One thing ponies lack in Equestria is Taco Bells. With enough hard work from enough ponies, that can change.
Negotiations and raising capital are one way to get an official franchise. Alternately, there’s the Glen Bell method: learn how it’s done, then copy it. Get ponies into every level of production, from the tomato fields to the restaurants, find out who supplies the machines and buy their own.
Is it ethical? That’s a grey area, but it might be the only chance to save 7-Layer Burritos.
Chapters (8)
Thus, the Franchise Wars have ended...
There was also a sudden uptick in sales for restroom supplies, stomach tonics, This Way To The Facilities signs, and the building of temples for worshiping the Great God Ralph.
Taco Bell. Not even
oncetwice.Serious Taco Bell-ponyfic.
Everyone liked that.
I remember a first grade teacher explaining that the reason the dime was smaller than the nickel was because the dime was made with silver.
True when she was growing up, but even when I was in first grade, dimes had been made out of nickel/copper for many years.
I still remember (in a good way) my first Taco Bell. Jokes about GI distress and uniform, industrialised blandness aside, when you grew up in the northern reaches of nowhere, a Taco Bell beef chalupa is a downright exotic and special treat.
Ponies and Taco Bell, a favorite paring of the good Admiral.
*four years after a new fast food chain opens*
Equestria's Minister of the Environment: "Princess, methane levels are rising across Equestria dramatically! I don't understand it!"
Princess Celestia: *seething* "Taco Shoppe."
10424129
A decisive victory.
Now all restaurants are Taco Bell.
Who's Glen Bell?
10424169
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/10/16/1562534.png
Taco Bell. Not even
oncetwice.I ate at White Castle once, and I’ve also drunk water from a drainage ditch. I’d do the drainage ditch again, not so much White Castle.
10424175
Yup!
10424206
Yes, it was, once.
Same. I wasn’t quite in first grade when they started making pennies out of zinc, but I was at least alive when that change happened.
10424336
Locally, White Castle is known as 'Ratburger'.
This is widely seen as an insult. Especially by those who keep insisting that rat tastes better.
10424252
Oh yeah, I’m with you on that. It wasn’t until high school that I had Taco Bell, and it certainly wasn’t in our little hometown, you had to drive 20 miles or more to find a Taco Bell.
10424265
Truly the best pairing.
The good news is they can fix that with matches. All they’ve got to do is convince ponies that it’s cool to light farts, and problem solved. Or have the pegasi collect it and then they’ve got a natural gas industry.
10424340
Yeah, I’ve never had rat, but I feel like that would be a better choice than a White Castle slider.
At least they gave it an appropriate name. A warning, really.
10424353
Actually, more of an "UN natural gas" industry
Meh, more of a Taco Time kinda guy myself. But they're more of a just western US thing, really. Bet most of you haven't even heard of them until just now when I mentioned it. But I really like their crisp tacos--yum, yum!
10424338
Well, mostly zinc--the thin outer coating is still copper, so at least copper is still used in their production to some degree.
Actually can do some fun things with that, if you're willing to destroy a few pennies. Zinc melts easier than copper does, so if you hold a penny over, say, a bunsen burner long enough, the zinc interior melts leaving the copper shell supporting all the weight, but it's not nearly thick enough to do, so the whole thing starts to crack and break apart like a melting M&M.
I also had a chemistry teacher once who had cut a penny in half and then used a certain solution (I don't remember what) to dissolve the zinc interior, leaving just the hollowed-out copper skin, which he passed around the class for us all to examine.
You can't send credit cards, VCR tapes, etc. through those magnetic security devices.
I don't think I've ever seen a story where unicorn magic demagnetized stuff.
But, if unicorns can't use their magic too near computers.....talk about a Culture Clash.
10424367
My chemistry class did this:
10424417
Yeah, done that too, and even thought about mentioning it in my previous comment (it's how I knew pennies can melt like M&Ms if heated for too long).
I kept the "gold" penny I made and still have it stashed in a little coin-sized case (or less the zinc coating will degrade and it'll loose the gold color) as part of a small coin collection I have.
10424353
IIRC, "Word of God" mentioned (as a silly joke no doubt) that pegasi... produce... helium and other noble gasses. I could see adolescent pegasi (university age stallions naturally) using weather magic to send high current pulses of electricity though pockets of gas, creating impressive aerial arc-lamp displays. (This is of course is immediately followed by multiple admissions to A&E for "lightning rump" flash burns and acute photokeratitis)
10424338
I was as well, and even had the set of seven different 1982 pennies.
Let us not forget Taco Bell's most famous spokedog
10424361
It’s coming out of an actual pony as a byproduct, there’s nothing more natural than that.
10424367
We don’t have those in Michigan; Taco Bell is exotic enough, thank you. When it comes to cuisine, we traditionally cook our pizzas in drip pans we stole from an auto plant. Further north, it’s pasties, and we’ve also got pączkis but only on Fat Tuesday.
Oh, and Faygo and Vernors.
Point is besides the effervescent bubbles in Vernors, most of the cuisine we’re known for isn’t spelled like it sounds or tastes like paint. Or both, if you cook your pasties in a drip pan you stole from an auto plant.
And said copper is still more than one atom thick, but only because the machines that coat to the single-atom scale are more expensive than the cost-savings.
Haven’t tried that yet. Although internet research suggests that you can do that with a backyard solar death ray, and FWIW I have the parts to build a backyard solar death ray.
At a guess, hydrochloric acid.
10424381
I might still have a lead bag for sending undeveloped film through X-ray machines.
I wrote a story where Pinkie Pie demagnetized credit cards (among her other unintentional skills).
My own thought on that is that as long as they don’t go too nuts, the computer’s FCC protection against stray EMI protects them. If they do go too nuts . . . well, it ranges from letting the magic smoke out to slagging the whole tower.
10424417
Science!
(linky ‘cause Knighty won’t let us have nice things)
10424425
I don’t have any “gold” pennies, but I do have a gold-plated Craftsman ratchet which is currently safely in its case, and one day I’ll have a need of it to finish a project.
Ponies in the Admiral’s stories love Taco Bell so freakishly much that I wonder what would happen to a pony who sampled high quality TexMex from one of those family restaurants that have been passing down and refining recipes for generations. Would their taste buds not be able to handle it and their tongues explode?
10424429
She did (I believe the words ‘literal s
tstorm’ were used as well). Also that earth ponies poop on the ground and fertilize the flowers. :Heart:
The trick is to keep the tail high to avoid singing those hairs, and I would assume a good push to make sure that the flame front doesn’t travel the wrong way. It’s a learning curve, and probably a few trips to A&E for burn cream.
10424531
Best I can muster is a set of 1977 proof coins, in a little plastic holder.
Also, somewhat unrelated, I still have a Canadian dollar bill, and those have been gone for a good long time.
EDIT: also, any number of Canadian pennies, ‘cause those still show up in American currency every now and then. Less so than they used to, obviously.
10424613
RIP Gidget.
10424673
It’s not a matter of the taste per se, it’s a cultural experience, something to do on Earth. For ponies, Taco Bell is the Disney World of fast food. Any number of ponies know full well it’s not the best [in fact, in the chapter I was just finishing up, Serrano has many valid concerns about the sauce factory], but for them it’s reached nearly mythical status.
This is largely inadvertent, but in the first widely-distributed newsreels of Earth, there was footage of Taco Bell, both the interior of the restaurant and also of course the drive-through and so impressionable pony minds thought that all (Earth) restaurants are Taco Bell, and the rest is history.
And then the ponies were called to act as judge
10424169
10424688
I take it that at least some ponies are working at the traditional Mom and Pops and learning those methods. After all why just straight copy when you know better is out there for inspiration of improvements.
10424688
Maybe that's how they were the only restaurant to survive the franchise wars?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-LzYwbYkQs
10424354
Having grown up with a steady diet of Taco Bell it is my goto fastfood place and also one of the few I craved when I lived outside the US. During various travels I've also determined the sliders are appropriately named as while being ok there is a distinct and important biological clock set when you eat it, one that is hard to ignore.
10424265
Nope. It's canon that pegasai fart helium, unicorns fart neon and earth ponies, nitrous oxide. Lauren may have been joking, but there's no reason to not accept it.
And it's really sad that Earth has a helium shortage, so humans should be welcoming ponies and encouraging their Taco Bell consumption. Maybe recruiting them to assist in researching and understanding their gut flora mechanics. For welders, superconductor cooling and balloon decorators alike.
Big agree. Aussie notes (bills) are colour coded, which makes it really easy.
Also, pennies are the worst and we don't use those.
Ugghhj Taco Bell. As someone of proud Mexican descent, Taco Bell should stop advertising its food as Mexican and instead American food. Since tacos are soft not hard. The ponies should try out food from those family owned Mexican restaurants.
What about Taco Johns? More "authentic" fast food Mexican.
10424997
As one Mexicolt to another Try Taco Johns. It is more "authentic" Mexican fast food.
The story feels like it just ends. Does not feel like a conclusion. Is it supposed to feel that way or did I miss something?
10425058
Well, its incomplete, so...
Tacos as an esoteric secret society where you must rise in the ranks to learn the innermost knowledge of the faith, in order that you may share it with the others
They weren't testing accuracy, but I can understand the confusion.
A most adorable example of industrial espionage. Looking forward to seeing what comes of it. And I do love the idea of covert note-taking being a vital skill at CSGU.
10424129
Wait, does that mean ponies know how to use the three seashells?
Huh. :D
I wonder what the reaction will be if any security services find out that there's a large and organized Equestrian spy ring operating on Earth to secretly acquire the knowledge needed to build, not nuclear weapons, not supercomputers, not missiles or spy satellites or any of the more expected targets... but Taco Bells. :D
edit:
10424381
By the way, am I missing something? Which part are you referring to? I'm not remembering it or finding it looking back.
10425070
LOL Now sure how I thought this was a one shot and complete lol
10425137
No worries!
Pony corporate spy shenanigans? Sign me in.
(Plus I am glad to see you doing another ship fic, your OTP TacoxPony is so cute!)