• Published 6th Oct 2021
  • 2,747 Views, 220 Comments

Return to Equestria - David Silver



Older, yes. Wiser, perhaps? If he had learned anything, he wouldn't be there. Offered a new chance to visit Equestria, he takes it, not understanding just how much it has changed since the first time. At least he lacks wings or a horn.

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34 - Service With a Smile

David opened the door smoothly. "Sorry for keeping you waiting. I'm David."

"That's a funny name." She offered the cup. "But also the one on the orderer, so here you go." Sunny looked like she was ready to go, but hesitated. "Can I... ask a question?"

"Sure?" The smoothie was cold in his hands. Frozen goodies! He sipped from the straw in it and verified that it was tasty. "Is it about what I am?"

"A little," assured Sunny, turning back towards him. "I don't mean to be..." Her tail flicked. "A bother, but I thought Hitch was making things up."

"He was." David gestured down at his visible hooves and the fur that poked over them. "His didn't have hooves, did they?"

"No, they..." She frowned and laughed at once. "You're playing with me! I didn't tell you what he told me. Stop that!" She swatted at the strange human creature in a lack of fear. "So, I'm Sunny Starscout, and you are David. Last name?"

"Silver."

"Silver, that seems less, sorry, nevermind. Hello, David." She nodded at the curious biped. "Hitch said he handled things nicely and you were in good hooves. Was he lying about that too?"

"Everything is just fine, promise. Joy just ran off to get some shorts actually." He noticed a thing. "No wings?"

She started at that, brilliant golden wings flaring into being for just a moment. "I can't really control them," she admitted miserably. "I don't know how they work. The horn either." She pointed up at her lack of horn. "You know how to use yours?"

"Not exactly... Same boat there."

"Well, hooray for that." Sunny offered a hoof and it was met with a fist in a bump. "Most ponies are getting used to their magic, which includes me. I lived my whole life just not having any, and suddenly..." She sighed slowly. "I'm rambling, and should get back to work." She angled her head at her cart. "I just happened to be nearby when your order came in, figured I'd just stop by."

"Convenient!" But... "If you weren't close, what then?"

Sunny popped her helmet back on her head. "I would have ridden here on my skates. I would have left the cart back behind. Say, since I'm here, and the cart's here, and you're here, want anything else?" She waved at the closed cart with an energetic motion of a hoof. "Probably have enough smoothie for now, but just in case?"

"I have enough... wait, do you have smoothies without sugar?" He crouched down to be more on Sunny's level. "Like diet smoothies?"

"Diet smoothies, sure." Sunny threw open the door to her cart and vanished inside. "Any of my smoothies can be made diet. Just have to ask on the app. I never added it to the menu officially. I didn't think there was a huge demand for it."

David clapped his hands. "You just made a steady customer." Smoothies without so many calories? Now they were talking... "Any idea how many calories they still have?"

"Depends on the smoothie." She threw open the window to smile at David. "There's other stuff in there. Hard to eat a bunch of strawberries without any calories, you know? Still..." She rubbed at her chin. "Still... Tell you what. I'll add a diet section soon, so keep an eye on the app. For now.. Do you like licorice?"

"I am entirely alright with licorice. Why?"

"Because you look really eager." She fired up a blender and sang to herself as she worked. "And this makes us even for giving me the idea." In no time at all, she slapped down a new cup. "Drink it in good health!"

David glanced at his betraying tail, wagging with his excitement. He claimed the licorice smoothie, now having twice the smoothie as he had originally planned. "Thanks. I'll be sure to check for the new additions."

Sunny saluted with a smile. "Looking forward to it... Mind if I ask how you knew about the wings? Are ponies talking about that?"

Crap, he had stepped in it. Still, an excuse was right there. "You did save the day." Truth!

"I wasn't trying to." She drew the window shut and closed the door, hitching herself to her cart. "I was just trying to help... Gosh... don't think I'm like a showoff or something."

"Nah, that's not you." So far David knew, which wasn't that far. "You just wanted ponies to get along."

"Right!" She started away, pulling her cart. "Feel free to stop by, or put in an order. Looking forward to next time!"

David waved at the departing protagonist. "That could have gone worse."

"What are you doing?" Joy sped up into a proper jogging trot. "You should be inside." She half-collided with him, nudging him back into the store and kicking the door behind herself. "And you got me a smoothie? That's really nice."

David did not resist as she laid claim to the berry drink. "Shorts!" She produced a bag. "Ta da! Try them out. If the size is off, I'd rather know now."

He still had a smoothie, which was a victory. Licorice smoothie wasn't bad. He wandered of with the shopping bag, returning with one less set of pants and one more set of shorts on. "Ta da!"

"There you go." Joy clapped softly. "Showing off that fur. Now, how does it feel?"

"Feel?" He turned left and right with swivels of his legs and hips. "They're shorts?"

"Duh." She rolled her eyes. "But you said you're not used to shorts. So how do they feel?"

David grew quiet a moment. "Thanks... for asking." He suddenly snapped his fingers. "Right, I meant to apologize."

"For?" She skewed an ear at him. "Did you do something to or with Sunny? Be honest!"

"No!" No thing that came to mind that could have happened between them seemed good. "She just delivered some smoothies." That Joy had claimed one of. "I meant about us." He waved between himself and Joy. "And Back. I was just riding a high, I think. Forget I said any of that."

Joy wrinkled her nose. "You were feeling your young stallion oats, were you? Well, Back's already gone, so she wasn't that interested." Her tail curled into a question mark, eyes on David steadily. "I'm still here. If we're being completely honest." David tensed. "You're still an alien to me. I can't say you're handsome, or not. You're just odd, not in a bad way, just odd. Worth being a friend with, I'll give that, but not who I want to try making a family with." Her eyes fell. "And I just made you sad."

Damnable betraying tail. "It's fine! Seriously, so very acceptable. It'd be stranger if you said any different." He pointed to her cup, held in a hoof. "How is it?"

"Hm? Oh!" She took a loud slurp from the straw. "Sunny's smoothies are always great! Can't imagine going to somepony else for them. What flavor did you get?"

He took a soft sip of his own, avoiding brain freeze to the best of his ability. "Licorice if you can believe that."

"Brave." She moved to the front counter. "I never tried that." She grabbed a pen and started scribbling. "Gonna make up a schedule for the big day. Thanks for helping! I should point out, once you get paid the first time, you don't need me." She considered her words on the page a moment. "You could go."

"Do you want me to?"

She skewed an ear. "I expected that answer."

"My--"

"Not your tail," she cut off with a sideways wag of her hoof. "I'm not even facing you." She resumed writing. "You are used to not being cared about, I think. Every time somepony does something that involves caring about what you think, it's a surprise. A pleasant surprise, but a surprise." She set the pen down and turned towards David. "Well, too bad. I'm going to keep surprising you."

Well, crud. He was being niced at. The horror. "I'm still an odd alien in your house, useful as I am sometimes."

"Yep." She picked up the paper from behind herself and swung it into view. "Ta da!"

"Maretime Bay Day," it read in bold letters. "First Annual Party Gaming. All ponies welcome." Joy pointed to the vast empty space under the words.

"I think it's missing something. Ideas?"

David hummed. "Well, is this mostly an event to psyche up existing customers, or is it an outreach for new customers?"

"Both?"

"Both is good." He nodded at that. "But pick a focus. What is your goal?"

"Oh, sure, ask the hard ones." She turned the paper back on herself. "Hm... Well, the holiday should attract ponies from all over. My usuals will be happy there is an event at all, no actual need to go extra fancy for them, so let's say it's an outreach. Now what?"

David pointed at the paper in her hooves. "Then we want to sweeten the pot, for them. We want to make it appealing for new gamers, new ponies in the area, and Old ponies who aren't regulars here. So, that tournament idea you had, it's fine, but newbies aren't going to get very far in that."

"I get you." She slapped the paper down and got to writing. "I'll print this up properly when we're done. No need to traumatize the city with my writing." Not that her hoofwriting seemed to be all that bad. "This is going to be great! Thank you for helping. Now... We're home, at last. By the way, where--"

The front window of the store suddenly shattered, glass spilling across the ground as a disc hovered camly in as if it hadn't been involved. "--did you leave the disc?" Joy buried her face in her hooves. "That's going to need fixing... Disc, who's fault is this?!"

The disc calmly floated towards David and came to a halt. "Ah ha!"

David went still.

Joy rapped on the disc, commanding it to stop. "I feel so dumb..." She pulled out her phone and got to tapping. "This is useful though, not gonna lie." Whoever she called answered quickly. "Quickie!" she called with a smile. "Front window just shattered. Need a new one in there. How soon can you do that? Uh huh... Alright. I'll be ready. Thanks so much." She stuffed the phone away. "She'll be here tomorrow morning, not so bad. You're paying half of that."

David blinked softly. "Only half? It's all my fault."

"I was there," scoffed Joy. "I could have thought of the disc. I could have stopped it. I could have done a lot of things, but I forgot about it just like you did. On the positive..." She climbed into the disc, rooting around. "Now we have all our camping supplies back. Sure, most of it won't be that useful here in the city, but still, paid for it, may as well have it." She started unloading things carefully, emptying the disc of its contents. "Can you bring it upstairs?"

"Sure." David grabbed the tools one armful at a time, up and down the stairs in a hurry. "Really sorry about that."

"I already said it was just as much my fault." She half-pushed a sleeping bag out to flop to the floor. "We were both dumb, and we pay the consequences."

David grabed a new arm full of stuff and got moving. "Well, let's make this holiday work."

"Yeah!" She hopped free of the disc. "Now you're talking. By the way, you are going to be known as 'the human' a lot. I bet they've been talking about you while we were gone. Be ready for that."

"I don't plan to act differently..." He wrang his hands together on the way to grabbing the last set of stuff to haul upstairs. "Just me, David. The guy that keeps the computers working so they can play games."

Author's Note:

Just David.

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