Chapter 1: Employment History
In the summer, when I was a young colt, Dad would wake Wafer and me up before dawn. We'd eat breakfast and Ma would get us all ready for the day. She'd tie my beige mane back so it wouldn't get in my face. She always told me I needed to get a good trimming as she did so. She never said that to Wafer, though. He could fix his black mane all on his own, and always kept it tidy.
She'd hand us over to Dad, who would take us through Ponyville, which was dead quiet because not even early risers were up at this Celestia forsaken hour. He'd take us all the way to the edge of town where our Ice Cream Shoppe sat. He always said, "Early ice cream is the best ice cream. When you make ice cream this early, you can let the ingredients soak and if you do that, the flavors really pop!"
So the three of us would spend the rest of the morning mixing and making our famous homemade ice cream. Then we'd open at noon and Dad would teach Wafer and me the ways of serving; how to work the cash register, how to take orders, even how to answer the phone and make deliveries!
It was all very exciting when I was a colt. When I had to go to school after summer, I'd long for vacation to come back around so I could go work with Dad at the shoppe. But now, having graduated school, being forced to wake up every morning before Celestia has even woken to raise the sun, get ready and head down through the empty streets of Ponyville to "soak up those ice cream ingredients" and work, the fun has died out and any joy I had in being involved in the ice cream business has long since vanished.
Wafer seems to enjoy himself, though. He's quite a mares stallion. He usually sticks with the easy job of waiting tables and making deliveries. Though, it's only easy for him since he's so great with other ponies. I, on the other hand, stick with what I'm good at, which is making ice cream and occasionally rising from the darkness known as the back of the store in order to take orders at the counter and replace any empty buckets of ice cream in the front display window. I've never been all that good with talking to ponies. I usually stutter and fiddle with my glasses or stand there awkwardly with a complete lack of knowledge on what to say. I suppose you could say I'm socially illiterate. Any encounters usually end with me fleeing or forcing Wafer to speak to them instead of making me talk.
Some times, Berry comes to visit. She's still too young to work, but she gets it a kick out of watching me battle against the ice cream machines whenever they decide to pick a fight. "I wanna have your job someday, Cookiedough!" She'd often exclaim, giggling. To which I'd reply,
"You can have it."
And I mean it, too. Though my Cutie Mark says I belong here in the ice cream business, my dream is to travel Equestria, seeing all there is to be seen. Do you ever think fate messed up your mark? I think it every morning when Dad hammers on my door for work, and throughout the day when I work and every night when I drag my hooves home, dead tired and hit my head against my feather pillow. And then the cycle of thinking about fate's failure begins again when Dad comes back to abuse my bedroom door.
When I was still in school, my note books often were covered in ideas for what my Cutie Mark could have been. A compass, or a map, maybe a windy road to indicate I was going places! But no. On my light brown flank sits instead a bucket of ice cream, being stirred by a wooden spoon. I was apparently destined to make ice cream for the rest of my Celestia forsaken life.
"Crisben!" I could hear Wafer's voice from the front of the store. I eagerly ditched the ice cream machines to run to the front counter to meet him. He was leaning against the counter, a group of mares giggling behind him. "These nice young mares have a big order for you." Wafer said, "So I'll leave you to it." He winked at me before trotting off to help other customers.
On a hot summer day like this, we had a lot of business. It wasn't uncommon that I had to come to the front to help out a lot, but Wafer knew I was most nervous around mares and so he'd take care of them for me. What the haybail was he up to?
I turned to the mares, forcing an awkward smile. "How can I help you today?" Oh Celestia save me now.
