• Published 12th Jan 2012
  • 4,923 Views, 93 Comments

Tales from the Staff Canteen - Midnightshadow



Behind the scenes at Equestria Daily, where all is professional and above board...

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The Gig - by Siraj

It wasn’t a bad gig, most of the time. Read fics, run events, keep the princesses happy. Easier said than done, some days. Luna was easier to please than Celestia, though there were thankfully ways around every situation. She’d learned that well enough in these months, even if the hours were long. She looked up as Sethisto and Cereal yawned, coming down the stairs from the upstairs dorms, and raised her glass of apple juice in greeting. They sleepily waved in answer, and went after the bagels and eggs, respectively.

“You’re up early.” Cereal commented after he’d had a slug of coffee along with his eggs. Siraj nodded.

“Couldn’t sleep, and it was close enough to five that I figured I’d get up and get breakfast going.” she answered.

“Where’s Midnight? isn’t he usually up overnight?” Sethisto inquired.

“He left a note. Had to run errands for Luna, apparently. Personally, I think he doesn’t want to get sent back to the moon.” Siraj said with a snicker.
Seth shook his head, “Poor bastard.” he said, but couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

“It was his own fault!” Polecat said from the stairs, and then yawned, her mane still messy.

“Morning Pole.” Cereal said, looking more awake now as he dug into his eggs properly.
Siraj passed the salt and pepper, politely, “Morning Cereal.” she answered with a nod and headed for the freezer, pulling out waffles. A door closed out front, and Midnight came in a few minutes later, saddlebags bulging and looking somewhat smug with himself.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’d gotten laid.” Sethisto snarked.

“If I’d gotten laid, I wouldn’t have come back this morning!” Midnight fired back, and smirked, nodding at his saddlebags. “Went out and got some fresher milk, the couple gallons in the fridge are going to go in a few days, and I got some other stuff too.” he explained.

Siraj raised an eyebrow as she started levitating things out and putting them away. “What, were things on sale or something? Hey, new skillet! Awesome!” she said, drawing a laugh from Cereal and Polecat.

“You and your cookware, honestly!” Pole said, shaking her head. Siraj snorted in answer and continued with the unloading.

Midnight levitated a mane brush and a mirror to fix his unruly locks, as he answered, “To your question, a few things were, including that skillet. Word’s also been getting around that we’re a little swamped and I was stopped by a family looking to find some work, whether it pays or not. Apparently their filly and colt are wanting work experience to find their Cutie Marks.”

“I don’t see why not,” Sethisto said with a nod, finishing off his bagels and wiping his face with a napkin, “we have some backlog as it stands, we’ll give it to them to work out.”

“They’ll be coming by at nine thirty for their ‘interviews’.” Midnight replied.
Sethisto looked at the clock and groaned, “It’s a quarter after six. Ugh. So much to do. Need to shower, tidy up the front as well as my office, appointment with Celestia at noon on the dot...” he muttered.

“If you’d delegate more, like we keep telling you to, boss, you’d get more sleep. Tell you what, I’ll handle the front office, that’s one less thing to worry about. It’s mostly dusting and re-arranging the seating, anyway.” Siraj said, getting up. Sethisto shot her a sour look, and she giggled.

“One of these days...” he started.

“One of these days, you’ll take our advice?” Phoe cut him off as she came down, and Seth grumbled in answer.

“If you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to head to bed.” Midnight said, stifling a yawn.

“Night, buddy.” Polecat said.

Yeah, it was weird, sometimes. Celestia decides to send us to the moon, Luna placates her with coffee. Dash comes by to complain about all the fic with her hitting on anything that moves, AJ drags her out by the tail. Fluttershy comes by to help with the few birds kept for company, Cereal ends up pissing off Angel. Almost like clockwork. Still, she wouldn’t trade it for all the cupcakes and muffins in Equestria.