Upper Crust

Cookie and Pinny had done their best. They had told all their larger regulars about the new addition to the store and showed them where it was. They had even had a small metal sign printed to go outside with an arrow that had a small picture of the logo with the following wording:

Guzzle and Go window now open!

It also sported a cute chibi style image of a rather round looking pony, indicating it was for larger customers. The additional till had arrived in the past few days, it had given Pinny and Cookie time to train their new hire on it.

“Rising Dough? Sorry just one more thing…” Cookie started to say. They had decided to go for the young stallion, feeling that his background already working from a young age in another bakery gave him a big advantage. He could learn the rest of what he needed to do and help out around the kitchen. So far he had only been in for a few days as the part of the bakery he was supposed to be working in wasn’t actually open yet, but he had been quite helpful already in taking some of the workload off both of them.

“Yes? Something else you want to show me?” the stallion asked.

“No, ask you actually. Do you have well, a shorter version of your name we could refer to you as? Rising Dough seems so formal. Like I go by Cookie and Rolling Pin is Pinny.” Cookie asked, watching as he thought for a moment.

“Well...sometimes the colts at school would tease me and call me Doughy because I have a little pudge but that’s all I can think of, plus I thought it was mean…” he trailed off, thinking on the nickname.

“Well, we’ll call you whatever you like. I like Doughy though, it rolls off the tongue rather easily. And we’d never use it negatively, unless it bothers you?” she asked smiling at him and giving him an almost motherly pat on the head to try to reassure him.

“I don’t mind trying it, it has been a while since anyone used it.” he said. “Do you mind if I just make sure the till is all good to go one last time? I know we’re opening soon.” he asked.

“Of course dear, be my guest. Oh - here. This will be your first order. I can guarantee Clipsy is first in your line and will be wanting her bags. She’ll probably already have the money prepared. Now do you remember the system?”

“Yes it seems easy enough, take their order and money. Shout it out, if either of you is too busy to fetch it I can get it myself, but I’m still not sure where everything goes…” he confessed. Again Cookie just smiled, he had only been here a few days so she was well aware he didn’t know where all the baked goods went yet. He was probably still used to his family bakery as well.

“That’s why you call out, we can show you and if you’re unsure and we’re busy just ask. Never too busy to show you where things are. Anyway. I am going to open up. When you’re ready, open your hatch and start taking orders dear.” Cookie said, making her way to the front door to unlock it. It was a little strange not seeing Clipsy at the front of the queue, today it was occupied by a rather normal looking stallion in some business attire waiting to get in to order. In fact the whole queue was missing any ponies of considerable size. All Cookie could do was assume her telling them and putting the new sign out had worked and they were all around the side of the building, she couldn’t help just taking a sneaking look around the side for herself, as the hatch was just behind where the glass for the shop front ended it was hard to see the size of the queue.

But there they were, as she expected. Doughy had a queue five or so ponies, each of them taking up a considerable portion of the sidewalk with as expected, Clipsy at the front chattering away to him. She could see the transaction had already been made and Clipsy was holding her bags of treats, but obviously not having met the new employee yet wanted to talk to him. As Cookie came back inside she could hear him. It was rather cute, Doughy was being as polite as possible an answering her questions but could tell by his tone and short answers he was trying to move her on so other waiting customers could order, with Clipsy wilfully and quite happily ignoring all these verbal cues.

“Yes ma’am, I come from another bakery.”

“Oh which one!? I tried a few before I found this place.”

“Uhm, The Bread Box? It is run by my family.”

“Oh I know that place! They make great breads! It’s in the name after all!” Clipsy happily replied. It was at this point Cookie decided to intervene.

“Hi Clipsy! Having a good morning!?” Cookie happily greeted her with at the Guzzle and Go window. “Here, thought you might want to try this, something new! I’d be really interested to hear your feedback!” Cookie said, pushing a small biscuit her way, which Clipsy immediately took and then made a step off to the side to eat. This allowed Doughy to serve the next customer.

“Tip one.” Cookie whispered in his ear. “The larger ones can be bribed to move on, in fact I think Clipsy knows this and does it on purpose…”

Doughy just smiled and nodded, turning his attention back to the next customer and started shouting out orders from the window. The system seemed to be working nicely, his voice was nice and clear and he wasn’t afraid to let both of them know what the customer at the window wanted. Mostly large but fairly standard orders. As soon as one of them heard it and they were free, they’d bring it to the window. Cookie was taking a rough time estimate in her head for each order and it was about on par with them coming into the store. But it was never about serving the fat ones faster, it was about keeping them out the store so it didn’t slow up the ordering process for ponies who could still fit inside. In that respect, it seemed to be working. At the end of day she asked Pinny how they had done.

“Well I won’t lie, it seems to have worked, we’ve made a good amount of extra bits today. Seems that young Doughy is earning his keep.” he said, having added the money from the main till and Doughy’s till together.

“Well that’s good news, I suppose just keep in mind he had to bribe a few more beyond Clipsy to move on and stop yakking asking him questions. But once I told him about it and he was okay to do it, he seemed quite happy to slip them an extra cake or something.” Cookie replied. “Anyway you keep counting, I’ll just see how he’s doing.”

Cookie made her way over to the now closed window, where Doughy was sitting and just staring at the till. “Sorry.” he started to say. “Just making sure I still know where everything is, iI want to make sure I’m doing it right.”

“Well judging by our takings today I’d say you are.” Cookie said reassuringly. “So how do you like it, do you still want to stay with us and work here?”

“Oh yes! I’m enjoying interacting with uh, the larger of your customers. I have to ask why are they so big? I’ve seen big ponies in the city, even sometimes in our own bakery but that one Clipsy, I’m was uh, I guess impressed? She was so huge.”

Cookie wasn’t quite ready to tell him everything yet, but from that question she could tell he thought something might have been pulling them back here. For now, she decided a small half-truth would be the way to handle it.

“They just really like our baking, we put a little extra into it. It pays off.” Cookie explained. Doughy just replied with a “Huh.” and accepted it, for now. He spent a few more moments staring at the till and then hopped off his small seat. “Is there anything else you want me to do before I leave?” he asked.

“No, I think we can handle it from here. Oh, do you want to be paid daily, weekly or monthly? We don’t mind as long as we have enough to give you.” Pinny replied.

“Do you mind daily? It would be nice to take something home to my family…” Doughy said.

“Of course not, here.” Pinny said, pushing a small pile of bits his way. “This is your daily amount, don’t spend it all at once.” he joked.

With a “Thank you!” Doughy took his payment and left for the day, trotting out the front door towards home.

As they finished tidying up and preparing for tomorrow, Cookie had to ask Pinny.

“So?”

“So what?”

“We’re keeping him right?”

“Of course, he had a few moments but they were all minor. It’s to be expected starting something new. I think he’ll fit in well. He seems to like you.” Pinny said.

“Oh stop, I think he just likes affection. Maybe he feels homesick slightly as well. It can be tough being away from family even if it’s just for part of the day to work.” Cookie said.

“I heard him ask about our larger customers too, I think it was a good call what you said. If he sticks around and we can trust him we can tell him the truth at some point.” Pinny mused to himself.

“Or he might find out on his own. In any case, we’ll speak to him about it when the time is right.”

With the bakery now a three pony team it was definitely starting to feel more like a family. Cookie hadn’t even had a chance to read today’s paper, which as per usual Pinny had picked up early in the morning. She flicked through it as he finished counting the money and doing a little cleaning. One article however caught her eye, in fact she remembered Pinny mentioning it quite a few months ago.

Royal Visit by Princess Twilight Sparkle Announced!

The article detailed a list of districts the Princess would visit during a short one week trip to the city. Bronclyn was on it.