Milkshakes.
That’s what Cinnamon, Cookie, and Oakley were drinking at the Sweet Snacks Café. On their table were plates of crispy hayburgers and crunchy horseshoe-shaped fries coupled with bottles of cold, refreshing soda.
Outside their table, the diner was full of diverse customers. Now, it wasn’t just ponies though they were the slim majority. Griffons and hippogriffs were munching on their so-called “Classic Burgers” with the return of beef to the menu. However, they had to be discreet about it when in front of other ponies; those horses slightly recoiled at the smell of cooked, delicious meat.
Aside from the griffons and hippogriffs, a couple dragons and changelings were present. The dragons had their helping of anything from the menu since they were quite omnivorous: vegetables, meat, grain, gems, and bugs, though all of them shied away from that last one. This made the changelings quite delighted, having enough food ready to satisfy their unusual palate.
All of this was held together by the pony waitresses and chefs, two of which were Pinkie Pie and Pinkie Pie. The latter Pinkie had come over from Equestria to try out being a waitress, and, now, they were laughing at high speeds, gliding across the floor on roller skates. The Pinkie pair served customers in record time as trays landed on to tables, as food and drink almost tipped over but never did. This kind of high stakes dining caught more than a few patrons off guard, though, as the adage went, they didn’t question Pinkie.
Back to the table: Cookie plopped her half-full milkshake down with a clonk! She licked her lips clean of any milk mustaches. Seeing both of her pony friends, “So, what do you want to do tonight?”
Oakley shrugged and flapped his wings in indifference. “Uh, anything.” He turned to Cinnamon who was nibbling on her floating, glowing fries. “Cinnamon, what do you want to do?”
Cinnamon sighed, turning off her magic and letting the fries fall to the plate. “What? You think you’ve run out of options?” She tapped the window, directing their attention to the budding nightlife outside as ponies trotted about on the darkening sidewalks, passing by the parking lot of unused cars and burgeoning wagons. “I know Canterlot isn’t the biggest city in the world, but it’s still big! We’ve only covered ten percent of it!”
Cookie rubbed her cheeks in pure, concentrated joy. “It’s been a dozen million weeks and we’ve only covered ten percent?”
“We’d be very old if it was a dozen million,” Cinnamon replied deadpan.
Cookie raised her hoof. “I have an idea!”
“The mall?” Oakley guessed, resting his head on his hoof.
She hit him on the snout, turning his nose red. “Stop reading my mind! You’re scaring me!”
Despite Oakley being more scared, tending to his pained nose by holding it as he moaned with eyes closed.
“You wanted to go to the mall yesterday,” Cinnamon said. “And the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that.” She ended it with a groan and a glance away from the Earth pony, busying herself with a levitating burger.
“But I’m serious this time!” Cookie whined. “I’m not a scaredy-cat anymore!”
Oakley mumbled something to himself before drinking some milkshake, holding his snout with one hoof while downing the beverage with his wing.
Cookie’s ears perked up at the mumble and the slurping. She got up on the table, stared Oakley down with an innocent smile, and said, “Uh, what was that?”
The unicorn among them winced at her. Putting away her hayburger, Cinnamon said, “Get down, Cookie!” She then saw the other customers gawking at the pony on a food-only-on-this-surface table.
This unruly pony, even stomping once on the table, making the milkshakes tremble. “Nah! I’d like to know what our lovely Oakley had to say!”
“OK, I give up!” Oakley yelled, bringing more attention on himself. He raised his forehoovs and spread his wings. Then, he stared back at her, knowing this merry mare.
The next thing he said was:
“Boo.”
“Aaaahhh!” and Cookie jumped up, hit herself on the ceiling now cracked, fell down to the table and crashed it, spoiling all the food and spilling all the drinks.
Now everyone was standing up, all dinners halted to see if Cookie was alright past the dust. The Pinkies sped their way to the scene as well as the rest of the waitresses.
When the dust settled, Cookie’s eyes were in a daze, spinning around. She shook her head, steadied herself, and looked at her two pony friends looking down at her stained face. “Y-Yeah! I-I meant to do that!”
Cinnamon eyed Oakley with a dirty look.
The pegasus opened his wings again. “Eh-heh...whoops?”
Cinnamon wasn’t amused. “You’re not pranking her like that again.”
These three ponies had gotten their freedom and no one was going to stop them from enjoying it. Uplifted from that dumb state of being simple animal, they’d gained intelligence, consciousness, and sapience in a matter of moments. Life had risen from the monotonous cycle of eat, sleep, and serve. It had opened up to endless possibilities. They could become whoever they wanted to be with all the little complex details that came with it.
So, of course, the first thing they did that night was go to a comic store and buy a couple comics. The owner had gotten some series from Equestria, stuff like the Power Ponies or Flashfire. Cookie bought a dozen issues, draining the collective wallet to three quarters of its original size. This bothered Cinnamon who wanted her to be thrifty and it bothered Oakley who wanted to spend those bits to buy enough ice cream to make his ice cream cloud.
Since they could also appreciate music now, they then went to a music store. Contrary to the rumors that’d floated about, Vinyl Scratch stayed there—if that wasn’t enough, she’d proven her loyalty to the store by remaining at her post despite being a unicorn. Like before, she was blasting beats through her headphones, although that didn’t hinder her from accommodating these beginners in life.
After ten minutes of drowning out the conversations, the arguments, and the hoof-fight that almost happened and that could’ve broken a few discs—after that, she let them buy a couple of her namesakes.
“Good thing we have a vinyl recorder!” Cookie proclaimed as she lifted the basket of records onto her back.
“It’s ‘vinyl player’,” Cinnamon corrected, mentally rebuking her for such naivete.
What came next was the local florist which was Lily Valley with her signature blossom on her pony ear. Now, the peculiar thing about selling pretty flowers to horses is that these flowers were both pretty and elegantly sumptuous, tasting like flavorful tea to the equine tongue.
So, Cinnamon, being a mare of taste, bought bouquets teeming with lavenders. She shared them with her friends to munch on these purple plants together.
As for the flavor, lavender tasted like a minty pinecone.
As they wandered about aimlessly, taking in the lamp posts and the other trotting ponies just like them, Cookie bounced around, breathing in the fresh air that never felt so fresh before, even going as far as hugging the occasional sidewalk tree and feeling something fuzzy in her heart. Oakley hovered over the sidewalk, enjoying the weightlessness of being a winged creature, free from gravity’s shackles. Cinnamon had her horn glowing magenta while she levitated the lavender bouquets, those fragrant bunches floating before her magically.
“OK, now can we go to the mall?!” Cookie pleaded in a sing-song voice, pointing at the huge shopping complex just across the street. “Can we, can we?!”
“Slow down!” Oakley replied, flying in front of her to have a closer look. “Wow, you gotta eat less candy and chocolate!”
“She hasn’t had any of that for the past thirty minutes,” Cinnamon noted.
The pegasus now had a dilemma before him. Solving the problem of a hyperactive pony by reducing her non-existent sugar intake. “What would be the opposite of eating sugar?” he then proposed.
Cinnamon flicked her tail, giving him a glare. “Licking salt.”
As she turned to the left and crossed the street.
“Wait!” Oakley yelled, going after her. “Where’re you going?”
“I know where she’s going!” Cookie shouted, pushing the pegasus to the side as she leaped over to the other side.
Approaching the mall.
The Canterlot Mall was, like many other malls, a hub for shopping and entertainment. It was the ideal venue for buying groceries, purchasing luxuries, eating meals, meeting up, watching movies, playing games, parking cars….
Although they’d long known what a mall was and what it contained, that knowledge didn’t prepare them for the experience. For one, its bright colors and brighter lights wowed the ponies, even no-nonsense Cinnamon. For another, they went up and down the escalators, amazed at being moved without moving themselves; Cookie and Oakley waved at the creatures hanging around, making them weirded out by these over-enthusiastic horses. For a third, they tried pulling Cookie away from the TV shop, saving her from a horrible future of staring at a dozen screens to watch endless rolling greens.
After half an hour of strolling around, they ended up in the cafeteria. A couple stalls were still closed; the many that were up had creatures from both worlds working together, taking orders, and cooking up all kinds of food.
Five minutes later, they’d settled on a table with a strange an assortment of dinners. Daisy sandwiches with grilled hay on the side, deep dish pineapple pizza garnished with parsley, and ten milkshakes—yes, that perennial drink for dessert, that favorite of Cookie since she kept smearing her mouth with its whipped cream. Meanwhile, Cinnamon helped herself to that mighty big and tall pizza, and Oakley got the simplest option with his sandwiches and hay, making the pegasus the winner of the health race.
Except there wasn’t any. As far as he knew, there was no guilt or shame on the two mares.
It was after Cookie downed her third milkshake that she started speaking: “Hey, you know there’s more than the three of us, right?”
Cinnamon put down her knife and fork, unwilling to stain her hooves with such an oily crust. “If you’re talking about horses like us, yes.”
“Then how come we haven’t met any of them yet?” Cookie asked, grabbing her fourth glass. “Where are the horses from the huge ranches?”
“We’re not exactly in the countryside, Miss Chocolate Chip,” Oakley said, joking a little there with the nickname.
“What about Cotton?” Cookie went on, losing her liveliness. “Or Domino and Dale? Or Barkley, Marquis, and everypony else from ol’ Rough Stock’s place?”
“I doubt anypony from the old farm would travel this far,” Oakley answered with a sigh, folding his wings. He was poking the hay with his hoof.
“But there must be some city-hoppers somewhere!” Cookie complained, pouting and putting her head on the table. “It’s great talking to ex-humans, but I want to talk my kind! I wanna talk to the horses that were always horses!”
Cinnamon halted her piece of pizza from entering her mouth. “Are you saying we should go on a road trip?”
Cookie jerked her head up and giggled, snorting at that. “Driving cars shouldn’t be that hard!”
Oakley scoffed at the idea of pressing pedals and steering wheels. “Why drive when we can pull wagons?”
Cinnamon quickly gulped her sweet and savory bite to join this devolving talk. “That’s not how it—”
“You want wagons?!” a haughty voice came from the table behind them.
They looked that way.
Saw a suave and lanky unicorn standing by the table. He wore a striped shirt, a bowtie, a boater hat, and a cool smile.
“‘Cause I got a couple wagons by the parking lot!” he said, trotting up to them and extending a hoof for a shake. “The name’s Flim! My brother, Flam, can’t go because he his hooves are tied with maintaining the vehicles in question!” Flim rubbed his forehooves and produced an eleventh milkshake from his hat. “But, I’m sure we can all come out of this very satisfied!”
Cookie gasped at this new milkshake. Without even saying “Thank you”, she yanked the glass and chugged the beverage down.
Cinnamon shot a suspicious glare at him. “Aren’t you the guy who tried to scam Applejack out of a thousand dollars?”
“A thousand dollars, huh?” He rubbed his chin and thought that term over. “Well...I bet you that we’ve clearly moved on from that unprofitable business!” he shouted. “We’ve expanded to other more lucrative, more legal ventures!”
“...like?” Cinnamon grilled, Oakley and Cookie looking to her for something to say.
Not really an answer.
“Like selling wagons!” Flim replied with a tip of his hat.
Buying into it, Oakley nodded and smiled at this kind fellow. “OK, we’ll give you another shot!”
“I don’t think we ever met him before,” Cookie whispered to his ear.
Oakley’s eyes went wide. “Wait, we haven’t?”
Flim snuck up to them, wrapping forehooves around those two while secretly stealing some hay. “That’s quite understandable! There are only two of us brothers—” then glared to the side “—OK, four with that whole multiple dimensions debacle—but, adding two more to the pot won’t be much trouble for your comprehending minds, hm?”
Cracking her neck, Cinnamon rolled up her imaginary sleeves, got out of the chair, and placed a hoof on his snout. “Listen up, Flimmy! We may be new to this life business, but Applejack’s told me a lot of bad things between you and your brother!”
“And what did this Applejack say about it?” he said, keeping up that smug smile in the face of an angry unicorn.
“That you’re cons!” Cinnamon yelled, her horn glowing purple.
Flim smirked, noticing the magic she was about to unleash and willing to defuse it. “What about I show you the magical artifacts inside the wagon?”
And Cinnamon’s glow wavered. “Wait, huh?”
“That’s the spirit!” Flim said, wrapping a hoof around her neck and already leading her away from the table in a fast trot. Looking back, “Come on, mare and gentlestallion! I and my brother Flam shall show you rare magic items straight from the land of Equestria!”
Cookie’s eyes glowed and sparkled under the cafeteria’s dazzling lights. “Ooh! I wanna go!”
Oakley, the only one left unfazed, stuck out his tongue. “How can we be su—”
“We are absolutely-tootely sure!” Flim cut in, hoofing out a little ball and throwing it to the ground.
Smoke surrounded them.
And all he heard was coughs as he dragged them out of the cafeteria with both hooves and magic.
Outside, they reached the parking lot, seeing Sweet Snacks Café to their left. Parked there under the post lights was a yellow and red wagon, big enough to fit about five ponies with all their belonging.
“No time to waste!” Flim said at the hurrying ponies. Then, turning to the wagon, he shouted with a cupped mouth, “Flam! Is everything ready for the presentation?”
The door was yanked open. Flam, with his bushy red mustache, appeared and dropped a full box onto the pavement. “There you go, dear brother!” and, waving at the three ponies there, “Why, hello! Ready for a song?”
“...song?” said Cinnamon, Cookie, and Oakley all at the same time.
Flim and Flam jumped straight to the wagon’s front, inhaled a lot of breath, and—
“You!”
The dear brothers looked at the sidewalk and saw Starlight Glimmer and Trixie who was fully equipped with hat and cape.
“It was you two who stole Trixie’s smoke bombs and hid them on Earth!” Trixie yelled, pointing at them. “Give them to her and return to Equestria with us...or else!”
And Starlight’s horn glowed, staring daggers at them as if her eyes alone could petrify them like a cockatrice.
Flim and Flam dearly gulped together, their own eyes shrinking at the sight of these vengeful unicorns. “Shall we leave, brother?” Flim asked.
“Most certainly so!” Flam replied.
Thus commenced a chase, Starlight and Trixie galloping after Flim and Flam.
“You forgot your wagon!” Cookie cried out after them although they were already gone, their hoofsteps fading away.
A few seconds of silence as they processed what had just happened before them: Two conponies tried to swindle them out of their money but were then saved by the timely arrival of two other ponies—and all four of them were from Equestria.
“Let’s get back,” Oakley then said, derailing their trains of thought. “The food’s getting cold.”
“I agree,” Cinnamon said, turning her body towards the doors. With drooping ears, “Sorry for getting swayed by that Flim pony. I...I didn’t know he was a little persuasive.”
“Good thing I ordered cold milkshakes!” Cookie said before jumping.
Cinnamon flicked her tail and clucked her tongue at this milkshake-passionate pony. “Were you even lis—”
“Howdy!” greeted a familiar country voice.
“What is it now?!” Cinnamon yelled at the intruder.
Which turned out to be Applejack harnessed to a wagon.
“A-AJ?!” they all yelled together.
“Oh, no!” she replied rather modestly. “It ain’t just me!”
They heard a door creak open and saw several ponies come out of the wagon and approach the three of them.
Cookie gasped, faintly recognizing these ponies. She placed her hooves on her head, jumped again, and shouted,“We were just talking about you like ten minutes ago!”
Both Apple horses and Rough Stock horses went in for a group hug, exchanging greetings in words and in mumbling tears at this impromptu reunion.
Cookie wiggled out of a unicorn’s nuzzling forehooves. “I thought we’d never see each other again!”
Dale turned his face away and sneezed, parting the bangs from his face. Hoping Cookie wasn’t infected with whatever germs he had leaked, he said, “I don’t know about that. You could just walk, you know!”
“You serious joker you!” as the group hug dispersed and everypony else talked with Cinnamon and Oakley. “So, what brings you here?”
Dale rocked his head back, mentally rehearsing the story. “Applejack texted us with one of those cellphone thingies, said something about meeting you again. We had a GPS-ajig and a map. We got here, met up with AJ and ta-da!” and spread his forehooves.
Once she politely nodded at the short story, she gazed upon the mass of ponies around her under the lights against the dark night. They continued talking to each other in upbeat tones with some glancing at her. “Dale, where’s Rough Stock?”
“Oh, he changed into a unicorn just like me and Cotton!” he replied. “After he re-met all of us as a pony, he retired and let us be free to go wherever and do whatever. We stayed, of course,” pausing to look up and smile, thinking of the warm hug they themselves had given to their former owner, “but he’s not here because he thought he’d ruin the moment.”
“Aww, he should’ve come!” Cookie stretched her lips into a ridiculous frown. Then, licking them clean, she got back to being cheerful and bubbly. “But, hey, you’re here! You’re all here!”
“Yeah, we are!”
They hugged again as everyone else kept talking.
Applejack gave herself a tip of the hat, staying by the wagon and seeing those horses as a whole once more, bonding together at the mall’s parking lot. “Family’s worth the trouble, ain’t it?”