The smell of coffee was strong in the air, but of course what would you expect from a coffee shop, the more important details were the ponies.
You could tell a lot of things about ponies just by observing, for example, the mare in the corner, with the gray mane with the mocha espresso, obviously has authority or more importantly problems with not being looked at as higher up because the gray is artificial. She has a sweet tooth, which you wouldn’t really be able to tell, but the fact that it’s 2am and she has a mocha and 5 spoonfuls of sugar, it’s not hard to make the connection.
There are things however that you can’t read about a pony just by looking at them in person, as they say, the darkest secrets of a ponies heart is only shown behind a closed and locked door, and even then, some ponies make an effort to appear hidden and not known, as obviously done by the pony leaning on the counter.
Hidden behind a thin hoodie, the ponies face could barely be mad out showing only a slight hint of the purple fur behind it. Nobody even thought to notice this pony, the only thing that would seem odd was the fact that the figure had been standing there for the past hour, waiting.
The bell above the door went off and as if by cue, a stallion walked in.
Nothing seemed off about this pony, in fact, he looked about the same as any other pony in the room, but the moment the pony entered, the hidden figure became stiff. That however wasn’t enough to get the figure to move, they still waited for the moment just right.
The stallion sat at a table in the corner and a waiter greeted them like an old friend, “Good day sir, do you want the usual today?”
“Of course, Milkdud, with it can you give me this month’s business report for this location.” The Stallion didn’t even look up from the tablet in his hand, but did look up to wave him away.
The waiter, almost saying something, decided against it and walked back towards the kitchen, this was the moment the figure began to walk towards the stallion in the corner, upon reaching the table the figure slid into the seat across from him and just stared at him.
The stallion looked up, "Uh, can I help you with something, if not can you please leave me to my work." The figure showed no sign of moving, in fact, they moved there chair closer.
The figure took down her hood and continued to stare, black hair with highlights appeared and almost dull purple eyes stared into him, “You’re Flam, right, of Flam’s Coffee emporium?”
Flam looked up, “Yeah, i’m sorry but what do you need, if it’s not important can you let me finish my work.”
Without missing a beat, she continued, “Your real name is Flim Skim, you changed it after you moved here from Los Pegasus, you got your start from a partner that later quit in the end and tried to sabotage the project, yet you were able to build a chain of coffee shops in the city with one of the best Magic connections in any coffee shop I've been too.”
Flim looked at the pony in front of him in disbelief, how could this pony even know some of this stuff, the partner thing wasn’t even a public matter, only for a couple of months in the background then of course in the courtroom. “While I appreciate that you find my coffee shops nice, is there a specific reason that you are bothering me."
The waiter appeared from the kitchen and approached the table, "Here you go sir, do you want any bakery items to go with that?" Of course he noticed he was talking to somepony, but he knew better to not ask who it was.
Flim looked at the waiter in annoince, "No thank you Milkdud, maybe later, but I need to finish up with something." Milkdud nodded his head and started working at the other tables.
The purple pony looked at him and continued without missing a beat, “Well you see, while I love coming here, something about this seemed too good, it started to scratch the part of my brain that couldn’t believe nice things in the world can exist. I started monitoring the magic connection for this place, and that’s when I noticed large amounts of data moving whenever you were here, that’s when I decided to hack you, Flim.”
Flim immediately snapped his head up and started to look at the other pony in a whole new light, “Don’t even joke about that type of stuff, you know the punishment for that hacking is severe, I suggest that you leave, now!”
The other pony only sighed, ‘You see, I found out about that website you run, Voodoo warehouse, where you service magic punishment to thousands of paying customers”, pulling a rather thick folder from her bag, she placed it on the table between them, “You see, I decided to gain control of your end network, and now I do, and you see, the person who has the end network, well owns it, and since i’m that pony, i'm the one in control.”
Flim peeked into the folder and to his horror he saw a couple of pics that were just uploaded the other day, closing it quickly he tried to gain back some of his composure, “I need to ask you to leave now!.”
The mare almost giggled, “You see, I thought it could have just been some weird magic advantage stuff, I was really hoping, but sometimes this stuff just goes too far, and I hate it when i’m right.”
Flim looked back sternly, “If you don’t leave now, i’m calling the guards," but the Mare was back with a quick reply, “What do you think they will do when they see the many magic drives with punishment pornography, I think they would be more worried about you then me at that point.”
Flim looked about to pass out, “I didn’t hurt anypony, I just relayed requests to the ponies who made the stuff, that’s all, what do you want?” that’s when his eyes gained back there fury, “Is that what this is about, money, are you blackmailing me.” Flim looked her straight in her eyes, “I’m not giving you any money, if you start asking for it now, you will never stop, I’m not falling for one of your tricks."
The mare got up and started to leave, that’s when Flim got back up and stopped her fast, “Wait, never mind, I’ve changed my mind, please don't get the guards involved, I’ll pay you right now, whatever you want. It’s your’s.”
In the distance it could be heard sirens and they were getting closer.
The mare laughed, and started leaving, “You got it wrong, I never cared about getting money,” As she left, two cop cars pulled up and the mare slipped in with the crowd.
