The sun shone over Falmouth, the eye of the large star looking down upon the seaside town with a happy smile. Whether he had his hat on was a mystery that could not be answered owing to his being too far away to see clearly, and nobody had a sufficiently good telescope to take a proper look.

But, down on the seafront, a little scene had developed. Sunny was carrying a big box full of ingredients, and walking alongside her was Argyle, carrying a table and pulling some machinery along in a trolley behind him.

"Good luck, Sunny," Argyle said. "You're first time selling smoothies!"

"Well, with how hot it's been I think the townsfolk could do with some cool drinks," Sunny replied, a smile on her face. "Besides, you taught me how to do this."

Argyle nodded. "That's true. But there's only so much this art can be learned. Sometimes, you need to experiment and see what works with the crowd."

Amongst many things, Argyle had been taught from a young age the importance of financial literacy and maintaining a steady income. As such, he had started a career in selling homemade drinks at school. Part of this was to meet a school need (as owing to budget cuts his school had been forced to reduce its drinks provision), but it was also in line with something his father had taught him.

"It's always important to have your own income," he had told Argyle. "It gives you a firm sense of independence, and allows you to maintain a separate life. Not only that, there's nothing more liberating than earning your own money, as it shows that you're contributing to the world. And we should always aim to leave this world a better place than when we found it."

Argyle had found this lesson immensely useful, and as such had decided he would teach it to Sunny too, when she was old enough. He'd started at the age of eight, so he felt Sunny, who was herself now eight years old, was old enough to learn the tricks of the trade.

Sunny, it turned out, had been all too eager to learn how it was done. Being very familiar with her dad's drinks, she was all too eager to learn how to do it herself, and the father had spent many evening showing her how the machine worked, what to drop in the blending hatch, and other useful tips and tricks.

The first few attempts had been rather interesting, but Argyle remembered he'd been just as ropey when he'd started- many of his early experiments had been so strong (particularly the lemon based drinks he had tested) that people had made all sorts of strange faces, and somebody else had complained of it hurting the backs of his eyes.

So Argyle was patient, and gave Sunny constructive criticism on how to make her drinks better. Eventually, she'd mastered making a strawberry and banana blend (or 'strawnana' as she'd one called it), which was actually pretty tasty.

And so, they felt it was now time to try and sell these items to the crowd. Sunny was keen to do what others would term market research, and see how the crowds reacted to her concoctions, which sold the best, and which performed poorly. The only way to do this was out in public, so off they had gone to the town square.

Argyle had made sure to clear this with the local council, of course, who had approved the request for a street vendor license. To avoid any legal issues the stall was registered in his name, although Sunny of course would be the recipient of the profits- these were her drinks, after all, and not his.

Sunny got to work on putting the box down and unpacking her equipment whilst Argyle set up the table and got the machine configured. He plugged it in at a side box linked to the local power supply, and flipped a switch on the machine to run the cleaning program before use. He always did this before using the machine long term, as otherwise it could lead to problems.

Sunny had finished unpacking her box, and placed all the ingredients on the table before placing the box under the table. "Well, here we go!" she said.

Argyle walked back from the board he'd put up, which had a list of drinks and prices on it. "I'll be here if you run into any problems," he said, with a smile.

Sure enough, people began to walk up and take a look. "What is this?" a woman asked.

"A smoothie stand," Sunny replied. "The board over there has a list of prices and items you can order. Well, items strictly speaking, but-"

"One berry blast, please." The customer then placed some coins down on the table, which Argyle put into a box.

Sunny nodded, and poured some different pre juiced liquids into the hopper. The machine whirred and rolled as liquids were combined, processed, and mixed together to produce a single beverage. Sunny slid the cup out from under the nozzle, added a straw and lid, and handed it over. "Here you go!"

The customer gave it a sip. "It's quite strong, but it's an effective way of waking somebody up in the morning." She then walked away, satisfied with her purchase.

"One banana, please!"

"A strawberry, if you wouldn't mind."

"Raspberry, please!"

"Raspberry and banana, please!"

Sure enough, customers soon began to arrive in larger numbers. Many of them were people who had come into town to do their weekly shopping, and as the stand was there they decided to stop off and check out the stand with the girl making smoothies.

Business was going superbly, and the crowds were generally very happy, even if Phyllis had ordered one, declared the lemon blast disgusting, and compared it to drinking raw sewage.

This confused Sunny. Did Phyllis drink raw sewage on a regular basis? If she did, that might explain why Sprout wasn't such a bright spark (and why his homework was often in his mother's handwriting).

As lunch approached, a problem suddenly broke out. Sunny received two orders at once.

"A lemon berry blast, please!"

And then the same order from somebody else.

"A lemon berry blast, please!"

Sunny looked down into her box, and gulped. In the box for lemon she only had enough to make a single drink. "Houston, we have a problem."

"What's the problem, Sunny?" Argyle asked.

"Two customers have ordered the same drink, but I've only got enough to make one!" Sunny replied. "What should I do?"

Argyle thought for a moment. "The star that burns half as bright burns twice as long."

Sunny thought for a second. Why was her dad telling her about stars when they were dealing with drinks? That made no sense, as-

Wait a second. The star that burns half as bright burns twice as long.

Half as bright. Half as bright and twice as long.

OF COURSE! She had it!

Sunny looked back to the machine and threw a dial which read 'thickness', putting it to the half setting. She then added half the usual amount of lemon juice and mixed in something else to remedy the issue, adding strawberry on top of the other berries she mixed into a lemon berry blast.

Sure enough, two drinks flowed out of the machine, and Sunny handed them over. "Sorry for the delay. Enjoy!"

One customer took a drink, and his face lit up with delight as he tasted the flavour. "That packs quite the punch, but doesn't overdo it. The strawberry nicely offsets the mango too. What do you call this?"

Sunny thought for a second. "Lemon berry blast, a la mode!"

"I'll have what he's drinking!" shouted somebody else.

Later that day, when all was done, Argyle and Sunny packed up the stand and began to head home.

"So, how did you figure out to thin the drinks?" Argyle asked.

Sunny smiled. "Well, you said that the star that burns half as bright burns twice as long. From this, I figured out that I needed to adjust the flow in order to ensure the liquid lasted longer, so I changed the settings on the machine to reduce the flow. In order to compensate for the reduction, I tossed a different drink in there as well."

Argyle smiled. "Well done, Sunny. You're a clever girl."

Sunny looked up. "This was a puzzle?"

Argyle looked ahead as they walked along. "In life, the world often doesn't tell you what to do in any case. But it can give you clues as to how to proceed. All you need to do is fit the pieces of the puzzle together. In this case, you were able to figure out what to do from the clue I gave you."

Sunny smiled. She always wanted to make her parents proud, and sure enough she had done it.

Maybe this whole smoothie selling thing could become a regular fixture.

Author's Note

This chapter is based on Sunny's flashback from Cutie Mark Blossom Bash, and is intended to serve as the origin story for Sunny's smoothie business.

Argyle's story is inspired by Robert is Here, a fruit stand based on Homestead, Florida. The stand was started by Robert Moehling in 1959, who gave the stall its unusual name in an attempt to attract customers. It worked; the store is still going more than 65 years later, and is very popular for its smoothies. I bought one whilst in Florida on a holiday a few years back, and can confirm it was delicious. Robert was also There, which was a nice bonus.