Paradise's day away

Paradise's day away

It's seven o' clock on a Friday, the time that most of my customers have finished their lattes, and gone home. The streets of Bright Valley become quiet and deserted this time of night, because everpony-er, everybody, I mean- is already wither on their way home, or headed to the graveyard shift at work. My little shop stands among the various old brownstone buildings here in the historic district, and is one of the few still open at this late hour. The Silver Chalice was an old bar from the Ponybition era that I bought and restored into a coffee shop a few years back, and she is my Pride and joy.

My name is Vanilla Mocha, and I'm a unicorn who moved up here to the northern continent from Equestria about five years ago. Mixing up Lattes and Coffees is my specialty,  that's why I born with the yellow star that graces my flank. My smaller stature and brown mane and green eyes make me stick out among these bigger and bulkier Ponyland Ponies, but I like to think that gives this mare a charm all her own! I left my home and came up to the confederacy, because I felt that almighty B'zekre was calling me to give this poor, beverage-deprived ponies some hot and delicious refreshment.

As usual for this time of night, I'm behind the old cedar bar, using my unicorn magic to wash out the mugs that sill have a ring of cappuccino or mocha in them. Spread throughout the room are the few regulars I get about this time of night. Night Glider, head of the artisan guilds, is sipping from her steaming hot cup in the center of the room. She likes to come here and unwind after constantly arguing with the town's other guildmasters. Over on the far left is Carmelita, an unusual little woman from the human lands who's staying here in town, while working on some kind of book she's writing. I always find humans interesting, the way they walk on two legs and wear clothes all the time.  Yeah, I know most of my regular customers pretty well, and most of my regular customers know me.

So it's quite a surprise to me, when I see an odd looking white Pegasus come trotting into my place, a sullen and faraway look on her face as she drops a few jangles into my jar on the bar, and asked for a hot chocolate with whipped cream. Normally, I'm too shy to talk to any of my new customers, but Bight Valley was a mostly earth Pony town... I just had to find out what this new mare I had never seen before was doing here.

"Excuse me... m'am?" I ask, as I trot over to the forlorn mare's table with her levitated cup of piping hot coca. "You seem kind of... unhappy. is there anything wrong?"

"Anything wrong? Anything Wrong?! You bet by the seven voyages of Sindbad there's something wrong!" The rather angry sounding pony declared, revealing by her literary reference (and the stack of books with her) that she was a librarian mare. "My friends are all acting topsy-turvy, my life's all turned totally upside down, and I really don't know what's what anymore!"

"Oh, I totally understand, we all have days like that." I try to say reassuringly, setting down her drink on the table. "Life can really get mixed up and confused sometimes, and we just have to learn and roll with it."

"Oh yeah? Well, how do I roll with three dear friends of mine getting turned into bimbos by poison joke? Or a goofball being turned into a super genius? It's seems nothing right in Dream Valley anymore!"

Dream Valley? Well, that certainly answers a lot. I've heard that place has a new eldritch abomination attacking them each and every week! Still, this poor mare looks like she's been through more than she's used to normally handling. As she takes a sip from her mug, I decide to try and do something to help this stressed out pony.

"Poison Joke, huh? I've heard of that stuff before." I take a seat beside her, trying to sound reassuring. "I've heard there's a cure that can be mixed up quite easily!"

It's not just the poison joke or the personality mix up! I just-just can't take it anymore!" The frustrated mare told me, flexing her wings in frustration. "There always some crazy things these crazy and stupid friends of minje are getting into! Always starting fights, or making total fools of themselves, or making everyone's lives miserable! Why can't they all try, just once, to ask sane and normal and rational instead of driving the rest of us out of our freakin skulls?!"

"MMybe your friends are just being themselves, maybe they don't see anything annoying or wrong with how they are acting?" I offer, pointing a hoof at her. "Maybe you should just tell them how you feel about how they're making the rest of you feel?"

"Ha! I don't Gusty would even listen to me!" She replied with a bitter laugh. "Fizzy wouldn't even understand what I was talking about, and Windy would try to hard to dissect the deeper meaning of everything I was saying." She buried her hooves in her face, talking to herself. "Oh Paradise, why do you have such bizarre and freakish friends compared to everybody else?"

"Well, 'Paradise', I think you're not giving your friends enough credit!" I reply, defending ponies I've never even met before and knew very little about. "If they really are your friends, I'm sure they would care about your feelings!"

Paradise the Pegasus only nodded, sitting silently for a few moments, before quickly downing the rest of her beverage, tossing a jangle tip onto the table with her wing, and trotting out the door without another word. I really have no way of knowing if my words affected her not.

"Well, that went really well." I say aloud levitating her extra jangle over into the jar with a sigh. "Why do I always seem to give the worst advice to other people?"

"It's not that your advice is bad, Vanilla." Carmelita piped up, looking up from her manuscript with her dark brown eyes. "It's just that some people aren't ready to receive your advice... or really doesn't want to hear it."

"Awww, thanks for the vote of confidence, Carmen. But you're just being nice." I tell her with a sigh, mixing up three cups of mint tea. "But my advice really does stink. Remember the time I suggested a brush 'n grow pony should try a new hairdo, and she got a buzz cut? Her mane tried to strangle me in anger after it grew back!"

"So not all of your advice has turned out for the best." Night Glider continued, taking a sip of her own drink. "That's more than can be said for a lot of non-ponies that live here in ponyland."

"You're both to kind, I'm really glad to have both of you around here." I smile at the two of them, levitating the three mint teas into a bag. "But now, I'm going to have to ask you both to watch this place for a bit? I have to deliver an order down to the docks... a couple of Sea Ponies want their weekly tea."

"No problem, Nilla'." My human friend smiled, tossing her long brown hair with her free hand. "You make your delivery, we'll hold down the fort here!"

I smile at her, and trot out the door. Again, I cannot stress enough how amazing those humans are. I really want to know where Carmelita gets those long and pretty sundresses she's always wearing, and if they make it in pony sizes! Anyway, I trotted my way out of the shop, and down towards the docks. As I hear Bright Valley's clock tower hits the hour, I can't help but wonder if I'll see that Dream Valley mare again. Even though she only stopped into my shop for a few minutes, I get the feeling I'll be running into Paradise and her friends again real soon.....