Upper Crust

“Morning you three.”

Stampy had become accustomed now to referring to the bakers as ‘You three’ rather than ‘You two’. Doughy had practically become part of the family at this point. Besides, the young stallion was always there when he walked through the door at the early hours to deliver their mail. Thankfully, today his round got him to the bakery hours before they were due to open so there was no crowd to fight through.

“Good morning Stampy.” Pinny said. He hardly looked up from his prep work as Stampy placed a number of letters on the counter.

“Bills and a special looking one...again.” he said. “What is it you guys are doing to garner all this attention huh?”

“Well I hope this one is at least good news.” Pinny said. He took the letters and sifted through the find the aforementioned one.

“I’d stick around to find out what it is again but I’ve got more mail to deliver. Let me know tomorrow!” Stampy said, the door closing behind him with a familiar click.

“Who’s that one from?” Cookie asked.

“Not sure, it bears the royal seal but a different colour.” Pinny said. “It’s more a sort of purple, pinky colour.”

Cookie stopped what she was doing to take a look, trying to ascertain which part of royalty the seal belonged to. Then she had the thought to look at the return address. “Ponyville Castle.” she said. “But not from Twilight.”

Pinny didn’t even bother to ask this time, he just opened and started to read the letter.

“Dear owners/owner of Upper Crust Bakery in Manehattan.” he began. “Clearly, they don’t know anything about us.” he commented, before continuing on with the letter. “I am writing to you as a concerned friend. My name is Starlight Glimmer, Counselor at The School of Friendship and more importantly, Twilight’s Sparkle’s student. As of the past few weeks, I have watched my friend grow to a size of what seems utterly impossible proportions. She has gained more weight than I thought it possible to gain for a pony. This only came to light recently as she has locked herself away in a room in the castle since her return from her trip to Manehattan. I am telling you this because she has become distant also which worries me greatly. The only thing getting through to her at the moment are almost daily boxes of your treats that appear to be delivered from your bakery. Therefore, I am asking you to come to Ponyville to explain what has happened to my good friend before I send for some of the Royal Guard to fetch you and bring you here. I hope you can make the trip soon and tell us why our friend now competes with an elephant for her size. Yours, Starlight Glimmer.”

Pinny took a moment to pause. “The letter ends there. I’d say that was rather calm considering what she’s witnessed, but also rather definite and obvious what she wants.”

“Oh gosh...this is awful. I knew something was happening to Twilight back in Ponyville. We’ve been sending her so many boxes…” Cookie started to say. “And a trip to Ponyville!? We’ll have to shut the bakery. Plus with The Mayor coming this is the worst timing.” she said, starting to panic. “And what do we even say!?”

“The truth. We said yesterday that when The Mayor visits we’d tell the truth. So we go to Ponyville and tell them the same thing.” Pinny said.

“Well, at least we should send them a letter back saying we will be on the way as soon as possible. Tell them The Mayor of the city is visiting us shortly and we’ll head to Ponyville as soon as the visit is over.” Cookie said. “That should at least buy us some time.”

“Do we keep sending Princess Twilight boxes in the meantime?” Pinny asked.

“I don’t think we can stop doing that, she might suspect something if we do.” Cookie mused. “Better keep sending them. We can send tonight’s batch with the letter. Just address it to Starlight Glimmer.”

Pinny found a quiet spot in the back of the store, he hoped as Cookie said it would buy them some time.

-

Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, as per normal the next morning there was a knock at the castle door and two boxes of treats from Upper Crust Bakery waiting outside when Spike opened the door. Curiously however, there was a letter also addressed to Starlight. The mare had not left the castle along with the rest of Twilight's friends who still intended to confront her. Spike brought the letter and the boxes to her.

“You’ve got a little time, Twilight won’t expect the delivery for another thirty minutes or so.” Spike said. “There’s a letter.” which he handed to Starlight.

“Thank you Spike.” the rest crowded around her as she started to read to listen.

“Dear Starlight Glimmer. We understand why you have gotten in contact with us. We thought it best to send another delivery today along with this letter, hoping it would be intercepted by castle staff and brought to you. Your concern is not unwarranted. There is something special about our baking but as requested, we will explain all when we visit Ponyville as soon as we can. We are expecting a visit from The Mayor of Manehattan any day now and we must attend to that first, but rest assured once this is dealt with, we shall shut our bakery (at great expense to ourselves) and heed your summons to Ponyville. We will send another letter the day before we are due to travel. Yours, Rolling Pin and Cookie Crumble of Upper Crust Bakery, Manehattan.” Starlight read.

“Hah! Oldest trick in the book, they’re just trying to buy time.” Rainbow Dash said. “Did you really ask them to come here?”

“Yes, I thought best we could show them what their baking has done to Twilight.” Starlight said. “I was maybe a little forceful, I did say if they didn’t we’d send Guards to get them…”

“That might have been a little too far Starlight. These ponies may not even know what they’ve done wrong. Besides it sounded sincere, I think they’ll come.” Rarity said.

“I think they know very well what they’re doing wrong.” Starlight said. “Here.” the mare said, she pulled out a copy of The Ponyville Gazette, which had been delivered before the bakery delivery. None of the others had wanted to read it.

“Mayor Mare elected for another term in office…” Pinkie Pie read. “Well, that’s not unusual silly! We voted for her!”

“No not that, go to ‘International’ further in.” Starlight said, Rarity flicking the pages to get there. Not many ponies read this part of the paper, it was always very small print to cram as much in about what was happening in the wider world. Starlight pointed to the Manehattan section.

“Baking Business. Upper Crust Bakery today unveiled rather unorthodox advertising by hauling an unnamed pony of extreme weight around the city to market their products. More to follow as this develops.” Applejack read.

“See. I only spotted it because I was looking to see if anything of note was happening in the city. I think this is all on purpose and Twilight has gotten wrapped up in it.” Starlight said.

“You think they’re gonna ask to mount Twilight on a cart and haul her around Ponyville?” Rainbow Dash said with a dismissive rasp. “Come on Starlight, they’re in Manehattan. Twilight did have that visit, maybe she just stopped there for lunch.”

“I don’t know, that’s why I’ve asked them here. We need to find out what’s going on. I think best to let them get here and explain.” Starlight said.

“But Starlight, if we stop giving Twilight the deliveries, she’ll get suspicious before we can confront her.” Spike said. The rest nodded their heads in agreement.

“As much as it pains me to say it, Spike, keep giving her the boxes. She’ll just have to gain a little more weight before those two get here. Come fetch us all as soon as you get the follow up letter saying they are heading to Ponyville. I will meet them at the train station personally.” Starlight said. “For now, let's all go home. Spike, if Twilight gets much larger...I may have to intervene before they arrive.”

The six left the castle, worried but at least reassured they’d know what was happening to Twilight, eventually.

Back at Upper Crust, the impending official visit was the first problem to deal with. Monday would roll around quickly.