I'm writing this from the storage room above Rosie's bar, so I guess that means it hasn't been burned down yet. I'm glad I'll be the first to know if it is.
I'm here because Rosie told me she had a surprise for me when I arrived for my shift (early, of course). She'd remembered my worries about imposing on Rachel, and so set me up a little nest here. She seemed to think I'd think it poor accommodation, and I suppose it's no full-fledged apartment, but there's a shower and bathroom, and the throw pillow and sleeping bag feel perfectly nice and soft to me. I can even go online on the bar's tablet. And most importantly, it's a space of my own. Besides, she pointed out that I won't be able to rent an apartment without any money or legal standing, but that also means I don't have to live somewhere that's zoned residential, so might as well take advantage.
So I'm living here, at least for now. I thanked RD for her hospitality and she said she'd enjoyed the company, but would be glad to have he couch back. She'd never have said it if I didn't have an alternative, I'm quite confident, but it made me happier for Rosie's thoughtfulness.
On the shift itself, where do I start? I guess at the beginning. I got there early, as I said, and after Rosie showed me my room, she went over my duties again quickly. I knew them all already, of course, but being reminded of that, and that they were so straightforward on the surface, helped calm me down some. I always find myself so much happier in motion than waiting and fretting.
Another thing that helped was the crowd of mostly familiar faces outside the door. Rachel and Alanna were waiting, so they could be sure to be the first in the bar, and they'd brought two others with them. They both had hair colors I hadn't seen before on humans: one a very light yellow, and the other a fiery orange. I asked Rosie if they'd dyed them that color, since RD said normally it was all earth tones. She told me that she wasn't sure, because they're apparently both colors that can occur naturally, but are also popular dye choices. Interesting in either case, though she also warned me not to ask them immediately, as it is often considered rude.
Anyway, they came in as soon as we opened, and of course were all very polite. The two I hadn't met are Annie-Jane Lee (orange hair, goes by AJ, shockingly) and Fiona Smith (yellow hair, easy smile, surprisingly talkative). They both know RD and Alanna through work, but don't work together closely. AJ is an Officer of the Court, which I looked up just now and is, like RD's title, not actually an officer rank. Fiona is a doctor, but many of her patients are law enforcement, including RD and AJ. Apparently the group as a whole mostly got to be friends here at the bar. I didn't get much time to interact with them, but they both seemed nice, and...strangely similar to and different from the ponies they remind me of.
That didn't really surprise me, which says a lot about my recent life.
Similar to my pony friends or not, their group made for an easy start to the day. I don't think I can thank them enough. For the first fifteen minutes or half an hour, they were the only customers, so I could get used to the heft of the tray and the scope of a table's order without having to worry about whether they were staring at me.
Of course, just as I thought to be grateful to them for that, I realized I hadn't managed to get any clothes, and remembered my online admirers, and my stress levels went way back up.
Today, though, that wasn't my problem. I guess there aren't a lot of fans of the show that hang out near the law school, or they were too nervous to come in. Instead, it was mostly just, well, awkward, at least at first. For the first group of customers, I practically had to shout at them to make them pay attention to me. The second couple walked out rather than let me seat them. The third went past me mid-sentence and walked up to the bar, where they tried to get Rosie to serve them. She was very polite, but told them that I was their server. They did deal with me then, but talked about me as if I weren't there. I think they thought I was some kind of machine, or puppet, or something.
Through the whole late afternoon, everyone thought my magic was a trick, no matter what I told them. I was renowned for magic in a world full of it - it seems horribly unfair to have it denied in one where no one else has any! But I guess after all I was afraid of being an outsider, I should be happy to have one less way to not fit in.
Right around five, the first local news crew showed up. Rosie told me later that there are a lot of cars on the street on weekday afternoons here - it's called rush hour - and the news vans likely got caught up in that. Anyway, she went out as soon as they showed up and told the crews they couldn't come in to the bar to talk to me, since I was working, but that if they wanted to wait, I might be willing to talk after my shift. They didn't seem very happy with this, and the person with the microphone got up in her face, but she just repeated herself, and told them that if they blocked the door she'd have to call the police.
They stayed around outside though. I took the occasional glance, but tried to focus on the job. At first it seemed like they just milled about on the street talking to the camera and people who came out, but later on they went and filmed me a bit through the front window; maybe it took a while for the light to be right.
By that time there was a throng of them, with all sorts of markings on their cameras. It reminded me of the dignitaries at the Equestria Games with all their banners and heraldry. They grudgingly kept a path to the door. I was worried they'd drive away business, and maybe some people were turned away, but the tables were always full, so it seemed that they brought in as many as they drove off.
I kind of lost track of time, trying to focus on doing the job despite the amount of attention I was getting. All the royal functions helped, but I'll admit only so much. My unfamiliarity with humans, cameras, and being the center of attention in a less positive way, all made me less feel off-balance the whole time. Still, I was trained by the best, and I think I did a good job. Almost none of the customers treated me like I was, well, normal. I get that I'm not, here, but we still tried our best. It would have been nice.
To be fair, a few did, and it was.
After what felt like far longer than the eight hours, Rosie finally closed down the kitchen and told me I was done. She also reminded me that the reporters wanted to talk to me. I thought about just going to bed for longer than I'd like to admit, but it was more a fantasy than a serious consideration. I don't really want to settle down here as a humble bar worker, after all. I'll admit I never really wanted to be the Princess of Friendship, or a public figure, but I am. And I've never stopped just because it's hard before.
So I went out and talked to the reporters. It was an intensely awkward experience. Much like the diners, they didn't seem to know quite what to make of me, and many were rude or seemed to think I was tricking them somehow. I know I should be more understanding, since humans have never met other creatures they can talk to before, but some of them talked to me as if I were a child! Worse were the ones who seemed to be humoring me, though, as if I and they knew I was some kind of hoax, but we were having fun pretending.
In any case, I wrangled them into an impromptu press conference, kind of like the ones I've had a few times with the other Princesses. Nothing fancy, since it was just standing around on the street outside the bar, but I at least got them in a circle, and set it up so all the cameras could see me well enough.
The questions started out pretty simple: my name, my title, where I'm from, why I'm here, and so forth. They quickly went off the rails, though. An older man asked me if I were scouting for an invasion. That seems to me the most pointless question ever - even if I were, I'd say no, after all. I almost told him I didn't think we'd be able to do nearly as good a job of killing humans as they were doing themselves, but I remembered my diplomacy lessons and refrained.
Then a younger woman asked if I knew about the TV show, and the floodgates opened on that topic. Everything to if I knew how the show and my life seemed to match up so well, to if I was crated by the company that makes it as an advertising gimmick. I did the best I could, but then someone asked if I knew about the fan community and I said I did, but that I was done answering questions about the show, on the grounds that I'd only just found out it existed.
They eventually seemed to lose track and just repeated questions from earlier, perhaps hoping I would slip up and admit I was an animate publicity flier that was also planning to kill all humans. When I told Rosie about that one, she said that maybe they thought the interview had changed my mind, a point I hadn't considered. In any case, I finally put my hoof down. I repeated that I was who I said I was, I wasn't interested in doing anything except making friends and making my way in the world, that I would be working at the bar for the foreseeable future, and that I was going to bed. Rosie had finished closing up shop and was waiting in the doorway by then, and firmly told off the first few reporters that tried to follow me in. It looked like they might press the issue, but RD and some of her fellow police officers were hanging around. She gave me a smile and wave and glared at the reporters and they backed down.
Rosie and I went upstairs and she gave me a quick hug and told me I did a great job on the shift. I told her all about the interview and she said she'd seen much of it on live TV, and thought I did well. I didn't know live TV was something that could happen, and was sorry to have missed it, but she said they'd likely be airing excerpts for a while, and that we could tell a lot by what they chose to put in.
So we sat down and watched one of the local news channels. It wasn't too bad; they only kept in the most outrageous questions, of course, but didn't seem interested in trying to make me look bad or otherwise twist my replies. After the interview they did have on two experts, both scientists, one of whom insisted I was due full "human" rights, the other of whom wanted me brought in and dissected to figure out how I work. I nearly panicked at the latter, but Rosie claimed human news tended to do this - find the two most extreme positions they could and get both on to achieve some kind of "balance". It seemed like they were so opposed there was no hope they'd ever have a useful conversation, but Rosie claimed that was pretty standard too. I think my eye twitched a bit at that. I thought I'd gotten over that, but there's just too much here that doesn't make any sense at all.
Anyway, after that we called it a night, and I think it's time for me to do just that. Humans still don't make any sense to me, but at least they don't all seem to want to cut me open and study my organs. (That's high up on the list of sentences I never wanted to write, yuck.)
On that cheerful thought, goodnight journal.