The dusk sky hung over the town of Ponyville. The sun was setting and the ponies of the town were getting ready for any evening tasks they had planned.
At the Castle of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle and her student, Starlight Glimmer, were sitting at a table in the castle’s library, reading over some spell books.
“Wow, who would have thought Acriden’s Method was that complex,” Starlight said. “I know she was notorious for making and conjuring elaborate spells, but goodness gracious, this is something else.”
Twilight averted her eyes from the page she was reading and looked at her student, bearing a small smile on her face. “That’s what I thought when I first started studying Acriden,” Twilight admitted. “But once you get it, it’s easy as apple pie.”
Starlight chuckled to that, but her tummy started to rumble a bit. She put her book down and rubbed the spot that grumbled. “Heh, guess mentioning apple pie made me hungry.”
“Well, Spike should’ve started cooking dinner. I doubt it would be too lo-” The doors of the library opened up, cutting off Twilight. Walking into the room was the drake himself.
“Um, Twilight, small problem,” he said, putting his index claw a couple of centimeters above his thumb.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I was about to get dinner ready, but I noticed a lack of something.” He paused for a moment and then continued with, “Ingredients. Did you go grocery shopping today?”
Twilight looked down at the ground and brought a hoof to her chin. She replayed her day in her head. For the entire morning, she was helping Applejack at her farm. By noon, Pinkie Pie needed Twilight to test a new cupcake flavor. (For the record, the very idea of chili-chipotle-cherry-chonga cupcakes should be banned) After that horrendous taste test, she was on her way to get groceries, but Mayor Mare ran into her and needed help with some trade proposals. And that took up the entire afternoon! By the time she was done, she was too exhausted to do anything else.
“Shoot!” she exclaimed, stomping a hoof on the ground. “Sorry Spike, Mayor Mare had me tied up in something at a moment’s notice and that took much longer than I thought.”
“So...” Starlight spoke up. “What now?”
Twilight looked up at a clock that hung in the library. The time read: 6:15. “Late time to go grocery shopping. Hmm.” She brought her hoof back to her chin, and rubbed it in thought. After a few moments, she got an idea. “Hayburger anyone? I’ll buy.”
Starlight and Spike looked to the Princess of Friendship and then to each other. Simultaneously, they shrugged.
“Well, I don’t see why not,” Starlight said.
“I’m cool with it,” Spike admitted. “Kind of been craving their fries lately, if I’m being honest.”
“Alright, it’s settled,” Twilight said, putting her book on the table and getting out of her seat. “Hayburger it is.”
As the trio arrived to the fast food restaurant, the smell of fried hay and french fries assaulted their nostrils in fatty delight.
“Oh, I know what I’m getting,” Spike said, tone showing he was ready to chow down on some food. “I’m going to get a double hay burger, tall order of fries, a cool, tall cup of lemon soda, and of course some ice cream.”
“What do you think you’ll get, Starlight?” Twilight asked her student.
“Hmm, I’m thinking the Big Hay Back burger,” Starlight started off, “medium fries and drink, and some ice cream to go with it as well. What about you Twilight?”
“I’m going to get my usual,” she said. “Five hayburgers, medium drink and small fries. But I think I’m going to get some ice cream as well, to mix it up a bit.”
Starlight let out a quick chuckle, then the three approached the front counter, where a young mare happily greeted them, pad and pen at the ready.
“Hello,” she pleasantly said. “How can I help you?”
“Yes, can I get five hayburgers, medium soda, small fries and ice cream for me? The Big Hay Back burger with medium fries and drink along with ice cream for her? And a double hayburger, large fries, large lemon soda and ice cream for Spike.”
The worker got all of that down on her notepad, then looked up to the three with an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry guys, ice cream machine broke.”
Amid hearing those four dreaded words, Spike threw his head back with groan and the two mares lowered their heads, simultaneously sighing.
“Still?” the two mares and dragon chorus.
“Yep,” the worker replied, deadpan-like.
“Okay,” Spike started off, “about a week ago, Starlight and Trixie came in here and when they got back to the castle, they told me the machine was broke then. A couple weeks ago, when I came here with Minuette, the machine was broke then. And going back way more than a year ago, when Twilight was having ‘Twilight Time’ with the crusaders, the machine was, you guessed it, broke. How is it still broken?”
“Why were you here with Minuette?” Starlight asked, looking directly at the drake with a raised eyebrow.
His cheeks started to flush red. He looked down at the floor and scratched the back of his neck. “Um...I-I-I, well...we’ll talk about that later.” Spike moved his eyes back to the Hayburger employee. There are more important issues than Spike’s love life. “How have you guys not fixed it yet?”
“I’m really sorry about this, guys,” the mare said. “We’ve been sending letters to corporate ever since it broke, telling them somepony needs to come by and fix it. They haven’t responded to us.”
“Can’t you get someone local to look at it?” Starlight asked.
“According to company policy, we’re not allowed to. Someone has to be hired by the Hayburger corperation to come and fix it.”
The three let out a sigh. It looks like their craving for a frozen dairy treat won't be satisfied today.
“Our slurpee machine is working though,” the hayburger employee pointed out. “And those are a couple bits cheaper than the ice cream.”
“Hmm....” Twilight hummed in thought. Though it may not be the frozen treat she was looking for, a slurpee does sound pretty good right about now. “Slurpees okay with you guys?”
“I’m alright with it,” Starlight said.
“What the hay? Why not?” Spike said smiling. The lack of ice cream was not putting a damper on his happiness.
Twilight smiled and looked back to the mare. “Okay, we’ll take the slurpees.”
“Okay, so your orders without the ice cream and with slurpees in place comes out to be twenty five bi-”
“OH COME ON!!” another pony shouted behind the worker. The four looked to the source of the shouting and saw a male worker slamming down the lever of the slurpee machine. He banged his other hoof on the front and sides of the machine, hoping some slush would come out. But to his disappointment, nothing came out. “Perfect,” he sarcastically mumbled.
The female worker let out a sigh of disbelief. She knew what she had to say to the three in front of her, they themselves sharing looks of disbelief. “So…” she started off. “About those slushies.”
“Let me guess,” the trio chorused. “Slurpee machine broke.” To that, the Hayburger employee nodded. The only thing Twilight, Starlight and Spike could do was just hang their heads low, disappointed that they could not get some sort of frozen treat today.
