A Pony...And Her Starbucks

Chapter 7: The Slippery Slope

It was yet another perfect day today. I didn't know what it was but I felt like today was going to be a good day. I started to awake, and I opened my eyes to see that Stella as well as her mother were still sleeping from last night. We were just too tired to head back upstairs so we fell asleep on the floor which I can relate to after a long day of studying. I then got up on all fours and walked over to Stella as I tried to shake her to wake her up. After a few seconds of this, I saw her eyes opening as she then leaned over. "Wh...what time is it?" Stella asked while still not being all that awake. "Still early in the morning," I said as I and Stella noticed a clock in the room. Within moments, faster than I had ever seen before, a not-very-awake Stella turned very much awake as she rushed upstairs. "What's the matter?" I asked in a worried tone. Just then, from the top of the staircase, Stella tossed my uniform at me as it landed on my horn, covering my face. "Thanks," I said unsarcastically. "I'm late to open the shop! Get dressed quickly!" Stella said in a very panicked voice as I wasted no second. I put on my uniform as fast as I possibly could while Stella changed clothes and in a matter of minutes, we bolted out of the door faster than you could read this sentence. "Are you sure that leaving your mom was the best idea?" I asked shortly after we started to slow down to catch both our breaths. "Oh, she'll be fine. She'll probably think yesterday was some dream or something so I don't think it's anything to worry about." Stella said as we reached the strip-like area to find something very, very odd. You would think that the mob from the past two days would be here, right? Well, me and Stella thought just that as well but to both of our surprise, there was no sign of the mob in sight. There were no people, no pitchforks, nothing like that at all. The strip-like area had no one in it other than me and Stella. "That's...weird...It's almost like that mob gave...up?" I said as I looked at Stella. "I have no idea as to what's going on though we should head inside," Stella said as we then trotted to our Starbucks as we headed inside. "Ok, you know the drill Twi," Stella said as I agreed and headed into the kitchen. While I was there, I found a recipe and made something new called: 'coffee'. "Trying out the coffee?" Stella asked as she then went into the kitchen. "It says here that it's needed in the mornings so I thought I would give it a try," I said as I took a sip. "Wow, this tastes amazing!" I said with a happy voice. "I see you remembered to add the cream and sugars," Stella said just as I heard the door open. "Oh, customer, gotta work," Stella said as she then headed to the front as she took the customer's order. I know I already talked about this but for my second day of work, it was just as well as the first day. Not only was I improving my skills with making the drinks, but I was also having a lot of fun with it as well. I may have had to do it without magic which was starting to become a minor inconvenience but it was still very fun nevertheless. So far throughout the day, things were going very well. The key word: was 'were'. As lunchtime started to come to an end, the store was getting less and less crowded as in the morning when customers were ordering their coffee as Stella told me about. Around this time, the garbage can was starting to overflow a little bit so before long, Stella tied up the bag and was about to take it out when more than a few people came into the store and ordered a wide selection of drinks. "Uh, could you take out the trash quickly Twi? I have a huge order here." Stella said as I said: "Sure thing." I then picked up the trash bag and put it on my back as I quickly trotted over to the back door where there were these dumpsters like the one I fell into before. I looked around the area, just in case any creature was nearby, but I didn't see any creature. I quickly closed the door and opened the lid of the dumpster as I tossed in the trash bag and closed the lid in a matter of seconds...to which something...else happened. When I turned around to go back inside, I saw the same black car from yesterday right next to the building and the same two humans came out. "FREEZE UNICORN!" The two people yelled as they then pulled out these strange objects. One of them was a small, rectangular shape with a black and gray color scheme and the other one was a rope that connected to these circular balls. "What...what are you doing?" I asked while my whole body froze, not knowing what to do next. "Move and we'll shoot, unicorn!" One of the men said as the other one started to talk into its shoulder. I don't know if I was too scared to do anything but in that moment, as the two men started to approach me, everything then stopped. I...I don't exactly know how to explain it very well but it felt like time had slowed down and I had a chance to run, yet I just couldn't. The men hadn't used any weapons on me just yet and I had a chance to run...yet, I couldn't move an inch. Just when I thought it was over for me, something I never thought I would be so happy to see happened. The back door opened up as Stella walked into the scene. "Uh Twi, we have a huge order that'll need the both...of....us..." Stella said as I'm assuming she quickly figured out what was going on and wasted no time to help. "What do you think you're doing?" Stella asked as she rushed up to me, protecting me even. "Ms Suite, I have to say that you hid this unicorn very well from us, considering our searches throughout this strip mall were quite thorough." One of the men said with a slight look of annoyance on his face. "Yeah, it's sad to see a teenager outsmart government men, you know." Stella said with a very serious voice. "Maybe so, but you can't hide this unicorn forever." The man said as he then pointed his weapon at Stella with the other man doing the same. "I won't let you take her away to be experimented on, you know!" Stella said as she stood her ground while not being intimidated by the weapons. "Really? Well then how do you plan to get yourself and this creature, this alien out of here?" The man asked while he took a few more steps towards us. "It's quite simple, I thought you could think of it on the FLY." Stella said as she put some emphasis on the word, 'fly'. I very quickly knew what she was talking about although it would be very risky since I'd never carried that much weight before but it seemed to be our only option. I may not have been fully comparable with using my wings just yet but I had to use them. "Hop on!" I said as Stella then went onto my back as I opened my wings and started to pick up some speed. "AFTER THEM!" Both of the men yelled as they got back into their car and they drove after us while they started to use their weapons. I was able to dodge the one with the rope and the balls attached but the other one was something I didn't expect. The rectangular item started to launch these objects at us at very high speeds as if it resembled a magic laser. I had far more trouble dodging this attack as I had a few close calls but thankfully, I was able to dodge them all. "Uh, Twi? We're almost out of room here!" Stella said as she was very much right. There seemed to be three sets of walls up ahead, blocking our path as the two of us noticed. "Well, there's only one way left to go!" I said as I stopped running and stood still. "We got you now unicorn!" The men yelled as their car rapidly approached. "Hurry up Twi! They're almost here!" Stella said as I then focused my attention, and jumped. "AHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh...wait, it worked! We're flying!" Stella then exclaimed in a very excited voice. "Thank Celestia, that worked!" I said as I focused on the sky. I have to say, it was pretty amazing to be soaring over this world as it looked so small from up here in the clouds. The buildings looked almost like something out of a toy set and the humans looked so small. I couldn't see exactly what the other two men were doing but since we were so far away now, it didn't matter that much...until it happened. "Uh, Twilight? Why are you stopping?" Stella asked in a worried voice. "I...I should have mentioned this sooner...but I'm still learning how to fly for very long." I said as my wings gave up and Stella started to scream as we began to descend rapidly to the ground, hoping that we could make it out of this one alive, we hope.