//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Getting to Know Your Fellow Coworkers 101 // Story: The Neon Bat Pony // by DeffBwade //------------------------------// Neon meets the ponies he’s gonna be working with. The door to Blossom's Pizzeria opened as the dark gray earth pony mare entered with the same apathetic, yet sour expression on her face. Her head slightly bobbed to the beat of her music as she walked over to the counter near the kitchen. The mare normally arrived early. About 15 minutes before her shift starts. Usually when the last of her fellow coworkers arrive is when there's 5 minutes left until opening time. In other words, just on time. Being the first to arrive had its benefits. The main one being able to sit down and have little more time to herself before she had to work. Well...Cherry was actually always the first to arrive seeing as she's the manager, but she knows that the earth pony mare likes her peace and quiet, and she was willing to respect that unless there was something important she had to discuss. She reached down into a compartment behind the counter and pulled out a crimson baseball cap with the restaurant's logo imprinted on it, opting to just leave it there instead of taking it with her whenever she got off the clock. The earth pony mare was glad that the hat she was required to wear while at work was a deep red color, instead of something bright like pink. The very color made the mare internally cringe. It was just so...girly...for her taste. She pulled out the chair from underneath the counter and sat down on it, resting her face on one of her forehooves as she leaned against the counter. She sighed as she rested her eyes and continued to listen to her music, unaware of the bat pony currently watching her from the kitchen window. "Who's the goth looking pony?" Neon asked as he pointed at the earth pony with the makeup and piercings, "Does she work here?" "Hmm?" Cherry asked as she leaned over to see who the bat pony was referring to, "Oh yeah, that's just Raven. She's in charge of the register." "Ah. Got it. A fellow coworker," Neon said before he realized something, "I see she’s also a bit of an early bird. We arrived here not even 5 minutes ago and there’s still 15 minutes before opening." Cherry explained to him that she wants her employees to arrive 5-10 minutes before the restaurant opens so they can prepare the kitchen and themselves and stuff. But that shouldn't be a problem since he's just gonna walk with Cherry to work. "Yep. Raven just likes to come here early. Something about enjoying the peace and quiet, I don't know. You want my advice? Don’t piss her off and never, and I mean never forcibly remove her headphones when she's listening to music. Trust me, it won't end well." Cherry shuddered as she remembered what happened to the last pony to forcibly remove Raven's headphones. Luckily, she was off the clock when it happened so no complaints were made. Well...no complaints to the restaurant. "I'll take your word for it. Can I at least say 'hi' to her? I won't remove her headphones or anything," the bat pony asked as he figured that he was clearly gonna be working with the mare. And if that was the case, then it was only right that he introduces himself. "Sure. Go ahead," Cherry responded, to which Neon walked out of the kitchen and towards the mare, "I know that Raven's the type to like dark and gloomy things. Like really dark and gloomy things. So how is she going to react when she meets a bat pony?...Okay, I got to watch how this goes." "Um...excuse me?" a voice called out to Raven through her music. Whose voice called out exactly, she had no idea. That obviously wasn't Cherry's voice calling out to her since it wasn't her usual feminine raspy voice. It sounded masculine and...not raspy at all. Not to mention young. Maybe it was one of her coworkers? No, it couldn't be. They don't usually come to work this early. None of them did. She stopped bobbing to her music and peaked an eye open to see who exactly wants her attention. ... Taking her headphones off, her eyes widened a bit as she saw the stallion looking at her with a smile. The protruding fangs, the slitted eyes, the leathery bat wings resting on his back. She couldn't believe it. She thought for a second that she was dreaming, but no. She was wide awake. Standing right there was the something she always to see since she's heard of them. "A vampony?" she asked with the slightest hint of excitement showing in her voice. What's not to like about vamponies? She couldn’t help herself but think they were just so hot. Their nocturnal nature leading them to wonder the streets at night, their solitary attitude from normal pony society, the fact that they survive off of blood. And right here and right now was one standing right next to h— “Hmm? Oh no, I’m not a vampony,” the stallion said with a wave of his hoof, “At least…I don’t think I am. I’m not burning up under the sunlight or anything. Nor do I have a craving for blood…Nope! I’m 100% sure that I’m just a normal bat pony.” “…” “…” “Disappointing,” Raven mumbled as she put her headphones back on, the excitement lost in her voice. “I’m Neon by the way,” she heard the stallion say. “Raven,” the mare introduced herself without so much as turning her head or even glancing to the side to look at the stallion. “…I’m gonna be working with you by the way. From now on till…I don’t know,” Neon said, trying to make conversation. Raven’s only response was silence as she continued to listen to her music with her eyes closed. “…Okay then,” Neon said with a bit of a frown as he stared at Raven who now had a bit of a scowl, “Jeez talk about quiet. Not to mention grumpy.” Was this mare angry at something? At him? No, that couldn’t be it. They literally just met. “Nice to…meet you…I guess,” Neon called out as he backed off into the kitchen, “Well she seems…interesting. I guess. A little rude, but…interesting,” he said to Cherry. “Oh don’t mind her attitude. She’s like that with a lot of ponies,” the crimson mare nonchalantly explained. “And she’s in charge of the register…why?” the bat pony mentally asked, “You don’t…think I pissed her off, right?” “Well, you might’ve disappointed her a bit when you told her you weren’t a vampony,” Cherry responded. “Are you ser—…Are vamponies even a real thing?” Neon asked, a bit dejected now. “Heck if I know,” Cherry shrugged before smiling, “But regardless, I wouldn’t worry too much. Just give it some time. Raven’s the type of pony that just needs to get to know you a bit more.” “And then she’ll be…you know…nice? Because of us being friends?” “Define ‘nice.’ Because Raven has a whole different meaning of being nice…especially to her friends.” “What do you me—“ “Yo what’s up everypony?!” a stallion’s voice called out as the front doors were slammed opened. “Do you have to do that every time you come to work?” Raven asked the blue pegasus that had the same hat as her with a bit of annoyance as she took off her headphones. “Aw come on Raven,” the pegasus said with a wave of his hoof, “I can’t say ‘hi’ to a fellow coworker and my boss?” “If you’re gonna do so by slamming the door open and yelling, then no,” the mare answered with narrowed eyes as she glared at the pegasus. “Alright Ms. Grumpy Pants,” he shrugged off before looking around, “I see the Star twins aren’t here yet,” he observed before jokingly shaking his head in fake disappointment, “Look at me. Not being the last one to arrive even after going for a fly through the park and admiring the scenery.” “You were checking out all the hot mares again, weren’t you?” Raven asked. “W-what? Nooooo. Where’d you…where’d you get that idea?” the pegasus stammered as his eyes widened a bit and shifted side to side, and sweat started to fall down the sides of his head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Raven simply raised an eyebrow at this. “I-I…um…” the pegasus stammered, trying to figure a way to change the subject, before he saw that somepony, or rather some ponies, watching them from the kitchen, “Oh hello there Cherry! And…whoever you are.” “Neon. I’m going to be working here from now,” the bat pony introduced himself as he stepped out of the kitchen. “Sweet. Name’s Arctic Blue, but my friends just call me Blue,” the pegasus introduced himself. “Blue here is in charge of serving tables alongside me,” Cherry added. “Wow. It’s just the two of you serving tables?” Neon asked. “Pfft. It’s not so hard when you’re as fast as me,” Blue boasted before the crimson mare cleared her throat, shaking him out of his prideful state. “And, of course, I have Cherry to thank for helping. Not to mention that it’s a pretty small restaurant.” “Still…impressive,” Neon said before he saw Blue checking out his wings, making him slightly nervous, “Umm…” “Cool wings you’ve got there,” the pegasus whistled in admiration, “It’s about time I get to work alongside somepony that can fly.” Neon stared blankly at Blur before he glanced at his wings. They appeared to have a more feathery appearance, exactly a bird’s, in comparison to his leathery bat-like wings. “Yeah, I guess my wings are pretty cool,” the bat pony nodded as he spread his wings out…before he realized something that the pegasus said. “Wait, hold on. I can’t f—“ His train of thought was interrupted as the door opened and two unicorns entered the shopping, panting and sweating as if they just ran a marathon. "We...*huff*...we...*huff*...we made it!" the sky magenta mare said with glee before wiping her brow, "Oh Celestia, that was quite the run. I really need to start working." "That...*huff*...that makes two of us, sis," the purple stallion said as he almost collapsed to the ground. "Star twins. You two are lucky that I decided to be lenient if you arrive five minutes before opening, considering the fact that you two live in the suburbs. Otherwise you would've been about..." Cherry said as she glanced at the clock, "...two minutes late." "Phew. I'm really sorry Cherry. We would've gotten here sooner if somepony..." the mare said, staring accusingly at the stallion, "...didn't stay up all night playing video games again. He didn’t have time to comb his mane!” "You know very well that I don’t comb my mane! And I'm sorry if I needed to stay up late in order to fight the Ogres of Chuf Chor in order to defend the Shaunia town of Farnfoss," the stallion defended himself, much to every pony's confusion at his explanation, "You don't hear me complaining when you stay up reading your backwards comic books!" "It's called manga! And it's art!" "Alright! Alright! That's enough!" Cherry exclaimed, bringing the attention back to her, causing the two unicorns to huff. "Fine," they both mumbled. "Anyways...Raven, Blue. You two have already met our newest recruit. Nova, Astro," she said to the unicorn mare and stallion respectively, before pointing at Neon, "This right here is—" "A bat pony?!" a voice yelled out in excitement. Before Neon could even process what was going on, he suddenly found himself muzzle to muzzle and staring into the sparkling golden eyes of the unicorn mare named Nova Star who now had a big smile on her face. "Oh boy," Astro Star mumbled as he facepalmed. "...Umm—" Neon tried to say. "Oh. My. Celestia! I'm actually meeting a real bat pony! Here in Baltimare! Are bat ponies actually nocturnal? No wait, that’s silly. You’re standing here in the daytime. Can you hang upside down on ceilings? Can you see in the dark? Can you use echolocation? Oh please tell me everything!” Nova said as she walked in circles around Neon, observing him, and even going as far as to use levitation to get a closer look at his wings as they shined in her golden aura. “O…k…” Neon said nervously as he tried to pry away from the mare’s levitating hold but to no avail. He then leaned over to Cherry and whispered, “Should I be worried about this mare?” “Maybe. Nova does like to learn new things. She’s a bit of a brainiac if you ask me,” Cherry chuckled before looking at the unicorn in question, “Nova, please give the new recruit his wing back.” “Hmm?” Nova asked unconsciously, before she slightly blushed and let go of the bat pony’s wing as she realized what she was doing, “O-oh! S-sorry. I…kind of went overboard there.” “Kind of? You were checking him out as if he was a finely made sculpture,” Astro said with a smirk, causing his sister to blush even harder. “Ok! Ok! I…considerably went overboard. You happy?” Nova asked before she looked at Cherry as she realized something that she said, “Wait. Did you say ‘new recruit?’” “Yep yep. Every pony, Neon here is gonna be working with us from now on,” the crimson mare said as she gestured to the bat pony. “I still don’t know what my job, by the way,” Neon said. “Honestly, I don’t know what I should assign you either. I haven’t really had the need to hire any new employees,” Cherry explained, causing the Neon to deadpan, before she shrugged, “I guess you can be the janitor/buspony/…pony that helps out any of your fellow employees that need it.” “…Got it,” Neon said with a small smile. “Anyways, now that that’s established …” Cherry said as she glanced at the clock, “…opening time is in five minutes every pony! Get yourselves cleaned up and ready for work.” “Yes ma’am!” everypony, sans Raven, said, causing Cherry to groan a bit at being called 'ma'am'...again.