Upper Crust

Cookie slumped down onto the seat of the passenger car of the train. The old, worn seating had never felt so comfortable.

It had been an utterly exhausting few weeks. Non-stop baking and sorting out how to get the town supplied as well as working out some sort of deal with towns ponies to set up shop there. All in all, she was actually a little surprised everything had only taken two weeks. It was mostly lucky that Pinkie Pie was such a good baker and she picked everything up so quickly that they were able to move onto other important tasks to get it all sorted out.

Pinny had taken the seat opposite her. He looked just as tired out.

‘How do you think things are going back in Manehattan?’ she asked.

‘I assume okay seeing as the bakery has been shut, I had a message from Doughy a few days ago. He said whilst a lot of customers were upset at first they understood, in most cases anyway. Apparently one tried to get inside but were too wide for the door, one of the regulars.’ he said with a small chuckle. ‘Police had to grease them out.’

‘I suppose it could have been worse.’ Cookie replied. ‘Do you think Ponyville will be okay?’

‘Well, we’ve just addicted a town to treats laden with the sugar to make things easier for us. If I was being moral I’d say absolutely not, but I think my morals left me a few months ago.’ Pinny replied with a sigh. ‘In the long run, everypony in Equestria is going to get fat. You know it as well as I know it.’

‘Yeah. I know.’ Cookie said. She had a look out the window, the train had been moving for a little while and the landscape was rolling by. She spotted Canterlot off in the distance. ‘Princess approval would be a real boon too, seeing as we already have one on board.’

Pinny saw where on the landscape her eyes were connecting to. ‘I see your morals have made an escape also. Yes it would, it would certainly make accepting eating the treats much easier. I think Ponyville is going to have some resistance once a lot of the townsponies realise what is going on.’ he said.

‘I’m sure eventually they’ll come around. I actually feel bad for Pinkie Pie, she has a lot of baking to do.’ Cookie said.

‘She was already looking into help before we left, didn’t you know?’ Pinny replied.

‘No I didn’t. The Cakes?’ she asked

‘And a few others I think. She’s more passionate about baking than you are.’ Pinny retorted. He watched Cookie’s nose scrunch and smiled.

‘Don’t compare me to that cotton-candy mess. By Celestia it was like trying to teach a hyperactive child, on steroids, having a good time! If you know what I mean.’ she finished.

‘I do know, what did you think to the rest of them?’ Pinny asked her.

‘Well, we hardly saw them except when they wanted to pick up orders. Starlight was the one around the most. She was quite officious. I think she is eager to make her own stamp on things with her mentor Twilight looking over her, not that Twilight did much of that as she was mostly eating.’ Cookie replied.

‘Mmmm true. The rest were certainly unique in their own way.’ Pinny said.

‘Quite. I’m just glad to be going home. I want to get back to our normal routine and re-open. I’m fed up with Royalty, or official visits from senior members of the city.’ Cookie said. ‘Sometimes I wish we’d never found that damn sugar.’

‘But we did, and we’re where we are now so we have to deal with it, which we are doing. There’s always that option to drop it you know.’ Pinny replied. ‘We could get rid of it at any time you like.’

‘That brings a bigger problem though, the fallout of when we do. No, we’ve chosen this path and I’m sticking with it, come hell or high water.’ Cookie firmly stated.

‘Suit yourself. Probably for the best what with everything we have done.’ Pinny replied.

It was a long ride back to Manehattan and Pinny was just about to shut his eyes for a couple of hours when he spied the ticket mare coming down the carriage. ‘Oh, tickets.’ he said, watching Cookie start to root around in her saddlebags before producing a pair. The ticket mare approached and simply asked ‘Tickets please.’ which Cookie hoofed over to her. The mare stamped them but stood for a moment watching the pair.

‘Is there something else? A problem with the tickets?’ Pinny asked.

‘No...you two just look familiar.’ The mare said, continuing to look at them. ‘You live in Manehattan?’ she asked.

‘Yes we run a bakery.’ Cookie replied.

‘THAT’S where I know you from! Upper Crust!’ the mare blurted out. ‘My sister has been just non-stop recommending your place to eat. She showed me a picture of the two of you in the paper from that review you got a while back.’

‘Oh well, that’s good to know. I’d give you something but we don’t exactly carry cookies on demand. Your sister likes our baking?’ Pinny asked.

‘Likes it? She’s one of your regulars. Although she’s kinda unrecognisable now to me, put on quite a few pounds. But as long as she’s happy I suppose. The extra weight makes for nice hugs.’ The ticket mare smiled. ‘Anyhow, I need to check more tickets. Nice to meet you both!’ she said, vanishing down the carriage to check on more ponies.

‘That was...odd.’ Cookie said.

‘I suppose it’s to be a little expected, we’re becoming celebrities in our own right. Ponies know of the bakery and what we’re doing.’ Pinny replied.

‘Yeah...I’ve just never had a pony approach us and talk to us like that before. It feels kinda weird getting attention for baking.’ Cookie said.

Pinny laughed a little. ‘As opposed to all the other attention we’ve been getting over the months?’

‘Well, you know what I mean. That was different attention. It was almost like fan attention. Wait, do we have fans?’ she asked.

‘I mean I suppose. Clipsy is our biggest one.’ Pinny mused. ‘Just don’t be surprised if that happens again in the future.

‘Alright, anyway I am going to...yawn...try to sleep a little. How long until we arrive back in Manehattan?’ Cookie asked.

‘Couple of hours at least.’ Pinny replied.

‘Just enough time for a nap then.’ Cookie said, shutting her eyes. Pinny joined her. It was good to rest. He did hope that it would be easy for Pinkie Pie to get Ponyville on board with the treats. Once that was accomplished, all they had to worry about then was well, moving forward. He was quite interested to see what the future would bring once they got home.