Ponyville. Founded by Earth Ponies, and inhabited by all three subspecies of pony that were common throughout Equestria. The birds were singing, the bees buzzing (neither in common with each other, it was just one of the many observations of an illustrative mind). It was still fairly early in the morning, as most were still savoring the last few moments of sleep before their alarm clocks, or Vinyl Scratch's music, tore them from their peaceful slumber.
Twilight Sparkle, a particularly powerful purple unicorn with an addiction to reading, was one of the first to arise from slumber on this rather peaceful day. She went over to her dresser and levitated a brush to straighten her bedridden hair out of her eyes. Her roommate and friend, a baby dragon named Spike, was still asleep, so she levitated him from his bed and dropped him on the floor, attempting to wake him up.
“Come on! We have things to do, Spike!” She said to the snoring lump of scales.
“Hrmmm...no, Rarity, I don't think that dress makes you look fat, I just think you'd look better without it..." The little dragon mumbled, oblivious to Twilight's attempts at waking him.
She gave up, slightly disturbed by the fantasies and dreams a certain somepony (or somedragon, rather) has for one of her friends.
Twilight headed out the door, hoping she could pop into the Sugarcube before the line got too long. Most would think this was slightly ridiculous, as it was still early enough that the Cake family who owned the sweet shop were probably just getting out of bed. However, as luck would have it, when she arrived at the bakery she spotted a line of tents outside the building that seemed to go on for miles.
"Drat, foiled again!" She moaned as she followed the line backwards, heading for the back.
Her voice awakened some of the ponies ahead of her, and they yawned and stretched their way out of their tents.
"Mornin' Twilight," yawned a young, dark-colored stallion, dragging himself out a tent and flexing his wings, creating a large POP that reverberated in the still air, then he smirked groggily at the mare. "Forget that today was Friday?"
"Hey Shadow. Ugh, I really need to put a reminder for myself about Friday's Unbelievably Chocolatey Cupcakes. I can't believe how popular they've gotten."
Shadow squinted his eyes toward the front of the line, which was over six blocks away from where they were standing.
"Yeah, I'll bet this line is over twice as long as last week's." He shrugged, "as long as they still have those lemon square things when we get up there, I'm not complaining."
Twilight sighed. "I could really go for a cup of coffee."
~S~
A considerably long time later, the line had been reduced enough that Twilight and Shadow were now barely through the door. The place was packed with dozens of ponies, either sitting at the sparse number of tables, or trying to fight their way to the counter or the door, depending on if they had their bag of goodies. The Cakes were buried behind a pile of boxes and bags stacked on top of the counter, attempting to get the orders to the correct customers, or at least to get rid of some of the boxes.
Shadow caught a glimpse of pink passing behind the double doors that led to the kitchen, and knowing that Pinkie was the one that set up these Friday events, she was the main baker for the F.U.- well, the cupcake baking.
"Where does Pinkie come up with these names for some of her dishes anyway?" Shadow asked.
"I think she mentioned that a stranger told her some...interesting words one day.* She thinks it's a fun game to use them whenever she can, especially since we banned her from saying them out loud. At least we managed to convince her not to have Tuesday's Intensely Tasty Shortcakes."
"T...I...- oh. Good call." Shadow held back a chuckle. "But you'd think parents would've caught on to her name game and complained to the Cakes about it."
"Did somepony say ‘game’? Oooh! I wanna play!" Shadow and Twilight nearly jumped out of their skins when Pinkie Pie herself popped up beside them.
"Geez, Pinkie, warn somepony when you're going to do that!" Twilight said. Shadow had stolen a paper bag from a passing blonde-maned mare and was breathing heavily into it.
"Now see what you've done, Pinkie? Shadow's only been here for about a month, and he's still not used to your constant breaking of physics and other laws everyone else is bound to-"
"Hang on, Twilight. I think Shadow isn't eating his baked goods right!" Pinkie interrupted.
The pink mare was watching Shadow inflate and deflate the paper bag a few times, then start choking one of the muffins that were apparently still in the bag.
"NO! MY MUFFINS!" Yelled the blonde mare, tackling the choking grey colt. The impact made the muffin stuck in his mouth to be blown back out with such force, that it exploded against another pony's head, bursting into a shower of crumbs and blueberries.
Twilight could do nothing but stare in shock for a few moments, then quickly used her magic to separate the two ponies in front of her, gave the mare back her now bedraggled bag of muffins, and made sure her friend was still breathing before setting him back on his hooves.
Pinkie giggled loudly. "Did you see the look on his face when Derpy tackled him? Wow, I'm glad I always give her extra."
Twilight glared at her before asking Shadow if he was alright.
"Yeah, just give me a minute," he gasped, tottering a bit on his hooves before regaining his balance.
"Alrighty! Well, back to the kitchen I go! Can't keep these hungry ponies waiting for their Friday Unbelievably Chocolatey Cupcakes!" She winked at Twilight and was gone in the blink of an eye.
"To believe I used to think she was one of the best ponies in Ponyville," Shadow mumbled to himself as he and Twilight got back into line. They were now nearly to the counter where their orders could be taken.
"What can I get you hungry ponies this fine morning?" An exhausted Mrs. Cake. She was probably too busy to have noticed the slight mishap that occurred only a few moments ago in her shop.
"I'll take a Friday cupcake, and a tall Cup-A-Joe with extra cream," Shadow said, "Oh, and throw in a half dozen of those delicious lemon squares."
"And I'll have a slice of peach pie, a couple scones, and another coffee, though make mine a dark. I could really use it this morning." Twilight added.
"Together, or separate bags?" Asked Mrs. Cake, raising an eyebrow. It took a few seconds for Twilight and Shadow to figure out what she meant.
"Oh, uh, separately. Our orders are separate." Twilight said quickly, her cheeks brightening.
Shadow saw Twilight blushing, and decided to try and help her out.
"You know, it's not uncommon for friends to have their orders together. How about I buy? We've both had a bit of a busy morning," Shadow asked sincerely, pulling his pouch of bits from his saddlebag.
Twilight thought it was a nice gesture, but also sounded a bit like he was supporting the idea of them being a couple, which was completely untrue. At least that's what she thought.
"Well, um...that's nice, but..." Twilight began, but Shadow already had the extra bits on the counter, so Twilight could do nothing but accept the offer.
Mrs. Cake had finished putting their orders together, and put the bags on the counter next to the bits. The friends noticed there was an absence of coffee cups.
"I believe we ordered two cups of coffee?" Shadow asked around the tall bags.
"Well dear, it seems like we've run out of coffee beans again. I thought I told Pinkie to check inventory on Wednesday, but I guess she's been too busy out here baking and party planning. I'm sorry." Mrs. Cake replied, beginning to count out the bits and giving back the unneeded bits from the coffee.
Some of the ponies behind Twilight moaned, as they had wanted a coffee as well. She levitated the bags and they fought their way back out the door before giving Shadow his part of their breakfast.
"If you want, we can simply get coffee back at my house," Twilight offered Shadow, who was busy digging his snout through his bag. Then he brought his head back up with a jolt, and Twilight could see anger in his eyes.
"I knew it! They forgot the lemon squares!"