//------------------------------// // Late Night Snack // Story: Late Night Encounters At The Gas Station // by Barracuda cyborg //------------------------------// It was a late June evening at the Stop-n-Snak. The crickets were chirping next to the entrance of the gas station. The tall pumps stood still as not a single car stopped in. Only the occasional one drove by, which made the night feel long for the quick pick-me-up place. “How much longer?” Derrick asked, staring out the window that led to a world unlike their own. “About three hours.” Mark replied. He punctuated it by rolling his eyes. “Seriously?! Why can’t we just clock out now; no one's gonna show up, and I’m bored out of my mind.”  It was true; working the graveyard shift at a gas station was boring, not just because of the location being too far out for any reasonable person to go out wandering, but for the lack of anything to do. Compared to the bustling lines of people wanting convenient food, this lack of activity and isolation was getting to the two clerks Mark smirked. “Welcome to the night shift. Besides, you know we can’t clock out, we have to deal with the shift or the boss is gonna have our asses mantled above his fireplace!” Mark exclaimed. He was playing Devil's advocate, even though he too wanted to head back home as much as his friend. “Fine, at least there’s the paid time off to look forward to.” Derrick sighed. He looked around the  store. It was depressing to see no one in here other than his co-worker. There were so many shelves filled with all kinds of snacks, warm treats, and refreshing drinks to buy. Yet, no one had come in in the past couple hours. It tempted him to get out from behind the counter to look around… ...especially because he just saw the banana nut muffins just screaming at him from the sweets table. “Hey, Mark, you mind taking my spot?” “Your spot, what do you mean?” “In case a customer comes in, y’know? I got a massive craving for those new banana nut muffins over by the sweets table.” Mark rolled his eyes. “Dude, you get more of the munchies than I do. And I’m the one that hits the bong!” Derrick chuckled as he slid out from behind the counter, taking an exit stage left towards the sweets counter. Even though the banana nut muffins were calling him, there were plenty of diabetes-inducing sugar foods to devour: chocolate and vanilla donut holes, mini eclairs, and cherry turnovers. As he grabbed his second muffin with those plastic tongs of his, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. At first, he thought it was a mouse or something, but then he did a double take and gasped. It was a horse. A horse in a convenient store. Derrick froze, the muffin falling to the ground, bouncing off the tile floor. “Uh, do you speak Equestrian?” Derrick continued to look like a deer in the headlights, “...What?” “Hmm, I’m not familiar with that particular region, do they speak Equestrian in What?” Derrick finally snapped out of his trance, “I’m going to talk with my coworker, I’ll be right back.” Derrick simply stared off into space, so sidetracked, he hadn’t even heard Derrick running towards him, “There’s a horse in the store!”  “Very funny dude, how could a horse get in—“  “Dude, I swear, she was in the corner, standing there, menacingly.” “Rrrightt… and pigs fly.” Mark just waves flippantly at his co-worker. “Look, let me know when you actually see a customer walk in, because man, if we start hallucinating anything else tonight, I’m going to check myself into an insane asylum—hey!” Derrick had grabbed his friend by his shoulders and shoved him down behind the counter. Mark looked at Derrick, smiling, thinking he was witnessing Derrick’s first ever acid trip, while Derrick was wide-eyed and gritting his teeth. “What the hell man?!” Derrick whispered. “I know, this is crazy! You’re higher than me right now,” Mark stated with a grin growing on his face. Derrick wasn’t sure if this was some weird prank or the result of going so long with no sleep, but he somehow knew his friend was behind this. “I swear to god if you slipped something in my lunch I’m gonna—” “Um, hello? I didn’t mean to frighten you!” The voice said, interrupting Derrick’s threat. Derrick shushed Mark, who now realized that someone was at the register, those eyes of his widened too. However, unlike Derrick, Mark was ambitious, he didn’t care if danger stared him in the eyes and told him to not take another hit, because he was going to take that hit. He did it regardless, consequences be damned. Mark popped up like a gopher to see a horse staring at him, head tilted. “Oh, another one,” it said. “Where did your friend go?” Mark stared… and stared… and stared some more, until Derrick hit him in the leg. The consequences had hit him, quite literally, and now he was paying the price. “Uh… he’s not around right now. How may I help you?” “I’m trying to find a bag of Herds chips, and a few cans of Moon Star energy drink, though I’m not having the best luck finding them.” The horse said. Derrick had somewhat of an idea of what the horse was talking about, though he wasn’t too sure about the names. Meanwhile the horse looked around the store as if it was studying the ways how the slushie machine worked, to the hot dogs lazily rotating on the warmer and possibly wondering where the buns were. “Wow, you can actually talk! This is the best night of my life!” Mark said with pure excitement. “But how? Last time I checked, horses can’t talk, nor do they have wings or a horn.” Derrick replied he sighed since he knew that the only way to get any answers was to talk to it, “...hi, welcome to Stop-n-Snak. How can I help you tonight?” “Well as I was saying to your friend, I’m looking for Herds chips and Moon Star energy drinks.” “Are you making these up? Because it sounds like it.” “I would never, lying is unfit for a princess of my caliber.” Derrick ignored the idea of the horse being royalty, the snack names were on his mind, “Well we’ll try helping out on that miss…” “Luna.” The horse replied, “Princess Luna.” “NO WAY!” Mark exclaimed, “Not only did we get a talking horse, but a royal talking horse!” "Ok, before anything gets really crazy, do you mind telling us why you're here?" Suddenly, a loud screeching sound made the two clerks look behind them. It was a black and white car with red and blue lights above it. The car came to a sudden halt right in front of the store, and shut off its lights. "Shit, it's the cops!" Derrick exclaimed. "What are we gonna do?!" Mark asked frantically looking around for potential hiding spots for Luna.   "Luna, quick you gotta—" In an instant, it was almost like she wasn't even there, "uh…" "Forget it, get behind the counter!" The two quickly rushed towards the counter right as the door creaked open. “Evening officer.” The two nervously said, not caring about the cop but rather what the heck their new equine friend was doing out of their sight. “Evening boys.” The cop said in a lackadaisical way as he looked about the snacks,  “Kinda odd they got you two for the graveyard shift.” “Well… our boss needed some guys to be here, and everyone else suddenly had plans.” “Yeah; that’s how I got stuck on the night patrol. O’ Malley and I were on the list and our chief needed someone out. He managed to weasel out of it by saying he had romantic plans with his wife, so here I am. Ugh,” The cop replied, grabbing two hot dogs and some sour candies, “How much do I owe ya for these?” “Let’s see…” Mark began to work the register, working out to figure out how much the snack foods would be, “That’ll be six dollars and eighty-five cents.” The cop took out his credit card and set it on the counter. He gave the two clerks a smile. “This should cover it, right?” He laughed to himself.  Derrick took the card and swiped it for him. Then, he handed it back to the cop, along with a receipt. “Yes it does! Hope you have a nice night, officer.” “You too. Now you two stay outta trouble now, don’t want to have to come out here with back up!” With that, the cop soon paid, walked out and drove off into the endless road of the night to continue his work. “Oh thank god, I thought he’d never leave.” Mark sighed. “Ok Luna; wherever you are, you can come out now!” Luna then materialized out of nowhere, startling the two almost sending them crashing into a display for energy drinks. “Where did you come from?!” Derrick asked. “I never left.” Luna replied, “My magic allows me to do many things, such as being invisible, and muting sounds I make.” “That’s so cool.” Mark said as he was enjoying the experience far too much. Derrick ignored his friends being so easily impressed and decided to get back to business, “Getting back on topic before the cop showed up, why are you here exactly?” “Well, why does anyone else come to a convenience store?” Luna asked. “To grab a quick pick-me-up.” She then proceeded to grab a few energy drink cans and a bag of corn chips. “Really?” Derrick asked. “As someone who travels within the dreams of everyone, you get a bit hungry after a while.” Luna replied. “Wait… why the energy drinks?” Mark asked, he didn’t know much about horses, but he knew enough to know they don’t drink anything carbonated. Luna sighed, “In all honesty, I’m tired of just drinking coffee, I needed a change of pace.” This only confused the two clerks more as both knew coffee wasn’t something for horses to casually drink, “Anyway, how much do I owe you?” The two snapped out of their confusion and went back to the register to complete the transaction, “That’ll be three dollars and fifty cents.” “Right…” Luna said as she dug through her saddlebags, “Do you take bits as payment?” The two clerks looked at each other, “After what happened tonight, it’s on us.” “Thank you.” Luna replied, “I’ll be sure to come back to this store once I get a chance.”  With that Luna had used her magic to leave the store, the sheer amount of magical power used blinded the two clerks. Soon afterwards, Luna was gone. “So… I guess that wasn’t just a mad hallucination.” Derrick said. “Yeah, and hey all that managed to kill a solid hour.” Mark said as he looked at his phone. “Great… only two more.” Derrick replied as he slumped onto the counter where the register sat. “Cheer up dude, if we’re lucky, we might get another talking horse to help kill time.” Mark stated as he walked back to the counter with a certain pep in his step. Once again it was just business as usual; an empty convenience store in the middle of nowhere. The two clerks just stared at the clock hanging above the wall. All that time being bored managed to kill another hour, only one more until they were able to go home and enjoy three days of relaxation. Derrick picked up a strong scent,“Hey… do you smell cotton candy?” He asked. “Probably just the cotton candy flavored milk.” Mark replied, “why do you ask?”