“So here’s the new plan,” Misty began as they both enjoyed a morning muffin the next day. Ghost gasped and fell over, pressing a hoof to her chest. Misty watched her as she twitched dramatically before slumping over. “Ha ha, no, trust me, it isn’t that bad. Um, this time. So, ready for this brilliance? We swap places.” Ghost gave a quiet shriek of mock astonishment, earning a glare from the changeling.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s not super original, but I think it’ll help. A fresh set of eyes might do the trick, one way or another. I’ll watch the coffee shop for a half hour, twenty minutes even, and you’ll look at strangers and tell me if any of their behavior follow this criteria.” She held up a list of hastily-scrawled adjectives triumphantly. Ghost blinked at it.
“So, if I’m to understand this correctly, you’ll take over for half an hour a job that you have no training and no experience doing, while I go out and ponywatch?” Ghost ventured, to which Misty nodded excitedly. The unicorn sighed. “Well, I see absolutely nothing whatsoever that can go wrong, but I think it’s worth a shot.”
Misty squealed in delight, bouncing on her hooftips. “Great! So! How do you brew coffee?”
“Wait, so coffee is bean juice?” Misty gaped at the coffeemaker, after Ghost had shown her how to operate it for about the fifth time in a row. Apparently, the changeling wasn’t versed in the way of coffee making. At least she knew that tea came from leaves. Ghost had to give her credit there. Misty wasn’t completely hopeless, even if she could barely operate a coffeemaker.
Okay, so "barely" might have been a bit of a stretch, but what Misty lacked in experience, she attempted to make up for in enthusiasm.
Ghost found herself excited to sit down and do nothing but watch ponies, much to her surprise. It sounded rather relaxing, and she welcomed the break from the coffee shop, at least, assuming Misty was up for it.
“Hey, Ghostie, I got this. It's not a crowded morning, I'm sure I'll be fine, so long as they only order bean juice.” Misty waved from behind a counter. Ghost waved back, picked up a notepad, a quill, and Misty’s rather crumpled note. It was time to go ponywatching!
It was a peaceful morning in San Fransiscolt. Joggers trotted by, fully engulfed in the music their earbuds provided. Busy mothers trotted past, a stroller in front and a bag of groceries carried in their mouth or magic. Ghost settled on a bench and watched them go by. There were foals and fillies headed to school, and pushing past the foals was a business pony, hustling so much his suit wrinkled up, late for his job. All seemed right in the world, and for once Ghost found herself at peace with her lot in life.
“Alright, to the list.” She mumbled, holding it up, trying to decipher Misty’s hoofwriting.
Is the pony in question acting in a manner unlike their station in life (like a filly paying bills or a salespony uncharacteristically quiet)?
Are they looking over their shoulder, or giving everyone a stern look as though to memorize their surroundings?
Do they use abilities beyond what they can do (like unicorns flying without magic, or earth ponies using magic)?
Do you get a cold or unemotional vibe from them?
Are they just plain being suspicious but you can’t put your hoof on it?
Do they seem to have a great amount of knowledge of how changeling hives work?
If yes to any of these, write down everything you can about them! They could be the spy!
Ghost rolled her eyes. Those were some pretty odd criteria, but she’d do her best. She pulled out a quill and tried to discern a pattern to their movements. She’d find Misty some suspects if it was the last thing she did!
Though, she’d really prefer it if it wasn’t.
After half an hour of writing what she hoped were helpful suspects, Ghost closed her notepad and trotted back to the Java Chip Cafe. It had been fairly productive, and oddly relaxing, especially considering she was writing a list of potential changeling spies out to take over Equestria. She opened the door to the cafeteria, took a deep breath, and looked up.
Misty stood squarely in the middle of a huge puddle of Falltime Frappuccino. The icey bits near her hooves slowly melted into the frothy liquid, which had spread behind the counter and out towards the customer’s chairs. Thankfully, the customers had the sense to vacate them some time ago. One customer stood at the counter, looking rather irritated that his drink wasn’t in his cup where it belonged.
“How- why- what happened?” Blurted Ghost, rushing over to get a mop.
Misty chuckled weakly. “It’s a long story. It’s, ah, actually kind of funny when you think about it. Oh hey, while I'm at it, I wouldn’t drink this if I were you, sir. I don’t know if you heard, but they put beans in it! Ground up beans! Yeah, like you get in a can! Imagine that! So I was standing here, trying to remember the difference between cappuccino and mocha -really I have no idea how you keep track of those, they both sound like a different language- and this guy walks in, and he says, get me a latte, so I-”
“I’m terribly sorry about what happened to your drink, sir. Here, I’ll make you a new one, a large, on the house. Give me one second and I'll refund it for your trouble.” Ghost was a whirlwind behind the counter, cleaning up as best as she could while mixing in syrups and steaming milk. In almost no time at all, she served the upset customer, who huffed and stormed out of the cafe.
Ghost turned to Misty, who chuckled weakly and shrugged in response. “I… guess I’ll just wipe off my hooves and stand, uh, over there, unless you want my help?” The changeling perked up guiltily, but Ghost emphatically shook her head. There was enough mess to clean up, without Misty casually making it worse. She handed Misty the notepad and pointed a hoof to one of the stools at the bar, and got to work wiping up the mess.
“Wow,” said the bug, banished to stool-land. “You sure were productive. Let’s see, this is a great list of suspects! I can’t wait to check them out. So, um, sorry about the mess. It was an accident…”
Ghost frowned as she wiped underneath an industrial-sized refridgerator. “You don’t understand, do you? You don’t understand how many consequences there can be for ‘accidents.’ I could lose my job for this! If Maple Spice walked in and saw this, and decided to report it to my boss, I’d be fired on the spot!”
Misty sputtered. “I… didn’t mean to…”
“No, you didn’t mean to. You wouldn’t do this on purpose, I know. But it’s just another sticky mess I get to clean up as fast as I can.” Ghost sighed and scrubbed away at the floor. She needed this job, badly. This was her source of income, and she had worked hard to earn the amount of hours she had. She wasn’t going to let a stupid mistake ruin that.
"Look, Misty," she reasoned about a minute later, trying to shake off a napkin that was stuck to her hind hoof. "It's not like I even have much of a choice. If I lose my job here, what else am I going to do? I can't just walk back in a week later and ask for another shot. That's it. When I'm fired, I'm done."
The changeling sat in sheepish silence, kicking her hooves under the counter like a little filly and watching her friend clean up her mess. It wasn’t fair, none of this was fair, but this was how the world worked, and sooner or later Misty had to realize that.
Ghost’s shift ticked by, agonizingly slowly. After the mess was cleaned up, the unicorn idled behind the counter, correcting anything that Misty had misplaced and washing everything until it shined like new. When Maple Spice came in to take over the shift, Ghost barely managed a tired nod before trudging home, Misty skipping behind her.
After they arrived at the apartment, Ghost set down her bag and walked over to the kitchen area to make some sort of sandwiches for the both of them, since they had missed dinner on her shift. Misty cleared her throat awkwardly and fiddled with her hooves. “So, aside from my catastrophic mishap, how was your day, Ghostie?”
Ghost sighed and set down the jelly, before tossing a sandwich over to Misty. “It’s been a very long day. And… it hasn’t stopped being a long day for a very long time. I’m tired, Misty. Some days I can barely stand upright. But those are the days I need to push past the hardest, because someday it’s all going to be different. You understand that, don’t you?”
Misty swallowed her bite of PB&J and nodded slowly, lost in thought. “So, um, is there… any way I can help make it better, Ghostie? Some way I can make it up to you? Because I get that it's hard on ya, I really do, I just don't know what I can do about it. And unlike what the magazines say, I can't really read minds, so if ya think of something, please, let me know?”
Ghost sighed and thought about it for a moment. Misty was trying, so that had to count for something at least, right? She smiled weakly and wrapped her friend in a tired sticky hug. “I don’t need money or anything, Misty. All I need is you here. That’s doing a lot.” Misty returned the hug, and they didn’t let each other go for a very long time.