a moment to register what the customer said.“Ok… so four chocolate cupcakes,” she confirmed. The customer shook his head. “I didn’t order that! I said I want a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake.” “So… four chocolate cupcakes.” Pinkie tried to confirm again. The customer groaned in frustration. “Ugh, why is this so hard for you to understand? One more time. I want a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake.” Pinkie had no idea how her version differed from the customer’s version, but she just chose to go along with whatever the stallion had in mind. “So you want a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake.” “Yes! Finally!” the customer sighed in relief. “Why was that so hard to understand?” A short second before she started explaining herself, Pinkie decided to shrug this one away before she thought about it too hard. ~~~~ Around late afternoon, the Cakes made the decision to close up the store a couple of hours early to take care of the twins’ doctor’s appointment, as well as to help take care of some of the backlog of orders the store had to fulfill. While Pinkie began to store all the treats for the night, Mr. and Mrs. Cake emerged from upstairs carrying the twins with them. “All right, Pinkie. This trip to the doctors should take us about an hour if we’re lucky,” Mrs. Cake said. “Could you be a dear and finish the frosting for Matilda’s order? She’ll be here first thing tomorrow to pick it up.” “Will do, Mrs. Cake! By the way, how are we doing with Minuette’s custard party? She swung by this afternoon and asked about it.” Mr. Cake groaned. “We’re cutting it close. But if Octavia’s get together goes longer than expected, we won’t have enough for Minuette’s party.” Pinkie sighed. “I was afraid of that. I even tried to get her to change the date, but she just wouldn’t have it.” While the three continued to discuss all the upcoming orders, the store’s front door creaked open just enough to let a voice carry through. “Hello, Pinkie? Are you still open?” Pinkie instantly recognized the voice belonging to one of Ponyville’s newest residents, Starlight Glimmer. “You just caught us in the nick of time, Starlight,” Pinkie said. “We were just getting ready to close up for the day.” “I was wondering why Sugarcube Corner was shutting down early today. What’s going on, Pinkie?” “For starters, we’re completely overbooked on parties right now,” Pinkie told Starlight. “You are?” Starlight said. “Because I was going to ask your help to throw a party for Sunburst’s visit next week.” Mrs. Cake grimaced at the request. “I’m sorry Starlight, but we just don’t have time. In fact, we barely have time for all the orders we need to fill right now. The next opening we have available for a party won’t be until the Tuesday three weeks from now!” She emphasized her statement by pointing at the giant stack of orders she had placed on the table. Although disappointed that her request did not go as planned, Starlight was surprised at the number of orders yet to be filled. “Are you guys normally that busy around here?” Starlight asked. “It happens from time to time, but that’s just the way things are when you have responsibilities like we do,” Mr. Cake said. Starlight took a good look at Sugarcube Corner, the big stack of pending orders, and the Cake Twins. An idea started to form in her mind. Pinkie noticed the unicorn getting lost in her thoughts. “Starlight? What are you thinking?” “You know…” Starlight grinned, “I think I know a way that can give you more time to get things under control.” Mrs. Cake chuckled. “It would be nice if somehow we were given more time for all these orders.” “Then leave it to me!” Starlight said proudly. “More time, coming right up!” Without saying another word, Starlight shut her eyes to concentrate. Magical energy originating from her horn began crackling in the air. “Starlight? Are you sure this is a good ide...” Pinkie tried to ask. The question came too late. Starlight unleashed her spell causing a bright light to flash throughout Sugarcube Corner. When the light faded away, Starlight enthusiastically opened her eyes to see the results of her good deed. But when she took a gander at the results of her spell, her excited expression collapsed into horrified shock. “Uh oh…” Starlight cringed. ~~~~ It was a rather quiet day at the Castle of Friendship, and Twilight Sparkle was enjoying every second of it. The biggest crisis she had to deal with so far that day was a small tear that appeared in Spike’s picture of Rarity that sent the baby dragon panicking to repair it with no less than 20 rolls of tape. Beyond that, Twilight took the opportunity to indulge in one of her favorite hobbies, sorting the books in the reading room. She had begun to put away the ‘J’ books when an anxious Starlight Glimmer entered. Her anxiety kicked into overdrive the second she saw her teacher. “Twilight! Hi!” Starlight laughed nervously, “How’s everything going today?” “Thankfully calm,” Twilight replied. “How was your day, Starlight?” “Oh, you know. Same old, same old!” Starlight let out a wooden, unnatural laugh. “Although… I may have made a slight error at Sugarcube Corner just now,” her innocent grin grew tighter. Twilight groaned. “What did you do this time?” Starlight motioned Twilight to follow her down the hallway towards her bedroom. As they walked, she took a deep breath and began to explain. “So… remember you specifically told me never to use spells I was learning on other ponies?” “Yes…” Twilight frowned. “Well, Sugarcube Corner was completely backed up and the Cakes said it would have been nice if they had more time. So I remembered this time spell that I thought could have helped but it turns out…” Twilight connected the remaining dots in the story. “You used a time spell on Pinkie?!?” she screamed. Starlight cringed at the sudden tone but nodded slowly. “And the Cakes… and the Twins.” “What happened, Starlight? Where are they?” “In my room,” Starlight pointed out. As the pair closed in on the door that led to Starlight’s bedroom, Twilight began to notice the tell-tale signs of crying foals coming from inside. The purple princess quickened her pace in front of Starlight and opened the bedroom door herself. Inside the room, a brown-maned pegasus stallion and an orange-maned unicorn mare were scrambling to take care of three frighteningly familiar newborn foals, one light blue, one light orange, and one bright pink.The stallion had the pink foal on a nearby table, in a failing attempt to change the foal’s diaper. The mare meanwhile was trying to rock the light blue foal to sleep in her hooves while at the same time feeding the orange foal using her magic. “Hold still, Pinkie. You still need a fresh diaper.” the stallion told the pink foal as he struggled with the garment. After another failed attempt, he turned to his twin sister. “Pumpkin? How do these stupid diapers work? I can’t get this thing on at all!” “You were wearing one 30 minutes ago, Pound! Figure it out!” the mare shouted back. She then turned her attention to the two foals in her care. “Hold on, mom. Hold on, dad. Somepony will fix this! I hope…” Twilight turned a furious glare at Starlight. “Hey! At least I didn’t cause Equestria to turn into a barren wasteland this time, right? Heh heh…” Starlight meekly offered.