Upper Crust

It was a bit of a journey back across the city for Stampy, luckily with these dedicated early morning deliveries it meant he went straight to the pickup and back to the depot to drop it off before then going on his usual route.

The smell though, even as he flew across the crisp morning air of Manehattan with his wings beating the aromas of the packed case was permeating his nostrils. All that sugar and lovely baked goodness was a little too tempting and finally he had to set down on the rooftop of a block of flats to step away from the package and get some fresh air.

He was torn. Never in his professional career had he opened a customer's letter or package. It was the number rule at the post office. Under no circumstances was anypony to open anything as priority one was to get it delivered.

But the smell...it was so good! He was in that bakery every day nearly now delivering something. Thank Celestia they got a lot of bills which gave him an excuse to be there and possibly get a freebie. He still hadn’t worked up the courage to actually buy anything.

He peeked at the container. It was well closed up. If he pried it open they’d know he had been sticking his nose in to try to get at the contents. Stampy steeled himself...and got a nose peg out of his postal bag. At least that would maybe make him slobber a little less on his flight back to the depot. He needed to work on his willpower.

-

“Urgghhh…”

The alarm clock was making that horrible noise again. The beeping was...annoying. Cookie almost swiped it off the bedside table in anger as she blinked, looking at the time. It was unfortunately, time to get up.

The extra long day had been tiresome. She had been fine until roughly early afternoon but after that she had just started to feel run down. By the time they had closed up for the night, she had barely managed to walk home and get into bed, hardly paying any attention to Pinny.

It was a second shake from him that roused her. “Come on sleepy head. We need to get in.”

“Can I just say I’m ill today, please?” she asked, rolling over to try to get a few more seconds of precious sleep.

“Now you know that won’t work. Come on. I asked if Doughy could open up for us today so all we have to do is bake when we get there. He seemed happy to.” Pinny said.

This seemed to perk Cookie up a bit, now that she knew there was less work to do. Still groggy, she got up and prepared for the day.

The storefront was open when they arrived. Her and Pinny could see Doughy inside. Although he seemed somewhat preoccupied.

“Looks like he finished cleaning and setting up.” Pinny said, giving the front door a push. It was locked though, he spied the key in the lock from the other side. At that point, he knocked on the glass to try to get Doughy’s attention but the young stallion seemed engrossed in whatever he was doing.

“Hmmm…” was all Pinny said. “DOUGHY!” This was followed by some louder bangs on the door. He was aware though that it was early so tried his best to keep it somewhat quiet and not wake the neighbours. Finally, Doughy perked his head up and came to the door.

“Oh, sorry you two! I never heard you in the back.” he said, unlocked the door from the inside. “I just thought it would keep the bakery secure if I locked myself in.” he explained.

“Indeed, what were you doing?” Cookie asked.

“Oh uh, just sorting some things out in the back, give me a moment to clean up…” but before he could finish, Pinny had already walked past him to see what he was up to. On the counter top was a small pile of sugar with a snout imprinted into the middle.

“Cleaning up sugar with your tongue I see?” Pinny asked.

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry!” Doughy said, suddenly starting to look a bit panicked. He knew they were suspicious. “But, it’s your sugar! What is it!? It’s nothing like I’ve ever had!” he exclaimed.

Pinny looked at Cookie with a raised eyebrow. She just nodded. “I think we should explain…”

It took about thirty minutes to tell Doughy about the sugar, he had a lot of questions but suddenly he realised why they had so many big customers like Clipsy who came by every day. He even mentioned he had noticed after eating it he had put on a few pounds himself, which he had dismissed as just some extra food he had eaten that day having the effect. But it made total sense for why they were so successful.

“We are planning to reduce what we use, but it's been so good for us. We can’t just yet. You’re the only one that knows.” Cookie said.

“I see.” Doughy replied.

“And we’d like it to stay that way. Doughy we like you working for us, we don’t want to lose or the bakery but if this gets out, we’d be ruined.” Cookie continued.

“And we are planning to get rid of it eventually, it’s just we have lots of bills. For the time being, we need to keep using it.” Pinny backed her up with.

“No, I understand. I won’t tell a soul.” Doughy said. He saw them both breath a small sigh of relief. “But, does it not bother you?” he asked.

“Of course it does. In fact we stumbled across it quite by accident. But for the moment we’re just quashing our morals to keep the bakery alive.” Pinny said.

“Well, if you can live with it for now, so can I. But I think at some point you owe Clipsy and the other huge ponies an explanation. I think they suspect something but they’re so addicted they don’t question it and keep coming back.” Doughy said.

“Yes...we will, when the time is right.” Cookie said.

“I’ll get back to work. We open soon.” Doughy said, getting up and moving to his station.

“He took that better than expected, but he has better morals than us.” Pinny said to Cookie.

“He’s a child, they all do.” Cookie said back. “But he’s right, we are going to have to explain at some point.” she said. “Like he said, I am pretty sure Clipsy and the others know there is something making them huge in our food but they just don’t know what and won’t bring it up.” she mused.

“Let's open for the day. We can talk about it tonight. Don’t forget the Princess has a batch of our baking now, that might vindicate us somewhat.” Pinny said.

“With the special sugar…” Cookie replied.

“I know.” was all Pinny said. The two got on with opening up for the day, still tired.