Salty and Sweet
"I'm sorry, Fizzy, but you've caused too much damage to be overlooked." Scoops said with a sigh, as work ponies repaired the damage all around her. "I trusted you with too much responsibility, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go."
"Oh no, Miss Scoops!" The blue mare whimpered, tears forming in her jewel-socket eyes. "Please don't fire me, I promise I'll try harder, I promise!"
"Well, the damage wasn't that bad, I suppose. And your friends have promised to never try and 'help' you at work again." The earth pony looked around at the damaged shop, then looked at the unicorn pathetically weeping at her hooves. "Very well, I'll give you one more chance- but you'll be under my strict supervision-do you understand?"
"Y-yes, thank you very much." The mare whined, standing up and drying her eyes. "You won't regret this, I promise."
"Please don't say that again." Scoops replied, sweeping up the few fragments of broken plates with her mouth. " The last time you said it, I ended up regretting it."
And so Fizzy, now with much reduced hours on her schedule, worked only when Scoops was on duty to keep an eye on her. The normally cheery mare spent most of her free moments time with her head resting on the counter, going about her normally cheery job like an automaton going through the motions. Still her performance was of sufficient quality, that she was able to hold on to her soda jerking career.
"Fizzy, another customer wants a cone out at the counter!" Scoops yelled, trotting back into the kitchen to where the depressed mare was washing dishes. "Go out and take his order, I'll finish the rest rest of these dishes for you."
"Yes, miss Scoops." The unicorn replied in a monotone voice, trotting her way back out into the dining room with her head down. Trotting up to the pony she barely noticed at the stool, her voice whispered like a zombie's.
"Welcome to the Satin Slipper." She sighed. "May I take your order?"
"Arrr, little missy!" A harsh, gravelly voice hissed. "I'll be taken a cone full of peanut butter chocolate, if ye please."
The unicorn mare slowly raised her head to the pony speaking... and suddenly her eyes went wide. Soft blue eyes, a sleek blue coat covered in scars, a long, flowing pink mane, and a tight flank and muscular body that looked like it had been chiseled by the great horsemaster himself... this stallion was perfection. Fizzy simply stared at this wonder of pony anatomy stupefied, her brain shattered into a thousand pieces by the sight.
"Um, I...." Fizzy muttered, her cheeks turning a deep red. "You, er..."
"Um, excuse me, missy?" The harsh voice called again, waving a hoof in front of her face. "Ya be all right?"
"Oh! Ummmm, yes!" Fizzy shook off her trance, looking down at the ice cream cooler. "C-coming right up, sir!"
"Thak ye, missy." The stallion with the tug boat cutie mark smiled. "By the way, I don't believe I've seen ya workin here before, missy. What be you're name?"
"F-fizzy." The mare replied, nervously fumbling with the levitated scoop and trying not to stare at the Adonis before her. "W-what's yours?"
"I be Salty, pony of the sea, and first mate ta captain Barnacle!" The stallion bowed to her, causing the rosy pockets on the unicorn's cheeks to turn even redder. "And while right now you be at my service, know if thy lovely form ever graces Dream Castle's undersea docks, I shall most certainly be at your service."
"O-okay..." Fizzy replied dreamily, levitating his cone to him. "Here's your ice cream hottie- er, I mean, Salty!"
"Thank you, Miss Fizzy." He bowed again, before taking his cone, and galloping out the door. "I hope I shall have the good fortune to see you again."
"I hope so, too." The mare sighed happily, leaning against the cooler. "Ohhh, what a dreamboat..."
As she stood against the cooler, all of the ice cream inside melted as her horn gave off a soft glow. It wasn't too long, before scoops came out of the back again.
"Fizzy, did you serve that-" She looked down at the liquid goo that had been her ice cream, and gave a cry of surprise. "Fizzy, what the heck happened to my ice cream?!?"
"Salty was here..." The mare replied, a goofy smile on her face.
"Oh, well that explains it. yeah, he melts the ice cream of every mare that works here." Scoops replied, turning away to hide her own red face. "All right Fizzy, you can go home for the day. And don't worry about the ice cream, I'll ask my unicorn friend Powder to come over and refreeze it."
"Thanks Scoops, see you tomorrow." The mare replied offhandedly, almost floating out the door. Lost in her own thoughts, the unicorn was not watching where she was going.
"Wow, that guy is sooo cool! I gotta get his attention!" she thought to herself. "Ohhhh, but what would a sea god like him see in a scatterbrain like me? I gotta be more responsible at work, then maybe he'll-"
"MMMMPH-!" Fizzy's thoughts were cut off, as her face squished up against something soft. Opening her eyes, the mare saw a pony's tail, and realized in her her daze, she had trotted straight into another pony's flank!
"Hey, you dumb mare!" The scatterbrain snorted angrily. "Why don't you watch where I'm going! Nobody likes a face full of flank!"
But as the other pony turned around, Fizzy saw that the pony she had bumped into was no mare.
"Oh. I'm so sorry, missy, I was just lookin at-" Salty stopped suddenly, at seeing who the mare at his flank was. "Oh! M-miss Fizzy?"
"S-salty?!?" The mare's eyes went wide, then suddenly rolled back into her head. "Ohhh- ack-ugh!"
"Oh no, Miss Fizzy!" Salty exclaimed in concern, standing over the mare. "Are ye all right?"
Fizzy simply lay there on the ground, twitching and going through spazams as drool poured out of her mouth.
"Quick, somebody! This mare needs a doctor!"