Pinkie Pie, the Laws of Physics, a Not-Pony, and Freezing Time

It had turned out that Pinkie had only needed me to help her restock on party supplies. She had even given me a list with confetti taped to it for reference.

"If you have any extra bits, you can but whatever you'd like!" said Pinkie gleefully.

"Thanks, Pinkie," I said, tucking the list away in some light blue saddle bags with Pinkie's cutie mark on them that she had let me borrow, "What if I run into Twilight?"

"Don't worry! She says that she has to do something very important at this time of day on these days, so you'll be fine!"

"Okay..."

I casually strolled out of Sugarcube Corner, trying not to look nervous. Twilight could be anywhere. It didn't take very long for me to buy everything that Pinkie needed, and I still had a ton of the money she had given me. I think she called them bits or something.

I'm hungry, I thought, But what am I hungry for?

I walked through the bust market place, but nothing was catching my eye. It wasn't until I spotted something shiny down a thin alley between two houses that I was interested.

What's down there? I glanced around, but no one else seemed to notice the shiny thing in the alley, I guess I'll use my time freezing powers before I go look as to not draw any attention to myself.

I concentrated hard, and squeezed my eyes shut. I then opened them to see that every one around me was completely frozen in place. I gave a small grin, before walking down the alley and looking around. There was a somewhat-hidden door on the side of one of the houses, and it seemed to lead into some sort of shop. I felt drawn into the shop, and felt time unfreeze around me as I entered.

"Hey, kid!" said a tough-looking guy Earth pony from behind dark counter, "I think yer lost."

"I'm not lost," I said bravely, "I came here to get something to eat."

The Earth pony stared at me before nodding his head.

"Guess I've got a new customer," he said with a grin, "Come 'n sit at the counter."

I nervously sat down on one of the counter stools and looked up at the menu. None of the word on it seemed familiar to me, so I just picked one at random.

"I'll have a number seven." I said, pulling out some bits.

"First one's on the house," he said, pushing the bits back to me, "I don't normally get new customers in yer style, so I'll try ta be nicer."

I simply nodded and pushed the bits back into my saddlebag. The Earth pony turned towards the door and went through it; I noticed it let out cold air. There was a small ringing, and I realized that it was a bell over the door that I hadn't heard when I entered.

"T-Twilight?" I whisper-shouted in surprise.

"Freeze?" she whisper-shouted back.

We stared at each other for what seemed like the longest time until the Earth pony came back out of the door holding something red.

"Why, hello, Ms. Dusk," he said to Twilight, "I'll get your order going right away. Why don't ya chat with the new customer while I make it?"

Twilight nodded before walking over to the counter and taking the seat next to me. There was more silence until a sizzling noise popped up from whatever the Earth pony was cooking.

"I'm not going to do anything to you here," whispered Twilight, "I don't want Mince to kick me out."

"Mince?" I whispered.

"That's his name. Or, at least that's what he says it is. You don't use your real name here, even if it's known."

"Why?"

"You really don't know? It's so you can't be found out. Most don't like what we do."

Before I could respond, Mince came back carrying two metal trays on his back that we loaded with food.

"Got 'cher food all set," he said, placing one in front of me and the other in front of Twilight, "And you already prepaid, Ms. Dusk, so yer good."

Twilight nodded to mince before carefully examining her food.

"By the way," said Mince, turning towards me, "I didn't get yer name. What is it?"

"Uh... Pierce," I said, coming up with a name on the spot, "It's Pierce."

"Nice ta have you as a new customer, Pierce."

Mince walked back into the cold room, leaving me and Twilight alone. I looked down toward my food, realizing how amazing it both smelled and looked. Twilight had already taken a large bite out of her food, which encouraged me to do so as well. I looked at my food for one second before taking a giant bite out of it.

"This is delicious..." I muttered in delight.

"I guess it's nice to have another foodie to talk about this with," whispered Twilight, "But I still think you have a concussion. However, since I can't speak about this any of my other friends, we'll just keep it as our secret, okay?"

I nodded before finishing off my food in one bite. Twilight had also finished, so we both got up and headed towards the door.

"By the way," I whispered to Twilight before freezing time again, "What exactly did I just eat?"

"A one hundred percent pure beef burger." whispered Twilight.

"Thanks. I'd forgotten."