Flightless

Shortly after we finished arranging the stall, our first customer arrived.

“Howdy Big Bro! You hungry?” Applebloom greeted the colt.

Applebloom’s brother, Big Mackintosh, was a bulky stallion, with a short scruffy mane. He was a quiet character, who rarely spoke aside from the occasional “Yup,” or “Nope”, but he was a very hard working colt who had earned the respect of the Ponyville residents through his dedication, not only to their families beloved Applefarm, but also to his Grandmother, Granny Smith, who was pretty old now, and needed constant care and companionship from her three grandchildren.

Big Mac smiled at his younger sister, “Eyup!” He replied, eyeing the muffins.

“Well then you’re in luck!” Applebloom replied, “These here are some of the finest muffins in Ponyville!”

Big Mac’s mouth started to water at the sight of the delicious baked goods, and at that moment, I knew we were guaranteed to make our first sale.

“Only three bits each! Which would ya like? We got chocolate muffins, cherry muffins, raisin muffins…”

Applebloom continued to list our stock Big Mackintosh, and didn’t seem to feel the least bit uncomfortable about selling to her older brother. I guess that’s business, besides, the Apple Farm was doing pretty well these days, Big mac was probably loaded.

Suddenly, Derpy let out an excited squeal, and me and Sweetie Belle turned our heads while Applebloom continued talking, and Big Mac continued staring dreamily at the muffins.

Derpy was pointing over the horizon, toward a group of ponies who were approaching the town square.

“More customers!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed,

I immediately decided that this was a great time for a sales pitch, and so I cleared my throat and took my place in front of the stall.

“Good Afternoon Everypony! How you all doing today? Tired? Hungry? Stressed out from work?”

Immediately, the groups attention was drawn to our stall.

“Well fear not! For we, have created some freshly baked goods that are out of this world, to refresh and restore your tired bodies, and make you feel awesome! “Gather round everypony, for a taste of the finest muffins Equestria has ever seen!”

Thanks to my pitch, the ponies started licking their lips and heading straight for our store. Sweetie Belle gave me a pat on the back, I have always been pretty good at public speaking, confidence is key - Rainbow taught me that.

A pink earth pony arrived and greeted Big Mackintosh, she gave him an affectionate nuzzle.

“Hello there Honey bunch!” She said in a cute tone,

I noticed Applebloom Cringe a little.

This pony was our old school teacher, Miss Cheerilee, and she was currently dating Big Mac. Apple Bloom hadn’t fully adjusted to their relationship, the two dating often made her feel a little uncomfortable, but this time, she managed to use it to her advantage.

“Or how about a muffin basket, for you and your sweet heart to enjoy together?” She winked at her brother,

“Oh a muffin basket! How wonderful!” Cheerilee exclaimed,

I felt a little sorry for Big Mac; he couldn’t really refuse the basket now, even if he didn’t feel like eating that many muffins. The stallion didn’t seem too bothered about it though, he just looked happy to see Cheerilee.

“Eyup.” He nodded, and handed 10 bits to Applebloom, who reached under the counter and passed him a basket.

And just like that, we had made our first sale!

Once the two love-birds had walked away, more and more ponies approached our stall. I saw a few of them glance at Derpy cautiously, as though they weren’t sure whether or not it was a good idea to eat anything that had been made by her. This actually bothered me a little.

I took the limelight once more, and started to verbally advertise our muffins to the small crowd which had now gathered around our stall.

“Don’t be shy everypony! We have plenty of muffins for everyone! Get them while they’re fresh!”

“I’ll take a chocolate muffin!” An energetic unicorn pushed to the front of the crowd.

The unicorn was Lyra Heartstrings, she’s pretty weird, but friendly by nature.

“Actually, give me two!” She practically threw the 6 bits at me, as though she was in a desperate rush.

I handed her the muffins, and she waved and headed off back through the crowd, taking a bite and smiling in approval.

When the other ponies saw Lyra enjoying the muffin, any doubts they had about eating them quickly faded, and me, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Derpy found ourselves in business!

I was particularly excited to see a bubbly pink earth pony prancing over to our store. It was Pinkie Pie, a close friend of my sisters. She was the manager of Sugar Cube Corner, which was a popular dessert shop in Ponyville. Pinkie was even more lively and friendly than Lyra, and about ten times more weird.

The pink curly maned pony hopped to the front of the crowd with a huge grin on her face,

“You’re selling muffins? That’s amazing! I love love LOVE muffins!” She exclaimed. “Give me a basket! No,no, TWO baskets, no three! Three baskets!”

“Wow Pinkie,” Sweetie replied, “I thought after having worked at Sugarcube corner all day, you’d probably be tired of desserts!” – I face panned; oh Sweetie Belle, that's not what you say to customers.

Luckily, Pinkie wasn't phased, “Are you kidding? I could never be tired of desserts! Give me four baskets and that’s my final offer!”

I wasn't sure what she meant by the 'final offer' thing, but I shrugged it off, Pinkie Pie rarely made any sense. The others helped me to lift three of the baskets, and hand them over to our delighted customer. Pinkie smiled and thanked us, then hopped away into the distance.

“Can you believe we just made 40 bits off one customer?” Apple Bloom exclaimed,

“I knew Pinkie Pie would be interested!" I replied confidently, "Could this day get any better?”

As we continued serving, I got pretty lost in the moment. Seeing all those ponies enjoying our baked goods felt incredible! I was loving every minute of it, and I could tell that Apple Bloom felt really in her element.

The farm pony had been selling apple pies, apple cider, and other apple related goods since she became a teenager. She often  accompanied her older sister Applejack, when she travelled around Equestria selling the produce they made on the Apple Farm.

Apple Bloom was great with the customers too, she would talk to them about how mouth-wateringly delicious a certain type of muffin was, and they often walked away with more muffins then they had planned to buy in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, we were all doing pretty well on the stall, but I think overall Apple Bloom was definitely making the most sales.

I was about to hand a cherry muffin to a rather smart looking stallion, when I heard the pony Sweetie Belle was serving suddenly ask a very strange question.

“Wait a second.” The scruffy earth pony said angrily, “Why should I have to pay?”

I looked over toward them, as did Apple Bloom, and a few of the other customers,

“What do you mean?” Sweetie asked, completely confused.

“That pony over there just got two muffins for free!” The pony pointed over to the other side of the counter,

I looked over, and sure enough, Derpy was handing out muffins left right and centre, without charging a single bit for any of them.

“Derpy! What in tarnation are ya doin?” Apple Bloom asked the Pegasus, who looked extremely stressed out.

“Well, one of my customers didn’t have any money…” She whimpered, “I didn’t want him to miss out on the muffins, they’re so good, so I just let him have one. He was really hungry!”

Apple Bloom scolded the mare, “You can’t go givin’ out muffins for free! Cos’ then everypony’ll want muffins for free!”

Derpy looked sadly at the ground, "That's... what happened..." She mumbled,

Apple Bloom then turned to Sweetie Belles angry customer.

“I’m sorry mam, but we can’t give out any more muffins for free, this is a business after all.” She stated calmly.

The customer didn't react well,

“What terrible service! I don’t think I’ll be coming to this stall again any time soon!” The mare stomped, and walked off in a huff,

I thought that was pretty harsh, who did she think she was?

“We’re only here for today anyway!” I shouted after her, rolling my eyes at the drama queen.

“What do you mean I have to give them back?” Great, now a colt was arguing with Derpy.

“I wasn’t supposed to…give them out... I’m sorry but, we worked really hard and…” The wall-eyed pegasus was almost in tears.

“You already gave me these muffins! You already gave all of us muffins!” The colt argued,

Mumbles of “Yeah!” and “Free muffins!” could be heard amongst the crowd.

"There are no free muffins!" I shouted,

"Yeah! If ya'll want a muffin, you gotta pay for it!" Apple Bloom piped up, I could tell she was getting a little frustrated, and who could really blame her?

"Not fair!" One customer shouted,

"You can't give out free muffins to a bunch of ponies, then make the rest of us pay!" Called a stallion.

The crowd continued to shout, "Free muffins! Free muffins!"

"I knew our muffins were good," Sweetie Belle exclaimed, "but I didn't know they were good enough to have ponies fighting over them."

"Free muffins!" The crowd were getting rowdy,

Apple Bloom seemed to be losing it a little,

“Fine! Ya’ll want free muffins? Just take em!” She tossed a few muffins onto the counter, and they were instantly snatched up by the angry mob.

“Apple Bloom!” I could understand that she was angry, but surely that was just adding to the problem.

“I wanted a banana muffin!” Shouted a pony at the back,

"Seriously?" I said aloud -  now they were demanding flavours too?

I watched Derpy flap her wings, “Oh…okay… here you go,” She threw a muffin aimlessly into the crowd, and of cause, it hit a mare smack in the face.

Suddenly, a muffin came flying straight back at Derpy,

“That was my wife!” Shouted a colt,

Derpy actually managed to dodge, but the muffin hit Apple Bloom, who was already pretty annoyed. She picked up another muffin in retaliation, and threw it straight back into the crowd.

And then… chaos.

The baked goods were being thrown left, right, and centre. Apple Bloom was throwing them out of rage, and Derpy was throwing them out of confusion. I was trying desperately to calm down both the crowd, and my friends, while poor Sweetie Belle was ducking behind the counter, terrified.

Suddenly, I noticed that our stock was running pretty low. And so I leapt onto the counter, and shouted at the top of my lungs.

“BAILLLL!”

I grabbed Sweetie Belle, and Derpy followed closely behind. Apple Bloom tossed a final muffin into the crowd, and caught up with us.

We darted through the town, not once looking back to see if any of the mob was on our tail. When we reached the outskirts of Ponyville, we realised we were safe, and sat down to catch our breath.

I saw Apple Bloom frown at Derpy, but she quickly realised how unhappy the pegasus looked, and her angry expression changed to a quiet sigh.

A few seconds went by, and then Derpy spoke up.

“I’m sorry guys. I just... wanted to make the customers happy.”