Not everypony can spend their days battling the forces of evil and restoring harmony to Equestria. Not everypony's lives can be filled to the brim with ridiculous adventure. They can't occupy every moment with excitement. However, they can try. Some moments are still really great.
This was not one of those moments.
Nitro Rush sat slumped back on his couch, eating ramen noodles and eyeing the TV. This TV, in particular, was off. Well, everything in his house was turned off at the moment; his power was out. That was the reason his noodles were raw. In fact, they were an uncooked block of those instant-noodles that just need to be boiled, and he was just munching on it. He was weird like that.
"Sweet makers, this sucks," he finally muttered to himself. He'd been home for hours after getting back from his job at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory hours ago and he'd just been sitting there in the dark since. "Why is this only my house," he complained to himself. "This stuff only happens to me." He rolled his eyes and took another bite from his ramen block, and proceeded to spit it out. "And this tastes disgusting." He put the block down on the coffee table in front of his couch and sighed. He propped his head up on his pearly white hooves and thought.
He had two options: wait for the power to come back, which would take forever, or fly down to his Ponyville friends to seek refuge. Refuge and food. He really wanted to get something significant to eat. "So, food and temporary housing," he said. "WELP!" he yelled, bounding off the sofa and accidentally knocking over the coffee table, "I know where I'm going! Winkle and Tart are sure to help me out." With that, he rummaged around his living room for his favorite personal items: his pointy anime-style sunglasses which he adored so very much, and a pale teal hoodie. Slipping the hoodie on, having difficulty with his streamlined, slicked-back spiky multi-toned white and blue mane, he headed out the door.
And fell for thirty feet.
His house was, in fact, built on the edge of Cloudsdale with the door facing outwards, so there was no patio or anything. Walk out the door and fall to your death. Unless, of course, you're a pegasus. Nitro spread out his wings and glided for a couple seconds before beating them a few times and preforming an air-loop. When that was done, he angled himself downwards and dived for Ponyville. The wind curled around him and stung his indigo eyes, watering them up, but he didn't care. A stream of blue fire trailed behind him, and he sped up to his top speeds. His target was in sight. He was going straight for Checker Shake's Diner, named after the late unicorn Checker Shake, who founded the diner. It was now owned by his nephew, Winklesnap. Hey, not every family of ponies has similar names . With the diner in sight, Nitro did one last air loop for dramatic effect and dived straight for it.
***TRANSITION***
Now! Getting to the diner.
It was another average day at Checker Shake's Diner. Well, average night. Celestia's sun was waning for the day, and some ponies were still straggling in for a late dinner or treat. Some ponies were sipping on malts and shakes, the diner's specialties, while others were enjoying delicious sandwiches. Everything was hoof-crafted with utmost attention for detail; everything had to be perfect, and usually, it was.
Winklesnap, the owner and chief chef of the establishment, sat behind the front counter, stirring up a chocolate shake for an eager filly. Topping it with homemade whipped cream and a ripe cherry, he handed the tall glass to the orange pegasus on the other side of the counter. "Now, careful, Scootaloo," he said, "ya don't wanna give yourself a brain freeze!" The laughed a bit, and Winkle patted Scootaloo on the head. "Now, run back to your friends." Scootaloo nodded, taking a sip of the shake, and hurried back over to Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom, already half-way through their shakes. Eyeing the three fillies, and the sisters of Sweetie and Bloom who had excorted the three to the diner, he smiled. "Ah,childhood." He took another look at their older sisters. "I wonder where Scootaloo comes from..."
"Yo Winkle!" Crude Tart shouted from across the room. Taking an order he had wrote down, he folded a paper airplane and chucked it at the cook. The sheet got caught up in white unicorn's unruly red-and-white mohawk-like, but he pulled it out with a touch of unicorn magic, the same shade of purple s his eyes.
"Try to be more polite, Tart," Winkle said. He read the order, two strawberry shakes and two cabbage sandwiches with peppers, and put in the pocket of his red apron, getting to work on the order right away. Taking a loaf and a knife, he cut four slices or whole-grain bread, followed by chopping up the peppers. He flamboyantly tossed the peppers onto the bread slices, lading each one - no magic required - and then pulled out a head of cabbage. He took some cabbage from it and tossed them into the mix in the same fashion, and then flipped the top slice of bread onto them. In one final show, he lifted the sandwiches into the air, holding them in place magically, and pulled out his hoof-made mayo-blaster.
Oh yeah.
Removing the top slice again, he blaster both sandwiches with a dollop of mayo, then flipped the bred back down. He brought the perfections back down and set them on the table, and moved onto the shakes. He looked up for a moment and noticed a few ponies were clapping after his little show.
"I wanna try THAT tomorrow!" he heard one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders yell.
He took out two glasses, an ice cream scooper, a mixing spoon, and a big bowl. He took three scoops of strawberry ice cream out of the strawberry carton behind the counter and dropped them into the bowl. He added a few cups of milk and fresh strawberries. He took the spoon and stirred it strongly for a couple minutes. Pouring it into two, tall glasses, Winklesnap added whipped cream, and put a cherry on top of each. "Hey Tart!" he called. "I've got the order for the lovely mares at table seven." He said the last part while turning to the two mares seated at said table, giving them a wink. The two giggled back.
Crude Tart looked back to his coworker. "Can't get it, cleaning," he growled, cleaning up one of the tables that was left incredibly filthy. He mumbled something in audible to himself, flicking some dirt out of his pale blue and yellow mane.
"Okay then," Winkle said back. "I'll bring them their order myself~!" He placed the sandwiches and shakes on a platter, and came out from be hind the counter, his candy-cane tail trailing behind him. He trotted over to table seven, and placed the platter down. "Your sandwiches and shakes, ladies," he said, smiling.
"Why thank you, Mr. Snap," one them replied, returning his smile to him. "They look delicious, don't they, Lyra?" she said
"Why yes they do, Bon Bon!" the second one said, looking up to Winklesnap with her golden eyes. "Also, we are lesbians, so don't try an flirting." She smiled at him.
Winkle's eyebrow twitched bit, but he remained unshaken. "What would make you think I'd try anything like that on the job?" He turned and walked back to the counter.
The two giggled. "Because he's a notorious flirt?" one whispered to the other.
Winkle glanced back to them for a second, and then rolled his sparkling red eyes. "Drat," he said to himself. "Should have known."
Just after that, a familiar blue and white pegasus threw open the doors and screamed, "FOOD!" Everypony turned their attention to the new - and also very loud - arrival. "I. NEED. FOOD!"
From behind the counter, Winklesnap laughed at his friend, and many other ponies in the diner joined in the chorus of laughter, except Crude Tart. Having finish cleaning the table, he was pouring a coffee for an older earth pony near the front of the diner. "Ha ha ha," he said dryly.
"No need to yell, Nitro," Winkle chuckled.
Rushing over to the counter, he forcefully planted his front hooves on it. "Number Five, now." he demanded, shooting Winkle a glare.
Winkle chuckled at his friend again. "Double-Decker Mushroom and Swiss, with a chocolate shake," he said. "Only you could down both of those and not get sick." He shook his head and laughed again.
"I need the energy," Nitro said, shrugging his wings. "I burn a lot of calories flying. Pegasi need a lot of food and energy."
Tart sigh could be heard from across the room. "You've told us before," he sneered.
Nitro Rush and Winklesnap both rolled their eyes. "Coming right up," Winkle said, getting to work on the sandwich and shake.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Nitro said, putting his hooves together. "I'm starving! Also my power's out and I need to stay in your house."
Winkle attempted a spit-take, but failed miserably because he wasn't drinking anything. "Wait, what?"
"I said, I'm starving," Nitro repeated.
"No, the other part," Winklesnap groaned.
"Oh yeah. Power's gonna be gone for a while. Can I stay in your place?"
Winkle sighed. "Sure, I suppose. Take the guest room," he said, chopping a large mushroom.
Winklesnap did, in fact, live upstairs from his restaurant. A spiral staircase was featured in the back of the diner, leading
up to his abode. There was a living room, kitchen, because he never mad his own meals in the diner, his bedroom, a guest bedroom, and a room with a big pool table. Nopony ever really knew why he put it in there; Winklesnap didn't even play pool. Crude Tart's residence was just a minute away from the restaurant. He lived in a simple house, and it was one of the few homes in Ponyville that wasn't designed to look like some bad visual gag or made out of tree.
"Thank you thank you!" Nitro said happily, smiling a big sugary smile.
Winklesnap smiled back. "You're welcome," he said. "So, uh, have you seen Loudspeaker lately?" Winkle asked, putting swiss cheese and assorted veggies onto the mushroom sandwich.
Nitro shook his head. "Can't say I have," he said. "But I think he had some science-thingy or something."
Winkle shrugged. "Makes sense," he said. "I wonder what kind of blotched invention he was displaying this time," he thought out loud.
"Dunno," Nitro answered.
"Slime."
Winkle, Nitro, and Tart turned to familiar face. A golden-yellow unicorn trotted through the door, adjusting his glasses. He had a two-toned black and neon-green mane the fell in front of his eyes. "I was testing a sort of solid gel, like jell-o but more firm, that was supposed to act as a shape-holding substance that could be molded into different shapes. Instead, it just blew up." He sighed.
"You and slime," Tart muttered. "What happened last time? A bouncy gel that expanded and almost ate you.?" he snickered.
Loudspeaker rolled his eyes. "Don't remind me," he mumbled.
"Here to order anything?" Winkle asked, finished making the sandwich and starting on the shake.
Loudspeaker shook his head and sighed. "Just coming in to tell you guys how it went," he replied.
"Stick to AIs," Nitro suggested. "The last one worked."
"Barely," he groaned. "I got a light bulb that could take orders."
"And it'd work here," Tart started, "if it hadn't blown up like everything you invent."
Loudspeaker rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut up."
"Aaaaaaaand... DONE!" Winkle cheered, giving the sandwich and shake to Nitro. "That'll be 7 bits!"
"Um..." Nitro bit his lip. "I... I don't have any money."
Winkle's eyebrow twitched, but Loudspeaker took a few coins out and gave him the money.
"Thanks, Loud," Nitro said, relieved. "Say... If all your inventions fail, where do you get your money?"
"I wrote a book," he said with a shrug. Nitro nodded and started on his meal. Looking around, he noticed that everypony seemed to be filing out of the diner.
"Closing time already?" Winkle said to himself, looking up at his clock.
"YES!" Crude Tart cheered from across the room. "Finally! I get to go home!
The other three rolled their eyes. "Lock up on your way out," Winkle said, taking his apron off magically. "Nitro, feel free to stay and finish, but if you take the food into the house and make a mess, you will die." He smiled kindly at his friend. "Loudspeaker, sorry to hear about all that. I suggest you go home and get to work on some new crazy invention. Don't give up!"
"NEVER!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, which was very loud. He turned and walked out the front door, waving goodbye. "See you guys later!" He was followed by Crude Tart who, mumbling something to himself, locked the door behind him after hanging his apron up.
Winkle turned back to Nitro who, somehow, already finished his entire meal. "Wait... How... You know what? I don't even care." He shoo his head and laughed.
Nitro burped. "You know me!" he said with a chuckle. "I'm gonna go find that guest bed. Kay?"
Winkle shrugged. "Go ahead. Just have to clean up a bit. Then I was going to make myself a dinner, but you already te, so--"
"I'll eat again."
"Of course you will," Winkle chuckled.
So Nitro Rush went up to the guest bedroom to check out where he'd be sleeping until his power was back. Winkle went ahead with closing up for the night: he had to wash some final dishes, collect the last checks from the tables, and put everything away. So they both did that.
And, with that, a cliche exposition for a possibly very bad all-OC fic that probably wouldn't have a steady plot was set up. Hooray!
