It was a bright, sunny day in Maretime Bay, and since there haven’t been any races here lately, Blaze and AJ decided to head back to Equestria and check out one of the hottest places to be-- the Boardtrot that they helped Izzy bring to life just a few short months ago.
AJ couldn’t help but cheer as they headed toward the Boardtrot. “I can’t wait to explore the Boardtrot again! Do you think we can get a smoothie at Sunny’s shop before we go on some rides?”
“Sure!” Blaze said. “I’ve really been craving a Strawberry Ripple smoothie for the past few days.”
AJ giggled at this. "Me too!"
The two chuckled as they headed off to Sunny's shop. But as they were getting closer, they could see a huge crowd of ponies Infront of the shop. “Yikes!” AJ grimaced. “Sunny’s shop is even busier than usual today!”
As the crowd of ponies continued to talk over one another, Sunny held up two heavy trays stacked with smoothies. “Ah... ah! Whoa!”
“Smoothies incoming!” Rufus called out as he and everypony else braced themselves for a smoothie spill, but it never came as Sunny got her balance. “Don't worry! I got it! Here we go,” Sunny said as she then gave Seashell a smoothie. Seashell smiled as she sipped on her smoothie, but then she cringed in disgust. “Blegh! Does this have peanut butter in it?”
“I ordered strawberry!” Glory called out. “Mine has chunks!” Peach Fizz cried. Sunny then began to panic from her mix up. “Oh, no! Okay, um, it has been pretty busy. But don't worry, I'll fix it. Give me one sec.”
Eventually, a lot of the ponies walked off before Sunny had the chance to finish their smoothies. “Guess what! Your next smoothie is…” Sunny called out with a smile, but when she turned around, she noticed the crowd left while leaving spilled fruits and smoothie cups on the ground. “...free.”
“...man…” AJ grimaced. “That was bad.”
“I know…” Blaze sighed. “Come on, we better go check on Sunny.”
So, the two of them trotted over to their friend, who looked exasperated, frustrated and sad all at once. “Hey, Sunny,” AJ said. “Are you okay?”
Sunny sighed, her ears flattened against her head. “I wish I was…”
“Anything we can do to help?” Blaze asked. “Your stand is a mess!”
“I can handle a little mess, but… I wish this juice-maker would hurry up and get unclogged!” Sunny pressed the button repeatedly, but no juice would come out.
That’s when a familiar auroricorn approached them-- he had a saturated cyan coat with a long white mane that transitions into a deep purple gradient at the tip with sparkles all over the mane, violet eyebrows and violet eyes, deep blue hexagon shaped glasses, desaturated blue at the fetlocks, crystal hooves, a crystal horn, a bead necklace with many differently shaped crystals, a star shaped crystal around his horn with a smaller star shaped crystal hanging from it and a cutie mark of a comet. “Hey, guys!” Comet greeted with a smile, which made Sunny and the alicorn princes turn to him in surprise since they haven't seen Comet in a while since he went out to explore Equestria. “What's u–?”
That's when Comet noticed the orange machine. “Oh. Looks like you got something stuck there. Fruit jam.”
Comet gave a chuckle before he then muttered as rainbow auroricorn magic flowed out of his horn. The magic flew into a tube and into the orange machine before some of the oranges fell down, and this caused Comet to stop using his magic. Sunny looked at the machine a bit before she pressed the button, which caused the orange smoothie to fall out. “You fixed it! Thanks, Comet!”
“Hey, Comet, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen you,” Blaze smiled. “How are you enjoying Equestria so far?”
Comet gave a huge grin at this. "Oh I'm having a great time! In fact, I'm still exploring Equestria, so there's a lot more for me to see! A-and of course to do."
“We’re so glad you're enjoying it!” AJ smiled before realizing something and whispering to Blaze. “Should we... tell him about Allura?”
“Maybe later,” Blaze whispered. “I don’t want him to get nervous.”
They turned back their focus on Comet's rambling before he finished it with "Speaking of which, I should probably go. See ya guys soon!"
“You know, Comet…” Sunny said, stopping him, “I've been thinking about finding somepony to help me in the shop from time to time.”
“Yeah, and since you were so good at fixing the smoothie machine, maybe you would be a good candidate,” AJ pointed out. This got Comet’s attention as he gasped with sparkles in his eyes. “Oh, me-me-me-me-me! I mean, sorry! Yes! I-I love food! And I do love meeting new people! And I'm very, very good at cleaning,” he said excitedly while Sunny gave an amusing voice, seeing this much from Izzy. “Oh, please, Sunny, pleeeease! Can I help out?”
“Comet, I would love that,” Sunny said to Comet with a smile.
********
A bit later, some oranges fell from the shelves as Comet skillfully caught it and tossed it in a blender as he started blending them. “See? What did I tell ya? You're a natural.” Sunny commented to Comet, who gave a smile from that. That's when Windy, a pegasus that was a great flier, walked up to the smoothie stand. “Who knew fun could make me this thirsty?” Windy said as she gave a small laugh before turning to Comet. “One daily special, please.”
“Daily special. Yes.” Comet said while looking a bit nervous. “Um, uh… what's the daily special again?”
“Two oranges, two bananas, and a squeeze of lemon juice.” Sunny said as she tossed each fruit to Comet, who caught them before she pointed to the chalkboard. “Oh, and remember, if you forget, all the recipes are right there.”
Comet nodded as he then put the ingredients into a blender and then blended them together before putting the smoothie in a cup and giving it to Windy. “Oh, for me?” Windy asked with a small laugh as she accepted the cup. “Thank you!”
Sunny then looked down as she saw something that made her eyes widened. “Oh, no. Okay, we're running low on oranges,” she noted before turning to Comet. “Can you keep an eye on things while Blaze, AJ and I dash to the market?”
Comet got nervous. “You're guh…” he started with a nervous gulp. “You're gonna leave me alone?”
"Don't worry, we'll be back sooner than you think." Blaze promised. "Keep it calm, and just have fun."
“Besides, you did a great job with Windy’s smoothie,” AJ smiled. “I think you can handle being in charge for a little bit.”
“Okay. Well, um, hurry back. Please.” Comet said with a nervous smile as he watched Sunny, Blaze and AJ leave.
********
A bit later, the stand was empty as Comet looked a bit bored as he started playing with a blender to pass the time. “Doot-doo-doot-doo-dooooo…” he muttered before looking at the supplies around him while looking a bit conflicted. “Oh, I'm sure Sunny won't mind if I tidy up just a teeny bit.”
Comet then started brushing around the stand. “Here…”
He then picked up the container of straws. “What's that doing here?”
Then, Comet began organizing the fruits in proper colors based on them like yellow for bananas, red for apples, and purple for grapes before he put an apple, strawberry, and banana into a blender as he mixed them together. “Now, this is fun!”
********
It had been about five minutes before Sunny, Blaze and AJ returned. “I'm so sorry, Comet! I…” Sunny quickly said before she and the boys saw something. “Whoa!”
“Oh, don't worry about it, Sunny. I've got everything under control.” Comet assured as he tossed the fruits up and levitated them into the blender and added in some extra flavor in a cup before adding a small leaf in it. “Order up for Thunder! Comin' in hot!”
Thunder slurped his smoothie before he smiled with sparkles in his eyes. “Whoa! That's the best smoothie I ever had in my whole life! Ever!”
“Wow, Comet! You’ve really got yourself a crowd!” AJ said with a smile, just before Izzy and Watts came over to the stand. “We’ve got this one, Comet,” Sunny said before turning to them. “Hey, Watts. Hi, Izzy. Can I get you the usual today?”
“Ha! You know it, Sunny!” Izzy said. “One Dreamy Greeny, please!”
“I’ll take one too,” Watts smiled.
