Candy Cane had nothing to do. Normally, on hot summer weekends like this, she’d be out selling lemonade and baked goods to earn a few extra bits, but nopony was coming to her stand. She’d stood outside of her house for almost two hours before giving up and walking into the center of town to find out where everyone was. Ponies usually stood in long lines at her stand just to buy some of her treats, but only one or two showed up today. It was kind of weird. Maybe there was something exciting going on that was diverting everypony’s attention away from her stand.
It didn’t take long at all to find out where all of her customers had gone. They were gathered around… something. Candy Cane couldn’t really see what exactly they were so interested it; she was too short to see over the heads of all of the other ponies. After all, she was just a filly.
“Yo!” she yelled, “what’s going on? I can’t see!” Everypony ignored her except for a colt who shoved her aside in annoyance. She almost growled at him for his rudeness, but then realized that it was probably an accident. She continued into the crowd of ponies.
“Oh hi, Candy Cane!” somepony perked up. “Have you tried this stallion’s dessert yet? It’s so cool!” Candy Cane looked over to the source of the voice and saw a colt happily licking ice cream off of a cone. Candy Cane didn’t know this colt’s name, but she recognized the face. He was one of her regular customers and always bought lots of her brownies and raspberry lemonade.
“Isn’t that just ice cream?” she asked him.
“That’s what I thought at first, too! But the stallion selling it - Mango Leaf, I think he was called - says it’s not. It’s something else, but I forget. Maybe frozen pudding? Either way, it’s delicious,” he exclaimed enthusiastically.
“Uh… it still just looks like ice cream to me,” Candy Cane said doubtfully, eying the not-ice-cream.
“Whatever. It’s awesome, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Well, I guess I might as well see what the big deal about all this is,” Candy Cane figured. “Can I try some of yours first?”
The colt snatched his cone to his body and glared at her. “No way!” he said defensively. “Get your own; this is my frozen thingy.”
“It’s that good, huh?”
“You bet it is,” he exclaimed. “I’m going back for seconds once I finish this one. I think I’m going to try the pumpkin flavor next, ‘cause I haven’t had anything pumpkin-flavored since October.”
As the colt turned his attention back to his slightly melted frozen thing, Candy Cane continued on through the crowd of ponies, forcing her way through and nodding her head in acknowledgement as some of them recognized and greeted her.
Finally, she reached her destination: a wagon with colorful menus plastered to the sides. The shutters of the windows were wide open, and even though she was short, Candy Cane could easily see that the inside was packed to the brim with large coolers, barely leaving any space for the orange stallion inside. He had to awkwardly maneuver around a tiny area as he joyfully levitated his frozen treats over to his customers.
"Next up?" he called out. Candy Cane trotted up to the wagon, oblivious to the eye-rolls she was receiving from the ponies who had been standing in line for almost an hour.
"There she goes again, being ignorant. Her mother really needs to teach her proper etiquette," one mare grumbled.
Her friend silenced her. "Oh shush, it's fine. She works so hard every day running her own snack stand. Give her a break."
"She only does it to make money, you know. She makes baked goods in the wintertime with love and care, but in the summer? All she cares about is the money."
Candy Cane heard this last part, but she ignored it because it was true. She didn't see anything wrong with wanting money, though.
Candy Cane stopped in front of the wagon's window and looked up at the smiling stallion. "Hello there, and welcome to Mango's! My name's Mango Leaf. What’s your name?” he asked.
“My name’s Candy,” Candy Cane informed him.
“Nice to meet you, Candy! Would you like to try some of our famous frozen yogurt?"
Candy Cane glanced at the menus and raised an eyebrow. "Do you even sell anything other than frozen yogurt?"
Mango Leaf scratched his head in thought. "Hm... well, I'm currently working on a new menu item - frozen potato chips on a bed of cotton candy. Would you like to be the first customer to try some?"
"That sounds kinda weird. I'll just have the frozen yogurt thing."
Mango Leaf chuckled. "I have 43 flavors of that. You have to pick one."
"What's your most popular flavor?" Candy Cane inquired.
"In this town it seems to be apple, for some reason. Where I'm from, however, people know me for my BSM - that is to say, my banana-strawberry-mango flavor."
"I'll have that, then," Candy Cane decided. "And where are you from?"
"I'm from Hoofalulu," Mango Leaf told the filly as he turned around to scoop frozen yogurt out of one of his coolers.
“I’m from Canterlot. And Hoofalulu is a tropical place, right?”
“Yes, it is,” Mango Leaf confirmed. He turned back towards Candy Cane, holding a cone of multicolored froyo in his magical grasp. “It’s always really warm there, so-” suddenly, he froze, his eyes locked on something behind Candy Cane.
Candy looked around, but she couldn’t see anything that might have warranted the sudden shock from the stallion. “What?” she asked.
“Y-your cutie mark,” Mango Leaf stammered.
“What about it?” Candy Cane demanded.
“Is that… a hot chocolate cutie mark?” he demanded, not removing his eyes from her flank.
“Technically. It’s a picture of hot chocolate and a candy cane, see?” she turned herself to the side to give Mango Leaf a better view. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“No, it’s just… why ruin a perfectly good chocolate drink by heating it up? It’s a waste!” he cried out.
“What’s wrong with hot chocolate? It’s delicious!”
“It’s warm! I can’t stand to see a filly whose only destiny is to make terrible drinks,” Mango lamented, levitating the yogurt cone over to the frowning filly with the unfortunate cutie mark.
“It’s not-” Candy started, but she was interrupted by Mango Leaf.
“It’s simply awful. You have a wonderful personality, and you could’ve been such a great member of society! What is your main goal in life, aside from your special talent?”
“My main goal? It’s to make a lot of money and be rich. But Mango, I-”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. You’ll never make any money by brewing up hot chocolate. Frozen yogurt, on the other hand, brings in a lot of profit. If only you had gotten a cutie mark in that instead…” he trailed off mournfully.
“Mango Leaf! Listen to me. My talent isn’t making hot chocolate; it’s in bringing out the magic of the winter holidays. Hot chocolate - and the candy cane, which you are still completely ignoring - are just representations of my talent,” she explained.
“But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a lover of that accursed drink,” Mango Leaf argued.
“What does that even… okay, never mind that. Look at it this way: do you enjoy cutting mangoes in half?” the younger pony asked.
“Um, no, not really. I mean, I don’t not enjoy it, but it’s a mundane task. I- oh, now I see what you’re getting at,” Mango admitted.
“Exactly. While I may have a mug of hot chocolate as my cutie mark, that doesn’t mean I particularly enjoy it. It’s just part of what I do.” Satisfied that Mango was no longer appeared to be bothered by her cutie mark, she gave a curious lick to her froyo, and-
“Woah…” Candy Cane couldn’t say much more as her tongue exploded with an onslaught of flavors. She stood very still for a second, taking in the deliciousness, then jumped into action and completely devoured the rest of the cone at speeds that would impress even the Wonderbolts. When she finished, she looked up to see Mango Leaf grinning joyfully at her.
“I take it you enjoyed that?” he laughed.
“Oh yeah!” Candy exclaimed enthusiastically.
“That will be two bits,” Mango added. Candy Cane gladly gave Mango the money, along with an extra bit to show her appreciation.
“Oh, thanks!” he said gratefully. As he levitated the bits into his cashier, a thoughtful look crossed his face. “You mentioned that you wanted to be rich, right?” Candy Cane nodded in confirmation. “Well… how would you like to help me out this summer? I’m thinking of staying in Ponyville for a few months before resuming my travelling. I’d give you a percentage of the money we make.”
Candy Cane’s eyes widened and she let out a small gasp. “Really?” she squeaked. Mango Leaf nodded.
“I think we’d work well together. You taught me something today, and I’d love to have you work with me this summer. You seem to have valuable advice to offer, even though you’re a foal and I’m an adult. You’d make an excellent business partner.”
“I’d love to!” Candy Cane squealed, dancing around on the tips of her hooves.
“I look forward to working with you, Candy. Your shift starts at eight tomorrow morning, okay? Don’t be late.”
“I won’t,” Candy promised, and she stepped out of line to allow the next customer to purchase something. She skipped home, thinking thoughts of frozen delights and banana-strawberry-mango.