One thing that Twilight Sparkle had really missed about Canterlot when she had moved down to Ponyville was the food. She’d never disparage Applejack’s or Pinkie Pie’s cooking, but for the most part, restaurants in Ponyville were never open too late. Ponyville, in many ways, was still a farming town, and the ponies that lived there tended to rise and set with the sun. Twilight, being a pony who often had a highly unusual and variable schedule, often found herself missing the open-at-all-hours shops and diners of Canterlot.
Especially Donut Joe’s. And Twilight was glad that she had to spend a decent amount of time up in Canterlot for the moment, as Celestia and Luna were going over the basics of being a princess with her. As she had discovered, while Celestia and Luna did, in theory, rule Equestria, Twilight could override them when it came to Ponyville. Thus, she had to know all the laws and protocols. Twilight had never thought that she would ever hate studying so much. And that was the reason that she was currently standing outside Donut Joe’s, wrapped in a cloak to hide her wings. She was still uncomfortable with the amount of attention that she received in Canterlot because of those wings. Ponyville, on the other hoof, practically ignored them until there was a problem to fix.
Bracing herself, Twilight headed into Donut Joe’s, and straight for the counter.
“Well, howdy there, Twilight,” said Joe, the same easy grin on his face as Twilight remembered from many late-night runs while she was still Celestia’s student, “what can I get you?”
Twilight blinked at Joe’s complete and utter non-reaction to her new status.
“I’ll have an extra-large coffee, black, and six donuts, half chocolate,” said Twilight.
“And half filled with raspberry. The usual Study Snack Pack,” finished Joe, “will you be eating here, or heading out with it?”
“Oh, I’ll be having it here, if you don’t mind,” said Twilight. Donut Joe just nodded, and served up Twilight’s donuts on a plate.
“That’ll be eight bits,” said Joe, while he began making Twilight’s coffee. Again, Twilight blinked. That was the exact same price that she used to pay for this while she was studying under Celestia. Twilight took her coffee a few moments later, and headed over to a table so that she could sit and relax for a while.
A few moments later, a pony with a camera hung around his neck burst into the donut shop, glancing around. Twilight had dived under the table the minute she had spotted him. The very last thing that she needed right now was to be seen by the press.
“Hey,” said the photographer, striding up to the counter, “I heard that Princess Sparkle came in here. You know anything about that?”
“Princess Sparkle? Nope, can’t say I know a Princess Sparkle,” said Donut Joe, “got an old friend called Twilight Sparkle, but I don’t think that she’d want to talk to you right now. She doesn’t get a whole lot of time off, see, and she’s very busy.”
“But...” began the photographer. However, he was cut off by Donut Joe lifting him up with his magic and pushing him out of the door.
“Like I said,” said Donut Joe, “there’s no princesses in here. And you’re disturbing a friend of mine.”
Twilight emerged from underneath the table just as Joe finished shoving the pony out of the door, and began to pull the blinds down, preventing any other ponies from taking pictures of Twilight.
“Joe,” began Twilight, but she was cut off by Donut Joe.
“Twilight, you heard me. I don’t know a ‘Princess Sparkle’. I know a lovely mare called Twilight Sparkle. Devilishly smart mare, has done some extraordinary things, saved Equestria twice. But she’s also the messiest eater I know, and sometimes uses her food as a napkin.”
With that, Joe headed back to behind the counter, and began to work on some more dough. Twilight smiled, and then shoved two raspberry donuts into her face at once, before washing the whole mouthful down with a completely uncultured slurp of coffee.