Chapters Week One: Welcome to the Shop
Hello, I'm Lemon Drop, and I run Sour Drop Shop with my sister; Drizzle Drop. It's nothing much but a candy shop, but we give it everything to be one of the best in the local parts. I should tell you a bit about the family and small history. Our family is a little scattered and messed up, there are eight ponies in total. My mom and dad divorced after my mom was pregnant with me and my sister. Drizzle and I are twins with four older sisters. From oldest to youngest there's; Candy, Chocolate, Taffy, and Minty. Each one have been moving around and getting good jobs, but we've all lost contact with each other after we all moved away. We have many cusions, each one more and more distant from each other, but I think we are related two traveling unicorns that stopped by awhile ago, I'm not sure. The family hasn't been together since Drizzle and I moved to Ponyville, not even letters have been sent. It's kind of sad, but maybe we will all meet up one day, and have a laugh.
The shop is doing well, but we don't get much business due to Sugar Cube Corner about two blocks closer to the center of town, but we have a few ponies drop by and buy the candy they can't get at their store or they like our brands of candies. We don't get much but it's just enough to get us by and make some profit. It also doesn't help that we just moved here about a year ago, but we've managed to have regular customers and there is no real competition because we are a candy shop, not a bakery.
The new princess lives in this town and we've gotten a few more to stop by with the tourists, and that DJ PON-3 lives in town and has stopped by, getting some attention for us and comes by once if month with her marefriend and purchasing some large jaw breakers and chocolate. It's nice for the bits and a few autographs, but they're just two customers out of the few we get to come back. I'm a fan of hers which is amazing, but she got a marefriend so I have no chance with her in a million years. It's gotten crazy lately with the opening a month ago and I guess it's my job to tell you all about what is happening here in our little shop. I should start with the opening of Sour Drop Shop.
It was a nice day out for the second week of Spring, birds were chirping, flowers were blooming, and it's was a good day to open shop for these fine ponies. I looked over to my sister, her brown eyes full of joy and mouth had a wide smile. "Flip the sign already!", she said anxiously.
"Cool it sis, it's the first day, we will be lucky if we managed to get one pony to stop by and browse." I replied after flipping the sign.
"Who do you think will be the first pony to stop by?"
She walked behind the counter and I started checking over the shelves of candy, grabed a gum ball and began to chew on it. "Who knows, maybe it will be the princess herself."
"That would be -", I was cut off by a ringing sound at the door and stepped in the pink party pony herself; Pinkie Pie, followed by a cyan-rainbow pegasus and the princess of who-knows-what; Twilight Sparkle. I looked in awe, why in the name of Celestia were they doing here right after it opens? "Do you think the sell marshmallow animals or rock candy or what about sour candy like the name of the store, Dashie?", Pinkie said with the last of her breath.
"Eh, I don't know, they just opened, look around, as long as it's good.", said Dashie.
Pinkie looked around, spotted me and ran up quicker than I could blink. "How's it going Lemon?"
"It's going fine, but why are you all here?"
"Well, I was super duper curious on what you two were doing and I came down to check it out and say hi to you and your marefriend, also I brought friends to check you out!", she huffed out quickly.
"That's my sister and I don't even have a marefriend."
"Oopsie, i'm sorry, you two did seem like the right match.", she clopped her hooves together and spoke, "Do you have rock candy, marshmallow animals, or chocolate?"
"We have that except the marshmallow animals, but why the hay is the princess here?", I point a hoof twoards the princess.
"Oh. She wasn't busy, so I brought her along with me and Dashie!"
I sighed, turned, and made my way twoards the counter and stepped into the back. Why the buck do I open my mouth sometimes, it only jinxes me or gets me in trouble. I grabbed a box of chocolates and went back out putting some on the small free sample stand we had, and listened in on my sister and Twilight.
"Would you like anything else p-princess?", she said with a nervous smile.
"No. We got what we came for. Thank you for your service.", Twilight said before grabbing the small bag with her magic.
"N-no, no! Thank you for coming in as one of our first customers!", Drizzle said while trying to look professional.
The princess giggled and trotted out with the other mares, and giving Pinkie a piece of chocolate. We stood there and waited for them to leave. Out of all the ponies of equestria, all of them, a princess had to walk through the doors first. We looked at each other when they left sight of the front windows. "That could have gone worse.", said Drizzle.
"Eee-yup."
Author's Note
I hope y'all enjoy my first attempt at a fanfic. I don't mind criticism, and thanks for reading.
One week in. I'm surprised that we made it. Pinkie must have been spreading the word about the shop for a while because we've got some publicity somehow. We've gotten around maybe thirty ponies to drop by, but most were mothers with whiney colts and fillies. They were the worst. It's hard to listen to them screaming over some candy they can't get, we have special candy for the older folks. My sister or I catch the attention and offer chocolate that was molded to hold hard cider. About one in four bought two or, more boxes. They weren't expensive on our part, but it helped them when they are alone or want to pass out.
One of our regular customers had started coming to the shop during this time. Blitz, a white Pegasus stallion, with a lime green mane, and half a heart for a cutie mark. He is unique because of his marefriend, which is a zebra. Nopony really questions why, but they seem to be happy together, so we leave them alone. He comes in for all different kinds of candies for himself and his lover, ranging from sweets, sours, and all in between. His marefriend is kind of crazy, he once came in as a griffin, why? The zebra poisoned his cherries with potions, poor thing. He doesn't want to mention what happens after the crazy experiments are preformed on him, but he is usually tired.
He came in one day looking for something sweet and sour, we pointed to the best options and we chatted while he was checking out. "The marefriend of yours, why she keep poisoning you?", I ask him.
"She was an assistant of Zecora a while back and has been finding ways to get me to test her creations"
"But, can't she accidentally kill you, or something?"
He shrugges and says; "She's usually careful, but I once had three potions battling it out inside of me." He shudders. "Poison Joke, species spell, and gender bender. It caused me to become that female griffin in the middle of heat. It wasn't pretty."
"May Celestia bless your soul."
"She did, but with a catch." He grabbed his purchase, sucking on a lemon drop as he went back to that crazed zebra of his. He comes back for different items for either him or his marefriend, and is always happy to do so. I won't understand him, but I'm not gonna eat any cherries from him anytime soon.
Our other faithful customers are DJ PON-3 and Octavia, the local musicians are usually coming in a monthly basis. They come in every so often have a good time, and became friends with my sister. I never really bothered them, only when I need to get by or tell them their price to pay when buying candy. Sadly for me, I was a super fan of the DJ. She was always pumping out beats and sick tunes, I enjoyed them all, even the ones were both of them make a dual genre song. I went to one of the clubs she was in to only find out she passed out before I got there. Party ponies, you never know what they are going to do, even when they waste your money for you. Soon enough my sister invited them over one night for a get together, they came and had a good time. I wasn't involved, except for the prank I had waiting for me in the morning.
It was a Saturday. My time of peace and privacy. The three of them had fun Friday night, signing, enjoying some food, and talking about what stallion was perfect for Drizzle. It was nice hearing her laugh with friends, I got some sleep. I soon regretted allowing them over. I was asleep, dreaming about a love story between me and some mare that was in the shop earlier, it was ok. Until nothing but the sound of loud bass filled my ears. The three mares managed to get a amplifier into my room, quiet enough to not wake me up, and blast it. They laughed their flanks all the way downstairs into the kitchen, and would not forget the first successful prank on me. "It's like eleven. Why did you wake me up?", I said groggily.
"Well, we were hungry and you are a good cook and the host.", said Drizzle.
"Me? Your the hostess! I wasn't apart of your get together." I replied.
"Well she invited us, and your the colt of the house.", said the giggling DJ.
"It woke me up too, even with your noise reduction spell.", inquired Octavia.
I sigh and make my way over to the kitchen. They wanted my "famous" Canterlot Toast . An odd breakfast, but I get some bowls and plates and start making the toast slice by slice. They seemed to enjoy it very much. It was going fine until our guests were swapping spit after they managed to get butter on their lips. It was uncomfortable for the time, and they apologized afterwards.
They stayed for about three hours while I tried to get more sleep, and soon left to go about their own business in Ponyville. I probably won't know what love feels like, or who I'll be with. I just hope it's a amazing mare like the two thst just left. I managed to get PON-3's name; Vinyl Scratch, after a playful disciplinary talk about manners at the table. Maybe I'll look for one. I doubt it but I rather get to sleep, I need it more than food, air, or anything. Just sleep. It's all I need.
Author's Note
Whelp, chapter two is done, I'll try to update frequently. Maybe every week. I always open to criticism.
Ponyville doesn't have many places to shop for anything fancy. There is the market for food, a shop that sell quills and sofas is doing fine, Sugar Cube Corner for pastries and cakes, and our little candy shop. The influx of tourists has increased because of her majesty; Twilight, had made it difficult because she is friends with Pinkie Pie. That bond brings attention to the shop. I feel bad for the owners, I heard they have two foals, have to deal with Pinkie eating half of everything they make, and the new waves of customers. I can't imagine how expensive, exhausting, or stressful it would be to have that happen in this shop. Our plan is too have a steady flow of ponies before hiring anypony to add to the pay we have to dish out.
My sister is thinking about flyers, banners, and sales, but I'm going to wait until we have more profit. One day I think of something; I'm going to spy on the competition. I go over what I need; note pad, quills, ink, a watch, a knife, and a box. I aquire my sisters writing supplies and a larger cardboard box that had been used as shipment. I have everything set, my plan is foolproof, and I'm ready. First I get into the box and my sister seals it for me to use. She sets me on the curb with the address for Sugar Cube Corner.
It took a while, the mail mare had to get another mail pony to get me to my target. It went dark for about half an hour until I heard the faint voices of my rival and the mailpony. "Errr, Miss Pie?", the mailpony said.
"That's me!", chimed Pinke.
"This here is a shipment of sugar and it's address to this establishment."
"Hmmm, I don't remember ordering any, maybe the Cakes did."
"Well, sign here to for it, it's heavy, and I'm allowed to take into the establishment for you."
There was silence until she spoke, "Okie dookie lookie! Bring 'er in!"
I heard then back open up, and I was whisked away and into the shop. I tried everything to keep quiet, I didn't put on any spells in case the princess was there and could sense them, or any other unicorn. From the small hole I could see, he was following Pinke through the shop and me in tow, until we got into the storage room. "Where would you like it to put?", said the mailpony.
"Hmmm, over in the corner will do."
I felt the box fly over and be set down and the aura faded from then slit. I heard them go off and close the door. I looked at ,t watch and waited until until midnight to make my move. In the mean time I wrote down what I could and doodled the inside. After plenty of waiting, I cut the bottom of the box, and shook until I got out of the space I was in. The box fell forward and the bottom opened up and I fell back. The sweet relife of being able to stand again was amazing, I stretched and got back into the box, and moved to the door. On the way, I felt something wet on my hooves, must be damp back here. I reached out with my magic, opened the door, and moved into the next room. Started a one way see through spell on the box, and now I could see everything around me, without anypony looking in.
I looked at my surroundings, and noticed I was in the kitchen. I resumed my travel, and took notes on everything that could be used to either, improve our business, the decor to attract ponies, or improve the quality of homemade candy. I managed to get to the main room where the pony can purchase the pastries or hang out. I was making my way around and heard faint voices from upstairs. They were all feminine, each had a different accent, pitch, and loudness. I would have thought there were five but one was so quiet, they could only be heard when none spoke but them. I resumed my spying, and it went fine. I filled out two whole pages of notes. I made my way through and just about I was going to go back into hiding, one of my flaps caught a trash can, and mocked it down. The noise was loud, and seemed to echo. I picked up my pace when I heard the ponies start galloping over head. I parked my box into a small section that seemed nature and deactivated my magic. The lights soon flicked on and flooded my slit with light, I could barely see, but they could. There was a gasp from a few of the ponies, and one spoke. "What happened down here, why is the floor covered in hoof prints?", the voice came from Twilight herself, she was here. I am dead if she finds me.
"I don't know, I cleaned up after the Cakes left on vacation to meet their cousins.", Pinkie said in a panic.
"Well, I hate to say it, but we got another pony in this room, and I intended to find them before they get away.", said a pony clearly from Appleplaosa.
"We better start looking for clues, we have the evidence, not the pony behind it. Pinkie, do you know any pony that would want to do this to you or the Cakes?", said Twilight.
"No, everypony is friends with me, and never hurt anypony on purpose."
"Ok, heres the plan, girls, you start looking for the pony, I'll try to figure out why they were here."
"Okay!", they said in unison, and thus began their search, for me.