The coffee stand was about half a minute of walking away. When Twilight arrived, she saw Mr. Cake standing at it, currently serving a customer. She noticed a sign saying, “Second Cup Is Free!”

“Hello there, Twilight!” Mr. Cake said once he had finished serving the other pony.

“Hello, Mr. Cake. I see your job for today’s preparations is to make sure nopony falls asleep. You’re even generous enough to give two cups for the price of one!”

Mr. Cake chuckled lightly. He leaned forward and started whispering so that only Twilight could understand him. “Between you and me, the price for one cup is also almost twice as high than it usually is. We’re somewhat short on cash after Pinkie thought it was a good idea to spend all of our savings on party decorations.”

“Oh, I see. No problem.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” he asked.

“I’m looking for a certain key. Big, transparent. You haven’t seen anything like that, have you?”

“I’m afraid not, sorry.”

Twilight was slowly getting used to the disappointment, but that didn’t stop her from lying flat her ears once more. “Oh well, at least I could take a short break to take a cup of coffee.”

“Of course!” He poured Twilight a cup. “That’d be two bits.”

She opened up her saddlebag and levitated the required amount of money onto the counter. “There you g—”

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a squirrel shot up from behind the stand. It picked up one of Twilight’s bits in its mouth, and hopped away.

Without any hesitation, Twilight started chasing after it. “Hey, get back here!”

Mr. Cake looked at the purple blur bolting away, then at the cup, then at the one bit still on the counter. “Well, she didn’t take her second one, so…”

The brown squirrel seemed to mock Twilight’s attempts chasing it, as it held its speed just a little bit above hers with ease.

As she perused the squirrel further the squirrel, she passed Octavia and Vinyl Scratch. “Lemme tell you, Octy, since I’ve gotten that key…”