//------------------------------// // Day Five // Story: One Of Those Days // by AstroStar //------------------------------// It had been a long, strange week at Sugarcube Corner. With all of the rude, mean, confused, and just flat out weird customers coming into the store over the last few days, Pinkie couldn't even begin to guess what today would bring. Ultimately, she decided not to worry about any of that, and just let the events of the day play itself out, no matter what happens. With that thought, Pinkie opened up Sugarcube Corner and set herself up at the register, ready for whatever today had in store for her. It wasn’t long until a snobbish looking dark pink Earth pony mare with a purple mane and a gold necklace entered the store. Pinkie groaned to herself. First customer of the day and it just HAD to be Spoiled Rich. She had a history of being a bad customer not just at Sugarcube Corner, but at just about every store she’s ever visited. At any rate, every customer deserves a smile, so Pinkie managed to give the rich mare a genuine smile as she approached the counter. “Hi, Mrs. Rich. Welcome to Sugarcube Corner. How may I help you?” “Oh, you know what I want!” Spoiled Rich frowned. Well that lasted longer than she expected, Pinkie sarcastically thought to herself. Pinkie forced a smile. “Just to be on the safe side, why don’t you tell me anyway, just so we know we got it right.” “I want the chocolate… chip… cookie… dough… sundae.” Spoiled Rich said slowly, making sure she broke down each syllable so that even a simpleton can understand. “Is your brain really that small that you can’t even understand that?” Spoiled Rich’s insults and condescending tone only made Pinkie’s forced grin grow wider. “One chocolate chip cookie dough sundae, coming up!” she responded. Keeping the forced smile on her face, she began the process of putting the order together, taking out the sundae glass cup and filling it with the three scoops of cookie dough ice cream, as she has done hundreds of times before, all under Spoiled Rich’s cold, calculating stare. In the middle of putting the order together, Spoiled Rich suddenly spoke up. “No. No. That’s no good at all. Just give me the butter pecan ice cream, instead. Two scoops.” “Whatever you want, ma’am!” Pinkie continued smiling. She set the sundae aside and began to put together the ice cream, placing the two scoops of ice cream on the waffle cone carefully. “Hey!” Spoiled Rich shouted, her patience running out completely. “Where’s my extra scoop. I always get an extra scoop!” “You did say two scoops, and I thought that’s what you meant!” Pinkie replied, trying very hard not lose her composure. Enraged, Spoiled Rich leaned over the counter and shouted straight into Pinkie’s face. “I ALWAYS get an extra scoop! So when I say two scoops, I expect to get THREE!!!”. Amazingly, Pinkie kept up her pleasant demeanor. “No need to shout, ma’am. I’ll get you that third scoop.” Spoiled Rich scoffed. “You’d better! And you’d better stop giving me that attitude.” “I'm sorry that you feel that way,” Pinkie apologized as she continued preparing the ice cream. “When you said two scoops, I thought you just wanted two scoops and that’s it. I’m simply trying to make you exactly what you want; that's all.” She put the third scoop on the cone and topped off the treat with some rainbow sprinkles. “There we go! Three scoops of butter pecan ice cream!” The angry mare took one long look at the ice cream. “You forgot the caramel!” she frowned. “This ice cream ALWAYS comes with caramel here!” If Pinkie's forced smile got any tighter, she was almost certain her teeth might pop out of her mouth. “Actually, the caramel is optional. You didn’t say anything about caramel, so I thought that you didn’t want any.” “Well, I never! This is, without a doubt, the WORST service I’ve ever experienced in all of Equestria!” Spoiled rich shouted. “You know what? Forget the ice cream. I’ll just have the cookie crumble parfait.” “Whatever you want, ma’am!” Pinkie smiled. She carefully put the ice cream aside and went to work putting together the parfait, sprinkling bits of crushed chocolate cookies and chocolate hot fudge on top of the parfait base. “No, no! That won’t do at all,” Spoiled Rich suddenly shouted out. “I want the Strawberry Delight parfait instead.” Pinkie’s calm demeanor cracked a bit and a feeling a pure rage flashed on her face for a split second. Thankfully, she managed to remain calm and professional enough to change Spoiled Rich’s order again without her noticing. Moments later, Pinkie put the finished treat on the counter. “Here you go! One Strawberry Delight. Five bits please” “Finally!” Spoiled Rich groaned as she paid for her parfait. “It’s like pulling teeth to get a sensible meal here. Why is it so hard for everypony to understand what I’m trying to order?!?” As Spoiled Rich made her way out of the store, Pinkie made a mental note to herself to ask Applejack if she needed any extra help bucking trees later that afternoon. ~~~~~ The line at Sugarcube Corner had become longer as the morning went on. Thankfully, everypony waited for their turn in the line without any fuss. At the moment, Pinkie greeted a rather pudgy silver-maned light purple unicorn mare. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie smiled to the couple. “I’ll have the chocolate chip brownie with extra frosting and sprinkles. Oh, and can you also add a strawberry milkshake with chocolate syrup, too?” “No problem. That’ll be seven bits,” Pinkie chuckled as she rang up the order. Behind the couple in the line, a pair of elderly mares shook their heads in disgust. “Did you hear what that girl ordered? No wonder she’s so fat!” the first elder said out loud to her friend, making no attempt to whisper as if she wanted all of Equestria to hear her. “Young ponies today are so lazy! Don’t ponies like that have any self-respect for themselves?” the second elder added. “Of course, they don’t! Ponies like that just expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. I bet she never worked a single day in her life!” The other ponies in the store couldn’t help to overhear what the two elders were saying about the customer at the counter, who had showed no reaction herself to what was being said about her, and were starting to become angry the longer those elders went on. Pinkie was disappointed herself that some ponies were quick to judge others like that and she wanted to tell those two ponies that what they were doing wasn’t cool. She wanted to speak up to the gossiping elders, but she ultimately didn’t need to since a dark yellow stallion in the line decided to speak up to the elders. “Hey! Cut that out! Don’t you think you’re being a little unfair to her? She did nothing to you,” he said. A few ponies around him nodded in agreement. “Well I’m sorry, young man, but we find it offensive when a pony decides to present herself like that in public,” the first mare replied. “Yes! She should be ashamed of herself for exhibiting the WORST OF EQUESTRIA!!!” the second mare shouted, making sure that her last line echoed in the overweight customer’s ear. Now everypony in the store wad their attention to the front of the line. Enough was enough. Now Pinkie had to step in. “Excuse me ladies, but this isn’t the place for that kind of behavior.” “Tell that to that fat pig you’re serving right now!” the first mare shouted. “If you had any decency, you would refuse her service and tell her to not come back until she lost weight!” At that point, the customer started to break down in sobs. “Why do you hate me? I can’t help the way I look!” the customer cried to the elders. The first elder mare scoffed. “Please, that’s no excuse. You expect us to be sorry for you?” The customer placed a hoof on her stomach. “I’M PREGNANT!!!” she screamed through her tears. Everypony inside Sugarcube Corner fell uncomfortably silent as the customer’s scream echoed off the walls. The two elderly ponies’ faces had drained into pure abject horror all the while the customer continued to cry. They soon noticed all the disapproving stares coming at them from every corner of the store. Some of them even started booing the now terrified elders. “Oh… well… We weren’t really talking about… you… per se…” the first elder chuckled, failing to laugh off the whole situation. “Yes… Sorry for the misunderstanding,” the second elder chuckled, nervously shifting her way towards the exit. “Hey! I think I hear our taxi outside. Gotta go!” The two elders galloped out of Sugarcube Corner faster than they have ever remembered galloping before. While some in the store cheered at the two leaving, others approached the overweight mare at the front of the line. “Are you all right, ma’am?” the stallion who spoke up earlier asked. “I’ll be fine,” the customer smiled, wiping the last tear from her eye. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, when are you due?” Pinkie asked. The customer chuckled. “Actually, I’m not pregnant at all. I only did that to teach those mares a lesson!” "Lesson learned," the stallion chuckled. ~~~~~ The morning rush was starting to wind down when a black-maned auburn pegasus colt entered the store. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted the new customer. “I’d like the Strawberry Ice Cream Cookie sandwich and a medium hot cocoa, please?” “Not a problem! That’ll be eight bits.” “Actually,” the customer began to point out, “Pinkie Pie always gives me a discount.” “…Excuse me?” Pinkie blinked in confusion. “Yeah! She probably didn’t tell you that yet.” he smiled smugly. “I don’t mean to brag, but I’m a regular customer around these parts. And I’m proud to say that I’m Pinkie’s number one customer!” Pinkie could only shake her head. She knew everypony in Ponyville and she knew her regular customers very well. Yet, she had never met this colt before in her life. While it was true that many ponies have heard of her, and by extension Sugarcube Corner, she never really thought that somepony would completely misidentify the pinkest pony in Equestria in her own store! “So you’re best friends with Pinkie Pie, are you?” she asked the stallion. “You bet!” “How is Pinkie doing lately, just out of curiosity?” she asked, crossing her front hooves together. “Oh, you know. Same old, same old!” He waved his hoof amusingly. “I don’t want to bore you with the details.” “Oh no! I insist!” Pinkie chuckled. “I’ve heard some stories about Pinkie Pie.” “Really? What kind of stories?” “Well for starters, I heard that Pinkie Pie doesn’t like it when a pony she never met before tries to trick her into giving him or her free food!” Pinkie’s face fell into a deep frown as she finished her sentence. “Never met before? But I have met Pinkie Pie! I swear!” he insisted. She arched her eyebrow. “Really? Then what’s her cutie mark?” The customer stammered for a few moments as he quickly tried to come up with an answer. “A… pink… elephant?” he weakly offered. Her frown grew deeper. “For your information, Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark is three balloons. Two blue and one yellow.” She pointed out the mark on her flank to the customer to prove her point. “Oh! That’s right! How silly of me!” the colt smiled in sudden realization. “Her cutie mark is three balloons! Just… like… yours….” He trailed off into stunned silence as he began to connect the dots. “You’re Pinkie Pie, aren’t you?” “And how may I help you today, sir?” Pinkie asked angrily. The colt remained silent under Pinkie’s stern gaze for a few agonizing seconds. “…Sooooo, can I still get the discount?” “You are not getting a discount,” she frowned. “I am not getting a discount,” he repeated in defeat. “You are going to go home and rethink your life,” she added. “I am going to go home and rethink my life,” he nodded, shuffling his hooves a bit as he left the store. ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next set of customers, a pair of young blonde-maned Earth fillies, one of which had a brown coat and the other one had a light red coat. “Yeah! Can we order two double-scoop cookie sundaes?” the red filly asked. “With extra sprinkles on mine?” the brown filly added. “No problem! That’ll be ten bits,” Pinkie smiled. She rang up the order and began to put together the mares’ order. While they waited, the two customers took the opportunity to take a closer look at the store. The red filly noticed that there were a lot of signs posted that displayed various sales and ongoing specials and general warnings and information to everypony. One such sign made the red filly tilt her head in confusion. “Careful. Some foods may contain nuts,” she read. “Why is that sign up?” “It’s just a friendly reminder,” Pinkie explained. “Some ponies don’t like nuts or can’t eat them, so we just post up a reminder that some of our treats have nuts in them.” “Ok, but how are you supposed to know which foods contain nuts?” The brown filly rolled her eyes at her friend. “Well duh, obviously all of the donuts have nuts.” “How do you figure?” the red filly asked. “It’s all in the name!” the brown filly explained. “DO-NUTS. Why else would they call it that?” The red filly nodded slowly as she followed her friend’s reasoning. “Oh! That does makes sense when you think about it!” Pinkie Pie opened her mouth to say something, but then quickly decided to stay quiet. Sometimes it was just best to leave well enough alone. ~~~~~ It was getting late in the afternoon and things were quiet at Sugarcube Corner at that moment. No customers were in the store and the Cakes were out shopping for supplies. Pinkie decided to take advantage of the break in customers to tidy up the store a bit in case another rush of customers came in. As she was finishing up wiping down the front counter, a familiar white unicorn entered the store, looking a tad bit worn out at the moment. “Rarity! How are things in your neck of the woods?” Pinkie asked. “I suppose things are fine,” the fashionista sighed, “I just had an experience with a customer today that just made me want to pull my hair out! Would you please fix me a bowl of vanilla ice cream? I think I deserve a treat.” “Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie Pie smiled, heading back to the counter to get Rarity’s treat ready “Care to share what happened?” “You won’t believe this,” Rarity warned Pinkie. “This customer insisted that insisted I give him 30% off his suit order because he was a gold-level member level at J.C. Whinny’s of Canterlot. And I guess that means he feels he gets 30% off anything, anywhere.” Pinkie groaned at Rarity’s story while she finished putting the ice cream together. She then grabbed a bottle of chocolate syrup from the cabinet to top off the treat. “You got one of those ponies too, huh?” she asked. Rarity nodded. “To make matters worse, he just wouldn’t leave! I spent a good 30 minutes trying to explain that my shop has nothing to do with any department store, Canterlot or otherwise. When he left, he said that he was going to file a complaint to J.C. Whinny’s and he’ll make sure I get fired!” “I could only imagine the reaction he’s gonna get from J.C Whinny's when he tries to follow through on that,” Pinkie chuckled. “Here’s your ice cream, Rarity. The chocolate syrup is on me.” “Oh, Pinkie! You didn’t have to do that.” “I insist. Sometimes a small treat like this can turn a whole day around. Believe me. I know from experience.” Rarity and Pinkie continued chatting when a blue-maned black pegasus stallion entered the store. He stood in line behind Rarity. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie told the stallion. “I’ll be with you in just a moment.” “Don’t worry about it. I’m just admiring the view. Take your time.” The stallion grinned. Rarity took her ice cream off the counter. “I guess I should be returning to my shop now. Thanks again for the ice cream and… EEEK!!!” Rarity suddenly tensed up from an unknown slap on her rear. Her face turned a light shade of pink. “Rarity? What happened?” Pinkie asked. “I think he just slapped me on my flank!” Rarity shouted in alarm. “Settle down lady. It’s just a compliment,” the stallion defended himself. Rarity’s jaw dropped. “A COMPLIMENT?!? That was closer to assault!” Pinkie nodded in agreement. “Sir, not only is that NOT a compliment, it’s rude, it's mean and is not allowed in our store. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The stallion frowned. “Geez! Are all you mares this uptight around here? Don’t you know how to act when a stallion gives you a compliment? You girls need to loosen up if you want to get married before you become ugly old hags.” Pinkie and Rarity’s eyes twitched. “Ugly… Old… Hags?” Rarity repeated slowly. The stallion nodded defiantly. He then gave the two a quick second glance. “Then again, it might be too late for you two anyway,” he scoffed. That was it. Forget store protocol and forget basic customer service. This stallion was going down. Pinkie Pie started to climb over the counter in rage. “WHY I OUGHTTA…” Before Pinkie could get any closer, Rarity put a single hoof on her shoulder to stop her. In contrast to Pinkie’s blind rage, Rarity's reaction had turned calm and serene. “I apologize, good sir. You have made your point,” she calmly told the stallion. “WHAT?!?” a confused Pinkie shouted to her friend. “He is right, after all,” Rarity calmly explained. “As a lady, I should recognize when a stallion of such… magnitude decides to take notice on such a frail, gentle creature as myself.” The stallion smiled triumphantly. “There you go! Nice to see some ladies out there know how to take a good compliment.” Rarity nodded. “Indeed I do. And as a lady, I should thank your gracious compliment. It is the generous thing to do, after all.” “I’m liking the sound of this!” the stallion grinned. “In fact, you’re looking more and more beautiful by the second, Miss…” “…Rarity. My name is Rarity. And I’ll make sure that you’ll never forget who I am.” She turned back to Pinkie. “I’d like to buy a chocolate fudge cake for my friend here.” “But Rarity…” Pinkie tried to protest. “I insist!” Rarity spoke up, hushing any objections to her actions. “Only the best for our fine gentlemen.” “Yeah! You heard her, lady!” the stallion angrily shouted to Pinkie. “Get moving and give me my cake!” Pinkie gave the customer a dangerous scowl before sighing in defeat. She rang up the order then went back to the kitchen. A few short moments later, Pinkie returned from the back with the cake and handed it over to Rarity. The stallion took a good look at the cake. “Wow! That’s a big cake!” he observed. Rarity nodded. “It sure is. And it’s all yours!” Without any warning, Rarity threw the whole cake into the stallion’s face, with pieces of crumbs, frosting and chocolate syrup flying everywhere. Rarity made sure that the stunned stallion’s face was completely covered with cake. Pinkie Pie fell over into uncontrollable laughter while the stallion got covered in chocolate fudge. “Worth every penny!” Rarity smirked. With her work finished, the fashionista walked out of the store with her head held high. The stallion remained stunned frozen, his face covered in cake crumbs and fudge which now also covered the floor as well. Pinkie, who was still caught in fits of laughter, walked over to the closet, grabbed a mop, and handed it over to the customer. “By the way,” Pinkie giggled, “We also have a rule that if you make a mess in our store, you have to be the one who cleans it up. And you did say that this was your cake. So, happy cleaning!” The stallion grumbled as he took the mop from Pinkie’s hooves and started cleaning up the mess. Pinkie also made sure to explain to the Cakes the new cleaning rule she had just now created for the store and why, hopefully, this was to be a one-time only rule.