Coming Attractions

by Rouis

Chapter Two: Equestrian Pie

Stack’s Diner is the type of place that most ponies would avoid, in fact anypony with common sense and a general care of their innards would stay the buck away from that place even if their life depended on it. Hunger can make a pony do some crazy things, and so Silver Screen and Long Hall entered the door of Stack’s Diner, located in the less friendly side of Trottingham. Looking around they noticed every table and booth in the place seemed to be devoid of anypony in general. “Maybe the staff is out on break?” Silver Screen suggested with a hint of hungry sadness in his voice.

“Take a seat, ‘ll be there ‘n a bit” A gruff voice shouted from behind the counter.

Long Haul looked around the dingy diner, then at the cushioned seats in front of the counters, trotting over he had a seat and looked over to Silver, who did the same. “I’m having a bad feeling about this place, I swear if anything on the menu says soylent I’m getting the buck out of here.”

“I don’t know, this place has kind of a friendly vibe if you know where to look” Silver added to the comment.

“Exactly” A soft feminine voice added from behind the two, making practically every hair on their coats stand straight up. They turned their heads around slowly and simultaneously to see the source. She was a tall pegasus pony with a soft cocoa coat and jet black mane. “The name is Java Chip, and I’ll be your server today.” She set down a menu next to each startled pony along with a tray holding two cups filled with a dark brown liquid. “A little of the house brew to start you off then!” She excitedly added before turning off to go back to the kitchen.

Silver Screen sniffed the liquid for a moment before exclaiming:“Sweet Celestia, is that what I think that is” Carefully reaching out he took the cup in his jaw and drank a little. “It is! Coffee!” Silver Screen’s let out a little sigh of pleasure at the taste of the brewed beverage.

“You need a minute alone?” Long Haul jokingly asked before taking a sip of his own cup. “It’s okay, I'm not much of a coffee per-” He had to stop himself for a moment. “Not much of a coffee pony though”

The gruff voice from before spoke up again “You make up your mind yet? I can’t just Stand ‘ere in front of you all day now.”

“I think the voice is on the other side of the counter” Silver Screen quietly said to Long Haul, cautiously leaning forward to see where it’s origin was. That was when the small pony leapt on top of the counter from the other side making Silver Screen fall onto his back, wide eyed, screaming.

Long Haul looked at the small pony, then back to Silver Screen, then around the rest of the diner. There’s no way that colt is here unattended, but the only other pony here is the waitress. Long haul contemplated the pony’s origin before finally speaking up. “Well hello there little guy, looking for your momma?” What he was not expecting as a reply however, was the buck to the face. “Ow!” He screamed, falling backwards next to Silver.

Silver came out of his comatose trance of playing dead and looked over to Long Hall. “Oh hi! What brings you down here? The counter is up there you know.” Silver added.

The colt sized pony looked over the counter at the two on the ground. His coat was the color of syrup and his mane looked like someone had made it out of butter. He looked at the two with eyes that seemed like they had been around the block a few times, before spitting out a small coffee spoon he had in his mouth. Speaking much clearer than before, he addressed them. “The name is Short Stack” He then shifted his gaze to Long Haul. “I’m no colt either, this stallion happens to be thirty-four years of age, just never got my growth spurt is all.” He then pointed a hoof at his own flank. “Besides, at least I’ve got my cutie mark” The Image of two golden brown discs in a frying pan sat on the pony’s flank.

“What’s good?” Silver Screen asked Short Stack, still reclining in his fallen over position.

“Haycakes it is then, for you and your big red friend.” He replied, hopping back over the counter and into the kitchen.

Long Haul got himself back up and went back to the coffee, looking down he noticed Silver was still happily laying on the floor. With a sigh he reached down and hoisted Silver back up. “Well I guess this place Isn’t all that bad then.” He said simply just to break the silence in the room.

“Yeah, the staff sure is friendly too!” Silver added before staring intently at his cup closing his eyes and attempting to raise the cup. Shakily at first the cup rose into the air, until it was just in front of his mouth.

“Your first time doing magic?” Java said, once again managing to sneak up behind the duo.

The break in peace gave Silver a bit of a start, causing him to lose control of the cup, and sending it flying straight at Long Haul’s unsuspecting head. “Duck!” Was all Silver had time to shout before the cup impacted with the side of Long Haul’s head, sending the crimson pony to the floor in pain. “Haul! Are you okay?” Silver said, poking his friend in the side with a concerned hoof.

Long Haul looked up at Silver Screen and with a grimace “Sometimes, it’s just not worth it.” He said before passing out.

“Oh my gosh I’m sorry!” Java Chip apologized then looked down at the passed out pony. “Should we take him to a hospital?” She asked, obviously concerned about the situation.

Then came Short Stack’s shout from the kitchen “Order Up!” as two plates stacked high with haycakes covered in syrup floated over to the counter in a brown glow.

Silver looked at Long Haul, then at the haycakes, then back at Long Haul again. “Well, No sense in letting good haycakes go to waste” Silver said with a smile as he looked upon his plate with evil intent. Then using his magic, he tried grabbing a fork, raising it into the air cautiously. Satisfied with the results he tried extending the magic out towards the knife, sweating a little as if this were an intricate surgery being performed. Once again satisfied, he carefully cut into the stack, spearing it with the fork and levitating it with a little more confidence into his waiting mouth. Eyes widening at the burst of pure unadulterated flavor, he slammed a hoof down on the table in satisfaction before swallowing. “Sweet Celestia, that pony deserves the royal medal in haycakes. Is there a royal medal in haycakes? There should be.” Looking over to the still stunned Java Chip He asked. “So how long have you worked here?”

She moved a hoof across the floor nervously before replying. “Well, Short Stack and I went to school together as foals, one Hearts and Hooves Day, he asked me to be his special somepony.” She blushed a little at the fond retelling of the memory. “After we graduated, he invited me to enter into business with him. We started out running shop in a caravan cart which we still keep out back to this day, one day after looking at the numbers, we decided to set up shop here and opened the diner.” She let out a happy sigh before adding one last comment. “Well, the rest has been history since then.”

Silver lifted his head up from the plate that used to contain a high stack of haycakes, there were no survivors. He then turned back to Java Chip. “That’s so sweet” He then looked on the counter to see Short Stack smiling back at Java Chip.

“Oh your friend is waking up!” Java Chip exclaimed at the sight of Long Haul moving slightly before opening one of his eyes.

“What the hay happened?” Long Haul asked, glancing around the room. The crimson pony slowly raised himself up, stretched his body out, then sat back down looking at his stack of haycakes. “Oh well, food’s here.” He said sleepily, as he leaned forward and took a bite. “Wow! these are great!” Haul exclaimed before like his companion, beginning a feeding frenzy.

“You probably shouldn’t eat all those haycakes so fast after experiencing serious head trauma.” Java Chip shyly added, looking over the Crimson Stallion’s shoulder at the horror unfolding.

“I’ll Show you I can’t!” Long haul exclaimed in response to the challenge, increasing his intake significantly before stopping and looking up at the waitress. “Wait, did you say head trauma?”

At the end of the most glorious feast to grace Stack’s Diner in years, Java Chip brought out the bill while the two discussed what to do next. “Here’s your bill for when you are done.” She said before happily trotting back to the kitchen.

“So where do we go from here?” Silver Screen asked, while working on fine tuning his magical grip on the coffee cup. “We can’t just keep doing odd jobs forever, plus, we're kind of just a little bit homeless”.
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“My vote is for hiding in the bathroom and feeding off of the leavings in the kitchen at the end of the night, they can’t find us if we just stand behind some stuff and yell: You can’t see me!” Long Haul added in between devouring his seventh stack of haycakes that evening.

Silver reached for his freshly acquired bag of bits from earlier ventures placed it on the table, taking out thirty two bits along with a few more to tip the staff. “Oh yeah, we should probably count out how many bits I earned from that impromptu show earlier.” Quipped the forest green pony, as he passed the bag over to Long Haul.

Long Haul tipped the bag out onto the table and watched as his jaw hit the floor, a pile of small golden coins flooded out. “Silver Screen, theres gotta be at least three-hundred bits here.” He turned his head to look at the pony next to him. “You got all this from one show?”

Silver Screen, not aware of the significance. “Yeah why? I didn’t even get to finish the story either.”

“You're a nerd!” Long Haul happily proclaimed looking at Silver Screen,

Silver Screen nervously replied. “Yeah but I don’t see what that has to do with everything.”

“You don’t get it, you have seen thousands of movies back home right?” He looked Silver Screen in the eyes, then gazed at his horn like it was the essence of life incarnate. “You read all those books?” He added.

“Yeah, I still don’t see where this is go-” Realization struck Silver Screen as he realized where the conversation was going. “I could retell them. Like I did today. Just add ponies.” He slowly said. “That still does not solve our housing problem.” Silver added that back to the discussion.

“Actually maybe we could help with that.” Java Chip added from behind them, once again having stumbled upon the two completely unnoticed. “We could rent the empty space in the caravan to you gentle colts for about fifty bits a month, how does that sound? It doesn't have the wheels anymore so it’s more of a guest house anyway.”

Short Stack then hopped off of Java Chip’s back and added to the exchange, “You two seem like alright ponies to me, just keep the food orders coming as well and I don’t have a problem with it.”

“That would be great!” The duo chimed in for completely separate reasons. Silver Screen then looked out the windows of the diner, gazing upon the streets of Trottingham. Luna’s moon was rising into the sky as the twilight hour ended. “Just think, I can bring happiness to all those ponies out there with all the stories I’ve read and watched.” It was then in a bright flash that briefly blinded those around him that something special happened, the image of a beam of light shining a tree onto a blank canvas appeared on Silver Screen’s flank. Silver Screen had earned his cutie mark, and it was glorious.