The next day, Happy arrived to an empty store.
This happened every now and then. Papyrus was often early just like Happy, but she wasn’t here this morning. Regardless, Happy pulled his shirt on, and calmly went through the store, and the back-rooms, reminding himself of what work needed to be done.
Five minutes before opening time, Happy brought the ledgers he was planning on going through with him to the front desk. Somepony needed to open the store, and nopony else had shown up to do it yet.
This was unusual, but not unique. Happy shrugged, and simply assumed that the others would be here soon. Running the store with three ponies was no biggie. Two was a kinda tiring, and if you were alone you just put all work besides manning the floor to the side.
At least while there were customers present, and there were hardly ever any customers at this hour. Happy set down his tea behind the counter beside the ledgers, walked over to the door to flip the sign to ‘open’, and returned to look at the paperwork, while slowly sipping his still-somewhat-too-hot tea.
Then the bell over the door chimed, and in stepped none of this coworkers, but a mare. A beautiful earth pony mare, with purple mane and a reddish pink coat.
Conversations around the break room table in the last few days almost made Happy scowl in suspicion, but quickly stopped himself, and nodded with a gentle smile towards the customer.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” the mare replied, smiling at him.
“Would you like some help or would you like to browse?” Happy asked.
The mare’s gaze swept over the store, before it came to rest on Happy, as she smiled with half-lidded eyes at him. “Oh, I know what I’m looking for.”
Happy looked at her blankly for a moment, before he returned the smile, albeit in a more professionally service-minded manner. “That’s... nice. Don’t hesitate to ask if you want help with anything,” he said, and went back to looking through the papers.
The mare looked taken aback for a moment, before her half-lidded expression came back. “Perhaps you’d like to help me find it,” she said, and took a few inviting steps towards the aisles of books.
“Certainly,” Happy nodded, and started walking out from behind the counter, to fall in line behind the mare.
As he did, she swung her tail back and forth, a bit provocatively, and managed to catch him softly underneath his nose. It smelled strongly of rose shampoo.
She looked back in mock surprise, and teetered at Happy.
Happy smiled easily at her, to let her know that there was no offence.
The mare led Happy towards the romance-novels, and swept her gaze across the books on display.
“This is what you have for romance?” she asked.
“Indeed it is,” Happy said. “I can help look if you want, or check the inventory ledgers.”
At this, the bell jingled, revealing Papyrus walking in with a somewhat stiff gait.
Before Happy could greet her good morning, the unnamed mare beside him leaned up slightly towards him, and purred, “I might be looking for something more than litterature.”
Happy’s eyes shifted a bit as he tried figuring out if there was a hidden message behind that.
“We… might have some themed office supplies,” he ventured, uncertain, as Papyrus took position behind the counter.
“Mmmm…” Papyrus groaned slightly, looking like she had bitten into a lemon. “... Mmmiss! Somepony outside wants to speak with you.”
The mare beside Happy let out a surprised, “Oh?” and put her hoof to her mouth, before smiling at Happy. “I might come back.”
Happy felt like the short conversation had already managed to leave him behind. After a moment, he smiled back at her. “You’d be welcome to,” he said.
The mare walked out of the store, and Happy joined Papyrus behind the counter.
“Good morning,” Happy said to Papyrus, glad to finally have a coworker with him today.
Papyrus’ head fell onto the counter. “Sweet Celestia!” she groaned, and took a deep breath. “... Good morning.”
“Something wrong?” Happy asked, looking concerned over his distraught colleague.
Papyrus took another breath, and raised her head, smiling at Happy with a look of amusement, frustration, exhaustion, or possibly sadness, or perhaps all of the above.
“Happy,” Papyrus said. “I have never met anypony as adorable and cringe-inducing as you.”
Happy opened his mouth to respond, but paused when he tried thinking of what to say. “Thank you?” he ventured.
“You’re also gonna give me an ulcer, and I’m just spectating,” she complained.
“... Pardon?” Happy asked.
“She was flirting with you,” Papyrus said.
As Celestia made the sun slowly dawn on Equestria, Papyrus had made realisation slowly dawn on Happy.
“Oooh,” he said, before looking at Papyrus skeptically. “Really?”
“Yes,” Papyrus said in a kind voice. “That was a friend of Oaken. He told me not to say this, but that was such a stupid idea that I don’t care.”
“Wwwhat?” Happy asked.
“Oaken thought you were into stallions,” Papyrus explained. “So he got her to come in here and flirt with you. That’s why everypony’s late. He wanted you two to be alone. Celestia knows how he managed to get her to go along with it.”
Happy was puzzled to say the least. Too many things, in fact pretty much everything, made absolutely no sense about that in his mind. “But I already said…” he started.
“I know, honey,” Papyrus said, in an assuring voice. “Everypony except Oaken does. You’re not mad, are you?”
Happy let out a slightly frustrated sigh. It tended to annoy him when ponies left him in the dust when it came to social matters, and it seemed there was to be a lot of that in the future, with what he had agreed on.
Happy had thought that getting a job in a place like this would let him avoid being thrust into spotlight of social games, yet here he was.
“It’s fine,” Happy sighed, and went back to looking through the paperwork.
“Hang in there,” Papyrus said, kindly, patting Happy on his withers.
—
The day had been mostly normal normal after that. Happy had managed to bury his slightly peeved mood by the time Oaken and Wispy had arrived, and gave them the normal polite morning greetings and nods
Oaken didn’t bring up the whole incident, and had been a bit non-confrontational towards Happy in general. Happy’s normal behavior didn’t seem very convincing, though Happy frankly wasn’t willing to put in more effort into making Oaken more comfortable than he normally did.
However, his patience was slightly thinner during lunch break, and Papyrus, the pony Happy got best along with in the store, might’ve sensed that, and after Wispy had managed to coax a conformation that Happy was going to see Wafer, Papyrus had distracted her with talk of… something. Happy didn’t really listen, and instead focused on a book and his lunch.
“I can close up today,” Oaken offered near the end of his shift.
It was Happy’s turn to stay late during the slow hour and make sure everything was in order before the store closed. He stopped and visualized the work table.
“That’ll mean that you have to stay longer next Friday, and you hate doing that,” Happy pointed out.
“I… can do it today if you wanna go home,” Oaken said. “I’ll stay longer on Friday as well.”
Happy considered him for a while.
“Is this a favor?” he asked.
“Uh, no,” Oaken said. “Listen, I’m sorry about this morning.”
“It’s okay,” Happy said, and he meant it.
He would be even more okay if people would just drop it.
“Yeah but, seriously, I’ll close up today,” Oaken insisted.
Happy gave in, and just nodded, waving to Oaken. “Alright, see you later.”
“Yeah. You too.”
Happy walked out of the store, into the afternoon sun of Fillydelphia. He couldn’t complain about the weather at least, but that was not enough to totally sweep away the feelings that the whole thing with the flirting and the date had reinforced.
“Why?” he asked himself loudly for some reason. “Why do they do this? Why can they not see?”
Happy looked up into the sky, and held out his hoof dramatically as he closed his eyes. “Why do they have to make me feel like there’s something wrong with me?”
A chorus of voices all from all over the street answered him.
“They want joy and happiness in everything!” it sang. “And all of the bliss that love and romance will bring!”
Happy opened his eyes on shock when he realized what was going on, and saw a street full of ponies all looking at him.
“Look, I’m happy with the way that things are,” he sang to the crowd, hoping to nip this in the bud. “I don’t need drama or an emotional scar.”
“Oh you just cannot see your appeal!” The crowd sang, as Happy turned around and tried slinking into an alley, only to find it blocked by a wall of ponies also singing at him. “Somepony please help this stallion heal!”
“Really, it’s not big deal!” Happy shouted as he tried another alley.
That alley was similarly filled with ponies, and Happy instead decided to walk, sulking, down the road. The crowd followed him in a choreographed dance, but at least didn’t block him.
“Do you plan on living your whole life alone? Do you want nopony and a heart of stone?”
Happy turned around angrily. Being the center of attention had never been something he enjoyed, and this was the most center of attention he had ever been.
“Look, not wanting romance doesn’t make me a bad pony!” he sang, staring annoyed at the crowd. “Pretending to want something for acceptance will just make me a phony!
“What’s so bad about me not chasing tails!? I’m not causing heartaches, no cries and no wails!”
“Your face and your posture is cold and is stony! You need to experience love to be a real pony!
“What you have in your life does not make you full!”
“I’ll be the judge of that, and you’re all singing bull,” Happy muttered.
“Go and try romance, let them get through that shell! Give love to ponies and receive it as well!”
Happy had had enough, and jumped up to grab a lamppost, and leaned out from it and addressed the singing crowd.
“Look, I’m not cold-hearted and I’m not some love-hating shrew! Don’t force your values on me, I’m not forcing mine on you!
“I am simply not into just sharing my life— with somepony whether a husband or wife!”
The music stopped, and the crowd was silent for a moment before letting out a collective sigh.
“Whether bringing you down or up into she sky— You won’t know what love does before you give it a try.
“Dismiss love if you will and put it on a shelf— You won’t know if you did right before trying it yourself.”
Happy and the crowd stared at each other in silence, before Happy, reluctantly, agreed to not try and end this love-thing before it even began.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “Are we done?”
“Yeah, song’s over, buddy,” a voice said, before the crowd unceremoniously went back to what they had done before.
Happy let out a deep sigh, and walked home.
They had been right though, he couldn’t know for sure that he wouldn’t enjoy going on a date before he tried it, and now that he was going to do it, he might as well do it right.
At least Happy didn’t have any trouble falling asleep that night.