The Endless Cycle
At a small Sunbucks at the end of a Ponyville street, a colt looks for bits on the ground outside. This colt is a fairly old teenager, about eighteen, brown hair, white coat, cyan eyes, and clearly is very interested in this coffee shop in particular. It’s a modern establishment, metal overhangs, the very iconic Sunbucks siren logo, and the green and grey accents. It had been a well-travelled coffee place for decades.
The colt stumbles in with a certain amount of bits, and walks up to the barista, who is clearly sick of her job. Her green hat is haphazardly and carelessly slapped onto her frizzy red hair, and she is in possession of a grey coat.
“Welcome to Sunbucks, how may I help you?” the barista asks tiredly, her eyes squinting at the colt who walked in. She could’ve sworn she had seen him before, but she didn’t remember or care enough to find out.
The white colt walks up to the barista and slaps the bits on the counter, and looks straight into her eyes.”I’d like a coffee and a bagel,” he states, pushing the bits towards the barista.
“Do you want anything in that coffee?”
“I’d like it black, and no room for cream, please.”
The barista nods.”What would your name be?”
The colt looks at her even more intently.”My name will be lost to the sands of time.”
“So you’re one of the smart-alecks, eh?” the barista asks.”Nevermind that we need your name sir, you need to know when your coffee is brewed.”
The colt tips his head up and thinks for a moment.”My name is unimportant, but you can call me Mr. Time.”
“Colt, we need your real name—“
The barista is cut off by an deadset stare.
“—Mr. Time it is then.” She quickly gets to brewing the coffee, all while mumbling,”How does a colt talk like that?”
Mr. Time proceeds to take a seat in a centrally located red couch that has a newspaper on the table in front of him. He opens the newspaper and starts reading the entire thing through. Even after his name is called and he gets his coffee and bagel, he continues reading the newspaper, until the entire thing is finished. He puts the newspaper back down, drinks the coffee and eats the bagel, and leaves without doing anything else.
“What a peculiar colt, something tells me that there’s more to his story,” the barista mumbles.
The next day, that teenaged colt walks into the Sun Bucks and orders a coffee and a bagel, and repeats what he did the previous day.
So it happened. Everyday, that colt would order a coffee and a bagel. Even as he grew, and the staffing and decorations changed, he would always do just that, order a coffee and a bagel, and sit in a central red couch and read the newspaper completely through.
As he gets a job, he casually goes in and takes his usual order, a different barista was there, but he still does the same.
The current one is very chipper and happy all the time. She has a pink coat and a bouncy yellow mane, her eyes sparkle with almost every event she considers pleasing. The stallion turns to her and says,”I haven’t seen you around, I’d like a coffee and a bagel, please.”
The barista responds with,”I’m so happy to finally be part of your order, the management always talks about a white stallion who orders nothing but a coffee and a bagel every day. I’ve always wanted to serve you!” Without provocation, she writes,”Mr. Time” on the cup and gets to happily brewing his coffee.
The stallion goes to his usual spot and reads the newspaper all the way through. The barista calls his name, and he goes up to the counter and says,”You know, I work on the other side of Ponyville, I have to leave immediately.”
The barista looks a bit downcast, and asks him,”Why do you order a coffee and a bagel every day, without fail?”
The stallion shrugs and says,”Maybe I just want a coffee and a bagel.”
He walks outside, leaving a very confused barista behind him.
Since he’d been getting a coffee and a bagel every day for almost 30 years, without fail, he got other inquisitors dead set on finding out why he did what he did. The stallion responds with the same reasoning he gave the barista, he’d shrug and say,”Maybe I just wanted a coffee and a bagel.”
That is until one day, a young colt walks in. He has a yellow mane and a red coat, and a shy aura about him, and as the day is very slow, he’s the only pony aside from the regular stallion, who had retired by now, and was still doing his thing.
The older stallion turns to him, he was the only other pony today, and he clearly didn’t come in with enough money. If the older stallion had to guess, he was there to use Sunbucks’ luxuries.
Feeling sorry for the colt, the older stallion walks up to the barista, she is now an older pony with a grey mane and blue eyes. She wasn’t excited or bored, but rather simply enjoying her job, she smiled and laughed with the customers, but generally wasn’t one to talk.
The stallion walks up to her.”Can I get an additional coffee and bagel?” he says, putting some more bits on the table.
The barista happily complies, and the older stallion walks up to the young colt who just entered. The stallion smiles at the colt, and hands him a coffee and a bagel, and for the first time in 60 years, he sat down somewhere that wasn’t his red couch. In an interesting twist, the older stallion was so notorious for sitting there, that they kept the couch with the latest decoration change.
“Why’d you order a coffee and bagel for me?” the red colt asks.
Like all the times before, the stallion known as Mr. Time shrugs.”You looked like you needed a coffee and a bagel.”
“I know there’s more than that, I know a pony wouldn’t buy me a coffee and a bagel just because I looked like I needed it.”
Mr. Time smiles,”I did it because 70 years ago, there was an old stallion that ordered a coffee and a bagel every day without fail, on one day, he decided to buy me a coffee and a bagel because I looked like I needed it. I’m upholding the impact he had on my life by ordering a coffee and a bagel every day without fail.”
The new colt smiles,”I’ll be back tomorrow.”
As he leaves, Mr. Time smiles, he had left an impact.
Every day, Mr. Time and his new companion order a coffee and a bagel together for ten years straight, then one day, the younger colt comes in, and realized Mr. Time isn’t where he usually sits.
The colt orders nothing, instead venturing to the obituaries, where his suspicions were confirmed, Mr. Time, real name Screen Cap, had died in his sleep last night.
The colt leaves the Sunbucks crying, not ordering anything, but instead mourning for the friend he had known for half his life.
The next day, the colt comes in, he carries several grungy bits, and walks up to the barista, a red girl with spectacles and pink hair, he puts the bits on the counter.
Just like his friend before him, the colt says,”I’d like to order a coffee and a bagel.”
“What would your name be?” The barista asks.
“My name is unimportant, but as I am upholding the honor of a past friend, call me Cycle.”
The colt sits down on a red couch and ventures to read the newspaper. When his name is called, he walks up, gets his things, finishes reading the newspaper, and finally, eats the bagel, drinks the coffee, and leaves.
The endless cycle continues, just as it always had, and would always be.
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9764003
Heck, I’m the author and I want to know more about this coffee shop.
I always like stories that end in the way they started, one of my favorite methods of storytelling.
I cried when you mentioned me in your Author's note, and I am honored that you thought of me. This was a really great story, and I really enjoyed it. Well done!
Cute story but didnt really had any impact for me,sorry..I think it needs more "Slice of life" in it.It needs "more" overall.It kind of passes for me as a word of mouth story that would hit those who relate to it but i think its lacking in build up or any hint of attachment or what would keep that Pony coming back, no peaks into characters. No pondering from who noticed him coming back and even at the end when he brought that coffie to that colt, it was somewhat dispassionate where i would expect such inviduall to sit down at least briefly and attempt to talk more or..anything that would make this moment more memorable for the Colt not just an act of passing kindness.
The side joke if this was an eldritch horror, of continuity.
"To leave an impact", indeed.
There will always be someone for that one red couch, never leaving their real name, ordering the same thing. All for the sake of aesthetics, an image, an ideal, a feeling. Only the couch remains.
It's the couch, it was always the couch
9765658
Best comment on this story by the way.
It feels like it needs a bit of editing, but it's a solid short story. Great job!
I know a lot of others might be asking for "more," but I actually quite enjoyed this exactly at the length it needs to be. Sometimes you don't need to delve deep into the lore or the pony's lives in order to get an impact story from it. It was one good deed churning right into another. This is "Pay it forward" in it's truest sense.
9771702
You understood my idea, I can’t make a sequel or a prequel because the point is that it’s an endless loop. It’s also kind of hard to emphasize Screen Cap because that would get repetitive quickly.
Another thing I had was the point that it’s supposed to be a story you’d tell others, a sort of word-of-mouth story.
Hey! Found this again still hanging out in my Read Laters. Reading through it I notice:
This note comes after what is seems to be a fairly significant time skip, and the story starts when he's already eighteen. I just feel it breaks the flow of the bit when I would have assumed he got a job before that point.
Still think it's a solid short story!
9988100
Thanks for the compliments. I do understand how the time skip might interrupt the flow though.
9765571
A simple act can have a lasting impact.
Reading every Depth in Innocence Contest entry: Bonus Story 3: The Endless Cycle by SociallyAwkwardDashite
(Disqualified for being written before the contest start date, but after reading it definitely feels like a Depth in Innocence entry)
A story about a cycle. A bagel of life, shall we say. While I feel like moves a bit to fast, and the ending isn't exactly a surprise, I still like it. It has a nice, almost fable like feeling to it. It may not particularity feel "pony-ish", but I feel that's actually a benefit here, since the core could be adapted to almost any setting. I don't really have much more to say, to be honest. It's a fine example of a simple, cylindrical and meaningful little one-shot.
10314039
I know it was written before the contest, but at least you still enjoyed it!
This was great! Love the cyclical nature of the story and this is the type of story you'd expect to be a local legend.