Hungry? You're not Alone.
Shining Armor eased his SUV to a stop and slid it into park. He turned the key to the aux position to cut the engine and leaned back in his seat with a satisfied sigh. While technically in the parking lot of the Canterlot Convention Center, he had found a free space facing the street that afforded him a clear line of sight to his target. Directly ahead of him sat a squat yellow building--Canterlot’s only Taco Bell--with its bright backlit signs and many colorful window advertisements displaying the current month’s featured deals. From here, he had an unobstructed view of one of the fast food joint’s entrances and a partially blocked view of the other, but he could still tell if someone was using it. Unless those girls slipped in through the employee’s entrance in the back, there would be no way for them to get inside without him spotting them.
He thought back to his brief first encounter with the three and pursed his lips. The blonde--Applejack, he reminded himself with a quick glance at the license on the seat next to him--had come across like she was just trying to look out for her friends, and the blue haired girl, while apparently a little dim, had seemed sincere enough in her desire for food.
But that pink one...
Shining gave his head a quick shake. He wasn’t really sure what the deal with her was. When he had first seen her, sitting perfectly still and quiet between her two friends like nothing was wrong, he’d pegged her as just being nervous or shy. He hadn’t been expecting her to suddenly lash out like a Yippie with nothing to lose.
Still, Shining Armor couldn’t really bring himself to blame the others for her actions. He hadn’t been a teenager so long ago that he had forgotten what it was like, and a tiny smile crept onto his face as he thought of all the trouble he and his friends had gotten into back then. The time Gaffer had convinced them all to form a rock band to help him impress Cadance was was a particularly fond memory, even if it did make them the laughing stock of his entire school for a while.
These girls were probably out tonight making their own memories, just like he had done… just like he kept wishing his little sister would do instead of sealing herself up indoors all day. He had to admit, for the briefest moment during their conversation, Shining had hoped that Applejack and her friends were the kind of people he might be able to introduce to Twily to help bring her out of her shell a little. Before they’d solidified their status as a public menace, of course.
He sighed again. As much as he knew he had to bring the trio in, the big brother in him still didn’t really want to. Maybe he could at least give them a chance to enjoy their meal before he brought their ‘crime spree’ to an end. He let his eyes wander over the Taco Bell, coming to rest on one particular window poster showing some kind of triple-stacked burrito with alternating layers of guacamole and refried beans between the outermost tortillas, and scrunched up his nose.
On second thought, he didn’t much like the idea of putting three people who had recently consumed high-grease, high-preservative, bean-filled, mostly artificial and known-to-produce-flatulence fast food in the back of his car.
“I’ll take a corndog over that crap any day.”
A sudden flurry of movement and colors that spanned both his rearview mirror and his one remaining side mirror caught his attention, and he twisted around to get a better look. The sight he beheld froze him in place.
“What in the blue hell…”
“... And that’s how Equestria was made!”
“Wow,” Sonata breathed in awe as she stared at Pinkie Pie with wide eyes. “I had no idea there were so many bakers or polar bears involved, and I’m from Equestria!”
“Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash grunted, shouldering both the party girl and the blue haired Siren she was sandwiched between in a vain attempt to reclaim some personal space in the overcrowded, standing-room-only bus, “what are you even talking about?”
“Equestria! Y’know, the other world where Twilight, Sunset, and the Sirens are from?”
“Yeah, I got that much, but how do you always know everything about it? Like that time when Twilight first told us who she was and you pretty much nailed it?”
“I’unno,” was Pinkie’s only response. Rainbow sighed, or tried to, but at that moment the bus took a corner and the glasses-wearing, slightly overweight nerd next to them lost his balance, further squashing the three girls together.
“Ugh, watch it!” Rainbow said as the bus straightened back out and they all regained their own footing.
“S-sorry,” the kid replied, looking more than a little embarrassed.
“Why the heck are there so many people taking the bus this late anyway?” Rainbow asked out loud without really expecting an answer.
“Oh, you mean you don’t know?”
“Know what?” Sonata asked, trying to twist herself around since she was currently standing with her back to the boy.
“It’s opening night of the fourth annual Canterlot Comicon!” he said excitedly, using one thick finger to push his glasses back up his nose as they slid down. “Though, it might be the last year they can hold it here in the city unless they find a bigger venue; the tickets sold out in just a couple of weeks. I’ve been waiting for this for months!”
“Huh?” Rainbow said, but a pink finger tapped her shoulder and the pointed out the far window. Rainbow had to squint to try and see through the somewhat grimey surface, but when she realized what she was looking at her mouth fell open.
“Oh, for crying out-!” Rainbow was cut off as the bus driver slammed on his brakes, bringing the packed vehicle to a stuttering stop and knocking any unprepared passengers off their feet and into an uncomfortable, impromptu dogpile.
“Sorry about that!” The driver called back. “Buncha damn kids trying to cross the road… is everybody ok?”
A series of mumbled and moaned answers in varying degrees of confirmation responded, and it seemed like everyone was, for the most part, unharmed.
“Whoever’s hand is on my butt has three seconds,” Rainbow deadpanned. “One.”
“Whoopsies!” Pinkie said as she quickly extricated herself from the pile with an awkward smile.
“Um,” Sonata spoke up, “Actually Pinkie, I think your hand was on my butt.”
“Then who the hell is-?!” Rainbow started as she looked down, her cheeks flushing as she found herself looking into the tomato-red face of the nerd from earlier.
“Um… h-hi.”
“Sorry about the eye,” Rainbow mumbled a half-hearted apology to the nerd as the four of them exited the bus, along with most of the other riders. The boy laughed weakly, his one hand keeping a cold can of whipped cream pressed against his swelling face as best as he could.
“S’okay,” he slurred a little as he started walking off with an awkward gait. “Thanks for the whipped cream.”
“Make sure you find something yummy to put it on before it gets too warm!” Pinkie called after him, drawing a narrow glare from Rainbow. “What? No reason to let it go to waste, that stuff’s good!”
“So… is this it?” Sonata asked, glancing around anxiously as the bus closed it’s doors, issued a loud beep, and started to pull away from the curb. “Are we here?”
“Yeah, we’re here,” Rainbow sighed, “but we’ve got a bit of a problem.”
Sonata’s face fell a little. “What kind of a problem?”
Rainbow pointed across the street just as the bus moved out of the way.
“That kind.”
There, in all it’s glory, stood Taco Bell. Perched on a small rise just across the street from the Canterlot Convention Center, its bright sign glowed like a beacon and widened Sonata’s eyes as she drank in the symbol of her hope; her love... but the joy she should have felt was short lived.
To be more specific, her joy was stuck in line behind several hundred excited, colorful, often costumed, sometimes a little smelly, and unfortunately very, very hungry geeks, nerds, and other assorted weirdos. The line extended out of the Taco Bell, wrapped around the entire building several times, then meandered back and forth through the parking lot before finally ending where it spilled onto the sidewalk about a half a block from where they were currently standing.
“Wh-what?” Sonata said, slackjawed. “Where did… why are… huh?!”
“Uh-oh, I think we broke her,” Pinkie waved her hand in front of Sonata’s face.
“It looks like the eggheads all wanted a late night snack, and Taco Bell is one of the only fast food places in walking distance,” Rainbow surveyed the crowd and crossed her arms over her chest as Sonata fell to her knees. “Well, ‘walking distance’ for your average neckbeard, anyway.”
Pinkie whistled in awe. “You know what that means?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow grumbled. “We’re gonna be here awhile.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.034 seconds
Total duration
624 users online
822,972 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Grab those girls some Snickers bars.
And don't give up on them, Shiny! They're nice folks, really! Pinkie's just a little bit crazy!
LOVE IT!!!
Keep up the AWESOME work!!!
Wow. Rainbow's a bitch.
I see what you did there.
“Well, ‘walking distance’ for your average neckbeard, anyway.”
*scratches neckbeard*
5376003
*scratch* You and me both,
5375517
I almost want to reserve the right to use this... almost,
5375898
No argument,
5376178
You can have it, I've been doing this on most of your chapters.
5376178 'kay I know it's obvious but...
This is a reference to the comics so... do I get points for that Mr. Pirate Guy?
5377053
Absolutely! Have +5 Pirate Points!
5378346 Yiss!!! Wait... how many I got now?
Now we 're making fun of ourselves... Or just generic nerds? (I hate my neck beard if I forget to shave) This one came completely out of the blue for me. You just decided to pop in an insanely popular event with a massive influx of fans for no particular reason? There's random funny, and random I-just-pulled-this-out-of-my-ass. Poor nerd, getting stuck with beautiful girls and having no idea what to do about it. Can't really sympathize too much, I'm not that fond of the convention goers' sterotype. I've been to both a small alaska convention and Bronycon, there have been all sorts of amazing people, and can't recall seeing more than a few 'fat neck beards".
I would've liked this chapter more there had been some kind of buildup or sign that there was a major fricken convention happening, those things get a good portion of the town going. Still, I enjoyed Shining Armor having a big brother moment, even if he's still gonna run down those adorable little trouble-makers. And judging from the wording and the setup, using the employee door is exactly what they're gonna do.
Another great chapter!
Was that a SNL Taco Town skit reference in that giant burrito Shining noticed?
Wonder if Button Mash, or Shining's old friends(who were pretty geeky) from the comic are gonna be attending this event
5378723
Something like 105 or 110; it's in the comments somewhere,
5379194
I am the King of Random-I-just-pulled-this-out-of-my-ass!
... No, I'm not kidding; when I used to DM and the players got too far from the rails I would start making stuff up on the spot until we got some semblance of a passable story back and could continue,
And actually I agree; my wife and I have been con-goers for years, and aside from the occasional scruffy neck on my part, we don't fit that stereotype either... however RD here isn't exactly the most PC of individuals, to put it lightly. If there was ever going to be someone who'd stereotype nerds, it'd be Rainbow Dash... particularly a Rainbow Dash who has yet to discover the awesomeness of being a die-hard Daring Do fan.
Hm... now that I'm re-reading it tho, the word neckbeard just doesn't feel like it fits within the world... you think I should change it back to RD's more typical 'egghead'?
5379922 Nah, Neckbeard is the best sterotype a cool girl like Dash could come up with. Egghead is reserved for smart people she respects. My feathers were just ruffled at the sterotype and total lack of build up. Anyways, where's my Fluttershy? She can't work at Taco Bell , that's Sonata's job.
5380289
Flutters and (haha, I'm not telling!) will be making their entrance at the start of the next chapter. I had intended for them to show up during this one but Shining's scene ran longer than I expected so I decided to bump it.
Some stuff is probably going to unavoidably feel like it comes out of nowhere. I have an overall plan, but I'm more or less making stuff up as I go along,
5379922 I'll take the 110 option.
Something tells me Pinkie and Sonata are going to do something reckless and hilarious to make it to the front of the line.
215 likes and 8 dislikes.......
This DESERVES to be on the Feature Box.
Trying to think of hilarious ways 90's cartoons solved the horrendously long queue problem.
Why do I still get a slight burn of anger whenever I read the word "neckbeard"?
5476867
It's Rainbow Dash; you're free to get as angry as you like,
5375898
How is this different from usual?
Kinda think that's what got him clobbered in the first place...tee hee...
Well, since no one else did yet, Imma just point out the Cutie Mark Chronicles ref no one frikkin else realized
Seriously, this should be a TV Trope.
Ouch...
Huh. Well, you can put that down as the first time I've ever liked Shining Armour as a character.