> One Of Those Days > by AstroStar > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Day One > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- One Of Those Days By: AstroStar Sugarcube Corner. Ponyville’s premier bakery and sweets shop. Inside, Pinkie Pie was finishing up her morning tasks in advance of opening the store for the day. Pinkie considered herself fortunate to work in a place like this. She always liked meeting new ponies, and there was no shortage new ponies to meet at Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie finished setting up the cake display in the store window. The only thing left for her to do was to unlock the front door and officially open the store for the day. As Pinkie opened the store, she couldn’t help but wonder what new ponies she’ll meet today. Moments after opening the store, her first customer walked in. She was an elderly earth pony, a little older than Granny Smith it seemed like. She wore a large sweater and thick, oversized glasses. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie smiled at the newcomer. “How may I help you?” “Goodness!” the elderly pony exclaimed. “Have I really found Sugarcube Corner? I’ve been looking everywhere for this place.” “Today’s your lucky day then, because you found it!” Pinkie grinned. “What can I do for you?” “I’d like to place an order for a formal suit for my husband,” the customer replied. Pinkie blinked. Did the customer just order a suit? “I’m sorry. What did you say?” The customer laid out a sheet of paper detailing the measurements for the suit she wanted. “Here are his measurements. Is it possible to get this done by Friday? I want to surprise him for his birthday party.” Pinkie chuckled politely. “I’m sorry ma’am, but we don’t make dresses at Sugarcube Corner.” The customer looked at Pinkie in shock. Her expression suddenly turned darker. “What do you mean you don’t make dresses here?” she yelled. “I was told that Sugarcube Corner was known for their dresses!” Pinkie was taken aback by the customer’s sudden angry tone, but she managed to reply calmly. “I don’t know who told you that, ma’am. If you need dresses, you need to go to Carousel Boutique.” “Now that’s odd. Why would you tell me to go to one of your competitors?” “We don’t compete with Carousel Boutique. They’re a fashion shop. We’re a bakery.” The customer looked around and finally noticed all the baked goods on display in the store. “Oh! I was wondering why there were a lot of cakes and cookies around.” “That’s what you would find in a bakery,” Pinkie noted. “At any rate, since you’re here. How about we try to find the right cake for your husband’s birthday party?” she smiled. The customer chuckled. “Oh heavens, no! I would never subject my husband into eating these bland pieces of cardboard you call a cake!” While on the outside Pinkie kept smiling innocently, inside her heart felt as if it shattered into a million pieces. “Have a nice day!” the customer waved politely as she exited the store. After she was gone, Pinkie sighed to herself. Today was going to be one of those days, wasn’t it? ~~~~~ The day continued rather routinely for Pinkie, despite that first customer of the day. Even so, Pinkie didn’t let that customer ruin her day. Today was Cupcake Day at Sugarcube Corner, which meant that the front display case was packed with different types of cupcakes. Pinkie was busy refilling an empty cupcake tray when a light blue unicorn mare with a purple mane entered the store. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” “I have a question. What do you put in your cupcakes?” the customer asked. “That depends, which one would you like.” “I’m just looking for something without any lemons. I. Hate. Lemons.” “We can definitely take care of that.” Pinkie pulled out a special menu pamphlet for this circumstance. It lists all the different cupcakes offered at the store, as well as listing the ingredients in case ponies needed to know. She displayed the pamphlet to the customer. “This menu has a list of all the ingredients in each one of our cupcakes.” The customer took a look at the menu. After a short while, she put her hoof down and pointed at one particular cupcake. “I want this one,” she said definitively. Pinkie looked to see the customer had chosen the Sunshine Delight special. Unfortunately, the Sunshine Delight was the store’s special lemon-based variety. Pinkie looked to see that the ingredients lists for the Sunshine Delight clearly included lemons on the pamphlet the customer was looking at. “Are you sure about that? The Sunshine Delight has a lot of lemons in it.” Pinkie pointed out. “I said I want this one!” the customer insisted. “But I thought you said you didn’t want anything with lemons in it.” “I know what I said. Just give me this cupcake already!” Pinkie looked around nervously. “We do have other cupcakes that don’t have lemons in them. I can suggest a couple of them if you want.” The customer frowned. “I said I want this one! Give it to me or else I sue this establishment for refusal of service!” Pinkie yelped and went to fetch the cupcake for the customer. “All right ma’am. Here’s your cupcake.” she said, handing the lemon cupcake to the customer. “That’ll be 3 bits.” The customer paid for the cupcake and left the store in a huff. Pinkie was left confused as she carried the lemon cupcake out of the store. “What the hay was up with her?” Pinkie wondered. ~~~~~ “Hello, and welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her new customer, a silver colored Pegasus stallion with a windswept black mane. “Where are the bread donuts?” he asked. Pinkie blinked in confusion. She was familiar with all of Sugarcube Corner’s offerings, but she never had to deal with anything called ‘bread donuts’ before “I’m sorry sir,” Pinkie apologized. “I don’t think I understood what you said. Did you say bread donuts?” The customer nodded. “Yes. Bread donuts! Where are they?” Pinkie scratched her head. What the hay was this guy talking about? “Sir? The only donuts we have here are made from yeast.” “No, no, NO!” he shouted. “Bread donuts! Do you even know what you bake in your own freaking store! BREAD DONUTS!” “I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with any bread donuts.” The customer stormed off grumbling to himself and made it about ten feet. He scrutinized the store’s breakfast display case. After a short while, he found what he was looking for. “What are you, blind? Look! Here they are!” he shouted. Pinkie went over to see what the customer was pointing to. It was indeed a ring shaped bread product. Pinkie groaned. “Sir, they’re not called ‘bread donuts’. Those are bagels.” A sudden sense or realization came over the customer. He facehoofed and chuckled innocently. “Ooooh! So that’s what bagels are! I thought bagels were shaped like a crescent moon.” “I think you’re talking about a croissant,” Pinkie pointed out. “Geez, when did baking bread get so fancy?” the customer wondered. “The world may never know,” Pinkie snarked. ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next customer, a younger blue unicorn mare with an orange colored mane. “I’d like some cookies please,” the customer asked. Pinkie smiled. “No problem! Just let me know what kind you want and I’ll take care of it.” She gave the customer the store’s cookie menu pamphlet. The customer looked at the menu in awe. “Oh wow! That’s a lot of cookies,” she remarked. “We have a lot of specialty cookies that you can only find here.” Pinkie explained. “I’ll be glad to let you know what’s in each one.” “Thanks a lot. Some of these cookies look very complicated. Like this one!” The customer pointed at one of the cookies on the menu. “What’s a peanut butter cookie? Pinkie paused for a few moments in disbelief. The concept seemed simple enough to her. At any rate, she answered the customer’s question. “…..It’s a cookie with peanut butter in it.” Pinkie stated matter-of-factly. The customer nodded slowly. “Ok then. What about the chocolate chip cookie? What’s that?” “……..It’s a cookie with chocolate chips in it.” “What’s the difference between the two?” Pinkie felt like screaming in exasperation over the simple question. She managed to calm herself down to answer the question. “A chocolate chip cookie has chocolate chips and no peanut butter, and a peanut butter cookie has peanut butter and no chocolate.” “That’s too confusing!” the customer groaned. Pinkie’s face twisted in bewilderment for a few seconds. Again, she straightened herself out, this time to offer a suggestion. “Here’s an idea. How about I give you one of each.” With that, Pinkie took out one peanut butter cookie and one chocolate chip cookie and laid it on the counter. The customer leaned in closer to scrutinize each cookie. “So how do I know which one doesn’t have raisins?” the customer asked. This time, Pinkie let out a very audible groan. She spent the next 30 minutes explaining to the customer the difference between peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and raisin cookies. When it was all said and done, the customer wound up buying a blueberry muffin. ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next customer, a red Pegasus mare with a silver mane. With all the crazy customers she’s gotten today, it was a miracle she kept up her usual bubbly tone. But even that was beginning to waver a bit. Nevertheless, she kept a positive attitude as she dealt with this customer. “Hey, do you sell any bananas?” the customer asked. “Well, we do have bananas,” Pinkie answered. “However, we need them to make our cakes, muffins, smoothies and stuff”. The customer smiled. “Great! How much for one? I’m in a hurry!” Pinkie smiled nervously. “Sorry, but we can’t sell them to you. We need them. There is a farmer’s market close by. If you go there, they can sell you bananas.” The customer went quiet for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. “Okay… then how much for a banana smoothie?” “It’s 5 bits for a medium, and 6 bits for a large.” “Okay… can I get a banana smoothie, but can you not ‘smoothie’ it?” Pinkie fell to the ground in astonishment. She wound up spending the next five minutes explaining the concept of a smoothie to the customer. ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next customer, a yellow earth stallion with a striped white and blue mane. “Can I have a slice of fruit pie?” the customer asked. “Yes you can!” Pinkie nodded. “You can have it either hot or cold.” “Cold?” the customer asked. “Like, how cold?” Pinkie took a long deep breath to calm herself down before answering. “Refrigerated. Not quite frozen, just cold.” “Ah, okay. I’ll grab one of those thanks.” “Sure, that’ll be 5 bits.” The customer handed Pinkie the money, and in return the customer took his slice of pie. “Wow! This is really cold!” “Sorry. Like I said, the cold pies are put in the refrigerator. The hot pies are put in the oven.” The customer chuckled. “When you said ‘cold’ I thought you meant, like, ‘sort of warm.'” “Well, we all make mistakes like that,” Pinkie chuckled. She was relieved that this customer wasn’t as bad as the others this day. The customer started to make his way out of the door. “Yeah. I mean it’s not your fault you mixed it up. You mares have absolutely no sense when it comes to cooking,” he grinned. Pinkie stopped chuckling as stood stiff as a statue while the customer exited the store. She felt the urge to say something, ANYTHING to tell that jerk of a stallion off. But by the time she gathered the nerve, he was long gone. Left alone, she sighed in exhaustion. These customers were getting on her last nerves, and it just kept getting worse! She was a pony who loved meeting new faces. But now, she didn’t really want to meet anypony else today. She just wanted to close the store, go back to bed, and forget today ever happened. However, Mr. and Mrs. Cake depended on her to keep the store going strong. Even if it meant dealing with the kind of stuff she’s dealt with today. Pinkie continued sulking as the store’s front door jingled open. This time it was a familiar face who entered Sugarcube Corner. It was Ponyville’s premiere Apple farmer and Pinkie’s dear friend, Applejack. The farmer was carrying two bushels of apples on her back. “Howdy Pinkie! Here’s this week Apple delivery for y’all!” Applejack smiled, putting the bushels down on the counter. “That’s great. Thanks AJ.” Pinkie sighed sadly. Applejack was quick to notice Pinkie was not her usual Pinkie self at the moment. “Somethin’ the matter, sugarcube?” “I’ve been having a bad day today. It’s kinda getting me down.” Pinkie told her. “Sorry to hear that. How weird was today?” “It was super weird!” Pinkie explained. “There was this pony who didn’t know the difference between peanut butter, chocolate chips, and raisins. There was another customer who ordered a banana smoothie WITHOUT the smoothie. There was this lady who thought this was Carousel Boutique! And then this other lady who ordered a lemon cupcake even though she doesn’t like lemons!” Applejack cringed at the explanation. “Yikes! Sounds like today was a whopper!” Pinkie nodded. “And then there was this stallion who said mares can’t cook.” Applejack’s expression darkened. “He said what now?” “Don’t worry about him, AJ. He’s not worth it.” Pinkie said, calming the farmpony down from causing that jerk physical harm, even if part of her felt he somewhat deserved it. “It’s just that, that guy was the last straw on a really bad day.” AJ gave Pinkie a gentle hug. “Trust me, sugarcube. Ah’ve been there. Ah know that feeling.” “Thanks AJ,” Pinkie smiled. Before Applejack could say anything else, the store’s front door slammed opened. The two ponies looked to see a very angry light blue unicorn mare huffing into the store. Pinkie gulped as she recognized this pony as the lemon cupcake lady from earlier. “I want my money back!” the customer screamed. “Hold on ma’am! What’s the problem?” Pinkie asked. “I’ll tell you what the problem is. I ordered a cupcake and I specifically said no lemons in it. Guess what? It had lemons!!!” “If I remember correctly," Pinkie tried to explain, "I tried to tell you that cupcake you ordered had lemons but you threatened the store to give you one.” “You think that’s my problem?!?” the customer scoffed. “Look. Here’s my receipt. Give me my refund!” Pinkie sighed. “Ok, look. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Just give me the cupcake back, and I’ll give you the refund.” “I already ate it,” the customer said matter-of-factly. Both Pinkie and Applejack blinked in disbelief. “You ate it?” Applejack asked, trying to confirm she wasn’t hearing things. The customer nodded. “Yes. I ate it and I wasn’t satisfied. I want a refund.” Pinkie sighed. “I’m sorry ma’am. But I can’t refund your money if you already ate the cupcake…” Any other words Pinkie tried to say were cut off as the customer got in Pinkie’s now frightened face. “Listen, you worthless excuse of a dirt pony” the customer yelled. “Don’t get smart with me! I’m a lawyer and I know my rights! And if you don’t give me my money back, I’m not only going to sue this establishment for refusal of service, but I'll sue the living daylights out of YOU and your pathetic existence for discrimination!!!” Pinkie was now on the verge of tears. She began to reach for the cash register when Applejack separated them. “Hold up a second, partner! Lemme see that receipt there.” Applejack said. The customer frowned and handed the receipt over. Applejack took a few seconds to look the small piece of paper over. “Ma’am, the store’s return policy is clearly printed on yer receipt. They cannot take back goods that has already been used, or in this case, eaten.” “But–” the customer tried to cut in. “FURTHERMORE,” Applejack continued. “When you made yer transaction here, you accepted the store’s return policy as a contract that you agreed to abide by.” “I–” “And by BLATANTLY trying to dodge this contract, nopony's ever gonna rule in yer favor. As a lawyer, shouldn't you have known that?” “But I–” “FINALLY, the simple act of coming up to a store and threatening them to unjustly hand you money would really be closer to an attempted robbery by you than refusal of service by her!” The customer fell silent. Her anger was now replaced with fear. Applejack slowly walked towards the customer, backing her into a corner. “If you really were a lawyer,” Applejack continued in a low tone. “You would be fully aware of all that. And by claiming to be a lawyer when you are clearly NOT, yer committing fraud. Between that and the attempted robbery, we can call the police right now and have you arrested for both.” “I’m… I’m sorry! I won't do anything. I promise!” the customer squeaked out. Applejack gave the customer a deep, threatening glare. The customer cowered and braced herself, fearing for her life. Then suddenly, Applejack backed off and smiled a friendly smile. “Glad to see we got everything straightened out!” the cowpony grinned. The customer, now white as a ghost, scrambled back to her hooves and ran out the store. “Y’all come back now, ya hear!” Applejack called out to the fleeing customer. “That felt good!” she sighed to herself. Seconds later, Pinkie ran over to Applejack and gave her a huge hug. “AJ, that was amazing!” Pinkie beamed. “How did you do that?” “Ah’ve dealt with idiots like that all the time at the Farmer’s Market.” Applejack admitted. “Man, I could have used a little of that earlier today. I thought I was gonna go out of my mind!” “Listen, sugarcube. Ah know there are some customers out there that make you wanna pull yer hair out. But sometimes they mean well and are genuinely confused. But othertimes, you get idiots like that lemon lady, or that stallion chauvinist.” “Tell me about it.” “Despite that, most of the ponies you deal with everyday weren’t like that at all, are they?” Pinkie chuckled. “No, they aren’t.” “Well, there ya go! Ya can’t let a few ponies ruin your day like that, Pinkie.” “I know, AJ. Today’s just been one of those days, you know?” “Ah know, sugarcube. It happens to the best of us.” At that moment, the store’s front door jingled open. The two turned to see a very freaked-out Apple Bloom enter the store. “Applejack!” Apple Bloom shouted in alarm. “Ya haveta get back to the farm right now! Rainbow Dash broke into the cider storage barn again!” Applejack’s face fell in horror. “Ah thought we changed those locks!” “We did! But she still broke in anyway!” “Ah’m sorry, Pinkie. But Ah gotta go!” Pinkie didn’t even have time to wave goodbye as Applejack and Apple Bloom rushed back to Sweet Apple Acres to save their cider supply. Pinkie couldn’t help but chuckle. Today’s just been one of those days. > Day Two > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Celestia’s sun ushered in another beautiful day, and the ponies of Ponyville were finishing up their morning tasks. At Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was humming a song to herself as she opened up the store. She couldn’t wait to meet the new ponies this day would bring. Yesterday had been a really odd day, but she was sure that today would be different. Besides, the sooner she was able to open the store and meet new ponies, the sooner she could put yesterday behind her. Pinkie was wiping down the front counter when she heard the store’s front door jingle open. She was quick to recognize the green unicorn who entered the store. “Lyra!” Pinkie smiled. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you today?” “I’ll just have a chocolate milkshake, please?” Lyra smiled back. “Sure thing. I’ll have that out in just a minute.” Pinkie made her way over to the milkshake station and began to prepare Lyra’s order. “So how’s life treating you, lately?” she asked while she prepared the drink. Lyra shrugged. “Pretty good, to be honest. Octavia’s planning a new concert in Las Pegasus and she wants me to join her.” “Sounds like a great opportunity!” “How are things with you, Pinkie?” Pinkie chuckled. “Well, yesterday was a bit of a doozy. You see…” At that moment, a yellow earth pony mare with a black mane entered the store in a rush. She went up to the counter and cut in front of Lyra, shoving the startled unicorn aside. “Can I have a cherry cupcake, please? I’m in a hurry.” the customer asked. “Hey! Wait your turn, lady!” Lyra frowned. “It’s ok. I'll be a quick second. I won’t take long,” the customer smiled to the furious green unicorn. Pinkie shook her head. The last time she had to deal with somepony cutting in line at the store, Fluttershy became so mad she chased away the entire line. Ever since then she tried her best to dissuade ponies from cutting in line, even if they were in a hurry. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’re going to have to wait until I’m done with this customer before I can help you out.” Pinkie replied to the customer. “But I just want one cupcake! Can’t you check me out quick?” The customer argued, ignoring the persistent death glare Lyra was giving her. “I can’t help you out right now because I’m not finished helping out this customer," Pinkie explained again. "If you just give me a quick moment to finish up here, I'll ring up your cupcakes next.” “Well, SOME stores let you check out quickly like that…” the customer pointed out. Pinkie calmed her nerves and tried to explain it further. “Ma’am, I can’t cancel an ongoing order. It’s not fair to this customer. She was here before you, and I already started her order when you walked up.” The customer scratched the back of her head. “So what you’re telling me is that if I had gotten here before her, you would have rang me up first?” “Yes, ma’am," Lyra answered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "It’s called ‘standing in line’. You should try it sometime.” As much as the customer wanted to reply, she couldn't. With a deep frown, she decided to cooperate under protest. She took her place in line behind Lyra. "I can't believe this," she grumbled. "What kind of place makes you wait for one stinking cupcake?" "Well, I have to wait for my milkshake to get ready!" Lyra pointed out. The customer blinked in surprise. "Wait.... this place sells milkshakes, too?" Lyra looked at the customer in disbelief. "Yes, they do," she answered slowly. "That's what I ordered. Didn't you notice Pinkie making it while you were here?" The customer turned back to Pinkie in alarm. "I change my mind! Cancel my cupcake. I'll have a milkshake, instead." "Okie dokie loki," Pinkie replied carefully. "I'll get started as soon as I'm done with this first order." "That's ok, I'll wait," the customer smiled. "OH COME ON!!!" Lyra shouted in frustration. ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie shouted. She quickly noticed the customer was an indigo unicorn stallion with a sandy colored mane. She recognized this pony from a few days ago. He had placed a special strawberry cake order for his daughter’s Cute-cenera. “Oh! Mr. Saturn Star! Welcome back!” Pinkie smiled. “Thanks. I’m here to pick up my order.” “No problem!” Pinkie smiled. “Give me just a moment to get it out.” Pinkie went to the back of the store in search of the order. A few seconds later, she came back to the front counter, holding a pink cake box with the Strawberry Surprise cake inside. “Here you go! Your cake is ready!” Pinkie smiled. Pinkie put the cake on the counter. The customer took a few moments to inspect the cake inside. His face fell into confusion as he looked over his order “Wait a second. This is not my cake!” he frowned. Pinkie cringed. “Uh oh. I’m sorry about that,” Pinkie told him. “Let me see what went wrong. Do you have your copy of your order sheet?” After a few seconds of searching, he took out the order sheet and placed it onto the counter top. The piece of paper even included a sample picture of the cake that was ordered. He pointed out the picture to Pinkie. “Look! The cake is supposed to look like this! That cake looks nothing like it!” “So the cake is a lie, then?” Pinkie smiled innocently. The customer’s frown grew deeper in response. Pinkie’s innocent smile turned into a nervous chuckle. “Sorry about that, sir. Just thought I’d try to lighten the mood.” “Look,” the customer groaned. “Cut the comedy. Just fix my order!” “Ok, let me just look over the order sheet.” Pinkie took a good look at the sheet of paper, and the cake in question. The order numbers, names, and cake variety on both matched. Pinkie also noticed that the cake also matched the sample picture. In order to get a final confirmation, she also took out Sugarcube Corner’s master cake book that customers choose their orders from in the first place. Everything seemed to point to the same conclusion. “I don't see a problem here. Everything seems in order.” The customer’s face fell in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?!?” “I have an idea. Let's break things down to see where things might have gone wrong. Do you remember what the cake you ordered look like?” He leafed through the cake book. “Here! It looks like this cake in the book. That other cake looks like crap!” Pinkie looked at the cake in the book. It was the Strawberry Surprise, just like what was written down on his order sheet. She then took another look at the cake itself. It was indeed the Strawberry Surprise. Pinkie finally sighed in exasperation. “Sir, that’s the same cake.” “No, it’s not! What do I look like, an idiot? Just wait until my wife hears about this. She’ll tear this store down with her own bare hooves!” Pinkie gulped. The last thing she wanted to deal with was an even angrier customer. “Sir? Everything we have here tells me this order is correct.” The customer shook his head. "I know for a fact that my wife will have your neck when she finds out that you ruined our daughter's Cute-cenera!" Just then, a dark orange unicorn mare with a blue mane entered the store. “Sweetie?” The mare called out. “Is everything all right in here?” The customer gave Pinkie a menacing smirk. He then turned back to his wife. “Take a look at this cake, honey! What do you think of it?” The mare approached the counter with some uncertainty and laid her eyes on the cake. “Oh! It’s beautiful! This looks amazing!” she smiled excitedly. The customer’s face fell in confusion. “It does?” “Yes! This was the cake we ordered, was it not?” she asked. The husband started to turn a deep shade of red. "Yeah, I guess it was." Pinkie gave the wife a warm smile. “Well, I sure am glad that everything worked out! That’ll be 25 bits.” The wife gave Pinkie the money, took the cake off the counter, and waved happily as she left the store. The husband simply watched the exchange take place in shock. “Thanks for shopping with us!” Pinkie waved to the wife. The wife smiled back. “It was our pleasure! And may Celestia’s sun bless you on this fine day.” The wife left the store, leaving the stunned husband behind. “Sooo… what was that about your wife getting angry?” Pinkie asked innocently, trying to hide her urge to smirk at the stallion. “Well… when she does get angry, it’s not a pretty sight!” he insisted. ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next customer, a young dark yellow pegasus mare with a blond mane. The customer looked around confused. “So, um, like… do you have iced coffee here?” “We do have a small selection of iced coffee here,” Pinkie told her. “Ok, so can you… you know… give me an iced coffee? But could you… like… warm it up?” “…… What?” “You know, the iced coffee? Can you make it hot?” “Well…” Pinkie began to point out. “We can make you a regular cup of coffee.” The customer blinked in realization. She sunk behind the counter in embarrassment. “…Oh…” Pinkie did her best to stifle a laugh. “One hot coffee, coming up!” she smiled. ~~~~~ The mid-afternoon hours were the busiest times for Sugarcube Corner, thanks to the rush of ponies coming home from work and foals coming home from school. It was during this time that Sugarcube Corner ran their special milkshake happy hour special, where all the milkshakes were five for 20 bits as advertised by the giant banner inside the store. Of course, if ponies didn't want the full five milkshakes, they were still able to get a milkshake at four bits each. The line stretched out the door of ponies ready to take advantage of the special sale. Usually, the line moved rather efficiently, but today the line had stalled out as a brown pegasus stallion with and orange mane was stuck in the middle of an argument with Pinkie Pie. Behind the customer, Rainbow Dash continued waiting, her patience running dangerously thin as she looked on. “Look,” the customer angrily shouted. “Let me tell you this one more freaking time. I don’t want the full five milkshakes for 20 bits. I only want two at the sale price!” Pinkie, fully worn out by the argument, nodded. “I know sir, and I keep telling you that it comes out to eight bits.” “That’s too much! I want the sale price!” “Eight bits is the sale price.” “No, it’s not! I’m not moving until I get the sale price!” Enough was enough. Rainbow Dash stepped in to set the record straight. “What is wrong with you?!?” she shouted to the customer. “It’s four bits per milkshakes! That’s what you’re paying” “And how do you figure that?” the customer asked back. Rainbow Dash didn’t bother to mask her annoyance with the stallion as she explained. “Five milkshakes at four bits each is 20 bits. That makes each milkshake four bits each. So if each milkshake is four bits each, than two milkshakes is eight bits total.” The customer face twisted in anger. “No!!! That's too much!!! What do you think I am? Stupid?” “Eeyup!” Big Macintosh angrily answered from his spot in line behind Rainbow Dash. The customer tried to say something else, but quickly noticed the angry stares pointed his way from a score of impatient customers. Recognizing that he was about to fight a losing battle, he gave up. He paid the eight bits, took his milkshakes and left in a huff. “Finally!” Rainbow Dash said as she reached the front counter. “What the hay was his problem?” Pinkie smiled. "Let's just say that there's plenty more where he came from!” ~~~~~ The mid-afternoon rush came and went without any further incidents, and things had finally slowed down at Sugarcube Corner as the sun started to get low in the sky. Pinkie was restocking the candy jars when the store's front door jingled open. A magenta earth pony mare with a bun-styled blue mane entered the store. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted the customer. “I’d like two cinnamon buns,” the customer ordered. “Sure thing. That’ll be nine bits.” The customer smiled smugly. “Actually, I’m the owner’s wife. I always get free stuff here.” Pinkie blinked in confusion. “Excuse me?” The customer’s smug expression persisted. “Yes. My husband owns this place. But you probably didn’t know that since it looks like you’re new here. It’s ok, though. I’ll keep it a secret between us. My husband doesn’t need to know.” Pinkie stared in disbelief. Was this lady seriously trying to pull this off? Pinkie simply shook her head. “I’m sorry ma’am, but I’m afraid I can’t do that.” The customer’s expression fell quickly into anger. She grabbed one of the candy jars on the counter and smashed it on the ground. Shards of glass and broken lollipops scattered across the floor. Pinkie shrieked in horror at the sudden escalation of violence. “LISTEN, YOU GLUESTICK!” the customer shouted. “GIVE ME MY FOOD, OR ELSE!!!” Normally, Pinkie would try to reason with an uncooperative customer. However, she was very confident that this customer was trying to scam her into giving her some free food. Between that, her insulting tone, and the now broken candy jar, Pinkie became very angry. “NO, I WON’T GIVE YOU FREE FOOD!” Pinkie shouted back. “YOU ARE NOT THE OWNER’S WIFE AND YOU DESTROYED STORE PROPERTY!” "YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!" "YOU STARTED IT!" The shouting got to the point where Mr. and Mrs. Cake had to emerge from the back of the store. “What’s going on out here?” Mrs. Cake asked. Mr. Cake had to watch his step as he noticed the broken jar. "What happened to the candy jar?" The customer approached the Cakes. “Are you the manager?” “Well…” Mr. Cake started to explain. He was however cut off by the ranting customer. “You need to fire that gluestick at the register right now. She threw this jar at me!” “I did WHAT?!?” Pinkie shouted in disbelief. "Pinkie would never do that!" Mrs. Cake gasped. Mr. Cake turned to the customer. Even though he was confident Pinkie was not responsible for the jar, he still needed to get both sides of the story. "What happened out here, ma'am?" “I tried to order my food, but that gluestick was rude and completely unfriendly to me!" Mrs. Cake cringed at the customer's continued use of the slur. "Ma'am? I don't think that word is very appropriate..." "You better get rid of her right now!" the customer continued. "My husband owns this place. I don’t want to tell him what happened to me!” The Cakes both stood frozen in stunned shock for a few seconds. “I'm sorry. Did you say your husband owns this store?” Mrs. Cake asked in disbelief. “Yes he does!” The customer nodded defiantly. It was a sight that not many ponies ever saw, and some ponies thought that it wasn’t even possible. For the first time as far as many can remember, Mr. and Mrs. Cake became outright furious. Mr. Cake slowly stepped forward, looking straight at the customer through unblinking eyes. “Ma’am? My name is Carrot Cake and this is my wife Cup Cake. We own and operate Sugarcube Corner!” The customer’s face fell in horror. Mrs. Cake got into the customer’s face. “And that gluestick that you referred to over there is like a daughter to us. And we, as well as the entire town of Ponyville, trust her with our lives!” The customer looked at the angry faces of Mr. and Mrs. Cake, then to Pinkie who was also steaming mad. She tried to think on her hooves for a way out of the problem she created. “Uh…. Hey cousin!!!” She hugged Pinkie playfully. “How have you been? I was just playing a prank back there. No biggie, right?” She forced an innocent smile. Nopony smiled back. The customer sighed in defeat. “I’m not getting my cinnamon bun, aren’t I?” > Day Three > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was another beautiful Ponyville morning, and its citizens were starting to trickle into the streets to begin their day. At Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie finished up the task of opening the store with a sense of trepidation. The last two days had been rather… odd. While there had been the usual mix of new and familiar faces at the store, there had also been a very interesting mix of rude, weird, or just flat out confused ponies. As she unlocked the front door and took her place behind the counter, she wondered what kind of ponies she would meet today. Minutes after the store was officially opened, a light brown pegasus mare with a pink mane entered the store. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie smiled. “I’ll have a hot chocolate, extra hot please?” “No problem! That’ll be two bits!” After the sale was made, Pinkie went over to the hot chocolate machine and prepared the customer’s drink. She left the cup in the machine a few seconds longer than normal in order to get the requested temperature of the drink just right. Satisfied, she carefully placed the cup on the front counter, making sure she didn’t spill the hot contents on her foreleg. “Here you are, ma’am. One hot chocolate!” Pinkie chirped happily. The customer took hold of the cup. A deep frown formed on her face as she held it. “Hey! I ordered extra hot! This is not extra hot!” Pinkie took a deep breath to calm herself. First customer of the day and things had already gone south. She put her feelings aside and addressed the customer. “I promise you, ma’am. It's extra hot, just like you asked for. I can’t make it any hotter.” “It doesn’t even feel hot!” the customer insisted. “That’s because the cup is made so that you don’t burn yourself when you hold it,” Pinkie explained. “I don’t care. I want it extra hot. Make it again!” Pinkie sighed in annoyance. “Ma’am, you won’t know for sure if it’s extra hot or not if you haven’t even drank it yet. Go ahead and give it a taste. Be careful though, it’s very hot.” The customer gave Pinkie an annoyed frown and put the cup to her lips, giving the drink a small taste test. The liquid barely crept into her mouth when her eyes shot open in alarm. She shrieked out loudly and immediately put the cup down on the counter. “Too... hot…” the customer panted. “I tried to warn you, ma’am,” Pinkie shrugged. “Why didn’t you tell me?!?” the customer shouted angrily. “I did. You ordered an extra hot chocolate, remember?” “Yes, I did. But I was... I mean, you were… That wasn’t what… I didn’t mean…. UGH!!!” The customer shouted out in frustration. She grabbed her drink and huffed out of the store. “I hate Mondays!” she exclaimed as she exited. “It’s Wednesday,” Pinkie remarked to herself. ~~~~~ The morning hours came and went without much further fanfare, much to Pinkie’s relief. Business had been steady, but not too busy. For a work day, it was about as ideal as it could get. She was in the middle of putting away the breakfast displays for the day when Mrs. Cake came from the kitchen. “Pinkie?” Mrs. Cake asked, “Did our strawberry delivery come in yet?” “Not yet. Is something wrong?” Mrs. Cake nodded. “We just ran out of strawberries.” Pinkie groaned. “That’s convenient! And just before the lunch rush too.” “I know. Just shout out when the strawberry delivery comes in.” Mrs. Cake went back to her duties in the back of the store. Pinkie, meanwhile, started to look for a blank sheet of paper so she could make a sign telling customers that there were out of strawberries. Just as she began to make the sign, a familiar red maned pale Earth pony entered the store. “Roseluck! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you today?” “I’ll have a scoop of strawberry ice cream, please?” Roseluck smiled. Pinkie couldn’t help but to cringe. “Sorry, we’re out of strawberries right now.” Roseluck blinked in confusion. “What?!?” “Yeah.” Pinkie mounted her handwritten sign that read ‘Out of Strawberries. Sorry :-(' on the counter to emphasis her point. “Darn! I really wanted strawberries today, too!” Roseluck sighed. “I guess I’ll take vanilla then.” “All right! One vanilla ice cream. Anything else?” “I’ll have a milk shake for Daisy.” “What flavor?” “Strawberry.” Pinkie nervously pointed to the small sign she just mounted a few seconds ago. Roseluck chuckled in embarrassment. “Oh, right! Sorry! Um… I think she’ll take chocolate.” “One chocolate milk shake. Is that all?” “One more thing. I definitely can’t forget about Lily’s strawberry sundae. She’d never forgive me if I forgot!” Pinkie groaned and pointed to the sign one more time. Roseluck blinked in realization. “Although, I think Lily will be fine with butter pecan instead,” she smiled innocently. ~~~~~ All things considered, there were hardly any complaints over the lack of strawberries at the store, and Pinkie definitely appreciated that. It also helped that most of the customers today were regulars at Sugarcube Corner. One such regular was the grey, wall-eyed pegasus who had just entered the store. “Derpy! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How are you doing today?” “I’m fine,” Derpy smiled. “What’s today’s muffin special?” Pinkie pointed to the sign display that listed the store’s specials for the day and smiled. “Today’s special is the blueberry muffin.” “Woohoo!” Derpy cheered. “I’ll take three.” “Twelve bits, please?” Derpy placed the bits on the counter. After ringing up the sale, Pinkie went to the muffin case to fetch the muffins. A short moment later, she placed the muffins on the counter. “Here you go! Three blueberry muffins,” Pinkie smiled. “Woohoo!” Derpy cheered. Pinkie giggled at Derpy's cheerfulness. “I should have known you would have liked blueberries.” “Woohoo!” Derpy cheered. Now Pinkie paused in confusion. Why was Derpy cheering like this? What was provoking it? She circled back to what she said to garner such a reaction. “Sooo… Enjoy your muffins!” Pinkie smiled. Derpy said nothing. Her face turned stone serious. “Enjoy your three muffins!” Pinkie corrected. Still nothing from Derpy. “Enjoy your blueberry muffins?” “Woohoo!” Derpy cheered. Her smile was back in full force. Pinkie blinked in surprise to the sudden cheer. “….Blueberry?” she tried again. “Woohoo!” Derpy cheered again. “Blueberry.” “Woohoo!” “Blue.” “Woo!” “Berry.” “Hoo!” “Blueberry.” “Woohoo!” "BluuuuuuuuuueBerrrrrrrrry." "Woooooooooohooooooooo!" “…..Berryblue!” “Hoowoo!” Pinkie put a hoof on her chin. A sly smirk appeared on her chin. “Yrrebeulb!” Pinkie quickly shouted out. “Ooohoow!” Derpy cheered back without missing a beat. That was the last straw. Pinkie did the only thing she could do at that point. She gave Derpy a slow clap of appreciation. “You win this round, but I’ll get you next time!” she winked. “I’ll be looking forward to it!” Derpy winked back. “By the way, what’s tomorrow’s muffin special?” “Banana Nut,” Pinkie replied. “Do do do-do do!” Derpy sang. ~~~~~ “Hello! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next set of customers, a married unicorn couple. “Yes, I’d like two strawberry milkshakes please?” the auburn-maned yellow unicorn mare asked. “Oh, sorry,” Pinkie cringed. “We’re out of strawberries at the moment.” “What?!?” the female customer shouted in disbelief. “Oh well,” the blonde navy blue unicorn stallion shrugged. “That’s just our bad luck then, huh?” “No, it’s not!” the female customer told her husband. She turned to Pinkie, her face twisted in rage. “How can a place like this run out of strawberries? You don’t simply just run out of strawberries!” Pinkie sighed. The lack of strawberry drama today was too good to be true. She tried to talk the wife down. “Our shipment of strawberries hasn’t come in yet. Believe me, we’re just as frustrated as you are. I know it sounds crazy but we do run out of things here from time to time.” The wife slammed her hooves down on the counter. “That’s no excuse!” she growled. “Now I want my two strawberry milkshakes right now, or so help me I’ll…..” The wife trailed off into silence. Her face fell from rage to abstract horror. Her face turned sheet white as she looked at her own hooves. “Ma’am? Are you all right?” Pinkie asked, also stunned by the sudden change of expression. “….I’m sorry. I have to go.” The wife turned to leave the store, trotting to the door in a zombie-like trance. “Honey?” the husband called out. “Is something wrong?” The wife nodded very slowly. “I have become the very thing that I hate.” With that, the wife left Sugarcube Corner, leaving her stunned husband behind. A few moments later, he turned to Pinkie. “I’ll take two cherry milkshakes. And could you add a chocolate cupcake? I think my wife may need one.” “Take two cupcakes if you want!” Pinkie offered. “I think she may need all the help she can get.” ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next customer, a nervous dark green, orange-maned pegasus stallion. “I’d like to order a three-tiered cake for my son’s birthday party,” the customer smiled weakly. “Sure, no problem,” Pinkie smiled. She reached for a thick book on the counter and opened it to the customer. “We have a large variety of designs to choose from.” “Okay. How long would it take you to make the cake?” the customer asked. He was starting to feel more anxious by the second. “Well it depends,” Pinkie shrugged. “If you get a simple design, you might be able to pick it up by tomorrow afternoon. But if you get a more complicated design, it might take three to four days.” His nervous expression got tighter as he heard the time frame of the order. “Oh no. That’s not gonna work for me.” He looked behind him as if somepony was out to get him. “Why? What’s the problem?” Pinkie asked. At that moment, a young orange-maned pegasus colt ran into the store. “Dad, come on! The party starts in an hour!” the colt yelled at the customer. The customer flinched as if he was caught red-hoofed. He turned to the colt and gave him a reassuring smile. “I’ll be right there son!” “Ok, but you better hurry! Mom's starting to ask questions!” the son told him as he went back outside. The customer turned back to Pinkie, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. “Yeah… I’m on a bit of a deadline. Emphasis on dead.” “Just out of curiosity, did you have anything planned for this party?” Pinkie asked. “Not really. I completely forgot to plan it,” the customer admitted. He sunk his head on the counter in despair. “Ugh, my wife is gonna kill me. What am I gonna do?” Pinkie gave the customer a reassuring pat on his shoulder. “Relax, sir. I got this.” “How? There’s no way I can get a party planned in an hour!” “Watch me,” Pinkie smirked. The customer watched her trot back to the back shelves behind the counter. She shoved some of the candies and pastries aside to reveal a wall-mounted button behind a glass cover. He saw a small sign above the assembly. “In case of party emergency, break glass?” he read. “That’s right!” Pinkie nodded. She had a determined look on her face. “We got ourselves a code blue!” Pinkie broke the glass cover and hit the button. Blue flashing lights and loud sirens immediately rang out and flashed throughout the store. Metal shutters fell in front of the store windows, blocking out the natural sunlight. The customer crouched down in fear, not knowing what the noise was. He looked back up to check if the coast was clear. What he saw left him even more confused. Pinkie was suddenly decked out in a military uniform, decorated with balloon-shaped medals of honor. Where she got it and how she put it on so fast, he couldn't even begin to guess. She stood on the counter on her two back hooves with a deep scowl on her face. “It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it,” Pinkie remarked to herself. After a few moments, Mr. and Mrs. Cake ran out from the back of the store. “What’s going on?” Mrs. Cake asked. “Did somepony pull the alarm?” Pinkie nodded. “We’ve got a party emergency! Code blue!” she shouted. Mrs. Cake jaw dropped. “Code blue?!?” “CODE BLUE!!!” Mr. Cake shouted. "Come on, dear! We have to move!" The two immediately scrambled back to the kitchen in alarm. Pinkie gave a small smile. The Cakes knew their job in this circumstance. She just needed to wait for the cavalry to show up. A few short moments later, Twilight Sparkle burst through the doors, surrounded by Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. “We heard the party alarm, Pinkie. What’s going on?” Twilight asked. “We’ve got a code blue, Twilight!” Pinkie shouted. “We need a level two reception in one hour! TEN-HUT!!!” The five newcomers stood at attention at the command. They stood side by side, their bodies stiff and their chins held high. Pinkie began to march in front of her friends as she started to doll out instruction. The customer looked on silently, in awe as much as in confusion. “All right, ladies! This is not a drill. We have a birthday party to plan and only one hour to plan it. Understand?” “Yes, ma’am!” the five ponies shouted in unison. Pinkie gave a small nod, satisfied at her troop’s enthusiasm. “Mr. and Mrs. Cake are on birthday cake detail in the kitchen. We need to handle the rest. Fluttershy. Applejack. You’re on refreshment detail.” “Yes, ma’am!” the two ponies nodded. “Rarity, you’ll be with me on the decorations!” “I will not let you down,” Rarity gave Pinkie a salute. “Twilight, you’re on the guest list. Rainbow Dash, you’re on invitation distribution. We need these things delivered in ten seconds flat.” "Consider it done!" Twilight shouted. "I was born ready!" Rainbow Dash licked her chops. “All right, ladies. There’s a colt’s birthday party riding on this. And he’ll have the bestest party ever. Because who throws the bestest parties in Equestria?” “We do, ma’am!” the five ponies shouted in unison. “I can’t hear you!!!” “WE DO, MA’AM!” Pinkie gave the five ponies a quick glare. “So, what are you ladies standing around for? We got a party to plan! CHARGE!!!” The five ponies scrambled around Sugarcube Corner to their positions. The customer watched as everypony in the store worked to get his son’s party ready. “Don’t worry, sir,” Pinkie told the customer. “Everything’s under control. In one hour, your son will have the greatest birthday party Equestria has ever seen.” “This… isn’t gonna cost extra, is it?” Pinkie shrugged “Just 895 bits for the military detail. That’s not including the party favors helicopter, of course.” The customer’s jaw dropped. “895 bits?!? That’s crazy!” “Do you want to tell your wife you forgot to plan the party at all?” Pinkie asked. The customer fell silent. The decision was painfully obvious. Anything would be better than to face his wife’s wrath. “Exactly how much more is the helicopter?” he asked Pinkie. > Day Four > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinkie Pie opened Sugarcube Corner with an extra bounce in her step. She was proud of the emergency party she threw together in under one hour yesterday, saving both a young colt’s birthday and also saving a stallion from the wrath of an angry wife. For all the weirdness that had been going on this week, yesterday was a welcome change of pace. She was putting a tray of pastries in the display counter when a familiar purple alicorn and baby dragon entered the store. “Twilight! Spike! Good morning!” Pinkie smiled. “Morning Pinkie!” Spike waved. “Two rocky road ice creams, please?” Pinkie giggled. “I didn’t know you ate ice cream this early, Twilight.” Twilight shook her head. “Actually, both ice creams are for Spike.” “Yup! Twilight said I earned it after helping out with the party yesterday!” Spike said proudly. His work with the party favors turned out to be a huge asset to yesterday’s party. “I’ll just have my usual poppy seed bagel and orange juice,” Twilight said, placing a few bits on the counter. After finishing the sale, Pinkie gathered the order and handed it over to Twilight. “One poppy seed bagel and orange juice for you, and two ice creams for Spike. By the way, thanks a bunch for helping out with that party yesterday.” “We were just happy to help,” Twilight smiled. “How’s everypony doing, today?” Pinkie asked. “Everyone’s fine,” Twilight reported, taking a bite out of her breakfast. “By the way, Fluttershy wanted me to let you know that she has a date today.” Pinkie gasped in shock. “I didn’t even know she was going out!” “She wasn’t, and it’s not really a date, so to speak." Twilight shrugged. "She met this stallion at the party yesterday and they decided to get together for lunch!” “Wow! I hope things go well for her!” Spike rolled his eyes. even though he was happy for the shy pony, he didn’t care about Fluttershy’s social life enough to join in on the conversation so he continued eating his ice cream while Twilight and Pinkie continued to chat. The baby dragon was the only one to notice a red Earth pony mare with a light pink mane enter the store. “Pinkie?” Spike spoke out, “You’ve got a customer at the door!” Pinkie and Twilight looked up and saw the customer approaching the counter. “Oh! I’m sorry, ma’am!” Pinkie apologized. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner. Sorry I missed you. I was just talking with my friend.” “It’s all right,” the customer smiled. “I’ll wait until you two are done.” Twilight shook her head and stepped aside. “Go right ahead. Pinkie and I can continue later.” “In that case, how may I help you, ma’am?” Pinkie asked the customer. The customer sighed and placed a photo of a sad filly on the counter. “I’m planning a party for Peppermint Petal.” “A party for Peppermint Petal?” Pinkie asked. “What’s the purpose?” “She’s been feeling pessimistic lately.” Pinkie gasped. “Peppermint Petal is pessimistic?” “Pray tell, what’s the problem?” Twilight inquired. “She’s learning to play the piano,” the customer explained. “She’s pressing to be perfect, but her progress is rather plain.” “Try saying that ten times fast!” Spike laughed. “Spike! Stop playing around. This is positively serious!” Twilight frowned. She immediately turned back to address the customer. “So Peppermint Petal is pessimistic over her plain piano playing not being pitch perfect?” “Precisely!” the customer nodded. Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “If I may pose a particular premise for you to ponder; Perhaps Peppermint Petal is just panicking to be perfect at the piano and just needs to practice patience.” The customer sighed. “I’ve pleaded that point, but it’s positively pointless. It’s part of Peppermint Petal’s personality to panic over particular practices she’s passionate about.” “It’s always a prodigious problem when a pony pressures herself to be perfect that it pushes her into pessimism,” Twilight pondered out loud. “I’m personally praying that Peppermint Petal will be pleased with the party. I’m prepared to pay anything!” the customer pleaded. Pinkie Pie gave the customer a reassuring nod. “Don't worry. Pinkie Pie will personally plan the perfect party to perk Peppermint Petal to polish her plain piano playing permanently! And that is a Pinkie Promise that anypony can proudly post on their pantry. Period!” The conversation was too much for Spike to handle. He had to shake the dizzying string of words he just heard out of his mind and step away for a moment. “Anypony got a letter Q?” he asked. ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next customer in line, a snobbish looking older grey stallion. “May I have a lettuce and tomato sandwich, please?” the customer asked in a snobbish voice. “‘Course you can!” Pinkie smiled. The customer shook his head and scoffed. “I cannot believe you just said that. As a language teacher, I believe I should tell your grammar is simply unacceptable.” Pinkie was taken by surprise by the customer’s correction. “Uh… Sorry?” she shrugged innocently. “There you go again!” the customer groaned. “Those are fragments, not complete sentences! How in Equestria did they let someone with such poor command on grammar work here? Any other teacher who come in here would be ashamed.” The customer felt a polite tapping on his back from the pony behind him in line. He turned around and saw that it was Ponyville Schoolhouse’s teacher, Ms. Cheerilee, who called his attention, and she did not seem amused one bit. “Well, I'm speaking in my capacity as a teacher. Trust me, we don’t care.” Cheerilee frowned. ~~~~~ “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted her next customer, a sky blue unicorn mare with a short black mane. “I’ll just have the croissant special and a banana smoothie, please? And you don’t need to bag it up. I’ll just enjoy it here.” the customer smiled. Pinkie rang up her order. “Seven bits, please!” The customer handed the bits over to Pinkie and received her order. She quietly made her way to one of the window-side tables and took out a book from her saddlebag. She placed the food on the counter, sat down, and began to read her book in peace. Meanwhile, Pinkie went back to the task of minding the store. Traffic had slowed considerably at the moment, and the customer was enjoying her book by the window, so the store was fairly quiet overall. Pinkie started to reorganize the store’s new candy jar when she saw a pair of older colts enter the store. The both had scarves over their muzzles and looked as if they were hiding something behind their backs. “All right! Everypony freeze! This is a stick up!” the older of the two colts shouted, pulling a pistol from his back and pointing it at Pinkie. “Yeah! Give us all your money, you cow!” the younger colt shouted, pulling out a pistol of his own. For a split second, Pinkie was paralyzed in absolute fear. She held her hooves up in compliance to the two young robbers. Her mind was racing at light speed. Why her? Why now? Why here? Why them? Was this it? Was she really going to die like this? She then was able to take a closer look at the two pistols the colts were carrying. The pistols seemed to have gone through a really bad paint job to make them look black. The rushed paint job didn’t hide the pistol’s real neon plastic casing, or the clear liquid that was sloshing inside of them. Moreover, Pinkie recognized these particular pistols. She even had some on standby in her room for her summer parties. Pinkie took a deep breath, lowered her hooves back down, and gave the two colts a very annoyed look. “Nice try, but those are just water pistols.” The two colts stood confused for a few moments. The younger colt leaned into the older colt’s ear. “Dude, she’s not buying it!” Pinkie heard him whispered. “Don’t panic! Stick to the plan!” the older colt whispered loudly back. He then turned Pinkie, trying very hard to maintain a menacing tone. “Of course this is real!” he shouted. “Now give us all your money!” “And what if I don’t?” Pinkie challenged. “Don’t mess with us!” the younger colt yelled. “You’ll be sorry!” From the window-side table, Pinkie saw the customer at the window notice the standoff from her spot by the window. Her first reaction was deep shock over witnessing a crime happen right in front of her. To Pinkie’s surprise, the customer did not flee or panic in any way. Instead, her face began to twist into a deep-seething anger. The customer slammed her book from the table and marched towards the young robbers, tapping the older one on his shoulder. The older colt turned around. “Don’t you dare touch me! You….” He trailed off as he instantly recognized the furious customer. The younger colt also turned around to see who was behind him and he also froze. The color from the two robbers drained from their faces. “MOM?!?” the two colts shouted in unison. “What. Are. You. Two. DOING?!?” she growled at her sons. “I… I… We… I…” the older colt stammered, unable to explain what he was up to. Tears were starting to fall from the younger colt’s eyes. “Apologize to this lady!” the mother ordered. With a heavy mix of embarrassment, guilt and shame, the two colts turned back to Pinkie. The younger colt was weeping hard. “We’re sorry,” they said together. Before Pinkie could accept their apology, the mother grabbed her two sons by their ears and dragged them out of the store. “Come along, you two. You want to act tough? We’ll see how tough you are when you tell your father what you just tried to pull.” Both colts’ eyes widened in fear. “No! Please! Not that! I promise I’ll never do it again! I’ll be good I swear!” The older colt pleaded. “I don’t want to be grounded for life!” the younger colt cried loudly. Pinkie watched as the mother dragged the two colts out of the store and onto the Ponyville streets. She could only imagine the scene that awaited the two troublemakers when they got home. ~~~~~ Later on that afternoon, a purple unicorn stallion with a black mane and a large mustache entered the store. What struck this pony odd to Pinkie was that he was wearing a black velvet cape that would make the Great and Powerful Trixie herself jealous. At any rate, Pinkie greeted this strange pony. “Hi! Welcome to…” “…Sugarcube Corner?” the customer interrupted. “My name is…” “…Pinkie Pie?” he interrupted again. “How may I…” “…Help you?” he interrupted a third time. Pinkie blinked in confusion a few times. She tried to speak again. “Why are you…” “…finishing your sentences?” “Don’t you know, that’s…” “…kinda annoying?” “Ok, check that. It’s…” “REALLY annoying!” “Are you actually going to…” “…Order something?” “Or are you just going to…” “…Stand here and be a nuisance?” Pinkie rubbed her forehead. This was giving her a headache. “You know, you have got to be the… “…Most irritating pony in Equestria.” “I mean, I’m not trying to…” “…Sound mean or anything.” “But I guess anypony who met you would…” “…shove bushels of Poison Joke flowers down my throat.” Pinkie gasped. “Did somepony actually…” “…Do that to me?” “My gosh! That’s…” “…Absolutely horrible!” “How would Poison Joke even…” “…Effect somepony like me?” “Did it just…” “…Glue my mouth shut so I couldn’t speak?” “Or did it just…” “…Turn me into a parrot?” Pinkie gasped again. “Did the poison joke…” “…Really turn me into a parrot?” “That must have been…” “…Really weird!” “How did you…” “…Turn back into a pony, anyway?” “Did Zecora just…” “…Give me the Poison Joke remedy out of the goodness of her heart?” “Or did you just…” “…Annoy her by pecking on her head until she snapped.” “Wow! That was a…” “…Really dumb idea!” “You don’t want to…” “…Make a zebra like Zecora mad.” “Or else she’ll…” “…Make me clean out her latrine with my tongue?” “Yuck! I can’t believe she…” “…Made me do that!” “Although to be fair, you were…” “…Kinda asking for it?” A sudden thought suddenly formed in the customer’s head. “You know something?” he told Pinkie, “I think you…” “…Might have a point there?” Pinkie finished. “I think it’s clear that I have a…” “Slightly major personality issue?” “If you don’t mind, I’ll just order a….” “…Triple scoop ice cream sundae with extra chocolate syrup that you’ll eat alone in the corner and wonder exactly where your life went wrong?” “Bingo!” the customer smiled. “That’ll be four bits,” Pinkie smiled politely. ~~~~~ "Welcome to Suguarcube Corner! How may I help you?" Pinkie greeted her next customer in line, an orange pegasus mare with a blue mane. “Are your muffins fresh?” the customer asked. “Yes, they are!” Pinkie nodded. "How fresh are they?" "They just came out of the oven a few minutes ago, so they're pretty fresh." The customer took a look at the muffins in the display case. "They don't look fresh to me," the customer frowned. "I personally placed these muffins here from the oven less than five minutes ago. Trust me, they're fresh." The customer shook her head. "No, they're not. Look! That muffin looks fresher than that other muffin." Pinkie took a closer look at the muffins. The muffins on the tray looked all the same to her, and she was a pony with years of experience with baked goods of all kinds. "They all look fresh to me, ma'am," Pinkie told her. “Well this one looks fresher than that one," the customer insisted. "Can I see how fresh it is? Because I only want it if it’s fresh.” Pinkie did her best to hide her groan from the customer. “As I said, ma’am, it’s perfectly fresh.” “Can you get me the muffin that’s the most fresh? This one looks the most fresh. Definitely more fresh than that one. Can you get me the freshest one?” “Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie nodded. She grabbed the muffin that the customer was pointing to. And placed it in front of the customer. “This is the freshest muffin, right? More fresh than the other ones? Because I only want it if it’s fresh.” the customer asked. “I can assure you that I’ve been as fresh with you as I can get away with, ma’am,” Pinkie said through a tight grin. "Thank you!" the customer smiled. "I hope you understand that I just wanted to be fresh." Pinkie had to bite her tongue from saying something she would have really regretted later. ~~~~~ It was getting late in the day and Pinkie was beginning to put away some of the store's empty treys when she saw a familiar yellow pegasus enter the store. “Fluttershy!” Pinkie shouted excitedly. “How are you doing?” She was eager to find out how her lunch went with the stallion she had met yesterday. However, she noticed that Fluttershy seemed a bit more nervous and embarrassed than usual. “Is something wrong, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked in concern. Fluttershy sighed. “Pinkie? I’m about to do something that I’m absolutely ashamed of. So please, whatever happens, just know that I’m very, very sorry. If you don’t want to be here, I’ll understand. You don’t deserve this at all. But…. I just need to do this.” There was a moment of uncertainty on Pinkie’s part. She didn’t know what to expect, but it seemed like her friend needed this task, whatever it was. “It’s Ok, Fluttershy. I understand. Go right ahead.” "Promise you won't get mad at me?" Fluttershy pleaded. "I Pinkie Promise!" Pinkie reassured her friend. “Thank you,” Fluttershy sighed again. The yellow pegasus took a slow deep breath. Suddenly, without warning, she angrily grabbed Pinkie by her neck. “GIVE ME THE UNHEALTHIEST [beep] THING ON THE [honk] MENU RIGHT [chirp] NOW OR ELSE I’LL SHOVE YOUR [crash] UP YOUR [bzzzt] SO HARD YOU’LL [meow] EVERYTIME YOU [cuckoo]!!! AND YOU BETTER NOT MESS WITH ME RIGHT NOW, YOU [Buy some apples!] SON OF A [woof woof]!!!” Fluttershy huffed as she finished spending every last ounce of anger into her tirade which left Pinkie in a state of shock. Realizing that she was still holding onto Pinkie by her neck, she let her go and blushed in embarrassment. “Um… that is…. If you don’t mind…” Fluttershy squeaked quietly. Pinkie made a mental note to herself not to ask Fluttershy anything about her lunch date. > Day Five > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. > Day Six > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘Another day. Another set of crazy customers’, Pinkie thought as she opened up Sugarcube Corner. She was thoroughly convinced that today would be just as crazy, if not more so, than the last few days. Then again, perhaps it was best not to dwell on it. Besides, she’s managed to handle the previous days so today should be no problem. Or maybe she just jinxed herself by thinking that. At any rate, Pinkie took her place behind the counter and waited for the first customer of the day. She had even brought along one of her activity puzzle books with her to help pass the time when things slowed down in the store. Before long a pair of pegasi, a dark brown mare and a young light brown colt, entered the store. “Hello! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie smiled. “Can I please have a single chocolate ice cream?” the young colt asked. The mare frowned at the child. “Junior! Remember what I said before we came in here?” “Oh…I’m sorry Missus Ice Cream Lady,” the colt apologized to Pinkie. “My mommy told me I can’t be polite to you.” Pinkie blinked. “She said what?” “My mommy said that some ponies don’t deserve kindness, so I can’t be polite to you,” the colt explained. “Can I still get a single chocolate ice cream, please?” “Stop apologizing and don’t say please!” the mother groaned. “Just say what you want and don’t talk to her. You’ll waste good manners otherwise. Now watch how I do it.” The mare turned to Pinkie. “One single chocolate ice cream to go.” She turned her attention back to her son. “See? Short, simple, and I didn’t waste my manners. Now try again, Junior.” The young colt, now embarrassed and ashamed over his mistake, tried to look at Pinkie in the eye, but found himself looking at the floor instead. “I want a single chocolate ice cream and nothing else, please?” he said quietly. “No!” the mother shouted. “You said please again! Your manners are terrible! You’ll never be a proper gentlecolt like that!” By now, the colt couldn’t help but to tear up. “I’m sorry, Mommy,” he sniffed. "And what did I say about crying in public?" the mother frowned. "For Celestia's sake, why are you always such a disappointment?" Throughout the exchange, Pinkie felt more and more uncomfortable with the way the mother was treating her child. She wanted to say something to the mother, but as she watched the colt being chastised for his misuse of manners, Pinkie came up with another idea. Normally, a single ice cream is just a standard scoop on a cone. However, Pinkie scooped up three scoops of chocolate ice cream in a larger cup, and dressed it with a generous amount of chocolate syrup, sprinkles and cherries. “Here you go!” Pinkie smiled, handing the now giant ice cream treat to the colt. “Excuse me! We only ordered a single chocolate ice cream!” the mother shouted angrily. “I know, and this won’t cost a bit extra,” Pinkie explained. “This is a special thank you to this fine colt here.” His eyes widened in surprised shock. “Is that really for me?” “Yessiree!” Pinkie nodded. “You’re the most polite customer I’ve had today, and the most polite customers of the day gets a special Sugarcube Corner reward!” “Wow! Thank you Missus Ice Cream Lady! Thank you!!!” the young colt smiled, taking the ice cream in his hooves and started to gleefully lick the giant treat. The mother grumbled loudly as her son began to eat the giant treat. “Ugh! He’s not supposed to be polite to ponies on minimum wage!” “Is that why you don’t talk to daddy anymore?” the young colt asked in between licks of his ice cream. The mother was rendered speechless by her son’s comment. She also noticed a suspicious stare coming from Pinkie. “C-come along Junior. It’s time to go now,” she stuttered, clumsily making her way to the front door. “Bye Missus Ice Cream Lady!” the colt smiled and waved, following his mother out of the store. “Have a nice day!” Pinkie waved back. ~~~~~ “Hello, ma’am! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted the next customer in line. “Yeah, I need a cake for my sister’s birthday,” the customer ordered. She took her time looking at the sample cakes inside the store display and picked out the red velvet special. “All righty! One Red Velvet birthday cake special!” Pinkie smiled. “Would you like me to write anything on the cake?” The customer nodded. “Can you write down ‘Happy Birthday, Fatty McFatpants’?” “…” “Is something wrong?” “You want me to write ‘Happy Birthday’, what?!?” Pinkie repeated, not believing what she had heard. “Fatty McFatpants,” The customer replied nonchalantly. “Is that really your sister’s name?” “Oh, of course not!” the customer chuckled. “I’ve been calling her that since she gained weight over the last few months. Boy! Let me tell you, she hates that name!” “…Sooo… why do you want me to write it on the cake?” Pinkie asked carefully. The customer shrugged. “Why not? She is fat.” There were so many questions swimming in Pinkie’s mind, but she couldn’t dare herself to ask any of them. One thing was for sure, she couldn’t let herself participate in this customer’s seemingly cruel teasing. “Oh! Look at that! We’re out of frosting!” Pinkie lied through a forceful smile. “Unfortunately, I can’t ice this cake for you. Sorry!” The customer rolled her eyes. “Fine. I guess I’ll just frost this myself.” She paid for the cake and left. Before returning back to her puzzle book, Pinkie made a note to get this customer’s apology cake she’ll undoubtedly need in the near future ready to go at a moment’s notice. ~~~~~ “Hello sir! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted the next customer in line. The dark orange pegasus stallion walked up to the counter and placed a package of store-wrapped brownies in front of the register. “Yeah, I have a question about these brownies.” “What’s the matter with them?” The stallion pointed to a unique label on the packaging. “These brownies are marked ‘Special’. Why is that?” “It’s the Sugarcube Corner deal of the day!” Pinkie explained. “Our brownies are on sale today and tomorrow.” “Sooo… these aren’t special brownies?” Pinkie blinked in confusion. “I’m not sure what you mean, sir.” “You know,” the stallion winked knowingly, “They’re not…special… brownies?” “No, they’re not,” Pinkie replied slowly. “They’re just normal, regular old brownies.” The customer sighed. “Never mind, then.” He pushed the brownies aside and walked straight out of the store disappointed. Pinkie gave the brownies a quick sniff to ensure they were still normal before she put them back on display. ~~~~~ So far, it had been a rather slow day at Sugarcube Corner, so much so that Pinkie spent much of the day tidying up the store and solving puzzles in her puzzle book. After wiping down the counters, she decided that the store’s floor could use a good cleaning too. She quickly went to the storage closet and wheeled out the mop bucket. She also made sure the wet floor signs were displayed in case anypony came in. She began to mop up the area in front of the counter when a young stallion entered the store. Upon entering and seeing Pinkie mopping the floor, he slipped and fell down. “Ow!!! My leg!!! It’s broken!!!” he cried out. Pinkie turned and noticed the stallion clutching his left rear leg in agony. “Why didn’t you tell me the floor was wet? I’m going to sue you for everything you’ve got! You could have KILLED ME!!!” the stallion shouted angrily. Pinkie rolled her eyes in disgust. “Sir, there’s just two things wrong with your plan. One, I have ‘Caution – Wet Floor’ signs all over the store, so we did our part to warn you.” “Well I didn’t see them,” he shouted. “I want your manager, NOW! I’ll have you fired for this!” “And the other thing that’s wrong with your plan?” Pinkie continued, “I haven’t mopped over there yet. The floor is dry where you ‘slipped’.” The stallion’s cries of agony fell silent immediately. He took a good look at the floor and found that the floor was indeed dry. Without saying another word, he got off the floor and ran out of the store in full gallop. “Well, I guess that's one way to fix a broken leg,” Pinkie chuckled. ~~~~~ “Wow! This brain teaser is a doozy. What's the name of this missing pony, anyway?” Pinkie buried her head in her puzzle book in despair. She found herself stuck on a logic brain teaser where she had to identify the ponies playing certain positions on a kickball team based off of clues given in the book. So far, she had identified the entire team except for the pony playing at first. Pinkie tried and tried to figure it out, but she kept drawing a blank. As much as Pinkie wanted to figure out the puzzle, she had to put the book down as she saw the familiar forms of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash entered the store, both looking rather irritated at the moment. “Twilight! Dashie! How’s everything going?” Pinkie smiled, hoping to cheer her friends back up. “Badly,” Twilight frowned. “I caught Rainbow napping on the job again. She almost ruined the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ picnic.” “I cleared those clouds just in time!” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “You always do this though,” Twilight shouted. “You always keep everypony waiting until the last minute!” Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to say something, but just let out a frustrated sigh instead. “Let’s just get the ice cream I promised you, okay?” Pinkie felt concerned about her friends being upset like this, but she felt that Twilight and Rainbow were able to fix things on their own. Besides, ice cream always makes ponies feel better. “So what flavor do you girls want?” “I’ll have Cookies and Cream,” Rainbow ordered. “What about you, Twilight?” “Hold on a second,” Twilight said, scanning the storefront’s display case. “I’m still trying to choose.” Rainbow’s jaw dropped. “Seriously, Twilight? After everything you said about keeping ponies waiting?” she shouted impatiently. “This is different from that,” Twilight insisted. “No it isn’t!” Rainbow shouted. Twilight groaned. “Look, Rainbow. I’m not in the mood to argue right now.” “I wasn’t starting an argument,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “Yes you were!” Twilight shouted. “No I wasn’t!” Rainbow shouted back. “Yes you were!” Twilight shouted back. “No I wasn’t!” Rainbow shouted back again. “See? We’re arguing right now!” Twilight pointed out. “No we’re not!” “Yes we are!” “No we’re not!” “Yes we are!” “No we’re not!” “Yes we are!” “This isn’t even an argument!” Rainbow groaned in frustration. “Yes it is!” “No it isn’t! I haven’t said anything! I’ve just been saying “No we’re not!” again and again.” “She does have a point, Twilight,” Pinkie chimed in. Twilight turned to Pinkie in disbelief. “What?” “When you think of it, an argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a stated point of view or proposition,” Pinkie explained. “What you’ve been doing is just contradiction.” “No I haven’t,” Twilight defended herself. “See? You just did it again.” Pinkie pointed out. “When you contradict somepony, you’re just automatically naysaying anything the other pony says. It’s not really an argument.” Twilight stood silent for a few seconds before she responded back to Pinkie. “Well, it can be.” “No it can’t!” Pinkie shouted. Twilight sighed in frustration. “Look, if I argue with you, it stands to reason that I’m taking a position that contradicts yours.” “But it isn’t just saying ‘No it isn’t.’” Pinkie countered. “Yes it is!” Twilight shouted. “No it isn’t!” Pinkie shouted back. “Yes it is!” Twilight shouted back. “No it isn’t!” Pinkie shouted back again. Rainbow Dash facehoofed in frustration. “Great. Now you’re arguing with Pinkie!” “No I’m not!” Twilight shouted to Rainbow. “Yes you are!” Pinkie shouted to Twilight. “No I’m not!” Twilight shouted to Pinkie. “Yes you are!” Rainbow shouted to Twilight. “Leave her alone! You started this!” Pinkie shouted to Rainbow. “No I didn’t! She started it!” Rainbow shouted to Pinkie. “Are you serious? You started it!” Twilight shouted to Rainbow. “WHO STARTED THIS?!?” Pinkie shouted in frustration. She then suddenly blinked in realization. “Wait a minute. That’s it! Who! Who is on first!” Pinkie smiled as she filled in the final remaining answer in the brain teaser book she was reading. Both Twilight and Rainbow’s faces fell into confusion as Pinkie scribbled into her puzzle book. “Excuse me?” Twilight asked. “My puzzle book! It was asking me the name of the pony on first base in a game of kickball.” “So what’s the pony’s name?” Rainbow asked. “Who,” Pinkie answered. “The pony on first base.” “Who.” “The first basepony!” “Who is on first!” “What?” Pinkie shook her head. “No! What is on second! Who is on first!” “Wait. Who is on first?” Twilight asked. “Yes!” Rainbow Dash sighed in relief. “So the pony’s name is Yes.” Pinkie shook her head again. “No. Yes isn’t even part of this problem. Who is on first.” “Pinkie, I thought you just told me!” Rainbow shouted incredulously. “Told you what, Dashie?” “Who is on first.” “I already told that!” "Told me what?" "Who is on first!" “Why are you asking me? I’m asking you!” Twilight groaned. “Perfect. Now you’re arguing with Pinkie.” “No I’m not!” Rainbow shouted. “Yes you are!” Twilight shouted back. Pinkie shrugged. “Hey, it’s not my fault Dashie doesn’t know Who’s on first.” “I thought What was on first,” Twilight said, scratching her head. Pinkie shook her head. “No. He’s on second. Who’s on first.” Rainbow threw her hooves up in frustration. “WHAT ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT ANYMORE?!?” “I don’t know,” Twilight sighed in defeat. “He’s on third base!” Pinkie pointed out, scribbling another note in her puzzle book. ~~~~~ “All right, let me explain this again one last time,” Pinkie told the mare who was trying to order a hot ice cream, “We serve our ice cream cold because ice cream is cold by its very nature. If I tried to warm up the ice cream for you, it would just melt and it wouldn’t even be ice cream anymore.” The mare frowned. “Well, you’ll be out of business soon if you treat all your customers like this. Good day!” She grabbed her purse from the counter and stomped her way out of the store. Pinkie decided it wasn’t worth trying to figure out the logistics of what that customer tried to order. It’s just another part of what was been without a doubt the strangest week Sugarcube Corner has ever seen. Celestia knows if things would get even worse next week. Pinkie shuddered at the thought. Maybe she should ask the Cakes for a day off. No! What was she thinking? The Cakes depend on her to help the store run smoothly, and all things considered, she really loves her job. Even if she has to deal with some of the nastiest, craziest things in all of Equestria. She was lost so deep in her thoughts, she never noticed Applejack enter into the store. “Howdy, Pinkie! Say, do you know why Twilight and Rainbow were arguing today? They caused a ruckus all over Ponyville!” Before she could go into any detail, she noticed Pinkie looked phased out at the moment, so she slowly walked up to the counter and waved a hoof in front of her. “Equestria to Pinkie? Are ya in there?” Applejack shouted. Pinkie snapped back to reality. “Oh! Sorry, Applejack. I didn’t see you come in.” “Don’t worry ‘bout that,” Applejack smiled. “Another rough day at work?” “All in all, I guess today wasn’t so bad… except for Twilight and Dashie. I don’t even know if they made up yet.” “If Ah know those two, not only have they made up, but Ah’m willing to bet Twilight is sending a friendship report about it right about now.” At that moment, a dark silver earth pony mare entered the store, looking rather distressed. “Excuse me? Could you tell me where the bathrooms are? It’s an emergency” the mare asked Pinkie pointed the mare in the right direction. “Towards the back of the store, next to the kitchen.” “Thank you,” the customer sighed, making her way towards the bathroom. “At any rate, Ah’m glad to hear things were fine today, Pinkie,” Applejack smiled. “Just barely,” Pinkie sighed. “Today was as bad as the last few days. In fact, this whole week has been just plain weird!” “Sounds like you need a vacation,” Applejack pulled out a train ticket from her saddlebag. “You know what? Ah need to take a trip to Manehattan tomorrow for some farm business. Ah wouldn’t mind if Ah had some company along the way.” Pinkie chuckled at the thought. “A trip to Manehattan really does sound exciting, but the Cakes are depending on me to keep the store running. I’d feel guilty taking a day off like that.” “Well, it was just a thought after all,” Applejack shrugged. She then noticed the puzzle book on the counter. “What’cha working on there, Pinkie?” “It’s the puzzle book I was working on all day. It’s really fun!” Pinkie went on to show Applejack some of the puzzles she had already solved. She was about to show her the kickball brain teaser when the mare walked back out from the back of the store, looking extremely relieved. “Everything all right now, ma’am?” Pinkie asked. The mare nodded. “Yes, it is. Thanks you! But you may want to change your bathroom decor. It looks a lot like a pantry.” Pinkie arched her eyebrow in confusion. “Ma’am, our bathrooms look nothing like a pantry. They are normal bathrooms.” The customer froze in fear when a sudden realization hit her. “Uh oh…” Moments later, a scream of horror rang out from the back of the store which Pinkie identified as coming from Mrs. Cake. She also guessed that the cleanup required from the mare’s accident in the pantry would probably close the store down for a day so it can be thoroughly decontaminated. “On second thought, a day trip to Manehattan doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all,” Pinkie chuckled nervously. > Day Seven (Pinkie's Day Off) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The streets of Ponyville was buzzing with activity once again as the town’s shops finished their morning routines and opened for business, with one notable exception. Sugarcube Corner was closed. The Cakes had made the decision to shut down for the day to have the entire store cleaned out from top to bottom due to an unfortunate accident the day prior. As a result, Pinkie had an opportunity to get away from the weirdness she had gone through on the job this past week. She had agreed to spend her off-day accompanying Applejack on her trip to Manehattan. Pinkie looked forward to whatever today had in store for her, not only because she was always happy to help out one of her friends, but after dealing with everything she’s dealt with this past week, she felt that any day trip away from work was definitely earned. Pinkie and Applejack were laughing their way through their conversation as they arrived at the Ponyville train station, Pinkie recounting some of the week’s finer moments to the cowpony. “So Rarity threw the whole cake in that idiot’s face?” Applejack laughed in disbelief. “She did!” Pinkie nodded. “You should have seen it. It was classic!” “That stallion was lucky, though. If that happened to me, Ah would have gone apple bucking, if ya know what Ah mean.” “Ouch! I felt that one!” Pinkie shuddered at the thought. “I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with crazy ponies like that today. Oh, I forgot to ask, what’s with the trip to Manehattan anyways, AJ?” “Mah Aunt and Uncle Orange are thinking about adding an apple orchard on one of their farms and they want mah advice. Besides, it’s been a long time since Ah paid them a visit. Ah at least owe them a friendly hello. What about you, Pinkie? Have ya thought about what you’re gonna do in Manehattan?” “Well, I’ve never been to the Clydesdale Building before. This would be the perfect chance to go!” Pinkie grinned. Arriving at the train station, the two earth ponies took their place in the line that led to the ticket window. The line moved rather quickly and before they knew it, there was only one female pegasus standing in between them and the ticket agent at the window. “How may I help you?” they overheard the stallion at the ticket window say to the pegasus customer. “One ticket to Cloudsdale, please?” she asked, placing a few bits on the counter. The ticket agent began to process the order for a few seconds but stopped when he took a mental note of the customer’s final destination. “Wait…I’m sorry. Where did you say you want to go?” “Cloudsdale,” the pegasus answered. “You want to take a… train… to Cloudsdale?” the agent asked slowly. “It’s my sister’s birthday,” she explained. “I’m going to go and visit her. We have an awesome day planned and everything!” Pinkie and Applejack both looked at each other wordlessly, silently asking each other if they had really heard what the customer had asked for. The ticket agent cringed awkwardly, trying to find the right words to say to the customer. “I’m sorry, ma’am. But I’m afraid we can’t get you to Cloudsdale.” The customer’s face fell in panicked shock. “Why not? I thought these trains go all over Equestria!” “Not... everywhere,” he said slowly, not believing he actually had to explain. “Our trains can’t reach Cloudsdale because Cloudsdale is in the sky, and our trains can’t go in the sky.” “B-b-but… How am I supposed to get to Cloudsdale?!?” the customer panicked. It was at that moment that Pinkie and Applejack decided to approach the pegasus. “Excuse us, but I think we may have an answer to your problem, ma’am.” Pinkie said. “You can always use a balloon. That’s what I like to do since I don’t have wings or anything.” “Speaking of wings…” Applejack cut in, “You’re a pegasus right? How good of a flyer are you?” “Well… I’m not Wonderbolts material or anything, but I can fly all right, I guess,” the pegasus admitted. “In that case, why not fly yourself there? Save yerself some bits while y’all are at it to boot.” Applejack suggested. The pegasus’ mouth hung open as the idea registered in her head. “That’s a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that? Thank you!” “Happy to help ma’am!” Applejack smiled. With that, the pegasus flapped her wings a few times and took to the sky, heading straight for Cloudsdale. “You know,” Pinkie began to wonder, “A trip to Cloudsdale sounds like a good idea.” “We don’t have the cloud walking spell, Pinkie,” Applejack pointed out. “I said it ‘sounded’ like a good idea.” Pinkie shrugged. ~~~~ After a rather peaceful train trip, Pinkie and Applejack found themselves inside the hustle and bustle of Manehattan’s Central Station, one of the largest and busiest train stations in Equestria. The large terminal was filled with ponies from everywhere either trying to catch or just getting off their trains. Pinkie looked around in awe at the sea of ponies inside the giant train station. “It’s easy to forget how small Ponyville is compared to this place,” Pinkie mused out loud. “You can say that again,” Applejack added. “And that smell from all these food carts are making me hungry. How ‘bout some lunch?” “Great idea! Where do you want to eat?” “Well, Ah heard there was a great sandwich shop near Madison Square Stables…” “Excuse me!” Applejack was interrupted by a voice calling out from behind them. Pinkie and Applejack turned to see a blond-maned unicorn mare with a pencil tucked behind her ear and a clipboard in her hoof. “Would you like to take a quick survey?” she asked them. The two earth ponies looked at each other. They both shared an expression that conveyed the same thought, say no and walk away. However, both ponies’ friendly and helpful nature got the better of them and they both found themselves shrugging a hesitant yes. “Sure,” Pinkie Pie replied to the survey pony. Grinning from ear to ear, the survey taker levitated the pencil to the clipboard and began. “Do you eat beans?” she asked. Applejack scratched the back of her head. “Well, Ah guess once in a while…” Before she was able to finish her thought, the survey taker made a quick note and moved on to the next question. “Do you like beans?” she continued, not taking her eyes off the clipboard. This time it was Pinkie who answered, arching her eyebrow in confusion. “I don’t mind beans, but…” The survey taker never offered a response. She never even lifted her eyes from her clipboard. Rather, she made a quick note and went on to the next question. “Do you watch movies?” “Of course!” Pinkie smiled. “Who doesn’t? They’re so much fun!” A quick note on the clipboard later, the next question was asked. “Have you ever seen a movie with Vanilla Ice?” Pinkie’s eyes went wide. “Wait. He’s still around?” she wondered out loud. It had been a while since she heard that name. “Who the hay is Vanilla Ice?” Applejack asked. “Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Pinkie shuddered at the bad memories that name conjured up. The survey taker just went on to the next item on the survey. “Do you eat beans at the movies?” Both Pinkie and Applejack looked at each other in confusion before shaking their heads. “Have you ever seen Vanilla Ice at the movies?” The two earth ponies slowly shook their heads again. “Have you ever seen a movie with beans?” “Hold up. Do you mean have Ah seen beans in the movie or in the theater?” Applejack asked. “How many beans do you eat before you watch a movie?” the survey pony continued, not bothering to answer Applejack’s query. Pinkie shrugged nervously. “I don’t know why it matters that much…” “Have you ever seen a movie with Vanilla Ice eating beans?” Applejack’s mouth flew open in surprised bewilderment. “…What the hay kind of question is THAT?!?” “Excuse me, is there a point to any of this?” Pinkie tried to ask. The survey pony continued on, ignoring any questions directed her way and instead started to rattle off a series of questions without even stopping for Applejack or Pinkie Pie to speak up. “Would you like to see a movie with Vanilla Ice eating beans? Would you rather eat beans or cucumbers at that movie? Have you ever eaten a cucumber at the movies? How many cucumbers have you eaten in the past month? What kind of beans do you prefer when you watch a movie with Vanilla Ice eating cucumbers? If a cucumber walked up to you right now, would you tell it that you enjoy Vanilla Ice movies with beans or with guacamole?” The survey taker kept on asking question after question, each one making less sense than the one before it. “It’s not stopping!” Pinkie shouted in despair, her hoofs covering her ears in a vain attempt to block out the avalanche of survey questions. Applejack had to fight the urge to gnaw her hat off in irritation. “We gotta get outta here! What do we gonna do, Pinkie?” With the survey questions coming faster and more furious by the second, Pinkie came up with a quick idea. “Hey look! It’s Vanilla Ice!” Pinkie shouted, pointing to a random direction away from them. Immediately, the survey pony stopped asking questions and ran straight towards the direction Pinkie was pointing. “Excuse me! Mr. Ice? Would you like to take a quick survey?” “Run!” Pinkie whispered to Applejack. Without any hesitation, the two Earth ponies rushed out of the train station. In another part of the station, the survey pony asked a confused white unicorn stallion with a flat-top mane for a moment of his time. ~~~~ Safely away from the train station, as well as that weird survey pony, Pinkie and Applejack took a few moments to enjoy the sights and sounds of Manehattan. It was the middle of the day and the sidewalks were filled with ponies going about their everyday business. A never-ending parade of taxi carts rolled down the streets, each one traveling towards a different destination. The two walked several blocks towards Horseshoe Circle and the numerous cafes and restaurants that line the busy plaza. Applejack led Pinkie towards one of these restaurants, which had a small sign that read ‘The Sandwich Stop’, and a street chalkboard just outside the door that listed the store’s specials. “So this is the sandwich shop you were talking about, huh?” Pinkie asked Applejack. “Yup. Apple Bloom said that Babs won’t stop talking about this store. Ah figured we should try it out as long as we’re in town.” “Goody! I can’t wait!” Pinkie Pie smiled. “I heard Manehattan’s sandwich shops are known for their customer service.” The two tourists entered the small store, a jingling bell ringing as they opened the door. The establishment was empty save for the young earth pony stallion with a mop-top mane working at the counter. He turned his attention to the newcomers as they entered the store. “Welcome to The Sandwich Stop! Can I take your order?” the stallion asked. Pinkie put a hoof to her chin as she began to read the menu. “You go ahead, AJ. I’m still trying to choose.” “If ya say so, Pinkie.” Applejack turned to the worker. “Ah’ll have an apple and granola sandwich. Oh, and can you go light on the mayo, please?” “Light on the mayo. All right!” the stallion nodded. He then ducked underneath the counter to search for something in one of the floor cabinets. A few short moments later, he pulled out a desk lamp from the cabinet onto the counter and turned it on. He then placed his jar of mayonnaise under the shine of the light bulb and took one step away so he can admire the glow. Pinkie and Applejack looked at each other in complete and utter confusion over the worker’s actions. “Uh… What are you doing?” Pinkie asked “Your friend said she wanted light on the mayo, so I’m putting a light on the mayo,” the worker explained. Applejack groaned. “That’s not what Ah meant. Ah meant Ah wanted just a little mayonnaise on mah sandwich!” The worker’s eye’s lit up in realization. “Oh! OK!” He then went underneath the counter again and pulled out a tiny doll-sized jar of mayonnaise and squeezed its contents onto the sandwich. “There you go! A little mayonnaise!” He smiled proudly. For the second time that day, Applejack’s mouth flew open in surprised bewilderment. She began to start telling the stallion that she didn’t mean for a tiny jar of mayo on her sandwich, but she decided to let it be. Despite the bizarre display, her order was somehow fulfilled. She sighed, placed a few bits on the counter and accepted her sandwich. She began to take a few bites as the stallion turned his attention to Pinkie. “Anything for you, ma’am?” he asked Pinkie. Pinkie took one last look at the overhead menu, trying to decide what to order. “I still can’t decide. What’s today’s special?” The worker shrugged. “I dunno. What is it?” Pinkie blinked in confusion. “Hold up. Are you asking me what your special is?” He nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! Nopony ever tells me these things. So what is our special, anyway?” “I don’t know. I don’t work here!” Pinkie answered incredulously. The confused worker tilted his head. “Then why did you order the special?” “Because I thought you knew since you work here!” Pinkie shouted. “Of course I work here!” the worker smiled. “I have this neat uniform and everything!” Pinkie groaned in frustration. Applejack simply shook her head at the situation. This wasn’t the world-class customer service either pony was expecting. “Look, forget the special,” Pinkie told the worker. “I’ll just have what my friend is having.” The worker tilted his head again and then shrugged. “If you say so.” Without warning, the worker reached over the counter and grabbed Applejack’s half-eaten sandwich from her hooves. “What the...? Hey!” Applejack shouted. “Here you go!” the worker said, handing the sandwich over to Pinkie. “But I don’t know why you want this one since your friend already started eating it.” “I didn’t mean that I wanted her sandwich,” Pinkie clarified, giving the sandwich back to the apple farmer. “I wanted the second sandwich, made just like what Applejack has!” The stallion scratched the back of his head. “You know for a simple order, this is getting kinda complicated.” Pinkie facehoofed. She couldn’t even catch a break on her day off. “You know what? Forget the sandwich. I’ll just have a chocolate shake.” “Sweet! One chocolate shake, coming up!” the worker grinned. Before Pinkie could react, the stallion grabbed two bottles of chocolate syrup, hopped over the counter, and begun to squirt the bottle all over her, covering the shrieking pink pony in runny, sticky chocolate syrup from her mane to her tail. Applejack froze, stunned and unable to process the antics that had befallen her friend. “There we go! Now you have the chocolate, it's time for the shake.” He grabbed the chocolate covered Pinkie and rocked her back and forth. “Shake it all out! Work that chocolate!” He cheered, trying to encourage the movements out of the chocolate covered pony. Enough was enough for the cowpony. She snapped back to reality. “That does it! Come on, Pinkie. We're getting outta here!” Applejack quickly grabbed Pinkie away from the worker and the two tourists made a quick exit from the store. “Hey! I wasn’t done yet!” The worker shouted out, but he soon found himself once again alone in his store. He took a glance at the two bottles of chocolate still in his hooves and shrugged. “Oh well, more for me then!” He threw his head back and emptied the contents of both bottles into his mouth. ~~~~ Applejack’s temper was raging as she and Pinkie Pie walked down the street, both mares quickly trying to get away from that bizarre sandwich store as possible. “That had to be, hooves down, the worst sandwich shop in all of Equestria,” the cowpony grumbled. “What the hay was he even thinking back there?” Pinkie was unsuccessfully cleaning off all the chocolate syrup off of her. “I think I still have chocolate syrup in my mane,” she groaned. “We’ll get you all cleaned up as soon as we get to Aunt and Uncle Orange.” “Thanks, AJ. I really hope they won’t mind if I...” Pinkie suddenly cut herself off and froze in place as something came up to her sights up ahead. “Oh no!” she squeaked out in fear. Applejack followed her friend’s line of sight to the corner of the street where a cart was laid out displaying what looked like a wide selection of makeup and other assorted beauty products. Right beside the cart was a young pegasus mare, trying to get ponies to pay attention to the products on the cart. Pinkie and Applejack knew exactly what this display meant. “A street vendor!” Pinkie quietly shrieked in fear. “Just keep walking. Maybe she’ll leave us alone,” Applejack whispered back. The two Ponyvillians continued their path down the sidewalk, hoping to the heavens that the vendor hadn’t noticed them. Unfortunately, their hopes were squashed when the vendor began to wave at them directly. “Excuse me, ladies! A moment of your time?” the vendor asked. “I’ve got the beauty product to end all beauty products ready for you to take home today!” “No thanks! We’re in a hurry,” Applejack quickly replied, trying really hard to avoid eye contact. Instead, the vendor drew closer to them. “It'll just take a few seconds. I guarantee you'll love it.” “Sorry. We're not interested,” Pinkie chuckled nervously. She tried to lead herself and Applejack across the street, but the vendor stood right in front of them before they could cross, happily showing off a small blue perfume bottle. “But this is the Canterlot famous APON line!” the vendor smiled. “Nine out of ten ponies swear by it! It's a fantastic product. Here, let me show you.” Without any warning, the vendor sprayed the some of the liquid in the bottle straight into Applejack’s face. The cowpony recoiled first in surprise, then into distress when she took in the perfume’s surprising potency. “Hey! What in tarnation are ya…” Applejack tried to shout. The vendor pony replied by going into the sales pitch. “It's APON’s latest fragrance inspired by the fresh beauty of Neighagra Falls! It’s the current trend in Canterlot!” the vendor stated. The aroma of the perfume was indeed strong, so strong that it made Pinkie recoil in disgust just by smelling it. “It smells like rotten eggs,” she gagged. She tried to help Applejack recover from being directly hit with the stuff, but the strong smell forced her to step away. The smile on the APON pony persisted. “Trust me, this perfume is all the rage now. Everypony is wearing it. In fact, nine out ten ponies say that they have never smelt anything like that in their entire lives!” Applejack coughed a few times thanks to the odor before she could add her two bits in. “Ah think there might be a very good reason why they said that! Dagnabit, that stuff got in mah eyes!” she grumbled, trying to wipe the nasty stuff off her face, her eyes watering more and more as the perfume’s stench lingered in the air. The APON pony’s twitched with delight at the sight of what looked like tears forming in the cowpony’s eyes. “Wow! Another satisfied customer! Although, you might need some makeup to hide those tears of joy!” Applejack shook her head. “Listen, ma’am, Ah don’t need any more…” Before she could say anything else, the APON pony took out a large powder puff and patted it firmly several times into the cowpony’s face. She then, in one swift motion, opened up her makeup kit and began to work. Pinkie watched the pushy salespony work her ‘magic’ on her friend, completely stunned at the speed the APON pony was working. When she was done, Applejack’s face was left completely caked in white powder. The copious amounts of powder on her face made Applejack sneeze. “And let’s not forget to add a little blush on those cheeks!” the salespony went ahead and applied a more than generous amount of red coloring to Applejack’s cheeks, creating two bright red spots on the sides of her face where her freckles were supposed to be. “Just a small sample of APON’s Canterlot famous makeup line!” the APON pony smiled. “And it can all be yours for just 3 easy payments of 200 bits, plus shipping and handling. Order today and we’ll throw in APON’s world-famous mane straightener solution, now with 45% less bleach!” The salespony turned her attention to Pinkie, her smile growing more manic as she took a look at her frizzy mane. “You! How would you like a free sample of this award-winning mane straightener?” Pinkie laughed nervously, backing away a couple of steps. “No thanks. I’m good!” she said, doing her best to add as much distance from the crazed salespony. The APON pony closed in still. “Oh, but I insist! You simply must see for yourself what a fantastic product this is, no matter what those other lawyers said!” That was enough for Pinkie. She turned around and ran away as fast as her hooves can gallop. The salespony took off to follow her down the street, holding her entire product line with her magic. “Come back!” the APON pony shouted. “You still need to add APON to your life!” “Please stay away from me!” Pinkie pleaded. “Not until you experience the glory of APON!!!” “DO NOT WANT!!!” While Pinkie ran away from the salespony, Applejack remained where she stood when she got her unwanted makeover, completely unamused by the APON pony’s sales pitch, and how ridiculous it left her looking and smelling. Seconds later, a young colt and an older mare walked up to her. “Mommy, look! A cowboy clown!” the colt shouted in glee, noticing Applejack’s ‘makeup’. He ran up to Applejack. “Can you make me balloon shaped cowboy boots, miss clown lady, please?” Applejack groaned. ~~~~ It took a good 30 minutes before Pinkie and Applejack were able to shake off the salespony by the big Montgomery Stables flagship store. The encounter, unfortunately, left the two exhausted. Rather than taking the stroll they had planned to get to Aunt and Uncle Orange, they chose to try to hail a taxi instead. That decision went about as well as Applejack had previously predicted with Applejack now holding her hoof up on the sidewalk for a solid fifteen minutes, failing to signal over one of the many taxi carriages on the street. Applejack was getting impatient. “For the love of Celestia, there are literally thousands of taxis in this town. At least one of them has to be empty!” “Either that perfume is chasing every taxi away, or everypony in Manehattan is afraid of clowns,” Pinkie bitterly joked, still attempting to get the last of the syrup out of her mane. “You know, this relaxing trip isn’t as relaxing as I thought it would have been.” “Ah’m sorry we had to go through all this nonsense today, Pinkie. Especially after the week you had.” Applejack had wiped quite a bit of the makeup off her face, but visible streaks of white powder remained on her face. “It’s all right, AJ. You didn’t know. Let’s just get to your Aunt and Uncle’s place before anything else happens to us.” The two mares continued to wait as one occupied taxi after another passed down the street. Miraculously, only after a few extra minutes of waiting, an empty carriage pulled by a yellow Earth stallion with a black and white striped mane pulled over. “Why hello there ladies!” the taxi pony smiled. “Where can I take you…” The stallion’s smile turned to shocked surprise as he took a good look at the white powder and chocolate syrup on his two latest clients. “Sandwich Stop?” he guessed, looking at Pinkie’s syrupy mane. “Yup,” Pinkie nodded in defeat. “APON lady?” he guessed again, looking at the leftover powder on Applejack’s face. Applejack sighed, “Unfortunately.” “Not to mention an extra helping of survey taker on the side, too,” Pinkie added. The taxi stallion could only chuckle. “That’s Manehattan for ya!” He unharnessed himself from his taxi carriage and helped the two in. “You two don’t have to worry about them anymore. You’re safe with me.” “We could have used that protection an hour ago!” Pinkie laughed. “We need to get to 5421 Mane Street,” Applejack told the stallion as he got ready to pull the carriage. “Yes, ma’am!” Once he made sure his two customers were comfortable inside the carriage, he quickly got back into his harness and began the trip. He noticed the look of relief etched all over the two mares’ faces. “You know, most Manehattanites would just shrug off all that stuff that happened to you today. You ladies from out of town?” “We’re from Ponyville,” Applejack answered. “We’re just in town for the day so Ah can visit mah Aunt and Uncle.” “And I’m just here to keep my friend company,” Pinkie shrugged. “Ponyville, huh?” the driver chuckled. “I heard that it’s a really friendly place.” “Most of the time” Pinkie mumbled under her breath. “But yeah! Ponyville is a really friendly place, and we just love meeting new friends.” The stallion laughed. “Now before either of you get any ideas, I have to say that I’m a happily married stallion.” “Aw nuts,” Pinkie frowned playfully. Applejack stifled a laugh and turned to ask the stallion a question. “So how long have y’all been married?” “Almost ten years now!” the stallion smiled. Pinkie gasped. “Wow! Congratulations! Do you have a party in mind to celebrate? Parties are kinda my thing.” “Not quite a party,” he shrugged. “I’m planning on taking her to Prance for our anniversary” Applejack gave out a low whistle. “Hoo wee. A vacation to Prance? That must be expensive.” The stallion’s pace slowed a bit. He gave out a disappointed sigh. “It is. I’ve had to work extra shifts here the past few months to afford it. But it’s worth it. I’ll do just about anything for her.” “Sounds like you really love her. Don’t ya, sugar cube?” “I really do,” the stallion sighed dreamily, the image of the mare of his life forming vividly in his mind I love everything about her. Her red mane. Her silver coat. That blue bow she ties to her tail.” “Oh! You mean like that pony over there?” Pinkie pointed out to a figure walking up the sidewalk on their left side that matched the stallion’s description. “Yes, just like that… pony… over…” the stallion trailed off as he took a good look at the pony Pinkie pointed to. The pony that matched that lovely image he adores. The pony that he has sworn his entire life to. And the other stallion that pony was walking, talking, and laughing side by side with. Who just so happened to give her a small kiss on her cheek. The taxi suddenly stopped. “Sir? Is something wrong?” Applejack asked. “That can’t be...” he said in a stunned whisper. Both Pinkie and Applejack took notice of the scene their driver was watching. As the three of them watched, the mare returned the kiss on the stallion’s cheek, and then shared a hug with the mystery stallion. “I really hope that wasn’t your wife,” Pinkie said nervously. “It’s her,” the driver confirmed. “And him!!!” “Wait, who’s him?” Applejack asked. Instead of getting an answer, the driver ran towards the hugging ponies, still harnessed with the carriage. Pinkie and Applejack tumbled a bit as the carriage suddenly jerked into action. The two tried to gather their senses a bit as the driver caught up with his target. He loudly cleared his throat to break the hug up. The mare and the mystery stallion turned around and froze as they saw the now angry taxi driver standing in front of them. “Sweetie?!?” the mare shouted. “Hello, Honey,” the stallion said, his voice cold as ice. He then turned to mare’s current companion. His tone grew even colder. “Hello, brother.” “Uh… Hey little bro.” “Mind explaining what’s going on with you two?” The mare looked around nervously. “Well... you see…” Rather than explaining her actions, she suddenly grabbed her companion and the two began to gallop away. “Oh no, you don’t!” Without thinking, the driver launched straight into a full gallop and began to chase after the two at full speed, not realizing that Pinkie and Applejack were still in the cab. The two were thrown back at the sudden change of speed. “WHOA!!! What the hey are ya doin’!?” Applejack shouted, trying her best to remain straight in the now rocking cab. “I’ve got some urgent business I need to take care of right now!” the driver’s focused remained on the fleeing ponies. “But what about us? We’re still back here!” Pinkie shouted. “This trip’s on the house, ladies. Just hold on! It might get a bit bumpy back there.” “Thanks for the warning’!” Applejack sarcastically replied, trying her best to keep her hat on her head. The chase continued at a full gallop down the busy Manehattan streets towards the city harbor. The fleeing couple made several quick last-second turns to try to shake off the taxi driver but managed to keep up with them stride for stride, miraculously avoiding several collisions with other pony carts on the street. Pinkie and Applejack held on for dear life as they were tossed back and forth inside the speeding cab. The fleeing ponies made an attempt to lose the taxi through Palomino Square, galloping up then down the grand staircases that serve as entrances and exits to either end of the park. But the taxi kept pace. The driver barely lost a step on his targets as he ran up and down the stairs, still harnessed to the carriage, and its two passengers who were being thrown all over the inside of the carriage as it passed over each stair. Another attempt to evade the taxi was made by cutting inside the flagship Montgomery Stables department store, but the taxi driver never let up, choosing to pursue the couple by going inside the store, taxi carriage and all. He followed the couple, crashing himself, his carriage, and his passengers through several floors and several departments worth of merchandise. When the chase resumed outside, bits and pieces of the department store was dragged outside by the taxi carriage. Pinkie somehow was now wearing Applejack’s hat and was now sporting high-end sunglasses, a polo shirt, and a set of golf clubs. Applejack, meanwhile, found herself wearing a wedding dress, bouquet and all. The two terrified passengers were able to shake off the extra clothing quickly, just in time to notice the chase targets had pulled ahead a bit and were now going over the Mane Street drawbridge that passed over the harbor. And that the drawbridge began to rise, lifting up and apart for the ship ready to pass through. Traffic up ahead stopped for the bridge. Except for the taxi. The driver lowered his glare at his escaping target. “Hold on, ladies!!!” he shouted. With that, the driver plowed through the stop barrier and ran up the rapidly inclining bridge. Pinkie and Applejack clutched each other in terror and screamed. The gap created from the drawn bridge must have been at least 50 feet by the time they reached the top. Surely, they would not make the jump and would fall straight into the river below. The driver grunted and screamed as he took a mighty leap across the gap. Time seemed to slow down while the taxi was in mid-air. Despite the long odds, the driver made the leap with just inches to spare. Now on the other side, the driver renewed his focus to catch his special somepony and his brother. In all, the full-gallop chase lasted a full 15 minutes, which felt closer to 15 hours for the hapless taxi passengers. But the chase finally came to an end at the harbor itself, the southern tip of the busy city. The couple had made one last-ditch attempt to flee only to run straight into a dead-end alley. The driver, huffing from exhaustion, blocked the only way out with the cart. He unharnessed himself and marched right up to the cornered ponies. Pinkie and Applejack, meanwhile, were left stunned, dazed, shaken, and thankful that they had survived the chase. “Applejack?” “Yes, Pinkie?” “Next time I have a day off, let’s just play board games in my room. Ok?” “Deal.” The two friends watched the taxi driver confront his wife and brother from the safety of the carriage. “What in the wide world of Equestria is going on?!?” the driver asked. Before the brother could say anything, the wife spoke up. “Please, don’t get mad at him. This is all my fault. I can explain everything.” “Can you?” the driver asked dangerously. The mare sighed. Tears began to freely fall from her face. “You’ve been working so late these past few days. I… I got so lonely. And your brother came by one day to check to see if I was ok, and… and then the next thing I know, I… I….” she wasn’t able to finish before she collapsed in a full round of tears. The stallion lowered his head in shame. “Little bro… I have no excuse. You have every right to be mad at us.” “Being mad doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling right now!” The taxi driver shouted. The brother winced a bit. He took a deep breath and continued. “What we did was wrong. I’ll understand if you never want to talk with us ever again.” The taxi driver glared at his weeping wife and his repentant brother. He tried to muster up the energy to unleash the wrath of Tartarus on them as they so rightly deserved. But instead, his eyes filled up with tears. “I can’t,” he found himself saying. “I can’t do that! I love you both. I always will. We’ve been through so much together to make me feel otherwise. But this… I don’t know if I can deal with this right now.” On trembling legs, the wife tried to choke out an apology through her sobs. “Please forgive me. I’m so, so sorry!” The taxi driver lowered his head. “Now’s not the time for this, Honey. I’ve already had a long day today. The three of us are gonna have a loooong talk as soon as I drop my latest clients off at their destination.” “Hey, bro? About your clients...” The brother suddenly spoke out in terror. The taxi driver turned back to the parked carriage ready to deliver his customers to their destination. But when he saw the carriage, it, along with its two occupants, had started to roll back all on its own. He froze when he realized that in the insanity of the past few minutes, he forgot one important detail. The street they were on was on an uphill slope. And he never set the carriage’s parking brake. The driver, his wife, and his brother could only look in horror as the carriage rolled towards the harbor. The heard Pinkie and Applejacks screams of terror as the taxi carriage reached the bottom of the slope, crashed through one of the harbor’s safety barrier, and landed right into the murky Manehattan waters. It was at that very moment a clipboard-toting unicorn mare came across the scene and went up to the taxi driver. “Excuse me, sir? Would you like to take a quick survey?” she asked with cheerful ignorance. The taxi driver sighed. His long, impossible day just got even longer. ~~~~ Luna’s moon had begun to rise over the horizon when the Oranges finally realized that their expected visitors still had not shown up. Applejack’s Aunt looked at the grandiose grandfather clock in their foyer in confusion. “Weren’t Applejack and her friend supposed to be here four hours ago?” she asked. Uncle Orange simply shrugged. “You know this city, dearest. Any number of things could have delayed them. I’m sure they’ll be around shortly.” Aunt Orange continued to worry for a few extra minutes when their doorbell rang. She let out a sigh of relief. “That must be them now!” She trotted over to the front door, opened it, and froze in surprised shock. Standing in front of her were a very, VERY angry Pinkie Pie and Applejack, both soaking wet, covered in seaweed and random scraps of litter and Celestia knows what that had found its way to the harbor, and both emitting a foul odor that nopony would want to guess where it originated from. Aunt Orange was able to get over her initial shock of the state of the two house to speak. “What in heavens happened to you two?” “DON’T! ASK!” Pinkie and Applejack answered in unison. > Day Eight > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “We apologize for this delay,” the train conductor announced to the passengers on the train. “Due to the sudden appearance of a herd of sheep on the track ahead of us, we’ve been forced to stop. We’ll keep you advised when we will expect to be moving again.” The passengers in the carriage groaned, including one pink earth pony who slammed her face on her snack tray in complete frustration, nearly knocking her precious chocolate ice cream sundae to the floor in the process. “I give up,” Pinkie sighed. No matter where she went, no matter what she did, things kept getting worse.Last week at work had been bad, and her getaway trip to Manehattan had been even worse, so much so that she chose to return to Ponyville early while Applejack finished her business in the city. She just wanted to go home right now, but now a flock of sheep decided to get in her way. While she continued to wait, she began to realize that with Sugarcube Corner being closed yesterday, the store would be backed up with orders. What was worse was the delay was taking up valuable time she could have been spending in the store helping the Cakes get back on track. On top of that, Pinkie was sure that even when she finally made it back to Sugarcube Corner, there would be even more crazy customers just waiting to greet her when she got back to work. With a heavy sigh, she took a few bites of her chocolate sundae she bought back at the Manehattan station. She didn’t have the energy to handle things right now. Her sullen attitude was noticed by the chubby white stallion sitting right next to her. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he asked Pinkie, adjusting his thick-rimmed glasses, “You seem upset. Is everything all right?” Pinkie simply sighed. “No. I’ve had a bad week last week, and an even worse day yesterday. And now thanks to this delay I’m going to miss helping out for the morning rush and… I’m not really feeling up to it.” “Sounds like you need a pick me up,” the stallion replied, patting Pinkie on her back. “Luckily for you, I know a little bit about motivation!” “You know about motivation?” Pinkie asked. “Yessir! Motivation is my middle name!” The stallion smiled, “I’m a motivational speaker, and do my best to spread motivation to anypony who needs it. Even if I was divorced three times, lost custody of all my worldly possessions except my lamp, my bathrobe, and my paddle-ball, and now live in a run-down cart by the river,” his tone became harsh as he recounted his plight. Pinkie cringed a bit. “That’s… not really motivational.” “I KNOW, RIGHT?!?” the stallion shouted in Pinkie’s now-frightened face, “You should get motivated so you don’t end up like me! Now, what do want to be when you grow up, lady?” “Uh… I kinda already am grown up.” Pinkie slowly answered. “Well whoop-de-FRICKING-DO!!!” the stallion sneered, “I bet you’re all proud of yourself, being all grown up, having life rear its ugly head and just crush you and crush you until it decides to eat you up whole, and spit out your pathetic bones right into a run-down cart down by the river!” The stallion got into Pinkie’s face. “Do you even know what it’s like to have EVERY SINGLE DREAM AND PASSION of yours snuffed out before you even had the chance to prove yourself? Do you? DO YOU?!?” Pinkie shrunk back in fear at the stallion’s question. She remained silent as the stallion continued his rant. “If you don’t turn things around, life will get you. Oh, you may think you’re all fine right now, but when you least expect it, WHAM!!!” With a sudden burst of energy, he slammed his hoof onto Pinkie’s snack tray, shattering it and its snacks into tiny shards and pieces that tumbled to the floor. “Ugh, somepony’s gonna have to clean that up later,” the stallion muttered to himself. He turned back to Pinkie. “So, are you motivated, yet?” “I’m good!” Pinkie lied. The stallion smiled. “Another job well done. Now it’s your turn to motivate me!” “Wait, what?” “I need motivation too! I’m tired living in a run-down cart down by the river!” Pinkie slowly looked down at the remains of her treat on the floor. “….You can have the rest of my chocolate ice cream sundae…” “YES!!!” The stallion went to the floor and began to lick the remnants of the sundae off the floor and into his mouth. “MOTIVATION! SWEET, SWEET MOTIVATION!” Pinkie backed away slowly from the stallion and quickly asked the conductor if she could be reseated. ~~~~ By the time the early morning express finally arrived back in Ponyville, it was already lunchtime. Pinkie quickly made her way from the station, away from whatever was up with that motivation pony and headed back towards Sugarcube Corner. Just as she expected, the store was right in the middle of its lunch rush. What surprised her was the line had stretched out the door and down the street. She had been expecting a backup, but even she was surprised to see how long the line was. Pinkie snuck her way towards the back of the building and entered through the kitchen door where she saw Mrs. Cake dashing back and forth across the kitchen desperately trying to fill all the orders as they came in. “Mrs. Cake! I’m back!” Pinkie shouted. “Pinkie!” Mrs. Cake shouted, overjoyed that help had miraculously arrived. “Welcome back! How was your trip?” Pinkie’s eye twitched. “Don’t bring it up ever again,” she warned in a low voice. Mrs. Cake backed away a bit from Pinkie’s sudden dark expression. “How about I catch you up on the day so far, instead?” The older mare then began to fill Pinkie in on what she missed while she was out. With the store closed yesterday, several ponies came in first thing today to place requests for parties and other receptions. In fact, there were so many requests that the store’s schedule had been completely booked for this week and the week after that! To make matters worse, Pumpkin and Pound Cake were due for a doctor’s checkup later today, which will only help in delaying their already backed up schedule even farther. The sheer amount of orders on top of the store’s regular activity at the front was enough to make Pinkie’s head spin. It was going to be a while before she could fully relax from the sheer insanity she had experienced over the past few days. It wasn't going to be easy, but the Cakes really needed help right now, and that was the only thing that mattered. With that thought, Pinkie went over to the front store counter to relieve the overwhelmed Mr. Cake. It took Pinkie a few seconds to get settled back behind her counter before she took the next customer. “Hello sir! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner. How may I help you?” “I’ll have 15 plain glazed donuts,” the customer ordered. “That’ll be 15 bits.” The customer reached over into his saddlebag and placed five bits on the counter. “Excuse me, sir? That’s only five bits. You’re still 10 bits short,” Pinkie explained. “No, I’m not,” the customer smirked. “I gave you fifteen bits.” Pinkie shook her head. “No, you didn’t. These are five one-bit coins.” She pointed to the five coins on the counter. “Actually, these coins are 20 years old now,” the customer explained. “And thanks to the rate of inflation, one bit then is worth 3 bits now. Therefore, these five 20-year-old coins are three bits each,” he smiled smugly. Pinkie frowned for a few seconds, before giving off a smug smile of her own. “Ok, if we’re going by the money standards of 20 years ago, that’s what we’ll do!” She grabbed a calculator from under the counter and began to press a few buttons. “So if one bit back then is worth three bits now, then you owe….45 twenty-year-old bits!” Pinkie smiled innocently. The customer blinked. “What?” “If you’re using money from twenty years ago, then you need 45 bits today for the order that was worth 15 bits twenty years ago.” Pinkie explained. The customer’s smug smile had melted away into a groan of frustration. “On second thought… I’ll just stick with the original price.” ~~~~ Sometime later, a snobbish looking unicorn took a quick glance at her watch while watching Pinkie frantically make her strawberry milkshake. She had placed her order several minutes ago and was still waiting for her drink. “Could you hurry it up a bit?” the customer grumbled. “I’m in a big hurry!” “I’m sorry ma’am, but we’re backed up right now,” Pinkie apologized. “Please be patient with us. We’re going as fast as I can, ma’am.” She pointed over to Mr. and Mrs. Cake dashing back and forth from the kitchen to deliver orders to the right customers. “Hmmph. Another worthless excuse,” the businessmare scoffed. “Don’t you even know how to do your job?” An older stallion, waiting for his daffodil sandwich to come out of the kitchen, overheard the rant and decided to cut in. “Come on. These fine folks are doing their best. Leave them alone.” “Don’t tell me what to do!” the customer snapped in the elder stallion’s face. “Do you know who I am? I’m the new Senior Accounts Manager at Bank of Equestria!” She emphasized her statement by producing a freshly-printed business card from her pocket. The stallion arched an eyebrow as he inspected the card. “You work for Bank of Equestria? I find that interesting.” The customer groaned. “Listen, sir! I’m a very important pony and my time is valuable. I’m not going to waste it on a pathetic whelp like you.” “You might want to reconsider what you just called me,” the stallion warned. “Why should I?” Shaking his head to himself, the stallion produced a business card of his own, one looking remarkably similar to the one the businessmare produced seconds ago. She took one look at the card and froze in horror after she read the stallion’s title. “I’m the Senior Accounts EXECUTIVE at Bank of Equestria,” he explained. “In other words, I’m your new boss.” ~~~~ The lunch rush passed, and the front of the store settled back into calm once again, even though Mr. and Mrs. Cake was still hard at work in the back working off the store’s order backlog. Pinkie took a moment to breathe now that the storefront was no longer busy. The moment, however, was interrupted by a familiar wall-eyed grey pegasus entering the store, stopwatch in her forehoof. “90 seconds! GO!” Derpy suddenly announced, activating the stopwatch in the process. Pinkie quickly shook off her surprise at Derpy’s entrance and greeted her. “Hello, Derpy! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie smiled. “It’s nice to see you today, Pinkie,” Derpy smiled back. “How’s it going?” “Just getting through the day as best I can,” Pinkie shrugged. “Kick that bad attitude to the curb! You can do it!” Derpy cheered. “Love that motivation! Should I even ask what I can get for you today, Derpy?” “Muffins!!!!” “No surprise there. What kind of muffins you want?” “Oh, I don’t know. What do you suggest, Pinkie?” “Perhaps you’d like to try our new Cinnamon Sugar Muffin?” “Quite the suggestion you have there. Is it good?” “Really good, Derpy! Mr. Cake came up with the recipe himself.” “Sounds like a winner, Pinkie. I’ll take two!” “Two Cinnamon Sugar Muffins coming right up!” “Unique muffins this time around if I do say so myself.” “Very unique! We’re trying out new things in the kitchen.” “Wow!I can’t wait to try them all!” “You won’t believe what kind of flavors we’re trying out.” “Zucchini?” “Actually… I don’t think we’ve even thought about using Zucchini.” “Better start coming up with that one, then!” “Can’t quite think of a good recipe right now.” “Don’t worry about it, Pinkie. I can help. I’m a bit of a muffin fanatic.” “Everypony knows that.” “Fine, but I still want to help.” “Great! I’ll let the Cakes know, Derpy.” “Happy to help! And…. Time!” Derpy stopped the timer. “How’d we do?” Pinkie asked anxiously. “73 seconds!!!” Derpy smiled. “YES! New record!” Pinkie cheered. “You were right, Derpy. This 90-second alphabet game is really fun!” “It is! But… I got confused a bit back there,” Derpy admitted. “I started with H, right? Shouldn’t you have had the last line?” “Wait, let me think,” Pinkie replayed the last sequence of events in her head. “We started with ‘H’. I said ‘Hello’, you said ‘It’s nice to see you’ that was ‘I’…” Her face fell in shock as she finally realized the error. “Oh no! We forgot the letter X again!” “Not again!” Derpy groaned. “That’s the fourth time this month!” “We’ll try again next time,” Pinkie smiled.“I’m going to start on the letter ‘I’, right?” “You got it, Pinkie! But… Can I get my muffin now, please? I'm really hungry.” Derpy asked. “Oh yeah! I forgot! Sorry!” Pinkie smiled innocently. ~~~~ The sun began to make its hours-long trek from the very height of the sky to the western horizon. It was right around this time that the afterschool crowd came in. Pinkie was preparing the popular ice cream flavors for the foals when two earth fillies entered the store. “Hi Apple Bloom! Hi Diamond Tiara!” Pinkie smiled as she waved hello to the two newfound friends. “What can I get for you today?” Before Apple Bloom could make her order, Diamond Tiara placed a few bits on the counter. “We’ll have two rocky road ice creams, on me.” “You don’t have to do that, Diamond,” Apple Bloom assured her. “Please, Apple Bloom. Let me do this,” Diamond Tiara insisted. “I’m still barely 30% of the way through making up for the way I acted to you, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.” Apple Bloom nodded in agreement. “You were pretty bad back then,” "I know," The sour memories of her bullying past made Diamond Tiara sigh. “I can’t believe how stupid I was back then. Mother kept on telling me that was the way proper ponies like me should treat those who weren’t at our level. How was I supposed to know better?” “Ah’m just glad you’re not mean anymore, Diamond,” Apple Bloom smiled. “Me too! Too bad I still have to deal with mother, though.” Suddenly a familiar haughty voice erupted from just outside the storefront. “Diamond Dazzle Tiara!” The three ponies cringed as Diamond’s mother, Spoiled Rich, thundered her way rather harshly into the store. “Speaking of which, here comes Ponyville’s Mother of the Year right now,” Pinkie muttered under her breath. Spoiled Rich went up to her daughter, brazenly shoving Apple Bloom out of her way in the process. “There you are!Why didn’t you come straight home after school?” she frowned. In the past, Diamond Tiara winced in fear whenever her mother took this harsh tone on her. Nowadays, she found herself groaning in frustration. She was getting tired of dealing with her mother. “I was just treating Apple Bloom to some ice cream.It’s not a big deal,” she simply explained. Spoiled Rich’s jaw dropped. “You were wasting your money… our family’s money… on that THING?” “Ah have a name, you know!” Apple Bloom shouted. Spoiled Rich ignored her. “Enough of this foolishness. Tell this ‘Blank Flank’ goodbye, right now!” Diamond Tiara facehoofed. “She got her cutie mark last year, for crying out loud!” Spoiled Rich scoffed. “Hardly relevant. Besides, you’re missing the point. Ponies like us don’t yield to lesser ponies, EVER! Our status is a symbol that must be recognized and acknowledged throughout all of Equestria!” Unbeknownst to Spoiled Rich, Diamond Tiara silently mouthed her mother’s spiel as she said it for what seemed like the thousandth time. “Believe me, mother. I know,” the pink filly groaned. “Do you, really?” Spoiled rich asked. “If you do, then you’d better give that rube what she deserves.” Diamond Tiara opened her mouth to rebut her mother request but fell silent for a few seconds. Seemingly resigned to the situation, she just sighed. “You know what, mother? You’re right. I think it is time Apple Bloom gets what she deserves.” Spoiled Riched smiled a small, malicious smile. “That’s my girl,” Apple Bloom backed away a bit as Diamond Tiara closed in on her. “Apple Bloom?” Diamond Tiara asked. Apple Bloom gulped.“Yes, Diamond?” The farm filly prepared herself for whatever nasty spats might have been coming her way. What she, nor anypony else watching was expecting was Diamond Tiara gently taking hold of her forelegs, a loving smile painted on her face. “Will you be my very special somepony?” Diamond Tiara warmly asked the farm filly. “Oh... my…” Apple Bloom gasped. She promptly held Diamond Tiara in a loving embrace. “YES, DIAMOND TIARA! YES!!!” Overjoyed, the two fillies held on to their embrace before lovingly rubbing their muzzles together. The moment caused Pinkie Pie’s jaw to drop completely to the floor. Meanwhile, the smug smile on Spoiled Rich’s face quickly melted away into pure abject horror. Once the two separated, Apple Bloom went up to the mortified Rich. “Looks like I’ll be hanging around more often, mother,” she grinned. Spoiled Rich screamed in terror before running out of the store at full gallop. The two fillies watched the fleeing pony for a few seconds, then they both fell on to the floor, laughing long and hard. “Did ya see the look on her face?” Apple Bloom laughed. “Especially when you called her mother!” Diamond Tiara snorted in delight. “She’ll never forget that one!” After a few more seconds of raucous laughter, the two shared a congratulatory hoof bump. “Ah guess it’s safe to say mission accomplished, right?” Apple Bloom asked. “Misson Accomplished!” Diamond Tiara nodded. “Thanks for helping me get back at her, Apple Bloom.” “It was worth it to see that look on Spoiled Rich’s face,” Apple Bloom grinned. “Wait,” Pinkie Pie spoke up, “Was all that just a prank?” “Of course!” Diamond Tiara nodded. “And… you two aren’t...” Pinkie couldn’t quite find the words to finish her sentence. Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nope! We just did that to scare up Spoiled Rich a bit. It was Diamond Tiara’s idea. Ya gotta admit it was funny to see Spoiled Rich unnerved like that,” Despite herself, Pinkie giggled “It was funny now that I think about it, but that was still just mean of you, Diamond.” Diamond Tiara shrugged and smiled an innocent smile. “Old habits die hard, I guess.” ~~~~ “Hello, sir! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?” Pinkie greeted the yellow-maned green unicorn stallion “I’d like to order a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake and a chocolate cupcake to go, please?” he ordered. Pinkie took a moment to register what the customer said.“Ok… so four chocolate cupcakes,” she confirmed. The customer shook his head. “I didn’t order that! I said I want a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake.” “So… four chocolate cupcakes.” Pinkie tried to confirm again. The customer groaned in frustration. “Ugh, why is this so hard for you to understand? One more time. I want a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake.” Pinkie had no idea how her version differed from the customer’s version, but she just chose to go along with whatever the stallion had in mind. “So you want a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake.” “Yes! Finally!” the customer sighed in relief. “Why was that so hard to understand?” A short second before she started explaining herself, Pinkie decided to shrug this one away before she thought about it too hard. ~~~~ Around late afternoon, the Cakes made the decision to close up the store a couple of hours early to take care of the twins’ doctor’s appointment, as well as to help take care of some of the backlog of orders the store had to fulfill. While Pinkie began to store all the treats for the night, Mr. and Mrs. Cake emerged from upstairs carrying the twins with them. “All right, Pinkie. This trip to the doctors should take us about an hour if we’re lucky,” Mrs. Cake said. “Could you be a dear and finish the frosting for Matilda’s order? She’ll be here first thing tomorrow to pick it up.” “Will do, Mrs. Cake! By the way, how are we doing with Minuette’s custard party? She swung by this afternoon and asked about it.” Mr. Cake groaned. “We’re cutting it close. But if Octavia’s get together goes longer than expected, we won’t have enough for Minuette’s party.” Pinkie sighed. “I was afraid of that. I even tried to get her to change the date, but she just wouldn’t have it.” While the three continued to discuss all the upcoming orders, the store’s front door creaked open just enough to let a voice carry through. “Hello, Pinkie? Are you still open?” Pinkie instantly recognized the voice belonging to one of Ponyville’s newest residents, Starlight Glimmer. “You just caught us in the nick of time, Starlight,” Pinkie said. “We were just getting ready to close up for the day.” “I was wondering why Sugarcube Corner was shutting down early today. What’s going on, Pinkie?” “For starters, we’re completely overbooked on parties right now,” Pinkie told Starlight. “You are?” Starlight said. “Because I was going to ask your help to throw a party for Sunburst’s visit next week.” Mrs. Cake grimaced at the request. “I’m sorry Starlight, but we just don’t have time. In fact, we barely have time for all the orders we need to fill right now. The next opening we have available for a party won’t be until the Tuesday three weeks from now!” She emphasized her statement by pointing at the giant stack of orders she had placed on the table. Although disappointed that her request did not go as planned, Starlight was surprised at the number of orders yet to be filled. “Are you guys normally that busy around here?” Starlight asked. “It happens from time to time, but that’s just the way things are when you have responsibilities like we do,” Mr. Cake said. Starlight took a good look at Sugarcube Corner, the big stack of pending orders, and the Cake Twins. An idea started to form in her mind. Pinkie noticed the unicorn getting lost in her thoughts. “Starlight? What are you thinking?” “You know…” Starlight grinned, “I think I know a way that can give you more time to get things under control.” Mrs. Cake chuckled. “It would be nice if somehow we were given more time for all these orders.” “Then leave it to me!” Starlight said proudly. “More time, coming right up!” Without saying another word, Starlight shut her eyes to concentrate. Magical energy originating from her horn began crackling in the air. “Starlight? Are you sure this is a good ide...” Pinkie tried to ask. The question came too late. Starlight unleashed her spell causing a bright light to flash throughout Sugarcube Corner. When the light faded away, Starlight enthusiastically opened her eyes to see the results of her good deed. But when she took a gander at the results of her spell, her excited expression collapsed into horrified shock. “Uh oh…” Starlight cringed. ~~~~ It was a rather quiet day at the Castle of Friendship, and Twilight Sparkle was enjoying every second of it. The biggest crisis she had to deal with so far that day was a small tear that appeared in Spike’s picture of Rarity that sent the baby dragon panicking to repair it with no less than 20 rolls of tape. Beyond that, Twilight took the opportunity to indulge in one of her favorite hobbies, sorting the books in the reading room. She had begun to put away the ‘J’ books when an anxious Starlight Glimmer entered. Her anxiety kicked into overdrive the second she saw her teacher. “Twilight! Hi!” Starlight laughed nervously, “How’s everything going today?” “Thankfully calm,” Twilight replied. “How was your day, Starlight?” “Oh, you know. Same old, same old!” Starlight let out a wooden, unnatural laugh. “Although… I may have made a slight error at Sugarcube Corner just now,” her innocent grin grew tighter. Twilight groaned. “What did you do this time?” Starlight motioned Twilight to follow her down the hallway towards her bedroom. As they walked, she took a deep breath and began to explain. “So… remember you specifically told me never to use spells I was learning on other ponies?” “Yes…” Twilight frowned. “Well, Sugarcube Corner was completely backed up and the Cakes said it would have been nice if they had more time. So I remembered this time spell that I thought could have helped but it turns out…” Twilight connected the remaining dots in the story. “You used a time spell on Pinkie?!?” she screamed. Starlight cringed at the sudden tone but nodded slowly. “And the Cakes… and the Twins.” “What happened, Starlight? Where are they?” “In my room,” Starlight pointed out. As the pair closed in on the door that led to Starlight’s bedroom, Twilight began to notice the tell-tale signs of crying foals coming from inside. The purple princess quickened her pace in front of Starlight and opened the bedroom door herself. Inside the room, a brown-maned pegasus stallion and an orange-maned unicorn mare were scrambling to take care of three frighteningly familiar newborn foals, one light blue, one light orange, and one bright pink.The stallion had the pink foal on a nearby table, in a failing attempt to change the foal’s diaper. The mare meanwhile was trying to rock the light blue foal to sleep in her hooves while at the same time feeding the orange foal using her magic. “Hold still, Pinkie. You still need a fresh diaper.” the stallion told the pink foal as he struggled with the garment. After another failed attempt, he turned to his twin sister. “Pumpkin? How do these stupid diapers work? I can’t get this thing on at all!” “You were wearing one 30 minutes ago, Pound! Figure it out!” the mare shouted back. She then turned her attention to the two foals in her care. “Hold on, mom. Hold on, dad. Somepony will fix this! I hope…” Twilight turned a furious glare at Starlight. “Hey! At least I didn’t cause Equestria to turn into a barren wasteland this time, right? Heh heh…” Starlight meekly offered. > Day Nine > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spike was getting restless.  From the position of the moon, he can tell it was well past midnight, and there was still no sign of the two royal sisters.  He had sent a letter hours ago asking for some help fixing Starlight Glimmer’s magical mishap which turned Pinkie Pie & Mr. and Mrs. Cake into babies and Pumpkin and Pound Cake into grown-ups.  He continued to pace back and forth right by the Friendship Castle’s front door. Thankfully, the sounds of non-stop crying from the new babies had died down moments earlier. Spike figured that Twilight and the grown-up twins were finally successful in getting the babies to sleep.  That guess was confirmed when he saw a worn out Pound and Pumpkin slowly heading his way. “They’re finally asleep,” Pound said, not bothering to straighten his mane. Spike slumped against a nearby wall and sighed.  “Thank goodness for that. So… How are you two holding up?  You know, considering….” “We’re fine, all things considered,” Pumpkin smiled.  “I’m just more worried about mom, dad, and Pinkie.” “Me too,” Spike added.  “But you two got something cool out of this.  How does it feel to be a grown-up, anyway?” Spike asked.  “I bet it feels awesome!” Pumpkin shrugged.  “Well, it’s not we have much to compare this to.  Yesterday, I was just worried about finding my chew toy.” “And we may be big, but we don’t have our cutie marks,” Pound continued, making sure to point out their blank flanks to Spike.  “But still, being big is pretty cool! We can help out mom, dad, and Pinkie all we want now.” Pound smiled, testing out his wings in the process. “I bet the Cakes would love that help,” Spike said.  “Too bad you won’t be able to once everypony gets turned back to normal.” The thought made the two twins pause.  If everything did get fixed, they would be foals once again, unable to help their family.  Even in their infant state, they could tell that the Cakes and Pinkie had been stressed out lately, making them wonder if there was a way to make them feel better.  Now they had the unique opportunity to directly change things, only for things to return to the way it was before they had the chance. Maybe. Just maybe… Any further thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock at the castle doors. “Finally!”  Spike sighed.  He opened the door to reveal the dual regal forms of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, both of whom carrying a saddlebag full of old books.  Spike started to kneel down to show respect to the royal visitors. “No need for formalities right now, Spike,” Celestia said to the small dragon.  “We gathered all the information from the Canterlot Library’s restricted area. There should be enough here to correct everything.  How are Pinkie and the Cakes doing?” Pumpkin stepped forward.  “They’re asleep right now,” she replied. Luna let out a small gasp as she regarded the two ponies in the hall.  “Oh my. So you must be Pound and Pumpkin.” “Don’t worry, little ones,” Celestia told the twins.  “With Twilight’s help, we will change you back to normal soon enough.  Come along, everyone.” With that, Spike, Celestia, and Luna hurried down the hallways of the castle to meet up with Twilight.  Pumpkin and Pound Cake shared a worried glance before following them. SEVERAL HOURS LATER... Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all worked through the night pouring over all of the books and fine-tuning a restoration spell for the three ponies-turned-foals.  It was nearly time for Celestia to raise the sun by the time the spell was ready and set to be cast. Spike and Twilight carefully placed the sleeping babies on the spell matrix she drew on the floor of the castle’s library.  Celestia and Luna stood on opposite sides of the display, ready to help Twilight fire the magic. Pumpkin and Pound, meanwhile, stood by the doorway, looking on nervously. “I sure hope this works,” Twilight gulped. “At best, it will be a full reversion and Pinkie, Mr. Cake, and Mrs. Cake will be back to normal, no worse for wear,” Luna said. “And at worse?” Pound asked. “Granny Smith will have three new members in her crochet club,” Spike half-joked. “And that is if we’re lucky.” Twilight shuddered at the implications of that thought. “It will take the complete concentration of all three of us to make sure this spell is reversed correctly,” Celestia told everyone.  “We can’t stress over what may or may not go wrong.” “Then let us not waste any more time,” Luna announced. Twilight nodded, which was Spike's cue to join Pumpkin and Pound to take cover from the upcoming magical maelstrom.  Soon, the three Alicorns set themselves in position around the three babies. “On my mark,” Twilight said.  Everything needed to be timed just right.  “Three. Two. One. NOW!” At once, three blinding currents of magical energy fired from the horns of Twilight, Celestia, and Luna straight to Pinkie, Mr. and Mrs. Cake.  Pumpkin, Pound, and Spike turned away from the bright magic to protect their eyes from going blind. The spell took fifteen long agonizing seconds to complete, leaving the three princesses huffing out of magical exhaustion.   When the magic finally died down, everyone in the room managed to get a good look at what was the eye of the magical storm. There, laying down fast asleep on the floor, was Pinkie, Mr. Cake, and Mrs. Cake, all returned to their normal ages, albeit still wearing grown-up versions of the diapers they had worn minutes ago as babies. Pumpkin and Pound started to rush over to hug them, but Spike held them back for a moment to let Twilight ensure that there were no adverse effects of the spell.  Twilight tentatively poked Pinkie’s side, trying to wake her as gently as possible. It didn’t take long for Pinkie to slowly stir awake.   “Twilight?” she asked groggily. Twilight smiled.  “Pinkie! Are you ok?” Before Pinkie could answer, she felt something odd on her flank.  When she took notice of the oddity, a different question formed in her head.  “Twilight? Why am I wearing a diaper?” “Well…” Twilight tried to answer but stopped when she saw Mr. and Mrs. Cake stir awake.  Almost immediately, they noticed the odd garment both of them were sporting. “Sweetie?  We didn’t drink Applejack’s special Zap Apple Cider again, did we?”  Mr. Cake asked. “I don’t think so,” Mrs. Cake answered, trying to shake the thing off her. “I think they’re back to normal!” Twilight giggled. Without any prompting, Pumpkin and Pound Cake rushed over to hug their parents and their favorite babysitter. “You’re ok!  You guys are really ok!” Pound shouted. Pumpkin wiped a tear from her eyes.  “We were so worried about you!” The three ponies were stumped as to why two random ponies would be hugging them like this. “Excuse me?  Have we met before?” Pinkie asked. “Oh, I forgot.  You probably don’t recognize us like this, do you?” Pumpkin said. “I got an idea!”  Pound shouted. He then flew out of the library in a flash.  A few seconds later, he came back carrying a sack of flour in his hooves.  “Hope you don’t mind me doing this, but this should jog your memory.” Pound tore open the sack of flour and unceremoniously dumped its contents right on Pinkie’s head, turning the pink party pony bright white. “HEY!  What the..?”  Pinkie was ready to explode in anger at the stallion, but then she noticed this stallion’s brown mane looked a bit familiar.  As did the mare’s orange mane. As did the stallion’s statement that the flour would jog her memory. But why would flour on her head jog her memory?  The only times she did this anyway was around… Pinkie gasped.  “PUMPKIN?!? PONUD?!?” The twins nodded sheepishly. It took Mr. and Mrs. Cake a full two minutes before they were able to take their eyes off their grown foals long enough to form semi-coherent words. “Oh my…” Mr. Cake uttered. “My babies.  Y-You… you… you’re…” Mrs. Cake stammered. “All grown up, we know,” Pumpkin finished. “Although, we’re technically not just yet,” Pound added.  “We still don’t have a cutie mark.” The twins turned to show their blank flanks to the others. “Twilight?  What’s going on?” Pinkie asked. “Long story short, Starlight cast a time spell that turned you and the Cakes into babies and the twins into grown-ups,” Twilight explained. “She did WHAT?!?” Pinkie shouted. “Don’t bother getting worked up about Starlight, though” Twilight continued.  “I’ve made sure she’s properly reprimanded.” **MEANWHILE** “I will not cast time spells on my friends without permission,” Starlight said out loud, finishing copying another line of the phrase down on a scroll of paper.   Starlight wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and sighed. “500 down. 4,500 to go.” **** “The good news is that Celestia, Luna, and I came up with a counterspell to turn everypony back to normal,” Twilight finished explaining.  “And now that we’ve got you three back, we can change the twins back to normal right now!” “Yeah, about that…” Pound spoke up.  “Twilight? Is it possible to… you know… not change Pumpkin and me back just yet?” “What?  But don’t you want to be yourselves again?  I mean, you just skipped over your entire foalhood!” Mr. Cake said. “We know,” Pound replied.  “And trust us, we want to change back as soon as we can.  But…” Pumpkin noticed that Pound had trouble explaining, so she took over for him.  “Well, Pound and I were talking while you were trying to fix all this and we realized something.” She turned to address her parents.  “Mom? Dad? The store is still backed up with a ton of orders, right?” The Cakes and Pinkie froze in terror. “Oh no!!  Matilda’s cake!!!”  Pinkie screamed. “When was she picking it up?” “Today!”  Mr. Cake replied In alarm.  “And we still haven’t started with Octavia’s party!  And Minuette’s party! And Princess Luna’s surprise party!” “Wait.  Somepony’s throwing me a surprise party?” Luna asked. “Look what you did, honey!  You ruined the surprise!” Mrs. Cake screamed. Pound let out a loud whistle to calm everypony down.  “I think that proves our point,” he said. “Mom? Dad?  Pinkie? We’d like to help you try to get things back on track at the store before we change back to normal.” “But…  you’re still just my precious little foals,” Mrs. Cake said, still barely able to register the sight of her grown-up babies. The two twins went over and gave their parents a reassuring hug. “But we’re big now.  And we want to help you.  At least for a few days,” Pound said. “Then you can change us back and we’ll be your precious little foals again,” Pumpkin added “No matter how old you are, you’ll always be our precious little foals,” Mr. Cake smiled. Mrs. Cake couldn’t help stop the tears forming in her eyes.  “My little babies. All grown up.” “They sure are,” Pinkie said.  “Although technically, they’re grown up now, but they need to get grown down so they can actually grow up even though they are already grown up now and…” she trailed off as a headache started to form in her head from figuring out the details of the scenario.  “Messing with time makes my brain hurt.” Celestia nodded in agreement.  “That makes two of us. At the very least, it looks like our job here is done.”  She took a quick look at the clock on the wall. It was 6:54 am and sunrise was scheduled at 7:24 on the dot.  “If you’ll excuse us, we must return to Canterlot. I have to raise the sun in exactly 30 minutes.” Luna turned to follow her sister out the room, taking a quick glance at Twilight’s wall calendar.  A horrible realization hit her when she saw what day it was. “Tia?” Luna asked slowly, “What time is the sun supposed to rise today?” “7:24 am,” Celestia replied taking another look at the clock.  “Why do you ask.” Luna quickly grabbed the calendar from off the wall and pointed to the day’s date.  “Today is Daylight Savings Time!” Celestia froze.  “What?” she asked slowly. Twilight gasped.  “Oh yeah! I forgot to change my clock trying to fix this age reversal thing.  Hold on a sec…” Twilight fired up her horn towards the clock and moved the hour hand forward one hour.  “There! The correct time is 7:54…” Twilight trailed off as she realized what had happened. “Sunrise is at 7:24,” Celestia muttered. “Meaning the sun should have risen 30 minutes ago!” Luna shouted. Celestia’s breath quickly got shorter as reality sunk in.  She looked out at the clock, then to the calendar, and then out the window and the still darkened skies above Ponyville.  “No. It can’t be… I’m… I’m…” Her words got caught in her throat as she began to hyperventilate. “I’m… TARDY!!!” Celestia wailed. Everypony in the room could only watch as Celestia began to run around the room in a panic.  “How can I let this happen? I never do this. I’m never tardy! What are we going to do now?  We’re doomed! Equestria will fall into eternal chaos! Breakfast is ruined forever! FOREVER!!!!”  The sun princess ran out the door in her panicked state. “Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad about the Smarty Pants thing,” Twilight said. Luna groaned.  “Looks like I need to console Tia… again…”  She turned to address Pinkie Pie and the Cakes.  “I understand Sugarcube Corner may be busy, but for the sake of Equestria and its citizens, could you please deliver a five-layer vanilla hazelnut crunch cheesecake to Tia’s bedroom ASAP?” “Done!” The five Sugarcube Corner ponies said in unison. ~~~~ Despite being behind schedule by about a half hour, the sun did rise to usher in a new day.  The streets of Ponyville was alive with ponies getting ready to start their routines. However, a slightly different routine was occurring at Sugarcube Corner.  With the twins temporarily grown-up, Sugarcube Corner’s workforce grew from three to five. Conversations made during the walk back from the castle to the store was centered around figuring out exactly how Pound and Pumpkin would help out the Cakes and Pinkie.  The decision was made where Pound would help out in the kitchen, while Pumpkin would help Pinkie at the register, handing out orders to the customers after Pinkie rang them up. With the extra set of hooves, Sugarcube Corner opened rather smoothly, a refreshing change of pace as far as Pinkie was concerned. “Here are your bagels, sir.  Have a nice day!” Pumpkin smiled at the latest customer, watching him exit.  She took a moment to readjust her specialized work apron, which covered her blank flank.  “Wow! This is easier than I thought!” she told Pinkie. “Even I have to admit today is going great so far,” Pinkie shrugged.  “Things have been getting kinda weird around here lately.” “How weird were things around here?” Pumpkin asked. “I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Pinkie answered. “I am older,” Pumpkin pointed out. Before Pinkie could offer a rebuttal, Pound emerged from the kitchen.  “Hey, Pinkie? How many eggs go into your secret lemon custard recipe? We couldn’t find it in the cookbook” he asked the pink pony. “That’s because it’s a secret, silly!” Pinkie laughed.  “I’ll take care of that for you after I’m done at the front.” An idea popped into Pumpkin’s head.  “Why don’t you go and take care of it right now?  I can look after the register for a bit.” Pinkie hesitated for a second before replying.  “Are you sure you can handle this by yourself, Pumpkin?” “I think I can manage,” Pumpkin smiled.  “Besides, if I need help, I’ll call for you.” “Yeah, but…” Pinkie argued.  “Some of the customers we’ve been getting lately have been kinda….” Pumpkin responded by nudging Pinkie to the kitchen.  “It’ll be ok. I’m a grown up now. I can handle it. Go ahead and help out everypony in the kitchen.  I got this.” Pinkie sighed.  “If you insist, Pumpkin.  But call me if you need anything.” Pinkie followed Pound back to the kitchen, leaving Pumpkin Cake alone by herself.  She couldn’t help giggling a bit. Just yesterday she was a tiny foal. Now she was running the shop on her own.  She really was a big pony now, just like Pinkie. She made this look so easy, and If Pinkie could do it, so could she. The time to revel in the novelty of the situation was cut short by a black-maned golden-coated bussinessmare entering the store. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!  How may I help you?” Pumpkin greeted the customer. “I’d like to order three honey-glazed donuts,” the businessmare ordered. Pumpkin nodded and hit a few buttons on the register.  “Three honey-glazed donuts. That’ll be six bits, please?” “What?!?” The businessmare shouted.  “Six bits for three donuts? That’s outrageous!!” Pumpkin was taken aback, surprised by the sudden outburst.  “But... that’s the price of the donuts, ma’am,” she insisted. The businessmare pounded her front hoof in anger.  “That’s it! I’ve had it! I’m sick of ponies like you taking advantage of me like this!” “B-but… I haven’t…” Pumpkin stammered. The furious businessmare got into Pumpkin’s confused face.  “No! I will not accept that! I demand you fix this right now or else I’ll take this up with the newspapers.  I’ll tell them how YOU are mistreating me! I’ll even go all the way to Princess Celestia herself with this!” “I… I…” Pumpkin tried to speak. The businessmare smirked.  “That’s right. I’ll let all of Equestria know what a horrible place this is.  I will personally make sure this establishment gets shut down forever and it will all be your fault.  What do you think about that?” Silence hung in the air for a few tense seconds as Pumpkin tried to understand the businessmare’s threats.  Pumpkin felt her eyes water. Then the floodgates opened. “WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!  PIIIIIIIINKIEEEEE!!!!” The sudden outburst made the businessmare’s anger fade into confusion.  Seconds after Pumpkin broke down, Pinkie emerged from the kitchen. “What happened out here?” Pinkie asked. “She’s being mean to me!!!” Pumpkin cried, pointing to the businessmare. The businessmare could read Pinkie’s glare.  She didn’t say anything to her, but she was certain she was telling her ‘You just made a grown mare cry.  I hope you're happy.’ Before she dealt with the customer, Pinkie turned her attention back to Pumpkin, handing her a familiar stuffed turtle. “Here you go, Pumpkin.  I’ve got your favorite toy.  Why don’t you go back with the Cakes?  I’ll take care of things here.” Pumpkin nodded, took hold of the toy in her mouth, and began to slowly chew on the toy sadly. “Nom nom nom,” she nibbled. The businessmare quickly placed six bits on the counter and slowly backed her way out of the store. ~~~~ Once Pumpkin managed to calm back down, the rest of the morning ran incredibly smooth.  It was towards the end of the morning period when a dark green, orange maned pegasus stallion entered the store, accompanied by a yellow-coated pegasus mare with a blue and silver striped mane.  As she began to greet the new customers, Pinkie suddenly recognized the two, particularly the stallion. He was the customer from last week who nearly forgot to set up his son’s birthday party, which left him fearful of the wrath of the mare currently standing next to him. “Hey, you two!  Welcome back to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?”  Pinkie smiled. “We’ll take two blueberry muffins and two glasses of orange juice,” the stallion said. “Sure thing!” Pinkie said.  “Just as long as you don’t set off another Code Blue like last week, huh.” “Code blue?”  The stallion’s wife asked suspiciously.  “What is a ‘Code Blue’?” Pinkie saw the stallion quickly shaking his head behind his wife’s back, silently pleading for her not to divulge any embarrassing details from the events of last week’s party emergency. “Well…” Pinkie found herself saying.  “A Code Blue is our special birthday party code.  Your husband spent a lot of time and effort planning that for your son.” “I know,” the wife smiled lovingly.  “But our son was nowhere near as surprised as I was.  I never thought my big stud over here could pull something like that off.” “Well, you know.  I’m just full of surprises,” the stallion laughed nervously. “You know,” the wife continued, “if he was able to pull that off for our son’s birthday, I can only imagine what he has lined up for our anniversary next week.” The stallion froze in horror. “Your anniversary is next week?” Pinkie asked, noticing the color draining from the stallion’s face. “It’s our twentieth anniversary!” the wife smiled.  “I’ve only talked about this for the past seven months now, haven’t I, dear?” “Yes!  Yes, you have!” the stallion laughed forcefully. “Could you believe I kept dropping hints because I was almost certain that this guy would actually forget?” the wife laughed.  “But after what he pulled last week, I just can’t wait to see what he has for an encore.” “Don’t worry, dear,” the stallion said.  “It’ll be the best anniversary ever.” The wife gave her husband a big hug.  “I know it will. I’m so excited that I just can’t wait” With the wife turned away from Pinkie in the midst of the hug, Pinkie quickly scribbled a note on a piece of paper and showed it to the stallion. ‘Code Red?’ the sign read. The stallion quickly nodded. Pinkie made a few extra notes.  There was another party emergency on the horizon for Sugarcube Corner. ~~~~ Lunchtime came and went and Pinkie was pleasantly surprised.  Outside of a couple of issues here and there, the day was going by incredibly well.  Maybe it was the Twins helping out everypony to get Sugarcube Corner back on track, or maybe it was the fact that with one or two exceptions, there was a distinct lack of angry and/or crazy customers today.  Pinkie was beaming. She wished she had more days like today. “All right!  Who’s next, please?” Pinkie shouted. A purple unicorn stallion with a black mane, a large mustache, and wearing a black velvet cape that would make the Great and Powerful Trixie herself jealous, came up to the counter. “Hello again, Pinkie!  It’s me!” the stallion said. Pinkie recognized this strange stallion.  “Wait a minute. Weren’t you that…” “…Weirdo who kept interrupting your sentences?” he interrupted. Pinkie facehoofed.  Here it goes again. “I can’t believe you…” “…Actually came back here!” “I was honestly hoping that I’d…” “… Never see me again?” “Don’t you know…” “…How annoying it is to interrupt everypony?” “Why do you…” “…Keep doing this anyway?” “Is it some kind of a…” “…Weird psychological impulse?” “Or is it just a…” “...Desperate attempt to gain an actual personality?” “What brings you…” “...Back to Sugarcube Corner, anyway? “Do you…” “...Have a huge party I need help to throw?” “Or are you just…” “...Taking personal pleasure by annoying you into insanity.” “You know I can…” “...Have me thrown out at any moment.” “But I guess that won’t work since you’d…” “...Keep showing up anyway out of spite.” Pinkie rolled her eyes and groaned.  “So I guess you’re just gonna…” “…Continue doing this repeating thing, then.” “There must be…” “...Someway that you can get me to stop.” “What if I…” “...Gave me a one-way train ticket to Vanhoover?” “Would you…” “…Actually use it?” “Or would you just…” “...Trade it for some tinfoil and some used chewing gum.” “Ok.  Do I even want to know…” “...Why I’d even want those items?” “Do you…” “...Have an oddly specific hobby?” “Or are you…” “...Trying to find out if I’m pregnant.” A full five seconds of awkward silence followed before Pinkie was able to respond.  “Ok, two things. One…” “…That is not the way to find out if I’m pregnant.” “And two…” “...I’m a stallion!  I can’t get pregnant anyway!” “Don’t you know…” “...Anything about basic biology?” “Did you even…” “...Have a basic biology class at my old school?” “Or maybe you just…” “...Don’t know because I skipped school every day to try to watch Princess Celestia use her bathroom.”  The stallion found himself recoiling at his last statement. “Wow. I kinda wish I…” “...Hadn’t said that?” Pinkie finished. “I think I may still have…” “...One or two things I need you need to figure out?” “I think I’m going to…” “...Go back home now?” “If you’ll need me I’ll be…” “...lying down on the floor of your basement so you can feel like garbage?” “Bingo!” the stallion smiled. “Have a nice day!” Pinkie waved, watching the stallion leave the store. ~~~~ Before Pinkie knew it, the day was beginning to get late.  Thanks to everypony’s efforts, many of the backed up orders got filled and Sugarcube Corner was well on its way to being back on track.  Orders had been flying off the shelves all day, with several more orders to go before the day was completely out. One such order came from Bon Bon, who was just now making her entrance into the store. “Hiya Bon Bon!”  Pinkie waved, placing the order box on the counter.  “Your order is right here, ready to go!” Bon Bon took a look at the package and opened it, revealing a dozen freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. “Mmmmm….” Bon Bon sniffed in the fresh baked goodness.  “These are perfect! Lyra will love this!” “The whole thing is for Lyra?” Bon Bon nodded.  “She’s coming home from Canterlot today, and I wanted to surprise her!” “I forgot to ask.  Why was Lyra in Canterlot anyway?” Pinkie asked. “Apparently there was a super huge event over there yesterday that she needed to go to...” Bon Bon began to explain.  But before she could finish, a rainbow-colored streak zipped into the store, interrupting her. Pinkie had to shake her head.  Rainbow Dash has made quick entrances before, but that was incredibly fast, even for her. “Hi Dashie!   What’s gotten you in a hurry today?” “Only the most awesome news ever!”  Rainbow Dash smiled. She reached into her saddlebag and took out a freshly printed book.  “The new Daring Do book came out today!” Rainbow Dash proudly displayed her copy of the newest book, Daring Do and the Cloudfall Conspiracy, to her friend. Pinkie gasped.  “That came out today?  I’ve been waiting for that one for weeks!”  While she wasn’t as avid a fan like Rainbow, Pinkie still did enjoy the Daring Do books and was anxious to read the latest edition, which was hyped up to a crescendo in the previous stories. While she was going to set aside some time later that week to buy and read the book, Rainbow Dash was apparently set to plow through the entire novel tonight.  “So what do you think is going to happen?” Pinkie asked Rainbow. Rainbow quickly closed Pinkie’s muzzle.  “SHHH!!!! Do NOT say anything! I don’t want any chance of even the smallest spoiler coming out.” Bon Bon laughed.  “Don’t worry about me.  I’m not that much of a Daring Do fan myself.” “And I’m still trying to figure out how that’s possible,” Rainbow shook her head. “Can’t say the same about Lyra, though,” Bon Bon said.  “She's a huge Daring Do nut. She even went to last night’s release party in Canterlot to be one of the first ones to get the book.” “That was the reason Lyra went to Canterlot?” Pinkie asked. “And I would have been there too if it wasn’t for Wonderbolt practice,” Rainbow grumbled.  “But I have my copy here now! And as soon as I get home, I'm reading this thing and nopony or nothing’s gonna stop me!” At that moment, the front door to the store burst open, and a green blur rushed in, settling right in front of Bon Bon.  “There you are Bon Bon! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Lyra huffed. The three ponies were a bit shocked at how Lyra was able to match Rainbow Dash’s speed, if only for a moment.  “You'll never believe what happens in the new Daring Do book?” “Lyra,” Bon Bon said, trying to settle her friend down, “I don’t think now is the best time for…” Lyra couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore.  She told her. “In the book, we found out that the Royal Canterlot University got destroyed!” Everypony fell silent.  Rainbow Dash’s mouth hung open.  “What?” she squeaked. “I know!  Right?” Lyra smiled at the stunned cyan pegasus, failing to notice her expression.  “Turns out a former coworker’s of Daring Do got fired and wanted revenge so he destroyed the whole office building.” “WHAT?” Rainbow shouted “And despite Daring Do’s best efforts to stop the bad guy, she still wasn’t able to save the Masra, the old president of the university,” Lyra continued. “WHAT?!?” Rainbow screamed. Lyra nodded.  “Yeah! Masra was dead this whole time!  That explains why it took Daring Do so long to get back to the University, and why she froze during the climax of Daring Do and the Minotaur’s Maze and…” It was at this time Lyra noticed the expressions of the other three ponies in the room.  Bon Bon’s head was in her hoof, her head shaking in embarrassment. Pinkie’s mouth was locked open in stunned surprise.  And Rainbow…. Rainbow’s face had turned deep red in seething anger. An anger pointed straight towards the green unicorn. Lyra came to the horrible realization.  “You still haven’t read the book yet, have you?” Rainbow said nothing. Lyra laughed nervously.  “Wow... I am really, really sorry, Rainbow.  It’s just… It was so shocking I just had to tell somepony, you know?” Rainbow said nothing.  Her nostrils flared dangerously. “I should start running now, should I?” Lyra asked. “I’ll give you a five second head start,” Rainbow growled.  “Five…” In a blur, Lyra ran out the door and down the street in fear. “....FOURTHREETWOONE!!!” Rainbow Dash flew out the store, her eyes set on a mint green target running down the street. Bon Bon placed her cookies back on the counter.  “On second thought, Pinkie, give these cookies to Rainbow instead.  I think she’s gonna need them more than Lyra.” Pinkie said nothing.  Her expression still frozen in shock. Bon Bon waved a hoof in front of Pinkie’s face.  “Hello? Pinkie? Are you there?” She asked. “Masra was… dead?” Pinkie whispered.  Her mane began to lose its curls as her eyes watered and her lips quivered. “Uh oh,” Bon Bon cringed.  She could only watch as Pinkie’s floodgates opened. “MASRA!!!!!” Pinkie wailed. The sobs prompted Mr. Cake, Mrs. Cake, and the twins to run out of the kitchen. “Pinkie?  What happened?” Mr. Cake asked. “Masra,” Pinkie choked out between sobs.  “She… she…” Pinkie couldn’t say anything else before breaking out into another round of hysterics. “Masra?  Who’s Masra?” Pumpkin asked. “I don’t know,” Pound shrugged, “But we need to get Pinkie to calm down.” “Take her upstairs, I’ll handle the store for now,” Mrs. Cake told the others. Bon Bon and Mrs. Cake watched as the others led Pinkie back upstairs to her room. “It’ll be all ok, Pinkie,” they heard Mr. Cake said. “Just calm down now.” “Masra…  She was just three weeks away from retirement too!” Pinkie sniffed. Once Mrs. Cake was alone with Bon Bon, she decided to ask her a question.  “Bon Bon? Who exactly is Masra?” “I think I have a more important question. Was that a grown-up Pumpkin and Pound Cake I saw with you back there?” “Oh, you noticed, didn’t you?”  Mrs. Cake smiled weakly. Bon Bon had a couple hundred follow up questions swimming in her head but ultimately chose to ask none of them.  She simply sighed and walked out the store. She made a point to stop at Sweet Apple Acres to pick up some extra special cider on the way home.